Editing Hartlepool (section)

==History==
[[File:Hart sculpture at the Hartlepool Marina car park (geograph 4745816).jpg|thumb|The hart sculpture]]
The place name derives from [[Old English]] ''heort'' ("[[hart (animal)|hart]]"), referring to [[stag]]s seen, and ''pōl'' ([[stream pool|pool]]), a pool of drinking water which they were known to use.<ref name="LocHistHart">{{Cite web|url=http://www.localhistories.org/hartlepool.html|title=A brief history of Hartlepool|first=Tim|last=Lambert|publisher=localhistories.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615062502/http://localhistories.org/hartlepool.html|archive-date=15 June 2010|access-date=8 June 2010}}</ref> Records of the place-name from early sources confirm this:
* 649: ''Heretu, or Hereteu''.
* 1017: ''Herterpol, or Hertelpolle''.
* 1182: ''Hierdepol''.

===Town on the heugh===
{{see also|Headland, Hartlepool}}
A [[Northumbria]]n settlement developed in the 7th century around [[Hartlepool Abbey|an abbey]] founded in 640 by [[Saint Aidan]] (an Irish Christian priest) upon a headland overlooking a natural harbour and the North Sea. The monastery became powerful under [[St Hilda]], who served as its [[abbess]] from 649 to 657. The 8th-century [[Northumbria]]n chronicler [[Bede]] referred to the spot on which today's town is sited as "the place where deer come to drink", and in this period the Headland was named by the [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]] as ''Heruteu'' (''Stag Island''). Archaeological evidence has been found below the current high tide mark that indicates that an ancient post-[[Last Glacial Period|glacial]] forest by the sea existed in the area at the time.<ref>'England's North East' website, {{cite web|url=http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Hartlepool.html|title=History of Hartlepool|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090815115125/http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Hartlepool.html|archive-date=15 August 2009|access-date=2008-11-11}}</ref>

The Abbey fell into decline in the early 8th century, and it was probably destroyed during a sea raid by [[Vikings]] on the settlement in the 9th century.<ref name="LocHistHart" /><ref name="HistUKHart">{{Cite web|url=http://www.history.uk.com/history/hartlepool-brief-history/|title=Hartlepool – a brief history|publisher=History UK|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923075209/http://www.history.uk.com/history/hartlepool-brief-history/|archive-date=23 September 2010|access-date=8 June 2010}}</ref> In March 2000, the archaeological investigation television programme ''[[Time Team]]'' located the foundations of the lost monastery in the grounds of St Hilda's Church.<ref>[http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/archive/2000hart.html Channel 4 – ''Time Team''<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104210714/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/archive/2000hart.html|date=4 November 2010}}</ref> In the early 11th century, the name had evolved into ''Herterpol''.

===Hartness===
{{see also|Hart, County Durham|Billingham}}

During the Norman Conquest, the De Brus family gained over-lordship of the land surrounding Hartlepool. [[William the Conqueror]] subsequently ordered the construction of [[Durham Castle]], and the villages under their rule were mentioned in records, in 1153, when [[Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale]] became [[Lord of Hartness]]. The town's first charter was received before 1185, for which it gained its first mayor, an annual two-week fair and a weekly market.<ref name="LocHistHart" /><ref name="HistUKHart" /> The [[Norman Conquest]] affected the settlement's name to form the [[Middle English]] ''Hart-le-pool'' ("The Pool of the Stags").<ref>'This is Hartlepool', 'Where the name of Hartlepool came from' {{cite web|url=http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/hartlepoolname.asp|title=Where the name Hartlepool came from|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529110337/http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/hartlepoolname.asp|archive-date=29 May 2016|access-date=2016-10-07}}</ref>

By the [[Middle Ages]], Hartlepool  grew into an important market town. One of the reasons for its growing wealth was that its harbour was the official port of the [[County Palatine of Durham]]. With fishing as the main industry, Hartlepool became one of the primary ports on England's Eastern coast.

