Bygone times and changes to our area
In January we were delighted to spend a morning rooting through the extensive collection of archive photos that project partners St Leonard’s Youth and Community Centre have built up over numerous successful heritage research projects.
We were particularly interested in pictures from around the areas of our environmental improvements to add to our information posters for the interest of residents in the neighbourhood. Here’s just some of what we found.
Looking down Boswell St from Peel Rd and the busy shops on Knowsley Road.
In December, continuing our heritage research, we took another trip to the Liverpool Central Library Archives to learn all we can about the Poets Streets and had a great time searching through maps and photos of bygone times.
We were keen to find out more about the history of the sites where we have added environmental improvements as part of ‘Our Beautiful Grotspots’ and discovered that up until the 1970s the area of Poets Park was home to Keats Street and Hood Street, housing thriving communities and designated as ‘play streets’, before being demolished around 1977 to create the park.
Great fun at the poets park community day
Bootle residents put the focus on flowers as more than 100 adults and children came along to Poets Park to join in a mass bulb-planting event.
Residents in the Poets Park neighbourhood said they would like to see more flowers in Poets Park so we invited everyone along to a community day in early October to help plant more than 6,000 spring bulbs, as well as enjoying rock painting, chalk art, recycled flower decoration, games, poetry writing and refreshments.
As Poets Park is nestled in streets named after some of our great poets, it seems only right to make some new poetry that gives voice to issues that are important to people living here now.
Helping people to discover their ‘inner poet’, we have been working with residents and so far they have created 125 poems, some written by individuals, others created collaboratively by groups of community members.
Many of the people involved are surprised that they have poetry in them, and were delighted to find a different way to tell their stories and share their thoughts and dreams. Here’s an example:
As part of the community day more than 70 of these poems were displayed on the Poets Park railings and the verses will be left there for people to read, hopefully to inspire them to follow suit and create their own poems.
The bulb planting day was a huge success and enjoyed by everyone who attended, and it was also a great way to highlight the many other features of the project that residents can get involved with.
Here’s another poem for you to enjoy:
The importance of getting my child to plant bulbs.
Touching the earth as it muddies my fingers.
Feeling the soil on my hands,
Learning patience, waiting for the circle of seasons
Bringing flowers for pleasure
And food.
Loving the bees and insects
Being an eco warrior protecting not killing
Appreciating the miracle of life.
Poets Park transformation
What a fabulous transformation at the Moore Street entrance to Poets Park. Previously full of weeds and litter, we mixed a substrate mix of biochar (to capture three times as much carbon as soil), Merseygrit (recycling and reusing building waste) and a little bit of sand and peat-free compost to create our growing medium. Just look at the results!
From this…
To this in July…
To this in September…
Throughout the summer the beautiful sunflowers at Peel Road Park have been an absolute delight, bringing an amazing splash of colour for passers by.
Leaving the wildflowers to scatter their seeds naturally as they dry during early October, we are inviting everyone along on Thursday 24th October to hand harvest some seed to take away for their own gardens.
After this we will mow to collect all the flower heads, then prepare the ground for sowing perennials ready for 2025.
Putting new life back into Gray Street/Peel Road plot
We had the best morning prepping, raking and sowing the meadow plot on the corner of Gray Street and Peel Road, as part of our Heritage Lottery project. Thanks to the Riverside Group for mowing and taking away the green waste, to our community for all the hard work raking and to the children from All Saints Catholic Primary School for their amazing sowing skills.
Welcome to the wildflowers
The wildflower corridor along the railings of Peel Road Park hasn’t disappointed, with a stunning array of ox-eyed daisies, poppies, meadow buttercups, corn flowers and of course the fabulous sunflowers.
Things are starting to happen!
Beginning our environmental improvements, the community decided to add a wildflower corridor along the railings of the park, to bring a splash of colour and add biodiversity whilst keeping as much grass as possible in Peel Road Park for the dog walkers and children playing.
At the end of April, residents were joined by 48 children from All Saints Catholic Primary School at our community wildflower seed sowing event.
During our green co-design workshops, residents were mindful of introducing things that were as vandal proof as possible. Having decided that all the entrances to Poets Park needed a bit of sprucing up, they decided that the entrance to Poets Park on Moore Street lent itself to a substrate wildflower plot – wildflowers don’t really like good soil! – combining recycled crushed brick, sand, peat-free compost and biochar (for increased capture carbon).
Here’s the Mersey grit being delivered! And already there’s a bit of colour ????.
On our walkabouts and in the chats afterwards, lots of people said they’d like to do something more with the plot on the corner of Peel Road and Gray Street to brighten it up.
We checked the budget and reckoned we could find a little bit to support this additional site.
So at the end of May we planted 125 sunflower seedings with the community to bring some colour and joy to the site.
Our fantastic day out
We had an amazing day visiting the archives at Liverpool Central library where the staff were so helpful and knowledgeable.
We learnt that the two streets that used to exist where Poets Park now stands were called Keats Street and Hood Street, and that on the corner of Norton Street and Peel Road there used to be a methodist chapel and a dry cleaners!
Also the Queens pub is on the 1890 map.
Anyone remember the toy factory on the corner of Moore Street and Knowsley Road? We didn’t, but it’s on a 1950s map.
#bootle #localhistory #heritage #poetsstreets #communityresearch
Where shall we add new green features?
A massive thanks to the brave people who ignored the rain and joined us to share really insightful and well thought out opinions and dreams about what could be.
We had a great time wandering around the Poets Streets, despite the miserable weather, and we all came away feeling excited and energised!
After exploring the area with different groups on three walkabouts, two sites came out top of the list – adding something more interesting to Peel Park, and doing something to clean up and brighten up the entrances to Poets Park.
Next steps – let’s get designing!
Pilot project will create new nature-based heritage installations
We’re delighted to share that we have been awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for our pilot project which will deliver a variety of activities combining local history research with the built environment and natural heritage, leading to the co-creation of two nature-based heritage installations to address climate change in the Poets Streets area.
Starting with walks around the area, residents will decide on the ‘grotspot’ sites for the project.
Visiting Liverpool Archives participants will explore the history of the Poets Streets’ neighbourhood and discover the story behind the street names and/or how the war changed the landscape. Their findings will form a starting point in the cultural heritage workshops.
Building confidence through creativity, Collective Encounters (Theatre for Social Change) will use a variety of fun, creative approaches to translate archive findings into simple drama, collaborative poetry or short stories to connect the past with the present.
Everyone will get involved in co-designing the nature-based installations to transform the two ‘grotspots’ by building and installing green features and gaining an understanding of urban biodiversity, sustainable planting and future community use as part of their learning.
Pollinator-friendly signs will be added to highlight the importance of nature’s recovery and the role that urban greening plays in climate action, and might also include a verse from the relevant poet (eg Shelley, Gray) alongside a poem/story created by residents and local heritage.
With expert advice from the University of Liverpool Groundswell project, our evaluation will assess the impact of improving urban green spaces and further our understanding of what works and what doesn’t work so well, to refine our approach.
Working with the Poets’ Streets partnership we want to engage a wide range of people in heritage and reconnect people to landscapes and nature, leaving a legacy of two beautiful green spaces for the public to continue to enjoy and engage in natural heritage.
