0:00:02 > 0:00:04You all right, kid?
0:00:04 > 0:00:06- Two nice cups of tea there, please. - Yeah, of course.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12Liverpudlian actor Ricky Tomlinson has had audiences glued to their
0:00:12 > 0:00:15screens for the past four decades.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Most famously in the hit comedy The Royle Family.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Dad! Stop fiddling with yourself!
0:00:21 > 0:00:24I'm not fiddling with myself, I paid a quid for these underpants,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27I've got 50p worth stuck up my arse!
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Ricky lives in Liverpool with his wife, Rita,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33and regularly performs at his own club in the city.
0:00:33 > 0:00:34Oh, I'm a Scouser, kid.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36I'm a Scouser, you believe me, yeah?
0:00:36 > 0:00:37HE LAUGHS
0:00:37 > 0:00:40There's a certain warmth about Liverpool people.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41They make you welcome. I think it's
0:00:41 > 0:00:44because we're used to strangers coming into the town.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:00:45 > 0:00:47We had people in from Wigan last night.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Four of them in a van. And on the back was a notice,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53"There are no pies kept in this van overnight."
0:00:53 > 0:00:54LAUGHTER
0:00:55 > 0:01:00Born in 1939, Ricky was the second of Albert and Margaret Tomlinson's
0:01:00 > 0:01:02four children.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05The truth is, we were poor. So was everyone else.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08But we were very lucky because my dad always worked,
0:01:08 > 0:01:10and my mum always worked.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12And we never went short of anything to eat.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15I'm so proud of the way she worked to get us where we are today.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Three bloody jobs!
0:01:18 > 0:01:21My mum was tremendous. She was the driving force of the family.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24And I think something she instilled into myself and my three brothers is
0:01:24 > 0:01:27the work ethic. We're all grafters.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31He looked at me and he went, "Don't you miss the building game, Rick?"
0:01:31 > 0:01:32LAUGHTER
0:01:32 > 0:01:37Ricky began his working life at the age of 15, as a plasterer.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40But building site safety was no laughing matter.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Health and safety was practically nil.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Fellas would fall off scaffolds, scaffolds would collapse.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Fellas would get buried alive.
0:01:49 > 0:01:50It was horrendous.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Ricky became a union organiser,
0:01:53 > 0:01:58and in 1972 encouraged fellow building workers to join the first
0:01:58 > 0:01:59national building strike.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02I thought, "Someone's got to make a stand. Someone's got to say something."
0:02:04 > 0:02:06Ricky was later arrested, and
0:02:06 > 0:02:08charged with conspiracy to intimidate
0:02:08 > 0:02:10and sentenced to two years in prison.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16He still contests his conviction.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20I think I've probably got the way I am from my dad's family.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23The fighting spirit, if you will. I'm not taking no for an answer.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27And my dad, 27 years on nights as a baker,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30I thought the only people who worked in the night were burglars!
0:02:30 > 0:02:32When he died, it knocked us for six.
0:02:32 > 0:02:3555. Cancer.
0:02:35 > 0:02:36I get quite emotional.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42When they've gone, that's when you realise there's that hole there.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45I should have asked my dad about his side of the family.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50I would just like to know a simple thing - who were the Tomlinsons?
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Where did they come from?
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Who were they? What did they do?
0:02:54 > 0:02:56What's their background? Simple as that.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58Anyway, now, listen, what I want you
0:02:58 > 0:03:02to do, sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Ricky's come to Everton Park,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42built on the site of the streets where he grew up after they were
0:03:42 > 0:03:45demolished in the 1960s.
0:03:45 > 0:03:46It wasn't like this when we were kids.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Obviously, this was all built up and stuff.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52We're probably walking over somewhere where my dad's bakery
0:03:52 > 0:03:54used to be. Kelly's Bakery.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58He's meeting his older brother, Albert.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00I didn't think I was going to make it up that hill!
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Well, you've took your time, mate! I'm freezing.
0:04:03 > 0:04:04RICKY LAUGHS
0:04:04 > 0:04:07- Hey!- My God, things have changed around here.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09They've changed for the better though, haven't they?
0:04:09 > 0:04:12I'm just looking at this here. I've never noticed it before.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14That could be me, that.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Look at the cobbles there. We used to play football on that and dive to
0:04:17 > 0:04:20save the ball. Look, not a blade of grass anywhere.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22This was all built up.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25- You can still see the Mersey clear here, look.- Yeah.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27It was one of the busiest ports in the world.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29There wasn't a windmill in sight in them days.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32- And look at them now!- Like being in Holland.
0:04:32 > 0:04:33THEY LAUGH
0:04:35 > 0:04:37All our lot comes from where that block of flats is now.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39That was the Tomlinsons' roots, wasn't it?
0:04:39 > 0:04:41That's where the Tommos lived.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43Me dad's side of the family all lived down there.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46We know tonnes and tonnes about my gran,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48but we don't know that much about my grandad, do we?
0:04:48 > 0:04:51- He was very quiet, wasn't he? - Always in the background.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53I want to know more about him.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56So I think the best thing we can do is go and have a glass of beer.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59- I'm all for it.- Come on.- Let's go.
0:04:59 > 0:05:01RICKY LAUGHS
0:05:01 > 0:05:03Can I have my walking stick back?
0:05:09 > 0:05:10Here we go.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13My gran and my grandad.
0:05:13 > 0:05:14So that's as far as we've got!
0:05:14 > 0:05:18- Not very far!- Have you got any information for me at all?
0:05:18 > 0:05:20First of all, here's an old photograph.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25Grandad Tommo, and Granny Tommo.
0:05:25 > 0:05:26- Is that my gran?- It is indeed.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28- It's not the gran I knew. - It's not, no.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31- Not the one you remember, is it, no. - She's got teeth in that!
0:05:31 > 0:05:33THEY LAUGH
0:05:33 > 0:05:35Look at him in them days.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37My grandad with the cigarette in his mouth.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39He was actually quite dapper.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42- Oh, yeah.- Because I can only remember him as this little old
0:05:42 > 0:05:43chap, sitting in the rocking chair.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48He sort of groans, "Oh!" Like a welcome, "Oh!"
0:05:48 > 0:05:50I never heard him speak.
0:05:50 > 0:05:51Oh, he spoke. Not a lot.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54But he had a broad Liverpool accent.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Go away! A real Scouser?
0:05:56 > 0:05:58Oh, yeah. Yeah, very much so.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01- Go away!- But as I say, we never seen him dressed up like that.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05- Never.- He was always in his working gear, wasn't he? - But look at the collar on his shirt.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Spotless. They had nothing, but they had dignity, didn't they?
0:06:08 > 0:06:11- You know.- That's it. - They're at a wedding for someone.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Must have been a Protestant church if she's got dressed up to go there.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Wasn't she? She wouldn't have gone
0:06:16 > 0:06:18- to a Catholic church.- No, no, no. - But grandad would.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21He didn't give a monkeys one way or the other, did he?
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Oh, no. But I'm made up that I can see him as a younger man.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Have you got another surprise for me?
0:06:26 > 0:06:30This is Grandad Tommo's death certificate.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33Died in 1947.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35I'd be eight when he died, then, wouldn't I?
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Richard Tomlinson, aged 60.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Asphalter's labourer.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42So he was born in 1887.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44- No.- Yes.- Was he?
0:06:44 > 0:06:47If he died in '47 at 60.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49It's only a young man by today's standards.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Yeah, but I can remember my mam saying that someone died at 60.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54"Oh, well, they've had a good innings."
