FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 13 - 19 MAY 1974
This week's many stories include the plans to convert the Capitol Cinema into a bingo hall, Sutton campaigners consider picketing Leathers Chemicals, the hair-raising cost of a hair-cut, the Haydock child's horse ridden into the ground by thugs, the ten-year-old boys who had their faces burned while cycling past Sidac and how new fire safety rules meant finding accommodation in St Helens was proving difficult.
We begin on the 13th when the Old Whint and Landvale Residents Association attempted to hold their monthly meeting at the Wagon and Horses in Haydock. It must have been their shortest session on record, as the meeting had to be postponed after only a few minutes because too many people had turned up.
That was because the main item on their agenda was a discussion on the huge rates rises caused by inflation and the recent local government reorganisation. Many Haydock folk were angry about having to pay more cash as they claimed not to be benefitting from improved facilities.
It was announced this week that nurses at Rainhill Hospital had voted to strike on June 3rd over pay. The strike could mean the evacuation of all 2,000 patients at Rainhill because the wards might end up being completely unmanned.
Price fixing was permitted in the 1970s and hairdressers in St Helens all charged the same rates. On the evening of the 14th the St Helens branch of the National Hairdressers' Federation decided to raise the price of a man's haircut from 35p to 45p. As for the ladies a shampoo and set would increase by 15p to 65p and perms would go up by 20%. There were certainly a lot of salons and barbers' shops within the St Helens district – about 400 in fact, including those in Prescot and Newton.
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 14th how Leathers Chemicals could be hit by round-the-clock picketing from next week. The sulphuric acid manufacturer had just won an appeal against two enforcement notices that would have allowed the council to prosecute them over fallout incidents. But Sutton people angry at the decision said they were preparing to take matters into their own hands.
An emergency meeting of the East Sutton Ratepayers Association had been held and it was decided to call a public meeting in which it would be recommended that demonstrators stood outside the factory gates on a 24-hour rota. The protestors' picketing would be intended to stop materials from reaching the Lancots Lane plant with the chairman of the association, Jim Atherton, declaring:
"They don't care about human beings. The only way to do this is by causing a civil disturbance. The police will be there. They may put you in clink, but you've got to be prepared for it. We have got to take to the streets."
The recently passed Fire Precautions Act had meant that the number of pubs and guesthouses in St Helens offering accommodation to visitors had been greatly reduced. Some had only temporarily stopped accommodating guests while improvements to their buildings were made to comply with the new law. But others, such as the Nelson in Bridge Street, had given up offering bed and breakfast.
The Newspaper reported how the reduction had created problems for a Chelmsford-based theatrical company that was in the town to present a month-long series of mystery plays at the Theatre Royal. Three members of the company had been unable to find digs and had been sleeping in the living rooms of sympathetic supporters. Their Stage Manager Polly March told the Newspaper:
"Some of the people on our lists had been closed down because of the fire regulations, and others take in lorry drivers and motorway workers so there wasn't any room. We can't afford £14 per week for [a] hotel or we watch our finances rapidly dwindling."
However, the Newspaper added that every member of the company had since found accommodation with Polly March saying: "Everybody has now been fixed up – there are some lovely people in St. Helens. We'd still like the problem to be high-lighted though so we can add digs to our lists."
The Newspaper also reported how St Helens magistrates had rejected a bid to close the Capitol Cinema in Duke Street and reopen it as a bingo hall. EMI had recently sold sixteen of its cinemas – including the Capitol – to the Star Group who already owned the Rivoli Bingo Club in Corporation Street. And so part of the argument against the proposed change was that St Helens did not need another bingo hall, especially as the Rivoli and the Hippodrome were not exactly bursting at the seams with customers.
It was stated at the hearing that on its busiest night during the previous week, the Rivoli had been less than two-thirds full. And over the past three weeks, the Hippodrome had on average been 60% empty. Robert Cheetham handed a petition to the court signed by 700 objectors and said: "We are thinking of our children. It would be a great loss to them if the cinema was converted." After the court rejected the move, the Capitol said they would be continuing as a cinema. But the die had been cast and the Cap would close in four years time.
During the evening of the 14th Jake Thackray performed at the Fleece Hotel in Church Street. Last year Jake made his debut appearance at the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was billed as "the contemporary folk star".
