The author Clive Barker’s biographer, Douglas E. Winter, writes: “Some have suggested, jokingly, that there was something in the water in the Liverpool of the 1960s – or, perhaps that Carl Jung was right, and Liverpool is indeed the pool of life.”

We all know that Liverpool is famous for music . . . but the city and surrounding region has always been home to some of the greatest names in science fiction, fantasy and horror.

“Something in the water?” celebrates Merseyside’s connection with writers of the fantastic:

• the pre-war Liverpool sf fan group out of which a host of British science fiction writers came:
• Olaf Stapledon, who whose epic future-history influenced a young Arthur C. Clarke
• Eric Frank Russell, the first British writer to win a Hugo award for science fiction
• Fanzine-publisher Bill Harry who went on to promote his friends the Beatles in Mersey Beat.

• And modern writers of the fantastic such as Clive Barker, Stephen Baxter, and Ramsey Campbell, winner of the World Fantasy Society’s lifetime achievement award.

• Ken Campbell’s Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool and artists such as Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson and Josh Kirby (famed for his covers for Terry Pratchett) are also remembered – as are works by a new generation of sf and fantasy writers such as Priya Sharma and Debbie Johnson, comic book stars such as Leah Moore, John Reppion, Tim Quinn and John Higgins, and film greats such as Alex Cox.

The exhibition is launched as part of the University’s LIGHTNIGHT celebration of culture on May 13th. On Saturday 14th May, Andy Sawyer will be joined by award-winning author Pat Cadigan at Liverpool Central Library to discuss The History of Science Fiction in 10 Objects – carefully selected from the science fiction treasures in Special Collections and Archives!

http://festival.writingonthewall.org.uk/events/10-events/18-event-four.html

Nicola Scott, Assistant Curator Decorative Art at National Museums Liverpool, discovers a fascinating aspect of Liverpool’s maritime history in the Special Collections Library.

I recently chose a jug in our decorative art collections to put on display at the Walker Art Gallery. One side of the jug features a view of the Bidston Lighthouse and Signals, with a key showing the different flags of the signalling system in colour. This subject was a popular design on cream-coloured earthenware in late 18^th century England and its representation on ceramics has been a source of interest to writers ever since.

©National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery

The Bidston Lighthouse and Signals

I decided to do some research on the jug and aim to publish this. I wanted to establish when and where the jug was made.  I thought that identifying the print on the jug would help and began by finding out more about the Bidston Signals themselves.

The Bidston Signals was a fairly simple system designed to give advance warning to merchants that their ship was in Liverpool Bay. Vessels were allocated a flag, which was hoisted from a particular flagpole when the ship was seen in the bay. The ship owners were able to see the signals on Bidston Hill from the town of Liverpool. This became a famous tourist attraction and people came to marvel at this well-known landmark.

I discovered that over the years the number of flags and ship owners represented grew from 14 in 1778 to 195 in 1820. The version on the jug lists 75 ship owners, shown here:

©National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery

I thought that if I could identify the date of the print on the jug, this would give a clue as to the date of manufacture. My search took me to the wonderful Special Collections Library, a valuable resource for original archival research.

A rare book containing 19^th century pamphlets [SPEC G35.19(11)] proved to be an important piece of evidence showing the Bidston Signals in 1820. It was a real privilege to be able to view this, particularly as it was on display at the time at the Victoria Gallery and Museum.

This print with 195 flags flying in 1820 showed that the jug with 75 flags was much earlier.

My quest to find the exact print on the jug proved elusive and the search goes on! Taking other factors into account, I concluded that the jug was probably made between 1800 and 1805 at the Herculaneum Pottery in Liverpool.  You can see the jug in Room 13 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.  It is on display with other ceramics made in the city until Sunday 15 May.

Moira Lindsay, Curator, Art Collections, Victoria Gallery and Museum added to the quest this picture of a mug from the ceramics collection, with another version of the signals.