0:06:54 > 0:06:56- Exactly.- It's a good job it doesn't apply now,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58me and you would be well gone!
0:06:58 > 0:07:00THEY LAUGH
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Oh, another one! Let's have a look at this one.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05This is my mam and dad's marriage certificate.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07Look at the dates on that, will you?
0:07:09 > 0:07:12May 1936.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15- Now, hang on!- November '36.
0:07:15 > 0:07:16Oh, just-in-time!
0:07:16 > 0:07:18THEY LAUGH
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Mum was three months pregnant when she got married.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23Well, look at this. Look at this.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25Richard Tomlinson, carter.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27I'm a little bit flummoxed about this now.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32I can't remember ever, ever hearing my grandad being a carter,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36- in my life.- I've only ever known him as an asphalter.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Yeah. You know what, this brings memories back now.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41There was tonnes of carters around in them days.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43But everything was horse-drawn then, wasn't it?
0:07:43 > 0:07:46- Everything.- Practically, yeah.- Your bin wagons, your milk floats,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49- your bread.- But why they've got my grandad down there as a carter,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52I don't know. I wonder if there was anyone in his family before him that
0:07:52 > 0:07:56was a carter? Let's dig a bit deeper, see what he was up to.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Until the 1950s, carters and their
0:08:01 > 0:08:04horse-drawn wagons were a common sight,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07transporting goods throughout Britain.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10And there were more working horses on the streets of Liverpool than in
0:08:10 > 0:08:12any other city outside London.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18I'm a bit surprised that no-one ever mentioned my grandad was a carter.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21I'm really interested to find out where this journey's going to lead.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22So I think the best place for me to
0:08:22 > 0:08:25go is to the library to see if they've got any records.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27There must be more knocking about.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32At Liverpool's Central Library, Ricky is meeting genealogist
0:08:32 > 0:08:34Olivia Robinson to see what else he
0:08:34 > 0:08:36can discover about his grandad's family and
0:08:36 > 0:08:39how far back he can trace the Tomlinson line.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43- It's a lovely building. - It's amazing.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45So what do you know already?
0:08:45 > 0:08:47- He was a carter...- OK.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51..on one of these certificates, and on another he was an asphalter.
0:08:51 > 0:08:57- Yeah.- He was born roundabout 1886, and he was 60
0:08:57 > 0:08:59when he died. That's about all we've got at the moment.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01OK, right.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Now we know which year he was born in,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06we're going to have a little look for his baptismal record.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09- Right. - So if I can give you this.- Yeah.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11You'll have to guide me here, kid.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Now, where do we go now?
0:09:13 > 0:09:15That needs to go under the glass plate.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Put it all the way through.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Now, if you push that for a couple of seconds.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22- Good heavens.- And stop.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25- There's loads, isn't there?- Yeah.
0:09:25 > 0:09:26Loads and loads.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28We're into July now.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31There's loads on a daily basis there, isn't there?
0:09:31 > 0:09:32You're trying to scan them all.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35You get quite good at looking for the length of the name,
0:09:35 > 0:09:36- and the T at the beginning.- Ah.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Tomlinson. There's the name there, yeah.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Richard and Sarah?
0:09:44 > 0:09:45- That's the mum and dad.- Yeah.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50- Oh, blimey!- So this is your grandfather.- Yeah.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53And this is your great-grandfather and your great-grandmother.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55I can s... Blimey, look at that.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59I'm going to write this down now so I won't forget.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01What's the trade?
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Carter. Well, blimey!
0:10:04 > 0:10:05Well, what do you know!
0:10:05 > 0:10:07HE LAUGHS
0:10:07 > 0:10:09His dad was a carter.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11He's obviously followed his dad into the same trade.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16Can we go a little bit further back, you've got me guessing now, kid?
0:10:16 > 0:10:19This is an entry of birth.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24This is 1847, from Dale Street, Liverpool.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29Richard, boy, was born to...
0:10:29 > 0:10:33William Tomlinson. Oh, that's my great-grandad's parents, is it?
0:10:33 > 0:10:36- No!- Yeah, this is your great-grandfather.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41So he was the son of William Tomlinson and Mary Tomlinson.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45Oh! Carter, there you go. The old carter again.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47What's that there?
0:10:47 > 0:10:49That is her mark.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51- Oh, her mark.- Her mark.- Couldn't write.
0:10:51 > 0:10:52Blinking heck!
0:10:54 > 0:10:57So here we have their marriage certificate.
0:10:57 > 0:10:591845.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02William Tomlinson, and Mary Leicester.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05And this is interesting, the residence at the time of marriage,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Hill Street. I've never heard of it. I wonder where that is, kid?
0:11:09 > 0:11:10By the docks, in Liverpool.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12The docks, yeah, that's where all the commerce was, wasn't it?
0:11:12 > 0:11:14Everything came into the docks.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And it would have been impossible to run without carters to transport
0:11:17 > 0:11:19goods onwards from the docks.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21So we're real Scousers, really, aren't we?
0:11:21 > 0:11:23You would have a job to prove that you weren't Scouse.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26And if you read along, this is the groom's father's name.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30Richard Tomlinson. Once again, rank or profession, carter.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34- He'd have then been working in the 1820s, 1830s as a carter.- Yeah.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Can we get any further back at all from that?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Because civil registration only started in 1837,
0:11:41 > 0:11:42it's actually very difficult to
0:11:42 > 0:11:45get... Well, it's impossible to get birth certificates before that date.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48We can't get any further back with Richard.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51We've been Scousers right back there to around about
0:11:51 > 0:11:54the 1820s, 1830s, 1840s we've got proof of.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56So there you go.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59And we're grafters right back in the carter fraternity.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01200 years.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04- I'm not royalty after all! - Well, Liverpool royalty.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Oh, Liverpool royalty, yeah.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10I'd rather be descended from a carter, kid, than from royalty.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14Great, that.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19I've had a wonderful day.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22I've learned so much about my family.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25I'm so proud of them, that they were all workers.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29200 years of grafting, being carters in this wonderful city of mine.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34It's opened a magical box for me.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37I can't wait to see what else is in that box.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42Ricky has discovered that he comes from four generations
0:12:42 > 0:12:44of Liverpool carters.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47The earliest record he's found takes him back to the beginning of the
0:12:47 > 0:12:4919th century, when his
0:12:49 > 0:12:52great-great-great grandfather, Richard,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54was working on Liverpool's docks.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00In the early 1800s, Liverpool was fast becoming Britain's
0:13:00 > 0:13:02busiest port.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Huge numbers of carters were needed to handle goods arriving from across
0:13:06 > 0:13:11the Empire. Including nearly all of Britain's cotton imports bound for
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Lancashire's mills and factories.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21As a former union organiser, Ricky is keen to find out more about
0:13:21 > 0:13:23Richard Tomlinson's working conditions.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27I wonder what it was like down here in the 1800s.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33I feel a little shiver going up my back when I think about my three times
0:13:33 > 0:13:35great-granddad, Richard,
0:13:35 > 0:13:37with his horse and cart, waiting for the ships to be unloaded
0:13:37 > 0:13:39in the 1830s.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43I want to know how long they worked, how hard they worked.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44There's so much I want to know.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46There's so much I've got to find out.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50He might have stood here, where I'm standing now.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53And I wonder what he'd have thought of me being an actor!
