Serving my time

One of the first jobs I ever took on was a Georgian townhouse in Liverpool's Hope street the home of the cities two Cathedrals complete with views of the river and the mountains of Wales. I'd lived in the area for a few years and even though it was the red light district and bordered Toxteth I knew it was a good place to buy as it was a rare untouched survivor of Liverpools more prosperous past. The entrance to the house needed new steps and railings cast from the surviving few, the door and surround dismantling and painstakingly repaired and replaced where required. I didn't have as much money to spend on my renovations then and so I was hands on most aspects of this restoration  to cut costs and for many more afterwards........ something of an apprenticeship I think

May blitz

Much has been written about the effects of the Nazi blitz on London back in the early days of WW11 but because of the importance of London the devastating May blitz on Liverpool has gone sadly under reported. 73 years ago my mother as a young girl spent night after night hiding beneath the stairs in the family home or sheltering in the air raid shelter dug into the back yard. My home city suffered much physical damage (some still visible) and a great loss of life. My mums stories of unexploded bombs in neighbouring gardens and seeing bodies lying against walls apparently untouched yet dead from blast effects make any of my present day problems seem trivial by comparison. My grandfather worked right through the blitz in Liverpool's dockland, the veritable eye of the storm and yet never missed a days work regardless of danger even spending his spare time on the dockland power stations roof fire watching and extinguishing incendiaries......a tough people and a tough city.