Drove down to Hartlepool – pronounced Hart-le-pool.  Great b&b facing the water.  Lovely pub next door which had great steaks.  Hartlepool is a combination of a little seaside resort surrounded by heaps of heavy industry.  Another wind farm was under construction just off shore in the North Sea.  Seems very logical place to put them.  England is suffering just like us with soaring electricity prices and unsustainable fossil fuel burning power stations they were buying the electricity from Russia when we were there.

There a local legend about hanging a monkey.  Which leads on to another story which must be told.

A French ship was wrecked off the coast back during the Napoleonic Wars and no locals had ever seen a Frenchman.  The only survivor was the ships mascot a pet monkey.  He was found wandering along the beach dressed in his sailors uniform.  As no one could understand him they assumed his screeches when captured that he was speaking French.  So seeing that the Brits were at war with the French they hanged him.

But the legend doesn’t end there.  In 2002 the local elections were on for town mayor.  The local football team had a mascot whose costume is a monkey suit.  This monkey ran for mayor on the platform that he’ll give every child a banana.  Well, he got elected didn’t he and again in 2005 and 2009 and he almost kept his promise.  As there was not enough bananas schools were supplied with fresh fruit for a year for free.