Editing Middlesbrough (section)

==History==
{{further|History of Middlesbrough}}

===Monks and lords===
Middlesbrough started as a [[Benedictine]] priory on the south bank of the [[River Tees]], its name possibly derived from it being midway between the holy sites of [[Durham, England|Durham]] and [[Whitby]]. The earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough's name is "Mydilsburgh". Some believe the name means 'middle fortress', since it was midway between the two religious houses of Durham and Whitby; others state that it is an [[Old English]]  personal name (''Midele'' or ''Myhailf'') combined with ''burgh'', meaning town.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ekwall |first=Eilert |author-link=Eilert Ekwall |title=The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names |date=1960 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-869103-3 |edition=4 |location=Oxford |page=324}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=James Brown |title=The place-names of England and Wales |date=1915 |publisher=Murray |location=London |page=368 |oclc=1050761076}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chrystal |first=Paul |title=The Place Names of Yorkshire; Cities, Towns, Villages, Rivers and Dales, some Pubs too, in Praise of Yorkshire Ales |date=2017 |publisher=Stenlake |isbn=9781840337532 |edition=1 |location=Catrine |page=58}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=A.&nbsp;H. |title=The Place Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire |date=1979 |publisher=English Place Name Society |page=160 |oclc=19714705 |orig-date=1928}}</ref>

In 686 a monastic cell was consecrated by [[Cuthbert of Lindisfarne|St Cuthbert]] at the request of [[Hilda of Whitby|St Hilda]], Abbess of [[Whitby]]. The cell evolved into [[Middlesbrough Priory]]. The manor of Middlesburgh belonged to [[Whitby Abbey]] and [[Gisborough Priory]].<ref name="page">{{Cite web |last=Page |first=William |title=Parishes: Middlesborough [sic] Pages 268–273 A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1923. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp268-273#h3-0005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713211026/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp268-273#h3-0005 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |access-date=13 July 2020 |website=British History Online}}</ref> [[Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale|Robert Bruce, Lord of Cleveland and Annandale]], granted and confirmed, in 1119, the church of St. Hilda of Middleburg to Whitby.<ref name="auto5">{{Cite web |title=Welcome to Middlesbrough |url=http://www.middlesbroughuk.co.uk/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061006053142/http://www.middlesbroughuk.co.uk/ |archive-date=6 October 2006 |access-date=12 March 2011}}</ref> Up until its closure on the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] by [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] in 1537, the church was maintained by 12&nbsp;[[Benedictine]] monks, many of whom became vicars, or rectors, of various places in Cleveland.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moorsom |first=Norman |title=Middlesbrough as it was |publisher=Hendon Publishing Co Ltd |year=1983}}</ref>

After settlement by the [[Anglo-Saxons|Angles]], the area became home to [[Viking]] settlers. Names of Viking origin (with the suffix {{lang|da|by}}, meaning ''village''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harbeck |first=James |title=Why does Britain have such bizarre place names? |date=9 March 2016 |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160309-why-does-britain-have-such-bizarre-place-names |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210106194342/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160309-why-does-britain-have-such-bizarre-place-names |archive-date=6 January 2021 |access-date=16 December 2020 |publisher=BBC Culture}}</ref>) are abundant, for example [[Ormesby]], [[Stainsby, North Yorkshire|Stainsby]] and [[Tollesby]]. These were once separate villages named after [[Vikings]] called Orm, Steinn and Toll. They are now areas of Middlesbrough that were recorded in [[Domesday Book]], of 1086.

===Coal and docks===
In 1801 Middlesbrough was a small farming [[Township (England)|township]] with a population of just 25. From 1829 onwards it experienced rapid growth. In 1828 the influential [[Quaker]] banker, coal-mine owner and [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]] (S&DR) shareholder [[Joseph Pease (railway pioneer)|Joseph Pease]] sailed up the River Tees to find a suitable new site downriver of Stockton on which to place new coal [[staithe]]s. As a result, in 1829 he and a group of [[Quaker]] businessmen bought the Middlesbrough farmstead and associated estate, some {{convert|527|acre}} of land, and established the Middlesbrough Estate Company.

