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Coordinates: 1°13′W / 54.69, -1.21

Hartlepool

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

Hartlepool (IPA: /'hɑːtlɪpuːl/) 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.^{[citation needed]}

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:

• David Thomas Jones, Labour (1945-1959)
• John Simon Kerans, Conservative (1959-1964)
• Edward Leadbitter, Labour (1964-1992)
• Peter Mandelson, Labour (1992-2004)

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

• 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).

Local Areas / Villages

• Bishop Cuthbert
• Brierton
• Dalton Piercy
• Elwick
• Fens
• Greatham
• Hart
• High Throston
• Middleton
• Newton Bewley
• Owton Manor
• Rift House
• Seaton Carew
• Sheraton
• Stranton
• The Headland
• West Park
• West View