|
|
|
|
Hartlepool
|
| |
|
| |
Hartlepool is a North Sea port in North East England. It is within the unitary authority area of the Borough of Hartlepool, for ceremonial purposes part of County Durham.
lepool was founded as a village in the 7th century AD, springing up around Hartlepool Abbey, founded in 640 on a headland overlooking a natural harbour. The monastery became famous under St Hilda, who served as its abbess from 649-657, but it fell into decline and was likely destroyed by the Vikings in 800.
The place name derives from Old English *heort-ieg "hart island", referring to stags seen, and pol, "pool".
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Hartlepool' Start a new discussion about 'Hartlepool' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Hartlepool is a North Sea port in North East England. It is within the unitary authority area of the Borough of Hartlepool, for ceremonial purposes part of County Durham.
History
Hartlepool was founded as a village in the 7th century AD, springing up around Hartlepool Abbey, founded in 640 on a headland overlooking a natural harbour. The monastery became famous under St Hilda, who served as its abbess from 649-657, but it fell into decline and was likely destroyed by the Vikings in 800.
The place name derives from Old English *heort-ieg "hart island", referring to stags seen, and pol, "pool". Records of the place-name from early sources confirm this:
- 649: Heretu, or Hereteu
- 1017: Herterpol, or Hertelpolle
- 1182: Hierdepol
Hart is the Old English name for a stag or deer which appears on the towns crest and le pool meant by the sea, people moved here to hunt where there were deer by the sea and eventually settled there.The petrified forest below the sea provides proof that hart (deer) did once live in a forest by the sea.
During the Middle Ages the village grew into an important (though still small) town, gaining a market and walls, and its harbour was improved to serve as the official port of the County palatine of Durham.
The town had medicinal springs, particularly the chalybeate spa near the Westgate. Thomas Gray the famous poet ('Elegy in a Country Churchyard') visited in July 1765 to take the waters, and wrote to his friend Dr Wharton:
'I have been for two days to taste the water, and do assure you that nothing could be salter and bitterer and nastier and better for you... I am delighted with the place; there are the finest walks and rocks and caverns...'
A few weeks later, he wrote in greater detail:
'The rocks, the sea and the weather there more than made up to me the want of bread and the want of water, two capital defects, but of which I learned from the inhabitants not to be sensible. They live on the refuse of their own fish-market, with a few potatoes, and a reasonable quantity of Geneva [gin] six days in the week, and I have nowhere seen a taller, more robust or healthy race: every house full of ruddy broad-faced children. Nobody dies but of drowning or old-age: nobody poor but from drunkenness or mere laziness.'
Isambard Kingdom Brunel visited the town in December 1831 and wrote: 'A curiously isolated old fishing town - a remarkably fine race of men. Went to the top of the church tower for a view.'
Hartlepool's harbour made it a convenient outlet for the coalfields of South Durham and in 1835 a railway was built to enable South Durham coal to be exported. A rival railway was built in 1847 and docks were established at its terminus, around which a new town, West Hartlepool, was founded by Ralph Ward Jackson.
The two communities grew very rapidly, from a population of only a thousand at the start of the 19th century to 64,000 in 1891. The modern town represents a joining together of "Old Hartlepool", locally known as the "headland", and West Hartlepool. What was West Hartlepool became the larger town and the two were formally joined in 1967. Today the term "West Hartlepool" is rarely heard outside the context of sport, but the town's only premier Rugby Union team still proudly retain the name (See Sports below)
The name of the town's professional football club reflected the two boroughs; when it was formed in 1908, following the success of West Hartlepool in winning the FA Amateur Cup in 1905, it was called "Hartlepools United" in the hope of attracting support from both towns. When the boroughs combined in 1967 the club renamed itself "Hartlepool" before renaming itself Hartlepool United in the 1970s. Many fans of the club still refer to the team as "Pools".
The area became heavily industrialised with an ironworks (established 1838) and shipyards in the docks (established in the 1870s). By 1913, no fewer than 43 ship-owning companies were located in the town, with responsibility for 236 ships. This made it a key target for Germany in the First World War. One of the first German offensives against Britain was the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on the morning of 16 December 1914, when units of the Imperial German Navy bombarded Hartlepool, West Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough. Hartlepool was hit with a total of 1150 shells, killing 117 people.
