Town in County Durham, England
Hartlepool
The town that famously hanged a monkey as a French spy later elected a man in a monkey suit as its mayor.
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Key information
- County
- County Durham
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 92,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- The monkey-hanging legend, HMS Trincomalee, the Headland and a 1914 German bombardment
- What locals are called
- Hartlepudlians, or 'monkey hangers'
- Famous people
- Jeff Stelling, Christopher Furness, Brian Clough (early manager)
- Football clubs
- Hartlepool United ('Pools'), who play at Victoria Park
About Hartlepool
The monkey that was hanged as a spy
Every town has a legend, but Hartlepool's is the one that follows its people around the country. During the Napoleonic Wars, so the story goes, a French ship was wrecked off the coast and the only survivor washed ashore was a monkey, possibly dressed in a uniform for entertainment. The fishermen of the Headland had never seen a Frenchman, questioned the animal, got no answer and hanged it as a spy. Nobody can prove a word of it, which has never stopped football crowds singing about it. Locals have worn the nickname 'monkey hangers' with increasing pride, and the town's football club turned the monkey into its mascot, H'Angus. Then, in 2002, the joke became politics. Stuart Drummond, who had been appearing as H'Angus at matches, stood for mayor in the monkey costume, promised free bananas for schoolchildren, and won. He was re-elected in 2005 and 2009 before the post was abolished in 2013.
A saint, a headland and a monastery by the sea
Hartlepool's story starts long before shipyards. Around 640 a monastery was founded here by Hieu, and around 649 the noblewoman Hild became its abbess. She later went on to found the famous abbey at Whitby in 657. The name comes from the Old English for 'island of the hart', a nod to the Headland jutting into the North Sea. That Headland is still the oldest part of town. St Hilda's Church dominates it, and stretches of the medieval town wall survive, built to keep out Scottish raiders. The Headland was a fishing community for centuries, close-knit and a bit apart from everything behind it, which helps explain why the monkey story took hold.
The town that was invented twice
Modern Hartlepool is really two towns that merged. In the 1840s a businessman named Ralph Ward Jackson built a rival port and railway-linked dock to the south and called it West Hartlepool. It grew fast, shipping coal from the Durham coalfield and building ships and engines. Christopher Furness, born in West Hartlepool in 1852, built a shipping empire here and became Baron Furness. The two Hartlepools were officially merged in 1967. Heavy industry, including shipbuilding, steelmaking and later a nuclear power station that opened in 1983, shaped the town's character and its fortunes.
The day Germany shelled a British town
On 16 December 1914, German battle cruisers appeared off the coast and opened fire on Hartlepool, along with Scarborough and Whitby. About 130 people were killed in Hartlepool. Private Theophilus Jones of the Durham Light Infantry is remembered as the first British soldier killed on home soil in the First World War. The Heugh Battery on the Headland fired back and has been preserved as a museum. The raid shocked the nation and became a recruitment slogan: 'Remember Scarborough'.
A historic frigate built after Trafalgar
The star of the Historic Quay is HMS Trincomalee, a frigate built from Malabar teak in Bombay and launched in 1817, twelve years after the Battle of Trafalgar. She is one of the oldest warships still afloat in Europe and has been restored at Hartlepool since 1987. Nearby sits the paddle steamer PSS Wingfield Castle, built in 1934, and a recreated 18th-century quayside. Hartlepool has also hosted the Tall Ships Races, filling its marina with sails in 2010.
Pools, Clough and a very Northern Saturday
Hartlepool United, known as Pools, play at Victoria Park near the town centre. In 1965 a 30-year-old Brian Clough became their manager, then the youngest in the Football League, and with Peter Taylor began the partnership that would later conquer Europe with Nottingham Forest. The town's best-known broadcasting voice, Jeff Stelling, was born here and later became the club's honorary president. Local food is classic North East comfort: stottie cakes, pease pudding and chips eaten within sniffing distance of the sea at Seaton Carew.