One way to deal with a potentially troubling legend is to embrace it with good natured affection, which is exactly what Hartlepool residents have done with the monkey hanging story…
Legend has it that during the Napoleonic wars a French ship was sunk off the Hartlepool coast; its only survivor was the ship’s monkey, who washed ashore dressed in military-style uniform. Having never seen a Frenchman before, and naturally wary of foreign invasion, the local populace decided in their infinite wisdom that the monkey was a French spy. A trial (at which the monkey said very little, and certainly couldn’t protest his innocence), the locals dragged him to the town square and hung him.
This amusing legend is unlikely to be as cut and dried as the tale suggests (and could have had a much darker outcome, given young boys on ships often held the rank of ‘powder monkey’), but whatever the truth it’s a story which has been heartily embraced by all, including being immortalised in folk song and by the local football team whose mascot is called H’Angus the Monkey.
Pay your respects to the poor primate by chucking a few pennies at the Make A Wish For The Monkey statue at the end of the Marina, which collects coins for charity.
Find the Hartlepool monkey statue at York Place, TS24 0RU.