Mersey's maritime heritage goes online

The site has four sister-sites

The history of Liverpool - from a tiny fishing village to gateway to the new world - has been given the cyberspace treatment with a new website.

The Mersey Gateway project uses 20,000 digital images to show the growth of Liverpool and the development of the surrounding communities of Wirral, Bootle, Southport, St Helen's, Knowsley, Runcorn and Warrington.

The site - mersey-gateway.org - has taken two years to build and is based around six themes: docks and shipping, transport, the slave trade, people and places, health and welfare, and Merseyside at war.

It will allow visitors to experience the past on-line through accounts of the events and people that shaped the city and region, including historic maps and photographs.

It includes the shocking report produced by Liverpool's first Director of Public Health, Dr William Duncan, in 1847.

He painted a bleak picture of Liverpool in 1848 as a city with a population dogged by cholera, smallpox and typhus.

Maps are included in the archives

He was the first person to officially link poor housing and sanitation with diseases, and his report paved the way for a massive improvement in sanitation and housing.

Latest technology

The website also looks at the origins and development of the slave trade - the legacy of which can still be seen today in the city's buildings, street names and communities.

Joyce Little, Head of Libraries In Liverpool, which set the project up, said: "This is a fantastic way of using the latest technology to allow people from around the world to log on and find out more about the history of Liverpool and the surrounding areas.

"We hope people will be inspired to come and look at the original documents, photos, books, maps and other items as a result of visiting the website."

Councillor Warren Bradley, from Liverpool City Council, added: ''What happened in the past in Liverpool helped shape the city we know today.

Port project

"Liverpool has links all around the world, and it is vitally important that people have an understanding of its history and how it developed into the vibrant place it is now."

Mersey Gateway is part of PortCities UK, a website that explores the influence of Britain's maritime past on five UK port cities, and the people that lived and worked in them.

The library service has worked in partnership with organisations from London, Bristol, Hartlepool, and Southampton to create the site.

The National Lottery's New Opportunities Fund provided nearly £400,000 of funding to set the service up.