Editing Hartlepool (section)

===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"