Hartlepool: Our Town

By Jamie Boyle

'Our Town' is the much awaited follow-up to the best selling story 'Hartlepool Born & Bred' about the life of the ever popular Michael (Mick) Sorby.

This time Mick has brought his good pals Phily Tobin and Algy Hay on board to cover an array of new tales from the beaches of Hartlepool, to the tough, rough council estates and all the way back again.

This time featuring even more of its truly unforgettable characters.

Our book is a MUST for all monkey hangers.

Hartlepool... where ye monkey hath no chance! Michael Sorby, Phily Tobin & Algy hay with Jamie Boyle

• Language: English
• Publisher: WarCryPress UK
• Release date: Feb 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781912543465

Book preview

HARTLEPOOL

‘OUR TOWN’

C:\Users\Roobix\Downloads\1 H Monkey (2).png

NOTE: A donation from every sale of each publication will be donated to the Registered Charity: Kidney Care UK, 3 the Windmills, Turk Street, Alton, Hants, GU34 1EF.

Kidney Care UK is a Registered Charity Number: 270288.

HARTLEPOOL

‘OUR TOWN’

Michael Sorby, Phily Tobin and Algy Hay

with Jamie Boyle

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Jamie Boyle (c)

NOTE:

The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the interviewees, in the main men of Hartlepool, they were obtained during recorded interviews and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-912543-46-5

HARTLEPOOL ‘OUR TOWN’

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying and, without the written permission of the copyright holder, application for which should be addressed to the publisher via the dealing agent at [e-mail]. Such written permission must also be obtained before any part of this publication is stored in a retrieval system of any nature. This book is sold subject to the Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale of New Books and may not be re-sold in the UK below the net price fixed by the Publisher / Agent. HARTLEPOOL ‘OUR TOWN’ is produced by Warcry Publishing (part of Roobix Ltd) on behalf of Jamie Boyle, North Yorkshire (c) 2022.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by the PMM Group, Leeds

Book Cover Design by Matthew Oakley

Find out more at facebook.com/warcrypublishing

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the beloved memories of Norman Hay (R.I.P), TK Richardson (R.I.P), and all of Mick Sorby’s wonderful grandchildren XXXX

E MARE EX INDUSTRIA

Hartlepool motto meaning From the sea and from industry

CONTENTS

Foreword

Kenny Leighton                               1

Introduction

Jamie Boyle                                    5

Chapter 1

Back Again                                     9

Chapter 2

Tough Estates                               19

Chapter 3

Robbing and thieving                                37

Chapter 4

Street Justice & On The Cobble Fights!            43

Chapter 5

Characters                                53

Chapter 6

Doors                             67

Chapter 7

Murder & Deaths                          77

Chapter 8

The Deadly Sea                               83

Chapter 9

Famous People from Hartlepool                  91

Chapter 10

Hartlepool’s Rich Boxing History             99

Chapter 11

Grapevine Craic                          107

Chapter 12

The final word/Hopes for the future                   117

FOREWORD

By Kenny Leighton,

well known Hartlepool showbiz personality

"I started my life as a trawlerman in Hartlepool when the business was flourishing. I left school in 1960 at 14 on the Friday at 3.30pm and I started work at sea at 4pm. Sadly back in those days to be a fisherman in Hartlepool was a proper tradition passed down from generations. All my brothers were also fishermen because our father, grandfathers, and those before them were all in the trade. I started singing and playing bass guitar when I came in from sea as a hobby but when the whole fishing industry went down the pot that was when I fell into show business.

I had told myself when I left school that by the time I was 27 years old I wanted to have my own boat but of course that turned out to be only a pipe dream and never happened.

Thankfully, music came along and it enabled me to travel all over Europe. I’ve played in Sun City in South Africa and played for Janet and Michael Jackson. Sun City was the millionaire’s paradise, and you could see every star in the world over there. For all the amazing places I’ve been across the world, Hartlepool will always be home to me. I mean if you drive five minutes that way you’ve got a lovely beach and you drive five minutes the other way you’re in the lovely countryside. There’s nowhere like it and it annoys me at times that it gets some bad press. I’m so patriotic about Hartlepool and what gets me is everybody gets it wrong. The real story of what happened was that a ‘powder monkey’ got hung, now a powder monkey was a small male who ran between the guns topping the cannons up with gunpowder. At the time Hartlepool had been a port for hundreds of years and to say we’d never seen a monkey was ridiculous. Of course, we’d seen a normal looking monkey but this ‘powder monkey’ spoke French and was thought to be a spy.  In reality what we hung was a short French spy.

