Liverpool port and docks

Watching the Timeshift on docks and dockers on TV made me realise we observed the Liverpool docks at a pivotal time. In autumn 1965 we moved to the Wirral peninsula just across the Mersey from Liverpool. Crossing the Mersey by ferry was a very cheap boat ride; 4d in old money( 2.5p after decimalisation ).

We would travel from Birkenhead Hamilton Square ferry terminal to Liverpool Pier Head. At that time there were two ferries, one at each station setting off at the same time to cross mid river. I always enjoyed sitting waiting for the ferry to cast off on a crossing of perhaps 5 minutes. Sitting on top deck in the open gave a great view of the river traffic and the cities.

At that time the transatlantic liners were still travelling from Liverpool. It would be quite usual to see 2 or 3 moored at Pier Head. This era was ending and within a few years they were gone replaced totally by air travel. At the time they seemed gigantic although I now realise cruise ships are often much larger.

Although containerisation had started most items were handled individually. I vividly recall during a dock strike driving through Birkenhead docks and seeing goods of all sorts on every spare piece of ground. Most were in pallets or other intermediate packaging. I guess all the perishables were in the many warehouses.

Generally Liverpool and Birkenhead didn’t handle bulk cargo such as coal, oil or grain. Oil was handled a little upriver at Eastham docks just by the entrance to the Mersey Canal. This was also handy for the giant Shell Thornton refinery at nearby Ellesmere Port

As containerisation spread the large Liverpool docks had to change. The Docklands Overhead Railway was already down ( I marvelled at the carriage in the museum ) and by 1970 the south docks had closed. These were south of pier head and not in as deep water as the north docks where the new Seaforth Container port was coming into action.

The south docks included the historic Albert Dock and there were many suggestions for how it might be preserved. I was a student in Liverpool in 1971 and one of our number secured permission for a small group ( three on the day ) to walk through the south docks. It was an eerie and rather sad experience through a deserted area with much still in place. I marvelled at the gigantic pillars of iron under the huge brick warehouses of the Albert Dock which surround a rectangular pool some few acres in size entered by a lock at one end.. The Albert dock is almost by pier head and we proceeded to walk through the whole complex emerging some miles upstream’; a journey occupying about a half day. ( we should really have been working but we could set our own timetables within reason, later I often worked at weekends )

I thought we were seeing buildings soon to be demolished. However some bold thinking rescued the Albert Dock now the home a wide variety of shops and restaurants including the Tate Northern gallery and two hotels Upstream of the Albert Dock the dock area was cleared and became the Liverpool Garden Festival  site Clearing a centuries detritus was expensive Much later we stayed in the Holiday Inn in Albert Dock. The rooms are rather bizarre with scoured brick walls and vaulted ceilings. We are talking walls of massive thickness, several feet at least, as the warehouses were built to take big loads.

The reputation of Liverpool as a hotbed of crime and violence was rather justified at that time. Although the Technology College had an enclosed car park everyone I knew had their car damaged at some time while parked there. One friend on a lower floor laboratory was quietly working away when a brick came flying through his window. There was a kind of perverse pride among locals in the crime and “scallys” were talked off in a way part admiring their cheek.

One impudent incident occurred when the college principal had just taken delivery of a new carpet., still in a roll. Two men in overalls turned up, carried it away and it was never seen again.

I was in a laboratory with 3 others and a fourth regularly joined us. I would never have gone to a dockers pub on my own but with 4 companions we tried it. We were very clearly unwelcome and after a quick drink we left for somewhere more suitable.

The Man in the Wood

The man is Keith who owns part of a wood near Scarborough. Martin and Lindsey met him first as a builders assistant when they were having so much work done on their new house. They have become quite friendly with him. Martin spent a long weekend with him at the Woodland Gathering in Wiltshire earlier this year. Keith has let Martin have a small area of his wood for den making etc.

Having now spent most of a day with Keith I can say he is a fascinating man with many interests. He has built a quite amazing camp in the wood and apparently spends many hours there. A former potter he is now semi retired just doing odd jobs on a part time basis.

His camp is spread over  an acre or so. All  the materials apart from timber have been scrounged, largely from discarded items thrown away as worn out or broken.  He has a cabin built from an old box trailer with an extension for sleeping area. This has the sort of kitchen one  might find in an old fashioned gypsy caravan. His one concession to modernity being a camping gas type ring. Just as in gypsy caravans there a lots of nooks and crannies. The cabin is equipped with a wood burning stove with a home built oven attached. The cabin looks out onto a bird table and feeder

We spent most of our time in cabin two which is larger, has rescue furniture such as old conservatory furniture just seating the seven of us. plus an open wood fire. This cabin has a home built fire place ( which backs onto a home built pottery kiln ) but is otherwise made from rescue materials. In this cabin we had a soup and bacon sandwich lunch heated over the fire. The children then toasted marshmallows while we had biscuits as dessert. We also had coffee but cheated by boiling the kettle on the gas ring in cabin one.

