Middlesbrough
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| Borough of Middlesbrough | |
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| Missing image EnglandMiddlesbrough.png Image:EnglandMiddlesbrough.png | |
| Geography | |
| Status: | Unitary, borough |
| Region: | North East England |
| Ceremonial County: | North Yorkshire |
| Area: - Total | Ranked 296th 53.87 km² |
| Admin. HQ: | Middlesbrough |
| ONS code: | 00EC |
| Demographics | |
| Population: - Total (2003 est.) - Density | Ranked 124th 139,003 2,580 / km² |
| Ethnicity: | 93.7% White 4.6% S.Asian |
| Politics | |
| Middlesbrough Council http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/ | |
| Leadership: | Mayor & Cabinet |
| Mayor: | Ray Mallon (Independent) |
| MPs: | Stuart Bell, Ashok Kumar |
Template:GBmap Middlesbrough is a town in North-East England, with a resident population in 2001 of 134,855.
It is historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, but in 1974 became part of the new administrative county of Cleveland, though persons born in Middlesbrough during this time were still counted as Yorkshire men and women. In 1996 Cleveland was abolished, and Middlesbrough became a unitary authority, though it remained part of North Yorkshire for ceremonial and postal address purposes.
Unlike most English districts, its council is led by a directly-elected mayor, currently Mr.Ray Mallon. Mr. Mallon was previously a senior officer in Cleveland Constabulary, and was noted for a zero-tolerance approach to crime, adopted from the New York system, during his time as head of Middlesbrough's CID.
Middlesbrough is situated on the south bank of the Tees on the edge of the North York Moors National Park, recently featured on television as ‘Heartbeat Country’.The Yorkshire Dales are only a short distance away.
Below 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 through this estuary in 2000. Saltburn boasts some of the best and most challenging surf in Britain, and beyond, sheer cliffs rise to Boulby Head, the highest point on the east coast of England.
In 1801 Middlesbrough consisted of just four farmhouses, but was soon to experience a nineteenth century growth unparalleled in England. It was famously dubbed by Gladstone ‘an infant Hercules’ in ’England’s enterprise‘ and the great ironworks, chemical plants and shipbuilding yards have contributed to Britain’s prosperity in no small measure up until modern times. For many years in the nineteenth century Teesside set the world price for iron and steel. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was designed and built by the Cleveland Bridge Company as was the Tyne Bridge and the great Transporter Bridge (1911) which spans the Tees in Middlesbrough itself. It is the largest of its type in the world (850 feet long and 225 feet high).
Middlesbrough, naturally, lacks ancient buildings, and the townscape is certainly workaday. The Town Hall, however, is a most imposing structure and the Old Town Hall of 1864 has undeniable charm. There are some interesting churches and modern schools, and the Little Theatre was the first new theatre built in England after World War II. The city can also boast this country’s only public sculpture by the celebrated modern American artist Claes Oldenburg; the structure is bottle-shaped and relates to Captain Cook. The Dorman Long office on Zetland Street is the only commercial building ever designed by Philip Webb, the great architect who worked for Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the ironmaster.
Development began with Joseph Pease, the Darlington industrialist, who saw the possibilities of Middlesbrough as a port for North East coal, but the great leap forward began with the discovery of iron ore in the Cleveland Hills in 1850. In 1841, Henry Bolckow (pronounced Belko), who had come to England in 1827, formed a partnership with John Vaughan of Wales, 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 MP.
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 1854-55, and again in 1862-63. He served as MP for Hartlepool in 1875-80.
Middlesbrough is no longer a heavy industrial town, though there are areas around which still support chemical, fertiliser and iron and steel production. It has 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', 'Dundas Street Shopping' renamed in 2005 from 'Dundas Shopping Arcade', 'Hill Street Shopping Centre' and 'Captain Cook Square'. 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. '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.
The Premiership football team, Middlesbrough F.C., owned by local entrepreneur and Bulkhaul boss Steve Gibson (of Middlesbrough), is based at the Riverside Stadium by the River Tees, having moved from its traditional home at Ayresome Park during the 1990s. In the coming football season of 2005/2006 Middlesbrough will be the only North Eastern team being represented in European competition having finished 7th in the Premier league.
Middlesbrough is also home to the University of Teesside which, along with ARC at Stockton-on-Tees, UGC Cinema in Middlesbrough, and the Riverside Stadium, hosts the annual Animex International Festival of Animation. The University of Teesside is internationally recognised as a leading institute for computer animation and games design. During Middlesbrough's past the University, as Teesside Polytechnic, was a highly regarded institution for the teaching of such disciplines as chemical engineering.
Captain James Cook was born in Marton, Middlesbrough, which is in the south-east of Middlesbrough. Famous people from the town include comedians Bob Mortimer and Roy Chubby Brown, musician Chris Rea, magician Paul Daniels, rugby player Rory Underwood, footballers Don Revie, Wilf Mannion and Brian Clough, and actresses Wendy Richards, Liz Carling, Thelma Barlow and Elizabeth Estensen.
Other eminent sons and daughters of Middlesbrough and its environs include E. W. Hornung, the creator of the gentleman-crook Raffles (who was fluent in three Yorkshire dialects), and Pat Barker, recent winner of the Booker Prize. 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.
The derogatory label Smoggy has from the late 20th century onwards been applied to people from Middlesbrough and the rest of surrounding Teesside area, due to the past concentrations of particularly steel and chemical industries (and the pollution from them). The more correct term would be Teessider.
External links
- Statistics (http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/AreaProfileFrames.asp?aid=175803&hid=14&tid=13) about Middlesbrough from the Office of National Statistics Census 2001
- Spectra-txt (http://www.peterfreeman.co.uk/midboro.htm/)
- Official Middlesbrough Council Website (http://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/)
- University of Teesside (http://www.tees.ac.uk/)
- Animex International Festival of Animation (http://animex.net/)
- [http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/Middlesbrough.htm/ Brief History of Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough Music Live
*[1] (http://www.middlesbroughmusiclive.co.uk/) www.middlesbroughmusiclive.co.uk
An Annual festival in the town centre that is known for staging bands before they became famous e.g.
| Districts of England - North East England | 
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| Alnwick - Berwick-upon-Tweed - Blyth Valley - Castle Morpeth - Chester-le-Street - Darlington - Derwentside - Durham - Easington - Gateshead - Hartlepool - Middlesbrough - Newcastle upon Tyne - North Tyneside - Redcar and Cleveland - Sedgefield - South Tyneside - Stockton-on-Tees - Sunderland - Teesdale - Tynedale - Wansbeck - Wear Valley
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| 1974 counties: Cleveland - County Durham - Northumberland - Tyne and Wear |