Halloween, Ghosts and Mulled Wine

Last night, there was a Halloween Ghost Walk on Bidston Hill. About 60 people assembled at Tam O'Shanter Urban Farm and proceeded along the hill, lit by a waxing gibbous moon two nights off full. Ghost stories were told along the way.  The evening was cold and dry.

Meanwhile back at the Lighthouse, Mandy had baked two carrot cakes, a Dorset apple cake, and a batch of Anzac biscuits, and was preparing hot chocolate. I'd lit a fire and had a big pot of mulled wine simmering. When the party arrived, Mandy served hot chocolate, I served mulled wine, and the walkers helped themselves to cake and warmed themselves by the fire.

Thanks to ranger Nic Harding for organising the event and acting as guide, to the Friends of Bidston Hill for providing story tellers and marshalls, and to Tom Slemen for letting the tellers adapt his stories. The proceeds from the event will go to the Friends of Bidston Hill.

Stephen's Mulled Wine Recipe

Several people asked for the mulled wine recipe. I made it up as I went, but it was something like this:

Ingredients: 

• 5 bottles of red wine. I used Tesco's French red wine at £3.59 a bottle. Any decent, cheap claret will do.
• About a pint of orange juice, no bits (they spoil the texture).
• 2-3 sachets of mulled wine spices. I used a couple of different brands, but Schwarz's are fine.
• 1 apple, sliced.
• 1 orange, peeled and studded with cloves.
• 1 large cinnamon stick.
• 1 handful of green cardamom pods.
• Ground cinnamon, maybe a teaspoon or two.
• Ground ginger (optional), a teaspoon or two.
• A little brandy.
• About a pint of tap water.
• 1 small tin of golden syrup.
• A tablespoon or two of soft brown sugar.

Serves about thirty.

Method:

Put the spice sachets, cinnamon stick, slices of apple, and the clove-studded orange into the pan. Pour in 3-4 bottles of wine, most of the orange juice, and a little water. Heat the pan until the mixture begins to steam, then keep the temperature steady. Its OK to let it simmer a little, but don't let it boil. While the mixture is heating, add the golden syrup and a tablespoon of brown sugar, sprinkle a little ground cinnamon and maybe ginger on top (not too much), and throw in the cardamom pods. Stirr gently. Splash some brandy into the pan about 10 minutes before serving.

The longer the spices and fruits have to blend, the better. I started about an hour before serving.

I had to serve outside, so I transferred the pan to a gas barbeque to keep it on heat while serving. My pan wasn't big enough to hold all the wine, so I had to add more wine, orange juice, and maybe a little brown sugar after every ten servings or so.  Do this little by little, so that the temperature doesn't drop too fast. You rarely need to add more spices. I served using a ladel into plastic cups (Tesco value cups, doubled up for insulation, are quite economical). If you have more time, you could strain and decant before serving.

The recipe is very tolerant of variations of quantity. Let your own taste be the judge. Other spices such as nutmeg and ginger work well too. Probably the most unusual aspects of my recipe are the cardamom pods, and the use of golden syrup instead of sugar, but I do think these work well. If you can arrange that your guests are cold, they'll appreciate it all the more!

Where's Fred?

Fred came to Bidston recently. I met him during the filming of this!

The view from the top

Back in March, we let Merseyside Police shoot a promotional video from the top of Bidston Lighthouse. Here it is.

Behind Roy McGregor is the Wirral coastline. In the distance, you can just make out the Great Orme, in North Wales.

She said "yes"!

Yesterday, Paul Shawcross proposed to Britta in the lamp room of Bidston Lighthouse. And Britta said "yes".

Britta is a lighthouse fanatic and Paul is a true romantic. He's been planning this for months!

Our warmest congratulations to Paul and Britta on their engagement.

What's in a name?

As I mentioned back in "The Case of the Missing Letterbox", we live on an unnamed road. It's a narrow lane that runs up the hill from Boundary Road to the Lighthouse and Observatory on Bidston Hill.

But we can change that! As long as all the residents and owners agree on the new name, and we pay for the road signs, we can give our road a name. So, what should we call it?

We could name the road after one of the historic buildings to which it leads.

