Merseyside Tales E-Book

Ken Pye

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 268

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

This fantastic collection of true tales celebrates the strange and curious secrets of Merseyside's history. The fifty stories inside – from the lion in the wheelbarrow on the tightrope to the twelve young women 'smothered by the incurable malady they caught of some sailors', the true tale of the 'man in the iron coffin' and the strange and mysterious disappearance of the Everest mountaineers from Birkenhead – uncover some truly amazing and extraordinary facets of the area's history and heritage. Richly illustrated and compiled by Liverpool's own historian Ken Pye, this book will delight residents and visitors alike.

Leseprobe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It would not have been possible to produce such a broad collection of stories without help and support. I would therefore like to thank the staff of Liverpool Central Libraries and of the Liverpool Record Office in particular; and the librarians, and many of my fellow proprietors, of the Liverpool Athenaeum. I am, as always, very grateful for their encouragement, time and professionalism.

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Merseyside Tales

The Wild West Comes to Liverpool

The Widnes and Runcorn Transporter Bridge

Dickie Lewis – Liverpool’s Great Bronze Nude

‘Over the Sticks’ – The Founding of the Grand National

Lockerby Road and the Fiji Island Castaway

The Mass Graves of Old Swan

Liverpool Observatory and the One O’ Clock Gun

Woolies

Monks on the Mersey

The Old Hutte

The Lepers’ Squint

The Enigmatic Eleanor Rigby

Belles, Beaus and Cups of Tea

The Meccano Man and Dinky Designer

Miniature Masterpieces

Plumpton’s Hollow and the Lion in the Wheelbarrow

Who Really Conquered Mount Everest First?

The Guinea Gap Treasure Trove

Huyton Internment Camp

The Storeton Dinosaurs

Reynolds’ Waxworks – Freaks, Frights and Fantasies

The Sanctuary Stone

The Adelphi – Liverpool’s ‘Grand Hotel’

The Hale Duck Decoy

The Pier Head Floating Landing Stages

The Legend of the Eagle and Child

Fire in the Menagerie

Molly Bushell and Her Everton Toffee Shop

The First Mersey Tunnel?

Propaganda Against Prostitution – A Questionable Deterrent

The Poisoner, the Landlady and the Brooch

Project Redsand and the Mersey Forts

Whisky Galore!

The Vampires’ Burials

Within Way and the Old Ford

A Dictator Comes to Liverpool

The Moreton Hovercraft

Doctor Solomon and the Balm of Gilead

The Man in the Iron Coffin

The Lost Lake and the Gorilla’s Lipstick

The Petrified Forest of Meols

The Pagan Carvings of Bidston Hill and the Cheshire Cat

The Liver Building Birds and Their True Designer

The Devil’s Nest at New Brighton

The Admiral’s Coffin

St Patrick’s Cross – Over 1,000 Years of Pilgrimage

The Robin Hood Stone

Mouse Pie and a Touch of Toad

New Brighton Tower and Pleasure Gardens

The Childe of Hale – The Gentle Giant

Select Bibliography

About the Author

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

I am a Scouser born and bred, and I am deeply proud of this. I love the city and its people, and the remarkable history and heritage that make these so special. Liverpool in particular, but also so much of the rest of Merseyside, has played a major role in the economic, industrial, commercial and cultural growth and life of Britain – and the world. This is why studying and learning about its past is endlessly rewarding.

However, as well as all the important people and significant events that have shaped us, the story of our region is one of fun and fascination. This is especially so when we delve into the more curious stories of the place and of its many eccentric and noteworthy individuals – hence this book.

This is an entirely miscellaneous collection of what I think are some of the best tales in the region and those that will amuse, surprise and entertain my readers; in fact, I am sure that there is something for everyone in this assortment. All of my stories are true (although some are more true than others), and they all prove that, indeed, ‘truth is stranger than fiction’.

I certainly hope that you enjoy reading theseMerseyside Talesjust as much as I enjoyed researching and writing them.