Keith also has a converted summer house complete with roof tip viewing area on the edge of the wood looking out over open fields. From this vantage point he can watch various birds and animals including foxes and deer.

 Inevitably there are projects under way. One such is fixing a small circular saw and its stand

This by no means completes his constructions as he has a home built garage housing an old dumper truck and trailer; a shed housing a generator, a very large wood pile and much more. The dumper truck dates from the late fifties/ early sixties judging from its Petter diesel engine. The garage features half open sides and a thatched roof. Among the more bizarre constructions is a platform which apparently houses a concert by a guitarist relative. Apparently they play at the annual party in the wood hosted by Keith. 

This description doesn’t do justice to the wonderful collection of found objects decorating the cabins. This excepts the summerhouse viewer which contains pictures painted by Keith. These are largely forestry and rural scenes and seemed very good. One had pottery leaves.

Alex and Ellen loved the camp. Although cold, windy and showery they spent most of the time roaming around. Keith has an old ride on mower which we didn’t see but apparently Alex likes to drive. My feeling was that this is a paradise for children with even a modest interest in nature. The dumper truck is a bit too fierce for Alex to drive as yet.

There are other camps in the wood although all were unoccupied when we visited. One had a virtually complete small sawmill.

Although Keith is married with a grown up daughter he apparently spends many weekends working on his camp or communing with nature. Despite his annual party I got the impression he enjoyed being solitary or at most having a few folks around.

A level single track led to the site but turning at the end did pose a small problem. On a wet day we only suffered wheelspin once while manoeuvring.

Old time radio

Living in the country when I was a boy in a house without electricity our main source of news and entertainment was the radio. We had a battery radio so we didn’t need mains electricity. This was a battery radio quite unlike modern ones. It had two batteries, a lead acid “accumulator” of which we had two, one in use and the other charging in the nearest village.

The accumulator powered the valve filaments and lasted maybe 5 days. One of the frustrations was the accumulator running out in the middle of a programme. The cells were in a thick glass jar with a metal handle. This enabled it to be carried on a bicycle. The high tension battery was about the size of two bricks, a solid battery like a present day lamp battery but much larger. This supplied up to 120 volts with a series of tapping points for lower voltage. It would last several months and replacements were ordered from the Co-op to arrive with our grocery delivery.

While there were some dedicated children’s programmes on “Children’s Hour” such as Larry the Lamb( "Please Mr Mayor" was a frequent quavering plaint ) and Norman and Henry Bones ( the boy detectives ) most of my listening was to programmes enjoyed by my parents.

Among the earliest was ITMA ( It’s that man again- the man being comedian Tommy Handley ) Most of the word play and jokes were over my head. I do recall Colonel Chinstrap who interpreted everything as an invitation to have a drink ( “ I don’t mind if I do “ ) and of course Mrs Mopp ( “ Can I do you now, sir “).

My father was a great fan of “Have a go”. I suppose this was among the first reality shows. The format was Wilfred Pickles interviewing, and then questioning for prizes, members of the public. The questions were designed to be answerable and small cash prizes were offered if correct. When answered Wilfred would say triumphantly “ Give him the money, Barney” to Barney Colehan the shows producer. Later Barney was supplanted by Mabel Pickles, Wilfred’s wife. The interviews were light hearted designed for comic effect but not at the expense of the interviewee. An example often used was “ If you could say to your wife “ I love you darling but” what would the but be”? One answer I recall was “ I wish you wouldn’t squeeze the toothpaste in the middle”.

Generally comedy programmes were in favour. I always thought the most bizarre was “Educating Archie”. The format was that a comedian was trying ( and failing ) to educate Archie, a sassy child. The bizarre arose because Archie was a ventriloquists’ dummy – on radio!

Other comedy favourites included “Take it from here” and “Much Binding in the Marsh” the latter set in a spoof RAF station. In the just post war years with National Service meaning the forces were a common denominator, many programmes and jokes used the forces as a basis.

As I grew older I became a bit more adventurous and strayed beyond the BBC Home Service and Light Programme. Radio Luxemburg was exciting because it was completely different. We could only pick it up at night as it was on the fringes of reception.  I enjoyed “Smash Hits”. The idea was to request a record you hated which was played and then smashed. With old shellac records, pre vinyl, there was a very satisfactory smashing noise.

Our listening wasn’t all comedy as Any Questions was a common choice; along with Friday Night is Music Night. Many years later we went to a broadcast of Friday Night is Music Night in Middlesbrough. I was amazed how little the format had changed with a guest singer or duo and BBC orchestra.

I was entranced by the Goon Show. A completely different comedy show it set a pattern to surrealist comedy. I suppose one reason for my devotion was that my parents just didn’t like or understand it. In truth much passed me by  but the wacky voices held my interest. An example of a plot was “Ill met by goonlight” ( a title sending up the film “ Ill met by moonlight”) The plot involved heroic saboteurs ( Seagoon etc )  on Crete hitting the Germans over the head with socks filled with spaghetti thus convincing them Italians had turned against them.

