Home Town History

[longbow]

hi all,i was researching my home town history and i was quite shocked at some of the info that came up.heres a brief history of were i live.

Before the Romans came the land around here was the territory of the Brigante tribe and this area was thickly forrested.Hartlepool forrest is still recorded in the 13th century,Anglo Saxon name for hartlepool was Heret eu meaning stag island (town crest is a stag)Hereteu was later known as Hart or Hartness,with the word pool added to distinguish the coastal headland town.

In 640 AD the Anglo Saxon monastry was founded by st.Aiden,its first Abbess was an Irish princess named Hieu.The monastry was destroyed by the Danes in the 9th century.On the site of the destroyed monastry the present church stands still (st hildas) was built in the 13th century by the Normans De Brus.The town was fortified by Robert the Bruce I,grandfather of the famous scottish king.The Bruces accuired the town after the norman conquest,allthough the bishops of Durham allso had a claim.Some parts of Hartlepool's town wall date from the 14th century including the historic Sandwell Gate which can still be seen. Here the wall is eight feet three inches thick. And it needed to be for the place was regulary raided by the scots,One notable Scottish raid on Hartlepool occured in 1315, the year after King Edward I had been defeated by King Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce may have had a particular grudge against Hartlepool as it was the place to which the English King Edward had fled following the battle. Furthermore Robert the Bruce had once been the owner of Hartlepool, but it was confiscated from him by the English, when he was enthroned as King of the Scots.

 

In medieval times the town was an important trading port, Such was its importance that it regularly attracted pirates who hampered the trade of ports like Hartlepool and Whitby. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Hartlepool was recognised for its strategic importance during rebellions and in times of religous conflict. In the conflicts of the sixteenth century for example its significance was recognised by all sides as a potential landing place for the enemy. At the Siege of Dunbar in 1650 it was said that the French had come into the possession of a detailed map of Hartlepool and hoped to set men ashore to fortify the place as a base for seizing the whole of northern England.In August 1561 Hartlepool was again asked to remain vigilant when the activities of Mary Queen of Scots came under close scrutiny. The Hartlepudlians were advised to keep a watch out for foreign ships entering the town. Eight years later during the Rising of the North in 1569 the Spanish ambassador had instructed northern rebels to capture Hartlepool in order that the Duke of Alva might land troops from the Netherlands to lend their support.

 

 

 

In the following century Hartlepool was occupied by the Scots during the Civil War. During the Dutch Wars (1644-67) a report and map of the place was drawn up because vessels pursued by the Dutch frequently took refuge here.

Nothing of much note seems to have happened after that,oohhh yeah,some people found a poor monkey washed up on the beach and they set up a gallows and hung the little bloke,thinking he was a french spy.lol easy mistake to make

Thats basically the history of my home town,i know its not exactly Rome but its interesting stuff. Thx L

[Guest spartacus]

Well done Longbow, excellent, I really enjoyed that !

 

 

What about other members, have you a story to tell ?

[Guest Scanderbeg]

I lived in three cities in my country. Two had a huge history and one is relatively new. One was once called Dyrrachium and is now Durres. The other is called Shkodra and was the capitol of the Kingdom of Queen Teuta(A name still use frequently in my country) and King Gentius(The last Illyrian king who refused to war with Macedon and was defeated by the Romans). It is the oldest Illyrian city originally founded in 4th Century it was taken by the Romans in 168B.C. In the Middle Ages the city went under Serbian rule and then Venitian rule. It was take by the Turks in 1479. It was granted independence in 1913 during the London Conference of Ambassadors.

 

The next was once called Epidamnos then Dyrrachium and now Durres. The city was founded in 627B.C. in Illyria from Corinth and Corcyra colonists. Aristotle's Politics several times draws for examples on the internal government of Epidamnos, which was run as a tight oligarchy that appointed a ruling magistrate; tradesmen and craftsmen were excluded from power, until internal strife produced a more democratic government. The city was captured by the Romans in 229 B.C. The name Epidamnos was strange to the Roman ears and so they chose to go with Dyrrachium(talk about arrogance ). Being an important landing place for travelers a road was started there called Via Egnatia(check my topic "Roads of the Romans"). Pompey based his army in there and beat off an attack by Julius Caesar in 48B.C. in the Battle of Dyrrachium.

