War memorial in garden south of Christ Church. C1920 to men of the parish who died in the Great War 1914-1918. Ashlar. Octagonal plan. 3 steps to pedestal. Names of the dead inscribed on panels on sides. Tall tapered octagonal shaft with stone cross with richly carved foliate terminals {1}. "IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE MEN OF THE PARISH AND CONGREGATION OF CHRIST CHURCH WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTY IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918. THE MEN WERE KIND TO US AND DID NOT HURT US. THEY WERE A WALL UNTO US BOTH NIGHT AND DAY". {www.newmp.org.uk}.

Walls and gates to Christ Church. C1862 by James Murray. Snecked rock-faced sandstone walls and piers with ashlar coping and quoins. Cast and wrought iron railings and gates. Railings removed except at north door in The Cloisters.

Formerly Christ Church. Parish church. 1862-64. By James Murray of Coventry. Attached vestry and verger’s house c1877 by JC Cundall of Leamington. Snecked rock-faced limestone with ashlar plinth and dressings of sandstone. Roof of pale grey slate, perhaps Lakeland, with stone copings, stone spire. Style of c1300.
Interior – arcade has arches on round piers, scissor-braced roof. Carved stone reredos. Gothic stone pulpit with green marble shafts on 6 piers. Alabaster font in Romanesque style. High quality glass includes east window of 1864 by Morris & Co, all scenes except Sermon on the Mount by Morris & Burne Jones. West window and transepts have c1866 glass in bright primary colours. North aisle windows signed Alex Gibb & Co, 109 Bloomsbury, London and Atkinson Bros, Newcastle, C. Baguley, Newcastle. South aisle has fine glass including a window by Kempe, commemorating Charles Kitson d.1881.
The site was bought from Edward Backhouse of Ashburne House, who insisted that there should be a good spire. Among the wealthy men who contributed to the cost of the building was James Hartley, glassmaker. Pevsner - 1862-4 by James Murray of Coventry. Big, rock-faced edifice in the Geometrical style, with south-west spire. Interior with five-bay arcades running straight past the transepts. Circular piers with the typically High Victorian elaborately carved foliage capitals. Quite a different note is introduced by the stained glass of the east window by Morris & Co 1864. All the scenes (except the Sermon on the Mount) by Morris & Burne Jones. As in much early Morris glass the figure work, apart from the angels in the tracery, consists of smallish square panels with scenes beautifully drawn and in colours of a quite un-Victorian clarity: much red and brown. Added c.1877 by J.C Cundall of Leamington, a large vestry connected to the church by an arcade and a cottagey verger's house with a gabled wing and round tower, diminutive in scale.

Terrace walls and piers to Ashburne House. Probably c1860 for Backhouse Family. Ashlar. Low walls with chamfered coping enclose terrace to south of house. Steps lead to Backhouse Park (former grounds of house, now public park). At each angle of the wall there is a panelled square pier with plinth and cornice.
Subject of building recording in 2020, at the time of recording only one of the gate piers remained. The boundary walls were found to be not tied into the surviving. Parts of the walls and pier show both historic and more recent repair work. Some of the repair work had involved replacing damaged sections with modern brick work. Located to the north side of the gateway there is a lodge which is noted to be in a dilapidated state and for sale at the time of the survey.

House, now part of Sunderland University's Backhouse Building. C1835. For Edward Backhouse, banker. East extension possibly for museum in 1869 by GG Hoskins of Darlington. Flemish bond brick with ashlar basement and dressings. 2 storeys and basement. Basement has Ionic colonnade. Full length casement windows flank central door on ground floor. First floor sashes with glazing bars. Public park to the south was formerly the grounds of this house. Ashburne was used as an auxiliary hospital during the First World War by the Joint War Committee (British Red Cross and the Order of St John of Jerusalem). The committee was ordered to raise and organise Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) trained in First Aid and Nursing. The nurses were a mixture of qualified nurses and volunteers (mostly middle-class women). Many hospitals were set up in large houses on loan to the Red Cross during the war. VAD hospitals received the sum of 3 shillings per day per patient from the War Office. Ashburne was run by the 25th Durham VA Hospital Unit. Honours for service to this hospital were received by Miss Nora Dillon (Commandant) - Royal Red Cross 2nd Class.

