The place name derives from Old English heort ("hart"), referring to stags seen, and pōl (pool), a pool of drinking water which they were known to use.
Records of the place-name from early sources confirm this:
649: Heretu, or Hereteu.

1017: Herterpol, or Hertelpolle.

1182: Hierdepol.

The 8th Century Northumbrian chronicler Bede referred to the spot on which today's town is sited upon as "the place where deer come to drink", and in this period the Headland was named by the Angles as Heruteu (Stag Island).
At the beginning of the 11th Century the name had evolved into Herterpol, and after the Norman Conquest the name of the village sited there evolved in Middle English as: Hart-le-pool ("The Pool of the Stags").
Archaeological evidence has been found below the current high tide mark that indicates that an ancient post-glacial forest by the sea existed in the area during this period.
The place name derives from Old English heort ("hart"), referring to stags seen, and pōl (pool), a pool of drinking water which they were known to use. Records of the place-name from early sources confirm this:
649: Heretu, or Hereteu.
1017: Herterpol, or Hertelpolle.
1182: Hierdepol.
The 8th Century Northumbrian chronicler Bede referred to the spot on which today's town is sited upon as "the place where deer come to drink", and in this period the Headland was named by the Angles as Heruteu (Stag Island). At the beginning of the 11th Century the name had evolved into Herterpol, and after the Norman Conquest the name of the village sited there evolved in Middle English as: Hart-le-pool ("The Pool of the Stags"). Archaeological evidence has been found below the current high tide mark that indicates that an ancient post-glacial forest by the sea existed in the area during this period.
Hartlepool