FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 16 - 22 SEPTEMBER 1974
This week's many stories include details of the new one-way system in Victoria Square, the boys responsible for the Rockware fire appear in court, the historic documents acquired by Central Library, fears mount over job cuts at Pilks' Ravenhead factory, the award-winning gardens at Rainhill railway station and the couple that were shocked to learn that the council had knocked down their house in Prescot Road!
We begin on the 16th when Rainford councillors met planning officials at a special meeting to discuss the village being on a list of alternative sites for Pilkington's proposed float glass plant at Gorsey Lane. But the council members were assured that it was unlikely that Rainford would be chosen as the location, as it would be very difficult to put drainage on the chosen site near to Rainford Junction.
On the 17th there was a bus strike for an hour as a result of an article published in that morning's St Helens Newspaper. That had described the longstanding issues with shortages of bus crews, along with delays in some services. George Cottham, the St Helens District Manager for the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, had claimed that the men did not turn up for weekend and Monday overtime because they preferred to work during the week. That annoyed the crews but after a deputation met Mr Cottham in which he claimed there had been a misunderstanding, they all decided to return to work.
Another official under fire had been Ken Perks, the Director of St Helens Technical Services. He had been summoned to a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council to discuss the deterioration in residents' bin service, along with other matters. Mr Perks explained how the recent municipal re-organisation – in which Eccleston and a number of other places had become part of the new St Helens District Council – was undergoing teething troubles.
He said most of the refuse collection vehicles inherited from the various old councils were in a poor condition and it was taking a long time to obtain new ones. And the workmen who had transferred to the council had different conditions of service and some were receiving more holidays, which was contributing to the undermanning. Mr Perks also said that they had not received from the old councils a comprehensive list of householders in all areas and so some homes may have been missed off the refuse vehicles' routes.
Last month I described how hundreds of sightseers had risked their lives through crossing a main railway line as a train was approaching in order to watch a huge fire. It happened on the St Helens to Wigan line behind Rockware's glassworks (pictured above) as a blaze swept through a storage yard. The fire destroyed 30,000 wooden storage pallets and 200,000 plastic and wooden crates and caused an estimated £200,000 worth of damage.
That estimate had now been increased to £250,000 when two boys aged 12 and 14 appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 17th charged with starting the blaze. The court was told that what had occurred had been a combination of a reckless schoolboy prank and an ill-directed wind. The two lads admitted their involvement after playing in a field near to Rockware in which they had been building fires and roasting potatoes.
They had also collected empty bottles and smashed them in the canal and the 12-year-old had been dared to burn some of the crates on the nearby site that Rockware used for storage. But the small fires that they started soon spread and got out of control and the boys panicked and ran away. As a result of their confessions and the fact they had not intended to start the inferno they were only fined £15 each.
What was described as the "Grand Re-Opening Of The Plaza Club" in Duke Street took place on the 18th. Just why the venue had been closed was not stated.
Under the odd headline "Goodbye, Victoria Square", the St Helens Reporter on the 20th described how a new one-way system was being introduced in front of the Town Hall that would incorporate a roundabout. The bus shelters in Victoria Square were also going to be moved as part of the scheme that was designed to reduce traffic congestion.
The project was costing £25,000 and the council was hoping for a further £4,000 grant from Merseyside County Council which would be used to make the roundabout more attractive. That would be achieved by installing plants and trees and possibly old-fashioned stones instead of concrete. However, the scheme had been delayed because of a printer’s strike at the London Gazette, as the council was legally bound to publish a notice in the paper giving details.
The Reporter said that the bus stops in Victoria Square would be moved to the pavements opposite the new roundabout but none would be located in front of the Town Hall. Corporation Street was going to be made one-way from Hardshaw Street to Hall Street going south out of town and traffic heading north would have to turn left into Hall Street and then right into Bickerstaffe Street towards the roundabout.
What the Reporter described as "the most important historic documents to be made public in St. Helens for the last 30 year" were now being studied in Central Library. The documents numbered over 1,000 and dated back to 1377 and were on loan from Lord St Helens, formerly Michael Hughes-Young. He was the son of the cousin of the late Michael Hughes of Sherdley Hall and had inherited his estate and sold Sherdley Park to St Helens Council.
