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The manor of Stockton was created around 1138 and subsequently purchased by Bishop Pudsey in 1189. The economy of Stockton was severely restricted in these early years as it existed, in the main, to serve the Bishops of Durham.

At this time, the Bishops manor house (Stockton castle),was situated at the southern end of the town and regularly provided a venue for the entertaining of bishops and royalty.

In the mid-1500’s, the powers of the Bishops was reduced and Stockton’s constraints under the bishops were lessened and it became easier for the population to trade with the surrounding areas and further afield.

The Port & River

With the demand of food from the ever increasing population of London becoming larger, Stockton built upon this need and organised it’s port to cater for the export of the goods from the surrounding agricultural land and by the mid 1600’s, Stockton’s port was booming, due, in some, to the area’s monopoly in the supply of butter to the likes of London.

The towns boom was helped in 1769 by the opening of a new bridge across the Tees. This bridge was tolled to pay for it’s building and bishops rent, but this cost was repaid by 1813 and after much public outcry (and indeed, a riot!), the toll charge was finally abolished in 1821.

It is purely coincidence of course that the building of the bridge coincided with the port of Yarm's steady decline and had nothing at all to do with the fact that the arches of the bridge restricted the movement of a lot of boats any further upsteam!!

This, of course, could only benefit the port of Stockton further! This new bridge, however, didn’t last too long and due to the massive increase in traffic, it was decided that a new bridge was to be built alongside it and then the old one demolished. By 1887, Stockton had it’s new bridge which still stands today. It is, of course, Victoria Bridge.

The Town

At the same time as the development of Stockton as a major port, so Stockton’s surrounding town continued to grow. From just 120 non-brickdwellings in 1666, Stockton had grown into a busy Hanoverian town by the mid 1700’s.

It was at this time that it was decided to build a new Town Hall on the site of an old toll booth & cells. Stockton’s new Town Hall was completed in 1735 and extended further in 1744. It has since provided the town with a focal point and landmark and is still used to this day.

Recent History

Stockton continued in it’s port-based state for many years to come, and although shipping and shipbuilding continued to flourish during these years, Stockton’s housing and Town slowly began to deteriorate into ruin and slum. This resulted in a slum clearance programme in the early 1920’s.

After this period, the town, like the rest of Britain, fell to the ravages of the depression and Stockton’s industries on which it depended all began to fall upon hard times. Shipping and shipbuilding all but disappeared. 1932 saw the closure of Blair’s shipyard after over 90 years, with the loss of 1600 jobs and in 1935, 250 local people marched to London in a protest against the increasing unemployment.

It took a lot of years for Stockton to recover from this period.

Redevelopement

In 1987, the Conservative government led by Mrs. Thatcher launched what was to become the best thing to happen to Stockton (and surrounding areas) for quite some time. It was this government that dreamt up the idea of development corporations set up purely with the purpose of redeveloping old industrial sites. This proved to be one of the best things that the government of the time could have done for the area. Some might even say it was the ONLY thing they did (oops sorry, am I being political there ?!!). Joking aside, the TDC was a godsend to the area, which was falling into serious disrepair, and Stockton seems to have benefitted from the TDC’s hard work more than others. It was the TDC that initiated work on Teesside Park on the site of the old Stockton Racecourse, the Teesdale area on the old industrial side of the river, where Head Wrightsons factory once stood and the Tees Barrage incorporating the Whitewater course, built to control the level upstream. All in all, Stockton has had an up and down sort of a history. We are lucky in that we live in one of it’s more affluent ‘up’ periods. What’s more things are improving all the time and the future for Stockton seems to be a bright one.