How do histories of welfare, housing, top-down urban redevelopment and economic management look when viewed from Liverpool? Dr Sam Wetherell compares the postwar fate of various groups deemed to be “surplus” in the city in the 1930s and 1940s: white unemployed workers, West African seamen and Black and Chinese technicians and sailors recruited into the city during the war. The dramatic reorganisation of Liverpool’s economy and built environment hardened lines of racial difference in the city, with people of colour becoming unhoused, policed, confined to insecure work and, in some instances, deported.

Wednesday 11 March, 2pm [AGM followed by our March Lecture]
For those not able to attend IN PERSON, email Dr Fiona Pogson (membership@hslc.org.uk)
How do histories of welfare, housing, top-down urban redevelopment and economic management look when viewed from Liverpool? Dr Sam Wetherell (University of York) compares the postwar fate of various groups deemed to be “surplus” in the city in the 1930s and 1940s: white unemployed workers, West African seamen and Black and Chinese technicians and sailors recruited into the city during the war. Liverpool’s unemployed white population were the beneficiaries of a massive state-backed expansion of housing, and jobs. At the same time, this dramatic reorganisation of Liverpool’s economy and built environment hardened lines of racial difference in the city, with people of colour becoming unhoused, policed, confined to insecure work and, in some instances, deported.
In telling both halves of this story, Dr Wetherell seeks to situate broader arguments about decolonisation, racialisation and welfare in a single city, while offering a different explanatory framework for understanding a period of urban redevelopment, mass house-building and industrial policy.
ALL WELCOME – FREE TO ATTEND

Back

Another chance to see our February lecture: Thomas Newcomen's invention of an engine for draining mines and its first use in a coal mine in 1712, heralded the 'Industrial Revolution' in Britain. Their installation in Prescot and Whiston was at the forefront of the development of the South West Lancashire Coalfield in the eighteenth century and there is evidence that the first Newcomen-type engine in Lancashire was installed in Whiston in 1719.

Another chance to see this lecture, recorded and shared by Zoom on Wednesday 18 February 2026

 

Speakers: Ben Croxford is the Historic Environment Record Officer for Merseyside working for the Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service. He has previously worked as an archaeologist across the UK and on excavations in Italy and Tunisia. He is a member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists and the Merseyside Archaeological Society. Maurice Handley is a former Chartered Mechanical Engineer.  After retiring, he followed a number of part time courses at the University of Liverpool and was awarded a Diploma in Landscape Interpretation. He has a  long-standing interest in archaeology, geology and industrial history.

Men and Maurice made use of maps and plans, coupled with documentary evidence and recently published information about the supply of components, to reassess the location, dates of installation and ownership of Newcomen-type engines in Prescot and Whiston. 

Back

Another chance to see our November talk where Dr Steven Shuttleworth asks who were 'the gentry' and talks about the huge variations in their wealth, land ownership, and their role in society; the debate about the 'rise and fall' ir the gentry in general; what we know (or think we know) about the Lancashire gentry; and then consider how these issues are reflected in the story of his ancestors, the Shuttleworths of Asterley, near Whalley.

Another chance to see this lecture, recorded and shared by Zoom on Wednesday 19 November 2025,

LECTURER: Dr Steven Shuttleworth

Steven is a native of Oldham. An environmental scientist/town planner by profession, his final post was as Director of Environment/Head of Planning for a local authority.  Since retiring, Steven has spent some of his time researching his family history, which has rekindled his long standing interest in the socioeconomic history of Lancashire. His talk asks who were ‘the gentry’. He talks about the huge variations in their wealth, land ownership, and their role in society; the debate about the ‘rise and fall’ ir the gentry in general; what we know (or think we know) about the Lancashire gentry; and then considers how these issues are reflected in the story of his ancestors, the Shuttleworths of Asterley, near Whalley.

 

[Image: Easterley Farm, formerly known as Asterley, in the 1950s]

Back

Another chance to see our October 2025 lecture where Professor Katrina Navickas examines the rise of the footpath and commons preservation movement, and some of the early contests between walkers and landowners, culminating in the famous Winter Hill dispute in 1896, and lesser well known conflicts in Darwen and other parts of the southern Pennines.

Another chance to see our October 2025 lecture. Drawing from her new book, Contested Commons: a history of protest and public space in England, Professor Katrina Navickas (University of Hertfordshire) examines the rise of the footpath and commons preservation movement, and some of the early contests between walkers and landowners, culminating in the famous Winter Hill dispute in 1896, and lesser well known conflicts in Darwen and other parts of the southern Pennines. It argues that the mass trespasses in the 1890s were as, if not more, important than the Kinder Scout mass trespass of the 1930s.[Image: Darwen Moor and Winter Hill (c) David Dixon, CC BY-SAY 2]

Back

Another chance to see our June 2025 lecture. Against a backdrop of ever-increasing social malaise and ongoing private sector inertia, Liverpool Corporation embarked upon an energetic programme of slum clearance and concomitant working-class housing construction. Such was its success that by 1914 it was, with the sole exception of the London County Council, the largest single provider of municipal social housing in country. This talk will provide an overview of both the changing nature of policy and the individual developments constructed by Liverpool Corporation in the pre-WWI period.

This lecture took place via Zoom on Wednesday 18 June 2025

Speaker: Dr Bertie Dockerill, editor of the Society’s journal, Transactions, and lecturer in Planning History.

The global-first of municipally-constructed social housing occurred within Liverpool with the opening of St Martin’s Cottages in 1869. Though specifically built as a singular experiment for the private sector to emulate there was, in the years that followed, a total failure of the same to construct equivalent housing for the city’s working-classes. Against a backdrop of ever-increasing social malaise and ongoing private sector inertia, the Corporation subsequently embarked upon an energetic programme of slum clearance and concomitant working-class housing construction. Such was its success that by 1914 it was, with the sole exception of the London County Council, the largest single provider of municipal social housing in country. This talk will provide an overview of both the changing nature of policy and the individual developments constructed by Liverpool Corporation in the pre-WWI period.

Back

Another chance to see our February 2025 lecture where Professor Paul Salveson covers the historical significance of the Liverpool and Manchester railway and the events that preceded it ahead of its bicentenary in 2030 and offers a glimpse of plans for 2029 and 2030.

 Another chance to see our February 2025 lecture where Professor Paul Salveson covers the historical significance of the Liverpool and Manchester railway and the events that preceded it ahead of its bicentenary in 2030 and offers a glimpse of plans for 2029 and 2030.

Professor Salveson is chair of the Rocket 2030 Partnership which is planning the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 2030.

 

This lecture took place, via Zoom, on Wednesday 19 February 2025.

 

 

Back