FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12 - 18 JUNE 1973)
This week's many stories include the storm over the playing of Sunday sport in St Helens parks, a price is put on the shocking level of vandalism in St Helens, Hughie Green returns to Eccleston to open St Julie's Gala, the battle of Sutton Park between two gangs of boys, a planned new health centre is relocated to Fingerpost, the broken glass sculpture at the Pilkington Glass Museum and the priest that banned a child from being christened at his church.
We begin on the 13th when Parkside Colliery Choir and the Parr (St Helens) Band performed together at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
The controversy over the playing of Sunday sport in St Helens Corporation parks reared its head again this week. The council had permitted the playing of casual sporting activities – such as tennis, golf and bowls – on the Sabbath back in 1961. But they excluded organised football and rugby matches for religious reasons. At a meeting of the council's Amenities Committee held on the 13th it was decided for the first time to allow an amateur rugby league team to play Sunday league games on a Corporation pitch.
However, Alderman William Burrows – who was not present at the meeting – said he would try to block the decision at the next full council meeting, explaining to the Reporter: "This is a step in the wrong direction. I'm against organised sports on Sunday in our parks. I always have been and I always will be. I'm all for retaining Sunday as Sunday. If sport is allowed to develop, it might interfere with people who use our parks for quietness and rest on Sunday."
However, Ted Gallagher, St Helens Corporation's Acting Director of Parks had a different concern. He predicted that the decision would open the door for many more clubs to play on Sundays and in bad weather over-use could damage the turf. The application was made to the committee by a team of Corporation busmen who said they could not play at any other time because of their shift system. Councillor Gerald Baxter said at the meeting that many of the Corporation's pitches were under-used, adding: "It's better for people to be interested in sport than being vandals."
The St Helens Health Committee also met on the 13th and decided to re-site their planned new health centre to make it more convenient for patients. Originally it was going to be built at the bottom of Park Road – but now would be constructed at Fingerpost. The committee decided on the change after their Medical Officer of Health reported that the doctors that would be moving their practices to the new centre were doubtful over the Park Road location.
Dr Julian Baines said they had told him it would result in more travelling for some of their patients. The centre would now be built at the corner of Parr Mount Street and Orrell Street, near the new 3-storey flats at Fingerpost. Two practices comprising five doctors would use the complex.
The cost of vandalism in St Helens during the past year was estimated this week as a "conservative" £50,000. In today's terms that's around £¾ million. Schools were the worst hit buildings, with £11,000 worth of damage and it was expected that the coming year's figure would be even higher. A spokesman for the Education Department's building section said: "The amount of damage is utterly abominable. Parents see children doing it, but don't bother."
Houses became targets as soon as they fell vacant. An example was two adjoining semis in Winston Avenue in Derbyshire Hill. They had been vacated ready for modernisation and their windows and doors were bricked or boarded up. Soon the vandals started their blitz and within weeks the dwellings were completely gutted. Their back walls were demolished and ceilings, walls, slates and fittings were stripped and floorboards broken. Damage in parks and to public toilets also figured in the £50,000.
This week's St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and featured Jim and Elizabeth Clayton expressing their annoyance of Fr. Robert Duxbury. The parish priest at St Joseph's Church in Peasley Cross had refused to christen their baby because neither the parents nor the godparents were practising Catholics.
And his ban was only imposed when the christening party arrived at the church along with 6-month-old Caroline. Jim Clayton told the paper: "I was dumbfounded. He should never have taken it out on the child." Now Mr Clayton planned to have Caroline christened at an Anglican Church and wanted his two boys who attended St Joseph's school to be transferred.
The Reporter also described how Hughie Green (pictured above) had been back in St Helens to open another Eccleston gala. The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising event for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years before when their parish was just a field. Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built.
In Hughie's return visit the TV star travelled in a vintage car as part of a procession from the Howards Lane church to the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and then performed the gala's opening ceremony. Its main attraction was a version of "It's A Knockout" in which six local junior schools took part.
