Clare Irvine, Hartlepool Borough Council's community arts manager, said: "Everyone enjoyed themselves and it all went very well. We even had the weather on our side.

"This was a great event for the Headland community and they put on a really good show in the town square.

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"It was also a great preview for the Dockfest, which is sure to be fantastic."

Taking part in the cavalcade were students from Hartlepool schools, Cleveland College of Art and Design and Hartlepool Sixth Form College, community groups and members of Handprint Art Studio and Roaring Mouse Drama Group.

They had worked on the project since the start of the year, creating eye-catching costumes and props – including an 11ft-long sea creature made of willow – and polishing their dramatic skills.

Taking the theme of Hartlepool Maritime Monsters, Myths and Magic, the cavalcade told four local stories including:

The Great Gale of 1861 – Recalling the fierce storm in February 1861 when 80 ships were wrecked off the Hartlepool coast.

No More Frying Bacon – An Elizabethan tale that says the Mayor of Hartlepool received an order that there should be "no more firing of the beacon", but mistook the command for "no more frying of the bacon" and banned frying pans.

The Friars' Curse – A boy who played a trick on monks by luring them into a dark alley in which he had placed upturned nails leading the angry monks put a curse on the Headland stating that no trees would ever grow there.

The Flight of St Bega – Bega, an Irish princess who fled from a forced marriage. She found a boat and sailed alone across the Irish Sea, landing at Cumbria where she asked a local lord for land to build a church. He refused, joking that he would give her as much as the amount of snow that fell the next day.

Despite being the middle of summer, snow did fall and Bega was given the land. She later founded the monastery on the Headland in 640AD.