Merseyside

The word “Merseyside” conjures up thoughts of Liverpool and the Beatles, and the metropolitan county of Merseyside does indeed include the city of Liverpool. However, it includes a wider area, stretching from the Ribble Estuary, north of the seaside resort of Southport, where I spent early seaside holidays, and most of the Wirral Peninsula, almost to the Welsh Border. I say, “most” of the Wirral, and having been born in Cheshire (albeit across the other side of the county and in a bit that is now part of Greater Manchester), I feel duty bound to point out that there is a finger of Cheshire between Merseyside and the Welsh Border, including maybe 5 miles of the King Charles III England Coast Path around the town of Neston. I’m not sure whether we will ever walk that bit.

We have however, walked a short section of the Merseyside section of the England Coast Path to the north of Liverpool, along Waterloo and Crosby beaches, past Antony Gormey’s famous installation, “Another place”. We completed this walk when  we stayed on in Liverpool  for a most enjoyable long weekend after I’d been at a conference at the University of Liverpool in August 2025. The same weekend, we’d  intended to take the ferry across the Mersey, but it a technical problem meant the ferry wasn’t running on the day we visited, so we took a boat trip around the docks instead – fascinating. We also caught a Merseyrail train out to the model village of Port Sunlight, built by William Hesketh Lever to house workers at his soap factory 

We visited both of Liverpool's Cathedrals and were treated to a visiting choir rehearsing for Evensong at Liverpool (Anglican) Cathedral and an organ recital from Edward Carew at the Metropolitan (Roman Catholic) Cathedral. Other than that, we pottered about, enjoying the famous sites (the photograph above shows the Liver Building, one of the “Three Graces” on the waterfront) and the Walker Art Gallery.  On the Sunday there was filming in progress outside many buildings and after (another!) lovely meal in the evening – this time at Tiger Rock,  we were surprised to find a spectacular tall ship berthed on the waterfront; this was the Peruvian Navy Training Ship, B.A.P. Union.