Original: Ship building and coal mining Once famously hailed as the "Largest Shipbuilding Town in the World" , ships were built on the Wear from at least 1346 onwards and by the mid-eighteenth century Sunderland was one of the chief shipbuilding towns in the country.
Simplified: Traditional industry Once called the "Greatest Shipbuilding Town in the World" , ships were built on the Wear from at least 1346 onwards.