Month: January 2021

Geography & Environment

Liverpool

‘Port of Departure (or Arrival):Liverpool‘ appears in many a search for records of family ancestors, since Liverpool’s west-coast location made it so […]

‘Port of Departure (or Arrival):Liverpool‘ appears in many a search for records of family ancestors, since Liverpool’s west-coast location made it so convenient for those migrating by ship to or from Ireland and North America. Nestling just above the North Wales coastline, this Lancashire city has grown from a population of 5,000 in 1700 to almost 500,000 today.

It is famously the home of The Beatles and two Premier League football clubs, but its history lies in trade links with, primarily, the U.S.A. and the West Indies. King John (1166-1216) founded the port of Liverpool in 1207 to serve the estates he held as Lord of Ireland. The tiny fishing village subsequently received a gradual influx of craftsmen and merchants.

Image showing early 20th century railway network across north England, with Liverpool bottom left, along with a list of some ferry destinations in Wales and Ireland: Gerald England at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0

By the mid-1800s Liverpool had the second busiest docks after London. Shipbuilding, iron foundries, glass, soap, sugar and rope manufacturing made some very wealthy, others poor, with living conditions to match. WW2 bombing destroyed much of the slum areas and re-building saw the expansion of adjacent towns into what is now called Merseyside after the River Mersey at Liverpool’s edge. ‘Scousers’, or Liverpudlians, are known for their brand of dry humour cultivated from the mix of nationalities that arrived there in the shipping heyday.

(Top image: PaulDaley1977 at pixabay.com)

30/01/2021
4 min
4 years
246 words

Inventions

Netlon and Tensar

Dr. Brian Mercer (1927-98) was born in Blackburn towards the end of the British textile industry’s golden age. Fortunately, he was inspired […]

Dr. Brian Mercer (1927-98) was born in Blackburn towards the end of the British textile industry’s golden age. Fortunately, he was inspired to convert the resources of the cotton mill he inherited to the manufacture of his 1956 ‘geotextile’ invention called Netlon. This utilised up-and-coming plastics technology to make strong netting that provided an easy, cost-effective solution for both commercial and domestic activities. For example, building contractors use it for soil retention alongside motorways while gardeners protect their plants and ponds with it.

Mercer continued to experiment and in 1978 invented Tensar geogrids, the rigid version of Netlon. Having the high tensile strength of steel, this has a vast range of applications in solidifying the ground for railways, roads, pavements, housing estates, stadia, runways, warehouses and office blocks, to name a few. The aggregate is pressed into the spaces of the grid and locks together, making it even stronger.

The Tensar company is still based in Blackburn today. It produces systems for any situation where stabilisation of a weak or uneven ground is required, including coastal locations subject to erosion. Mercer’s ingenuity, reflected in the hundreds of patents registered in his name, was rewarded with an OBE in 1981, among many other honours.

(Image: Robin Stott at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

15/01/2021
3 min
4 years
211 words

Entertainment

‘The Magic Roundabout’

‘The Magic Roundabout‘ was a children’s programme aired from 1965 to 1977, with a 5-minute slot every weekday before the News. This […]

‘The Magic Roundabout‘ was a children’s programme aired from 1965 to 1977, with a 5-minute slot every weekday before the News. This meant it also gathered a large adult audience. People appreciated the subtle humour of the script, written and voiced by Lincolnshire-born Eric Thompson (1929-82).

The stop-motion films of puppet figures in the brightly-coloured Magic Garden were made by Frenchman Serge Danot, assisted by Yorkshire-born animator Ivor Wood (1932-2004). ‘Le Manège Enchanté’ (1964-71) did not translate satisfactorily for British ears, hence the Thompson re-write. Thompson also did all the voices for the characters, who were:

Dougal – dog with shaggy fur covering his legs (making animation easier)
Zebedee – magical toy on a spring, assigned the classic end line, “Time for bed!” (..”said Zebedee”)
Brian – intelligent, cheery snail
Ermintrude – pink cow, sang, ate flowers
Dylan – hippy rabbit with guitar
Florence – sensible little girl
Mr. Rusty – elderly roundabout operator
Mr. McHenry – elderly gardener
The Train – small steam train

The catchy theme tune was composed by Frenchman Alain Legrand. In the UK, there are at least four towns that have a complex road junction dubbed ‘the magic roundabout’ after the programme. The traffic at these spots moves slowly, thereby reducing accidents.

(Top image: Lcl123 at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)

13/01/2021
3 min
4 years
206 words

Discoveries / History

The Falklands Conflict

The Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory just north of the British Antarctic Territory and south-east of Argentina. English mariner John […]

The Falkland Islands are a British Overseas Territory just north of the British Antarctic Territory and south-east of Argentina. English mariner John Strong (?-1693) made the first landing on the uninhabited archipelago in January 1690 but only stayed long enough to name the islands after the 5th Viscount Falkland, one of the owners of his ship. The British claimed possession in 1765. Commercial fishing and sheep farming have become the main industries.

Argentina has twice attempted an invasion, in 1832 and 1982, both times failing after a few months. Despite this, their Constitution of 1994 purports to classify the Islands as an Argentinian province, completely ignoring the self-determination of the 3,000+ inhabitants to remain British. This was reflected in the size of the British Armed Forces’ response to The Falklands Conflict of April-June 1982.

To the Argentines’ dismay, 127 British ships and 42 aircraft were sent the 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic, via Ascension Island. Shockingly, the BBC leaked sensitive information on their World Service which threatened part of Operation Corporate, as it was called. That aside, matters concluded on 14th June with Argentina’s surrender. 649 Argentines, 255 Britons and 3 Falkland Islanders lay dead. Several ships had been sunk, most notably the Belgrano, with the loss of 323 Argentines on board.

*Image of task force routes: Dept. of History, U.S. Military Academy at Wikimedia.org / Public domain*

(Top image: Alex Petrenko at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

08/01/2021
3 min
4 years
226 words

Law

Disabled access

Both World Wars, by producing many more physically and mentally disabled people than before, resulted in the creation of laws and regulations […]

Both World Wars, by producing many more physically and mentally disabled people than before, resulted in the creation of laws and regulations designed to protect the disabled from discrimination and proactively make adjustments to assist them. Today it is unthinkable to have, for example, a building open to the public that does not have provision for disabled access, as in this ingenious solution by the Institution of Civil Engineers in central London:

World War 2 also created labour shortages, so laws were passed to increase the opportunities for the disabled to be in employment. By the 1970s, more effort was being put into integrating disabled people into mainstream education and workplaces. Attitudes were changing.

However, there was still more that could be done and persistent campaigning eventually succeeded. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 and its subsequent amendments aimed to cover the spheres of schools, jobs, homes, property ownership, transport, public services and dealing with officialdom. This Act was superseded by The Equality Act of 2010 (in all but Northern Ireland), which took under its umbrella a whole host of anti-discrimination laws, not just related to disability.

(Image: David Hawgood at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

01/01/2021
3 min
4 years
193 words

Quoting Neil Oliver...

I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people. I am British. I will always be British.