LOCAL knowledge is being called on to help place a former mining village on the map.

Road signs are to be erected to pinpoint the small Wearside community of Philadelphia, following a plea from the village cricket club.

But council traffic engineers want to tap local people's knowledge of their community to settle on accurate locations to mount the signs at every road entrance to the village.

They have carried out research, including studying local history publications, to try to discover exactly where Philadelphia starts and neighbouring Herrington Burn, New Herrington and Newbottle end, on the A182 Shiney Row to Houghton-le-Spring road.

The dilemma surfaced when officials at Philadelphia Cricket Club approached Sunderland City Council calling for improved road signs, because bamboozled visiting teams have found it difficult to find the village and the Bunker Hill ground.

It has become worse since the club stepped up into the North-East Premier League from the Durham Senior League this year, as many new opponents from far-flung parts of the region had never played at "Phili".

Local historians Geoffrey Milburn and Brian Gold - whose father-in-law, Jack Pow, is the oldest living century-maker for the cricket club - helped to shed some light to narrow down the mystery of where the village boundary lies.

They also revealed that, unlike most same-name cases, Philadelphia on Wearside derives from its larger namesake, The City of Brotherly Love, in Pennsylvania, US. Quebec, near Langley Park, County Durham, is another such example.

In Philadelphia's case, a local mine owner gave the name to his colliery to commemorate a British victory in the American War of Independence.

General Howe, commanding one of three British regiments, overcame stubborn resistance by George Washington's American forces at Germantown, to advance safely to quarters in Philadelphia, in 1777.

The cricket ground, Bunker Hill, takes its name from the scene of another battle in the same war.

Sunderland council now plans to erect three signs on the village boundary.

Each will be worded: "City of Sunderland - Welcome to Philadelphia, named after Philadelphia, USA, during the American War of Independence, 1776-1783."

Phil Barrett, the city's director of development and regeneration, said: "We want to involve local people in deciding exactly where these unique signs should be placed.

"We need residents of Philadelphia to fine-tune our suggested locations for the three nameplates, one at each end of Philadelphia Lane and the third at Success Road."

Suggestions should be submitted to Steve Lycett, at Traffic, Civic Centre, Sunderland, SR2 7DN, by Friday, October 4.

What's in a place name?

WHEN names such as Philadelphia occur in England, they usually derive from an old name for a field.

A field that is situated furthest from a farmhouse is often given a name such as Nova Scotia, Philadelphia or California to emphasise its distance.

In most parts of the country, such field names go unnoticed, but in our region colliery towns and villages often sprang up in the neighbourhood and took the name of the field.

Colliery owners also sometimes chose exotic names for their collieries, and this is why we find places in the North-East called Toronto, Quebec and New York.

The only name of this kind to originate in the North-East is Washington, on Wearside. This gave its name to the ancestors of George Washington and, ultimately, to the US capital.