Liverpool

LIVERPOOL HISTORIC SOCIETY (LINKS PAGE)

Comprehensive listings covering a very broad area of aspects of the History of Liverpool. (Also, see 'New Web Links' in the menu on their links page)
Your second port of call (after this list !)

HISTORIC LIVERPOOL

Mapping Liverpool's History and Archaeology. Martin Greaney has created an excellent site which explores the historic landscapes of Liverpool and Merseyside, from the rocks beneath our feet, to the prehistoric footprints left in Formby sand, to the 1,500 listed buildings within the city.

LIVERPOOL HERITAGE FORUM

The Liverpool Heritage Forum, founded in January 2005, is made up of representatives of various voluntary cultural organisations active in Liverpool.

LIVERPOOL HISTORY ONLINE

An online history of Liverpool, celebrating the 800th anniversary of the city of Liverpool. The Liverpool History Online project looks at a variety of sources, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, Liverpool Central Library and John Moore's University

LIVERPOOL IN PRINT READING GUIDES

Refer to the Liverpool Record Office website to consult the reading guides which are very useful when beginning research..

MERSEY GATEWAY (Port Cities Liverpool)

An online history of the port and its people. 20,000 images drawn from local museums, libraries and archives tell the fascinating story of the individuals, events and communities that shaped the port, the city and the wider Merseyside region

OLD LIVERPOOL

Liverpool snippets from old Liverpool newspapers and other sources. This site came into being when Caryl Williams purchased a large collection of old Liverpool Mercury newspapers and started putting marriages, obituaries and snippets from them online. Since then the site has grown and grown. Caryl has also added Liverpool snippets from old books, other old newspapers and theatre programmes from her collection. Regularly updated.

OLD MERSEY TIMES

Liverpool and Merseyside's life and times transcribed from old newspapers

LIVERPOOL CONSERVATION AREAS

This is a web-based replica of the 1979 booklet detailing the then main areas of conservation around the centre of Liverpool, re-arranged slightly but not changed substantively.

LIVERPOOL - LISTED BUILDINGS

Comprehensive list on Wikipedia

LIVERPOOL MONUMENTS

Created by the 'Friends of Liverpool Monuments Civic Society'

LIVERPOOL'S HISTORIC CANNING STREET AREA

In 1800, the Corporation Surveyor John Foster Senior had drawn up plans for an area known as Mosslake Fields. Situated on top of St James's Mount away from the grime of the city centre, the area offered an opportunity to live in spacious comfort. Over the next 100 years a succession of developers built a large number of imposing and elegant town houses, mostly in the Georgian style... Read much more on Andrew O'Hare's excellent site.

WAVERTREE GARDEN SUBURB - A CONSERVATION AREA

History, memories, illustrations

SCOTTIE PRESS

The ‘Scottie Press’ is Britain’s longest running and award winning community newspaper, serving the Scotland Road and Vauxhall Road areas of Liverpool for 29 successful years. In that time they have presented the news and views of the local community together with a regular nostalgia page featuring old photographs, memories and stories from the Scotland Road area.

LIVERPOOL TALES FROM THE MERSEY MOUTH

by John Williams - an excellent collection of essays and anecdotes covering every aspect of Liverpool life.

WILLIAMSON'S TUNNELS

Find out all about these amazing and mysterious tunnels built beneath the Edge Hill area of Liverpool around the turn of the nineteenth century.

LIVERPOOL MURDERS

‘some gruesome tales of liverpool's past’ - Steven Horton's excellent pages on gruesome crimes.

LITERARY LIVERPOOL

Another Steven Horton site - looking at famous writers connected with Liverpool.

LEVERPOOLE.CO.UK

Local books, maps, images, photographs, architecture, transcriptions on this expanding site by Tony Swarbrick

BBC LEGACIES - LOCAL HISTORY

From buildings to legends and from myths to people; discover our local history through tales of our ancestors from all around the UK.

BBC Merseyside - LOCAL HISTORY PAGES

People, places, local memories, resources and opportunuties to contribute stories to the site

Liverpool: A History of Struggle by Nick Wall

This page is a celebration of the lives of some of those who stood out against the stream, the fighters, the artists, the rebels. These lives are closely associated with the city of Liverpool, a city with a long tradition of resistance from the 18th century slave trade through to the dock strike in the 1990s.

