The "Geordie" thread prompted a memory of am ex-pat cabinetmaker from the shipyards of Newcastle who I used to work with years ago. He once told a tale that supposedly occured in the town of Hartlepool.

Apparently, during a time of war, inhabitants of coastal villages were encouraged to keep a sharp lookout for marauding privateers. Supposedly, a fisherman from Hartlepool once found a monkey, obviously from a wreck, clinging to some flotsam that drifted near shore and brought the terrified creature back to the town. No one had ever seen a monkey, so it was regarded with suspicion as being a foreign spy! When questioned, it would chatter back in an unknown tongue. A full-fledged trial was held, and since the monkey offered no defense against the charges, it was hung as a spy! A messenger was dispatched to the High Court in London to report on the triumphant apprehension of the spy, but soon became a laughingstock when the carcass of the dead monkey was revealed.

My friend said that the story endured, and as a young man, he and his friends would occasionally ride their motorcycles down to Hartlepool for a bit of sport at the expense of the locals. They'd open the door of one of the pubs, yell "Who hung the monkey?" and then roar away accompanied by a chorus of profanity and a shower of pint pots!

Any truth to the story??