FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 1 - 7 SEPTEMBER 1975
This week's many stories include the new radio station for St Helens Hospital, the damage done to a new Sutton sewer through acid corrosion, a call to end the Thursday half-day closing in St Helens, why women had taken over an old men's hut, the minimal safety measures introduced on a lethal Prescot Road bend and Leathers’ plans to install a 200-foot chimney are approved by the council's Planning Committee in spite of the plant being ordered to close.
We begin on September 1st with the launch of a new radio station for over 1,000 patients in St Helens Hospital. The station would operate for a 12-month trial period and broadcast for one hour each morning and four hours every evening. However, the station was not being operated from the hospital but from Warrington Infirmary, where a radio service had been running for two years.
A Warrington Council of Youth hospital broadcasting volunteer team were providing the station with the only cost to the health authority being the rental of a Post Office landline between Warrington and St Helens.
On the 2nd Granada TV Rentals, which already had one shop in St Helens in Barrow Street, opened their second. This was described in their Reporter advert as being situated at Unit 53, Market Centre. Remote controlled TV was not common in the mid-1970s but would soon become widespread.
However, Granada had a Finlandia 26" colour set with remote control available to rent and in their advert needed to explain how it worked: "There's nothing to touch it – just point the handset and you can change channels, volume, brightness, and even adjust the colour picture – all from the comfort of your own armchair."
Last March St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals in Sutton after years of complaints from local residents. The sulphuric acid factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who was expected to announce that a public inquiry would be held.
But the company was continuing to behave as if it was business as usual. Currently a £300,000 refit was underway in Lancots Lane as part of what the firm called a "gesture of faith in the future". And on the 2nd at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee, a letter from the government's Alkali Inspector was read out.
Leathers had applied for planning permission to install a 200-foot chimney and the committee was warned that the council would be held liable for any issues if it declined or delayed the application. This is what the Inspector wrote:
"Increasing the chimney height will provide additional protection to people in Sutton from unforeseeable emissions during start-up or breakdown conditions. Should any serious incident occur which would have been alleviated by a taller chimney, it is my view St. Helens Borough Council must accept full responsibility because of their failure to expedite this application."
And so permission was granted. The planners also heard of a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies. A recently installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. The sewer has not even been commissioned and already substantial damage has been done. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from." That was, of course, a reference to Leathers and Sidac.
On the 4th a four-day flower festival began at St Anne's in Sutton, which attracted 7,000 visitors and brought in £1,700 for the church's building fund.
There was a picture of Billy Q.T. in the St Helens Reporter on the 5th with some of the 400 children that the actor, singer and DJ had been entertaining in the Capitol cinema. Billy had been entertaining the kids at their weekly Saturday matinee with a disco show, complete with flashing lights and singing games. Manager Howard Hookham said:
"We invite guests to Saturday afternoon film shows to meet the children. We have quite a following. It's like a club. We've had a Kung Fu demonstration, a pet show and puppet show. We've even had the Mayor here. They all come voluntarily for the children. Billy Q.T. was a success. The kids were really taken up with him."
The Prescot Road bend in St Helens, near West Park Rugby Club, was one of the most dangerous places in St Helens for motorists. In July a young couple had been killed in a car accident and two months before two women had died in crashes. In this week's Reporter there was a picture of a new chevron sign that had been installed to give drivers more warning of the lethal bend and a new road surface had also been laid to give vehicles extra grip.
These days I imagine those would be considered insufficient but in the 1970s there were still concerns over any road safety features hindering traffic flow and access to homes. When technical services boss Ken Perks had informed councillors of the new initiative, he'd said they had considered installing crash barriers but had decided against them, as they'd have hindered households in getting in and out of their homes.
Towards the end of the 19th century after many years of campaigning, it was agreed that St Helens shops would shut on a Thursday afternoon. Shopworkers then worked extremely long hours, six days a week and the intention was that half-day closing would enable them to pursue healthy leisure pursuits – although I think I would have gone to bed!
But times change and at a recent meeting of St Helens Chamber of Commerce, its members had voted 2 to 1 to press the council to permit a six-day shopping week. A similar request to scrap the Thursday half-day had been made in 1974, which the council had refused, saying they would reconsider the matter once the town centre developments were complete.
But the Chamber now felt it was time to press the council again as they believed St Helens was losing custom to other towns. Wilfred Atack was the manager of Lewis's in Church Street and vice-chairman of the St Helens Chamber and said: "In our experience this is what the customer wants. All the big shopping centres have a six-day week. This will attract shoppers to St. Helens." Although smaller shopkeepers were against the change, they would be able to choose whether to open or close on Thursday afternoons.
The Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed to fight the plans to close Pilks' TV glassware plant. They certainly had an uphill battle. The works was believed to be losing as much as £400,000 a month and the government had refused to provide a temporary subsidy on the ground that the factory had no future.
But this week twenty members of the committee had been to Blackpool to lobby delegates at the TUC Conference and in the Reporter they were pictured before getting on their coach holding up banners. These included the messages "Keep T.V. Industry British" and "We Want Work Not Dole".
There used to be a number of so-called old men's huts or shelters in St Helens' parks and certain other places. These acted as a sort of clubhouse for the elderly males who played dominoes and cards inside. By definition women were not allowed into the old men's huts, although the Reporter described how 19 females had now been invited into such a place on a bowling green in Hewitt Avenue in Eccleston.
However, it had not been a case of gender equality but simply that there were no old men left to object! The ladies belonged to the Alder Hey women's bowling club and had been granted permission to use the shelter by the council because their changing rooms did not have a heater and all the old men that had previously used the hut had died.
And finally, on the 6th the Grumbleweeds performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. In 1968 prior to hitting the big time, the comedy group had appeared at the Plaza in Duke Street.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the head-lice checks on St Helens' school kids, the faulty radiogram lost by Loyd's of Ormskirk Street, the B&B at the Nelson that only cost £3.20 and the Headingley-style attack on a Sutton Manor bowling green.
We begin on September 1st with the launch of a new radio station for over 1,000 patients in St Helens Hospital. The station would operate for a 12-month trial period and broadcast for one hour each morning and four hours every evening. However, the station was not being operated from the hospital but from Warrington Infirmary, where a radio service had been running for two years.
A Warrington Council of Youth hospital broadcasting volunteer team were providing the station with the only cost to the health authority being the rental of a Post Office landline between Warrington and St Helens.
On the 2nd Granada TV Rentals, which already had one shop in St Helens in Barrow Street, opened their second. This was described in their Reporter advert as being situated at Unit 53, Market Centre. Remote controlled TV was not common in the mid-1970s but would soon become widespread.
However, Granada had a Finlandia 26" colour set with remote control available to rent and in their advert needed to explain how it worked: "There's nothing to touch it – just point the handset and you can change channels, volume, brightness, and even adjust the colour picture – all from the comfort of your own armchair."
Last March St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals in Sutton after years of complaints from local residents. The sulphuric acid factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who was expected to announce that a public inquiry would be held.
But the company was continuing to behave as if it was business as usual. Currently a £300,000 refit was underway in Lancots Lane as part of what the firm called a "gesture of faith in the future". And on the 2nd at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee, a letter from the government's Alkali Inspector was read out.
Leathers had applied for planning permission to install a 200-foot chimney and the committee was warned that the council would be held liable for any issues if it declined or delayed the application. This is what the Inspector wrote:
"Increasing the chimney height will provide additional protection to people in Sutton from unforeseeable emissions during start-up or breakdown conditions. Should any serious incident occur which would have been alleviated by a taller chimney, it is my view St. Helens Borough Council must accept full responsibility because of their failure to expedite this application."
And so permission was granted. The planners also heard of a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies. A recently installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. The sewer has not even been commissioned and already substantial damage has been done. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from." That was, of course, a reference to Leathers and Sidac.
On the 4th a four-day flower festival began at St Anne's in Sutton, which attracted 7,000 visitors and brought in £1,700 for the church's building fund.
"We invite guests to Saturday afternoon film shows to meet the children. We have quite a following. It's like a club. We've had a Kung Fu demonstration, a pet show and puppet show. We've even had the Mayor here. They all come voluntarily for the children. Billy Q.T. was a success. The kids were really taken up with him."
The Prescot Road bend in St Helens, near West Park Rugby Club, was one of the most dangerous places in St Helens for motorists. In July a young couple had been killed in a car accident and two months before two women had died in crashes. In this week's Reporter there was a picture of a new chevron sign that had been installed to give drivers more warning of the lethal bend and a new road surface had also been laid to give vehicles extra grip.
These days I imagine those would be considered insufficient but in the 1970s there were still concerns over any road safety features hindering traffic flow and access to homes. When technical services boss Ken Perks had informed councillors of the new initiative, he'd said they had considered installing crash barriers but had decided against them, as they'd have hindered households in getting in and out of their homes.
Towards the end of the 19th century after many years of campaigning, it was agreed that St Helens shops would shut on a Thursday afternoon. Shopworkers then worked extremely long hours, six days a week and the intention was that half-day closing would enable them to pursue healthy leisure pursuits – although I think I would have gone to bed!