0:13:53 > 0:13:56I don't know. He might have jumped in there and drowned himself!
0:14:00 > 0:14:01How you doing, kid?
0:14:01 > 0:14:05Ricky is meeting Museum of Liverpool curator Sharon Brown
0:14:05 > 0:14:08- and farmer Jaz Thomas...- How are you, squire?
0:14:08 > 0:14:11- Ricky Tommo, nice to meet you. - ..with his horse, Ruby.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14- She's magnificent, isn't she? - Oh, she's a smasher.- They're huge.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17- I've never been this close to one. - Yeah.
0:14:17 > 0:14:18Magnificent Shire horse,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20typical of the type used on the streets of Liverpool
0:14:20 > 0:14:24in the 1820s, 1830s.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Lovely. She's so docile, but I wouldn't like to see her kick off,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30- would you?- No, exactly. Could you imagine standing behind with a big
0:14:30 > 0:14:33- load?- I wouldn't be behind it, love. I'd be miles away.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35I wouldn't be behind her!
0:14:35 > 0:14:37We have a 37 hour week now, or a 40 hour week.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Was there any set limits in them days, for the week's work?
0:14:40 > 0:14:41- At that time, no.- No.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44There weren't. It could be 12 to 15 hours a day.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47So when you're great-great-great-grandfather,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52Richard, was a carter in the 1820s, 1830s, it was a really hard life.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56It was a real skill, even though it wasn't considered a skilled job.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Nothing moved without the carters.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02Now listen, Ruby. I came here to find out about my ancestors.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05Now your ancestors probably worked down here...
0:15:05 > 0:15:09with my ancestors, so come on, be a good gi... Oh, wow!
0:15:09 > 0:15:12It would take a little bit of Dutch courage for me to try it.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14HE LAUGHS
0:15:14 > 0:15:15Forward, get up!
0:15:17 > 0:15:20Carters used to do this 12 or 14 hours a day, eh?
0:15:20 > 0:15:24- Seven days a week.- Seven days a week.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26They spent more time with their horses than they spent with their
0:15:26 > 0:15:30- families.- As far as the missus goes, that might not be a bad thing!
0:15:30 > 0:15:32THEY LAUGH
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Come on, my beauty.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40I think she's leaving us a message here, isn't she, kid?
0:15:40 > 0:15:42RICKY LAUGHS
0:15:42 > 0:15:45She's saying, "My arse," aren't you?
0:15:45 > 0:15:46THEY LAUGH
0:15:50 > 0:15:51Riding a horse and cart,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55I actually had a feel of what it must have been like in the 1830s,
0:15:55 > 0:15:571840s, when my great-great-great-grandad was working there.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59I've got an illustration here that
0:15:59 > 0:16:02shows you how busy it would have been on the port.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05It's the sort of scene Richard Tomlinson would have been
0:16:05 > 0:16:09- involved in.- There's dozens and dozens of horses.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13By 1840, Liverpool's docks were importing over a
0:16:13 > 0:16:15million tonnes a year.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17More than the port of London.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21But with only one rail link serving the seven miles of docks,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24carters were vital for moving goods on and off the quays.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29There was a lot of resistance to railways being developed right into
0:16:29 > 0:16:32the docks. It was much more efficient by horse and cart.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35- They could do without the railways, yeah.- And then there's another image
0:16:35 > 0:16:38here, which shows you things being loaded onto
0:16:38 > 0:16:40the cart from a warehouse.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42Any idea what date that would be?
0:16:42 > 0:16:441830s, 1840s.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46So that would be around about the time of Richard Tomlinson.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48Yeah, it would, yeah.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Blinking heck! He could be any one of them carters, couldn't he?
0:16:51 > 0:16:53- He could, yeah.- Look at that, there's no
0:16:53 > 0:16:54health and safety, is there?
0:16:54 > 0:16:57- Can you imagine that going on today? - There'd be no chance, would there?
0:16:57 > 0:17:01No. So did the carters ever, sort of, organise themselves into a trade
0:17:01 > 0:17:03union, even though, I suppose, in them days,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05it wouldn't be called a trade union?
0:17:05 > 0:17:07Did they ever organise that?
0:17:07 > 0:17:08Not at that time, no.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11There must have been thousands of serious injuries.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Did they ever keep a log of the injuries?
0:17:14 > 0:17:16They didn't keep a log of accidents.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19It would just be a matter for your company to deal with.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21But they did start to reports deaths.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27This is from a local paper, February 1839.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31"Deaths on the same day, Aged 60,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33"Mr Richard Tomlinson, cart owner."
0:17:35 > 0:17:36Go away!
0:17:38 > 0:17:39Oh, my God!
0:17:40 > 0:17:44"The deceased met with his death by being crushed between one of his own
0:17:44 > 0:17:47"carts and a lorry."
0:17:47 > 0:17:50A lorry was a term for a larger horse-drawn vehicle.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54He's literally had the breath squashed out of him.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Well, that's a turn up for the book, that, isn't it, kid?
0:17:57 > 0:17:59I don't know what to say.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03- Talking about health and safety and then...- Yeah.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07- It's shocking.- Oh, blimey, what a way to die, eh?
0:18:10 > 0:18:14I'm quite saddened, really, to read about that.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19Age 60, dead. And the way he died, but...
0:18:19 > 0:18:24for me, I want to know now what happened to the rest of his family.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32I was absolutely appalled to see the conditions that my ancestors
0:18:32 > 0:18:33worked in.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36They were like worker ants.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38They were creating all the wealth for this country,
0:18:38 > 0:18:40and yet they had none of it.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45And having seen the death that my great-great-great-grandfather Richard suffered,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48I just want to know what happened to his family.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51After his three times great-grandfather Richard's
0:18:51 > 0:18:53tragic death in 1839
0:18:53 > 0:18:57Ricky wants to find out what happened to his son, William,
0:18:57 > 0:18:59also a carter, and his wife, Mary.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06Ricky knows that in 1845 his great-great-grandparents
0:19:06 > 0:19:08were living close to the docks.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13He's meeting historian John Belchem at The Casa, a docker's bar,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15to see what else he can find out.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21If you look at that 1851 census you will see that the family size
0:19:21 > 0:19:22has been enhanced.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25So just looking at this we've got William, and Mary,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28and they've got four children up to now.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31There's three more to come, so they have seven, in all.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Well, he wasn't too tired after work to enjoy a family life, was he?
0:19:36 > 0:19:38Well, I mean, yes.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42So they moved to 26 Hygeia Street. Where would that be?
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Now, I've got a map here, Ricky,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48which might give you some idea of it.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52So having started off down by the docks, we're now over Everton Brow,
0:19:52 > 0:19:54into suburban Liverpool.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58Literally upwards, geographically and socioeconomically.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01- They're doing OK. We're on the up there.- You are indeed.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Why do you think they may have moved so far away from the docks,
0:20:04 > 0:20:06considering his work would still be on the docks?
0:20:06 > 0:20:08His work certainly would be there,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10but I think the date is very significant.
0:20:10 > 0:20:131851. It's a very timely move by your ancestors,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16because Liverpool had been drastically transformed
0:20:16 > 0:20:20by the incredible influx of people from Ireland, fleeing the famine.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26In 1845 the potato crop in Ireland failed,
0:20:26 > 0:20:31bringing seven years of famine that decimated the Irish population.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35One million people died, and over a million more left the country.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41Tens of thousands of Irish people made Liverpool their new home.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43How would the local population,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46which I would imagine would be predominantly Protestant,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50- how would they deal with it? - In very, very harsh terms.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53But they were very much stigmatised as being Irish Catholic,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56and therefore different, and therefore a problem.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Have a look at this Liverpool Mail from the 1850s.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04"We allude to the systematic importation of Irish
0:21:04 > 0:21:06"for the sole purpose of begging.
