HM Coastguard Station At Hall Road, Crosby

In the 1980's this was a hub of activity with uniformed people peering out through the windows with binoculars watching the shipping channel as the River Mersey meets the Irish Sea. Today it always seems very quiet and you can no longer see people at work as all the windows are blanked out or boarded up from inside and I can only assume most of the jobs have now been automated with advances in technology.

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Wooden Structure On Crosby Beach Liverpool

This structure probably has some really important function for shipping but when I was a child the only function it served was a great place to swing on a rope and splash into the pool of water that used to be at the bottom. The beach is so much cleaner these days as I can remember thick sludge of what I think was oil mixed with sand all around this area but fortunately today it is a much cleaner environment.

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Iron Man And Sewage Pipe

One of Antony Gormley's "Iron Men" at Crosby Beach in Liverpool. To the right of the sculpture is a sewage pipe leading out to sea.

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RNLI Lifeguard On Duty At Crosby Beach

Lifeguards are frequently positioned at this location monitoring the area. I'm not sure whether this is for potential bathers getting into difficulty swimming or the risk of people getting stuck in the deep mud and soft sand as the tide comes in. Having grown up in this area and regularly seeing some of the stuff that gets washed up on the beach when walking my dog I certainly wouldn't want to swim in the water. There is also the risk of getting trapped by the incoming tide as there are parts of the beach where water channels around behind you cutting off a safe exit if you don't keep and eye on the tide and your location. This may have changed due to shifting sands over the years but I am always cautious when on unfamiliar beaches and constantly have an escape route planned.

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Crosby Swimming Baths

A modern flying saucer shaped public swimming baths now occupy the site that was once home to a monstrosity of a building that used to be our local swimming pool. Thankfully the old building was eventually condemned and demolished.

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Dark Clouds On The Horizon At Crosby Beach

As the sun is setting some dark clouds are moving in to give Antony Gormley's Iron Men sculptures a thorough drenching.

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Sewage Pipe Crosby Beach

Hopefully they no longer pump raw untreated sewage out to sea. Fortunately I think much has changed over the years with our approach to the environment in which we live but it is still shocking what is pumped into the sea from big industries and nature is then just expected to deal with it. We are slowly killing the planet in which we live and hopefully people wake up to it before it's too late. Prevention is better than cure.

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Antony Gormley Iron Man And Sewage Pipe

An Iron Man sculpture at Crosby Beach in Liverpool.

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Iron Man Sculpture

One of Antony Gormley's Iron Men on Crosby beach in Liverpool. This one is near the sewage pipe that leads out to sea just by Crosby swimming baths.

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Iron Man And His Dog

This image has a powerful meaning to me and in many ways represents my own personal circumstances of being in a very dark place, with only my dog by my side, looking towards the light but feeling eternally trapped and bogged down by difficulties of the past. With the help of my dog and building a new life with a career in photography and writing I hope to be able to step out from this darkness and make positive progress towards the light with brighter and happier days on the horizon.

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Ship Passing Coastguard Radar Tower Liverpool

I can remember as a young boy playing around the rocks near this radar tower, fascinated by the mysterious men who peered out of the windows from their elevated and watchful positions. Nowadays it is all fenced off and boarded up although appears to still be in operation as an unmanned communications tower. As I revisited the location on a sunny but windy day, a ship was leaving Liverpool heading out towards the Irish Sea, passing the coastguard radar tower at Seaforth. I watched, standing on the beach with my dog thinking back to the days gone by when there would have been someone looking out towards the passing ship and probably wishing them a safe journey or "bon voyage" by radio as they left the safety of port for an open ocean voyage potentially to anywhere in the world not knowing what weather or sea conditions they would encounter and potentially never reaching their destination. The dangers of ocean shipping mean every year numerous ships worldwide disappear without trace consumed by the unforgiving seas.

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