Liza Williams reveals the full roster of locations which will be included in the 2008 Liverpool Map project

TODAY we reveal the full list of areas nominated for inclusion and exclusion in our Liverpool Map project.

Since November, The Daily Post has been asking readers to tell us why your home towns are either part of Liverpool’s wider identity, or are separate areas in their own right, and we have been flooded with responses.

Pop stars, actors, sportsmen and even the nobility have also joined in, stating their cases for local villages, towns and suburbs.

It is now your chance to vote for these areas. The most popular will feature on the final artwork while the exclusion areas with the most votes will be ousted.

Once the local inclusions have been decided, the campaign will move on to assess Liverpool’s global influence, when we will ask you to vote for places around the world to be featured.

The Liverpool Map project is aiming to define the city’s boundaries geographically, historically and culturally to celebrate 2008.

The new map will show where the people of Merseyside think Liverpool’s borders are and it will also highlight Liverpool’s local, national and global influences.

The final outcome will be an artistic representation of the Liverpool Map, which will be donated to Museum of Liverpool as part of the 2008 celebrations.

Your votes have already secured the Liver Bird as the artwork’s motif, with a 53% seal of approval.

The project has attracted a varied response and scores of nominations, many of which have been published over the last three months.

Daily Post reader Trevor Skempton wrote via email: “I lived in Chester and Ellesmere Port as a child, went to school in Birkenhead, studied and worked in Liverpool city centre and have lived across the border in North Wales. In my opinion it is all Greater Liverpool.

“I believe Greater Liverpool includes the five Merseyside boroughs plus Ormskirk, Widnes, Skelmersdale, Runcorn, Chester, Warrington, Frodsham, Wins-ford, Flintshire and Wrexham.”

And Chris Tigwell has nominated Rainhill. He said: “Why? Because it is the birthplace of the modern railway network.

“All the aspects of rail travel and technology that we take for granted today can be traced back to The Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830, and which made a significant contribution to the prosperity of Liverpool in the following century.

“Rainhill deserves its place specifically because of the Locomotive Trials of 1829, which proved the superiority of the Rocket and of the concept of locomotive haulage.”

PLACES within Liverpool’s city council boundary will automatically be included in the map, but some areas which hold historic significance have been mentioned by you for special inclusion.

Joan Callister, secretary of Walton-on-the-Hill History Group, said: “We feel the culture map would not be complete without Walton’s treasures such as our early 17th-century grammar school situated in the grounds of our lovely old St Mary’s Walton Parish Church.

“Walton is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and was valued then at eight old shillings.

“Liverpool, of course, was not mentioned, and such was its lowly state it paid its dues to Walton!”

Specific places within Merseyside have shown their popularity, including: music venue the Picket on Jamaica Street; The Wildflower Centre in Court Hey Park, Knowsley; Blue Coat School, Wavertree; Galkoff’s Kosher Butcher’s shop, in Pembroke Place; and Knowsley Hall – which was nominated by the Earl of Derby himself.

BUT not everyone wants their home towns to be included. David Cobham disagrees with Marc Almond’s nomination for Southport last week. He said: “I nominate the whole of Southport to be EXCLUDED, as it has its own unique identity.

“But good luck to Liverpool!”

Wirral has also caused controversy, attracting several nominations for inclusion and exclusion – with Brick Up the Mersey Tunnels actress Suzanne Collins opting to embrace the link between her Birkenhead home and Liverpool birthplace. Proponents of south Liverpool have hit back at the accusation they are not real Scousers – with city solicitor Rex Makin nominating Woolton and Olympic swimmer Steve Parry placing Allerton in the running.

The project is part of Open Culture – a platform to enable the people of Liverpool to engage with the celebrations for 2008.

It is a collaboration between Radio City, BBC Radio Merseyside, Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, Phil Redmond with the International Centre for Digital Content (ICDC), and Liverpool Culture Company.

lizawilliams