Place:Stockton on Tees, Durham, England

NameStockton on Tees
Alt namesStockton on Teessource: Getty Vocabulary Program
TypeBorough (municipal)
Coordinates54.567°N 1.317°W
Located inDurham, England     ( - 1974)
See alsoTeesside, Cleveland, Englandconnurbation of which Stockton-on-Tees was a part
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in County Durham, England, around south east of Durham. It is within the Teesside built-up area around the River Tees, located around west of Middlesbrough. Stockton has a population of 85,000.

It is the main settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, which also includes nearby towns such as Billingham in County Durham and Thornaby and Yarm in Yorkshire. The borough is part of the Tees Valley maroyal combined authority and it had a population of approximately , at the ONS

It is a former port town. The Tees was straightened in the early 1800s for larger ships to access the town. The ports have since relocated closer to the North Sea and ships are no longer able to sail from the sea to the town due to the Tees Barrage, which was installed to manage tidal flooding.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway, on which coal was ferried to the town for shipment, served the port during early part of the Industrial Revolution. The railway was also the world's first permanent steam-locomotive-powered passenger railway, though in recent times 's importance has declined.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Etymology

Stockton is an Anglo-Saxon place name with the common ending ton, meaning farm, or homestead. Stock is thought by some to derive from the Anglo-Saxon Stocc, meaning log, tree trunk, or wooden post. Stockton could therefore mean a farm built of logs. This is disputed because when Stocc forms the first part of a place name, it usually indicates a derivation from the similar word Stoc, meaning cell, monastery, or place. Stoc in place name such as Stoke or Stow usually indicates farms which belonged to a manor or religious house. It is thought that Stockton fell into this category, and perhaps the name is an indication that Stockton was an outpost of Durham or Norton which were both important Anglo-Saxon centres. This is a matter of dispute, but Stockton was a constituent part of Norton until the eighteenth century, when it became an independent parish in its own right. Today the roles have been reversed, and Norton has been incorporated into Stockton.

Prehistory

Stockton is reportedly the home of the fossilised remains of the most northerly hippopotamus ever discovered. In 1958, an archeological dig north-west of the town uncovered a 125,000-year-old hippo's molar tooth. However, no one knows exactly where the tooth was discovered, who discovered it, or why the dig took place. The tooth was sent to the borough's librarian and curator, G. F. Leighton, who then sent it to the Natural History Museum in London. Since then, the tooth has been missing despite efforts to locate it.

Market and castle

Stockton began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement on high ground close to the northern bank of the River Tees.

The manor of Stockton was built circa 1138, and was purchased by Bishop Pudsey of Durham in 1189. During the 13th century, the bishop changed the village of Stockton into a borough. When the bishop freed Stockton's serfs, craftsmen moved to the new town. The bishop had a residence in Stockton Castle, which was a fortified manor house, the first recorded reference to which was in 1376.

Stockton's market traces its history to 1310, when Bishop Bek of Durham granted a market charter to our town of Stockton a market upon every Wednesday for ever. The town grew into a small but busy port, exporting wool and importing wine, which was in demand by the upper class. However, even by the standards of the time, medieval Stockton-on-Tees was a small town, with a population of only approximately 1,000, and the town did not grow for centuries.

Scotland captured Stockton Castle in 1644, and occupied it until 1646. The castle was destroyed at the order of Oliver Cromwell at the end of the Civil War. A shopping centre, the Castlegate Centre, now occupies the castle area, and this is scheduled for demolition in 2022. No known accurate depictions of the castle exist.

The Town House was built in 1735, and Stockton's first theatre opened in 1766. In 1771, a five-arch stone bridge was built, replacing the nearby Bishop's Ferry. Until the opening of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge in 1911, this was the Tees's most downstream bridging point. From the end of the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution transformed Stockton from a small and quiet market town into a flourishing centre of heavy industry.

Locomotion

Shipbuilding, which had started in the 15th century, prospered in the town through the 17th and 18th centuries, with smaller-scale industries also developing. These included brick, sail, and rope making, the latter now reflected in road names such as Ropery Street in the town centre. Stockton became the major port for County Durham, the North Riding of Yorkshire, and Westmorland during this period, exporting mainly rope, agricultural produce and lead from the Yorkshire Dales. Iron making and engineering entered the local economy in the 18th century

The town grew rapidly as the Industrial Revolution started, the population grew from 10,000 in 1851 to over 50,000 in 1901 as workers moved in. The discovery of iron ore in the Eston Hills resulted in blast furnaces lining the River Tees from Stockton to the river's mouth. In 1820, an Act set up the Commissioners, a body with responsibility for lighting and cleaning the streets, and from 1822, Stockton-on-Tees was lit by gas.


In 1822, Stockton witnessed an event which changed the face of the world forever, and which heralded the dawn of a new era in trade, industry and travel. The first rail of George Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington Railway was laid near St. John's crossing on Bridge Road. Hauled by Locomotion No 1, the great engineer himself manned the engine on its first journey on 27 September 1825. Fellow engineer and friend Timothy Hackworth acted as guard. This was the world's first passenger railway, connecting Stockton with Shildon. The opening of the railway greatly boosted Stockton's economy, making it easier to bring coal to the factories; however, the port declined as business moved downstream to Middlesbrough.

Stockton witnessed another development in 1827. Local chemist John Walker invented the friction match in his shop at 59 High Street. The first sale of these matches was recorded in his sales-book on 7 April 1827, to a Mr. Hixon, a solicitor in the town. Since he did not obtain a patent, Walker received neither fame nor wealth for his invention, but he was able to retire some years before his death. He died in 1859 at the age of 78, and is buried in the parish churchyard in Norton village.

The first bell for Big Ben was cast by John Warner and Sons in Norton on 6 August 1856, but it was damaged beyond repair while being tested on site, and it had to be replaced by a foundry closer to Westminster, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

To cater to the increased population, a hospital opened in Stockton in 1862, and a public library opened in 1877. Public transport also became important. Steam trams began running in the streets in 1881, and these were replaced by electric trams in 1897.

1930s

Stockton was still dominated by the engineering industry in the 1930s, and there was also a chemicals industry in the town. Buses replaced the trams in 1931. Public housing also became necessary, and in the 1930s, slums were cleared, and the first council houses were built.

On 10 September 1933, the Battle of Stockton took place, in which between 200 and 300 supporters of the British Union of Fascists were taken to Stockton to hold a rally, but they were driven out of town by up to 2,000 anti-fascist demonstrators.

Services and riots

In the late 20th century, manufacturing severely declined, with the service industries developed into the town's primary employers.

The Ragworth district near the town centre was the scene of rioting in July 1992, when local youths threw stones at buildings, set cars alight, and threw missiles at police and fire crews. The area later saw a £12 million regeneration which involved mass demolition and refurbishment of existing properties, and construction of new housing and community facilities.

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