National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, January 30, 2008

DefNet Media have recently teamed up with Ian Jackson to start the Art in Liverpool podcast, providing a relentlessly enthusiastic look at the Liverpool visual arts scene. The latest show features "Out of Body at the Open Eye Gallery, Ian Meets the new Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham MP, ArtFinder Gallery... Ben Johnson... FACT PV, Tate PV... and the opening of the Arthur Dooley archive at the Liverpool Academy of Arts featuring Bryan Burgess and Carl Hodgeson".  

Ben Johnson press call, October 2005

I’ve just recently got slightly obsessed with Tracey Emin. It started when I picked up her diary-style book, ‘Strangeland’ from my local second-hand bookshop (Amorous Cat Bookshop, really cool). It has crept up on me, to the point where I now buy the Independent every Friday to read her column and look at the accompanying artwork. And then recycle the rest of the paper. Ignoring the celebrity element, she is pretty fascinating and now I want to find out more about her actual work. Luckily my obsession has not gone un-noticed and I was given another book about her for Christmas, so I can start to read more about what she has produced. From what I already know, her work seems to be intensely personal and her sketches are appealingly messy and haphazard looking. I’ve started taking some polaroids which are mostly blurry, messy and definitely haphazard (because I’m not very good), so maybe I’ll carry on trying with that technique!

An early attempt with my polaroid camera

 I also found out that Tracey also has strong links with Liverpool, having co-judged John Moores 24 and created the ‘bird on a pole’ bronze sculpture, which stood outside the Anglican Cathedral in 2005. She was even immortalised in Lego form in ‘Art Craziest Nation’ by The Little Artists (John Cake and Darren Neave) in an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery! Her latest venture in Liverpool will be a neon installation, which is due to go on display in September 2008 at the Anglican Cathedral. She is now sober and has a growing interest in religion, so I can’t wait to see what that will be like…

You've missed a bit...

Wow what a mammoth painting! Like Angela (below) I came along to jostle with the local paparazzi (well, Jayne Barrett from North West Tonight, pictured above) and national press, to catch the first glimpse of Ben Johnson’s Liverpool Cityscape. Taking a closer look, I could see that a few essential bits are still missing…where are the Liver Birds? And the burning question – why have the hands on the clock of the Liver Buildings not been added in yet? Is Ben waiting until the last minute to add them, showing the exact time he finishes? That’s my theory anyway. Ben is also asking for your opinion on your favourite building in The Liverpool Cityscape. You can vote for your favourite by filling in a voting card in room 15 of the Walker and dropping it in the box that’s there. If you submit your entry before 11 February, you will be entered into a draw to win a signed print of your favourite building by Ben Johnson. A pretty unique prize!

Left a bit, right a bit ...

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've just noticed from the Google homepage that they are celebrating 50 years of the lego brick today. A great excuse to look again at 2005's Walker Art Gallery installation by the Little Artists, Art Craziest Nation, which has consistently remained one of the most popular features on our site for the last couple of years.

Damien Hirst's 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living'

Image copyright of the artist

Ahead of the comprehensive Peter Doig exhibition at Tate Britain  (5 February - 27 April 2008), yesterday's Observer carried a great interview by Tim Adams with the artist.

When his 'White Canoe' sold for £5.7m last year it became the most expensive work ever sold by a European living artist, but his first big break was winning our John Moores prize in 1993 with 'Blotter'.

Doig discusses 'Blotter' in Saturday's interview, including an interesting explanation of the painting's title. The deadline to register for this September's John Moores 25 is 15 February 2008.

A ship heading in or out of port to me always evokes images of distant places. 

Despite the growth of air travel, ships carry around 95% of the goods coming and going to and from Britain.

Many of the things that we use in our daily lives are brought to us by sea – everything from food and cars to toys and televisions.

For centuries British ships have traded with other countries, buying and selling raw materials and manufactured goods. Over the years goods have varied because of changes in technology and taste.

In 1800 the top five imports to Britain were sugar, coffee, corn, raw cotton and tea. The top five exports that year were woollen goods, cotton yarn goods, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals and goods and finished yarn goods.

Two hundred years later, in 2000, the top five imports were road vehicles and parts, office machines and computer equipment, petroleum and petroleum products, miscellaneous manufactured goods and industrial machinery.

The top five exports were similar to imports: road vehicles and parts, petroleum and petroleum products, office machines and computer equipment, electrical machinery and industrial machinery.

The Lifelines gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum has paintings and displays illustrating seaborne trade past and present.

