This Is Tees Valley Issue 6 | Page 10

BUILDING THE

Tees icons – clockwise from top: the Transporter Bridge, SeAH Wind, Teesside University’ s Digital Life, Middlesbrough FC’ s Riverside Stadium, Stockton’ s Infinity Bridge and the refurbished Darlington Station. Image created with AI.

FUTURE

This is not the Tees Valley many people think they know

There are places that wait for the future to arrive. And there are places that build it.

The Tees Valley knows better than most that prosperity is never guaranteed.
Over the decades, this region has endured more than its share of industrial upheaval. Industries that once defined generations have contracted dramatically. Much of the steelmaking capacity that earned Middlesbrough the nickname Ironopolis has gone, while large-scale shipbuilding that once lined the River Tees has become part of history.
But if the industries changed, the people never did.
The determination, ingenuity and resilience that built one of the world’ s great industrial regions remain deeply embedded in the character of Teesside. As Teessider Dunstan Bruce memorably sang with Chumbawamba:“ I get knocked down, but I get up again.” Few places embody that spirit more completely.
Today, the men of iron and women of steel are writing a new chapter.
This is not the Tees Valley many people think they know.
This is one of the UK’ s most ambitious regions- a place where industrial heritage, global trade, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and digital innovation are converging to create something nationally significant.
And increasingly, the world is taking notice.
For generations, Teesside has helped build modern Britain. Its steel, chemicals, engineering and shipping powered economies and transformed
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