77-518: The Hartlepool Mail is a newspaper serving Hartlepool , England and the surrounding area. The paper was founded in Hartlepool in 1877 as The Northern Daily Mail and continued to be printed in the town until August 2006, when the printing staff were told they would be made redundant on 30 September. The newspaper's owners, Johnston Press, decided it was in the interests of their business to move printing to Sunderland . On 16 July 2012, most of
154-573: A monthly column for the paper. Hartlepool Hartlepool ( / ˈ h ɑːr t l ɪ p uː l / HART -lih-pool ) is a seaside and port town in County Durham , England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough named after the town . The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area. With an estimated population of 92,600, it is the second-largest settlement in County Durham, after Darlington . The old town
231-408: A mosque and looted shops after anti-immigrant misinformation was spread on social media. There is one main tier of local government covering Hartlepool, at unitary authority level: Hartlepool Borough Council . There is a civil parish covering Headland, which forms an additional tier of local government for that area; most of the rest of the urban area is an unparished area . The borough council
308-656: A period of absence, this was replaced in June 2012 with the Peterlee Star , a new weekly paid-for paper retailing at 30p, produced by the Hartlepool editorial team. From January to June 2011, the newspaper averaged a daily circulation of 14,198. Since then, the sales have dropped which has resulted in increases in the paper's cover price. In November 2013, the paper cost 60p while in April 2019, it costs 73p. In December 2017, it had an average daily circulation of 4,183 making it
385-409: A population of 200,000 or more should become one-tier "new counties", with "new county boroughs" having a population of 60,000 – 200,000 being "most-purpose authorities", with the county council of the administrative county providing certain limited services. The report envisaged the creation of 47 two-tiered "new counties", 21 one-tiered "new counties" and 63 "new county boroughs". The recommendations of
462-489: A population of 28,000. Ward Jackson helped to plan the layout of West Hartlepool and was responsible for the first public buildings. He was also involved in the education and the welfare of the inhabitants. In the end, he was a victim of his own ambition to promote the town: accusations of shady financial dealings, and years of legal battles, left him in near-poverty. He spent the last few years of his life in London, far away from
539-624: A population of over 50,000 except in the case of existing counties corporate. This resulted in 61 county boroughs in England and two in Wales ( Cardiff and Swansea ). Several exceptions were allowed, mainly for historic towns, including Bath and Dudley , which would still remain below the 50,000 limit by the time of the 1901 census. Some of the smaller counties corporate— Berwick upon Tweed , Lichfield , Poole , Carmarthen and Haverfordwest —did not become county boroughs, although Canterbury , with
616-417: A population under 25,000, did. The county councils and county borough councils came into operation on 1 April 1889. Just seven months later, on 9 November 1889, the city of Oxford was the first borough which had not been made a county borough by the 1888 Act to be elevated to county borough status. Various other new county boroughs were constituted in the following decades, generally as more boroughs reached
693-566: A remarkably fine race of men. Went to the top of the church tower for a view." But the plan faced local competition from new docks. 25 kilometres (16 mi) to the north, the Marquis of Londonderry had approved the creation of the new Seaham Harbour (opened 31 July 1831), while to the south the Clarence Railway connected Stockton-on-Tees and Billingham to a new port at Port Clarence (opened 1833). Further south again, in 1831
770-686: Is a constituent member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority , led by the directly elected Tees Valley Mayor . The borough council is based at the Civic Centre on Victoria Road. Hartlepool was historically a township in the ancient parish of Hart . Hartlepool was also an ancient borough , having been granted a charter by King John in 1200. The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1850. The council built Hartlepool Borough Hall to serve as its headquarters, being completed in 1866. West Hartlepool
847-521: Is commemorated by the 1921 Redheugh Gardens War Memorial together with a plaque unveiled on the same day (seven years and one day after the East Coast Raid) at the spot on the Headland (the memorial by Philip Bennison illustrates four soldiers on one of four cartouches and the plaque, donated by a member of the public, refers to the 'first soldier' but gives no name). A living history group,
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#1732792989670924-510: Is under consultation until August 2022 to organise projects, with the town's fund given to the town and other funds. Plans would be (if the corporation is formed) focused on the railway station, waterfront (including the Royal Navy Museum and a new leisure centre) and Church Street . Northern School of Art also has funds for a TV and film studios. On 2 August 2024 far-right activists and others attacked police, threw stones at
