Mersey Estuary websites and books

This post gives some suggestions for websites and books on the maritime history, wildlife and environment of the Mersey Estuary and its Liverpool, Wirral and Cheshire shores as follows:

• Mersey Estuary websites and blogs
• Mersey Estuary book reviews
• Mersey Estuary books and other information

I hope that you find it useful and please let me know if you have suggestions for other items to include or find web links that are out of date.

Many of the book references are from The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide for which details are at the bottom of this page. If interested, you can also sign up for my newsletter there, which has more content on maritime history, wildlife and the environment.

Mersey Estuary websites and blogs

Maritime History

There are many websites which include articles on the maritime history of Liverpool, Wirral and Cheshire and here is just a small selection. It is also worthwhile exploring the websites of local history societies.

• Bidston Lighthouse (www.bidstonlighthouse.org.uk)
• Friends of Bidston Hill (www.bidstonhill.org.uk/)
• Friends of Warrington Transporter Bridge (www.warringtontransporterbridge.co.uk)
• Hidden Wirral (www.hiddenwirral.org)
• How the light gets in (www.gerryco23.wordpress.com)
• Liverpool1207 (www.liverpool1207blog.wordpress.com/)
• Liverpool Hidden History (www.liverpoolhiddenhistory.co.uk/)
• Liverpool History Society (www.liverpoolhistorysociety.org.uk)
• Liverpool Pilotage Service (www.liverpoolpilots.com)
• Liverpool Monuments (www.liverpoolmonuments.co.uk)
• Liverpool Nautical Research Society (www.liverpoolnauticalresearchsociety.org)
• Mike Royden’s History Pages (www.roydenhistory.co.uk)
• My Warrington (www.mywarrington.me.uk)
• National Museums Liverpool (www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk)
• New Cut Heritage and Ecology Trail (www.newcuttrail.com/)
• The Corn Poppy (www.thecornpoppy.com/)
• Tide and Time (www.tide-and-time.uk)
• Warrington History Society (www.warringtonhistorysociety.uk)
• Warrington Museum & Art Gallery (www.culturewarrington.org)
• Yo Liverpool (www.yoliverpool.com)

Other lists: this of course is a huge topic and the following compilations in particular are worth mentioning as a starting point for finding out more:

• Bidston Lighthouse (references)
• Liverpool 1207 (research resources and downloads)
• Liverpool History Society (links)
• Mike Royden’s History Pages (history links)

There are more links in the following posts on this website:

• Development of the Port of Liverpool
• Tidal prediction machines
• Inland ports on the Dee and Mersey estuaries
• The lost rivers of Liverpool
• Timekeeping on steam and sailing ships

Wildlife and environment

This again is a huge topic and here are some websites that provide a great starting point for finding out more. See the links they provide as well for more ideas.

• Cheshire Wildlife Trust (www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk)
• Dee Estuary Birds (www.deeestuary.co.uk/)
• Lancashire Wildlife Trust (www.lancswt.org.uk)
• Mersey Basin Campaign (www.merseybasin.org.uk)
• Merseyside Naturalists’ Association (www.mnapage.info)
• Mersey Rivers Trust (www.merseyriverstrust.org)
• New Cut Heritage and Ecology Trail (www.newcuttrail.com/)
• RSPB Liverpool (https://group.rspb.org.uk/liverpool/)
• Wirral Bird Club (www.wirralbirdclub.com/)

There are more links in the following post on this website:

• Wild Mersey: wildlife of the Mersey Estuary

Mersey Estuary book reviews

If you would like to find reviews of books on the Mersey Estuary, Goodreads is a good starting point, along with some of the websites listed above. For convenience I’ve reproduced some reviews below from my own Goodreads page here.

Mersey The River That Changed The World by Ian Wray

Several decades ago, the Mersey Estuary was heavily polluted, before the work of the Mersey Basin Campaign, which brought together government, businesses and community organisations to tackle the problems. The resulting changes sparked a new pride in the waterfront and economic development and its waters are now so clean that even salmon have returned.

This book celebrates these changes, bringing together several authors writing on different aspects of the estuary. This includes a fabulous article called Wild Mersey by Chris Baines on how wildlife has returned and On the Waterfront by Peter de Figueirido, which describes historical developments along the Mersey from Stockport to Liverpool.

Richly illustrated, it’s the type of book you would normally dip into but, like me, you may end up reading it all the way through.

Faster Than the Wind: A History of and a Guide to the Liverpool to Holyhead Telegraph by Frank Large

Even before the days of radios and satellites, it was a great help to have early warning of a ship’s arrival in port, allowing owners to arrange berths and hire labour, and to start finding buyers on commodity exchanges.

