FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 DECEMBER 1975
This week's many stories include the St Helens connection with Jaws, the enormous potential cost of closing down Leathers Chemicals, the Mayor's New Toy Appeal for Christmas, the ruthless intruders that were preying on pensioners in Grange Park and the true account of the supposedly homeless couple living in a tent in Newton.
We begin on the 11th when Walter Wright died at his home in Eccleston Park. The 65-year-old had been headmaster of Cowley Boys School from 1955 until 1974 when he retired on medical advice. It was also Cowley Boys' speech day during this week and the present headmaster Frederick Clifton reported that 69 candidates at A-level had obtained a total of 186 passes.
There was a good example in the newspapers of the danger of accepting people's sob stories without proper checks being made. Last week the Newton Guardian's lead story had on its front-page a dreadful tale of a couple aged 50 and 60 who claimed to have spent eight months living in a field under a plastic sheet. George and May Johnson said they had been forced to camp in Old Hey Wood, near the Bradlegh Road Estate in Newton, and live on canal water and tinned food. That, they insisted, was because they could not find a home after their lodgings had been condemned.
Much was made in the newspaper report of council policy being primarily to support homeless families with children, leaving such people as the Johnsons to fend for themselves. But just when it looked as if some help was going to be available for them, the couple disappeared. After also being featured on Granada TV, the couple were spotted in Warrington and provided with temporary bed and breakfast accommodation. However, it turned out that Johnson was not their real surname and just how long they had really spent in the wood was not known. But the couple's past history was now being pieced together.
Geoff Hancell, Warrington's Housing Manager, told the Newton Guardian this week, "This is a most clear case of false compassion". He said the man had lived in three council properties in Warrington and been evicted from the first for non-payment of rent. Then he left the second owing rent and money for damages and had abandoned the third, without telling the council and with more rent arrears.
Mr Hancell added: "This man had every opportunity – how far should a local authority be responsible for the folly of one individual? "We have to help people in need and although we accept that a lot are less than perfect – if this man has more than his fair share of attention somebody far more deserving will suffer." The individual was also accused of deliberately making himself homeless, choosing not to work and harming relations with his neighbours through anti-social behaviour.
The Leathers public inquiry that had been ordered by Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, was set to begin in St Helens on January 6th 1976. It was likely to last several weeks and the Inspector chairing the sessions would, at its conclusion, have to decide whether or not to recommend that Crosland confirmed St Helens Council's Discontinuance Order on the Lancots Lane plant. If the closure of Leathers was approved it would come at a heck of a price.
All sorts of estimates for compensation payable to the sulphuric acid maker for an enforced shutdown had been suggested in the past. But this week British Sidac reckoned on £11 million. In today's money that is around £120m, which would ultimately be paid by ratepayers and mean a big hike in their rates bills. Sidac was Leather's industrial neighbour and were their fellow appellant against the closure order because they relied upon them for 25,000 tons of acid each year.
Sidac's company secretary and finance director Rupert Stewart-Smith told the St Helens Reporter that they were currently paying £155,000 in rates and expected to have to pay £275,000 if the full amount of compensation had to be paid. However, that was only for a year with the likelihood that such rate rises would be spread over a longer period. And the Sidac boss also said they would be claiming £1 million compensation of their own if Leathers closed. The latter were refusing to state exactly how much compensation they would be claiming from St Helens Council, other than to say it would be "many millions".
The Reporter asked St Helens Treasurer Douglas Pennington for his estimate and although he would not provide a precise figure, he stated that every £1 million of compensation that was awarded would put an extra 5p in the pound on the rates. And although people in Sutton might consider the rate rise a price worth paying to rid them of a troublesome acid plant – would the residents of places like Newton and Rainford be quite so happy?
When I worked for my father in the 1970s, one of my duties at the end of each day was to take a special locked bag containing the day's shop takings to the bank across the road and pop it in its night safe. That was clearly something that the North and South Eccleston Labour Club did not do. This week the club was robbed of £2,300, which had been left inside their premises instead of being banked.
Asked why so much cash had been left there, club secretary Alfred Hitchmough said he did not want to comment, as it would "give people ideas about the methods we use". The loss was discovered by cleaners and reported to the police who thought the thief might have hid on the premises until everyone had left or entered by the fire escape. The club was already in financial difficulties and had recently decided to increase their membership fees and axe their annual pensioners party.
