ENGLAND

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Hartlepool

1. Hartlepool is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England.

2. Hartlepool is locally administrated by Hartlepool Borough Council, a unitary authority which administrates outlying villages of Seaton Carew, Greatham, Hart Village, Dalton Piercy and Elwick.

3. Hartlepool was founded in the 7th century, around the monastery of Hartlepool Abbey.

4. Industrialisation in northern England and the start of a shipbuilding industry in the later part of the 19th century caused Hartlepool to be a target for the Imperial German Navy at the beginning of the First World War.

5. Hartlepool began as an Anglian settlement, and a town developed in the 7th century sited around Hartlepool Abbey, which had been founded in 640 by the Irish Christian priest Saint Aidan upon a headland overlooking a natural harbour and the North Sea.

6. Angered, King Edward I confiscated the title to Hartlepool, and began to improve the town's military defences in expectation of war.

7. Hartlepool was militarily occupied by a Scottish incursion, this time in alliance with the Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War, which after 18 months was relieved by an English Parliamentarian garrison.

8. Ward Jackson helped to plan the layout of West Hartlepool and was responsible for the first public buildings.

9. Hartlepool was involved in the education and the welfare of the inhabitants.

10. Hartlepool spent the last few years of his life in London, far away from the town he had created.

11. Hartlepool was hit with a total of 1150 shells, killing 117 people.

12. Two coastal defence batteries at Hartlepool returned fire, launching 143 shells, and damaging three German ships: SMS Seydlitz, SMS Moltke and SMS Blucher.

13. The Hartlepool engagement lasted roughly 50 minutes, and the coastal artillery defence was supported by the Royal Navy in the form of four destroyers, two light cruisers and a submarine, none of which had any significant impact on the German attackers.

14. Hartlepool suffered badly in the Great Depression of the 1930s and endured high unemployment.

15. Today the term "West Hartlepool" is rarely heard outside the context of sport, but one of the town's Rugby Union teams still retains the name.

16. In 1887 West Hartlepool was incorporated as a municipal borough, with its own headquarters, West Hartlepool Town Hall, completed in 1897.

17. In 1902 West Hartlepool was incorporated as a county borough in its own right, remaining non-administratively in County Durham.

18. Since the 2010s, Hartlepool is part of the Tees Valley region, a mayor for the region was elected in 2016.

19. Hartlepool is represented in the House of Commons by one Member of Parliament.

20. The current MP for the Hartlepool constituency is Jill Mortimer of the Conservative Party.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking