Liverpool People’s History

Revisiting the 1970s and 1980s

The early years of the Women’s Liberation Movement

  Historian RACHEL COLLETT traces the growth of the Women’s Liberation Movement through the 1970s and 1980s. On Merseyside its initial hub was the Women's Centre in Seel Street and activists focused mainly on reproductive healthcare in the face of strong local...

Littlewoods Pools: where women ‘never had time to get bored’

Littlewoods Pools was once a household name in Britain. Every week millions of people would fill in a coupon, hoping to win a fortune by predicting the outcome of football matches. Checking the coupons was a massive task and in Liverpool it provided jobs for thousands...

Recent posts

The Bridewell and the Boys from the Blackstuff
Much of Alan Bleasdale’s acclaimed TV drama was filmed at a former police station on Prescot Street.

Scotland Road Free School
Come to school when you want and do what you like. The Free School was a bold experiment in classroom democracy that didn’t work out.

Police, drugs and ‘agriculture’ in Toxteth
In 1971 there were two notable court cases where black men accused of possessing cannabis were acquitted after claiming police had planted it.

The battle to save Fisher Bendix
The Fisher Bendix factory in Kirkby had been built with government help to ease unemployment in the area. It wasn’t a success and in 1972 when the owners tried to shut it down workers occupied the factory in an effort to save their jobs. Three years later they began running it themselves.

GET INVOLVED
Since this is a “people’s history” website, it’s intended as a collaborative effort. Click here to find out the various ways you can take part.