But times change and at a recent meeting of St Helens Chamber of Commerce, its members had voted 2 to 1 to press the council to permit a six-day shopping week. A similar request to scrap the Thursday half-day had been made in 1974, which the council had refused, saying they would reconsider the matter once the town centre developments were complete.
But the Chamber now felt it was time to press the council again as they believed St Helens was losing custom to other towns. Wilfred Atack was the manager of Lewis's in Church Street and vice-chairman of the St Helens Chamber and said: "In our experience this is what the customer wants. All the big shopping centres have a six-day week. This will attract shoppers to St. Helens." Although smaller shopkeepers were against the change, they would be able to choose whether to open or close on Thursday afternoons.
The Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed to fight the plans to close Pilks' TV glassware plant. They certainly had an uphill battle. The works was believed to be losing as much as £400,000 a month and the government had refused to provide a temporary subsidy on the ground that the factory had no future.
But this week twenty members of the committee had been to Blackpool to lobby delegates at the TUC Conference and in the Reporter they were pictured before getting on their coach holding up banners. These included the messages "Keep T.V. Industry British" and "We Want Work Not Dole".
There used to be a number of so-called old men's huts or shelters in St Helens' parks and certain other places. These acted as a sort of clubhouse for the elderly males who played dominoes and cards inside. By definition women were not allowed into the old men's huts, although the Reporter described how 19 females had now been invited into such a place on a bowling green in Hewitt Avenue in Eccleston.
However, it had not been a case of gender equality but simply that there were no old men left to object! The ladies belonged to the Alder Hey women's bowling club and had been granted permission to use the shelter by the council because their changing rooms did not have a heater and all the old men that had previously used the hut had died.
And finally, on the 6th the Grumbleweeds performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. In 1968 prior to hitting the big time, the comedy group had appeared at the Plaza in Duke Street.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the head-lice checks on St Helens' school kids, the faulty radiogram lost by Loyd's of Ormskirk Street, the B&B at the Nelson that only cost £3.20 and the Headingley-style attack on a Sutton Manor bowling green.
This week's many stories include the new radio station for St Helens Hospital, the damage done to a new Sutton sewer through acid corrosion, a call to end the Thursday half-day closing in St Helens, why women had taken over an old men's hut, the minimal safety measures introduced on a lethal Prescot Road bend and Leathers’ plans to install a 200-foot chimney are approved by the council's Planning Committee in spite of the plant being ordered to close.
We begin on September 1st with the launch of a new radio station for over 1,000 patients in St Helens Hospital.
The station would operate for a 12-month trial period and broadcast for one hour each morning and four hours every evening.
However, the station was not being operated from the hospital but from Warrington Infirmary, where a radio service had been running for two years.
A Warrington Council of Youth hospital broadcasting volunteer team were providing the station with the only cost to the health authority being the rental of a Post Office landline between Warrington and St Helens.
On the 2nd Granada TV Rentals, which already had one shop in St Helens in Barrow Street, opened their second.
This was described in their Reporter advert as being situated at Unit 53, Market Centre.
Remote controlled TV was not common in the mid-1970s but would soon become widespread.
However, Granada had a Finlandia 26" colour set with remote control available to rent and in their advert needed to explain how it worked:
"There's nothing to touch it – just point the handset and you can change channels, volume, brightness, and even adjust the colour picture – all from the comfort of your own armchair."
Last March St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals in Sutton after years of complaints from local residents.
The sulphuric acid factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who was expected to announce that a public inquiry would be held.
But the company was continuing to behave as if it was business as usual. Currently a £300,000 refit was underway in Lancots Lane as part of what the firm called a "gesture of faith in the future".
And on the 2nd at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee, a letter from the government's Alkali Inspector was read out.
Leathers had applied for planning permission to install a 200-foot chimney and the committee was warned that the council would be held liable for any issues if it declined or delayed the application. This is what the Inspector wrote:
"Increasing the chimney height will provide additional protection to people in Sutton from unforeseeable emissions during start-up or breakdown conditions.
"Should any serious incident occur which would have been alleviated by a taller chimney, it is my view St. Helens Borough Council must accept full responsibility because of their failure to expedite this application."
And so permission was granted. The planners also heard of a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies.
A recently installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. The sewer has not even been commissioned and already substantial damage has been done. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from."
That was, of course, a reference to Leathers and Sidac.
On the 4th a four-day flower festival began at St Anne's in Sutton, which attracted 7,000 visitors and brought in £1,700 for the church's building fund.
