{"id":589153,"date":"2025-11-23T17:22:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/589153\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T17:22:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T17:22:47","slug":"daughter-made-up-after-discovering-piece-of-liverpool-history-in-attic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/589153\/","title":{"rendered":"Daughter ‘made up’ after discovering piece of Liverpool history in attic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The piece of history is being celebrated this month in Liverpool\"SueSue Lea and university student Mathilda Naulleau from the \u2018Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime\u2019 exhibition<\/p>\n

A woman said her family is \u201cmade up\u201d their dad is being honoured in a new Liverpool exhibition. Sue Lea, who lives in Speke<\/a>, said it is a \u201clovely feeling\u201d to see Ernest Bailey’s charity work not go unforgotten this Christmas.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ernest was a senior manager at Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive – now Merseytravel <\/a>– and every year used his business connections to organise a Christmas outing on the Mersey Ferry for children, often those in care. Ernest hosted the festive parties throughout the 1970s and 80s for disadvantaged children across Liverpool.<\/p>\n

He died in July of this year, from a number of complications. When children Sue, David and stepson Simon Payne, from Woolton<\/a>, were organising Ernest possessions, they uncovered an archive illustrating a lost episode of Liverpudlian philanthropy.<\/p>\n

\"AA photo of Ernest Bailey before his passing<\/p>\n

Among a number of finds in the attic were a handful of letterss from children thanking Ernest for making their Christmas experience that bit more magical. The total archive is now being displayed as a digital exhibition to celebrate Ernest.<\/p>\n

Daughter Sue, 65, told the ECHO<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to think back on. I remember the living room in our home in Childwall being filled with toys every Christmas. There were loads of them. Me and David used to help wrap them all and picked out who got what each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lists from the kids telling us what they wanted so that helped us a lot. We were only youngourselves, just children, but my dad wanted to involve us in it all. He was very generous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing now to see my dad being honoured. Me and my brother are made up. It\u2019s a lovely feeling for us as a family, especially because our dad won\u2019t be here for this Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome of the letters featuring in the exhibition<\/p>\n

The exhibition, titled \u2018Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime\u2019, will include a series of photographs and letters of appreciation from as far back as 1979 from the children who attended. This treasure trove of letters details how the children met Santa Claus, received gifts and enjoyed music and food together.<\/p>\n

Liverpool Hope History postgraduate student Mathilda Naulleau is behind the exhibition which went on display at the University\u2019s Hope Park Campus, in Childwall, last week.<\/p>\n

\"LiverpoolLiverpool Hope University Masters student Mathilda<\/p>\n

The original documents were donated to the University\u2019s Professor of Modern World History Bryce Evans for the purpose of the exhibition by Ernest\u2019s family members.<\/p>\n

Mathilda said: \u201cThis opportunity came through a competition that was open to History Masters students where applicants were invited to explain why we each deserved the chance to curate a digital exhibition using the Ernest Bailey archive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBryce encouraged me to apply and, after providing an example of my written work as well as a reference, I was lucky enough to be selected and it’s honestly been such a rewarding project to work on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who isn’t from England, working with the Ernest Bailey archive has felt like uncovering a hidden piece of Liverpool’s history.<\/p>\n

\"SueSue Lea, Simon Payne and university student Mathilda Naulleau from the \u2018Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime\u2019 exhibition<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve loved working with the old photos and letters, piecing together the story behind them, and figuring out how to make that story come alive in a digital space. It’s also been a huge learning curve – I’ve rarely had to think so visually before,, but it’s made me see history in a wonderfully new way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really hope people come away feeling uplifted, reminded that history isn’t just about conflict or politics, but also about compassion. Ernest Bailey’s story shows how small acts of kindness can make a huge difference, especially during difficult times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s so important to showcase these stories because they remind us that history isn’t only made by famous figures – it’s shaped by ordinary people doing good in quiet ways. If people leave thinking differently about what counts as ‘important’ history, then I’ll have achieved what I set out to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The piece of history is being celebrated this month in LiverpoolSue Lea and university student Mathilda Naulleau from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,35745,393,4884,179,8838,456,11159,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-589153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-nostalgia","14":"tag-real-lives","15":"tag-speke","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115600178060256279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}