1001-795: The Crimean War , two coastal batteries were constructed close together in the town to guard against the threat of seaborne attacks from the Imperial Russian Navy . They were entitled the Lighthouse Battery (1855) and the Heugh Battery (1859). Hartlepool in the 18th century became known as a town with medicinal springs, particularly the Chalybeate Spa near the Westgate. The poet Thomas Gray visited
1078-714: The Headland . Industrialisation in northern England and the start of a shipbuilding industry in the later part of the 19th century meant it was a target for the Imperial German Navy at the beginning of the First World War. A bombardment of 1,150 shells on 16 December 1914 resulted in the death of 117 people in the town. A severe decline in heavy industries and shipbuilding following the Second World War caused periods of high unemployment until
1155-704: The House of Commons , despite the approval of the Local Government Board – the removal of Cambridge from Cambridgeshire would have reduced the income of Cambridgeshire County Council by over half. Upon recommendation of a commission chaired by the Earl of Onslow , the population threshold was raised to 75,000 in 1926, by the Local Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Act 1926 , which also made it much harder to expand boundaries. The threshold
1232-533: The Middle Ages , Hartlepool was growing into an important (though still small) market town. One of the reasons for its escalating wealth was that its harbour was serving as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham . The main industry of the town at this time was fishing, and Hartlepool in this period established itself as one of the primary ports upon England's Eastern coast. In 1306, Robert
1309-600: The Stockton and Darlington Railway had extended into the new port of Middlesbrough . The council agreed the formation of the Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company (HD&RCo) to extend the existing port by developing new docks, and link to both local collieries and the developing railway network in the south. In 1833, it was agreed that Christopher Tennant of Yarm establish the HD&;RCo, having previously opened
1386-512: The 1930s and endured high unemployment. Second Unemployment decreased during the Second World War , with shipbuilding and steel-making industries enjoying a renaissance. Most of its output for the war effort were " Empire Ships ". German bombers raided the town 43 times, though, compared to the previous war, civilian losses were lighter with 26 deaths recorded by Hartlepool Municipal Borough and 49 by West Hartlepool Borough. During
1463-461: The 1990s when major investment projects and the redevelopment of the docks area into a marina saw a rise in the town's prospects. The town also has a seaside resort called Seaton Carew . The place name derives from Old English heort (" hart "), referring to stags seen, and pōl ( pool ), a pool of drinking water which they were known to use. Records of the place-name from early sources confirm this: A Northumbrian settlement developed in
1540-455: The 50,000 minimum and then promoted Acts to constitute them county boroughs. The granting of county borough status was the subject of much disagreement between the large municipal boroughs and the county councils. The population limit provided county councils with a disincentive to allow mergers or boundary amendments to districts that would create authorities with large populations, as this would allow them to seek county borough status and remove
1617-468: The 7th century around an abbey founded in 640 by Saint Aidan (an Irish Christian priest) upon a headland overlooking a natural harbour and the North Sea. The monastery became powerful under St Hilda , who served as its abbess from 649 to 657. The 8th-century Northumbrian chronicler Bede referred to the spot on which today's town is sited as "the place where deer come to drink", and in this period
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#17327929896701694-605: The BIC on the River Wear. In December 2020, it was announced that former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery's group National World had acquired the paper's owners JPI Media for £10.2m. On 12 March 2022, the paper printed its final daily edition. It was announced that the Mail was to become a weekly paper with a new copy being released every Thursday. As a result, its cover price increased from 90p to £1.30. On 14 July 2023,
1771-453: The Bruce was crowned King of Scotland , and became the last Lord of Hartness. Angered, King Edward I confiscated the title to Hartlepool, and began to improve the town's military defences in expectation of war. In 1315, before they were completed, a Scottish army under Sir James Douglas attacked, captured and looted the town. In the late 15th century, a pier was constructed to assist in
1848-549: The Clarence Railway (CR). Tennant's plan was that the HD&RCo would fund the creation of a new railway, the Stockton and Hartlepool Railway , which would take over the loss-making CR and extended it north to the new dock, thereby linking to the Durham coalfield. After Tennant died, in 1839, the running of the HD&RCo was taken over by Stockton-on-Tees solicitor, Ralph Ward Jackson . But Jackson became frustrated at
1925-527: The Commissions did not complete their work before being dissolved, a handful of new county boroughs were constituted between 1964 and 1968. Luton , Torbay , and Solihull gained county borough status. Additionally, the Teesside was formed from a merger of the existing county borough of Middlesbrough , and the municipal boroughs of Stockton-on-Tees , Redcar and Thornaby ; Warley was formed from
