STOCKTON WARD 



HARTLEPOOL 



' Suthrawe ' in South Street, and a ' VVestravve ' in 

 Northgate ; a number of burgages and booths were 

 then waste.^"* 



The mayors' accounts mention the ' town's house ' 

 which the burgesses of Hartlepool began to build in 

 1600"*; the richer citizens contributed 10/. a year 

 for several years to the work. This hall probably 

 stood on the site of the later town hall, by the market 

 cross, on the south side of Southgate.^' 



The Prior and convent of Durham had in the 

 15th century a great herring-house in Northrow in 

 South Street, described as formerly belonging to 

 Robert de Brus.^*' This was a shed where the 

 herrings were cleaned and cured. 



The builder of the haven and town walls is said to 

 have been Robert de Brus I,^""" but no references to 

 the walls have been found earlier than the grants of 

 murage in the reign of Edward II, and the evidence 

 seems to show that they were built by the townsmen 

 as a protection against Robert de Brus V'll in the 

 Scotch wars. In 131 5, when the latter invaded 

 England, James Douglas plundered the town and 

 wasted all the east coast.'^ The manor had been 

 forfeited by Brus in 1306 for the murder of Comyn 

 and had been granted to Robert de Clifford'^ ; Brus 

 therefore had a grievance against the place, and the 

 inhabitants were panic-stricken : there was a tradition 

 that they fled to their ships and left the town to the 

 Scots.^' A quantity of coins of Bishop Bek and 

 Edward I, discovered at Hartlepool about 1841, were 

 probably hidden in the face of this danger.^'' Soon 

 afterwards, however, the townsmen began to take 

 active measures for defence. A petition from the 

 mayor and commonalty in 1328 stated that Robert 

 de Brus had granted a truce to all the bishopric 

 except the town of Hartlepool, which he proposed to 

 burn and destroy in revenge for the capture of a 

 ship laden with arms and victuals, and that the 

 community had inclosed a great part of the town 

 and were building a wall to the best of their power. 

 They asked the king to grant them for the purpose 

 100 marks due for food bought from the late king 

 by Robert de Musgrave.^* The request was granted, 

 and the king ordered that the work should be 

 hastened.^* 



Only that portion of the wall on the west side of 

 the town now remains, and of this a great deal near 



the north end has been rebuilt and most of its original 

 features lost. The existing wall is about 450 yards 

 in length and runs in a north-westerly direction from 

 the rocks near the pier to the modern ferry, at which 

 point there was formerly a round toiver. From here 

 the original wall ran in a north-easterly direction 

 across the inner harbour to the opposite shore, where 

 it was continued over the isthmus. Large portions 

 of this north wall were standing in Hutchinson's 

 day,'' and his description of it, together with Sir 

 Cuthbert Sharp's illustrations and notes of the 

 changes wrought before 1 8 16, is the only trust- 

 worthy record remaining of the ancient defences of 

 the town.'*' 



The length of the wall across the isthmus was over 

 300 yards, and it is stated by Hutchinson to have 

 been strengthened at intervals by demi-bastions, some 

 rounded, others square. From the edge of the cliff 

 where the wall began the ground gradually fell 

 towards the harbour, and at about half its length the 

 wall formed an obtuse angle ' guarded with a turret 

 or bastion from whence is a kind of horn work pro- 

 jecting into the field for a considerable distance, of an 

 angular figure, having two terraces one above the 

 other, with the remains of a glacis.' To the east of 

 this were three bastions, the middle one rectangular 

 and the two outer rounded. To the west were the 

 remains of a sally-port and a third round bastion. 

 The wall terminated next the harbour in the great 

 land gate, or chief entrance to the town, which was 

 34 ft. in width and projected 16 in. in front of the 

 main wall. The opening was 1 1 ft. 3 in. wide with 

 a segmental arch of two rings, i 3 ft. in height. The 

 gate-house probably formed originally a strong tower, 

 but the upper part had gone in Hutchinson's day. 

