Port Sunlight Village Trust has launched its first online exhibition offering access to the original architectural drawings of Port Sunlight Village. Tony McDonough reports

Port Sunlight Village Trust (PSVT) has launched its first online exhibition, Drawn Together, which offers access to the original architectural drawings of the village.

Built 130 years ago by soap tycoon William Hesketh Lever to house his workers, Port Sunlight in Wirral is a conservation area which includes 900 Grade II-listed buildings within 130 acres of parkland. It is home to 2,065 people.

Thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, PSVT has been able to digitise and increase access to the original architectural drawings of Port Sunlight Village. The project has been made possible through a Sharing Heritage grant.

Led by PSVT, the online exhibition brings together for the first-time collections from Unilever Art, Archives and Records Management (UARM), National Museums Liverpool (NML), Wirral Archive Services and Bolton Libraries and Museums Service.

Click here to see the exhibition 

Drawn Together provides access to more than 650 drawings, with the oldest dating back to 1889. The exhibition includes illustrated introductions to the different building types and landscape features shown in the collection and virtual visitors can explore the site through a powerful search function and mapping tool which enables users to find drawings by architect, year or street name.

Katherine Lynch, director of Heritage at PSVT, said: “This project has been in the pipeline for several years and we, along with our partners, are very proud to finally be able to share these beautiful drawings with everyone.

“It feels very fitting to be launching this online exhibition right now. So many people have been prevented from spending time in areas of outstanding architectural beauty over the last 12 months. Drawn Together is a perfect way to connect with Port Sunlight and the founder’s vision for people and place without leaving the safety of home.

“Whether you’re a student, historian, village resident or just curious about architecture and the evolution of Port Sunlight, we hope Drawn Together will be of interest to a broad range of people.

“It will be fascinating to see how people interact with these amazing works of art. Our intention is to add to the digital collection as more drawings become available.