Stockton-on-Tees 1600-1835:
Urban History in Regional Context
Saturday 5 April 2025
River Tees Watersports Centre
Stockton on Tees
To mark the publication of Book of Orders and Accounts for the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. edited by John Little for the Surtees Society, as volume 228 of its publications, the Surtees Society and the Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society will hold a Day School, exploring aspects of Urban History in a Regional Context.
Speakers will include established specialists in the topic and research students exploring new ideas and themes.
There will be an opportunity to view digital copies of pages of the original Book of Orders held by Preston Park Museum.
Admission is free, to Members of either the Surtees Society or the Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society.
Those who are not members of either the Surtees Society or the Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society are welcome to attend on payment of a fee of £5 (refundable against the membership fee should they decide to join either society).
PROGRAMME
9.45 am Reception and Registration
10.20 Welcome
10.30 Philip Withington, ‘New Directions in Early- Modern Urban History’
11.30 John Little, ‘Typical Town or Unique Trajectory? Urban Development in Early- Modern Stockton ‘
12.30 pm Lunch Break
1.30 Amanda Herbert, ‘Sea Cures at Scarborough: Urban Medicine in North and South in the Early-Modern period’’
2,30 Rachel Anderson, ‘Plague Nursing in 17th century Newcastle and Durham’
and
Emma Yeo,’ Surviving Plague on Tyneside: Gateshead in 1636
3.30 panel discussion and questions
4.00 Close
Speakers’ Profiles
Phil Withington, Professor in Social and Cultural History at Sheffield University, began his research career as an urban historian, publishing The Politics of Commonwealth, Citizens and Freemen in Early Modern England with Cambridge UP in 2005). Thereafter he wrote the chapter on urbanisation for Keith Wrightson, ed, A Social History of England 1500-1700 (Cambridge, 2017) and the chapter on the British Isles and Ireland for the forthcoming Cambridge Urban History of Europe, vol II, 700-1850. He is on the editorial board of the journal Urban History and his recent collaborative research project ‘Intoxicating Spaces’ explored the impact of new intoxicants on metropoles in the North and Baltic Sea Region.
John Little was born and raised in Newtown, Stockton-on-Tees, but now lives in Cambridge, where after a career in information technology and local government, he completed a diploma in local history at Cambridge University. He is the honorary editor of Cleveland History. From 2014 to 2023 he was Chair of the Trustees of the Cambridge Museum of Technology where he led a redevelopment project. He is interested generally in industrial history and particularly early-modern Stockton.
Rachel Anderson is a research student at Durham University and a Vice-President of the Surtees Society Her doctoral research is on plague nursing and the care of the sick in England between 1570 and 1665.
Amanda Herbert is Associate Professor of History at Durham University. She completed her PhD at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Her research focuses on two aspects of the social history of the early modern British Atlantic world, upon which she has published several essays and articles. One is on the preservation and use of left-over food, the other on the spa as an important site for the study of public health.
Emma Yeo is a research student at Durham University. Her doctoral research is exploring whether the concept of a 17th century general crisis can be applied to the communities of North-Eastern England.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Surtees Society was established in 1834 in honour of the late Robert Surtees of Mainsforth (1779-1834), author of The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham (1816-40). It is the oldest English Society of its kind and is dedicated to the publication of manuscripts illustrative of the history of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, principally of County Durham and Northumberland in North-East England.
Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society was established in 1968. The Society takes an active part in promoting interest in all aspects of local history concerning Cleveland and Teesside. Members carry out research into the historical, industrial, architectural, archaeological and sociological evolution of the area and its adjoining regions, and then disseminate that research through talks, written articles and other means.
Publications by the two societies will be available for sale at discounted prices, and there will be a small display of local records, including digital copies of pages of the original Book of Orders held by Preston Park Museum.
Coffee and refreshments will be provided.
Lunch can be ordered in advance, or you can bring your own, and, weather provided, eat on the terrace overlooking the river.
The venue for the event is the River Tees Watersports Centre. Overlooking a river that now hosts leisure activities, including the training of Olympic and Paralympic champions, but which once was a thriving destination for trade and housed a major ship-building industry. It is located close to major road routes and to a railway station, and there is plenty of parking available. The building is fully accessible.
Full directions of how to reach the venue will be provided to those booking places.
There is good accommodation close to the venue and full details will be provided, including discount at a local Hampton by Hilton hotel.
TO BOOK A PLACE
Admission is FREE to Members of the Surtees Society or the Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society, but it is advisable to book a place early as accommodation is limited.
Admission to those who are not currently members of either the Surtees Society or the Cleveland & Teesside Local History Society will cost £5 per person.
Please contact Martin Peagam for further information and to reserve a place:
