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In 2007 Liverpool celebrated its Year of Heritage, the 800th year of a fascinating and vibrant city; then, in 2008 it became the European Capital of Culture. Many new books and magazine articles have accompanied the worldwide media coverage of a city famous for its bustling seaport, great football teams, pop music and much more.
 
Yet one part of the city's remarkable history has never been told; indeed, one of its secret wartime duties has been hidden for over six decades. Of course everyone knows about the role that this great port played in the Battle of the Atlantic, and how Hitler's Luftwaffe mercilessly pounded its buildings and its citizens. However, few will now recall that very soon after Dunkirk, one Liverpool firm was already helping the Allies prepare for a Second Front that was still years away.

"After the War Was Over" is the most fascinating publication we have ever had the privilege to produce, and its content is unique! In over 200 images, it uses hitherto classified photographs of outstanding large format quality to present a view of the secret goings-on around Wavertree and Edge Hill. Assembling crated vehicles sent across the Atlantic in the convoys, an army of engineers aided by old men, young boys and women, put together a vast fleet of military might, initially from Canada and then the USA.  

Here, in bombed-out factories and on waste ground around Smithdown Lane, Overbury Street, Crown Street, Queensland Street and Falkner Street, a vast fleet of military vehicles were erected in great secrecy. To culminate the Year of Culture events, this remarkable book tells the forgotten story, of how Pearsons of Shaw Street coped with this vital war work, and how they were then re-organised for the country's peacetime needs that followed.

This website has been created by Jonathon Wild, Campaign Director of Braygreen. A contact was made from Trans Pennine Publishing back in 2005 to see if I could assist with helping them to discover a location fix for many of the 200 glass plated photographs from around Wavertree and the Edge Hill area. Some of these images had no backgrounds, some of them simply had a side wall of a building. However, working with the publishers and of course viewing the area, we managed to put a location fix on 99% of the images and it was incredible to see how the roads and waste lands looked during these era.

I was in contact with the publishers on a weekly basis until the role was completed and I was presented with my own copy of the images on a CD, a special mention in the book, and a signed copy of one of the first books to be printed. The Pearsons of Liverpool story shows how close we became to having these images thrown away, and it is amazing to view them at high resolution. Glass Plated photography really gave a depth to images taken this way. Sadly, shortly after the book was released, my good friend Professor Alan Earnshaw passed away. Both Professor Alan Earnshaw and David Hayward wrote the Pearson's of Liverpool book, and I was honoured to take part in this amazing publication. My website was then produced to make sure that copies of the book could still be purchased on-line so that everyone had the chance to read this fascinating book!

When the editorial team at Trans-Pennine Publishing were presented with the opportunity of looking through some old lorry pictures, they were quite literally left speechless!   Never had they seen such a comprehensive collection of 12" x 10" prints, especially considering the fact that they were taken in war-time when normal photography was extremely limited and taking pictures of military vehicles was a criminal offence. However, if you had official clearance, photography was permitted under strict conditions, but even then many of the images taken had to have their background 'masked out', in order to prevent the location being recognised if the picture fell into the 'wrong hands'.

 

Once printed, one set of pictures had to be sent to the Ministry of Supply (MoS), and the other kept in a lockable wooden cabinet, which had then to be kept in a locked strong room. The images that were loaned to us had been retained in their chest and had remarkably escaped the war time bomb damage, censorship and secrecy. They were then later saved from being 'thrown out' as rubbish during the 1950s, and thereafter rested in an attic for another half-century. 

Not only was their survival remarkable, but so too was their unique subject matter. Most of the images represented the very first example of each type of vehicle to be assembled by the company from the crated vehicles that had been shipped over first from Canada and then as the war progressed, from the United States of America (USA).

Many of the images between 1940 and 1944 show the vehicle's Census Number (military serial number). The images form the basis for the book, 'After The War Was Over', which explains how the company came to be at the forefront of this vitally necessary work. Once the book has covered the period up to early-1945, it will be seen that the company's focus began to change and this is clearly reflected in the images we have chosen.   From around April 1945, the flow of crated vehicles coming across the Atlantic began to slow, as the war in Europe was slowly coming to an end, and thereafter the vast majority of output was needed for the war in the East, as Japan was still a major problem to be overcome.

From the end of May 1945, the shipments of vehicles that had been shipped across the Atlantic to Liverpool had almost dried up, but Pearson's found themselves extremely busy with the refurbishment of former military vehicles that were needed in the physical and economic reconstruction of Europe.   Not shy of taking opportunities, Pearsons started to purchase the un-assembled and still crated vehicles that were being held in the firm's rurally-located stores for the Ministry of Supply, and they also started to acquire used military units as these were put into the disposal auctions of the day.  

Battle-weary vehicles were then to be found on the company's assembly line, where they underwent complete refurbishment for use on 'Civvy Street'. The restriction on new vehicle production, a concerted export drive by Britain's motor manufacturing industry and the massive demand for new and 'used' vehicles that had built up during the war years, when only a limited supply of new civilian units were available, all fuelled the demand for both new and 'refurbished' vehicles. The images cover a ten-year period from 1939 to 1949 and the text limits itself to that period, culminating when the firm left their Phoenix Safe Works premises (Liverpool 7) in 1949 and took advantage of war compensation to concentrate operations in the more modern factory off Overbury Street and located between Angela Street and St. Arnaud Street.  

Viewing these pictures today, especially by standing in the same location, it is difficult to imagine that huge American or Canadian trucks once lined the road where children now play. Where a local congregation had to walk past a row of gun carrying American Jeeps to get in to church, and where a Liverpool street was once lined with four DUKW amphibian trucks. a stone's throw from one of the long demolished tenement blocks.

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