The Reporter also described a battle between 50 stick-carrying teenagers in Sutton Park. The trouble had occurred in January when a group of Parr lads decided to have a "sorting out" with their Sutton rivals. The violence ended in a clash with police and the window of a house in Marina Avenue was smashed. After leaving the park the youths ran amok on the estate breaking bottles. This week twenty-seven of them aged between 13 and 17 appeared before St Helens magistrates charged with using threatening behaviour. Most received £10 fines.
There is an obvious disadvantage in sculpting in glass, particularly when it comes to transporting your work. When American artist Andre Billeci arrived in St Helens and unpacked his creations he discovered them to be in more pieces than when he left New York. The 40-year-old glass sculptor had come to the town to exhibit his valuable artwork at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road. But the flight over the Atlantic had led to six abstract glass sculptures getting broken in transit.
Last year Andre had lost a complete exhibition when a flood hit the New York museum where it was being staged. So you can imagine his disappointment at this second blow. However, help was at hand as the Pilkington research labs in Lathom came to his rescue.
This week Phil Atkinson, a specialist in glasswork, put the broken exhibits back together just in time for the start of the exhibition. He held their snapped edges under a 600°C flame until they became soft enough to mould back in place. Andre told the Reporter: "I lost one lot of exhibits in the flood and when I unpacked these I thought: ‘Oh no, not again.’ But it looks like they'll be OK now."
This week St Helens Council's Chief Architect, Derek Billam, predicted that the new branch library to serve the Four Acre Lane estate in Clock Face would be completed by next February. Mr Billam told a committee that the contactor was making good progress and had started fitting window frames and exterior facing bricks.
You'd think the Reporter would know how to spell the well-known Cross Pit Lane in Rainford. Mistakes in spelling it Crosspit Lane are understandable – but not Croftpit Lane. But that was the location from which they said 65 Rainford children had left on their bikes last week as part of a cycle rally. The winners of the 3-hour event were 9-year-old James Ashworth of Astley Close (Junior section) and 12-year-old Andrew Taylor of Central Drive (Senior section).
In another story St Helens Tennis Club was reported to be facing a membership crisis caused by television. Gordon Tandy, the chairman of the 100-year-old club at Windleshaw Road, said few of their existing junior club members were still playing – and no new ones were signing up. "We are very worried that young people are not taking up the game," said Mr Tandy. "They seem to be turning into spectators through television."
Folk duo Miki and Griff performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 16th. And at the Plaza Club in Duke Street, Heinz performed. The German-born bassist and singer will always be remembered for being a member of the instrumental group the Tornados.
The annual Rainford School Treat and Pleasure Fair – known locally as just "walking day" – took place this year on the 16th, with Silcock's fair on the "rec" behind the parish church from two days before. It was also the annual Rainhill hospital gala with tents and marquees set up on the green at the Avon Division. Patients and staff took part in sideshows, entertainment, games, and competitions, such as "The Prettiest Bonnet" and "The Handsomest Male". Susan Foster, who worked in the hospital's pathology laboratory, won the Miss Rainhill contest.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the end of the line for the Thatto Heath Old Men's Benevolent Fund, more atmospheric fallout in Sutton, the space-age Pilkington suit and the Rainhill inquiry over house building on greenbelt land.
We begin on the 13th when Parkside Colliery Choir and the Parr (St Helens) Band performed together at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
The controversy over the playing of Sunday sport in St Helens Corporation parks reared its head again this week. The council had permitted the playing of casual sporting activities – such as tennis, golf and bowls – on the Sabbath back in 1961. But they excluded organised football and rugby matches for religious reasons. At a meeting of the council's Amenities Committee held on the 13th it was decided for the first time to allow an amateur rugby league team to play Sunday league games on a Corporation pitch.
However, Alderman William Burrows – who was not present at the meeting – said he would try to block the decision at the next full council meeting, explaining to the Reporter: "This is a step in the wrong direction. I'm against organised sports on Sunday in our parks. I always have been and I always will be. I'm all for retaining Sunday as Sunday. If sport is allowed to develop, it might interfere with people who use our parks for quietness and rest on Sunday."
