This building was listed Grade II in 1978, and removed from the National Heritage List in 2021 following a serious fire in July 2019. The listing description read:
'Public house. c1910. Bright red brick ground floor, with faience plinth and ashlar dressings; painted render first floor with painted ashlar dressings; front range roof of plain tiles, rear ranges grey tiles. U-plan with 2 rear wings.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 3 windows, the left in canted corner. Central half-glazed double door in early C18 re-used bolection-moulded stone surround with side scrolls to corniced panel under scrolled pediment; initials I H D, for John and Dorothy Hilton, and date 1705; in open pediment, arms of Hilton impaling Musgrave with mask in corniced finial. Said to have come from C18 N wing of Hylton Castle (qv). First floor string. Raised stone surrounds, stone projecting sills, mullions and cornices, and renewed glazing to ground-floor windows and sashes on first floor, paired in left canted corner, flanking door and above door, and in right bay, under front gable, a ground-floor canted bay and paired windows above. Roof, hipped over left canted corner, and with ridge from front right gable, has deep bracketed eaves. Roofs of rear parallel wings have higher eaves than front range. Battered rendered ridge chimney with ashlar cornice.
INTERIOR has been refurbished.'

The railway bridge, built in 1879, was designed by T.E. Harrison, the Chief Engineer of the North eastern Railway. When built it was the largest hog-back iron girder bridge in the world. Its dull design, however, has led it to be perpetually overshadowed by the neighbouring road bridge {1}. Wrought iron box girder bowstring bridge of two cross-braced ribs giving single span of 300ft (91.4m) at 86ft (26.2m) above high water; masonry approach viaducts. An otherwise dull bridge, relieved by oval openwork stiffening webs. Opened 1879 and led south to rail tunnels totalling 1,000 yards (914.4m) in length on approach to Sunderland station {2}.

An iron bridge was built across the Wear in 1796. When it was constructed it was the largest iron bridge in the world. It was promoted and designed by Roland Burdon, MP for County Durham, who was involved in the development of the Sunderland to Stockton turnpike road. It was rebuilt by Robert Stephenson in 1859. The building of the new Wearmouth Bridge, a three pinned steel arch bridge, created a modern facility for the movement of traffic, but with the removal of the old cast iron bridge, Wearside lost not only one of its most majestic structures but also a monument to engineering ingenuity {1}. A 3-pinned steel arch bridge with two parabolic ribs. Masonry faced concrete abutments; single span of 375ft (114.3m) at c.90ft (27.5m) above high water level. Designed by Mott Hay and Anderson and constructed by Sir Wm. Arrol & Co Ltd, it was opened in 1929. Plaque on upstream balustrade at south approach tells how this bridge replaced the famous cast iron bridge by Rowland Burdon, erected 1796, vastly modified by Robert Stephenson in 1858 and finally demolished in 1929. While it survived it was the largest cast iron span at 236ft (71.9m) {2}. Interesting flight of steps down to river level on north-east side {3}.

Work began on the construction of the roundhead for the lighthouse in 1902 (the pier was begun in 1885). The first stone was laid by GR Booth, R Thompson and RM Hudson of the River Wear Commission. The foundations for the lighthouse used the same method as the pier - concrete bags. Once these were positioned and levelled, a huge cast iron caisson was floated out and sunk in position. The caisson was filled with 10,000 tons of concrete. The superstructure above this comprised 43 granite face blocks like those used in the main pier. The total weight of the roundhead was around 23,000 tons. The lighthouse was built of alternating red and grey Aberdeen granite (lighthouses are commonly painted red and white to make them highly visible). The granite has weathered so is not as vibrant as it would have been originally. The lantern, by Messrs Chance Brothers of Birmingham, was gas powered and had eight sides forming an octagonal prism around the lamp. The lens and reflectors moved by clockwork. The mechanism for this was carried by a float placed in a vat of mercury. The illumination was visible for 15 miles. A complete set of oil lamps was installed in the event of failure of the gas supply. The lighthouse and pier were completed in 1903. The final stone was set above the lighthouse door: 'THE FOUNDATION BLOCK OF THIS PIER WAS LAID ON THE 14TH OF SEPTEMBER 1885 BY JAMES LAING, ESQUIRE, CHAIRMAN OF THE RIVER WEAR COMMISSION. TO RECORD ITS COMPLETION THIS STONE WAS PLACED IN POSITION ON THE 23RD SEPTEMBER 1903 BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF DURHAM, LORD LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNTY; JENNESON TAYLOR, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSIONERS; HENRY HAY WAKE, MEM. INST. C. E. ENGINNER'. In May 1904 the gas burners were replaced by cheaper vapourised petroleum which gave a brighter light. The gas burners were retained as a backup. In 1986 the original cut and polished prismatic lens was replaced by a gearless pedestal with a range of 23 miles. In 2007 the new pedestal was replaced with a more energy efficient PRL400 system, by Pelangi International Ltd {info taken from NAA 2012}.