Roger Hart of the library's Local History and Archives said: "It's probably one of the biggest hauls in the county. We're all excited about them – we'd no idea there would be this much or that they would go back so far." The documents included deeds, wills and estate papers.
The Reporter said fears were mounting that the number of jobs to be axed at Pilkington's Ravenhead factory could reach 300. The works employed 1,300 people and made television tubes. However, the firm focused on tubes for black and white sets and with the boom in colour TV, sales of these had nosedived. A week or so ago it had been announced that because of low order books and high stocks, the Ravenhead factory would from October 1st close one of its three hot glass production lines.
That would have affected 180 jobs but one of their major customers Thorn Electrical had since announced that they would not be producing black and white television sets after the end of the year. And so as many as 300 jobs at Ravenhead were now at risk, although it was hoped that some staff could be given other work and that some of the redundancies would be voluntary.
However, there was still some demand for black and white television. In a separate article in the Reporter, Lady Patricia Pilkington was pictured receiving a B & W TV set from St Helens Round Table on behalf of the residents of Greenfields. The former nurses home in Dentons Green Lane had opened in June as a 28-bedroomed retirement home after undergoing a £70,000 transformation.
The Reporter also described how for the second year running Albert Simms and Bill Woodhead of Thatto Heath had won a prize in British Rail's best-kept station competition. The pair had built a garden on the platform at Rainhill station featuring 3,000 plants. Mr Simms said: "We put the garden together ourselves. The geraniums and antirrhinums are in bloom at the moment and we have even got a goldfish pond."
The redevelopment of St Helens and the demolition of unfit houses did throw up some odd anomalies and the Reporter this week described one of the strangest. They revealed that St Helens Council had demolished a house in Prescot Road and the couple that owned it not only weren't informed but they had been saddled with a £500 mortgage for a house that did not exist – and a demolition bill too!
Dave and Anne Bate had bought their home in 1965 and five years later moved to Crank to take over the tenancy of the local post office. Their house in Prescot Road was put on the market but Mr Bate said buyers had been put off by the council's insistence that the property was in a clearance area: "Before we went, we had five or six buyers but they all cried off. We had had the house completely re-rendered and modernised. I went to see the council to ask them to buy it from me – but they wouldn't."
Mrs Bate added that when she and her husband had moved out vandals had moved in and she described the stress the trouble with the house had caused her: "I nearly had a nervous breakdown over this – and now they have knocked the house down without telling us. We feel completely baffled by all that has happened."
Nat Birch, the Director of Environmental Health in St. Helens, denied to the Reporter that he had told Mr Bate that his house was in a clearance area. He insisted – rather pedantically – that he had told him that the property was included in a "future clearance programme". Mr Birch added: "The house was unfit. The Director of Technical Services authorised demolition because the house was in an extremely dangerous state." The Environmental Health boss stated that the council was empowered to demolish properties in such circumstances without notifying the owners.
At the Theatre Royal on the 22nd Paper Lace was in concert. During 1974 the band was at their peak having hits with 'Billy Don't Be A Hero' and 'The Night Chicago Died'. And for 7 days from the 22nd, the star-studded film 'The Three Musketeers' featuring Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch amongst others was shown at the ABC Savoy. And there was horror at the Capitol cinema in 'The Beast Must Die', starring Peter Cushing.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clearance of the Jackson Street Kimmicks, Radio City prepares to launch, there's good news for Rainford High and Sutton, Bold and Clock Face are to be made a smokeless zone.
We begin on the 16th when Rainford councillors met planning officials at a special meeting to discuss the village being on a list of alternative sites for Pilkington's proposed float glass plant at Gorsey Lane. But the council members were assured that it was unlikely that Rainford would be chosen as the location, as it would be very difficult to put drainage on the chosen site near to Rainford Junction.
On the 17th there was a bus strike for an hour as a result of an article published in that morning's St Helens Newspaper. That had described the longstanding issues with shortages of bus crews, along with delays in some services. George Cottham, the St Helens District Manager for the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, had claimed that the men did not turn up for weekend and Monday overtime because they preferred to work during the week. That annoyed the crews but after a deputation met Mr Cottham in which he claimed there had been a misunderstanding, they all decided to return to work.