In 1306, [[Robert the Bruce]] was crowned [[King of Scotland]], and became the last Lord of Hartness. [[King Edward I]] confiscated the title to Hartlepool, and began to improve the town's military defences in expectation of war.<ref name="HistUKHart" /> In 1315, before they were completed, a Scottish army under [[James Douglas, Lord of Douglas|Sir James Douglas]] attacked, captured and looted the town.<ref name="LocHistHart" /><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/douglasbook01fras#page/439/mode/2up Fraser, W. ''Douglas Book'' vol i, p130] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111073505/http://www.archive.org/stream/douglasbook01fras|date=11 November 2012}}</ref>

In the late 15th century, a pier was constructed to assist in the harbour's workload.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/durham/vol3/pp263-285 | title=Parishes: Hartlepool }}</ref>

===Garrison===
[[File:Fish Sands and Sandwell Gate, Hartlepool Headland (geograph 1647257).jpg|thumb|The defensive walls around Old Hartlepool]]
Hartlepool was once again militarily occupied by a Scottish incursion, this time in alliance with the [[Parliamentary Army]] during the [[English Civil War]], which after 18 months was relieved by an English Parliamentarian garrison.<ref name="LocHistHart" />

In 1795, Hartlepool artillery emplacements and defences were constructed in the town as a defensive measure against the threat of French attack from seaborne Napoleonic forces. During the [[Crimean War]], two coastal batteries were constructed close together in the town to guard against the threat of seaborne attacks from the [[Imperial Russian Navy]]. They were entitled the ''Lighthouse Battery'' (1855) and the ''[[Heugh Battery]]'' (1859).<ref name="HistUKHart" />

Hartlepool, in the 18th century, became known as a town with medicinal springs, particularly the [[Chalybeate]] Spa near the Westgate. The poet [[Thomas Gray]] visited the town in July 1765 to "take the waters", and wrote to his friend William Mason:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Gray Archive : Texts : Letters : Letter ID letters.0461 |url=https://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=tgal0461 |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=www.thomasgray.org}}</ref>
{{cquote|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 to James Brown:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=tgal0463|title = Thomas Gray Archive : Texts : Letters : Letter ID letters.0463}}</ref>
{{cquote|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.
}}

===Town by the strand===
{{further|West Hartlepool}}
By the early nineteenth century, Hartlepool was still a small town of around 900 people, with a declining port. In 1823, the council and [[Board of Trade]] decided that the town needed new industry, so the decision was made to propose a new railway to make Hartlepool a coal port, shipping out minerals from the Durham [[coalfield]]. It was in this endeavour that [[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."

But the plan faced local competition from new docks. {{convert|25|km|mi}} to the north, the [[Marquis of Londonderry]] had approved the creation of the new [[Seaham Harbour]] (opened 31 July 1831), while to the south the [[Clarence Railway]] connected [[Stockton-on-Tees]] and [[Billingham]] to a new port at [[Port Clarence]] (opened 1833). Further south again, in 1831 the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]] had extended into the new port of [[Middlesbrough]].

The council agreed the formation of the [[York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway#HD&RCo|Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company]] (HD&RCo) to extend the existing port by developing new docks, and link to both local collieries and the developing railway network in the south. In 1833, it was agreed that [[Christopher Tennant (businessman)|Christopher Tennant]] of [[Yarm]] establish the HD&RCo, having previously opened the Clarence Railway (CR). Tennant's plan was that the HD&RCo would fund the creation of a new railway, the [[Stockton and Hartlepool Railway]], which would take over the loss-making CR and extended it north to the new dock, thereby linking to the Durham coalfield.

After Tennant died, in 1839, the running of the HD&RCo was taken over by Stockton-on-Tees solicitor, [[Ralph Ward Jackson]]. But Jackson became frustrated at the planning restrictions placed on the old Hartlepool dock and surrounding area for access, so bought land which was mainly sand dunes to the south-west, and established [[West Hartlepool]]. Because Jackson was so successful at shipping coal from West Hartlepool through his [[Clarence Railway#West Hartlepool Harbour and Railway|West Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company]] and, as technology developed, ships grew in size and scale, the new town would eventually dwarf the old town.

