Lecture Reports 2021 - 22
SUGAR, COTTON and SLAVERY - THE LUNE VALLEY AND ITS LINKS WITH THE WEST INDIES - 10th January 2022 by Dr Mike Winstanley - via Zoom from Lancaster.
We started with a pre-lecture discourse between Mike and our own Edwina Alcock who was at Lancaster University at the same time as Mike Winstanley, studying for her BA, and guess what, Edwina wrote a dissertation on the history of the Co-op and Mike remembers it! Edwina confided it was the best time of her life. If only we could have more news on the history of the Co-op! Back to the lecture. We had 180 images!
They illustrated how little farms and villages clustering around Lancaster and the Lune and its tributaries, had some connection, in one way or another with the slave “industry” (and not necessarily the slave trade, defined as buying slaves and shipping them to America). Mike picked some families and explained that many were inter-married and related. He also added that many Lancaster merchants had family or business in Liverpool. Lancaster, situated on the River Lune, was found to be difficult to navigate up to, moreover there was not the dock space that was becoming available in Liverpool, there was a natural slide of merchants moving, or using, to Liverpool. They were still able to keep their farms, mills, warehouses in the Lune area supplied with cotton etc., usually from the West Indies.
Mike reminded us that at one time the MP for Lancaster was often a Liverpool person, one famous one was John Gladstone. Lancaster was the fourth biggest slave port in the UK, others being Liverpool, Bristol and London, but Lancaster was not in the same league as the top three. Mention was made of William Thornton of Lancaster, a friend of George Washington (yes that one). Amongst Mr Thornton’s many skills was that of an architect, and part of the White House was designed by him! One interesting comment in answering a question at the end of the lecture was a reference to “Sunderland Point” (further down the Lune estuary) possibly de-bunking of the story about Sambo’s Grave. The story may be just a good one.
Mike closed by saying that he supported the ReverseRetts charity for children. The society has made a donation. We thanked him in the usual way of air clapping (if that’s the term) by the thirty-or-so Zoomers. It was a great presentation, a tour de force.
MARITIME INFRASTRUCTURE PART 2 8th November 2021 by John Luxton
Twenty-two members attended the talk by John Luxton, where we were transported to Devon and the town of Tavistock. Here we learned of the Tavistock Canal which went to the port of Morwellham. We travelled using John’s images collected over many years.
The first few yards of the canal’s 4½ mile journey to Morewellham is underground. John points out that, “apart from where it passes under the path near the Abbey Bridge at Tavistock to emerge in the grounds of the Bedford Hotel it isn’t really underground. I wonder if whoever wrote the plaque text thought that the canal was underground until it reached the warehouse built over it and only emerged at the portal above which the plaque is placed?” Tavistock has World Heritage status! A town with a variety of trades in the past, wool and then mining.
After the Dissolution of Monasteries, the closed-down Abbey was purchased by the Duke of Bedford, so today the reminders of this are names such as Bedford Cottages, Duke of Bedford Drive, the Bedford Office etc. and it will come as no surprise to learn that the duke financed the building of the canal, enabling him to bring quarried products from mine to quayside. The canal was started in 1803 but was not completed until 1816. There was a long tunnel to be constructed, conveniently right next to a mine adit!
The area of Morwellham Quay is now a “restored” port with a crane, quay walls, elevated railway track, new “old looking mineral wagons” BUT regrettably Devon County Council pulled the finance on the heritage trail and it’s a shadow of its former self. Morewellham Quay 2007. Photo John Luxton The television series “Edwardian Farm” was filmed here but the buildings have been completely altered in their use. In Victorian times Morwellham was an important copper port, limestone was imported and processed in the adjacent limekilns. Manganese was an important export product, and arsenic kept the local economy going in its last days It is unusual for a canal, as it has a gentle slope over its length, resulting in a considerable flow which is used by the local power station.
To close his presentation John took us to the small port of New Quay, also on the Tamar, hard by Morwellham. This was a small, abandoned hamlet, once an intensive mining port on the steep, winding banks of the river. Discoveries include a wagon turntable, an inclined plane and a few examples of track types. All very interesting.
After some questions from the floor Anna proposed a vote of thanks, saying that the presentation must have taken many hours to compile. There was well justified round of applause.
LIVERPOOL BEYOND THE BRINK - REMAKING A POST-IMPERIAL CITY - 11th October 2021 by Professor Michael Parkinson CBE
A very creditable 22 members attended in person for our first inside meeting in 18 months, held at the Friends Meeting House in the usual room. Anna welcomed Professor Michael Parkinson CBE, Ambassador for the University of Liverpool’s Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place.
Over the past 40 years, Professor Parkinson has chronicled both the decline and the renaissance of the city and he is author of the books, Liverpool on the Brink and Liverpool Beyond the Brink.
The talk covered the gradual decline of the city from its pre-eminence in the 19th Century, the ambitions of the 1960’s, the turbulent 1970’s and 80’s and the new start in the 1990’s leading on to today’s renaissance. Michael said that Post Imperial Liverpool “stumbled” from the 1930s and eventually “failed” in the 1970’s. The “recent” regeneration was kick-started by the work done at Albert Dock.
Before Covid 60 million visitors per annum were coming to Liverpool, there is potential for economic development at the North End. The acres of derelict dockland to the North of Pier Head are the ideal place for new growth and the kick start for this currently depressed area with be the Everton redevelopment at Bramley Moore Dock. As our speaker said, “You can’t leave the North Docks derelict for another twenty years”.