The modern city is built directly over the ancient site, so it is primarily on the basis of inscriptions and serendipitous finds that some idea of its monuments has been formed. Inscriptions offer evidence on the following Roman monuments: an aqueduct constructed by Hadrian and restored by Alexander Severus bears a dedicatory inscription at Arapaj, a short distance from Durazzo.

As a result of occasional discoveries, the following data are available: a 3d century mosaic pavement with a female head surrounded by garlands of vegetables and flowers, which brings to mind those painted on Apulian vases; remains of houses covered by other layers, the lowest of which, of the Greek era, was found at a depth of 5 m.

 

Columns with Corinthian capitals and sections of finished marble revetment, discovered on the nearby hillside at Stani, belong probably to the Temple of Minerva or to the Capitolium. In the necropolis east of the hills that stand above the city have been found a stele of Lepidia Salvia, a sarcophagus with a scene of the Calydonian Boar hunt (now at Istanbul), and numerous Roman tombs.

[Guest spartacus]

Another great post

[P.Clodius]

I'm originaly from a small village called Tintwistle approximately halfway between Manchester and Shefield. While I can't go into as lenghty a description as the above the name was derived from the Roman phrase for the valley of the trees, (Tengetvisi I think). There is an ironage fort on the moors and a Roman fort (Melandra) in the next town over. Also, a town (Mottram) about 2 miles from it was metioned in the 1086 Domesday Book. Longbow, I'm pretty sure it was Edward II who was defeated at Bannockburn.

[longbow]

hi p.clodius,your right it was Edward II.Thx L

[Guest spartacus]

So PC, you live near me ?

[Ursus]

Home town history? I think someone took a dump in the woods once, and founded a town on the spot. It's remained pretty much a toilet ever since.

[Guest spartacus]

Pretty crytic !!!!

[P.Clodius]

Spartacus, you're in Manchester right? No I left Britain in 87 and ended up in the USA in 91. I do go back atleast once every year or so.

[Zeke]

Well I live in the United States, state of Hawaii.

 

My home town (though I don't live there anymore) is called Haiku. Like the Jappense Poem. The town has probably been around since the 1840s and started out as a pineapple planatation back in the days of the Hawaiin Monarchy. It was once a booming town in the 1930s but now its just really run down and over run with Hippies. There are three small convience stores a video store and lots of juggle. Basically the town is spread out over an area of 5 miles and half of it is a Native Hawaiin slum. I lived on the outskirts of the town in an Plantation house and I owned 16 acers, my family were chicken farmers.

 

Zeke

[skel]

the only thing i think is worth mentioning about my towns past is a snow storm that hit it about 100 years ago. it was so bad and hit so sudden people were frozen to death as they were running to their homes.

 

 

least thats what im told, never really felt like seeing if it was true or not

[skel]

here are some thing i just found in a search for my towns history...

 

 

Native American and Pioneer History

 

Native Americans lived in the Charleston area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. With the great tallgrass prairie to the west, beech-maple forests to the east, and the Embarras and Wabash Rivers between, the Charleston area provided semi-nomadic Native Americans access to a variety of resources. Indians may have deliberately set the "wildfires" which maintained the local mosaic of prairie and oak-hickory forest. Streams with names like Indian Creek and Kickapoo Creek mark the sites of former Native settlements. One village is said to have been located south of Fox Ridge State Park near a deposit of flint.

 

The early history of European settlement in the area was marked by uneasy co-existence between Native Americans and European settlers. Some settlers lived peacefully with the natives. But in the 1810s and 1820s, after Native Americans allegedly harrassed surveying crews, an escalating series of poorly-documented skirmishes occurred between Native Americans, settlers, and militias known as the Illinois Rangers. Two pitched battles (complete with cannon on one side) occurred just south of Charleston along "the hills of the Embarras," near the entrance to modern Lake Charleston park. These conflicts did not slow European settlement. Native American history in Coles County effectively ended when all natives were expelled by law from Illinois after the 1832 Black Hawk War. With the grudging exception of Indian wives, the last natives were driven out by the 1840s.