[[File:Ward Jackson Park Pond - geograph.org.uk - 361499.jpg|thumb|Ward Jackson Park]]
The {{convert|8|acre|ha|adj=on|abbr=off}} West Hartlepool Harbour and Dock opened on 1 June 1847. On 1 June 1852, the {{convert|14|acre|ha|adj=on|abbr=off}} Jackson Dock opened on the same day that a railway opened connecting West Hartlepool to [[Leeds]], Manchester and [[Liverpool]]. This allowed the shipping of coal and wool products eastwards, and the shipping of fresh fish and raw fleeces westwards, enabling another growth spurt in the town. This in turn resulted in the opening of the Swainson Dock on 3 June 1856, named after Ward Jackson's father-in-law. 

In 1878, the William Gray & Co shipyard in West Hartlepool achieved the distinction of launching the largest tonnage of any shipyard in the world, a feat to be repeated on a number of occasions.<ref>Lionel Alexander Ritchie, 'Gray, Sir William (1823–1898)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47529, accessed 2 May 2011]</ref> By 1881, old Hartlepool's population had grown from 993 to 12,361, but West Hartlepool had a population of 28,000. Ward Jackson helped to plan the layout of West Hartlepool and was responsible for the first public buildings. He was also involved in the education and the welfare of the inhabitants. In the end, he was a victim of his own ambition to promote the town: accusations of shady financial dealings, and years of legal battles, left him in near-poverty. He spent the last few years of his life in London, far away from the town he had created.

===World Wars===
'''Hartlepool during the First World War'''
{{further|Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby}}
<!--File:Heugh Battery memorial plaque Geograph 1608078 0295fa65-by-Andrew-Curtis.jpg-->
[[File:Memorial to the first British soldier killed on British soil during the Great War - geograph.org.uk - 429905.jpg|thumb|In Hartlepool near [[Heugh Battery]], a plaque in [[Redheugh Gardens War Memorial]] "marks the place where the first ...(German shell) struck... (and) the first soldier was killed on British soil by enemy action in the Great War 1914–1918."]]
The area became heavily industrialised with an [[ironworks]] (established in 1838) and [[shipyard]]s in the docks (established in the 1870s). By 1913, no fewer than 43 ship-owning companies were located in the town, with the 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 a raid and bombardment by the [[Imperial German Navy]] on the morning of 16 December 1914,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://home.bt.com/news/bt-life/history-of-bt/how-the-german-bombardment-of-scarborough-and-hartlepool-affected-communications-on-december-16-1914-11364029161077|title=How the German bombardment of Scarborough and Hartlepool affected communications on December 16, 1914|date=16 December 2015|access-date=2 February 2019}}</ref>

Hartlepool was hit with a total of 1150 shells, killing 117 people. Two coastal defence batteries at Hartlepool returned fire, launching 143 shells, and damaging three German ships: [[SMS Seydlitz|SMS ''Seydlitz'']], [[SMS Moltke|SMS ''Moltke'']] and [[SMS Blücher|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.

Private Theophilus Jones of the 18th Battalion [[Durham Light Infantry]], who fell as a result of this bombardment, is sometimes described as the first military casualty on British soil by enemy fire.<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/durhamlightinf18btn-gw.php|title=18th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry|publisher=The Wartime Memories Project|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015102245/http://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/durhamlightinf18btn-gw.php|archive-date=15 October 2012|access-date=28 June 2012}}</ref> This event (the death of the first soldiers on British soil) is commemorated by the 1921 [[Redheugh Gardens War Memorial]] together with a plaque unveiled on the same day (seven years and one day after the East Coast Raid) at the spot on the Headland (the memorial by Philip Bennison<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-432718-war-memorial-in-redheugh-gardens-hartlep/photos|title=War Memorial in Redheugh Gardens, Headland, Hartlepool|last=Stuff|first=Good|website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124013302/http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-432718-war-memorial-in-redheugh-gardens-hartlep/photos|archive-date=24 November 2011}}</ref> illustrates four soldiers on one of four [[cartouche]]s and the plaque, donated by a member of the public, refers to the 'first soldier' but gives no name). A living history group, the Hartlepool Military Heritage Memorial Society, portray men of that unit for educational and memorial purposes.

