Tall Ships from the Irish Regatta moored at Albert Dock, Liverpool

My mate Stan (aka The Aga Man) and I had a walk down to the Albert Dock on September 1st to see the Tall Ships which had sailed in as part of the Irish Regatta.

I am still madly in love with my new phone and its camera, so I had to take some pics. These are amongst the most arty and staged. The yellow submarine, more of a barge than a Tall Ship was an added bonus. Enjoy!

Tall ship with Liver Building and Mann Island in distance and artful lamppost echoing mast position

Tall Ship appropriately moored in front of Maritime Museum with pump house chimney reflecting mast position

 

Utterly delightful Yellow Submarine Barge painted in rainbow colours, "Want one!"

Success story from Heritage Open Weekend

The Phillips Graves on the front row of the cemetery

Just a little story that I thought you might like...

Yesterday was Heritage Open Weekend at Deane Road Jewish Cemetery and was our first real test. The cemetery has been refurbished, the guides were on hand and all systems were go, ready to welcome the first visitors since the project was finished.

A tall man with grey hair and a beard and boundless enthusiasm turned up at 11am,  without looking at the evaluation sheets I think he was Douglas Jackson from Wiltshire.


He was holding a sheet of paper containing the names of 10 of his relatives whose graves he was hoping to discover. The first two were Phillips, Elizabeth and Isaac. And lo and behold their graves were on the front row, facing him, as he started to tell me what he was looking for.

The next names, Caroline Jackson and her husband, were on the third row from the front.
And all four graves have only been re-erected within the last 6 months after laying on the ground for decades.

You can see a small film clip here

It was like a slightly surreal Anneka Rice moment, where she would rush in, find the clue and then run back to the helicopter to fly to the next one. 

"Hello I want to find some graves, oh there they are, and over there too.... thanks very much, marvellous, off to the next clue"

Not at all like the usual hours it takes to meander up and down and dig at moss with the tips of your shoes and poke your fingers behind ivy tendrils. Shaking  your head and saying "I think it must be a row further back, perhaps it is underneath the one that fell over...?"

(To be fair, he did have to look at bit harder for the next graves but to say we found the first 4 within a moment was simply amazing).

He told me that if we doubted the importance of our open day, and whether we were right to spend so many hours waiting to greet our visitors then we should tell ourselves, that as far as he was concerned, for his visit alone it was worth it. Awww! 

Later when we asked him how he had found out about the cemetery, he said he had known about it for decades but had thought it to be still overgrown and impassable. He had only heard about the restoration and the open days when talking to "Someone from the council, from Liverpool, on holiday in Moscow. A middle-aged man".

If you are that man, do please get in touch, I want to shake your hand!

#It'sLiverpool

Reconsecration of Deane Road Jewish Cemetery

Before and After - photo by Keith Lloyd

Deane Road Jewish Cemetery, Kensington, Liverpool celebrated the completion of its more than half-a-million pounds restoration at a formal reconsecration service yesterday, Sunday 2nd September 2012 at 1.30pm.

The service was given by Rabbi Mordechai Wollenberg from Childwall Synagogue, who also made a speech, followed by Saul Marks, from Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation (who said very nice things about me and gave me flowers and made me cry) and Bill Maynard member of the Heritage Lottery Fund North West Committee. The HLF generously funded over 80% of this exciting project, with the balance coming from private donations or contributions-in-kind of time from volunteers.

The service was attended by members of the hard-working committee of volunteers who have driven the project for more than 5 years, some of the project’s patrons - Professor E Rex Makin who has been a very generous donor to the project and Rt hon Jane Kennedy. Also there were our two staff members Annette Birch and Carol Ramsay, who I manage, along with some of the contractors who have carried out the work and many of the volunteers who have worked in the cemetery - including local churches, police and council staff. They were joined by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Gary Millar and members of the Jewish Community, including descendants of some of the people buried in the cemetery.

Today, September 3rd also sees the 175th anniversary of the opening of the cemetery in September 1837 so the timing could not have been better.

And if you want to come and see it, this important Grade II listed Victorian Cemetery is featured in the Heritage Open Days 2012 programme for the first time this year and will be open on several occasions during September to ensure that as many people as possible are able to visit during this special month.

I believe this is a good news story for Liverpool’s heritage. It is wonderful to see a derelict site restored to its former glory and I am particularly delighted that we can now offer School visits so that Liverpool children can learn more about the people who shaped the city. This occasion marks the fulfilment of the dreams that have driven our volunteers through a very tough project and one that we wondered sometimes whether we would ever see.

Speaking at the service, Bill Maynard from HLF said “It is wonderful that HLF has been able to support the vital restoration of Deane Road Jewish Cemetery. As a final resting place for some of Victorian Liverpool’s most influential figures, this has huge significance to the local community. Thanks to the work that has been carried out here, this fascinating historic site will be preserved for many years to come.”

