County Borough of Teesside councils in 1918, and was a pioneer operator of electric trolleybuses. The three undertakings adopted a common livery of turquoise and cream in 1967 in preparation for their amalgamation. On 1 April 1968 the combined fleet became Teesside Municipal Transport. Teesside initially operated a mixed fleet of trolleybuses and omnibuses, but on 4 April 1971 trolleybus operation ended. A formal closure ceremony was held two weeks later. Before 1968 the Teesside area was served by three police forces: Middlesbrough Borough Police, Durham Constabulary and the North Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary. It was originally envisaged that the new county borough would
English of Northumbria (spoken in mining towns such as Ashington), Mackem (spoken in Wearside) and arguably Smoggie (Teesside). It is spoken mainly if not exclusively in the modern day counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and Durham. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was much more extensive than this, covering most parts of Yorkshire, and some parts of Cumbria, Lancashire and Scotland. The major Northumbrian dialects today are Geordie, Northern Northumbrian, Western Northumbrian, Southern Northumbrian or Pitmatic, Mackem, and arguably Smoggie, which is transitional between Northumbrian and Yorkshire English. To an outsider's ear the similarities between the dialects far outweigh the differences between the