Trip to Liverpool, part one - Port Sunlight

So I just got home from a great weekend with my dear friends Emma, Lin and Sam, for the Happy Stampers show in Port Sunlight, Wirral.  (will be putting the photos of the show on "stampingbyh" as soon as I can get them written up...

We arrived on Friday afternoon, amid warm autumn sunshine (forecast was rain, so we were lucky, and after unpacking we headed for the garden centre, and tea and cake- orange and cranberry drizzle, for me; which was gorgeous!)

We then headed for a walk round the beautiful village of Port Sunlight - founded in 1888 by William Hesketh Lever, of the Lever soap fame for his workers.  Each house is subtly different

 as you can see it was beautifully sunny in the late afternoon last day of September!

I do like a fountain!

 lots of memorials and statues...

 art gallery, (just closing, so we missed going in - a Picasso exhibition, thought so I may not have bothered anyway!)

 Emma and Lin kindly posing

 another shot of the fountain,

I bet this was spectacular earlier in the summer!

 cute shapes to the buildings, love the turret!

 lengthening shadows and green spaces.

 yep, still see the fountain!

 and lots of decoration on buildings

 the school, (threatening sky!)   Treasure Gold anyone?

 Loved this church two years ago when we came before

 love hearts...

great shape to this tree trunk, with the girls in front..

we wandered through this green leafy area,

 saw some amazing chimneys..

 and a lovely bridge..

 on top of the bridge was a cute little, very young kitten who made friends..

love these windows

 Sam taking photos of the windows and Emma trying to get out of shot!!

Lin and Sam sitting on the wall

Got something different for you in the next post!

Port Sunlight - the photogenic bit!

So, if you've come from stampingbyh, you'll have seen the crafty bit of the story, if not it's here;  This is the beautiful bit!

Port Sunlight is a fabulous village on the Wirral in Merseyside, set up by William Lever for his factory workers. We (Sam, Emma Lin and I) were there for the Happy Stampers stamp show, this last weekend.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and once we'd settled into the hotel, set off for a look round.

How pretty is this?  Well done for Sam for finding it.

Lin and my room

 Hulme Hall, where the stamp show is held.

 Leaning on a lamppost... memories of our Paris trip! Thanks to a passerby for taking one with all of us in it!

 and here we have another signpost, all rusty and rustic!

beautifully kept bowling greens

 we spied this pretty archway...

 and found the Hillsborough Memorial Garden (for a Liverpool fan this is especially poignant)

 and a little further along, a war memorial.

 Liverpool was like so many major cities, and especially as a port, hit particularly hard in the war. The bronzes were so beautiful.

 Shame the sun wasn't shining, the hotel manager told me this morning as we were leaving, it looks so beautiful with the sun shining on the water.

 the Port Sunlight museum, which if it had been open, we'd have loved to have visited... maybe next time!

and we walked round the Church ...the graveyard was beautifully tended,

and lovely carvings on the walls

Wish we could have spent more time exploring Port Sunlight (and Liverpool itself) - like I say, maybe next time!!