Herrington Country Park

Offerton is a hamlet and former civil parish in Tyne and Wear, England. Situated about 4 miles west-southwest of Sunderland city centre. In 1961 the parish had a population of 133.

Houghton and Washington East was, from 1997 until 2010, a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. A seat with similar boundaries, Houghton and Washington, existed from 1983 until 1997.

The Penshaw Monument (officially the Earl of Durham's Monument) is a memorial in the style of an ancient Greek temple on Penshaw Hill in the metropolitan borough of the City of Sunderland, North East England. It is located near the village of Penshaw, between the towns of Washington and Houghton-le-Spring in historic County Durham. The monument was built between 1844 and 1845 to commemorate John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792–1840), Governor-General of British North America and author of the Durham Report on the future governance of the American territories. Owned by the National Trust since 1939, it is a Grade I listed structure. The monument was designed by John and Benjamin Green and built by Thomas Pratt of Bishopwearmouth using local gritstone at a cost of around £6000; the money was raised by subscription. On 28 August 1844, while it was partially complete, its foundation stone was laid by Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland in a Masonic ceremony which drew tens of thousands of spectators. Based on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, it is a tetrastyle temple of the Doric order, with eighteen columns—seven along its longer sides and four along its shorter ones—and no roof or cella (inner chamber). One column contains a spiral staircase leading to a parapeted walkway along the entablature. This staircase was closed to the public in 1926 after a 15-year-old boy fell to his death from the top of the monument. The structure fell into disrepair in the 1930s and was fenced off, then repaired in 1939. It has since undergone further restoration, including extensive work in 1979 during which its western side was dismantled. Floodlit at night since 1988, it is often illuminated in different colours to mark special occasions. The National Trust began to offer supervised tours of the walkway in 2011. Penshaw Monument is a local landmark, visible from up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) away. It appears on the crest of Sunderland A.F.C. and is viewed nationally as a symbol of the North East. It has been praised for the grandeur, simplicity and symbolic significance of its design, especially when seen from a distance. However, critics have said it is poorly constructed and lacks purpose; nineteenth-century architectural journals condemned its lack of a roof and the hollowness of its columns and walls. It features no depiction of the man it honours, and has been widely described as a folly.

The village of Penshaw locally , formerly known as Painshaw or Pensher, is an area of the metropolitan district of the City of Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England. Historically, Penshaw was located in County Durham.

The 1815 Philadelphia train accident occurred on 31 July 1815, in Philadelphia, County Durham, England, when an early experimental railway locomotive, Brunton's Mechanical Traveller, suffered a boiler explosion. This engine, also known as the Steam Horse, ran on four wheels but was pushed by mechanical feet. This was both the first recorded boiler explosion and the first railway accident causing major loss of life with at least 13 people killed (sources differ). The accident is not included in many texts because it was on an industrial waggonway or plateway, rather than a public railway. Nevertheless, it predated William Huskisson's fatal accident at Parkside by 15 years, and the death toll was not exceeded by any railway accident until 1842 worldwide (see Versailles train crash), and 1861 in the UK (Clayton Tunnel). It also killed more people than any other UK railway boiler explosion of all time, though 26 were killed in a 1912 boiler explosion in San Antonio, USA. Most boiler explosions caused severe mechanical damage but often only the locomotive crew suffered physically; however, Brunton's locomotive was surrounded at the time by a crowd of curious sightseers, who formed the majority of the victims. The first high-pressure steam locomotive, Trevithick's Penydarren engine, had only appeared 11 years earlier in 1804, and engineering understanding of the forces and safety risks involved was still primitive.

Philadelphia is a village in Tyne and Wear, England. It lies on the A182 road between Newbottle and Shiney Row.

Cox Green is a village in the Sunderland district, Tyne and Wear, England, situated on the south bank of the River Wear between Penshaw and Offerton. The village is linked to Washington Staithes on the north bank of the river, by the Cox Green Footbridge. It is primarily a residential village.

Philadelphia Power Station is a defunct coal-fired power station situated between the villages of Philadelphia and Newbottle, 1.5 mi (2.4 km) north of Houghton-le-Spring in Tyne and Wear, North East England.

Cox Green railway station served the civil parish of Cox Green, Tyne and Wear, England, from 1854 to 1964 on the Penshaw Branch.

Newbottle is a village in North East England, lying between Durham (eight miles south westerly) and Sunderland (the city centre is 5 miles (8.0 km) north easterly), one and a half miles north of Houghton-le-Spring. The village occupies an elevated position and is accessed from three sides up a steep bank.

Hastings Hill is a suburb of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. Hastings Hill is a housing estate, close to the A19, and the Pennywell and Grindon areas of Sunderland. It was built as a private development in the late 1960s on an area of land between the county borough boundary and the surrounding post war council-built estates. The estate stands close to Hasting Hill, where a burial ground used by prehistoric man in about 2,000BC was excavated in 1911. Several cists were discovered during the excavation, with one containing the remains of a man, a flint knife and an earthenware food vessel.

WWT Washington Wetland Centre is a wetland reserve managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Washington, Tyne and Wear, North East England. Established in 1975, its wildlife includes swans, geese, ducks, a family of Asian short clawed otters and a flock of Chilean flamingos. WWT works towards the conservation of wetlands and has a successful breeding program for some of the world's most endangered wildfowl. Included in the site is a nature reserve with hides to watch the wildlife, a saline lagoon and dragonfly ponds in which large species of dragonfly live along with newts, frogs and toads. The park sells bags of seed which can be used to get an up-close and personal encounter with most of their birds whilst feeding them. Species kept at the park include: Andean goose Baer's pochard Black necked swan Black swan Chilean flamingo Common crane Eider Hawaiian goose Mute swan Red-breasted goose Ringed teal Spur-winged goose White-faced whistling duck