National Museums Liverpool Blog - museum of liverpool

My appearance on the popular BBC 2 afternoon auction show Flog It! was broadcast on Wednesday – recorded on the Albert Dock with presenter Paul Martin.

It was shot back in April when the crew spent the day at three separate locations. My main role was setting up and supervising the BBC’s visit. The six minutes of screen time took almost three hours, including setting up the camera and getting the angles right.

Our picture shows Paul and I with the Merseyside Maritime Museum in the background - the chap in the front holds an enormous collapsible reflector which aims to literally put us in the best possible light.

You can watch the full show on the BBC iplayer. It's available until 4.29pm this Wednesday (18 November).

There was a script of sorts but the director stressed this was only meant as a guide – obviously with takes from different angles there had to be continuity. Some wasn’t used, including a close-up of my hand affectionately patting one of the huge cast iron columns.

In between takes, Paul told me that he started out as a professional musician and became involved in Flog It! through his interest in antiques. I shared some memories of the TV shows I watched as a child. They were always live and anything could – and did – go wrong.

I vividly remember two major stars on separate occasions suffering the indignity of their false teeth slipping,  watched by millions of viewers.

I’m a big fan of the Flog It!, when I can see it, and also The Antiques Roadshow on which I appeared recently talking about some 1960s films discovered at Lowlands community centre, West Derby, Liverpool.

I last appeared on Flog It! about five years ago doing a three-minute tour of the Lady Lever Art Gallery with one of the programme’ specialists, Kate Bliss. We did it in our stocking feet because of the echoes from the polished floors.

Flog It! is an in-house BBC production and takes a lot of careful preparation to bring to the screen.

The rest of the National Museums Liverpool footage is scheduled to be screened at 3.45 pm on Monday 30 November, focusing on the stunning new Museum of Liverpool on the city’s waterfront.

The show visits our workshops where some of the museum’s fabulous exhibits are being conserved. Paul interviews land transport curator Sharon Brown in a carriage from the legendary Overhead Railway.

Also featured are the Lion steam locomotive, star of the Ealing comedy classic The Titfield Thunderbolt, and the first Ford Anglia off the assembly line at Ford’s new Halewood factory in 1963.

The feature ends at the Museum of Liverpool where operations manager Martin Hemmings takes Paul on a hard-hat tour of the magnificent building.

Soldiers often send things to their loved ones at home. During the First World War they often sent embroidered postcards, some of which are now in National Museums Liverpool's collection. The postcards, known as 'World War One Silks', were mostly produced by French and Belgian women refugees and became extremely popular with British and American servicemen on duty in France. Further information about them is on this web page about Silks.

This Saturday you are invited to make your own postcard in remembrance of those that gave their lives during the First and Second World Wars in a free drop-in workshop, 1-4pm in the Learning base in the basement of Merseyside Maritime Museum. If you leave your postcard with us we will include it in a banner which we hope to display in the The Liverpool Pals and the First World War exhibition in the Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2011. At the workshop this weekend you will also have the chance to find out about life in the trenches and how to trace your family’s history through military records.

The Liverpool Pals and the First World War exhibition will tell the story of the First World War as experienced by the ordinary people of Liverpool, either through participation in the fighting - focussing on the story of the Liverpool Pals – or through involvement on the Home Front. The main emphasis of the exhibition will be the particular Liverpool aspects of the story, set in a national and international context.

Lord Derby recruited one of the first Pals battalions in England from Liverpool in August 1914 when he suggested that men would volunteer if they could remain with work colleagues, family or neighbours. In effect the social structure of Liverpool was transferred to the front line. This exhibition will confront the realities of the loss of 16,700 Liverpool men, how it happened, and how it impacted on – and in some cases devastated - Liverpool communities.

Details of all events this weekend are on the Merseyside Maritime Museum's events and activities page, including this workshop and a new roleplayer performance on Sunday, 'Never at sea - the Wren's story'.

This special Rainbow Flag was recently donated to the Museum of Liverpool's permanent collections and will be displayed pride of place in the People's City gallery in the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2011.

This flag represents a very important first in Liverpool. It was flown above Liverpool Town Hall for the first time for the International Day Against Homophobia on 17 May 2009. It is just one of the many objects with amazing stories which curators seek out to ensure contemporary issues and events in the city are represented for the future. International Day Against Homophobia marks the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation took homosexuality off its list of mental illnesses. It is hard to believe that until relatively recently this was still the case but with recent homophobic attacks in Liverpool it is all too apparent that there is a long way to go in challenging prejudice and intolerance.

The flag was kindly donated by Liverpool City Council. It is a fitting time to add it to the collection at the start of Liverpool's annual Homotopia festival. National Museums Liverpool has always supported the festival and will be holding a free talk about the secret language of Polari at 2pm this Saturday at Merseyside Maritime Museum as part of the programme of events. Further details are on the Sailing Proud page on the Merseyside Maritime Museum's website.

You can see more photos in the Rainbow Flag set on Flickr.

I thought my school days were over, but last week I was very excited to be able to join our class of Little Liverpool Designers on their very first school trip!

I had a lovely morning spent with Class R reception class from Kingsley Community School in Toxteth, touring Liverpool familiarising themselves with Liverpool’s famous landmarks to inspire artwork for the Museum of Liverpool’s dedicated children’s gallery Little Liverpool, opening 2011.

They will be working with illustrator Kate Pankhurst to develop the final artwork for display in Little Liverpool as part of our work with the ECHO in the Community programme, which aims to inspire young people by engaging in a cross section of activities, including the arts.

At four years old, Mrs Randles’ reception class were a credit to their school, and it was fantastic to be surrounded by such young, inquisitive minds who were visibly impressed by everything they saw.

The first stop on our magical mystery tour of Liverpool was at the Anglican Cathedral, and I only wish I’d had a video camera with me to record their faces on walking into that grand, vast space and filling the air ‘wows’!

We also took a trip to the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral, or Paddy’s Wigwam as it is affectionately known locally, where they were very taken with the colours and reflections coming in from the beautiful stain glass windows. Hopefully this will transfer to the marvellous artwork they’re soon to create for our Little Liverpool Gallery.

After the cathedrals, we also took a driving tour round many iconic buildings, including St George’s Hall and William Brown Street; home to World Museum, Central Library and the Walker Art Gallery.

Spotting the Radio City Tower overhead, our whistle-stop tour also took us past the Town Hall – "where the mayor lives" – and down to the waterfront where we met Museum of Liverpool buildings operations manager Martin Hemmings – "Bob the Builder" – and had a look at the location for Little Liverpool.

A lovely day out was had by all, so thanks goes to Mrs Randles and her ‘helpers’ for organising the trip, and for inviting Julia Bryan from the Museum of Liverpool team and I along. We look forward to seeing the wonderful artwork that Class R create in their roles as Little Liverpool Designers.

On Friday 9 October 2009, we were visited by soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, to support the handover of a rare and historical item to add to the new Museum of Liverpool’s collection.

The object is a Victoria Cross (VC), and although it has been looked after by National Museums Liverpool for some time on loan, it has now been donated to our permanent collections to go on display in the new museum when it opens in 2011.

The Victoria Cross is the highest order of military decoration awarded to the armed forces for gallantry and bravery in the face of the enemy. It was presented to Sergeant David Jones of the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment on 3 September 1916, for an act of bravery he performed while serving in WWI at Guillemont, France.

This is how the London Gazette described his act at the time:
“For most conspicuous bravery, devotion to duty, and ability displayed in the handling of his platoon. The platoon to which he belonged was ordered to a forward position, and during the advance came under heavy machine gun fire, the officer being killed and the platoon suffering heavy losses Serjt. Jones led-forward the remainder, occupied the position, and held it for two days and two nights without food or water, until relieved. On the second day he drove back three counter-attacks, inflicting heavy losses. His coolness was most praiseworthy. It was due entirely to his resource and example that his men retained confidence and held their post.”

Then aged 25, Sgt David Jones was sadly killed in action at Bancourt in the Somme just over a month later on 7 October 1916, and his family later presented the VC to Jones’s former employer J Blake & Co Motor Company, who have now donated the medal to National Museums Liverpool’s permanent collections.

Trustee of J Blake & Co, Mr Norman Silk visited the museum along with representatives of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, to present curator of social history Karen O’Rourke with the medal on-site.

All those who attended the handover were also treated to a tour of the new museum by buildings operations manager Martin Hemmings, specifically to look at the museum's City Soldiers gallery which will focus on the long history of the King’s Regiment and its relationship with the city.

Alas, unlike the beat itself, this exhibition doesn't go on and on. We're into the final weeks of World Museum's The Beat Goes On exhibition and what a tune-tastic time we've had.

Paul McCartney's trousers made a visit as did half a million members of the public. Local bands had their tunes profiled in our on-gallery and online jukeboxes (check out the MySpace page and have a listen). Willing volunteers cut their museum teeth on the gallery, and we launched an online resource charting Liverpool's musical heritage.

But fret not! (fret...music...geddit?) You've still until 1 November to get down to the museum and to get down!  Take your kids during half term and show them what real music sounds like. And if you still need persuading the Guardian's video on Liverpool's music scene should do the trick.

And if you still don't manage to catch the exhibition you're going to have to wait until the Museum of Liverpool opens in 2011. The Creative City gallery will become home to items like the Woolton church stage where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in 1957, the vibrant 'All You Need is Love' bedcover from John and Yoko’s Bed-in-for-Peace in Montreal in 1969, and four Beatles stage suits.

And as it's the final month The Beat Goes On exhibition guide has been reduced to half price so now costs just £1.50. Get your copy in our groundfloor shop.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the On the Waterfront events over the weekend, which involved free films shown on a gigantic screen in the Museum of Liverpool's window. Any sort of open air event in this country is very much at the mercy of the weather, especially on a late September evening at an exposed spot like the Pier Head. I hadn't seen the classic Marlon Brando film 'On the Waterfront' before though, so armed with a flask of hot chocolate and some warm clothing I braved the elements.

I needn't have worried as it was a great evening. The Liverpool skyline with the docks and cranes made a very fitting backdrop to the film. The landscaping around the Pier Head also did a great job of protecting the audience from the worst of the wind.

You can see some photos from the weekend in our Museum of Liverpool Flickr group already. If you took some photos of the event or have any other recent pictures of the museum during construction then we'd love to see them so please do add them to the group.

As a fervent Blue Nose (that's an Everton supporter in case you're football illiterate) I'm very excited that Thursday sees the launch of The Everton Collection website; the most complete treasury of football memorabilia in the world.  And if you're a supporter of another club or social history buff you should be excited as well as the collection isn't just about Everton Football Club. This is the history of football told through the story of Everton.

The collection is made up of over 18,000 items of football memorabilia, dating back to the founding of the club in 1878, itself a founder member of The Football League. Programmes, medals, tickets, transcribed ledgers, trophies, boots, shirts, contracts, cash books and photographs all feature and are now available to browse online. It features the earliest programmes of many clubs including Manchester United (then Newton Heath), Celtic, Aston Villa, Derby County, Bolton and Blackburn, and many of football's rarest artefacts.

I've had a sneak preview and think the transcribed ledgers are my favourites. The minutiae of life in the days before TV deals and big money transfers is fascinating. Players late for training because they missed their bus is a far cry from today's industry.

The collection will be launched with the major new exhibition at Liverpool's Central Library, ‘Everlution: The Everton Collection’. There's also a series of talks by Peter Lupson on topics such as joint Everton and Liverpool programmes, the birth of the football league and the man who many claim was responsible for that famous split that created Everton and Liverpool football clubs.

I should point out that my interest isn't totally partisan. The new Museum of Liverpool will be featuring many objects from the collection in the Creative City gallery, using the pieces to tell the story of Liverpool and its people.

We're currently working with Liverpool ECHO in the Community on a fantastic project for a class of under five-year-olds to have the chance to help develop the artwork for the dedicated children’s gallery in the new Museum of Liverpool.

Little Liverpool is a tailor-made gallery for children under six; a fantasy dreamscape where the youngest visitors will be able to relax, play and explore.

The Little Liverpool Designers competition is searching for a class from a Merseyside-based school to be appointed as designers, working with an artist to direct the final development of the artwork for the Little Liverpool gallery.

So, if you think your child has artistic flair and is within a class that you feel could win, encourage their teacher to enter the competition, and they could make their own historic and creative mark in the new museum!

Visit http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/community-projects for more info. The closing date is Thursday 24 September at 5pm, and the winning class will be appointed on Friday 25 September. Good luck!

If you were ever a student in Liverpool like me, chances are Smithdown Road was the cornerstone of your life…for three years at least. The student population from the city’s three universities have always taken it into their hearts, for its diversity, quirkiness and array of pubs! Some of you may have even attempted ‘The Smithdown 10’, finishing up at The 'Big Yellow' Brookhouse pub, before stumbling back to Halls with a takeaway from Zains.

However, it’s not just students who love Smithdown. Believe it or not, Smithdown is a bit of a mainstay in these here parts, and even has a mention in the Domesday Book! So, the history of the area really does hold some uncovered secrets, which curators hope to unearth and reveal in a special exhibition to go on display in the new Museum of Liverpool.