 ' The whole wall, tower and gateway,' he says, ' are 

 of excellent masonry, built of limestone which is won 

 in the sea banks,' but before 18 16 two of the bastions 

 had disappe.ired.'^ 



From the land gate the wall was continued in a 

 direct line across the haven, the water at high tides 

 coming up to the gate. This wall was over 8 ft. 

 thick, faced on each side with dressed stones ' with a 

 parapet guarded by a breast wall and embrasures,' and 

 was pierced by a low pointed water gate for small 

 craft. In Sharp's time the water gate was blocked 

 in the lower part, and the superstructure, the remains 



"" Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Surt. Soc), 

 24, 24 n., 86 ; Dur. Acct. R. (Surt. Soc), 

 i, 66. 



•8 Dur. Acct. R. (Surt. Soc), i, 237. 



" Sharp, Hist, of Hartlepool, yg a., 

 105. 



'» Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Surt. Soc), 24. 

 North Row was apparently at one time 

 a residential quarter. Two messuages 

 there, also once belonging to Robert 

 Brus, one built and the other waste, were 

 leased by the Prior and convent with 

 the herring-house to Robert Mundcville 

 for 90 years in 1420. The first messuage 

 had been the residence of John Goldsmith 

 (probably John Gold-mith mayor in 1410 

 and 1417). The houses lay between a 

 tenement which John Goldsmith had 

 bought from the corporation on the east 

 ■nd a lane leading to * Le Slyke ' on the 

 west (Ibid. 24 n.). 



"a Sharp (op. cit. 141) and Surtees (op. 

 cit. iii, no) say Robert de Brus V (ob. 

 1294), but the only authority seems to be 

 the Cottonian MS. Jul. c. ii, fol. 318 



(278), a 16th-century MS. compiled from 

 records in the Exchequer of Durham (cf. 

 Surtees, op. cit. iii, 119, who in quoting 

 a statement from this MS. as to the 

 founder of Hartlepool Friary gives * Master 

 Latton, one of the visitors of the Northern 

 Abbeys before the Dissolution,' as the 

 author), which contains the following 

 note : 'The same Brus [i.e. the founder 

 of Guisborough Priory and the reputed 

 founder of Hartlepool Friar)'] builded the 

 haven and wall about the towne of 

 Hertlepole with to towers on eche syde 

 of the haven and a chayne to be drawne 

 betwcn them near the haven, which 

 hiTcn would hold a c sayle.' 



" Hitt. Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. 

 Soc), 96 ; cf. Chron. of reigns of Ediu. I 

 and Edtu. II (Rolls Ser.), ii, 48. 



" See Hart. 



'^ Chron. de Ldn^forr (Bannatyne Club), 

 230. According to this chronicle, it was 

 in the invasion of 1322 that Douglas 

 raided the town (ibid. 242 ; cf. Hist. 

 Dunelm. Script. Tres (Surt. Soc), 102). 



265 



'• Proc. Soc. Antij, Newcastle (Ser. 3), 

 iv, 211. In 1 319 some Scotch rebeli 

 were captured in a ship at Hartlepool 

 [Cal. Close, 1318-23, pp. 67, 90, cf. 

 p. 201). 



'^Anct. Pet. (P.R.O.), 2537; Co.. 

 Doc. of Scotland, iii, no. 602, translates 

 * achetez de son pier' (i.e. 'bought from 

 his [the king's] father*) as 'bought f;om 

 their pier,* evidently an error (cf, Cal. 

 Pal. 1327-30, p. 233). 



'• Cal. Doc. of Scotland, iii, no. 602 ; 

 Cal. Pat. 1327-30, p. 233. About 1330 

 the abbey of Durham contributed 401. 

 towards completing the wall (Dur. Acct. 

 R. (Surt. Soc), ii, 51S). 



'• Hist, and Antij. of Dur. (1785-94), 

 iii, 25. 



»' Sharp, Hiif. of Hartlepool (ei. 1851), 

 p. 141 et seq. 



^* Sharp gives the distance from the 

 north-east cliff to the first bastion as 

 198 ft. and from this to the fourth 

 ;;8ft., from the latter to the land gate 

 16s fi. 



34 