Potted history of the restoration project

Deane Road Jewish Cemetery has secured almost half a million pounds for its restoration plans from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. The funds have  allowed for the full restoration of the cemetery; the repair of boundary walls, restoration of the Grade II listed archway, above which is inscribed “Here the weary are at rest”, the re-erection of fallen gravestones, safe paths around the cemetery and the provision of a new purpose-built visitors centre and formal gardens. The cemetery is the final resting place of many important Victorian Liverpool Jews like David Lewis of Lewis’s store fame, the family of H Samuel (Jewellers), Charles Mozley, first Jewish Mayor of Liverpool and Dr Sigismund Lewis, pioneer of programmes of school vaccinations in the city and doctor to the Cunard Line. Over 1700 people were buried in the Deane Road cemetery between 1837 and 1904, with a few reserved plots being filled later, up until 1929.

From this...

The view from the steps of the cemetery looking towards the front row of graves 1991

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...To this

Cemetery on Reconsecration Day September 2012

 A short history of the cemetery itself

Deane Road Cemetery is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Liverpool. It was opened in 1837 and closed for regular burials in 1904. The last reserved plot was filled in 1929. It is the property of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, which has worshipped at the beautiful Princes Road Synagogue since 1874.

Although there are references to Jews living in Liverpool in the 1750s, it was not until the 1770s that a permanent community was established in the city. The families were mostly of Prussian and Dutch origin and were skilled artisans, such as silversmiths and watchmakers. They were financially very comfortable and quickly assimilated into the English upper-middle classes.

As the second city of the British Empire, Victorian Liverpool continued to attract successful Jewish merchants from across the country and Europe, including various families of Bavarian cotton barons in the 1860s and 1870s. Consequently, many of the people buried here were among the rich and famous of the day, including David Lewis, the retail mogul who founded the chain of Lewis’s department stores.

Sadly, the cemetery became derelict soon after its closure, and became very badly overgrown. In the second half of the 20th Century, it was a target for trespassers, fly-tippers and vandals. A number of restoration attempts failed for a variety of reasons, until a committee of local volunteers secured nearly £500,000 from the National Lottery through the  Heritage Lottery Fund to repair and restore the fabric of the cemetery, re-erect the fallen tombstones and establish a regular tours programme. After ten consecutive years’ work on the cemetery, it was reconsecrated in September 2012, exactly 175 years since the first burial here.

There were lots of thank you speeches yesterday, although I didn't give one myself, so I want to take this opportunity to personally thank the following people for their support and help in getting us to this point and through the various stages. Our fabulous committee of course, chaired by Saul Marks - Arnold Lewis, Muriel Sumner, Lisa Shearwood-Vingoe, Maria Curran, Cath Taylor and David Grantham; our staff Annette Birch and Carol Ramsay; the people who got us through the plans and the build, Kate Dickson, Peter Hamilton, Neil Hutchinson, Richard Burke and Dave Hollywood; Rex Makin and Miranda Rijks for their generous financial support when it was most needed, Ruth Webster for starting us off, Sally Smith from HLF for holding our hand, Larry Murphy for encouraging volunteers to come and tackle the undergrowth when we first started and everyone at the Probation Service for their unstinting support year on year ever since.

It has been a huge undertaking, I am very proud of what we achieved and I hope that lots of genealogists, school children, historians, descendants, local people and cemetery lovers will find the time to come and have a look around for themselves.

A talk about David Lewis, founder of Lewis's stores

Illustrated presentation by Arnold Lewis,

Chairman of the Liverpool Jewish Historical Society, President of the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council, and the Jewish Community’s appointed archivist.

entitled

'David Lewis & his Legacy'

on

September 4th at 11am-12.30pm.

at

Kensington Methodist Church, 294 Kensington, Liverpool L7 2RN

(next to HPL properties)

Admission FREE

The presentation will include details about David Lewis, his life, his interests, his philanthropy and the principles which he adopted in creating a successful retail empire.


Followed by an optional cemetery visit afterwards from 12.30

Please RSVP CarolRamsay@deaneroadcemetery.com if you would like to attend.

It is all happening in Newsham Park on Saturday

On Saturday afternoon, 1st September, local residents are invited to take a stroll around Newsham Park and see for themselves some of the improvements that have been recently carried out. As part of various funding programmes and initiatives, the park, which missed out on Heritage Lottery Funding in 2008, has been slowly making strides and seeing lots of work carried out.

To celebrate, members of Newsham Park Forum, chaired by Kensington and Fairfield Labour Councillor Louise Baldock, are inviting people to come and have a walk round on Saturday afternoon and see some of the developments for themselves.