To grace the old North Pier the River Wear Commissioners positioned a splendid lighthouse at its seaward end. Built of stone and designed by Jonathan Pickernell, it stood in this position from 1802 until the 1840s when it was moved bodily and erected at the end of the newly extended North Pier. This remarkable task was performed under the supervision of the Chief Engineer to the Commission, John Murray. {1}

Work on the New South Pier began in 1893. It was built of smaller blocks than Roker Pier (HER 4800) and included a high parapet wall and arched shelter recesses but was otherwise the same in design. Work stopped when war was declared in 1914. When work recommenced it was found that there was increased damage to the pier by wave action because of the narrow opening into the outer harbour. The south pier was therefore shortened in 1922 to 2,700 feet (822.96m). The sister lighthouse to Roker was never built. Instead the New South Pier is set with an unmanned column and fixed light.

An old railway incline runs from Wood House (SMR 4970) to the River Wear. There is an engine winding house and a sequence of cells for loading waggons. The railway incline proceeds south-east, firstly as a cutting in the earth, then under a surviving masonry arch bridge, and then in a rock-cutting with some retaining walls down to the Wearside quayside level. Alongside the railway there is an old quarry site, now grown over with trees, and at the foot of the incline there are other structures including a chimney. There is also evidence of a tunnel. The incline is the most striking surviving feature of the area. The steep gully was probably constructed initially to convey sandstone from the mid 19th century quarry along a narrow gauge railway to the River Wear for use in the local building industry. As it became increasingly harder to haul the stone over the lip of the quarry a tunnel was dug (c. 1.6m wide and 1.8m high) to transport the stone under the quarry face and down to the riverside. The tunnel has now been filled in for safety reasons. Later the gully was extended and the quarry line was replaced by a standard gauge line from Wood House to the Wear. The coal fired steam winding engine hauled materials up the incline and deposited them in the cells below. {1} The railway incline proceeds firstly as a cutting in the earth, then under a surviving masonry arch bridge and then in a rock cutting with some retaining walls to the quayside level. At the foot of the incline are a number of walls and a chimney. The incline was probably constructed to carry sandstone from the adjacent quarry but was extended to Wood House later in the 19th century {2}.

