A bone found on a British beach has sparked renewed interest in one of the country's most curious myths -- that a monkey washed ashore during the Napoleonic Wars was executed by suspicious locals for being a French spy.  Police in Hartlepool, on the northeast coast of England, confirmed Friday that the one-foot (30 centimetre) long bone found on a beach last month was not human, but came instead from an ape.

The discovery has intrigued locals, given the town's curious folklore from the Anglo-French Napoleonic conflict, which lasted from 1793 to 1815.

According to popular legend, a monkey dressed in a French uniform was washed ashore at Hartlepool and tried by local magistrates on suspicion of being a French spy.  Because it did not answer questions they presumed the animal was guilty, and it was hanged from a lamppost.  

But historians say the truth could be far more prosaic, given that the area around Hartlepool was, until about 2,000 years ago, largely forest.

"When the coastline changed and tides swallowed the area up, it covered trees, animal remains and human occupation," said Mark Simmons from the Museum of Hartlepool.

"The bone is most likely something very old, rather than Napoleonic."