LIVERPOOL LIVER BIRDS

A pictorial history of liverpools' most famous icon

Liverpool Suburbs and Hinterland

HALEWOOD PARISH LOCAL HISTORY PAGES

A website created by Mike Royden. Halewood lies to the south east of Liverpool and was once a township in the large parish of Childwall. This website covers various aspects of Halewood's history, including articles, documents, image store, then and now photographs.

KNOWSLEY LOCAL HISTORY PAGES

Compiled by Knowsley Record Office covering all local areas in the Borough of Knowsley (Cronton, Kirkby, Huyton, Roby, Halewood, Knowley, Prescot, Tarbock, Whiston).

TOXTETH.NET

An excellent site covering the history of the former area of the Royal Park, includes street directories, maps, list of churches and a variety of illustrations – plenty for the local and family historian, authored by Paul Christian.

NB. Removed in 2008. However, visit Wayback Machine on www.archive.org/web/web.php , type in Toxteth.net and archive pages for this site can still be accessed. It is hoped the site will return sometime in the future.

WEST DERBY

A HISTORY OF CHILDWALL

A History of Childwall and much more by local resident Jonathan Wild.

SPEKE LOCAL HISTORY PAGES

Local pages based around All Saints Church, Speke.

SPEKE HALL ESTATE HISTORY PAGES

Local pages based around documents and history of the estate by Ian Ford

HALE VILLAGE ONLINE

WALTON ON THE HILL HISTORY GROUP

Shipping and the Port

MARITIME ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY AT THE MERSEYSIDE MARITIME MUSEUM

Best start point and numerous information leaflets for download with advice on further research.

MERSEY GATEWAY (Port Cities Liverpool)

An online history of the port and its people. 20,000 images drawn from local museums, libraries and archives tell the fascinating story of the individuals, events and communities that shaped the port, the city and the wider Merseyside region.

CAMMELL LAIRD: SHIPBUILDERS TO THE WORLD

History and weblinks

LIVERPOLITAN

Excellent list of ships associated with Liverpool (within a larger website on the History of Liverpool).

THE LIVERPOOL NAUTICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY

A society and website dedicated to preserve and promote interest in the history of shipping and all nautical subjects through research using the resources of the Merseyside Maritime Museum Archives and Library and other appropriate organisations. (NB July 2009 the site had gone down or moved. Please send me the new address when it returns - thanks).

MERCHANT NAVY ASSOCIATION

an excellent site containing a wealth of information about fleet histories, individual vessels and images, the early days of sail as well as being a current site for the present day activities of merchant shipping.

THE SHIPS LIST

Maintained since 1999 by S. Swiggum and M. Kohli is highly recommended. The site holds ships' passenger lists, immigration reports, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, ship descriptions, shipping-line fleet lists and more; as well as hundreds of passenger lists to Canada, USA, Australia and even some for South Africa.

OCEAN LINER MUSEUM

A useful site detailing histories of shipping lines and ocean travel

Liverpool and the Slave Trade

INTERNATIONAL SLAVERY MUSEUM - MERSEYSIDE MARITIME MUSEUM

For information about the slave trade and Liverpool's involvement see the International Slavery Museum website.

BBC - WHERE I LIVE - LIVERPOOL'S ROLE IN THE SLAVE TRADE

Various articles on the trade and abolition. Includes references to individuals involved in the fight against the slave trade and information on people who have researched their own family history back to slavery. (e.g. Local author Victor Okrafo-Smart).

LIVERPOOL AND THE SLAVE TRADE - LIVERPOOL RECORD OFFICE ADVICE LEAFLET

A useful download (pdf) from the LRO collection of information leaflets. Archives, further reading etc.

MERSEY GATEWAY (Port Cities Liverpool)

The site contains more than 500 images relating to the slave trade, plus articles.

MOVING HERE
Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to Britain over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be. It offers free access to an online catalogue of versions of original material related to migration history from local, regional and national archives, libraries and museums.

SLAVERY REMEMBRANCE DAY

A commemoration and celebration of the end of slavery, held in Liverpool on 23 August each year

LIVERPOOL BLACK HISTORY MONTH GROUP

Events and activities in Liverpool for Black History Month, held every October in Britain. NB. The original Liverpool site at www.liverpoolblackhistory.co.uk seems to have gone down - see the Merseyside site at Merseyside Black History Month

AFRICA OYé

the UK's largest free African music festival, held in Liverpool each June

ABOLITION 200

The bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in 2007

FREEDOM SCHOONER AMISTAD

a recreation of the famous slave ship which visited Liverpool from 20 to 26 August 2007 as part of a tranastlantic voyage retracing the slave triangle

Local photography - images of Liverpool sites

LIVERPOOL DAYS

Liverpool photographs of places, people, and everyday Liverpool life.- Gerard Fleming's photos of the city, with a large collection of Beatles related pics.