As the museum doesn’t open until 2010 / 11, research is currently underway for The Secret Life of Smithdown project, and community involvement is at the heart of it.

To get involved, why not pop along to our mini-exhibition in Oomoo Café, 349 – 351 Smithdown Road to share your Smithdown stories and photographs of the area? The first drop-in session takes place tomorrow, Saturday 5 September, between 10am - 4pm.

Or, if you can’t make it to Oomoo and maybe have moved away from the delights of Smithdown and Dafna’s Cheesecake Factory, why not visit our Facebook page and share your anecdotes and memories of ‘Gerry the Fridgeman’, the Smithdown Aquarium, and how life has changed for the residents since they built…‘The Asda’.

For more info on the drop-in sessions and other Secret Life of Smithdown events, visit the website.

If you like a peek behind the scenes - and who doesn't - tune in to BBC2 tomorrow (Thurs 3 September) at 3.45pm for Flog It! There's a visit to the new Museum of Liverpool with a preview of some of the objects that will be featuring on the galleries. It's also available on BBC HD at 6.30pm later that day. And if you miss it you can always catch it on BBC iplayer.

As I've mentioned many times before, there's never a dull moment for the handling and transport team. Since I last reported on their activities they have safely transported a huge variety of objects from our collections, including ship models, paintings, a stained glass window and some Hindu Gods (well, sculptures of them, anyway). Some have been moved from storage to the conservation studios for treatment and back again, other objects have been gone on or off display and a few have ben loaned to other organisations.

Some of the more unusual jobs have involved taking a whole rack of uniforms to the conservation freezer to treat a possible insect infestation and weighing weapons from the collection in order to determine the floor loadings of planned displays in the new Museum of Liverpool.

On a rare break from work a few weeks ago the team had a sneak preview of the new galleries currently under construction at the Museum of Liverpool. They were all impressed by the scale and design of the building. However in the back of their minds I'm sure they were all thinking the same thing - they'll have their work cut out installing all of the many objects in this huge building in time for the opening.

You can see what they've been up to in the Moving stories Flickr set of photos.

Check out our curators on the live webcam at BBC Radio Merseyside.

They're there all day until 5pm talking to people about their memories of Speke Airport for the Museum of Liverpool, so why not pop down and have a chat?

Or, if you're a bit of a whizz at making paper aeroplanes, go along and see if you can make a winner in our longest flight competition!

With holiday season well and truly upon us, some of our curators are putting their minds to memories of past holidays, and need your help researching those with a local angle.

We are inviting seasoned Liverpool holiday-makers to help us by sharing memories, photographs and souvenirs associated with Speke Airport in order to research a community display bound for the new Museum of Liverpool opening in 2010 / 11.

Come Fly With Me – A People’s History of Liverpool Airport will uncover people’s experiences and memories from the 1930s to today, using their souvenirs, photographs and personal accounts to tell the story of the airport.

Come along to one of our drop-in sessions to speak to curators about how you can get involved in contributing to the display from 10am - 5pm on Thursday 6 August at BBC Radio Merseyside, or Friday 7 August at Liverpool John Lennon Airport on the upper floor of the terminal building before security control.

We want to chat to people who have used the airport any time from the 1930s onwards in order to build up a display of objects and memories taken from the local community. So if you have a 'straw donkey' souvenir knocking about in the loft that you'd like to appear on display, we'd love to hear from you!

You needn't bring objects along with you to the drop-in sessions, as we can arrange to loan the items at a later date, but if you want to bring holiday snaps with you, our curators can scan these during the sessions.

Both drop-in sessions will include craft workshops where people can make their own aerodynamic creations, and the aeroplane that covers the greatest distance over the course of each session will win a prize!

If you are unable to attend one of the drop-in sessions, but would like to discuss opportunities to provide objects for display in the exhibition, please contact Victoria Newberry on 0151 478 4067 or email victoria.newberry@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Across the National Museums Liverpool website, we have loads of great games, e-cards, online-only exhibitions, videos, interactives and podcasts for you to enjoy. And we've just launched our new VIP Zone as a hub for all these cool features that really bring our collections and exhibitions to life.

You can watch a video of a Pharaoh talking about life in ancient Egypt or download a talk by curator Pauline Rushton and photographer Francesco Mellina about our Sound and Vision exhibition - photographs of Liverpool music and fashion from 1978-82.

This multi-media stuff gives people from around the world the chance to get a better experience of what we have in our venues, even if they can't come along in real life.

You can also find all our social networking sites in the VIP Zone. So if you want to follow the new Museum of Liverpool on Twitter or join the Walker Facebook group then you can find links to our social sites there too.

Here's one of the latest videos we've put online featuring George Holt, the former owner of Sudley House, in the dining room. He talks about dinner parties, his plans for improving the city of Liverpool and describes some of the paintings in the room.

The Beat Goes On at World Museum, celebrates a wealth of Liverpool music across the ages right from the 40s until today, and not one decade has gone by when a Liverpool act hasn’t topped the charts.

One thing’s for sure, the exhibition is packed with fascinating objects and memorabilia charting the city’s musical heritage to date, but talent is still emerging daily and tomorrow’s stars could one day find themselves becoming part of Liverpool’s history, adorning i-pod screens and the walls of new Museum of Liverpool alike.

Yes, there is the idea that you have to be in the right place at the right time, but sheer hard work and determination is often necessary for a band or artist to gain access to the ‘right place’ at the ‘right time’, and our city offers some great opportunities to get noticed by the decision makers in the business.

As the Guinness Book of Record’s ‘City of Pop’, Liverpool avidly supports its emerging talent to climb the ladder of musical success, and those on the city’s youth music scene will be pleased to hear that the annual Streetwaves competition - doing just that - is back again for 2009.

This year, the competition is offering two lucky acts the chance to play a 25 minute outdoor set at the legendary Mathew Street Festival! Acts aged 14 – 25 can apply to audition by Tuesday 14 July, so be quick and visit www.liverpool.gov.uk/culture for an application form...and good luck!

Following up on our own competition, we’re also pleased to see that some of the artists voted for on The Beat Goes On’s Myspace are coming on in leaps and bounds since they’ve been featured on the digital jukeboxes in the exhibition:

A firm favourite in the votes, Dave Tyrell is releasing his debut album on 1 August, and band Jessica’s Ghost has also released an album, The Winning Hand with various gig dates in the coming months including Heebie Jeebies and the Mathew Street Finge. GK & The Renegades have sadly gone their separate ways, although GK (Gavin Kaufman) has announced he will be launching solo projects, so we look forward to hearing more from him.

Next Saturday 27 June, we’re teaming up with the Liverpool Parks Friends Forum to put on a special event at Merseyside Maritime Museum for anyone out there who has a passion for our city’s parks!

With over 70 parks, Liverpool offers plenty of opportunities to enjoy some free green space, and fresh air away from the buzz of the city, so it’s particularly apt this year that we are staging this free event during the Year of the Environment 2009.

The event will take place from 9:30am – 4pm at Merseyside Maritime Museum, and like our parks is completely free! Click here to register and experience all that is on offer on the day.

The event has been created as part of a number of community activities taking place in the run up to the opening of the new Museum of Liverpool in 2010, to give the public opportunities to learn all about different aspects of our city, its history and development.

It will include workshops focusing on themes such as parks and controversies through history with local historian Frank Carlyle and creative nature conservation with Richard Scott from the National Wildflower Centre.

There will also be a site visit to discover the ‘hidden side’ of Chavasse Park and talks from Robert Lee from the University of Liverpool and Chairman of Friends of Birkenhead Park, and Janet Dugdale on the new Museum of Liverpool.

It's National Volunteers Week, so our youth volunteer co-ordinator Claire Olson has asked me to thank all our wonderful volunteers for their continuing hard work and enthusiasm, not just this week but throughout the year.

If you would like more information about volunteering then have a look at our volunteering web pages or pop into one of our special Volunteers Week events. Drop in any time from 11am-3pm at World Museum on Tuesday and the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Thursday.

We asked Dashti, one of our youth volunteers, about his experiences as a volunteer and here's what he said:

---

"Hi my name is Dashti and I’m 17. I have volunteered at National Museums Liverpool for 11 months. I started working in The Beat Goes On exhibition from July to September 2008. I worked in this exhibition talking to visitors, tidying up the play area and replacing comments cards.

After this, I began working with the Community Partnerships team. Every Wednesday I work with students from EMTAS (Ethnic Minority & Traveller Achievement Service). We have done many projects together including a project about the the Museum of Liverpool, learning about the history of Liverpool and making a film called 'Make Your Own Liverpool'. I also helped the students learn about ancient Egypt, space and national history.

I got my v50 award certificate in December, but I have now done 100 hours! I have learnt how to communicate well with lots of different people. I have learnt many things about the history of Liverpool and I also learnt about the exhibitions in the museum.

I have enjoyed talking to interesting people. The staff have been very helpful and because I feel more comfortable in the museum I will continue volunteering!"

The Liverpool Daily Post launched a survey yesterday asking people to vote on which Liverpool personalities should be included in the Liverpool Map.

Readers have already been involved by submitting their opinions on which places should be included in the map, and the public have recently provided examples of their handwriting for inclusion in a community layer of the map.

People now have until Sunday 31 May to visit the Daily Post website to take part in the survey to find out which people they feel best represent the city in fields including the arts, music and sport.

These names will then form the final layer of the Liverpool Map, which will stand in the People's City gallery of the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2010.

For inspiration, why not visit The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum Liverpool to find out more about the musical acts that have made an impact on Liverpool's history.

Click here to find out more about the Liverpool Map and its unique structure and creation.

I spent Monday with a film crew from the popular BBC 2 show Flog It! – not at an auction but perusing some of our fabulous collections.

 

We focused on the Liverpool waterfront – looking back at the fascinating history of the Albert Dock and touring the new Museum of Liverpool.

 

First stop was the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Albert Dock where I was interviewed by presenter Paul Martin walking along the quayside admiring the stunning architecture and remarkable Victorian cranes, winches and pulleys.

 

It’s not easy talking and walking with a camera crew in front of you. Then there was the issue of my face. “We’re getting too much profile,” said the cameraman. It was explained that the viewer likes to see your full face not the side of it.

 

I managed to get the hang of facing forward and occasionally glancing at Paul. We talked about the dock’s builder Jesse Hartley, Prince Albert’s visit in 1846 and why the dock was almost demolished in the 1960s.

 

After lunch featuring the excellent pies at the Maritime Museum café, we headed to our workshops to see some amazing exhibits being conserved for the Museum of Liverpool when it opens late next year.

 

Paul interviewed land transport curator Sharon Brown in the 3^rd class carriage from the legendary Liverpool Overhead Railway (pictured - more information here). It is one of the many stars of the new museum.

 

It may have been the carriage I rode in with my father in 1953 to see the smouldering wreck of the Empress of Canada in Liverpool docks. I was only five but remember vividly the incredible experience of clattering along in the elevated railway and seeing the capsized ship resembling a great whale.

 

The crew also filmed senior conservator David Letsche working on the Lion which once hauled carriages on the Liverpool to Manchester railway in the 1830s. Lion starred in the classic Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt.

 

They were fascinated by the first car off the assembly line at Liverpool’s Halewood plant in 1963 – an immaculate Ford Anglia.

 

We ended the day at the Museum of Liverpool with its breathtaking views of the Liverpool waterfront and River Mersey.

 

National Museums Liverpool’s building operations manager Martin Hemmings took Paul and crew on a tour of the enormous building.

 

Martin pointed out the specially-constructed area where the Overhead Railway carriage will stand, overlooking the Lion.

 

The cameraman cleverly used artist’s impressions of the new galleries to line them up exactly with the real display areas.

 

The day had started with cloud and rain but ended in bright sunshine, enabling the crew to get superb shots of the dazzling stonework and huge shimmering windows.

 

This edition of Flog It! is due for screening in the autumn.

Some of the Museum of Liverpool team are at BBC Radio Merseyside today collecting people's handwriting entries for the Liverpool Map.

Check out what's happening right now by looking at the BBC Radio Merseyside webcam! 

The team are there until 5pm so why not head over and add your entry to the Liverpool Map.

People should get along to BBC Radio Merseyside this Friday 24 April between 10am and 5pm, for another opportunity to make their mark on the Liverpool Map.

After the success of last week’s Handwriting Session at Merseyside Maritime Museum, you can still put your handwriting forward for inclusion in the Map, which will go on display in the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2010!

Come along ready to put pen to paper with your memories of favourite places in or associated with Liverpool, or you can copy out extracts of the Liverpool Saga; a poem written by the people of Merseyside to celebrate the city’s 800th birthday in 2007.

For more information on the Liverpool Map, see last week’s blog, or visit the website.

The latest batch of Museum of Liverpool construction snaps has been added to the museum's set on Flickr. They include this one of scaffolding against the interior of the north window (that's the Liver Building etc outside).

At this very second in time the museum's Twitter page has attracted a satisfactory yet surmountable 361 followers - not in the Stephen Fry league yet but give us time! If you've not checked it out yet have a look.

Yesterday people were invited to Merseyside Maritime Museum to indulge in some creative writing with a difference. 

