Hartlepool is a port town in County Durham, England. The town lies on the North Sea coast, 17 miles north of Middlesbrough and 20 miles south of Sunderland. The town is governed as part of the Borough of Hartlepool, a unitary authority which also administers outlying villages such as Seaton Carew, Greatham, Hart Village, Dalton Piercy and Elwick.
Hartlepool was founded in the 7th century, around the monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew in the Middle Ages and its harbour served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. After a railway link from the north was established from the South Durham coal fields, an additional link from the south, in 1835, together with a new port, resulted in further expansion, with the new town of West Hartlepool. England's Industrialisation and the start of a shipbuilding industry in the later part of the 19th century caused Hartlepool to be a target for the Imperial German Navy at the beginning of the First World War. A bombardment of 1,150 shells on 16 December 1914 resulted in the death of 117 people. A severe decline in heavy industries and shipbuilding following the Second World War caused periods of high unemployment until the 1990s when major investment projects and the redevelopment of the docks area into a marina saw a rise in the town's prospects.
