The Tyne Wear Derby

Last Updated: April 2026

The Tyne-Wear Derby: How Coal Trade, a Civil War, and Two Proud Cities Created English Football’s Most Historically Rooted Rivalry

Twelve miles. That is all that separates Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland — two cities, two rivers, and one of the most ferocious rivalries in English football. But to understand why Newcastle United and Sunderland hate each other quite as much as they do, you need to travel back not to 1883, when the clubs first met on a football pitch, but to 1600, when a royal charter and a monopoly on coal set two communities on a collision course that would last centuries.

The Tyne-Wear Derby is often called the second greatest rivalry in British football, behind only the Old Firm. That distinction matters. Because whilst most football rivalries are built on competing football clubs, this one was built on competing cities — on industries, economies, and identities that existed for centuries before either club was formed. The coal trade, the English Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and two distinct cultures separated by a dozen miles of northeast England all fed into a football rivalry that has produced some of the sport’s most extraordinary atmospheres.

This is the story of how it all began.

The Coal War: Origins of the Rivalry

A Royal Monopoly Changes Everything

To understand the Tyne-Wear Derby, you first need to understand coal. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, coal wasn’t just an industry in northeast England, it was the lifeblood of the entire region. London and much of England depended on it for heating, and the northeast sat atop vast reserves. Whoever controlled the coal controlled the money.

In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I incorporated the Hostmen of Newcastle – a guild of merchants who had long dominated the Tyne coal trade – through a royal charter. This formalised their exclusive right to load, sell, and export coal from the River Tyne. In return, they paid a one-shilling tax on every wagonload of coal shipped. The deal made Newcastle’s merchants extraordinarily wealthy and left Sunderland’s Wearside traders largely locked out of England’s most lucrative commodity.

Sunderland’s Grievance Takes Shape

Sunderland sat on the River Wear, just 12 miles south of Newcastle, and had its own coal mines and port. But the Hostmen’s monopoly meant any coal leaving the northeast for London effectively had to pass through Newcastle’s control. Sunderland’s merchants could mine the coal, but Newcastle’s cartel set prices, controlled quotas, and imposed taxes on Wearside output.

The economic resentment was profound. Around 14,700 tons of coal a year were exported from Sunderland to London, but following pressure from Newcastle, King James I later required part of Sunderland’s coal revenue to be paid to Newcastle merchants, even though they operated on a completely different river. The injustice was stark, and the bitterness it generated ran deep.

The English Civil War: Newcastle Royalists vs Sunderland Parliamentarians

Two Cities, Two Sides

When the English Civil War began in August 1642, the two communities’ opposing economic interests naturally drove them towards opposite sides of the political divide. Newcastle’s merchants owed their wealth and monopoly to the Crown, so they sided with the Royalists – King Charles I. Sunderland, nursing centuries of grievance over the coal trade, aligned with Parliament and Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarians.

This wasn’t merely a political preference – it was an economic calculation. Sunderland’s traders had everything to gain from a Parliamentarian victory: the destruction of the Royalist-backed Hostmen’s monopoly meant Wearside coal could finally compete on equal terms. Newcastle’s merchants had everything to lose.

The Battle of Boldon Hill, 24 March 1644

In early 1644, a Scottish Covenanter army of roughly 18,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, commanded by Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven, crossed the border to support Parliament. The Scots, having initially laid siege to Newcastle, moved south into Sunderland – welcomed there as the town had declared for Parliament.

On 24 March 1644, the two forces confronted each other at Boldon Hill, in what is now South Tyneside – a day-long engagement now known as the Battle of Boldon Hill. The Royalist army, commanded by the Marquess of Newcastle (William Cavendish), occupied Boldon Hill, whilst the Scots and Sunderland Parliamentarians positioned themselves at Cleadon Hills three miles away. The difficult terrain meant neither side could press home an advantage. They exchanged cannon fire through the night, and both sides later claimed victory. The Royalists admitted losses of around 240 men.

The battle itself was inconclusive but its consequences were not. After news reached the Marquess of a major Royalist defeat at Selby, he abandoned the defence of Newcastle and marched south towards York. Newcastle was left exposed, and by October 1644 the Scots had besieged and captured it. With the Tyne trade blockaded, Sunderland’s coal industry flourished under Scottish and Parliamentarian protection for nearly two decades.