As part of The Liverpool Map project, we asked the public to come along and write about their favourite and most memorable places in Liverpool, with the opportunity to become part of a Liverpool legacy. 

The Liverpool Map has been researched and developed in conjunction with the people of Merseyside, and will go on display in the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2010. 

 

International glasswork artists Inga Panels and Jeffrey Sarmiento will use pioneering techniques to create a large multi-layered glass monolith, and want the public to continue to be involved in its design.

 

The map will be a 3D structure featuring many layers of sheet glass fused into a solid block, each printed with a variety of images and designs showing Liverpool as a city defined by culture and heritage rather than lines on a map. One of these glass layers will be a community layer, including some of the handwriting captured in yesterday’s workshop.

 

Nell and baby John from Maghull take part in the handwriting workshop for the Liverpool Map

Ideas for favourite places included the Albert Dock, Greenbank Park, the former St Martin's Bank building on Water Street, and Bold Street with its local landmark St Luke's Church - or as locals call it the 'bombed out church'.

 

You can still put your handwriting forward for inclusion in the Liverpool Map, by visiting the Performance Space at BBC Radio Merseyside on Friday 24 April between 10am - 5pm.

 

Come along with ideas of your special places on Merseyside, or if you need further inspiration you can copy out extracts of the Liverpool Saga; an 800 line poem written by people from Merseyside to celebrate Liverpool's 800th Birthday in 2007. It includes some brilliant examples of special memories of places in and around Liverpool!

Better late than never I've put up last week's Museum of Liverpool progress snaps on Flickr. Everything is still progressing swimmingly. Last week's progress included cladding to the reveals of the end gables with corner pieces being fitted this week; pressure testing of pipework; installation of external drainage and services ducts; the suspended ceiling started to go in; concerte work on the north and south ramps, and concrete fire sealing works to structure/building cavities.

Update: Was so late with that last set that this week's have turned up as well - have just uploaded them. They include some nice shots of the interior so are well worth a look.

In these grim economic times and rainy days, we could do worse than remind ourselves that there is usually a light at the end of the tunnel! Forty years ago this week, John Lennon and Yoko Ono set about bringing a message of peace to the world from their bed in the Amsterdam Hilton hotel. They vowed to stay in bed for a whole week (24 - 31 March, 1969) in what they called a "bed-in for peace". It certainly drew alot of media attention to their message of peace and in particular their stance against the war in Vietnam, which can only be a good thing.  While this might not be everyone's idea of a great honeymoon, I can't think of a better place to stage a peace protest than a nice comfy bed. I took part in an anti-war demo in Manchester once and by heck it was freezing!

This wasn't their last bed-in though. A few months later on 26 May 1969, John and Yoko checked into Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel to start their next peace protest, to continue the momentum of the first one. For another week the couple, along with Ono's five-year-old daughter Kyoko, entertained guests including U.S. black civil rights advocate Dick Gregory, Quebec separatist Jacques Larue-Langlois and American cartoonist Al Capp. It was at the end of this bed-in that a historic and spontaneous performance of 'Give Peace a Chance' was recorded.

Here at the museums, we're very proud to hold a piece of this moment in history. In our collections we have an 'All You Need is Love' beadspread that was handmade by the local Montreal Hare Krishna Chapter and given to John and Yoko for the protest. 

Currently you can see the bedspread from the Montreal bed-in for peace in The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum Liverpool. Peace out.

 

This week's snaps from the Museum of Liverpool building site have a definite smell of spring about them; sunshine, blue sky and crocuses. Pity this weekend's weather forecast is so lousy. I especially like this picture; the texture of the cladding highlighted by the morning sun. The lines are the rigging of the ship, De Wadden, in the adjacent graving dock. As ever higher-res versions this snap and more are in the Museum of Liverpool flickr set.

The build itself marches on. Our Twitter page charts the progress - become a follower.

All reporters remember big stories they worked on and the 1993 Grand National was for me one of the most memorable. It was the year the race was famously declared void after demonstrators disrupted the world’s greatest steeplechase.

This week I was quizzed by BBC racing presenter and former top amateur jockey Clare Balding about my memories of that amazing day. It was for an edition of The One Show being screened in the run-up to this year’s big race.

The show’s producers were prompted by my collection of passes, pamphlets, statements and press releases amassed on that day in the mayhem of the press room at the renowned Liverpool racecourse. Some years ago I donated them to National Museums Liverpool and they feature on our website where BBC researchers spotted them. This 1993 ephemera is destined for display in the new Museum of Liverpool opening next year.

It was decided to do the interview in the bitter cold in front of the County Stand. I admitted to Clare that the last time I had been to the course was when they secretly buried legendary winner Red Rum at the winning post. Since then I had watched the race from the Blue Anchor Bridge, a spot where you can be a spectator for free and avoid the crowds.

As we talked, my memories stretched back to my first visit in 1961 when Nicholas Silver won and I placed an unsuccessful sixpenny bet with exotic tipster Prince Monolulu.

I was there when Gay Trip won in 1970 but remember most the tiny comedian Jimmy Clitheroe, dressed in a suede coat, with his horse. That year I walked around the track with local MP Dick Crawshaw attempting an endurance record. I interviewed the formidable owner of Aintree Mirabelle Topham on the telephone – a major coup. 

In 1978 we had the ‘will he, won’t he?’ saga of Red Rum making his final appearance at Aintree. I met TV personality Angela Rippon when she cantered on Rummy along Southport sands.

I was there in 1981 to see cancer victim Bob Champion’s epic win on Aldaniti on a glorious sunny day.
 
But nothing could prepare me for the Race That Never Was. I told Clare it was like being on the Titanic steaming on regardless after being mortally wounded.

Nobody seemed to know what was going on in the press room until racecourse chairman Lord Daresbury took the helm at a news conference. The race was declared void because of two false starts.

This picture was taken by assistant director Sophie Wallace-Hadrill and shows Clare preparing to interview me as cameraman Tim Sutton and director Hamish Summers get things right. The structure in the background is the biggest marquee I’ve ever seen.

As you will have seen if you've been down to Liverpool's waterfront recently, the structure of the new Museum of Liverpool building is really taking shape now. But what is going on inside those stone-clad walls? And how are staff preparing for the monumental task of fitting out the enormous galleries inside?

If you want the inside story there are two new ways to find out what's going on. Our quarterly e-newsletter has a summary of all the big news -  you can see the February 2009 e-newsletter online. To sign up for future editions complete the register with us form, remembering to tick the Museum of Liverpool box under 'Interests' and choose email updates under 'Contact options'.

You can now also follow the Museum of Liverpool on Twitter, for all the latest news about progress with the construction.

Don't forget, we'd like to hear from you as well if you have any photos of the museum building taking shape. You can add them to our Building the Museum of Liverpool group on Flickr.

We've just published a cute little pocket guide to many of the fab happenings at NML in 2008. It's good to revisit highlights like Ben Johnson's residency, the Superlambananas, the opening of Seized! and exhibitions like Art In The Age of Steam and The Beat Goes On.

You can download your copy of The Little Book of Big Highlights here (pdf 6mb).

Lots more snaps in our Flickr set including this one of the sun on the south window.

The build continues to progress really well. The vertical limestone cladding is nearing completion, the main roof is finished, and the windows are almost all in. Internally, the staircase structure is complete, internal walls are making good progress, and innards like the electrics, plumbing and air handling units are well on their way.

It's all really exciting, and judging by the number of people taking photos of the building (there's just a few of them here in the public Flickr group) lots of people feel the same. If you'd like to add your snaps to the group please do.

Image courtesy of Liverpool City Council - Transition: The People's Celebration.
Thousands sing chorus to George Harrison's 'Here Comes The Sun'

In the lead up to Christmas and the New Year, as Marketing Officer for the Museum of Liverpool I was beavering away to install a huge sign, seen here in the background facing the canal, in time for the staging of Transition: The People's Celebration to flag up the new Museum of Liverpool to the imminent thousands at the Pier Head. More images can be seen in the Museum of Liverpool flickr group.

This task presented a few challenges, not least due to the cold snap, braved in sub zero temperatures by the painters and sign company who rapidly transformed the white hoarding line to a colourful dark blue and vivid cyan.

We produced a sign in the largest vinyl letters the space would accommodate, visible from both land and sea to visitors to the Pier Head but also passengers aboard the Mersey Ferry and cruise liners. If you look closely you can discover facts inside each alternate letter about the new Museum of Liverpool.

You may have seen on the news that the Prime Minister, the Rt Honourable Gordon Brown MP was in town yesterday for the first ever Cabinet meeting in Liverpool, which took place at the BT Convention Centre. The Prime Minister had a busy day but found time to come and look around the site of the new Museum of Liverpool which is currently under construction on the waterfront.  

Accompanied by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham MP, the Prime Minister took time out to talk to museum curators about the sort of objects going in the museum, as well as meeting some members of the construction team who are creating the iconic building. I’m told he really enjoyed his visit and was very interested to see our future plans.

What you may not have seen on the news is that Mr Brown also spent some time with young people who have been involved with the museum. On first arriving at the docks by boat (which coincidentally had the youthful name ‘Groove Armada’), he was greeted by young people who have worked on the 'Portrait of a Nation' project and Museum of Liverpool's youth champions. At Museum of Liverpool he met two Creative Apprentices who are currently working on the project – they will be telling you more about their involvement at a later date. 

Outside the Merseyside Maritime Museum the ministerial party paused to admire the ‘The Orrery’ – a colourful community sculpture commissioned by Liverpool Culture Company. He also took time out to speak to pupils from Pleasant Street Primary School about their involvement in Liverpool 08, before moving on to his next engagements. A journalist recently commented that the Prime Minister is looking very well and incredibly youthful these days - perhaps it’s down to the company he is keeping. 

While many of us were embroiled in the orgy of excess that is the modern Christmas, certain hardy souls were installing the final glazing units at the Museum of Liverpool. It's cold enough at the moment without spending your days up a cherry picker, fitting windows on an exposed riverbank. Glazers, we salute you! On the up side they'll have seen a fair few beautiful sunsets lately, what with the clear skies and low winter sun.

Anyhoo, the fruits of their labours can be seen in the Museum of Liverpool flickr group. And, as we've come to expect, the general public have been producing a few gems of their own. They can be seen in the public group.

If you've yet to see the building yourself the evening of 10 January would be a good time to visit. The area around the building is the stage for 'Transition: The People's Celebration', a public event to mark the end of Liverpool's reign as European Capital of Culture. The north window is being used as a projection screen, part of the 'sound, light and visual review of Liverpool's history from 7,000,000,000BC to the present day'.  That all kicks off at 6.15pm with fireworks at 7pm. The Merseyside Maritime Museum and International Slavery Museum will both be open until 10pm, with activities for the kids, a new menu in the cafe and music from The Fourmost - more than enough to make an evening of it. More on our main site. 

The stone cladding on the Museum of Liverpool building is almost complete. On the wall facing the river this morning there was only a small section at the top corner left to do, so from the ferry it looked as if a large monster had taken a bite out of it.

While the construction and fitting out of the building takes place some of the museum's collections have been out 'on the road', with displays of key objects in a variety of locations around the city. The latest object a the rather fancy silver presentation inkstand. It was originally presented to Rabbi Prag, the first minister to serve in Princes Road Synagogue, to commemorate 25 years of his service in 1881. So rather appropriately it is being displayed at the Princes Road Synagogue until December 2009.

Tours of the synagogue can be arranged by appointment only, there are full details on the Princes Road Synagogue website. The tours are recommended by Paul Kelly and Richard Roberts from the handling team and curator Georgina Young, who were shown round after they delivered and installed the display this week.

For some people shoes are just a practical necessity to stop your socks getting wet and tatty, while for others shoes can be more of an obsession. Here's an early Christmas present for anyone in the second category.

There are lots of shoes of all shapes and sizes in the collections at National Museums Liverpool's venues. For the first time ever we've gathered together a selection of them in a brand new shoes online exhibition. The online exhibition features a range of fabulous footwear, from the rather bling Terry de Havilland platforms shown here, to a fragment of a leather heel from a 17th century shipwreck. There's also a lot of publicity material from the archive of local shoe makers and retailers J Collinson & Company, which is now held in the Maritime Archives and Library.

Most of the shoes and shoe-related items in the online exhibition are currently in storage, so the only place to see them all together is on the website. So indulge your inner Carrie Bradshaw and take an online stroll round the collections. Go on, you know you want to.

The Railway Heritage Committee have kindly donated a fragment of the original Edge Hill Station in a commemorative box to the Museum of Liverpool's collections. Believed to be oldest station in world still in normal service, Edge Hill was built as a stop on the Liverpool to Manchester railway. The fragment will be used in the Port City gallery in the new Museum of Liverpool, to illustrate the impact of that historic railway.

On the subject of transport, those of you who prefer trains small enough to fit in your pocket may be interested to know that the Frank Hornby Experience is back at Maghull Town Hall this weekend, 10am-5pm on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 November. The experience celebrates the achievements of local legend Frank Hornby, with lots of examples of the popular toys that he invented.

The Liverpool Echo website is featuring the latest in a series of video updates on the progress of the build. You can watch the video here. 

