For any Old Dockers

[Dan]

First Annual Report of the Bootle School Medical Officer for 1908.







Average height/weight figures now.

____________________Boys height______________Girls height_____________________Boys weight____________Girls weight


15 year old children in 1908 were about the height and weight of today's 11-12 year olds.




1⅙d from 1908 is equivalent to approximately 38p today.

I posted this picture on the Old Photos thread last month. It was labelled Old School Photo Bootle Liverpool 1910.
These would have been some of the children covered by the above report.



Regards

Dan

[filsgreen]

Fascinating, Dan, thanks for posting.

[Dan]

Some more from the discussion of GF Lyster's presentation to the Institution of Civil Engineers.

The main part of this is about the disposition of the dock gates with respect to the river, and it also alludes, once again, to the exceptionalism of Merseyside-this time due to geography/geology. I do think, if things had been done differently, watching ships attempt to shoot the dock gates would have become the region's major spectator sport.









Regards

Dan

[Dan]

The link below is for the GF Lyster paper consisting of the presentation, discussion and correspondence regarding the paper.
The only things lacking, in the presentation, are the plans for the works, but I think these are part of the uncatalogued MDHB archive, in the possession of the Maritime Museum.
There is a total of some 30,000 documents in the archive. The museum website does give a drawer number (185) which has some of the documents and is available
for research purposes. Nothing online though.

https://ia800207.us.archive.org/17/item ... itgoog.pdf

Pages 15 to 127. Dock Extension .

Regards

Dan

[Dan]

The link below is for two papers presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers.
The first details the civils of the construction of the Mersey Railway underground system , decades before the road tunnels. Speaker Francis Fox.
The second paper describes the hydraulic lifts installed in the underground stations. Speaker William Rich.
There follows a discussion of both papers.


https://ia800207.us.archive.org/17/item ... itgoog.pdf

Pages 57 to 135

Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Construction of the Cunard Building

Foundations July 28 1913.



September 4 1914.



August 8 1916.



1936 Queen Mary leaving Clydebank.



Queen Mary interior.



Undated. Salthouse Dock.





Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Proposed scheme for Liverpool Waters.

Peel Ports/ Chapman Taylor project for the central dock area, covering 60 hectares (148 acres,23,680 square poles).









Opening at Bath Street.





Outline of possible football stadium included.





Central Park South (All ready for the remake of Friends)



Remodelled river front.



Dock area to the north of Bramley Moore





Illustrative potential cultural centre.



From Bramley Moore looking south.

[

Regards

Dan

[jimmyocx3]

Hi Dan, just a quick one, I've been doing a bit of family research for my wife, and discovered that one of her family members (Patrick Kelly) was killed in the J Bibby & Sons mill disaster on Friday 24th November 1911, do you know anything about this, as we had never heard of it.

LIVERPOOL DISASTER.
Oil-cake Mill Wrecked.
Explosion Dismembers Bodies.
Hospitals Filled With Injured.

An explosion with appalling consequences occurred at J. Bibby and Sons' oil-cake mills in Liverpool on Friday.
There were 400 employees engaged at the time, and of these it is known that 23 (final death toll 38) were killed instantly, while 100 are being treated in the hospitals of the city. The injuries of the sufferers are described as being of a ghastly nature. The disaster, it has been ascertained, was caused by the ignition of dust particles in the "devil's cellar,” a basement room in which a machine called the "devil" was used to crush the oil cake into meal. Several days ago an explosion at the Primrose Flour mills in Glasgow was found to have been due to an ignition of flour dust. On that occasion the premises were wrecked, four employees were killed and seven were terribly injured. Some of the survivors have related their hideous experiences. The roar of the explosion was like that from great cannon. Then the building rocked to such an extent that almost every one of the 400 employees was thrown down. Before they had time to recover flames were licking up through the building and rapidly enveloping different floors. So great was the force of the explosion that the roof was blown off. The workers on the floor above the "devil's cellar" met with dreadful fates. Nearly all were dismembered, and very few escaped alive. On the first floor the number of killed was also large, and here, too the survivors sustained ghastly injuries. Human remains fell in the showers of debris which littered the neighbourhood of the mill, and whole limbs were found a considerable distance away. Hundreds of workmen, many of them suffering from minor and some of them from severe injuries, crowded the streets after the explosion. Spectators shuddered at the sight of their faces and hands, which were besmeared with blood and bespattered with oil cake dust of a vivid yellow colour. Scores of workers were imprisoned on the upper floor. They gathered at the windows to anxiously await the arrival of the firemen, who removed them by means of safety appliances. One man who worked in the "devil's cellar" had a miraculous escape from death, but subsequently had to endure awful torture. He was not able to find a way out of the cellar after the explosion, and in desperation buried himself under a pile of sacks. Large numbers of rats sought the same refuge, and for two hours the unfortunate man waited for help in the company of the vermin, which cowered under his body. A boy wheeling a bread-van in the street was struck and killed by a door which was blown out of the building.

