I have lived in Hartlepool all of my life, and even though Location, Location, Location stated it was the 20th worst place to live in Britain, I love it and will be spending all of my life here.

Hartlepool is a relatively small town when compared with others and is located on the North East coast, about 16 miles North of Middlesbrough. The town grew on the back of the industrial revoltion with aid of boat construction and chemical plants. Hartlepool has a vast history as it contains the Headland, which is where Hartlepool started. The Headand is one of the oldest towns in Britain and we even has Time Team come here to dig up a skeleton.

Hartlepool has plenty of things to do and visitm including our award winning Marina. It has been been developed over the years and now looks stunning, especially in the summer, when you can sit outside of Vibes bar with a crisp, chilled pint and look out over at all of the boats. There are also plenty of fine restaurants and the town centre bars and clubs are pretty good as well.

The town also has walk paths (Hart to Haswell), a rock climbing and bike track (Summerhill) and many other great out door activities. We also have a good meuseum called the Historic Quay. This is a meuseum about the growth and development of the shipping industry and other historical events. It homes the Tincomalee, which is Europes oldest floating warship, and it quite stunning to walk around.

Hartlepool, like everywhere, has all walks of life living here. From some pretty rough areas to some very rich and large homes. West Park and Throston is one of the nicer areas to live.

I have also noticed that house prices here tend to be alot cheaper than compared to other places. In Hartlepool you can buy a 6 bedroom, three floor house, with seperate garage and overlooking a beautiful golf course for roughly the same price as a one bedroom flat would cost in the centre of London.

But, as I have lived here all my life I might be slightly biased, but I would recommend you visit here. You will only really need a weekend to see everything. I would recommend staying in the Grand Hotel, which is right in the centre of the Town, or the Staincliffe, which is located in Seaton Carew overlooking the ocean (you might get to see John Darwin's canoe).