The Reporter on the 12th described how a local printing firm had won a £10,000 contract to produce brochures promoting 'Jaws'. The film was being released on Boxing Day and Wood Westworth of Park Road was said to be rushing to produce thousands of colour brochures for the film. The Reporter described Jaws as a horror film – although I think thriller would have been more appropriate.
Wood Westworth was currently celebrating its centenary and its managing director, Pat Ball, said: "This is the biggest order we have received and it has given the company a tremendous boost. We are extremely pleased to get such a large order especially at a time when Merseyside printers are having a slack time."
The Reporter also described how "ruthless intruders" were preying on pensioners living alone in Grange Park. The paper reported a spate of burglaries had taken place over the past few months with the victims of the break-ins all being women. A recent victim had been Buffy Price of Dennis Avenue who had returned home to find her gas and electricity meters robbed of £9. "She has never slept in the house since," said her brother-in-law, Robert Bridge. "Her nerves have been completely shattered."
And John Thompson described to the Reporter how he and his wife very rarely went out in the evening for fear of coming home to find their house burgled. He called for a constable to be on the beat in Grange Park and said, "What's the good of a panda patrol which advertises itself and whose occupants can only give a cursory glance as it passes by?"
But those days of a bobby on the beat were long gone, with Chief Superintendent Jack Watson expressing his sympathy for the residents but stressing that despite the burglaries, Grange Park was still considered to be one of the lesser crime spots in St Helens.
The Talk of the Town Club in Market Street in Newton had an advert in the Reporter headlined "NewsFlash" that stated that Christmas party bookings were still being taken. And the Mayor's New Toy Appeal for deprived children was reaching its climax, with the Reporter featuring a picture of their receptionist Julie Bishop surrounded by gifts.
These had been left at the paper's College Street office and they had since been taken to the Town Hall for the Annual Carol Sing and Mayor's New Toy Appeal that was held on the 14th. Taking part were the choir of St Helens Junior School, Lyndale Singers and the Warrington Salvation Army Band.
Also on the 14th, Clint Eastwood's double bill of 'Magnum Force' and 'Dirty Harry' were replaced at the ABC Savoy with a sex film called 'Nurses On The Job'. And at the Capitol Cinema, 'The Getaway' starring Steve McQueen replaced a martial arts film called 'Godfather of Hong Kong'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Pilkington pensioners Christmas bumper bonus, the flying chunks of metal that struck a Sutton bowling club, the bleak Christmas facing pensioners in Sutton and Eccleston is voted best village in the North West's Britain in Bloom contest.
We begin on the 11th when Walter Wright died at his home in Eccleston Park. The 65-year-old had been headmaster of Cowley Boys School from 1955 until 1974 when he retired on medical advice. It was also Cowley Boys' speech day during this week and the present headmaster Frederick Clifton reported that 69 candidates at A-level had obtained a total of 186 passes.
There was a good example in the newspapers of the danger of accepting people's sob stories without proper checks being made. Last week the Newton Guardian's lead story had on its front-page a dreadful tale of a couple aged 50 and 60 who claimed to have spent eight months living in a field under a plastic sheet. George and May Johnson said they had been forced to camp in Old Hey Wood, near the Bradlegh Road Estate in Newton, and live on canal water and tinned food. That, they insisted, was because they could not find a home after their lodgings had been condemned.
Much was made in the newspaper report of council policy being primarily to support homeless families with children, leaving such people as the Johnsons to fend for themselves. But just when it looked as if some help was going to be available for them, the couple disappeared. After also being featured on Granada TV, the couple were spotted in Warrington and provided with temporary bed and breakfast accommodation. However, it turned out that Johnson was not their real surname and just how long they had really spent in the wood was not known. But the couple's past history was now being pieced together.
Geoff Hancell, Warrington's Housing Manager, told the Newton Guardian this week, "This is a most clear case of false compassion". He said the man had lived in three council properties in Warrington and been evicted from the first for non-payment of rent. Then he left the second owing rent and money for damages and had abandoned the third, without telling the council and with more rent arrears.
Mr Hancell added: "This man had every opportunity – how far should a local authority be responsible for the folly of one individual? "We have to help people in need and although we accept that a lot are less than perfect – if this man has more than his fair share of attention somebody far more deserving will suffer." The individual was also accused of deliberately making himself homeless, choosing not to work and harming relations with his neighbours through anti-social behaviour.