0:21:06 > 0:21:12"Last week 2,700 arrived, and on Sunday no fewer than 830.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17"These people must live. If they do not beg they must steal.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19"Work, they will not."
0:21:20 > 0:21:22- Terrible.- Indeed, yeah.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26They were starving, looking for a better way of life, a job, and whatever. Where would they live?
0:21:26 > 0:21:29They stayed close to the docks, which really become
0:21:29 > 0:21:31overwhelmingly Irish and Catholic.
0:21:31 > 0:21:33That would be one of the reasons that my family
0:21:33 > 0:21:34would want to move out.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39You have these clear areas of sectarian territory developing
0:21:39 > 0:21:41in Liverpool in the 1840s.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44This way it's Catholic, that way, Protestant.
0:21:44 > 0:21:45So with these immigrants fleeing the famine,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47what sort of jobs would they do?
0:21:47 > 0:21:50- They wouldn't be carters, would they?- They certainly wouldn't be carters,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53but I'm not saying that absolutely every single one of the carters was Protestant,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57but overwhelmingly they were English-born Protestants.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01The Irish Catholics did the lower grade jobs and become dockers.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04- Yeah.- Have a look at this print, Ricky.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06The quayside is absolutely jam-packed
0:22:06 > 0:22:08with sailing ships, isn't it?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Liverpool as a dock flourishes, in part,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14because of this ready supply of cheap labour.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18So, William Tomlinson, my great-great grandfather, carter,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22working on the docks, how would this influx of Irish cheap labour,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24how would that affect him and his business?
0:22:24 > 0:22:26I think, probably, very well in the end.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29I mean, this is good times for the port.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32And Liverpool is on its way to becoming the maritime metropolis
0:22:32 > 0:22:35of the world. So the more the docks are flourishing,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37the greater the need for carters.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know
0:22:39 > 0:22:42that there must have been incredible wealth about at that time.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Made by the carters, the dockers,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47but it was only for the few, wasn't it?
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Yes, for the merchant princes who took great pride in living
0:22:50 > 0:22:54in what they called the great second city of Empire.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57In the 1850s Liverpool was booming.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Within a generation exports had more than doubled,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06and imports of raw materials like timber, grain and cotton,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09vital for Britain's industries, soared.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14While profits for the city's merchants rocketed, wages,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17hours and conditions for those working on the docks,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20like William Tomlinson, remained unregulated.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27All I know is roundabout this period that William was working,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30he seemed to be in regular work, he was an established carter.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33The docks and the trade coming in was amazing.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Lots and lots of money, lots and lots of commerce,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38but I don't think it actually filtered down.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42So I'd like to know what happened to William.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44That's the next step in my journey.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49Ricky has asked his friend, journalist Paddy Shennan,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53to see if he can uncover anything about William in Liverpool's
0:23:53 > 0:23:55newspaper archives.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58Have you been able to find out anything at all about him for me?
0:23:58 > 0:24:00I went through the newspapers.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02Eventually I found something about William Tomlinson.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05- Oh.- A small piece here, if you'd like to read it.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09September 1st 1859. Blinking heck!
0:24:09 > 0:24:12"Fatality to a carter - William Tomlinson.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15"The horse suddenly started forward,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19"he was crushed between the cart wheel and a pile of staves."
0:24:19 > 0:24:24- It's horrific!- We have William dying, aged only 40.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26In very similar circumstances to his own father.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31- They were disposable, weren't they? - Yeah.- You know, probably,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33the next morning there was someone
0:24:33 > 0:24:35there on the dock taking his place, you know?
0:24:35 > 0:24:38"He was taken to the Southern Hospital where it was found that
0:24:38 > 0:24:42"his bowels were seriously injured, and he died the same night."
0:24:42 > 0:24:45They've paid a heavy price, haven't they, the Tomlinsons?
0:24:45 > 0:24:47God, I hope there's no more.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49It's awful sad, don't you see?
0:24:49 > 0:24:51- Heartbreaking, isn't it? - Father and son.
0:24:51 > 0:24:56"The poor widow said she had to go home from the hospital, leaving her
0:24:56 > 0:25:00"injured husband to attend to her baby who was dying, also."
0:25:01 > 0:25:03She's dashing home
0:25:03 > 0:25:07- because she's got seven children, and one of them is dying.- Yeah.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10She must have been having a nervous breakdown.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13"A verdict of accidentally killed was returned,
0:25:13 > 0:25:18"and the jury complained that the surgeons of the Southern Hospital
0:25:18 > 0:25:24"had, without any authority, opened the body of the deceased."
0:25:24 > 0:25:26- Why have they opened him up? - It's not explained.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29It obviously, from what they...is being said there,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33the jury has actually brought it up, that shouldn't have happened.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37So he was definitely dead, definitely taken to the hospital,
0:25:37 > 0:25:40- and someone took a decision - open him up.- Yeah.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42- What for?- There was no need to do what they've done.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45But there's got to be a reason. Was there any skulduggery?
0:25:45 > 0:25:49It doesn't make sense. But, as far as the newspapers were concerned,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51this was it. This was where it ended.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54I want to know why. Why they opened him up.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02To discover why a postmortem was performed on William,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Ricky is meeting an expert on Victorian medicine,
0:26:05 > 0:26:07Dr John Baxter.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12So, my great-great-grandfather, why, if he was dead,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15why do you think they would want to open him up?
0:26:15 > 0:26:17So, let's be clear that what they
0:26:17 > 0:26:19did to William was completely illegal.
0:26:19 > 0:26:20When you carry out a postmortem
0:26:20 > 0:26:22it is generally to find out what happened,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24but we know he was crushed to death,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27so there was no need for them to go in to the body.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Something which shouldn't have happened, happened.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34- Why? Why did they do it?- This is an anatomy theatre of that era.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38During the 1800's surgeons and anatomists were struggling to get
0:26:38 > 0:26:40bodies to practise upon.
0:26:40 > 0:26:47So in William's case they have taken the chance of a fit and healthy man,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50who was quite strong, to go into his body, cut it up,
0:26:50 > 0:26:54and see his internal organs in that very short time his wife was away.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58I know you can't be sure, like, but in your opinion,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01what would they have done to William's body?
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Well, typical postmortem would have sliced open the chest cavity
0:27:04 > 0:27:06and down through the intestines,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09down to the bowels which were mentioned in the report.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12They would then have removed the brain from the back of the head
0:27:12 > 0:27:16and after that stuffed the organs back in, or even removed some.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18So Mary, my great-great-grandmother,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21she must have made some sort of formal complaint, mustn't she?
0:27:21 > 0:27:23There must have been a complaint.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27My research shows that it was Mary who did make the complaint.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29And the jury and the coroner agreed
0:27:29 > 0:27:32with Mary that there'd been some malpractice going on.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35I feel a little bit better that she's had the courage and the
0:27:35 > 0:27:37strength to make this objection.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40She was brave enough to stand up about the condition that
0:27:40 > 0:27:41her husband's body was in.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44It wouldn't have looked very pretty at all.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47So what would have happened to William's body?