There's been a lighthouse on the site since the 1771, when the first Bidston Lighthouse was built, further from the sea than any other lighthouse in Britain. This was after the Lower Sea Light at Mockbeggar Wharf had been destroyed by storms. The Upper Sea Light (the present Leasowe Lighthouse) became the Lower  Sea Light, and Bidston Lighthouse became the Upper Sea Light. It featured a massive parabolic reflector, 13'6" in diameter, developed on-site by William Hutchinson, which enabled the light to be seen at a distance of 21 miles. The present Bidston Lighthouse was built by Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in 1873, after the original lighthouse was damaged by fire and demolished. Lighthouse Lane might be a good name for our road.

The Observatory was built in 1866, when the Liverpool Observatory relocated to Bidston Hill from what is now Waterloo Dock. It's had many uses over the years, including chronometer calibration, tide prediction, meterological observations, signalling the firing of the One O'Clock Gun at Morpeth Dock, and offices for oceanographic research. The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory was based here until 2004, when it relocated to the University of Liverpool. But it would be confusing to name the road after the Observatory, because there's already an Observatory Road nearby.

Braehead Cottage used to sell teas. It was located outside the boundary wall that surrounds the Observatory and Lighthouse, near to the old coach house. It fell into disrepair after the war, and was demolished.

The Bidston Signals were once a prominent feature along the skyline of Bidston Hill. More than 100 flagpoles along the ridge of Bidston Hill signalled the approach of ships into Liverpool, allowing the merchants time to ready their crews for unloading. The signals service was augmented by a semaphore based telegraph system that connected Anglesey to Liverpool. The original Signals Station predated the first lighthouse. In 1873, the signals function was incorporated into the new lighthouse. Signals Road? Semaphore Lane? Too obscure, perhaps?

Or we could name the road after a historical person.

Richard Wilding was the first lighthouse keeper of Bidston Lighthouse, having served previously at Leasowe. When he died in 1797, his wife, Elizabeth took over as keeper, and served until 1800. Elizabeth Wilding was Liverpool's first female lighthouse keeper. She got the job on the strict condition that "she shall continue to behave properly ... and shall not attempt to employ or use the said Building called the Bidston Lighthouse or any of its Appendages as a Publick House". Wilding Way has a certain ring to it.

Dr. Arthur Thomas Doodson (31 Mar 1890 - 10 Jan 1968) was a British oceanographer. He was Associate Director of the Liverpool Observatory and Tidal Institute when it formed in 1929. He is perhaps best known for the Doodson-Légé Tide Predicting Machine, the mechanical computer that was used to predict the tides for the D-Day landings. He lived and worked for a time at Bidston Observatory, and is buried in Flaybrick Cemetery. Mary Connell remembers him fondly. At Christmas he gave presents to the two Connell girls who lived in the Lighthouse Cottages, saying "here's two-and-six for you and half-a-crown for you". Mary was convinced that she was somehow missing out.  Doodson Drive or Doodson Lane might be good names for our road.

Joseph Proudman (30 Dec 1888 – 26 Jun 1975), CBE, FRS, was Honorary Director of the University of Liverpool Tidal Institute. The Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory and the Joseph Proudman Building were named after him. At the moment, there is some controversy about the future of the Joseph Proudman Building. A vocal few want it turned into a drumming school and Grade-II listed. We think it is an eyesore and should be demolished.  But while this is going on, there's no way we'll name our road after Joseph Proudman.

What do you think we should call our road?

Make your suggestion by commenting on this post.

Or click here to take the survey!

Jubilee

Thanks to the efforts of the fearless Dave Parsons, one of only two Flagpole Engineers in the country, the flagpole atop Bidston Lighthouse is back in service.

Yesterday, I hoisted the Union Flag to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

No beacons were lit on Bidston Hill this Jubilee. But a few of us did gather on top of the Lighthouse to watch the lighting of beacons across the region. We saw beacons as far afield as Mount Snowdon and Scafell!

If you go down to the woods today...

On Saturday afternoon, the body of a teenage girl was found in the woods on Bidston Hill. Police have cordoned off a large area of the hill, including parts of the woods between Penny-a-day Dyke and Eleanor Road, the Witches' Steps, and the nearby Observatory, Lighthouse, and Joseph Proudman Building. Here's a bird's eye view of the police presence by the Observatory and Lighthouse.

The news is still breaking in the press. You can find a little information, some dis-information and much speculation there.

Contrary to press reports, the Observatory is not abandoned. The Observatory and the Joseph Proudman Building are occupied by live-in guardians, an arrangement which is working well. The Lighthouse and Cottages are occupied by their owners.

As the investigation is still on-going, I shall refrain from saying any more for the moment.

Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased.