[Tealeaf]

I have another theory as to the origin of the 'Monkey Steps'.

As many of you are aware, Hartlepool have a football team in the league whose nickname is the 'Monkey Hangers'. While this may, on the face of it, appear rather a derogatory term, most residents of that town are rather proud of the label. The origin goes back to the Napoleonic Wars and the wrecking of a French ship on the rocks by the town. The only survivor from the incident was the ships monkey, whom the local townsfolk - not being the most intelligent of people - took to be a Frenchman, and a spy to boot. After rigourus interrogation - there being no do-gooding civil rights lawyers around in those days - no confession could be obtained from the unfortunate creature and so it was hanged.

It has occured to me therefore, that given the large influx of Frenchmen into England after 1789 and then again after 1815, (many with a scientific and manufacturing background) it is highly possible - in fact, probable given the fast emerging local industries - that some will have arrived in Accy. Would one of them have lived close to these steps, therefore and hence been referred to as the 'French Monkey'? Or even better, would someone have hung a Frenchman on the site of these steps so that from that day to this they are known as the monkey steps?

Anyway, it's only a theory.