I worked in Middlesbrough for the worst four years of my life!
Middlesbrough started its life as a railway docks town of the Stockton and Darlington Railway called Port Darlington. Incorporated as a borough in the 1850s the prime minister at the time called it an 'infant Hercules.
Until very recently there was a firm called 'The Ownere of the Middlesbrough Estate' who had their offices in the place with the columed portico in the picture.
The Owners of Middlesbrough did not, at the end, own Middlesbrough but they did at the begining.
I called in Middlesbrough on a Monday and most of the newly built cultural places were closed.
Hartlepool is a place that was used by the writers of Coronation Street to write out charachters who usually said they were improving their job prospects by moving to Hartlepool. I'm not sure that they could but I think that's a case of irony in soap operas. Hartlepool is the home of
Andy Capp. 'Nuff said!
Andy Capp
The old part of Hartlepool has some historic buildings like St Hilda's Church.
St Hilda's Church
