High Street, Quaker Burial Ground 1

In 1670 William Maude, traditionally the founder of the Sunderland Quakers, and Richard Willson bought ground in "the Pan field" for use as a burying place for the Quakers. It was a more convenient site for them than the one then in use at West Boldon. It is clearly marked "Friends' Old Burial Ground" on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey plan (c.1860), and lay on the north side of High Street, behind or next to the probable site of the first meeting house. The Quakers left this house, and presumably the burying ground, in 1822. Corder, probably writing in the 1930s, said, "Quite recently sanction was obtained to disinter the bodies in the graveyard and hand the site over to the same firm (Alderson & Co.) to extend their premises". It is not clear just what happened at this time since, in 1991, on the removal of a concrete slab before roadworks, more bodies were found and duly removed. Wooden coffins and coffin handles were reported on this occasion.