January 2008
41 posts
Hudsons Taxis in Hartlepool
01429 233777 - Two, Double Three, Triple Seven
This taxi service was recommended to us for ferrying people around during our wedding. They arrived on time and pleasantly surprised me.
The day after the wedding a friend needed to make an early flight out of Newcastle airport. We arranged for a pick-up knowing it was £30. I gave her a £50 note and wished her well.
Later in the day, there was a...
House Hunting in Hartlepool →
Our experience looking at a tiny apartment by the marina.
Window cleaners
Another example of something that is very different from city life, a funny story of me being a silly hartlepool monkey.
I was home alone when we first moved in to our new house and heard some rattling outside.
A young guy set a ladder against the house. I was getting nervous. In NY if someone sets a ladder against your window without your prior consent - it is a bad sign.
It turns out it was a...
Heugh Battery - Significant WWI History
The twinned towns of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool were bombarded by three German warships (battlecruisers ‘Seydlitz’ and ‘Moltke’ and the heavy armoured cruiser ‘Blucher’) on December 16, 1914. The gunners of coastal defence at the Heugh Battery on the Headland (pronounce y’uff) responded to the first attack on the British Mainland in nearly 200 years and cut short the bombardment.
History of...
Hartlepool History Timeline
Hartlepool : Timeline
5th Century
Roman and Celtic settlement The Roman Legions defending Britain were withdrawn by 410AD. A Roman coin and trumpet shaped brooch found at Seaton Carew in 1978 were perhaps the result of a Roman shipwreck.
7th Century
640s AD - Monastery at Hartlepool founded by Heiu Bishop Aidan appoints a nun caled Heiu to found a monastery at Harlepool. She is...
“After graduating from university, I worked on cruise ships as a waiter for four...”
– — Hartlepool Mayor, Stuart Drummond in response to the question “What is your career background?” in Hartlepool Enterprise, Issue 8: October 2007, Coffee Break section
Set of photos from a Hartlepool United F.C. match →
Will post my favorites on this tumblelog. The match was against Swindon Town and the score ended tied 1-1. It was my first live football match - very fun but also pricey - £20 for an adult ticket. I understand tickets are a lot more for premier league games but for two people to go £20 each is a lot.
Hartlepool United are in the Coca Cola Football League 1 after being promoted last season....
BBC video: of the local fire put out by big undies →
We watched this during a lunchtime news broadcast.
3 local news stories that made international...
John Darwin - Missing canoeist, the bizarre case of a local man who apparently faked his death and returned after 5 years. Friends in NY asked about this one. I’ve linked to the wikipedia article, which has a good summary of the story.
drunk idiot - 27-year old urinates on a dying woman while yelling “this is YouTube material” so his friends could tape his glorious achievement. Sadly, made it...
there was a video here
Folk Trio The Young’uns singing the Alan Wilkinson song about the Hartlepool Monkey.
Removed from youtube.
A sample of The Monkey Song by The Fettlers.
...
original lyrics to The Hartlepool Monkey by Alan...
The Hartlepool Monkey by Alan Wilkinson
(Written as a member of The Teesside Fettlers folk group. Well, it happened up in Hartlepool, about the time that France, And the Emperor Napoleon were leading us a dance, The Froggies took the crew of a British man of war, But the captain’s pet monkey got washed up on the shore. Chorus: Old folks, young folks, everyone and each, Come and see the...
hartlepool freecycle group →
Give and get stuff for free. Keep usable items out of the trash with a little effort. I was involved with freecycle in NY and was pleased to find a local group. Even got my computer desk for free via the group.
Andy Capp
The long-running comic strip Andy Capp and his creator Reg Smythe are from Hartlepool.
Andy Capp was a working class guy who never worked and spent most of his time drinking at a pub or in conflict with his wife Flo. As Homer Simpson put it “Oh, Andy Capp. You wife-beating drunk. Heh heh heh.”
For a long time he also had a trademark cigarette dangling from his mouth. Andy Capp quit in 1983...
hartlepool monkey in the Get Fuzzy comic
In the December 21, 2003 Sunday comic of Get Fuzzy, a US comic by Darby Conley, Bucky gets a book for Christmas called “The Hartlepool Monket Incident”.
Trish says: “Imagine…A place where monkeys wash up on the beach like hairy ocean fruit…”
[via trishdadish on snopes.com board and Norlos]
There is also another comic where Bucky, the monkey-hating cat dresses as a Hartlepool F.C. fan / soccer...
Ned Corvan (1829 – 1865)
“There is no evidence of any truth in the legend, or that it is very old. The first mention of the Monkey is in the mid 19th Century, when Ned Corvan, a famous Geordie comic singer and songwriter, first performed the ‘Monkey Song’.
Ned Corvan was influenced in his act by Billy Purvis, another Geordie comic, who had been very popular in Hartlepool earlier in the century. He composed a song about...
versions of the Scottish folksong
1.
“Eence a ship sailed round the coast And a’ the men in her was lost Burrin’ a monkey up a post So the Boddamers hanged the monkey-O Noo the funeral was a grand affair All the Boddam folk was there It minded you o’ the Glesga Fair Fin the Boddamers hanged the monkey-O Noo a’ the folk frae Peterhead Cam oot expectin’ tae get a feed So they made it into potted heed Fin the Boddamers hanged the...
hanging the monkey may have been smart (pt. 2)
From a post on discussion board at snopes.com:
Billy Beccles has “vague memories of being told that during the Napoleonic Wars, both sides were wary of the other using primitive germ warfare. There was a siege, possibly in San Domingo, where one army was forced to remain near a malarial swamp; speculation about the British using arsenic (in the wallpaper) to poison Napoleon; and the conclusion...
hanging the monkey may have been smart (pt. 1)
“Hartlepool is famous for allegedly executing a monkey during the Napoleonic Wars. - see The Hartlepool monkey hanging - for more information.
Historians have also 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 near Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. Because the villagers...
monkey festival
I find it shockling that there is no monkey festival here. The town is well known for the monkey legend, I want to see a monkey parade.
I envision it being similar to the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island.
the Hartlepool monkey hanging legend
“Hartlepool entered the nineteenth century with a population of just 993, a town, harbour and pier falling apart and barely a living to be made from fishing. The silted outer harbour, the Slake, was enclosed and corn grown for five years until it was reopened to the sea. For most of the twenty years from 1793 Britain was at war with France. Regiments of Volunteers were hastily formed throughout...
I moved to Hartlepool July, 2007. My husband grew up here. I have lived in Brooklyn, NY and Tel Aviv, Israel. Hartlepool is different from what I am used to. This tumblelog is for sharing what I learn about this place and living here and also monkeys. Click on Hartlepool Monkey at the top for the latest Hartlepool Monkey goings on.