MIDDLESBROUGH, a municipal, county and parliamen tary borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, 2381 m. N. by W. from London on the L.N.E. railway. Population (1931) 138,489. It stands on the south bank of the Tees estuary, 5 rn. from its mouth in the North Sea, and is the centre of one of the most important iron-working districts in the world. Where Mid dlesbrough now stands there were at one time a small chapel and priory founded by Robert de Brus of Skelton Castle. These were dedicated to St. Hilda, and were given, together with some lands by de Brus to the abbey of St. Hilda at Whitby in n3o. The priory fell into ruins at the time of the Reformation and very little trace now remains. In i8o1 there were, upon the site of Middles brough, only a few farm houses with a population of 25. In 1829, a company styling itself the Middlesbrough Owners bought 500 acres of land and began building. When, in 1830, the Stockton and Darlington railway was extended to Middlesbrough, it became a new Tees port ; four years later the town was lighted with gas and in 1840 a public market was established. In 1841 the popula tion was 5,709. In 1842, the opening of the docks gave it additional importance; by 1851 blast furnaces were erected and soon the whole district became a thriving iron centre.
Iron stone was mined in the neighbouring Cleveland Hills ; lime stone and coal were at hand, transport was made easy by the presence of the young railway and the navigable river way, which meant cheap facilities for export. The town grew so rapidly that in 1853, Middlesbrough was given a charter as a municipal borough ; it was created a county borough in 1888. Iron and steel working is the most important industry.
The entrance to the River Tees is protected by two break waters, the South Gare, which was begun in 1863 and took 24 years to build is more than miles in length ; and the North Gare, which has been completed for a length of 3,33o feet. Extensive
dredging operations have been carried on in the river; since 1854 about 45,477,463 cu.yd. of material have been removed from its bed. In 1863 the depth of water on the Bar was 31 ft. at low water of ordinary Spring tides; it is now 20 ft. at low water and 37 ft. at high water. Vessels of heavy tonnage which regularly frequent the river require increased depth of water, and to meet this demand powerful ladder-dredgers are used. The scheme sanc tioned by parliament for the widening of the river from Middles brough to the sea will ultimately result in an additional width in the channel, averaging 35o to 400 feet, to the Middlesbrough Dock entrance. This dock is the property of the L.N.E. railway, and was considerably enlarged in 1926. Its area is 26 acres; the new entrance is 8o ft. wide and total length of quayage is 6,843 ft.; 3,35o acres of land have been reclaimed from the foreshore of the Tees, much of it by the deposit of slag from the iron works. All the reclaimed land on the south side has been sold for the con struction of iron and steel works, shipbuilding yards, dry docks and deep water quays. The chemical industry, which owes its creation to the presence of salt and to the by-products of the coking ovens, is becoming increasingly important.
Middlesbrough, being the main port of the river Tees, deals with the bulk of the trade of the region. Its chief exports are coal and coke, pig iron, brass, plates and rails, galvanised sheets, chemicals and bridge work and girders. Its imports are chiefly ores—iron and manganese—coal and wheat.
See Sir J. Bell, The Iron and Steel Industry in Cleveland; Report of ? the Tees Conservancy Commission; Bulmer, Middlesbrough and its Shipping Facilities, South Tees-Side Regional Planning Scheme.