So, let’s begin with a tale about Cowboys and Indians, and how they came to Liverpool, twice, and how they were brought here by one of America’s most popular folk heroes and greatest showmen, Buffalo Bill Cody.

Ken Pye

Liverpool, 2015

MERSEYSIDETALES

THEWILDWESTCOMESTOLIVERPOOL

In 1847 the great American Wild West legend Buffalo Bill was born in Iowa, USA. His real name was William Frederick Cody and, when little more than a boy, he became a rider for the pioneer mail delivery service the Pony Express. In 1861 he began working for the US Army as an Indian scout and he fought in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show programme cover.(Discover Liverpool Library)

Cody earned his more familiar nickname when he became a hunter for the Kansas Pacific Railway in 1876, tracking, shooting and killing North American bison, more commonly known as buffalo. This was to supply fresh meat for the workers building the great railway that was connecting the east and west coasts of the fledgling country. Bill was an expert shot with a rifle and very skilled at his trade; so much so that he was said to have killed 4,280 buffalo in eighteen months, and his record was forty-eight of the great animals killed in just fifty minutes.

The problem was that he, and the riflemen he had working for him, almost completely wiped out the species and drove the Plains Indians into starvation as a result. This was one of the causes of the Indian Wars in which Cody fought, gaining popular fame as a ‘Wild West Hero’ for single-handedly killing Yellowhand, the Cheyenne chief.

Cody became renowned across America and then around the world as the great ‘Buffalo Bill’ and, in 1884, he began to capitalise on his fame by creating a travelling Wild West Show. He toured the world with this spectacular entertainment, taking it to the greatest cities of the world and, of course, one of the greatest at the end of the nineteenth century was Liverpool. He first brought his show to the ‘crossroads of the British Empire’ from 6–18 July 1891, where it was performed twice daily in Newsham Park – and what a show it was!

The men and women of this great extravaganza, with their animals and equipment, arrived at Knotty Ash station on Sunday 5th aboard a single train of seventy-two carriages. These were carrying 200 performers, including cowboys, rough-riders and Native American Indians. There were also 200 horses, dozens of covered pioneer wagons and a herd of buffalo! They made their way through the suburbs of Liverpool to the park, attracting vast crowds of astonished onlookers en route.

Thousands of people came from across Merseyside every day, paying 1sa time to see the show. In the huge outdoor arena they witnessed the roping and branding of cattle, the horsemanship skills of the rough-riders and the recreation of a Sioux Indian attack on a wagon train. This featured the real-life Native American Indian chiefs Short Bull, Kicking Bear and Long Wolf.

Scousers had never seen anything like this before and gasped in awe at the authentic sights, sounds and smells of the men and animals, and of the gunshots, flames and smoke. They cheered in exhilaration at the nick-of-time rescue of the Pioneers by the American Cavalry in all their uniformed glory. Extra ferries had been laid on to carry spectators across the river, and extra trams and omnibuses brought people from across the city and beyond to shout in thrilled excitement as the one-and-only, authentic, actual Deadwood Stage Coach was attacked by bandits.

Adults and children alike were amazed to see the world-famous sharpshooter Annie Oakley (known as Little Sure Shot) shoot the pip out of an Ace of Spades at 100yds distance! But to see the great man Buffalo Bill himself ride into the arena, leap down from his horse and sweep off his hat in a spectacular bow really brought the crowds to their feet.

Here he was in person, just as they had seen him in photographs in the newspapers and in sketches in the ‘penny dreadful’ comics they had all been reading. With his long, flowing white hair, curling moustache and neatly trimmed goatee beard, and in his white buckskins, fabulous boots with engraved buffalo figures, and wearing his silver six-guns with their pearl handles, Buffalo Bill brought the Wild West to life in Liverpool.

At the end of the two-week run, a quarter of a million people had seen the show and £20,000 had been taken in ticket sales – £2 million in today’s money. Bill was so happy with his profits that, in May 1903, he came back to visit us again. This time, however, he stayed for three weeks after arriving in three trains of carriages. He brought with him over 500 horses, but there was no Annie Oakley. Even so, there were now even more Indians, from the Sioux and Cheyenne nations. There were over 100 rough-riders and, as well as a contingent of US Artillery and Cavalry, a detachment of English Cavalry ‘flew the flag’ for the British Empire in a show of militaristic alliance with our ex-colonial cousins from across the Atlantic Ocean.

