Hartlepool United’s badges have almost always featured a hart somewhere in the design to mirror the name of the town. Hartlepool Town Council uses a seal that dates back to 1200. (PIC 1) The seal shows the motto “S’COMVNITATIS DE HARTARPOL” in the roundel, and translates, in my bad Latin as The Community Of Hartlepool. In the centre is a hart, or stag as it is also known, at bay in a pool with a hound on its back. Obviously this is an illustration of the town’s name, as it is said the town originated from where harts used to drink from a pool. The hound, it seems, stems from a piece of old folklore called: “The legend of the Eastingham Hare”. This strange little creature had been persistently hunted but always managed to escape. Finally, one day a hound managed to bite the leg of the hare before it disappeared into a hole in the wall of a ruined building. Determined to catch the elusive creature the huntsmen entered the building to seek it out, and to their surprise, they found an old woman nervously bandaging her bleeding leg. After searching the whole building and not finding the hare, only one conclusion could be made, the old woman was the hare and the hare was a witch! There is more folklore to come concerning the club mascot.
The town council has never registered the design with the college of arms, but over the years it has been displayed on a shield. (PIC 2) The earliest badge sent to me was used in the 1970s and features the hart in front of what looks like an old lace-up football. The club’s name is in the roundel. (PIC 3) The badge used in the early 1980s has a more modern look about it, and has the year the club was formed, 1908, and a hart’s head and antlers in front of a more familiar-looking football, with the club’s initials at the base. (PIC 4) The late 1980s and early 1990s, show a more stylised hart in front of the club’s colours, and a ball at least I hope it’s a ball, and not what it looks like, a round poo. At the base again we have the club’s initials, and year formed. (PIC 5)
In 1994, the club held a competition to find a new badge, and a lucky fan won it. He departed from the old hart motif and used the town’s maritime heritage with the use of a ship’s wheel behind the football. The full name of the club appears with the club motto “The Town’s Club”. (PIC 6) As shown on the earlier badges the club was formed in 1908 as Hartlepools United, the company feeling that pools would better represent the town’s two boroughs. At the start of the 1977 season, the name Hartlepool United was used. During the First World War, Hartlepool fans could be forgiven for thinking the Hun was a bunch of Darlington fans, due to the damage the ground suffered at their hands, the Germans that is, not the Darlington fans. Firstly, in 1916 a German Zeppelin on its way to a bombing mission over the Tees area, dropped its load on the Victoria Park ground demolishing the main stand. The stand-replacing it stood well into the 1980s. Further to this the ground was again badly damaged by a naval bombardment of the town. So if you think the ground looks like a bomb’s hit it then you now know why, it has. In 1921/22 a rather strange transfer fee was paid for a Workington player, £10 and a box of kippers, about today’s price for Joey Barton’s services, minus the £10.
The club’s nickname comes from the club’s name and is “The Pool”. Anyone who watches Sky Sports News on a Saturday afternoon, has seen the look of desperation on Jeff Sterling’s face when a goal or result comes up on the video printer. Hartlepool let in five goals in one week and it was a joy watching him try to hide his disappointment/embarrassment. He is no match for Matt LeTissier, who has a poker face whatever the Southampton situation is. The club’s newest badge has the formation date, the club’s name, and the return of the Hart and Pool. (PIC 7)
The club’s mascot is a monkey, and the reason for this lies behind the most famous story connected to the town of Hartlepool. (PIC 8) The people of Hartlepool will tell you it is just a legend, but it sounds so plausible I like to think it could well have happened. It is said that one stormy day during the Napoleonic Wars, a French ship was wrecked off the Hartlepool coast. The fishermen of the town, fearing an invasion, kept a watch on the French ship as it struggled against the storm, but when the vessel was severely battered and sunk they turned their attention to the wreckage washed ashore. The only survivor, clinging to the wreckage, was the ship’s pet monkey looking wet and sorrowful, and dressed in a military-style uniform. The fishermen held a beach-side trial and questioned the monkey. Unfamiliar with what Frenchmen looked like and unable to understand its replies they came to the conclusion the monkey was a French spy, and should be sentenced to death. The monkey was then hung from the mast of a fishing boat, poor thing, still, it could have been burnt as a witch! I think anyone going to Hartlepool should make it obvious who and what they are and don’t leave it to chance. There is even a statue of this monkey sited near to the lock gates of the marina. (PIC 9) As I mentioned Hartlepool play at Victoria Park which holds 7,856 fans, all united in their hatred of Darlington, their local rivals. I would like to thank the kind person who sent me the badges, but the compliments slip was not signed, so I know not who you are. Thanks to Hartlepool United FC, and FLPTV LTD for further information. To find more on “The Pool” dive into this website www.hartlepoolunited.co.uk
