In 1642 the civil war between king and parliament began. At first Liverpool was in royalist hands but in May 1643 Parliamentarian soldiers took the town. They dug ditches and erected earth ramparts around Liverpool to defend it from royalist attack. In June 1644 Prince Rupert led a royalist army to try and re-capture Liverpool. He described the town as a 'mere crows nest which a parcel of boys could take'.

At first attacks were repulsed but then the Parliamentary troops left by sea leaving the people of Liverpool to defend their town themselves. The royalists attacked Liverpool one night. The townspeople resisted fiercely but were overcome. Many of them were killed. The royalist troops then sacked the town.

However Liverpool only remained in royalist hands for a matter of weeks. In the summer of 1644 the royalists lost the battle of Marston Moor. Following the battle they lost the whole of the North of England, including Liverpool.

Liverpool began to grow rapidly in the late 17th century with the growth of English colonies in North America and the West Indies. Liverpool was, obviously, well placed to trade with colonies across the Atlantic. The town boomed. In 1673 a New Town Hall was built on pillars. Underneath them was an exchange where merchants could buy and sell goods.

At the end of the 17th century a writer named Celia Fiennes visited Liverpool and gave it a glowing report. She said: 'Liverpool is built on the river Mersey. It is mostly newly built, of brick and stone after the London fashion. The original (town) was a few fishermen's houses. It has now grown into a large, fine town. It is but one parish with one church though there be 24 streets in it, there is indeed a little chapel and there are a great many dissenters in the town (Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England). It's a very rich trading town, the houses are of brick and stone, built high and even so that a street looks very handsome. The streets are well paved. There is an abundance of persons who are well dressed and fashionable. The streets are fair and long. Its London in miniature as much as I ever saw anything. There is a very pretty exchange. It stands on 8 pillars, over which is a very handsome Town Hall.'

18th Century - In the early 18th century the writer Daniel Defoe also commented on Liverpool's booming trade. He said: 'Liverpool has an opulent, flourishing and increasing trade to Virginia and English colonies in America. They trade round the whole island (of Great Britain), send ships to Norway, to Hamburg and to the Baltic as also to Holland and Flanders (roughly modern Belgium).'

In 1708 the Bluecoat School for 50 poor boys was built. (It was called that because of their school uniforms). The Royal Infirmary was founded in 1749. In 1754 a New Town Hall was built.

Liverpool continued to grow rapidly. By the early 18th century it had probably reached a population of 5,000. By 1750 the population of Liverpool had reached 20,000 and by 1801 77,000.

Many of the inhabitants were immigrants. In 1795 a writer spoke about 'the great influx of Irish and Welsh of whom the majority of the inhabitants at present consists'.

From about 1730 the merchants of Liverpool made huge profits from the slave trade. The trade formed a triangle. Goods from Manchester were given to the Africans in return for slaves. The slaves were transported across the Atlantic to the West Indies and sugar was brought back from there to Liverpool. At the end of the century a famous actor visited Liverpool. When he was booed he told the audience that every brick of their town was 'cemented with the blood of an African'.

In the 18th century sugar refining became an important industry in Liverpool. Shipbuilding also became a flourishing industry. Rope making also prospered. (Rope was, obviously, needed in large amounts by ships). In Liverpool there was also some manufacturing industry such as iron working, watch making and pottery.

In the 18th century rivers were deepened to make it easier for ships to sail on them. The Mersey and Irwell were deepened in 1720 and the Sankey Brook in 1755.

The American War of Independence began in 1775. At first it disrupted Liverpool's trade. Obviously it ended trade with the colonies themselves but it also meant American ships attacked English merchant shipping trading with the West Indies. They captured the ships and tool their cargoes. This was called privateering. In 1778 France, Spain and Holland declared war on Britain. That meant ships from Liverpool could attack French, Spanish and Dutch ships and take their cargoes.

From 1748 night watchmen patrolled the streets of Liverpool at night. In 1778 a dispensary was opened in John Street were the poor could obtain free medicines.

19th Century - In 1801 the population of Liverpool was about 77,000. By 1821 the population had reached 118,000. In 1835 the boundaries of Liverpool were extended to include Kirkdale and parts of Toxteth and West Derby. By 1851 the population of Liverpool had reached 376,000. There were many Irish immigrants in the early 19th century. Their numbers reached a peak during the potato famine in the 1840s.