Louise said “Working together in partnership, local residents, the council, Glendale, City Safe, our popular Friends Group and all the different park users have brought about some great and positive changes. We would love it if visitors took the opportunity to come for a stroll on Saturday afternoon and see for themselves.”

New football pitches have been built to replace those built upon on West Derby Road, these are now served by a brand new pavilion and changing rooms, with fully “accessible” toilets.

The pavilion also boasts a brand new kiosk – the Lake View – which opened last weekend and will be open 7 days a week for those who would like an ice-cream and a cup of tea. This will be open on Saturday of course.

Liverpool Model Boat Club have recently moved to the boating lake making it their permanent home. They will be displaying their model boats during this afternoon.

A new cricket strip was laid down last week for the benefit of local cricketers, it is hoped to have a match playing from 3pm (and maybe the chance for people to have a little practice).

A representative of a local fitness group who workout in the park will be available at the kiosk from noon for half an hour to talk to anyone interested in joining and there is new exercise equipment people can try out, picnic tables where parents can sit while their older children play on the new teen playground. With the help of a local wildlife protection group, SWIPE, floating rafts have been installed on the lakes for the wildfowl to rest safely; there are new signage and information boards, additional tree planting and wild-flower planting and the local school, St Francis of Assisi Academy has adopted the gardens on Denham Drive which they planted up in the Spring. The antique gate posts have been repaired too, while there are plans currently afoot to restore the lights using new solar technology.

A few months ago a performance of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale was very well received too.

The Tiber Street Council School First World War Memorial

You may remember an earlier post about a WWI memorial which was commissioned by Tiber Street School, Liverpool and hung on the wall at the top of the stairs next to the Head Teacher's office. We presume that those fallen were former pupils of the school.

I have now had the opportunity to see the memorial up close and to reproduce its contents. Close up photos are below, along with the names of those lost in the Great War, in the hope that they will be of use to genealogist and local historians. 

The names shown on the memorial are:

William Ball, Henry Beatson, George Boadle, Sydney Booth, Harry Burgess, Albert Carter, Charles Cleator, Robert Creer, Jonathan Daykin, Frank Ellicott, Roger Farrer, Thomas Fearon, John Fielder, Herbert Fletcher, John Fletcher, Alec Taylor (added later), Frank Foulkes, Frank Goodwin, Percy Haseldon, Harry Hogg, George W. Isaac, John Kinrade, Arthur Kirsopp, Harold Lloyd, Robert Lloyd, Joseph Martin, Alfred Moir, William Munro, George Murray, George Price, William Darling (added later), George Clark (added later), Oswald Procter, William Smith, Harold Stubbs, Joseph Sutton, William Thomas, Thomas Thompson, Arthur Todd, John Wallace, Walter Webber, James Webster, William Welch, Robert Williamson, Alfred Wockenforth, Stanley Wood, Joseph Worthington

This picture shows the top of the carved wooden war memorial which reads Tiber Street Council School

This plaque is on the bottom of the memorial and reads "Designed and Executed by C L Poynter, 46 Beaumont Street, an old scholar"

The war memorial showing the names of the fallen in the First World War from Tiber Street School

Really pleased to get this email from Oxfam

After the Liverpool Wavertree Labour Party jumble sale in December, I took my unsold books to the Oxfam shop on Allerton Road. They took my details and said they were going to put a sticker inside each book so that they could let me know in due course which they had sold and how much money they had made on the donation.  I confess I had forgotten all about it, but this email arrived tonight.  It shows how much they have made on the books up until the financial year end and how much they were able to add through gift aid.  I am so pleased, I haven't come across a scheme like this before but it really does make you feel good and it will definitely encourage me to take more stuff in future.  I thought you might be interested in what they had to say in case it motivates you to take some unwanted items to them instead! The email begins here: Dear Louise, The life-changing difference you make Thank you for being part of Tag Your Bag, the Gift Aid scheme in our shops that means your donations are worth 25% more. Here’s what you’ve raised since you joined the scheme: Sales: £62.06 Gift Aid: £15.52 Total: £77.58 We hope you're still happy to donate this money to Oxfam, as we can use it to make a big difference. But if you've changed your mind, find out what to do next and let us know within 21 days. The total amount your goods have raised in the financial year 2011-2012 is £62.06, plus £15.52 in Gift Aid. In the same year our emergency and development work reached a staggering 15 million people in 55 countries, thanks to amazing supporters like you. Thanks for supporting your local shop. With best wishes, Sarah Farquhar Head of Retail

How your money helps* This money could help improve health care in Malawi by giving 1 healthcare professional a bicycle. More mobility helps more patients. "Guardians used to carry patients on their backs or in wheelbarrows. Some were dying because they were reaching the hospital too late." – Effie Kapalamula is a trained healthcare volunteer in the Chiradzulu District.

