Dr. Anthony Annakin-Smith
Anthony is a local historian with a diverse range of interests often focused on maritime and industrial history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Particular specialisms include the history of the former port of Parkgate (Cheshire) and contemporary shipping in the Dee Estuary, early industry in the Neston and Parkgate areas, local links to the slave trade, and the evolution of the British landscape with particular focus on the Wirral peninsula and Cheshire.
He based his PhD on the early Neston collieries, a subject he first investigated as part of Master’s degree in ‘Landscape Heritage and Society’ awarded with distinction by the University of Chester in 2005. He had previously studied for a ‘Diploma in Landscape Interpretation’ at the University of Liverpool.
He is a popular speaker and walk-leader and has recorded for both TV and radio on aspects of local history.
Anthony’s published material includes:
‘Sabotage! A Mine-Owning Aristocrat’s Serial Skulduggery at the Neston coal mines, Cheshire’ in the Northern Mine Research Society’s British Mining No. 114, Memoirs (2022), pp. 64-71.
‘The Neston Collieries and their Links to Flintshire during the Industrial Revolution’ in the Flintshire Historical Journal, No. 42 (2022) - in preparation
‘Statesmanship, Tragedy and Love: a Remarkable Tale of Nineteenth-Century Cheshire Adventurers Overseas’ in Cheshire History, No. 62 (2022-3), pp. 116-144.
‘How South American Gold Transformed a Corner of Neston’ in Cheshire History, No. 61 (2021-22) - pp. 202-210.
‘Learning the Ropes: Parkgate, Rope-Making and The Ropewalk’ in Cheshire History, No. 60 (2020-21), pp. 153-162.
‘Cheshire’s Forgotten Salt Makers: Sea Salt Production on the Wirral’ in Cheshire History, No. 51 (2011-12), pp. 28-46.
‘Curvilinear Enclosures in the Cheshire Landscape’ in Landscape Discoveries in the North West ed. by Sharon Varey and Graeme White (University of Chester Press , 2012), pp. 57-78.
‘Neston and Parkgate: Their Links to the Slave Trade in the Mid to Late Eighteenth Century’ in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol. 160 (2012), pp. 27-54.
‘The Neston Collieries – birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in Wirral and West Cheshire’ in Cheshire History, No. 47 (2007-8), pp. 96-111.
Contributor to Neston Stone Age to Steam Age, ed. by Susan Chambers (Burton & Neston History Society, 2014).
‘Wirral Walks: 100 Miles of the Best Walks in the Area’ - New 2021 edition
Anthony has also published a popular book of ‘Wirral Walks: 100 Miles of the Best Walks in the Area’ which has been in continuous print, with several updates, since 2005. The book not only includes 27 walking routes of varying lengths but also much information on the landscape and history to be found along the route. A new, extensively updated edition has been published in 2021.