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Hartlepool
Hartlepool  Hartlepool shown within County Durham
Population	90,290 (2006)[1]
OS grid reference	NZ508331
- London	416km
Unitary authority	Hartlepool
Ceremonial county	County Durham
Region	North East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HARTLEPOOL
Postcode district	TS24 - TS27
Dialling code	01429
Police	Cleveland
Fire	Cleveland
Ambulance	North East
EU Parliament	North East England
UK Parliament	Hartlepool
List of places: UKʉۢ Englandʉۢ County Durham

Hartlepool

It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County palatine of Durham. A railway link to the South Durham coal fields in 1835 resulted in further expansion, with the establishing of the new town of West Hartlepool. Industrialisation and the establishing of a shipbuilding industry during the later part of the 19th century caused Hartlepool to be a target for the German Navy at the beginning of the First World War. A bombardment of 1150 shells on 16 December 1914 resulted in the death of 117 people. A severe decline in heavy industries and shipbuilding following the Second World War caused periods of high unemployment until the 1990s when major investment projects and the redevelopment of the docks area into a marina have seen a rise in the town's prospects.

Hartlepool is within the unitary authority area of the Borough of Hartlepool, for ceremonial purposes part of County Durham.

649: Heretu, or Hereteu

1017: Herterpol, or Hertelpolle

1182: Hierdepol

David Thomas Jones, Labour (1945-1959)

John Simon Kerans, Conservative (1959-1964)

Edward Leadbitter, Labour (1964-1992)

Peter Mandelson, Labour (1992-2004)

Brus

Burn Valley

Dyke House

Elwick

Fens

Foggy Furze

Grange

Greatham

Hart

Owton

Park

Rift House

Rossmere

Seaton

St. Hilda

Stranton

Throston

Billingham (8 miles), Darlington (25), Durham (17), Middlesbrough (12), Newcastle upon Tyne (30), Peterlee (8), Seaham (17), Sedgefield (13), Stockton-on-Tees (10) and Sunderland (21).

Belle Vue

Bishop Cuthbert

Brierton

Dalton Piercy

Dyke House

Elwick

Fens

Greatham

Hart

High Throston

Marina

Middleton

Newton Bewley

Owton Manor

Rift House

Seaton Carew

Sheraton

Stranton

The Headland

West Park

West View

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^[2]. 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^[3].

Hartlepool College of Further Education is an educational establishment in the town of Hartlepool, 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

St. Hilda's Church

Hartlepool Abbey

Camerons Brewery

Town Wall & Cannon

Museum of Hartlepool

The Headland

West Hartlepool War Memorial

Historic Quay

Hartlepool's Maritime Experience

PS Wingfield Castle

Hartlepool Marina

Navigation Point

Seaton Carew Beach

HMS Trincomalee

Hartlepool Sea Cadets

VUE Cinema

Mecca Bingo

Quicksilver Games

Hartlepool Town Hall Theatre

Borough Hall

Camerons Brewery - Visitors Centre

Church Street

Marina

Middleton Grange Shopping Centre

Navigation Point

UK Super Bowl

Mill House Leisure Centre

Hartlepool United FC

Mill House Leisure Centre

Ward Jackson Park

Rossmere Park

Seaton Carew

The Headland

Summerhill

Heugh Battery

Palmerston Forts, North East England

Hartlepool Submerged Forest

Tees and Hartlepool Foreshore and Wetlands SSSI

Hartlepool nuclear power station is an advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) type nuclear power plant opened near Hartlepool in the 1980s.

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.

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 125 mph 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

Local bus services are provided around the town mainly by Stagecoach with Arriva also running a couple of 'town' services.

The Stagecoach Group and Tees Valley travel operate services from Hartlepool to Billingham, Stockton and Middlesbrough. Other services are provided by Arriva and Go North East from Hartlepool to Peterlee, Durham, Dalton Park , Sunderland and Newcastle.

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.

Hartlepool has an oceanic climate typical to the United Kingdom.

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 absence, they finished 15th. In December 2008, the club parted company with manager Danny Wilson. The club's most famous day, was back in 2005, just 8 minutes away from England's 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 a legend that during the Napoleonic wars a monkey which had been a ship's mascot was taken for a French spy and hanged.

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 5th tier of the national league structure). In the mid-1990s, West were the pride of North East rugby union (as were Newcastle Gosforth), and played in what is now the Guinness Premiership. West were then hit by bankruptcy and controversially sold their Brierton Lane stadium. There then followed a succession of relegations as professional players deserted the club, leaving West to pay off their debts which was a consequence of the clubs ambitious pursuit of professionalism.

Hartlepool RFC are the 2nd most succesful club in the town with strong financial backing who currently play in the Durham & Northumberland 1 league.

Other clubs include, Hartlepool BBOB, Hartlepool Athletic, Seaton Carew and Hartlepool Rovers

West Hartlepool TDSOB (Tech) folded last year due to a high number of players leaving, the majority of which now play for either West or Rovers.

On 28 June 2006, Hartlepool celebrated after winning its bid to host The Tall Ships' Races.^[5] 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.

Hartlepool Mail - local newspaper

BBC Radio Tees - BBC local radio station

Radio Hartlepool - Community radio station serving the town

Hartlepool is famous for allegedly executing a monkey during the Napoleonic Wars.^[6] 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.

"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.

The bone

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.^{[citation needed]}

Kieran Bew, actor.

Michael Brown, footballer who 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 with Iron Maiden.

Ted Harrison, Canadian artist born in nearby Wingate, attended West Hartlepool College of Art.

Peter Hartley (footballer), Footballer who plays for Hartlepool United F.C..

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, former footballer.

David Linighan, former footballer.

Jack London (boxer), heavyweight champion boxer.

Brian London, heavyweight champion boxer, son of Jack London.

Jemma Lowe, Olympic swimmer.

Sir Compton Mackenzie, novelist.

Michael Maidens, former 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, former 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, 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.

Andrew Taylor, professional footballer who plays for Middlesbrough F.C.

Lionel Tertis, viola virtuoso.

Eric Thomas, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol and chair of the Worldwide Universities Network, born in Hatlepool.

Micky Young, professional Rugby Union player for Newcastle Falcons.

Hartlepool falls within the jurisdiction of Cleveland Police. Prior to 1974, it was under the jurisdiction of Teesside Constabulary.

Hückelhoven, Germany

Muskegon, Michigan