Looking for Frank’s Place

Frank Hornby, of Dinky Toys, Hornby Railways and Meccano fame, was born at 77 Copperas Hill, Liverpool on 15^th May 1863.

Copperas is an interesting word and in this case it denotes a place where Copper Sulphate was produced, Copperas being the old name for it. It was produced at a works owned by the Hughes family. No.77 along with a number of other properties on this road were demolished when Lime Street Station was enlarged. This is what the location looks like in 2025:-

In 1994 Liverpool City Council decided to mark this world famous toy maker’s birthplace by creating and installing a cast metal plaque in Lime Street Station. This is the very plaque:-

In 1999, when Lime Street Station was undergoing a huge refurbishment the plaque was removed and was seemingly lost forever. However, it turned up at an auction where a keen eyed Hornby enthusiast both recognises and buys it. The Chap concerned is a member of the Hornby Railway Collectors’ Assn (HRCA) and via this organisation the plaque is handed back to Network Rail.

In 2023 it is unveiled on an easel at Lime Street as this link to Network Rail’s website details:-

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/return-of-the-plaque-missing-model-railway-inventor-tribute-reinstated

The plan, we understand, is that it will be placed on a wall within the station near to the statues of Bessie Braddock and Ken Dodd but, as Lime Street Station is a listed building, permission has to be gained. Here’s the area where we believe the plaque will be erected at some point:-

Pending such erection it’s in Lime Street Station’s ‘Mini-Museum’ which is a part of the Standard Class Waiting Room adjacent to the First Class Waiting Room. These facilities are not on the concourse but on the first floor above M&S, Costa etc. and it’s accessed via a set of stairs by the shops. Here’s a photo of the plaque's present surroundings in the Standard Class waiting room at Lime Street Station:- 

 

So that's the story of Frank's birthplace and where he's being remembered. To find out more about Frank Hornby, his world famous Meccano Factory and its products have a look at the website of Maghull's Frank Hornby Charitable Trust at:-

 https://www.frankhornby.co.uk/

or visit Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre in the Town he lived for much of his adult life. Maghull is 7 miles north of Liverpool and the Heritage Centre is within Meadows Leisure Centre with the same opening days and hours as Maghull Library.

  

 

Cars and social status

Social status has always intrigued me as I’ve never really been able to get my head around it. Maybe it’s because I’m a Liberal by instinct and see social status as being of no interest?

Anyway, this particular ramble is about cars and the perceived social status that goes with them. Of course, such social status before the motorcar was based on the ‘turnout’ of the horse, harness and carriage, so Jack Hargreaves tells us in an episode of the early 1980’s Ch4 TV programme ‘Old Country’. You can find it here on YouTube -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9gbY0cAvDA

For me too it all started back in the early 1980’s when my dad, who’d previously bought his own cars (his first was a Morris Traveller), was given one by his employer, seemingly because he was a branch manager as a part of his employment package. A nice yellow MKI Vauxhall Astra. The car he sold on gaining the Astra he’d previously bought from his company when the lease on dad’s area manger’s car, a green Triumph 1500, came to an end.

                     Me & Mum - 1966 (in Rochdale) with Dad's Morris Traveller

You may realise realise from this that dad’s area manager had gained a company car some years prior but then again an area manager covering the whole of the north west of England would clearly need a car and anyway he was obviously deemed to be of a higher eployment/social status. As an aside, I bought that MKI yellow Astra from my dad’s company when it in turn came to the end of its lease. Dad, at that point, was given an MKII Astra.

Without doubt I’d noticed, unsurprisingly, that dad’s area manager was given a higher spec’ car and it made my youngish mind wonder about cars and social status.

Yes, of course, cars have always had a status about them as in the early days it was only the wealthy who could run them. As they got cheaper the ownership base widened, but even in the early 1960’s having a family car was still relatively unusual amongst ordinary working class/lower middle class folk. The local doctor would have one to do his rounds, but they were still pretty much beyond the pocket of many working people. Now, of course, the lack of a car is all but seen as odd in our car dependent communities.

I read the other day about what, if I recall correctly, was a Dutch study regarding the effects of taking children to school by car instead of walking/cycling. Unsurprisingly, the walkers and cyclists taking their children to school were fitter, had less body mass but interestingly they also seemed happier too. So clearly running a car on shortish journeys has more than financial consequences; it damages your health/wellbeing too.

The now infamous school-run clogs up roads around primary schools in particular and often the journeys made are less than a couple of miles. But is having a car and taking your children to school in it all part of social status or is it just a consequence of young families living their days at 90mph so to speak? I suggest both.

Does a parent in a basic run-around car feel socially inadequate against a row of top of the range German cars that their children’s friends parents roll up in? Are parents who walk or cycle their children to school left feeling as though they don’t quite fit in?