This time the Wild West Show took place in a massive, purpose-built Exhibition Arena on Edge Lane Drive. This stood where the Corporation Bus Sheds were later built and where the extension to the Technology Park now stands. It was 185ft wide by 440ft long and had tiers of seats on three sides. Outside, and covering an additional 10 acres, was an accompanying exhibition of displays and attractions, including a recreated Indian Village. The most popular character in the show this time round though, apart from Buffalo Bill himself, was the Lakota Sioux Indian chief, from the Black Hills of South Dakota, Charging Thunder.

My nan saw the show this time round and she told me how, as a young girl, she was on Wavertree Road when Buffalo Bill, in his Buckskins, boots and gunbelt, went shopping, accompanied by Charging Thunder. The tall, somber Indian chief was dressed in a plain grey smock and leggings, with equally plain moccasins, and was wearing two feathers in the back of his hair. He seemed to be absolutely delighted with the shopping bags he was carrying, one in each hand, but which were both filled with nothing but cabbages. He was proudly showing these to the fascinated crowds lining the pavement, declaring to them as he did so, ‘Cabbages, Cabbages!’Meanwhile, Bill was bidding the gawping shoppers a ‘Howdy Pardners!’ and a ‘Glad, ta see ya’ll!’, as locals no doubt responded with such comments as ‘Orlright der Bill la!’ and ‘Giz a go ovya guns Billy mate!’

Chief Charging Thunder’s life, however, was to change forever when the Wild West Show left Liverpool and moved on to Salford. Here, the 26-year-old Native American Indian chief decided to leave the show with one of Buffalo Bill’s horse handlers, a girl named Josephine. They married and moved first to Darwen but finally settled in Gorton, Manchester, where they set up home and raised a family.

Changing his name to George Edward Williams, he worked for many years at Belle Vue Circus where he looked after the elephants; his favourite of these was named Nelly! George and Josephine lived a happy married life until the former Lakota Sioux Chief caught pneumonia and, on 28 July 1929, sadly died at the age of only 52. He lies buried in Gorton cemetery as George Williams, with Josephine, who died in 1943, but their descendants still live in and around Manchester.

Buffalo Bill Cody himself, despite his worldwide fame and all the money he made, became bankrupt in 1915. He died in poverty in 1917, at the age of 70. His body lay in state in Denver, Colorado, for just a day, but 25,000 people filed past his coffin to pay silent tribute to the great Indian scout and showman.

The memory of his two visits to Liverpool, with his amazing and spectacular Wild West Show, lived long in the hearts and minds of Liverpool people, and we shall certainly never see the like of Buffalo Bill again!

THEWIDNESANDRUNCORNTRANSPORTERBRIDGE

Sometime in the ninth century, the daughter of Alfred the Great, Queen Ethelfleda of the Mercians (c. 870–918), built a castle on the shore at Runcorn, overlooking the river across to what is now the town of Widnes. From the reign of King John (1167–1216) a small ferryboat was rowed across the Mersey from Runcorn Gap to Widnes West Bank. The tolls levied for this went directly to the Crown, but if a traveller could not afford the boat ride then at low tide he could take his life into his hands and cross the river on foot, but he still had to pay a much smaller toll to the lord of the manor for the privilege of doing so!

The Widnes to Runcorn Transporter Bridge as it looked in 1939.(Courtesy of Liverpool Athenaeum Library)

The ferry service operated almost continuously for centuries and a report on it written in 1835 stated:

The public are ferried across by a couple of men, who are not always to be found at a moment’s warning; next, the landing-place at Runcorn is at all times extremely incommodious; and thirdly, that on the other side is still worse; in fact, at low water, the passenger here steps out of the boat on a plank, lands on mud and sand, and after walking on this compost upwards of a hundred yards to the ferry-house, he has then a mile to proceed at all events.

