13 August 2016 - Lyons Farm, Melling, Kirkby, near Liverpool, Merseyside

The wind of the last few days had dropped a little, but not so much as to allow the sun to warm the day; I spent the entire day outdoors in my rain parka. We headed off into town, catching the 9am train, and arriving in the city, and realising we were too early for museum opening times, headed up the hill to the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. This and it’s Roman Catholic counterpart are mentioned in the tourist guides, however both are relatively “new”, in the scale of European architectural history, so we had not bothered to put them on our “must-do” list.  But now with time up our sleeves, we decided to check out the first of these religious structures. 

St Lukes Church

At the top of Bold Street, we came upon another church, which on closer inspection, we realised was but a shell. The surrounding fence which keeps trespassers out, also serves to catch rubbish of all kind. It is a monument that does not bear too much scrutiny. St Luke’s Church was built between 1811 and 1821, designed by John Foster and his son of the same name. It was struck by enemy fire in May 1841 and has been left in its damaged state as a memorial to those who died. Such a fine idea; a pity about the filth and graffiti. 

Further on, past more buildings fighting buddleia and other vegetation to survive, we came on up to the cathedral, a most imposing building, initially for its size and every other facet uncovered with further exploration. As we entered this sanctuary, we were met with the boom of the mighty organ and the interior which took my breath away.

Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral

It is Britain’s largest cathedral and the fifth largest in the world. Designed in Neo-Gothic style by twenty two year old Giles Gilbert Scott, construction commenced in 1902 and the final stage was only completed and consecrated in 1978. It also boasts the world’s tallest Gothic arches, and the highest and heaviest bells. When the organ was completed in 1926, it was the largest musical instrument ever conceived, and since the installation of the central division in 2007, it continues to be the largest pipe organ in the United Kingdom. This morning there was a special tour group of organists who were being given a demonstration of the wonders of this massive instrument, and we were lucky enough to be there at the time. During our travels in England this year, we have visited many cathedrals and churches, not least the very modern one in Coventry; this is right up there too.

We ended up spending well over an hour here, chatting with an ancient verger who obviously was very proud of his place of worship, and checking out the amateur art exhibition near the entry section of the church. Interestingly there is a very smart looking café on the floor above the souvenir shop. I suspect the income from these two commercial enterprises brings in more income than the invited donations from the half million visitors each year. I often wonder what Jesus would have made of all this trading in the temple.

From here we walked down through the Chinese Quarter to the port area, now busy with tourists and Liverpudlians enjoying their Saturday. Reaching Albert Dock, we entered the International Slavery Museum, which shares the same old remodelled four storey warehouse as the Maritime Museum.

I had no particular expectation of this museum; it was Chris who had particularly wanted to check it out, and what a good idea that turned out to be. Although Liverpool was not involved in early English slaving, it did come to dominate the transatlantic slave trade in the 18^th century. Merchants from London and Bristol were the first Englishmen to profit on any scale but from the 1740s Liverpool merchants had overtaken them. By the 1780s, Liverpool was the European capital of the transatlantic slave trade, responsible for transporting nearly 1.5 million Africans into slavery – more than 10% of all known Africans transported.

Plants versus buildings

While the conditions and cruelty of the slaves in both North America and the Caribbean were familiar to me, gleaned from both fact and fiction over the years, I had not understood the extent of the diaspora into South America, and out of such an extensive coastline of Africa. I had not considered the effect of that extraction of population from societies within Africa, the effect on their agricultural system, and everything else that makes up society, no matter how primitive we may have considered it. 

It was also interesting to learn that many of the “black” folk living in Liverpool today, and throughout England, have been here since the 1700s, when slaves were transported across to England after having first being “broken” in the Americas. They are more English than I am Kiwi. And too, not so much as interesting as ghastly, to learn more about the slavery in India, clearly and brutally spelled out in a separate section of the museum. 

The museum is brilliantly curated although I was disappointed that so many of the interactive screens were out of order, waiting for some sort of upgrade. However, even without this, there was plenty to keep one’s attention riveted. 

After lunching out on the dock, we spent time in the Maritime Museum. We were fortunate enough to be offered an entertainment relating to the sinking of the Titanic, significant because the ship was built here and most of the crew were Liverpudlians. The one man show was quite brilliant and we stayed for the question and answer session after. I was called up to the stage to demonstrate the boarding of lifeboats, asked to imagine I was dressed in the voluminous robes of 1912 rather than my jeans and sensible shoes. When the imagined life boat was several metres below me, I lifted my imaginary skirts high and leapt out like an athlete. The boatman was shocked and reminded me that this was 1912; in fact he said that was the first time any member of the audience had been so brazen! I didn’t even have the decency to blush! But I did miss the opportunity to explain that Kiwi women were no-nonsense types.

There is still much of that museum to be explored, but we were ready to head home, so wandered slowly up through Liverpool One, the throngs of shoppers, the buskers and the tourists. Chris suggested an ice-cream but the McDonald’s we came upon was bursting at the seams out onto the pavement, so we gave that a miss. Instead we caught the train back to Maghull and drove back to camp. 

Here there has been a changing of the guard; the two motorhomes here this morning have been replaced by a couple of caravanners. The camp is busy and I am sure we have now caused a numbers problem with our continuing residence.