Middlesborough

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historical and geographical information

 

 

 

  

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Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

Headlines of the history of the Middlesbrough are in brown.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Contextual history is in purple.

 

This webpage about the Middlesbrough has the following section headings:

 

 

The Farndales of Middlesborough

 

The following Farndales were associated with Middlesborough: Richard de Farndale (FAR00016); John Farndale (FAR00070); John Farndale (FAR00076); Matthew Farndale (FAR00121); Issabel Farndale (FAR00122); William Farndale (FAR00125); John Farndale (FAR00168), labourer in Middlesborough; George Farndale (FAR00215); Joseph Farndale (FAR00228); Henry Farndale (FAR00229); Jane Farndale (FAR00251); George Farndale (FAR00271), tile maker, ironstone worker and then brick-layer of Middlesborough; Ann Farndale (FAR00278), servant in Middlesborough (Nunthorpe); William Farndale (FAR00283); Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00284); Richard Farndale (FAR00288); Joseph Farndale (FAR00299), Cartwright and then Joiner in Middlesborough; John H Farndale (FAR00302), Miner of West Hartlepool who was killed aged 37 by a fall of iron stone at the Poston Mines, Ormsby, Middlesborough; William Masterman Farndale (FAR00312), Customs officer of Middlesborough (also referred to as a Tide Waiter of Cleveland Port); George Farndale (FAR00333); Annie Maria Farndale (FAR00334); Joseph Farndale (FAR00350B), police sergeant in Middlesborough; George Farndale (FAR00350C); John William Farndale (FAR00454); John W Farndale (FAR00472); Maria J Farndale (FAR00485); William George Farndale (FAR00492), Clerk of Middlesborough who went to USA in 1907; Mary Jane Farndale (FAR00508); Arthur Edwin Farndale (FAR00532); William Leng Farndale (FAR00539); Edith Emily Farndale (FAR00546); John Farndale (FAR00582); Annie Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00649); Robert William Farndale (FAR00662); James Farndale (FAR00669); George W Farndale (FAR00678); Henry Farndale (FAR00681A); Sarah Elizabeth Farndale (FAR00693); Arthur E Farndale (FAR00706); Clara Farndale (FAR00713); Alfred Farndale (FAR00721); Dorothy Farndale (FAR00762); Ethel Farndale (FAR00777); Bernard Farndale (FAR00783); Albert Farndale (FAR00820); Ethel Farndale (FAR00831); William H Farndale (FAR00840); Violet Farndale (FAR00849); James Farndale (FAR00863); George T Farndale (FAR00871); Rubina Farndale (FAR00873); George T Farndale (FAR00888); Frederick Farndale (FAR00898); Ronald Farndale (FAR00925); Lillian Farndale (FAR0933); Rosalie Farndale (FAR00961); Doreen Farndale (FAR00972); Marion Farndale (FAR01028); and Michael Farndale (FAR01032).

 

Middlesborough

 

Middlesbrough lies near the mouth of the River Tees and north of the North York Moors. Until the early 1800s, the area was rural farmland in the historic county of Yorkshire. The town was a planned development which started in 1830, based around a new port with coal and later ironworks added. Steel production and ship building began in the late 1800s, remaining associated with the town until the post-industrial decline of the late twentieth century.

 

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The earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name is Mydilsburgh. Some believe the name means "middle fortress", as it was midway between the two religious houses of Durham and Whitby. It might also be an Old English personal name (Midele or Myhailf) combined with burgh meaning town.

 

Middlesbrough Timeline

 

686

 

In 686, a monastic cell was consecrated by St. Cuthbert at the request of St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby. The cell evolved into Middlesbrough Priory. The manor of Middlesburgh belonged to Whitby Abbey and Gisborough Priory.

 

The area was settled by the Norsemen. Names of Viking origin are abundant in the area – for example, Ormesby, Stainsby, Maltby and Tollesby were once separate villages that belonged to Norsemen including Orm, Steinn, Malti and Toll. They are now suburbs of Middlesbrough.

