'People come from all over the world' to this part of Merseyside

It's now been 120 years since a Liverpool school which was a "first" in its time opened in our city. Established back in 1904, at a time when the port of Liverpool had the largest cattle trade in Europe and used many hundreds of horses in the transport of goods to and from the dock, the Liverpool Veterinary School was initially funded by shipowners of Liverpool.

When it opened, it was the first veterinary school in the UK to be incorporated into a university. Since, it has not only welcomed thousands of generations of students, but led the way in veterinary research, care and education and has nurtured a global alumni community.

In its time, it has had diverse, stand out moments and seen much change - not just in the field but life in Merseyside itself. It was in 1926 that Edith Gertrude Knight became the first woman veterinary surgeon to qualify from Liverpool and fast forward to the 1960s, John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi favoured vet students as lodgers at ‘Mendips’, 251 Menlove Avenue in Aigburth - now a National Trust property.

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In 1991, the new £1.4 million Large Animal Hospital at Leahurst, Neston, was opened and by 2003, Grand National runner Youlneverwalkalone was injured and became the latest in a long line of prominent equine cases treated there. Fast forward to 2013, Channel 5 programme Animal Clinic, presented by adventurer Ben Fogle, is filmed at Leahurst and the busy First Opinion Clinic on campus.

Last month marked a huge milestone - the 120th anniversary of the University of Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science. As part of the Liverpool ECHO's How It Used To Be series, we spoke to Professor Rob Smith, who also studied at the school, about its history and how it has changed through the generations.

Rob, 59, told the ECHO: "The New Veterinary School in Edinburgh, we basically took that and it came down here. The professor was called Owen Williams and I think at that stage there were 60 students.

"When I graduated there were 60 students per year. So we have basically about three times as many students as when I started and 15 times as many as when the Vet School was originally set up.

"I was the last year to come where there was 50/50 males and females. Most of our students are now female, but that's because of who applies, so more females apply, more females get in. And now most of my colleagues who work in our Farm Animal Practice are women.

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"When we came out here, we used to be sort of hands on during the day and then have lectures in the evening. Now, some of our students, they'll be in the lecture theatre in the afternoon but they're out getting cold and learning what the actual job is in the day. So we've integrated it more."

Through the decades, Rob and his fellow academics have also seen life in Merseyside change, as well as trends come and go. Today, they see people from across the region come to them with different animals, as oppose to taking them to the usual vets.

Rob said: "There's a lot more leisure horses where people are happy for them just to plod along, so they don't need to be a performance horse. People want to keep the animal into a ripe old age, so that's the change as well.

"Even though we see 20-year-old sheep, that is now somebody's pet which we wouldn't have seen in the past. And you now have alpacas and goats and animals like that."

The University of Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science has continued to expand and today the Leahurst campus is home to two farms, two referral hospitals, and two of the Institute's three first-opinion practices. There is also a small animal practice based in Liverpool.

Set in 200 acres, the ECHO were invited behind the scenes of Wood Park Farm off Chester High Road - the University’s dairy farm and Tesco Dairy Centre of Excellence - which supports a closed herd of dozens of cows and sees Veterinary students learn on site. Rob said: "It's very diverse.

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"We've done work with supply chain, so we advise Tesco's and they take 10% of UK dairy milk, so the influence we have is on hundreds of thousands of animals. We have colleagues interested in dog bites who've advised The Post Office on how postmen can avoid getting bitten.

"It goes from anything from an individual sick animal to how to not get bitten or injuries in animals. We have members of staff based in Africa and members of staff doing research around the world.

"We have people coming from all around the world now because we have a good reputation and we've got several accreditations. Now we're accredited for our students to work in America, we've got European accreditation and the Royal College."

Rob said while the school has continued to grow and develop over the last century, their purpose has always remained at the heart of what they do. He said: "The university was set up and the Vet School was set up to serve the city and to serve the city's people - and it does still feel like that.

"We're not divorced from the city, we're not divorced because we go out to farms in our community, people live in the community. It is still very much part of Liverpool.

"You're part of something that's been going on since Victorian times to help people learn to do better for animals and for the area. In Liverpool, we've stayed having our own hospitals, having a balance between species, which some of the others haven't.

"But that's partly because over the years we've maintained our own hospitals, we've maintained the caseload, people in the north west will send animals to us. It's being part of that community that we get the cases in to teach our students.

And then a lot of our students will stay here. If we look at the practices around Lancashire, Cheshire and a lot of the small animal practices in Liverpool, half the vets will be people who graduated here and just stayed like I did."

Last month marked the 120th anniversary of the University of Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science. Professor Paul Lunn, Dean of the School of Veterinary Science said: "Over the last 120 years we have created a place where veterinary students, educators and researchers can thrive.

"At the University of Liverpool’s School of Veterinary Science our ethos is to work together to improve animal health throughout our society and the world. We are incredibly proud of our 120 years and continue to strive to create accessible, equitable, sustainable, inclusive and innovative health solutions that address challenges of our time."

Over the last 120 years, key moments have been documented, with photographs and more being housed in the University of Liverpool’s Special Collections & Archives. You can find out more here.