Interesting snipets of history around the UK

Spinning off from the My Daughter Is Getting A....Scottish (??) Accent thread and Teletabby's historical comments about her village, I got to thinking it might be interesting for newbies, longbies and nonbies if we had a thread on interesting historical snippets and folklore from around the UK. Doesn't have to be from your neighbourhood, nor fact, just something you have learned and would like to share...


One story I have always found very interesting is how Hartlepool was honoured with the nickname 'monkey hangers'. I first came across this term offshore decades ago. We had a map of the UK on the wall in the tea hut and it was peg-penned by the various members of the crew. Beside Hartlepool was written Monkey Hangers. I enquired of this and was directed to an individual who hailed from Hartlepool. When I asked him, he politely (that's offshore politely) told me to go forth with thyself and multiply. He also seemed to think I was fatherless. He was a big burly scaffie type with prison style tattoos that looked like he ate newbie engineers for breakfast. One tattoo was a dashed line along his neck with words CUT HERE underneath. He was about 30 and still alive so I gathered he was a survivor. I took that as a clue and hastily went forth but left the multiplying part for another day.

Anyway I hunted down those truly fatherless types that had directed me to him. They thought this was funny as all hell. Turns out this guy had taken a lot of vacations at her majesty's leisure and was also not a supporter of the term Monkey Hangers. And they still wouldn't tell me what that phrase was all about.

Later that day, I was walking past some scaffolding, when I encountered the beast of Hartlepool. Well he apologised for having a go at me, said he didn't realise I was a Yank and said he had a go because he was having a bad day and he was really sick and tired of always being asked or commented about being a Monkey Hanger (reminds me of another thread).

OK OK I am getting to the point, keep your knickers on.

He went on to explain how the term came about. Ya ready for it?

In a nutshell, during the Napoleonic wars, a French ship was wrecked near Hartlepool and the only survivor was a monkey. Supposedly the locals had never seen a Frenchman or a monkey and for some unknown reason tried the monkey for being a French spy and of course the monkey could not defend itself and was found guilty and hanged as a spy.

The rest, as they say, is history. Or folklore. So if you are watching footie and come across the term when Hartlepool are playing, now you'll know.

Several versions of the story exist but the most likely is that it was derived from a song about some monkey hangers up my neck of the woods. Supposedly some people up in Boddam (NE Scotland) found a monkey from a shipwreck and hung it. Something to do with salvage rights and no survivors so they insured the no survivors rule was adhered to. True to form, some Scotsman penned a folksong about it -‘And the Boddamers hung the Monkey O’. Well turns out a Geordie singer popular in Hartlepool, sang a song called the 'Monkey Song' which was eerily similar to the Scottish song and that may have been a trigger for the story.

A couple of years ago, the Church of Scotland pulled up the floorboards of the now tiny church a few miles from here at Kilmun to install underfloor heating.

When they did, they found dozens of skeletons, some still wearing what was left of Campbell colours and many with skulls bashed in by blunt instruments.  It would appear they were victims of yet another Lamont-Campbell skirmish (generally over resources such as food/cattle).

Shudder!

Adjacent to the church, a daughter of Queen Victoria, Louise, is interred.  She was Duchess Argyll and, at long last, her greedy great-great grandson, now Duke Argyll himself, turned over this resting place of his own ancestors, which he was trying to sell to the Church of Scotland for £2m!, so they can give the place the attention it desperately needs, as the damp in there is so bad it is threatening the present church's structure.

In the town there is a massive tree standing on a high hill.

One time, during a revenge attack, Campbells laid seige on Lamonts in Castle Toward.  Thirty-six Lamont men left the castle in exchange for what they were promised would be clemency.

Instead, they were all marched to this tree at Dunoon and hanged, one after the other, inside of a day.

Further to the pit / colliery as mentioned in the previous thread our village and surrounding area's pretty interesting.  Like the Trysting Tree based in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe is located a short walk from my house.  Another short walk is one of the quaries that were utilised as well as the point on the Chesterfield Canal where the stones for the Houses of Parliament began their journey to London.  The village also lays claim to several Dukes of Leeds birthplace / residence as well as their stately home that was torn down near the 1600s upon the loss of a bet to the then Prince of Wales.     Its interesting to see how street names have evolved and where they came from based on famous people / families and the places that no longer exist... 

Ayou Bob, I'd heard about the Hartlepool Monkeys before, albeit from Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy comic series.  Bucky Katt's obsession with monkeys somehow ended up with him receiving a Hartlepool Monkey doll at one point where the history of the mascot was revealed.  Also, his cousin Mac Manc McManx's (try saying that 5x fast!) mother is from Hartlepool.  Its a pretty funny comic strip with a strong British influence.  If you're interested in reading it you can find it on comics.com.   

WestHighlandWay, I love the creepy finds.  I don't know how I'd feel to be the one finding them, but they're utterly fascinating!

This place is full of creepy eerie 'finds'. 

The head of McClean, Sir Charles, now runs an establishment called Creggans Inn at Strachur, up the road from here as the crow flies.

Still served there is 'McPhunn's Ale'.

There was a head of McPhunn who had a flat-bottomed boat.  This was advantageous in his chosen profession of sheep rustling.

But as time went on McPhunn grew lazy, and started rustling from neighbours too-near and flogging them at markets where the beasts were easily recognised.

Accordingly, he was caught and sent up to Inverary, where he was sentenced to hang for sheep rustling.

His widow and his butler were called forth to collect his body, and they travelled there in the flat-bottomed boat. 

His wife was suckling their baby, and she was a bit sad, for all McPhunn was a fair bit older than she and life was hard in Argyll (still can be), they had fun and food was plentiful.  So it was with sorrow the pair picked up his body.

As the valet worked the oars however, he fancied he saw his master moving, and shouted on the widow to mix a bit of breast milk with some drops from his flask of the water of life.

And what do you know but ol' McPhunn was not dead! 

Having survived the gallows he was permitted to live, but he changed tack and became known for his skill at brewing ale and distilling the water of life.  Although he had many children, only daughters survived him, the eldest of whom married a McClean.  Hence, the McPhunn named died.

But the ale is still served!

Sounds a pretty cool story and even has a happy ending!  Just another reason to get up to Scotland...   

Sounds a pretty cool story and even has a happy ending!  Just another reason to get up to Scotland...  

These parts are full of such tales!  

Such as why there is that wee island with the tree in it in Loch Eck (it is called Fraoch, and Fraoch is a name for heather but it was also the name of a man, hence the tale), Lamont-Campbell skirmishes, the Paper Caves.

Campbell, well, 'cam' is Gaelic for 'crooked' and the name is a sort of Gaelic for 'crooked mouth'.  They were always lawyers, always good ones, and hence, always rich.  Even now, as the present duke is married to a Cadbury heiress and no fool and blessed with the Midas touch that has followed his line for centuries.  Call him what you will, he is clever as the fox and savvy.

When the Earl of Montrose came down and across and laid seige to Campbell's seat here in Argyll at Inverary (where it is still today) and burned out the duke, he escaped by boat, true to his ancestry.  He took no plate nor hangings nor finery.  No, he took all his deeds, titles and papers, so as to go to the king once he's routed his enemy and get back his rents and monies.  And there he hid them before he got on the Irish Sea from whence his people came.