Pennywell

Pennywell is one of the UK's largest post-war social housing schemes, and is situated in the central-west area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, North East England. Pennywell is the largest local authority housing estate in the City of Sunderland. The estate mostly built during the late 1940s and early 1950s to replace 19th century slums in the centre of Sunderland. The name Pennywell is of Celtic origin and is thought to mean "wellspring at the top of the hill". The Pennywell estate consists of nearly 3,000 homes, around 11% of which are privately owned and has a total population of 10,709 This figure is considerably lower than in previous decades, when the Pennywell area housed over 20,000 people. An industrial area on the western edge of the suburb has, among other businesses Calsonic's injection moulding plant and the Sunderland Echo building.