Liverpool and the surrounding area, particularly Bootle and Birkenhead, were subjected to heavy bombing during the Second World War, most notably during the May Blitz of 1941.
More than 4000 people were killed, 10,000 homes were destroyed, and 70,000 citizens were made homeless.
The devastation and destruction of so many homes, pubs, churches, warehouses and large public buildings produced tons of rubble. From clearing the bombsites, some of this rubble was collected and deposited on a mile long stretch of the coast at Crosby Beach, 5 miles north of the city. For many years vegetation grew and covered much of it. However, due to coastal erosion the tide is now uncovering the remnants of those lives and homes.
This mosaic of bricks, masonry, tiles, concrete, marble, reinforcing steel and glass is the archaeology of a lost city, that is steadily being revealed.
Photographer Stephanie Wynne has lived in Merseyside for the majority of her life and has visited Crosby Beach since she was a child - it is a familiar yet ever changing landscape. This work began in response to Stephanie wishing to record the unconventional beauty of the beach whilst creating a link with her family history; over the past few years she has lost all those family members who were witnesses to the Blitz in Liverpool - the living memory of how the city survived is fading.
Some of the photographs were taken at night and lit by torch light to reflect the hours of darkness when the people of Liverpool sat sheltering from the bombing raids.
These photographs are now part of 'The Erosion' as shown at the Open Eye Gallery from January to April 2024
‘The Erosion’ Is a piece of research and a photographic exploration of how post WW2 the structural ‘waste’ of war was disposed of or reused. The work developed from a study of the beach at Crosby, which lies 5 miles north of Liverpool City Centre. Tonnes of rubble from the bombed homes and businesses of Liverpool and Bootle were dumped on a mile long stretch of the coast, post 1945. The photographs disclose a very singular landscape, a recumbent ruin steadily being revealed - shifted and eroded by the tide. Across Europe huge quantities of rubble had to be cleared, this reverberates with the dreadful current conflicts around the world - when or if a conflict is over, how does the structure of a city or landscape recover? The past and present appalling loss of life is beyond comprehension, with every brick or piece of blasted concrete serving as a crude testament.
Stephanie Wynne