Stockton-on-Tees

Stockton-on-Tees
Population	83,490 (2009) [1]
OS grid reference	NZ440200
• London	252.5m
Unitary authority	Stockton-on-Tees
Ceremonial county	County Durham North Yorkshire
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STOCKTON-ON-TEES
Postcode district	TS16 - TS21
Dialling code	01642
Police	Cleveland
Fire	Cleveland
Ambulance	North East
UK Parliament	Stockton North Stockton South

Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in North East England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority area and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including Billingham, Yarm and Thornaby. The wider borough has a population of 191,000 as of 2011 estimates.

History

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

The manor of Stockton was created in around 1138. It was purchased by Bishop Pudsey of Durham in 1189 and since then has undergone many changes.

Stockton's market can trace its history back to 1310, when Bishop Bek of Durham granted a market charter - to our town of Stockton a market upon every Wednesday for ever.

Stockton Castle is first referred to in 1376. It was captured by the Scots in 1644 and was occupied by them until 1646, but was destroyed on the orders of Oliver Cromwell at the end of the Civil War. There is now a shopping centre, called the Castlegate Centre, where the original castle stood. There are no known accurate depictions of the castle in existence.

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 lowest bridging point on the Tees.

In June 1890 Major Robert Ropner offered a piece of land to the people of Stockton which could be used as a public park, providing the local council would lay it out tastefully and keep it forever. Just over three years later, on 4 October 1893, the park was officially opened by the then Duke & Duchess of York. After a century of regular use by the people of Stockton, the park was refurbished and renovated between 2004-2007 to its former glory by Stockton Council, thanks to a £2.65m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It includes a new bandstand, based on the original design, a Park Ranger's Office and a cafe, (run by the local charity, the Friends of Ropner Park).

Geography

The town is located on the north shore of the River Tees. The town's extreme northern and western areas are located on slightly higher ground than the town centre, which is located directly on the north bank of the Tees. These offer views of the town with its relatively mid-rise centre and the surrounding Tees Valley area.

The town has many suburbs with individual identities: Fairfield, Grangefield, Hardwick, Hartburn, Elm Tree Farm, Norton, Roseworth, Newtown, Bishopsgarth and Oxbridge to name a few. Within the borough, but distinct settlements from the town of Stockton, are Thornaby, Ingleby Barwick, Billingham and Yarm.

Transportation

Roads

The town is served by the transpennine A66 and the A19. A link road has recently been completed which connects the A66 with the town centre and Ingleby Barwick. This road has been numbered the A135, replacing the old A135 route which was previously the A19. The old A135 has been renumbered the A1027, which continues on through the town to Billingham.

East of the town centre is the A1046 which runs through Portrack as Portrack Lane. This road is a major retail destination, mainly in home furnishings and DIY. The A1046 continues on to Port Clarence where it terminates.

The A139 connects the town centre with the northern suburb of Norton. This road was the original route for the A19 before a bypass was built to the east of the town.

The A177 runs from Stockton town centre to Durham, passing Sedgefield on the way. It acts as a major route in to the town.

Several miles to the west is the A1(M).

Bus

Several bus services operate in Stockton. Most services pass through High Street. The services cover large areas of the region including Middlesbrough, Teesside Park, Thornaby, Billingham, Sedgefield, Durham, Sunderland, Peterlee and Newcastle upon Tyne. Among the companies operating bus services, Stagecoach on Teesside and Arriva North East are the major providers, while six minor providers also operate in the area.

Rail

Stockton railway station serves the town, but more regular and distant services are operated from nearby Thornaby.

Air

Durham Tees Valley Airport, formerly Teesside Airport, is partially located within the borough and is located several miles to the west of the town itself. The airport offers domestic and international flights, the latter particularly to EU countries.

Economy

The Infinity Bridge, opened in 2009.

Major industries in Stockton have included ship building and repairing, steel and chemicals.

The town is famous for its associations with the Stockton and Darlington Railway on which ran the world's first steam hauled passenger train in 1825. The town also has the world's oldest passenger railway station building, and also contains much Georgian architecture, one notable example being the world's oldest Georgian theatre, constructed in 1766.

During the twentieth century the town's heavy industry declined dramatically, along with that of the surrounding Teesside area. Since the 1980s the town has seen an increase in service industries.

Today

Stockton Town Hall

The town's High Street is reputed to be the widest in England.

