Editing Hartlepool (section)

==The legend of the Hartlepool monkey==
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{{Main|Monkey hanger}}
Hartlepool is known for allegedly executing a monkey during the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=1649|title=Media Releases - University of Aberdeen|author=University of Aberdeen Web Team|website=abdn.ac.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012162036/http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=1649|archive-date=12 October 2012}}</ref> 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 fishermen assumed that this must be what Frenchmen looked like and, after a brief trial, summarily executed the monkey.

Historians have 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, Aberdeenshire|Boddam]] near [[Peterhead]] in [[Aberdeenshire (traditional)|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 an English folk song detailing the later event called, appropriately enough, "The Hartlepool Monkey". In the English version the monkey is hanged as a French spy.

"[[Monkey hanger]]" and Chimp Choker are common terms of (semi-friendly) abuse aimed at "Poolies", often from 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 [[Elected mayors in the United Kingdom|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 two of the town's sports clubs, [[Hartlepool Rovers]] RFC, which uses the hanging monkey as the club logo. Hartlepool (Old Boys) RFC use a hanging monkey kicking a rugby ball as their tie crest.