In 1864, work began on the London and North Western Railway Company’s impressive Runcorn Bridge. This still carries main-line trains in and out of Liverpool and is officially named the ‘Queen Ethelfleda Viaduct’. This is because when it was being built workmen discovered the foundations of the Saxon queen’s ancient castle, which had been demolished many years before.

However, the ferry still rowed its way across the river but only until 1887 when work began to dig the Manchester Ship Canal. This runs alongside the Wirral bank of the Mersey and is separated from the river by a wall. After the canal had been completed the ferry trip had to then be made in two parts. One boat rowed across the river and another rowed across the canal, and passengers had to climb over the canal wall to complete their journeys!

As well as this, an increasing number of vehicles, of all kinds, were now wanting to cross between Runcorn and Widnes and so a road bridge was clearly now required at this point on the river. To meet this need, in 1899, the Widnes and Runcorn Bridge Company was formed.

However, it would be very expensive to construct a bridge that could carry coaches and carts across the river and be at a height to allow ocean-going ships to pass beneath it. An alternative was needed, so the company decided that a ‘transporter bridge’ would solve their problem.

A ‘transporter’ consisted of two tall iron towers, one standing on each side of the river. These were connected from their highest points by a gantry carrying parallel tracks. A trolley travelled along these, from which, suspended on cables, a large ‘carriage’ moved from one side of the river to the other. The first transporter bridge in the world had been opened, in 1893, in Bilbao, Spain, and this had been followed, in 1898, by transporter bridges in Rouen in France and in Bizerte, which is now in Tunisia. This meant that the technology was proven and, in 1901, work began on building the Widnes and Runcorn Transporter Bridge.

Work was completed in 1905 at a cost of £130,000 (around £12.5 million today), and the massive towers each stood at a height of 180ft (55m). The gantry spanned a distance of 1,000ft (300m), which made this the largest transporter ever built. The carriage, which was more like a giant tea-tray, weighed 250 tons and was 55ft (17m) long and 24ft 6in (7.5m) wide. It had been designed to carry ‘four two-horse wagons or 300 passengers’,and there was a shelter for the passengers as well as a cabin for the driver. This was mounted at one end of the carriage and was tall enough to give him a clear view in all directions.

The journey across took two and a half minutes, and this amazing contraption was driven by electric motors in the trolley, fed from a power house in the tower on the Widnes side. However, the bottom of the carriage passed only 12ft above the high water level and only 4ft 6in above the wall that separates the Ship Canal from the River Mersey. This meant that trips across had to be timed to allow ships to pass beneath.

For journeys on the Transporter the tolls were 6d(6 old pence) for carriages, carts and motor vehicles, and 1d(1 old penny) for foot passengers and animals. These were only increased in 1953, when they went up to 1s(1 shilling) and 2d(2 old pence) respectively. Despite the volume of traffic that used the bridge it never made a profit and was run as a public service by Widnes Corporation, who had bought it in 1911.

In the years immediately following the Second World War the Transporter was carrying an average of 500 cars, 300 lorries and trucks, 100 bicycles and 4,000 foot passengers every day. By the late 1950s these figures had risen to an annual average of 280,000 cars, 145,000 commercial vehicles and over 2 million foot passengers, and I remember travelling on the Transporter as a child. This was on outings with my family, in my father’s Ford Prefect saloon car, and mostly to places like Chester Zoo or Delamere Forest. I recall how we shared the journey with great crowds of people as well as vehicles, and sometimes with horses and small herds of cattle or sheep!

But time was running out for the old suspended carriage system and it was becoming overused and overcrowded; it simply could not keep pace with modern transport needs. A fixed, high-level bridge now had to be built, which opened in 1961 and is now named The Silver Jubilee Bridge. The Widnes to Runcorn Transporter Bridge was demolished soon afterwards, and it has now passed into the mists of nostalgia.

DICKIELEWIS– LIVERPOOL’SGREATBRONZENUDE

Directly facing the Adelphi Hotel, at the corner of Ranelagh Street in Liverpool, stands a gracious building that was originally built as ‘Lewis’s Department Store’. This was the fourth store on the site to bear the name of its founder, London-born David Lewis (1823–1885), the first opening in 1856. But, in 1886, the year after its founder’s death, the store was completely destroyed by a disastrous fire. However, this provided the opportunity for the building to be entirely redesigned, developed and rebuilt.

‘Liverpool Resurgent’ dominating the front entrance of the former Lewis’s Department Store. (Discover Liverpool Library)

Business was so good that the store was rebuilt and enlarged again, between 1910 and 1923, by the renowned architect Gerald de Courcy Fraser (1872–1952). His design incorporated a roof garden, with tame monkeys and parrots, exclusively for the use of Lewis’s wealthier patrons. This was the first large store in Britain to have a fully installed sprinkler fire system, and it was the first shop in Liverpool to use full-size mannequins, or dummies, to display clothes in the shop windows. This gave rise to the local expression for a lazy or dilatory person, ‘You’re standin’ there like one of Lewis’s!’

However, in the Second World War, during the May Blitz of 1941, Liverpool was subjected to almost continuous bombardment by the German Luftwaffe. Indeed, the city was the most heavily bombed city in Britain, outside London, in sheer tonnage of Nazi incendiary and high-explosive bombs. Lewis’s Ranelagh Street store became one of many architectural and commercial casualties. Nevertheless, the store was completely rebuilt after the war by the same architect. This time, De Courcy Fraser designed it with a steel frame encased by a façade of Portland Stone, and it reopened in 1951.

To appropriately mark the significance of the new store and the continuing resurrection of Liverpool after the war, the sculptor Jacob Epstein (1880–1959) was commissioned to create a special statue for the front of the building. His instructions were to create something large and imposing that would represent the strength and resilience of the port and city of Liverpool. Epstein took his commission seriously and set to work.

Shrouded in mystery as to the final form of his work, it took Epstein two and a half years to complete. It was then mounted above the grand entrance doors but remained hidden under massive tarpaulins so that his design would stay secret. Then, on 20 November 1956, came the official unveiling.

All the ‘great and good’ of Liverpool were assembled on Ranelagh Place, outside the front of the building, along with the staff and management of Lewis’s Store and thousands of eager Liverpudlians. There was an expectant buzz amongst the crowds because word had leaked out that the statue that Epstein had created would be very special indeed. And then the cord was pulled and the great shrouds fell away.

Some loud cheers went up but also great shouts of amazement. Some of these were in shock and outrage, whilst others were exuberant shouts of delight! This was because what had been exposed – quite literally – was the much larger than life-size, blatantly full-frontal figure of a great, naked bronze man.

There he still stands, with a determined expression and stance, on the prow of a great ship that seems to be surging out of the front of the building; he is piloting the vessel forward, going boldly into the future! The bronze ship’s prow weighs 2½ tons, and the figure itself weighs a further 2¾ tons. He stands at 18ft 6in high overall, but I have no information about any other dimensions associated with the figure!

Because the statue is cast in perfect and detailed physical accuracy, his sudden appearance in one of Liverpool’s busiest thoroughfares, and above one of its most popular department stores, generated many complaints and letters to the local newspaper, theLiverpool Echo. After a fortnight the reaction died down, although it was said that for weeks after the unveiling the front bedrooms of the Adelphi Hotel were all booked up and mostly – though not exclusively – by women!

Despite the notoriety surrounding Liverpool’s great bronze nude man, I find the attention paid to his manhood somewhat unnecessary; proportionally he is not that impressive – but that is just a personal view! However, whilst the official name of the Lewis’s statue is Liverpool Resurgent, it is known locally, and for obvious reasons, as ‘Dickie Lewis’!

‘OVERTHESTICKS’ – THEFOUNDINGOFTHE GRANDNATIONAL

Towards the end of 1828 a Liverpool hotelier and entrepreneur named William Lynn (1794–1872) decided to expand his business interests with a brand new venture. His idea was to run flat-races for horses, which was then a very popular pastime all over Lancashire, especially amongst the aristocracy and the moneyed classes. It was also a great favourite with the general public, because horse racing is such an exciting spectator sport.