We started with a pre-lecture discourse between Mike and our own Edwina Alcock who was at Lancaster University at the same time as Mike Winstanley, studying for her BA, and guess what, Edwina wrote a dissertation on the history of the Co-op and Mike remembers it! Edwina confided it was the best time of her life. If only we could have more news on the history of the Co-op! Back to the lecture. We had 180 images!
They illustrated how little farms and villages clustering around Lancaster and the Lune and its tributaries, had some connection, in one way or another with the slave “industry” (and not necessarily the slave trade, defined as buying slaves and shipping them to America). Mike picked some families and explained that many were inter-married and related. He also added that many Lancaster merchants had family or business in Liverpool. Lancaster, situated on the River Lune, was found to be difficult to navigate up to, moreover there was not the dock space that was becoming available in Liverpool, there was a natural slide of merchants moving, or using, to Liverpool. They were still able to keep their farms, mills, warehouses in the Lune area supplied with cotton etc., usually from the West Indies.
Mike reminded us that at one time the MP for Lancaster was often a Liverpool person, one famous one was John Gladstone. Lancaster was the fourth biggest slave port in the UK, others being Liverpool, Bristol and London, but Lancaster was not in the same league as the top three. Mention was made of William Thornton of Lancaster, a friend of George Washington (yes that one). Amongst Mr Thornton’s many skills was that of an architect, and part of the White House was designed by him! One interesting comment in answering a question at the end of the lecture was a reference to “Sunderland Point” (further down the Lune estuary) possibly de-bunking of the story about Sambo’s Grave. The story may be just a good one.
Mike closed by saying that he supported the ReverseRetts charity for children. The society has made a donation. We thanked him in the usual way of air clapping (if that’s the term) by the thirty-or-so Zoomers. It was a great presentation, a tour de force.
MARITIME INFRASTRUCTURE PART 2 8th November 2021 by John Luxton
Twenty-two members attended the talk by John Luxton, where we were transported to Devon and the town of Tavistock. Here we learned of the Tavistock Canal which went to the port of Morwellham. We travelled using John’s images collected over many years.
The first few yards of the canal’s 4½ mile journey to Morewellham is underground. John points out that, “apart from where it passes under the path near the Abbey Bridge at Tavistock to emerge in the grounds of the Bedford Hotel it isn’t really underground. I wonder if whoever wrote the plaque text thought that the canal was underground until it reached the warehouse built over it and only emerged at the portal above which the plaque is placed?” Tavistock has World Heritage status! A town with a variety of trades in the past, wool and then mining.
After the Dissolution of Monasteries, the closed-down Abbey was purchased by the Duke of Bedford, so today the reminders of this are names such as Bedford Cottages, Duke of Bedford Drive, the Bedford Office etc. and it will come as no surprise to learn that the duke financed the building of the canal, enabling him to bring quarried products from mine to quayside. The canal was started in 1803 but was not completed until 1816. There was a long tunnel to be constructed, conveniently right next to a mine adit!
The area of Morwellham Quay is now a “restored” port with a crane, quay walls, elevated railway track, new “old looking mineral wagons” BUT regrettably Devon County Council pulled the finance on the heritage trail and it’s a shadow of its former self. Morewellham Quay 2007. Photo John Luxton The television series “Edwardian Farm” was filmed here but the buildings have been completely altered in their use. In Victorian times Morwellham was an important copper port, limestone was imported and processed in the adjacent limekilns. Manganese was an important export product, and arsenic kept the local economy going in its last days It is unusual for a canal, as it has a gentle slope over its length, resulting in a considerable flow which is used by the local power station.
To close his presentation John took us to the small port of New Quay, also on the Tamar, hard by Morwellham. This was a small, abandoned hamlet, once an intensive mining port on the steep, winding banks of the river. Discoveries include a wagon turntable, an inclined plane and a few examples of track types. All very interesting.
After some questions from the floor Anna proposed a vote of thanks, saying that the presentation must have taken many hours to compile. There was well justified round of applause.
LIVERPOOL BEYOND THE BRINK - REMAKING A POST-IMPERIAL CITY - 11th October 2021 by Professor Michael Parkinson CBE
A very creditable 22 members attended in person for our first inside meeting in 18 months, held at the Friends Meeting House in the usual room. Anna welcomed Professor Michael Parkinson CBE, Ambassador for the University of Liverpool’s Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place.
Over the past 40 years, Professor Parkinson has chronicled both the decline and the renaissance of the city and he is author of the books, Liverpool on the Brink and Liverpool Beyond the Brink.
The talk covered the gradual decline of the city from its pre-eminence in the 19th Century, the ambitions of the 1960’s, the turbulent 1970’s and 80’s and the new start in the 1990’s leading on to today’s renaissance. Michael said that Post Imperial Liverpool “stumbled” from the 1930s and eventually “failed” in the 1970’s. The “recent” regeneration was kick-started by the work done at Albert Dock.
Before Covid 60 million visitors per annum were coming to Liverpool, there is potential for economic development at the North End. The acres of derelict dockland to the North of Pier Head are the ideal place for new growth and the kick start for this currently depressed area with be the Everton redevelopment at Bramley Moore Dock. As our speaker said, “You can’t leave the North Docks derelict for another twenty years”.
