National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, February 19, 2007

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.

Some Sundays, even living within ten minutes of your intended destination doesn't get you there for midday, especially if there's going to be loads of firecrackers and banging drums. Yesterday I wanted to photograph the Chinese New Year celebrations on Berry Street but didn't quite make it in time. Thanks to Lizinha, Pete Carr, Peter, Indigo Goat, Spectral Shift and ijob, I don't feel that I missed out.

Tim Brunsden at Liverpool Stories produced an excellent video of the events, while Art in Liverpool blogged about them.

This Thursday the Independent will be giving away a colour poster of Poussin's 'Landscape with the ashes of Phocion' as part of their British Art Treasures series. One free in each copy of the paper.

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

We spent last Friday trying to kick some life into our 'Figures of 08' project. We put the project live in December but didn't have the time to give it a proper publicity push. Marc wrote about 'Figures of 08' previously, it's a capital of culture themed project that asks you to send us photographs of unintentional '08's that you come across. There's a slideshow and a google map of the photographs submitted so far.

Discussing how to kickstart our project, Marc showed me a trailer for the new Jim Carrey film 'The Number 23' on Friday. The film seems to be about a man who sees negative patterns in his life that always point to the number 23. I spent a pretty fruitless afternoon on Saturday looking for new '08's, it was annoying to walk out of the Maritime Museum and be confronted with what I now presume to be our nemesis number adorning the side of the pilot boat docked alongside.

This was a story which I, Stephen Guy, worked on as a young journalist.

In 1971 divers from a sub aqua club discovered by chance a remarkable wreck near the Skerries, a treacherous group of rocks off the north coast of Anglesey. Scattered over the seabed was all that remained of a ship that once carried the highest in the land – Britain’s first Royal Yacht, the Mary.

She was presented to Charles II by his allies the Dutch in 1660, the year he came to the throne. Britain had been in the grip of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell since 1649. With the return of the monarchy, popular Charles and the people wanted to party. Bright colours replaced the drab hues that had dominated the Commonwealth world.

The Mary reflected the mood of the age. Her cabins were decorated with gold leaf. Her furniture was made from the finest leather and her figurehead was a unicorn. Charles used her for racing and later she was given to the Royal Navy to transport the great and the good. Not only was the Mary the first yacht outside Holland but she was the ancestress of the thousands of racing yachts and sailing dinghies sailing around Britain today.

Disaster struck in 1675 when she was wrecked on the Skerries, a notorious graveyard for ships. A total of 39 passengers and crew survived – 35 died, including the Earl of Meath. Survivors huddled two days on the rocks before being rescued.

Merseyside Maritime Museum supervised the salvage of items from this important wreck. A gold signet ring with an unidentified coat of arms was worn on the finger of a noble victim who perished in the cruel seas. A silver sword guard is all that is left of a deadly weapon once wielded with great skill. A large pewter plate with the crest of Charles II may have been used by the captain, William Burslow, who died trying to save Lord Meath. The pewter chamber pot was used by the upper classes – the common sailors relieved themselves over the side. A silver porringer bowl for drinking hot, spiced beverages is also in the collection with other silver items such as coins, a spoon and an ornate lion’s head which once graced the handle of a walking cane.

There's more on The Mary, and this model in particular, on our main site.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

One of our best loved pieces has returned home after a long holiday. Henry VIII abdicated his throne at the Walker Art Gallery last September to form part of the Hans Holbein exhibition at Tate Britain. The exhibition was a royal success but we are delighted to announce - after a quick appointment with our experts at the National Conservation Centre, you know how sand gets everywhere after a long break  -  the King has now re-entered the building.    

This man probably knows more about the historic houses in the area than the people living in them do. Many people will remember Joseph Sharples from his time as a curator at the Walker Art Gallery during the 1990s. Since leaving he has been involved in several architectural research projects, including rewriting the Pevsner guide to Liverpool. While he was working on this I occasionally spotted him standing in the street looking up at buildings, which he always claimed was critical research.

