Much of Thorntree stands on what used to be a farmland. In all, 138 acres of Thorntree Farm and 68 acres of Low Bottoms Farm were purchased as land on which to site the estate.

Back in the 1930s there was even talk of building a civil airport at what is now Thorntree. However this plan never got off the ground.

The development site chosen for the estate had many striking natural advantages. In particular, there was an excellent view of the Cleveland Hills and Eston Nab.

 The boundaries of the estate - College Road to the north, Spencer Beck and Low Bottoms Farms to the south; Cargo Fleet Lane in the west, and Spencer Beck (the borough boundary) in the east, enclosed an area of approximately 250.75 acres.

 Of this 144 acres were earmarked for housing, 59 acres were to be taken up by community buildings and open spaces, and the remaining 47.75 acres were to be used as a cemetery.

In July 1944 two alternative development plans, each claiming to provide the best possible layout for Thorntree estate, were presented to Middlesbrough Housing Committee.

 One scheme was the brainchild of the town's planning Consultant, Mr Max Lock; the other plan being submitted by Mr C Gorman, the borough Engineer. The Housing Committee and the Council preferred Mr Gorman's scheme as did the Ministry of Health, the Government Department, which at the time was responsible for overseeing British housing policy.

The Housing Sub-Committee, however, were convinced that Mr Locks’ scheme was the better of the two plans, and therefore recommended that his development plan be adopted.

 Early in March 1945, as a gesture of reconciliation, the Sub-Committee suggested that a joint plan drafted by Mr Lock, Mr Gorman and the towns mayor, Mr Ridley-Kitching, would provide a satisfactory compromise.

It appeared that the joint plan would be accepted, However later in the month the Corporation made a sharp about-turn when it suddenly decided to choose Mr Gorman's scheme in preference to the collaborative plan.

 This decision was to be final. So after much debate the future of Thorntree had been decided. Planned as an extension to Brambles Farm Housing Estate, the building of Thorntree began in May 1946.

When the last twelve bungalows were completed in November 1951, the house-building programme was almost at the end. All that remained was to build a number of bungalows and a hostel for old age pensioners. This was to be done at some future date.

The original plan was to erect a total of 1560 houses. In the event 1566 houses were built, at a total cost of approximately £1,723,697. Mainly 3-bedroom 'working kitchen' and 'dining-kitchen' houses were built at Thorntree.

 The difference between these two types of house was that the first had a separate dining room, while in the second had a kitchen which doubled up as a dining area. The houses were to be built either in terrace blocks of four, six or eight houses.

 A small number of one bedroom working-kitchens flatlets were built on the estate. Two and four bedroom variants of the working-kitchen house were erected in large numbers.

On the ground floor of both types of three-bedroom house you had a kitchen and pantry, a dining area, a living room and a hall, with both pram space and a meter cupboard under the stairs.

 On the first floor, in addition to the three bedrooms you had a bathroom and a separate toilet. Outside, a wash house, fuel bunker and a second toilet were provided.

 This internal layout was copied for the two and four bedroom variants of the working -kitchen house.

The large number of prefabricated houses built in Thorntree, are of great interest. In all, 255 such houses were built on the estate. The Blackburn Aircraft Company erected 20 permanent aluminium bungalows in Alverton Close.

 On Thorntree Cemetery Land in the Conway Drive area, 135 American-style' Arcon temporary bungalows were erected and 100 BISF (British Iron and Steel federation) permanent houses were built, all of which are still standing on Barrington and Beresford Crescents.

 Care was taken to provide enough housing on the estate for old Age Pensioners.

Ample communal and recreation facilities-shops, schools, churches, parks, a library, a cinema etc, were built at Thorntree to compensate for the shortcomings of such facilities at Brambles Farm.

 They were intended to be used, by people living on both estates. By sharing recreational facilities, it was hoped that a link would be forged between the two communities. Similarly Thorntree was planned as three self-contained neighbourhoods, linked by shared community facilities of the estate.

The communal facilities were intended not only to meet the practical needs of those living on the estate, but were also supposed to encourage a sense of neighbourliness among the families at Thorntree.

 The facilities were grouped to focus neighbourhood life, and so foster a sense of community identity. The people housed on the estate were to be drawn from a range of different income groups. The resultant social mix was intended to encourage the gradual development of a vigorous neighbourhood life.