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Stockton on Tees
Stockton on Tees South Yorkshire Computer Services
Approximate Population: 190,200
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 combined size of the borough equates to approx 180,000 people and makes it larger than Middlesbrough in terms of population and square miles.
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 Scottish 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 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).
It was the home, 1781 - 1859, of John Walker, who invented the friction match in 1826. Until recently, a roundabout in the centre of Stockton commemorated it as the birthplace of the friction match, but the roundabout has since been demolished to make way for a new road system which circles the Simon Bailes Peugeot garage. Thomas Sheraton, the famous furniture designer, was born in Stockton in 1751; he moved to London in 1790, where he died in 1806.
Stockton on Tees South Yorkshire Computer Services