The Significance of the Divide

This wasn’t just a battle – it was a declaration of identity. Two communities 12 miles apart had chosen opposing sides in the defining political conflict of the century, motivated in large part by the economic injustice of the coal monopoly. The fact that Newcastle and Sunderland backed different sides in the Civil War is, for many historians, the single most important foundation stone of the rivalry that would eventually manifest in football four centuries later.

The Restoration and Newcastle’s Comeback (1660)

The Commonwealth didn’t last. In 1660, the monarchy was restored under King Charles II, and with it, the balance of power shifted back towards Newcastle. The Hostmen’s monopoly was reasserted, and by 1662 Newcastle successfully lobbied the government to levy an additional duty on every chaldron of Sunderland coal, directly taxing their rival’s output to protect Tyneside trade. Sunderland’s brief period of economic advantage, bought through its alliance with the winning side in the Civil War, was extinguished.

The cycle of advantage and resentment was now complete. Each community had – at different points – held the upper hand, and each could claim the other had used political power to suppress them. That mutual grievance would simmer for over two more centuries before it found an outlet in football.

The Industrial Revolution and Two Cities

Through the 18th and 19th centuries, the rivalry evolved from coal into a broader industrial competition. Both Newcastle (Tyneside) and Sunderland (Wearside) became powerhouses of the Industrial Revolution — with coal mining, shipbuilding, heavy engineering, and iron production dominating both economies. At its peak in the late 19th century, Sunderland was the largest shipbuilding town in the world. The River Wear was lined with yards; the River Tyne the same.

The working men of both communities – miners, shipbuilders, engineers – were fiercely proud of where they came from. They had to be. Life in these industrial communities was hard, and local identity was one of the few things you could always claim as your own. Football, when it arrived in the 1870s and 1880s, didn’t create this rivalry. It inherited it.

The Clubs Are Born: Newcastle United and Sunderland AFC

Sunderland: The Teachers’ Team (1879)

Sunderland trace their origins to October 1879, when a Scottish schoolmaster named James Allan founded a team called Sunderland and District Teachers Association Football Club. Allan had grown up playing football in Scotland and found only rugby being played when he arrived in Sunderland to teach. He brought a round ball back from Scotland and started showing colleagues how the game worked.

Within a year the club had opened its doors beyond the teaching profession, renaming itself Sunderland Association Football Club in 1880. They joined the Football League in 1890, were champions by 1892, and won the league again in 1893 and 1895, earning the nickname the ‘Team of All the Talents.’ Six top-flight titles in total (1892, 1893, 1895, 1902, 1913, 1936), two FA Cups (1937, 1973) – Sunderland’s history is considerably richer than their current standing might suggest.

Newcastle United: East End, West End, United (1881–1892)

Newcastle’s story begins in November 1881, when a group of young men from the riverside community of South Byker formed a football team called Stanley FC, named after the street they lived on. Stanley changed its name to Newcastle East End in 1882 to avoid confusion with a cricket club in County Durham. Meanwhile, Newcastle West End formed in August 1882 and moved into St James’ Park in 1886.

West End’s finances collapsed in 1892. East End absorbed their assets and took over the lease at St James’ Park. At a meeting at Bath Lane Hall on 9 December 1892, they voted to adopt a new name – one that would unite the city. Newcastle United were born. They joined the Football League Second Division in 1893, reached the First Division in 1898, and won four league titles between 1905 and 1927.

The Football Rivalry Begins (1883–1914)

First Meetings and Early Dominance

The two clubs first met in 1883. The first competitive fixture was an FA Cup tie in November 1887 – Sunderland won 2-0 against Newcastle East End. The 1900-01 season produced one of English football’s most extraordinary scenes: a St James’ Park match reportedly drew up to 120,000 spectators, far beyond the ground’s official capacity of around 30,000. The game had to be abandoned as supporters spilled onto the pitch. Riots broke out. It was already evident that this was no ordinary local fixture.

The 9-1: Football’s Most Embarrassing Derby Scoreline

On 5 December 1908, Sunderland beat Newcastle 9-1 at St James’ Park – still the largest winning margin in Tyne-Wear derby history, and Newcastle’s second-worst defeat in the club’s entire history. The scoreline is all the more astonishing for its context: Newcastle were the reigning league champions. Despite the humiliation, they went on to win the First Division title that season, finishing nine points ahead of Sunderland.