There was a picture of Billy Q.T. in the St Helens Reporter on the 5th with some of the 400 children that the actor, singer and DJ had been entertaining in the Capitol cinema.
Billy had been entertaining the kids at their weekly Saturday matinee with a disco show, complete with flashing lights and singing games. Manager Howard Hookham said:
"We invite guests to Saturday afternoon film shows to meet the children. We have quite a following. It's like a club. We've had a Kung Fu demonstration, a pet show and puppet show.
"We've even had the Mayor here. They all come voluntarily for the children. Billy Q.T. was a success. The kids were really taken up with him."
The Prescot Road bend in St Helens, near West Park Rugby Club, was one of the most dangerous places in St Helens for motorists.
In July a young couple had been killed in a car accident and two months before two women had died in crashes.
In this week's Reporter there was a picture of a new chevron sign that had been installed to give drivers more warning of the lethal bend and a new road surface had also been laid to give vehicles extra grip.
These days I imagine those would be considered insufficient but in the 1970s there were still concerns over any road safety features hindering traffic flow and access to homes.
When technical services boss Ken Perks had informed councillors of the new initiative, he'd said they had considered installing crash barriers but had decided against them, as they'd have hindered households in getting in and out of their homes.
Towards the end of the 19th century after many years of campaigning, it was agreed that St Helens shops would shut on a Thursday afternoon.
Shopworkers then worked extremely long hours, six days a week and the intention was that half-day closing would enable them to pursue healthy leisure pursuits – although I think I would have gone to bed!
But times change and at a recent meeting of St Helens Chamber of Commerce, its members had voted 2 to 1 to press the council to permit a six-day shopping week.
A similar request to scrap the Thursday half-day had been made in 1974, which the council had refused, saying they would reconsider the matter once the town centre developments were complete.
But the Chamber now felt it was time to press the council again as they believed St Helens was losing custom to other towns.
Wilfred Atack was the manager of Lewis's in Church Street and vice-chairman of the St Helens Chamber and said:
"In our experience this is what the customer wants. All the big shopping centres have a six-day week. This will attract shoppers to St. Helens."
Although smaller shopkeepers were against the change, they would be able to choose whether to open or close on Thursday afternoons.
The Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed to fight the plans to close Pilks' TV glassware plant.
They certainly had an uphill battle. The works was believed to be losing as much as £400,000 a month and the government had refused to provide a temporary subsidy on the ground that the factory had no future.
But this week twenty members of the committee had been to Blackpool to lobby delegates at the TUC Conference and in the Reporter they were pictured before getting on their coach holding up banners.
These included the messages "Keep T.V. Industry British" and "We Want Work Not Dole".
There used to be a number of so-called old men's huts or shelters in St Helens' parks and certain other places.
These acted as a sort of clubhouse for the elderly males who played dominoes and cards inside.
By definition women were not allowed into the old men's huts, although the Reporter described how 19 females had now been invited into such a place on a bowling green in Hewitt Avenue in Eccleston.
However, it had not been a case of gender equality but simply that there were no old men left to object!
The ladies belonged to the Alder Hey women's bowling club and had been granted permission to use the shelter by the council because their changing rooms did not have a heater and all the old men that had previously used the hut had died.
And finally, on the 6th the Grumbleweeds performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. In 1968 prior to hitting the big time, the comedy group had appeared at the Plaza in Duke Street.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the head-lice checks on St Helens' school kids, the faulty radiogram lost by Loyd's of Ormskirk Street, the B&B at the Nelson that only cost £3.20 and the Headingley-style attack on a Sutton Manor bowling green.
We begin on September 1st with the launch of a new radio station for over 1,000 patients in St Helens Hospital.
The station would operate for a 12-month trial period and broadcast for one hour each morning and four hours every evening.
However, the station was not being operated from the hospital but from Warrington Infirmary, where a radio service had been running for two years.
A Warrington Council of Youth hospital broadcasting volunteer team were providing the station with the only cost to the health authority being the rental of a Post Office landline between Warrington and St Helens.
On the 2nd Granada TV Rentals, which already had one shop in St Helens in Barrow Street, opened their second.
This was described in their Reporter advert as being situated at Unit 53, Market Centre.
Remote controlled TV was not common in the mid-1970s but would soon become widespread.
However, Granada had a Finlandia 26" colour set with remote control available to rent and in their advert needed to explain how it worked:
"There's nothing to touch it – just point the handset and you can change channels, volume, brightness, and even adjust the colour picture – all from the comfort of your own armchair."