The death took place on the 16th of Frank Waring of Broad Oak Road at the age of 69. For many years Frank ran a chain of TV and electrical shops in Duke Street, Church Street and Parr Stocks Road until he sold them all to Granada.
A sad story in the St Helens Reporter on the 17th told how a five-year-old girl's 40-inch high Shetland pony had been ridden to death half-a-mile from her Haydock home. Lynn Kelly's pony Beauty was found lying exhausted and too weak to walk in its field in Liverpool Road. The horse had been taken from its stable after midnight and ridden into the ground. Lynn's father, Paul Kelly, was offering a £25 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible and said:
"Whoever did this horrible thing rode Beauty until he collapsed exhausted and then left him there to die. He was really punished and I can't find words to describe the people who did this. In fact they are not people. It is just a laugh and joke to them but it is heartbreak to others." The horse was so small that it was only suitable for children to ride and through the weight it was forced to carry, Beauty sustained ruptured back muscles and died six days later.
The Reporter also described how two ten-year-old boys had their faces burned while cycling past British Sidac in Sutton. Mark Wilcock and John Slater found themselves riding through a cloud of steam that was thought to contain caustic soda as they pedalled past the Lancots Lane plant. Mark was burnt down the left side of his face and the skin later peeled off. The sight in his left eye was also blurred for several hours and John was burned on his cheek.
The boys had been making their way to Sherdley Park and said the cloud came from a vent and both needed hospital treatment. In fact, Mark required three visits to hospital and John two. Mark told the Reporter: "My face was burning. It was like standing too near to a fire". His mum, Norah Wilcock of Hinckley Road, said:
"Mark was a real sight when he came in. His face was bright scarlet. When I took his tee-shirt off there was a red rim all around the neckline. Later on the skin peeled. This could easily have been a tragedy, especially as the stuff got in his eye as well." Norah and her husband Len visited Sidac to complain about the incident but she said they denied responsibility.
There had been quite a few reports of late declaring St Helens to be one of the worst towns for all kinds of things, including rates of death and infant mortality. Another one was published this week, which claimed that St Helens was one of the worst places in the country for rheumatism, with more people suffering from the painful complaint than in other towns of a similar size in the North West.
And finally, Saints played Warrington on the 18th in the final of the Merit Club Championship Trophy but lost 12 - 13. The match was played at Central Park in Wigan and British Rail was advertising special trains from Shaw Street costing 27p return, with half-price for under 14s.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 150 Rainford protesters demonstrating at the Town Hall, the angry tenants of houses in Clock Face Road that were supposedly being improved and shock, horror – a husband has to look after a baby!
We begin on the 13th when the Old Whint and Landvale Residents Association attempted to hold their monthly meeting at the Wagon and Horses in Haydock. It must have been their shortest session on record, as the meeting had to be postponed after only a few minutes because too many people had turned up.
That was because the main item on their agenda was a discussion on the huge rates rises caused by inflation and the recent local government reorganisation. Many Haydock folk were angry about having to pay more cash as they claimed not to be benefitting from improved facilities.
It was announced this week that nurses at Rainhill Hospital had voted to strike on June 3rd over pay. The strike could mean the evacuation of all 2,000 patients at Rainhill because the wards might end up being completely unmanned.
Price fixing was permitted in the 1970s and hairdressers in St Helens all charged the same rates. On the evening of the 14th the St Helens branch of the National Hairdressers' Federation decided to raise the price of a man's haircut from 35p to 45p. As for the ladies a shampoo and set would increase by 15p to 65p and perms would go up by 20%. There were certainly a lot of salons and barbers' shops within the St Helens district – about 400 in fact, including those in Prescot and Newton.
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 14th how Leathers Chemicals could be hit by round-the-clock picketing from next week. The sulphuric acid manufacturer had just won an appeal against two enforcement notices that would have allowed the council to prosecute them over fallout incidents. But Sutton people angry at the decision said they were preparing to take matters into their own hands.
An emergency meeting of the East Sutton Ratepayers Association had been held and it was decided to call a public meeting in which it would be recommended that demonstrators stood outside the factory gates on a 24-hour rota. The protestors' picketing would be intended to stop materials from reaching the Lancots Lane plant with the chairman of the association, Jim Atherton, declaring:
"They don't care about human beings. The only way to do this is by causing a civil disturbance. The police will be there. They may put you in clink, but you've got to be prepared for it. We have got to take to the streets."
