Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, seize what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.
for large military guns see Large-calibre artillery
for the arcade game equipment see SuperGun
the Iraq "Supergun affair" (a contemporary of Arms-to-Iraq)
Middlesbrough ( (listen) MID-əlz-brə) is a large town in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the River Tees's southern bank, west of Redcar and east of Stockton-on-Tees. The Borough of Middlesbrough is governed from the town.
Until the early 1800s, the area was rural farming land. By 1830, a new town and port had begun to be developed, driven by the coal industry and later ironworks. Steel production and ship building began in the late 1800s, and remained associated with the town until post-industrial decline occurred in the late twentieth century. Trade, notably through ports, and digital enterprise sectors contemporarily contribute to the local economy. Teesside University is also based in the town.
Erimus ("We shall be" in Latin), the town's motto, reflects Fuimus ("We have been") of the Norman/Scottish Bruce clan, the mediaeval lords of Cleveland. The town's coat of arms is an azure (blue) lion, from the Bruce family arms, a star (from Captain James Cook's arms) and two ships representing shipbuilding and maritime trade.In 1853, the town received its Royal Charter of Incorporation. In 1889, the North Riding of Yorkshire became an administrative county, the town's municipal borough also became a county borough. From 1968 until 1974, boroughs and parishes from County Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire formed the County Borough of Teesside. Cleveland non-metropolitan county was created in 1974, this was until 1996 when the Middlesbrough Borough Council (now known as Middlesbrough Council) became a unitary authority in North Yorkshire. The authority forms part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority.
The borough had an estimated population of 140,980 in 2019, the 155th most populous district of England. At the 2011 census, the Middlesbrough subdivision of the Teesside built-up area had a population of 174,700, the population is larger due to an area outside the council area known as Greater Eston. The built-up area, of which Middlesbrough forms the largest part, had a population of 376,633.