In 1802 Harthill Botanic Gardens were laid out.

At the end of the 18th century, sea bathing became fashionable among the upper and middle classes. They believed it was good for your health. In the early 19th century many people went sea bathing on the beach Northwest of Liverpool but in time newly built docks encroached on the beach.

The port boomed and many new docks were built. By the middle of the century Liverpool was second only to London. The Manchester ship canal was completed in 1894. Although the docks dominated Liverpool there were other industries such as shipbuilding, iron foundries, glass manufacture and soap making.

In 1799 and 1802 private companies began to supply piped water to the town. But it was expensive and poor people could not afford it. They relied on barrels or wells. A municipal water supply was begun in 1857.

The Philharmonic hall was built in 1849. It burned in 1933 and was rebuilt. The Central Library was built in 1852. St George's Hall was built in 1854. William Brown library was built in 1860. Picton Reading Room was built in 1879.

The Royal Southern Hospital opened in 1814. An eye hospital opened in 1820. The Northern Hospital followed in 1834. Stanley Hospital opened in 1867. The Walker Art Gallery opened in 1877. Stanley park was laid out in 1870 Sefton Park was opened in 1872. The Palm House was built in 1896.

From 1830 horse drawn buses ran in Liverpool and from 1865 horse drawn trams. The trams were converted to electricity in 1898-1901.

Liverpool officially became a city in 1880. By 1881 its population had reached 611,00. In 1895 the boundaries of the city were extended to include Wavertree, Walton and parts of Toxteth and West Derby.

20th Century - By 1901 the population of Liverpool had reached 685,000. In 1904 the boundaries of the city were extended again to include Fazakerly.

The Tower Building was built in 1908. In the 1910s three of Liverpool's most famous buildings were erected on the site of St George's dock, which had been filled in. The Liver Building was built in 1911. The Cunard Building was built in 1916. The Port of Liverpool building was also built at that time. The Lady Lever art gallery opened in 1922.

More than 13,000 Liverpudlians died in World War I. In 1921 a memorial was erected outside the Cunard building to all the Cunard employees who died in the war.

In 1928 a survey showed 14% of the city's population were living in poverty. This was, of course, much worse than what we would call poverty today. In those days poor people were living at bare survival level.

In 1934 the Queensway road tunnel was built. The Kingsway Road Tunnel followed in 1971.

In the early 20th century the city suffered a shortage of houses. Overcrowding was common, as was slum housing. The council built some council houses but nothing like enough to solve the problem. Furthermore Liverpool suffered severely in the depression of the 1930s and up to a third of men of working age were unemployed.

In 1974 the boundaries of the city were changed so it became part of an administrative area called Merseyside.  The Roman Catholic Cathedral was consecrated in 1967. The Anglican Cathedral was not completed until 1978.

In the later 20th century industries in Liverpool included engineering, cement manufacture, sugar refining and flour milling. For a time, in the 1950s and 1960s the local economy boomed but it turned sour in the late 1970s and 1980s as Liverpool, like the rest of the country suffered from recession. Liverpool became an unemployment black spot. One consequence of Liverpool's social problems were the Toxteth riots of 1981.

In the last years of the 20th century there were some hopeful signs. Liverpool remains a very important port. Because of its position in the Northwest it is the main port for trading with North America. In the 1980s Albert Dock was redeveloped and turned into an area of bars, shops and restaurants.

Liverpool is now trying to promote tourism using its heritage as an attraction. Merseyside Maritime Museum opened in 1980. The Tate Gallery of Modern Art opened in 1988.

The Museum of Liverpool Life opened in 1993. A Custom and Excise Museum opened in 1994. A Conservation Centre opened in Queens Square in 1996. Also in 1996 the Institute For Performing Arts opened.

21st Century

On 3 February 1888 John H Wood, Secretary of the Liverpool and District Teachers? Association, wrote a letter to the museum in praise of its schools loan service:

"?as a proof of the usefulness of the boxes, that scholars were set thinking and enquiring, so they have proved a real aid to teaching. We should be glad to get them oftener, since they have been so helpful an interesting.

...the selection and arrangement of duplicate specimens of instructive and attractive character from the museum collections, and placing them in small portable cabinets of less than two feet cubical measurement, of plain simple construction, and very portable.