[Dan]

I only know of the word of mouth history that was passed down through the company over the years. There were quite a few of the lads who had spent their working lives at Bibbys. It was normal for the company to hold jobs open for those returning from war or national service.
The men who survived the explosion were known as 'half lungers'. When the extracted meal exploded the air containing the dust ignited. The men would have been inhaling air that was on fire. It caused terrible lung damage to those who survived, hence the term half lungers. The pain must have been excruciating.
Even when I was there,1979-1985, the lads from the extract, who brought samples to the lab, would be covered from head to toe- imagine Marley's ghost.
There is a book 'The Miller's Tale' about Bibbys- it might have more in it.

Regards

Dan

[jimmyocx3]

Cheers for that Dan, I used to deliver to the canteen when I first left school, I would hold my breath and run in with supplies and try and run out without breathing as the smell from production was so overpowering, I was amazed people could casually sit and eat their dinner.

[Dan]

The overwhelming smell I associate with the old building was of crude palm oil.
After my first day, I went home with a cracking headache. I had to get off the 56 at Sterrix Lane and walk through the golfy to clear my head.
I was OK after that.

I found the Factory Inspector's report for the 1930 explosion.
I've posted that as an edit on page 3 of the Adverts for Local Companies thread. Just trying to keep everything together.
No sign of the 1911 report, but it will be out there somewhere. I'll keep looking.



Below is a BFI link to a silent Pathe newsreel shot of the scene, shot November 30 1911.

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/we ... /150497379

Below is the email contact form to request viewing of the material.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/form/contact-bfi ... teway-team

From The Times November 25 1911





From the New York Times.



From The Argus.



British Medical Journal December 16 1911.



Enlarged the pictures below.





Name not on the Roll.



Regards

Dan

[jimmyocx3]

Hi Dan, thanks for that, quite grim reading, we've be doing the wife's family tree her great grandmother was Elizabeth Kelly and Patrick who died in the explosion was her brother, prior to the Bibby explosion his sister Elizabeth had been living up in Beamish Durham with her partner Thomas Leonard who was an Irish coal miner, but in 1909, a pit very close to them exploded killing 168 (the West Stanley mine disaster) they then moved back to Liverpool in 1910, when the war broke out Thomas Leonard joined the Connaught Rangers, but sadly was killed during the battle for Kosturino ridge in Serbia, by the Bulgarian Army, very tough lives back then.
I will try and get the Pathe film.
Bye for now Jimmy

Including Frank Falkner Nation bring the death toll to 39.

Just noticed it was the anniversary of the explosion yesterday!

[Dan]

From the Southport Visiter archives.

1939 Lord Street Southport



1940 38/40 Manor Avenue Crosby.



1940 Caithness Drive Crosby.



1940 East Street Waterloo.



September 1940 Adelaide Gardens Waterloo



October 1940 St John's School St John's Road/ Brasenose Road Bootle



March 1941 Moorfield Road Crosby



April 1941 Cambridge Road/ Grecian Street Seaforth



1941 De Villiers Avenue Crosby



May 4 1941 Bedford Place Seaforth



May 4 1941 Kimberley Drive Crosby



May 4 1941 Schubert Street Seaforth



May 4 1941 Star of the Sea Seaforth



May 8 1941 Beaumaris Street Seaforth Vale



May 1941 Gladstone Road Seaforth




Spring 1941 Sandy Road Seaforth

[

October 1941 Worcester Road Bootle



Crosby Herald Church Road Waterloo




Evacuees from Bootle at the corner of Duke Street and King Street Southport



Rosemoor Drive Crosby



Hesketh Bank



602 Squadron RAF Woodvale



October 1942 German aerial photo of RAF Woodvale



Southport Home Guard Norwood Road School



May 1945 VE Day Crosby Central School



County Road Walton



From Liverpool Police archives

Church of Our Lady and St Nicholas



Overhead Railway



No information on the rest







Regards

Dan

[Dan]

From Sefton's Dynamic Coast. A 2008 seminar.





History of Southport



Sefton Coast



Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Regards

Dan

[Shelagh]

So much history surrounding local area, hadn’t heard of the mill explosion.
Interesting pictures following bomb damage..thanks Dan for great post!

[Dan]

From A History of the County of Lancaster Vol. 4

Liverpool Docks. Written in 1911.







Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Reference to the bombing of Seaforth in the post above. Found this on a Francis Frith site from 2009.



Regards

Dan

[Dan]

Farrans presentation of the widening of the Seaforth Passage carried out in 2013/15, prior to the Liverpool 2 project.
The project was in five phases.
Phase 1 Sector Gate Removal
Phase 2 Siphon Extension
Phase 3 Services U Tube
Phase 4 Main Combi Wall
Phase 5 Demolition.





