THORNABY ON TEES

Thornaby is said to have come into its existence about 800 A.D.when the land was given by Halfdene, King of the Danes, to Thormod, one of his noblemen.

There are other signs of Thornaby being a much older or even prehistoric settlement.First of all, traces of prehistoric man have been found here, the earliest being a stone axe,8" long, dating back to the Mesolithic Period ( about 3000 B.C. ).In 1926 a dug out canoe said to date from about 1600 - 1400 B.C. was found in the mud under 8 feet of water opposite Thornaby High Wood.
An arrow head of the Neolithic Period (about 3000 B.C. )was found in a garden on the Thornaby Village Green.

Links to the Romans
Thornaby is said to have been a Roman camp but no trace is to be found.However Roman coins have been found in soil in allotment gardens and on the green. One shows ANTONINUS PIUS and is dated between 138 A.D. and 161 A.D. Another shows CONSTANTIUS 1 CHLORUS and is dated between 293 A.D. and 306 A.D.Another is from the AUGUSTIAN PERIOD (31 B.C.to 14 A.D.) and was found in blue clay under the old Jolly Farmers Inn

Domesday Book
During the Battle of Hastings (1066) one of William the Conquerors noblemen, ROBERT DE BRUS 1, marched north with a garrison of men and occupied the area of Cleveland. William gave him those lands to control including Thornaby and Middlesbrough.

Sweyn,the then King of Denmark was not happy with the idea of the Normans ruling over his people in the north and so , on Sept.9th 1069 he defeated the Normans at York by killing the entire garrison of 3000 men. William swore an oath to avenge Sweyn by destroting every house and dwelling in the lands under Sweyns rule, so leaving all the land in the north east of Yorkshire barren and bare.

This is why in Thornaby`s first mention in the Domeday Book it states:- " Robert Malet has these lands and they are waste." It appears they stayed waste until the early 19 th. century as " Thurnaby waaste " is mentioned in a poem by Tennyson called "The Northern Farmer.".

More Thornaby History courtesy of the Northern Echo

Thornaby was the village settled by a Viking called Thormad or Thormoth. The letters 'by' at the end of the name signify a Viking settlement, most probably of Danish origin. Over the centuries there have been a number of different spellings of the name Thornaby including Turmozbi, Thormozbi and Tormozbia in the eleventh century. Later spellings included Thormodby, Thormodebi, Thormotebi, Thormotheby and Thormotby. The form Thornaby first appears in 1665 and refers to old Thornaby village near the River Tees. In the nineteenth century old Thornaby, centred on St Peters Church and the old village green was gradually overshadowed by the burgeoning town of South Stockton. South Stockton was on the Yorkshire side of the Tees opposite Stockton on Tees. South Stockton, became the site of a pottery in 1825 and quickly grew with the establishment of shipbuilding and engineering in the area. Gradually South Stockton grew so big that it swallowed up the little village of Thornaby. On the sixth October 1892 South Stockton and Old Thornaby merged into one to form the municipal borough of Thornaby on Tees.

St.Peters Church
St Peter's church on Thornaby Green, dates back to the 11th & 12th Centuries.

The church is said to be one of the oldest and smallest buildings in the Tees Valley, still in full use for weddings, funerals, baptisms and christenings.There are a lot of facts about the church and the green which have been researched and can be seen on the Colin Appleby`s comprehensive study of ThornabyColin Appleby

Gravestones behind St.Peters date back to 1726.

Genuki History of Thornaby
There is a comprehensive listing about Thornaby In the 1800`s along with a list of trades and profesions,click on this linkGENUKI

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