Middlesbrough St Hilda, Yorkshire Genealogy

England    Yorkshire  North Riding  Middlesbrough St Hilda

Parish History
The parish of St Hilda is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Yorkshire, created in 1744 from West Acklam, Yorkshire Ancient Parish; located on Market Place.

Other places in the parish include: Airsholme, Newport near Middlesbrough, Newport, and Linthorpe.

The parish is in the district of Cleveland, and bounded on the north by the Tees, which separates it from the county of Durham. It comprises, with the township of Linthorp, about 2300 acres, of which 600 are meadow and pasture, and the remainder, with the exception of a few acres of plantations, arable land in good cultivation. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of Thomas Hustler, Esq., of Acklam Hall. The church was erected in 1840, on the site of the ancient chapel of St. Hilda, at an expense of £2500, of which £500 were a grant from Her Majesty's Commissioners, £1200 the proceeds of a bazaar, and the remainder raised by subscription; it is a handsome structure in the later English style, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a lofty and well-proportioned spire, and contains 600 sittings, of which one-half are free. There are places of worship for Independents, Primitive Methodists, and Wesleyans. Of the ancient cell to Whitby Abbey no remains exist, but the cemetery is still used.

From: 'Mickleover - Middlesex', A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 301-306. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51147 Date accessed: 27 March 2011.

Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of the name. The element '-burgh', from the Old English burh (meaning 'fort') denotes an ancient fort or settlement of pre-Anglian origin. The spelling brough sets Middlesbrough apart from other English towns, which typically use the spelling borough.

It is not certain if Mydil was someone's name or a reference to its position (middle) in between the centres of Durham and Whitby). The burgh, though, may have included a monastic cell and was probably situated on the elevated land where the church of St Hilda's (demolished in 1969) was later built. The area around the church was demolished and subsequently redeveloped removing the terraced streets.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Contributor: Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts, nonconformist and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Census records
Contributor: Include an overview if there is any unique information, such as the census for X year was destroyed. Add a link to online sites for indexes and/or images. Also add a link to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Poor Law Unions
Stockton Poor Law Union, Durham

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Yorkshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.
 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Contributor: Add any relevant sites that aren’t mentioned above.