17 Jan 1942
Dear Angela
Your letter arrived a few days ago a little late for Xmas, but as they say “better late than never”; thank you very much for the Xmas card it is a lovely photograph, and I am afraid that Sunderland Tech cannot boast of anything like that. It certainly seems that the University of California is a massive place with grounds and playing fields “on the spot”. I think Durham University would be about the same size if it were “collected”. Sunderland Tech is one college of Durham Univ. and comprises of two buildings one on each side of the street in the town, the rest of Durham Univ. is at Durham and Newcastle; so you can see that we at Sunderland are quite a small community on our own, but we have as good a reputation as any other college and we are quite proud of it.
Monkwearmouth? – I had expected that question and often intended to explain before you asked (if you get my meaning) – however I will try to explain it as short as possible and not be too boring. It all started about 674 A.D. when a monastery called St Peters was built, there are of course monks in a monastery, and hence we have 1/3 of the word, the last 2/3 is easily obtained the “monks” lived at the “mouth” of the river “Wear” and thus we have the complete word. If you care to read any more I will add one or two more facts – it was the first church in England to have glass in it and the original glass works or should I say the original “firm” is still here – in 867 it (the Church) was burned by the Danes – Bede did some of his Bible translation here and the rest at Jarrow a few miles away – St Peters was famous for its educational qualities long before Oxford, Cambridge or Durham – well I am not a Historian but I did dabble in Architecture and I hope the above facts are not in too much detail and do not bore you. I may as well give you the origin of Sunderland – it also goes back to Saxon times when it was called “Sonderlande” because – there are two reasons given now 1) Sunderland was supposed to mean the land owned by the monastery 2) Sunderland meant that the land owned by the monastery was cut asunder by the river – I don’t know which is correct. I believe I forgot to say that the new St Peters – built after the burning in 867 A.D. still stands and part of the original 674 A.D. building is still here. Well so much for that.
I am happy to say that I did not take Spanish at school – I did take French and German and found quite enough pitfalls in these without trying anything in Spanish. It seems I will have to start French or German again – because for an Honours Degree in Engineering some of the papers are on a foreign language – the idea is to show that you could read a foreign technical book.
I have just read your question on Monkwearmouth again and it seems I haven’t completely answered it – you asked what it was – I live in Sunderland but Sunderland is subdivided into districts, wards or parishes call them what you will, well the district I live in is Monkwearmouth. The districts are not villages and are only separated by streets or the river. They also have some names which go back to the Saxon times such as Fulwell & Millfield – these are again “built up” words like Monkwearmouth. I think that does answer your question now and I hope it hasn’t been boring. Have you any such arrangements in America?
As I promised I sent you a photo, it is a very poor one and makes me look about 90 however I kept my promise in spite of it. When I get some time off I will have a better one taken.
Well Bob Hope is now on the radio and I have run out of news now.
Love
Harold
Dear Angela
Your letter arrived a few days ago a little late for Xmas, but as they say “better late than never”; thank you very much for the Xmas card it is a lovely photograph, and I am afraid that Sunderland Tech cannot boast of anything like that. It certainly seems that the University of California is a massive place with grounds and playing fields “on the spot”. I think Durham University would be about the same size if it were “collected”. Sunderland Tech is one college of Durham Univ. and comprises of two buildings one on each side of the street in the town, the rest of Durham Univ. is at Durham and Newcastle; so you can see that we at Sunderland are quite a small community on our own, but we have as good a reputation as any other college and we are quite proud of it.
Monkwearmouth? – I had expected that question and often intended to explain before you asked (if you get my meaning) – however I will try to explain it as short as possible and not be too boring. It all started about 674 A.D. when a monastery called St Peters was built, there are of course monks in a monastery, and hence we have 1/3 of the word, the last 2/3 is easily obtained the “monks” lived at the “mouth” of the river “Wear” and thus we have the complete word. If you care to read any more I will add one or two more facts – it was the first church in England to have glass in it and the original glass works or should I say the original “firm” is still here – in 867 it (the Church) was burned by the Danes – Bede did some of his Bible translation here and the rest at Jarrow a few miles away – St Peters was famous for its educational qualities long before Oxford, Cambridge or Durham – well I am not a Historian but I did dabble in Architecture and I hope the above facts are not in too much detail and do not bore you. I may as well give you the origin of Sunderland – it also goes back to Saxon times when it was called “Sonderlande” because – there are two reasons given now 1) Sunderland was supposed to mean the land owned by the monastery 2) Sunderland meant that the land owned by the monastery was cut asunder by the river – I don’t know which is correct. I believe I forgot to say that the new St Peters – built after the burning in 867 A.D. still stands and part of the original 674 A.D. building is still here. Well so much for that.
I am happy to say that I did not take Spanish at school – I did take French and German and found quite enough pitfalls in these without trying anything in Spanish. It seems I will have to start French or German again – because for an Honours Degree in Engineering some of the papers are on a foreign language – the idea is to show that you could read a foreign technical book.
I have just read your question on Monkwearmouth again and it seems I haven’t completely answered it – you asked what it was – I live in Sunderland but Sunderland is subdivided into districts, wards or parishes call them what you will, well the district I live in is Monkwearmouth. The districts are not villages and are only separated by streets or the river. They also have some names which go back to the Saxon times such as Fulwell & Millfield – these are again “built up” words like Monkwearmouth. I think that does answer your question now and I hope it hasn’t been boring. Have you any such arrangements in America?
As I promised I sent you a photo, it is a very poor one and makes me look about 90 however I kept my promise in spite of it. When I get some time off I will have a better one taken.
Well Bob Hope is now on the radio and I have run out of news now.
Love
Harold
