Tony Gillan looks at the history of Sunderland's Bull Lane - and speculates on the origin of its name
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00:00 One of Sunderland's most intriguing little thoroughfares, one which we wish could actually
00:04 speak, is one which most way-siders have probably never walked down, although most of them will
00:10 have travelled past it at some point. Bull Lane lies off High Street East, in between
00:16 the excellent East End Forest and the sadly recently closed down Clarendon Pub, which
00:22 laid claim strongly to being Sunderland's oldest boozer.
00:26 The Clarendon is a story in itself, it dates back to 1724. The pub cellar contains a smuggler's
00:33 cave somewhere, so let's hope the pub reopens at some point.
00:36 We can only speculate, perhaps a little romantically, about what has gone on here over the past
00:40 few centuries. A friend of mine has a remarkable anecdote from the 1990s which we couldn't
00:47 possibly tell you, although it is very amusing. However, given its small size, darkness and
00:52 proximity to the river and the Clarendon, Bull Lane might well have been a venue for
00:56 a spot of press-ganging. Sunderland's greatest naval hero, Jack Crawford for example, was
01:01 press-ganged in 1796. Press-ganging, incidentally, was the practice of forcibly making people
01:08 join the Royal Navy. So who knows, Jack could have been bundled down Bull Lane and lobbed
01:12 aboard a nearby vessel. Press-ganging fell into disuse after Napoleon had been sorted
01:17 out in 1815. The lane is narrow, only a few metres long, and gives pedestrian access between
01:23 High Street East and Low Street, where there is a picturesque view of the River Weir.
01:29 Previously there had been a number of similar lanes in the East End. On the other side of
01:32 the Florist was Nails Passage, that was blocked some years ago. Baudelwell Lane, after which
01:38 the apartment block Baudelwell House is named, just up the road, was another to be demolished.
01:44 But why is it called Bull Lane? Phil Curtis, of the Sunderland Antiquarians, whom we thank,
01:49 says that the 1732 rate book calls the thoroughfare Headley's Lane after one Thomas Headley, who
01:55 bought 143 High Street East, which is the Clarendon, in 1724, and that it probably changed
02:02 its name to Bull Lane when Mr Headley died. There has been speculation that cattle were
02:06 led up here, up to what was then the market on High Street East. However it seems unlikely,
02:13 people are notably unenthusiastic about walking uphill, especially when there are steep stairs
02:19 involved, and the lane is also quite narrow. They wouldn't be keen. The most likely and
02:24 most favoured explanation is that bull baiting took place here. The sport, as we shall call
02:30 it, of bull baiting was a delightful pastime, very popular in medieval England. This serene
02:36 pastime involved a bull being tied to an iron stake, which was bolted into the ground. Dogs,
02:41 eventually known as bulldogs, then set about the bull, aiming to pin it down by grabbing
02:46 onto their snouts, the most sensitive part of the bull's anatomy, and wrestling with
02:50 the bull until the dogs had turned it on its side. If this compromised the welfare of the
02:55 bull somewhat, it didn't do much for the dogs either. They risked being gored, trampled
03:00 under hoof or severely bitten. But in the days before either animal welfare or, more
03:04 saliently, the telly, audiences were in thrall. The cruel treatment of cattle act 1822 didn't
03:11 quite do what it set out to do. It gave protection to all cattle except bulls. It was too much
03:18 fun to be had. Bull baiting was finally outlawed by the Spoilsport Animal Cruelty Act of 1835,
03:25 by which time the name of Bull Lane was well established.
03:27 Workers digging the ground only a few years back on the buildings behind me, next to the
03:31 florist, unearthed some bulls' teeth, more evidence of a less than delightful history.
03:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]