These cabinets are circulated one by one for a definite period of one month among such of the public elementary schools of all denominations, within the parliamentary boundaries of the city, as have, on invitation, expressed a desire to see them.

Sixteen cabinets are in circulation, and sixty-four schools have each had a cabinet for one month, with very satisfactory results."

The pioneer schools loan service was launched at the museum in the spring of 1884, and was the first in any museum.

This week's blog for the World Museum's 150th anniversary year, is focussing a very important event in the museum's history; the day it reopened to the public for the first time after World War Two. Our Executive Director of Collections Management, John Millard, has been digging around in the archives and he's found an interesting anecdote about this day:

On the 26 January 1956, the museum reopened for the first time since war damage in 1941.  Writer, heiress and political activist, Nancy Cunard was visiting the museum and left a note for the director;

"Today, Saturday, 2 days after ceremonial opening and one day after public opening of "Lower Horseshoe" your attendant was counting the people as they came in: by 4pm ? (when I arrived) the number was 2,419 ? By 5, when the Museum shut, 2,892.  So well over 400 came in the last hour! A very good sale of booklets too."

We'd still like to hear from you if you have happy memories of visiting the museum. Can you remember the first time you ever went? Was it the first time you'd ever seen an Egyptian mummy? Did any artefacts from the museum inspire you in later life?

Leave your memories as a comment below...

Today's object featured on Radio Merseyside for the BBC's 'A History of the World' project, is the Ince Athena statue from our Classical collections. You will be able to hear Gina Muskett, curator of classical antiquities, talking about the statue on 'listen again' here. Here is Gina to tell us more about this beautiful and statuesque sculpture!

The statue has brilliant links with the local area, as it used to belong to Henry Blundell, who lived at Ince Blundell Hall. Many of you will have seen the entrance to the hall when travelling by road from Liverpool to Southport. We?ve just had an anniversary too ? in 2009 it was 50 years since the statues came to the then Liverpool Museum, as a gift.

I?m so lucky to be the curator of the ?Ince Athena? statue. I knew about her (yes, I know the statue?s not a real human!) even before I worked at World Museum. I visited the museum a lot when I was a student, and can remember seeing Athena in the old Ancient World gallery, and am really pleased that she?s going back on display again.

As you can imagine, statues get quite grubby when they?re on display without cases, and Athena has spent quite a bit of time in the National Conservation Centre, being cleaned up. She looks wonderful again now, as I?m sure you?ll agree when you see her again ? she?ll be on display from the middle of February, greeting visitors at the main entrance to World Museum.

I?m not a great pigeon fancier but I do have a soft spot for the biggest of this breed ? the long-dead Dodo. Depending on what you believe, the flightless bird waddled or strutted into history around 1693 when it was wiped off the face of the earth.

There is a very rare skeleton of a Dodo temporarily on display at World Museum. It is going to be featured on Radio Merseyside at 8.20 am on Monday 25 January 2010 as part of the BBC?s exciting series, A History of the World. Our picture shows curator of vertebrate zoology Dr Clem Fisher, who was recently interviewed for the show, with the incomplete composite skeleton. It has been in our collection since 1866 and has not been on display for at least 40 years.

Clem will tell listeners how specimens continue to reveal secrets: ?The skeleton was made up from various Dodo bones found in a bog and is quite complete. However, we recently discovered that the foot bones had been skilfully carved from wood ? probably in Victorian times.?

I have discovered that there is quite a controversy over what the Dodo actually looked like when alive. Live ones were brought to Europe from its only home, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. These captive specimens grew fat and waddled about their cages. One was painted by Jan Savery and his depiction led to the popular perception of the creature as a bird buffoon.

We now know the reality was rather different and that Dodos were more likely lithe birds that strutted around. Being flightless, they must have been pretty agile to find food in competition with other species. This interpretation is backed up by the 1991 rediscovery of long-lost drawings showing a slightly plump but alert bird. 

Then there is the theory about how Dodos became extinct. The popular story is that they were killed by the crews of passing ships. The Dutch, however, thought the Dodo tasted loathsome. I suppose it would depend how hungry you were. Some people said Dodo meat was tough but good to eat. There were other birds and animals on Mauritius to tempt the palate. Looking at the World Museum skeleton, I am reminded of the turkey after Christmas dinner so perhaps seafarers had the same idea. Turkeys were discovered in North America by the Spanish more than 400 years ago during the time Dodos were being hunted.

