In a message dated 8/5/2004 8:38:49 AM GMT Daylight Time, mhart@iinet.net.au writes: I have purchased a birth certificate of my husband's grandfather, Anthony DAWSON who was born in November 1879 in "'Workhouse, Hylton (? Road)". In December 1879 when his mother, Jane DAWSON, registers his birth her address is "Three Horse Shoes Cabin, Hylton.". Could anyone tell me where Hylton is please and any information about her address, - it's such an unusual name. Mary: There are two Hyltons (sometimes spelled Hilton). They face each other across the River Wear, just west of Sunderland and are called North Hylton and South Hylton. At one time (now now) they were connected by the Hylton Ferry. Probably North Hylton was the original as it is near to that where Hylton Castle, the mediaeval home of the Hylton family, now a ruin, is situated. When large-scale industry came to the district, it arrived at both North and South Hylton, but it was South Hylton which grew largest, and which is still much the larger of the two places today. The Workhouse in Hylton Road was in Sunderland: Hylton Road runs west from the centre of Sunderland towards South Hylton. South Hylton was originally part of the parish of Bishopwearmouth but eventually became a parish of its own. North Hylton was part of Monkwearmouth parish but later became part of Southwick parish and probably eventually part of Castletown parish. I don't know of "Three Horse Shoes Cabin" but nearby to North Hylton, on land originally part of Usworth Township of Washington parish and later in Usworth parish, there is a pub called the "Three Horse Shoes". The land opposite it, also in Usworth, was used as an RAF base during both World Wars and then became "Sunderland Airport" until that closed in the 1960s and it is now the site of a huge Nissan car factory. The pub and the factory are on either side of a road which is now a backwater but was originally the main road from Washington to Monkwearmouth via Hylton Castle and Southwick. Next to it is the NE Air Museum. Geoff Nicholson