PS. Please keep bringing your unwanted things into your local Oxfam shop – we really need good quality clothing, bags, accessories, books, music and homewares. Don’t forget to 'tag your bag.'
More about the Tag Your Bag scheme.
*This is only an example of what this money could achieve. The cost of programme work is subject to regional variation and for indicative purposes only.

Guess who has a new camera phone?

I have upgraded my phone contract this month and am now the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy SIII. I couldn't be more delighted, particularly over the quality of the photographs and video film I am now able to make.

I know I have been conspicuous by my absence this month on blogger so I thought I would do a quick burst update using some of the great (and "still learning") photos I have taken.

Let me know what you think!

Liverpool West Derby Labour Party Summer Gala Picnic at the beautiful Lowlands, a beautiful Grade II-listed mansion house set in a rare Victorian city woodland garden and home to the West Derby Community Association.Well worth a visit if you have never been - picnic or no picnic.
A big thank you to Stephen Twigg MP and the team for inviting me, we had a great time and raised lots of money on the raffle!

The fourth of anniversary of the murder of Michael Causer was commemorated at an event in Liverpool on August 2nd 2012. Around 100 people came to pay tribute to Michael and to other victims of hate crime in the North West. As well as remembering Michael, a teenage boy killed in 2008 in Huyton for being gay, we remembered Jonny Delaney, a teenage boy killed in 2003 in Ellesmere Port for being a gypsy, Anthony Walker, a teenage boy killed in 2005 in Huyton for being black, Sophie Lancaster, a teenage girl killed in 2007 in Bacup for being a Goth, Albert Kennedy, a teenage boy killed in 1989 in Manchester for being gay and Gary Skelly, a child-like 53 year old killed in 2011 in Liverpool for being disabled. There were tears as we rededicated ourselves to fighting prejudice and recognising difference with the theme that the human race is one big family.
A big thank you to the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, the Mayoral lead for Community Safety, the Mayoral lead for Looked After Children and the Labour candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Merseyside for accepting my invitation and giving their support, along with other councillors, residents and organisations, including the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, Sahir house, Venture Housing Associations and community members of the LGBT network. We were also humbled to be joined by Albert, Sophie and Anthony's family. Those who think that equality has been achieved and all this focus on equality and diversity is misplaced should think again as these terrible stories show.

The Michael Causer Foundation, chaired by Gerry Proctor and set up by Michael's parents, Marrie and Mike, is dedicated to supporting young people in particular who find themselves with housing needs as a result of their sexuality - perhaps their parents have thrown them out for being gay. 

Liverpool Pride 2012 began with a very wet march through Liverpool city centre and down to the Pier Head. It absolutely did rain on our parade, but undaunted we put our best foot forward and were rewarded by the cheers and applause of thousands of people who lined the streets, despite the downpour. I dried off sitting on the Labour LGBT stall before the sun finally came out and I sat with friends enjoying listening to music and marvelling at everyone's costumes as they strolled past. The theme this year was "nautical but nice" with sailor boys and girls in abundance. Great fun - and we recruited quite a lot of new members to the party too. A big thanks to everyone who came down to support us, gay or straight or simply flamboyant, couples and families enjoying a great day.

I have just enjoyed a lovely, relaxing family holiday in Cornwall - and if you think I have caught the sun, then I can tell you this is where it happened. The most beautiful beach in the world, Marazion, overlooking St Michael's Mount. We ate the most enormous Cornish Pasties for lunch. I asked for the "medium" ones shown on the menu. The serving assistant said "They are "large" you know" and I replied "Well then it should say so on the menu surely?" She replied saying "We do have "large" as well but you have to pre-order those". I was somewhat bemused, but who cares, they tasted fantastic. Worth every penny, pasty tax or not. While I sat in the sun reading "Started early, took my dog" by Kate Atkinson (my recommended holiday reading), the others walked over to the island. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the tiny trail of people, walking across the causeway to the left of the island as the tide went out.

We enjoyed another beach day, at Trevaunance Cove in St Agnes, which was celebrating the fantastic work of the RNLI with a fun day. There were staged rescues throughout the day along with a sand sculpture competition.

This was my favourite, depicting a sun bathing beauty, it was about 5 feet long and extremely authentic. The hair is made from seaweed and the bikini from tiny stones and pebbles.










There were lots of sculptures relating to the Olympics with this representation of the stadium, complete with hand drawn flags of the nations; a torch held by an arm with an anchor tattoo, and the podium showing the three prize medal positions.

These voluntary entries amply demonstrated the passion that the country has had for the London 2012 games.

Huge plaudits are due to Tony Blair, David Beckham, Tessa Jowell, and Lord Coe who I prefer to remember as an Olympic champion, rather than that Tory bloke that used to represent a Cornish constituency - and everyone else who had a hand in bringing the games so successfully to London for 2012.

I watched the whole thing, avidly, as always, rediscovering a passion for cycling, rowing, sailing, diving, shooting, athletics... you get the idea.  After months of reading whinges on my Twitter feed from naysayers, banging on about the commercialisation of the games and the ineptitude of G4S, it was great to see everyone get behind our athletes when it mattered. And what a contrast with the prima donna footballers who have no real idea of sportsmanship at all. 
Rant over, you have heard it all from a million others.

On one of the less sunny days we took the kids to Flambards, a theme park at Helston where I took lots of photographs of rides and people having a great time. I particularly like this picture as the colours are so clear and the composition is great. I took one photograph of Joel as he sat in a "log" moving up the flume hill. He waved from 200 yards away - and on my photo, if you blow it up, you can clearly see his face and recognise him. The power of 2012 technology is amazing.

Roger, my step-father came to stay for the weekend and today we made our first visit to the Liverpool Festival Gardens. It did rain a bit but we spent that time under the awning at the bus cafe, drinking coffee and chatting to one of the Liverpool City Council Parks Officers who is helping me and the members of the Park Forum to improve and develop Newsham Park in Fairfield. Like me he is mad about parks and had come to see how the "opposition" are doing. It was a happy coincidence and we enjoyed a catch-up. (More of our work there later, watch this space.) Roger and I had a good look at the Chinese Garden and the Japanese Garden and strolled around some of the woodland paths. Our only criticism is that the water in some of the lakes and ponds needs some work, it is very green, probably a product of its shallow depths. Despite the weather the place was heaving with visitors. 

This afternoon after a carvery with Colin, we went over to the Tate to see the Turner, Monet and Twombly Impressionist exhibition. I couldn't take any photos of the paintings of course but I did take this interesting picture from the window of the second floor sculpture gallery later. Don't you just love the Liverpool water front? 

We weren't hugely "impressed" with Twombly but loved the other works. Roger and Mum went to Monet's garden at Giverny some years ago and he had seen some of the paintings - or others in the set, before. He said it was a delight to see them again. I have only seen Monet's work in general collections before, not in an exhibition of his work. I do have a lily in my yarden, given to me by a friend, who claimed it was taken from a cutting from Giverny, but I have no idea whether that is true. I have always loved water lilies, it is a family story oft told by my Dad that when I was tiny I tried to catch some in my fishing net in Sutton Park. The exhibition is on until the end of October so there is plenty of time for you to go. Even if like us, you are not hugely keen on Twombly, there is no doubting the wonderful work of Turner, with his incredible aptitude for portraying light, or Monet's wonderful colours. Well worth a visit!

In other news, I have reduced the asking price for the house, do please check it out on Rightmove, and make me an offer, go on, you know you want to!

And I am working flat out, night and day, to get everything ready for the reconsecration service at Deane Road Cemetery next month.

Don't forget, you can click on any photograph to see an enlarged version. 

Toxteth Heritage Trail launched today

THE fascinating history of Toxteth is being celebrated with the launch of a new heritage trail.

The trail plots a route through Liverpool 8 showing its architectural treasures and highlighting how the area has developed over the centuries.

It will be launched on Tuesday 24 July at 2pm by the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, in a ceremony attended by local community representatives and historians.

The trail shows some of the area’s outstanding architecture, including the ancient chapel, the Florence Institute, Toxteth Town Hall, St James in the City Church and the “Welsh Cathedral” - the Welsh Presbyterian Church. It also takes in the Grade II listed Princes Park.

Those taking part will also be following in the footsteps of some fascinating individuals including the man who helped to save 40,000 people from Nazi persecution, the preacher who brought a circus to his services and the gardener who inspired the design of parks throughout the country.

“Even those people who have lived in this area all their lives will almost certainly find things they do not know about their own neighbourhood if they follow the trail, “ said Councillor Steve Munby, cabinet member for neighbourhoods. “Toxteth has a rich and varied history which is sometimes overlooked and one that many people outside the area will find a revelation.

“There are numerous buildings of outstanding architectural interest and many fascinating tales about people who lived and worked in Toxteth.

“We are building on that heritage to ensure that not only are we celebrating Liverpool 8’s past but that it has a bright future as well. This trail is part of the Love L8 project which is highlighting what this area has to offer.”

The trail is marked by banners and display boards at each of its five distinct areas and there are blue footprints on the pavements marking it out. Brochures describing the trail are available from many of the venues along the route. 

Pedestrians and cyclists can tackle the full three and a half mile trail in full or in the five stages, each of which has its own special character.

