FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 17 - 23 MARCH 1975
This week's many stories include the peacock slaughter in Sutton, the treasure found in a Rainhill gutter, the closure of a St Helens tea factory, the pushback against the Leather's closure decision begins, the second stage of the Victoria Square one-way system kicks in and the elderly folk at Four Acre that were too frightened to leave their homes at night.
We begin at the Theatre Royal on the 17th when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed a special concert in honour of Sir Thomas Beecham.
On the 18th the St Helens Newspaper described how a tea factory in Reginald Road in Sutton would be closing in two months with 130 job losses. Kardomah Ltd was owned by Cadbury-Schweppes and they were cutting down on their specialised tea operations. Kardomah blended and packed tea and tea bags under its own name but was only sold in the North West. The firm had been in St Helens for just three years and its parent company wanted to concentrate on its bigger national brands, such as Typhoo. A company spokesman told the Newspaper: "It's a question of the market. We're in the day of the big brands."
The St Helens Newspaper also reported how an opportunistic thief had reached over the counter of the cigarette kiosk at Whelan's Discount Store in Baxters Lane and got away with £126.
St Helens Council's Leisure and Recreation Committee met on the 19th and were told that gangs of youths on the Four Acre estate were frightening elderly people. In a letter to the committee, the Four Acre and District Community Council wrote:
"The gangs that are roaming this estate are unmanageable. Pensioners are frightened to go out in case they might be attacked. There is a great need for more sporting facilities. Children have said they want somewhere to go, and our committee feel if premises were provided it would combat vandalism."
It was announced this week that a £1½ million schools building programme would take place within the St Helens district during the next financial year. Not all of the schemes had been finalised but Robins Lane Secondary (pictured above) was to have an annexe built to accommodate 300 pupils at a cost of £415,000. A new school for 280 pupils to be called Ashurst County Primary was going to be built at Chain Lane in Blackbrook costing £177,000 and a new RC school costing £145,000 was to be built in Sutton.
The council had wisely set aside £140,000 as a contingency fund to "beat" inflation with building costs expected to have risen by the time workers' spades hit the ground. But as price inflation in 1975 turned out to be 24%, it might not have been beaten, just reduced, perhaps.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 21st, Eckersley Coaches of St Helens were advertising free transport to Tiffany's nightclub in Blackpool. There were two pick-up points for clubbers wanting to enjoy "non-stop dancing" at "the North's No. 1 night spot". The coach left Birchley Street at 7pm and stopped at the Golden Lion in Rainford at 7:15pm, with the return trip for home leaving Blackpool at 1am.
The Reporter described how St Helens councillors had agreed in principle to buy Blackbrook Canal and the St Helens - Sankey Canal down to Newton. Their Leisure and Recreation Committee had decided on the move, as they said they wanted the canals and the land for a linear park.
Last week St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals. The factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who had to give his blessing to the decision.
But the compulsory closure of the sulphuric acid manufacturer would result in compensation having to be paid to Leathers of around £3 to £5 million. That would have to be paid by the town's ratepayers and this week, somewhat predictably, the grumblings began.
St Helens Council was already planning a rates rise of 22% that would begin in April and the prospect of a further rise – albeit being sometime in the future – was not going down well. It had only been in April 1974 when Rainhill was absorbed into an enlarged St Helens District Council. And so the Reporter stated that Rainhill people were asking why they should have to pay for the closure of a factory that the old St Helens council had allowed to open.
Councillor Alan Parry, who represented Rainhill and Bold, said: "We've had no complaints in the last nine months about Leather's but, if they are polluting the area let's hound the life out of them. Let's implant in their minds that they should leave. But we should not be giving them a golden handshake of £3 million for pouring out filth into St. Helens since 1968."
In another Rainhill story the Reporter described how Brian Harris had made an extraordinary find. The 12-year-old Whiston Higher Side schoolboy had been walking along Rainhill Road when he looked down and spotted a filthy figurine. When his find was cleaned up and checked by experts at Liverpool Museum, Brian was told it was around 2,500 years old. The Reporter's headline to their article was "Treasure From The Gutter!" and they said Brian was mystified how his tiny sandstone carving had ended up mud-splattered in Rainhill Road.
The troubles of Stan Leyland of Grimshaw Street were told in the Reporter. The 67-year-old kept peacocks in his yard in Leach Lane but during the last five years 29 of them had been killed or stolen. Dogs had savaged most of the birds with others shot by prowlers. The 1970s was still a time when dogs could roam the streets, sometimes in packs, and Stan thought dogs from Beth Avenue were mainly responsible for the killing spree.
What the Reporter journalist did not seemingly know was that Stan's love of animals, birds and fish had caused him much angst during his life. In 1956 two three-year-old girls that had wandered into his garden had drowned while admiring his goldfish pond.
And Stan's beloved pet monkey called Chico – who sat on his handlebars when he cycled to his yard or on the bonnet of his truck on the days that he drove down – had one day attacked him for no apparent reason. Chico sank his teeth into Stan's leg and refused to let go and so he had to use an axe to kill his pet in order to free himself.
The Trustee Savings Bank had an advert in the Reporter promoting cheque books, saying: "With a cheque book you can pay your bills more easily, shop without carrying a lot of cash around, and keep a careful note of what you've spent. And a cheque account with the TSB can cost you nothing to run." The TSB then had three branches in St Helens in Hardshaw Street, Higher Parr Street and at Ellamsbridge Road.
Do you remember Charlie Williams, who appeared on The Comedians and The Golden Shot? The Yorkshire comic performed at the Theatre Royal on the 22nd. His advert in the Reporter said: "The Charlie Williams Show Starring Charlie Williams" – just in case anyone was expecting Bob Monkhouse or Eric Morecambe to be the star! One thing I didn't know about Charlie until I looked him up was that he was one of the first black players in British football, having played 150 times for Doncaster Rovers.
On Sunday 23rd the second stage of the new one-way traffic system was introduced into Victoria Square. The first stage had been brought in a month ago and the changes had included traffic forced to flow one-way in a clockwise direction past the Gamble Institute and one-way clockwise along the south side of Victoria Square. Also traffic travelling north past Century House on Hardshaw Street had to go around the square to access Corporation Street.
For the second and final stage, Corporation Street became one-way from Cotham Street to Hall Street and a new pelican crossing replaced the existing zebra crossing in front of the Town Hall. And traffic coming up Cotham Street now had to give way when entering the square. Priority was being given to allow a free flow of traffic from Bickerstaffe Street across the south side of Victoria Square and on into Corporation Street where it passed the courthouse.
And finally, on the 23rd at the ABC Savoy, Walt Disney's 'The Island At The Top Of The World' replaced 'The Amorous Milkman' and the Capitol Cinema replaced 'Slade In ‘Flame’' with 'Escape From The Planet Of The Apes'.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Barclays Bank robbery, a vow to stop building big council estates in St Helens, the Sherdley Park Golf Shop and why government ministers were investigating a redundancy crisis at Pilkingtons.
We begin at the Theatre Royal on the 17th when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed a special concert in honour of Sir Thomas Beecham.
On the 18th the St Helens Newspaper described how a tea factory in Reginald Road in Sutton would be closing in two months with 130 job losses. Kardomah Ltd was owned by Cadbury-Schweppes and they were cutting down on their specialised tea operations. Kardomah blended and packed tea and tea bags under its own name but was only sold in the North West. The firm had been in St Helens for just three years and its parent company wanted to concentrate on its bigger national brands, such as Typhoo. A company spokesman told the Newspaper: "It's a question of the market. We're in the day of the big brands."
The St Helens Newspaper also reported how an opportunistic thief had reached over the counter of the cigarette kiosk at Whelan's Discount Store in Baxters Lane and got away with £126.
St Helens Council's Leisure and Recreation Committee met on the 19th and were told that gangs of youths on the Four Acre estate were frightening elderly people. In a letter to the committee, the Four Acre and District Community Council wrote:
"The gangs that are roaming this estate are unmanageable. Pensioners are frightened to go out in case they might be attacked. There is a great need for more sporting facilities. Children have said they want somewhere to go, and our committee feel if premises were provided it would combat vandalism."
The council had wisely set aside £140,000 as a contingency fund to "beat" inflation with building costs expected to have risen by the time workers' spades hit the ground. But as price inflation in 1975 turned out to be 24%, it might not have been beaten, just reduced, perhaps.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 21st, Eckersley Coaches of St Helens were advertising free transport to Tiffany's nightclub in Blackpool. There were two pick-up points for clubbers wanting to enjoy "non-stop dancing" at "the North's No. 1 night spot". The coach left Birchley Street at 7pm and stopped at the Golden Lion in Rainford at 7:15pm, with the return trip for home leaving Blackpool at 1am.
The Reporter described how St Helens councillors had agreed in principle to buy Blackbrook Canal and the St Helens - Sankey Canal down to Newton. Their Leisure and Recreation Committee had decided on the move, as they said they wanted the canals and the land for a linear park.