The recently passed Fire Precautions Act had meant that the number of pubs and guesthouses in St Helens offering accommodation to visitors had been greatly reduced. Some had only temporarily stopped accommodating guests while improvements to their buildings were made to comply with the new law. But others, such as the Nelson in Bridge Street, had given up offering bed and breakfast.
The Newspaper reported how the reduction had created problems for a Chelmsford-based theatrical company that was in the town to present a month-long series of mystery plays at the Theatre Royal. Three members of the company had been unable to find digs and had been sleeping in the living rooms of sympathetic supporters. Their Stage Manager Polly March told the Newspaper:
"Some of the people on our lists had been closed down because of the fire regulations, and others take in lorry drivers and motorway workers so there wasn't any room. We can't afford £14 per week for [a] hotel or we watch our finances rapidly dwindling."
However, the Newspaper added that every member of the company had since found accommodation with Polly March saying: "Everybody has now been fixed up – there are some lovely people in St. Helens. We'd still like the problem to be high-lighted though so we can add digs to our lists."
It was stated at the hearing that on its busiest night during the previous week, the Rivoli had been less than two-thirds full. And over the past three weeks, the Hippodrome had on average been 60% empty. Robert Cheetham handed a petition to the court signed by 700 objectors and said: "We are thinking of our children. It would be a great loss to them if the cinema was converted." After the court rejected the move, the Capitol said they would be continuing as a cinema. But the die had been cast and the Cap would close in four years time.
During the evening of the 14th Jake Thackray performed at the Fleece Hotel in Church Street. Last year Jake made his debut appearance at the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was billed as "the contemporary folk star".
The death took place on the 16th of Frank Waring of Broad Oak Road at the age of 69. For many years Frank ran a chain of TV and electrical shops in Duke Street, Church Street and Parr Stocks Road until he sold them all to Granada.
A sad story in the St Helens Reporter on the 17th told how a five-year-old girl's 40-inch high Shetland pony had been ridden to death half-a-mile from her Haydock home. Lynn Kelly's pony Beauty was found lying exhausted and too weak to walk in its field in Liverpool Road. The horse had been taken from its stable after midnight and ridden into the ground. Lynn's father, Paul Kelly, was offering a £25 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible and said:
"Whoever did this horrible thing rode Beauty until he collapsed exhausted and then left him there to die. He was really punished and I can't find words to describe the people who did this. In fact they are not people. It is just a laugh and joke to them but it is heartbreak to others." The horse was so small that it was only suitable for children to ride and through the weight it was forced to carry, Beauty sustained ruptured back muscles and died six days later.
The Reporter also described how two ten-year-old boys had their faces burned while cycling past British Sidac in Sutton. Mark Wilcock and John Slater found themselves riding through a cloud of steam that was thought to contain caustic soda as they pedalled past the Lancots Lane plant. Mark was burnt down the left side of his face and the skin later peeled off. The sight in his left eye was also blurred for several hours and John was burned on his cheek.
The boys had been making their way to Sherdley Park and said the cloud came from a vent and both needed hospital treatment. In fact, Mark required three visits to hospital and John two. Mark told the Reporter: "My face was burning. It was like standing too near to a fire". His mum, Norah Wilcock of Hinckley Road, said:
"Mark was a real sight when he came in. His face was bright scarlet. When I took his tee-shirt off there was a red rim all around the neckline. Later on the skin peeled. This could easily have been a tragedy, especially as the stuff got in his eye as well." Norah and her husband Len visited Sidac to complain about the incident but she said they denied responsibility.
There had been quite a few reports of late declaring St Helens to be one of the worst towns for all kinds of things, including rates of death and infant mortality. Another one was published this week, which claimed that St Helens was one of the worst places in the country for rheumatism, with more people suffering from the painful complaint than in other towns of a similar size in the North West.
And finally, Saints played Warrington on the 18th in the final of the Merit Club Championship Trophy but lost 12 - 13. The match was played at Central Park in Wigan and British Rail was advertising special trains from Shaw Street costing 27p return, with half-price for under 14s.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 150 Rainford protesters demonstrating at the Town Hall, the angry tenants of houses in Clock Face Road that were supposedly being improved and shock, horror – a husband has to look after a baby!
This week's many stories include the plans to convert the Capitol Cinema into a bingo hall, Sutton campaigners consider picketing Leathers Chemicals, the hair-raising cost of a hair-cut, the Haydock child's horse ridden into the ground by thugs, the ten-year-old boys who had their faces burned while cycling past Sidac and how new fire safety rules meant finding accommodation in St Helens was proving difficult.
