Who are the Monkey Hangers!

The alleged story of how the Fisherman of Hartlepool hung a monkey believing it to be a French spy.

“The monkey swung from the gallows tall,
Hanged by those who did not know him at all.”

During the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s, Britain and France were engaged in another major military conflict…In the year 1807, a French ship was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. Amongst the wreckage was the body of a monkey that belonged to the ship’s now deceased captain.

The townspeople of Hartlepool, not being familiar with either monkeys or French for that matter, believed it to be a Frenchman who had survived the wreck. They brought the monkey before the local court and put it on trial for being a French spy. The monkey having something of a less than convincing defense and an inebriated jury, was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to hang.

The monkey was then hanged by the neck from a makeshift gallows. Only after the execution did the townspeople realize their mistake when informed by a local sailor that the ‘Frenchman’ they had hanged was in fact a primate and not by any stretch human.

Two major sports clubs in Hartlepool have taken the bold step of incorporating the town’s monkey hanging history into their nomenclature:

H’angus The Monkey.

Mascot of Hartlepool United Football Club

Hartlepool Rovers Rugby club’s logo features a monkey hanging from a noose, and they regularly refer to themselves in a self deprecating monkey related kind of way.

Hartlepool Rovers Rugby club’s logo features a primate hanging from a noose.

The related references shows how the townspeople have embraced their unusual history and turned it into a source of civic pride and dark humour. The nicknames have helped forge a strong sense of local identity for the sports teams.

The monkey hanging story has thus not only shaped Hartlepool’s history, and it’s nicknames for its people, but also lives on through the names and mascots of two major local sports clubs. It remains an integral part of Hartlepool’s culture and community spirit to this day…

Fast forward a few hundred years…Hartlepool United Football club’s mascot H’Angus The Monkey runs for mayor of Hartlepool on a “FREE Bananas” for school children platform…and WINS! Then 4 years later WINS AGAIN!

A little more hartlepool.

During World War I and World War II, Hartlepool was heavily bombarded/bombed by the German navy and luftwaffe respectively, causing significant damage to the town and its population.

During World War I, the town of Hartlepool was the site of a German naval bombardment on December 16, 1914. This attack resulted in the death of 86 civilians and 420 injuries. Out of the casualties, 18 were soldiers, and 68 were civilians. This event is known as the “Hartlepool Bombardment.”

In World War II, the Luftwaffe conducted aerial bombing campaigns on the town, causing significant damage to the town and its population. However, exact casualty numbers for WWII bombings are not readily available in historical records.