Last March St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals in Sutton after years of complaints from local residents.
The sulphuric acid factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who was expected to announce that a public inquiry would be held.
But the company was continuing to behave as if it was business as usual. Currently a £300,000 refit was underway in Lancots Lane as part of what the firm called a "gesture of faith in the future".
And on the 2nd at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee, a letter from the government's Alkali Inspector was read out.
Leathers had applied for planning permission to install a 200-foot chimney and the committee was warned that the council would be held liable for any issues if it declined or delayed the application. This is what the Inspector wrote:
"Increasing the chimney height will provide additional protection to people in Sutton from unforeseeable emissions during start-up or breakdown conditions.
"Should any serious incident occur which would have been alleviated by a taller chimney, it is my view St. Helens Borough Council must accept full responsibility because of their failure to expedite this application."
And so permission was granted. The planners also heard of a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies.
A recently installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. The sewer has not even been commissioned and already substantial damage has been done. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from."
That was, of course, a reference to Leathers and Sidac.
On the 4th a four-day flower festival began at St Anne's in Sutton, which attracted 7,000 visitors and brought in £1,700 for the church's building fund.
Billy had been entertaining the kids at their weekly Saturday matinee with a disco show, complete with flashing lights and singing games. Manager Howard Hookham said:
"We invite guests to Saturday afternoon film shows to meet the children. We have quite a following. It's like a club. We've had a Kung Fu demonstration, a pet show and puppet show.
"We've even had the Mayor here. They all come voluntarily for the children. Billy Q.T. was a success. The kids were really taken up with him."
The Prescot Road bend in St Helens, near West Park Rugby Club, was one of the most dangerous places in St Helens for motorists.
In July a young couple had been killed in a car accident and two months before two women had died in crashes.
In this week's Reporter there was a picture of a new chevron sign that had been installed to give drivers more warning of the lethal bend and a new road surface had also been laid to give vehicles extra grip.
These days I imagine those would be considered insufficient but in the 1970s there were still concerns over any road safety features hindering traffic flow and access to homes.
When technical services boss Ken Perks had informed councillors of the new initiative, he'd said they had considered installing crash barriers but had decided against them, as they'd have hindered households in getting in and out of their homes.
Towards the end of the 19th century after many years of campaigning, it was agreed that St Helens shops would shut on a Thursday afternoon.
Shopworkers then worked extremely long hours, six days a week and the intention was that half-day closing would enable them to pursue healthy leisure pursuits – although I think I would have gone to bed!
But times change and at a recent meeting of St Helens Chamber of Commerce, its members had voted 2 to 1 to press the council to permit a six-day shopping week.
A similar request to scrap the Thursday half-day had been made in 1974, which the council had refused, saying they would reconsider the matter once the town centre developments were complete.
But the Chamber now felt it was time to press the council again as they believed St Helens was losing custom to other towns.
Wilfred Atack was the manager of Lewis's in Church Street and vice-chairman of the St Helens Chamber and said:
"In our experience this is what the customer wants. All the big shopping centres have a six-day week. This will attract shoppers to St. Helens."
Although smaller shopkeepers were against the change, they would be able to choose whether to open or close on Thursday afternoons.
The Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed to fight the plans to close Pilks' TV glassware plant.
They certainly had an uphill battle. The works was believed to be losing as much as £400,000 a month and the government had refused to provide a temporary subsidy on the ground that the factory had no future.
But this week twenty members of the committee had been to Blackpool to lobby delegates at the TUC Conference and in the Reporter they were pictured before getting on their coach holding up banners.
These included the messages "Keep T.V. Industry British" and "We Want Work Not Dole".
There used to be a number of so-called old men's huts or shelters in St Helens' parks and certain other places.
These acted as a sort of clubhouse for the elderly males who played dominoes and cards inside.
By definition women were not allowed into the old men's huts, although the Reporter described how 19 females had now been invited into such a place on a bowling green in Hewitt Avenue in Eccleston.
However, it had not been a case of gender equality but simply that there were no old men left to object!
The ladies belonged to the Alder Hey women's bowling club and had been granted permission to use the shelter by the council because their changing rooms did not have a heater and all the old men that had previously used the hut had died.
And finally, on the 6th the Grumbleweeds performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. In 1968 prior to hitting the big time, the comedy group had appeared at the Plaza in Duke Street.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the head-lice checks on St Helens' school kids, the faulty radiogram lost by Loyd's of Ormskirk Street, the B&B at the Nelson that only cost £3.20 and the Headingley-style attack on a Sutton Manor bowling green.