Sue Owen explains why she loves the ’pool – and why the Everton Ground holds a special meaning for her.
This picture shows me at Goodison Park, home of Everton Football Club and burial place of my father’s ashes. My family make an annual pilgrimage. We support Everton because my grandfather William Owen was a ship’s carpenter, sailing from Canada Dock down the road in Bootle. When S.S.Oropesa was torpedoed in the Second World War, he survived for two days in a raft – but his pay stopped immediately: a stark reminder of why we now have a decent welfare system.
It’s a particular pleasure now to visit Liverpool wearing my DCMS hat. The National Museum has six sites; on my last visit, I saw the Slavery Museum and the fabulous House of Memories programme for dementia sufferers. The Maritime Museum shows the U-boat commander who failed to kill my grandfather. Tate Liverpool is next door and, in dry dock, a brightly-painted ‘dazzleship’ – modelled on those coloured to confuse submarines, it’s part of our First World War Centenary cultural programme. The Heritage Lottery Fund helped restore the Everyman Theatre (once a dissenter’s chapel), and the Philharmonic Orchestra is proving the social value of culture – working in West Everton, where maths and reading scores have doubled since kids began daily intensive instrumental music lessons. Next year, I’ll visit the Lady Lever Gallery, Beatles Cavern Club, and Aintree for the Grand National.