LIVERPOOL STREET GALLERY

Created by Dave Wood - a major project to photograph every street in Liverpool, over 4,000 photos online.

LIVERPOOLPICTORIAL

Dave Wood’s commercial site for Liverpool images, views, photographs, photos, videos

INACITYLIVING

Ged Fagan's collection of over 5,000 photographs of the Gerard Gardens, Vauxhall area of Liverpool and much more.

NATIONAL MONUMENTS RECORD - VIEWFINDER

The photographs on ViewFinder are all held by the National Monuments Record, the public archive of English Heritage. They date from the 1850s and are a resource for people interested in England's social, industrial, architectural and archaeological history.

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Religion and Migration

LIVERPOOL ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL

LIVERPOOL METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL

Irish

HIBERNIA

Useful Liverpool Irish Family History records portal by Patrick Neill

IRISH HOLOCAUST

A view of the Irish experience as a Holocaust which author insists should be taught as such in schools. Section on disembarkation and local reaction in Liverpool.

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL INSTITUTE OF IRISH STUDIES

Information about degree courses plus external lectures, conference and publications

LIVERPOOL IRISH FESTIVAL

An annual event that celebrates Liverpool's Irish heritage. Performance, participation, entertainment and education in Irish traditions, music, literature, theatre, and art and reflect their significance in defining Liverpool's culture as a great European city.

IRISH ANCESTORS

Portal pages sponsored by the Irish times. Useful passenger list database.

Welsh

THE WELSH IN LIVERPOOL

THE SCOTTIE PRESS

A section on this informative local site is dedicated to a study of the Welsh in the Vauxhall/Walton area of the town and includes photographs of streets and chapels.

Manx

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL - MANX STUDIES

MANX NATIONAL HERITAGE

The Official Website of the National Heritage Agency Of The Isle Of Man

ISLE OF MAN FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY

Formed in January 1979 to encourage the study of genealogy and family history, for those on the Island or those living abroad.

A MANX NOTEBOOK

Useful history portal for all matters concerning the Manx and their history.

Latest News plus current affairs links.

OFFICIAL ISLE OF MAN GOVERNMENT SITE

This web site has been divided up into information for Businesses, Residents and Visitors. There is also information on the Isle of Man and its Government.

ISLE OF MAN OFFICIAL TOURISM SITE

Tourism, Accommodation, Activities, etc.

Italian

SCOTTIE PRESS LITTLE ITALY PROJECTS

Several pages full of photographs, maps, documents, and memories about Little Italy and the Liverpool Italian Community in this ongoing project. A recommended start point.

Scandinavian

SCANDINAVIAN SEAMEN'S CHURCH IN LIVERPOOL

Jewish

LIVERPOOL OLD HEBREW CONGREGATION, PRINCES ROAD SYNAGOGUE

Includes photographs of the interior and history pages

CHICKEN SOUP AND SCOUSE

This site provides information about the DVD of this name that was produced in 2007 as a result of researches and interviews by Michael Swerdlow and Arnold Lewis with senior citizens of the Jewish community.

JEWISH GEN: THE HOME OF JEWISH GENEALOGY

THE CHANGING YEARS

A series of articles published in the Liverpool Jewish Gazette between 1968 and 1970

DEANE ROAD CEMETERY

Cemetery of the nineteenth century Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation and community

MERSEYSIDE JEWISH COMMUNITY

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY CENTRE FOR JEWISH STUDIES

BRITISH JEWRY WEBSITE

Databases, links and other information

Lascar

INDIAN PRESENCE WEBSITE

MOVING HERE

Tracing South Asian Roots (some contributions have come from Liverpool).

Chinese

LIVERPOOL AND ITS CHINESE SEAMEN

The story of the Shanghai Seamen by their children on a website created and authored by themselves

YVONNE FOLEY'S STORY

The Eurasian daughter of an English mother and a Shanghai father.