This meticulously researched book tells the story of an ingenious signalling system that was set up in 1827 along the north Wales coast from Anglesey to the Port of Liverpool, using semaphore masts with several mechanical arms to relay information. Typically, it took just a few minutes to send a signal along the twelve stations from start to end although a BBC Coast programme suggested the record was under a minute.

I particularly liked the imagined description of how a day’s work must have been for the key operator at Holyhead, interpreting the flags on ships as they came into sight, and of the elaborate semaphore coding system, which allowed a huge variety of messages to be transmitted. The older flag signalling system that it replaced also features. The system was finally replaced by electrical telegraph in the 1860s

Wild Merseyside by John Dempsey

Merseyside stretches from south and east of Liverpool to Southport to the north and includes much of the Wirral. This book celebrates its wildlife including seals, lizards, seabirds and rare plants. Written by a local wildlife expert, it is stunningly illustrated with many insider’s tips on when and where to go. Habitats discussed include parks, nature reserves and the coast. Suitable for both beginners and enthusiasts, it is great to dip into when planning a trip or to take out in the field to see what you can find.

Both sides of the river: Merseyside In Poetry and Prose by Gladys Mary Coles

This imaginative book collects together a huge variety of extracts of published work on Merseyside into a single volume, with a particular focus on Liverpool. These are drawn from ‘…poetry, novels, short stories, scripts for stage, television and radio, songs, legends, biographies and autobiographies, diaries, letters, travel-writing and journalism’. Edited by a renowned poet, it is a book to dip into, with both modern and historical works featured, including some fascinating traveller’s accounts of visits to the Port of Liverpool in the early days. It also features a great selection of photographs and paintings.

Mersey Estuary books and other information

Some other books and other references you might enjoy are listed below under the following headings:

• General
• Liverpool
• Wirral and Cheshire shores
• Maritime history
• Wildlife and environment

There are of course many other books on these topics, particularly on the history of Liverpool, and the links provided under Other lists above are a great starting point for finding more.

General

• Both sides of the river: Merseyside in poetry and prose, Gladys Mary Coles (ed.), (Headland, 1993)
• Mersey the river that changed the world, Ian Wray (ed.), photography by Colin McPherson, (The Bluecoat Press, 2007)
• On the Waterfront, Peter de Figueiredo, in Mersey the river that changed the world, Ian Wray (ed.), photography by Colin McPherson, (The Bluecoat Press, 2007)
• River Mersey from source to sea, Phil Page and Ian Littlechilds, (Amberley Publishing, 2014)
• The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide, Kevin Sene, (Troubador, 2020)
• The River Mersey, Ron Freethy, (Terence Dalton Ltd., 1985)

Liverpool

• See Maritime History also
• 100 years of the Liverbirds, (Trinity Mirror Sport Media, 2011)
• 111 Places in Liverpool That You Shouldn’t Miss by Peter de Figueiredo, Julian Treuherz (Emons Publishers, 2016)
• Albert Dock Liverpool: The Complete Guide, Ron Jones, (Liverpool History Press, 2013)
• Discover Liverpool, Ken Pye, (Trinity Mirror Sport Media, 2008)
• Liverpool: The First 1000 Years, Arabella McIntyre-Brown, Guy Woodland, (Garlic Press Publishing Ltd., 2001)
• Liverpool World Heritage City, Ian Wray, John Hinchliffe, Rob Burns, edited by Peter de Figueiredo, (The Bluecoat Press, 2007)
• Liverpool: The Story of a City, Museum of Liverpool, (Liverpool University Press, 2012)
• The Insiders’ Guide to Liverpool, (Trinity Mirror Sport Media, 2010)
• The Liver Bird, Information Sheet 21, Maritime Archives & Library, (National Museums Liverpool, 2004)
• The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide, Kevin Sene, (Troubador, 2020)

Wirral and Cheshire shores

• New Brighton: A Victorian Seaside Resort, Tony Franks-Buckley, (Createspace, 2012)
• New Brighton: Our Days Out Remembered, (Trinity Mirror Media, 2011)
• The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide, Kevin Sene, (Troubador, 2020)
• Wallasey through Time, Ian Collard, (Amberley Publishing, 2009)
• Warrington through Time, Janice Hays, (Amberley Publishing, 2010)
• Wirral: Smugglers, Wreckers and Pirates, Gavin Chappell, (Countryvise, 2009)
• Wirral Waterfront: the Jewel in the Crown of England’s Northwest, Guy Woodland, (Cities500 International Publishers, 2005)

