Middlesbrough

Yes, honestly.

But not the Infant Hercules by the River Tees, for Middlesbrough is the name of the spur opposite at the foot of Black Hambleton.

The one with the small copse on top, Moor House Plantation, and surrounded by fields, ‘improved’ moorland to fatten up the cattle while their drovers rested at the Chequers Inn, on the left, at the head of Slape Stones Beck.

Which begs the question: is the name derived from the Anglo-Saxon Mydilsburgh like our Ironopolis to the north? The Hambleton Drove Road could date from that period.

So which came first?