The Leathers public inquiry that had been ordered by Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, was set to begin in St Helens on January 6th 1976. It was likely to last several weeks and the Inspector chairing the sessions would, at its conclusion, have to decide whether or not to recommend that Crosland confirmed St Helens Council's Discontinuance Order on the Lancots Lane plant. If the closure of Leathers was approved it would come at a heck of a price.
All sorts of estimates for compensation payable to the sulphuric acid maker for an enforced shutdown had been suggested in the past. But this week British Sidac reckoned on £11 million. In today's money that is around £120m, which would ultimately be paid by ratepayers and mean a big hike in their rates bills. Sidac was Leather's industrial neighbour and were their fellow appellant against the closure order because they relied upon them for 25,000 tons of acid each year.
Sidac's company secretary and finance director Rupert Stewart-Smith told the St Helens Reporter that they were currently paying £155,000 in rates and expected to have to pay £275,000 if the full amount of compensation had to be paid. However, that was only for a year with the likelihood that such rate rises would be spread over a longer period. And the Sidac boss also said they would be claiming £1 million compensation of their own if Leathers closed. The latter were refusing to state exactly how much compensation they would be claiming from St Helens Council, other than to say it would be "many millions".
The Reporter asked St Helens Treasurer Douglas Pennington for his estimate and although he would not provide a precise figure, he stated that every £1 million of compensation that was awarded would put an extra 5p in the pound on the rates. And although people in Sutton might consider the rate rise a price worth paying to rid them of a troublesome acid plant – would the residents of places like Newton and Rainford be quite so happy?
When I worked for my father in the 1970s, one of my duties at the end of each day was to take a special locked bag containing the day's shop takings to the bank across the road and pop it in its night safe. That was clearly something that the North and South Eccleston Labour Club did not do. This week the club was robbed of £2,300, which had been left inside their premises instead of being banked.
Asked why so much cash had been left there, club secretary Alfred Hitchmough said he did not want to comment, as it would "give people ideas about the methods we use". The loss was discovered by cleaners and reported to the police who thought the thief might have hid on the premises until everyone had left or entered by the fire escape. The club was already in financial difficulties and had recently decided to increase their membership fees and axe their annual pensioners party.
Wood Westworth was currently celebrating its centenary and its managing director, Pat Ball, said: "This is the biggest order we have received and it has given the company a tremendous boost. We are extremely pleased to get such a large order especially at a time when Merseyside printers are having a slack time."
The Reporter also described how "ruthless intruders" were preying on pensioners living alone in Grange Park. The paper reported a spate of burglaries had taken place over the past few months with the victims of the break-ins all being women. A recent victim had been Buffy Price of Dennis Avenue who had returned home to find her gas and electricity meters robbed of £9. "She has never slept in the house since," said her brother-in-law, Robert Bridge. "Her nerves have been completely shattered."
And John Thompson described to the Reporter how he and his wife very rarely went out in the evening for fear of coming home to find their house burgled. He called for a constable to be on the beat in Grange Park and said, "What's the good of a panda patrol which advertises itself and whose occupants can only give a cursory glance as it passes by?"
But those days of a bobby on the beat were long gone, with Chief Superintendent Jack Watson expressing his sympathy for the residents but stressing that despite the burglaries, Grange Park was still considered to be one of the lesser crime spots in St Helens.
The Talk of the Town Club in Market Street in Newton had an advert in the Reporter headlined "NewsFlash" that stated that Christmas party bookings were still being taken. And the Mayor's New Toy Appeal for deprived children was reaching its climax, with the Reporter featuring a picture of their receptionist Julie Bishop surrounded by gifts.
These had been left at the paper's College Street office and they had since been taken to the Town Hall for the Annual Carol Sing and Mayor's New Toy Appeal that was held on the 14th. Taking part were the choir of St Helens Junior School, Lyndale Singers and the Warrington Salvation Army Band.
Also on the 14th, Clint Eastwood's double bill of 'Magnum Force' and 'Dirty Harry' were replaced at the ABC Savoy with a sex film called 'Nurses On The Job'. And at the Capitol Cinema, 'The Getaway' starring Steve McQueen replaced a martial arts film called 'Godfather of Hong Kong'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Pilkington pensioners Christmas bumper bonus, the flying chunks of metal that struck a Sutton bowling club, the bleak Christmas facing pensioners in Sutton and Eccleston is voted best village in the North West's Britain in Bloom contest.
This week's many stories include the St Helens connection with Jaws, the enormous potential cost of closing down Leathers Chemicals, the Mayor's New Toy Appeal for Christmas, the ruthless intruders that were preying on pensioners in Grange Park and the true account of the supposedly homeless couple living in a tent in Newton.