MOVING HERE STORIES

Liverpool’s Eurasians

THE SHANGHAI SAILORS

About the plight of the forced repatriation of sailors, broadcast on Radio 4 on 13 September 2008 is available on

Quakers

THE QUAKERS IN LIVERPOOL

Site based around the Friend's Meeting House in School Lane, Liverpool

Health

THE POOL OF LIFE - A PUBLIC HEALTH WALK IN LIVERPOOL

This has evolved over more than 20 years. Maggi Morris's original book was first published by Bluecoat Press in 1997. It was updated in 2007 with her husband, John Ashton. They are your guides for this audio version which features the key elements of the walk but is necessarily abridged.

HISTORY OF ST.PAUL'S EYE HOSPITAL

Poverty and the Labouring Poor

A HISTORY OF WORKHOUSES

This is an excellent unsurpassed web site by Peter Higginbothom on all aspects of the history of the workhouse and the poor law. This links to Liverpool Workhouse (Brownlow Hill). (But dont forget to look at the article on this site first).

LIVERPOOL RECORD OFFICE INFO LEAFLET - POOR LAW

Information leaflet - covering the Poor Law and Workhouses in Liverpool, history, location of archives, further research.

.Education

LIVERPOOL SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS

A developing website which came online in 2006 and is swiftly expanding into a central site for schools in the area. Histories, local schools, sources, photographs and weblinks. Very useful and informative.

Liverpool Family History Society holds an online list of Liverpool School Records www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/Liverpool/schools.htm

HMS Conway

The Merchant Shipping Acts of 1851 and 1854 required those making a career at sea now had to be trained and educated in academic as well as nautical subjects. The Mercantile Marine Service Associations (MMSA) began to set up institutions and Liverpool was one of the earliest to comply. HMS Conway, moored in the Sloyne, off Rock Ferry , was set up in 1859 specifically to train young boys for a life at sea. Their records are held at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. These include annual reports, wage books and registers of cadets. www.hmsconway.org – has history, illustrations, reunions on the official site.

The Akbar

Another reform vessel, this time for Protestant Boys. The records of the Akbar are partly preserved at the Lancashire Record Office, Preston. The records of the Lancashire National Sea Training Homes, Heswall Nautical School and Redbank School, Newton-le-Willows are also held at the Lancashire Record Office. www.ts2000.royalnavy.co.uk/akbar.htm - an excellent illustrated account of the Akbar by Joan Rimmer - however, this link had gone down in August 2009, Googling did not list a new address.

Transport

Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society

History of Hooton Airfield

Experience of War

Liverpool Museum resources

A very useful start point to research ancestors in the King’s. Also includes download on the Movements of Battalions 1914-1918, full list of copies of Battalion War Diaries held, publications on the King’s.

King's Liverpool Regiment database

The Museum website also hosts a database search facility for soldiers serving in the King's Regiment during World War I. Searches can be made by surname, initial, first name, number, rank, or a combination of these.

King’s Regiment Association, Liverpool

Extensive help and advice for research into soldiers of the regiment

Liverpool Scottish - 10th (Scottish) Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment)

The Regimental Museum is the responsibility of the Regimental Museum Trust, established in 1979 to protect the collection of artifacts which have been acquired since the foundation of the 8th (Scottish) Volunteer Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment) in 1900. This and its successor units have been known generally as "The Liverpool Scottish".

Cheshire Regiment Military Museum

The Museum, based at the Castle in Chester remembers those who fought in The Cheshire Regiment, The Cheshire Yeomanry, The 3rd Carabiniers, The 5th Royal Iniskilling Dragoon Guards, Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School and several other small Cheshire units. Several regiments and periods are featured and there is also a section of a recreated trench to walk through.

Ellesmere Port War Memorial

Vivid accounts of the experiences of local soldiers feature here, plus photos of the men. In Ellesmere Port, The Whitby High School has produced its own website reflecting the on going research of Year 9 pupils into the men of the local war memorial. They have also successfully campaigned for a memorial plaque to be erected in the town to remind passers by that there are also twenty five Commonwealth War Graves in the graveyard of the former parish church Christchurch. Research continues by some of the pupils who then go on a battlefields visit where they lead the service at the Menin Gate and also try to find the grave of the serviceman they have been researching.

Carl’s Cam

Another excellent website and the best place to start your war memorial research. Carl Rogerson has produced a superb site containing a gazetteer of Cheshire memorials, with transcriptions of names, photographs and much more for the family historian.

