A splendidly-illustrated book entitled The Changing Face of Liverpool 1207-1770' has recently been published by the Merseyside Archaeological Society. George Perry's Plan of the Town and Port of Liverpool (1769) is one of several maps included, giving us a detailed picture of the town before its subsequent rapid expansion.

The introductory pages give a very readable account of the growth of the medieval town, its industries and institutions, but the bulk of the book comprises a gazetteer of historic sites - almost all of them now vanished without trace - which have been researched by reference to old deeds, town records and/or archaeological excavation.

Reading this book, and relating its contents to the city centre as we know it today, makes us realise that the loss of historic buildings is nothing new! The 80-page, A4 size book is available, priced at just £5, from the MAS (who will have a table at the Big History Show on 14th-16th September) or from Borders/WHSmith in Speke. Enquiries to 0151 733 1017.

Drawing in closer to home, in the street of Abby, our closest human neighbour to the right was the tiny Mrs Corniss and her blond son Bobby. To our immediate left was our old neighbour, Granny Southern. She was a large woman of eighty, who lived out the lag end of her life in a bed beside the small window of 29 Abyssinia Street. My mother and a few other women would see to it that old granny 'S' was as comfortable as possible.
One day the tiny Mrs Corniss invited us in to see her new wallpaper on the front room walls. Mother remarked that it was nice and she should be proud of herself. It should be noted here that in the twenties self-sticking wallpaper was unheard of. The method used was to make one's own glue from a mix of flour and boiling water, which was then spread onto the long lengths of wallpaper with a wallpaper brush, then applied to the wall. As we were about to leave the newly decorated parlour, my mother asked Mrs C what she was cooking for dinner since the smells in the house were so good. The tiny Mrs C replied, "Oh, I believe that you can smell the wallpaper paste, you see I had no money for flour so I used the sticky starchy water from the tripe and onions which I have stewed for the past week, it makes fine glue". We left chuckling, and evermore smelled the delicious aroma of tripe and onions floating through old lady Corniss's doors and windows.

* LONOA = Liberty, Oak, Nebo, Ono and Abyssinia Streets, off Wellington Road, Wavertree