History of Hartlepool
The town of Hartlepool on the North East coast is a place with a very colourful history. The town itself is now called Hartlepool, though until 1966 there were in fact two towns, Old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool.
There are many explanations as to the name Hartlepool, though I think that the town is happy with its association with the word Hart as being associated with a term used centuries ago for Deer, hence the fantastic bronze statue depicting a magnificent Stag in the town.
There are historical records dating back to 647 AD, at which time it was closely associated with the Church, with an Sandwell Gate, part of the sea defence wall.Anglo-Saxon monastery, which was founded in 640 A.D by St Aidan for both men and women and its first abbess was an Irish princess by the name of Hieu. In 649 A.D Hieu was succeeded by St Hilda who was to be at Hartlepool until 657 A.D when she founded the monastery at Whitby.
The town was destroyed by the Danes in the ninth century after the decline of the Monastery. The site of the monastery is now the beautiful St Hilda's church, which dates back to the thirteenth century.
As with much of England at this time, the area was given over to forest, and is in the record books as late as the thirteenth century. The ancient Anglo Saxon name for Hartlepool was Heret eu, which translates to Stag Island , which is a reference to either the stag's head shape of the headland or in reference to the areas abundance of deer.
The headland of Hartlepool was to become the important feature for the town that grew around the Monastery. The natural harbour was to become one of the most important in the North East. The fishing industry was always an important part of life in the town, like so many other fishing towns the industry is now almost gone forever.
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The importance of Hartlepool is evident from the fortifications, which were built in the thirteenth century. The fortifications were built by Robert Bruce the grandfather of the famous King of Scotland of the same name. The Bruce's acquired Hartlepool after the Norman Conquest and ownership was to be disputed over many times with the Bishops of Durham. Some of the town wall still stands including the Sandwell Gate where the walls are over eight feet thick and provided defence from attack by sea from the Scottish.
The towns importance during the Middle Ages was such that it regularly was the target for pirates who hampered the trade of the ports. In August 1561 the people of Hartlepool were asked to remain vigilant when the activities of Mary Queen of Scots came under close scrutiny. Eight years later during the Rising of the North in 1569 the Spanish ambassador had instructed northern rebels to capture Hartlepool in order that the Duke of Alva might land troops from the Netherlands to lend Hartlepool Art Gallery their support.
Plans for Hartlepool were said to have been in the possession of the French after the Siege of Dunbar in 1650, such was the importance of the town the French hoped to seize the town and use it as a staging post for the invasion of England.
In the eighteenth century the importance of Hartlepool as a port was in decline and the harbour fell into disrepair. Things went so far as to close the mouth of the harbour and corn was grown. In 1813 a petition saw the harbour saved and reopened.
One of the best known stories in Hartlepool is the Hanging of the Monkey. The root of the story is that a French ship, of the Napoleonic period, foundered off Hartlepool , amongst wreckage washed ashore was a single survivor, the ships pet monkey, which had been dressed by the crew in military attire.
Bronze Monkey charity collection cupHaving never met a Frenchman the fishermen questioned and interrogated the monkey and held trial on the beach. They found the monkey to be a French Spy and sentence was death. The unfortunate creature was sentenced to death and was hung from the mast of a boat on the beach.
In former times, when war and strife
The French invasion threaten'd life
An' all was armed to the knife
The Fisherman hung the monkey O !
The Fishermen with courage high,
Siezed on the monkey for a French spy;
"Hang him !" says one; "he's to die"
They did and they hung the monkey Oh!
They tried every means to make him speak
And tortured the monkey till loud he did speak;
Says yen "thats french" says another "its Greek"
For the fishermen had got druncky oh!
In the nineteenth century the small port of Old Hartlepool was made up entirely of Fishermen, it was hard to believe it had been one of the busiest ports on the eastern coast.
The North East's importance was growing with the development of the coal field and industry the need for ports to ship coal was growing. The opening of the Stockton to Hartlepool railway in 1839 was to see the importance of the town rise again.
The man who was to have major impact on the town was to take over the running of the railway, he was a solicitor named Ralph Ward Jackson. When restrictions were imposed in the Victoria docks of Old Hartlepool, Jackson established the West Hartlepool Dock Company to the south of the old town. The birth of a new town West Hartlepool was to over shadow the Old Town . By 1900 the two ports would be in the top five busiest ports in the country, with West Hartlepool having grown to a population of over 60,000.
The importance of Hartlepool grew with ship building and steel being important. The first action by the Germans in World War One was to be at 08.07 hours on Wednesday the 16 th of December 1914 when the Germans bombarded Hartlepool from the sea, killing over 100 and wounding over 200.
The decline of heavy industry saw the decline of the town once again and the last ship built in Hartlepool was to be in 1961. In 1967 the two towns were to become Hartlepool as she is known today.
Modern Hartlepool has seen new life again in the docks with a new Marina having been created, along with other tourist attractions such as the Museum of Hartlepool and the Hartlepool Historic Quay, which is a re-creation of a Napoleonic port. Hartlepool has also established itself as a centre for ship restoration, its most famous export being HMS Warrior (1860) , the world's first iron-clad battleship. The ship was restored in Hartlepool from 1979 and now is moored in Portsmouth as a splendid tourist attraction. Two ships are in for restoration includes the 1817 frigate Trincomalee (formarly known as the Fourdroyant) and the paddle steamer (built in Hartlepool in 1934) Wingfield Castle . The town boasts a range of new shopping centres including Jackson 's Landinga factory shopping complex within the marina area.
A famous son of Hartle pool has to be the creator of the cartoon strip Andy Capp, which was syndicated to 1400 newspapers in 31 countries, read by 175 million people and translated into 13 languages, the strip - based on the flat-capped Northerner and the pun 'handicap' - became a national institution. Reg unfortunatly passed away on the 13th of June 1998 in Hartlepool the town he always loved.
For more information visit the links below:
http://www.contango.demon.co.uk/hartlepool.html
http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/Hartlepool.htm
