Middlesbrough History 

In the first century, Middlesbrough was a timber constructed church and a settlement on a small hill raised above the river surrounded by marshland. Apparently the name 'Middlesbrough' comes from the fact that the church was half way on the monks journey from Lindisfarne to Whitby, in some references it is called Middleberg.

The coming of the Stockton and Darlington railway transformed the one time hamlet of Middlesborough into a booming industrial town within decades, as the coal from the South Durham coalfields passed through the local docks. When metal ores were discovered in the Cleveland Hills another heavy industry came to the town.

Middlesbrough does have one significant pre-Industrial claim to fame; Captain James Cook was born in Marton in 1728. The Captain Cook Birth Place Museum stands on the site of the cottage where the great man was born and has recently undergone a £1.2 million redevelopment that has left a thoroughly modern and engaging exhibition into the life and times of one of this country’s foremost naval legends.