We begin on the 11th when Walter Wright died at his home in Eccleston Park. The 65-year-old had been headmaster of Cowley Boys School from 1955 until 1974 when he retired on medical advice.
It was also Cowley Boys' speech day during this week and the present headmaster Frederick Clifton reported that 69 candidates at A-level had obtained a total of 186 passes.
There was a good example in the newspapers of the danger of accepting people's sob stories without proper checks being made.
Last week the Newton Guardian's lead story had on its front-page a dreadful tale of a couple aged 50 and 60 who claimed to have spent eight months living in a field under a plastic sheet.
George and May Johnson said they had been forced to camp in Old Hey Wood, near the Bradlegh Road Estate in Newton, and live on canal water and tinned food.
That, they insisted, was because they could not find a home after their lodgings had been condemned.
Much was made in the newspaper report of council policy being primarily to support homeless families with children, leaving such people as the Johnsons to fend for themselves.
But just when it looked as if some help was going to be available for them, the couple disappeared.
After also being featured on Granada TV, the couple were spotted in Warrington and provided with temporary bed and breakfast accommodation.
However, it turned out that Johnson was not their real surname and just how long they had really spent in the wood was not known. But the couple's past history was now being pieced together.
Geoff Hancell, Warrington's Housing Manager, told the Newton Guardian this week, "This is a most clear case of false compassion".
He said the man had lived in three council properties in Warrington and been evicted from the first for non-payment of rent.
Then he left the second owing rent and money for damages and had abandoned the third, without telling the council and with more rent arrears.
Mr Hancell added: "This man had every opportunity – how far should a local authority be responsible for the folly of one individual?
"We have to help people in need and although we accept that a lot are less than perfect – if this man has more than his fair share of attention somebody far more deserving will suffer."
The individual was also accused of deliberately making himself homeless, choosing not to work and harming relations with his neighbours through anti-social behaviour.
The Leathers public inquiry that had been ordered by Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, was set to begin in St Helens on January 6th 1976.
It was likely to last several weeks and the Inspector chairing the sessions would, at its conclusion, have to decide whether or not to recommend that Crosland confirmed St Helens Council's Discontinuance Order on the Lancots Lane plant.
If the closure of Leathers was approved it would come at a heck of a price.
All sorts of estimates for compensation payable to the sulphuric acid maker for an enforced shutdown had been suggested in the past.
But this week British Sidac reckoned on £11 million. In today's money that is around £120m, which would ultimately be paid by ratepayers and mean a big hike in their rates bills.
Sidac was Leather's industrial neighbour and were their fellow appellant against the closure order because they relied upon them for 25,000 tons of acid each year.
Sidac's company secretary and finance director Rupert Stewart-Smith told the St Helens Reporter that they were currently paying £155,000 in rates and expected to have to pay £275,000 if the full amount of compensation had to be paid.
However, that was only for a year with the likelihood that such rate rises would be spread over a longer period.
And the Sidac boss also said they would be claiming £1 million compensation of their own if Leathers closed.
The latter were refusing to state exactly how much compensation they would be claiming from St Helens Council, other than to say it would be "many millions".
The Reporter asked St Helens Treasurer Douglas Pennington for his estimate and although he would not provide a precise figure, he stated that every £1 million of compensation that was awarded would put an extra 5p in the pound on the rates.
And although people in Sutton might consider the rate rise a price worth paying to rid them of a troublesome acid plant – would the residents of places like Newton and Rainford be quite so happy?
When I worked for my father in the 1970s, one of my duties at the end of each day was to take a special locked bag containing the day's shop takings to the bank across the road and pop it in its night safe.
That was clearly something that the North and South Eccleston Labour Club did not do.
This week the club was robbed of £2,300, which had been left inside their premises instead of being banked.
Asked why so much cash had been left there, club secretary Alfred Hitchmough said he did not want to comment, as it would "give people ideas about the methods we use".
The loss was discovered by cleaners and reported to the police who thought the thief might have hid on the premises until everyone had left or entered by the fire escape.
The club was already in financial difficulties and had recently decided to increase their membership fees and axe their annual pensioners party.
The Reporter on the 12th described how a local printing firm had won a £10,000 contract to produce brochures promoting 'Jaws'.
The film was being released on Boxing Day and Wood Westworth of Park Road was said to be rushing to produce thousands of colour brochures for the film.