Before 1600 ships only traded around the coast and to Europe. After that date, improvements in ship design and navigational techniques enabled Britain to establish colonies and trading links in North America, the Caribbean and India.

Britain was also very active in trading enslaved Africans across the Atlantic and Liverpool became Europe’s leading slave trading port until British abolition in 1807.

A colourful engraving shows the burgeoning port in 1727 with ships of all sizes on the river.

After 1800 Britain developed worldwide trading links to South America, Africa, the Far East and Australasia.
The introduction of the steam engine from the 1840s enabled regular liner services to operate to ports all over the world. However, Europe remained Britain’s largest trading partner.

Until the early 19th century, all British trade with India and China was controlled by the famous East India Company. It was largely responsible for the British conquest of India and was used by the government to rule India.

The company’s control of trade to India was ended in 1813 and to China in 1833.

East India Company ships were amongst the finest and largest vessels of their time. The company was dissolved in 1858.

Merseyside Maritime Museum is open seven days a week, admission free. A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

Excavation site by the M62 junction near Tarbock, Huyton and Whiston. Image courtesy of Laing O'Rourke Infrastructure

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."

Stephen Guy with a British Mark VIII torpedo. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

I think this is one of the greatest stories of sacrifice in the Second World War – a commander who literally worked himself to death in his devotion to duty.

Captain FJ (Johnny) Walker was the Royal Navy’s top U-boat submarine killer during the war. He was the most famous escort commander to be based in Liverpool when the port played a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic. Britain’s lifelines were the convoys that brought vital supplies from north America and the ships were prime targets for German U-boats.

Walker, a brilliant specialist in anti-submarine warfare, was an unorthodox and inspirational officer who won great respect and affection from his men. There is a display at Merseyside Maritime Museum devoted to his incredible career.

In early 1943, following his many successes in command of the sloop HMS Stork and the 36th Escort Group, Walker was put in command of HMS Starling and five other sloops of the Second Support Group. His brief was to attack and sink U-boats at every opportunity along the northern convoy routes.

At Walker’s insistence, the jaunty popular tune ‘A-hunting we will go!’ was played over a loud-hailer on Starling’s bridge whenever she left harbour. Between 1 June 1943 and 1 July 1944 the ships of Walker’s Second Support Group sank 15 U-boats in an astonishing run of successes.

He was a great exponent of team work, making very successful use of Asdic, HF/DF (high frequency direction finding). One of Walker’s famous “creeping attacks” lasted more than 30 hours before the U-boat prey was sunk.

Walker – whose awards included the DSO (three bars) – died of a stroke, undoubtedly caused by the demands of war, in July 1944. He was buried at sea in Liverpool Bay. After the war Admiral Max Horton, commander-in-chief Western Approaches, considered that victory in the Atlantic was due more to Walker than to any other individual.

The display includes an exhibition model of HMS Starling, the Royal Navy’s most successful anti-U-boat ship of the war. Under Walker’s command, she was directly involved in sinking 11 U-boats. HMS Starling sank four more after his death. Her ship’s wheel is among the exhibits.

A dramatic photograph shows Walker using an inter-ship radio on Starling’s bridge to urge HMS Woodpecker to attack a U-boat. There is archive film of Walker’s funeral with full naval honours in Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral.

A 22-ft long British Mark VIII torpedo (shown here) gives a sense of precision and power. These were the Royal Navy’s standard torpedoes of the Second World War.

There's more on this website about Cpt Walker, written by a man who knew him. A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Representatives of West Derby Community Association at the Antiques Roadshow. They are (l to r) Stephanie Grogan, James Ashton and Stephen Guy, with specialist Jon Baddeley at the far right.

When I, Stephen Guy, discovered a cache of films stored away unseen for more than 40 years, I wondered what to do.

I am a trustee at Lowlands, the Grade II-listed home of the West Derby Community Association, Liverpool – a superb Italianate former merchant’s mansion dating from 1846. It was the home of the basement Pillar Club where many of the major bands of the 1960s played in their early days. The Quarrymen (early Beatles) famously failed an audition there and are thought to have played in the Pillar Club once or twice as the Silver Beetles. Later they became resident band at the Casbah Club, literally over the road, at the home of drummer Pete Best.

When we started planning the restoration of this historic building, an inventory was made of the contents. This vast, rambling place has many secrets including sealed doors and mysterious unused rooms.