Maritime history

• A Hundred Years of the Manchester Ship Canal, Ted Gray, (Aurora Publishing, 1993)
• A Pictorial History of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, John Corbridge, (E.J. Morten, 1979)
• Faster than the Wind: a History of and a Guide to the Liverpool to Holyhead Telegraph, Frank Large, (Avid Publications, 2001)
• From Astronomy to Oceanography – a brief history of Bidston Observatory, J. Eric Jones, (downloaded from www.noc.ac.uk)
• Lighthouses of Liverpool Bay, John and Diane Robinson, (The History Press, 2007)
• Lighthouses of the Isle of Man and North West England, Tony Denton and Nicholas Leach, (Foxglove Media, 2010)
• Liverpool: a history of the ‘Great Port’, Adrian Jarvis, (Liverpool History Press, 2014)
• Maritime Archives and Library Information sheets, National Museums Liverpool, (www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk)
• Mersey Ferries through time, Ian Collard, (Amberley Publishing, 2013)
• Mersey Flats and Flatmen, Michael Stammers, (Terence Dalton, 1993)
• Old Runcorn, H.F. Starkey, (Halton Borough Council, 1990)
• Railways and Waterways to Warrington, Peter A. Norton, (Cheshire Libraries, 1984)
• Schooner Port: two centuries of upper Mersey sail, H.F. Starkey, (Avid Publications, 1998)
• The Sinking of RMS Tayleur: The Lost Story of the Victorian Titanic, Gill Hoffs, (Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2014)
• The Canals of North West England, in 2 volumes, Charles Hadfield and Gordon Biddle, (David & Charles, 1970)
• The Changing Face of Liverpool 1207–1770, (Merseyside Archaeological Society, 2007)
• The Great Mersey Shipping Lines, Peter Elson, (Trinity Mirror Sport Media, 2013)
• The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide, Kevin Sene, (Troubador, 2020)
• The Romans at Wilderspool: The Story of the First Industrial Development on the Mersey, Tim Strickland, (The Greenalls Group, 1994)

Wildlife and environment

• A Frontier Landscape: the North West in the Middle Ages, N.J. Higham, (Windgather Press, 2004)
• Birds in Cheshire and Wirral: A breeding and wintering atlas, David Norman, (Liverpool University Press, 2008)
• Flocking to the Mersey, Tim Melling (words) and Steve Young, (photographs), Mersey Basin Campaign, www.merseybasin.org.uk, (SourceNW, 2005)
• Garston’s River, Archive Leaflet C8, Garston & District Historical Society, www.garstonhistoricalsociety.org.uk, (Garston History Society, 1999)
• Liverpool: a landscape history, Martin Greaney, (The History Press, 2013)
• Liverpool’s Drainage History: Seventeenth Century to MEPAS, G.N. Olsen, (Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1997)
• National Character Area profile: 60 Mersey Valley, Natural England, (2013)
• The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside, Steve White, Barry McCarthy, Maurice Jones, (Hobby Publications, 2008)
• The Lost World of Formby Point: Footprints on the prehistoric Landscape 5000 BC to 100 BC, Gordon Roberts, www.formby-footprints.co.uk, (The Alt Press , 2014)
• The Mersey Estuary, Mersey Estuary Conservation Group, (Hobby Publications, 2006)
• The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide, Kevin Sene, (Troubador, 2020)
• The Mersey Estuary – Back from the Dead? Solving a 150-Year Old Problem, P.D. Jones, (Journal of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Managers, 2000)
• The Mersey Estuary Naturally Ours, Mersey Estuary Conservation Group, M.S. Curtis and M. Baker-Schommer (eds.), www.merseyestuary.org, (English Heritage and National Museums Liverpool, 2003)
• Thirteen from Twenty-Five, Walter Menzies, Mersey Basin Campaign, www.merseybasin.org.uk, (SourceNW, 2009)
• Three Georges and one Richard Holden: The Liverpool tide table makers, P.L. Woodworth, (Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 2002)
• Water Quality and Fisheries in the Mersey Estuary, England: A historical perspective, P.D. Jones, (Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2006)
• Where to Watch Birds: North West England & the Isle of Man, A. Conlin, J.P. Cullen, P. Marsh, T. Reid, C. Sharpe, J. Smith, S. Williams, (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008)
• Who Saved the Mersey…and Who Killed it in the First Place? Words: Matthew Sutcliffe; Interviews: Kate Fox; Photographs: Dan Kenyon, Tony Hall, Matthew Sutcliffe, Mersey Basin Campaign, www.merseybasin.org.uk, (SourceNW, 2009)
• Wild Mersey, Chris Baines (words) and Colin McPherson and Steve Young (photographs), Mersey Basin Campaign, www.merseybasin.org.uk, (SourceNW, 2009)
• Wild Merseyside, John Dempsey, (Trinity Mirror North West and North Wales, 2009)
• Wirral Nature Guide: An introduction to coastal wildlife and their habitats, www.visitwirral.com, (Wirral Council, 2009)