Middlesbrough
Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough and dates back to the 1 st century AD in the Saxon period. ‘ Burgh ' refers to an ancient settlement or perhaps to a fort of pre-Saxon origin, which may have been situated on slightly elevated land close to the River Tees. ‘Mydil' could have been the name of a person or perhaps a reference to Middlesbrough's early ‘middle' location, halfway between the Christian centres of Durham and Whitby. In the 1 st century AD Middlesbrough was most certainly the site of a chapel or cell belonging to Whitby Abbey, but despite this early activity, as late as 1801 Middlesbrough was still only a small farmstead of some 25-people.
In 1829, a group of Quaker businessmen headed by Joseph Pease of Darlington purchased this farmstead, together with its estate, and set about the development of what they termed ‘Port Darlington' on the banks of the Tees. A town was then planned for construction on the site of the farm to supply labour to the new coal port - Middlesbrough was born. Joseph Pease, the ‘father of Middlesbrough', was the son of Edward Pease, builder of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. By 1830, this famous line had been extended to Middlesbrough, making the rapid expansion of the town and port inevitable; the town itself was laid out on a grid-iron pattern centred on the Market Square. By 1851 Middlesbrough's population had grown from 40-people in 1829 to about 7600, and it was rapidly replacing Stockton as the main Teesside port.
In 1850, iron ore was discovered in the Cleveland hills, to the south of Middlesbrough, and iron gradually replaced coal as the lifeblood of the town. Iron was now in great demand in mid 19 th century Victorian England, most particularly for the rapidly expanding railway programme now reaching out to every corner of the country. By the end of the 19 th century Teesside was producing about one third of the nation's iron output. When a census was taken in 1860 of Middlesbrough's population, there were found to be an incredible 20,000 residents, a massive expansion in just 30-years, moving Gladstone to remark that: "This remarkable place, the youngest child of England's enterprise, is an infant, but if an infant, an infant Hercules". By the 1870's another change occurred and steel, much stronger and more resilient than iron, was in great demand; employing local iron ores Middlesbrough, along with Sheffield, became a major steel producer and Teesside was known as ‘the Steel River'.
Associated with the making of steel in Middlesbrough is the construction of bridges, one of the industries for which the Teesside area has achieved international recognition. Chief among the bridge-building firms was Dorman Long, established in 1875, and the most famous bridge ever constructed on Teesside was their Sydney Harbour Bridge of 1932. This was partly modelled on the Tyne Bridge, also built by Dorman Long, in 1929; a construction regarded as the symbol of Tyneside's Geordie pride, and a shining example of Dorman Long's workmanship. On Teesside itself Dorman Long built the single span Newcastle Lifting Bridge, England's first vertical lifting bridge opened in 1934 by the Duke of York.
Through the booming 1860's and 70's Middlesbrough's expanding iron and steel industry attracted more people to live and work in the town, increasing its population to 40,000 by 1870. These new residents came mainly from neighbouring Yorkshire and the North East, but later from Cheshire, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and even some European countries. By the turn of the century Middlesbrough's population had more than doubled to 90,000, hard to believe that only 70-years earlier the town did not exist. Today, Middlesbrough has a population of about 150,000, is the heart of the Teesside conurbation and the modern capital of the area. Nothing compares to Middlesbrough's rapid growth in English history, and it is little wonder that the town has been described as the ‘oldest new town' in England.
Middlesbrough's modern town centre is very different from the original town planned in 1829 by Joseph Pease. The early town, now called St Hilda's after the local parish church, was centred on a market square where the original town hall was built in 1846. Immediately south lay the railway line and modern Middlesbrough's boundaries quickly expanded further south of the railway, leaving the old town somewhat isolated. In 1899, the present town hall was constructed in modern Middlesbrough, followed very quickly at the turn of the century by the main areas for shopping and commerce, the University, Law Courts, and Central Library.
North of the rail line up to the River Tees some features of the original town can still be seen. Middlesbrough's oldest pub, The Ship Inn in Stockton Street, is still standing, as is the old Town Hall. Very impressive are the Georgian style houses in Queens Terrace and the first house belonging to Bolckow & Vaughan, ironmasters. Nearby too is the magnificent Transporter Bridge, opened in 1911 by Prince Arthur of Connaught, particularly worth viewing.