Indeed, flat-races had been running in the Maghull area of north Liverpool from the previous year, but Lynn was convinced that he could organise these more effectively and more profitably. So for financial backing he took his idea to Sir William Philip Molyneux, the 2nd Earl of Sefton (1771–1838). Lord Sefton was also known locally as ‘Lord Dashalong’ because of his fondness for driving a carriage and four ‘at breakneck speeds’around the streets of Liverpool town. This meant that the earl found Lynn’s idea appealing, so he agreed to finance him and also to make land available at Aintree, also just to the north of Liverpool.

Lynn immediately enclosed a large area of this land and set out his new racecourse. The foundation stone for the racetrack’s first grandstand was laid by Lord Sefton on 7 July 1829, and Lynn ran three flat-races that year alone. These became so successful that by 1835 the Liverpudlian entrepreneur had decided to make his Aintree races even more exciting by changing them into steeplechases. This form of horse race had become increasingly popular because it was much more challenging and competitive than a race over flat ground.

The term ‘steeplechase’ – colloquially known also as a race ‘over the sticks’ – actually comes from the very earliest horse races, which took place across open countryside. The horses would literally race from church steeple to church steeple, over a prescribed distance, jumping whatever natural or man-made barriers they found in their way.

So to replicate the hedges, brooks and walls that horses would encounter across open country, Lynn now built a series of fences and obstacles on his racecourse.His first Aintree steeplechase was held in 1836 and was an immediate triumph. The winner was Captain Martin Becher, riding The Duke,and very soon the race became known as The Grand Liverpool Steeplechase.

The Grand National Steeplechase in 1843.(Courtesy of Liverpool Athenaeum Library)

Because of his continuing success, Lynn now decided to diversify his sporting events with an entirely different form of animal race. Once again he approached Lord Sefton, who not only agreed to finance this venture too but also to make more of his land available, this time at Altcar, between Liverpool and Ormskirk. Lynn’s new idea was for a hare-coursing event, which he named ‘The Waterloo Cup’ after his popular and luxurious Waterloo Hotel. This once stood on Ranelagh Street, on a site now occupied by the entrance to Liverpool’s Central Station.

The new competition involved a hare being released from one side of a large area of land, generally hedged. A few seconds later two or three greyhounds would also be released to see which, if any, would be first to catch and kill the hare. Lynn’s first Altcar meeting also took place in 1836 and attracted huge crowds. It was won by a greyhound bitch named Melanie, which was owned by Lord Molyneux, the eldest son of the Earl of Sefton. As well as winning prize money of £16, the aristocrat was awarded a silver snuff box as a trophy. The Waterloo Cup soon became profitable and very popular, always attracting great crowds often numbering in tens of thousands. In modern times, however, the cruelty of hare-coursing attracted attention of a different kind, and the sport was declared illegal in 2005.

By 1839, Lynn’s annual Aintree steeplechase had now also become outstandingly popular and profitable. In that year the race was formally renamed as The Liverpool and National Handicap Steeplechase, and on 26 February an estimated crowd of 50,000 spectators saw Lottery romp home as the undoubted winner. It was from then that the race became generally – but not officially – known as ‘the Grand National’.

Lottery therefore entered into the record books as the first horse to win the famous Grand National Steeplechase. This animal was a great favourite with the crowd and seemed to enjoy all the attention; however, the horse absolutely hated his jockey, Jem Mason. This meant that the rider had to creep up on the horse from behind and quickly mount him before the animal realised who it was that was climbing onto his back!

A certain Captain Becher was also riding in the 1839 race, on a horse named Conrad, but he fell into a 6ft-wide brook at one of the fences. The captain afterwards said that he ‘never knew water tasted so foul without whisky in it’. This jump has been known as ‘Becher’s Brook’ ever since.