 

1086

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: No mention of Middlesbrough by that name occurs in the Domesday Survey, nor is there anything to show how its name arose except vague traditions of a Roman settlement. It is never called a manor till the 16th century; in the 11th century it was probably included in the manor of Acklam.

 

1119

 

In 1119 Robert Bruce, Lord of Cleveland and Annandale, granted and confirmed the church of St. Hilda of Middleburg to Whitby. The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1974: Robert de Brus, founder of the priory of Guisborough, granted the church of St Hilda of Middlesbrough, with consent of his wife Agnes and Adam his son, to the abbey of Whitby, with land in Newham, on condition that there should be monks serving God and St. Hilda in the church of Middlesbrough, who might be sufficiently maintained by the revenues of that church, the surplus being received by the mother church of Whitby.

 

1366

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: There is no record of mining operations carried on in the parish by the monks, but in 1366 Isabel de Fauconberg, widow of the overlord of Middlesbrough, had as dower 'one third of the toll of Middlesbrough and one third of the profit arising from marl, mines of slate, iron, &c., so that she may take profit of mining at will, and from the court of Middlesbrough for search of the River Tees.’

 

1452

 

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.

 

1537

 

Up until its closure on the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537, St Hilda was maintained by 12 Benedictine monks, many of whom became vicars, or rectors, of various places in Cleveland.

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: Down to the 16th century the land of the parish belonged for the most part to two great religious houses. The church of Middlesbrough itself was granted by Robert de Brus to form a cell to Whitby Abbey, and a few monks lived here down to 1534. The Priors of Guisborough had a considerable amount of land in all the vills of the parish and a grange at Ayresome in the township of Linthorpe. Both Guisborough Priory and Byland Abbey owned fisheries in the River Tees.

 

1791

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: In 1791 there must have been disused gravel-pits in the township of Middlesbrough. When on the partition of the estate of the Hustlers their land here was assigned to Richard William Peirse, Thomas Hustler retained the privilege of taking gravel and sand from the Middlesbrough quarry or gravel-pit, paying Mr. Peirse 1d. a cart-load.

 

1801

 

In 1801, Middlesbrough was a small farm with a population of just 25. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, it would experience rapid growth.

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: The population of the place at that time must have been very small. At the beginning of the 19th century the township was a dreary and swampy expanse, containing four farm-houses, with a population of twenty-five persons. The church was in ruins and the churchyard unenclosed, though it was still occasionally used as a burial place. The township of Linthorpe appears to have been in rather better case. Here the new village of Newport, an outport of Stockton-on-Tees, had come into being.

 

1828

 

The influential Quaker banker, coal mine owner and Stockton and Darlington Railway (“S&DR”) shareholder Joseph Pease sailed up the River Tees to find a suitable new site downriver of Stockton on which to place new coal staithes.

 

Joseph Pease and a group of Quaker businessmen bought the Middlesbrough farmstead and associated estate, which then comprised some 527 acres of land, and established the Middlesbrough Estate Company.

 

Joseph Pease was a Quaker, born on 22 June 1799 into a wealthy family. He initially worked in the wool factories at Darlington owned by his father, Edward Pease who also partnered George Stephenson in his engine factory at Walker, Newcastle, and was a board member of the Stockton & Darlington Railway where he became known as the ‘Father of the Railways’.

 

Joseph became treasurer of the Stockton & Darlington Railway at the age of 25. With the railway in need of expansion and a more convenient port necessary to export the harvest of the Durham coalfields, the company sought a site for a terminus on the lower Tees. Further up, the river was treacherous and almost unnavigable, only small craft of shallow draught capable of reaching Stockton and Yarm. The new port was to be called Port Darlington. In the face of heavy opposition from Stockton and Yarm industrialists, who knew a new port lower down the river would steal much of their business, it was Joseph Pease who became prime mover in lobbying parliament to grant the necessary Act for the Middlesbrough Railway Extension.