Another official under fire had been Ken Perks, the Director of St Helens Technical Services. He had been summoned to a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council to discuss the deterioration in residents' bin service, along with other matters. Mr Perks explained how the recent municipal re-organisation – in which Eccleston and a number of other places had become part of the new St Helens District Council – was undergoing teething troubles.
He said most of the refuse collection vehicles inherited from the various old councils were in a poor condition and it was taking a long time to obtain new ones. And the workmen who had transferred to the council had different conditions of service and some were receiving more holidays, which was contributing to the undermanning. Mr Perks also said that they had not received from the old councils a comprehensive list of householders in all areas and so some homes may have been missed off the refuse vehicles' routes.
That estimate had now been increased to £250,000 when two boys aged 12 and 14 appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 17th charged with starting the blaze. The court was told that what had occurred had been a combination of a reckless schoolboy prank and an ill-directed wind. The two lads admitted their involvement after playing in a field near to Rockware in which they had been building fires and roasting potatoes.
They had also collected empty bottles and smashed them in the canal and the 12-year-old had been dared to burn some of the crates on the nearby site that Rockware used for storage. But the small fires that they started soon spread and got out of control and the boys panicked and ran away. As a result of their confessions and the fact they had not intended to start the inferno they were only fined £15 each.
Under the odd headline "Goodbye, Victoria Square", the St Helens Reporter on the 20th described how a new one-way system was being introduced in front of the Town Hall that would incorporate a roundabout. The bus shelters in Victoria Square were also going to be moved as part of the scheme that was designed to reduce traffic congestion.
The project was costing £25,000 and the council was hoping for a further £4,000 grant from Merseyside County Council which would be used to make the roundabout more attractive. That would be achieved by installing plants and trees and possibly old-fashioned stones instead of concrete. However, the scheme had been delayed because of a printer’s strike at the London Gazette, as the council was legally bound to publish a notice in the paper giving details.
The Reporter said that the bus stops in Victoria Square would be moved to the pavements opposite the new roundabout but none would be located in front of the Town Hall. Corporation Street was going to be made one-way from Hardshaw Street to Hall Street going south out of town and traffic heading north would have to turn left into Hall Street and then right into Bickerstaffe Street towards the roundabout.
What the Reporter described as "the most important historic documents to be made public in St. Helens for the last 30 year" were now being studied in Central Library. The documents numbered over 1,000 and dated back to 1377 and were on loan from Lord St Helens, formerly Michael Hughes-Young. He was the son of the cousin of the late Michael Hughes of Sherdley Hall and had inherited his estate and sold Sherdley Park to St Helens Council.
Roger Hart of the library's Local History and Archives said: "It's probably one of the biggest hauls in the county. We're all excited about them – we'd no idea there would be this much or that they would go back so far." The documents included deeds, wills and estate papers.
The Reporter said fears were mounting that the number of jobs to be axed at Pilkington's Ravenhead factory could reach 300. The works employed 1,300 people and made television tubes. However, the firm focused on tubes for black and white sets and with the boom in colour TV, sales of these had nosedived. A week or so ago it had been announced that because of low order books and high stocks, the Ravenhead factory would from October 1st close one of its three hot glass production lines.
That would have affected 180 jobs but one of their major customers Thorn Electrical had since announced that they would not be producing black and white television sets after the end of the year. And so as many as 300 jobs at Ravenhead were now at risk, although it was hoped that some staff could be given other work and that some of the redundancies would be voluntary.
However, there was still some demand for black and white television. In a separate article in the Reporter, Lady Patricia Pilkington was pictured receiving a B & W TV set from St Helens Round Table on behalf of the residents of Greenfields. The former nurses home in Dentons Green Lane had opened in June as a 28-bedroomed retirement home after undergoing a £70,000 transformation.
The Reporter also described how for the second year running Albert Simms and Bill Woodhead of Thatto Heath had won a prize in British Rail's best-kept station competition. The pair had built a garden on the platform at Rainhill station featuring 3,000 plants. Mr Simms said: "We put the garden together ourselves. The geraniums and antirrhinums are in bloom at the moment and we have even got a goldfish pond."
