THC - Offshore Fabricators based at Victoria Dock, imitating the local legend of a monkey once being hung as a 'spy', started their own tradition by "hanging" a full-size effigy of a monkey, dressed in overalls, from their completed oil platform. This practice was discontinued after numerous 999 calls from the public, concerned that someone had hanged themselves from the rig. All later Load Outs had a small cuddly toy monkey attached instead.
Donor : Mr. John Brooker
Creator : Mr. John Brooker
Location
This section contains information and photographs relating to the British Transport Commission Police (later the British Transport Police) in Hartlepool. The BTP ceased policing the docks at Hartlepool when the Tees & Hartlepool Port Authority was formed. These docks had belonged to the L.N.E.R. until the nationalisation of the railways in 1948.
More detail »Victoria Dock at Hartlepool was opened in December 1840. The brig Thomas Rowell was the first ship to enter and load in the new dock. The amount of tonnage shipped in this year was almost double that handled in Hartlepool the previous year. By 1851 the dock had sixteen coal drops and three steam operated ballast cranes.
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