One of Leanne Sumner’s children was just three days old when they became part of the Orange Order.
The 43-year-old joined at the age of four and later met her husband within the Liverpool Provincial Grand Orange Lodge, the same as her parents. They and their four children, aged between 14 and 20, remain members today.
“We see everyone as our family” says Leanne, speaking in one of the meeting rooms inside the Orange Hall on Everton Road, “that's what keeps us coming back - it has been bred into me", adding: "I have no Irish heritage that I know of. It's a Liverpool thing.”
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The cancelled July 12 celebrations in 2020 would have marked the 200th anniversary of the first Orange Order parade to take place in the city. More than two centuries on, despite its numbers declining in recent years, Liverpool remains one of the main British hubs for the institution - formed in Northern Ireland in 1795 to support the union, Protestantism and the monarchy.
The Merseyside connection isn’t solely down to members across the region. King’s Gap in Hoylake, Wirral, is where the Protestant King William III is said to have set sail from Britain for Northern Ireland, going on to depose the Catholic King James II.
The victory paved the way for the Battle of the Boyne celebrations of July 12 and the subsequent marches that will take place today across Northern Ireland, Liverpool and other cities where the Order has retained a presence. Those who remain a part of the fraternity believe it is an essential part of the city’s story, but its existence and practices remain controversial in the eyes of many.
Parades routes have occasionally sparked violence in parts of Northern Ireland. In Liverpool, criticism has been levelled over the Order’s sectarian nature which arguably retains dividing lines across the city, with its parades viewed by some as a show of strength and Protestant dominance.
Steve Kingston, 64, Liverpool’s Provincial Grand Master, plays this down and said he believes that criticism is “possibly because people don't understand what we're all about.” Not dismissing the order’s Northern Irish roots, he believes the Orange Lodge is woven into the core fabric of the city’s patchwork culture.
Steve himself doesn’t have any Irish heritage. It’s a similar case for many of the other members in the fraternity who’ve met at the Everton Hall as bands prepare for the biggest dates in July’s parading season.
Rob Armstrong, 68, has been a member since he was five years old. He has been a member of the Kirkby Lodge and Cantril Farm Lodge, similarly for Dave Woods who joined back up when swapping the Everton heights for those on the edge of the city - what's now known as Stockbridge Village.
Inside the main bar of the social club, King William III memorabilia is placed in a glass case. In one of the meeting rooms, paintings of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles III and Orange Lodge artefacts hang on the wall next to an artist’s interpretation of a parade along Netherfield Road.
Corridors filled with more royal iconography wind around the multiple floors of the building. Hidden behind the myriad doors, full bands can be found squeezed into rooms as they run through final practice ahead of the main parades of the year.
Sat behind a desk in the main meeting space downstairs, Britain’s two latest monarchs proudly hung up behind, Steve has to gently raise his voice over the muffled drums rattling through the walls. A member for more than 50 years, joining at the Lodge’s heyday in the city, he admits the institution is consolidating its numbers.
“I'd prefer the institution to be growing,” he says, "but in the last couple of years it has stabilised.” He explains that he currently oversees around 80 Lodges - down by around 20 over the last nine years.
Steve’s mother was in the Order but she left after he was born. He joined up at the age of 11, becoming part of the Cantril Farm Lodge after moving around the city.
First being impressed by the band, he went on to join the adult fraternity before rising to become master of his own Lodge in 1981. In 1989 he became the provincial junior superintendent and the deputy provincial master in 2006, moving into the top job in Liverpool in 2016.
“Initially it was something you did because you always had to," says Steve, "it was part of everyday life like going to church on a Sunday morning. What we did was we went to watch parades, junior meetings.
“All we are really trying to do with the children is sort of educate them and make them better people really.”
What Steve believes will make these children better people is the Protestant faith and values the order is built on, he claims. This includes “civil liberty for all,” support for a constitutional monarchy and an open bible for people to read and interpret themselves.
“You either wish to get involved or you don't,” he says of people’s root in the Order. “I found it all fascinating really. I believe what we stand for is correct but I fully accept that others have got differing views and they're perfectly entitled to have them.
“If you go right back to King William, he stood for civil and religious liberty for all. Not just Protestants. That is the whole point. We are not antagonistic towards others.”
Thinking back to the memories of Netherfield Road captured in the painting on the wall beside him, Steve remembers how the thoroughfare was cut almost down the middle along sectarian lines. On one side was the city’s Protestant enclave where Union flags, stars and bunting would be flying from the tenements and once famous heights.
On the other was the Catholic communities. He recalls how people would come to doors and windows and “wave anything green that they could find - just to sort of show their opposition” to Lodge marches taking place.
Asked if an Order said to centre on civil liberty and helping one another runs into contradiction due to the perceived segregation it perpetuates, Steve says this division was never given any deep thought in his teenage years.
