A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIVERPOOL

Liverpool's history can be traced back as far as 1190, known as Llifpwll a Welsh word Llif meaning 'flood' and pwll 'pool'.  There are several other interpretations including 'Liferpol' meaning muddy pool etc.  It was then a small Hamlet.

In 1207 King John founded Liverpool (Livpul) as a borough and port.  He invited settlers to come and live here, slowly building its numbers up to become a small farming and fishing community.  Troops were also based here and then dispatched to Ireland.  The population remained at about 1000 until the early 15th century; this is when the period of economic decline set in, enabling power to the county gentry.  Speke Hall was built in 1530 see picture (right).  Photography by http://colour-splash.com/  By the mid 16th century, the population had fallen to about 600.

The town began to see an economic revival by the end of the 16th Century and began to win trade.  By 1626 King Charles I gave the town a much improved charter.  In 1648, the first cargo from the Americas was recorded.  The town's development accelerated after the Restoration of 1660, as trade with America and the West Indies increased.

Liverpool had finally developed its reputation as a trading port, and Ireland became Liverpool's main trading partner, animal skins being one of their  commodities.

In 1699, the Liverpool Merchant slave ship set sail to Barbados carrying 220 African people.  Liverpool owes a huge debt to the people who built this city as Liverpool's prosperity was based on the slave trade.  It is estimated that human enslavement generated, in one year alone, a staggering £15 million in Liverpool.  Slavery was abolished with the help Liverpool's William Roscoe - reformer, poet, historian, MP and Lawyer in 1807.  One of his most famous poems is 'The Wrongs Of Africa'.

Liverpool became the most densely populated town in England at 100,000 people per square mile.  Creating havoc and illness, the mortality rate sky rocketed and so did crime, ushering in the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.

Hundreds of thousands of Irish migrants began to arrive in Liverpool due to the Great Famine of 1845-1849.  By 1851 approximately 25% of Liverpool were Irish born.  The world's first passenger railway started here and Liverpool was granted city status in 1880.

By 1900, Liverpool had become the greatest centre of the Arts outside London.  The University of Liverpool was created and building had commenced on the Anglican Cathedral in 1903.  It took 71 years to complete. The Port of Liverpool Building and first of 'The Three Graces' was also built between 1903 - 1907 followed by the Royal Liver Building 1908 - 1911 (designed by Walter Aubrey Thomas) and then finally the Cunard Building, constructed between 1914 -1916.

Also during 1914 - 1916 many Liverpool workers from office clerks to factory staff joined together and formed Liverpool Pals in World War I, Lord Derby co-ordinated the whole effort and found that so many young men wanted to fight, they had to build 'make shift' barracks around Liverpool.  The Pals fought in some of the most sacrificial battles taking part in the Big Push at the Somme in 1916.  Twenty per cent of the four original battalions who set sail to France in 1915 would be dead by 1919.  Up to seventy five percent included those who were wounded.