Coordinates: 54°34′26″N 1°14′00″W / 54.574, -1.2334 Middlesbrough (
IPA pronunciation:
['mɪdəlzb(ə)ɹə] (
received pronunciation)) is a large town in
North East England, and is the largest and most populous settlement within the
borough of Middlesbrough. It is the first town in the world to owe its existence to a railway.
Historically part of the
North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1968 the town became the centre of the
county borough of
Teesside, which was absorbed by the non-metropolitan county of
Cleveland in 1974. In 1996 Cleveland was abolished, and the Middlesbrough borough became a
unitary authority, within the
ceremonial county of
North Yorkshire.
Middlesbrough is different from the other districts on Teesside, as the borough is almost entirely urbanised, thus making it the largest town in terms of area and population, but the smallest district. However, what is locally regarded as Middlesbrough also includes a wider area, including
South Bank and
Eston, in the neighbouring borough of
Redcar and Cleveland.
Middlesbrough is situated on the south bank of the
River Tees, a few miles from the edge of the
North York Moors National Park.
Teesport lies 8 miles to the West, near
Darlington. North East of Middlesbrough, the Tees
estuary with its colony of breeding
seals, has extensive sandy beaches in both directions. Some 7000
salmon and 13,000
sea trout migrated upstream through the estuary in 2000.
Geography and administration Middlesbrough was incorporated as a
municipal borough in 1853. It extended its boundaries in 1866 and 1887, and became a
county borough under the
Local Government Act 1888. A
Middlesbrough Rural District was formed in 1894, covering a rural area to the south of the town. It was abolished in 1932, partly going to the county borough; but mostly going to the
Stokesley Rural District.
Civic history The following is a table of the different districts and suburbs in the Middlesbrough area.
Divisions and suburbs History Although often thought of as a settlement with no early history, the name Middlesbrough can trace its roots back a long way.
Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of the name. The element '-burgh', from Old English
burh, meaning 'fort' denotes an ancient fort or settlement of pre-
Anglian origin (this being the term on which
Middlesbrough Football Club's ardently chanted nickname, 'The
Boro', plays). Maturing into
brough gave this extension individuality in a country more customarily associated with the alternative
borough in its town names.
It is solely by retrospective conjecture that the first element of the name,
Mydil, has come to be identified as a development of the Old English
middel (subsequently morphing into
middle and supposedly a tribute to the settlement's position between the great Christian centres of
Durham and
Whitby). The burgh, though, may have included a monastic cell and was probably situated on the elevated land where the
Victorian church of
St Hilda's (demolished in 1969) was later built.
Etymology In 686 a monastic cell was consecrated by
St Cuthbert at the request of
St Hilda Abbess of
Whitby and in 1119
Robert Bruce granted and confirmed the church of St Hilda of Middleburg to
Whitby. Up until its closure on the
dissolution of the monasteries by
Henry VIII in 1537, the church was maintained by 12
Benedictine monks, many of whom became vicars or rectors of various places in Cleveland. The importance of the early church at "Middleburg", later known as Middlesbrough Priory, is indicated by the fact that in 1452 it possessed four altars.
After the
Angles the area became home to
Viking settlers and it is argued by some that 'old'
Cleveland has the highest density of
Scandinavian parish names in Britain. Names of
Viking origin are abundant in the area - for example,
Thornaby,
Ormesby, Stainsby,
Lackenby,
Maltby,
Normanby,
Tollesby, Ingleby (Barwick) and
Lazenby which were once separate villages that belonged to Vikings called Thormad, Orm, Steinn, Hlakkande, Malti and Toll, but now form suburbs of Middlesbrough. Lazenby was the village belonging to a Leysingr - a freeman; Normanby, a Norseman's village and Danby (in neighbouring
North Yorkshire), a Dane's village. The name Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name and dates to
Anglian times (400 to 1000 A.D.), whilst many of the aforementioned villages appear in the
Domesday Book of 1086.
Early history In 1801 Middlesbrough was a
hamlet consisting of a population of just 25 people across four farmhouses, but during the latter half of the 19th century experienced a growth unparalleled in England. Development first began with the purchase of the farm in 1829 by a group of
Quaker businessmen, headed by
Joseph Pease the
Darlington industrialist, who saw the possibilities of Middlesbrough as a port for North East coal. Four initial streets, leading into the Market Square, were duly laid out. Their cause was facilitated by an 1830 extension of the
Stockton and Darlington railway to the site that all-but erased any existing logistical woes threatening to act as the last block to the more indefinite development of the town.
All that remained to be partaken was the visit of one
William Ewart Gladstone to the town, who was, once under the roof of the original (1846) Town Hall promptly, and famously to dub it 'an infant
Hercules' in 'England's enterprise.'
At the very moment when early fortunes showed signs of giving way to decline, did another great leap forward take place, with the discovery of ironstone in the Eston Hills in 1850. In 1841,
Henry Bolckow (pronounced Belko), who had come to England in 1827, had formed a partnership with
John Vaughan of
Worcester, and started an iron-foundry and rolling mill at Middlesbrough. It was Vaughan who discovered the ironstone deposits. Pig-iron production rose tenfold between 1851 and 1856. Bolckow became mayor in 1853 and Middlesbrough's first
Member of Parliament (MP).
The rapid growth of the town saw the prophetic words (probably spoken by Pease), '
Yarm was,
Stockton is, Middlesbrough will be' come true. Indeed, the motto chosen by the first body of town councillors was in fact 'Erimus'; Latin for 'We shall be'. (See also the
Pearson family grave at
Crambe, which uses the motto "
ERIMUS".)
The population of Middlesbrough, as county borough, peaked at almost 160,000 in the late 1960s but has been in decline since the early 1980s. From 2001 to 2004, the recorded population jumped significantly, from 134,000 to 142,000, then to 147,000 in 2005, with 2006 estimates stating approximately 150,000, suggesting the population is increasing rather than decreasing as estimated by Tees Valley Partnership.
The Bell brothers opened their great ironworks on the banks of the Tees in 1853. Steel production began at
Port Clarence in 1889 and an amalgamation with
Dorman Long followed. After rock salt was discovered under the site in 1874, the salt-extraction industry on Teesside was founded. By now Bell Brothers had become a vast concern employing some 6,000 people.
Isaac Lowthian Bell's own eminence in the field of applied science, where he published many weighty papers, and as an entrepreneur whose knowledge of blast furnaces was unrivalled, led to universal recognition. He was the first president of the
Iron and Steel Institute, and the first recipient of the
Bessemer Gold Medal in 1874. Bell was Lord Mayor of Newcastle in 1854-1855, and again in 1862-1863. He served as MP for
Hartlepool in 1875-1880.
For many years in the 19th century
Teesside set the world price for iron and steel. The
Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) was designed and built by
Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, and has MADE IN MIDDLESBROUGH stamped on the side. The company was also responsible for the earlier
New Tyne Bridge across the river at
Newcastle.
Via a
1907 Act of Parliament the
Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company also built the great
Transporter Bridge (1911) which spans the Tees itself between Middlesbrough and
Port Clarence. At 850 feet long and 225 feet high, is one of the largest of its type in the world, and one of only two left in working order in Britain (the other being in
Newport). The bridge remains in daily use and it is worth noting, that contrary to what is suggested by the plot of popular
BBC drama/comedy
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, the bridge was
not at any point dismantled and removed to
Arizona. It is, indeed, a Grade II*
listed building.
The great steelworks, chemical plants, shipbuilding and offshore fabrication yards that followed the original Middlesbrough ironworks, have in the recent past contributed to Britain's prosperity in no small measure and still do to this day.
Middlesbrough had the distinction of being the first major British town and industrial target to be bombed during the
Second World War when the
Luftwaffe visited the town on the
25 May 1940. Most notably in 1942 a lone
Dornier 217 picked its way through the
barrage balloons and dropped a stick of bombs onto the
railway station. It is a local tale that one or two fish and chip shops also came a cropper to the raids.
It is also alleged that Middlesbrough was the second target on the
Soviet Union's list of UK nuclear targets during the
Cold War, due to the mix of heavy industrialisation, a nuclear power plant, a major port, and a skilled workforce.
Post-industrial history Main article: The Green Howards Green Howards Tees Newport Bridge Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge Riverside Stadium Centre North East Spectra Txt (Text Tower) Landmarks Middlesbrough's contemporary townscape is largely workaday, it being no longer a heavy industrial town, though there are areas around which still support chemical, fertiliser and iron and steel production.
Present day Located in the suburb and former
village of Acklam and by some distance Middlesbrough's oldest domestic building is
Acklam Hall of c.1680-3. Built by Sir
William Hustler, it is also Middlesbrough's sole
Grade I listed building. The
Restoration mansion, accessible through an avenue of trees off Acklam Road, has seen progressive updates through the centuries, such that it makes for a captivating document of varying trends in
English architecture.
Built on extensive grounds by the Pennyman family now under the jurisdiction of the
National Trust,
Ormesby Hall, a
Palladian mansion actually technically located within the neighbouring borough of
Redcar and Cleveland, but within one of the town's seven conservation areas, was largely built around 1740, although an older wing dating from around 1599, still exists.
Not to be ignored either are a clutch of interesting churches, for example at Acklam, Marton and Stainton (c.12th century), or the modern
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral at
Coulby Newham, replacing in the 1980s the previous structure on Sussex Street that was left gutted at the mercy of arsonists in 2000.
But a modest tally of pre-1900 buildings remain in the town's centre, however; the priory, farmhouse and any other elements of the town's pre-industrial landscape (such as the
Restoration Newport House and its associated Hustler Granary, which submitted to demolition in the 1930s by virtue of its vicinity to the then-recently opened
Tees Newport Bridge, and the locally famous "White Cottages" on St Barnabas Road in
Linthorpe) have long since been banished to history. Indeed, incorporation of the town itself did not occur until 1853. Even so, the urban centre remains home to a variety of architecture such as the (
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art) and '
Spectra-txt'. Many believe that there is a beauty to be found in the surrounding landscape of industry along the
River Tees from Billingham to Wilton. The terraced
Victorian streets surrounding the town centre are characterful elements of Middlesbrough's social and historical identity, and the vast streets surrounding Parliament Road and Abingdon Road a reminder of the area's wealth and rapid growth during industrialisation.
The Town Hall, built between 1883 and 1887 is a Grade II Listed Building, and a very imposing structure. Of comparable grandeur alongside these municipal buildings is the erstwhile Empire Palace of Varieties of 1897, the finest surviving theatre edifice designed by
Ernest Runtz in the UK. The first artist to star there in its guise as a Music Hall was
Lillie Langtry. Later it became an early nightclub (1950s), then a bingo-hall and is now once again a night club in the form of 'The Theatre'. It has recently, as of 2005, had the missing ornate glass and steel over-canopy to the front entrance fully restored. Further afield in Linthorpe, can be found the Little Theatre (now Middlesbrough Theatre), the first new theatre built in England after
the Second World War.
The town can also boast this country's only public sculpture by the celebrated modern American artist
Claes Oldenburg, the "Bottle O' Notes" of 1993, which relates to
Captain James Cook. Based alongside it today in the town's Central Gardens is the
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), the successor to previous
art galleries on Linthorpe Road and Gilkes Street. Recently refurbished is the
Carnegie library dating from 1912. The
Dorman Long office on Zetland Road, constructed between 1881 and 1891, is the only commercial building ever designed by
Philip Webb, the great architect who worked for Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell.
The town's centre has been undergoing a modernising makeover in recent years, including the addition of 'Spectra-txt,' a 10 metre high interactive tower of metal and fibre-optics inspired by
Blade Runner (whose own industrial scenery was inspired by that of Teesside, by virtue in part of the experiences of its director, the
South Shields-born
Ridley Scott, a former
art college student up the coast in nearby industrialised
West Hartlepool). 'Spectra-txt' allows the public to send an
SMS (text) message via mobiles phones to change the colours of the lights. Texting various codes, such as 'Chromapop' produce a display of changing colour lights.
Architecture There is a large and comprehensive shopping district made up of several separate
shopping centres, which include 'The Mall Cleveland' renamed in 2005 from 'Cleveland Shopping Centre,' which has undergone a major refurbishment. 'Dundas Street Shopping' renamed in 2005 from 'Dundas Shopping Arcade,' 'Hill Street Shopping Centre' and 'Captain Cook Square.' Linthorpe Road is home to several independent and national fashion shops. One of these, Psyche, regularly claims accolades over the likes of the
Selfridges,
Harvey Nichols &
Liberty stores in
London. A recent four-part BBC documentary was made about the store, which highlighted how seriously Teessiders take fashion.
Retail and commerce Long-awaited flagship art gallery project, the
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art opened its doors in January 2007 and currently holds the second largest collection of Picassos in the United Kingdom. It also holds works of art from Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse and Damien Hirst among others. Its considerable arts and crafts collections span from 1900 to the present day. Surrounding it is the town's overhauled Victoria Square and Central Gardens, in tandem producing "the largest civic space in Europe".
1 Middlesbrough can boast two major recreational park spaces in
Albert Park and
Stewart Park,
Marton. The former, originally touted as 'The People's Park' was donated to the town by Bolckow in 1866. It was formally opened by
Prince Arthur, youngest son of the monarch, on
11 August 1868 and comprises a 30 hectare (70 acre) site accessible from Linthorpe Road. The park underwent a considerable period of restoration from 2001 to 2004, during which a number of the Park's most vaunted landmarks, including a
fountain, bandstand and
sundial saw either restoration or revival. Alongside these two parks are two of the town's premier cultural attractions, the century-old
Dorman Memorial Museum and the
Captain Cook Birthplace Museum respectively. Close to the Captain Cook Museum is a granite urn marking the supposed spot of the famous explorer's birthplace.
Newham Grange Leisure farm in Coulby Newham, one of the most southerly districts of the town, has operated continuously in this spot since the 17th century. Now a burgeoning tourist attraction, the chance to view its various
cattle,
pigs,
sheep and other perennial farm animals is complimented by exhibitions of the farming history of the area.
Back in the 'Old Town' or St Hilda's, is the Transporter Bridge Visitor Centre, opened in 2000 and offering its own exhibitions charting the high-octane past of the heart of the surrounding industrial powerhouse, as well as that of the singular structure it commemorates.
Culture and leisure Middlesbrough has been a
university town since 1992. The
University of Teesside has more than 20,000 students, and a history dating back to 1930 as Constantine Technical College. It is internationally recognised as a leading institute for computer animation and games design and along with ARC at
Stockton-on-Tees,
Cineworld cinema in Middlesbrough, and the
Riverside Stadium, hosts the annual
Animex International Festival of Animation. The university also houses Teesside Business School as well as other specialised Schools of Arts & Media, Computing & Mathematics, Health & Social Care, Science & Technology and Social Sciences & Law.
The University is not alone in providing
further and
higher education in the town. There are also a number of modern schools and sixth forms, the largest of which is
Middlesbrough College with 16,000 students, which covers the four campuses of Acklam, Kirby, Marton and Longlands, including the one-time Acklam Hall. Others include
St. David's School in Acklam, and Macmillan Academy on Stockton Road, which was recently declared the best state school in England.
Education During university term time, Middlesbrough is busy throughout the week with student nights taking place throughout the bars and clubs. During the holidays, the town is predominantly busy from Thursday to Sunday. The most popular venue is the Empire in the centre of town. A range of events are played here which include music from dance and hip-hop.
The Crown, Basement, Blue, Cornerhouse, and Barracuda are also popular. It also has a
Cineworld cinema at Middlesbrough Leisure Park and a
Showcase Cinema located in the Middlesbrough part of
Teesside Park.
Nightlife Middlesbrough uses combined installations of
CCTV cameras and
loudspeakers to reprimand their citizens when they're committing infringements (throwing cigarette butts on the ground, littering etc.) in public.
Crime Middlesbrough and the surrounding area has two Members of Parliament (MPs):
Ashok Kumar and Sir
Stuart Bell. Middlesbrough has been a traditionally safe
Labour seat, largely due to its industrial,
working class history. The
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland seat is also Labour but incorporates surrounding towns including
Guisborough and
Saltburn and is a more marginal seat and a Conservative target (having held the
Langbaurgh predecessor seat until 1997).
Middlesbrough was selected to have a directly elected
Mayor as head of the council. The current Mayor is
Ray Mallon (independent), a former senior, and somewhat controversial, figure in the local police force. Mallon was re-elected for a second term in office in the May 2007 Local and Mayoral Elections.
Politics As part of its £1.5 billion investment programme, Tees Valley Regeneration has started work on reclaiming Middlesbrough Docklands with the £500 million
Middlehaven scheme to bring new business and homes to a 250
acre (1 km²) area.
The first phase around the former docklands has already begun and is visible from the
Riverside Stadium. The master plan drawn up by
Will Alsop in 2004, includes proposals for the relocation of
Middlesbrough College, the building of a virtual reality centre by
Teesside University (part of the
DigitalCity development), in addition to numerous offices, hotels, bars, restaurants and leisure attractions.
Tees Valley Regeneration now has a shortlist of five developers seeking to build at
Middlehaven, the list includes some of the most prestigious and groundbreaking names in development and regeneration, and a decision on the chosen developer is due to be made in the next few months.
The
Stockton-Middlesbrough Initiative is a 20 year vision for regenerating the urban core of the
Tees Valley, the main focus being the area of 30 km² along the banks of the
River Tees between the two centres of
Stockton and Middlesbrough. The master plan has been drawn up by environmental design specialists
Gillespies, the eventual aim being to create a distinctive high-quality city of over 360,000 citizens at the heart of the Tees Valley, by connecting both Middlesbrough and
Stockton along the
Tees corridor. The project will include not only the existing developments at
Middlehaven and
North Shore Stockton, but many others over a 15-20 year period.
Middlesbrough has also recently announced plans to build a 120-metre tower on the site of the old
Odeon Cinema (more recently
Jumping Jaks nightclub) which collapsed, whilst being demolished by the same company that demolished the Cleveland Scientific Institute overnight, in July 2006. The site is in Central Middlesbrough at the eastern end of Newport Road and will be the tallest building in the North East, surpassing the existing record already held by Middlesbrough's own
Centre North East building. The new development will be the first of such skyscrapers proposed in Middlesbrough with two more visioned for Middlehaven. The second one on the Middlehaven site is the most unlikely but still being considered and could see either an American or Dubai based company to build a skyscraper 250-300 metres in height, showing Middlesbrough is progressing into the future and is a growing centre for commerce and development. The idea for such
skyscrapers is the result of limited land area in Middlesbrough. Instead of building outwards and subsequently having to apply for boundary extension, it makes sense to build up. It sees Middlesbrough a participant in the Skyscraper Boom currently hitting the
United Kingdom which the
United States experienced in the early 1900s.
Middlesbrough, along with other towns and cities in the UK, will be granted a licence to build a new large casino.
Manchester won the bid to host the
'Super Casino'.
Sport Middlesbrough has been featured in many television programmes such as
The Fast Show,
Steel River Blues,
Spender and
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Tyne Tees Television used to broadcast its news for the South regions from its studios located in at the base of Corporation House (now Walkabout bar), before moving to its new premises in
Billingham.