The redevelopment of St Helens and the demolition of unfit houses did throw up some odd anomalies and the Reporter this week described one of the strangest. They revealed that St Helens Council had demolished a house in Prescot Road and the couple that owned it not only weren't informed but they had been saddled with a £500 mortgage for a house that did not exist – and a demolition bill too!
Dave and Anne Bate had bought their home in 1965 and five years later moved to Crank to take over the tenancy of the local post office. Their house in Prescot Road was put on the market but Mr Bate said buyers had been put off by the council's insistence that the property was in a clearance area: "Before we went, we had five or six buyers but they all cried off. We had had the house completely re-rendered and modernised. I went to see the council to ask them to buy it from me – but they wouldn't."
Mrs Bate added that when she and her husband had moved out vandals had moved in and she described the stress the trouble with the house had caused her: "I nearly had a nervous breakdown over this – and now they have knocked the house down without telling us. We feel completely baffled by all that has happened."
Nat Birch, the Director of Environmental Health in St. Helens, denied to the Reporter that he had told Mr Bate that his house was in a clearance area. He insisted – rather pedantically – that he had told him that the property was included in a "future clearance programme". Mr Birch added: "The house was unfit. The Director of Technical Services authorised demolition because the house was in an extremely dangerous state." The Environmental Health boss stated that the council was empowered to demolish properties in such circumstances without notifying the owners.
At the Theatre Royal on the 22nd Paper Lace was in concert. During 1974 the band was at their peak having hits with 'Billy Don't Be A Hero' and 'The Night Chicago Died'. And for 7 days from the 22nd, the star-studded film 'The Three Musketeers' featuring Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch amongst others was shown at the ABC Savoy. And there was horror at the Capitol cinema in 'The Beast Must Die', starring Peter Cushing.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clearance of the Jackson Street Kimmicks, Radio City prepares to launch, there's good news for Rainford High and Sutton, Bold and Clock Face are to be made a smokeless zone.
This week's many stories include details of the new one-way system in Victoria Square, the boys responsible for the Rockware fire appear in court, the historic documents acquired by Central Library, fears mount over job cuts at Pilks' Ravenhead factory, the award-winning gardens at Rainhill railway station and the couple that were shocked to learn that the council had knocked down their house in Prescot Road!
We begin on the 16th when Rainford councillors met planning officials at a special meeting to discuss the village being on a list of alternative sites for Pilkington's proposed float glass plant at Gorsey Lane.
But the council members were assured that it was unlikely that Rainford would be chosen as the location, as it would be very difficult to put drainage on the chosen site near to Rainford Junction.
On the 17th there was a bus strike for an hour as a result of an article published in that morning's St Helens Newspaper.
That had described the longstanding issues with shortages of bus crews, along with delays in some services.
George Cottham, the St Helens District Manager for the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, had claimed that the men did not turn up for weekend and Monday overtime because they preferred to work during the week.
That annoyed the crews but after a deputation met Mr Cottham in which he claimed there had been a misunderstanding, they all decided to return to work.
Another official under fire had been Ken Perks, the Director of St Helens Technical Services.
He had been summoned to a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council to discuss the deterioration in residents' bin service, along with other matters.
Mr Perks explained how the recent municipal re-organisation – in which Eccleston and a number of other places had become part of the new St Helens District Council – was undergoing teething troubles.
He said most of the refuse collection vehicles inherited from the various old councils were in a poor condition and it was taking a long time to obtain new ones.
And the workmen who had transferred to the council had different conditions of service and some were receiving more holidays, which was contributing to the undermanning.
Mr Perks also said that they had not received from the old councils a comprehensive list of householders in all areas and so some homes may have been missed off the refuse vehicles' routes.
Last month I described how hundreds of sightseers had risked their lives through crossing a main railway line as a train was approaching in order to watch a huge fire.
It happened on the St Helens to Wigan line behind Rockware's glassworks (pictured above) as a blaze swept through a storage yard.
The fire destroyed 30,000 wooden storage pallets and 200,000 plastic and wooden crates and caused an estimated £200,000 worth of damage.
That estimate had now been increased to £250,000 when two boys aged 12 and 14 appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 17th charged with starting the blaze.
The court was told that what had occurred had been a combination of a reckless schoolboy prank and an ill-directed wind.