Two coastal defence batteries at Hartlepool returned fire, firing 143 shells, damaging three German ships: SMS Seydlitz, SMS Moltke and SMS Blücher. The Hartlepool engagement lasted roughly 50 minutes, and the coastal artillery defence was supported by the Royal Navy in the form of four destroyers, two light cruisers and a submarine, none of which had any significant impact on the German attackers.
As a result of this bombardment, the first military casualty on British soil since the English Civil War fell, Private Theophilus Jones of the 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. This event is commemorated by a plaque at the spot on the Headland, and a living history group, the Hartlepool Military Heritage Memorial Society, who portray men of that unit for educational and memorial purposes.
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 at which the Blücher was sunk. During World War II, RAF Greatham (also known as RAF West Hartlepool) was located on the current South British Steel Works.
Hartlepool suffered badly in the Great Depression of the 1930s and suffered high unemployment until the start of the Second World War, during which its shipbuilding and steel-making industries enjoyed a renaissance. Most of its output for the war effort were "Empire Ships". German bombers raided the town 43 times. After the war, both industries went into a severe decline. "Blanchland", the last ship to be constructed in Hartlepool, left the slips in 1961. There was a boost to the retail sector in 1968 when Middleton Grange Shopping Centre was opened by Princess Anne, with over 130 new shops including Marks & Spencer and Woolworths.
Before the shopping centre was opened, the old town centre was located around Lynn Street, but most of the shops and the market had moved to a new shopping centre by 1974. Most of Lynn Street had by then been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. Only the north end of the street remains, now called Lynn Street North. This is where the Hartlepool Borough Council depot was based (alongside the Focus DIY store) until it moved to the marina in August 2006. By the 1980s the area was again severely affected by unemployment. A series of major investment projects in the 1990s revived the town centre with a new marina, rehabilitation of derelict land, the indoor conversion to modernise Middleton Grange Shopping Centre from the 1960s brutalist architecture, the Historic Quay regeneration, and the construction of much new housing, which has led to the town becoming improbably chic in recent years.
Hartlepool nuclear power station is an advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) type nuclear power plant opened near Hartlepool in the 1980s.
Members of Parliament
Hartlepool is presented in the House of Commons by one Member of Parliament. The current MP for the Hartlepool constituency is Iain Wright of the Labour Party. He was first elected in a by-election on 30 September 2004 with a much-reduced majority following an 18% swing to the Liberal Democrats. He retained the seat with a greatly increased majority in the 2005 UK general election.
Former Members of Parliament for Hartlepool since 1945 have been:
Mr Mandelson resigned to take up a role in the European Commission. On 13 October 2008 he was created Baron Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool following his appointment as Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in the British Government.
Geography
Nearby towns and cities
Local Areas / Villages
Education
Hartlepool has six Secondary schools, with an expected closure of one due to decreasing student numbers. The town has a diverse selection with both Catholic and Church of England schools.
The town plans to receive funding from central government to improve school buildings and facilties, as a part of the Building Schools for the Future Program.
Hartlepool College of Further Education is an educational establishment in the town of Hartlepool, Teesside, UK. Its main campus is located in the very centre of the town at the hub of all major road routes to the surrounding area, and is within a few minutes walk of Hartlepool Railway Station.
The College has been established for well over a century in various forms, but the current campus was built in the 1960s alongside the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, on formerly-residential land that was redeveloped after heavy damage during World War Two. This building is set to be replaced with a new £62million custom-designed building. The new campus was approved in principle July 2008, and is set to be completed in 2011.
A campus of Cleveland College of Art & Design, the only remaining specialist art and design college in the North East in either of the Further or Higher Education sectors, is also based in Hartlepool, alongside the Art Gallery in Church Square. The College has two further sites, both in nearby Middlesbrough.
