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Stockton (River-port of England)

a river-port of England, in the county of Durham, 11 miles E. N.

E. of Darlington; on the left bank of the Tees; 4 miles above its mouth. Its Anglican churches include St. Thomas's (1712; restored 1859), with a tower 80 feet high, St. James's (1868), in French First Pointed style, with a spire of 130 feet, and St. John's (1872), a brick edifice of the basilica type; and of numerous non-established places of worship; the finest are the Roman Catholic St. Mary's (1842-1870), designed by the elder Pugin Pu in Early English style, and the United United Presbyterian St. Andrew's (1861).

Other buildings are the town hall and assembly rooms (1735), the borough hall (1852), exchange (1874), postoffice (1878), free-masons' hall (1872), surgical hospital (1875), and a cattle market constructed (1876). Stockton is now an important railway center. Its harbor, also, improved by a cutting below the town (1808), carries on an extensive trade. A former residence of the Bishop of Durham, Stockton was taken by the Scotch in 1645, and seven years later its castle was demolished by Parliament.

Pop. about 60,000.