We discovered the films along with the original camera, projector and editing equipment. In excellent condition, they were among piles of books, reports, equipment and furniture. We were advised not to attempt to show the film on the projector but to transfer the film professionally on to DVD. We did not want priceless film being shredded or singed in a faulty projector. There the matter rested because of other priorities. Volunteers cleared the building and prepared for the builders to start the £1.1 million Lowlands project largely funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Then we heard that the Antiques Roadshow was coming to Liverpool. In my capacity as National Museums Liverpool press officer I supervised filming programme links with presenter Michael Aspel at the Walker Art Gallery and Merseyside Maritime Museum. I mentioned the films and equipment to the producers and was invited to come along to St George’s Hall. I went with other West Derby Community Association representatives, Stephanie Grogan and James Ashton.

Engineering specialist Jon Baddeley admired the superb 1950s British projector and Russian camera, in the sequence that was broadcast on Sunday. He added that if any of the film had images of the Beatles it could be worth around £100,000. Our eyes popped.

Some days later the BBC rang and offered to transfer one of the reels of 16 mm silent colour film to DVD at no cost to the Association, a registered charity.

We now have the DVD and it contains 15 minutes of stunning images – local people and Danish guests at Lowlands, Speke Hall and Croxteth Hall, fun and frolics at New Brighton open air baths plus tantalising glimpses of other vanished sights such as New Brighton Tower and the Fish and Chip Boat. The final sequence features colourfully costumed dancers and musicians performing stick and belly dancing on a visit to Lowlands.

But no Beatles.

However, there are four reels yet to be transferred on to DVD, so who knows? Watch this space.

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!"

Liverpool’s Ocean Steamship Services map, pre 1922

I can never resist a nice map. I could easily spend hours poring over them, finding all the places I've been to (which doesn't actually take very long) and all the places I want to explore (a much longer list).

One of the factors that has made Liverpool the place it is today is that over the years a lot of Liverpool people have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the port and have travelled all over the world. At the same time, the city has also welcomed many visitors from these exciting far off lands through the port.

A new temporary display from the collections of the Maritime Archive and Library, Liverpool - port of cultures, features photographs and documents showing how all this travel has brought a huge variety of cultural influences to the city from all over the world. It includes the map shown above and you can also zoom into the map on the website for a closer look, which could be handy if you're planning a world cruise - or just dreaming of one like I am.

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"

St Margaret Marys School Champions on their first visit. You can see the Museum of Liverpool being built in the background.

HM Grampus model. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

I, Stephen Guy, had ancestors living and working among the shipyards that dotted the Liverpool waterfront in the 18th century.

Liverpool was a shipbuilding centre for more than 200 years, developing alongside its growth from a small port to a major centre of commerce. By 1700 several shipyards were established around the Pool, a creek long since covered over, which gave the town its name.

With the opening of the first dock in 1715 and the Salthouse Dock in 1739, shipbuilding moved to the Mersey Strand on the site of the Albert Dock. Today the Strand and Strand Street remind us that this was once a long beach, a strand of mud and sand. My ancestor Henry Guy was born in nearby Moor Street in 1728 and was a shipwright in the yards.

In 1739 John Okill began work on the 44-gun HMS Hastings, the first ship built in Liverpool for the Royal Navy. The construction of wooden warships and merchant ships occupied the many Liverpool shipbuilders until the late 18th century.

The early docks of the 19th century brought competition from shipyards in Canada. They were near forests providing wood for the ships and had cheap labour so the Liverpool shipyards were undercut. By 1840 it was estimated that almost half the ships owned in Liverpool were built in Canada.

Eventually the demand for more new docks on the Liverpool side of the Mersey drove the shipbuilding industry to the opposite Wirral shore. The last large vessel launched on the Liverpool shore was HMS Britomart, a gunboat built by WH Potter & Sons in Queens Dock in 1899.

Models of Liverpool-built ships are on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum. The 50-gun HMS Grampus was launched at John Fisher’s shipyard in 1782. This superbly-detailed model shows the three-master with three huge lanterns at the stern.

The Jhelum (1849) was one of the last Mersey-built wooden ships and was employed in the guano trade shipping bird droppings for fertilizer. Her beached hulk still lies in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. Merseyside Maritime Museum staff have visited her. Alongside a small model of Jhelum are a number of artefacts from the hulk including nails and copper sheathing. This online feature covers the damage being done to the Jhelum by the lowly shipworm.

The Wanderer, a four-masted barque of 1891, was an unlucky ship with her captain being killed in a severe storm on her maiden voyage.  In 1907 she was sunk in the River Elbe after being rammed by the German liner Gertrud Woermann.

More on shipbuilding on the Mersey and related documents in our collections can be found in our Maritime Archives section. A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.