This image dated 1979 is a side view of the Engine House and the Water Tower behind it.

Ship's Lifeboats loaded onto railway trucks ready for transportation at J.M. Pounder's boatyard near Throston Bridge, Hartlepool. c1920

HHT&N 824

Boats being built at J.M. Pounder's boatyard near Throston Bridge, Hartlepool. c.1930.

HHT+N 796

Billboards on the entrance to Throston Bridge, old Hartlepool

Looking towards old Hartlepool with the road towards the docks on the right.

HHT&N 257

Throston Bridge, no date known

Throston Bridge during the demolition of the rail line. In background at left is the cinema. Constructed before WWII but never completed. Throston Bridge carried railway to old Hartlepool & docks

A side view of the entrance to Throston Bridge taken in 1965. Advertising hoardings are on the walls either side of the bridge.

The bridge carried the railway into the headland area of the town and coal trains to the staiths and it was demolished in 1973. The photo, by the fashions and cars will probably have been taken around 1970. The road through the docks was on the immediate right before the bridge.

Throston Bridge, Hartlepool, the entrance to the Headland

Dated 1965, the image shows Throston Engine House hiding behind the hoarding showing two well known ale adverts (Vaux of Sunderland of course closed some years ago)

To the left is Throston Bridge which was well known as 'the border' into Hartlepool and was demolished in 1973. To the right is Old Cemetery Road which was, until 1967 and amalagamation of Hartlepool and West, known as Clifton Street.

HHT+N 91

Old Hartlepool is the original fishing village which existed before West Hartlepool. The origins of ancient town of Hartlepool (Old Hartlepool) can be traced back to ca 647 AD. In the 8th century AD, Bede mentions it (“heopru” – the place where harts (deer) drink). The record goes blank then, and does not reappear until the 12th century. In 1201 King John confirmed a charter owned by Robert Bruce V. The name “Brus” or “Bruce” is still associated with parts of the town.

The fine abbey church of St. Hilda is mainly Early English, dating from 1185, on the site of an abbey which flourished as early as 658 AD. St. Hilda’s still flourishes and stands in a prominent place on the Hartlepool headland, and nearby the ancient town walls (completed ca 1322 as a defence against the twin enemies of the Scots and the sea) can still be seen.

On 8th February 1201, the town was granted its first royal charter by King John. A second royal charter was granted in 1593 by Queen Elizabeth (the First).

Hartlepool was visited several times by John Wesley on his preaching tours … he was certainly in the town in 1757 and 1786.

Old Hartlepool continued its independent existence until 1967, when local government reorganisation created the merger with its young neighbour, West Hartlepool.