Things you didn't know about... Cleveland

Cleveland boasts the widest high street in Britain
Stockton-on-Tees High Street was once wide enough to accommodate two lanes of parked cars as well as two lanes of traffic.

The safety match was invented in Cleveland
John Walker struck gold with his safety match in Stockton-on-Tees in 1781.

Cleveland is the birthplace of the railway
The world's first steam-hauled passenger train ran between Stockton and Darlington. Stockton's railway station is the oldest in the world.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge—made in Cleveland
The steel used to build the bridge was from the Cleveland town of Middlesbrough. The bridge actually has "Made in Middlesbrough" stamped on its side.

Cleveland was the inspiration for Blade Runner
Ridley Scott, director of the classic sci-fi movie Blade Runner, has said that the opening of the movie was inspired by Redcar's industrial skyline.

Cliff Richard wrote Summer Holiday in Cleveland
Cliff was performing with The Shadows at Stockton's Globe Theatre when the group wrote the lyrics to the evergreen summer standard.

Chris Rea's career began in Cleveland
The singer's family ice-cream parlour in Middlesbrough was the stuff of legend. As a budding young musician, Chris Rea would play for the customers.

Cleveland has Britain's oldest remaining water-balanced lift
The lift at Saltburn-by-the-sea, known as the Saltburn tramway, connects the town with the pier.

Captain Cook was from Cleveland
The man who discovered Australia was born in Middlesbrough in 1728. The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum can be found in Marton. In the Cleveland town of Stockton, you can climb aboard a full-size replica of HMS Bark Endeavour, the ship in which Cook sailed the South Seas.

Cleveland boasts one of England's smallest churches
St Andrews at Upleatham measures just 5.5 m by 4.5 m.

A monkey was hung for being a spy in Cleveland
During the Napoleonic wars, a French ship carrying a pet monkey washed up in Hartlepool. The authorities thought the monkey was a French spy, so the unfortunate primate was sentenced to death and hung from the ship's gallows.