The two lads admitted their involvement after playing in a field near to Rockware in which they had been building fires and roasting potatoes.
They had also collected empty bottles and smashed them in the canal and the 12-year-old had been dared to burn some of the crates on the nearby site that Rockware used for storage.
But the small fires that they started soon spread and got out of control and the boys panicked and ran away.
As a result of their confessions and the fact they had not intended to start the inferno they were only fined £15 each.
What was described as the "Grand Re-Opening Of The Plaza Club" in Duke Street (pictured above) took place on the 18th. Just why the venue had been closed was not stated.
Under the odd headline "Goodbye, Victoria Square", the St Helens Reporter on the 20th described how a new one-way system was being introduced in front of the Town Hall that would incorporate a roundabout.
The bus shelters in Victoria Square were also going to be moved as part of the scheme that was designed to reduce traffic congestion.
The project was costing £25,000 and the council was hoping for a further £4,000 grant from Merseyside County Council which would be used to make the roundabout more attractive.
That would be achieved by installing plants and trees and possibly old-fashioned stones instead of concrete.
However, the scheme had been delayed because of a printer’s strike at the London Gazette, as the council was legally bound to publish a notice in the paper giving details.
The Reporter said that the bus stops in Victoria Square would be moved to the pavements opposite the new roundabout but none would be located in front of the Town Hall.
Corporation Street was going to be made one-way from Hardshaw Street to Hall Street going south out of town and traffic heading north would have to turn left into Hall Street and then right into Bickerstaffe Street towards the roundabout.
What the Reporter described as "the most important historic documents to be made public in St. Helens for the last 30 year" were now being studied in Central Library.
The documents numbered over 1,000 and dated back to 1377 and were on loan from Lord St Helens, formerly Michael Hughes-Young.
He was the son of the cousin of the late Michael Hughes of Sherdley Hall and had inherited his estate and sold Sherdley Park to St Helens Council.
Roger Hart of the library's Local History and Archives said:
"It's probably one of the biggest hauls in the county. We're all excited about them – we'd no idea there would be this much or that they would go back so far." The documents included deeds, wills and estate papers.
The Reporter said fears were mounting that the number of jobs to be axed at Pilkington's Ravenhead factory could reach 300.
The works employed 1,300 people and made television tubes. However, the firm focused on tubes for black and white sets and with the boom in colour TV, sales of these had nosedived.
A week or so ago it had been announced that because of low order books and high stocks, the Ravenhead factory would from October 1st close one of its three hot glass production lines.
That would have affected 180 jobs but one of their major customers Thorn Electrical had since announced that they would not be producing black and white television sets after the end of the year.
And so as many as 300 jobs at Ravenhead were now at risk, although it was hoped that some staff could be given other work and that some of the redundancies would be voluntary.
However, there was still some demand for black and white television. In a separate article in the Reporter, Lady Patricia Pilkington was pictured receiving a B & W TV set from St Helens Round Table on behalf of the residents of Greenfields.
The former nurses home in Dentons Green Lane had opened in June as a 28-bedroomed retirement home after undergoing a £70,000 transformation.
The Reporter also described how for the second year running Albert Simms and Bill Woodhead of Thatto Heath had won a prize in British Rail's best-kept station competition.
The pair had built a garden on the platform at Rainhill station featuring 3,000 plants.
Mr Simms said: "We put the garden together ourselves. The geraniums and antirrhinums are in bloom at the moment and we have even got a goldfish pond."
The redevelopment of St Helens and the demolition of unfit houses did throw up some odd anomalies and the Reporter this week described one of the strangest.
They revealed that St Helens Council had demolished a house in Prescot Road and the couple that owned it not only weren't informed but they had been saddled with a £500 mortgage for a house that did not exist – and a demolition bill too!
Dave and Anne Bate had bought their home in 1965 and five years later moved to Crank to take over the tenancy of the local post office.
Their house in Prescot Road was put on the market but Mr Bate said buyers had been put off by the council's insistence that the property was in a clearance area:
"Before we went, we had five or six buyers but they all cried off. We had had the house completely re-rendered and modernised. I went to see the council to ask them to buy it from me – but they wouldn't."