Stockton town centre has undergone many developments in recent years including the Teesquay Millennium Footbridge, the Queen's Campus of Durham University which actually lies on the southern banks of the River Tees in Thornaby-on-Tees formerly North Yorkshire, several acres of office buildings erected along the south bank of the River Tees within the Teesdale development, Wellington Square, a modern shopping arcade erected upon the old Wellington Street area of the town centre, and Infinity Bridge. At Castlegate Quay there is moored a full size replica of Captain Cook's vessel, the Bark "Endeavour". The Kellington was also resident on the river in Stockton between 1993 and 2009 when she was broken up in situ. In 1995, after 4 years in the building, the Tees Barrage was commissioned. The Tees Barrage White Water Course is located there. In 2009, the Infinity Bridge was opened.

Stockton is also home to the multi-million pound ARC, which opened in 1999 and whose resident drama company is currently the Arden Theatre Company. Stockton F.C. existed from 1882 till 1975, with Thornaby F.C. and Norton & Stockton Ancients F.C. taking over as the local sides. The town also has a local rugby side, Stockton Rugby Club.

Stockton has a firework display on the 5^th November which has got bigger in recent years. The 2007 display attracted around 100,000 people and played host to a giant catherine wheel type firework.

Stockton holds the Stockton International Riverside Festival each year. The 24th festival will be held from 3 - 7 August 2011. With a mission to bring festival audiences the latest and best developments in outdoor arts, SIRF presents extraordinary performances of every scale. This year’s spectacular festival finale is a UK premiere featuring the Argentinean company Voala. Taking inspiration from the psychedelia of the 1960s, Muare features a giant mobile suspended from a 100 tonne crane, 13 extraordinary acrobats suspended from the mobile and uplifting rock music.

Stockton also plays hosts to the Stockton Weekender music and comedy event (formerly Fringe Festival) which runs from 5 - 7 August 2011.

Stockton is the location of HMP Holme House, a Category B prison for adult men. The prison holds inmates from the Tees Valley, South West Durham, East Durham and North Yorkshire.

Dovecot Street in Stockton is home to the Corner House Youth Project, a registered charity, working with young people aged 8–25; the project's director is Jacky Duncan.

Future

Work is under way to develop the north bank of the River Tees in Stockton with the £300 million North Shore scheme, which will include new offices, leisure facilities, housing, a 150-bedroom hotel and a new campus for Durham University.

Plans have been announced to bring the Globe Theatre in the town centre back in to use. The venue, famous for hosting The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Buddy Holly, has been closed since 1993 after being used as a bingo venue since 1977. The plans, announced by local developers Jomast and approved by Stockton Council, would bring the theatre back in to use as one of the North East's largest live entertainment and performance venues, with a capacity of 2,400.

The Teesside White Water Course, located in the town, is undergoing a £4.6 million upgrade which will make it the first sustainable white water course, and one of the best, in the world. It is hoped that the facility will be used as a training venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The Stockton-Middlesbrough Initiative is a 20 year vision for regenerating the urban core of the Tees Valley, the main focus being the 30 km² area along the banks of the River Tees between the two centres of Stockton and Middlesbrough. The master plan has been drawn up by environmental design specialists Gillespies, the eventual aim being to create a distinctive high-quality city of over 320,000 citizens at the heart of the Tees Valley, by connecting both Middlesbrough and Stockton along the Tees corridor. The project will include not only the existing developments at North Shore, Stockton and Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, but many others over a 15-20 year period.

Culture

Notable people

Stockton was the home, 1781–1859, of John Walker, who invented the friction match in 1826. A statue originally stood in John Walker Square, at the south end of the High Street in the shadow of the Swallow Hotel. This was recently moved to a roundabout in the centre of Stockton, but the roundabout has since been demolished to make way for a new road system.

Thomas Sheraton, the famous furniture designer, was born in Stockton in 1751; he moved to London in 1790, where he died in 1806. The old Courthouse at Bridge Road in the town centre has now been converted into the Thomas Sheraton public house, part of the Wetherspoons chain.

Other notable people born in Stockton include the comedians Will Hay and Jimmy James; Ivy Close Miss Great Britain; Brass Crosby Lord Mayor of London; Joseph Ritson waspish critic and editor; 'Flying' Freddy Dixon the record-breaking racer; the actors Stephen Tompkinson; Francis Bainbridge] the great physiologist; Charles Foulkes Canadian general; Also Tony Scott (brother of Ridley Scott), director of Top Gun, was born in Stockton. He and his brother studied at Sheraton School. Actor James Gaddas (Neil Grayling in Badgirls and Vinny Sorrell in Coronation Street) was born in the town and attended Grangefield Grammar School. Actor Daniel Casey (from Midsomer Murders) was also born here.

