The Liver Birds have a special meaning for me as my Great Grandfather, Harry Webb a notable metal worker in his day, helped in their construction. They were designed by Carl Bernard Bartels and constructed by the Bromsgrove Guild which is where I believe my Great Grandfather was involved. Carl Bartels was an interesting character who, like many Liverpudlians of the late 19th century was born in Germany which lead to him being imprisoned in the first world war and for a while thrown out of the country. Credit for his iconic work of art was largely suppressed for the early 20th century but is now receiving the credit it deserves.
The aerial photographs of the Liverbirds were taken in November 2006 for my book Liverpool from the air. I have then zoomed in on the birds themselves to produce these web images. While taking the images I noticed the letters HEW written on the back of one of the birds. Naturaly this got me very curious indeed and in the summer of 2008 I flew back armed with the very best camera available for Liver bird shooting, the 21 Megapixel, Canon 1DSmkIII, coupled to a Kenlabs KS-8 Gyro stabilizer and Canon 300mm f2.8 Lens. Here are the results:
Note the HEW
More scrawl
Billy 1995 !
So there you have it, Liverpool's most famous landmark was vandalized in 1995 by HEW and Billy and nobody noticed!
And to finnish off here's one from my new mega Lens:
The last member of my family to see the Liverbirds so close was my great Grandad , Harry Webb, when he built them!
NB The images are for sale as stock images but just as the full image as below, it is not possible to make a print of any great size of just the birds themselves. These are the full images from which the 2006 images are taken;
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