The Manchester Museum at the university is brilliant if you choose something without an aviation aspect, as is the People’s History Museum. MOSI is looking a little tired nowadays, they are losing public support hand over fist due to some really aggressive ‘Chugging’ when you enter. The Hunter and the Spit have been reclamed by the RAFM, yet the Tornado and the Provost that are in the collection (together with all of the 146/RJ and 748/ATP stuff) remain in storage. The volunteers at the museum do a fantastic job, the Shackleton is a joy to behold if you can get the unofficial tour, but it feels like they are there to make the place a pretty backdrop to conferences and weddings. Most of the full time conservators have been made redundant, everyone else is employed in revenue generation rather than education and preservation.
There is also a lot of bitterness locally over their u-turn regarding the objections to the ‘Ordsall Chord’. If you don’t know about this, it is worth having a look in to! In a nutshell, Notwork Rail are going to sever the railway connection in to the museum and cut the available running line by two thirds. This new line that they are building is going to take advantage of an oversight in the listing of the buildings at the museum and go straight through the middle of the Station approach, severing the Grade 1 listed station from the grade 1 listed viaduct. This is the oldest intercity railway station in the world, for god’s sake. There are very few places in the world where you can stand on a spot and say ‘This is where it all began’, but this was the absolute epicentre of the public transport revolution. It would be akin to turning the meadows at Kittyhawk in to a carpark and flattening the dunes to get a better sea view! MOSI were vehemently opposed to this scheme right up until the NR chequebook came out. Now it is down to a handful of us local history buffs to support English Heritage.
If you get a chance, the Anson museum http://www.enginemuseum.org/ is well worth a visit.
The Mersey runs through Liverpool because if it were to walk, it would get robbed at knifepoint.
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