To celebrate the rebirth of the former MV Royal Daffodil Mersey Ferry, a series of mini documentaries have been commissioned to highlight the ship’s past, follow her restoration and repurposing, before a launch to the public in Spring 2024.

“Episode One – Heritage” features William Meredith, Senior Archivist at Wirral Archives; alongside past captains Peter Jones, William Dean and Jimmy Vass. We also hear from James Seddon, of the Mersey Ferries Heritage Society and Joshua Boyd, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Daffodil.

Further films, “Restoration”, “Passage” and “Rebirth” will be released in the coming months.

Photograph is courtesy of Wirral Archives and comes from the Birkenhead Corporation archive. The image pictures MV Overchurch in April 1962 following her launch on the river.

Images from the Christening Ceremony of MV Overchurch at Cammell Laird. Attending were local dignitaries and Birkenhead Corporation guests, with a wider crowd of hundreds of dockworkers and shipbuilders to mark the final commissioning of the vessel and her launch on the river.

Allocated yard number 1304, she was launched on 24th November 1961 by Alderman Mrs Dorothy Melville J.P. Mayor of Birkenhead from No.3 slipway South Yard and following trials in February 1962, made her maiden crossing from Woodside to Liverpool in March.

She became the first all welded ferry to operate between Birkenhead and Liverpool – and was the last of her kind to be built in the region.

On 17th April 1962, with HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent on board, she sailed into the new dry dock constructed by her builders, which was then named “Princess Dock”.