For those who dont already know, heres an extract from a local website..
source website
Who Hung the Monkey Webpage
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WHO HUNG THE MONKEY?
(OR HOW TO UPSET A HARTLEPUDLIAN!)
During the time of the Napoleonic Wars. A French ship was wrecked just of the coast of the headland of Old Hartlepool.
The only survivor to be washed ashore was a small monkey dressed in a French sailors uniform. The wretched creature had apparently been used for entertainment by the crew of the unfortunate ship.
The people of Hartlepool at the time were largely simple fishing folk and had (probably) never seen a monkey and so they assumed it was a French spy, they promptly took it away for questioning. Unfortunately (for itself) the monkey could neither speak nor understand English and could only gibber agitatedly, which only served to further persuade the locals to the identity of the prisoner as they took this gibbering to be French! Finally the monkey was put on trial, found guilty of spying and of course sentenced to death by hanging. The monkey was finally hung on the fish sands a small stretch of beach below the ancient town wall.
Notes:
1) I have deliberately written OLD HARTLEPOOL several times, the reason for this is that until the latter part of this century OLD Hartlepool & British West Hartlepool were two SEPARATE towns (and they can both still be seen on some road signs on the regions minor roads). West Hartlepool as it is more commonly called was the industrial town that grew to the south & west of the existing fishing village of Old Hartlepool
2) Be very careful when taking the mickey out of Hartlepudlians, for some reason many of them take serious exception to being called monkey hangers (although it is now becoming less common especially amongst the Hartlepool United Football Club fans), and have been known to react violently.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
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