Stockton-on-Tees is a town in the northeast of England, sitting on the River Tees not far from where the river reaches the sea. The '-on-Tees' part tells you which river it stands on — English towns often add a river name like this to say exactly which place is meant, as in Stratford-upon-Avon or Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Its claim to fame is the railway. In 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, the first public railway in the world to carry passengers with steam engines, and that is why the name turns up in history books far from Britain. The area around it was heavy industry — shipbuilding, iron, chemicals — and much of that has gone, so today it is an ordinary working town rather than a tourist stop. Older books put it in the county of Cleveland; that county no longer exists, so newer ones may say County Durham or Teesside instead. Say it 'STOCK-tun on TEEZ'.