Dispatches from the North: My Anglophile Story

Hello, fellow Anglophiles!

My name is Lisa Coulson and I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. My search for a job outside of the automotive industry led me to Chicago, Illinois where one night in an English pub I met my husband – a sailor in the British Royal Navy from the Northeastern town of Hartlepool just outside of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Three years, one wedding and a UK spouse visa later it is was July 2008 and I made Hartlepool my permanent home.

I have been amazed by the stereotypes that are proving to be untrue, as well as the many things about British culture I never heard about before I lived here. My main goal through this blog is to give my readers insight into British life and culture from the perspective of an American.

Also, I would love for my readers to learn that there is so much more to Great Britain than London and so much more to the British people than tea and crumpets and Manchester United. As I “learn to be British” I will share my photos, experiences and discoveries with you. I hope you enjoy living vicariously through my quest to integrate myself into British culture and make this place my home.

Let me start by telling you a little about this strange and fascinating place called Hartlepool. Hartlepudlians as they are known, are some of the warmest and most outgoing people I have met and it has made adjusting to life here much easier.

Hartlepool is famous for two things, The Canoe Man and a very unfortunate monkey. Most recently, John “The Canoe Man” Darwin and his wife Ann made international headlines when John Darwin faked his death in a staged canoeing accident in the North Sea in order to commit insurance fraud. After living in a hidden apartment in their home for 5 years he wandered into a London police station last year claiming amnesia. John and Ann lived in the same area of Hartlepool as I do which is a seaside resort area called Seaton Carew, they actually lived only a few doors down from where I live now. The area is now often referred to as “Seaton Canoe” in honor of its most famous former resident and canoeing has become an increasingly popular water sport here.

Hartlepudlians are known among the British as “monkey-hangers”, a name they take great pride in. The legend goes that during the Napoleonic Wars a French ship wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. On board this ship was a monkey that was dressed in a French sailor’s uniform. This monkey washed ashore with the wreckage of the ship and the fishermen on the beach had never seen a monkey before and mistook it for a French spy. The monkey obviously did not speak English and after interrogating the monkey and getting nowhere, they hung the monkey. The local football team Hartlepool United F.C. adopted the character from this legend and made H‘Angus the Monkey their team mascot. In 2002 Hartlepool made international headlines when Stuart Drummond, the man in the monkey suit, ran for the mayor of the town as H’Angus the Monkey on a platform that included “bananas for all schoolchildren”- and he won the election. He was re-elected by a landslide in 2005.

These two famous tales of Hartlepool demonstrate one of the most important and endearing characteristics about the British people. By and large, the British do not take themselves too seriously. It shows in everything from the local folklore to television advertisements and stand-up comedy. I think this really flies in the face of the uptight image many Americans have of the British people. I hope as you continue to read my column you will learn new fascinating things about British culture. I still learn new things every day and I can’t wait to share those things with you.