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!!

i'm going

You may remember this month I posted a piece about a Giant girl and an Elephant.

The link was sent to me by my cousin and he has come up trumps again (thank you CK)

As you may know or may not know, depending which part of this planet or indeed which part of the UK you live in, Liverpool was voted City of Culture for 2008.

Now being a Liverpool lass from birth and way back in one part of my family history to C1795 I am so very pleased about this.

I love my birthplace, it is heaped with history (some of it is not so sweet with the slave trade but as those higher up the pecking order have said 'we are sorry' but at the end of the day we can not carry the hair shirt of our ancestors, we can only do what we think is right at the time of our existence on this planet and we learn as we go along....... I often wonder how we will be judged when we are no more..............)

But I do love Liverpool with a passion as a city, it is my roots (I am trying to embrace the changes however!! some of which I will be so positive about but find a bit foreboding )

.

My cousin sent me link this weekend about 2008 and it's plans to celebrate the accolade it has been given :-

"Commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008. In May 2006 something incredible happened in London. For four days the city stopped in its tracks and marvelled at the sight of a gigantic wooden elephant, and a little-girl giant in a green dress. A million people jammed the streets, astonished at the scale and beauty of the spectacular Sultan’s Elephant . Now Artichoke, the company that brought that event to London, is planning a magical new show, created specially for Liverpool 2008. The precise details are a closely-guarded secret, but what’s certain is that it will be huge in scale and utterly unlike anything seen in Liverpool before: an unforgettable piece of live theatre, played out against the landmarks of a great city. Will you find it? Register now for updates and you just might...www.willyoufindit.co.uk ."

There is loads going on in 2008 and the the new magical event is scheduled for 26th - 28th September 2008

Just to say I will be going .. want to join me?