Motor Runs from Merseyside Archives

A bit more from Motor Runs from Merseyside – published by the Liverpool Post in 1932 to capitalise on people starting to become car owners, with advice on places accessible within one or two days from Liverpool.

I found this section, with information on the tolls of the Mersey Ferries, fascinating. There’s a lot of measurements of vehicles involved – I wonder if they got a measuring stick out to check if your chassis was 12 feet or under. Sorry for the wobbly scanning, the old book just couldn’t take much bending.

I like the little map – you’d think nothing much has changed in 80 years looking at it. Except my adopted district, Norris Green, is yet to make it on the maps, being a newly built estate around this time. The library here is still in the 1930s Art Deco original building.

I have become slightly obsessed with charabancs since reading this, and having to look them up to see exactly what they were. An open-topped cross between a car and a bus, jammed full of people on a day trip, only safe because they went around 12 miles an hour by the looks of it.

Here’s a nice pic of Liverpool FC, in the 1920s, on their way to a match.

Here’s a 1932 book produced by the Liverpool Daily Post, “Motor runs from Merseyside”. It’s in a fairly delicate condition and so I couldnt quite scan everything flat. I’ll post up some more of this book later. For now, here’s some of the adverts it contains.

My favourite bit is this advert for Mel-O-Ade, a “Summer health drink”, “in convenient cubes for motorists”. Mel-O-Ade was a locally produced drink, made in Dale Street, Liverpool.

Buy a book now and then, and refresh your mind! A great phrase from an advert from the stationer and bookseller Philip Son and Nephew, Ltd on Church Street.

Adverts for where to buy cars in Liverpool. I just love that 1930s Art Deco aesthetic.