Just the facts!

Too busy to take the quiz? Well now you don't have to. Just pick a catagory to get the low-down on some of Liverpool's greatest achievements. You could even take a look and then do the quiz, not that we encourage cheating or anything...

Inventions & Industry

World’s first steam-hauled passenger railway

The world’s first steam-hauled passenger railway opened in 1830 between Liverpool and Manchester. The opening day was marred by the death of local MP William Huskisson. He was hit by the locomotive ‘The Rocket’ and died from his injuries.

Albert Dock

The Albert Dock warehouse complex on the waterfront, opened in 1846, is unique for a number of reasons. They were the first dock warehouses to be built entirely from incombustible materials (that won’t burn). The warehouses are built from iron, stone and brick. They were the first in the world to have an all-iron roof. They are also the largest group of Grade 1 listed buildings in the UK and were the first to use hydraulic hoists in its warehouses.

The Albert Dock was designed by Jessie Hartley, the city’s Dock Engineer. Its original cost was £515,475 8s 1d. Today the buildings are insured for over £100 million.

In its heyday the dock handled goods from around the world. Rum, tobacco, sugar and cotton all passed through its huge warehouses. During the Second World War Atlantic convoy escorts were based there.

Albert Dock

The Overhead Railway

The Overhead Railway opened in1893. It ran from the Dingle in south Liverpool to Seaforth in the north. Its route followed the waterfront and the docks. It was the first overhead railway in the world. It also boasted the first automatic electric signalling system in the world and the first railway station escalator (installed in 1901). At its peak in 1919 it carried 18 million passengers. The railway was given the nick-name of ‘the Dockers’ Umbrella’.

The world’s first overhead railway

The Mersey Ferry

The ferry service across the Mersey is the most famous ferry in the world. The history of the ferry can be traced back to the 12th century. Benedictine monks began the service. They did not charge a fee, in accordance with the Benedictine rule of charity. If the weather was too rough, the monks would let travellers stay in their priory at Birkenhead. In 1320 King Edward III granted the monks a charter allowing them to charge. Demand for their services had grown, so they welcomed this change.

Gerry and the Pacemakers immortalised the service in their song ‘Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey’ in 1964.

A ferry crosses the Mersey, 1923

Cammell Lairds

The famous Birkenhead ship-building firm Lairds, later known as Cammell Laird, was responsible for many innovations and records in its field. These included the first screw driven ship (the ‘Robert F Stockton’ in 1838), the first iron ship to sail round the Cape of Good Hope (the ‘Nemesis’ in 1840) and the first ship to be fitted with watertight bulkheads (the ‘Lady Lansdowne’, built in 1830). These partitions could be sealed to prevent flooding or fire spreading throughout the ship.

During the Second World War, many warships were also built at Cammell Laird. More than 100 warships, mainly submarines and many merchant ships were built. Famous vessels such as HM ships ‘Ark Royal’, ‘Rodney’ and ‘Prince of Wales’ were also made there. On average, Laird’s completed one ship every twenty days. Such output played a vital role in the Allied victory of the Battle of the Atlantic.

Launching a ship at Cammell Lairds

PS Britannia

‘Britannia’ was the first ship built for Samuel Cunard’s British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, later known as the Cunard Line. She was also the first steamer to carry the mail between England and North America. She made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Boston, USA, in July 1840. She completed the passage to Halifax in 14 days 8 hours, at an average speed of 8.5 knots.

In 1849 ‘Britannia’ was sold to become the flagship of the Navy of the North German Confederation, which renamed her ‘Barbarossa’. She later saw service in the Prussian Navy and the Imperial German Navy, before eventually being broken up at Kiel in about 1880.

Model of the Britannia by Bassett-Lowke Limited, 1933

Port radar

Liverpool was the first port in the world to install a radar-controlled ferry system and port radar, in 1948. The port radar was set up in Gladstone Dock and could monitor all shipping in the river and approaching channels. The original circular tower can still be seen today.

N1991.1653 Alt tag – Gladstone Dock Title – Gladstone Dock, scene of the world’s first port radar.

Sir Oliver Lodge

Sir Oliver Lodge (1851 – 1940) was the first Professor of Physics at University College, Liverpool. Lodge was also a pioneer of medical X-rays, and the first to use them in Liverpool. It was first used to locate a bullet lodged in a child’s wrist. He was also a radio pioneer. He sent the first intelligible long-distance radio message in 1897, from the Liverpool University clock tower on Brownlow Hill to his assistant on the roof of Lewis’s store in the city centre.

Mobile X-ray vans. Medical X-rays were pioneered by Sir Oliver Lodge

Liverpool John Lennon Airport

Liverpool’s airport handles about two million passengers a year. When it officially opened in 1933, Speke airport as it was then known, was the first provincial (outside the capital) airport in the country. During the Second World War, it was home to squadrons of Hurricane and Spitfire fighters. They protected the city and shipping on the Mersey from enemy attacks. A factory on the site also helped produce Blenheim and Halifax bombers.

Plane spotting at Speke Airport, 1968