However, Ted Gallagher, St Helens Corporation's Acting Director of Parks had a different concern. He predicted that the decision would open the door for many more clubs to play on Sundays and in bad weather over-use could damage the turf. The application was made to the committee by a team of Corporation busmen who said they could not play at any other time because of their shift system. Councillor Gerald Baxter said at the meeting that many of the Corporation's pitches were under-used, adding: "It's better for people to be interested in sport than being vandals."
The St Helens Health Committee also met on the 13th and decided to re-site their planned new health centre to make it more convenient for patients. Originally it was going to be built at the bottom of Park Road – but now would be constructed at Fingerpost. The committee decided on the change after their Medical Officer of Health reported that the doctors that would be moving their practices to the new centre were doubtful over the Park Road location.
Dr Julian Baines said they had told him it would result in more travelling for some of their patients. The centre would now be built at the corner of Parr Mount Street and Orrell Street, near the new 3-storey flats at Fingerpost. Two practices comprising five doctors would use the complex.
The cost of vandalism in St Helens during the past year was estimated this week as a "conservative" £50,000. In today's terms that's around £¾ million. Schools were the worst hit buildings, with £11,000 worth of damage and it was expected that the coming year's figure would be even higher. A spokesman for the Education Department's building section said: "The amount of damage is utterly abominable. Parents see children doing it, but don't bother."
Houses became targets as soon as they fell vacant. An example was two adjoining semis in Winston Avenue in Derbyshire Hill. They had been vacated ready for modernisation and their windows and doors were bricked or boarded up. Soon the vandals started their blitz and within weeks the dwellings were completely gutted. Their back walls were demolished and ceilings, walls, slates and fittings were stripped and floorboards broken. Damage in parks and to public toilets also figured in the £50,000.
This week's St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and featured Jim and Elizabeth Clayton expressing their annoyance of Fr. Robert Duxbury. The parish priest at St Joseph's Church in Peasley Cross had refused to christen their baby because neither the parents nor the godparents were practising Catholics.
And his ban was only imposed when the christening party arrived at the church along with 6-month-old Caroline. Jim Clayton told the paper: "I was dumbfounded. He should never have taken it out on the child." Now Mr Clayton planned to have Caroline christened at an Anglican Church and wanted his two boys who attended St Joseph's school to be transferred.
In Hughie's return visit the TV star travelled in a vintage car as part of a procession from the Howards Lane church to the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and then performed the gala's opening ceremony. Its main attraction was a version of "It's A Knockout" in which six local junior schools took part.
The Reporter also described a battle between 50 stick-carrying teenagers in Sutton Park. The trouble had occurred in January when a group of Parr lads decided to have a "sorting out" with their Sutton rivals. The violence ended in a clash with police and the window of a house in Marina Avenue was smashed. After leaving the park the youths ran amok on the estate breaking bottles. This week twenty-seven of them aged between 13 and 17 appeared before St Helens magistrates charged with using threatening behaviour. Most received £10 fines.
There is an obvious disadvantage in sculpting in glass, particularly when it comes to transporting your work. When American artist Andre Billeci arrived in St Helens and unpacked his creations he discovered them to be in more pieces than when he left New York. The 40-year-old glass sculptor had come to the town to exhibit his valuable artwork at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road. But the flight over the Atlantic had led to six abstract glass sculptures getting broken in transit.
Last year Andre had lost a complete exhibition when a flood hit the New York museum where it was being staged. So you can imagine his disappointment at this second blow. However, help was at hand as the Pilkington research labs in Lathom came to his rescue.
This week Phil Atkinson, a specialist in glasswork, put the broken exhibits back together just in time for the start of the exhibition. He held their snapped edges under a 600°C flame until they became soft enough to mould back in place. Andre told the Reporter: "I lost one lot of exhibits in the flood and when I unpacked these I thought: ‘Oh no, not again.’ But it looks like they'll be OK now."