“I don't think even if you go back to the early years when I was a member, there wasn't any great antagonism between the two populations", he says, "there was the odd little skirmish but you get that at football matches and everything else.
“All I knew is you could drive along Netherfield Road July 11 and everywhere would be decorated with flags, bunting and everything else. Not for a bad reason, but I wouldn't have ever driven through another area because that was just the way it was.”
One of these areas mentioned is Scotland Road which was historically home to a larger Catholic population. Steve says there is pride in the Lodge having historic parade routes and a heartland in Everton, and that retaining perceived differences with neighbouring parts of the city isn’t at the forefront of their thinking or actions.
“I do all I can to emphasise that while we think we are correct in the way we go about things, we should, and we do, respect others. It is not a case of ‘we do this and we're right and you're wrong’.”
But in terms of Liverpool’s more mainstream modern identity and outlook, it is here where members of the Orange Order are beginning to feel more adrift. Acknowledging the city took a “lurch to the Left in the 1980s”, Steve believes this has again come to the fore with a growing reputation for anti-monarchy sentiment.
When Queen Elizabeth II was ill in the earlier months of 2022, Steve recalls how every time the news came on with the words ‘Buckingham Palace has said’, his “heart skipped a beat.”
“People find it funny who are not monarchists,” he says, “but it was like a member of the family who was ill. When she died, I was driving down Edge Lane. My wife phoned and I had to pull over. I was totally shocked - people [meeting at the Orange Hall] were devastated.”
Booing the national anthem has become a growing talking point at Liverpool's domestic finals in recent years. Many point towards Liverpool's history of immigration, betrayal and social and economic neglect as cause for the feeling of 'Scouse, not English', with many in the city viewing their identity as one independent from the wider nation, or finding parallels with the city's Irish roots.
Steve touched on his experience of watching Liverpool at Wembley in February 2022.
“With the monarchy situation, our members are devastated that the city is getting [this reputation],” he begins. “At Wembley last year, I've never felt so embarrassed and disgusted standing there listening to what was being done.”
The impact of Thatcherism sped up a decline in Conservative fortunes in the city which had been building in previous decades, with the party losing control of the council in 1972.
“People reacted against Thatcher rightly or wrongly, the city is not what it was," says Steve. "We had a Protestant (political) Party, Conservative politicians [in Liverpool],” says Steve. “Now there are still Conservatives in the city but they wouldn't put their hand up in an open room, because it appears that you can't be in Liverpool anymore.”
“I think there is support for the monarchy in Liverpool,” says Leanne, “you can see that when Charles came to Liverpool a few weeks ago and people were waving flags."
As for the future of the Orange Order in Liverpool, there is an acceptance that its numbers are reducing, but a feeling that this in turn could lead to greater cohesion as members work to keep the tradition alive.
“It is in decline but I think the numbers do make us stronger in a sense because it is not so widespread that you don't know everyone,” adds Leanne. “People are pulling in the same direction and lockdown made a really big difference [in terms of effort and togetherness.]"
While Leanne’s children have remained members of the Order, it is not the same in the case of Rob Armstrong. But he does not lament the fact they did not choose to stay closely attached to the institution.
"You can't force someone to be in something they don't want to be in," he says. "That is what I believe in. If you want to come back [you can]. You feel like you're in family anyway.”
But he feels the Order is in an uphill battle to see more juniors make the jump to the adults' fraternity, adding: "I’ve seen it change a lot. You can't keep the juniors interested. You can't seem to get them to transition.”
Dave Woods is more philosophical about the apparent trend of decline. He suggests the changes are cyclical and peaks and troughs have been common in his half-century stint in the Order.
He does claim there have been moves to wipe out the Order entirely. He claims the clearance of Everton meant that the Order was broken up and pushed into the suburbs.
“What happened was Lodges formed in the likes of Cantril farm, Speke, Skelmersdale and Kirkby," he says, "In a way it has backfired.
“There are people who would like to expunge us from Liverpool history. But there is still a lot of interest in the institution.”
“It is sad that it is disappearing slightly but we're not going to disappear,” adds Leanne.
When the Order takes to Southport today for the annual provincial parade, Steve Kingston believes it will be a manifestation of his work and dedication to the fraternity. "It is a witness of what we believe in," he says when asked why the Order continues to march, "it is a witness to the Protestant faith. We are showing what we are.”
As for Liverpool’s modern mainstream identity, Steve admits the Order is “becoming less attuned to the rest of the city.” But this doesn’t necessarily mean the end.
“Like most things. if you have got something to fight against in a broader sense it can strengthen you,” he says, adding: “I think there is a place [for the Order in the future]. It would be very sad if there wasn't."
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