The Buck Prospect

The topographer Samuel Buck’s North Prospect of the town of Sunderland, engraved about 1720, vividly evokes how much the borough had grown and developed during the late 16th and 17th centuries. Buck depicts a compact town, its skyline dominated by the church and tower of Holy Trinity (newly built when he was working), and the sails of the four wind-driven corn mills. On the right, far to the west, lies the tower of the church of Bishopwearmouth and in the foreground St Peter’s church, Monkwearmouth hall, and the ballast heaps on the river’s northern shore. The engraving demonstrates dramatically how much the borough had come to dominate the locality, dwarfing the insignificant neighbouring settlements of Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth.