Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. The local authority, a unitary authority, is Middlesbrough Borough Council.

From 1889, Middlesbrough was a county borough in Yorkshire, but in 1968 it became the centre of the County Borough of Teesside, which was then absorbed by the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland in 1974. In 1996, Cleveland was abolished, and Middlesbrough became a unitary authority, within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.

"Erimus" ("We shall be"), in Latin, was chosen as Middlesbrough's motto in 1830, to signify the town's will to grow. The town's coat of arms show an azure lion beneath 2 ships to represent the port of Middlesbrough. The design is based on that of the Brus family who owned the site on which Middlesbrough is built.

Early history
In 686, a monastic cell was consecrated by St. Cuthbert at the request of St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby and in 1119 Robert Bruce, 1st Lord of Cleveland and Annandale, 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. Names of Viking origin (with the suffix by) are abundant in the area – for example, Ormesby, Stainsby, Maltby and Tollesby were once separate villages that belonged to Vikings called Orm, Steinn, Malti and Toll, but now form suburbs of Middlesbrough. The name Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name and dates to Anglo-Saxon times (400–1000 AD), while many of the aforementioned villages appear in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Other links persist in the area, often through school or road names, to now-outgrown or abandoned local settlements, such as the medieval settlement of Stainsby, deserted by 1757, which amounts to little more today than a series of grassy mounds near the A19 road.

Industrial history
In 1801, Middlesbrough was a hamlet with a population of just 25, living in four farmhouses. During the latter half of the 19th century, however, it experienced rapid growth. Development 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 becoming a port for the transport of coal. Four initial streets, leading into the market square, were duly laid out. This cause was facilitated by an 1830 extension of the Stockton and Darlington Railway to the site, which all but erased the logistical obstacles to ongoing development of the town. Before this, the shipment of coal had been problematic, owing to the shallow waters around Stockton-on-Tees.

From 1840 to 1842 the civil engineer George Turnbull built Middlesbrough Dock which was then bought by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company.

Ironstone was discovered in the Eston Hills in 1850. In 1841, Henry Bolckow, who had come to England in 1827, formed a partnership with John Vaughan, originally of Worcester, and started an iron foundry and rolling mill at Vulcan Street in the town. It was Vaughan who realised the economic potential of local ironstone deposits. Pig iron production rose tenfold between 1851 and 1856.

The importance of the area to the developing iron and steel trade gave it the nickname Ironopolis.

On 21 January 1853, Middlesbrough received its Royal Charter of Incorporation, giving the town the right to have a mayor, aldermen and councillors. Henry Bolckow became mayor, in 1853.

On 15 August 1867, a Reform Bill was passed, making Middlesbrough a new parliamentary borough, Bolckow was elected member for Middlesbrough the following year.

The population of Middlesbrough, as county borough, peaked at almost 165,000 in the late 1960s but has been in decline since the early 1980s. The 2010 population was 142,400.

For many years in the 19th century, Teesside set the world price for iron and steel. The steel components of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) were engineered and fabricated by Dorman Long of Middlesbrough. The company was also responsible for the New Tyne Bridge in Newcastle.

Several large shipyards also lined the Tees, including the Sir Raylton Dixon & Company, which produced hundreds of steam freighters including the infamous SS Mont-Blanc, the steamship which caused the 1917 Halifax Explosion in Canada.

Second World War
Middlesbrough was the first major British town and industrial target to be bombed during the Second World War. The steel making capacity and railways for carrying steel products were obvious targets. The Luftwaffe first bombed the town on 25 May 1940, when a lone bomber dropped 13 bombs between South Bank Road and the South Steel plant. More bombing occurred throughout the course of the war, with the railway station put out of action for two weeks in 1942.

By the end of the war over 200 buildings had been destroyed within the Middlesbrough area. Areas of early and mid-Victorian housing were demolished and much of central Middlesbrough was redeveloped. Heavy industry was relocated to areas of land better suited to the needs of modern technology. Middlesbrough itself began to take on a completely different look.

Green Howards
The Green Howards was a British Army infantry regiment very strongly associated with Middlesbrough and the area south of the River Tees. Originally formed at Dunster Castle, Somerset in 1688 to serve King William of Orange, later King William III, this famous regiment became affiliated to the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1782. As Middlesbrough grew, its population of men came to be a group most targeted by the recruiters. The Green Howards were part of the King's Division. On 6 June 2006, this famous regiment was merged into the new Yorkshire Regiment and are now known as 2 Yorks – The 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards). There is also a Territorial Army (TA) company at Stockton Road in Middlesbrough, part of 4 Yorks which is wholly reserve.

Governance
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.

In 1968 Middlesbrough became part of the County Borough of Teesside, and in 1974 it became part of the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland until the county's abolition in 1996, when Middlesbrough became a unitary authority.

Politics
Currently the Middlesbrough constituency is represented by Andy McDonald for Labour in the House of Commons. He was elected in a by-election held on 29 November 2012 following the death of previous Member of Parliament Sir Stuart Bell, who was the MP since 1983. Middlesbrough has been a traditionally safe Labour seat. The first Conservative MP for Middlesbrough was Sir Samuel Alexander Sadler, elected in 1900.

Mayor
In 2002, Middlesbrough voted to have a directly elected mayor as head of the council. The current mayor is Ray Mallon (independent), formerly a senior officer in Cleveland Police. Mallon has served terms beginning in 2002, 2007 and 2011. Prior to having an elected mayor the council had a ceremonial mayor. The functions of this office have been transferred to the office of "Chair of Middlesbrough Council".

The first Mayor of Middlesbrough was the German-born Henry Bolckow in 1853. During the 20th Century, including introduction of universal suffrage in 1918, and changes in local government in the United Kingdom, the role of mayor changed. Unlike some other cities with a "City Mayor" and "Ceremonial Mayor" the traditional civic and ceremonial functions of the Mayor, including mayoral chains and robes, are now vested with the role now called 'Chair of Middlesbrough Council'. The Chair is still chosen by the Council from amongst the elected Councillors. For the year 2011-2012 the Chair is Councillor Stephen Bloundele.

Geography
The following list are the different wards, districts and suburbs of Middlesbrough. • 4



Climate
Middlesbrough has an oceanic climate typical for the United Kingdom. Being sheltered by both the Lake District and Pennines to the west, Middlesbrough is in one of the relatively drier parts of the country, receiving on average 25 in of rain a year. It has more of a continental climate than other parts of the UK, with above average summer temperatures, and below average winter temperatures. Summer highs typically reach around 20 °C, while winter lows can fall to several degrees below 0 °C.

Transport
Middlesbrough is served well by public transport notably by the Arriva North East and Stagecoach. National Express and Megabus operate long distance coach travel from the bus station.

Train services are operated by Northern Rail and Transpennine Express, the latter of which provides direct rail services to cities such as Leeds, York, Liverpool and Manchester, departing from Middlesbrough railway station.

Landmarks
Located in the suburb and former village of Acklam, Middlesbrough's oldest domestic building is Acklam Hall of c.1680–83. 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, making a captivating document of varying trends in English architecture.

Via a 1907 Act of Parliament, Sir William Arrol & Co. of Glasgow built the Transporter Bridge (1911) which spans the River Tees between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence. At 850 ft long and 225 ft 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. It is, a Grade II* listed building.

Another landmark, the Tees Newport Bridge, a vertical lift bridge, opened further along the river in 1934. Newport bridge still stands and is passable by traffic, but it no can longer lift the centre section.

The urban centre of Middlesbrough remains home to a variety of architecture ranging from the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, opened in January 2007 to replace a number of former outlying galleries; and Centre North East, formerly Corporation House, which opened in 1971. 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, designed by George Gordon Hoskins and built between 1883 and 1887 is a Grade II listed building, and a very imposing structure. Of comparable grandeur, is the 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 nightclub. Further afield, in Linthorpe, is the Middlesbrough Theatre opened by Sir John Gielgud in 1957; it was one of the first new theatres built in England after the Second World War.

