Founded in Hartlepool in 1877 by local influential industrialists as the Northern Evening Mail for Durham and North Yorkshire, the Hartlepool Mail was the first daily newspaper to cover the area, which previously only had access to weekly newspapers. The syndicate formed between Scots-American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Storey, a radical politician who served as Liberal MP for Sunderland from 1881 to 1895, bought the newspaper in 1884. They used ownership of a range of...

Founded in Hartlepool in 1877 by local influential industrialists as the Northern Evening Mail for Durham and North Yorkshire, the Hartlepool Mail was the first daily newspaper to cover the area, which previously only had access to weekly newspapers. The syndicate formed between Scots-American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Storey, a radical politician who served as Liberal MP for Sunderland from 1881 to 1895, bought the newspaper in 1884. They used ownership of a range of newspapers to further their political aims. Storey kept the Mail when the syndicate failed and it became a liberal paper, where it had previously been Conservative. 

The Mail was printed in Hartlepool until 2006 when it moved firstly to Sunderland, then to Dinnington near Sheffield, and finally to its current home of Houghton le Spring alongside the Sunderland Echo and Shields Gazette. The film documents the Mail’s pre-digital process of moveable typesetting, a printing system that uses movable alphabetical, numerical and punctuation marks to be reproduced on paper.

Since publication, the Hartlepool Mail has covered all major national and regional events, notably, as the interviewee points out, the Bombardment of Hartlepool in 1914. On the morning of 16th December 1914 the German Navy bombarded Hartlepool, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds. The attack lasted 40 minutes during which time more than 1000 shells rained down on the unsuspecting town. The attack happened just before school time, with fathers who had already begun work for the day rushing home to check on the safety of loved ones before fleeing to the nearby countryside in County Durham.

The Headland area, home to the Heugh Battery guns, suffered most of the damage, with Moor Terrace, Victoria Place and Cliff Terrace bearing the brunt of the attack. Many streets in the west of the town were also hit, with some buildings still bearing the visible scars of shrapnel today. On the same day, the Germans also bombarded Scarborough and Whitby, in North Yorkshire, but it was the shipping town of Hartlepool that was the worst hit. (1)

The interviewee makes reference to a bombardment in 1916 which - despite directly hitting the Mail’s office, cutting the power and causing damage to machinery - did not prevent the newspaper from publishing that day. There were two German Zeppelin raids on Hartlepool in 1916, the first on the night of 8th August 1916 where two bombs were dropped in a field near the districts of Foggy Furze and Longhill in West Hartlepool. The second raid took place on 27th November 1916 over West Hartlepool, damaging many shops and houses to the west of the West Hartlepool docks. The Zeppelin of the second attack that year was brought down by Lieut I.V. Pyott of the Royal Flying Corps. (2)

The interviewee also makes reference to coverage of big fires in Hartlepool, possibly referring to the Great Timber Yard Fire of 4th January 1922. After the 1914 bombardment, this fire is considered the greatest disaster in the town’s history and was reportedly visible as far away as Doncaster. The cause of the fire has never been solved, but it is thought to have been sparked by a shunting locomotive or from a rotting fuse in the timber yard’s electricity cables. The damage caused by the fire left 80 people homeless and prompted the King and Queen to donate £150 to the disaster fund, along with donations from other parts of the region. (3)

The Hartlepool Mail was the first job for sports broadcaster Jeff Stelling, who has been the face of Saturday afternoon football on Sky Sports for the last 16 years in the show Soccer Saturday. Stelling has also presented the TV gameshows Countdown (2009–2011) and Alphabetical (2016–present). Stelling was offered journalist posts at both the Mail and the Sunderland Echo after completing his GCSEs, but made the obvious choice to accept the job at the Mail being an avid Hartlepool United supporter. Stelling had been a regular writer to the Mail as a football fan, frequently winning Star Letter of the Week, but it was not until he started working there that he discovered he was only a regular winner as he was usually the only person to write in! Stelling spent four years at the Mail before joining BBC Radio Tees in the late 1970s despite having no previous broadcasting experience. Stelling was born and bred in Hartlepool, where he grew up in a council house and attended Hartlepool’s Rift House Primary School and West Hartlepool Grammar School for Boys. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Teesside University for his contributions to sports broadcasting. (4)

References:

(1) WW1: When Germany bombarded Hartlepool - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-30004430

(2) Zeppelin Raids on the Hartlepools - http://www.hhtandn.org/events/event/32/zeppelin-raids-on-hartlepool

(3) Timber Yard Fire 1922 - http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/timber-yard-fire-1922.asp

(4) Jeff Stelling - I owe it all to Hartlepool - https://www.northeastlifemag.co.uk/people/celebrity-interviews/jeff-stelling-i-owe-it-all-to-hartlepool-1-1569438

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/hartlepool-northern-daily-mail