0:27:47 > 0:27:51So this is the burial records here. Look at the bottom line, here.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55"September the 4th, William Tomlinson."
0:27:55 > 0:27:58All of them people are buried on September the 4th.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03And they're all buried in lane 14. What exactly does that mean?
0:28:03 > 0:28:07What you're pointing out there is the layer number. Layer number 14.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11What you have here is William buried in a pauper's grave,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15alongside other people, other poor people. On the same day.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18So there'd have been no headstone, no marker, no nothing.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20No headstone, no marker, no. They'd have been tightly packed together.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24That's basically how William, sadly, ended up.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26It's very, very sad.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31So Mary went home because she had a very, very sick child.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Do we know what happened to the baby?
0:28:34 > 0:28:37We'll look at this document just here.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41"Certified copy of an entry of death.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45"The 20th of September, 1859.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47"George Tomlinson, male, two years of age.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50"Son of William the carter."
0:28:50 > 0:28:53- Died of diarrhoea.- Yeah.- God, bless.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15How can you get upset about something that
0:29:15 > 0:29:16happened nearly 150 years ago?
0:29:16 > 0:29:19But I am. I'm so angry.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23They're getting buried in a pauper's grave, with no dignity,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26with nothing, yet Liverpool is booming.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28It's absolutely booming.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31There's loads and loads of money for the few.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33Maybe this is why I have this...
0:29:34 > 0:29:36..the politics that I've got. I don't know.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39But, I mean, that's absolutely scandalous.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42I'm thinking about Mary. Her world's collapsed.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45She's lost her husband, she's lost her little lad...
0:29:46 > 0:29:49..and she's got them other six kids in the house.
0:29:49 > 0:29:5130-odd years of age.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54No income. No support.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56No nothing. What's going to happen to her now?
0:29:56 > 0:29:59Land of Hope and Glory, my arse!
0:30:04 > 0:30:06'I could never forgive them people
0:30:06 > 0:30:10'who treated my family and my people,'
0:30:10 > 0:30:12my Liverpool people, the way they did.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14I'll never forgive them.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19I feel really, really bitter for the position that...
0:30:20 > 0:30:22..Mary's found herself in.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25And that's why I've got to go on. That's why I've got to find out what
0:30:25 > 0:30:29happened to her, and what happened to the rest of the kids, and...
0:30:29 > 0:30:32the sooner I find out, the sooner I can be at ease with myself.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41- Do you want a cup of tea now?- Yes. - Or do you want to wait?
0:30:41 > 0:30:43- No, I'll have it now.- Now. OK.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48Back home Ricky is trying to find out what happened next to his
0:30:48 > 0:30:50great-great-grandmother, Mary,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53and her children with the help of his wife, Rita.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56- What's the matter? - I'm not sure how I get into this.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58You need to master this.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01At my age, I'm not bothering now!
0:31:01 > 0:31:03I know, but you know, still, I'm not here all the time, am I?
0:31:03 > 0:31:06- It's not just about this... - I won't be using it all the time.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08There you go. What are you looking for?
0:31:08 > 0:31:11I want to find out what happened to Mary, and what happened to the kids.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13Where they went, where did they end up?
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Did they go in the workhouse or the poor house, call it what you will?
0:31:17 > 0:31:19- OK.- So how do we do that now?
0:31:19 > 0:31:24- We need to look at the census, don't we?- I think he died in 1859.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26- She was still alive then, wasn't she?- Yeah.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Well, let's go to the 1861 census then.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31Let's put her name in.
0:31:31 > 0:31:33Mary Tomlinson.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37- Lived in?- Liverpool.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Give me a child that would have been alive at that time.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Richard was the name of my great-grandad.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45I think I'm doing this right, I'm not sure.
0:31:48 > 0:31:52- There she is.- That's the one. - She'd have been 35 in 1861.- Yeah.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57- Are they her kids then? - One, two, three, four, five, six...
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Yeah. Her and six kids.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Elizabeth, her eldest, is 15.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07Then we've got Richard, who is my great-grandad, he's 14.
0:32:07 > 0:32:12- William, Catherine, Thomas and Mary is six.- Yeah.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16- Richard was an errand boy. - Yeah.- He wouldn't be earning much.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20- How is Mary keeping them all together?- I don't know.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22How is she making it pay?
0:32:22 > 0:32:25I think that says Dryden Street.
0:32:25 > 0:32:27- Municipal ward of...- Scotland.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30Scotland Ward, wouldn't it?
0:32:30 > 0:32:32That would have to be towards the dock area.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34"13 Stewart's Building."
0:32:34 > 0:32:38They didn't live there before. They'd moved up to the Everton area,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40which was further away from the dock.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43But it was a slightly, slightly better area.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47Hang on. Look at this.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49- That's 13, where Mary is.- Yeah.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I think there was another family living there.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Charley Hackett.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57A dock labourer. Doesn't that say lodger?
0:32:57 > 0:32:59- Yeah.- With his wife.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01- She's obviously took them in.- Maybe.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03There's her and the six kids, that's seven.
0:33:03 > 0:33:05Hackett and his wife, eight, nine.
0:33:05 > 0:33:07And two kids - 11 of them!
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Blinking heck!
0:33:11 > 0:33:16There'd be no chance of them paying the bedroom tax, would there?
0:33:16 > 0:33:18Bloody hell! 11 of them in the one house.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21They'd have been on a rebate.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23I need to find out whether she does well for herself,
0:33:23 > 0:33:25whether she marries again.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27She must have been an amazing woman.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30I'll be looking for you, Mary. I'm coming looking for you.
0:33:34 > 0:33:40Stuart's Buildings, where Mary lived in 1861, have been demolished.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43So Ricky and Liverpool Museum curator Dr Liz Stewart,
0:33:43 > 0:33:48- are heading to see a similar building nearby.- So, just here.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58How would you describe this? Is it a tenement?
0:33:58 > 0:34:01This is the last surviving example of court and cellar dwellings.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Very famous in Liverpool in the 19th century.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07So we have an alleyway leading into a courtyard
0:34:07 > 0:34:09which would be shared by a number of families,
0:34:09 > 0:34:11living in these small back-to-back houses.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14So no back-yards, no back windows.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Just a door, and a window, to the front of the house.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19The houses must have been pitch-black.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22- Honestly, they must have been like moles, mustn't they?- Yeah.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25This photograph shows court housing, it dates to about 1900,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29but conditions wouldn't have changed significantly from the 1860s.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32This could be where we're standing now, actually, couldn't it?
0:34:32 > 0:34:35No play area for the kids. All sorts of filth over the floor there.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Shocking.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42I assume that they would be the toilets.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44Well, this isn't the original block of toilets.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47So in Stuart Buildings, where your great-great-grandmother lived,
0:34:47 > 0:34:50there were 16 houses, eight down each side,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53probably two privies at the end of the courtyard.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56- So you're talking about 60 people per toilet.- Yeah.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00- I've got four toilets in my one house!- Exactly.- Crazy.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02It must have been horrendous, mustn't it?
0:35:02 > 0:35:05This document from the 1860s, the borough engineer,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07describes the toilet conditions.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11"The passage is generally terminated by the privy, and ash pit,
0:35:11 > 0:35:13"common to all the wretched dwellings.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16"With its liquid filth oozing through their walls
0:35:16 > 0:35:20"even when the middens have been filled, so as to overflow the court,
0:35:20 > 0:35:22"no-one cared to take responsibility."