Through the company, the investors set about a new coal port development (designed by [[John Harris (railway engineer)|John Harris]]) on the southern banks of the Tees.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Middlesbrough |url=http://www.billyscarrow.co.uk/middlesbrough.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705070805/http://www.billyscarrow.co.uk/middlesbrough.htm |archive-date=5 July 2015 |access-date=4 July 2015 |publisher=Billy Scarrow}}</ref><ref name="englandsnortheast.co.uk" /> The first coal shipping staithes at the port (known as "Port Darlington") were constructed with a settlement to the east established on the site of Middlesbrough farm as labour for the port, taking on the farm's name as it developed into a village.<ref name="GazDock">{{Cite news |last=Delplanque |first=Paul |date=17 November 2011 |title=Middlesbrough Dock 1839–1980 |url=http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2011/11/middlesbrough-dock-1839-1980.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409123451/http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2011/11/middlesbrough-dock-1839-1980.html |archive-date=9 April 2013 |access-date=24 March 2013 |work=[[Teesside Gazette|Evening Gazette]]}}</ref><ref name="Middlesbrough College">{{Cite web |title=The Archives: History of Middlehaven |url=http://www.mbro.ac.uk/Home/index/collegeinfo/collegehistory/middlehaven.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120225741/http://www.mbro.ac.uk/Home/index/collegeinfo/collegehistory/middlehaven.aspx |archive-date=20 November 2015 |access-date=20 November 2015 |publisher=Middlesbrough College}}</ref>

The port was linked to the S&DR on 27 December 1830 via a branch that extended to an area just north of the current {{stnlnk|Middlesbrough}} railway station.<ref>{{Cite web |title=December 1861 map of Middlesbrough North Riding: A Vision of Britain Through Time |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/25079 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019014334/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/25079 |archive-date=19 October 2014 |access-date=18 October 2014 |publisher=University of Portsmouth and others}}</ref>

The success of the port meant it soon became overwhelmed by the volume of imports and exports, and in 1839 work started on a dock to the east of Middlesbrough.<ref name=GazDock/> The first water for the dock was let in on 19 March 1842, while the formal opening took place on 12 May 1842.

===Iron, steel and ships===
{{further|Bolckow Vaughan|Teesside Steelworks|Dorman Long}}
[[File:Ironopolis wall.JPG|right|thumb|"Where alchemists were born below Cleveland's Hills. A giant blue dragonfly across the Tees reminds us every night.
We built the world, every metropolis came from the Ironopolis." A Poem by Ian Horn.]]
Iron dominated the Tees area since 1841 when [[Henry Bolckow]] in partnership with [[John Vaughan (ironmaster)|John Vaughan]], founded the Vulcan [[iron foundry]] and [[rolling mill]]. Vaughan introduced the new 'Bell Hopper' system of closed blast furnaces developed at the [[Ebbw Vale]] works. The new system and nearby abundant supply of [[Ironstone]] in the [[Eston Nab|Eston Hills]] in 1850, made the works a success with the area becoming known as the "Iron-smelting centre of the world" and [[Bolckow, Vaughan|Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., Ltd]] the largest company in existence at the time.<ref name="ICE">Institution of Civil Engineers, ''Obituary'', 1869.</ref>

By 1851 Middlesbrough's population had grown from 40 people in 1829 to 7,600.<ref name="englandsnortheast.co.uk">{{Cite web |title=Middlesbrough and surrounds: The Birth of Middlesbrough |url=http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Middlesbrough.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128120931/http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Middlesbrough.html |archive-date=28 November 2015 |access-date=19 February 2015 |website=englandsnortheast |publisher=David Simpson}}</ref> [[Pig iron]] production rose tenfold between 1851 and 1856 and by the mid-1870s Middlesbrough was producing one third of the entire nation's Pig Iron output. During this time Middlesbrough earned the nickname 'Ironopolis'.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 February 1870 |title=Middlesbrough has sometimes been designated the Ironopolis of the North |work=[[The Northern Echo]]}}</ref><ref name="Ballarat">{{Cite journal |date=Spring 2004 |title=Middlesbrough never ceased to be Ironopolis |journal=Journal of Social History |volume=37 |issue=3 |page=746}}</ref>
[[File:Old Middlesbrough Town Hall 2013.jpg|right|thumb|[[Old Town Hall, Middlesbrough]] in 2013]]
On 21 January 1853 Middlesbrough received its [[Royal Charter|Royal Charter of Incorporation]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Cleveland Police |url=http://www.cleveland.police.uk/about-us/History.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525133410/http://www.cleveland.police.uk/about-us/History.aspx |archive-date=25 May 2011 |access-date=3 April 2011}}</ref> giving the town the right to have a mayor, aldermen and councillors. Henry Bolckow became mayor, in 1853.<ref name="page" />

