Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

Subterranean Mersey Blues

Colin McPherson and I have been out and about again this summer interviewing and photographing a new set of Stockport-based 'Mersey People'. The last session this morning was with Coral Dranfield from Stockport Heritage Trust, and took place underneath the Merseyway Shopping Centre, a place very few people must have seen - until now. Colin streamed a quick video whilst we were down there - and here it is..........

The portraits from this project, along with the rest of the Mersey: The river that changed the world exhibition will be shown at Stockport Art Gallery from September 5th. Hope to see you there. In the meantime, check out www.riverthatchangedtheworld.com

A Liverpool pilot post....

Just a quick post to tell you that Stephen Guy, over at the National Museums Liverpool blog has posted an entry about the Liverpool Pilots and their vessels - don't forget that two of the pilots, Tony Brand and John Curry are shortly to appear as part of the Mersey People project in our forthcoming book, Mersey: River that changed the world.

Enjoy!

A guiding light on the Mersey

A quick mention for one of the 'Mersey People' from our forthcoming book....John Curry of Liverpool Pilots recently had the pleasure of guiding the first vessel into Liverpool's brand-new £19 million cruise liner terminal. John, who gave the inaugural lecture for 'Mersey: the river that changed the world' at the BBC History Show in September, is the longest-serving pilot on the Mersey. Here's the Liverpool Echo's story about John.

Happy Birthday Liverpool!

As Liverpool's 800th birthday approaches (celebrations are taking place on 26-28th August), the Liverpool Echo has invited high school pupils from across the city to reflect on Liverpool's eight centuries of history.

Here, pupils from De La Salle College in Croxteth take a look at how the River Mersey helped Liverpool to grow from a tiny Hamlet to a major city.

Not to be outdone, over at the Daily Post you can watch rare footage of how the city celebrated its 700th birthday back in 1907.

Mersey sounds....

As it's summer (apparently), we thought we'd post a couple of vaguely seasonal snippets from the Mersey People interviews - it seems a long time since we set out to choose our interviewees, way back last summer. Is it me, or was it hotter then?

Dave Hall of quintessential south Manchester summer destination, Jackson's Boat Inn, on the joys of working beside the Mersey:

powered by ODEO

Barney Easdown, deckhand for Mersey Ferries, on why donkeys should stay at the beach.....

powered by ODEO

Cover star: Tony Brand

Tony Brand, Chairman of Liverpool Pilots and interviewee for the Mersey People has appeared in the most recent edition of SourceNW magazine. An extract from Tony's interview was featured alongside an abridged sneak preview of Michael Taylor's chapter 'Down to the sea in ships', also from Mersey: The river that changed the world. Tony also appeared as the cover star, as you can see above.

Look out for another sneak preview in the next edition of SourceNW - from Antony Wilson's chapter 'Westward Ho'.

Get well soon, Dave!

I'm sorry to report that one of our soon-to-be famous Mersey People, Dave the swimmer, has recently been injured in a car crash - we hope you're doing all right, Dave, and that you're up and about again soon!

the last interview

Well, it was the end of an era last week, I headed out to Preston to record the last of the Mersey People interviews for Mersey: The river that changed the world. But it was a good one to bow out with. I spoke to Shanthi Rasaratnam, former Programme Manager at United Utilities, and the man behind several large scale projects that have had a major impact on the quality of the River Mersey. Shanthi was the man behind a massive improvement programme at five wastewater treatment works on the banks of the river during the late 1990s. He also led a team that developed a revolutionary technique for making sludge, a by-product of wastewater treatment, safe for use as an agricultural nutrient. Just as his career was drawing to a close in 2003, he was awarded the MBE for services to the water industry, and visited Buckingham Palace, where he had the chance to meet HM the Queen and explain to her about the scale of the clean-up on the Mersey.

Now that all the recording is completed, and I've produced the text for the Mersey People section of our book, I'm working hard on editing the audio material, as well as working on the practicalities of the Mersey: The river that changed the world exhibition. We've started to develop a website to provide an online home for the project, of which more will be revealed soon. Meanwhile, Colin's also out and about tying up loose ends - last night saw him take to the waters with John Curry, another Pilot, and I believe he'll be casting off on New Brighton beach with Louise and Les from Sefton Sea Anglers very soon (hope the sun keeps shining, Colin).

We're going to the show....

Wahey! We've just had a letter confirming that Mersey: The river that changed the world will have a stand at the BBC's Big History Show, which takes place at St George's Hall, Liverpool on 14th, 15th and 16th September this year. No doubt we'll have pre-order forms available so that you can reserve your copy of the book, and a special sneak preview of some of the images and audio material that'll be featured. If we're lucky, there could also be a chance to hear from one of the Mersey People themselves, or perhaps Colin, our lovely and intrepid photographer.

So we'll see you at the show - apparently it's a heuuuuge three-day celebration of all things historical, and the BBC expects several thousand people to come and join in the fun........see you there........

famous mersey people - it's not all about the Beatles

Well, we all know that the Mersey changed the world, but what about some of the people born or brought up along its banks? At the moment we're trying to compile a list of famous or influential people from the banks of the river - including the Wirral, Stockport, Warrington, Urmston, Flixton, the Heatons, and so on, as well as Liverpool. Can anyone help? We're trying to stick to living people, and any nominations would be most welcome. Leave us a comment if you can think of someone we've missed.......

Beryl Bainbridge / Tom Baker / John Birt / Alan Bleasdale / Chris Boardman / Tony Booth / Cherie Blair / Kim Cattrall / Daniel Craig / Edwina Currie / George Davies / Shelagh Fogarty / Peter Goldsmith / Ian Hart / Gillian Kearney / Bill Kenwright / Carla Lane / Lynda LaPlante / Sharon Maughan / Paul McGann / Joe McGann / Stephen McGann / Mark McGann / Roger McGough / Paul McCartney / Mike McCartney / Ringo Starr / Jimmy McGovern / Stephen Norris / Tom O'Connor / John Parrott / Alan Parry / Brian Patten / John Power / Simon Rattle / Phil Redmond / Anne Robinson / Robert Robinson / Patricia Routledge / Willy Russell / Kevin Sampson / Alexei Sayle / Lesley Sharp / Alison Steadman / Bill Tidy / Ricky Tomlinson / Brian Reade / Paul O'Grady / Richard Stilgoe / Glenda Jackson / David Morrissey / Peter Sissons / Terry Leahy / Mike Myers / Krishnan Guru-Murthy / Niall Griffiths / Ian McCulloch / Jonathan Harvey / Ralph Steadman / Cathy Tyson / John Conteh / Lisa Tarbuck / Jimmy Tarbuck / Billy Butler / Lord Alton / Maria Eagle / Angela Eagle / Melanie Chisholm / Rita Tushingham / Wayne Rooney / Steven Gerrard (I'm not going to list every Liverpudlian footballer.....) / Colleen McLoughlin / Cilla Black / Ken Dodd / Gerry Marsden / Austin Healey / Matt Dawson / Paul Heaton / Shirley Hughes / Ray Stubbs / Chris Evans / Sue Johnston / Pete Postlethwaite / "Comedy" Dave Vitty / Matthew Kelly / Suzanne Charlton / Judy Finnegan / Judith Chalmers / Katie Derham / David Dickinson / James Hickman / Damon Gough / David Gray / Ian Brown / Gary "Mani" Mounfield / Stephen Patrick Morrissey