Each visit reveals something you’ve never known before
Steeped in history, Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral welcomes thousands of locals and tourists alike every year – but many fascinating stories from its past have yet to be told. One of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, the building, which dominates Liverpool’s skyline, is a treasure trove of intriguing features, many of which have a story of their own to tell.
Every time you visit, something you’ve never spotted will likely be revealed – and there’s so much hiding in plain sight. It’s now been 101 years since the awe-inspiring building was consecrated on July 19, 1924 and 121 years since the Foundation Stone was laid by King Edward VII.
To celebrate, Liverpool Cathedral have created a ‘Book of Centuries,’ recognising those who have generously given time or gifts to the historic site. At the heart of the Cathedral, there are many faces who have dedicated decades to keep its history and legacy alive.
Roger French, originally from Devon, has lived in Liverpool for 51 years and started on site as a cathedral constable back in 2004. When he retired, he began volunteering as a guide and interpreter and today he also leads the war memorial tour at the Cathedral.
Now in his 21st year, Roger, 81, told the ECHO: “I really got interested in the building when I first started here as cathedral constable. People were asking me – what’s this? What’s that? So I started to learn from the guides that were here, listening to them and then when I retired, they said be a guide.
“I really got interested in the history of the building. It’s a history that we know – it’s not back in the 14th, 15th century – it’s 20th century history that I learned.
“We have the Vere Cotton book and it’s got every little bit of information you could think of. Older cathedrals don’t have that at all.
“Sometimes it can be really busy. When there’s a cruise ship in, it gets very busy.
“Although they sometimes bring in their own guides, some of the passengers come in and have all sort of questions and we’ve got that information all in our head.” Over the last two decades, Roger has come to know many interesting facts about Liverpool Cathedral – some unknown to the general public and often hiding in plain sight.
Roger said: “In some of the windows, you can see a little monk and people don’t see that until you point them out. That indicates where the windows were made.
“It’s only in certain windows and later they were told to stop it. There’s a boat on the right hand side of the Cathedral that’s got a blue flag and a red sails.
“In the original design, that was a red flag and blue sails, with a white star. And that was for the White Star Line and at the time, we were told we weren’t allowed to do that because it was considered advertising.
“It’s those little tiny things that people don’t see. We have a lot of people come in, especially from abroad and they’re taking photographs, but they don’t know what they’re looking at.”
Roger said one of the most rewarding parts of the job is helping descendants trace back their ancestors wartime history, as their names have been recorded by the Cathedral. He added: “It’s absolutely fantastic here – I’ve met people from all over the world. That’s what I enjoy, talking to the people.”
Volunteer Val Jackson, 84, began coming to the Cathedral in the early 1980s, but the archives came into her life in 2003, ahead of the centenary of the cathedral’s foundation stone being laid. Through an old door, a narrow, spiral staircase on the site leads to the Cathedral’s fascinating archive, where the ECHO were previously invited to take a rare look at number of physical items held there.
Val, from Aigburth, told the ECHO: “I’ve been in the archives 25 years – I came for a week and stayed. I’ve been associated with the Cathedral since 1981, when my son was a chorister. I started with the music department and then ended up in the archives.
“In 2003, when we set up the first girls choir here at the Cathedral, I was their supervisor for four or five years, but did that alongside being the archivist as well. My main role here has been the archivist, but I still volunteer with the music department for events.
“My everyday is up in the turret and there’s a team of four of us who come in every week and we’re listing, we’re cataloguing, we’re planning new exhibitions. When we plan and do things, very often we enlist the help of the guides because I will have some of the information upstairs, but the guides will have extra information to add to it – so we very much work as a team.”
Now a year on from celebrating 100 years since the Cathedral’s consecration took place in 1924, Val said there is still more history to be shared and much that locals still don’t know about the iconic landmark. One of her favourite recent projects was a documentary made by Saul Murphy about his grandad, master stone carver Tom Murphy, who dedicated 50 years of his career to Liverpool Cathedral, carving the vast majority of the intricate stonework by hand.
Val said: “If you look at some of the shields – what cathedral now would have shields that contain the coats of arms of all the Merseyside local boroughs. We had somebody writing in this week wanting to know where the Southport crest was in the cathedral, because they’re doing some research on the coat of arms and they had some slight misinformation.
People come in and say, this is a Gothic cathedral, it must be very, very old. And they’re astonished that we’re not – it’s been built in people’s lifetimes.”
This year, Liverpool Cathedral have created a ‘Book of Centuries’ – a beautifully hand-written, leather-bound book recognising those who’ve given generously to the Cathedral in time or in gifts. The book also includes donors from their 2024 Centenary Campaign and long-serving volunteers.
Val said the team are hoping to add to it over the next hundred years and that the team are proud to be continuing Liverpool Cathedral’s legacy in this new chapter. She added: “It’s amazing the number of local people who come in who’ve never been in before in their life.
“With the music department, we have a lot of schools performances and the parents say wow, why have I never been here before. I think it’s one of the times I love it is if I’m on the floor and Liverpool or Everton have played a European team.
“It amazes me the number of European football supporters who come and visit the Cathedral. Even if their team lost, they’re still wowed by the building and it’s like a piece of Mecca for them to come to. I think that is amazing – that this is a place which was built by the people, for the people and is still welcoming people from all over.”