We have put together a number of different articles detailing every aspect of Hartlepool history, from the original Old Hartlepool to the ship building firms of Sir William Gray.
Hartlepool has a long proud history. Hartlepool was originally two towns, the ancient town of Old Hartlepool, known locally as the Headland, and the more recent West Hartlepool. They amalgamated in 1967 to form what is now the single entity known as Hartlepool.
Surrounded on three sides by the sea, the Magnesium Limestone headland or peninsula called the Heugh at Hartlepool is more familiarly known as Old Hartlepool.
Hartlepool may not always readily accept association with Teesside, it has its own natural harbour to the north of the river, but in recent centuries its industrial history has been very closely tied up with the River Tees.
In prehistoric times Hartlepool's headland is thought to have been an isolated tidal island covered by thick forests. In the nineteenth century during excavation of the adjacent marshy area called the Slake, trunks of trees from the ancient forest were found embedded in the clay along with antlers and the teeth from deer that seem to have inhabited the area in large numbers many years ago.
Hartlepool forest is still recorded in existence in the thirteenth century. In fact the ancient Anglo Saxon name for Hartlepool was Heret eu meaning Stag Island which is a reference to either the stag's head shape of the headland or perhaps an indication that the area may have been well inhabited by forest deer.
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The monkey-hanging legend is the most famous story connected with Hartlepool. During the Napoleonic Wars a ship was wrecked off the Hartlepool coast.
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Hartlepool became the first place on mainland Britain to be bombed by the Germans.
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Trincomalee, still called the TS Foudroyant, was transported to Hartlepool by a special chartered barge. The Foudroyant Trust, with the aid of cash from Hampshire County Council, had commissioned a study regarding the best option for the ship's future. Hartlepool was selected on the strength of the impressive restoration of HMS Warrior 1860, the Royal Navy's first ironclad currently on display in Portsmouth.
In May 1816 work finally began on HMS Trincomalee at the Wadia Shipyards at Bombay, near the teak forests of Malabar.
Due to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain's naval strength was reduced. After fitting out, which cost a further £2400, Trincomalee was placed 'in ordinary' - that is she was roofed over, had her masts removed, and was placed in Portsmouth harbour under general maintenance until such time as she may be recalled into active service.
Heugh Battery and its sister sites were first conceived in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars to protect the important port and ship building centre of Hartlepool from attack by sea.
The land in which Victoria Park resides was originally used as a limestone quarry, which was owned by the North-Eastern Railway Company.
The subject of a newspaper cartoon strip since 1957, when he first appeared in the northern edition of the Daily Mirror, Andy Capp became the star of a British stage musical in 1982
It has been said that although Ralph Ward Jackson founded the town of West Hartlepool, it was William Gray who made it.
In the thirteenth century the coastal port and fishing town of Hartlepool became a fortified place with defensive walls constructed around the Headland.
Throughout the Middle Ages Hartlepool virtually monopolised the shipping of the Durham Bishopric and was one of the busiest places on the eastern coast. Such was its importance that it regularly attracted pirates
Old Hartlepool is the original fishing village which existed before West Hartlepool. The origins of ancient town of Hartlepool (Old Hartlepool) can be traced back to ca 647 AD.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was hard to believe that Old Hartlepool, with its small population of only 993 consisting almost entirely of fishermen had been one of the busiest ports on the eastern coast.
Hartlepool was once a small town surrounded by a collection of villages and farms - some of which still exist today.
13 years on William Gray became the first Mayor of West Hartlepool - the only person ever to have been Mayor of both towns. Two years later In 1890 Queen Victoria knighted him for his services
There are many suggestions as to how the name Hartlepool came about
Hartlepool was originally two towns, the ancient town of Hartlepool, known locally as the Headland, and the more recent West Hartlepool.
The Wingfield Castle was one of three sisters, the Tattershall Castle, the Wingfield Castle and the later Lincoln Castle
Zuiderdijk (Id. No. 2724)a freighter built in 1912 by William Gray & Co. Ltd. at Hartlepool, England was operated by the Holland-America Line until 1918
In 1934 William Gray & Company of West Hartlepool, built the Tattershall Castle for the London and North Eastern Railway Company (LNER)
Norlina (No. 1597), a freighter built as Harfleur in 1909 by William Gray & Co., Ltd, West Hartlepool, England, was renamed Georgiana in 1915
Hartlepool Submerged Forest is a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which lies on the foreshore at Hartlepool, on the north-east coast of England. This stretches to the north and south of Newburn Bridge for approximately 400 metres.
The firm's story began in the Victorian era. At the turn of the 20th century a legal partnership, Turnbull & Tilly, practised in Hartlepool. They were Notaries Public dealing with shipmasters' claims and were based in the same office at 13, Church Street in which Edward Turnbull had originally started his practice in 1841.
THE mechanics of the clock, the name on the doorway and the reputation of the family run business, all remain the same as they did when Henry Lamb opened his jewellery shop 135 years ago. However, along with a change of location, there is one other notable alteration.