Hartlepudlians voluntarily subscribed more money per head to the war effort than any other town in Britain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartlepoolsmaritimeexperience.com/?p=The+Museum+of+Hartlepool&s=A+brief+history+of+Hartlepool|title=Hartlepool's Maritime Experience|last=Council|first=Hartlepool|website=hartlepoolsmaritimeexperience.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930151930/http://www.hartlepoolsmaritimeexperience.com/?p=The+Museum+of+Hartlepool&s=A+brief+history+of+Hartlepool|archive-date=30 September 2011}}</ref>

'''Hartlepool between the wars'''

On 4 January 1922, a fire starting in a timber yard left 80 people homeless and caused over £1,000,000 of damage.<ref>{{cite web |title=Timber Yard Fire 1922 |url=http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/timber-yard-fire-1922.asp |website=thisishartlepool.co.uk |access-date=23 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Timber Yard Fire of 1922 |url=https://www.hhtandn.org/notes/1333/the-timber-yard-fire-of-1922 |website=hhtandn.org |access-date=23 February 2022}}</ref> Hartlepool suffered badly in the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s and endured high unemployment.

'''Hartlepool during the Second World War'''

Unemployment decreased during the [[Second World War]], with shipbuilding and steel-making industries enjoying a renaissance. Most of its output for the war effort were "[[Empire Ships]]". German bombers raided the town 43 times, though, compared to the previous war, civilian losses were lighter with 26 deaths recorded by Hartlepool Municipal Borough<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/4004006/HARTLEPOOL,%20MUNICIPAL%20BOROUGH|title=Cemetery Details {{!}} CWGC|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101041006/http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/4004006/HARTLEPOOL,%20MUNICIPAL%20BOROUGH|archive-date=1 November 2016|access-date=2016-10-31}} CWGC Civilian Casualty record, Hartlepool Municipal Borough.</ref> and 49 by West Hartlepool Borough.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/4003996/WEST%20HARTLEPOOL,%20COUNTY%20BOROUGH|title=Cemetery Details {{!}} CWGC|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101101746/http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/4003996/WEST%20HARTLEPOOL,%20COUNTY%20BOROUGH|archive-date=1 November 2016|access-date=2016-10-31}} CWGC Civilian Casualty record, West Hartlepool County Borough.</ref> During the Second World War, [[RAF Greatham]] (also known as RAF West Hartlepool) was located on the South [[British Steel Corporation]] Works.

===The merger of Old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool===
[[File:Hartlepool Borough Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1606381.jpg|right|thumb|[[Hartlepool Borough Hall]] on the heugh]]
In 1891, the two towns had a combined population of 64,000. By 1900, the two Hartlepools were, together, one of the three busiest ports in England.<ref name="Independent 1992-02-23">The Independent (London) 23 February 1992, Sunday Britain 1992 / The view from Wall Street ; British society is mired in class-consciousness, apathy and under-achievement. The future looks bleak. This is how Tony Horwitz of 'The Wall Street Journal' presented us to the world this month. It is an outsider's view, with a message that cuts across party politics p3</ref>

The modern town represents a joining of "Old Hartlepool", locally known as the "Headland", and [[West Hartlepool]]. As already mentioned, what was [[West Hartlepool]] became the larger town and both were formally unified in 1967. Today the term "West Hartlepool" is rarely heard outside the context of sport, but one of the town's [[Rugby Union]] teams still retains the name.