This week St Helens Council's Chief Architect, Derek Billam, predicted that the new branch library to serve the Four Acre Lane estate in Clock Face would be completed by next February. Mr Billam told a committee that the contactor was making good progress and had started fitting window frames and exterior facing bricks.
You'd think the Reporter would know how to spell the well-known Cross Pit Lane in Rainford. Mistakes in spelling it Crosspit Lane are understandable – but not Croftpit Lane. But that was the location from which they said 65 Rainford children had left on their bikes last week as part of a cycle rally. The winners of the 3-hour event were 9-year-old James Ashworth of Astley Close (Junior section) and 12-year-old Andrew Taylor of Central Drive (Senior section).
In another story St Helens Tennis Club was reported to be facing a membership crisis caused by television. Gordon Tandy, the chairman of the 100-year-old club at Windleshaw Road, said few of their existing junior club members were still playing – and no new ones were signing up. "We are very worried that young people are not taking up the game," said Mr Tandy. "They seem to be turning into spectators through television."
Folk duo Miki and Griff performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 16th. And at the Plaza Club in Duke Street, Heinz performed. The German-born bassist and singer will always be remembered for being a member of the instrumental group the Tornados.
The annual Rainford School Treat and Pleasure Fair – known locally as just "walking day" – took place this year on the 16th, with Silcock's fair on the "rec" behind the parish church from two days before. It was also the annual Rainhill hospital gala with tents and marquees set up on the green at the Avon Division. Patients and staff took part in sideshows, entertainment, games, and competitions, such as "The Prettiest Bonnet" and "The Handsomest Male". Susan Foster, who worked in the hospital's pathology laboratory, won the Miss Rainhill contest.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the end of the line for the Thatto Heath Old Men's Benevolent Fund, more atmospheric fallout in Sutton, the space-age Pilkington suit and the Rainhill inquiry over house building on greenbelt land.
This week's many stories include the storm over the playing of Sunday sport in St Helens parks, a price is put on the shocking level of vandalism in St Helens, Hughie Green returns to Eccleston to open St Julie's Gala, the battle of Sutton Park between two gangs of boys, a planned new health centre is relocated to Fingerpost, the broken glass sculpture at the Pilkington Glass Museum and the priest that banned a child from being christened at his church.
We begin on the 13th when Parkside Colliery Choir and the Parr (St. Helens) Band performed together at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
The controversy over the playing of Sunday sport in St Helens Corporation parks reared its head again this week.
The council had permitted the playing of casual sporting activities – such as tennis, golf and bowls – on the Sabbath back in 1961. But they excluded organised football and rugby matches for religious reasons.
At a meeting of the council's Amenities Committee held on the 13th it was decided for the first time to allow an amateur rugby league team to play Sunday league games on a Corporation pitch.
However, Alderman William Burrows – who was not present at the meeting – said he would try to block the decision at the next full council meeting, explaining to the Reporter:
"This is a step in the wrong direction. I'm against organised sports on Sunday in our parks. I always have been and I always will be. I'm all for retaining Sunday as Sunday. If sport is allowed to develop, it might interfere with people who use our parks for quietness and rest on Sunday."
However, Ted Gallagher, St Helens Corporation's Acting Director of Parks had a different concern.
He predicted that the decision would open the door for many more clubs to play on Sundays and in bad weather over-use could damage the turf.
The application was made to the committee by a team of Corporation busmen who said they could not play at any other time because of their shift system.
Councillor Gerald Baxter said at the meeting that many of the Corporation's pitches were under-used, adding: "It's better for people to be interested in sport than being vandals."
The St Helens Health Committee also met on the 13th and decided to re-site their planned new health centre to make it more convenient for patients.
Originally it was going to be built at the bottom of Park Road – but now would be constructed at Fingerpost.
The committee decided on the change after their Medical Officer of Health reported that the doctors that would be moving their practices to the new centre were doubtful over the Park Road location.
Dr Julian Baines said they had told him it would result in more travelling for some of their patients.