It starts at St James’ Church at the junction of Upper Parliament Street and St James Place. The first leg of the trail goes from Upper Parliament Street (the old entrance to the deer park) up Park Road. The other parts of the trail are Park Road South from Beresford Road to Ullet Road; Princes Park ( from Ullet Road to Lodge Lane) ; Lodge Lane (from Bentley Road to Smithdown Road) and Smithdown Road to Ullet Road.

Primary sponsors for the trail are St James in the City and funding has been provided by the City Council, Plus Dane and Tesco.

• To pick up a handful of the maps and brochures for historical group or tourism purposes, please contact the Park Road offices of Plus Dane on (0151) 330 3519.

Exciting find unearthed for launch of Toxteth Heritage Trail

This treasure has been unearthed in the basement of the former Granby School – and it was moved there when the Tiber Street School on Lodge Lane  was demolished. 

It is a fine, carved wood commemorative plaque to the soldiers who died in the First World War. 

If anyone can shed more light on it, or knows someone who might, then please come along to the launch of the Toxteth Heritage Trail tomorrow, as we pull it from the school basement, dust it off and once more remind ourselves of treasures such as this – some still hidden, across the city.

The launch ceremony will be at 2 pm on Tuesday 24^th July, outside the Greenhouse Project on Lodge Lane. But there will be people on location from 12.30 pm onwards, with the official opening by the Mayor at 2 pm.

Billy Maxwell, Liverpool City Council Neighbourhoods Team Leader, South Liverpool told me

former Tiber Street School, Lodge Lane

"It was a lifelong local resident, Ivan, who said he thought it was there. We drove round on the off-chance to be told the old Granby school basement had been cleared. We talked the caretaker into letting us look anyway and in the gloom, like a scene from tomb raider, we found it.
Tomorrow will probably be the first time it has seen the light of day since the Tiber Street Primary School was demolished."

If you cannot get along to the launch of the Heritage Trail tomorrow but think you can help Billy and local residents to learn more about the war memorial, you can contact him at Edge Hill Customer Focus Centre,  80 to 82 Wavertree Road, Liverpool. L7 6PT. T: (0151) 225 8693

Former pupils might also be interested in the Facebook Group for the school 

Bogus callers: L6 / L13

Message from our local police

We have a recent report of two male bogus callers stating that they are
doing insulation work for LHT. LHT have confirmed that this is not true.
Male one is described as Scottish, late 30`s white,and goes by the name of
Jock or possibly Paul. Male two only has a very vague description of being
20-30 years of age. Their current mode of transport was a mighty van.
A mighty van is some times used by LHT. This van could possibly be stolen.
The two males gained access to a property by smashing a padlock off a
communal door, stating they were carrying out work for LHT and need to use
the loft space. We believe these two males were trying to gain access to
the flat below.

Please be alert

Shakespeare in Newsham Park: Publicity

Hello everyone, I know there has been a lot of interest in this event from my readers both here and on Twitter and Facebook. Please have a look at this flier which has just arrived in my inbox for further information. Mark and Pam Boardman tell me that tickets are £7 from News from Nowhere bookshop on Bold Street, or £5 concessions. However, for the disorganised, a deal may be done 'on the door' at the performance. 

And the Liverpool Network Theatre group have now been in touch to say that tickets are also available on the internet.


I am sure the residents of Kensington and Fairfield will be delighted to see this performance brought to their area, sharing it as they do with such lovely places at Sudley House and Reynolds Park.

We are on the cultural map!

Communities through film

Please see invitation below to Kensington, Fairfield and other Liverpool residents from Merseyside Polonia.

Merseyside Polonia in cooperation with Yellow House  would like to invite you to the third event of ‘Communities through Film’ project. Come on Thursday 12th of July, 2012 at 6.30pm to Kensington Community Fire Station.

As part of the project we will deliver 4 events, which will show movies about different communities. We already hosted 2 communities: the Middle-Eastern community and the African community. Both events were very enjoyable, there was a good discussion and good-tasting food.

Now it’s time to introduce the Asian community. The special guest is our Indian friend Bisakha Sarker from the Liverpool Indian Community. Bisakha is artistic director of Chaturangan, a Liverpool based company engaged in creative activities to raise the profile of South Asian dance. Also she is a highly respected performer, producer, choreographer,  researcher, educationalist, critic, writer and video maker. The film that we’ll have a chance to watch is "Roots and Wings".

As always apart from film you will have an opportunity to find out more about unique customs and traditions from the representatives of these local communities. There will be an opportunity to taste homemade traditional food.

See you at Kensington Community Fire Station, Beech Street, Liverpool L7 0EU

Free Entry!

A tribute: Rose Bailey Close, Croxteth

It is two years ago this week since Councillor Rose Bailey sadly and unexpectedly suffered a fatal heart attack whilst visiting  her family in Germany.

