County Borough of Teesside

The County Borough of Teesside was a county borough in the north-east of England, which existed for just six years. It was created in 1968 to cover the Teesside conurbation which had grown up around the various port and industrial towns near the mouth of the River Tees. The council was based in Middlesbrough, the area's largest town. The county borough was abolished in 1974 on the creation of the new county of Cleveland, which covered a larger area, with the county borough's territory being split between three of the four districts created in the new county.

Prior to 1968 the area was governed by the six separate authorities of Billingham, Eston, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Stockton-on-Tees and Thornaby-on-Tees. Middlesbrough was a county borough, providing all local government services in its area; the others were all district-level authorities, with strategic functions provided by their respective county councils. The River Tees formed the boundary between County Durham and North Riding of Yorkshire and so Durham County Council provided county-level services to Billingham and Stockton, and North Riding County Council provided such services to Eston, Redcar and Thornaby.

The six districts were abolished and merged into a single county borough called Teesside, with some adjustments to the boundaries with neighbouring districts. For ceremonial purposes the new borough was included in the North Riding of Yorkshire, but as a county borough it was independent from North Riding County Council.

Shortly after Teesside was created work began on a more fundamental review of local government, in which it was decided that the Teesside area should form part of a larger new county, also including Hartlepool and some of the conurbation's rural hinterland. The new county was called Cleveland and came into force in 1974. The old area of the county borough was split between the districts of Langbaurgh, Middlesbrough and Stockton-on-Tees, which were three of the four districts within Cleveland.

Stockton had a population of 21,070 in 1851, being much larger than Middlesbrough which had only a population of 3,397 at the time. Middlesbrough overtook Stockton to become the larger settlement by the time of the 1891 census, when it had 81,711 people and Stockton had 80,665.

The only census carried out during the life of the county borough was the 1971 census, which showed a population of 396,233.

The River Tees formed the historic county boundary between Yorkshire and Durham. A continuous conurbation had built up around the mouth of the river, increasing greatly in population from the nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution.

Until the nineteenth century Stockton-on-Tees was the only town to be formally incorporated as a borough in the Teesside area. Middlesbrough was governed by improvement commissioners from 1841 and was made a borough in 1853. Thornaby was incorporated as a borough in 1892, followed by Redcar in 1922. Billingham and Eston were urban districts, as Redcar had been until its elevation to borough status.