Monkwearmouth, walled lane

Curious walled lane shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey as a routeway from Stobbart Street down to Wearmouth Drops. The lane is cobbled. The substantial walls are mostly stone but some sections are brick. Same coping as seen as Wreath Quay Road coal staith (HER 4760 - listed grade 2). The lane preserves the line of the western boundary of the township of Monkwearmouth Shore (shown on Burleigh and Thompson's plan of the River Wear 1737. The boundary is probably medieval in origin, associated with the boundary of the monastic estate. The 1737 map shows at the southern end of the boundary a feature described as 'Caddy Garret's Gill', marked with a 'w'. This suggests that the township boundary followed the course of a stream, later culverted or re-routed. On John Rennie's map of Sunderland of 1826 the line of the cobbled lane is annotated 'Western Boundary of Sir H. Williamson's Estate also Boundary of Monkwearmouth Shore Township and Monkwearmouth Parish'. The lane is approximately 3.5m wide and runs from the western end of Millenium Way down to the riverside. It is cobbled with stone setts with a broad central channel, 1.80m wide, running down the middle. It is walled along its entirety, the nature of the build changing in form along both sides. The walling also varies in height. It is likely that the oldest elements are those built in limestone and sandstone rubble, followed by handmade brick and then modern brick. The lane was bisected by the waggonway (HER 2745) that led down to Pemberton Drops (HER 2746), probably carried at height over the lane.