0:35:22 > 0:35:24That's terrible.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27They must have been walking in human dirt, mustn't they?
0:35:27 > 0:35:31I find it distressing to know that my great-great-grandmother
0:35:31 > 0:35:34Mary lived in conditions like this.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Liverpool's commercial success lured more and more people to the city.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47By 1861 the population had reached almost half a million.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50A 25% increase in a decade.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54More than a fifth of the population were living in overcrowded
0:35:54 > 0:35:58court and cellar dwellings, like Mary and her children.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07God bless us!
0:36:07 > 0:36:09Oh, my goodness me.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11- Pretty grim, isn't it? - It is, isn't it?
0:36:14 > 0:36:19Very, very small space. If you think of the house with 11 people in it.
0:36:19 > 0:36:21You've got a shared living room,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24probably on the ground floor, and then these two bedrooms above.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28- Dickensian, isn't it? - This is the garret.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Perhaps she rented out the better room to be sure of having lodgers,
0:36:31 > 0:36:33so it could be that all seven of
0:36:33 > 0:36:35them were sleeping in a room like this.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39She's definitely on a downward spiral coming here, isn't she?
0:36:39 > 0:36:41She would have felt quite a difference between Everton
0:36:41 > 0:36:46and Dryden Street. You've got the 1847 Ordnance Survey map,
0:36:46 > 0:36:48- so we've got Dryden Street here. - Yeah.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52- Just off Scotland Road. - The Irish Catholic area.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55Yes, she's living amongst Catholics, as a Protestant,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58in a very densely built-up area.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02So we can see Stuart Buildings, this very long, narrow court,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05so many houses crammed into that space.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09- It's a ghetto, isn't it? - Yeah.- I wonder how she was living.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12There was no sort of hand-outs in them days, was there?
0:37:12 > 0:37:15In situations where you have a widow, not earning an income,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19there was the outdoor relief, but there were very strict, sort of,
0:37:19 > 0:37:23moral conditions for people to be able to claim that.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28Outdoor relief was financial assistance the parish provided
0:37:28 > 0:37:33to help keep some of its poorest inhabitants out of the workhouse.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36Widows like Mary were closely watched to check they sent their
0:37:36 > 0:37:40children to school, didn't drink alcohol and remained chaste.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44The young ones are listed on the census as scholars,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47but she couldn't really afford to lose the income of the older ones by
0:37:47 > 0:37:48trying to send them to school.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50A couple of them were seamstresses,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52and a couple of the lads were errand boys.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55They'd be bringing in, well, maybe two shillings a week,
0:37:55 > 0:37:56amongst the three of them.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00So gathering the money for the rent, which might be around three or four
0:38:00 > 0:38:03shillings a week, would be very difficult for her.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06They were grafters though, weren't they? They were workers, you know.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09So Mary obviously is very, very proud.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12She's managed to keep this family, with six children,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15out of the workhouse and hold the family together
0:38:15 > 0:38:17in very difficult circumstances.
0:38:17 > 0:38:18God knows how long the family had to
0:38:18 > 0:38:21live in conditions like this, you know.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23Well, we've looked in the 1871 census,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26and we don't see her in Liverpool at all.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29Oh! So we don't know what's happened to her really then, do we?
0:38:29 > 0:38:30We don't know where she's gone.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Where do I go from here? Where do I go? Where do I go? Where do I look?
0:38:34 > 0:38:36Well, it's possible that she's died.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40Likely with the conditions they've been living in.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Well, this is one part of the journey I haven't liked.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51I'm really sad to find out that Mary ended up here with her kids.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55It must have been horrific.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57The state of the toilets,
0:38:57 > 0:39:01no light, candlelight.
0:39:01 > 0:39:02Damp.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05Damp of a morning, getting up. Damp of a night going to bed.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Pretty grim.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14I'm going to plod on. I'm going to find out what happened to her,
0:39:14 > 0:39:17'and I just hope that her fortunes take a turn for the better.'
0:39:20 > 0:39:25The last record Ricky can find shows that in 1861 all the Tomlinsons were
0:39:25 > 0:39:26still together.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30The older children were working, and the youngest two,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33Thomas and Mary Ann, were attending school.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39He is hoping the Liverpool Archives might hold some information
0:39:39 > 0:39:43on what happened to the family next. And why Mary vanishes.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46I've lived here practically all my life, I've never been in this room.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49- Isn't it gorgeous? - It's absolutely fantastic.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52- This lovely dome.- Look at that.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57It's like going back in time, isn't it?
0:39:57 > 0:39:59Can you hear the echo?
0:39:59 > 0:40:02That's why you've got to be quiet in the library.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07I'm looking to try and find out what happened to my
0:40:07 > 0:40:08great-great-grandmother.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12There's no mention of her in the 1871 census.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Well, the obvious place to look is in the workhouse records.
0:40:15 > 0:40:20And we haven't found Mary in the workhouse records at all.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23But I've got something for you to look at.
0:40:23 > 0:40:26"Kirkdale Industrial Schools." What is an industrial school?
0:40:26 > 0:40:29The idea, underpinning the industrial school,
0:40:29 > 0:40:34is that you train kids of the poor to be useful citizens.
0:40:34 > 0:40:36Boys, typically, are trained to be carpenters,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39girls are trained to be domestic servants.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43- Cheap labour, I'm afraid. I'm very cynical.- Cheap labour, yeah.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52Yeah, Mary Ann Tomlinson, 1855.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56- So this is the daughter of Mary. - This is Mary Ann.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58When was Mary Ann admitted?
0:40:58 > 0:41:01If we look in the admissions column.
0:41:02 > 0:41:061862. How old would she be there then?
0:41:06 > 0:41:08Seven.
0:41:08 > 0:41:09Blinking Heck!
0:41:11 > 0:41:13"Deserted by mother."
0:41:14 > 0:41:17How could she be deserted by her mother?
0:41:17 > 0:41:22This phrase, deserted by mother, suggests that Mary is alive.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27It's unlikely that Mary would have chosen to put her kids in here,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30if we look at the boys register we find Thomas,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33who's two years older than Mary Ann.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36So what we must assume at this stage is that she's in so...
0:41:36 > 0:41:38such a dire state of poverty
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and need that the only way for her kids to survive
0:41:41 > 0:41:44is to admit them to the industrial school.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Do we know what life would be like for them kids?
0:41:51 > 0:41:52Their daily, sort of, lives, here?
0:41:52 > 0:41:54Pretty harsh.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58You might be interested in reading the report of a poor law inspector
0:41:58 > 0:42:01who came to Kirkdale in 1866.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06"I am unable to report that the school is any satisfactory state.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11"Some of the bedsteads are constructed to hold three children,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14"the close, disagreeable and unwholesome atmosphere
0:42:14 > 0:42:18"of some of the sleeping wards is aggravated by wet beds.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23"These beds are not removed and changed daily, as they should be."
0:42:23 > 0:42:25So these kids are sleeping in each other's urine.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Good God! I don't know.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31And was there no sign of their mum ever again?
0:42:31 > 0:42:36- Have we got no sign?- We've no signs of her at all in the 1860s.
0:42:36 > 0:42:40But if we look at the register for births, marriages and deaths.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43- This is 1871.- This is 1871.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45She's got married again? Get out of it!
0:42:46 > 0:42:50Aged 44. Married a John McFee.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52Unbelievable.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56Now that we know her married name is there anything else we can find out about her?