Sunderland’s George Holley scored a hat-trick that day. He remains the all-time leading scorer in Tyne-Wear derby history with 15 goals across all competitions.

Geordie vs Mackem: A Cultural Divide

The Language of Rivalry

Nowhere is the depth of the Tyne-Wear divide more visible than in language. What Geordies write as “Howay the lads”, Mackems write as “Ha’way the lads”. Two communities 12 miles apart, same exclamation, different spelling – and each would die before using the other’s version.

The word “Mackem” is thought to derive from the Wearside dialect pronunciation of ‘make’ as ‘mak’ and ‘take’ as ‘tak’ – a pejorative coined by Tyneside rivals to mock Sunderland speech. In the shipbuilding context, ‘mak ’em and tak ’em’ referenced Wearside yards that built ships handed over to buyers. What began as mockery was reclaimed by Sunderland supporters as a badge of pride. The word appears to have entered common use in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Two Cities, One Passion

Despite the rivalry, the two communities share far more than they acknowledge. Both were built by coal and ships. Both endured the catastrophic industrial collapse of the 1970s and 1980s that wiped out the industries that had defined them for 150 years. Both turned to football as the thing that remained when the pits and the yards were gone. For both sets of supporters, the club isn’t just entertainment – it’s identity, community, and continuity with a way of life that no longer exists in the same form.

That shared grief, paradoxically, is part of what makes the rivalry so fierce. When everything else was taken, the football remained. And you don’t share that with the bloke 12 miles away.

Key Matches and Memorable Moments

1901: The Abandoned Match

A St James’ Park fixture in the 1900-01 season was abandoned after an estimated 120,000 supporters overwhelmed the ground, which then held roughly 30,000. Rioting followed. No other English derby has been abandoned due to the sheer weight of fan numbers in quite this way.

1908: The 9-1

Sunderland 9, Newcastle 1. At St James’ Park. Still the record. Still the thing every Mackem brings up first.

1973: Sunderland’s FA Cup Win

Sunderland, then in the Second Division, beat Leeds United 1-0 in the 1973 FA Cup Final at Wembley – one of the greatest upsets in cup final history. Manager Bob Stokoe‘s wild sprint across the Wembley pitch at the final whistle remains one of English football’s most iconic images. A statue of Stokoe stands outside the Stadium of Light to this day.

1990: The Play-Off Derby

In 1990, the two clubs met in a Second Division play-off semi-final, billed as the biggest Tyne-Wear derby in history. Sunderland won the second leg 2-0 at St James’ Park, despite some Newcastle fans invading the pitch in an attempt to force an abandonment. Sunderland went on to lose the final to Swindon Town but were still promoted after Swindon were found guilty of financial irregularities.

1999: Gullit’s Tactical Catastrophe

On 25 August 1999, Newcastle manager Ruud Gullit made one of the most baffling tactical decisions in Premier League history, dropping both Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson to the bench for the Tyne-Wear derby. Sunderland won 2-1 through Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn. Gullit resigned before Newcastle’s next match.

2010: Nolan’s Hat-Trick

On 31 October 2010, Newcastle demolished Sunderland 5-1 at St James’ Park. Kevin Nolan scored a hat-trick – the first in the derby since Peter Beardsley in 1985 – and Shola Ameobi bagged two. Ameobi’s contribution in this and other derbies earned him the enduring nickname “The Mackem Slayer”.

2013: Di Canio’s Slide

In April 2013, Paolo Di Canio’s Sunderland won 3-0 at St James’ Park. Di Canio’s knee-slide celebration along the touchline became one of the defining images of the modern rivalry. It also kicked off Sunderland’s extraordinary run of six consecutive derby victories between 2013 and 2016.

Why the Tyne-Wear Derby Still Matters

There have been long stretches in recent decades when the fixture hasn’t appeared in the top flight at all. Sunderland’s repeated yo-yoing between divisions has meant the Tyne-Wear Derby sometimes disappears from the Premier League calendar for years at a time. And yet its intensity never diminishes.

The two cities remain 12 miles apart. They remain economically and culturally distinct. They remain fiercely proud of their separate identities – the Geordie and the Mackem, the Tyne and the Wear, the black and white and the red and white. The industries that created those identities have gone, but the identities themselves remain, and football is the arena in which they are most visibly expressed.

The coal trade. The Civil War. The shipyards. And then, only then, the football.

Watch the Full Tyne-Wear Rivalry Video