Mrs Bate added that when she and her husband had moved out vandals had moved in and she described the stress the trouble with the house had caused her:
"I nearly had a nervous breakdown over this – and now they have knocked the house down without telling us. We feel completely baffled by all that has happened."
Nat Birch, the Director of Environmental Health in St. Helens, denied to the Reporter that he had told Mr Bate that his house was in a clearance area.
He insisted – rather pedantically – that he had told him that the property was included in a "future clearance programme".
Mr Birch added: "The house was unfit. The Director of Technical Services authorised demolition because the house was in an extremely dangerous state."
The Environmental Health boss stated that the council was empowered to demolish properties in such circumstances without notifying the owners.
At the Theatre Royal on the 22nd Paper Lace was in concert. During 1974 the band was at their peak having hits with 'Billy Don't Be A Hero' and 'The Night Chicago Died'.
And for 7 days from the 22nd, the star-studded film 'The Three Musketeers' featuring Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch amongst others was shown at the ABC Savoy.
And there was horror at the Capitol cinema in 'The Beast Must Die', starring Peter Cushing.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clearance of the Jackson Street Kimmicks, Radio City prepares to launch, there's good news for Rainford High and Sutton, Bold and Clock Face are to be included in a smokeless zone.
We begin on the 16th when Rainford councillors met planning officials at a special meeting to discuss the village being on a list of alternative sites for Pilkington's proposed float glass plant at Gorsey Lane.
But the council members were assured that it was unlikely that Rainford would be chosen as the location, as it would be very difficult to put drainage on the chosen site near to Rainford Junction.
On the 17th there was a bus strike for an hour as a result of an article published in that morning's St Helens Newspaper.
That had described the longstanding issues with shortages of bus crews, along with delays in some services.
George Cottham, the St Helens District Manager for the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive, had claimed that the men did not turn up for weekend and Monday overtime because they preferred to work during the week.
That annoyed the crews but after a deputation met Mr Cottham in which he claimed there had been a misunderstanding, they all decided to return to work.
Another official under fire had been Ken Perks, the Director of St Helens Technical Services.
He had been summoned to a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council to discuss the deterioration in residents' bin service, along with other matters.
Mr Perks explained how the recent municipal re-organisation – in which Eccleston and a number of other places had become part of the new St Helens District Council – was undergoing teething troubles.
He said most of the refuse collection vehicles inherited from the various old councils were in a poor condition and it was taking a long time to obtain new ones.
And the workmen who had transferred to the council had different conditions of service and some were receiving more holidays, which was contributing to the undermanning.
Mr Perks also said that they had not received from the old councils a comprehensive list of householders in all areas and so some homes may have been missed off the refuse vehicles' routes.
It happened on the St Helens to Wigan line behind Rockware's glassworks (pictured above) as a blaze swept through a storage yard.
The fire destroyed 30,000 wooden storage pallets and 200,000 plastic and wooden crates and caused an estimated £200,000 worth of damage.
That estimate had now been increased to £250,000 when two boys aged 12 and 14 appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 17th charged with starting the blaze.
The court was told that what had occurred had been a combination of a reckless schoolboy prank and an ill-directed wind.
The two lads admitted their involvement after playing in a field near to Rockware in which they had been building fires and roasting potatoes.
They had also collected empty bottles and smashed them in the canal and the 12-year-old had been dared to burn some of the crates on the nearby site that Rockware used for storage.
But the small fires that they started soon spread and got out of control and the boys panicked and ran away.
As a result of their confessions and the fact they had not intended to start the inferno they were only fined £15 each.
Under the odd headline "Goodbye, Victoria Square", the St Helens Reporter on the 20th described how a new one-way system was being introduced in front of the Town Hall that would incorporate a roundabout.
The bus shelters in Victoria Square were also going to be moved as part of the scheme that was designed to reduce traffic congestion.
The project was costing £25,000 and the council was hoping for a further £4,000 grant from Merseyside County Council which would be used to make the roundabout more attractive.
That would be achieved by installing plants and trees and possibly old-fashioned stones instead of concrete.
However, the scheme had been delayed because of a printer’s strike at the London Gazette, as the council was legally bound to publish a notice in the paper giving details.