The land within this meander of the Wear was known as the Wood House Estate and remained within the Hylton (Sir William Hylton built the castle in c.1400 and the family dominated the surrounding area) family ownership until 1743 when it was bought by William Maling. The Malings became one of the leading pottery families in the North East with important works on the Wear (SMR 4969) and the Ouseburn in Newcastle (SMR 4967-4968 and 4344). Maling established the North Hylton Pottery in 1762. Before the start of these works the immediate area of the present day Wood House Farm comprised only five buildings. The Wood House itself was occupied by a tenant who probably farmed the immediate area. The remaining buildings made up eight cottages, all individually inhabited by men. By the river stood the largest (of which a portion of wall remains) which formed three cottages under one roof, tenanted in c.1743 by Joseph Carr, Thomas Turner and William Sharpe. A single cottage, tenanted by Ed Donkin, stood adjacent, and a third building made up of two cottages under one roof tenanted by George Todd and William Hunter. On the sloping ground of the woody banks stood two cottages under one roof tenanted by William Miller and Ed Wilson. The opening of the local pottery brought some development in the area and by 1816 Wood House had grown from a single structure to a complex of farm buildings. A windmill had been erected to the front of the farm but had fallen out of use by the end of the Napoleonic Wars. All trace of this mill had disappeared when the Ordnance Survey first edition was drawn up. What the surveyors found however was brickfields, a tar distillery, shipbuilding yards, a quarry, a rail network, cranes, a public house and over 30 dwellings. Wood House by this time was a court-yard farm with attached gingang or horse wheel house. Wood House had developed into a small industrial, as well as agricultural complex. Wood House Farm today shows unmistakable signs of an industrial history related to the Wear. In the centre of the present day complex is a building with a chimney, set at a different orientation to the other structures, which relates directly to an old railway incline (SMR 4971) down to the river. Clearly the building is a winding engine house and in front of it there is a sequence of cells for loading waggons, or for storage, below from the railway above. The farm buildings themselves are full of interest with a square gin-house and threshing barn, extensive stables and a blacksmith's building, as well as a farm house and cottages. What industrial processes were carried out at Wood House remains a mystery. Cartographical evidence suggests that this innocent structure holds over 250 years of history. The earliest portions formed part of the three cottages inhabited by Joseph Carr, Thomas Turner and William Sharp in c.1743. The cottages remained in use as dwellings for over 100 years after this date. However at some time in the mid C19, as the three different types and colours of brickwork suggest, the building was converted into an open ended storage area, and then later the walls were raised and capped with large sandstone blocks to provide added strength perhaps for a stone-crushing plant or perhaps to provide support for an incline railway. By 1869 this wall had become the partial remain which stands today.in contrast the dwellings further down the river bank had developed into a grand house known as the "Manor House". This still survives and holds a small place in aviation history. In 1910 Robert Welford, who lived there, constructed an early monoplane in one of the out-buildings. {1} The winding engine house worked the incline down to the River Wear. What processes were carried out at Wood House remains a mystery {2}.

Maling Pottery was started by William Maling in 1762 on the north bank of the River Wear at Hylton. The family had come to England as Huguenot refugees in the C17 and settled near Scarborough. William maling moved to Sunderland in the 1720s and later set up the pottery as a business interest for his two sons, Christopher Thompson Maling and John Maling. The North Hylton Pot Works was run by the family until John Maling's son, Robert transferred the whole business to a site in the Ouseburn, Newcastle in 1815 (SMR 4967){1}. At first only brown earthenwares were made but at a later date Maling probably produced creamwares and white pottery. According to family tradition, transfer-printing on pottery was first practised in the North East at North Hylton. Sunderland was rich in clay deposits and saw a boom in the pottery industry in the C19. Orders increased in number at the North Hylton works. The reason for moving to Newcastle may have been because the clay deposits were exhausted {2}.

The Ford Pottery was established in 1859 on Ford Street by Christopher Maling, son of Robert Maling who set up a pottery at North Hylton (HER 4969) and then at Ouseburn Bridge (HER 4967). The Ford Pottery, built using the dowry of Mary Ford who came from a glassmaking family, was large and newly built and heavily mechanised. The pottery was on one side of the road and the five storey packing site (added in 1868) on the other. A tunnel (HER 7057) linked the two. It was able to produce more in a week than the older works at Ouseburn Bridge had done in a year. With a production capacity of up to three quarters of a million items a month Christopher Maling amassed a huge fortune. In 1878 a second, even larger plant was opened up half a mile to the east, known as "Ford B Pottery" (HER 4344). The original works on Ford Street continued to produce jam and marmalade pots, whilst the Ford B Works concentrated on new markets, such as sanitary ware. In 1936 the packing warehouse was sold to Cartwrights for a Carriage Works. He demolished the warehouse and built a new building circa 1936. This survives today [2005] as R and J Ince Ltd. The Maling firm flourished in this period but in the early 20th century a number of factors began to effect the prosperity of the company, not least of which were the death of Christopher Maling and the increasing use of glass, rather than earthenware, for storage jars, particularly for jam. When the miner's dispute of 1926 starved the kilns of coal for many months, the old Ford Street site closed for production and never re-opened. The buildings were cleared out and sold in the following year. {1} The Ford Pottery site was 2 acres in size. Its 13 kilns turned 80 tons of clay a month into 750,000 items. C.T. Maling amassed a fortune from manufacturing jam and marmalade pots for James Keiller of Dundee and Frank Cooper of Oxford, and dishes for potted meats, jars for ointments and medications. Maling captured the market for the production of white pottery with transfer-printed trade labels and was a leader in production of domestic white ware {2}.