Middleton, Hartlepool
Coordinates: 54°41′35″N 1°11′43″W / 54.693°N 1.1954°W Middleton is a place in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast between the centre of Hartlepool/West Hartlepool and The Headland (or Hartelpool/Old Hartlepool/East Hartlepool).
It takes its name form the very fact it was a hillock, in the Dyke House Marshes, between the two areas. Ton is Anglo-Saxon and in this case means Hill, so it means "Middle Hill".
In the medieval era it has long been believed to have served as part of both the sea and military defence for the harbour. However as Hartlepool went into decline, and the town's fate was compared with that of Ancient Tyre, Middleton gradually lost its significance; by the late 18th century half of neighbouring Victoria and Commissioners Harbour was recorded as being half-filled in and used as a cornfield.
However in the early 19th century, Hartlepool's fate changed as the town began to industrialise, and the Greys, the Swansons, and the Jacksons began investing in the new docks that would emerge to the South, as the Dyke House Marshes where drained. Gradually Middleton re-emerged becoming more or less an island, in the centre of the new dockyards. Due to its prominent position, it seemed for some to be the ideal place to establish shipyards. At its height in the late 19th century, the island had three shipyards and two engineering works based on the Island of Middleton. Middleton was itself a community in its own right, consisting of three streets of terrace houses and a number of pubs. It was also home to a "Rocket House" which was used for signalling ships.
...
Wikipedia