About us
When setting up this website we were aware of the potential confusion in naming it Historic Cleveland. Most people today would associate Cleveland with Ohio in the United States. People in the north-east of England might think of the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland, Radio Cleveland, or even Cleveland County Council, now no longer with us. But our Cleveland is much older than any of these.
There are no specific boundaries for Historic Cleveland; the best definition might have been the old wapentakes of East and West Langbaurgh. For this website we have taken an area of the old North Riding of Yorkshire from the River Tees southwards into the high ground of the North York Moors; the Cleveland Plain and the Cleveland Hills. To the east it stretches beyond Guisborough to the coast. To the west a modern boundary might be taken as the route of the A19 road, but this would exclude Yarm, the port that provided Cleveland’s link with the outside world until the advent of the railways. For centuries the people of Cleveland were identifiable by the Cleveland dialect, their Cleveland long-horned cattle and Cleveland cheese, and many other aspects of tradition and culture.
Growth of industry along the banks of the River Tees, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, resulted in Cleveland’s loss of identity. The significance of the historic river boundary between Yorkshire and County Durham was lessened. For centuries the bridge at Yarm, the first crossing point up the Tees, had a drawbridge to separate the two counties when necessary. Then bridges were built at Stockton and Middlesbrough, and the iron, steel and chemical industries straddled the river. Perhaps more significant in Cleveland’s decline was the rapid rise in population of towns such as Middlesbrough. People moved into the area from far and wide to create an early example of the multi-cultural society. The influence of these newcomers spread out from the conurbations; day-trips, trade, marriage and commuting all playing their part. That distinctive identity of Cleveland was swamped.
As if the loss of identity wasn’t enough, even the name was then applied to areas that were never part of Historic Cleveland. Cleveland County, created in 1974, including Stockton and Hartlepool from County Durham. When Cleveland County was abolished in 1996 one of the new councils was named Redcar and Cleveland, but this excluded most of the Historic Cleveland region apart from Guisborough. To try to clarify matters, we have included a map of what we consider to be Historic Cleveland, at least as far as this website is concerned.
If Historic Cleveland had a centre, it was probably the thriving market town of Stokesley. However Stokesley was in decline even before the start of the industrial revolution. By the second part of the twentieth century it had become smaller than the nearby village of Great Ayton. Nowadays Stokesley is seeing a renaissance; more people chose to live there, businesses are thriving and there is a real vitality to the place. We hope that by creating this website we might help to bring about a similar renaissance in the identity of Cleveland.
See map of approximate area of Historic Cleveland.
[+] Click image to enlarge