Summer holidays are fun at the Museum of Liverpool! From 20-27 August we will be running lots of great activities to celebrate the history of transport in Liverpool. Join us for tours exploring our Great Port Gallery, lots of fun craft activities (including the chance to make your own Lion locomotive or Ford Anglia) and the opportunity to handle and talk about some of our favourite transport related objects.
A visit to our Great Port Gallery will introduce you to lots of amazing vehicles, but for me the cart horses are the heart and soul of Liverpool’s transport history. Can you imagine the days when there were 20,000 horses living and working here? When you think that nearly everything which came into the docks on a ship was moved on by a horse, you can see what a contribution they made to the growth of our city. Liverpool’s cart horses were famous far and wide for their size and strength.
These two horse shoes from our handling collection were used by a small riding horse and a cart horse – quite a difference!
Horses were such an important part of Liverpool life that they were celebrated in the annual May Day horse parade through the city. This was a great day out, but also very important, as it showed the world that the working horses of Liverpool were strong, healthy and well-cared for. Carters were immensely proud of their animals and some of the prizes for the best turned out teams can be seen in our gallery.
For more details of what you can expect over the week please see the listings for our transport extravaganza!