It is fast coming round to July 12th and the annual Orange Lodge marches. I have posted photographs in the early days of this blog of a procession along London Road in the 1970s. Recently, I acquired a set of rather scratched glass plate negatives taken in the 1950s of a procession marching along Netherfield Road South at its junction with Upper Beau Street. Netherfield Road was at the heart of Orange Lodge territory, looking down towards Great Homer Street and the homes of the Catholic community.
The history of sectarianism in Liverpool is not an attractive one. Bloodshed was a regular feature of the marches, creating tensions that have taken generations to reduce. Today the marches are much smaller, although there are many who feel they have no part in a modern society. The photographs are a valuable piece of history, though – a record of life that cannot be erased. In my next blog, I will post the earliest photograph I have seen of this annual celebration of a battle now over 300 years ago.




More...