Our Building the Museum of Liverpool Flickr group is still getting a fair few submissions. Special thanks should go to Cassini2008 who has taken some great shots right the way through the build.

The latest photos are now available on Flickr. The main development has been the cladding which is going up at a rate of knots. I like this side-on snap of the surface - you don't realise how 3D it is until you get right up close.

Some nice new additions to the Building the Museum of Liverpool group as well. Interesting to see the building in different weather conditions, at different times of the day and from various angles. You put my own feeble photographic skills to shame.

It now seems but a dream, but I'm told that the other day it was sunny. These latest snaps of the Museum of Liverpool construction seem to bear that out. Check out the Flickr set - you can almost feel the heat! 

We're still looking for Flickr snaps from the public - there are some beautiful efforts in this group.

The build is progressing well. The cladding is still going on, the window frames are going in and internal walls are going up.

The latest batch of Museum of Liverpool construction progress snaps is on our Flickr page. The cladding is going on and the end is in sight!

On a vaguely related subject (I say vaguely because I hurriedly took this slightly blurry snap at the dock at lunchtime - it was very cold!) the QE2 is in Liverpool at the moment. The Liverpool Echo have a video of it sailing into the Mersey, past Crosby Beach and the Antony Gormley ironmen (or 'Another Place' as they're officially known). Wonder how close the two ships in the video really were? Anyhoo, it's a good vid and worth a peek. 

Another month, another competition and another prize in our 'name that object' competition. Actually, it's the same prize as last month - a set of Beatles figures - but as so many people entered last time we figured they were popular and are offering another set this month. First clue appears on Monday morning (22nd). If you're keen to get your mitts on the figures you might want to visit the John Moores exhibition that starts this weekend and have a wander around the rest of the gallery while you are there...

Just added a few more Museum of Liverpool construction snaps to our Flickr page  - the slideshow of the set is embedded here (roll over the image and click the bottom right icon to see a full screen view).

Update 18.09.08: Been meaning to point out that the Flcikr slideshow doesn't seem to be working too well with IE7 - fine with Firefox I think. You might want to skip straight to our Flickr page 

If you didn't have access to a computer over the weekend you mightn't have seen the answer to August's 'name that object' competition. The answer was 'The Annunciation' by Edward Coley Burne-Jones, and the winner was C Sharp of Liverpool. Another competition and another prize next month.

We're cutting it a bit fine with the August 'name that object' competition, but are launching it on Tuesday 26th August (so the final clue will be on Saturday 30th). The prize this month is this fab but vaguely surreal set of Beatles figures. I say surreal because, as you may have noticed, there's a crocodile on stage with them.  The figures are 'straight from the classic Beatles cartoon series' that launched in the US in 1965, and apparently the croc featured in the series. The mind boggles.

Anyhoo, should you wish to give the Fab Four and their crocodilian friend a home you first need to name the object from our collection. It's an artwork, with a new detail being revealed each day for five days. Enter using the link on the competition page.

Should you fail to win I'm reliably informed that you can buy these sets in the World Museum Liverpool giftshop where they are on sale as part of the The Beat Goes On exhibition.

Plenty to look at here.

On our Flickr page there's a series of snaps from the build including some interesting angles that were recently taken. There's also a new group we've set up of public pictures of the build. Lots of nice sunrises there. Will be adding more to both of these shortly.

And on the Liverpool Echo website Samantha Parker presents the fourth of her video progress reports from the site.

Work has started on the installation of the summer's big exhibition at World Museum, The Beat Goes On, which opens on 12 July 2008. The exhibition will explore Liverpool's musical identity over the last 60 years. As you'd expect, there will be a number of items on display relating to a certain fab four.

Head of furniture conservation Graham Usher is currently putting together one of those items - the very stage that Paul McCartney and John Lennon met on when John's band The Quarrymen played at a garden festival in Woolton in 1957. The Museum of Liverpool acquired the stage a couple of years ago and it was featured on the blog last year but this will be the first time that it has been on display in our venues. I'm sure it'll be a must-see for Beatles fans when the exhibition opens.

Next Tuesday Radio 4's Making History programme features an interview with Sharon Brown, NML’s curator of land, transport and industry. Sharon will be talking about our overhead railway carriage, which is currently undergoing conservation work. Listen out on Tuesday 17 June at 3pm, or 'listen again' over the following week.

There's just a few days left to submit your application for one of the 10 Creative Apprenticeships on offer. A number of Merseyside-based cultural organisations, including National Museums Liverpool, are involved in a project to foster emerging talent and give young hopefuls a solid grounding in the arts and culture industry.

By the end of the year-long apprenticeship you'll have earned a Level 2 Certificate in Creative and Cultural Practice, and a Level 2 National Award in Community Arts Management, but perhaps more importantly you'll have developed the skills and contacts you'll need for a career in the industry.

More details are available on the Creative Partnerships Liverpool website.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that there wasn't a May Name That Object competition. We were rather busy with the redesign for the main site (check it out if you've not already) and it kind of took a back seat.

Anyway, June's is now up with the first clue available here. As ever you need to figure out which object from our collections (and our website) the detail is from and email us the answer using the contact link on the competition page. There's a new clue every day this week.

We've had lots of enquiries from people wanting to buy the Art In The Age of Steam exhibition catalogue so that's this month's prize. Good luck.

Everyone dreads airport delays but this week our touring exhibition officer Mary Hesling had to deal with an unusual delayed departure caused by a fire several miles away. Here's her report of how her latest project was cleared for take off:

---

"I was very pleased to be involved in the installation of seven stunning black and white photographs from the Stewart Bale collections at the Wetherspoons Lloyds Imperial, Liverpool John Lennon Airport. The display follows a broad theme, with images of the old Liverpool Airport, Liverpool city centre and docks.

After more than a year in development, all involved were delighted to see the final display going up. The installation, originally planned for 13 May 2008, was not without its problems! The awful Bluecoat fire in the early hours of Tuesday morning called all our handling and conservation teams in to help. This caused the airport installation to be postponed at short notice - and our thanks to Wetherspoon for their understanding about this!

We finally got out to the airport on Wednesday 14 May and, after only a few more hic-cups (not least of which being two inexplicably flat batteries for the power drill, despite them being charged over night!!!) our wonderful handlers put the display up beautifully, using only hand-powered tools and sheer determination!

The final display will be in place for one year, and I think it looks great. Next time you’re flying out of Liverpool why not get a drink at Wetherspoons and admire the show.

Thanks to Wetherspoons Pubs PLC for their contribution to this project."

Our trading arm, NML Trading, is holding a Recruitment Open Day on Saturday 10th May. They're looking to recruit Team Leaders, Catering Assistants, Venue Supervisors, Chefs and Banqueting staff. They're looking for people who are passionate about catering for their daytime operation plus occasional evening work. You'll be working in Liverpool’s world class museums, providing high quality food and refreshments to over two million visitors each year.

To find out more about the roles on offer, bring your CV to World Museum Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool between 10.30am and 4.30pm.

Some objects in our collection are so large that conserving them is a two-person job. A good example is the 'All you need is love' bedspread, which is currently being prepared for display is the upcoming exhibition The beat goes on - opening on 12 July 2008 at World Museum Liverpool.

To prepare it for display the bedspread has been stitched to a backing sheet on wooden stretchers, which support it and keep it in place. Today textiles and organics conservators Vivien Chapman and Anne-Marie Hughes have been strengthening the bedspread with supporting stitches to key areas - a delicate process which involves passing the needle through the fabric from one person to the other, without being ever able to see each other. These stitches are so small that you wouldn't know they were there when you look at the bedspread but they play an important role in supporting it when it's on display.

The bedspread was originally used in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Montreal 'Bed-In For Peace' in room 1742 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal in 1969. It is just one of the fascinating pieces of memorabilia that will be on display in the exhibition.

There are more pictures in a Flickr slideshow of the bedspread being conserved.

Today is day one in April's Name That Object competition and here is today's clue. To win a copy of the rather nice catalogue that accompanies the Art In The Age of Steam exhibition all you have to do is identify the object in question (it's an artwork this month) from the clues given every day this week, and email us your answer using the link on the competition page. Best of British.

On Monday night at 9pm Channel Four are featuring a Time Team special - The Lost Dock of Liverpool. It focuses on arachaeological excavations of what's known as Old Dock - the first commercial wet dock in Liverpool and the world - plus other sites at the waterfront as they've been cleared for the canal extension, Museum of Liverpool etc. The programme will be looking at the growth of Liverpool as the world's first global city, and will feature several members of the museum archaeological staff. Quite looking forward to it.

Here's the final blog post from Tom McConnell, our work placement student and Beatles fan, who has been lucky enough to see some rather special objects from the band's history.

---

Hi

On Tuesday and Wednesday I have been working on the Beatles stage that John Lennon played on when Paul McCartney first met him. I had to sand parts of it and help take it apart before it is fully constructed.

Today I have been in paper conservation where I found all the Beatles autographs!! and I also saw many other Beatles items such as a Beatles writing pad.. Beatles stockings.. Beatles tickets.. Beatles newspapers.. and much more.

Here's the latest update from Tom McConnell, who seems to be keeping busy on his work placement at National Museums Liverpool:

---

Hello,

I’m now on my third day here at NML. I had a good day yesterday at World Museum Liverpool. Highlights for me were seeing the new Egypt galleries taking shape and a visit to the zoology department. I also fitted in a visit to the National Museums Liverpool stores where I spied a fab looking Paul McCartney poster.

Today I was back at the stores helping with the Museum of Liverpool project. There I had to locate and find objects for the up and coming The Beat Goes On exhibition. These objects included Stuart Sutcliffe’s Guitar, a Beatles 7 inch vinyl singles folder, a piece of fabric from the original Magical Mystery Tour bus in the film and Beatles bobbing-head dolls.

Here's the first post from a new contributor to the blog. As you can see from this picture, Tom is already hard at work on his first day at National Museums Liverpool.

---

Hello,

I'm Tom McConnell and I'm in Liverpool on my work placement for two weeks. I will be working in various NML venues throughout the city. I live in Newcastle Upon Tyne and have done since I was 2 years old, but was born in Liverpool.

I've spent an interesting day today with Community Partnerships learning about the new Museum of Liverpool.  I am particularly excited about the Beatles section of the museum as I have worshipped them since I was 5 (and I'm 15 in two weeks).

The second of Samantha Parker's Museum of Liverpool progress videos is now available on the Liverpool Echo website. Fills you in on the progress with the steel structure, the next stage of the build and the view from those big windows at the end of the building.

Here's the latest report from our School Champion Charlotte Osborne from St Margaret Marys Junior School, who has been on a visit to check on progress with the new Museum of Liverpool and explore some of the city's famous waterfront.

---

"I really enjoyed our second champions visit to the museum to learn more about the Museum of Liverpool visit and the three Graces.

We were very lucky to have a tour of the Liver buildings and also visit the Port of Liverpool and Cunard buildings. We all felt really excited inside the Three Graces because not many members of the public visit there!

I concentrated on all the different objects in them and wondered whether any of them would be good to put in the Museum of Liverpool. In the 'Port of Liverpool Museum' there was a marble effect compass and when you looked up the view was really cool! In the 'Cunard Building' there were posters that read 'Cunard to Canada' and many more different posters! In the 'Liver Building' I enjoyed concentrating on the stained glass window. On the top of the Liver Building there was a Liver Bird on each side, one of them looked at the sailors wives and the other looked at the sailors!

We then went over to look at the new Museum of Liverpool with Karen, Dave and Curtis this was the first time we had looked at the building very close up and we are hoping to get inside the building for a tour next time.

I enjoyed watching the slide show of how the new Museum of Liverpool was going to look like, and all the different galleries. Liz asked us questions and I was really excited of how it is going to look when it is finally finished.

In the afternoon we all made a poem about Liverpool and the New Museum with Curtis and mine was about the history of Liverpool and the new galleries in the Museum. I enjoyed doing the creative writing and would really like do it again.

Dave set out loads of objects all about ships and the river and I was really interested in what he was talking to us about and I was focused on everything he was saying! I thought it was amazing that you can measure the angle of the sun from the horizon.
 
Thank you for my wonderful day out again, we are really looking forward to the next time we visit!"

Today many people across Liverpool will be celebrating St Patrick's Day, or maybe even continuing the festivities which seem to have kicked off on Friday evening.

If you are stuck for ideas of a fitting way to spend the day, here's a blast from the past in the form of a handbill from the Museum of Liverpool's collections. It's advertsing a 'St Patrick's Gala Night' held in Liverpool's Rialto Ballroom back in 1939. 

With cocktails, cabaret, dancing until 2am, 'Irish novelties' (whatever that means), a running buffet (for moderate charges) and Ben Reynold's Irish music it sounds like it was a top night. And all for the meagre price of 2/6 - which sounds cheap but somebody will probably tell me that was most your week's wages back then...

Can't believe no one's got this yet - thought it would have gone yesterday. The prize in this month's Name That Object game is still not won and today is the last day. This is today's clue - bit of a give away. All of this week's clues, plus the link to enter the competition, are on the Name That Object page. The prize is the catalogue from the recent Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool exhibition.