0:42:56 > 0:43:00So let's have a look in the census, the 1871,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03and see if we can find her.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09- Mary McFee, yeah. - And there she is.- Yeah.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15According to this she's...she's had another three children.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18John, James and William.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21They'll be half-brothers to the rest of the Tomlinsons.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25- That's ten kids she's had. Isn't it?- It is.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29- That's a second family.- According to this the oldest child there is nine.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34Which means it must have been born in...
0:43:35 > 0:43:37..1862.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42That's the date that the kids get admitted to the industrial school.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Oh, yeah. She was obviously pregnant.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48And this probably explains Mary's dilemma.
0:43:48 > 0:43:53So Mary, as a widow, was in an abyss of poverty.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56She was getting some relief from the parish,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58one of her options would be to find a new breadwinner,
0:43:58 > 0:44:00a new dad for the kids.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04She seems to have done this, big risk...
0:44:04 > 0:44:09- But he wouldn't take the kids on. - She's pregnant. She's not married.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13So this is an illegitimate child,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16and the poor law is nothing if not moral.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20They would have withdrawn her relief at the minute they realised she was pregnant.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23Oh, I've got you. I've got you, yeah.
0:44:23 > 0:44:25Mary has been left utterly destitute...
0:44:27 > 0:44:31..with no choice but to put her two youngest children into the industrial school.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36They've gone into the workhouse, and she's had a whole new family.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40He only marries Mary once they leave the poor house,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42and they can earn their own living.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45- It speaks volumes about him, doesn't it?- It does.
0:44:45 > 0:44:50It makes me very, very angry to realise the way she's ended up, through no fault of her own.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53This guy she's married, in my opinion,
0:44:53 > 0:44:58- to use a Liverpool expression is a bit of a- BLEEP.
0:44:58 > 0:44:59Very sad, isn't it?
0:44:59 > 0:45:04The family, as far as we can see from these documents, has broken up.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09Have you any idea what happened to my great-grandfather, Richard?
0:45:09 > 0:45:14If we look further in births, deaths and marriages, on the register,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17I think you might be interested to see this.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21- This is 1884.- 1884.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24So Richard Tomlinson, who is now 32,
0:45:24 > 0:45:29he's marrying a girl called Sarah Ellen Lavery, my great-grandmother.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33- Your great-grandmother.- Richard's occupation - he's now a carter.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Look at the witnesses.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38William McFee. It's his half brother.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40And actually, later on, we find
0:45:40 > 0:45:43another half sibling living with Mary Ann.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46- Oh, good.- We thought the family had fallen apart.- Yeah.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50And yet what this shows is that they're obviously still in touch.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54My great-great-grandmother's managed to keep the family together somehow,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56by hook or by crook.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59I think we must conclude that Mary is an extraordinary woman.
0:45:59 > 0:46:05But, sadly, the same year Richard gets married Mary died of a stroke.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11What a life. What a life.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20'I feel quite saddened to know the way the majority of my ancestors seem to have lived.'
0:46:20 > 0:46:25They were toilers, grafters, labourers, call them what you will.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27Carters and whatever.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31And yet they had such a pitiful life.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33Now, I've got to finish this journey.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38'My great-grandad, Richard, did he fare any better?
0:46:39 > 0:46:43'Did the city treat him any better? Did conditions get any better?
0:46:43 > 0:46:45'That's what I want to know.'
0:46:47 > 0:46:50Ricky knows that his great-great-great-grandfather
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Richard and his great-great-grandfather William
0:46:53 > 0:46:55were both killed in carting accidents.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01By 1884 his great-grandad, also called Richard,
0:47:01 > 0:47:03was working in the same risky profession.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08Ricky is meeting historian
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Sam Davies to see if conditions improved
0:47:11 > 0:47:13for Liverpool carters like Richard.
0:47:15 > 0:47:16The last bit of information I've got
0:47:16 > 0:47:19is that they got married in the 1880s.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Well, 1880s, you know, was an important period
0:47:22 > 0:47:23in Liverpool's development.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26This is from the Illustrated London News in 1886,
0:47:26 > 0:47:29which tells you something about the city at that point.
0:47:29 > 0:47:30"Liverpool: Port, docks and city.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33"Thanks to modern science and commercial enterprise,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36"has become a wonder of the world, it is the New York of Europe.
0:47:36 > 0:47:40"No town in England shows greater signs of activity," - fair enough -
0:47:40 > 0:47:42"in the distribution of wealth."
0:47:42 > 0:47:45They didn't distribute it very, very far from what I found out.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Liverpool had the highest portion of millionaires per head of population
0:47:48 > 0:47:51of any town in England, outside of London.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54- Go away!- And yet it also had some of the worst housing,
0:47:54 > 0:47:57worst working conditions, there was an enormous disparity.
0:47:58 > 0:48:03In the 1880s Britain was a global manufacturing powerhouse.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07Its factories producing nearly a quarter of the world's goods.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11But there was growing discontent among the working classes.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14And for the first time so-called unskilled workers,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16like waterfront labourers,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20began to form unions to fight for better conditions.
0:48:22 > 0:48:25This is an extract from the Liverpool Review, 1890.
0:48:25 > 0:48:27"The Carters' New Union.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31"Until a few weeks ago the carters were all sixes and sevens,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33"but now the prospect is changed,
0:48:33 > 0:48:36"and the carters are going to obtain many reasonable reforms,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40"or some of the masters will have a bad quarter of an hour."
0:48:40 > 0:48:41I like the irony of that.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45- The bosses will have a bad quarter of an hour.- Yeah, yeah.- God bless!
0:48:45 > 0:48:47I'm a union man, as you know.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50And I have been for many, many years.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53And I'm just wondering do you think my great-grandfather, Richard,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56may have been involved in the union in that day and age?
0:48:56 > 0:48:58Well, we don't have any records, so we can't be absolutely certain,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02but I think it's very likely that your great-grandfather,
0:49:02 > 0:49:06being a regular carter, he'd have been in the union.
0:49:07 > 0:49:08By the early 1900s most of
0:49:08 > 0:49:12Liverpool's waterfront workers were unionised.
0:49:12 > 0:49:17But the dockers, seafarers and carters all joined separate unions.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20And they were divided on more than just trade lines.
0:49:20 > 0:49:22Carters, in particular, were a sort of, slightly,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25a cut above the dockers and the seafarers.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27Slightly better paid. Slightly better off.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30But especially important was the carters' union was
0:49:30 > 0:49:32very specifically seen as a Protestant union.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34And the dock workers would be predominantly Catholic?
0:49:34 > 0:49:36To a great extent, yeah, absolutely.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39It's a class division once again, isn't it?
0:49:39 > 0:49:41A class division this time based on religion.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Would there be any animosity between the Protestants and Catholics?
0:49:44 > 0:49:49Oh, yes. Absolutely. In fact, sectarian issues become significant.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54And you do get an increase in incidents, riots,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57attacks and so on associated with Catholics or Protestants,
0:49:57 > 0:50:01culminating, really, in a major outbreak of sectarian rioting.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04It's hard to visualise, isn't it?
0:50:04 > 0:50:07The hostility and the division that went on.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09Would my family, being Protestant,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12be affected by this trouble that was going on at the time?
0:50:12 > 0:50:16I think it was unavoidable for them. Have a look at the 1911 census.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18Here is your family, at that point.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21This is my great-grandad,
0:50:21 > 0:50:23Richard Tomlinson, he's the head of the family.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27And then we've got Richard, so that would be my grandad Tommo,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30he's aged 24, and he's single. General carter...
