Does anyone know why the Belle Vue area is known as Wagga?

Most of my family who grew up there said it was named after Wagga Wagga in Australia, because it was relatively isolated from anywhere else. Kind of makes sense but any other theories/evidence would be good.

Cos that's where the Wagga Moon and Wagga Candle where.

According to Hartlepool History Then and Now:

'Wagga' was a local nickname for the area officially called Longhill. It was an area originally built by Thomas Richardson to the west of his steelworks comprising Florence Street, Hill Street and Portland Street and these remote streets, named after the Australian Wagga Wagga, were remote from the rest of the town and without drainage or paving. The whole area around Sydenham Road eventually was given this nickname.

Those streets on a map today, would be I reckon near the bottom part of Windermere /Thomlinson road, on the Longhill Industrial estate, a couple of hundred yards from the railway line , near Niramax

The Wagga moon and by inference the rest of the Wagga were named after a gang of hard knocks called the Wagga. FACT.

Got one or two Wagga dots in my younger days.

As a sort of young guy from the town I always heard of the wagga moon but what is it? Was it the glow of slag heaps

When they tapped the blast furnace at the old North Works then shipped the slag wagon off to the slagheap, as they poured the slag out it glowed like a volcano and lit up the whole sky if it was dark. It was a bona-fide spectacle. You could see it from all over town at a high enough viewpoint.

This should give you the general impression.

'Wagga' was a local nickname for the area officially called Longhill. It was an area originally built by Thomas Richardson to the west of his steelworks comprising Florence Street, Hill Street and Portland Street and these remote streets, named after the Australian Wagga Wagga, were remote from the rest of the town and without drainage or paving. The whole area around Sydenham Road eventually was given this nickname.

I'm not greatly convinced by this Aussie theory. Hartlepool History Then and Now doesn't offer any supporting evidence for its explanation, though it seems to be based on the scribblings of one man on an Ordnance Survey map.

A description of Longhill by Alan Coates Klottrup on the 1896 Old Ordnance Survey Map of Stranton portrays a dismal housing area, "Thomas Richardson, a Liberal politician, purchased the Blast Furnaces and Rolling Mills….He housed his artisans in the cluster of Longhill streets christened ‘Wagga Wagga’ for their outlandish location and aspect—undrained, unlit, unpaved"

You can locate the streets in question by zooming in on this map:
http://maps.nls.uk/view/101100146#

I can find no other historical quote connecting Longhill with the name Wagga. All the other Wagga explanations repeat the HHTAN description almost word for word.

When the streets in question were built (1870s), Wagga Wagga Australia was barely more than a small village and I'd be surprised if the name was already in use as the benchmark for an undrained, unlit, unpaved estate.

If someone can come up with better evidence, go ahead and I'll happily revise my opinion.

Love stuff like this!

I’m always banging on about Hartlepool over here in the north west - stories and connections to the town crop up all the time. A guy at work who was never been remarked the other day that Hartlepool seems like ‘a proper place.’ He’s right - a long interesting history and traditions.

Fantastic map, Monty. Spent a good hour perusing that. I used to pride myself as a kid in being able to name most of the streets in West H. Brought back loads of memories. Thanks for posting it.

Perhaps the real reason for the name will be debated for ever and i was only repeating what i found online and i agree the link with Australia seem weak.
Great map which shows the Coleridge Avenue area where i grew up as a wooded area perhaps an orchard?

I often wondered why the Hartlepool Athletics Club was named Burn Road Harriers, I see from this map that there was an Athletic Ground next to the Paper Works in Burn Road. Certainly no sign of it when I worked for the Highways Department in that road in 1970.

I love looking at old maps. Got loads of these on different parts of the North East. The industry that used to be here in the region is mind blowing. As far as Hartlepool is concerned, I find these indispensable.

A few things get me on that map.
I was brought up in Pease Street, WEST Hartlepool, which lost its name in favour of the Old Artlepool version on amalgamation and became Lynnfield Road. So obviously the Tips* were the playground of choice for me.
But there was no such thing as Pyman Road and absolutely no such thing as a Scandi-fooking-navian church.
Mr or Mrs Pyman must have been a local figure because the Hartlepool rugby teams cup (2nd teams for the senior clubs) was called the Pyman Cup, and maybe still is.
As for the Old Quarry just off "Broom" Terrace as we called it, WTF? And Dyke house, which actually does seem to be a house.
What was the Rocket House used for? Proving the Earth is or isn't flat?
That barometer next to the Coal Dock must have been fooking huge to have its own OS map entry.

I could probably spend the whole of my spare time over the next year just being overawed by that map.

* Mill house recreation ground for the babies among us

Neither me mum's house in Tweed Street or me dad's in Collingwood Road appear to have been built according to this map! Both were there long before WW2.

Think the Raglan Club was the Scandinavian Church

There used to be Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish consulates down Church Street in the 70's. I suppose Hartlepool was a big importer of Scandinavian timber in the past. I can always remember rows and rows of pit props stacked on the sea front near the old steel works.

It got even more exciting if it was tipped into water laying in the slag tipping point. There was a bang and slag everywhere.

I don't know specifically about the one mapped here but Rocket Houses became a vital part of seafaring rescues. A rocket with a line attached was fired from the shore to stranded sailors and passengers on ships that had run aground. The shipwrecked mariners would then be brought safely to shore in a breeches buoy life ring.

The rockets had their own 'house' or shed to be secure as they were gunpowder based.


Saying that I would have expected it to be adjacent to the Lifeboat station.

There are still billboards there? They must be the oldest in Europe.

Do they still have "More O'Ferral Limited" at the bottom? I used to imagine it was a newsflash (there'll soon be no O'Ferral available at all).

https://goo.gl/maps/5HZBfw1PXGn

Not the same ones sadly Monty!

Well at least the waterworks is looking smarter these days.

Norwegian timber was the strongest timber and was used in North East pits. Those pit props would of found their way to the coastal pits of Easington, Blackhall, Horden and inland at Trimdon, Wingate, Kelloe, and those in the Ferryhill area like Mainsforth and Dean & Chapter etc

The Mayor he told the Town Clerk, who hurried to the shore,
And found the little hairy man where he had been before.
The crowd that gathered round him thought he was the strangest sight
Since the fire at the timber yard the previous Friday night

(original lyrics, changed to match factory and sports club by various other artists including the greatly missed Vin Garbutt)

Doesn't look right without that big water tower does it!