"Bong..."
"Bong..."
As the Bells of Doom sounded through the thick fog that blocked my view of Birkenhead and most of the River Mersey, the only other sounds were the lapping of the tide, the squawking of the sea gulls, and my heavy breathing. No, I wasn't on the phone, I was running. The bells that sounded across the river were eerie, to say the least, and I was half expecting people to bring out their dead. I hoped they wouldn't.
As you know, running is one of my favourite pastimes, especially when there's so much to see.
There are so many reminders everywhere here in Liverpool about the history of the place, and it's nautical roots. Unfortunately the Museum of Liverpool closes at 5pm so I'm unlikely to be any wiser any time soon, and doing my own research online feels a bit like cheating. My new colleagues at the office, and various talkative strangers, have told me some interesting 'facts' that I'd like to share with you, if I may.
- Vikings were rife here, back in the day. Especially on the Wirral. That's why there are so many towns ending in -by, e.g. Kirkby, Crosby, etc. 'By' means 'village' in Viking-speak. I knew that, of course, being a Viking myself. Apparently DNA tests have shown people on the Wirral to be closely related to the Scandinavians and you can't argue with science. Well, you could, but that would make this story less interesting.
- Aintree was also named during the Viking era, meaning 'one tree'. Sounds like it was a dull place back then.
- The Beatles are to Liverpool what ABBA are to Swedes - a pain in the arse. Of course they're proud of The Beatles but don't need to be reminded of them every time they speak to someone not from here.
- Kirkby, which is just outside of Liverpool, was the inspiration for Newtown, featured in Z-cars.
- I have three different stories regarding the birds that sit on top of the Liver Building. There are two birds, one facing the river, and one facing inland - this much is fact. Why they were placed like that is another story. One person (a taxi driver) told me that one bird was to look over the sailors at sea and the other was to look over the women and children inland. One person (the cleaner at David Lloyds) told me that one was to look over the sailors going out, and one to look over the sailors coming back. To me that makes no sense because surely they depart and return by ship..? And the final person who had her say (the receptionist at David Lloyds) said that one, the female, looked out over the sailors, and the other, the male, looked over the pubs........... And the winner is....... Judge for yourselves - excerpt from Wikipedia: The modern popularity of the symbol largely dates to 1911, when the Liver Building was built. This prominent display of two liver birds rekindled the idea that the liver was a mythical bird that once haunted the local shoreline. According to popular legend, they are a male and female pair, the female looking out to sea, (watching for the seamen to return safely home) whilst the male looks towards the city (making sure the pubs are open). An alternative version says that the male bird is looking in to watch over and protect the families of the seamen. Local legend also holds that the birds face away from each other as, if were they to mate and fly away, the city would cease to exist. In fact, they were indeed designed to watch the City (Our People) and the Sea (Our Prosperity). Another legend says that if an honest man and a virgin woman were to fall in love in front of the liverbird that the couple of liverbirds that are in statue form would come to life, fly away and Liverpool would cease to exist.
- I was told that the word 'scouse' comes from Viking times, from the word 'lobscouse', a Scandinavian meat stew of sorts. I've never heard of this before, so I decided to do some research, as it felt like a prank to me! Here's what Wikipedia (UK) said:
The word "scouse" is a shortened form of "lobscouse", derived from the Norwegian lapskaus, Swedish lapskojs and Danishlabskovs (or the Low German Labskaus), a word for a meat stew commonly eaten by sailors. In the 19th century, poorer people in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bootle and Wallasey commonly ate "scouse" as it was a cheap dish. Outsiders tended to call these people "scousers".
And this is what Wikipedia (Sweden) said:
Ordet kommer från engelskans lobs-cou(r)se med osäkert ursprung[4], tidigast belagt 1706[5]. Ordet spreds vidare av den brittiske författaren Tobias Smollett i flera böcker under 1750-talet.
Translated, it means that the word comes from the English word lobs-course, bla bla bla. Ok.... Well I'm none the wiser....
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