A selection of archaeological finds from Hartlepool and the surrounding area.

A section of the side of a wooden vessel that washed up on Middleton Beach in 1999.

A press-cutting photograph (N.D.M.4355), from an un-dated issue of the Northern Daily Mail, showing the charred remains of a wooden shipwreck on the Middleton side of the channel, possibly the wooden trawler Margaret (HL 92). Mr. G. Hudspith remembers "When I was a young boy of ten, I used to go for sea coal with my older brother on Middleton beach and vaguely remember an old wreck there (not to be confused with the wreckage of an iron ship found on the other side of the jetty on the Commissioner's harbour beach)."

A photograph that appeared in the Hartlepool Mail's 'Memory Lane' section on March 17th, 2007, showing the wooden trawler Margaret (HL 92), ashore on the Middleton side of the channel. The boat suffered an engine explosion in 1960, was beached and later set on fire becoming a total wreck.

An old wooden-built fishing vessel HL 92, MARGARET, built in 1903, beached for scrapping on Middleton side of the port entrance channel. It is in front of where the new lifeboat house stands today. In the background is the Headland Town Wall and St. Hilda’s church.

There have been a large number of shipwrecks and strandings on the short stretch of sand between the West and Old Harbours at Hartlepool.

The following information has been sourced from www.fleetwood-trawlers

Sailing Trawler Margaret FD208

Additional information courtesy of Henry Leadbetter.

Technical

Official Number: 114301
Completed: 1903
Gross Tonnage: 51
Net Tonnage: 22
Length: 64.8 ft
Breadth: 17.7 ft
Depth: 9.85 ft
Rig: Ketch
Built: John Singleton & Co, Fleetwood

History

Ketch/Auxiliary motor ketch – trawling

1903: Built by John Singleton & Co, Fleetwood.
5.1903: Completed by Richard (‘Fish Dick’) Leadbetter, Wyre Dock, Fleetwood for William Leadbetter, 33 North Church Street, Fleetwood (20/64); Nanny Leadbetter, Fleetwood (2/64); Harriet Leadbetter, Fleetwood (4/64); Betty Wright, Fleetwood (8/64); William Coulburn, Fleetwood (2/64); John Coulburn. Fleetwood (2/64); Thomas Rigby, Fleetwood (8/64); George Butler Woods, Fleetwood (4/64) and Richard Leadbetter (16/64) (64 shares) as MARGARET.
29.5.1903: Registered at Fleetwood (FD208), William Leadbetter designated managing owner.
25.9.1903: Eight shares (W. Leadbetter) sold to Isaac Leadbetter, 40 St. Anne’s Road West, St. Anne’s-on-the-Sea and two shares (W. Leadbetter) sold to Edwin William Mann, 60 Claremont Terrace, Fleetwood.
30.1.1915: Fishing off Morecambe Bay (Sk. Leadbetter), picked up 23 survivors of steamer BEN CRUACHEN (3092grt/1903) on passage Scapa Flow to Liverpool, which was  stopped by the German submarine U21, 15 miles NW of Morecambe Bay Light Vessel and scuttled by explosive charges in position 53.36N 03.51W. The crew were landed at Fleetwood.
Pre 1924: Sold to William Leadbetter, 54 Sagar Terrace, Blakiston Street Fleetwood (managing owner).
A 4 stroke 4-cyl 56bhp Oil Engine by Gardner Engines Ltd, Patricroft, Manchester, installed.
10.10.1924: Registry closed and re-registered as auxiliary motor ketch. Owner William Leadbetter, 23 North Albert Street, Fleetwood (managing owner).
5.5.1939: Sold to John Wignall, 11 Walmsley Street, Fleetwood & others (John Wignall managing owner).
20.9.1941: Sold to William Winston Curwyn, Crawford Arms Hotel, Conway.
4.5.1944: Sold to James C. Screech, 10 Myrtle Street, Appledore.
27.6.1944: Sold to Hubert Jones, 30 The Grove, Uplands, Swansea.
10.12.1946: Sold to William Alfred & D. L. George, Swansea.
12/??/1949: Sold to James Robert Sheader, 20 Tennyson Terrace, Hartlepool. Fleetwood registry closed. Registered at Hartlepool (HL92).
1960: Suffered engine explosion and subsequently abandoned near old Lifeboat Station.
1991: Buried when new Boathouse constructed to house Atlantic 21.