A bone found on a British beach is all set to revive an interesting myth of that region that says that a monkey washed ashore during the Napoleonic Wars was executed by apprehensive local people for being a French spy.

Police in Hartlepool, on the northeast coast of England, said that the one-foot bone found on a beach last month was not of any human being, instead it came from a monkey or gorilla.

According to local popular legend, a monkey wearing a French uniform was washed ashore at Hartlepool.

The monkey then was tried by local magistrates on suspicion of being a French spy.

The time specified in the local legend is the era of the Anglo-French Napoleonic conflict, which continued from 1793 to 1815. Historians previously ruled out any authenticity behind the fairy tale.

The area around Hartlepool in question was until about 2,000 years ago mainly forest. "When the coastline changed and tides swallowed the area up, it covered trees, animal remains and human occupation," AFP quoted Mark Simmons from the Museum of Hartlepool as saying, "The bone is most likely something very old, rather than Napoleonic."