The liners in the river

I probably didn’t take that much notice of them at the time, if I’m honest. They were just a normal part of the scene. My dad would point them out to me when we crossed the river on the ferry or walked down through Vale Park, in the 1950s.

Though they survived into the next decade, their days were numbered. We sometimes combed the docks on our bikes on a Saturday morning around this time and some of the big liners must still have been present, though it was the names of the freighters belonging to the Clan, Blue Funnel and Harrison Line, etc, that we were after to underline in our ship spotting books.

The return of the three Cunard cruise ships in May 2015 served as an appropriate reminder of the ocean liners and their connection with Liverpool. It was, of course, a magnificent spectacle in its own right and there was a buoyant, party atmosphere and big crowds along the water’s edge that stretched for miles.

Where there is now clean sand at this point below the Egremont promenade there used to be some very smelly and slippery rocks at low tide. Water quality in the river is now thankfully much improved as well.