The Infant Hercules

There is little to be seen of our industrial past, so its important stories about our heritage are told. In 1850 ironstone was discovered in the Eston Hills above Middlebrough, and shortly afterwards Prime Minister William Gladstone came North and described the iron making town as an "infant Hercules." Here is Alistair Brownlee, a radio reporter commenting on a Boro match. It was the UEFA Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg, Middlesbrough had lost the first leg away 1-0, and their opponents Steaua Bucharest scored another 2 goals in the first 24 minutes of the 2nd leg; if they were to go to the final in Eindhoven, Boro had to score 4 goals in 66 minutes; in the 89th minute of the match Boro scored their fourth goal.

( A Parmo is a Middlesbrough delicacy.)

My Nameless County

Thirty-five years ago I was one the few people to support the boundary changes to my region, the communities north and south of the Tees have far more in common together than they have with Durham or York. For over four hundred years the people of this region has provided Britain with many of its chemicals, and for nearly two hundred years its iron and steel. With a new name and using our important heritage we should have put our new county on the world map, but for thirty-five years the politicians and bureaucrats have made a mess of it. Cleveland is an old English name for steep, hilly terrain, because much of area around Redcar, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool is flat it certainly wasn't correct to call our new county Cleveland, why not a brand new name? In 1996 the name of ancient Cleveland was relegated to below that of a Victorian seaside town, Teesside was dropped in favour of the more upmarket Tees Valley, and now the people who should be trying to protect our industrial heritage are trying to grass over it.