We begin on the 13th when the Old Whint and Landvale Residents Association attempted to hold their monthly meeting at the Wagon and Horses in Haydock.
It must have been their shortest session on record, as the meeting had to be postponed after only a few minutes because too many people had turned up.
That was because the main item on their agenda was a discussion on the huge rates rises caused by inflation and the recent local government reorganisation.
Many Haydock folk were angry about having to pay more cash as they claimed not to be benefitting from improved facilities.
It was announced this week that nurses at Rainhill Hospital had voted to strike on June 3rd over pay.
The strike could mean the evacuation of all 2,000 patients at Rainhill because the wards might end up being completely unmanned.
Price fixing was permitted in the 1970s and hairdressers in St Helens all charged the same rates.
On the evening of the 14th the St Helens branch of the National Hairdressers' Federation decided to raise the price of a man's haircut from 35p to 45p.
As for the ladies a shampoo and set would increase by 15p to 65p and perms would go up by 20%.
There were certainly a lot of salons and barbers' shops within the St Helens district – about 400 in fact, including those in Prescot and Newton.
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 14th how Leathers Chemicals could be hit by round-the-clock picketing from next week.
The sulphuric acid manufacturer had just won an appeal against two enforcement notices that would have allowed the council to prosecute them over fallout incidents.
But Sutton people angry at the decision said they were preparing to take matters into their own hands.
An emergency meeting of the East Sutton Ratepayers Association had been held and it was decided to call a public meeting in which it would be recommended that demonstrators stood outside the factory gates on a 24-hour rota.
The protestors' picketing would be intended to stop materials from reaching the Lancots Lane plant with the chairman of the association, Jim Atherton, declaring:
"They don't care about human beings. The only way to do this is by causing a civil disturbance. The police will be there. They may put you in clink, but you've got to be prepared for it. We have got to take to the streets."
The recently passed Fire Precautions Act had meant that the number of pubs and guesthouses in St Helens offering accommodation to visitors had been greatly reduced.
Some had only temporarily stopped accommodating guests while improvements to their buildings were made to comply with the new law. But others, such as the Nelson in Bridge Street, had given up offering bed and breakfast.
The Newspaper reported how the reduction had created problems for a Chelmsford-based theatrical company that was in the town to present a month-long series of mystery plays at the Theatre Royal.
Three members of the company had been unable to find digs and had been sleeping in the living rooms of sympathetic supporters. Their Stage Manager Polly March told the Newspaper:
"Some of the people on our lists had been closed down because of the fire regulations, and others take in lorry drivers and motorway workers so there wasn't any room. We can't afford £14 per week for [a] hotel or we watch our finances rapidly dwindling."
However, the Newspaper added that every member of the company had since found accommodation with Polly March saying:
"Everybody has now been fixed up – there are some lovely people in St. Helens. We'd still like the problem to be high-lighted though so we can add digs to our lists."
The Newspaper also reported how St Helens magistrates had rejected a bid to close the Capitol Cinema in Duke Street and reopen it as a bingo hall.
EMI had recently sold sixteen of its cinemas – including the Capitol – to the Star Group who already owned the Rivoli Bingo Club in Corporation Street.
And so part of the argument against the proposed change was that St Helens did not need another bingo hall, especially as the Rivoli and the Hippodrome were not exactly bursting at the seams with customers.
It was stated at the hearing that on its busiest night during the previous week, the Rivoli had been less than two-thirds full. And over the past three weeks, the Hippodrome had on average been 60% empty.
Robert Cheetham handed a petition to the court signed by 700 objectors and said: "We are thinking of our children. It would be a great loss to them if the cinema was converted."
After the court rejected the move, the Capitol said they would be continuing as a cinema. But the die had been cast and the Cap would close in four years time.
During the evening of the 14th Jake Thackray performed at the Fleece Hotel in Church Street.
Last year Jake made his debut appearance at the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was billed as "the contemporary folk star".
The death took place on the 16th of Frank Waring of Broad Oak Road at the age of 69.
For many years Frank ran a chain of TV and electrical shops in Duke Street, Church Street and Parr Stocks Road until he sold them all to Granada.
A sad story in the St Helens Reporter on the 17th told how a five-year-old girl's 40-inch high Shetland pony had been ridden to death half-a-mile from her Haydock home.