The Reporter described Jaws as a horror film – although I think thriller would have been more appropriate.
Wood Westworth was currently celebrating its centenary and its managing director, Pat Ball, said:
"This is the biggest order we have received and it has given the company a tremendous boost. We are extremely pleased to get such a large order especially at a time when Merseyside printers are having a slack time."
The Reporter also described how "ruthless intruders" were preying on pensioners living alone in Grange Park.
The paper reported a spate of burglaries had taken place over the past few months with the victims of the break-ins all being women.
A recent victim had been Buffy Price of Dennis Avenue who had returned home to find her gas and electricity meters robbed of £9.
"She has never slept in the house since," said her brother-in-law, Robert Bridge. "Her nerves have been completely shattered."
And John Thompson described to the Reporter how he and his wife very rarely went out in the evening for fear of coming home to find their house burgled.
He called for a constable to be on the beat in Grange Park and said, "What's the good of a panda patrol which advertises itself and whose occupants can only give a cursory glance as it passes by?"
But those days of a bobby on the beat were long gone, with Chief Superintendent Jack Watson expressing his sympathy for the residents but stressing that despite the burglaries, Grange Park was still considered to be one of the lesser crime spots in St Helens.
The Talk of the Town Club in Market Street in Newton had an advert in the Reporter headlined "NewsFlash" that stated that Christmas party bookings were still being taken.
And the Mayor's New Toy Appeal for deprived children was reaching its climax, with the Reporter featuring a picture of their receptionist Julie Bishop surrounded by gifts.
These had been left at the paper's College Street office and they had since been taken to the Town Hall for the Annual Carol Sing and Mayor's New Toy Appeal that was held on the 14th.
Taking part were the choir of St Helens Junior School, Lyndale Singers and the Warrington Salvation Army Band.
Also on the 14th, Clint Eastwood's double bill of 'Magnum Force' and 'Dirty Harry' were replaced at the ABC Savoy with a sex film called 'Nurses On The Job'.
And at the Capitol Cinema, 'The Getaway' starring Steve McQueen replaced a martial arts film called 'Godfather of Hong Kong'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Pilkington pensioners Christmas bumper bonus, the flying chunks of metal that struck a Sutton bowling club, the bleak Christmas facing pensioners in Sutton and Eccleston is voted best village in the North West's Britain in Bloom.
We begin on the 11th when Walter Wright died at his home in Eccleston Park. The 65-year-old had been headmaster of Cowley Boys School from 1955 until 1974 when he retired on medical advice.
It was also Cowley Boys' speech day during this week and the present headmaster Frederick Clifton reported that 69 candidates at A-level had obtained a total of 186 passes.
There was a good example in the newspapers of the danger of accepting people's sob stories without proper checks being made.
Last week the Newton Guardian's lead story had on its front-page a dreadful tale of a couple aged 50 and 60 who claimed to have spent eight months living in a field under a plastic sheet.
George and May Johnson said they had been forced to camp in Old Hey Wood, near the Bradlegh Road Estate in Newton, and live on canal water and tinned food.
That, they insisted, was because they could not find a home after their lodgings had been condemned.
Much was made in the newspaper report of council policy being primarily to support homeless families with children, leaving such people as the Johnsons to fend for themselves.
But just when it looked as if some help was going to be available for them, the couple disappeared.
After also being featured on Granada TV, the couple were spotted in Warrington and provided with temporary bed and breakfast accommodation.
However, it turned out that Johnson was not their real surname and just how long they had really spent in the wood was not known. But the couple's past history was now being pieced together.
Geoff Hancell, Warrington's Housing Manager, told the Newton Guardian this week, "This is a most clear case of false compassion".
He said the man had lived in three council properties in Warrington and been evicted from the first for non-payment of rent.
Then he left the second owing rent and money for damages and had abandoned the third, without telling the council and with more rent arrears.
Mr Hancell added: "This man had every opportunity – how far should a local authority be responsible for the folly of one individual?
"We have to help people in need and although we accept that a lot are less than perfect – if this man has more than his fair share of attention somebody far more deserving will suffer."
The individual was also accused of deliberately making himself homeless, choosing not to work and harming relations with his neighbours through anti-social behaviour.
The Leathers public inquiry that had been ordered by Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, was set to begin in St Helens on January 6th 1976.
It was likely to last several weeks and the Inspector chairing the sessions would, at its conclusion, have to decide whether or not to recommend that Crosland confirmed St Helens Council's Discontinuance Order on the Lancots Lane plant.