0:50:32 > 0:50:35- Elias Street, now where was that? - Well, we've got a map here,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38which shows the city in the early part of the 20th century.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41So Elias Street is just down here.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45- Elias Street.- It's just off Great Homer Street, there.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49That's the traditional boundary between Catholics and Protestants.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51They live just on the Protestant side.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54All the riots started with marches taking place on Great Homer Street.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57They would have been right on their doorstep where they were living.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Right in the firing line, really.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02It would be very difficult to grow up in that sort of environment
0:51:02 > 0:51:05without being affected by it in some way.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07From what you know of your family, and what you remember,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09were any of them bigoted in any way?
0:51:09 > 0:51:14No, my grandad Tommo wasn't, I can never remember him being, sort of,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16in any way bigoted at all.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20Maybe he had more sense than we give him credit for.
0:51:20 > 0:51:21He just wasn't involved.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Ricky's updating Rita on what he's recently found out.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35The carters actually organised themselves,
0:51:35 > 0:51:39and I'm delighted to say that my grandad was probably one of them
0:51:39 > 0:51:41that was a member of the carters' union.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44So your ancestors must be like you then?
0:51:44 > 0:51:48- Yeah, obviously.- Firebrands and want justice for everyone.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50Stuff like that. It must be in the genes.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52It must be. But at that time there
0:51:52 > 0:51:55was a divide in the working class in Liverpool.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57- In what way?- Religious. A religious divide.
0:51:57 > 0:51:58Although the little bit I know of my
0:51:58 > 0:52:00grandad, he had nothing to do with it.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03He wasn't a bigot in any way, shape or form.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05But the boundary was sort of Great Homer Street.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08One side was the Catholics, towards the docks,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10and the other side was the Protestants, up towards Everton.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13That's why all your lot were up with the Orange Lodge,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16- and us lot were down... - Yeah, amongst the- BLEEP!- Yeah.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22- I saved you from all that. - Sod off! Calm down.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24But it does fire me up. I mean, you and me sitting here now,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27you're a Catholic, I'm a Protestant.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29- Yeah.- That, that, you know, 100 years ago,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32that would have been practically impossible.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35So something must have happened to unite them,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38despite their religious beliefs?
0:52:38 > 0:52:39Because it's not like that now,
0:52:39 > 0:52:41it hasn't been like that for many years.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44There was obviously a sea change, wasn't there, at some time?
0:52:44 > 0:52:46Something must have happened.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Ricky is meeting social historian Mark O'Brien.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58My grandad and my great-grandad were carters, but as you will know,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00at the time there was a religious divide.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03Oh, the working class in Liverpool was terribly divided before 1911.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06But that starts to change, particularly with the arrival of one
0:53:06 > 0:53:08person called Tom Mann.
0:53:08 > 0:53:11The founder of the National Transport Federation.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14- Oh, yeah.- Here he is inspiring workers.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16Would my grandad have had a chance to listen to him?
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Oh, no question. He was close to the carters.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20He was absolutely involved with their union.
0:53:20 > 0:53:23His message to Liverpool workers is to unite,
0:53:23 > 0:53:25to make class a type of identity
0:53:25 > 0:53:29which was different from being a Catholic or being a Protestant.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32- You're a worker. A worker, first and foremost.- Yeah.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37In August 1911 Thomas Mann called for all workers,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41Protestant and Catholic, carters and dockers,
0:53:41 > 0:53:45to walk out in solidarity with striking railway workers.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49For the first time in Liverpool's history
0:53:49 > 0:53:53they put aside their religious differences and united.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56So that's here, that's where we're standing now.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58- Yes.- That's wonderful, that, isn't it?
0:53:58 > 0:54:00I'm made up to see they're like that.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02Instead of in rags and whatever.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06It shows that they still had pride and dignity within themselves.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09I just wish I was amongst it, but I hope, probably,
0:54:09 > 0:54:14my grandad would probably be amongst that crowd there, being a carter.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17The carters' union was absolutely central to all of this.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20Your grandfather, and possibly even your great-grandfather
0:54:20 > 0:54:23would almost certainly have been in that crowd, Ricky.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26I'm very proud, and I'd like to think they were there, yeah.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28How many thousands do you reckon was there?
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Reports from The Times say 100,000. It was an extraordinary moment.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34And the whole of the Liverpool working class were together for the
0:54:34 > 0:54:36first time, displaying solidarity.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38So they've kept on going, haven't they?
0:54:38 > 0:54:42They keep getting knocked down, but they're like a rubber ball, they bounce back.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44That's why I'm so proud, you know, being a Scouser.
0:54:44 > 0:54:45I'd be part of that crowd.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Agitating for a better living for everybody, you know?
0:54:48 > 0:54:51- Tremendous.- I can imagine that.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54- What followed that?- There was panic in the establishment,
0:54:54 > 0:54:55they were worried about law and order,
0:54:55 > 0:54:58they were worried also about revolution.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02The Home Secretary, Winston Churchill,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06feared the strikes which were bringing Liverpool to a standstill
0:55:06 > 0:55:10might spread across the country and cripple Britain's economy.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15He ordered 2,000 troops onto the city's streets, and sent a gunboat,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18the HMS Antrim, to the Mersey.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21The city goes into meltdown.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24The most extreme events took place around Great Homer Street.
0:55:24 > 0:55:25I don't know if you know
0:55:25 > 0:55:28- Great Homer Street.- Yeah, that's where my family were from.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32There was a regiment of hussars, and there were workers there protesting.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34The hussars raised their rifles and
0:55:34 > 0:55:38minutes later two workers had been shot dead.
0:55:38 > 0:55:39Get out of it!
0:55:39 > 0:55:42One was a carter, one was a docker.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45At the funeral procession some days later
0:55:45 > 0:55:50hundreds of workers turned out to mourn and show solidarity.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52They didn't see them as Protestant or Catholic,
0:55:52 > 0:55:53they saw them as workers who'd fallen.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56That was a breakdown of the bigotry then, wasn't it?
0:55:56 > 0:55:59Well, I'm made up in a way, because my grandad,
0:55:59 > 0:56:02he would have been out there listening to that,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05and I think he had the sense and the foresight to say, "Forget that,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07"forget the religion.
0:56:07 > 0:56:08"Practice your religion if you want to,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11"but don't use it as a weapon against anyone else."
0:56:11 > 0:56:16I'm proud to think that my grandad, my grandad Tommo as we called him,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18he would have learned so much from that.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22And any bigotry that may have been around at the time within him, gone.
0:56:22 > 0:56:23Disappeared.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30'It's been an incredible journey. I've laughed and I've cried.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32'I've been angry, I've been upset.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38'But it's really nice to be here, while it's so peaceful and quiet.'
0:56:38 > 0:56:41The waterfront now is wonderful.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44People come from all over the world to see it.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48But it wasn't like that in the days of my ancestors.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51They were grafters. They were carters.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53They worked on the docks day in, day out.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55And they passed the trade down to their sons.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58And even though they were classed as the lowest of the low,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02they started forming unions, they got rid of that religious divide.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04And the women made something out of nothing.
0:57:04 > 0:57:09They had hardship most of their lives, but they carried on going.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12They reared their children, they try to make things
0:57:12 > 0:57:13better for their children.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16So I'm just, I'm just so proud of them all.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18They made Liverpool what it is.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22'I love the city, and I love the people.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24'I don't want to live anywhere else.'