this: Middlesbrough (disambiguation)

Middlesbrough (pronunciation; IPA 1 (received pronunciation)) is a town in the Tees Valley sub-region of the North East of England. It is the largest and most populous settlement within the borough of Middlesbrough, which encompasses the town and several outlying villages which have become suburbs.

Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1968 the town became the centre of the county borough of Teesside, which was absorbed by the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland in 1974. In 1996 Cleveland was abolished, and the Middlesbrough borough became a unitary authority, within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.

Middlesbrough is different from the other districts on Teesside, as the borough is almost entirely urbanised, thus making it the largest town in terms of area and population, but the smallest district. However, the areas of Eston, Grangetown, Normanby, Ormesby, and South Bank in the neighbouring borough of Redcar and Cleveland, are also part of the Middlesbrough agglomeration.

Middlesbrough is situated on the south bank of the River Tees, a few miles from the edge of the North York Moors National Park.

Teesport, the UK's second largest port, lies to the east, and Durham Tees Valley Airport lies to the west, near Darlington. North east of 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 upstream through the estuary in 2000.

Toponymy

Although the town is often thought of as a relatively recent settlement without much history, the name Middlesbrough can be traced back a long way. Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of the name. The element '-burgh', from the Old English burh (meaning 'fort') denotes an ancient fort or settlement of pre-Anglian origin (this being the term on which Middlesbrough Football Club's ardently chanted nickname, 'The Boro', plays). The spelling brough sets Middlesbrough apart from other British towns, which typically use the spelling borough.

It is solely by retrospective conjecture that the first element of the name, Mydil, has come to be identified as a development of the Old English middel (subsequently morphing into middle and supposedly a tribute to the settlement's position between the great Christian centres of Durham and Whitby). The burgh, though, may have included a monastic cell and was probably situated on the elevated land where the Victorian church of St Hilda's (demolished in 1969) was later 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 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.