[edit]

 

Post-Settlement History

 

Charleston was named after city founder name Charles Morton and was a combination of both of his names. The city was established in 1831, but not incorporated until 1865. When Abraham Lincoln's father moved to a farm on Goosenest Prairie south of Charleston in 1831, Abe helped him move, then left to start his own homestead at New Salem in Sangamon County. Abe was a frequent visitor to the Charleston area, though he likely spent more time at the Coles County courthouse than at the home of his father and stepmother. One of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates was held in Charleston. Lincoln's last visit was in 1859, when the President-elect visited his stepmother and his father's grave before setting out for Washington D.C.

 

Although Illinois was a solidly pro-Union, anti-slavery state, Coles County was settled by many Southerners with pro-slavery sentiments. In 1847, the county was divided when prominent local citizens offered refuge to a family of escaped slaves brought from Kentucky by Gen. Robert Matson. Abe Lincoln himself appeared in the Coles County courthouse to argue for the return of the escaped slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act in a case known as Matson v. Ashmore (http://www.eiu.edu/~localite/coles/cclhp/crime/ashmore_v._matson.htm). As in the rest of the nation, this long-simmering debate finally broke out into violence during the American Civil War. On March 28, 1864 a riot- or perhaps a small battle- erupted in downtown Charleston when armed Confederate sympathizers known as Copperheads arrived in town to attacked half-drunk Union soldiers preparing to return to their regiment. Newspaper accounts (http://www.eiu.edu/~localite/coles/copperhead.htm) at the time said the Copperheads stated intention was to burn the town and "cut out the hearts of the 'd---ed abolistionists.'" Even the county sherriff is alleged to have fired on the soldiers. By the time the

[Hamilcar Barca]

I come from Auckland, NZ, but I'm at university in Wellington right now. History for both is depressing, Wellington: founded 1850, Auckland: founded 1830. wow. Thats why I love European history so much, its got so much substance .

 

Run down of NZ history: All thats happened in NZ in the last 150 years is two inter-racial wars between the natives and the settlers. First 1845 - 1860, second 1864 - 1878. Not alot happened, the maori were beaten and had their land taken. But there was sick twist, a colonial treaty founded in 1840 known as the Treaty of Waitangi, between the maori and pakeha(settlers) which allocated land rights to Maori was ignored during these wars. BUT, the government fom the 1970's onwards restarted honouring this treaty and started to give back land and millions of dollars in compensation money. Worse still, these bastards just won't stop complaining and now theres a Treaty of Waitangi tribunal which hands out vast sums of money to all these corrupt lazy bastards who claim decent from the tribes affected 160 years ago. Now, compared to other indeginous groups, say the Aztecs, the aborigines or the American Indians, the maori did not have a hard time, they were never persecuted and the wars only began because they started been assholes to the whites. Yet, these other groups never got any compensation for multipe atrocities while the maori get millions anually rom the socialists faggots in governemnet and try and shoehorn their influence into everything, despite making up 80% of the jail population. There is no justice. I'd move to Australia but they tax the life out of you over there.

 

NZ in a nutshell: Nice to visit but only live here is you are a left wing unambitious asshole who can dole off the pushover government... Actually my life is very nice, I'm just focussing on all the annoying stuff which keeps poping up in the news. At least the weather is nice, and we only have about 7 shootings a year.

[Maximus]

My home town has origins dating back to the iron age with a hillfort and burial mounds situated in the area. We also have part of the Inkerman Street running through the main street as well as early medieval almshouses, a 12th Century church, a 15th century church and a 19th century church. Our town has a mixture of medieval and georgian architecture. The most notable thing about this town is that it once housed 24 inns and taverns along the main street.