Legend
The Hartlepool Monkey
Spy or scapegoat?
See it clearly
- What's there
- Old harbour headland
- Legend from
- Hartlepool
- Tone
- Comic
Hanged as a spy.
Legend says Hartlepool folk found a monkey from a French shipwreck during the Napoleonic Wars and hanged it as a French spy. Locals are still called 'monkey hangers'. The first recorded mention is Ned Corvan's song of 1855, and historians say there is no evidence it happened.