The centre would now be built at the corner of Parr Mount Street and Orrell Street, near the new 3-storey flats at Fingerpost. Two practices comprising five doctors would use the complex.
The cost of vandalism in St Helens during the past year was estimated this week as a "conservative" £50,000. In today's terms that's around £¾ million.
Schools were the worst hit buildings, with £11,000 worth of damage and it was expected that the coming year's figure would be even higher.
A spokesman for the Education Department's building section said: "The amount of damage is utterly abominable. Parents see children doing it, but don't bother."
Houses became targets as soon as they fell vacant. An example was two adjoining semis in Winston Avenue in Derbyshire Hill.
They had been vacated ready for modernisation and their windows and doors were bricked or boarded up.
Soon the vandals started their blitz and within weeks the dwellings were completely gutted.
Their back walls were demolished and ceilings, walls, slates and fittings were stripped and floorboards broken. Damage in parks and to public toilets also figured in the £50,000.
This week's St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and featured Jim and Elizabeth Clayton expressing their annoyance of Fr. Robert Duxbury.
The parish priest at St Joseph's Church in Peasley Cross had refused to christen their baby because neither the parents nor the godparents were practising Catholics.
And his ban was only imposed when the christening party arrived at the church along with 6-month-old Caroline.
Jim Clayton told the paper: "I was dumbfounded. He should never have taken it out on the child."
Now Mr Clayton planned to have Caroline christened at an Anglican Church and wanted his two boys who attended St Joseph's school to be transferred.
The Reporter also described how Hughie Green (pictured above) had been back in St Helens to open another Eccleston gala.
The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising event for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years before when their parish was just a field. Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built.
In Hughie's return visit the TV star travelled in a vintage car as part of a procession from the Howards Lane church to the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and then performed the gala's opening ceremony.
Its main attraction was a version of "It's A Knockout" in which six local junior schools took part.
The Reporter also described a battle between 50 stick-carrying teenagers in Sutton Park.
The trouble had occurred in January when a group of Parr lads decided to have a "sorting out" with their Sutton rivals.
The violence ended in a clash with police and the window of a house in Marina Avenue was smashed. After leaving the park the youths ran amok on the estate breaking bottles.
This week twenty-seven of them aged between 13 and 17 appeared before St Helens magistrates charged with using threatening behaviour. Most received £10 fines.
There is an obvious disadvantage in sculpting in glass, particularly when it comes to transporting your work.
When American artist Andre Billeci arrived in St Helens and unpacked his creations he discovered them to be in more pieces than when he left New York.
The 40-year-old glass sculptor had come to the town to exhibit his valuable artwork at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road.
But the flight over the Atlantic had led to six abstract glass sculptures getting broken in transit.
Last year Andre had lost a complete exhibition when a flood hit the New York museum where it was being staged. So you can imagine his disappointment at this second blow.
However, help was at hand as the Pilkington research labs in Lathom came to his rescue.
This week Phil Atkinson, a specialist in glasswork, put the broken exhibits back together just in time for the start of the exhibition.
He held their snapped edges under a 600°C flame until they became soft enough to mould back in place.
Andre told the Reporter: "I lost one lot of exhibits in the flood and when I unpacked these I thought: ‘Oh no, not again.’ But it looks like they'll be OK now."
This week St Helens Council's Chief Architect, Derek Billam, predicted that the new branch library to serve the Four Acre Lane estate in Clock Face would be completed by next February.
Mr Billam told a committee that the contactor was making good progress and had started fitting window frames and exterior facing bricks.
You'd think the Reporter would know how to spell the well-known Cross Pit Lane in Rainford. Mistakes in spelling it Crosspit Lane are understandable – but not Croftpit Lane.
But that was the location from which they said 65 Rainford children had left on their bikes last week as part of a cycle rally.
The winners of the 3-hour event were 9-year-old James Ashworth of Astley Close (Junior section) and 12-year-old Andrew Taylor of Central Drive (Senior section).