Lynn Kelly's pony Beauty was found lying exhausted and too weak to walk in its field in Liverpool Road.
The horse had been taken from its stable after midnight and ridden into the ground. Lynn's father, Paul Kelly, was offering a £25 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible and said:
"Whoever did this horrible thing rode Beauty until he collapsed exhausted and then left him there to die. He was really punished and I can't find words to describe the people who did this.
"In fact they are not people. It is just a laugh and joke to them but it is heartbreak to others."
The horse was so small that it was only suitable for children to ride and through the weight it was forced to carry, Beauty sustained ruptured back muscles and died six days later.
The Reporter also described how two ten-year-old boys had their faces burned while cycling past British Sidac in Sutton.
Mark Wilcock and John Slater found themselves riding through a cloud of steam that was thought to contain caustic soda as they pedalled past the Lancots Lane plant.
Mark was burnt down the left side of his face and the skin later peeled off. The sight in his left eye was also blurred for several hours and John was burned on his cheek.
The boys had been making their way to Sherdley Park and said the cloud came from a vent and both needed hospital treatment. In fact, Mark required three visits to hospital and John two.
Mark told the Reporter: "My face was burning. It was like standing too near to a fire". His mum, Norah Wilcock of Hinckley Road, said:
"Mark was a real sight when he came in. His face was bright scarlet. When I took his tee-shirt off there was a red rim all around the neckline. Later on the skin peeled. This could easily have been a tragedy, especially as the stuff got in his eye as well."
Norah and her husband Len visited Sidac to complain about the incident but she said they denied responsibility.
There had been quite a few reports of late declaring St Helens to be one of the worst towns for all kinds of things, including rates of death and infant mortality.
Another one was published this week, which claimed that St Helens was one of the worst places in the country for rheumatism, with more people suffering from the painful complaint than in other towns of a similar size in the North West.
And finally, Saints played Warrington on the 18th in the final of the Merit Club Championship Trophy but lost 12 - 13.
The match was played at Central Park in Wigan and British Rail was advertising special trains from Shaw Street costing 27p return, with half-price for under 14s.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 150 Rainford protesters demonstrating at the Town Hall, the angry tenants of houses in Clock Face Road that were supposedly being improved and shock, horror – a husband has to look after a baby!
We begin on the 13th when the Old Whint and Landvale Residents Association attempted to hold their monthly meeting at the Wagon and Horses in Haydock.
It must have been their shortest session on record, as the meeting had to be postponed after only a few minutes because too many people had turned up.
That was because the main item on their agenda was a discussion on the huge rates rises caused by inflation and the recent local government reorganisation.
Many Haydock folk were angry about having to pay more cash as they claimed not to be benefitting from improved facilities.
It was announced this week that nurses at Rainhill Hospital had voted to strike on June 3rd over pay.
The strike could mean the evacuation of all 2,000 patients at Rainhill because the wards might end up being completely unmanned.
Price fixing was permitted in the 1970s and hairdressers in St Helens all charged the same rates.
On the evening of the 14th the St Helens branch of the National Hairdressers' Federation decided to raise the price of a man's haircut from 35p to 45p.
As for the ladies a shampoo and set would increase by 15p to 65p and perms would go up by 20%.
There were certainly a lot of salons and barbers' shops within the St Helens district – about 400 in fact, including those in Prescot and Newton.
The St Helens Newspaper described on the 14th how Leathers Chemicals could be hit by round-the-clock picketing from next week.
The sulphuric acid manufacturer had just won an appeal against two enforcement notices that would have allowed the council to prosecute them over fallout incidents.
But Sutton people angry at the decision said they were preparing to take matters into their own hands.
An emergency meeting of the East Sutton Ratepayers Association had been held and it was decided to call a public meeting in which it would be recommended that demonstrators stood outside the factory gates on a 24-hour rota.
The protestors' picketing would be intended to stop materials from reaching the Lancots Lane plant with the chairman of the association, Jim Atherton, declaring:
"They don't care about human beings. The only way to do this is by causing a civil disturbance. The police will be there. They may put you in clink, but you've got to be prepared for it. We have got to take to the streets."
The recently passed Fire Precautions Act had meant that the number of pubs and guesthouses in St Helens offering accommodation to visitors had been greatly reduced.
