Agree, went down expecting a blazing beacon and underwhelmed when it looked like they were burning a coffee table!
Just found out about the sand face on Redcar Beach, they did Theopolis Jones the first soldier killed on British soil in WW1 here in Hartlepool. Hang about, don't we have any beaches?
Drove past the memorial to the bombardment on the headland and found it tucked behind the light house sub station, looked like a kitchen island tarted up, pathetic.

Wasn't Hartlepool the first place to be attacked during the war? Pools the first football ground to be partly destroyed? Wasn't that soldier from Hartlepool? , yet Its certainly got a war history. There was a big event at Seaham, that included Danny Boyles Pages of the Sea, Seaham a place that seems to have taken off since they placed a statue of a solider called Tommy on the seafront , a very nice piece of artwork indeed. Weren't Hartlepool supposed to commission something similar? did it ever happen?.

Wasn't Hartlepool the first place on home soil to be attacked during the war? Pools the first football ground to be partly destroyed? Wasn't that soldier from Hartlepool? , yes Its certainly got a war history. There was a big event at Seaham, that included Danny Boyles Pages of the Sea, Seaham a place that seems to have taken off since they placed a statue of a solider called Tommy on the seafront , a very nice piece of artwork indeed. Weren't Hartlepool supposed to commission something similar? did it ever happen?.

Danny Boyle was at Roker beach, I know this cos I woz there innit.

Correct, was up Seaham on Saturday and lots of people there to see the Tommy statue which over the past couple of years has coincided with lots of visitors to the front there as well as other imaginative schemes.
I found the bombardment memorial at the headland (where the dead alone was over the hundred mark), was a square grey block with a plaque on tucked behind a sub station. Pathetic lack of imagination. Funny how a town with great beaches and an Art College can't manage to produce anything and a local hero appears on someone else's beach.

I think you'll find a lot of it is because Seaham council actually give a fuck about improving the area. Hartlepool could be the same except it's run by self serving clowns.

Totally agree. Promises, promises and more promises.

Theo Jones timeline....https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/2173716

Interesting read, but didn't mention he was a teacher at St Aidan's school.

Not quite. The German naval squadron shelled Scarborough and Whitby first as it sailed up the coast but Hartlepool was hit much harder and had serious casualties, including soldiers. The footie ground was hit later in the war, bombed by a German Zeppelin.

It's a bit poor that Redcar was allowed to steal Hartlepool's heritage for the day to commemorate Private Jones. Hartlepool Council can't claim ignorance either - they're bound to have been told about it through the Tees Valley Combined Authority's Culture and Tourism meetings. That's if the Hartlepool rep bothered to turn up!

not knocking the headland but you certainly have to search for stuff as it doesn,t jump out at you.

It was the only battle on British soil. Scarborough and Whitby didn't count as battles because they didn't return fire.

In an earlier example of heritage theft the papers at the time reported the Hartlepool deaths as part of the Scarborough total. It is suspected that government sources misled them because higher casualties from an attack on a defenceless holiday resort made better propaganda.

The squadron was divided, Von Dee der Tann and Derfflinger attacked Scarborough and Whitby while Sedlitz, Moltke and Blucher attacked Hartlepool. 112 killed in Hartlepool and hundreds injured, Scarborough and Whitby had 18 killed. There were fatalities on the German ships from gunfire from the battery.

Any other town would be highlighting such things, first soldier killed on British soil and I've just found out today, the last soldier killed in the Great War was from Hartlepool. A place like Seaham has a magnificent piece of art like 'Tommy' which people travel to see, what have we got to commemorate events? A granite block stuck behind a substation. Fucking pathetic.

Plus my Gran's mate Hilda is on the painting of people legging it up to Elwick to avoid the shelling. The painter needed models and offered to show her his etchings.

And in another fascinating detail I've got a big lump of shell mounted on a wood and brass plinth made with 'borrowed' materials by my Uncle Les' Dad who found the shrapnel in his back yard and then supported the war effort by making it into a souvenir when he was meant to be building ships.

Agree with you about that Snowy. In most towns the Headland would have benefited from years of war related tourism, its a beautiful place with a fascinating history when you combine the war stuff with the monkey and Andy Capp. The only people who have bothered are the volunteers at the Heugh Battery Museum who struggle on with barely any funding or support.