This obstacle is just one of the sixteen challenging fences faced by horses and jockeys alike as they make two circuits of the 2¼-mile-long course – although only thirty fences are ultimately jumped. Some of these are ‘drop fences’, where the landing side of the fence is lower than the take-off side. This means that the horses are unaware of the drop until they are in the air. However, the ‘Chair Fence’ has the opposite problem, because the approach side is lower than the landing side! Also, the horses have to negotiate some very tricky turns and then end the race with a 494yd run up to the winning post. This is why the famous Grand National is also notorious the world over as being one of the sport’s most severe horse races.

A mystery surrounds the 1839 race: only three days before it was due to take place Lynn retired from organising the event and disappeared into relative obscurity. The reasons for this have never been satisfactorily explained, but control of the steeplechase immediately passed to a syndicate of wealthy aristocrats, brought together by Lord Sefton. This comprised Sefton himself; the Earl of Eglinton; the Earl of Wilton; Lord George Bentinck; Lord Grosvenor; the 13th Earl of Derby and his son, Lord Stanley.

The race meeting continued to grow in popularity and financial success, and in 1847 it was renamed once again, now as the Grand National Handicap Steeplechase. This is the name that it continues to hold officially today.

Up to 1949, the racecourse was owned by the Earls of Sefton, but in that year Lord Sefton sold it to the Topham family. Their matriarch, Mirabel Topham (born in 1891, and a former ‘Gaiety Girl’ dancer), became one of the most challenging, controversial and eccentric characters the racecourse had ever seen.

Running the Grand National and the Aintree racecourse from 1958 until 1973, Mrs Topham was passionate about racing, the ‘National’ and her racecourse. She built a second racetrack at Aintree within the established course and this opened in 1953. This was at the same time as she opened a brand new motor-racing circuit around the perimeter of the course. This became renowned as one of the best racetracks in the world, being home to a European Grand Prix and five British Grand Prix, the first of which was won by Stirling Moss in 1955.

Mrs Topham was respected and loved by many race-goers and always provided good copy for journalists. Nevertheless, she was intensely disliked by many owners, some jockeys and by the BBC in particular. This was because Mirabel had her often forthright opinions and she stuck to them, right up to her death in 1980.

In 1973, Aintree Racecourse passed out of the hands of the Topham family and into those of the (some might say) notorious local property developer Bill Davies. He paid £3 million for the course, promising to continue to run the race even though he also had plans to build on some of the land. But Davis had actually borrowed some of the money to buy the course from the Tophams, so the financial arrangements were complicated. Also, he had no experience of running racecourses, so by 1976 the betting firm of Ladbrokes were in control of the race.

Over subsequent decades the racecourse passed through a variety of ownerships, with the Grand National itself being sponsored by an equally varied range of companies. Today, the Grand National is now run by Jockey Club Racecourses, and the racecourse is owned by a charitable trust, of which the current and 19th Earl of Derby is a trustee. The renowned racing novelist and jockey Dick Francis (1920–2010) was also a trustee until shortly before his own death.

Today, of course, the Grand National and Aintree continue to thrive, and the racecourse has five modern grandstands. Indeed, in 2007 the 19th Earl of Derby opened two of these, ‘The Earl of Derby’ and ‘Lord Sefton’ stands. (The last Earl of Sefton, the 7th, had died in 1972.) These are identical, spectacular, state-of-the-art, multi-purpose facilities, with outstanding views of the racecourse.

A number of exceptional horses have raced at Aintree but perhaps the Grand National’s most famous was Red Rum. He came second in the National in 1975 and 1976, and won it in 1973, 1974 and 1977. His grave and a statue commemorating this extraordinary animal are both sited at the racecourse. Another record-breaker was Foinavon. This horse, ridden by John Buckingham in 1967, avoided a massive pile-up at the course’s smallest fence, cleared the obstacle and went on to win the race at odds of 100/1. The fence was later named Foinavon after the horse.

One of the most special races, however, was the 1981 event, when a previously un-fancied horse named Aldaniti was the winner. He was being ridden by Bob Champion (b.1948) who had recently recovered from cancer, and the cheers and tears of the crowds, and of the television viewers in their homes around Britain, as he entered the final run was a moving and uplifting experience for the entire country.