The name is probably of Dutch origin, shortened from dodaars meaning knot-arse, referring to the knot or tuft of feathers making up its tail. The Dodo had a relation on the neighbouring island of R�union called the Solitaire. Sometimes known as the White Dodo, it became extinct some time after 1705.

As we highlighted on yesterday?s blog, National Museums Liverpool is part of 350 museums and institutions across the country to have teamed up with the BBC for A History of the World project.

The BBC revealed yesterday a list of 10 objects chosen to tell a history of Merseyside and its place in the world. Five of these objects are part of National Museums Liverpool?s collection, and each will be featured on BBC Radio Merseyside over the next two weeks.

Tony Snell?s breakfast programme yesterday revealed the first object to be St Peter?s Church Hall Stage, and our curator of contemporary collecting Paul Gallagher, can be heard telling the story of the stage and its place in history.

Who?d have thought that in 1957, the stage would provide the meeting point for the world?s greatest song writing team, and signal the beginnings of the ?Fab Four??

The stage was most recently on display in The Beat Goes On exhibition which told the story of Liverpool?s musical heritage at World Museum , and will be on display at the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in Spring 2011.

Last week I spent an afternoon filming with the BBC Inside Out North West team, working on a programme being aired on BBC One this evening.

The programme is part of A History of the World project, formed out of a unique partnership between the BBC, the British Museum and 350 museums and institutions across the country.

For this particular programme, presenter Andy Johnson heads to the Wirral in search of Bidston Observatory?s Tide Prediction Machine, and our very own expert and curator of earth science Alan Bowden, was interviewed for the piece about National Museums Liverpool?s own collection of objects acquired from Bidston Observatory.

Tune into BBC One tonight at 7:30pm to unearth the history of Bidston?s Tide Prediction Machine, and learn of its place in the history of the North West region and its global connections.

You can also visit the Space and Time gallery at World Museum to learn more about our Bidston Observatory collection, and see some of the objects on display, and make sure you keep our blog and website for updates on A History of the World.

I don't know about you, but I think it's always good to start the new year by having a bit of a spruce up - whether it's spring cleaning or a bit of a make over! We're used to giving important objects a new lease of life here at National Museums Liverpool and this week we have Sculpture Conservator, Lottie Barnden, to tell us about the work she's been doing to help celebrate the World Museum's 150th anniversary...

To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of William Brown?s gift of a library and museum to the city of Liverpool, a marble bust of the man himself has been brought out of storage for conservation treatment, prior to going out on public display. This portrait bust by Isaac Jackson was sculpted in 1851, just nine years before the William Brown Library was completed.

When it arrived at the sculpture conservation studios, it was thought to be one of the filthiest objects we?ve had in for a long time! I suspect that it hasn?t been cleaned since it was first made. The bust section is attached to a socle (a type of small round plinth) using a section of copper dowel. The plaster fill around this dowel has become brittle and loose and the bust now wobbles and turns on its base, making it quite unstable and unsuitable for going on public display as it is.

The first thing for me to is to take the bust off the socle and remove the copper dowel. This is a procedure we often perform on the older marble busts as the copper or iron pieces that were used as fixings in the 18th and 19th centuries corrode over time and the rusting can migrate into the marble causing deep staining. The dowel will be replaced with a new one in stainless steel.

Next I can begin the cleaning. When an object as dirty as this comes in it is very rewarding to see the dramatic difference that a good clean can make to it. It is often the case that the layers of dirt can obscure the fine detail of the carving or the cleaning process can reveal more problems with the sculpture than you originally saw. Happily, with this bust, the marble itself is in good enough condition that I can use a type of precision steam cleaner to gently clean away the years of soiling and museum dust. There are some paint splashes found below the dirt but these can be cleaned off using a solvent treatment and there are no other nasty surprises to be found.

Once the bust has been cleaned and restored back onto its socle, all that remains is for it to be given a protective coating of wax to keep the dust and dirt separate from the marble surface. 

This will help to keep Sir William Brown looking his best for the celebrations! The bust should be ready for display in February, so keep a look out for him at the World Museum.

Here is this week's post celebrating the World Museum's 150th anniversary this year! This week we have a story from Ian Wallace, our Curator of Conchology & Aquatic Biology. Read on to find out about the staff who travelled on a luxury steam yacht to collect new specimens for the museum...