Most recently Joseph has been the guest curator for the Merchant Palaces exhibition, which opens today at the Lady Lever Art Gallery. The exhibition features photographs of local Victorian and Edwardian mansions from the Bedford Lemere Collection at the National Monuments Record, the public archive of English Heritage. At the opening yesterday evening Joseph described how he had to wear thermals and fingerless gloves while examining the negatives in the collection, which are refridgerated in order to preserve them.

His painstaking research has resulted in a fascinating exhibition of incredible photographs, beautifully capturing a lost era of grandeur and opulence.

Just heard that former John Moores prize winner, Michael Tyzack, died at the weekend. Michael won the prize in 1965 with his abstract piece, Alesso B (shown). The win put him into the limelight and led to him being invited to Charleston in 1976 to set up a studio art department at the city's college.  More details on Tyzack and his work can be found on the Charleston Post & Courier site.

Judging by the millions of kids streaming in and out of World Museum Liverpool, the latest exhibition, Animated Adventures, is doing ridiculously well (Ian Jackson at the Art In Liverpool blog seemed to enjoy it as well). I've not been yet - promised my 40-something boyfriend I wouldn't go without him.

Fans of Aardman Animations, who's 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit' features heavily in the exhibition, will be chuffed to hear that Wallace & Gromit star, Shaun the Sheep, is getting his own TV series. Some pretty fab pics of the production can be found on the Guardian's site.

I'm used to see various ships and ferries coming and going on the Mersey, but every so often you have a close encounter with a vessel so huge that you feel quite insignificant in comparison. This morning the enormous Chinese ship Le Cong was being carefully manouevred into the Birkenhead docks with help from three tugs, which was quite a sight from our little ferry. I had a quick look for Le Cong online and found it on this handy website of photos of Ships of the Mersey, which includes many other ships I've seen over the years. There's even some pictures of our very own Edmund Gardner pilot boat.

While enormous container ships like Le Cong are an impressive sight when they tower over everything around them on the Mersey, it's easy to forget just how vulnerable even they can be when out on open water. The year before last the Merseyside Maritime Museum opened a small display to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sinking of largest British registered ship ever lost ast sea, MV Derbyshire. You can read the story of the Derbyshire Family Association's fight for justice and how they continue to fight for safety at sea in our MV Derbyshire feature.

The awards season is upon us, so in honour of the Baftas and the Grammys and in anticipation of the Oscars and the Brits (anyone else think Russell Brand, alcohol and live TV spells a pre-watershed disaster worse than Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood?) I couldn’t resist awarding gongs to my favourite pieces from our collections. 

First up Best Newcomer and it was a photo-finish between Reveal at the National Conservation Centre and the brand new Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Musuem. For me Reveal just edges it in this tightly contested category, where else can you see dirt-busting lasers and look under a mummy’s bandages? 

Best Actor in a leading role goes to David Garrick as Richard III by William Hogarth. David’s in such high demand that he’s currently away from the Walker Art Gallery starring in Tate Britain’s blockbuster Hogarth exhibition running until 29 April, definitely worth checking out if you’re in the big smoke.

Personally I think there could only be one winner of Best Animated Short, Crackers the crab. This vivacious yet vertically challenged inhabitant of the Shipwrecked exhibition, voiced by Ricky Tomlinson, beat off strong competition from Big Arts Little Artists to claw his way to the top of the pile.  

Forget Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns, our Planetarium which scoops the award for special effects, is nothing short of spectacular. My personal favourite show is the Sunshine Show to which I’d also like to award Best Soundtrack.

Sitting resplendant at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, hair with more volume than a gaggle of teenage girls at a Justin Timberlake concert, Anne Duchess of Cumberland painted by Thomas Gainsborough takes the coveted Best Hair and Make up. The fact I’ve got hair as flat as a pancake and thus have extreme volume envy may have slightly influenced this result.

Finally Best Picture goes to the Walker Art Gallery’s Harmony in Green by Dan Hays, for the simple fact that it’s my favourite and I love it.

 

Since opening its doors less than 2 years ago, World Museum Liverpool was poised to welcome its millionth visitor through the door this morning. Then, just to confuse us, twins Elliot and Joseph came in together.