There’re loads of people out there who slag our town off like those who made that frigging program a few years ago on Skint Britain. If you want the truth, then I had never seen that street on which they filmed look as bad as it did until just before they started filming. In my opinion they purposely made it look that way, it was all scripted. For instance, showing that lad going rabbiting to eat because he was going hungry! What a load of fucking shite, that really gets me! I’ve brought friends from Germany and other parts of the world over to Hartlepool and they’ve been blown away by my town’s beauty. Ones been back to my home for a holiday three times because he loves the place that much. Most people I’ve brought here from all over Europe had never even heard of Hartlepool before that and I’ll tell you why! When people hire me on these shows they say, ‘where you from’? When I tell them Hartlepool, they tell me they’ve never heard of it. Then they ask what’s the nearest big town and I ask if they’ve heard of Middlesbrough, and they say no. Then I mention Sunderland and they’ve never heard of that either, so they’d always put down that I was from Newcastle, England.

My beautiful little town of Hartlepool will always be my number one place on earth. There are places here that are a bit rundown but it’s my home and everybody knows me here. If I won the lottery tomorrow I’m still staying put because Hartlepool is in the blood. I’ve spent my life here on those beaches and crab catching on boats. Yes, I go on holiday from time to time, but you can’t beat being back home."

According to legend, when a monkey survived a shipwreck off the North-East coast near Hartlepool during the Napoleonic wars, it was hanged as a suspected French spy. The monkey did not help it’s defence by being dressed in a French navy uniform when it was found, or by refusing to answer its interrogators (some local fishermen) in English. The sounds that came from the monkey were assumed to be French and so the monkey was strung up at the beach.

Chris Roberts

INTRODUCTION

As of writing this second book I’ve noticed that Middlesbrough was voted the 5th worst place in Great Britain to live today in a recent poll. The town of Hartlepool was 4th and is considered even worse than its neighbourly sister.

I’m not even sure how or why I’ve been lured into doing another Hartlepool book other than I’ve sort of become an adopted monkey hanger and I’ve also become strangely fascinated with the place in the last year or so since I’ve gotten to know Sorby, Tobin, Hay & Co.

Up until quite recently Hartlepool was a place that I knew existed but never had a lot to do with. Over the last year I’ve visited the town quite a few times now and I’ve discovered it’s a place of real interest. A quirky little place with its proud historic roots, Hartlepool stands alone on the corner at the top of England on the map of Great Britain.

I’ve now done twenty something books and had to dig deep into many towns such as Essex, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Wakefield with my books. Sometimes the feedback hasn’t always been positive, there’s something about the true crime genre that can bring out the worst in people but for some reason I’ve been met with nothing but love from the ‘monkey hangers’ which is quite unusual because as an author I’m normally digging about in people’s pasts and that’s not always been met with approval.

The Hartlepool Mail did run a story in the promotion of this book saying that Sorby, Tobin and Hay were Hartlepool’s version of the Krays back in the day. Of course, it was all written totally tongue in-cheek by them, but Tobin and Hay told me that Sorby was definitely the gay one if you needed to make a proper comparison. Saying that, there was a serious rumour going around that the main tough guy Sorby, often watches Love Island, but we’ll leave it at that. I don’t want to completely shatter Mick’s image as it’s taken a lifetime to build and could be lost in seconds if that story was confirmed to be true! Old Mick could never show his face in public ever again, if it is true, I wouldn’t blame him for not wanting it to be public knowledge.

In fact, I’m not sure just how many books we’ll be doing under the ‘Hartlepool Born & Bred’ franchise but it’s something I’m really enjoying, plus the publishing company are happy that these batch of books are selling like hotcakes. The one thing I can assure you is they’ll be a third and fourth in 2022 and after that, well how longs a piece of string??? Maybe we could do as many books as Chopper Reid did, who knows. What is certain is that the town of Hartlepool deserves more recognition than it gets. It’s a lovely town with great people and a lovely warm welcome awaits anyone, as long as you’re not looking for trouble that is, because if you’re looking for it, you’ll find it, they breed them tough down this stretch of the East Coast and they have their wits about them.  Those that don’t have much themselves, would gladly share what they do have, it’s that kind of community.  I do love Hartlepool and everything in it. It’s become a sort of home from home if you know what I mean!

Once you get bitten by the monkey, Hartlepool is in your blood forever.

Jamie Boyle Author

CHAPTER 1

BACK AGAIN

I’d like to start this book by going back to February 2021 and the release of Hartlepool