Western Front Association

The Western Front Association was formed with the aim of furthering interest in the period 1914-1918. The object of the Association is to educate the public in the history of the Great War with particular reference to the Western Front. The Merseyside Branch meets

Liverpool Town Hall - Hall of Remembrance

The Hall of Remembrance was opened by the Duke of Windsor, then Prince of Wales, in 1921 and contains the City's Roll of Honour.  The Roll of Honour carries the names of over 13,000 military men from Liverpool who died during the First World War.  This list of war dead began to be compiled during the war when names of the fallen were posted in a window overlooking Exchange Flags and relatives queued to add names.  Because of this, the list is far from complete, but a number of names have been added since 1921, on additional panels.

Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC and Bar, MC, RAMC. (1884-1917)

Double VC winner Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse.

BBC Peoples War – personal recollections of evacuation.

bbc.co.uk - The People’s War –

A superb collection of web links of Merseyside war time memories on the BBC website. The local web listings occupy fifteen pages alone.

Port Cities

Numerous pages dedicated to the Merseyside experience of war, such as defending the port, the Blitz, morale, etc.

World War Two Memories - (select leisure & culture, then archive collection, then local history & heritage, enter archive ref. 940 PWP into search engine – full listings will result)

Memories of WWII, collected by Liverpool Libraries in 2004, and consists of transcripts of recordings and DVD footage titled 'Liverpool 1941: the effects of German bombing raids on Liverpool and the docks'. Also included video recordings of interviews undertaken in the library.

Liverpool Blitz

This website reveals the Second World War memories of the people of Liverpool. The stories are set over 24-hours during the May Blitz of 1941. While the particular day presented is fictional, all of the events happened over the course of the bombing campaign, many during those seven horrific days in May.

 The Spirit of the Blitz - Merseyside Maritime Museum

Record of a past exhibition plus useful links.

Liverpool War Museum

See Museum link (left menu) for more details regarding visiting the museum.

Liverpool Cemeteries

HISTORY OF ST JAMES'S CEMETERY

Located at the rear of the Anglican Cathedral, it occupies ten acres of ground which were once the final resting place of nearly 58,000 souls. From an American sea captain, stabbed to death, to children who died within hours of their birth. From a midget artist who painted England's nobility, to a simple serving girl. They all found their way into this final resting place, in Liverpool. Mike Faulkner shows why this small corner of Liverpool fascinates, and what stories are hidden in the past.

TOXTETH PARK CEMETERY

Transcription site, with useful links.

ANFIELD CEMETERY

A growing site on the history and internments. Illustrations of monuments.

DEANE ROAD CEMETERY

Cemetery of the nineteenth century Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation and community

Cheshire

Archaeology

Wirral

PORT SUNLIGHT VILLAGE COMMUNITY ONLINE

NEW BRIGHTON HISTORY SITE

Forums and Message Boards

YO LIVERPOOL

Over the last few years, Yo! Liverpool has grown into an independent popular online forum community, a result of the positive contributions made by an increasing army of registered users.

Created and moderated by Kev - a virtual learning experience.

MERSEYSIDE GENEALOGY AND HISTORY FORUM

An excellent local forum site covering a variety of categorised message and discussion boards .

LIVERPOOL EX PATS

Forum and message board for Liverpudlians worldwide hosted by the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo web site

LIVERPOOL STADIUM - The Rock Years

Ah, sweet nostalgia... Led Zeppelin playing a three hour set in 1971... Hawkwind, Free.. Family... Jethro Tull... Traffic...Gong... working as a stagehand at the Stadium and watching Frank Zappa rehearse all afternoon... Gentle Giant...Can...The Groundhogs...Captain Beefheart...The Last Trumpet... Roger Eagle without whom...

Music

LINK2WALES
The most detailed and the biggest archive of the Alternative Music Scene in Wales & Liverpool. The aim of the site is to give you the complete archive with detailed coverage on bands, venues, fanzines, shows, personalities, past, present & future. (Look hard and you might find me in there! eg. The Warp Band & others - Mike Royden)

TIMBO'S LIVERPOOL
Bands from the 1960s-1990s

THE BEATLES ONLINE
Fan site.

THE BEATLES
Official site

Football

TOFFEEWEB
ToffeeWeb - the best Everton F.C. site on the web - including history of the club.

TRANMERE ROVERS FC
The official web site of Tranmere Rovers F.C.

General Local Links

VISIT LIVERPOOL
Tourist Liverpool, accomodation, entertainment etc.

LIVERPOOL.COM
Tourist Liverpool, accomodation, entertainment etc.

LIVERPOOL CITY COUNCIL
Text and multimedia related items about Liverpool.

MERSEYSIDE CIVIC SOCIETY