Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History Herdman's Paintings of Liverpool 1805-1882

William Gawin Herdman (also known as W. G. Herdman; 1805–1882) was an English author and painter, known for his scenes in the Liverpool area.
Herdman was a self-taught painter who started sketching in his early teens, documenting the city of Liverpool, making notes about how the city and its buildings were changing as the city grew. Herdman painted around 2,000 water colours of Liverpool scenes which were included in the book, “Herdman’s Liverpool” which appeared in several editions after his death in 1882. "Born in Liverpool in 1829, William married Elizabeth Munro in 1852 and had at least four children. He was a fine artist, but did not achieve the same level of success as his father, possibly lacking his self-belief and flair for promotion. His accuracy of representing locations can be confirmed with maps and Gore's street directory." Father and son painted numerous watercolours of Liverpool and Wirral, depicting the area from the late 18th century, often copying earlier works, through to the 1860s. They also record street furniture, people and fashions. W G and William Herdman recorded everything in a fast-changing Liverpool. As soon as they heard any area was to be cleared, they were out there painting. That's how we are so lucky to have illustrations of everything from St George's Hall to Cumberland Street's long-lost slums. Herdman's paintings provide a 'snapshot' of our region that rival's any modern photographic record.
In this article we have an excellent selection of Herdmans work, which was put together by Kevin Keegan, from 'Yo Liverpool Forum' , who provides the descriptions

http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com/2013/01/WGHerdman.html

Click on the images to enlarge them

This is interesting, as Joseph Williamson died in 1840.After acquiring the land abut 1805 he first started to build houses. The vast amount of tunnelling in a relatively short period of time, without the use of mechanical diggers is quite remarkable. They are still finding items now as they continue to unearth. Picture by Herdman painted 18yrs after Williamson's death. So the tunnels must have just been abandoned. I wonder if they have found any skeletons down there.


Mason Street, Edgehill. Showing entrance to the excavations for
tunnels made by Joseph Williamson. 1858.

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Great thread Granny.Thanks for sharing.

granny this site with wirral paintings may interest you
click

Thanks, Granny; he was an excellent architectural painter. I'd not heard of him.

Great thread. Thanks for sharing.

For anyone interested in a more recent pictorial record of Liverpool I can recommend "Ainscough's Liverpool",
ISBN 1 872568 64 5
A marvellous collections of photographs from 1966-68.
The very first picture is one of Central Station.
This is the cover.

Harold Hobbs' at Bebington and Eastham are my favourites, some just memorable, or at least recognisable.
Thanks for the links.

Granny on a mission. Any points welcome.

With reference to the mention of the Williamson Tunnels , and the fact that there isn't a topic on the Williamson Tunnels (Liverpool) I thought my comments would be better placed on this page.

Anyway, having just watched a programme on BBC2 about the Romans and their building of Rome, having the most amazing tunnel type structures , still intact, for a vast sewage system, it brought to mind that maybe Joseph Williamson was trying to do the same thing.

The Williamson tunnels were built between 1810 and 1840 , in 1810 water closets were introduced and connection to the main sewer was confined to the wealthy people. Right hand column https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...%20health%201810%20to%201840&f=false

Joseph Williamson being a philanthropist may have been building a sewer system for the people of Liverpool not just an aimless project to occupy the people .

Maybe the different levels could have been for the different levels of street. I think parts of Liverpool such as Toxteth were quite undulated at that time and I understand that some of the tunnels also headed towards the river. Nice exit for affluence.

The only thing that is questionable, is the fact that someone must have thought of this before but has obviously dismissed it. Do you think it possible ?
These pics have a similarity, Rome and Williamson's,Liverpool. I wonder if he ever went to Rome.

Rome

Rome

Williamson

Williamson

He didn't build tunnels, he built bridges.

The land was previously small quarries that were worthless as they were too expensive to infill. Williamson realised that if he bridged over the quarries he would create high value development land after paying very small amounts for the land.

Quarries in the past were often leased by the square foot, for this reason they were often small narrow holes but very deep, an example can be seen at Ben's Quarry in the woods at the back of Helsby hill.

I'm sure there is a thread somewhere when the WikiWirral Team went to help dig out the Williamson Tunnel's, a hard but very enjoyable experience.

The website constantly refers to him building and constructing tunnels. However, I understand what you are saying so my theory is completely wrong. Never mind , God loves a trier.

The myth built up about his philanthropy because nobody could understand why else he built the "tunnels".

Various grants were available for the opening up of the tunnels because Williamson was believed to be a philanthropic patron of Liverpool.

However comprehensive research by Gerry Lucas and David Bridson came up with the following:-



This was debated at Edge Hill University in 2012, I have no idea of the outcome but I assume their evidence was fairly compelling and their paper can be viewed HERE

Yes, I had read about the debate, but also read somewhere else that there was no conclusion .

This is of interest : Painting by Herdman of :

Inscribed on mount: "Grove Street and Oxford Street, The old Water-course from Mosslake."
Inscribed with signature and date in lower left corner of the sheet: "Mosslake Bridge 1863 I.McGahey



Followed by this on the watercourse of Liverpool and
Moss Lake
http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Memorials_of_Liverpool_1000748465/261

Followed by this on Joseph Williamson and how they viewed him, back in the 19th century
http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/Memorials_of_Liverpool_1000748465/563

Whatever this man was, he must have spent a fortune on keeping the brick works in business.