If the closure of Leathers was approved it would come at a heck of a price.
All sorts of estimates for compensation payable to the sulphuric acid maker for an enforced shutdown had been suggested in the past.
But this week British Sidac reckoned on £11 million. In today's money that is around £120m, which would ultimately be paid by ratepayers and mean a big hike in their rates bills.
Sidac was Leather's industrial neighbour and were their fellow appellant against the closure order because they relied upon them for 25,000 tons of acid each year.
Sidac's company secretary and finance director Rupert Stewart-Smith told the St Helens Reporter that they were currently paying £155,000 in rates and expected to have to pay £275,000 if the full amount of compensation had to be paid.
However, that was only for a year with the likelihood that such rate rises would be spread over a longer period.
And the Sidac boss also said they would be claiming £1 million compensation of their own if Leathers closed.
The latter were refusing to state exactly how much compensation they would be claiming from St Helens Council, other than to say it would be "many millions".
The Reporter asked St Helens Treasurer Douglas Pennington for his estimate and although he would not provide a precise figure, he stated that every £1 million of compensation that was awarded would put an extra 5p in the pound on the rates.
And although people in Sutton might consider the rate rise a price worth paying to rid them of a troublesome acid plant – would the residents of places like Newton and Rainford be quite so happy?
When I worked for my father in the 1970s, one of my duties at the end of each day was to take a special locked bag containing the day's shop takings to the bank across the road and pop it in its night safe.
That was clearly something that the North and South Eccleston Labour Club did not do.
This week the club was robbed of £2,300, which had been left inside their premises instead of being banked.
Asked why so much cash had been left there, club secretary Alfred Hitchmough said he did not want to comment, as it would "give people ideas about the methods we use".
The loss was discovered by cleaners and reported to the police who thought the thief might have hid on the premises until everyone had left or entered by the fire escape.
The club was already in financial difficulties and had recently decided to increase their membership fees and axe their annual pensioners party.
The film was being released on Boxing Day and Wood Westworth of Park Road was said to be rushing to produce thousands of colour brochures for the film.
The Reporter described Jaws as a horror film – although I think thriller would have been more appropriate.
Wood Westworth was currently celebrating its centenary and its managing director, Pat Ball, said:
"This is the biggest order we have received and it has given the company a tremendous boost. We are extremely pleased to get such a large order especially at a time when Merseyside printers are having a slack time."
The Reporter also described how "ruthless intruders" were preying on pensioners living alone in Grange Park.
The paper reported a spate of burglaries had taken place over the past few months with the victims of the break-ins all being women.
A recent victim had been Buffy Price of Dennis Avenue who had returned home to find her gas and electricity meters robbed of £9.
"She has never slept in the house since," said her brother-in-law, Robert Bridge. "Her nerves have been completely shattered."
And John Thompson described to the Reporter how he and his wife very rarely went out in the evening for fear of coming home to find their house burgled.
He called for a constable to be on the beat in Grange Park and said, "What's the good of a panda patrol which advertises itself and whose occupants can only give a cursory glance as it passes by?"
But those days of a bobby on the beat were long gone, with Chief Superintendent Jack Watson expressing his sympathy for the residents but stressing that despite the burglaries, Grange Park was still considered to be one of the lesser crime spots in St Helens.
The Talk of the Town Club in Market Street in Newton had an advert in the Reporter headlined "NewsFlash" that stated that Christmas party bookings were still being taken.
And the Mayor's New Toy Appeal for deprived children was reaching its climax, with the Reporter featuring a picture of their receptionist Julie Bishop surrounded by gifts.
These had been left at the paper's College Street office and they had since been taken to the Town Hall for the Annual Carol Sing and Mayor's New Toy Appeal that was held on the 14th.
Taking part were the choir of St Helens Junior School, Lyndale Singers and the Warrington Salvation Army Band.
Also on the 14th, Clint Eastwood's double bill of 'Magnum Force' and 'Dirty Harry' were replaced at the ABC Savoy with a sex film called 'Nurses On The Job'.
And at the Capitol Cinema, 'The Getaway' starring Steve McQueen replaced a martial arts film called 'Godfather of Hong Kong'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Pilkington pensioners Christmas bumper bonus, the flying chunks of metal that struck a Sutton bowling club, the bleak Christmas facing pensioners in Sutton and Eccleston is voted best village in the North West's Britain in Bloom.