Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

Bird's eye view of Liverpool's Tall Ships Race

This weekend sees over 70 tall ships arrive in Liverpool's Wellington and Albert Docks, and local radio station Radio City have capitalised on their position atop St John's Beacon to provide a bird's eye view of the action. They have placed a webcam on top of the tower so that you can log on over the weekend and see what's happening on the Mersey. You can also keep track of the shipping movements using this satellite view as well. Be careful, I've learned from bitter experience that it can be quite addictive......

You can also watch an alternative webcam view from the Tall Ships Race official site where you'll be able to view the Parade of Sail in all its glory on Monday.

BBC Merseyside have provided some useful travel information, so if you're planning on seeing the ships in real life, check it out.....

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

Floating Garden Festival helps to raise money for East Cheshire Hospice with a little help from friends.

The Floating Garden Festival was one of the highlights of the Cheshire’s Year of Gardens ’08 programme. The Festival helped to highlight and promote the beautiful inland waterways of Cheshire. Four florally decorated heritage boats departed from Audlem, Bollington, Trafford and Ellesmere Port and various events were held enroute as the boats made their way to Middlewich for the annual Folk and Boat Festival. The British Waterways heritage boat Lindsay left Bollington and floated along the canal through Congleton and Rode Heath.

Congleton Tourism Officer Phillippa Brown said, “I would like to say a big thank you to all the local societies and groups that donated many of the floral displays on ‘Lindsay’. These were Rode Heath Methodist Church, The Church of the Good Shepherd (Scholar Green), the Rode Heath Village Hall committee, Rode Heath Cubs & Scouts, The Macclesfield and East Cheshire branch of the British Cactus and Succulent Society, Poynton Home Gardeners Club, Alsager Gardens Association, Brereton Playgroup, Theresa Hunt of Odd Rode Parish Council and Harding Consultants. These displays really helped the boat to look spectacular and helped Lindsay win the ‘Best Dressed Boat’ title. A special thank you also goes to Dane Coppice Crafts who created an Alice in Wonderland and Rabbit sculpture out of willow, which looked fantastic and really helped to make the display special. All these donated tubs and baskets were auctioned off on the last day of the Folk and Boat Festival and managed to raise £320.20 for East Cheshire Hospice, which is fantastic!”.