FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 5 - 11 MAY 1975
This week's many stories include the pet parade at the Capitol Cinema, the nameless streets at Eccleston Mere, the build up of rubbish in Newton, the planned hike in bus fares, a damning critique of the town's social services record, the broken-hearted pigeon fancier and Saints visit Windle Hall to celebrate becoming rugby league champions.
We begin on the 5th when St Helens firemen struggled for 35 minutes to free a maintenance worker who had got trapped in Parr Sewage Works. John Kelly had slipped and landed on a metal valve that pierced his leg and the fire brigade needed to cut through the metal in order to free him. It must have been a very painful experience but a spokesman for Providence Hospital appeared to play down the injury, saying: "Mr. Kelly had stitches in his leg and chin. He is fine now."
On the 7th Lord and Lady Pilkington entertained Saints at Windle Hall (pictured above) to celebrate the club becoming rugby league champions. Lord Pilkington was the president of the Knowsley Road side and to mark his recent 70th birthday, the team presented him with a championship medal.
St Helens Corporation used to have its own Transport Department and bus fares could be set as the council liked. But that all changed in 1974 when it and neighbouring authorities became part of Merseyside Transport. The Liverpool Echo reported on the 7th how bus passengers in St Helens, Wirral and Southport faced another increase in fares to bring them more into line with those in Liverpool. If the traffic commissioners approved the proposed increases as expected, some Southport and St Helens commuters would be paying 18p for nine miles and over, which was an increase of 80%.
When new housing estates were built in the 1970s, the estate was given a name to aid the house builder in selling the homes. The street names followed and before long they tended to replace the estate name, which was soon forgotten. Examples are the Sherdley Park estate off Marshalls Cross Road and the Mill Farm estate off Clock Face Road.
But the new Mere Estate in Eccleston had not progressed to having street name signs installed, as the application to create what is now Pinfold Drive, Spinney Green, Forest Mead and Norley Drive had been made to the old Whiston Rural District Council. That became redundant in April 1974 and the application concerning the Mere Estate's streets had not been passed on to St Helens Council.
They now had responsibility for such matters but only very recently had they been informed of the lack of street names on the estate adjacent to Eccleston Mere. And as the Reporter wrote on the 9th, the omission had created considerable inconvenience:
"For months postmen, doctors, council workers and maintenance men wandered about the estate in a muddle trying to find people living in the rows of nameless houses. Letters arrived late, doctors took longer to find patients and gas and electricity men went to the wrong houses to fix faulty appliances."
At this week's Eccleston Parish Council meeting, Councillor Tom McCormack said: "When I was on the estate recently canvassing for the election it was shocking. Everyone was getting lost and you just didn't know who was who." St Helens Council now said that the street names on the estate would be installed as soon as was "humanly possible".
And rubbish was piling up in Newton because refuse collectors were upset with St Helens Council's alleged "tardiness" in bringing them into line with bonus payments that their colleagues in St Helens were receiving. The men had initiated a work to rule and a ban on overtime leading to rubbish piling up in back streets and on tips while the dispute continued.
Apparently pigeon racing is becoming quite popular in China, although the fanciers probably don't wear flat caps! In Britain pigeon fancying has, of course, greatly declined and, perhaps, the thefts and vandalism that so many owners suffered has contributed to the sport's drop in popularity.
This week Henry Topping was described in the Reporter as "broken-hearted" after 24 of his pigeons that he kept on an allotment off Chadwick Street in St Helens were stolen. Thieves smashed the lock of the loft door with a crowbar and picked out the best birds, leaving 14 of them behind. Two more birds were killed when a cage fell on them during the raid. Harry said: "I'm ruined. They have destroyed my hobby and my pleasure. It has taken years to collect the birds and I have put a lot into this. I don’t know why anyone would do it."
The Reporter also stated that the waiting list for operations at Whiston Hospital was going to be drastically reduced later in the year thanks to the addition of a new £149,000 theatre suite. It would mean that an additional 2,500 patients would be operated on each year.
It was also stated that an inquiry into the new maternity unit at Whiston had found that doctors did not induce births to suit the convenience of staff, as had been alleged. The St Helens and Knowsley Maternity and Child Welfare Committee had decided to accept the hospital's assurances that births were only induced in the interests of the patient. To ensure that this position remains, the committee said they had informed the Community Health Council that it would continue to keep an eye on the situation.
There was also some good news concerning St Ann's school in Rainhill with work scheduled to start in June on the final stage of improvements. These would include the creation of two new classrooms, as well as staff rooms.