2002-491: The East Staffordshire district, and Teesside, which was split up between three non-metropolitan districts. County boroughs to be abolished prior to 1974 were: The county boroughs of Belfast and Derry were created by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 . In Northern Ireland , local government has not used county boroughs since 1973, but they remain in use for lieutenancy . For administrative purposes
2079-636: The Hartlepool Military Heritage Memorial Society, portray men of that unit for educational and memorial purposes. Hartlepudlians voluntarily subscribed more money per head to the war effort than any other town in Britain. Between On 4 January 1922, a fire starting in a timber yard left 80 people homeless and caused over £1,000,000 of damage. Hartlepool suffered badly in the Great Depression of
2156-462: The Headland was named by the Angles as Heruteu ( Stag Island ). Archaeological evidence has been found below the current high tide mark that indicates that an ancient post- glacial forest by the sea existed in the area at the time. The Abbey fell into decline in the early 8th century, and it was probably destroyed during a sea raid by Vikings on the settlement in the 9th century. In March 2000,
2233-515: The Local Government Acts of 1888 (that created them) and 1972 (that abolished them from 1974). Only four districts with more than one county borough were formed: Wirral , Sandwell , Sefton and Kirklees . Elsewhere, county boroughs usually formed the core or all of a district named after the county borough – with the exceptions of Halifax, whose metropolitan district was named Calderdale , Burton upon Trent, which became part of
2310-595: The MP between 1992 and 2004, resigned to take up a role in the European Commission . On 13 October 2008, he was created Baron Mandelson of Foy and Hartlepool following his appointment as Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in the British Government. Hartlepool falls within the jurisdiction of Cleveland Fire Brigade and Cleveland Police . Before 1974, it was under
2387-521: The Second World War, RAF Greatham (also known as RAF West Hartlepool) was located on the South British Steel Corporation Works. 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. The modern town represents a joining of "Old Hartlepool", locally known as the "Headland", and West Hartlepool . As already mentioned, what
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2464-586: The archaeological investigation television programme Time Team located the foundations of the lost monastery in the grounds of St Hilda's Church. In the early 11th century, the name had evolved into Herterpol . During the Norman Conquest, the De Brus family gained over-lordship of the land surrounding Hartlepool. William the Conqueror subsequently ordered the construction of Durham Castle , and
2541-583: The borough is now divided into 12 electoral wards, each of which elects three councillors who make up the 36 councillors of the borough council. Hartlepool is represented in the House of Commons by one Member of Parliament. The current MP for the Hartlepool constituency is Jonathan Brash of the Labour Party . He was elected at the 2024 general election with 46.2% of the vote. Members of Parliament for Hartlepool since 1945 have been: Mandelson,
2618-615: The borough was enlarged to take in eight neighbouring parishes, and was transferred to the new county of Cleveland . Cleveland was abolished in 1996 following the Banham Review , which gave unitary authority status to its four districts, including Hartlepool. The borough was restored to County Durham for ceremonial purposes under the Lieutenancies Act 1997 , but as a unitary authority it is independent from Durham County Council. After boundary changes introduced in 2019,
2695-539: The closure of its Hartlepool steelworks with the loss of 1500 jobs. In the 1980s, the area was afflicted with extremely high levels of unemployment, at its peak consisting of 30 per cent of the town's working-age population, the highest in the United Kingdom. 630 jobs at British Steel were lost in 1983, and a total of 10,000 jobs were lost from the town in the economic de-industrialization of England's former Northern manufacturing heartlands. Between 1983 and 1999,
2772-614: The commission extended to a review of the division of functions between different tiers of local government, and thus fell outside its terms of reference, and its report was not acted upon. The next attempt at reform was by the Local Government Act 1958, which established the Local Government Commission for England and the Local Government Commission for Wales to carry out reviews of existing local government structures and recommend reforms. Although
2849-433: The county borough of Smethwick and the non-county boroughs of Oldbury and Rowley Regis ; and West Hartlepool was merged with Hartlepool . Following these changes, there was a total of 79 county boroughs in England. The Commission also recommended the downgrading of Barnsley to be a non-county borough, but this was not carried out. The county boroughs of East Ham , West Ham and Croydon were abolished in 1965 with
2926-489: The creation of Greater London and went on to form parts of London boroughs . The remaining county boroughs were abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 , and replaced with non-metropolitan districts and metropolitan districts , all beneath county councils in a two-tier structure. In Greater London and the metropolitan counties the lower tier districts retained a wider range of powers than in
