sunniside the headland secret

Sunniside Up? You can pretty much guarantee that if you were to ask anyone within the Civic Centre, including most Councillors, where Sunniside is you’d be met with some pretty blank faces. Yet this ancient street is one of the most important in Hartlepool’s history. Many years ago, and we’re talking hundreds here, Sunniside was at the very heart of Hartlepool which was then one of the most strategically important ports in the land. Today it has been reduced to the appearance of a back-water crying out for redevelopment and for the recognition it deserves. Hartlepool’s ancient harbour is still recognisable today although low-tide no longer exposes its once sandy beach; construction of the docks in the 1830s put paid to that. The importance of that original, natural harbour was recognised by some very important people because it provided some of the best shelter on the North East coast and in it’s heyday it was was littered with sailing ships of all sizes; including the boats of local fisherman at a time when fishing was the main constituent of the local economy. However, as the main port of the powerful Bishops of Durham, it was the strategic importance of the harbour that would make it briefly, one of the most important ports in the land and would lead to its fortification. If you haven’t figured out yet where Sunniside is CLICK HERE and all will be revealed. Construction of the Town Wall is said to have been carried out on the instigation of the then Lord of the Manor, Robert de Brus, sometime between 1245 and 1295. This consisted of enclosing the harbour or haven as it was then known by building two walls on either side each with ten towers. The Brus family were soon to become embroiled in the fight for Scottish independence and as a result King Edward confiscated the Brus estates of Hert and Hertness which were then granted to the Bishops of Durham. Not surprisingly, the Brus Clan were a bit miffed by all of this and in the years that followed and after Robert de Brus (Jr.) became King of Scotland, Hartlepool was singled out for special attention whenever the Scots chose to cross the border. In fact, the town was attacked and briefly occupied twice by the Scots at this time and was heavily plundered. Concerned over the threat to his real estate assets, in 1339, the then Bishop of Durham, Bishop Bury, gave the town a grant “for enclosing the town of Hartlepool and for the greater security and fortification of the said town and parts adjacent.”. As a result, the South side of the Town Wall, part of which we still see today, was constructed as was the Western Wall, which extended from the South West Corner, across the mouth of the Haven, to just West of the cliff edge at Fairy Cove. A small gap at the South Western corner of the Haven was left to allow ships access ;this would have been closed off by heavy chains. The main gate through the walls was Northgate although ‘gate’ in this context refers to ‘ a street ’ rather than the actual gate. For the most part, Hartlepool was protected by its cliffs. However, on the landward, western side and where the cliffs descended into accessible beaches the Town Wall now provided protection. The Town Wall remained relatively intact until the Scottish threat eventually waned with the succession of James VI of Scotland to the crown of England becoming James I of England and Scotland. After that, the neatly cut blocks of yellow limestone became just a little too tempting to local house builders. By the mid 18th Century, the walls were in considerable disrepair and there were few objections when development of the docks in the 1830s meant much of the remaining walls were demolished. In particular, that part of the wall at the mouth of the Haven was removed although the new Fish Quay at least continued to recognise the use of the Haven as a fishing port. Much of the western wall was utilised by the Army when it constructed barracks along Marine Drive to house soldiers from the three battery emplacements. Tourism and the Future It is perhaps one of the greatest ironies of our town that, as Hartlepool now tries to attract visitors for economic reasons, it did at one time have all the history required to have made it one of the country’s leading tourist attractions. Ironic too that the Planners and Consultants have tried to invent a history for the town when our own history lies dormant all around us. Within the North East of England, Only Berwick and York have town and city walls that remain substantially intact with only remnants of the walls at Newcastle and Durham remaining. Hartlepool’s Town Wall, with its distinct yellow limestone colour and its almost unique water-side setting would have made it an impressive sight. The heyday of Hartlepool Docks lasted barely 150 years - a fraction of the 700 years that the Town Wall has stood. It’s arguable that preserving the Walls would have been a much more productive and longer-term investment - but then hindsight is a wonderful thing. Sunniside, once the busiest street in Hartlepool, is still there - just. However, the Haven Beach remains artificially covered by the quayside which itself has been demoted to a dumping ground and car park for the nearby Herema construction facility. We were told the future would lie in the Victoria Harbour Development - a computer generated collection of steel framed sheds and landscaped shrubbery that was virtually a replica of the Teesdale riverside development. It was an ambitious plan; too ambitious as no one was interested in backing it financially. The only real impact of the Victoria Harbour scheme was to delay Hartlepool Borough Council from addressing the serious housing shortage in the town as the plan ate up much of the proposed housing allocation for the town. Perhaps just as seriously, it allowed local politicians to focus on ethereal plans rather than everyday realities. Plan ‘B’, if we can call it that, is now for the area to become a centre for wind turbine production building on the success of JDR Cables. However, the same mantra of green jobs being the saviour of local economies is emanating from places all over the UK from Blyth to Ramsgate. Not many will be successful and, with the confused message currently coming from the development agencies and local economic development departments, there’s no reason to believe Hartlepool’s current dream will become any more of a reality than Victoria Harbour.