They were especially interested in collecting marine life and they focussed on sponges.  A sponge is one of the least complicated of all animal groups.  There are lots of cells in the sponge body but there is no organising brain or nervous system and no complicated body organs.  The whole body is a mass of small channels lined by cells that have a beating hair.  These beating cells draw in water and other cells grab tiny single-celled plants floating in the water, digest the plant cells and pass some of the digested food to their neighbours.  Other cells secrete a supporting skeleton of horny fibres or glass fibres.

These sponges may look a little strange but are of inestimable value in the scientific study of sponges.  Sponges have strange chemicals in their bodies to stop bacteria and other things killing them and these chemicals are being tested to see if any have properties to attack bacteria or even cancer, that affect humans.

Upon return to Liverpool, on May 27th 1876  the sponges were cleaned, labelled and sent to the national expert Henry Carter, in London.  He realised many had never been scientifically described or named.  The ?type? specimens on which these descriptions were made were returned to the museum.  Since then other sponge experts have asked to see them to understand exactly what Carter had in mid when he wrote his description. 

As luck would have it, the collection was away in London being examined by the then national sponge expert, Maurice Burton, at the time museum was fire bombed, in May 1941.  They were thankfully saved by being out of the city at the time and were returned to Liverpool after the war.

We have many of the documents relating to the voyage and Reverend Higgins wrote a book about it called 'A Field Naturalist in the Western Tropics'. It must have been a real adventure!  

I know I'm a day early, but 2010 will mean a pretty important anniversary for us here at National Museums Liverpool. It will be the 150th Anniversary of William Brown handing over the keys for what was then the Liverpool museum, which we now all know and love as the World Museum.

To mark this anniversary we?re going to be featuring a year-long series of World Museum-related stories on this blog. There'll be a story a week, with a mix of historical and contemporary pieces. We want to let you know all about the museum?s history but also give you a few behind the scenes peeks at the people, stories and events that make (and have made) this such a special museum.

To give you a taste of how the museum first came about, I can tell you that on 8 March 1853 the museum opened for the first time on Slater Street in Liverpool. It was then called the 'Derby Museum of the Borough of Liverpool' in honour of the Earl of Derby?s bequest of over 20,000 natural history specimens. We still have amazing specimens at the museum, ranging from an Arctic Fox to many beautiful butterflies.

We'd also like you to get involved by sending us your memories of the World Museum from both past and present. If you have a specific date that sticks in your mind, then all the better. You can submit your memories as a comment at the bottom of this post.

So all that remains is for me to wish you a Happy New Year and to invite you to come along and visit our fab, free museum in 2010!

Just a quick message to say "Merry Christmas, one and all" - hope you get what you deserve - and to remind you that all of our venues are open over the Christmas period (excluding Boxing Day and New Year's Day and closing at 2pm on Christmas Eve).

When the weather is filthy, the kids suffering from cabin fever, and your wallet a little on the skinny side there's always a day at your free, friendly, neighbourhood museum or gallery to get you out of the house. Check out our Christmas section to find out what's on over the holiday.

There's also a preview page describing some of the excellent exhibitions we've lined up for 2010. I'm especially looking forward to Toulouse-Lautrec at the Walker and China Through the lens of John Thomson at the Maritime.

Have a good one.

This is a bit last minute, but a reminder to watch the skies tonight for the annual Geminids shower. You should be able to see the meteors between around 8 and 10pm in the UK. It should be a good view - just had a look outside and the sky is clear, plus being close to the new moon there's not much moonlight. There'll be about 100 meteors every hour which should be visible with the naked eye. It's pretty chilly out there so if you're venturing out wrap up warm.

More on the Royal Astronomical Society website.

Do you have a passion for museums and galleries?  Are you interested in helping us improve access to our venues for Disabled and Deaf people? 

If you are and you do have the time to commit to it, then National Museums Liverpool would love to hear from you.  We are looking for people who consider themselves to be disabled people to join our Museums Advisory Group.

You will be expected to attend up to 6 meetings in a year.  Members are reimbursed for access costs when attending meetings and receive an attendance allowance. A BSL interpreter is present at all meetings.

If you are interested please contact Mo Smith at World Museum.  Mo is the National Museums Liverpool contact for the group.

There's more on accessibility at our venues on our main site.

