Report by Robin Bird

THE Duke of Kent visited Birkenhead last week to tour born again Cammell Laird ship repair yard. Mayor Margaret Green welcomed him to Wirral and introduced Laird MD John Syvret and Sales and Marketing Director Paul Ashcroft.

They toured the yard visiting the pipe shop and design office and looked at ships under repair, including a 'cat in dry dock.

The Duke then offically opened the £7.7m Laird Foundation at Monks Ferry, where apprentices learn new and old skills.

This purpose-built training centre lies alongside Lairds at Monks Ferry and by the now Listed No 4 Dock, where the notorious Alabama raider was built for the Confederates in 1862.

Apprentices from the Laird Foundation could soon be involved in restoration of the dock as a tourist attraction. Meanwhile, the Duke saw apprentices learning new and old skills, from masonry to steel work, welding and joinery.

Caroline Peters, 18, caught the Duke's eye as a girl apprentice among the men. She is learning mechanical engineering. He also met Jim Teasdale, chief executive, Laird Foundation, and managers Geoff Spinks, Bob Lewis, John Nulty and Peter Leighton before coming across a conning tower of a World War Two U-boat.

It is from U-534 at the historic Warships Trust in Wallasey docklands. The sub, lifted from the seabed of Danish waters and brought to East Float, is in an 'as found' museum. Apprentices are restoring the conning tower damaged in the WW Two attack. It will be 'weathered' to match the hull and be put back in place around Easter.

Sir Philip Goodhart, chairman of the Warship Preservation Trust, explained the job before the Duke continued his tour to unveil the opening plaque and sign the visitors' book.

Then, with high profile police escort, the VIP party went to a quiet backwater, Birkenhead Priory, for lunch with the Mayor of Wirral, Coun Mrs Margaret Green, the Bishop of Birkenhead, the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, and Birkenhead MP Frank Field.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.