3003-476: The creation of a boundary commission to bring coordination to local government reform. The policy in the paper also ruled out the creation of new county boroughs in Middlesex "owing to its special problems" . The Local Government Boundary Commission was appointed on 26 October 1945, under the chairmanship of Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve , delivering its report in 1947. The commission recommended that towns with
3080-525: The early nineteenth century, Hartlepool was still a small town of around 900 people, with a declining port. In 1823, the council and Board of Trade decided that the town needed new industry, so the decision was made to propose a new railway to make Hartlepool a coal port, shipping out minerals from the Durham coalfield . It was in this endeavour that Isambard Kingdom Brunel visited the town in December 1831, and wrote: "A curiously isolated old fishing town –
3157-460: The functions of both boroughs and counties). Although unitary authorities are functionally equivalent to county boroughs, only in Wales is the title given official recognition by Act of Parliament. [REDACTED] The map depicts the county boroughs in England immediately prior to their abolition in 1974. County boroughs in Wales and Northern Ireland are not shown. This table shows those county boroughs that existed in England and Wales between
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3234-578: The harbour's workload. Hartlepool was once again militarily occupied by a Scottish incursion, this time in alliance with the Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War , which after 18 months was relieved by an English Parliamentarian garrison. In 1795, Hartlepool artillery emplacements and defences were constructed in the town as a defensive measure against the threat of French attack from seaborne Napoleonic forces. During
3311-533: The jurisdiction of the Durham Constabulary and Durham Fire Brigade . Hartlepool has two fire stations: a full-time station at Stranton and a retained station on the Headland. Nearby towns include: Seaham (17 mi or 27 km), Sedgefield (13 mi or 21 km), Billingham (8 mi or 13 km) and Peterlee (8 mi or 13 km). Beyond the far side of the Tees Bay , on
3388-466: The luck to live anywhere in the North East [of England]...I would live near Hartlepool. If I had the luck". There was a boost to the retail sector in 1970 when Middleton Grange Shopping Centre was opened by Princess Anne , with over 130 new shops including Marks & Spencer and Woolworths . Before the shopping centre was opened, the old town centre was located around Lynn Street, but most of
3465-509: The non-metropolitan counties. This situation did not persist long. In 1986 the metropolitan county councils and the Greater London Council were abolished, returning the metropolitan boroughs to a status equivalent to the former county boroughs, but sharing some powers (police and transport for example). In the 1990s, many of the nonmetropolitan former county boroughs were reformed again as unitary authorities – essentially
3542-540: The old county borough, in other cases much larger). Burton upon Trent became an unparished area in the East Staffordshire borough, and has now been divided into several parishes. In Wales, several principal areas are county boroughs: For all practical purposes, county boroughs are exactly the same as the other principal areas of Wales called " counties " (including " cities and counties ") as all these areas are run by unitary authorities (i.e.: have
3619-406: The old town and West Hartlepool was created in 1867 called The Hartlepools . The two towns were formally merged into a single borough called Hartlepool in 1967. Following the merger, the name of the constituency was changed from The Hartlepools to just Hartlepool in 1974. The modern town centre and main railway station are both at what was West Hartlepool; the old town is now generally known as
3696-417: The old town. The 8-acre (3.2-hectare) West Hartlepool Harbour and Dock opened on 1 June 1847. On 1 June 1852, the 14-acre (5.7-hectare) Jackson Dock opened on the same day that a railway opened connecting West Hartlepool to Leeds , Manchester and Liverpool . This allowed the shipping of coal and wool products eastwards, and the shipping of fresh fish and raw fleeces westwards, enabling another growth spurt in
3773-540: The original model existed until 2001. Under the Local Government Act 2001 (which replaced most existing local government legislation in Ireland), the term "County Borough" was abolished and replaced with "City" (and hence, "Corporation" with "City Council"). However Kilkenny , while a traditional city, was never a county borough. Under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 , the borough of Kilkenny
3850-576: The other side of the River Tees , the distant monument on Eston Nab can be seen on clear days. County borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent term used in Scotland
3927-642: The paper's editor revealed that the Mail had been banned from covering Hartlepool United home games for the foreseeable future. The club did not give the Mail any reason why they had been banned and the editor Gavin Ledwith described the decision as "unjust". The ban was overturned in February 2024. The newspaper was formerly distributed in the Peterlee area under the Peterlee Mail name. Following