Just to add a bit, Snowy. He was the first English soldier to be killed on English soil since 1066 !!!!!

The whole 100 years since end of WW1 was quite low key really.

Went to South Shields, who at least made an effort to commemorate the sacrifice of so many. They had asked for money from the Lottery, put together loads of efforts and involved the local community in the rememberance. Then instead of the 5 November fireworks staged a joint one on the Tyne mouth with North Tyneside council.

Sadly the world is more obsessed with Halloween that Bonfire night and rememberance day now. It should never be forgotten how lucky er are for the sacrifice of others.

I've always been puzzled by the Historic Quay. Why build a Napoleonic period attraction when there was nothing there in Napoleonic times? Go a couple of miles and you've got St Hilda, the monkey legend and the Bombardment as well as a beautiful setting surrounded by sea on three sides.

think everything snowy and toulouse have written really sums things up. wonder if the council are actually supporting the university types and left wing wierdos who actually would confine remembrance day to the past because of their twisted logic.

When you consider the natural beauty of the headland its amazing that so little is made of it.
Even the cafe on the front closed.
If this was somewhere else in the country it would be rammed.

if it was anywhere else in the country it would be getting free publicity too. not just the headland but the whole durham coastline. people are really surprised when they come up here even for a day and see what they have missed.

Give your head a shake Accrington ! total bollocks that like

Fair enough ! story I was told is that it was other way around, with British thinking Germans would flee across the sea, but instead they went down the coast to bomb Whitby and Scarborough.

If somewhere on say the south coast was the place where the first British soldier died we'd never hear the end of it. There would probably be a visitor centre, memorial, endless media coverage etc.

We're far too modest.

Even the importance of St Hilda's church and the influence of the De Brus family in the town is completely overlooked.

So much potential to bring tourists in wasted.

I was once called a long haired, left wing weirdo but sadly no more.

I'd have thought the 100th anniversary was an ideal time for finally denouncing all those callous, power-gaming, "hey let's-be-allies" politicians from all over Europe who enabled all those pointless and tragic deaths.
So far they've got off scot-free, but make no mistake, it's their fault.

At least we had a referendum for Brexit, even if the idiots voted yes.

Probably too late to realise the potential now. In 10 years time Hartlepool will be overseen by the Tees Valley ( Mbro & Stockton to you and I ) and what Hartlepool has now may seem like a Utopia in comparison.

If anyone has not visited the Gun Battery its well worth a visit. Allow plenty of time to have a good look round. When i went there was an ex soldier who gave a lecture on the history of rifles.
5 pints of Strongarm in the Globe cemented my enjoyment of the day.

If anyone has not visited the Gun Battery its well worth a visit. Allow plenty of time to have a good look round. When i went there was an ex soldier who gave a lecture on the history of rifles.
5 pints of Strongarm in the Globe cemented my enjoyment of the day.

As you can see i have been twice.

I went once but haven't said anything about it, so you can consider your 2nd post my go.

Let's get this straight, there were two groups of German warships. Three battle cruisers attacked Hartlepool and two others attacked Scarborough and Whitby. Job done, they then headed back pronto across the North Sea hoping to attract attention from the Grand Fleet at Rosyth. They didn't.
Incidentally there were a number of cruisers, destroyers and submarines based in the Victoria Dock, but ironically the tide was out and some couldn't get out. It would have been a suicide mission if they had.

The only people with the ability to develop such things are the council and they've spent a few bob reinventing Church Street and Church Square, why?
I was working down the Headland two years ago and the lad with me was from Stockton and on a lovely summers day drive along Marine Drive was quite impressed with what we take for granted. He said something that I'd never realised before, he said great location but why are there no pubs or shops anywhere along its' length. There's only one pub with a sort of sea view and that's the Pot House, how odd.

The redevelopment of church Street was a grant not the councils money

Now you've got me wondering whether the Great War all kicked off over Veryll's opening hours.

I suggest they spend the grant on something new and original than something that didn't need doing.

I agree with Horden, as usual. As a left wing university weirdo, the biggest tragedy about The Great War was that it was all so pointless. Millions of people died for very little reason.

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it might have been totally pointless and would never happen nowadays but like a lot of people remembrance day is about those who died and maimed in pointless wars and not the politicians who started them. i have no relatives or friends that died in any war and not from a military family so it must actually mean more to others as it does me personally.