In another story St Helens Tennis Club was reported to be facing a membership crisis caused by television.
Gordon Tandy, the chairman of the 100-year-old club at Windleshaw Road, said few of their existing junior club members were still playing – and no new ones were signing up.
"We are very worried that young people are not taking up the game," said Mr Tandy. "They seem to be turning into spectators through television."
Folk duo Miki and Griff performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 16th. And at the Plaza Club in Duke Street, Heinz performed.
The German-born bassist and singer will always be remembered for being a member of the instrumental group the Tornados.
The annual Rainford School Treat and Pleasure Fair – known locally as just "walking day" – took place this year on the 16th, with Silcock's fair on the "rec" behind the parish church from two days before.
It was also the annual Rainhill hospital gala with tents and marquees set up on the green at the Avon Division.
Patients and staff took part in sideshows, entertainment, games, and competitions, such as "The Prettiest Bonnet" and "The Handsomest Male".
Susan Foster, who worked in the hospital's pathology laboratory, won the Miss Rainhill contest.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the end of the line for the Thatto Heath Old Men's Benevolent Fund, more atmospheric fallout in Sutton, the space-age Pilkington suit and the Rainhill inquiry over house building on greenbelt land.
We begin on the 13th when Parkside Colliery Choir and the Parr (St. Helens) Band performed together at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
The controversy over the playing of Sunday sport in St Helens Corporation parks reared its head again this week.
The council had permitted the playing of casual sporting activities – such as tennis, golf and bowls – on the Sabbath back in 1961. But they excluded organised football and rugby matches for religious reasons.
At a meeting of the council's Amenities Committee held on the 13th it was decided for the first time to allow an amateur rugby league team to play Sunday league games on a Corporation pitch.
However, Alderman William Burrows – who was not present at the meeting – said he would try to block the decision at the next full council meeting, explaining to the Reporter:
"This is a step in the wrong direction. I'm against organised sports on Sunday in our parks. I always have been and I always will be. I'm all for retaining Sunday as Sunday. If sport is allowed to develop, it might interfere with people who use our parks for quietness and rest on Sunday."
However, Ted Gallagher, St Helens Corporation's Acting Director of Parks had a different concern.
He predicted that the decision would open the door for many more clubs to play on Sundays and in bad weather over-use could damage the turf.
The application was made to the committee by a team of Corporation busmen who said they could not play at any other time because of their shift system.
Councillor Gerald Baxter said at the meeting that many of the Corporation's pitches were under-used, adding: "It's better for people to be interested in sport than being vandals."
The St Helens Health Committee also met on the 13th and decided to re-site their planned new health centre to make it more convenient for patients.
Originally it was going to be built at the bottom of Park Road – but now would be constructed at Fingerpost.
The committee decided on the change after their Medical Officer of Health reported that the doctors that would be moving their practices to the new centre were doubtful over the Park Road location.
Dr Julian Baines said they had told him it would result in more travelling for some of their patients.
The centre would now be built at the corner of Parr Mount Street and Orrell Street, near the new 3-storey flats at Fingerpost. Two practices comprising five doctors would use the complex.
The cost of vandalism in St Helens during the past year was estimated this week as a "conservative" £50,000. In today's terms that's around £¾ million.
Schools were the worst hit buildings, with £11,000 worth of damage and it was expected that the coming year's figure would be even higher.
A spokesman for the Education Department's building section said: "The amount of damage is utterly abominable. Parents see children doing it, but don't bother."
Houses became targets as soon as they fell vacant. An example was two adjoining semis in Winston Avenue in Derbyshire Hill.
They had been vacated ready for modernisation and their windows and doors were bricked or boarded up.
Soon the vandals started their blitz and within weeks the dwellings were completely gutted.
Their back walls were demolished and ceilings, walls, slates and fittings were stripped and floorboards broken. Damage in parks and to public toilets also figured in the £50,000.
This week's St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and featured Jim and Elizabeth Clayton expressing their annoyance of Fr. Robert Duxbury.
The parish priest at St Joseph's Church in Peasley Cross had refused to christen their baby because neither the parents nor the godparents were practising Catholics.
And his ban was only imposed when the christening party arrived at the church along with 6-month-old Caroline.
Jim Clayton told the paper: "I was dumbfounded. He should never have taken it out on the child."
Now Mr Clayton planned to have Caroline christened at an Anglican Church and wanted his two boys who attended St Joseph's school to be transferred.
The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising event for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years before when their parish was just a field. Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built.
In Hughie's return visit the TV star travelled in a vintage car as part of a procession from the Howards Lane church to the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and then performed the gala's opening ceremony.
Its main attraction was a version of "It's A Knockout" in which six local junior schools took part.
The Reporter also described a battle between 50 stick-carrying teenagers in Sutton Park.
The trouble had occurred in January when a group of Parr lads decided to have a "sorting out" with their Sutton rivals.
The violence ended in a clash with police and the window of a house in Marina Avenue was smashed. After leaving the park the youths ran amok on the estate breaking bottles.
This week twenty-seven of them aged between 13 and 17 appeared before St Helens magistrates charged with using threatening behaviour. Most received £10 fines.
There is an obvious disadvantage in sculpting in glass, particularly when it comes to transporting your work.
When American artist Andre Billeci arrived in St Helens and unpacked his creations he discovered them to be in more pieces than when he left New York.
The 40-year-old glass sculptor had come to the town to exhibit his valuable artwork at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road.
But the flight over the Atlantic had led to six abstract glass sculptures getting broken in transit.
Last year Andre had lost a complete exhibition when a flood hit the New York museum where it was being staged. So you can imagine his disappointment at this second blow.
However, help was at hand as the Pilkington research labs in Lathom came to his rescue.
This week Phil Atkinson, a specialist in glasswork, put the broken exhibits back together just in time for the start of the exhibition.
He held their snapped edges under a 600°C flame until they became soft enough to mould back in place.
Andre told the Reporter: "I lost one lot of exhibits in the flood and when I unpacked these I thought: ‘Oh no, not again.’ But it looks like they'll be OK now."
This week St Helens Council's Chief Architect, Derek Billam, predicted that the new branch library to serve the Four Acre Lane estate in Clock Face would be completed by next February.
Mr Billam told a committee that the contactor was making good progress and had started fitting window frames and exterior facing bricks.
You'd think the Reporter would know how to spell the well-known Cross Pit Lane in Rainford. Mistakes in spelling it Crosspit Lane are understandable – but not Croftpit Lane.
But that was the location from which they said 65 Rainford children had left on their bikes last week as part of a cycle rally.
The winners of the 3-hour event were 9-year-old James Ashworth of Astley Close (Junior section) and 12-year-old Andrew Taylor of Central Drive (Senior section).
In another story St Helens Tennis Club was reported to be facing a membership crisis caused by television.
Gordon Tandy, the chairman of the 100-year-old club at Windleshaw Road, said few of their existing junior club members were still playing – and no new ones were signing up.
"We are very worried that young people are not taking up the game," said Mr Tandy. "They seem to be turning into spectators through television."
Folk duo Miki and Griff performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 16th. And at the Plaza Club in Duke Street, Heinz performed.
The German-born bassist and singer will always be remembered for being a member of the instrumental group the Tornados.
The annual Rainford School Treat and Pleasure Fair – known locally as just "walking day" – took place this year on the 16th, with Silcock's fair on the "rec" behind the parish church from two days before.
It was also the annual Rainhill hospital gala with tents and marquees set up on the green at the Avon Division.
Patients and staff took part in sideshows, entertainment, games, and competitions, such as "The Prettiest Bonnet" and "The Handsomest Male".
Susan Foster, who worked in the hospital's pathology laboratory, won the Miss Rainhill contest.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the end of the line for the Thatto Heath Old Men's Benevolent Fund, more atmospheric fallout in Sutton, the space-age Pilkington suit and the Rainhill inquiry over house building on greenbelt land.