 

The Tees Navigation Company was about to improve the river and proposed that the railway delay application to Parliament, but, despite opposition, at a meeting in January 1828 it was decided to proceed. A more direct northerly route from Auckland to the Tees had been considered since 1819. This was 6 miles shorter via the route of the S&DR, and named the Clarence Railway in honour of the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV. Two members of the management committee resigned, as they felt that Stockton would be adversely affected by the line, and Meynell, the S&DR chairman, stepped down from leadership. The Clarence Railway was approved a few days later, with the same gauge as the S&DR. The route of the Clarence Railway was afterwards amended to reach Samphire Batts, later known as Port Clarence, and traffic started in August 1833.

 

The S&DR received permission for its branch on 23 May 1828 after promising to complete the Hagger Leases Branch and to build a bridge across the Tees at least 72 feet (22 m) wide and 19 feet (5.8 m) above low water, so as not to affect shipping.

 

1829

 

Middlesbrough had a population of 40 inhabitants in 1829.

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: … the population of Middlesbrough was forty. It seems, therefore, that the tradition of the single house which stood in the township in 1828 is not quite correct. It was in the latter year that the Stockton and Darlington railway was extended, largely owing to the exertions of the Pease family, to the Middlesbrough side of the Tees. Edward and Joseph Pease, with several other Quaker men of business, realized the value of this tract of riverside ground as the site of a new coaling port and purchased 500 acres on which to erect their staiths and lay out the town. The purchasers, who styled themselves the 'Middlesbrough Owners,' were Thomas Richardson, Henry Birkbeck, Simon Martin, Joseph Pease, jun., Edward Pease, and Francis Gibson. Their success was phenomenal. The first of many ships loaded with coal left Middlesbrough and passed out to sea in 1830.

 

1831

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: The parish of Middlesbrough included in 1831 the townships of Middlesbrough and Linthorpe, and covered 2,300 acres. … The population of the parish in 1831 was 383, of the township 154, an increase directly attributed to the extension of the railway. During the next few years it increased in much larger proportion, and a movement was set on foot in 1836 for building a new parish church of St. Hilda. Money was readily contributed for the purpose, and in 1840 the church was consecrated.

 

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Middlesbrough, about 1831

 

1832

 

Joseph was elected to Parliament in 1832, representing South Durham, and became the first Quaker to sit in the Commons. He campaigned against corruption and slavery while fervently supporting human rights and religious freedom. He proposed and carried a clause in the Metropolitan Police Bill prohibiting the common pastimes of bull and bear baiting, and also sat on many committees dealing with industry. Re-elected in 1835 and 1837 he eventually resigned from parliament in 1841 because of heavy business commitments.

 

1834

 

By the middle of 1834 Port Clarence had opened and 28 miles (45 km) of line was in use. The S&DR charged the ​2 1⁄4d per ton per mile landsale rate for coal it carried the 10 miles (16 km) from the collieries to Simpasture for forwarding to Port Clarence, rather than the lower shipping rate. By July 1834, the Exchequer Loan Commissioners had taken control of the Clarence Railway.

 

1840

 

A partnership was founded in 1840 by Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan.

 

With his five sons and his brother Henry, Joseph Pease formed a business called Pease & Partners. By 1840 when Middlesbrough showed signs of stagnating, it was clearly in his interest as one of the Owners and as a director of Pease & Partners to attract alternative industry. The move he made was to offer Henry Bolckow and John Vaughan land on easy terms and give them letters of introduction when they started their iron business.

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: It was at about this time also that Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow and John Vaughan, the founders of Middlesbrough's most important industry, took up their residence here. In the iron-works which they established in Middlesbrough in 1841 they manufactured various kinds of steel and wrought-iron.

 

The Iron and Steel industry dominated the Tees area since Iron production started in Middlesbrough during the 1840s.

 

1841

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: the newly made town, the population of which was now more than 5,000, entered on the preliminary stage towards incorporation. By the Middlesbrough Improvement Act of 1841 commissioners were appointed to provide for the lighting, watching and cleansing of the streets and the general improvement of the town. It then consisted of the township of Middlesbrough and a piece of land of about 15 acres called Bell's Enclosure. The commissioners had power at the same time to establish a market for green stuff, fish, bacon, butter and butchers' meat. The farmers of the rich Cleveland valleys made great use of this from the first.

