Hartlepool (pronounced HART-lee-pool) is a North Sea port in North East England. It is part of the traditional county of Durham, and, in 1974, formed part of the new metropolitan county of Cleveland. After the abolition of Cleveland, it was placed in the ceremonial county of Durham, but is governed by a unitary authority.
It was founded as a village in the 7th century AD, springing up around a nearby monastery. By the start of the nineteenth century it still had a population of only a thousand, but it boomed during the industrial revolution and in 2001 had a resident population of 88,611.
The modern town represents a joining together of "Old Hartlepool", locally known as the "headland" and an ancient settlement of uncertain foundation and West Hartlepool, a town founded around the docks and railway about 1km to the south of the original settlement in the early 19th Century. What was West Hartlepool became the larger town and the town were formally joined in 1967. Today the term "West hartlepool" is rarely heard outwith a sporting context, as a famous, but rather unsuccessful Rugby Union team bears the name.
Between 8.10 and 9.30 am on the morning of 16 December 1914, units of the Imperial German Navy bombarded Hartlepool, West Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough with a total of 1150 shells, killing 137 people and wounding 592. Two coastal defence batteries at Hartlepool returned fire, firing 143 shells, damaging 3 German ships including the battlecruiser SMS Blucher. An attempt by the German High Command to repeat the attack a month later led to the Battle of Dogger Bank on 24 January 1915.
Hartlepool is famous for allegedly executing a monkey, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, during the Napoleonic Wars. Not knowing what a Frenchman looked like, and with the monkey unable to defend himself against accusations of spying, they hanged the monkey. The story is unconfirmed, originally coming from gossip from the fishermen of Seaton Carew, a small village on the outskirts of the town.
"Monkey hangers" is a common term of (semi-friendly) abuse aimed at "Poolies", often from bitter footballing rivals Darlington.
In accordance with this legend, the mascot of Hartlepool United F.C. is H'Angus the monkey, real name Stuart Drummond, who in 2002 became the first directly-elected Mayor of Hartlepool. He campaigned on a platform which included free bananas for schoolchildren.
The Hartlepool constituency was represented in the House of Commons from 1929 until 1931 by the early feminist Doctor Marion Phillips who campaigned for safer family-friendly homes among other things and from 1992 until summer 2004 by Labour MP, Peter Mandelson.
Mr Mandelson resigned to take up a role in the European Commission. The by-election on September 30 was a win for Labour's Iain Wright in spite of an 18% swing to the Liberal Democrats.
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Last updated: 05-23-2005 00:53:54