The second of what will hopefully be a monthly feature (prizes allowing) begins on Monday. Name that Object shows a new detail from an object in our collection every day for five days. Could be from any venue and any collection.  To win the prize all you have to do is identify the object and be the first to mail us the correct answer (use the 'contact us' form link on the competition page). As there's only one prize - the rather excellent catalogue that accompanied the recent Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool exhibition - most of you will be 'playing for fun', and it is fun as you'll discover if you check out last month's game - bit of a warm up for you.

Here's a snap of last month's prize - a Superlambanana now christened Hogarth (I'll leave you to figure out why) - happily ensconced in his new home. His new owner got the answer right on clue one so you'll probably have to be there from kick off on Monday to be in with a chance. To make it a bit easier I'll tell you it is a painting and it is featured on our website.

You can also play via the rss feed so there's no chance of you missing a clue.

You can now see a Flickr slide show of photos of the School Champions documentary team in action earlier this week. They've taken some fantastic shots, including some really good views of the Museum of Liverpool construction site from the ferry. I really like their description of the mixture of old and new building styles on the waterfront as, which they've called 'architexture'.

It's a few weeks since the last update on the School Champions project, which offers pupils from local schools the opportunity to get involved with the development of the Museum of Liverpool. In that time the budding Spielbergs who are filming a documentary about the construction of the new museum have been busy. Yesterday pupils from Weatherhead Media College and St Margaret Mary's RC Junior School took a ferry across the Mersey to film and photograph the Museum of Liverpool build. Afterwards Weatherhead pupils were also allowed onto the construction site to film.

Below is a report on the day's activities from Champion Libby Brunskill. Photographs from the day will be available on our Flickr page soon.

---

 
"We all met up at 10.00am at the Maritime Museum and went through the action plan for the day. First, we began filming outside the Maritime, and did some establishing shots of Liverpool and the Liver Buildings. Then we walked down to Mersey Ferries and took shots from different angles and distances whilst on the Ferry. We managed to get some stills of St Mary and Margaret’s primary school, who were also on the Ferry at this time.

After this we went onto the construction site of the new Museum of Liverpool. We spent roughly an hour taking shots of the museum and came up with some really creative images of the reflection of the sun’s light on the pillars. Also cranes, the size comparison between the old museum and new one, workmen in action, skips and tyre tracks were very interesting. The best shot was probably the JCB, which we filmed at different angles with the Liver Buildings in the background.

Next we went back to the Maritime Museum and took various shots of the anchor and spiral outside it. We were able to capture the new museum and the Liver Buildings through the hole in the anchor, which looked really effective when zoomed out. Then, we finally took shots of the celebrity wall in the Maritime museum."

Chris from the learning team at the National Conservation Centre has been to the top of Liverpool Cathedral (featured in the previous post oddly enough) and taken this snap of the view east-ish, out over the river to the Wirral and the Irish Sea beyond in the haze. You can see a larger version on our Flickr page (I've linked to the large version so you can see the detail but there are other sizes to view as well).

The taller red cranes mark the site of the Grosvenor/Liverpool One development, then to the left and towards the river you can see more red cranes around the emerging Museum of Liverpool. The Liverpool Echo are planning to do a month-by-month video update on the museum's building progress, with the first on the Echo website now.

If you've not been to the top of the cathedral it's well worth going on a nice day, if a bit windy. The view is fabulous. There's a lift part of the way up.

Today we've launched what will hopefully become a regular feature on the site - our 'Name that Object' competition. We'll be revealing a new detail of an object (it's an artwork this time - bit of a clue for you there) every day for a week with the answer at the end. This is today's clue. There's a prize of a miniature Superlambanana to the first person to correctly identify the piece and to email us the answer using the form on the competition page.

If you're as forgetful as me you can always subscribe to the rss feed to get updates, or just click backwards to see previous clues. And as a final hint I'll tell you that the object is somewhere on our website. There, I've said too much already...

It’s been all go at the Walker over the past few days. A herculean effort from our handling team to bring in one of the biggest works the gallery has ever seen, the installation of our very own artist in residence and a swarm of local, regional and international press can mean only one thing: the Ben Johnson residency excitement has begun.

On Friday I was lucky enough to witness our handling team brave the notorious William Brown Street winds and skilfully transport Ben’s huge Liverpool cityscape (it measures a whopping 8 ft by 16 ft) up the steps of the Walker and through the gallery to it’s new home in Room 15. Trust me it’s no mean feat getting something that size through the door - next time I’m struggling with my shopping bags I’ll think back and count myself lucky!

Ben has already spent 3 years working on his masterpiece and you can watch him and his busy team beavering away on the picture for the next 6 weeks. Ben’s arrival has already caused quite a stir, journalists from Bangor to Paris have been along to check out the monumental panorama and chat to the man himself. One of the most exciting things about the piece for me is the inclusion of projects still under construction in the city such as the Paradise Project, canal link and the picture’s eventual home, the Museum of Liverpool.

I’m definitely going to keep popping in to see the progress but if you can’t get to the Walker that often yourself our web team have installed a webcam for your viewing pleasure so you can keep an eye on the action. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the latest adventures of Indiana Jones on the big screen later this year. If you want to see what real archaeologists do though, then you don't have to wait until the summer to find out. Our Field Archaeology Unit are holding open days on 1 and 2 February in Tarbock to showcase the findings of their latest excavation at the site of a new link road between the M62 and M57. The team excavated the site in a project sponsored by the Highways Agency and Laing O'Rourke Infrastructure.

Full details of the open days with pictures of some of the finds are on our website. Ron Cowell, director of this archaeological project, will be there to answer any questions. Here's a bit more information from him about the initial findings:

---

"We have found sites along the line of the road belonging to several periods and visitors will be able to see the background at the open day. We have not long finished the excavations so the finds work is still at an early stage but here are a few preliminary findings of what will be available at the open days.

We found early prehistoric period hunter gatherer camps, some dated to 5000 BC and some possibly a bit later, possibly to 3-4000 BC. There will be some flint tools from the site on display including a Mesolithic flint from 5000 BC and a flake which possibly dates from c4-3000 BC.

We also found the industrial part of the Roman farmstead we excavated in 1993, when the original roundabout was built. That produced stamped tile of the twentieth legion, who were stationed at Chester, so the site was being used to make roofing tile and bricks which were then sent to Chester. The example here is dated to 167-8 AD. We have several of these already in the museum's collection from the previous excavation but we did find a lot of other tiles and bricks this year as well as some Roman pottery, so some of that will be available for viewing.

We found the metalworking area for the farm where they were making iron objects and examples of the iron slag will be available for viewing. We didn't find any metal objects other than two Celtic coins and seven Roman coins. They are being conserved so won't be available at the open days but there will be photos of them and the background to their finding.

We also found a medieval settlement dating from around 1200-1400 AD. There will be examples of the pottery from that site and photos of some medieval metalwork that was found there but is also currently with conservation."

Learning officer Carol White and museum demonstrator Dave Brown have met up with the second group of students taking part in the School Champions project, which is giving local schools the opportunity to get involved in the development of the new Museum of Liverpool. By the look of this photo and Carol's update below, they are going to be quite hard taskmasters during the course of this partnership, expecting great things from the Champions!

More photos from this visit, during which the students found out the truth about the Liver Bird and had a site visit to see the Museum of Liverpool construction, plus the trip earlier this week by St Margaret Mary's School are on the School Champions Flickr slideshow.

Over to Carol:

---

"Sixth form students from Weatherhead High School Media Arts College, Wirral visited the Magical History Tour exhibition for a whistle stop tour of Liverpool's history with Dave Brown. 

The students will be producing a short documentary film about the new Museum of Liverpool during 2008 and will act as our 'School Champions'.  They will follow and report on the progress of the new museum's development.   ................ or else!"

This is the first blog post from one of the roving reporters in our School Champions project. Over the months ahead our learning team at Merseyside Maritime Museum are going to be working with the Champions to get their input into the plans for the new Museum of Liverpool, as part of the community consultation process. 

They have promised to let us know what they get up to, so here's a letter from one of the Champions from St Margaret Mary's School, who came on the first visit:

---

"Thank you for a lovely day out at the museum and the piermasters house. I really enjoyed it. When I found out that we were going to see what the new Museum of Liverpool was going to look like I felt really excited to be part of the School Champions. I looked at the building and thought about what it was finally going to look like.

I really enjoyed helping with the History Detectives timeline and finding out what different things were, such as the 'Great Pyramid of Geeser'. I now know what order of events these things came in!

I was also really intrested in the activity where we had to find out what the different objects were, and I found out what things were that I didn't already know.

One of the best things of the day was sticking a china cup back together with tape (from hundreds of years ago). I really felt like an archaeologist!

I enjoyed going to the seafront to talk about the river Mersey. My favourite part of the day was going to the 'Piermasters House' because we were treated like wartime children. My mum's friend's Grandad was the Piermaster.

Thank you for my lovely day at the Museum.

From Charlotte Osborne, St Margaret Marys"

You can see a Flickr slideshow of photos of the School Champions, which we'll be adding to as the project continues 

You may have noticed some reports in the media recently about the possible discovery of a Viking boat at Meols in the Wirral. There has been considerable interest in the story and our Field Archaeology Unit have had a lot of enquiries about it, so they have put together some helpful information for the website with a summary of the facts that are actually known about the discovery.

So if you have been wondering 'Has a Viking boat really been discovered in Meols?' then you need look no further for the answers you seek. It's also interesting to find out what happens when a possible discovery is made, how archaeologists go about investigating it and why sometimes the best way to protect a site is not to investigate it at all but to preserve it for the future.

If you want to see some actual Viking treasure then don't forget that the Huxley hoard of Viking silver is currently on display in the Magical History Tour exhibition at Meresyside Maritime Museum, before touring to other venues in the area.

Not long now until Ben visits the Walker to finish The Liverpool Cityscape. In the meantime there are a few more progress pics on Flickr - all are named 'Jan 08' and are towards the end of the set. As you can see from this image lots of progress has been made on the Albert Dock area, including the building that holds the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum.

Volunteers do extremely valuable work across National Museums Liverpool. Jeannie has been volunteering for the Museum of Liverpool since September, and is getting hands-on collections experience documenting a diverse range of items kindly bequeathed by the late John Hamilton.

Jeannie became a volunteer to gain experience and an understanding of the museum environment after completing her University degree.

She says 'The wide ranging items keep the work interesting as you never know what you may uncover next; from evacuation labels and blow torches to French comics! Every week there is something different that develops my knowledge and understanding, not only of John Hamilton's personal history but also that of Liverpool'.

While perusing this week's TV listings I noticed that our very own Lion locomotive will be starring this week. Channel 4 is showing The Titfield Thunderbolt at 1.30pm on Thursday 15 November.  I've never seen the movie but apparently it's an Ealing Comedy about villagers taking on the powers that be, who threaten to close down their railway, and the Lion is the star of the show. Plenty of charm and gently humour! I'm told that there's a scene where the villagers get the train down some steps but that a replica was used instead of the real Lion. Sounds like good viewing for a cold afternoon.

On 17 and 18 November Maghull will be celebrating the life and achievements of its most famous resident with the 'Frank Hornby Experience'. It promises to be a weekend of cranes, trains and automobiles, albeit very small ones, with an exhibition of Meccano, Hornby and Dinky toys. All of these were invented by Frank Hornby, the man credited with changing the world of play for children in the twentieth century.

Some items from the Museum of Liverpool's collections will be on display there, including the shop sign shown above which dates from before the Second World War. Curator Sharon Brown, the person behind the Meccano exhibition held at National Museums Liverpool back in 2001, say that the sign is a bit misleading:

"Meccano was mainly marketed at boys but girls loved it too. I had Meccano when I was little and am currently (with a modern set) building a Meccano Ferris Wheel!"

There are seven more Ben Johnson progress photos up on our Flickr page, all taken on 31st October. They include the work just beginning on the Museum of Liverpool, Neptune Developments and the Paradise Street Development. Admittedly none of these developments are actually finished yet but they will be, and so are being included. Ben has been in close contact with city planners and architects throughout the process and is including buildings which will definitely appear on the city skyline, ie have planning permission, detailed architects' plans etc. 

All eyes are going to be on our fair city and visitors - along with some superstars thanks to the MTV Europe awards - from all over the world will be descending next year, but does this make Liverpool a global city? A public forum being held at World Museum Liverpool tomorrow night is going to be looking at Liverpool’s status as a global city and what the term really means.

The discussion is the second in a series of public forums giving you the opportunity to comment on the main themes that will be focused on in the new Museum of Liverpool. If you want to have your say or just listen to a lively discussion headed by our expert panel of history lecturers and curators the event runs from 6-8pm – although if I was you I'd get there a bit early as complimentary refreshments are being served from 5.45pm ...

Places are limited so if you want to come along call 0151 478 4543 to book.
 

Thought this snap of the Museum of Liverpool building site was a nice contrast with Sam's sunrise photo from the other morning. So much going on and really vibrant, contrasting colours. You get a better idea of the progress made.

If you're not familiar with the site you are looking from the Maritime Museum area north west (ish) towards the Pier Head. You can see the graving docks in the foreground, and Wallasey across the river on the Wirral. There's a ferry boat at the landing stage.

