ABSTRACT
Billingham lies to the north of the River Tees in what was the former north-eastern county of Cleveland. St Michael’s School is now within the jurisdiction of the new unitary local education authority of Stockton-on-Tees and it is also located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. In economic terms the region has experienced a decline in employment in manufacturing industries but Billingham has a relative advantage in the continuing presence of ICI as a major employer and also from some new industrial development. This can be seen in the unemployment figures of the 1991 census which showed an overall rate of 12.1 per cent for Stockton-on-Tees compared with 10 per cent for Billingham.
