Merseyside sits on the River Mersey, and just along the way is The Wirral and the large town of Warrington. Despite the urban image and one of the highest populations in England, again this is mostly green space, when you get outside the city. Obviously there is a huge musical tradition here, being the home of The Beatles.
Although we think of Merseyside as an urban region, it is home to lots of native wildlife. Bold Forest Park is an old colliery that ‘knits together isolated woodlands’ to become a haven for bees, butterflies and summer wildflowers. And Formby is home to rare natterjack toads and red squirrels (habitat is what helps them, grey squirrels are not the main issue). Near Widnes is hale Marsh (home to little egrets and black-tailed godwits) and Pickering’s Pasture (home to butterflies and dragonflies). And just a few miles out is Seaforth Nature Reserve (home to brown hares, nesting avocets and migratory wildfowls and waders). Find more ways to help your local wildlife rescue and animal shelter.
Liverpool’s Old Dock was the first enclosed commercial wet dock in the world, and at one time 9% of all world trade passed through it. It created a safe way for loading in the River Mersey, previously dangerous due to the huge tidal range. Daniel Defore (who wrote Robinson Crusoe) remarked in 1715 that ‘this is of so great a benefit, its like is not to be seen anywhere in England’.
The main export to come out of Liverpool is obviously The Beatles, the most successful music band ever, formed in the 60s and still popular today, thanks to the genius songwriting skills of John Lennon and Paul McCartney (although George Harrison also wrote some corkers including ‘Something’, which Frank Sinatra said was the greatest love song ever made).
Ringo Starr was quite often ‘the forgotten Beatle’, though experts say he was one of the best drummers of all time, and a big reason for their success (his work is often used as an example by drumming teachers). The same has been said of Charlie Watts (drummer for The Rolling Stones). Ringo actually had big health issues as a child, falling into a coma aged 6 after a raging bout of appendicitis, followed by a year recovering from TB. This has left him today with so many allergies, he has never had a pizza or curry, as he can’t eat onions, garlic or spices.