Secondary building of ropeworks, now public house. Early C19 restored c1985 by Sunderland Council. Roughly squared rubble with ashlar dressings. Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. 2 storeys. Keyed plain stone surround and renewed wrought-iron gates to round-headed archway. Flat stone lintels. Renewed windows with glazing bars. An additional building for the Webster’s Ropery (HER 2799) established c1793 for the world’s first mechanical rope-making process.

Memorial fountain. Dated 1880. Commemorates Sir Hedworth Williamson’s gift of land for Roker Park to the people of Sunderland. Ashlar sandstone and granite. Tall square column on high base with Scotia moulding above plinth. 4 half-octagonal basins set between base and plinth. Column base has corner pilasters which support granire shafts. Above, a corniced block with heraldic devices in low-relief panels and eagle finial. Inscription on north column: THIS MEMORIAL IS FURTHER INTENDED GRATEFULLY TO KEEP IN MEMORY THE FACT THAT SIR HEDWORTH WILLIAMSON BART… GAVE 17 ACRES OF LAND FOR THE PURPOSE OF FORMING THIS PUBLIC PARK AND PLEASURE GROUND FOR THE FUTURE USE OF THE PEOPLE OF SUNDERLAND.
Inscription on south column: … ERECTED BY THE SCHOLARS TEACHERS AND FRIENDS OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN SUNDERLAND TO COMMEMORATE THE CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENARY OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND THE OPENING OF ROKER PARK JUNE 23 1880.
Names on east eroded.

House, now public house. Late C18. Painted incised stucco with painted ashlar dressings. Welsh slate roof with dark grey ridge tiles and brick chimney. 2 storeys. Low wide panelled door and plain overlight. Altered ground floor windows. First floor sashes with glazing bars and painted wood architraves. In prominent position above road cutting. Became a public house after 1858 when the first railway station opened in Ryhope. The limestone wall opposite the inn marks the line of the original road to Seaham. In 1856 Joseph Dobson was the victualler at the Railway Inn.

Terrace of Sunderland cottages. C1880. Brick with stone plinth and brick dressings. Welsh slate roofs, except where renewed. Nos. 11 and 16 with concrete tiles and some felt-covered. Brick chimneys. Each house one storey. Internal steps up to doors, all renewed, grouped in pairs, with semi-circular overlights. Brick arches to surrounds in North Italian Gothic shape over doors and windows. Moulded brick eaves cornice removed from Nos. 3, 4 and 19. No. 13 has late C19 dormer. Nos. 5, 7, 9, 14, 15 and 18 are pebble-dashed. Nos. 6, 12 and 13 have painted brickwork.
Listed as an example of an interesting type of C19 local workers’ housing which is centred on the Sunderland area and has resulted in a strong one-storey tradition, as opposed to the 2-storey Tyneside flats in the Tyneside area {1}. One of the best remaining unaltered examples of the innumerable one-storey cottage rows ('Sunderland Cottages') provided in the mid C19 to rehouse workers away from the crowded riverside slums {2}.

Roman Catholic parish church. 1906-7. By the parish priest, Father Rogers, with Thomas Axtell. Moulded concrete blocks made on site. Welsh slate roof with gable copings and terracotta ridge cresting and cross finials. Romanesque basilica style. Aisled continuous nave and chancel with nave and aisle apses.
Exterior – round-headed windows with sloping sills. Apses have half-conical roofs. Large rose window over door with moulded surround.
Interior – painted blocks, painted round piers. East pair of piers of dark red granite. Big moulded corbels support king post roof. South chancel chapel has stained glass Annunciation by Atkinson Bros of Newcastle. Aisle windows have round panels showing saints. Tinted glass in clerestory. Alabaster font. Foundation stone in porch dated 23 July 1906.
An early example of the use of moulded concrete blocks, with additional historical interest of design by parish priest with advice from Axtell, an engineer, who supervised the construction. Blocks said to have been made by the men of the parish. The church was reordered in 2006 by Vincente Stienlet, for its centenary. The scheme included renovation and repairs, and cost about £250,000.