Albert Dock & Wigan

Paul Barnes visits the attraction "The Way We Were" in Wigan before heading to the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool.

In this episode of “Anything Goes”, Paul Barnes visits Wigan Pier and the “The Way We Were” exhibition, before travelling southwest to Liverpool and the Merseyside Maritime Museum. The episode opens with Barnes walking alongside the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Wigan. Barnes talks of how people often poke fun at Wigan and its people, before explaining that Wigan is now telling its story through the new attraction named “The Way We Were” at Wigan Pier. Inside the exhibition, an actor in costume addresses visitors in the guise of Thorley Smith. Smith was a candidate for Wigan in the 1906 general election, and the actor passionately extolls the virtues of ordinary working people and how their efforts have made Britain a great country. Visitors are shown enjoying the attractions of “Wigan Pier”, which contains many of the cultural hallmarks of a seaside pier despite the fact it is around 17 miles inland. Postcards from “Wigan-On-Sea” are displayed on the walls, and a life ring emblazoned with the words “Wigan Pier” is fixed to some railings. Visitors can be seen enjoying “What the Butler Saw” machines and other amusements. In a late-Victorian classroom, a female actor brandishes a cane in her role as class teacher. Visitors are chided for their bad manners in failing to stand up when the teacher entered the room, and are reminded of the importance of cleanliness before being asked to present their hands for inspection. At the canalside, visitors board a boat moored outside the exhibition building. The camera then shows several views of nearby Liverpool, eventually focusing on the Albert Dock. Black and white photographs illustrate the history of the dock as a centre for trade and industry. At the Merseyside Maritime Museum, visitors make their way through recreations of the decks of packet ships that sailed between Liverpool and Australia between the 1850s and the 1870s. Barnes comments on how these recreations cannot replicate the pitch and toss of a ship at sea, nor the smell of so many people crowded into such a small space. He also mentions how passengers were thought of more as cargo than guests on these voyages. In the Anchor Courtyard area of Albert Dock, the camera focuses on a stall displaying a colourful array of decorated figures. Barnes interviews the man running this stall, who reveals that his family has been making these dough figures for over 150 years and that skills have been passed on from one generation to the next. Barnes describes the figures as “highly-decorated biscuits”, a description with which the stall-owner seems to reluctantly agree. Getting out of a parked car in front of the Port of Liverpool Building, Barnes addresses the camera to say that his experience in Liverpool has been largely a friendly one. He goes on to explain that there is a “sub-species” of Liverpudlian known as “scallies” who are known to steal anything that “isn’t screwed down or set in concrete”. He explains that £60,000 of the team’s camera equipment was stolen on their first night in the city, and that these “scallies” are thought to be the culprits. He cautions viewers considering taking their cars to the city to take care where they park, and ensure their cars are locked and alarmed. In a final slapstick moment, Barnes turns around to find his car has disappeared. He looks back at the camera with a resigned look on his face, accompanied by a cartoonish sound effect.

Featured Buildings

Wigan Pier; Merseyside Maritime Museum; Albert Dock; Port of Liverpool Building

Featured Events

1906 General Election

Keywords

Museums; Social History; Maritime History

Other Places

Liverpool, Merseyside

Background Information

The family television series 'Anything Goes' ran from 1985 to 1991 on Anglia Television and was presented by Paul Barnes, Pam Rhodes and Anthea Turner. "Thorley Smith, (1873 - 1940) was Britain's First Women's Suffrage Parliamentary Candidate. He stood in the 1906 general election in Wigan, Lancashire. He replaced Hubert Sweeney, Women's Suffrage candidate-elect, from 1904 to 1905." - Wikipedia The actor portraying Thorley Smith gives the date of the upcoming general election as 13th April, but this is likely to be an error on the actor's part as the 1906 election actually took place on 13th February that year. The Wigan attraction "The Way We Were" originally opened in 1986, and closed its doors for the last time in 2007 after just over 20 years.