I went to Liverpool to find what I could about the cotton trade. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Liverpool was the centre of the raw cotton trade. But is seems that most of the story, including the warehouses, have been wiped - possibly because of its links to the slave trade. For 150 years most of the world's raw cotton came through Liverpool, on its way to Lancashire textile mills. The finished goods were then sent back to Liverpool to be shipped all over the world. Millions of bales were unloaded on the cities wharves and many people were involved in moving, storing, buying and selling cotton. But they have all gone, even the Cotton Exchange building is being turned into affordable housing. So instead I spent the morning chasing Beatles!. First stop was Strawberry Field - The field that inspired one of the most famous songs of all time. Behind the iron gates were acres of thick woodland, which also backed onto John Lennon’s childhood home. In 1966 Lennon penned the famous song "Strawberry Fields Forever". The field itself is generally unremarkable, but the site has become a pilgrimage for fans. Then it was a short drive to Penny Lane and funnily enough I parked outside the Dovedale Primary School where little John and George went to elementary. Penny Lane was busy with tour groups and I walked the full length. The bus shelter mentioned in the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rB0pHI9fU was the intersection where Paul got the bus to visit John so was the inspiration for McCartney’s song. The “shelter in the middle of a round-about” is at the top of the street. Down from the bus shelter is a pub called Dovedale Towers, where Queen frontman Freddie Mercury lived in the late 60s. Liverpool suburbs were quite dour but oddly pretty, however the downtown city was disappointing. So I headed north to what I thought would be the beachside town of Southport which was worse. The beach seems to have left the town (and moved closer to Ireland) so all I saw was miles of mud flats. Even my lunch of fish and chips with mushy peas was awful!. However, the day improved on the drive back to Manchester, as I took the long way in West Lancashire through some beautiful farming country. Stopped at a cute farm shop near Parbold and bought some local lamb and home grown potatoes for tonight's roast dinner, (BTW it was delicious!)
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