Castletown, Sunderland

For other uses, see Castletown (disambiguation).

Castletown
Castletown  Castletown shown within Tyne and Wear
Population	3,002
Metropolitan borough	City of Sunderland
Metropolitan county	Tyne and Wear
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SUNDERLAND
Postcode district	SR5
Dialling code	0191
Police	Northumbria
Fire	Tyne and Wear
Ambulance	North East
EU Parliament	North East England
UK Parliament	Sunderland North
List of places UK England Tyne and Wear

Castletown is an area of Sunderland in Tyne and Wear. A former mining community, the Hylton Colliery was located at the east end of the village, it lies north of the River Wear, and is near to Hylton Castle and Washington. At Hylton Riverside, on the eastern fringe of Castletown, there is a large retail park hosting stores such as Matalan, Aldi and Pets at Home, Premier Inn hotel and a fitness club.

Also in the east of the area there is a large-scale redevelopment project, aimed at modernising the former pit houses and the area around the Aviary Estate. Since 2011 there have been further developments in the east part of the village. The Aviary area has been completely demolished and a new housing estate has replaced both sides of the main street. This site was re-developed by the Gentoo Group.

At the opposite end of Castletown, there is the newer development of Fulford Grange, which was the home of former Sunderland footballer Michael Gray. It is also home to Kieron Brady, another ex-Sunderland footballer.

Currently, the records state that Castletown is the least ethnically diverse area in Sunderland, with 99.3% of the population being white.

During the search for the Yorkshire Ripper, the accent of "Wearside Jack", the author of a hoax letter claiming to be from the Ripper, was identified by the forensic linguist Stanley Ellis as that of the Castletown area.[1] The hoaxer was eventually revealed to have come from nearby Pennywell.

Despite its proximity to Sunderland, until 1967 this colliery village was under the administrative control of Durham County Council and was part of the Sunderland Rural District Council. This was because it was a fairly isolated community until the extensive council house building of the fifties and sixties at the Red House, Hylton Castle and Town end Farm Estates effectively joining the settlement to the rest of Sunderland's new northern suburbs.