The Reporter said that the bus stops in Victoria Square would be moved to the pavements opposite the new roundabout but none would be located in front of the Town Hall.
Corporation Street was going to be made one-way from Hardshaw Street to Hall Street going south out of town and traffic heading north would have to turn left into Hall Street and then right into Bickerstaffe Street towards the roundabout.
What the Reporter described as "the most important historic documents to be made public in St. Helens for the last 30 year" were now being studied in Central Library.
The documents numbered over 1,000 and dated back to 1377 and were on loan from Lord St Helens, formerly Michael Hughes-Young.
He was the son of the cousin of the late Michael Hughes of Sherdley Hall and had inherited his estate and sold Sherdley Park to St Helens Council.
Roger Hart of the library's Local History and Archives said:
"It's probably one of the biggest hauls in the county. We're all excited about them – we'd no idea there would be this much or that they would go back so far." The documents included deeds, wills and estate papers.
The Reporter said fears were mounting that the number of jobs to be axed at Pilkington's Ravenhead factory could reach 300.
The works employed 1,300 people and made television tubes. However, the firm focused on tubes for black and white sets and with the boom in colour TV, sales of these had nosedived.
A week or so ago it had been announced that because of low order books and high stocks, the Ravenhead factory would from October 1st close one of its three hot glass production lines.
That would have affected 180 jobs but one of their major customers Thorn Electrical had since announced that they would not be producing black and white television sets after the end of the year.
And so as many as 300 jobs at Ravenhead were now at risk, although it was hoped that some staff could be given other work and that some of the redundancies would be voluntary.
However, there was still some demand for black and white television. In a separate article in the Reporter, Lady Patricia Pilkington was pictured receiving a B & W TV set from St Helens Round Table on behalf of the residents of Greenfields.
The former nurses home in Dentons Green Lane had opened in June as a 28-bedroomed retirement home after undergoing a £70,000 transformation.
The Reporter also described how for the second year running Albert Simms and Bill Woodhead of Thatto Heath had won a prize in British Rail's best-kept station competition.
The pair had built a garden on the platform at Rainhill station featuring 3,000 plants.
Mr Simms said: "We put the garden together ourselves. The geraniums and antirrhinums are in bloom at the moment and we have even got a goldfish pond."
The redevelopment of St Helens and the demolition of unfit houses did throw up some odd anomalies and the Reporter this week described one of the strangest.
They revealed that St Helens Council had demolished a house in Prescot Road and the couple that owned it not only weren't informed but they had been saddled with a £500 mortgage for a house that did not exist – and a demolition bill too!
Dave and Anne Bate had bought their home in 1965 and five years later moved to Crank to take over the tenancy of the local post office.
Their house in Prescot Road was put on the market but Mr Bate said buyers had been put off by the council's insistence that the property was in a clearance area:
"Before we went, we had five or six buyers but they all cried off. We had had the house completely re-rendered and modernised. I went to see the council to ask them to buy it from me – but they wouldn't."
Mrs Bate added that when she and her husband had moved out vandals had moved in and she described the stress the trouble with the house had caused her:
"I nearly had a nervous breakdown over this – and now they have knocked the house down without telling us. We feel completely baffled by all that has happened."
Nat Birch, the Director of Environmental Health in St. Helens, denied to the Reporter that he had told Mr Bate that his house was in a clearance area.
He insisted – rather pedantically – that he had told him that the property was included in a "future clearance programme".
Mr Birch added: "The house was unfit. The Director of Technical Services authorised demolition because the house was in an extremely dangerous state."
The Environmental Health boss stated that the council was empowered to demolish properties in such circumstances without notifying the owners.
At the Theatre Royal on the 22nd Paper Lace was in concert. During 1974 the band was at their peak having hits with 'Billy Don't Be A Hero' and 'The Night Chicago Died'.
And for 7 days from the 22nd, the star-studded film 'The Three Musketeers' featuring Oliver Reed and Raquel Welch amongst others was shown at the ABC Savoy.
And there was horror at the Capitol cinema in 'The Beast Must Die', starring Peter Cushing.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the clearance of the Jackson Street Kimmicks, Radio City prepares to launch, there's good news for Rainford High and Sutton, Bold and Clock Face are to be included in a smokeless zone.