Thornaby-on-Tees, United Kingdom

King Sweyn II of Denmark, on 9 September 1069, defeated the Normans at York by killing the entire garrison of 3,000 men. William swore an oath to take revenge on Sweyn by destroying every house and dwelling in the lands under Sweyn's rule, leaving all the land in the north east of Yorkshire barren and bare.

In the Domesday Book Thornaby is mentioned five times, Thornaby's first mention in the Domesday Book states: "Robert Malet has these lands and they are waste." It appears that they remained undeveloped until the early 19th century as "Thurnaby waaste" is mentioned in a poem by Tennyson called "The Northern Farmer."

Over the centuries there have been a number of different spellings of the name Thornaby including Turmozbi, Tormozbi, Tormozbia and Thurmozbi. The form Thornaby first appears in 1665 and refers to old Thornaby village, south western area of the present town which is near the River Tees as it flows north east.

It is said that Robert de Thormodbi, wounded in the Crusades at Acre, swore to raise a shrine to the Virgin Mary if he survived his wounds. He did, and as part of his wish a shrine niche to the Virgin Mary, lit by five sanctuary lamps, was placed in St Peter's Church. The most frequently recognised 5 Lamps in Thornaby were those erected at the top of George Street in what is now classed as Old Thornaby. These Lamps had the distinction of being a Bus Stop on the '0' service running between Stockton and Middlesbrough.

In 1825, old Thornaby was centred around St Peter's Church and the old village green. Thornaby Carrs (marshes) had been a site of intermittent horse racing before moving to the now former Stockton Racecourse after the River Tees was straightened in 1810, a short distance downstream. From 1825, industry started to be built south of Stockton's existing port industry as the Stockton and Darlington Railway had been established with old Stockton railway station on the other side of the bank. The first site was William Smith's pottery and the area quickly grew with shipbuilding and engineering companies established on the marshes. From 1840 until June 1987 heavy engineering firm Head Wrightson was a major employer in Thornaby.

The area developing on the south bank of the Tees opposite Stockton was initially known as South Stockton. As Stockton's port industry moved to Middlesbrough, shipbuilding was replaced by iron works. A new railway line opened up the area south of the river for further development, with a South Stockton railway station built in 1882.

The new settlement grew as a workforce for new industry, spreading south down and between Thornaby Road, the new Westbury Street, and Mandale Road (once known as Acklam Road). The built-up area of South Stockton grew to merge with the old village of Thornaby; on 6 October 1892 South Stockton and Thornaby formally merged to form a municipal borough which was named Thornaby-on-Tees. South Stockton station was renamed to Thornaby. Thornaby Town Hall was built for the old South Stockton Local Board, and was completed in 1892 a few months before the board was replaced by the new borough council.

The earliest known flying in Thornaby took place in 1912 when Matthew Young of the Vale Farm was paid 100 Gold Sovereigns for the use of a field for an airshow. Taking place on a Saturday afternoon in June or July, one of the main events was flying by Gustav Hamel, an early flying pioneer. The next known use was by the Royal Flying Corps who used the same fields between 1914 and 1918 as a staging post between Catterick and Marske aerodromes.

In about 1925 negotiations began on the opening of a full-time aerodrome and in the late 1920s the Air Ministry constructed an airfield to the south of the town and the station which was the second permanent aerodrome to be built in Yorkshire (the first being Catterick) was opened on 29 September 1929. During the Second World War, Thornaby came under the control of 18 group, Coastal Command, before this however it had come under Flying Training, Fighter and Bomber Commands, and post-war under Reserve and Fighter Commands, at this time (post-war) it was also used by the Royal Air Force Regiment. During the war a variety of tasks were carried out from RAF Thornaby, such as, attacks on targets in Europe, anti-submarine patrols, operational training, strikes against enemy shipping, leaflet dropping and air sea rescue operations.