 

1844

 

Joseph Pease was fond of the Cleveland coast. Shortly after retiring from parliament, in 1844 he bought several fishermen’s cottages on the seafront at Marske, demolished them then used the site to build Cliff House where his family spent their summers.

 

1846

 

In 1846, Bolckow and Vaughan built their first blast furnaces at Witton Park, founding the Witton Park Ironworks. The works used coal from Witton Park Colliery to make coke, and ironstone from Whitby on the coast. The pig iron produced at Witton was transported to Middlesbrough for further forging or casting.

 

1850

 

In 1850, Vaughan and his mining geologist, John Marley discovered iron ore, conveniently situated near Eston in the Cleveland Hills. Unknown to anyone at the time, this vein was part of the Cleveland Ironstone Formation, which was already being mined in Grosmont by Losh, Wilson and Bell.

 

1851

 

Middlesbrough had grown to a population of 7,600 in 1851.

 

To make use of the ore being mined at Eston, in 1851 Bolckow and Vaughan built a blast furnace at nearby South Bank, Middlesbrough, to make use of the ore from nearby Eston, enabling the entire process from rock to finished products to be carried out in one place. It was the first to be built on Teesside, on what was later nicknamed "the Steel River". The firm drove the dramatic growth of Middlesbrough and the production of coal and iron in the north-east of England in the nineteenth century.

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: The first of the Middlesbrough blast furnaces was made in [1851], and the production of pig-iron in this district gradually increased till in 1900 it produced one-third of the total output of Great Britain; well over a million tons were shipped from the port in 1908. Middlesbrough is the centre both for the smelting of iron and the manufacture of steel, and the export of these is mainly responsible for the increasing importance of the port.

 

Pig iron production rose tenfold between 1851 and 1856 and by the mid 1870's Middlesbrough was producing one third of the entire nations Pig Iron output. It was during this time Middlesbrough earned the nickname "Ironopolis".

 

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Ironopolis

 

1853

 

As the railways pushed east beyond Redcar, Pease & Partners expanded into ironstone mining. In 1853 they opened the Hutton Lowcross mine near Guisborough. Soon, they owned Upleatham, Skinningrove and Hob Hill (Saltburn) mines, between them annually producing almost a million tonnes of ore.

 

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

 

The Victoria County History – Yorkshire, A History of the County of York: Volume 3 Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Middlesbrough, 1923: In 1853 a royal charter was granted by which Middlesbrough became a borough, and the powers of the Improvement Commissioners were vested in a corporation under the title of the mayor, aldermen and burgesses. The first mayor was Mr. Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, one of the two men who had contributed so largely towards the prosperity of the town. The corporation took as its motto 'Erimus,' and the subsequent record of Middlesbrough has been one of almost unchecked expansion.

 

Henry Bolckow became mayor, in 1853.

 

Middlesbrough was made a municipal borough in 1853. By the provisions of its Charter, the Corporation was authorised to have a Common Seal, which could also be used as a Coat of Arms, and its design was entrusted to W Hylton Longstaffe, the Town Clerk of Gateshead. There can be little doubt that he was the author of that name who wrote “The History and Antiquities of Darlington”, which was published in 1854, and the artist who sketched and described the remains of the Middlesbrough Priory which came to light in 1846 with the demolition of the Middlesbrough Farm House. As the basis of the Borough Seal, Longstaffe borrowed the blue lion from the arms of Robert de Brus of Skelton, the 12th century founder of the Middlesbrough Priory. To this, he added ships and anchors to highlight the town’s importance as a seaport, while his use of black in certain details was to denote the significance of coal in relation to its industries. As far as a motto was concerned, he took further inspiration from the de Brus family, whose own motto was, in the Latin, “Fuimus” (“We have been”), denoting their former glory. Looking positively to the future, Longstaffe opted for the Latin “Erimus” (“We shall be”).”

 

1857

 

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1859

 

It was from Marske that one afternoon in 1859 Joseph Pease’s brother, Henry took a stroll over the sandbanks to discover the old village of Saltburn. Returning breathless, he stated his intention to build a new town on top of the cliff. With some help from Joseph and the Stockton & Darlington Railway, he succeeded, naming it Saltburn by the Sea.

 

1861

 

Middlesbrough had grown to a population of 19,000 in 1861

 

1864

 

In 1864 Bolckow, Vaughan & Co Limited was incorporated into an English ironmaking and mining company with capital of £2.5M, making it the largest company ever formed up to that time. Its  assets included iron mines, collieries, and limestone quarries in Cleveland, County Durham and Weardale and had iron and steel works extending over 700 acres (280 ha) along the banks of the River Tees.

 

1867

 

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

 

1868

 

Vaughan died in 1868. The Institution of Civil Engineers, in their obituary, commented on the relationship between Vaughan and Bolckow: "There was indeed something remarkable in the thorough division of labour in the management of the affairs of the firm. While possessing the most unbounded confidence in each other, the two partners never interfered in the slightest degree with each other's work. Mr. Bolckow had the entire management of the financial department, while Mr. Vaughan as worthily controlled the practical work of the establishment."

 

1871

 

Middlesbrough had grown to a population of 40,000.

 

The 1871 census of England & Wales showed that Middlesbrough had the second highest percentage of Irish born people in England after Liverpool. This equated to 9.2% of the overall population of the district at the time. Due to the rapid development of the town and its industrialisation there was much need for people to work in the many blast furnaces and steel works along the banks of the Tees. This attracted many people from Ireland, who were in much need of work. As well as people from Ireland, the Scottish, Welsh and overseas inhabitants made up 16% of Middlesbrough's population in 1871.

 

1875

 

By 1875, eight and a half million tonnes of ironstone, limestone, coal and coke were being transported, most of which was used in Teesside’s iron industry.

 

In 1875, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co opened the Cleveland Steelworks in Middlesbrough beginning the transition from Iron production to Steel and by the turn of the century, Teesside had become one of the major steel centres in the country and possibly the world.

 

1889

 

When elected county councils were created in 1889, Middlesbrough was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services and so it became a county borough, independent from North Riding County Council.

 

1900

 

In 1900, Bolckow, Vaughan & Co had become the largest producer of steel in Great Britain.

 

The population reached 90,000.

 

1909

 

Middlesbrough history

 

Newport Road, 1909

 

1914

 

In 1914, Dorman Long, another major steel producer from Middlesbrough become the largest company in Britain employing a workforce of over 20,000.

 

1929

 

By 1929 Dorman Long was the dominant steel producer on Teesside after taking over Bolckow, Vaughan & Co and acquiring its assets. 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. The importance of the area to the steel trade gave it the nickname "The Steel River", referring to the River Tees and the transition from Iron to Steel.

 

1968

 

The borough of Middlesbrough was abolished in 1968 when the area was absorbed into the larger County Borough of Teesside.

 

1974

 

In 1974 Middlesbrough was re-established as a borough within the new county of Cleveland.

 

1996

 

Cleveland was abolished in 1996, since when Middlesbrough has been a unitary authority within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.

 

Stainton

 

Stainton is a village in Middlesbrough. Stainton is one of the few areas within the boundaries of modern day Middlesbrough to have been named in the Domesday Book of 1086. It has been a settlement since pre-Saxon times. Its name reveals it to have been an area of Scandinavian residence.

 

Stainton Church dates back to the 12th century. The Stainton Inn pub, on Meldyke Lane, was first licensed in 1897, celebrating its centenary in 1997. Stainton Quarry straddles Stainton Beck, between the villages of Stainton and Thornton in Middlesbrough. A footbridge joins it to Kell Gate Green on the other side of the beck. These countryside sites provide three hectares of community-run open green space for local people

 

The parents of the navigator Captain James Cook, James Cook and Grace Pace, were married in the Stainton parish church on 10 October 1725, and the parish register survives.

 

 

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