Economy
History
Maritime
Entertainment and shopping
Leisure
Transport
Road
Hartlepool is served by two primary routes which are the A179 road and the A689 road, both linking the town to the A19 road. The A179 road is the main road to the north west which leads to the A19 road, Durham and Tyneside. The A689 road is the main road to the south west towards the A19 & Billingham, Stockton, Middlesbrough and York. The A178 road leads south to Seaton Carew, Graythorpe, Seal Sands, Port Clarence and Middlesbrough via the Transporter bridge. The A1086 road leads north to Crimdon, Blackhall, Horden and Easington.
Rail
Hartlepool is served by Hartlepool railway station which is on the Durham Coast Line with hourly services to Newcastle and Middlesbrough which are provided by Northern Rail. There is a new service to London from Sunderland provided by Grand Central that uses former InterCity 125mph trains. This is the first time in 15 years that Hartlepool has had a direct link to London by train.Seaton Carew railway station is also located on Seaton Lane
Bus
Hartlepool has services provided by Stagecoach Group around the town and to Billingham, Stockton and Middlesbrough. Other services are provided by Arriva and Go North East to Peterlee, Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle.
Sea
Hartlepool has been a major seaport virtually since it was founded, and has throughout its entire history maintained a proud fishing heritage. During the industrial revolution massive new docks were created on the southern side of the channel running below the Headland, which gave rise to the town of West Hartlepool. These docks are still in use today and still capable of handling vessels of virtually all shapes and sizes.
However, the capacity of the docks is now a fraction of what it once was, as after years of industrial downturn, a large portion of the former dockland was converted into a Superior Marina, capable of berthing 500 vessels. Hartlepool Marina is home to a wide variety of pleasure and working craft, with passage to and from the sea being determined by a lock, and visitors are always welcome to lay over and enjoy the hospitality of the town.
Hartlepool also has a permanent RNLI lifeboat station.
Sport
Football
Hartlepool United is the town's professional football club and they play at Victoria Park, Hartlepool. They won promotion to League One for the 2007–08 season. Their first season back in League One, after a brief absent, they finished 15th. In December 2008, the club parted company with, then manager, Danny Wilson. The clubs most famous day, was back in 2005, when they were just 8 minutes away from Englands 2nd tier, Championship, when Chris Westwood gave away a penalty and Sheffield Wednesday pipped Hartlepool to a place in the Championship. The supporters of the club bear the nickname of Monkey Hangers. This is based upon legend that during the Napoleonic wars a ship's mascot was hanged for being a French spy.
Rugby Union
West Hartlepool R.F.C. are more commonly known as "West" and in the 2007 - 2008 season they won the North 2 East league title and were promoted to North 1 (which is the 5 tier of the national league structure). In the mid-1990s, West were the pride of North East rugby union and played in what is now the Guinness Premiership. West were then hit by bankruptcy and they controversially sold their Brierton Lane stadium. There then followed a succession of relegations when professional players deserted the club, leaving West to pay off their debts which was a consequence of the clubs ambitious pursuit of professionalism.
Tall Ships' Races
On 28 June 2006, Hartlepool celebrated after winning its bid to host The Tall Ships' Races. The town will welcome up to 125 tall ships in 2010, after being chosen by race organiser Sail Training International to be the finishing point for the race. Hartlepool will greet the ships, which will have sailed from Kristiansand in Norway on the second and final leg of the race.
Local media
Monkeys
Hartlepool is famous for allegedly executing a monkey during the Napoleonic Wars. According to legend, fishermen from Hartlepool watched a French warship founder off the coast, and the only survivor was a monkey, which was dressed in French military uniform, presumably to amuse the officers on the ship. The unsophisticated fishermen assumed that this must be what Frenchmen looked like, and after a brief trial, summarily executed the monkey.
Although a popular story, it seems unlikely to be true. Historians have also pointed to the prior existence of a Scottish folk song called "And the Boddamers hung the Monkey-O". It describes how a monkey survived a shipwreck off the village of Boddam near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. Because the villagers could only claim salvage rights if there were no survivors from the wreck, they allegedly hanged the monkey.
There is also a folk song by Little Billy Fayne about the Hartlepool hanging.
