Editing Hartlepool (section)

==Culture and community==

=== Festivals and Fairs ===
Since November 2014 the Headland has hosted the annual Wintertide Festival, which is a weekend long event that starts with a community parade on the Friday and culminating in a finale performance and fireworks display on the Sunday.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/people/wintertide-festival-returning-hartlepool-2019-organisers-promising-most-spectacular-event-yet-1006832|title=Wintertide Festival returning to Hartlepool for 2019 - featuring lantern parade, fireworks and Christmas market|website=hartlepoolmail.co.uk|date=15 November 2019 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-07}}</ref>

====Tall Ships' Races====
On 28 June 2006 Hartlepool celebrated after winning its bid to host [[The Tall Ships' Races]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartlepool.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=233|title=Hartlepool Borough Council news|last=Council|first=Hartlepool Borough|website=hartlepool.gov.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927155638/http://www.hartlepool.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=233|archive-date=27 September 2006}}</ref> The town welcomed up to 125 [[tall ship]]s in 2010, after being chosen by race organiser Sail Training International to be the finishing point for the race. Hartlepool greeted the ships, which sailed from [[Kristiansand]] in Norway on the second and final leg of the race.
Hartlepool also hosted the race in July 2023. It was the first stop after starting at [[Den Helder]] (Netherlands).


=== Museums, art galleries and libraries ===
[[Hartlepool Art Gallery]] is located in Church Square within Christ Church, a restored [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] church, built in 1854 and designed by the architect [[Edward Buckton Lamb]] (1806–1869). The gallery's temporary exhibitions change frequently and feature works from local artists and the permanent Fine Art Collection, which was established by Sir William Gray.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artuk.org/visit/venues/hartlepool-art-gallery-3635|title=Hartlepool Art Gallery |website=Art UK |language=en|access-date=2020-02-21}}</ref> The gallery also houses the Hartlepool [[tourist information centre]].
[[File:Hartlepool - The Heugh Lighthouse (geograph 7379083).jpg|thumb|The [[Heugh Battery]] Museum]]
[[Heugh Battery|The Heugh Battery]] Museum is located on [[the Headland]]. It was one of three batteries erected to protect Hartlepool's port in 1860. The battery was closed in 1956 and is now in the care of the Heugh Gun Battery Trust and home to an [[artillery]] collection.
[[File: Hartlepool_Historic_Quay_-_panoramio.jpg|thumb|[[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool|NMRN Hartlepool]]]]
Hartlepool is home to a [[National Museum of the Royal Navy]] (more specifically the [[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool|NMRN Hartlepool]]). Previously known simply as The Historic Quay and Hartlepool's Maritime Experience, the museum is a re-creation of an 18th-century seaport with the exhibition centre-piece being a sailing frigate, ''[[HMS Trincomalee]]''. The complex also includes the [[Museum of Hartlepool]].

Willows was the Hartlepool mansion of the influential Sir William Gray of [[William Gray & Company]] and he gifted it to the town in 1920, after which it was converted to be the town's first museum and art gallery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hhtandn.org/relatedimages/5793/sir-william-gray-house-willows|title=Hartlepool History Then & Now|website=hhtandn.org|access-date=2020-02-18}}</ref> Fondly known locally as "The Gray" it was closed as a museum in 1994 and now houses the local authority's culture department.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://artuk.org/visit/venues/sir-william-gray-house-3636|title=Sir William Gray House |website=Art UK |language=en|access-date=2020-02-18}}</ref>

There are six [[Library|libraries]] in Hartlepool, the primary one being the Community Hub Central Library. Others are Throston Grange Library, Community Hub North Library, Seaton Carew Library, Owton Manor Library and Headland Branch Library.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hartlepool.gov.uk/directory/9/library_locations_and_opening_times/category/100|title=Hartlepool Borough Council - Libraries in Hartlepool|last=Council|first=Hartlepool Borough|website=hartlepool.gov.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-02-21}}</ref>