On the 10th the Liverpool Echo reported how St Helens councillor Peggy McNamara had defended the town's social services record following damning criticism from a welfare worker. John Baker of St Helens Age Concern had said:
"In welfare circles, St. Helens is well known throughout the country as a black spot. If there was a league table, St. Helens would be bottom, or next to bottom, in almost every sphere of social services. The council is either apathetic or has a lack of understanding of what is required."
But Cllr McNamara, who had been chairman of St Helens Social Services Committee for the past year, said in response: "The Social Services Committee are not apathetic and would like to spend more, but there is only so much money out of the rates to go round. The whole council is sympathetic to the needs of social services. In St. Helens, people are very good neighbours."
Also on the 10th a special pet parade was held at the Capitol Cinema on the corner of Duke Street and North Road. It was the idea of manager Howard Hookham who was incorporating a menagerie into his Minors Matinee that usually had 650 children in attendance. The pet parade took place before the screening of a film about caring for animals and the RSPCA were on hand to award certificates to the children who had the best cared for pets.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 11th, 'The Night Porter' starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling replaced 'Murder on the Orient Express' starring Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall. And the Capitol replaced 'Chesty Morgan and her Deadly Weapons' with Bruce Lee's 'The Big Boss'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's many stories include the Triplex lay offs, the new night club planned for Parr, protests over the high rents on a council estate in Clock Face, the Hotties safety patrols and the lonesome race walker from Scholes Lane.
We begin on the 5th when St Helens firemen struggled for 35 minutes to free a maintenance worker who had got trapped in Parr Sewage Works. John Kelly had slipped and landed on a metal valve that pierced his leg and the fire brigade needed to cut through the metal in order to free him. It must have been a very painful experience but a spokesman for Providence Hospital appeared to play down the injury, saying: "Mr. Kelly had stitches in his leg and chin. He is fine now."
St Helens Corporation used to have its own Transport Department and bus fares could be set as the council liked. But that all changed in 1974 when it and neighbouring authorities became part of Merseyside Transport. The Liverpool Echo reported on the 7th how bus passengers in St Helens, Wirral and Southport faced another increase in fares to bring them more into line with those in Liverpool. If the traffic commissioners approved the proposed increases as expected, some Southport and St Helens commuters would be paying 18p for nine miles and over, which was an increase of 80%.
When new housing estates were built in the 1970s, the estate was given a name to aid the house builder in selling the homes. The street names followed and before long they tended to replace the estate name, which was soon forgotten. Examples are the Sherdley Park estate off Marshalls Cross Road and the Mill Farm estate off Clock Face Road.
But the new Mere Estate in Eccleston had not progressed to having street name signs installed, as the application to create what is now Pinfold Drive, Spinney Green, Forest Mead and Norley Drive had been made to the old Whiston Rural District Council. That became redundant in April 1974 and the application concerning the Mere Estate's streets had not been passed on to St Helens Council.
They now had responsibility for such matters but only very recently had they been informed of the lack of street names on the estate adjacent to Eccleston Mere. And as the Reporter wrote on the 9th, the omission had created considerable inconvenience:
"For months postmen, doctors, council workers and maintenance men wandered about the estate in a muddle trying to find people living in the rows of nameless houses. Letters arrived late, doctors took longer to find patients and gas and electricity men went to the wrong houses to fix faulty appliances."
At this week's Eccleston Parish Council meeting, Councillor Tom McCormack said: "When I was on the estate recently canvassing for the election it was shocking. Everyone was getting lost and you just didn't know who was who." St Helens Council now said that the street names on the estate would be installed as soon as was "humanly possible".
And rubbish was piling up in Newton because refuse collectors were upset with St Helens Council's alleged "tardiness" in bringing them into line with bonus payments that their colleagues in St Helens were receiving. The men had initiated a work to rule and a ban on overtime leading to rubbish piling up in back streets and on tips while the dispute continued.
Apparently pigeon racing is becoming quite popular in China, although the fanciers probably don't wear flat caps! In Britain pigeon fancying has, of course, greatly declined and, perhaps, the thefts and vandalism that so many owners suffered has contributed to the sport's drop in popularity.
This week Henry Topping was described in the Reporter as "broken-hearted" after 24 of his pigeons that he kept on an allotment off Chadwick Street in St Helens were stolen. Thieves smashed the lock of the loft door with a crowbar and picked out the best birds, leaving 14 of them behind. Two more birds were killed when a cage fell on them during the raid. Harry said: "I'm ruined. They have destroyed my hobby and my pleasure. It has taken years to collect the birds and I have put a lot into this. I don’t know why anyone would do it."
