National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, November 08, 2007

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. 

Michael Aspel and some huge white trucks were stationed at St Georges Hall on Sunday as the Antiques Roadshow came to town. The broadcasting legend that is Mr Aspel was recording his final roadshow and we were delighted he popped into the Walker Art Gallery and Merseyside Maritime Museum beforehand to record some links for the programme. He had a look at some of our treasures including 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?' and our outstanding sculpture collection. I’ll certainly be glued to the TV when the programme airs in January to see whether the experts uncovered any hidden gems from dusty Liverpool lofts.

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.
 

If you missed the Face of the City drop-in session the other day fear not. Because the session went so well the organisers are repeating the session every Monday in November starting today, 5th and then 12th, 19th and 26th. Again sessions will be held at the BBC Radio Merseyside studios on Hanover Street and will run 10am-5pm.  As ever more information is available on the project website.

This story for me, Stephen Guy, typifies the versatility of Liverpool’s shipbuilders at the height of the innovations of the Victorian age.

The beautiful steam yacht Said was built in Liverpool for the viceroy of Egypt when the country was part of the Turkish Empire. His name was Said Pasha and he ruled the country between 1854 and 1863. Said’s reign was marked by liberal reforms which followed trends in contemporary Europe. Today he is best known for granting a concession to the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps to start building the Suez Canal. Both Said and the Turkish sultan later opposed the plan.

Despite official opposition, the canal linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea was completed in 1869. It transformed sea travel between Europe and the East. Combined with the American Transcontinental Railroad completed six months earlier, the canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade, speeding up travel times across the globe.

Said tried unsuccessfully to abolish the slave trade which was long established in Egypt. However, there were too many important, wealthy people involved. 

There were successful important reforms in land ownership and taxation. The land reforms supported individual land ownership and reduced the influence of the sheiks who exercised almost feudal local powers. Said imposed direct taxation on big landowners, thus removing a burden which had rested hard on the peasants. Some land owned by the largest landowners was confiscated.

Said was born into an influential Egyptian family in 1822 and was educated in Paris. He joined the navy and became Admiral of the Fleet at an early age.

There is a very detailed builder’s model of the Said on display in Merseyside Maritime Museum. It shows the remarkably graceful lines of this elegant ship which was fit for a powerful potentate. The screw steam yacht was built of iron by Jones, Quiggin & Co of Liverpool for Said Pasha in 1858.

The 230 ft long Said was luxuriously appointed and the 1:60 scale model hints at the splendour of her unseen saloons below decks. Tiny details include her twin-bladed screw. Her 250 hp engines were of the two cylinder oscillating type, geared up to the screw shaft and made by Forrester & Co of Vauxhall, Liverpool. The 891-ton Said left Liverpool for Alexandria, Egypt, in October 1858. She must have made a splendid and exotic sight heading out of the Mersey with her white hull and two raked white funnels flanked by three masts.

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

Many moons ago, when there was still the promise of a summer featuring the sun, Guy Knight in Entomology told us about the fieldwork the team was undertaking in Smardale, Cumbria. Well, the 'field' bit of the work has concluded and now they're spending the winter grubbing through their finds. More from Guy.

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Fieldwork finished for the year at Smardale Gill NNR in October. Despite the poor summer, the monthly visits we made to the site were productive and the winter will be spent sorting through samples back at the museum, identifying specimens and preparing information on conserving insect diversity at the site for our report to the Cumbria Wildlife Trust. Several more pictures from the survey have been added to our Flickr page.

It was good to see large numbers of Scotch Argus and Northern Brown Argus butterfly during the summer. They are the only insects which have been studied in detail at Smardale in the past, where they occur towards the southern limit of their British distribution. Several other significant species have been recorded during the survey so far and we were especially pleased to find the Wall Mason Bee Osmia parietina, a Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species which is restricted in Britain to a handful of sites in north-west England and North Wales.

The team will be returning to Smardale next year when I hope to give more updates on how the work is progressing.  

Ian Murphy, curator of port history at Merseyside Maritime Museum, took this action shot this morning. It shows the gangway being lifted into place for HMS Bangor, which is berthed outside the museum this weekend and is open to the public.

Apparently the ship is a Sandown class minesweeper. I don't know if including the word 'bang' in the name of a minesweeper is an example of naval humour or if it's completely unintentional. 

Ian has apologised for not getting much of the ship itself in the photo, but did point out that the sky and the famous Pier Head buildings in the background look great. As my Museum of Liverpool photo from the other week is more about the sunrise than the construction site itself, I know exactly where he's coming from!

Update 07/11/2007: Here's a photo of HMS Bangor heading off down the Mersey on Monday - I just caught it from the ferry.

The National Conservation Centre was swinging when I popped in this morning. Musicians were tuning up ready for the launch of Sunday Jazz our smooth new musical offering. Representatives from TONY! TONY! TONY! and the Martin Smith quartet were checking out Café Eros where they will be performing live jazz sets on Sundays from 12-3pm. I was treated to a couple of impromptu numbers and I think their cool jazz classics are perfect for soothing away any Saturday night induced fevers and trust me their Latino rhythms will get you dancing your way into next week. Apologies to Monday morning passengers on the Northern Line, there's a good chance I may be Jitterbugging down the aisles for the next few weeks.

I had the chance to have a sneak preview of Ben Johnson’s Liverpool Cityscape last night. Blocking my view of the painting were several famous faces including the artist Peter Blake whose studio is next door to Ben’s and Weakest Link presenter Anne Robinson who came to see the portrait of her home city.

Seeing the work close up really enables you to appreciate the amazing amount of work and effort that goes into each tiny detail. I chatted to Ben’s assistants who help produce the separate computerised drawings of each building in the painting. We discussed the enormous amount of time that goes into each key building, some taking several weeks. One mentioned that a few months ago they had worried about how they would possibly get such an enormous painting finished on time. Thankfully he seemed quite confident it was all on schedule now!

Visitors to the Walker Art Gallery will get the chance to see Ben complete the artwork from 28 January - 7 March 2008.