Place:Cleveland, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

Cleveland is an area in the northeast of England. Its name means literally "cliff-land", referring to its hilly southern areas. Historically, Cleveland, as a geographic area within the North Riding of Yorkshire, was located entirely to the south of the River Tees and its largest town was Guisborough, until the rise of Middlesbrough in the 19th century.

The non-metropolitan county of Cleveland was created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. Cleveland was one of four administrative counties introduced in England in 1974. It was named after the historic region, but did not cover it all, and also included land north of the River Tees in County Durham. It was situated around the Teesside urban area and included

• Stockton on Tees from County Durham
• Hartlepool from County Durham
• Middlesbrough from the North Riding of Yorkshire
• Redcar from the North Riding of Yorkshire.

The Bill as originally presented in November 1971 intended the administrative county to have been called "Teesside" and to have stretched further along the Yorkshire coast to include the town of Whitby.

The administrative county was abolished in 1996 after local opposition to its formation and a desire on behalf of the national government to introduce unitary authorities as an intermediate level of government across the county. The boroughs of Cleveland became unitary authorities and the River Tees was re-established as the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham.

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