Port Sunlight Museum — Attraction in Wirral

We stayed in the Bridge Inn (part of the Port Sunlight Village) so that we could meet friends in Liverpool, so booked the museum in advance. We were very impressed with the Village and the museum. We travel often on the Belfast ferry from Birkenhead, and so have passed near to this place so many times, but this is the first time we visited the village. We saw a lot of the village by walking through it to the nearby Mersey Rail station. We never imagined somewhere so beautiful could be located in the middle of the industrial Wirral. I knew that Lever Brothers had become Unilever, but didn't realise that there was still a soap factory there. It is well hidden from the main road by trees. The old office and factory frontage of Lever Brothers is still there, with the modern factory hidden behind it. The village is fascinating to walk around - so green, and well maintained with shrubs, flowers, open spaces, bowling green etc. Finally we visited the museum, which explains the history of the village, built by William Lever from soap sales. There is a film, and excellent posters explaining the history. You can even buy modern and historic soap there - including Carbolic Soap and Lifebuoy! It is good to see that the dark side is also explained. William Lever was a liberal, philanthropic, if controlling, employer, who cared about the well-being of his British workers. However, he obtained cheap palm oil, an essential ingredient for soap making, from the Belgian Congo through his subsidiary company, and forced labour of Africans was used there. I have already recommended the village and museum to the rest of my family, and will certainly go back there again. We would have visited the Art Gallery, but it was closed at weekends (industrial action), so we'll have to go back...

Did the local tour. After reading about how fab Barry was as a guide was a little disappointed when this legend didn’t walk In . However these fears were soon put to bed - our guide was a little cracker . An ex geography teacher apparently so had hoped we would at some point have to colour a map of port sunlight into commercial and residential areas , but alas this was not the case. Arriving at the start point I found out that my wife and I were to be taking this tour with what could only be described as the cast of the golden girls meet last of the summer wine . The big worry for the guide was the trees planted in the pavements - this meant that the roots had pushed up on the pavements. This gave our golden girls their very own krypton factor assault course throughout the tour . The tour itself lasted around two hours . According to my health apps we would not be entering the walking race at the olympics anytime soon as my app seemed to indicate the pace was around 1km an hour. I think some of the golden girls went out the traps too early on such a sunny day which resulted in numerous stops to rest and discuss which local cafe had the best cream teas on offer . One of our party also reminded everyone that the garden centre has no cafe so please bear this in mind . Everyone was reminded every two mins that it had a toilet including a minibus driver who unbelievably stopped to ask for directions to this very garden centre . I actually popped into the garden centre before the tour - thankfully I was only in there for plants so I came out not disappointed but be warned ! The tour itself was fab and the guide was amazing . If planning on visiting port sunlight would recommend doing this tour to appreciate what a fab place it is . Definitely...

Stayed in Port Sunlight for 4 days while "house sitting and cat sitting" for friends who are residents to the area.....as a couple who are from the silent Shropshire hills this place was perfectly quiet for us. There is plenty to see with a museum, art gallery, garden centre, tea room, a craft fair (look out for someone called Gemma Roberts, she is a resident in the area and makes her crafts in Port Sunlight with great prices) and a train station so it easy to access....we been visiting for years anyway and really got to know the village.......Just one note for visitors who want to see the village, even though it's described as a "model village" there are real people that live in the houses in the village and I have been stories by our friends, where they have had found people coming right up to there windows and looking inside there house. My friend also told me once that a lady came up to her doorstep demanding that she tells her what she had been doing inside the house.....when my friend said "I live here" the lady didn't belive her and started telling my friend that people don't live in these houses as they were souly "tourist attractions". From what have learnt about this village is that the residents would love to have visitors come and see their village and all the wonderful things here but I do ask visistors to respect the houses and the privacy of the residents...I would advise looking from a distance and no peeking through people's windows or verbally attacking people at...