Some had only temporarily stopped accommodating guests while improvements to their buildings were made to comply with the new law. But others, such as the Nelson in Bridge Street, had given up offering bed and breakfast.
The Newspaper reported how the reduction had created problems for a Chelmsford-based theatrical company that was in the town to present a month-long series of mystery plays at the Theatre Royal.
Three members of the company had been unable to find digs and had been sleeping in the living rooms of sympathetic supporters. Their Stage Manager Polly March told the Newspaper:
"Some of the people on our lists had been closed down because of the fire regulations, and others take in lorry drivers and motorway workers so there wasn't any room. We can't afford £14 per week for [a] hotel or we watch our finances rapidly dwindling."
However, the Newspaper added that every member of the company had since found accommodation with Polly March saying:
"Everybody has now been fixed up – there are some lovely people in St. Helens. We'd still like the problem to be high-lighted though so we can add digs to our lists."
EMI had recently sold sixteen of its cinemas – including the Capitol – to the Star Group who already owned the Rivoli Bingo Club in Corporation Street.
And so part of the argument against the proposed change was that St Helens did not need another bingo hall, especially as the Rivoli and the Hippodrome were not exactly bursting at the seams with customers.
It was stated at the hearing that on its busiest night during the previous week, the Rivoli had been less than two-thirds full. And over the past three weeks, the Hippodrome had on average been 60% empty.
Robert Cheetham handed a petition to the court signed by 700 objectors and said: "We are thinking of our children. It would be a great loss to them if the cinema was converted."
After the court rejected the move, the Capitol said they would be continuing as a cinema. But the die had been cast and the Cap would close in four years time.
During the evening of the 14th Jake Thackray performed at the Fleece Hotel in Church Street.
Last year Jake made his debut appearance at the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was billed as "the contemporary folk star".
The death took place on the 16th of Frank Waring of Broad Oak Road at the age of 69.
For many years Frank ran a chain of TV and electrical shops in Duke Street, Church Street and Parr Stocks Road until he sold them all to Granada.
A sad story in the St Helens Reporter on the 17th told how a five-year-old girl's 40-inch high Shetland pony had been ridden to death half-a-mile from her Haydock home.
Lynn Kelly's pony Beauty was found lying exhausted and too weak to walk in its field in Liverpool Road.
The horse had been taken from its stable after midnight and ridden into the ground. Lynn's father, Paul Kelly, was offering a £25 reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible and said:
"Whoever did this horrible thing rode Beauty until he collapsed exhausted and then left him there to die. He was really punished and I can't find words to describe the people who did this.
"In fact they are not people. It is just a laugh and joke to them but it is heartbreak to others."
The horse was so small that it was only suitable for children to ride and through the weight it was forced to carry, Beauty sustained ruptured back muscles and died six days later.
The Reporter also described how two ten-year-old boys had their faces burned while cycling past British Sidac in Sutton.
Mark Wilcock and John Slater found themselves riding through a cloud of steam that was thought to contain caustic soda as they pedalled past the Lancots Lane plant.
Mark was burnt down the left side of his face and the skin later peeled off. The sight in his left eye was also blurred for several hours and John was burned on his cheek.
The boys had been making their way to Sherdley Park and said the cloud came from a vent and both needed hospital treatment. In fact, Mark required three visits to hospital and John two.
Mark told the Reporter: "My face was burning. It was like standing too near to a fire". His mum, Norah Wilcock of Hinckley Road, said:
"Mark was a real sight when he came in. His face was bright scarlet. When I took his tee-shirt off there was a red rim all around the neckline. Later on the skin peeled. This could easily have been a tragedy, especially as the stuff got in his eye as well."
Norah and her husband Len visited Sidac to complain about the incident but she said they denied responsibility.
There had been quite a few reports of late declaring St Helens to be one of the worst towns for all kinds of things, including rates of death and infant mortality.
Another one was published this week, which claimed that St Helens was one of the worst places in the country for rheumatism, with more people suffering from the painful complaint than in other towns of a similar size in the North West.
And finally, Saints played Warrington on the 18th in the final of the Merit Club Championship Trophy but lost 12 - 13.
The match was played at Central Park in Wigan and British Rail was advertising special trains from Shaw Street costing 27p return, with half-price for under 14s.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 150 Rainford protesters demonstrating at the Town Hall, the angry tenants of houses in Clock Face Road that were supposedly being improved and shock, horror – a husband has to look after a baby!