In the latter half of the 19th century Old Middlesbrough was starting to decline and was overshadowed by developments built around the [[Middlesbrough Town Hall|new town hall]], south of the [[Old Town Hall, Middlesbrough|original town hall]].<ref>Woodhouse, Robert. ''Middlesbrough – A Pictorial History''. (Phillimore & Co. Ltd. Publishing, 1990. {{ISBN|0 85033 743 7}}). illustration no. 48.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=26 January 2019 |title=Middlesbrough Town Hall engraving recreated |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-46976614 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717154016/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-46976614 |archive-date=17 July 2022 |access-date=4 February 2021 |work=BBC News}}</ref>
[[File:Middlesbrough Walk (39216901512).jpg|thumb|Gibson House (Boho Four)]]
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 town's rapid expansion continued throughout the second half of the 19th&nbsp;century (fuelled by the iron and steel industry), the population reaching 90,000 by the dawn of the 20th century.<ref name="englandsnortheast.co.uk" />

===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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 2010 |title=Remembering the Blitz |url=http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2010/09/remembering-the-blitz.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413131651/http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2010/09/remembering-the-blitz.html |archive-date=13 April 2014 |access-date=20 August 2012 |work=Evening Gazette}}</ref> More bombing occurred throughout the course of the war, with the [[Middlesbrough railway station|railway station]] put out of action for two weeks in 1942.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 2010 |title=Middlesbrough Railway Station bombed 1942 |url=http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2010/04/middlesbrough-railway-station.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519084800/http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/2010/04/middlesbrough-railway-station.html |archive-date=19 May 2011 |access-date=14 May 2011 |work=Evening Gazette}}</ref>

By the end of the war more than 200 buildings had been damaged or destroyed in 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 August 1942 |title=Middlesbrough 1940s |url=http://www.billmilner.250x.com/mbro40.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202051719/http://www.billmilner.250x.com/mbro40.html |archive-date=2 December 2008 |access-date=4 September 2011 |publisher=Billmilner.250x.com}}</ref>

===Post-war development===
[[File:A66, Middlesbrough - geograph.org.uk - 274831.jpg|thumb|A66 from a multi-storey car park in 2006 (the road is raised, with Wilson Street running alongside)]]
Post-war industrial to modern non-industrial Middlesbrough has changed the town, many buildings having been replaced and roads built. The [[A66 road]] was built through the town in the 1980s, the Royal Exchange being demolished to make way for it.

[[Middlesbrough F.C.]]'s modern [[Riverside Stadium]] opened on 26 August 1995 next to Middlesbrough Dock. The club moved from [[Ayresome Park]], which had been their home for 92 years.

The original St Hilda's area of Middlesbrough, after decades of decline and clearance, was given a new name of ''Middlehaven'' in 1986 on investment proposals to build on the land.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web |last=Price |first=Kelley |date=16 June 2019 |title=Did the 'Middlehaven dream-maker' achieve what he set out to do? |url=https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/highs-lows-middlehavens-regeneration-dream-16251398 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924043757/https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/highs-lows-middlehavens-regeneration-dream-16251398 |archive-date=24 September 2020 |access-date=29 November 2020 |website=TeessideLive}}</ref> [[Middlehaven]] has since had new buildings built there including [[Middlesbrough College]] and Middlesbrough FC's Riverside Stadium amongst others. Also situated at Middlehaven is the "Boho" zone, offering office space to the area's business and to attract new companies, and also "Bohouse", housing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 August 2016 |title=Boho Zone |url=https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/business/find-premises/boho-zone |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129164131/https://www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/business/find-premises/boho-zone |archive-date=29 November 2020 |access-date=29 November 2020 |website=middlesbrough.gov.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ford |first=Coreena |date=8 October 2020 |title=Growing digital firm Animmersion expands into landmark Boho Zone |url=https://www.business-live.co.uk/technology/growing-digital-firm-animmersion-expands-19071000 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031164339/https://www.business-live.co.uk/technology/growing-digital-firm-animmersion-expands-19071000 |archive-date=31 October 2020 |access-date=29 November 2020 |website=Business Live}}</ref> Some of the street names from the original grid-iron street plan of the town still exist in the area today.

The expansion of Middlesbrough southwards, eastwards and westwards continued throughout the 20th century absorbing villages such as [[Linthorpe]], [[Acklam, Middlesbrough|Acklam]], [[Ormesby]], [[Marton, Middlesbrough|Marton]] and [[Nunthorpe]]<ref name="englandsnortheast.co.uk" /> and continues to the present day.