There are a few myths about the Sailors' Home flying about.
For a full history of the Liverpool Sailors' Home, surviving artefacts and photographs please see the following sites:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1457940@N25/
http://www.chesterwalls.info/gallery/sailorshome.html
The good news on the Sailors Home Gates is that Avery are paying to have them professionally restored and they have been dismantled and are being restored in Wolverhampton. Liverpool Councillors have applied to have the Listed Structure re-sighted in Liverpool after their restoration.
(The Gates removal and future is covered by rigid Planning Regulations.)
The reason that they were offered to Avery Scales? They were originally cast by Pooley and Sons, the company moved its HQ to Birmingham when the Liverpool Foundry was demolished to make way for the Mersey Tunnel. The Company became part of T&W Avery Group of Companies in the late 1930s so when the gates were unwanted Avery bought them as part of the Avery Historical Collection.