The Development of Telecoms - Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough area covers North Yorkshire and South Durham. It consists of a heavy industrial belt on Teesside, which has grown up in the past 100 years and is still rapidly expanding; and sparsely populated agricultural country spreads over Weardale, Teesdale, Swaledale and Wensleydale extending to the watershed of the Pennine Range.
The area has the distinction of providing the communications for the largest chemical plant in the world, namely Imperial Chemical Industries, to whose established works at Billingham has recently been added the vast new works at Wilton; the two being connected by a tunnel under the Tees.
The other main industries of the area are steel and shipping; one-fifth of Great Britain's output of steel comes from Teesside, which makes it the largest steel producing area in the country. 42 per cent, of Great Britain's tonnage of new ships is built on the Tyne, Wear and Tees.
The area is 2,075 square miles in extent; it has 76 automatic exchanges, 25 manual, 34,227 exchange connections, 58,247 stations and 817 total staff. The total annual revenue of the area is £1,034,700.