The Reporter also stated that the waiting list for operations at Whiston Hospital was going to be drastically reduced later in the year thanks to the addition of a new £149,000 theatre suite. It would mean that an additional 2,500 patients would be operated on each year.
It was also stated that an inquiry into the new maternity unit at Whiston had found that doctors did not induce births to suit the convenience of staff, as had been alleged. The St Helens and Knowsley Maternity and Child Welfare Committee had decided to accept the hospital's assurances that births were only induced in the interests of the patient. To ensure that this position remains, the committee said they had informed the Community Health Council that it would continue to keep an eye on the situation.
There was also some good news concerning St Ann's school in Rainhill with work scheduled to start in June on the final stage of improvements. These would include the creation of two new classrooms, as well as staff rooms.
On the 10th the Liverpool Echo reported how St Helens councillor Peggy McNamara had defended the town's social services record following damning criticism from a welfare worker. John Baker of St Helens Age Concern had said:
"In welfare circles, St. Helens is well known throughout the country as a black spot. If there was a league table, St. Helens would be bottom, or next to bottom, in almost every sphere of social services. The council is either apathetic or has a lack of understanding of what is required."
But Cllr McNamara, who had been chairman of St Helens Social Services Committee for the past year, said in response: "The Social Services Committee are not apathetic and would like to spend more, but there is only so much money out of the rates to go round. The whole council is sympathetic to the needs of social services. In St. Helens, people are very good neighbours."
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 11th, 'The Night Porter' starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling replaced 'Murder on the Orient Express' starring Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall. And the Capitol replaced 'Chesty Morgan and her Deadly Weapons' with Bruce Lee's 'The Big Boss'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's many stories include the Triplex lay offs, the new night club planned for Parr, protests over the high rents on a council estate in Clock Face, the Hotties safety patrols and the lonesome race walker from Scholes Lane.
This week's many stories include the pet parade at the Capitol Cinema, the nameless streets at Eccleston Mere, the build up of rubbish in Newton, the planned hike in bus fares, a damning critique of the town's social services record, the broken-hearted pigeon fancier and Saints visit Windle Hall to celebrate becoming rugby league champions.
We begin on the 5th when St Helens firemen struggled for 35 minutes to free a maintenance worker who had got trapped in Parr Sewage Works.
John Kelly had slipped and landed on a metal valve that pierced his leg and the fire brigade needed to cut through the metal in order to free him.
It must have been a very painful experience but a spokesman for Providence Hospital appeared to play down the injury, saying:
"Mr. Kelly had stitches in his leg and chin. He is fine now."
On the 7th Lord and Lady Pilkington entertained Saints at Windle Hall (pictured above) to celebrate the club becoming rugby league champions.
Lord Pilkington was the president of the Knowsley Road side and to mark his recent 70th birthday, the team presented him with a championship medal.
St Helens Corporation used to have its own Transport Department and bus fares could be set as the council liked. But that all changed in 1974 when it and neighbouring authorities became part of Merseyside Transport.
The Liverpool Echo reported on the 7th how bus passengers in St Helens, Wirral and Southport faced another increase in fares to bring them more into line with those in Liverpool.
If the traffic commissioners approved the proposed increases as expected, some Southport and St Helens commuters would be paying 18p for nine miles and over, which was an increase of 80%.
When new housing estates were built in the 1970s, the estate was given a name to aid the house builder in selling the homes.
The street names followed and before long they tended to replace the estate name, which was soon forgotten.
Examples are the Sherdley Park estate off Marshalls Cross Road and the Mill Farm estate off Clock Face Road.
But the new Mere Estate in Eccleston had not progressed to having street name signs installed, as the application to create what is now Pinfold Drive, Spinney Green, Forest Mead and Norley Drive had been made to the old Whiston Rural District Council.
That became redundant in April 1974 and the application concerning the Mere Estate's streets had not been passed on to St Helens Council.
They now had responsibility for such matters but only very recently had they been informed of the lack of street names on the estate adjacent to Eccleston Mere.
And as the Reporter wrote on the 9th, the omission had created considerable inconvenience:
"For months postmen, doctors, council workers and maintenance men wandered about the estate in a muddle trying to find people living in the rows of nameless houses. Letters arrived late, doctors took longer to find patients and gas and electricity men went to the wrong houses to fix faulty appliances."
