my city of culture.........

As many of you may know I was born in the city of Liverpool. Famous for the Beatles, Liverpool F.C. and this year as European City of Culture.

I love the city of my birth but of recent times I am failing to recognise it with all the development work (something I have written about before on here)
Last night I caught a trailer for the Time Team. Lo and behold they are doing a programme (Monday Channel 4 21.00 hours) about Liverpool's first dock.
Below is a brief introduction which just falls short to reveal which dock it is.


About 18 months ago when discussing our family history my brother showed me a map of Liverpool he had been given by our grandmother when he was small boy.
It is dated 1836, printed on a type of cloth and it folds up like a pocket book. It is one of the most fascinating maps I have seen. It shows parts of Liverpool I recognise and of course parts which no longer exist because of massive bombing raids during WW2 or just due to redevelopment a bit like what is happening now. I don't know how my grandmother came to have it as she was from Scotland and my grandfather was from West Ham and they weren't born until the late 1800's, but glad to say we have it in the family.

I paid to have it professionally scanned and printed. This is it scaled down version so you can see how it looks.

On the top left is an image of how Liverpool looked in 1650, which fits with Tony Robinson's animated clip above of Liverpool (meaning Muddy pool). There was even a castle then!

The middle image is Black Rock Lighthouse
Constructed in 1830


Top right is Liverpool in 1729. What is interesting here, in front of the Custom House is a dock. I wonder if this is the dock the Time Team will be featuring (if so, they should have come to me because I have a map!!!)


Later in the main map of 1836 that dock is filled in and the 'New Custom House' is built on it. Plus the dock estate has been built and developed further into the Mersey.

The Old 'New' Custom House has well gone and I think it was were Chevas Park was and has now been dug up to develop.

This last image shows Blundell Street were my ancestors were born (from the other side of the family). They came from Ireland in 1850 and settled in the dock area as the men were sea men.
This area was extensively bombed in WW2 so no houses survived.
On the Kings Dock now stands the new arena.... I wonder what my ancestors would have made of that creation???


I will be tuned into Channel 4 on Monday to see if my map is correct!!