If I could be described as anything it certainly wouldn?t have the words ?Queen of..? used as a prefix, it would probably be ?pain in the ..?. However there are people who definitely deserve to be given such a praising pseudonym.

For example on Natural World on BB2 last Wednesday evening biologist Andrea Marshall was given the nickname ?Queen of the Mantas?. This is deservedly so, as the documentary showed Andrea giving up everything for a life in Mozambique to study the endangered species of Manta Rays (to watch again click on the iplayer)

Although she would probably blush at the thought of it, Andrea reminded me of Rachel Ball, our aquarium curator at World Museum. Although she hasn?t left her life in the North West to save Manta Rays in a far flung part of the world she is making an effort to help conserve Thornback Rays.  The Thornback?s have been decreasing in numbers since the 1980?s so Rachel, her team and volunteer anglers are tagging rays in the name of conservation project RayWatch in the River Mersey and Liverpool Bay in order to track them. With this in mind perhaps Rachel should be dubbed Queen of the Thornbacks?

To get involved in RayWatch you can sponsor a ray, to do so either call 0151 478 4918 or visit www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/raywatch

Those of you who live locally might already have heard about the imminent arrival of over 100 penguins to the streets and venues of Liverpool. Go Penguins! launches on 22 November, and National Museums Liverpool is providing homes for 13 of the happy but slightly homesick birds. They include 'Moon Waddler', aka Neil Flipstrong, at World Museum, while the Maritime is hosting 'Under the Sea' penguin. This photograph was taken at the secret penguin storage facility and shows another of our arrivals, 'Look at Me' (front left) along with some of his feathered friends.

Each of the birds has been created by either local artists, schools or community groups and adopted by a local organisation. Together they form A Winter's Trail which you'll be able to follow around the city centre, making Liverpool a proper Capital of Christmas.

As well as our usual programme of festive activities and events we'll be hosting a series of special penguin events that are guaranteed to keep the kids amused over the Christmas holidays. We're even creating a dedicated penguin shop at World Museum. There'll be more on our penguins and our other Christmas activities on our main site shortly. In the meantime there's more penguin information on the official Go Penguins! website.  

Update: Should have mentioned that some of the penguins have already been sighted in an Antony Gormley-esque arrangement on New Brighton beach (more on the Art in Liverpool website). Local comedian, Paul O'Grady, has also created his own, 'Owl Ma Penguin', and the BBC website has a slide show of some of the other designs you'll soon be seeing round and about.

I thought my school days were over, but last week I was very excited to be able to join our class of Little Liverpool Designers on their very first school trip!

I had a lovely morning spent with Class R reception class from Kingsley Community School in Toxteth, touring Liverpool familiarising themselves with Liverpool?s famous landmarks to inspire artwork for the Museum of Liverpool?s dedicated children?s gallery Little Liverpool, opening 2011.

They will be working with illustrator Kate Pankhurst to develop the final artwork for display in Little Liverpool as part of our work with the ECHO in the Community programme, which aims to inspire young people by engaging in a cross section of activities, including the arts.

At four years old, Mrs Randles? reception class were a credit to their school, and it was fantastic to be surrounded by such young, inquisitive minds who were visibly impressed by everything they saw.

The first stop on our magical mystery tour of Liverpool was at the Anglican Cathedral, and I only wish I?d had a video camera with me to record their faces on walking into that grand, vast space and filling the air ?wows?!

We also took a trip to the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral, or Paddy?s Wigwam as it is affectionately known locally, where they were very taken with the colours and reflections coming in from the beautiful stain glass windows. Hopefully this will transfer to the marvellous artwork they?re soon to create for our Little Liverpool Gallery.

After the cathedrals, we also took a driving tour round many iconic buildings, including St George?s Hall and William Brown Street; home to World Museum, Central Library and the Walker Art Gallery.

Spotting the Radio City Tower overhead, our whistle-stop tour also took us past the Town Hall ? "where the mayor lives" ? and down to the waterfront where we met Museum of Liverpool buildings operations manager Martin Hemmings ? "Bob the Builder" ? and had a look at the location for Little Liverpool.

A lovely day out was had by all, so thanks goes to Mrs Randles and her ?helpers? for organising the trip, and for inviting Julia Bryan from the Museum of Liverpool team and I along. We look forward to seeing the wonderful artwork that Class R create in their roles as Little Liverpool Designers.