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#17327929896704004-412: The planning restrictions placed on the old Hartlepool dock and surrounding area for access, so bought land which was mainly sand dunes to the south-west, and established West Hartlepool . Because Jackson was so successful at shipping coal from West Hartlepool through his West Hartlepool Dock and Railway Company and, as technology developed, ships grew in size and scale, the new town would eventually dwarf
4081-622: The reporting and sports staff moved to the headquarters of the Sunderland Echo . It was also decided later that year, that the printing plant in Sunderland would close with printing of the paper moving to Dinnington , near Sheffield as a result. In 2015, the newspaper offices moved to Houghton le Spring alongside the Sunderland Echo and Shields Gazette . In May 2019, the office then moved to its Sunderland address at
4158-524: The right to be a county borough, and thus independent from the administrative county it would otherwise come under. Some cities and towns were already independent counties corporate , and most were to become county boroughs. Originally ten county boroughs were proposed; Bristol , Hull , Newcastle upon Tyne and Nottingham , which were already counties, and Birmingham , Bradford , Leeds , Liverpool , Manchester , and Sheffield , which were not. The Local Government Act 1888 as eventually passed required
4235-589: The same as a county borough. As a result, by 2015, most former county boroughs were either metropolitan boroughs or unitary authorities with a status similar to the old county boroughs. In England, most of those former county boroughs that did not gain unitary authority status— Barrow-in-Furness , Burnley , Canterbury , Carlisle , Chester , Eastbourne , Gloucester , Great Yarmouth , Hastings , Ipswich , Lincoln , Northampton , Norwich , Oxford , Preston , and Worcester —have given their names to non-unitary local government districts (in some cases coterminous with
4312-685: The shops and the market had moved to a new shopping centre by 1974. Most of Lynn Street had by then been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. Only the north end of the street remains, now called Lynn Street North. This is where the Hartlepool Borough Council depot was based (alongside the Focus DIY store) until it moved to the marina in August 2006. In 1977, the British Steel Corporation announced
4389-405: The tax base from the administrative county. County boroughs to be constituted in this era were a mixed bag, including some towns that would continue to expand such as Bournemouth and Southend-on-Sea . Other towns such as Burton upon Trent and Dewsbury were not to increase in population much past 50,000. 1913 saw the attempts of Luton and Cambridge to gain county borough status defeated in
4466-518: The third lowest in regional newspaper daily sales in the UK. In December 2021, that figure dropped to 1,570 daily sales. When the paper first became a weekly edition, it's average circulation was 1,408 sales in December 2022. The newspaper has a strong online presence and, in 2012, their website averaged 121,000 unique users a month. The newspaper is where sports journalist and TV presenter Jeff Stelling began his career. In April 2022, Stelling began writing
4543-550: The time— Aberdeen , Dundee , Edinburgh , and Glasgow —were included in this category. There was an additional category of large burgh in the Scottish system (similar to a municipal borough in England and Wales), which were responsible for all services apart from police, education and fire. When county councils were first created in 1889, it was decided that to let them have authority over large towns or cities would be impractical, and so any large incorporated place would have
4620-466: The town he had created. First The area became heavily industrialised with an ironworks (established in 1838) and shipyards in the docks (established in the 1870s). By 1913, no fewer than 43 ship-owning companies were located in the town, with the responsibility for 236 ships. This made it a key target for Germany in the First World War . One of the first German offensives against Britain
4697-487: The town in July 1765 to "take the waters", and wrote to his friend William Mason: I have been for two days to taste the water, and do assure you that nothing could be salter and bitterer and nastier and better for you... I am delighted with the place; there are the finest walks and rocks and caverns. A few weeks later, he wrote in greater detail to James Brown: The rocks, the sea and the weather there more than made up to me
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#17327929896704774-574: The town lacked a cinema and areas of it became afflicted with the societal hallmarks of endemic economic poverty: urban decay , high crime levels, drug and alcohol dependency being prevalent. Docks near the centre were redeveloped and reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 as a marina. The accompanying National Museum of the Royal Navy opened in 1994, then known as the Hartlepool Historic Quay. A development corporation
4851-605: The town. This in turn resulted in the opening of the Swainson Dock on 3 June 1856, named after Ward Jackson's father-in-law. In 1878, the William Gray & Co shipyard in West Hartlepool achieved the distinction of launching the largest tonnage of any shipyard in the world, a feat to be repeated on a number of occasions. By 1881, old Hartlepool's population had grown from 993 to 12,361, but West Hartlepool had
4928-473: The two county boroughs in Northern Ireland were replaced with two larger districts ( Belfast and Londonderry ). The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 created county boroughs in Ireland. Under the Act, four former counties corporate ( Cork , Dublin , Limerick and Waterford ) became county boroughs. Galway became a county borough in 1986. In the Republic of Ireland , the relevant legislation remained in force (although amended), and county boroughs on
5005-400: The villages under their rule were mentioned in records in 1153 when Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale became Lord of Hartness . The town's first charter was received before 1185, for which it gained its first mayor, an annual two-week fair and a weekly market. The Norman Conquest affected the settlement's name to form the Middle English Hart-le-pool ("The Pool of the Stags"). By
5082-466: The want of bread and the want of water, two capital defects, but of which I learned from the inhabitants not to be sensible. They live on the refuse of their own fish-market, with a few potatoes, and a reasonable quantity of Geneva [gin] six days in the week, and I have nowhere seen a taller, more robust or healthy race: every house full of ruddy broad-faced children. Nobody dies but of drowning or old-age: nobody poor but from drunkenness or mere laziness. By
5159-417: 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
5236-569: Was a county of city . They were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales , but continue in use for lieutenancy and shrievalty in Northern Ireland . In the Republic of Ireland they remain in existence but have been renamed cities under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001 . The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 re-introduced the term for certain " principal areas " in Wales. Scotland did not have county boroughs but instead had counties of cities . These were abolished on 16 May 1975. All four Scottish cities of
5313-418: Was a raid and bombardment by the Imperial German Navy on the morning of 16 December 1914, Hartlepool was hit with a total of 1150 shells, killing 117 people. Two coastal defence batteries at Hartlepool returned fire, launching 143 shells, and damaging three German ships: SMS Seydlitz , SMS Moltke and SMS Blücher . The Hartlepool engagement lasted roughly 50 minutes, and the coastal artillery defence
5390-420: Was appointed in May 1935 to "investigate whether the existing status of Merthyr Tydfil as a county borough should be continued, and if not, what other arrangements should be made" . The commission reported the following November, and recommended that Merthyr should revert to the status of a non-county borough, and that public assistance should be taken over by central government. In the event county borough status
5467-452: 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" After the war, industry went into a severe decline. Blanchland , the last ship to be constructed in Hartlepool, left the slips in 1961. In 1967, Betty James wrote how "if I had
5544-406: Was completed in 1889. An events venue and public hall on Raby Road called West Hartlepool Town Hall was subsequently completed in 1897. In 1902 West Hartlepool was elevated to become a county borough , making it independent from Durham County Council . The old Hartlepool Borough Council amalgamated with West Hartlepool Borough Council in 1967 to form a county borough called Hartlepool. In 1974
5621-580: Was founded in the 7th century, around the monastery of Hartlepool Abbey on a headland. As the village grew into a town in the Middle Ages, its harbour served as the County Palatine of Durham 's official port. The new town of West Hartlepool was created in 1835 after a new port was built and railway links from the South Durham coal fields (to the west) and from Stockton-on-Tees (to the south) were created. A parliamentary constituency covering both
5698-488: Was laid out on land outside Hartlepool's historic borough boundaries, in the neighbouring parish of Stranton . A body of improvement commissioners was established to administer the new town in 1854. The commissioners were superseded in 1887, when West Hartlepool was also incorporated as a municipal borough. The new borough council built itself a headquarters at the Municipal Buildings on Church Square, which
5775-464: Was raised to 100,000 by the Local Government Act 1958 . The viability of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil came into question in the 1930s. Due to a decline in the heavy industries of the town, by 1932 more than half the male population was unemployed, resulting in very high municipal rates in order to make public assistance payments. At the same time the population of the borough was lower than when it had been created in 1908. A royal commission
5852-552: Was retained by the town, with the chairman of the Welsh Board of Health appointed as administrative adviser in 1936. After the Second World War the creation of new county boroughs in England and Wales was effectively suspended, pending a local government review. A government white paper published in 1945 stated that "it is expected that there will be a number of Bills for extending or creating county boroughs" and proposed
5929-481: Was supported by the Royal Navy in the form of four destroyers, two light cruisers and a submarine, none of which had any significant impact on the German attackers. Private Theophilus Jones of the 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry , who fell as a result of this bombardment, is sometimes described as the first military casualty on British soil by enemy fire. This event (the death of the first soldiers on British soil)
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