And here’s another interesting and rather sad aside. Quite some years ago, during the time I was a local councillor, I was contacted by a pensioner couple who asked me if I could try to get a local circular bus route to take in their estate. It seemed like a good idea to me so I surveyed the quite middle class estate telling them about the request and asking for support to campaign for the route to be adjusted accordingly. Suffice to say I got a lot of negative responses from car-owning folk who did not see the need/want a bus trundling around their estate. I only got positive responses, in the main, from households without a car and they were few and far between. Without a groundswell of support the campaign was doomed. See what a mean about car dependent communities; we’ve got them and some folk will cling hard onto them.

A chap I know recently told me that a friend of his had likened his car to an old lady’s shopping car. Yes, it’s a small car but quite adequate for his purposes and budget and the person making the remark had a much fancier car. Did it make him feel inadequate and looked down upon? Yes, it certainly did.

All this makes me think that cars are very much the ultimate status symbol in our society. Having a car is vital if you want to fit in. Having a grand car is a further step up and you may well feel the need to compete with your family/friendship group to stay fitting in. It’s like having the latest i phone, wearing the latest fashions, even having the latest footballers’ hair cut, for blokes anyway. And talking of Prem League footballers and indeed other successful sports people don’t they always have an expensive car to go with their perceived celeb’ status?

And what of Tesla’s? With sales seemingly dropping off following the company owner doing what looked to many to be akin to a 1930/40’s German political salute the cars gained the unfortunate nickname ‘Swasticar’ and overnight a popular car amongst the middle classes with an environmental/social conscience became a problem. Will they sell second hand? Will environmentalists continue to buy them? Will they now sell to far right supporters? Probably not as they also tend to be fossil fuel enthusiasts, so no buyers there then. If you bought one to be up with the latest car trend or simply because you want to do the right thing for our environment* then buyer regrets may well be an unfortunate consequence.

I must admit that I’d rather not have a car. It costs me small fortune to run, but our evermore car dependent communities mean that unless you live within a major city your public transport options, particularly with regard to buses, get less and less by the year. But just look at how London is changing (health warning -petrol heads should not view the following video because of potential detrimental blood pressure consequences) but will it lead to a whole new social status issue with cycles? -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OunBRdTIe3w&t=339s

Yes, I’ve got a car but it’s not a BMW, Merc’ or Audi etc. so no, I’m certainly not trying to fit in and may well be looked down upon and perceived to be of a low social status as a consequence, but frankly this old Liberal doesn’t give a damn.

Now go out, stretch your budget as far as you can, lease a fancy car and show it off at the school gate and amongst your friendship group. But you’ll have to keep upgrading to maintain your social status. If, however, you can’t afford to upgrade (oh the social shame of it) change the number plate to a personalised one. It’ll get you some social Brownie points and stop folks reading your reg plate to clock the age of the car and them realising your just a poor person struggling to keep up.

* Electric cars generally are not necessarily good for the environment as we may like to think because mining for the minerals to build batteries is a massive problem in the making.

 

Did ‘Owenism’ eventually win the day in the Labour Party?

Dr. David Owen will probably be best remembered as one of the ‘Gang of Four’ who left the Labour Party to form the SDP in 1981. He was, at least to many Liberals (during the SDP/Liberal Alliance), the most right-wing of the Four and the most difficult, by a long chalk, for Liberals to get along with. Indeed, he was oft referred to as Dr. Death by Liberals who felt he’d probably destroy the SDP and the Liberals along with it.

His politics have often struck me as being all but centre-right and considering our centre-right (at least economically) present Labour Government the question I pose is has Starmer’s Labour Party become ‘Owenite’ in all but name? In other words have the politics of Dr David Owen finally won the day within Labour?

Labour’s problems are many and deep, not least because its working-class right-wingers have shipped out to Reform, it’s progressives are moving to the Lib Dems and its socialists have made a new home in the Greens whilst Jeremy Corbin’s new Party will obviously attract many a socialist too. An Owenite-like centre-right rump could, if things continue to go badly for Labour, be all that’s left!

As a Social Liberal of the left I always felt that Bill Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and the wonderful Shirley Williams were far more akin to the free thinking of Liberalism. Owen was, at least to me, difficult, uncompromising and stubborn. Although our warped electoral system had a big hand in killing off the SDP my feeling has always been that Owen’s personality as well as his politics were also a significant factor.

I see the approach of our present Labour government being akin to what I think DavidOwen stood for and Starmer has what seems to be a similar stubborn streak to him too. Yes, he’s U-turned over Pensioner’s Fuel Allowance and some Welfare cuts but only because centre-left and socialist Labour back benchers held a gun to his head. I suppose the big question now is how many of those rebelling Labour MP’s will jump ship to Corbyn’s new party?

 

* The logo above is, I understand, that of the Continuing SDP i.e. the party that remained after the merger between the original SDP and the Liberal Party. David Owen being the first Leader of the Continuing SDP.