The holder is responsible for ensuring navigation on, and protecting the environment of, the River Mersey in the North West of England.
[1] By the 1800s the Mersey was carrying shipping to a much larger area of North West England (for example, it was possible to navigate to Manchester by 1730) and the Corporation of Liverpool believed it needed additional powers to fulfil its role.
However, other groups did not see it in their interest to allow any one town to dominate development and the creation of a post for an independent expert, the "Conservator" was proposed.
The most famous former Conservator may be Robert Fitzroy, who captained HMS Beagle when she carried Charles Darwin to the Pacific and developed some of the first weather forecasts.
Responsibilities now extend to environmental issues as well as navigation and the (part-time) Conservator works one or two days a week from an office in Central London.