Thomas Sopwith FRS was an English mining engineer, teacher of geology and local historian.

Richard Grainger was a builder in Newcastle upon Tyne. He worked with the architects John Dobson and Thomas Oliver, and with the town clerk, John Clayton, to redevelop the centre of Newcastle in the 19th century. Grainger Street and the Grainger Market are named after him; sometimes the whole area of Newcastle developed in the Neoclassical style around Grey Street and Grainger Street is referred to as Grainger Town.