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A small historical reference
Geography: Middlesbrough is a large town in North East England. It sits on the River Tees's southern bank.
Until the early 1800s, the area was largely rural, primarily used as farming land. A coal industry spurred a sequence of rapid industrial development. Significant ironworks established in the town drove demand for labour. Large numbers of Welsh and Irish settlers swelled the population such that, by 1853, it officially became a town. Steel production and ship building became primary producers in the late 1800s. Steel, iron and ship industries remained associated with the town for the next century, a reason why it was a repeated bombing target for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Post-industrial decline occurred in the mid to late twentieth century. Trade, notably through ports, and digital enterprise sectors contemporarily contribute to the local economy. Teesside University is based in the town.
The town's historic county is Yorkshire. In 1889, Middlesbrough became a county borough. It also had rural district from 1894 until it was transferred to the nearby town of Stokesley (as the Stokesley Rural District) in 1932. From 1968 until 1974, multiple boroughs and parishes from County Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire temporarily formed the new County Borough of Teesside. The Cleveland non-metropolitan county governed a Middlesbrough district from 1974 until 1996. When the district became a unitary authority and borough in North Yorkshire. The authority joined Tees Valley local enterprise partnership in 2011, the partnership is now part of a Tees Valley Combined Authority.
Erimus ("We shall be" in Latin) is the town's motto, chosen in 1830. It reflects Fuimus ("We have been") the Norman/Scottish Bruce clan's motto, Mediaeval lords of Cleveland. The town's coat of arms is an azure (blue) lion, from the Bruce family arms, a star (from Captain James Cook's arms) and two ships representing shipbuilding and maritime trade.
Date of foundation:
History:
Population: 140 980
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