Hartlepool United’s mascot is a monkey called H’Angus the Monkey, and the local Rugby Union team Hartlepool Rovers are known as the Monkeyhangers. Most Hartlepudlians however love this story. Over the centuries the legend has been used to taunt the residents of Hartlepool indeed still today, at football matches between local rivals Darlington and Hartlepool United the chant, “Who hung the monkey” can often be heard. Small boys were employed on warships of this time to prime the canons with gunpowder and were known as ‘powder-monkeys’. There could perhaps be a darker side to the tale – maybe they didn’t actually hang a ‘monkey’ but a small boy or ‘powder-monkey’. So is the legend true? Did the good folk of Hartlepool REALLY hang a poor defenceless monkey? The townsfolk then dragged him into the town square and hanged him. There was a trial to ascertain whether the monkey was guilty of spying or not however, not unsurprisingly, the monkey was unable to answer any of the court’s questions and was found guilty. Some satirical cartoons of the time pictured the French as monkey-like creatures with tails and claws, so perhaps the locals could be forgiven for deciding that the monkey, in its uniform, must be a Frenchman, and a French spy at that. Hartlepool is a long way from France and most of the populace had never met, or even seen, a Frenchman. Suspicious of enemy ships and nervous of possible invasion, the good folk of Hartlepool rushed down to the beach, where amongst the wreckage of the ship they found the only survivor, the ship’s monkey which was apparently dressed in a miniature military-style uniform. Legend has it that during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, a shipwrecked monkey was hanged by the people of Hartlepool, believing him to be a French spy! To this day, people from Hartlepool are affectionately known as ‘monkey hangers’.Ī French ship was spotted floundering and sinking off the Hartlepool coast.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |