West Hartlepool Station
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Station Approach,
Hartlepool
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On 16 December 1914, an attack was made by the Imperial German Navy on the ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The attack resulted in 592 casualties, many of them civilians, of whom 137 died. The attack caused public outrage towards the German Navy for the attack, and against the Royal Navy for its failure to prevent the raid.
During the Hartlepool bombardment West Hartlepool Station was damaged by a shell - the evidence of the repair is still visible on the wall at the east end of the disused platform
In respect of casualties among North East Railway employees, two were killed by the Hartlepool bombardment: George Dring, a docks mooringman, and William Sarginson, a shunter who died of his wounds on 4th January 1915. It's also noteworthy that Private Les D. Turner, one of the soldiers killed at the Heugh Battery, was an NER employee at Newcastle who had joined the Durham Pals in August 1914.
Press release following the unveiling of the Transport Trust Red Wheel Plaques on 6th February 2019:
"The Lord Lieutenant of County Durham, Mrs Sue Snowdon, has unveiled two Transport Red Wheels at Hartlepool Station.
The station is now in the priviledged postion of being the first location to have two of the prestigious Transport Trust Red Wheels.
One Red Wheel commemorates the events of the 16th December 1914 when the Hartlepools came under attack from the Imperial German Navy with one shell hitting the railway station.
The second Red Wheel commemorates the North Eastern Railway’s Autocar, the 1903 precursor to all modern diesel electric trains.
The Transport Trust (TT) and the Friends of Hartlepool Railway Station (supported by Northern) worked together to erect the two Red Wheels.
Two new interpretation panels on the platform at Hartlepool talk about the historical background to the bombardment and the history of the Autocar. The brickwork marking the spot where the shell crashed through the station wall can clearly be seen at the far end of the station.
Transport Trust Vice Chairman, Rob Shorland-Ball said, “the Trust has been honoured to have the Lord Lieutenant Mrs Snowdon unveil these two Red Wheels. They both highlight the signifant role that the Hartlepools have played in both the horror of the First World War and the development of modern railway trains. The Trust is delighted to mark these significant points in transport history and is grateful to the Friends of Hartlepool Railway Station for bringing the bombardment to our attention.”
Mike Anderson from the Friends of Hartlepool Railway Station who initiated the Red Wheels said, “We were pleased to work with the Transport Trust on the Red Wheels. Hosting the Autocar Red Wheel was a double plus for us, and both the Red Wheels and the interpretation panels will help bring both these elements of our history alive for local people and visitors, as the Hartlepools look to the future.”
Langham, Rob, The North Eastern Railway in the First World War, published by Fonthill Media (2013)
Photograph of 1914 bomb damage (c) Hartlepool Borough Council from the "Station Scrap Book"
Modern photographs (c) Transport Trust
The following extract is from DAWN RAID, The Bombardment of the Hartlepool’s by John Ward. Published by Printability Publishing, 10/11, Lower Church Street, Hartlepool. TS24 7DJ and is reproduced with the publishers permission:
...Hartlepool holds a number of tape recordings of people’s experiences during the raid. One is by a lady who lived in the collieries and she said:-
‘I was a 13 year old schoolgirl at the time of the bombardment. I attended Henry Smith Grammar School and came into Hartlepool each day from Wellfield station where I lived. That morning the school train was packed with children from the colliery places, Thornley, Wingate, Wheatley Hill, Shotton, Castle Eden, Hesleden and Hart.
The guns were firing before we left Wellfield, but we thought it was a heavy thunderstorm. No instructions had been sent to station masters and my father, who was Station Master at Wellfield, allowed the train to leave. It was the same at Castle Eden, Hesleden and Hart, even though from Hart Station there was a very good view of the three warships firing. The train moved on, children leaning from all the windows, watching what they thought was a naval battle. About midway between Hart Station and Hartlepool the train came to a stop on an embankment where the sea came closer to the railway. The ships were firing on one side and the gasometer blazing on the other. We children did not connect the two, until the guard came running along the train saying that shells were passing over and we were to get down on the floor.
The fact remains that a train load of children were there on the railway embankment, stationary and a sitting target until the firing ceased and the ships departed. Then the train pulled slowly into West Hartlepool station passing the burning gasometer on the way. We usually changed from the train to an Autocar to be taken to what was then Old Hartlepool, but we left the train to be met by two of our schoolmasters who had gone to a cafe on the sea front and had the roof blown off over their heads. They were half dressed and dirty, but at that time we were frightened and glad to see them, they showed us the shell hole through the station wall, and told us there would be no trains running to take us home and no telegraphic communications were possible. It was no use trying to get to school as it was being used as a temporary hospital...
