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Post by hoolak on Oct 11, 2003 5:26:35 GMT -5
What's the history surrounding the liver birds?
They weren't real, right?
I heard the deal with the ones on the Liver Building that one watches over the city and the other watches out to sea for any incoming Godzilla....
...Godzukki's a fart
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Post by Kev on Oct 11, 2003 16:49:37 GMT -5
Me and Rambo posted a bit about them here... [ftp]http://scouseproud.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=Buildings&action=display&n=1&thread=1063014380[/ftp]  |
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Post by LV on Oct 11, 2003 17:30:52 GMT -5
Information from a book called Lost Villages of Liverpool - Part One by Derek M. Whale.
'There is also confusion over the name given to the famous 'Liver Bird' which, of course, does not really exist. Some think that the name is a corruption of the name 'laver bird' - laver being the seaweed it is supposed to hold in its beak...... cormorants used to feed amongst the seaweed in the old creeks.....Others say that the original emblem or seal of Liverpool was intended to represent the symbolic eagle of St. John the Evangelist, adopted in honour of King John, who granted Liverpool its Charter in 1207.
During the Royalist siege of Liverpool in 1644, the town's seal was lost. A silver replica of this was made so badly that it misled people into believing the bird depicted was a cormorant. Yet, in 1611 the town records state that the bird was a cormorant! In 1668, the then Earl of Derby gave the town a mace (still with us), engraved with a 'leaver,' and this seems to be the first authentic allusion to anything approaching a liver bird.
When representation to the Collage of Arms was made, in 1796, to have the Liverpool Arms - with the 'Lever or Sea Cormorant' crest - ratified, the Heralds decided to make it a plain cormorant with a piece of laver in its beak. The bird in the old seal (recovered again, but by mistake destroyed instead of the old seal!) had meant to portray St. John's Eagle and had 'Johannis' engraved beneath it. But when the arms were granted to the Bishopric of Liverpool in 1822, the bird was again properly shown as an eagle.
So, today, we have the odd situation where the Bishopric Arms correctly bear the Eagle of St. John and the Corporation Arms those of a cormorant - and even then not a true copy of this bird!
The Liver Birds adorning the domes of the Royal Liver Building were the creation of the building's architect, who had them modelled on a stuffed cormorant which used to be kept in Liverpool Town Hall.'
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