Here's the view from this morning's ferry of the Museum of Liverpool construction site. Not the most informative photo I'll admit, but I'm just a sucker for a beautiful sunrise. You can't really tell from this but trust me, lots of progress has been made since I last wandered out on deck with a camera in my hand. You can just make out the top of the formwork in between the two central cranes. After all the years of planning, this really brings home the reality that we'll have a whole new museum before too long.

I would say that I'll keep you updated with pictures of the progress but with the mornings getting darker it could be a while before it's light enough to see what's going on!

Update 26/10/07: I did get a slightly clearer photo this week but if you actually want to see what's happening then have a look at Karen's post of the Museum of Liverpool construction by day.

Yesterday Liz Stewart gave an update on the community dig at Leasowe. Here's a follow up report from Frances McIntosh, the finds liaison officer for the region's Portable Antiquities Scheme, who is based at National Museums Liverpool, when she's not digging up trenches

---

"We’re into our third week now and have so far only had two days of rain, pretty lucky for the North West!! We’ve had 2 open days with hundreds of people coming to see what we’ve been up and to and find out more about the history of the lighthouse and its surrounding areas.

We have two main trenches open by Leasowe Lighthouse which have uncovered the outbuildings from when the lighthouse was occupied and functional. There was no running water in the 18/19th centuries inside the building and so the wash room and toilet were outside. We have also discovered the old stables and pig sty.

All the volunteers have been offered the chance to get a picture of what archaeologists do on a daily basis and have got their hands dirty! We have been finding lots of debris in the outbuilding from the time when they went out of use. We also have lots of glass, most likely from the lean-to tea-shop set up beside the lighthouse. All these finds have kept us busy with the finds processing side of excavation. This involves washing, sorting and bagging all the finds uncovered whilst digging.

During the second week of the excavation West Kirby Metal Detecting Club were invited to take part in a survey of the wider area around Leasowe to see what we could find. Although we did not find any Roman finds, a few of which have been found on Leasowe Common and the beach in previous years, we did get a few interesting objects including a 18/19th century harness decoration and an 1860 silver penny.

Other projects around the area have included lots of test-pitting to try and find further areas for excavation. As many people will know from the finds at Meols we know that the Wirral was not as quiet in the past as previously thought. So far the sandy soil and high water table have been foiling our attempts at opening more trenches but we are hopeful that we will be able to open some more trenches soon. If you see a JCB about with two ladies in yellow jackets it is probably Clare and Helen, archaeologists from the Field Unit."

Over the last couple of weeks our Field Archaeology Unit has been working on a community dig at Leasowe on the Wirral. Here's a report from Dr Liz Stewart, curator of archaeology and the historic environment, on the progress so far.

---

"We are now half way through the community dig and are finding the remains of some buildings which once stood next to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1763. A late eighteenth or nineteenth century stable and coach-house is shown in some early photographs and on old plans but the excavation has revealed more detail about how it was built and used at different times in the past.

There were initially some ideas that the floor of the building was slate, and flat slates were found, but small holes in them suggested they had been used as roof tiles, and then as they were lifted a brick floor started to be revealed underneath.

The brick floors to each of the rooms are now cleaned, and it is clear that they are made from bricks of different sizes, possibly suggesting different dates, the stable against the lighthouse being earlier than the coach-house.

Darkening of areas of the floor and small pieces of coal suggest that the outbuildings were used as a coal store rather than a stable towards then end of their existence. The buildings were demolished in the early twentieth century.

The dig continues until 19 October and the next phase may reveal earlier phases of buildings, or possibly even earlier use of the site."

This may look like an informal coffee break but the people around this table are actually helping to shape the future of our museums. Community consultation co-ordinator Helen Robinson has been holding a series of these meetings to tell people about plans for the new Museum of Liverpool and get them involved with some of the decisions about what will go on display there.

Helen is keen to meet up with community groups from all over Merseyside involved and is planning more consultation meetings for later this year. If you would like to get involved you can send Helen an email or ring her on 0151 478 4003.

There's another opportunity to discuss the plans for the new museum at a free Port City public forum next Wednesday, 3 October, 6-8pm at Merseyside Maritime Museum. The forum aims to address questions such as whether Liverpool is still perceived as a port city and how have the docks shaped the city. With contributions from Dr Adrian Jarvis, Professor WR Lee and Tony Lane from the University of Liverpool and Linda McDermott from BBC Radio Merseyside, this should be an interesting discussion.

As part of the Museum of Liverpool on the Road project the painting, 'Unemployment on Merseyside - Campaigning for the Right to Work' by Mike Jones has recently gone on loan to the People's Centre, Mount Pleasant.

The impressive painting, previously on display at the Museum of Liverpool Life depicts the effects of unemployment and the ways in which Liverpool people have actively campaigned for the right to work. The painting will be on display until 2009.

Over the last few months I've been keeping an eye on the garden at the Piermaster's House, where green fingered attendant Brian Jones grows an incredible range of vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers, as an example of the types of things people might have grown in their own gardens during the war.

When I first visited the garden in May the crops were barely out of the ground, then in June the runner beans had grown about halfway up their poles. It was incredible to see the difference this morning - the runner beans are now taller than Brian! The recent wet weather has really done the garden good, at least there were some benefits to all that rain last month.

Brian's already planning to cook up some of his produce for a meal with his colleagues at the Maritime Museum. There have been glowing reports from people who have tried some of the peas and runner beans already. It's all organically grown, which Brian feels adds to the great taste. He says the salty air at the docks keeps the slugs away naturally, which is a benefit of the exposed city centre site. People are always surprised by the quantity and the huge variety of things that he grows in the tiny garden in such an unusual location. He hopes that he has inspired some visitors to see what they can grow themselves at home.

There are more photos in a Flickr slideshow of the wartime garden that show how it has developed since May, as well as some of the strawberries, peas and other things Brian has grown there.

In December 2005 you may remember that Blackie, the much loved rocking horse from Blackler's Department Store and Alder Hey Children's Hospital, went on display at the Museum of Liverpool Life for the first time after being kindly donated by the hospital.

This image of Blackie been ridden in the children's clothing department shows how much pleasure he brought to generations of Liverpool children.

The following is just one of the happy memories in the comments book from the display. "Blackie was a childhood friend to us kids - to us he was real!" L.F., Old Swan.

Last weekend Sharon Brown, Dave Letsche and Dale Riley, who look after the Museum of Liverpool's land transport collection, donned historical costumes and took the Burrell steam traction engine 'on the road' to Croxteth. Here's Sharon Brown's report from the event - with details of where you can see the Burrell next Saturday.

---

We were at the Croxteth Heritage Sports Day last weekend as a backdrop as it was based around Victorian and Edwardian themed sports - tennis, rugby etc. We talked to people about the engine (built in 1909 - so it's Edwardian rather than Victorian) and about the Museum of Liverpool on the road project. We only took one turn around the park at the end of the afternoon as it was very busy and we didn't want to squash anyone! Everyone was fascinated with the engine and we had lots of positive comments about it - and ourselves in our rather fetching Victorian outfits - children kept wanting their photos taken with us - a novel experience - a bit like being a celebrity I guess!

Next Saturday (16th June)  we will be attending the carnival at Hale Village - another Victorian themed event and are hoping for cooler weather!

As you can see in the photo, Dave Letsche had a surprise under his top hat to keep the kids entertained (or bemused in some cases! - "Why 'ave ya got that rabbit on yer 'ed mate?" Dave's reply -"Its not a rabbit - its me hare!" The old ones are the best!)

When I was down at the Albert Dock yesterday I popped in to see the wartime garden at the Piermaster's House and managed to catch museum attendant Brian Jones at work tending the plants. This week he has planted some strawberries to replace the ones that didn't survive the winter. Other plants in the garden are doing really well already, the rhubarb and cabbages are huge. He reckons the runner beans will have reached the top of the poles supporting them by mid July, so I'll pop back then to have a look.

You can see how well everything is growing in a Flickr slideshow of the garden, which includes old and new photos.

Whilst searching the Museum of Liverpool social history collections for images of Liverpool in the 1960s for the forthcoming exhibition – The Beat Goes On, which explores Liverpool’s popular music from 1945 to the present day (opening at World Museum Liverpool summer 2008), I came across these images taken by Harold Morton, who as a keen amateur photographer took many photographs of the city.

The image of the policeman directing traffic on Lime Street near St Georges Hall shows just how much the city has changed, and what could be more 1960s than the mini? – this image of one being loaded onto the Aer Lingus aeroplane at Speke Airport is great!

 

Archaeologists among you may remember that back in 2004 an impressive hoard of Viking silver was found near Huxley in Cheshire. That silver, now known as the Huxley Hoard, has since been jointly acquired by Chester Grosvenor Museum, Cheshire Museums Service and National Museums Liverpool with Heritage Lottery Funding.

The hoard has gone on public display for the first time this week at the Grosvenor Museum as part of the Viking celebrations in Chester. You can see it there until Tuesday 17 July 2007, then it will come to Liverpool as one of the highlights of the Magical History Tour exhibition, which opens at Merseyside Maritime Museum on 28 July 2007. Look out for further details on the website nearer the time.

Museum of Liverpool curator Kay Docherty has turned roving reporter and celebrity photographer after attending a special event last Friday. It's all in the name of work of course, as she explains.

---

On Friday Yoko Ono was at John Lennon Airport to cut the ribbon for a special ceremony to mark the departure of the first scheduled airline service from Liverpool John Lennon Airport to New York. As you can see from from the Flickr slideshow of photos from the airport, the aircraft on this route have been specially painted with the famous self portrait drawing by John Lennon and the strapline “above us only sky”. The aircraft has also been named 'Across the Universe', following a suggestion by Yoko. This new flight is the first airlink with New York from Liverpool and it took off almost 100 years to the day that the first passenger sea link departed from Liverpool.
 
Many thousands of people have travelled between New York and Liverpool through the many years of maritime trade and emigration between these two great cities.

This Dinky Toy of the Queen Mary in the collections of the Museum of Liverpool, complete with a New York skyline and Statue of Liberty, highlights one of the many strong and historic connections between Liverpool and New York.

The Flickr slideshow of photos from Friday also includes an image of Harry Goodwin, photographer for Top of the Pops 1964 to 1973, next to one of his famous photographs of John Lennon which he took only a few weeks before John was killed in 1980. Harry's new exhibition 'Legends' was also unveiled at Liverpool John Lennon Airport on the same day. The exhibition features many stars from the world of pop, showbiz and sports including Jimi Hendrix, George Best and Muhammed Ali.
 
As part of the Museum of Liverpool on the Road project, passengers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport will soon be able to see a Bayko model of Speke Airport from our collections on display - watch this space for further details.

For Museums and Galleries Month 2007 we've been asking which people from the past related to our collections you would like to meet and talk to. Our internal communications officer Karen Young has this cracking suggestion. If you would like to suggest anyone else you can email me using the link at the end of this post. Don't be shy - your idea could be the next one featured here!

---

National Museums Liverpool is lucky enough to have acquired many unique Beatles objects, including the original stage on which John Lennon’s skiffle band, the Quarrymen, played in 1957. 

It is this stage that I would like to re-build and bring a legendary scene back to life - when John met Paul.  On 6 July 1957, The Quarrymen played at an annual garden festival at St Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool. During their concert, one of the audience members was a young man named Paul McCartney, who was there with a mutual friend of John's.  Paul was introduced to the members of the band backstage and picked up a guitar and began to play one of Lennon's favourites, 'Twenty Flight Rock'. John was very impressed by Paul and a friendship began which led to him joining the band soon after. The Quarrymen, of course, went on to become the Beatles.

For me this stage symbolises the true birth of the greatest band of all time, even before the Cavern and the Beatlemania that gripped the world.  As a massive John Lennon fan I admire his changing musical style through the years and to see him on stage at such a young age, would be amazing.  Bringing this scene back to life would mean I could witness one of the defining moments in rock and roll.  It is without doubt one of the events when you could proudly say "I was there"!

The Museum of Liverpool, opening in 2010, will uncover the unique and creative character of Liverpool exploring why the city has produced such an amazing roll call of writers, performers, comedians and sportsmen. The planned Creative City gallery will include this original stage and I can’t wait to see it on display!

We've already brought you news on the archaeological dig at the former Manchester Dock. However, did you know about a much smaller dig at the Piermaster's House, nearby in the Albert Dock?

Museum staff planted a vegetable garden at the front of the Piermaster's House a few years ago, to complement the wartime theme of the displays inside. The garden shows the sorts of vegetables that people would have grown themselves to ensure a healthy diet when food was scarce during the Second World War and during the years afterwards, when strict rationing was still in place.

The garden is still maintained by green fingered museum attendant Brian Jones, with help from some ladybirds on pest control duty. Despite difficult conditions in the exposed location with salty air blown in from the mouth of the river, he has produced a bumper crop each year. Last year there was enough to cook a large pan of scouse for the attendants at the end of the summer.

Brian showed me how this year's plants were doing this morning. I was surprised at just how much was growing in such a small space, including rhubarb, tomatoes, strawberries, parsley, potatoes, carrots, onions, runner beans, lettuce, peas, some rather large leeks, plus a bed of herbs. You can see more photos of the garden in a Flickr slideshow.

If you are a keen local gardener and would be interested in helping out as a volunteer at the Piermaster's House garden, we would like to hear from you. Email the Museum of Liverpool team (who look after the Piermaster's House) for further information.

There are also some handy hints on creating a wildlife friendly garden from the experts at World Museum Liverpool's Bug House.

Marketing Assistant Enes updates us from "On the Road"

---

The latest addition to Museum of Liverpool - On the Road  was launched this morning at the Radisson SAS hotel. The child-sized post box was specially made for the children at Fazakerley Children’s Home to post their letters and cards.

National Museums Liverpool curator Kay Docherty, hotel general manager Geir Tonnessen, and local lad Ben appeared for regional press who attended the presentation.

Update 14.05.07: Sorry, we originally spelt Mr Tonnessen's name wrong.

The themes for Museums and Galleries Month this May are 'People: Who Are We?' and 'Night of the Museum'. To combine the two, the organisers are asking for nominations of a person, featured in a UK museum or gallery, who you would bring back to life as in the 'Night at the Museum' film.

Kay Docherty, assistant curator at the Museum of Liverpool has two great suggestions, the regal Statue of Liverpool that once graced the roof of the Walker and Leasowe Man, the oldest surviving skelton from Merseyside, who was conserved at the National Conservation Centre for our former exhibition Living with the Romans.

"I would love to see the huge Allegorical Statue of Liverpool, at the National Conservation Centre, which was on top of the Walker Art Gallery from 1877 until 1993, come to life. I'd ask her about the many Liverpool events she must have witnessed from high up on the roof and what she thinks of Liverpool today? Also does she like her new home and what does she think of the copy of herself now on the roof.
 
For Leasowe Man I'd ask him what life was like in Merseyside at the time of the Romans, what his name was and what it was like to live in a Romano British round house. From analysing his skeleton archaeologists believe that he was muscular and was used to heavy labour - I'd ask him what he did."

Today was a significant date in the story of the Museum of Liverpool. After years of planning, followed by the excavation of the site by our field archaeology unit, work has finally started on site to build the new museum.

The occasion was officially marked with a groundcutting ceremony with our chairman Loyd Grossman. If you can't wait until 2010 to see the finished building, you can find out what it will look like on our capital projects pages.

A few more progress snaps from the Ben Johnson project are now on our Flickr page (the last five are the most recent), including both Goodison Park and Anfield stadia (those who know me will admire my restraint there).

Should point out that these images are optimised for web use, and that the originals show really, really fine detail. You definitely need to see the original or hi-res pics to appreciate it fully.

I'm not a gambler but even I've been known to splash out a 50p each way bet at the Grand National occasionally, using the very scientific method of choosing the horse with the nicest name.

When the former Museum of Liverpool Life was open, a popular exhibit was the recreation of Becher's Brook in the in the Sporting Life section of the Mersey Culture gallery. Looking up at the height of that fence really brought home just what an achievement it was to make it safely over once, let alone twice to complete the race.

Did you know that Becher's Brook got its name at the very first meeting in 1839. Captain Becher was a champion cross-country jockey, but his horse Conrad fell at the first brook. Becher re-mounted and continued the race, only to fall at the second brook! He never rode in the race again, but his name lives on.

Curator Kay Docherty has found this Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport poster in the museum's collections, advertising special tram and bus services to Aintree for the Grand National sixty years ago, on Saturday 29th March 1947.

You can also read a personal account of the 1993 Grand National, famous as the race that never was, from my fellow blogger Stephen Guy, who was one of the journalists covering events at the time. His account is part of the Sport online exhibition. Fingers crossed, things will go more smoothly this year. I might even win something.

Mark Adams from the archaeology team with an update on activity at the Manchester Dock site. Photos from the dig are still on our Flickr page. If you've missed any of the excavation posts follow the 'museum of liverpool' link at the foot of this post.

---

After a lull of about three weeks whilst we recorded the dock structures exposed in the first phase of the dig, excavation has begun for the new museum foundations. This is being undertaken as a 'Watching Brief' which entails the Museum's archaeologists monitoring the excavation of the site by machine. The site is being excavated in this way because test-pits and boreholes taken earlier in the project showed that the quaysides were constructed over dumps of sands, gravels and rubble dumped into the Mersey to form this part of the docks. The vast majority of this material is of little or no archaeological interest, most is probably dredgings taken from the river, and hand digging of this material is not realistically feasible or productive. However, it does contain pockets of very interesting deposits. So far we have found more sugar moulds (below) similar to those found earlier in the excavation, including one which although broken may be complete, and another with a complete makers stamp for W. Ashcroft of Prescott.

Several dumps of broken pottery have been found, some containing thousands of pieces. Most of this appears to be from the Herculaneum Pottery which was an important Liverpool pottery working for 44 years from 1796. There also appears to be pottery from Staffordshire, possibly because of Manchester Dock's connection with the Shropshire Union Canal. Others may be imports from China, but we need to send these to a specialist to be sure of this. In addition to the pottery dumps of clay tobacco pipe have also been found. This will require examination by a specialist in tobacco pipes, but appears to contain material relating to manufacture of the pipes.

Material like this is of great value to archaeologists and historians, because we know this section of the dock was constructed between 1803-1813 we can give a very accurate date to the things which are found. The results of this work can then be fed into other excavations, hence providing valuable dating evidence.

In the past couple of days we have exposed a section of the waterfront pre-dating the addition of lock gates to Manchester Dock in 1803-1813. We know from maps and other documents that the wall was built in about 1785. Unfortunately very little of it seems to have survived, most having being destroyed by the early 19th century builders.

The Easter holidays start this weekend, and as you'd expect, we've got lots of free activities at our venues to keep the kids entertained while they're off school.

In the spirit of the season, the National Conservation Centre are holding five Easter craft afternoons from Wed 4 April, which include card making and egg painting. You could also take part in an Easter rummage at the Customs and Excise Museum over the next 3 Sundays. Please check the What's On listings for the times of each session.

It's a busy time so if you are travelling into town, this poster from the Museum of Liverpool collections has some good advice, which still rings true sixty years after it was printed. The poster is number 13 in a series produced by Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport in the late 1940s, aimed at passengers to help reduce queues and peak time travel for workers.

Just added another batch of photos to our Manchester Dock photoset on Flickr. Some pretty nice snaps there including this one taken low down in Manchester Dock.

The statue of local rock legend Billy Fury, which many people will remember from the courtyard of the old Museum of Liverpool Life, was moved today to a prominent location outside the Piermaster’s House on the Albert Dock.

 

Rock stars like to make an entrance, so it was quite fitting that the statue turned lots of heads when it swooped into its new location today. I just hope none of the spectators wanted an encore, this would be quite hard to beat!

We haven't heard from the field archaeology unit for a while, which usually means that they are way too busy uncovering interesting finds out on site to make it near a computer. Here's the latest news from Rob Philpott:

The excavation on the site of Manchester Dock has continued for several weeks and we have made good progress in revealing the walls of the dock. The dock had been filled in with crushed sandstone excavated from the first Mersey Tunnel so it could be safely removed by mechanical excavator to a depth of about 4 metres.

Several details of the dock construction were also revealed. Variations in the quality and finish of the sandstone masonry may relate to different phases of the dock construction, in particular the creation of a narrow entrance and locks to convert the original open tidal basin into a wet dock. The stonework still bears the groove marks worn by the ropes. Masons’ marks – mostly in the form of an initial letter – are visible on many of the stone blocks. Other features include the rollers set within fine arched chambers which held ropes to open and close the dock gates.

The dock gates and a wooden tidal gauge have been exposed and recorded in detail. The dock walls have so far partially been recorded by three-dimensional laser scanning which creates a detailed computer model of the walls.

Near the dock the excavation has exposed the foundations of a series of brick sheds along the quay as well as extensive cobbled yards and road surfaces. Two small square pits, lined with plaster, may have been tanks to hold water for the hydraulic systems or steam engines in the dock area. A brick engine house has been identified and the settings for cranes and other machinery.

One interesting find has been a dump of broken sugar moulds. These provide a direct link to two of the major industries of Liverpool: pottery manufacture and sugar refining. These pottery vessels, made in a smooth red earthenware, were probably made in Liverpool by one of the numerous potteries in the town. In shape they are a rounded cone with a small hole at the narrow end. They were used to refine sugar imported from the Caribbean and elsewhere. The mouth of the sugar cone was set over a pottery jar to collect the molasses that slowly drained out of the sugar during refining.

We have a good idea of their date as they were dumped in the land-fill which was deposited to reclaim this part of the Mersey in the period 1796-1801. At that date, the sugar was processed from the products of plantations which were worked by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and elsewhere.

This Sunday (4th March) staff from our field archaeology team, who are currently digging up Manchester Dock, will be on Channel Four's Time Team, digging at a site in Warburton in Cheshire. That's at 5.45pm, with information on the dig site, finds etc on the programme website later.

The Lion railway locomotive, one of the most popular objects from our land transport collection, returned to Liverpool yesterday after being on long term loan to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

Lion became a bit of a celebrity in 1952 when she appeared in the popular film the Titfield Thunderbolt. More than half a century later it's good to see that she's lost none of her appeal and is still making headlines - you can see her returning home on the back of a lorry on the BBC news website.

Unlike some celebrities (I wont be as indiscreet as to name names), Lion hasn't had to resort to major surgery to keep her good looks and combat the advancing years. However, after decades in the spotlight the locomotive needs a bit of a rest and some TLC before facing the public again. So Lion is going to be treated by our conservators before she goes back on display as one of the key exhibits in the new Museum of Liverpool when that opens in 2010.

This morning I went on a special staff tour of the Manchester Dock dig site, led by project officer Mark Adams from the field archaeology unit. That's him on the right of the photo - the one with the high visibility jacket and hard hat!

You can get a rough idea of the site layout in this aerial photo. Since that was taken the team have been digging down to reveal a number of key features from around the old dockside, including machinery and the hydraulic system that moved the dock gates.

The internal dock gates at Manchester Dock have now been uncovered and Mark pointed out a number of masons' marks on the dock walls around them.

It's not just the structure of the dock itself that is of interest to the archaeologists, as the material that was used to backfill it is also part of the story of the site. Much of the Manchester Dock was filled with sandstone from the excavation of the Mersey tunnels. A number of sugar moulds have also been found in the fill material. While we were there, archaeologists Sarah Pevely and Helen Jones (in the hole at the front of the photo) uncovered some more.

By the way, in case you were wondering, there was no machinery operating on site today, which is why people were allowed in without safety jackets and hats.

The start of the Chinese Year of the Pig was celebrated in style across the city yesterday, and there are more cultural events planned at our venues next weekend - check out the Merseyside Maritime Museum What's On page for more details.

Somehow I doubt that any of the celebrations looked quite like the party in this photograph of a pig marionette playing musical instruments with his wolf and cat friends!

Museum of Liverpool curator Kay Docherty tells me that the marionettes were part of the Wolohan Marionette Theatre. The family run theatre, originally operated by John and Margaret Wolohan from the 1920s, did many performances in Liverpool and the surrounding area for enraptured children and adults.
 
John Wolohan was a musician in the Philharmonic Orchestra and wrote and composed all of the music for the shows himself whilst the marionette costumes were handmade by Margaret. The family moved to the USA for a few years and continued their shows there.
 
Denis Wolohan, John and Margaret's son and his wife Pat assisted with the shows and later took over the running of the theatre in the 1960s, continuing to entertain children up until their recent retirement.
 
Denis and Pat very kindly donated a selection of their marionettes, photographs, props and stage backdrops to the collections of the Museum of Liverpool in 2005.

Accession number for this photograph: MLL.2005.37.29

Last week Beatles fans rejoiced when the decades-long battle of the Apples was resolved, meaning that their music could soon be available to download. Now that downloads are included in the singles charts it has been predicted that the top ten could be dominated by the fab four.
 
However it's not just the music charts that they are ruling online. Last week we launched some new Valentine e-cards and one of the most popular so far is the 'All You Need Is Love' bedspread, featuring Yellow Submarine characters, that was used in John and Yoko's bed-in for peace in Montreal. See every stitch of this colourful creation, handmade by the local Montreal Hare Krishna Chapter, with our bedspread zoomify feature.
 
Don't forget, our Valentine e-cards are there for you if you missed the post or if you just want to express your affection without actually parting with any cash (and lets face it, we're all still a bit broke after Christmas, so nobody's going to judge you for that, I hope).

If you haven't been in outer space you've probably noticed that Valentine's Day is fast approaching. Wherever you turn in the shops you see hearts, cupids, chocolates and completely pointless fluffy pink things that men everywhere will buy in a panic minutes before closing time on 13 February.

Being a big soppy romantic myself (well maybe not, but I have my moments) I thought it'd be nice to gather together the most loved-up objects from our collections for a romantic online exhibition. So I asked the curators for ideas and what did they suggest? An obscene novel, a tale of bigamy, a pair of boots a painting of a tiff and nasty disease carrying bugs responsible for killing and maiming people in Central America, amongst other things. Hmmm. This could take years of therapy to sort out.

