Around Liverpool and Merseyside in the 1960s

One of the most vibrant decades in the history of Merseyside... Merseyside boomed during the 1950s and 60s. The docks on both sides of the river witnessed the constant toing and froing of merchant ships. Cammell Laird was still a major shipyard, Ford opened a car manufacturing plant at Halewood and the Tranmere Oil Terminal improved to take the new large tankers then coming into service. Merseyside was a centre of youth culture as the Mersey sound went on to dominate record charts around the world. In the world of sport, Aintree was, and still is, home of the Grand National and for a few years in the early 1960s home to the British Grand Prix. In the world of football, Everton won the 1962-63 First Division Championship and the 1965-66 FA Cup Final and were then 1967-68 FA Cup runners-up. Liverpool were 1961-62 Second Division Champions, 1963-64 and 1965-66 First Division Champions and 1968-69 runners-up. Tranmere Rovers were promoted to the Third Division following the 1966-67 season and reached the 5th Round of the 1967-68 FA Cup. The decline on Merseyside would come in the 1970s as British manufacturing began to lose out to foreign competition. Until then, Merseyside was leading the way. All this and much, much, more in Clive Hardy's brilliant new book.