At this week's Eccleston Parish Council meeting, Councillor Tom McCormack said:
"When I was on the estate recently canvassing for the election it was shocking. Everyone was getting lost and you just didn't know who was who."
St Helens Council now said that the street names on the estate would be installed as soon as was "humanly possible".
And rubbish was piling up in Newton because refuse collectors were upset with St Helens Council's alleged "tardiness" in bringing them into line with bonus payments that their colleagues in St Helens were receiving.
The men had initiated a work to rule and a ban on overtime leading to rubbish piling up in back streets and on tips while the dispute continued.
Apparently pigeon racing is becoming quite popular in China, although the fanciers probably don't wear flat caps!
In Britain pigeon fancying has, of course, greatly declined and, perhaps, the thefts and vandalism that so many owners suffered has contributed to the sport's drop in popularity.
This week Henry Topping was described in the Reporter as "broken-hearted" after 24 of his pigeons that he kept on an allotment off Chadwick Street in St Helens were stolen.
Thieves smashed the lock of the loft door with a crowbar and picked out the best birds, leaving 14 of them behind. Two more birds were killed when a cage fell on them during the raid. Harry said:
"I'm ruined. They have destroyed my hobby and my pleasure. It has taken years to collect the birds and I have put a lot into this. I don’t know why anyone would do it."
The Reporter also stated that the waiting list for operations at Whiston Hospital was going to be drastically reduced later in the year thanks to the addition of a new £149,000 theatre suite.
It would mean that an additional 2,500 patients would be operated on each year.
It was also stated that an inquiry into the new maternity unit at Whiston had found that doctors did not induce births to suit the convenience of staff, as had been alleged.
The St Helens and Knowsley Maternity and Child Welfare Committee had decided to accept the hospital's assurances that births were only induced in the interests of the patient.
To ensure that this position remains, the committee said they had informed the Community Health Council that it would continue to keep an eye on the situation.
There was also some good news concerning St Ann's school in Rainhill with work scheduled to start in June on the final stage of improvements. These would include the creation of two new classrooms, as well as staff rooms.
On the 10th the Liverpool Echo reported how St Helens councillor Peggy McNamara had defended the town's social services record following damning criticism from a welfare worker. John Baker of St Helens Age Concern had said:
"In welfare circles, St. Helens is well known throughout the country as a black spot. If there was a league table, St. Helens would be bottom, or next to bottom, in almost every sphere of social services. The council is either apathetic or has a lack of understanding of what is required."
But Cllr McNamara, who had been chairman of St Helens Social Services Committee for the past year, said in response:
"The Social Services Committee are not apathetic and would like to spend more, but there is only so much money out of the rates to go round. The whole council is sympathetic to the needs of social services. In St. Helens, people are very good neighbours."
Also on the 10th a special pet parade was held at the Capitol Cinema on the corner of Duke Street and North Road.
It was the idea of manager Howard Hookham who was incorporating a menagerie into his Minors Matinee that usually had 650 children in attendance.
The pet parade took place before the screening of a film about caring for animals and the RSPCA were on hand to award certificates to the children who had the best cared for pets.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 11th, 'The Night Porter' starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling replaced 'Murder on the Orient Express' starring Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall.
And the Capitol replaced 'Chesty Morgan and her Deadly Weapons' with Bruce Lee's 'The Big Boss'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's many stories include the Triplex lay offs, the new night club planned for Parr, protests over the high rents on a council estate in Clock Face, the Hotties safety patrols and the lonesome race walker from Scholes Lane.
We begin on the 5th when St Helens firemen struggled for 35 minutes to free a maintenance worker who had got trapped in Parr Sewage Works.
John Kelly had slipped and landed on a metal valve that pierced his leg and the fire brigade needed to cut through the metal in order to free him.
It must have been a very painful experience but a spokesman for Providence Hospital appeared to play down the injury, saying:
"Mr. Kelly had stitches in his leg and chin. He is fine now."
Lord Pilkington was the president of the Knowsley Road side and to mark his recent 70th birthday, the team presented him with a championship medal.
St Helens Corporation used to have its own Transport Department and bus fares could be set as the council liked. But that all changed in 1974 when it and neighbouring authorities became part of Merseyside Transport.
The Liverpool Echo reported on the 7th how bus passengers in St Helens, Wirral and Southport faced another increase in fares to bring them more into line with those in Liverpool.
If the traffic commissioners approved the proposed increases as expected, some Southport and St Helens commuters would be paying 18p for nine miles and over, which was an increase of 80%.
