MIDDLESBROUGH  , a municipal,

county and parliamentary borough and seaport in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England, 2382 M . N. by W. from London, on the North Eastern railway . Pop . (1891), 75,532; (1901), 91,302 . It lies on the south bank of the Tees, 5 M. from its mouth in the North Sea, and is the centre of one of the most important iron-working districts in the world . It is wholly of modern growth, having been incorporated in 1853 . Its chief buildings are a fine town-hall with lofty clock-tower and spire (1889), containing the municipal offices, free library, &c.; the exchange, county court, Dorman memorial museum and Roman Catholic cathedral . Besides iron and steel works, the first of which was that of Messrs Bolckow, Vaughan & Co., there are rolling-mills, tube works, wire-mills, engineering works, oil works, chemical works, salt works and a considerable ship-building industry . The district abounds in blast furnaces . The docks are accessible to large vessels, the entrance having a depth of 32 ft . Extensive dredging operations are carried on in the river . The accommodation for shipping includes two graving docks, two patent slips, &c .

The entrance to the river is protected by two breakwaters named respectively the North Gare and South Gare . The furnaces within the

port produce some 2,500,000 tons of pig iron annually . Middlesbrough is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop . The parliamentary borough falling within the Cleveland division of the county, returns one member . The county borough was created in 1888 . The town is governed by a mayor, ten aldermen and thirty councillors . Area, 2823 acres . The earlier history of the place is meagre . Where Middlesbrough now stands there were at one time a small chapel and priory founded by Robert de Brus of Skelton Castle . These were dedicated to St Hilda, and with some lands were given by de Brus to the abbey of St Hilda at Whitby in 113o . The priory fell into ruins at the time of the Reformation, and no trace now remains beyond some stones built into the wall of a brewery . The Oak Chair in the town-hall also is made from a fragment .

In 18or there were upon the site of Middlesbrough only four

farm-houses . In 1829 a company styling itself the Middlesbrough Owners bought 500 acres of land, and began building in the town . In 183o the Stockton & Darlington railway was extended to Middlesbrough; four years later the town was lighted with gas; and after six years more a public market was established . The census of 1831 showed the population to be 154; that of 1841 showed 5709 . In 1842 the opening of the docks gave additional importance to the town . From the year 1851, when John Vaughan discovered the presence of ironstone in the Eston hills, the town advanced rapidly .