The town includes England's only public sculpture by 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). Refurbished in 2006, 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 architect who worked for Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell.



Away from the town centre, at Middlehaven stands the Temenos sculpture, designed by sculptor Anish Kapoor and designer Cecil Balmond. The steel structure, consisting of a pole, a circular ring and an oval ring, stands approximately 110 m long and 50 m high and is held together by steel wire. It was unveiled in 2010 at a cost of £2.7 million.

Culture and leisure
The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art opened its doors in January 2007. It holds the second largest collection of Picassos in the United Kingdom. It also holds works by Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse and Damien Hirst among others. Its considerable arts and crafts collections span from 1900 to the present day.

Middlesbrough also has a healthy musical heritage. A number of bands hail from the area, including Chris Rea, Journey South and Collectors Club.

Middlesbrough has two major recreational park spaces in Albert Park and Stewart Park, Marton. Albert Park was donated to the town by Henry Bolckow in 1866. It was formally opened by Prince Arthur on 11 August 1868, and comprises a 30 ha site. The park underwent a considerable period of restoration from 2001 to 2004, during which a number of the park's landmarks, saw either restoration or revival. Stewart Park was donated to the people of Middlesbrough in 1928 by Councillor Thomas Dorman Stewart and encompasses Victorian stable buildings, lakes and animal pens. During 2011 and 2012, the park underwent major refurbishment. Alongside these two parks are two of the town's cultural attractions, the century-old Dorman Memorial Museum and the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum.

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, becoming a leisure farm with the first residential development of the suburb in the 1970s. It is now a burgeoning tourist attraction: the chance to view its cattle, pigs, sheep and other farm animals is complemented by exhibitions of the farming history of the area.

In the Middlehaven ward, is the Transporter Bridge Visitor Centre, opened in 2000 and offering its own exhibitions charting the stirring past of the surrounding industrial powerhouse, as well as that of the singular structure it commemorates.

Sport
Middlesbrough is home to the Championship football team, Middlesbrough F.C., owned by local haulage entrepreneur Steve Gibson. The club is based at the Riverside Stadium on the banks of the River Tees, where they have played since relocating from Ayresome Park, their home for 92 years until 1995. Founder members of the Premier League in 1992, Middlesbrough won the Football League Cup in 2004, and were beaten finalists in the 2005-06 UEFA Cup. In 1905 they made history with Britain's first £1,000 transfer when they signed Alf Common from local rivals Sunderland. Another league club, Middlesbrough Ironopolis F.C., was briefly based in the town in the late 19th century, but folded within a few years.

Speedway racing was staged at Cleveland Park Stadium from the pioneer days of 1928 until the 1990s. The post-war team, known as The Middlesbrough Bears, and for a time, The Teessiders, the Teesside Tigers and the Middlesbrough Tigers operated at all levels. The track operated for amateur speedway in the 1950s before re-opening in the Provincial League of 1961. The track closed for a spell later in the 1960s but returned in as members of the Second Division as The Teessiders.

Middlesbrough is also represented nationally in Futsal. Middlesbrough Futsal Club play in the FA Futsal League North, the national championship and their home games are played in Thornaby at Thornaby Pavilion.

Middlesbrough hosts several road races through the year. In September, the annual Middlesbrough Tees Pride 10k road race is held on a one lap circuit round the southern part of the town. First held in 2005, the race now attracts several thousand competitors, from the serious club athlete to those in fancy dress raising money for local charities.

Education


Middlesbrough became a university town in 1992, after a concerted campaign for a distinct "Teesside University" which had run since the 1960s. Prior to its establishment, extramural classes had been provided by the University of Leeds Adult Education Centre on Harrow Road, from 1958 to 2001. Teesside University has more than 20,000 students. It dates back to 1930 as Constantine Technical College. Current departments of the university include Teesside University Business School and Schools of Arts and Media, Computing, Health and Social Care, Science & Engineering and Social Sciences & Law. The university teaches computer animation and games design and co-hosts the annual Animex International Festival of Animation.

There are also modern schools, colleges and sixth forms colleges, the largest of which is Middlesbrough College, in Middlehaven, with 16,000 students. Others include Trinity Catholic College in Acklam and Macmillan Academy on Stockton Road. Cleveland College of Art and Design, which opened in 1960, is also based in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool. It is one of only four specialist art and design further education colleges in the United Kingdom.

Secondary schools
Secondary schools in Middlesbrough include:
 * Acklam Grange Secondary School is also a specialist mathematics and computing college. Its also home to the Acorn Sports Centre. It opened its new school building in September 2010.
 * Oakfields Community College Speciality Sports And Arts College opened in 2010.
 * The King's Academy, in Coulby Newham, was opened in 2003 by Tony Blair and is part of a group of schools built by Peter Vardy (businessman). It has a sixth form, and the total number of students the school has at the moment is 1000.
 * The £17 million Unity City Academy, was one of the first schools to open as part of the government's £5 billion City Academy programme for failing comprehensives.
 * In 2007, Ofsted reported that Macmillan Academy was grade 1, outstanding, in overall effectiveness.

Christianity
Middlesbrough is a deanery of the Archdeaconry of Cleveland, a subdivision of the Church of England Diocese of York in the Province of York. It stretches west from Thirsk, north to Middlesbrough, east to Whitby and south to Pickering.

Middlesbrough is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough, which was created on 20 December 1878 from the Diocese of Beverley. Middlesbrough is home to the Mother-Church of the diocese, St. Mary's Cathedral, which is located in the suburb of Coulby Newham. The present bishop is the Right Reverend Terence Patrick Drainey, 7th Bishop of Middlesbrough, who was ordained on Friday 25 January 2008.

St. Stephen's, Middlesbrough, near the university campus, is an evangelical congregation, worshipping in the style of the Church of England, but which is in the Evangelical Connexion.

Islam
The Islamic community is represented in several mosques in Middlesbrough. Muslim sailors visited Middlesbrough from about 1890. and, in 1961, Azzam Din opened the first Halal butcher shop. The first mosque was a house in Grange Road in 1962. The Al-Madina Jamia Mosque, on Waterloo Road, the Dar ul Islam Central Mosque, on Southfield Road, and the Abu Bakr Mosque & Community Centre, which is on Park Road North, are among the best known mosques in Middlesbrough today.

Sikhism
The Sikh community established their first Temple, or Gurdwara, in Milton Street, in 1967. After a time in Southfield Road, the centre is now in Lorne Street and was opened in 1990.

Hinduism
There is a Hindu Cultural Centre in Westbourne Road, North Ormesby, which was opened in 1990.

Television and filmography
Middlesbrough has featured in many television programmes, including The Fast Show, Steel River Blues, Spender, Play for Today (The Black Stuff; latterly the drama Boys from the Blackstuff) and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Some of the Movie Billy Elliot was filmed on the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge.

In May 2008 Middlesbrough was chosen as one of the sites in the BBC's Public Space Broadcasting Project. Like other towns participating in the project, Middlesbrough was offered a large 27 m2 television screen by the BBC and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. The screen was installed on 11 July 2008 and is located at the western end of Centre Square.

In November 2009, the mima art gallery was used by the presenters of Top Gear as part of a challenge. The challenge was to see if car exhibits would be more popular than normal art.

Notable people
The world-famous explorer, navigator, and map maker Captain James Cook was born in Marton, which is now a suburb in the south of Middlesbrough.

Other famous people from Middlesbrough include:
 * Sports
 * Rob Smedley, Formula One race engineer for Felipe Massa
 * Footballers Brian Clough, Wilf Mannion, Jacky Carr, Don Revie, Alan Peacock, Peter Beagrie, Chris Kamara, Mark Proctor, Stuart Ripley, Gary Gill, Phil Stamp, Tommy Mooney, Keith Houchen and Jonathan Woodgate, as well as current England players Stewart Downing and Matt Jarvis.
 * Middlesbrough Football Club Chairman Steve Gibson
 * Rugby union players Rory Underwood and Alan Old
 * Cricketers Liam Plunkett, Geoff Cook, Bill Athey and Chris Old
 * Boxer Paul Truscott
 * Darts players Glenn Moody and Colin Osborne
 * Billiards players Mike Russell and Dave Causier.
 * Olympic swimmer Jack Hatfield and Commonwealth Games swimmer Alyson Jones
 * Olympic cyclist Chris Newton
 * Former British long jump record holding athlete Chris Tomlinson
 * Former Premiership referee Jeff Winter
 * Junior World and European Track Cycling Champion David Daniell
 * The Football Association's Director of Communications Adrian Bevington
 * The Paralympic Athlete Jade Jones who competed in the 2012 Paralympics


 * The Arts
 * Models Jade McSorley and Preeti Desai, who was Miss Great Britain 2006
 * Comedians Dave Morris, Bob Mortimer, Roy Chubby Brown and Kevin Connelly
 * Musicians Cyril Smith, Chris Rea, Paul Rodgers, Micky Moody, Alistair Griffin, Vin Garbutt, Chris Corner and Stephen Mark Barchan
 * Actors Wendy Richard, Thelma Barlow, Christopher Quinten, Elizabeth Carling, Mark Benton, Jerry Desmonde, Jamie Parker and Neil Grainger.
 * Writers Ann Jellicoe – playwright and theatre director, novelists Ernest William Hornung, Richard Milward and Wally K Daly, TV and radio scriptwriter
 * Visual artists Fred Appleyard, Robert Nixon, Mackenzie Thorpe, Chris Dooks and William Tillyer
 * Author, educator, historian and lecturer Paul C. Doherty
 * Roman Catholic and Dominican priest, theologian and philosopher, Herbert McCabe
 * Antiques Expert David Harper


 * Other Entertainers
 * Magician Paul Daniels, Pete Firman
 * TV Presenter Kirsten O'Brien
 * X Factor third-place contestants Journey South
 * X Factor finalist Amelia Lily
 * Any Dream Will Do third-place contestant Lewis Bradley
 * Magician/Comedian John Archer
 * Over the Rainbow (UK TV series) quarter-finalist Jessica Robinson (performer)
 * James Arthur (singer) winner X Factor 2012

Other eminent sons and daughters of Middlesbrough and its environs include Sir Martin Narey (1955–present), former Director General of the Prison Service and chief executive of Barnardo's, Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer for England, 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 (1909–1974), the concert pianist, were also natives. The famous MP Ellen Wilkinson wrote a novel Clash (1929) which paints a very positive picture of "Shireport" (Middlesbrough). The classic study, At The Works (1907), by Florence Bell (1851–1930), gives a striking picture of the area at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. She also edited the letters of her stepdaughter Gertrude Bell (1868–1926), which has 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. The Jonny Briggs series of books, written by Joan Eadington (and later to become a BBC Children's TV series of the same name, was also based in the town.

Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) was billeted in Eston during the Great War (1914–18) and his great novel sequence Parade's End is partly set in Busby Hall, Carlton-in-Cleveland.

Stanley Hollis (1912-1972), recipient of the only Victoria Cross awarded on D-Day (6th June 1944).

Adrian "Six Medals" Warburton, air photographer, was played by Alec Guinness in Malta Story.

The great model maker Richard Old (1856–1932) resided for most of his life at 6 Ruby Street.

Twinning
Middlesbrough gained a "twin" in 1890 when the town of Middlesboro, Kentucky was incorporated in the United States; it was named after its English namesake due to the discovery of ironstone deposits in the region.

Middlesbrough is twinned with Oberhausen in Germany, Masvingo in Zimbabwe and Dunkerque ("Dunkirk" in English) in France. This last association resulted from the Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force during the Second World War, in which one quarter of the ships involved were from Teesport.

Twin towns
Middlesbrough is twinned with the following places:


 * 🇺🇸 Middlesboro, Kentucky, USA
 * 🇫🇷 Dunkirk, France, since 12 April 1976
 * 🇩🇪 Oberhausen, Germany, since 1974
 * 🇿🇼 Masvingo, Zimbabwe, since 1990