Washington

The Washington family

Around 1180, William de Hertburn took on the manor here and adopted the name "de Wessyngton" — later Washington. His descendants held the manor for generations; further down the family tree, Lawrence Washington's line eventually produced Colonel John Washington, who emigrated to Virginia in 1656. John's great-grandson was George Washington, first President of the United States.

Washington Old Hall

The manor house standing today, Washington Old Hall, dates mostly from the early 17th century, built on the Washington family's original medieval foundations. Saved from demolition by a local campaign in 1936, it was given to the National Trust in the 1950s and now celebrates its American connection in full — flying the Stars and Stripes on four American holidays every year, a gesture agreed with the United States in 1975.

A New Town for the 20th century

In 1964, Washington was designated one of Britain's post-war New Towns, planned around a patchwork of existing villages and laid out in a distinctive grid of numbered residential "Districts." The surrounding area also carried a heavy coal-mining history, remembered today at the preserved Washington 'F' Pit.

Washington today

Modern Washington is home to the WWT Washington Wetland Centre nature reserve and, since the 1980s, to Nissan's vast car plant, built on part of the former Sunderland Airport site and now one of Europe's most productive car factories.