National Museums Liverpool Blog - Tuesday, November 13, 2007

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.

Namaste!
I have finally got round to writing up my first few days in India. Minhazz and I gave our keynote speech to the International Folk Art conference in Chandigarh last Thursday, which went well, despite a few technical hitches. We had a good response from the 50 curators and artists attending the conference, but what made the conference even more worthwhile was that several of the artists Minhazz and I are working with on the Collecting Contemporary India project for NML came to the conference to show their work. In the image you can see Montu Chitrakar, a well-known Bengali scroll painter singing the story relating to his communal violence (this is religious violence often between Hindu and Muslim extremistis) in India scroll.

Diwali the festival of Light took place on Friday and as we travelled from Chandigarh to Delhi the whole landscape looked magical as every home was dotted with electric lights and the little clay lamps called deepas that are placed outside the home to welcome Lakshmi the Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity. As we came into Delhi station the noise was deafening as what sounded like hundreds if not thousands of fireworks and fire crackers were going off all over the city. The drive to the hotel was a hazy, smokey one, only interupted by the bright lights of the temples carrying out the pujas (blessings) for the festival.

I was laid low for a couple of days with a strange virus (nothing to do with the food), but I'm back on my feet again now and enjoying Orissa. For the last couple of days we've been sight-seeing, guided by a friend of ours Babu Mohapatra, who runs a tour guide business in Orissa called Inner India Tours. He's extremely knowledgeable about his home state and in the past few days we have seen many beautiful 7th-9th century Hindu temples that have strong Buddhist influences in their carvings. Tomorrow we travel to the very North of the state to Similipal National Park, a beautiful reserve home to the elusive tiger. Don't hold you're breath for a photo on the next blog though!

To me, Stephen Guy, the sinking of the Arandora Star was one of the great ironies of the Second World War because of the nature of the tragedy. The Arandora Star was taking hundreds of internees and prisoners of war to Canada when she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of more than 800 lives.

The modified passenger liner had left Liverpool on 2 July 1940 with more than 400 German and 700 Italian internees and 86 German prisoners of war, guarded by 200 troops.  Some of the internees, all of whom were civilians, had previously been held in the internment camp at Huyton, near Liverpool. Internees were mostly citizens of enemy countries who were living in Britain at the start of the war.
Their deportation to Canadian internment camps was ordered by the British Government due to heightened invasion fears following the fall of France and the evacuation of the British army from Dunkirk.

At 6.45 am on 3 July the 15,500-ton Arandora Star was torpedoed by the U47 about 75 miles west of County Donegal on the north west coast of Ireland and sank within an hour. It is believed that the U-boat crew mistook her grey wartime livery for that of an armed merchant ship.

There were more than 1,600 people on board. The shortage of lifeboats, the lack of boat drills and the use of barbed wire around the boat deck all contributed to the terrible death toll. Deaths among the Italian refugees were particularly high probably because many were middle-aged or elderly, housed in the lower parts of the ship and unable to reach the open decks. Italian and German survivors of this appalling tragedy were promptly sent again by sea from Liverpool to Canada. However, eventually the controversy surrounding the sinking led to the end of civilian deportation and helped to change British policy on internment.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a fine exhibition model of the Arandora Star showing her in peacetime livery of white hull and twin red and black funnels. Built by Cammell Laird’s for the Blue Star Line in 1927, she was 535 feet long and capable of transporting 354 first class passengers at a speed of 16 knots (nautical miles) per hour.  She was originally called Arandora and spent 1927- 8 sailing from London to the east coat of South America. She was then rebuilt as a full-time luxury cruise ship and renamed Arandora Star. This was to avoid confusion with Royal Mail ships which typically had names beginning and ending in A.

There is more on the Huyton Internment camp in this Liverpool Blitz interactive, and more on the Arandora Star on the BBC website.

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

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.

Last Saturday World Museum Liverpool played its part in the Liverpool Irish Festival by hosting a special day dedicated to Irish arts. It was a busy, creative and very fun day according to Ann-marie Cassidy from our learning department, who has written the following account of the many activities.

You can see more pictures in a Flickr slideshow of her Irish Festival photos.

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"The Liverpool Irish Festival has been running since 2003, when it began as a weekend of traditional Irish folk music. Each year the festival grows in size and now celebrates the special identity of the Liverpool Irish community with an outstanding programme of events and activities throughout the city.

This year, National Museums Liverpool staff worked in partnership with the Liverpool Irish Festival to introduce our visitors to a range of Irish-themed activities and performances. Enthusiastic visitors took part in Celtic art workshops with Holly Langley and explored traditional Irish myths in a singing and drama workshop with Claire Chandler. Our more energetic visitors were treated to a demonstration from the George Ferguson School of Irish Dance, before taking to the floor themselves with the dancers!

The atrium provided the perfect location for a performance from the Knotty Ash Signing Choir, who sang traditional songs with sign language. This was followed by an impressive musical performance involving some traditional Irish instruments. Jarlath Henderson played the Uilleann pipes and I was reliably informed that Uilleann means ‘elbow’. (I imagine this link has something to do with the way the pipes are played!) Jarlath was also joined by John Chandler on guitar and ‘Bones’ Adderley on the Bodráhn, a traditional Irish drum. The group were only asked to play for thirty minutes, but were so well received that they continued playing for nearly an hour!

The final workshop of the day was a poetry workshop with Eddie Bixter. Eddie began by introducing participants to some of the work of Seamus Heany and talked about how lots of the words used were ‘dark’ and ‘earthy’. He then asked the group to think about words that could represent Liverpool, looking at the language we use and talking about well-known buildings, people and places. By combining some of the words, the group created individual lines. These were put together to form one collaborative piece of poetry. The poem is quite abstract, but some of the lines are great! Have a read and see what you think!"

The Liverpool Irish Poem

Crosby rain stone, loving hard ground,
Rhythm cut a house,
Loose stoop rats, radio tower,
Musky, old, echoing path,
Kirkby la la cut out, Everton piled bog,
Irish stubbed clot grit,
Soggy bone, Scouse sods,
Shrill, overhead echoes,
Liverbird flock beneath salt dock fields,
Smug, solid Scousers,
Humming, smudging, minging railway,
Frogs lug splintered,
Sugar hung, thick dark cloud,
Oo-er, dig bush, Playhouse north,
Liverpool sky, cool 2008 hens,
Liverpool Echo, culture club.

Sorry this is a bit short notice - worth making the effort though. A few weeks ago I told you about a project several museums staff are involved in. Face of the City is encouraging the city's workforce to get involved in the 08 celebrations by producing their own artworks and displaying them in their own workplaces.

Paul Miller, who came up with the idea, will be in the BBC Radio Merseyside studio on Hanover Street from 10-5pm today (that's Wednesday 31st October) chatting to the public about the project and how they can get involved. More info on the Face of the City website.