One good joke I remember was based around the new Egg Marketing Lion branding. As Neddy Seagoon said” It’s all a lie, they aren’t lions eggs “

Cortina

I’m devoting a post to the Ford Cortina car. I find automotive technology generally, and this in particular, interesting. I guess this interest is fairly personal to me so maybe now is the time to give up and read something else. I have a personal interest in that I had, slightly by accident, the last model in almost the last year of production.

The Cortina entered production in 1962. It was named after Cortina d’ampezzo an Italian ski resort, a name designed to be useful in many markets and languages. At first it was the Consul Cortina in the UK harking back to a name Ford used for many years but the Consul part was soon dropped.

The main competitor was the British Motor Corporation and their design philosophy was completely different. Ford looked to make a very simple car with a traditional “3 box” layout as opposed to BMC with front wheel drive transverse engine , hydrolastic all independent suspension of the BMC 1100 series ( later 1300 series ).

This design philosophy difference continued for years with BMC continuing with the 1800 and Maxi to espouse front wheel drive, hydrolastic suspension while Ford continued with its much simpler designs. Ford won the sales contest decisively. Ultimately BMC tried to go to more conventional models with the ill fated Marina. Ironically The BMC philosophy captured the industry and its transverse engine fromt wheel drive became to norm for small and medium cars. But by then the successor Rover company had gone out of business.

The Cortina was not only a very simple car with an enlarged Anglia engine of 1200cc ( 1500cc added later ) but the rear suspension was the old fashioned leaf sprung live axle while the front suspension was by Macpherson strut. This independent suspension was an ingenious method pioneered by Ford but later very widely adopted, The car got front disc brakes in 1964.

The Cortina was wildly successful , it was cheap to make  (so profitable ), light, reasonably economical and possessed a large boot. The BMC 1100 was none of these things. While a technological marvel, far more advanced than the Cortina, it sold well but made very little money for BMC.

Ford realised the PR value of racing and looked to Colin Chapman’s Lotus company for a racing version. Lotus was already making a twin cam 1600cc version of the Ford engine so that was an obvious choice. The rear axle was coil sprung and with a more positive location . The Lotus Cortina enjoyed significant success but it was always a strange sight to see it cornering on 3 wheels with the outside front in the air. Perhaps the most amazing feat was The RAC rally when Jim Clark, a F1 driver, drove a Lotus Cortina with great verve. With co- driver Brian Melia, Clark achieved high placing despite having no experience

The Cortina engine was a modification of the Anglia engine which began to show its age. This was remedied in the Mk11 which had a crossflow engine. So called because inlet and exhaust were moved to opposite sides of the engine. The car was completely restyled and engine capacity slightly increased so that the base engine became 1300cc

The Mk111 marked a major departure. A complete restyling took on the “coke bottle” look with a wider body of the same length. The front strut suspension was replaced by a double wishbone while the rear axle now had coil springs and a 4 link location. This latter followed the design philosophy of the earlier Lotus Cortina. There was a major engine addition with the 2000cc Pinto single overhead cam engine, later available in 1600cc form.

I always felt the Mk111 was the ugliest Cortina, over ornate and too American..

The mid 70’s saw a complete rethink in style plus improved anti corrosion techniques ( this had been a problem with the Mk111) much simpler in shape with increased glass area.

Finally 1979 saw the introduction of the Cortina 80 facelift of the Mk1V design which became universally known as the MkV.. Although still selling well the MkV became the final model.

After redundancy from Unilever I took a job with a tiny company on Teeside. Part of the package was a new Cortina 2.0 GL. I had been a great fan of the BMC later British Leyland  technological approach but after looking askance at first I became a great fan. After many years experience it was a well sorted car which felt rugged and yet drove well.. I was only to spend a year on Teeside but I unhesitatingly bought the car when I left. Driving back and forth between Merseyside and Teeside at weekends I had driven 27000 miles in a year, far more than before or since.

Immediately after work on a Friday I would drive the 3 hours, 150 miles back to Merseyside.  Down the A19 and A1 then through Leeds and onto the M62 trans Pennine motorway. On reaching the motorway a Rolling Stones tape to liven me up and a steady 70-75mph cruise round Manchester and then the North Cheshire motorway back to Merseyside.

I kept the car until it was surplus to our needs in 1991 with Martin taking over for a while before he left for university but then it had to go. It was the only car I have ever had which went “round the clock” ie over 100,000 miles. It went down to the south of France at least once and acquitted itself well. With two adults and 3 children aboard we needed a roof rack for all our luggage but it still kept a steady fast cruise on the autoroute.

To my lasting regret I gave most of my records to new buyer. Although he was local I never saw the car again..