Aerial view of the Seaforth Passage




Phase 1 Sector Gate Removal











Phase 2 Siphon Extension













Phase 3 Services U Tube























Phase 4 Main Combi Wall













Regards

Dan

[Dan]

1914 RMS Aquitania at Gladstone Graving Dock before her maiden voyage.















Regards

Dan

[lynne99]

Thanks Dan

[Invicta]

Great stuff. I worked on those Seaforth Passage gates in the mid 1970’s.
Norwest Holst had that job, the container berth was built by John Howard.
Ken

[Dan]

Another picture of the Bootle Library Book Cart.



Regards

Dan

[Dan]

From the 28 Hours Later site.

October 2018. Langton Dock Pump House.





















Regards

Dan

[Dan]

1901 George's Dock



Canada Branch Dock No 1



Canada Dock



Coal Train



Container Terminal



Gladstone Lock



Port Limits



Royal Seaforth Entrance



Seaforth



Steel Terminal



Unloading Timber



Manchester Ship Canal and QE II Dock



Regards

Dan

[Dan]

From Insider Media Ltd. today.






Regards

Dan

[Invicta]

That Gearbulk reference takes me back, we were old friends. I used their vessels lots of times for Timber & Plywood.
We would deliver Plywood to the export port and they would band 2 bundles together. That was great for logistics but when they were delivered to final customer as 2’s many couldn’t break the banding it was so thick and normal band cutters wouldn’t touch it. All their ships were named after birds then Arrow so you got Ibis Arrow, Kestrel Arrow etc.
Only occasionally the came to Liverpool from Brazil but they had a regular service from S. America to Sheerness ( Peel Ports ) and I negotiated with my pals at Mersey Docks. Happy Days. Ken

[Dan]

Some photos of John Brown Shipbuilders on Clydebank in 1901. I know it's possibly before your time Ken.
It's from the Bedford Lemere Collection at Greenwich.

Timber Yard



Wood Drying Sheds



Stack Yard




Regards

Dan

[Invicta]

Marginally before my time Dan but nice to see Ken

[ALAMO2008]

The overwhelming smell I associate with the old building was of crude palm oil.
After my first day, I went home with a cracking headache. I had to get off the 56 at Sterrix Lane and walk through the golfy to clear my head.
I was OK after that.

I found the Factory Inspector's report for the 1930 explosion.
I've posted that as an edit on page 3 of the Adverts for Local Companies thread. Just trying to keep everything together.
No sign of the 1911 report, but it will be out there somewhere. I'll keep looking.



Below is a BFI link to a silent Pathe newsreel shot of the scene, shot November 30 1911.

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/we ... /150497379

Below is the email contact form to request viewing of the material.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/form/contact-bfi ... teway-team

From The Times November 25 1911





From the New York Times.



From The Argus.



British Medical Journal December 16 1911.



Enlarged the pictures below.





Name not on the Roll.



Regards

Dan

Couldn't understand for a while why I couldn't find my Granddads younger Brothers WW1 record never dawned on me that he was killed a week after his 20 birthday in 1911
Applying for his Death Cert. 3 years ago lead me to this Research :

Liverpool Echo Report :



Liverpool Daily Mail Report :



Uncle's Death Cert :



Liverpool Mercury Report :




Burial Register for Kirkdale Cemetery :



Coroner's Report Entry :

[Dan]

Thank you Al? Amo?
One thing I noticed on the lists of the dead was the term "Unknown".
In the 70s, I caught the tail end of people queueing outside factories to be taken on as casual labour for a day or shift.
I think the unknowns could have been either casual labourers or passers-by on the dock road.

Notice you're in Aber. I stayed at 19 Custom House Street, with Mrs. Abraham's and her family, for three years in the early 70s.
There is a test that stipulates you give an idea of your age without using numbers or DOB.
Below is the Chemistry laboratory in the Edward Davies building that I studied in. I think it's an old peoples' home now.
The gods, they do mock us.



Regards

Dan

[ALAMO2008]

My Wife Moira and I moved to Aber in 2016 we are 1mile south of the harbour and and Tanybwlch Beach up at Plas Tanybwlch which was a Dormitory in the 70s for Students studying to be Librarians.
We left Liverpool in 1977 to Work and Marry in Brecon lived in Hay On Wye from 1988 till 2016
Travelling back to Liverpool every two weeks to Parents in Hospitals now doing the same to visit her Sister in Anfield. I get dumped at Liverpool Library to Research my Ancestry while they go shopping.
This Bibby Disaster was one research.
Like your posts.
Regards
Alan

[Dan]

Cheers Alan.
If you haven't done it yet, you and your wife should try running up Pendinas and touching the monument at the top.
Haven't done that for 45 years, but I'm sure it wouldn't take that much extra effort.
Hay on Wye - books. Just need films, music and wine and it would be paradise.
If you ever go into The Castle have a pint for me, and check if Maggie May and the Hendrix Hey Joe/ All Along The Watchtower e.p. is still on the jukebox.

Regards

Dan