Television and filmography The world famous explorer, navigator, and map maker Captain
James Cook was born in Marton, which is now a suburb in the south-east of Middlesbrough.
Other famous people from the town include:
Other eminent sons and daughters of Middlesbrough and its environs include
Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's,
E. W. Hornung, the creator of the gentleman-crook Raffles (who was fluent in three Yorkshire dialects, and
Naomi Jacob novelist.
Florence Easton, the Wagnerian soprano at the New York Met and
Cyril Smith, the concert pianist, were also natives. The famous M.P.
Ellen Wilkinson wrote a novel
Clash (1929) which paints a very positive picture of 'Shireport' (Middlesbrough).
Florence Olliffe Bell's classic study
At The Works(1907) gives a striking picture of the area at the turn of the century. She also edited the letters of her step-daughter
Gertrude Bell which have been continuously in print since 1927.
Pat Barker's debut novel
Union Street was set on the thoroughfare of the same name in the town, its central theme of
prostitution still associated with the area around it to this day.
Ford Madox Ford was billeted in Eston during WWI and his great novel sequence
Parade's End is partly set in Busby Hall,
Carlton-in-Cleveland.
Adrian 'Six Medals' Warburton, air photographer, was played by
Alec Guinness in '
Malta Story'.
Sports
- Rugby union player Rory Underwood
Footballers Don Revie, Wilf Mannion and Brian Clough
Current Middlesbrough and England national football players Stewart Downing and Jonathan Woodgate
Olympic swimmer Jack Hatfield and Commonwealth Games swimmer Alyson Jones
British long jump record holding athlete Chris Tomlinson
Jacqueline (Jackie) Smith of South Bank, World Champion Free Fall Parachutist and Guinness Book of Records entrant as the first person in the World to achieve a perfect 10 successive direct hits in Zagreb Yugoslavia (as was) - landing on a 10cm electronic disk in the centre of a sandpit from an aeroplane half a mile high.
The Arts
- Comedians Dave Morris, Bob Mortimer, Roy Chubby Brown and Kevin Connelly
Musicians Chris Rea, Paul Rodgers, and Vin Garbutt
Actors Wendy Richard, Thelma Barlow, Christopher Quinten, Liz Dawn aka Vera Duckworth, Elizabeth Carling, Jerry Desmonde and Jamie Parker
Author Richard Milward
Visual artists Mackenzie Thorpe and Robert Nixon
Other Entertainers:
- Magician Paul Daniels
TV Presenter Kirsten O'Brien
X Factor Contestants and third place runners up Journey South Notable residents
The Bottle of Notes sculpture by Claes Oldenburg
Teesside Crown Court, Middlesbrough
Old Town Hall
40,000 Years of Modern Art, at Middlehaven by Benedict Carpenter
Twin Towns
Middlesbrough Music Live
List of bands/musicians from North East England
A66 road
Middlesbrough Football Club
mima
Defunct major: All-America Football Conference • American Football League • NFL Europa • United States Football League • World Football League • XFL Defunct minor/semi-pro:Atlantic Coast Football League • Continental Football League • Hawaii Football League • Regional Football League • Spring Football League • United Football League
Folded or merged before any games were played: Professional Spring Football League Planned: All American Football League (Spring 2008) • United Football League (Fall 2008) Major: Canadian Football League Minor/Semi-pro: Alberta Football League • Maritime Football League • Canadian Junior Football League • Quebec Junior Football League • Quebec Bantam Football League Defunct: Quebec Juvenile Football League • Quebec Senior Football League Major: Arena Football League Minor: af2 • American Indoor Football Association • American Professional Football League • Continental Indoor Football League • Intense Football League • United Indoor Football Defunct: Eastern Indoor Football League • Indoor Football League • Indoor Professional Football League • National Indoor Football League • Professional Indoor Football League • World Indoor Football League Folded or merged before any games were played: North American Indoor Football League • World Indoor Football League • Xtreme Football League • North American Indoor Football League
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Early Life
Constantine III, Roman usurper