We can't tell them apart, or work out who was first, so the boys are sharing the joint honour. Museum demonstrator Claire Noble was there to greet them with goody bags, dressed as a Samurai warrior in an outfit from one of the Treasure House Theatre shows. She's not as scary as she looks here, honest.

The boys, who come from Chorley, were on a day trip to Liverpool with their grandparents. They hadn't been to the museum before and were looking forward to seeing the planetarium and dinosaurs.

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).

They may not be the most glamorous of ships but I, Stephen Guy, have a soft spot for the dredgers which play a vital role in keeping ports open.

In the Port of Liverpool an incredible three million tons of silt is removed by dredgers every year from shipping channels and docks. The silt is taken to specially-designated spoil grounds out to sea well clear of the Mersey Bar.

Two modern dredgers, the Mersey Venture and the Mersey Mariner, now perform this task.

Dredging the Mersey started in 1890 to counteract the increasing problem of silt deposits in the port, especially in the vicinity of Askew Spit at the entrance to the Mersey estuary. Two hoppers equipped with sand pumps set to work at the Bar. During the first 10 months of dredging, 350,000 tons of silt was shifted.

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board then decided to build larger dredgers including the 300-ton Brancker which started work in 1895.

Improvements to the port channel through dredging - together with better facilities at the Prince’s Landing Stage and neighbouring Riverside Station - placed Liverpool in a good position to maintain her hold on the north Atlantic liner trade. Liners and other ships continued to grow in size.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there are several models and photographs linked to dredging. Am impressive10 ft long model of the Leviathan (shown) gives some idea of the huge capacities of dredgers. Built by Cammell Laird’s, she was a familiar sight on the Mersey between 1909 and 1963 when she was scrapped. The 465 ft long Leviathan was fitted with a triple-expansion steam engine and could carry 10,000 tons of sand. The machinery used in removing silt is shown in great detail including four huge sand pumps that were lowered to the riverbed.

Not all dredgers work in the approach channels. Another method of removing silt was employed by the Mersey No 26 of 1948, a grab hopper dredger. A model at the Merseyside Maritime Museum shows her with three cranes which scooped up the silt. Mersey No 26 was designed to work within the confines of the dock system where silt, brought in each time the dock gates open, has to be cleared regularly. She used crane grabs rather than buckets or suction pumps, and took 1,350 tons of silt to the spoil grounds before opening the doors of her bottom to dump the load.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

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.

Curator Alan Scarth is about to unleash not just one but three international disasters in a national museum. If I had done that I'd probably make a dash for the airport as fast as my little legs could carry me. Luckily for Alan though, it's all in a day's work for him, which is why he looks so cheerful in this photo. You see, Alan is the curator behind the new gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum about a tragic trio of ships - the Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress.

The gallery highlights the poignant stories of many of the people involved in the disasters, including new research into local connections. Many of the crew who perished in the tragedies were either from Liverpool originally, or had moved here looking for work on the ships. The Lusitania sinking for example devastated the tight-knit dockland communities in north Liverpool, where most of the crew lived.

Of course, lots of the museum's popular exhibits are also on show. Have a sneak preview at the new zoomable photo of the Titanic model on the website. 

You can see the gallery when opens to the public this weekend, on Saturday 10 February.

We’ve had a bit of a revelation here. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Yes – it really is February and the snow is here so warm your cockles with a dramatic loving gesture.

Before you nip off to the florists and get stung for an overpriced bunch of flowers or buy the wrong size lingerie, feast your eyes on our romantic ants.  That’s right – I said romantic. For these particular leaf cutter ants are carrying not leaves, but rose petals.

In all seriousness – what could be more romantic than sponsoring an ant and declaring your love to the nation by naming it in your sweetheart’s honour. Like ‘Mrsfluffywuffywabbitkins’ or ‘Jane&John4eva’ or something. And what's more, it will get published on our website for all the world to see!

There isn’t a Valentines gift in the world as versatile as an ant – and if you’re still not convinced by the wonder of  ants then get up close and personal with our flickr pics. Go one - give in to the lurve bug. You know you want to.

PS. You need to sponsor your ant by midday on Tuesday if you want the certificate dispatched in time for Valentines day. And don't forget to email with your ant name and the posting address when you've completed the online bit!