The Member of Parliament for many years, 1924–29 and 1931–45, was Harold Macmillan, later Prime Minister, 1957 to 1963. He was created Earl of Stockton in 1984, 20 years after his retirement from politics. William Rodgers, one of the Gang of Four which broke from the Labour Party to form the Social Democratic Party also represented the town in parliament from 1962 to 1983.

Hudson's Bay Company explorer and Norton native, Captain William Christopher, lived in Stockton for many years at 145 High Street. Under the employ of the HBC from 1760 through to 1783, he was charged with finding the Northwest Passage to China. His discoveries include Baker Lake in Nunavut, Canada off the west coast of Hudson Bay.

Author George Orwell resided for a year in Greystones, near Carlton, a village in the borough, from 1944–1945.

Peter Smithson (1923–2003) was born in Stockton. He and his wife Alison were a powerful influence on British architecture and are associated with the Brutalist style.

Scottish entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne moved to Stockton when he was 30, well before he made his fortune. Whilst living in Stockton he bought his first ice cream van and founded a nursing home business. He also opened his first health club in Stockton, Bannatyne's in 1997. He married his second wife at St Mary's Church, Norton and still resides in the area; living in Wynyard and now Norton.

Michael Marks, founder of "Britains's biggest clothes retailer" - Marks & Spencer - started his business career with a borrowed £5 peddling goods round Stockton-on-Tees in 1883/84. "Don't ask the price, it's a penny." He soon made enough money to open a stall on Kirkgate Market in Leeds.

Bruce Thomas,(b 1948.) Bass player with U.K. bands Quiver/Elvis Costello & the Attractions. Author: 'The Big Wheel' -the story of a band on the road (fiction) and Bruce Lee; 'Fighting Spirit' (biography). He attended Grangefield Grammar School, and after leaving school, worked in the Art Dept of the Evening Gazette local newspaper. In 1966 he joined local band the Roadrunners, along with Paul Rodgers (later of Free/Bad Company/Queen) and guitarist Micky Moody (later of Snafu/Whitesnake). Then in 1967, the band left Teesside to try their chances as full-time musicians in London. Bruce Thomas has, since his acrimonious split with Elvis Costello in 1996, subsequently played with artists as diverse as Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Suzanne Vega and John Wesley Harding. He was also seriously considered, as replacement bass-player for the Who, upon the sudden death of the legendary John Entwistle in 2002.

Other notable people include -

Richard Anthony Hewson (b.1943), musician, arranger, producer who importantly worked with, amongst many others, the Beatles, Diana Ross, the Bee Gees and Simon & Garfunkel.

Lesley Duncan (b. 1943 - d. 2010), singer and solo recording artiste. Worked with Elton John, the Walker Brothers, Dusty Springfield, David Bowie and Pink Floyd.

• Bill Steer, guitarist and a founder of British metal band Carcass. He is considered a pioneer and an essential contributor to grindcore due to his involvement in Napalm Death and Carcass, two of the most important bands of the genre. After the demise of Carcass he started his own band Firebird, which is inspired by 1970s rock music.
• Matthew Bates, footballer with Middlesbrough F.C..
• Lee Turnbull, former Middlesbrough striker.
• Paul Smith, musician with Maxïmo Park was born and grew up in Billingham in the borough of Stockton.
• Lee Cattermole, former Middlesbrough footballer currently playing for Sunderland.
• Elizabeth Estensen, actress well known for her roles in The Liver Birds, T-Bag and in Emmerdale (as Diane Sugden)
• Jonathan Franks, current Middlesbrough winger/striker
• Scott James, recording artist and former X Factor contestant
• Stephen Tompkinson, Actor "Daimen Day" - Drop The Dead Donkey, "Father Peter Clifford" - Ballykissangel

Public services

Stockton-on-Tees falls within the jurisdiction of Cleveland Police. Prior to 1974, it was under the jurisdiction of Teesside Constabulary. The town is also served by the Cleveland Fire Brigade and the North East Ambulance Service.

The University Hospital of North Tees is located in the town and serves the town itself, the wider borough and parts of County Durham. It is part of the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust.

External links

• Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
• Stockton-on-Tees at Curlie
• Stockton-on-Tees in the development of the north-eastern coast
• Historical data for Stockton-on-Tees
• Photographic archive of the town and surrounding area
• BBC Tees - the latest local news, sport, entertainment, features, faith, travel and weather.
• Stockton Weekender - the website of the Stockton Weekender (formerly Fringe Festival) music and comedy event.
• SIRF - the website of the Stockton International Riverside Festival.