The name of the town's professional football club reflected both 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 re-renaming itself [[Hartlepool United]] in the 1970s. Many fans of the club still refer to the team as "Pools"

===Postwar period===
[[File:Admiralty Chart No 1628 Hartlepool Bay, Published 1962.jpg|thumb|left|1962 chart of Hartlepool and the Bay, showing the infrastructure before the closure of the steel works and the filling-in of several of the docks]]
[[File:OSM Hartlepool.png|thumb|2021 Map of Hartlepool]]
After the war, industry went into a severe decline. ''Blanchland'', the last ship to be constructed in Hartlepool, left the slips in 1961. In 1967, Betty James wrote how "if I had the luck to live anywhere in the North East [of England]...I would live near Hartlepool. If I had the luck".<ref name="Northumberland p95">A kingdom by the sea : an exploration of Northumberland, Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire James, Betty. p95</ref> There was a boost to the retail sector in 1970 when [[Middleton Grange Shopping Centre]] was opened by [[Anne, Princess Royal|Princess Anne]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hotel-on-sale-to-test-the-market-1-4502108|title=Hotel on sale to 'test the market'|website=hartlepoolmail.co.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528012216/http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hotel-on-sale-to-test-the-market-1-4502108|archive-date=28 May 2015}}</ref> with over 130 new shops including [[Marks & Spencer]] and [[Woolworths Group plc|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.

In 1977, the [[British Steel Corporation]] closed its Hartlepool steelworks, with the loss of 1500 jobs.<ref>The Times 13 December 1977 p23</ref> In the 1980s, the area was afflicted with extremely high levels of unemployment, at its peak consisting of 30 per cent of the town's working-age population, the highest in the United Kingdom.<ref name="The Times Saturday pg. 1">Hartlepool to lose 630 steel jobs (News) The Times Saturday, 15 January 1983; pg. 1; Issue 61431; col C</ref> 630 jobs at British Steel were lost in 1983, and a total of 10,000 jobs were lost from the town in the economic de-industrialization of England's former Northern manufacturing heartlands.<ref name="The Times Saturday pg. 1" /><ref>The Independent (London) 23 February 1992, Sunday Britain 1992 / The view from here: Hatchet job only half the story; Peter Mandelson, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Hartlepool, defends the town's image</ref> Between 1983 and 1999, the town lacked a cinema and areas of it became afflicted with the societal hallmarks of endemic economic poverty: [[urban decay]], high crime levels, [[narcotics|drug]] and alcohol dependency being prevalent.<ref name="Independent 1992-02-23" />

Docks near the centre were redeveloped and reopened by [[Queen Elizabeth II]] in 1993 as a marina.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/duke-edinburgh-hartlepool-lookback-visits-20354783.amp|title=Duke of Edinburgh in Hartlepool - a lookback at his visits to the town|date=9 April 2021 |access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref> The accompanying [[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool|National Museum of the Royal Navy]] opened in 1994, then known as the Hartlepool Historic Quay.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/15-pictures-of-historic-quay-fun-1886266?amp|title=From belly dancing to royal visits: 15 pictures of Hartlepool's Historic Quay and HMS Trincomalee|date=23 February 2020 |access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref>

A development corporation is under consultation until August 2022 to organise projects, with the [[Government spending in the United Kingdom|town's fund]] given to the town and other funds. Plans would be (if the corporation is formed) focused on the railway station, waterfront (including the Royal Navy Museum and a new leisure centre)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/plans-multi-million-pound-leisure-24583884.amp|title=Plans for multi-million pound leisure centre look set to be approved|date=25 July 2022 |access-date=25 July 2022}}</ref> and [[A178 road|Church Street]]. Northern School of Art also has funds for a TV and film studios.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://planetradio.co.uk/tfm/local/news/ben-houchen-reveals-new-plan-to-transform-centre-of-hartlepool/|title=Ben Houchen reveals new plan to transform centre of Hartlepool|access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref>

On 2 August 2024 [[Far-right politics in the United Kingdom|far-right]] activists and others [[2024 United Kingdom riots|attacked]] police, threw stones at a mosque and looted shops after anti-immigrant misinformation was spread on social media.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx66dkx3wlo Protests reveal deep-rooted anger, but UK is not at boiling point] BBC News, Mark Easton, 5 August 2024</ref>