Today, proud members of her family, the Labour Party in Liverpool, local residents, members of the Police force, Housing Association representatives, council staff and the elected Mayor of Liverpool were present at the unveiling of Rose Bailey Close. A new housing development built by Lovells in partnership with Cobalt Housing.

Rose Bailey Close in the heart of Croxteth is the first of what the Mayor has promised will be a series of regeneration projects in the ward that Rose represented, and as he spoke to the large assembled crowd, Mayor Anderson said that every new project would remind us all of her, as she was the one that kick-started the progress in the area.

I have to say the houses look very attractive, the location is a good one, close to a major junction, and at the gateway to the once blighted Stonebridge Cross where at last regeneration work is underway. Unlike some developments named after famous people or much loved local figures, I think this is one to be proud to have your name upon.

There are those who say that Rose would have been mortified by all the fuss and the attention, but I think secretly she would have been pleased to have been honoured in this way, certainly her family are very proud.

Councillor Peter Mitchell, in his contribution thanked Councillor Malcolm Kennedy for his help in ensuring that this new development could be named in tribute to Rose, and my photo shows the three ward councillors, Peter, Martin Cummings and Stephanie Till with Malcolm at the entrance to Rose Bailey Close.

Shakespeare at Newsham Park

The Friends of Newsham Park and the Academy of St Francis of Assisi are pleased to announce that the Liverpool Network Theatre Group will be performing The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare on Sunday 15th July at 1.30pm.

The group has performed regularly in Reynolds Park, Sudley Park and Lowlands but this will be the first time at Newsham Park. The performance will be outdoors in the grounds of the Academy, the backdrop will be the former Park Head Gardner's mock Tudor House. The show WILL GO ON NO MATTER THE WEATHER!!! 

 

Come to the Lodge which is accessed on Gardners Drive, just through the lights on the junction with Sheil Road and Boaler Street. 

An unusual burial at Deane Road Jewish Cemetery

Saul Marks, our resident genealogist and chair of our committee, was going through the children's burial records for the cemetery the other day in an attempt to pin down some grave references, when he came across a very unusual entry:

9 Jul 1865: Abraham Glassman's leg from Workhouse hospital

All I can think is that the poor man was injured or the leg was infected and amputated. At any rate, somewhere buried in our cemetery is a severed leg!

Ping comes to Kensington!

 Ping! is an innovative three year street ping pong project which provides people with opportunities to play social and competitive table tennis, free of charge.

The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK playing – to bring about a sense of community spirit and get more people playing sport in the run up to the Olympics.

Ping! sees a month of activity and tables popping up in unusual and remarkable places.  Marked ‘Stop and Play’, the tables are up  for all to enjoy. Bats and balls are supplied: to join in the fun just borrow a bat from the side of the table!  As well as free-play, each ping-pong table features a varied programme of master-classes, competitions and free to join activities.

During the next month, you may see the tables, and people playing out and about in Liverpool including in Queen’s Square, on Bold Street and inside shopping centres! –there will also be one outside the Jubilee Sports Bank, in Kensington!

The project is being launched in town today and the table will be at our sports centre from early next week.

Pop over and have a go!


(Thanks to Lisa Shearwood-Vingoe from Riverside HA for letting me know about this)

Reputational Management, Vanity Searches and Ego surfing

I thought I would do an article about the art of searching for your own name on search engines. (And if it gets a good response here, on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn where my blogs are all reposted to, thanks to TwitterFeed, I will adapt it for more general use in my business and other professional work perhaps.)

I recommend it to everyone in the public eye as an important tool in reputational management, although I know that it has been fashionable to belittle the practice, calling it "vanity searching" and "ego surfing".

What do I mean by reputational management? I am talking about being aware of what is being said about you on the world wide web so that you can challenge, affirm or explain the detail.

Imagine for instance someone on an online forum has written a post about you, or commented on a post mentioning you, which claims that you have behaved in a certain way or taken a particular action. And that this post has attracted the attention of lots of other people who have gone on to comment, share the link etc. And imagine that you have been misrepresented in that post - for instance it accuses you of not turning up to something that in point of fact you were never invited to and knew nothing about, you would want to know about that post and submit your own comments to the forum, setting the record straight.

Or imagine that you have been quoted as believing in a certain policy (this library should close) when in fact you have been leading the campaign to keep it open. You would want to be able to put your own argument across.

And of course sometimes the basis of the article or post might be correct, but there may be more to it than meets the eye, and you need the opportunity to expand on why you made the decision that you did.