When new housing estates were built in the 1970s, the estate was given a name to aid the house builder in selling the homes.
The street names followed and before long they tended to replace the estate name, which was soon forgotten.
Examples are the Sherdley Park estate off Marshalls Cross Road and the Mill Farm estate off Clock Face Road.
But the new Mere Estate in Eccleston had not progressed to having street name signs installed, as the application to create what is now Pinfold Drive, Spinney Green, Forest Mead and Norley Drive had been made to the old Whiston Rural District Council.
That became redundant in April 1974 and the application concerning the Mere Estate's streets had not been passed on to St Helens Council.
They now had responsibility for such matters but only very recently had they been informed of the lack of street names on the estate adjacent to Eccleston Mere.
And as the Reporter wrote on the 9th, the omission had created considerable inconvenience:
"For months postmen, doctors, council workers and maintenance men wandered about the estate in a muddle trying to find people living in the rows of nameless houses. Letters arrived late, doctors took longer to find patients and gas and electricity men went to the wrong houses to fix faulty appliances."
At this week's Eccleston Parish Council meeting, Councillor Tom McCormack said:
"When I was on the estate recently canvassing for the election it was shocking. Everyone was getting lost and you just didn't know who was who."
St Helens Council now said that the street names on the estate would be installed as soon as was "humanly possible".
And rubbish was piling up in Newton because refuse collectors were upset with St Helens Council's alleged "tardiness" in bringing them into line with bonus payments that their colleagues in St Helens were receiving.
The men had initiated a work to rule and a ban on overtime leading to rubbish piling up in back streets and on tips while the dispute continued.
Apparently pigeon racing is becoming quite popular in China, although the fanciers probably don't wear flat caps!
In Britain pigeon fancying has, of course, greatly declined and, perhaps, the thefts and vandalism that so many owners suffered has contributed to the sport's drop in popularity.
This week Henry Topping was described in the Reporter as "broken-hearted" after 24 of his pigeons that he kept on an allotment off Chadwick Street in St Helens were stolen.
Thieves smashed the lock of the loft door with a crowbar and picked out the best birds, leaving 14 of them behind. Two more birds were killed when a cage fell on them during the raid. Harry said:
"I'm ruined. They have destroyed my hobby and my pleasure. It has taken years to collect the birds and I have put a lot into this. I don’t know why anyone would do it."
The Reporter also stated that the waiting list for operations at Whiston Hospital was going to be drastically reduced later in the year thanks to the addition of a new £149,000 theatre suite.
It would mean that an additional 2,500 patients would be operated on each year.
It was also stated that an inquiry into the new maternity unit at Whiston had found that doctors did not induce births to suit the convenience of staff, as had been alleged.
The St Helens and Knowsley Maternity and Child Welfare Committee had decided to accept the hospital's assurances that births were only induced in the interests of the patient.
To ensure that this position remains, the committee said they had informed the Community Health Council that it would continue to keep an eye on the situation.
There was also some good news concerning St Ann's school in Rainhill with work scheduled to start in June on the final stage of improvements. These would include the creation of two new classrooms, as well as staff rooms.
On the 10th the Liverpool Echo reported how St Helens councillor Peggy McNamara had defended the town's social services record following damning criticism from a welfare worker. John Baker of St Helens Age Concern had said:
"In welfare circles, St. Helens is well known throughout the country as a black spot. If there was a league table, St. Helens would be bottom, or next to bottom, in almost every sphere of social services. The council is either apathetic or has a lack of understanding of what is required."
But Cllr McNamara, who had been chairman of St Helens Social Services Committee for the past year, said in response:
"The Social Services Committee are not apathetic and would like to spend more, but there is only so much money out of the rates to go round. The whole council is sympathetic to the needs of social services. In St. Helens, people are very good neighbours."
It was the idea of manager Howard Hookham who was incorporating a menagerie into his Minors Matinee that usually had 650 children in attendance.
The pet parade took place before the screening of a film about caring for animals and the RSPCA were on hand to award certificates to the children who had the best cared for pets.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 11th, 'The Night Porter' starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling replaced 'Murder on the Orient Express' starring Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall.
And the Capitol replaced 'Chesty Morgan and her Deadly Weapons' with Bruce Lee's 'The Big Boss'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's many stories include the Triplex lay offs, the new night club planned for Parr, protests over the high rents on a council estate in Clock Face, the Hotties safety patrols and the lonesome race walker from Scholes Lane.