Liverpool c.1680

The earliest surviving view of the Liverpool waterfront - known as the 'Peters' painting of 1682 (The original may be seen in the Merseyside Maritime Museum)

I have been researching and writing about various aspects of the local history of the Liverpool, Merseyside, S.W.Lancs, Cheshire area for over 30 years. Several works have been published (see links) but there are several papers which remain unseen. Some of this surfaces from time to time as material in local history evening classes which I run at the University of Liverpool Centre for Continuing Education.

However, this site makes the material immediately accessible. You are welcome to download, but please credit this source if you should use it. Thanks! I have always welcomed email correspondence in the past and I do try and reply where can, but the volume has become overwhelming, and I do not wish to offend when I cannot reply. General family tree enquires should be directed towards other dedicated sites (unless, of course, we may be related!). But please do sign the guestbook or bulletin board indicating purposes of your research, or any other comments you wish to make.

Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors:
A Guide For Family Historians

by Mike Royden     OUT NOW

Click here to order from the Pen & Sword web site.

According to Pen & Sword;
Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors provides a fascinating insight into everyday life in the Liverpool area over the past four centuries. Mike Royden introduces readers to the wealth of material available on the city’s history and it’s people.

Mike Royden on Who Do You Think You are? Series 7 - featuring Kim Cattrall

Kim Cattrall, star of Sex in the City, is in the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? trying to trace her Toxteth roots. Mike Royden guides her through a few difficult and painful revelations about her Liverpool ancestors. Filmed in the Liverpool Athenaeum under tight security, click here for more information and photographs.

Mike Royden on BBC's Heir Hunters

This is a BBC series dedicated to finding the heirs of people who have died without leaving a will. In this programme Celtic Research looked into the case of Ivy Sherry who died in April 2009. She was born in Liverpool and research revealed a surprising link with Bessie Braddock, the famous Liverpool M.P.

Map makers Cassini have produced an excellent boxed set of Liverpool historical maps covering; Old Series (1840-43), Revised New Series (1902-03), Popular Edition (1923-24), New Popular Edition (1947) and the County Series 1:10,000 (1850-51). I acted as consultant on the coverage and selection of the maps and wrote the historical notes for the County Series 1:10,000 (1850-51). This map covers Liverpool from Bootle Castle in the north to Otterspool in the south, detailed enough to have all street names recorded throughout. Cassini Historical Maps are created from Ordnance Survey’s definitive mapping series, surveyed and printed from the early 19th century onwards, which they have enhanced and enlarged to bring them into line with modern scales and print standards.
Click here for the Cassini Maps web site.

New section - from this page you can access various downloads such as publications and documents. This will be added to gradually to help provide a free resource for historians. It may save a visit to the local record office - and help to preserve the original. You will need Adobe Reader (free) installed on your computer to read the pdf files (link on the page).

Book Reviews

This is a new section which will be added to in the future. To start this off a new work on Birkenhead by Elizabeth Davey, published by Phillimore is featured.

The story of Otterspool was featured in a lecture given by Mike Royden at The Big History Show at St.Georges Hall in September 2007 as part of the 800th Anniversary celebrations. Click here for a copy of the article and illustrations.

Is there any truth in the story that Hitler visited Liverpool c.1912/13 or is it just an urban myth?
What is certain is that his nephew, William Hitler, was born in Upper Stanhope Street, Toxteth!
This feature appeared firstly on Making History in December, followed by a commission to provide a web article for the new BBC Local Legacies web site. It was also a feature of Norman Thomas' Show on Sunday 18th January 2004. Mike also appeared in a Dutch TV Documentary which covered the story in 2005, and in the final part of Stuart McConie's 'TV Towns' which featured Liverpool in Autumn 2007.
Click the link for the full article by Mike Royden.

Full Listings - Some of the articles within this site have been featured on Radio 4's Making History presented by Sue Cook, while others have been covered on local radio on Radio Merseyside's Norman Thomas Show on Sundays at 1.30pm.

This site is an on-going local history project researched and compiled by Year 9 pupils of the Whitby High School under the guidance of Mike Royden. It is added to each year around November. Topics include studies of the suburbs and villages around Ellesmere Port, eg. Great Sutton, Little Sutton, Capenhurst, Overpool, Whitby, plus local sites such as Poole Hall, Whitby Hall, and the Temporary Government Housing Programme (1944-49) Prefab site known as 'Tin Town', Hooton Hall and Hooton Airfield.

Local History Classes
in the Centre for Continuing Education

As a member you receive both The Local Historian and Local History News four times a year, and you have privileged access to conferences, specialist visits and to a wide range of practical handbooks. Get the latest information, as well as access to a huge network of knowledgeable people to help you find the answers you need.

Local History Magazine

Local History Magazine was established in 1984 and is published six times a year, available by postal subscription only. Every issue contains a mixture of news, articles, book and periodical reviews, readers' notices and information.

www.whitbyhigh.co.uk

The Whitby High School Web Site - winner of several awards and shortlisted out of 600 schools for the BECTA/Guardian Education Web Award for 2001.

Charles Royden was in the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War and was killed in 1918. It has taken many years of research to compile enough material for this modest biography. To ensure that even this was not forgotten visit these pages for a more detailed account of Charles Royden at the Somme and his war record.