I guess it's good to cater for the hardened cynics at this time of year, as their needs are so often neglected. Fret not though, we've also got some proper romance, including An Idyll, the painting that visualised the word passion, according to the author DH Lawrence.

An improved range of Valentine e-cards has also been launched on the website today, including John and Yoko's 'All You Need Is Love' bedspread from their Montreal bed-in for peace, as a treat for Beatles fans out there. And don't forget, if you're stuck for an original present there's still time to adopt an ant for your Val-ant-ine.

Museum archaeologists excavating Manchester Dock have been pleased to find the inner walls of the lock gate are in very good condition. Many of the stones not only feature the original chisel marks but also the identifying marks of the individual masons. Stonemasons would mark the stones they had dressed so their daily output could be accurately tallied and they would be paid accordingly.

Some are simple shapes (like the triangle one featured on our Flickr page). Others are a mix of letters and numbers like this example.

In yesterday's dig post we showed you the outline of Manchester Dock with its two sets of docks gates. Well yesterday archaeologists set to work uncovering those original gates which are still in situ. Most of the timbers survive, some of which are up to 0.3metres thick and hardwood, probably Greenheart (a very hardwood often used in dock construction).

More images from yesterday, including the depth marker from the dock, can be found on our Flickr page.

It's been a bit windy lately so the going has been a tad rough down at the dock. For the past two weeks archaeologists have been working hard to remove the tarmac which once covered the car park at Mann Island on the waterfront (that's the River Mersey at the top right of the image). A 62 metre high mobile access platform was then brought in to give a unique bird's eye view of the dock and its associated yards and structures. The photographs (which include this one) will be used to produce a detailed plan/drawing of the area using computer software.

From left to right this image shows:
* Manchester Dock is the large brown structure on the left. 'A' indicates the position of the two sets of lock gates.
* On either side of the dock you can see a pair of holes in the ground (marked 'B'). These are the sites of the operating mechanisms for the inner set of lock gates.
* Moving right across the site 'C' indicates the foundations of Shed 1
* 'D' shows a cobbled yard surface
* 'E' indicates the foundation of Shed 2
* On the far right, currently beneath a pile of earth, is 'F', Chester Basin.

More photographs are available on our Flickr page, and if you STILL don't know what this project is all about check out our main site.

Coming in on the ferry this morning, I couldn't help wondering what the Liverpool skyline would look like if Lutyens' Cathedral that never was had actually been built. It's hard to imagine something that big towering over everything around it.

The new Museum of Liverpool is another significant building that at the moment only exists as a model. However, it took a step closer to becoming a reality yesterday, when the HLF announced that a major grant has been earmarked to support the fit-out of the new museum. Read more about HLF announcement in our newsroom.

A subterranean Liverpool landmark celebrates its 50th anniversary today. Since 1957 generations of clubbers have trailed down the stairs for a night out at the Cavern. I myself spent many happy hours on its dancefloor as a student (as well as several not so happy hours in the seemingly neverending queue for the ladies).

The Cavern is of course most famous as the venue to see a certain local band at the start of their career in the 1960s. The  Beatles played at the Cavern on at least 292 occasions, their first recorded appearance being 9 February 1961, and their final one on 3 August 1963.

Among recent additions to the collections of the Museum of Liverpool is the Cavern membership card from 1964 pictured above, which belonged to John Marsh of Huyton. You can't see this card on display yet, but fans can enjoy a lot of the museum's other Beatles memorabilia in our Beatles online exhibition, or just have fun with the Beatles games.

A mystery that has intrigued many local historians is the exact location of the original Cavern club, which was filled in when the venue closed in 1973. The reincarnated Cavern was rebuilt using the original bricks in a different part of Mathew Street in the 1980s. I'm not sure how helpful this is, but another membership card from the museum's collection has these directions inside. Frustratingly, I don't think the map is drawn to scale though.

Realise I told you last week that the dig was starting on 4th January but there was a bit of a delay, so today is officially day 4 and already we can see something. Archaeologist, Mark Adams, fills us in (as opposed to excavating the dock...never mind)

"Removal of the tarmac to expose archaeological deposits has continued this week despite frequent bouts of heavy rain and strong winds. Much of the upper surface of the entrance lock has now been exposed and some of the iron fittings for the lock gates are also visible. Work on revealing the surrounding quaysides is now in progress and has already found structures such as bases for cranes and basements belonging to dock buildings."

You can see another photo from today, plus other dig photos, on our Flickr page.
Information on the Museum of Liverpool project is on our main site.

Karen introduced our head of archaeology Rob Philpott on the blog last week in a post about the excavation of the site for the new Museum of Liverpool. Today was the first official day of the dig, so I donned a hard hat and high visibility jacket to visit Rob and his team in action on the site.

Although relatively little of the tarmac covering the site has been removed so far, the team have already found the entrance to the original Manchester Dock. While I was there volunteer Anis Price uncovered the metal from the top of the dock gates, which she is pointing out to Rob in the photograph above. Some original cobblestones had also been exposed and we were starting to see the base of settings for cranes and other dock machinery.

As the dig progresses the team will be digging up the infill from behind the dock wall that dates back to the 1780s when the Manchester Dock was created, so could unearth ceramics or other interesting finds from the time. Rob will be keeping the blog posted about any discoveries and news.

You can see a Flickr slideshow of photos from the first day here.

Note from Karen: introducing Rob Philpott, head of archaeology at National Museums Liverpool. He'll be providing regular updates on progress at the dig which is about to begin at the waterfront. If all this is totally new to you and you've no idea what is happening at the dock you can read-up on the main site.

---

Tomorrow archaeologists from NML's Field Archaeology Unit are starting work on the site of the new Museum of Liverpool. The new museum will be built on the Liverpool waterfront on an area of land which was reclaimed from the estuary in the late 18th century to construct some of Liverpool's vast sequence of docks. We will be working in advance of construction to ensure that the remains of the two docks affected by the scheme, Manchester Dock and Chester Basin, are fully recorded. As the top of the docks lie close to the surface, we will first be removing the tarmac surface to expose the dock walls and quaysides. These will be mapped and photographed and a detailed plan made.

There will be an update next week, plus details of finds as we uncover them.

Rob Philpott.

Have I mentioned that Christmas is coming? Only about ten times over the last few weeks. If you still have Christmas shopping to do then you could pick up some traditional gifts at the Croxteth Hall market on Sunday 17 December, which promises lots of festive stalls in the spirit of Christmas past. 

A special guest at the market this Sunday will be the Burrell steam traction engine from our popular land transport collection, which is visiting as part of the Museum of Liverpool on the road project. It's only there for the day, so you'd better steam over there if you don't want to miss it.

It's cold outside, so the latest online exhibition to grace the National Museums Liverpool website is on the theme of winter weather.

As always the online exhibition draws on items from different venues, many of which are not usually on public display. This time we've got exhibits and animals from some of the coldest places on the planet, plants traditionally associated with Christmas and the perfect teapots to make a warming cuppa on a cold day, to name just a few.

So if you've ever wondered exactly how Inuit women keep warm in temperatures of -40°C, what frankincense and myrrh actually look like, or what type of bird would make a good novelty tureen to serve a nice warming stew out of - and I'm sure that last question in particular has kept many people awake at night - then we have the answers you seek. 

More photos of the progress being made on our Ben Johnson commission (details here if you've forgotten what it is exactly). This pic shows part of the south east facing view (I think). If you know Liverpool you will probably recognise the edge of the Catholic cathedral on the right hand edge, the red brick clock tower at the University of Liverpool and other uni buildings, the Littlewoods building on Edge Lane and Brownlow Hill running up the centre of the picture.

There are more photos on our Flickr site including an updated version of the section Ben was working on in the last post on this project.

It will be all go on Liverpool's waterfront over the next few years with lots of exciting new developments planned, including a new canal and of course the fantastic new Museum of Liverpool.

All these changes can be a bit hard to get your head round, so Liverpool Vision have put some very useful information, images and audio visual presentations together in a small display that is now open at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Highlights include a flythrough video display of the Museum of Liverpool and a model of the new proposals around the Mann Island area of the waterfront. While you are there you can get a panoramic view of the site of the new developments from the window of the museum.

You can see the display on the 2nd floor of the Maritime Museum until 21 December 2006.

After all the excitement of an evening out with Yoko Ono and Loyd Grossman at the official launch of plans for the Museum of Liverpool, we didn't have the heart to put our Liver Bird back into storage again. So the sculpture has gone on display in the National Conservation Centre as part of the Museum of Liverpool 'on the road' project.

'On the road' is a scheme which displays some of the iconic objects from the Museum of Liverpool's fantastic collections in unexpected locations around Liverpool City Cente.

The Liver Bird is the third item to go on the road and more are planned, so keep an eye on the 'On the road' webpages for updates.

Last night saw the official launch of plans for the Museum of Liverpool (Sam mentioned it yesterday when she saw the Liver Bird being manoeuvred into place). This special event at Liverpool Town Hall was attended by a whole host of special guests (not me, obviously) among whom was Yoko Ono, pictured here arriving with our chairman, Loyd Grossman.

You can read more about the launch on the Liverpool Echo website.

It can't be much of a life being a museum exhibit. True, you do get lots of people from all over the world coming to visit you during the day, but then you're stuck in your glass case all evening and never get to go to any parties.

One lucky exhibit has been granted a night out on the town this evening though as the guest of honour at a special event. This stone Liver Bird, which used to be on display at the former Museum of Liverpool Life, was moved to Liverpool's Town Hall this morning. This evening it will greet guests to the launch event announcing the plans for the new Museum of Liverpool.

The Liver Bird is shown being wheeled into the Town Hall. You can see a slideshow with more pictures of our technical services staff installing it on our flickr page.

This evening's event is for invited guests only. If you don't have a ticket but would like to see the Liver Bird, it will be going on display to the public later this week as part of the Museum of Liverpool 'on the road' project, so keep an eye on the website for details.

Brian Patten, poet and performer, has done a turn in a lot of different venues but I bet a hairdressers hasn't been one of them.  Yesterday his head (well, a plaster cast of it anyway) was installed at Andrew Collinge Hair and Beauty in Castle Street, Liverpool city centre.

It is on display there as part of the On The Road tour. Iconic pieces like this, which will feature in the forthcoming Museum of Liverpool, are being featured in some rather unexpected venues across the city centre.  Check our main site for further details.

The second object to go on display in the On the Road tour was put into place this morning. The Rushton Velocipede Bicycle went to its temporary home at the Radisson SAS Hotel on Old Hall Street in Liverpool city centre.

The Velocipede (which I keep wanting to call a velociraptor) was made in Liverpool in about 1870. These bicycles were commonly named Boneshakers in Britain due to the poor quality of the roads at that time, and the impact this had on their iron tyred wheels.

Another sneak preview, this one from the Walker. You might have seen that Ben Johnson has been commissioned to create a panorama of Liverpool; a highly detailed, painted cityscape. This 8ft by 16ft 'Portrait of Liverpool' will be made up of thousands of separate miniatures of buildings, roads and monuments, all showing the tiniest detail. This latest progress picture (above) shows Ben working on St John's Beacon/Radio City tower in the city centre. The image below, which was taken in July this year, shows how all the separate entities fit together.

The finished piece will be on display in the Walker for much of 2008 before moving to the Museum of Liverpool on a permanent basis.

Carrying on the Museum of Liverpool subject, part of the new museum will look at the figures who have helped shape Liverpool. One of the people who will probably feature is Josephine Butler who, in case you don't know, was a social reformer and political campaigner who worked against slavery and child prostitution, for women’s rights and for higher education for women. 

The Women's Library in London has just opened an exhibition on prostitution which features Jospheine Butler, and this Guardian article tells you more about this remarkable and relatively unsung woman.

A new feature on the Museum of Liverpool website is the Land transport collection top ten, with a variety of vehicles from across the ages. Most of this popular collection is currently either in storage or on loan to other museums. However, it is hoped that we will be able to put some on display in the new Museum of Liverpool when that opens in 2010.

In the meantime you can see the AER motorcycle in the Reveal display at the National Conservation Centre (look up when you go in) and the famous Lion railway locomotive at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

Liverpool's waterfront is due to be transformed over the next few years with the construction of the new Museum of Liverpool.

In preparation a few small but significant changes have already taken place. Yesterday the Lusitania propeller and two buoys were carefully moved along the quayside to a new position, at a safe distance from the planned construction works.

The move, overseen by the Maritime Museum's Shipkeeping, Industrial and Land Transport team, went very smoothly. Ian Murphy, curator of port history, was there to capture the move in these photos. 

This weekend thousands of Beatles fans will make a pilgrimage to Liverpool for the International Beatles Week and Mathew Street Festival. Some may find their way to the Walker Art Gallery to see Stuart Sutcliffe's Hamburg Painting No 2.  

You might not know this but there are lots of other Beatles related objects in National Museums Liverpool's collections, which are not currently on display at any of our venues. So for the first time the highlights, including items from the collections of the Customs and Excise Museum and the Museum of Liverpool, have been brought together for an online Beatles exhibition.

To get yourself in the mood for the 'Fab Four' festivities this weekend you can also try our Beatles Games and find out which Beatle you are. In case you were wondering, I'm George.