Occasionally someone has libelled you, or at the very least said something very rude about you, and it is important that you see this and take whatever action you feel is appropriate. A politician of another party once wrote something about me on their blog that was inaccurate and unfair and misrepresented my position, and when he refused to change it following a polite request, I instructed a solicitor to ask him to withdraw it - and he did. Thankfully, I have only felt it necessary to take this action once. A lot of stuff you simply have to take on the chin.

And of course, occasionally (but don't hold your breath), someone may have said something really positive and welcoming about you, and wouldn't it be lovely if you could read that, along with all the less positive things?

So, searching for your own name is a must if you care about your online reputation.

I suggest that you search for it in a variety of ways, to ensure that you capture all the variables. So for instance, in my case, I might search for "Louise Baldock", "Councillor Baldock", "Cllr Baldock", "Councillor L Baldock" "Cllr L Baldock" or Baldock, Liverpool.

And for those of you who are not so familiar with searches, please note the quotation marks, or speech marks as we often call them, in the examples above, they are key to a search of this nature.

If you search for Louise Baldock without speech marks then the search engine will return a list made up of every page that contains the word Louise and the word Baldock, irrespective of whether they are together on the page. So if Louise Rednapp visited Baldock Town FC and there was a story about it on the internet, that entry would be included. So in order to limit your search to those pages where the words are next to each other, you need to use the speech marks which then limit your search to precisely this term.

To explain the difference, if I search for Louise Baldock without speech marks, Google currently returns 292000 entries. But if I put the speech marks around my name then that drops to 25400. That is a much more manageable number to check out. Are they all about me? No, there are some in the first few pages which relate to Different Forename/ Middle Name Louise/Baldock for instance. And there are some pages which relate to genealogy - which is a huge generator of webpages about ancestors with the same name. And of course I am not the only Louise Baldock in the world, believe it or not. So there are some relating to a lady in Canada who raises dogs for instance, good luck to her!

Searching for yourself online is definitely not for the faint-hearted. You will quite possibly see all sorts of things that you were not aware of and which make you feel uncomfortable, but if reputational management is important to you, then you have to learn to bite the bullet. And sometimes, no matter what you find and read, you can do nothing about it, and there are no changes you can make, but at least you know it is out there.

It wont surprise you that I am notorious on certain Far Right websites as a stated enemy, in entries which contain my name, address, photograph (both official and taken illicitly), telephone numbers, facebook profile and a whole lot besides. They of course will take no notice of any request I might ever make to remove those entries, and indeed I wouldn't bother to ask them to, but it is useful for me to be aware of them in case they ever advocate any particular action against me, and where I might need to contact the police for instance.

You should not just search the "web" for your own name, you should also search "images" (which is a different tab on the Google Search, have a look on the tool bar now, it will revolutionise your world if you didn't know it was there. You can now find images of anything you like, your favourite singer or a flower in bud or a shop logo...) It may be the case that someone has identified you in a photograph, or used a photograph to illustrate an article about you, which you might have concerns about. Imagine if your mate took a photo of you on their hen/stag night looking the worse for wear and put it on their blog, or on a Facebook account that is not protected,  using your name. You would want to become quickly aware of this and ask them to remove the mention of you, or to take the photo down, perhaps.


Personally I use Google for all my searches, given that it is the biggest search engine in the world by a very wide margin, but if you are absolutely serious about keeping up to date about what is being said about you online, you should probably bookmark a whole host of search sites, like Bing, Yahoo, AOL, etc.

Just a word about reputational management on Twitter. I also have an account with MentionNotifier that emails me whenever my Twitter Name is mentioned in a tweet - I also get an email from Twitter, which gives me two emails every time, so perhaps I could cancel my free subscription to the former, although MN is a bit quicker than Twitter's own, which is vital in reputational management. But whichever you use, it is again really important to know when someone has tweeted you, or tweeted about you, you need to be very fast on the rebuttal, or to acknowledge the praise, or to take up the issue, whichever it may be. If you have a Twitter account then the expectation is that you are actively monitoring it, not leaving it for weeks on end.

And finally, to ensure that you are doing your best to capture everything that is being posted about you online, it is well worth setting up a Google Alert. This will generate an email to you, every day (or less often depending upon how you set it up) for any entry anywhere on the internet that is spidered by Google where your name occurs. I have dozens of Google Alerts set up. Not just for my own name, but for some of my councillor colleagues, our MP, my marketing clients, my own business, my ward name... even if you don't take anything else from this blog, I hope you will at least find this useful. Maybe you are mad keen on steam engines, Tranmere Rovers or Newsham Park, if so you should set up an alert and stay on top of all the news about that.

Good luck with your search, try not to get too upset when people say unkind things about you. It is a natural consequence of being in the public eye. And I will leave you with this thought....

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. Oscar Wilde



Illustrative photo drawn from http://www.bypassbrowser.com/the-importance-of-reputation-management-services.html/the-importance-of-reputation-management-services