Seacombe

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Liverpool, England

Today was our visit to Liverpool.  It is a short report as Amanda was feeling ill most of the day.

Speke Hall
Speke Hall garden

We visited Old Rufford Hall in the morning, drove to Liverpool, and visited the Anglican Cathedral and Albert Docks. 

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral – highest and heaviest peal in the world
Inside Liverpool Anglican

We also took a series of photos from the top of the bell tower:

Liverpool Anglican to the southwest
Liverpool Anglican to the west – Birkenhead
Liverpool Anglican to the northwest – Liverpool, Vauxhall, Bootle – across the Mersey my first area, Seacombe, Liscard, and New Brighton
Liverpool Anglican up the Mersey to the Irish Sea
Liverpool Anglican looking at Liverpool Catholic Metropolitian Cathedral
Liverpool Anglican looking east
Liverpool Anglican looking south

We had to stop at Albert Dock. Amanda and I both had many family lines that came through Liverpool docks, very likely through Albert Dock.

Inside Albert Dock in Liverpool
Paul Ross at Albert Dock
Liver Building, Cunard Building, and Port of Liverpool Building from Albert Dock
Albert Dock looking at my first missionary area across the Mersey, Seacombe and Liscard
Albert Dock Promenade along Mersey River
Beatles Museum at Albert Dock

Afterward, we drove back to Wigan through Upholland so Amanda could see the church where one of her family lines lived.

Upholland Church – St. Thomas the Martyr
Paul Ross at St. Thomas Church in Upholland
Upholland St Thomas graveyard

Tonight we had curry for dinner.  That was definitely a treat.

Brenda Millington, Paul Ross, Jack Millington
Brenda Millington, Paul and Amanda Ross in Howe Bridge

And lastly, we stopped at my sacred grove location. It is somewhere between Roby Mill and Skelmersdale. I tried to locate it on a map, but it has changed enough I cannot locate it. But here are some photos. I located it on that trip in 2008. Amanda did not want to hike to it, so I went by myself.

My Sacred Quarry
View at the top of the hill from the quarry
Out building remnants not far from the quarry
Just for fun, a picture at some of the same remnants with Elders Gavin Wright and Joseph Hulse in 2000
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YSIOPFACHGARDIAUWRTHYBONTDROSYRAFONDDYFROWYYNLLANGOLLEN

I have told a number of people about this little shop in Llangollen, Wales over the years.  Nobody seems to believe me that this sign and place really exist.  Here, for all to see, is the photo.  It says, “YSIOPFACHGARDIAUWRTHYBONTDROSYRAFONDDYFROWYYNLLANGOLLEN.”  You will have to click on the picture to see it more clearly.

If you do a search by the name, you find only a few hits for it on the web.  I do not know why they placed it all as one word since Welsh does permit spacing when you write it.  Perhaps it was to create a novelty to attract tourists.  At any rate, it means something like “the card small shop by the bridge over the river Dee in Llangollen” and is to clarify just in case you should confuse it with other card shops in Llangollen.  My welsh was pretty weak as I learned some of it in Wales and is even worse these days, so I hope that is kinda close.

We visited one Preparation Day in early 1999.  I only lived and served in Wallasey, Liscard, Moreton, Seacombe, West Kirby, and New Brighton in the Wirral Peninsula from around the 23st of December 1998 to about the 19th of January 1999 before being assigned to Hyde.  We made my first trip to Chester in Cheshire and Wrexham and Llangollen in Denbighshire, Wales.  The Valentine’s Day decorations in the window would seem to hint at later January.  My journals would tell, but they are in Idaho.

Llangollen is a small town, probably not more than a few thousand people.  I really remember very little about it.  I remember seeing the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the drive down but not a whole lot more.  We drove down just to see this little store.  Which, now that I have posted the picture, everyone can rest assured it really does exist.

Perhaps some day I can return to Llangollen.  Maybe we can arrange it so it corresponds with the International Eisteddfod.  Or maybe some day I can visit Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.  Only time will tell.  Until then I will just have to make due with the Welsh Festival in Malad, Idaho.

FYI, I cannot pronounce either, so please do not ask.