On 28 April 2006, Mum officiated (as she always did) at the monthly meeting of the Masonic Widows in Manor Road, Wallasey. The speaker at that meeting, Glynn Parry, talked about “The Wirral and the Overhead Railway”, to which Mum added a sliver of memory:
I can long remember the thrill I got, when as a small child, my father took me on the Overhead Railway to view the new Mauretania and I can particularly remember the doors that opened and shut just as they do now on the MerseyRail.
The Liverpool Overhead Railway ran along the waterfront of the Mersey from Dingle, in the South, to Seaforth, in the North. I doubt that the family will have used it much, as their main connections were East-West, across and under the Mersey, to the centre, although Mum will have seen it at James Street, where it crossed that street on stilts.
The new Mauretania was a replacement for the original Mauretania from 1906, which had been taken out of service in 1934. It was built at Cammell Lairds in Birkenhead, and launched on 28 July 1938. Her maiden voyage, from Liverpool to New York, would not begin until 17 June 1939. On 14 May 1939 the ship left the fitting-out basin at Cammell Lairds to be dry-docked at Bootle, and it would leave Liverpool for sea trials on 31 May. The dry-dock was Gladstone Graving Dock, which had a LOH station nearby on the dock estate; a permit was required to leave this station, and her father may well have been able to visit because he worked for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. It is probable that Mum’s visit was later in May 1939, when she would be 14 – not quite “as a small child“!
It is quite typical of Mum that she would recall the opening doors on the Overhead Railway carriages, but make no comment about the Mauretania itself.
It would not be long before war broke out, and the liner would be requisitioned as a troopship in 1940. It was returned to the Gladstone Dock for refurbishment in 1946, and returned to passenger service in 1947, working mostly from Southampton to New York and on cruises. After a refit in 1957 in Liverpool, and further work in 1962, she was scrapped in 1965.
The Liverpool Overhead Railway would suffer bomb damage during the war. It was not nationalised, and its deteriorating condition, with repairs estimated in 1955 at over £2 million, led to its closure at the end of 1956. The Museum of Liverpool includes one surviving car, and a memory of mine, although I cannot date it, is that I took Mum into the carriage and convinced her that the service was still somehow running. I wish that I had asked her more about her memories of what was, probably, a single visit.
Drafted 1 July 2022 after a visit to the Museum of Liverpool.
Joan Boughey Recalled 