As part of our celebrations to mark the 50th year of the Cleveland and Teesside Local History Society, we are publishing, throughout the Jubilee year information of fifty places, buildings, events and people of significance in our local history.
We provided the Members of the society with a List of 100 Events that the Committee thought were significant in the history of the area. Our Members responded magnificently, not only voting for their favourite events, but suggesting others that we had omitted from the list!
Based on the votes cast by Members of the Society, the most significant events in the history of Cleveland and Teesside are as follows:
1st Place – The discovery of iron ore in the Cleveland hills in 1850.
2nd Place – The opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.
3rd Place – The opening of the Transporter Bridge in 1911.
4th Place – The Synod of Whitby in 664AD.
5th = Place
– The building of the first Stockton Bridge in 1769
– The extension of the railway to Port Darlington and the subsequent development of Middlesbrough in 1830
After counting the votes, we managed to create a List of 50 Events, and these will be the ones that we publish information about over the twelve months of the Jubilee year.
Some significant events that were on the List of 100 Events failed to make the 50 List. These included the building of the railway viaduct at Yarm, the first shipment of coal from Port Clarence, the occasions when Stockton and Middlesbrough foot-ball clubs won the FA Amateur Cup, the opening of Teesside Polytechnic, the last trolley bus run, and even the first broadcast on local radio.
Whilst we plan to publish information on the events contained in the Fifty List over the course of the Jubilee Year, we fully anticipate that we will continue to add information about other events in future years.