Sandwell Chare - Hartlepool

Earlier I put up this postcard of Sandwell Gate in Hartlepool's town wall. The eagle-eyed among you will see that the wording on the card says, 'Ancient Water Gate Sandwell Chare Hartlepool 1908'.

Sandwell Gate & Sandwell Chare

It checking other details about Hartlepool I came across this photograph taken from the other direction.

Sandwell Chare looking towards Sandwell Gate.

This photo comes from the Museum of Hartlepool's Flickr photostream. It is from The Pattinson Collection (Hartlepool Museum), a group of images taken by the Reverend James Whitehead Pattinson during the latter years of the 19th Century, in and around the Hartlepool and Bishop Auckland areas.

Fleamarket Postcards - Sandwell Gate, Hartlepool

The Heugh a peninsula or headland in the North East of England is familiarly known as Old Hartlepool. It may have been an isolated tidal island in prehistoric times. Excavations in the 19^th century unearthed trunks of trees believed to be the remnants of an ancient forest. Antlers and teeth  recovered indicated that deer inhabited the area in those earlier times.

The Anglo-Saxon name for Hartlepool was Heret eu or Stag Island. This refers either to the shape of the headland or indicates the presence of forest deer. Heret eu later became known as Hart, a district covering the Heugh and the nearby villages of Hart and Billingham. The word ‘pool’ was added to distinguish the headland from Hart,

In the 13^th century the port and fishing town of Hartlepool was fortified by defensive walls built round the headland. Some parts of Hartlepool’s ancient wall remain, including Sandwell Gate.

Sandwell Gate 1908 (unused postcard)

 Photographer Alfred Price

A modern photo from Flickr shows the gate in recent times:

Sandwell Gate

 (ex flickr - by twiggles - CC BY-NC 2.0 license)

The postcard appears to be one of a series of local Heritage Prints by Alfred Price (1890-1912)