"Monkey hanger" and Chimp Choker are common terms of (semi-friendly) abuse aimed at "Poolies", often from bitter footballing rivals Darlington. The mascot of Hartlepool United F.C. is H'Angus the monkey. The man in the monkey costume, Stuart Drummond, stood for the post of Mayor in 2002 as H'angus the monkey, and campaigned on a platform which included free bananas for schoolchildren. To widespread surprise, he won, becoming the first directly-elected Mayor of Hartlepool, winning 7,400 votes with a 52% share of the vote and a turnout of 30%. He was re-elected by a landslide in 2005, winning 16,912 on a turnout of 51% – 10,000 votes more than his nearest rival, the Labour Party candidate.
The monkey legend is also linked with another of the town's sports clubs, Hartlepool Rovers RFC, which uses the hanging monkey as the club logo. On tours it would hang a monkey on the posts of the rugby pitch to spread the story.
In June 2005 a large bone was found washed ashore on Hartlepool beach by a local resident, which initially was taken as giving credence to the monkey legend. Analysis revealed the bone to be that of a red deer which had died 6,000 years ago. The bone is now in the collections of Hartlepool Museum Service.
In 2008, a novel based on the legend called The Hartlepool Monkey, written by Sean Longley, was published. The novel tells the story of the monkey, named Jacques LeSinge by the French doctor who discovers him, that was supposedly hanged. In the book, the monkey talks and possesses several other human characteristics.
Notable people
- Kieran Bew actor.
- Michael Brown, Footballer, Plays for Wigan Athletic FC.
- Andy Capp, cartoon character.
- Frank Cook, Labour Member of Parliament (born in Hartlepool)
- Graeme Crallan, Former drummer of heavy metal band White Spirit
- John Darwin, fraudster who faked death in a canoe accident and reappeared in 2007
- Pete Donaldson, co-host on The Xfm Breakfast Show with Alex Zane
- Stuart Drummond, the artist formerly known as H'Angus the Monkey now the town's Mayor
- Janick Gers, heavy metal guitarist (Iron Maiden).
- Ted Harrison, Canadian artist - born in nearby Wingate - attended West Hartlepool College of Art.
- Chick Henderson original singer of Begin the Beguine in July 1939
- Scott Henshall, fashion designer and contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2006.
- Saint Hilda, abbess.
- Reginald Hill, author of Dalziel and Pascoe series.
- Michael Hunter, European champion boxer.
- Andy Linighan, footballer.
- David Linighan, footballer.
- Jack London (boxer) - Heavyweight champion boxer
- Brian London- Heavyweight champion boxer (son of Jack)
- Jemma Lowe Olympic Swimmer
- Sir Compton Mackenzie, novelist.
- Michael Maidens, Young footballer most commonly associated with Hartlepool United, who died aged 20
- Peter Mandelson - Labour MP for Hartlepool 1992-2004 and Business Secretary 2008-Present.
- Colin McGinn - Philosopher
- John McGovern, footballer moved to Hartlepool when seven years old.
- Sir Edward Mellanby, scientist.
- Philip Middlemiss, actor, Des Barnes on Coronation Street.
- Darren Morfitt, actor.
- David Murphy, Footballer, Plays for Birmingham City FC.
- William Roberts, World War I veteran and present in Hartlepool during the German Navy's bombardment.
- Sir Ridley Scott, film director (attended the West Hartlepool College of Art).
- Wayne Sleep - Dancer
- Michael Smith (writer), BBC broadcaster and author of The Giro Playboy
- Reg Smythe, cartoonist, creator of Andy Capp.
- Jeremy Spencer, guitarist with former blues band Fleetwood Mac.
- Jeff Stelling, Presenter of Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports and Countdown on Channel 4.
- Graeme Storm, professional golfer.
- Lionel Tertis viola virtuoso.
- Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol and chair of the Worldwide Universities Network, was born in the town.
- Micky Young - Professional Rugby Union player for Newcastle Falcons
Public services
Hartlepool falls within the jurisdiction of Cleveland Police. Prior to 1974, it was under the jurisdiction of Teesside Constabulary.
Town twinning
Hückelhoven, Germany
Muskegon, Michigan
External links
|
| |
|
|