For this year’s Explore Your Archive campaign, we are looking at some of the University of Liverpool’s outlying sites, through the material held about them in the university archive. Our previous blog post looked at Ness Gardens on the Wirral. This time, we will explore the development of the School of Veterinary Science’s Leahurst campus. Situated in rural Cheshire, twelve miles south of Liverpool, Leahurst provides practical training for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as CPD courses for professional vets.

Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science was the first veterinary school to be part of a university. In 1904 Professor William Owen Williams was tempted by the newly-chartered university to move his New Veterinary College to the city from Edinburgh. However, it was not until 1928 that a veterinary hospital was built near the university, and the following year the school was able to move in to building of its own.

The origins of Leahurst date to the Loveday Report on Veterinary Education in 1938, which recommended the establishment of field stations for the practical teaching of students. The scheme was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War, but in 1941 the Leahurst estate was acquired by the university, with financial help from local company J Bibby & Sons. Much of the furniture for the station was acquired at auction from the old Leahurst House.

Within the university, the driving force behind the scheme was Professor J.G. Wright, appointed in 1941 to the chair of Veterinary Surgery. Wright’s appointment was a surprise to many; the Vice-Chancellor wrote to him that “some of my colleagues think it unlikely that you would be willing to leave the Royal [Veterinary] College.” Wright replied that “The thought of being able to stamp one’s personality on the teaching of veterinary surgery in Liverpool is a most pleasurable one,” but initially turned down the job due to the difficulties involved in moving his family during wartime. It was in large part the university’s commitment to setting up Leahurst which persuaded him to change his mind.

In order for Leahurst to be able to pay for up-to-date equipment, Wright proposed a scheme to the Vice-Chancellor whereby local farmers could pay to use the services of the department, in exchange for allowing students to visit and observe practising vets. It worked; by August 1942 the Vice-Chancellor could write to Wright: “It [the Veterinary School] is now really on the map and is beginning to occupy an entirely new place in the esteem of the university.”

Letter of thanks from the Vice-Chancellor to Professor Wright [D606/1]

University historian Thomas Kelly says Wright dominated the school until he retired in 1963 and was regarded as a “character.” A veteran of the Royal Artillery, he was a forthright man and a great story-teller who rose to become President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. It was estimated in one obituary of Wright that he had taught perhaps 20% of all registered veterinary surgeons in the country. In the early 1960s, Wright was frequently sent up, affectionately, in the Leahurst students’ Christmas revues.

A horse and foal at Leahurst c.1948-1950s [D554]

In 1952, in recognition of its growing significance, the School was detached from the Faculty of Medicine to constitute a faculty of its own. Leahurst was home to two of the Faculty’s four Departments, Veterinary Surgery and Veterinary Preventative Medicine. From the mid-1960s Leahurst underwent an ambitious expansion plan. Work began in 1967, and new buildings were opened by the Duke of Northumberland in 1971.

Proposed expansion of the Veterinary Field Station at Leahurst: artist’s impression and plans [A173/1]

Leahurst’s facilities enabled it to become a world-leading site of equine care. Veterinary students had been learning equine surgery for decades. In 1991, as Leahurst celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, the Philip Leverhulme Equine Hospital was opened. Named for the third Viscount Leverhulme, who at the time was Chancellor of the University, it now treats over 2,000 patients every year.

Today, Leahurst employs 350 staff, including those on its two farms. The site is also home to the National Centre for Zoonosis Research and the Tesco Dairy Centre. The university’s veterinary faculty continues to lead to field, coming top in the Guardian’s university rankings for the subject for 2015.

For this year’s Explore Your Archive, we have focused on university sites located outside the city centre. We hope this inspires you to think of archives as places of exploration and discovery. You can visit us to see our displays, and view items from our collections, on Monday-Friday in the Grove Wing of the Sydney Jones Library.

http://www.exploreyourarchive.org/

Edd Mustill

Graduate Library Assistant