Hartlepool – a brief history

As Roman power declined in the fifth century, Anglo-Saxons from the north of Europe began raiding the coast of Northern England. They soon became settlers and established a small Anglian kingdom known as Hartness (the promontory of Hart), which eventually became Northumbria.

The promontory or headland was distinguished from Hart by the addition of the word `pool', perhaps a reference to the protected bay close by the headland. The name Hartlepool is probably derived from words "heopru' – the place where harts (deer) drink. Heorot is Saxon for hart.

The monastery at Hartlepool was founded by St. Aidan in 640 on the original headland site. The monastery prospered and Aidan installed a nun, Hilda – to be Abbess and oversee the monks and nuns. Hilda became an outstanding principal and King Oswy of Northumbria entrusted his young daughter's education to her in 655.

The site of the old monastery is marked today by the beautiful abbey church bearing the abbess' name – St. Hilda. A twelfth century building, the church was begun at about the time a fleet of ships bound for the Crusades was being assembled in the harbour, and completed around 1240. It became the burial place of the De Brus family – Norman landowners who had acquired Hartlepool at the time of the Conquest in 1066.

The Brus' hold on Hartlepool began after the building of Durham Castle by William the Conqueror. They brought stable times for the town with Robert de Brus being the biggest landowner in the north east, becoming Lord of Hartness. It was during these times that the villages of the area were first mentioned in official records, having been omitted from the Domesday Book of 1086.

The town's first charter was received before 1185. Hartlepool's fortunes blossomed and the town gained a mayor, an annual two-week fair and a weekly market. After two hundred years the Brus connection with Hartlepool was severed when "Robert the Bruce' of national historical fame, and last Lord of Hartness, was crowned King of Scotland in 1306. Angered by this King Edward I confiscated his title to Hartlepool.

Savage Scots!

A particularly savage Scots sea-borne assault took place in 1315 when the townspeople took to the sea with their goods and possessions until the marauders left. After this attack the port began to build fortifications with defensive walls constructed around the Headland. The impressive Sandwell Gate, which can still be seen has walls over eight feet thick.

Three hundred years later the Scots returned to the town. During the English Civil War, Scottish troops in alliance with the Parliamentarians, having captured Newcastle, attacked Hartlepool. The town surrendered and the Scots garrison occupied and repaired the crumbling defences, including the walls, to repel the Royalists.

Apart from defending the town against pirates, the occupying forces drained resources and the end of the war saw Hartlepool's fortunes at a low ebb. The local coastal fleet was reduced to just two vessels and by the beginning of the eighteenth century further decay had set in. The pier and walls were again crumbling, as was St. Hilda's church.
Hartlepool established gun emplacements and defences in 1795 to repel a possible French invasion. Later the Crimean War revived the idea of protection from seaborne attack and two batteries were built close together, the lighthouse battery in 1855 and the Heugh battery in 1859.