Last week St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals. The factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who had to give his blessing to the decision.
But the compulsory closure of the sulphuric acid manufacturer would result in compensation having to be paid to Leathers of around £3 to £5 million. That would have to be paid by the town's ratepayers and this week, somewhat predictably, the grumblings began.
St Helens Council was already planning a rates rise of 22% that would begin in April and the prospect of a further rise – albeit being sometime in the future – was not going down well. It had only been in April 1974 when Rainhill was absorbed into an enlarged St Helens District Council. And so the Reporter stated that Rainhill people were asking why they should have to pay for the closure of a factory that the old St Helens council had allowed to open.
Councillor Alan Parry, who represented Rainhill and Bold, said: "We've had no complaints in the last nine months about Leather's but, if they are polluting the area let's hound the life out of them. Let's implant in their minds that they should leave. But we should not be giving them a golden handshake of £3 million for pouring out filth into St. Helens since 1968."
In another Rainhill story the Reporter described how Brian Harris had made an extraordinary find. The 12-year-old Whiston Higher Side schoolboy had been walking along Rainhill Road when he looked down and spotted a filthy figurine. When his find was cleaned up and checked by experts at Liverpool Museum, Brian was told it was around 2,500 years old. The Reporter's headline to their article was "Treasure From The Gutter!" and they said Brian was mystified how his tiny sandstone carving had ended up mud-splattered in Rainhill Road.
The troubles of Stan Leyland of Grimshaw Street were told in the Reporter. The 67-year-old kept peacocks in his yard in Leach Lane but during the last five years 29 of them had been killed or stolen. Dogs had savaged most of the birds with others shot by prowlers. The 1970s was still a time when dogs could roam the streets, sometimes in packs, and Stan thought dogs from Beth Avenue were mainly responsible for the killing spree.
What the Reporter journalist did not seemingly know was that Stan's love of animals, birds and fish had caused him much angst during his life. In 1956 two three-year-old girls that had wandered into his garden had drowned while admiring his goldfish pond.
And Stan's beloved pet monkey called Chico – who sat on his handlebars when he cycled to his yard or on the bonnet of his truck on the days that he drove down – had one day attacked him for no apparent reason. Chico sank his teeth into Stan's leg and refused to let go and so he had to use an axe to kill his pet in order to free himself.
The Trustee Savings Bank had an advert in the Reporter promoting cheque books, saying: "With a cheque book you can pay your bills more easily, shop without carrying a lot of cash around, and keep a careful note of what you've spent. And a cheque account with the TSB can cost you nothing to run." The TSB then had three branches in St Helens in Hardshaw Street, Higher Parr Street and at Ellamsbridge Road.
Do you remember Charlie Williams, who appeared on The Comedians and The Golden Shot? The Yorkshire comic performed at the Theatre Royal on the 22nd. His advert in the Reporter said: "The Charlie Williams Show Starring Charlie Williams" – just in case anyone was expecting Bob Monkhouse or Eric Morecambe to be the star! One thing I didn't know about Charlie until I looked him up was that he was one of the first black players in British football, having played 150 times for Doncaster Rovers.
For the second and final stage, Corporation Street became one-way from Cotham Street to Hall Street and a new pelican crossing replaced the existing zebra crossing in front of the Town Hall. And traffic coming up Cotham Street now had to give way when entering the square. Priority was being given to allow a free flow of traffic from Bickerstaffe Street across the south side of Victoria Square and on into Corporation Street where it passed the courthouse.
And finally, on the 23rd at the ABC Savoy, Walt Disney's 'The Island At The Top Of The World' replaced 'The Amorous Milkman' and the Capitol Cinema replaced 'Slade In ‘Flame’' with 'Escape From The Planet Of The Apes'.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Barclays Bank robbery, a vow to stop building big council estates in St Helens, the Sherdley Park Golf Shop and why government ministers were investigating a redundancy crisis at Pilkingtons.
This week's many stories include the peacock slaughter in Sutton, the treasure found in a Rainhill gutter, the closure of a St Helens tea factory, the pushback against the Leather's closure decision begins, the second stage of the Victoria Square one-way system kicks in and the elderly folk at Four Acre that were too frightened to leave their homes at night.
We begin at the Theatre Royal on the 17th when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed a special concert in honour of Sir Thomas Beecham.
On the 18th the St Helens Newspaper described how a tea factory in Reginald Road in Sutton would be closing in two months with 130 job losses.
Kardomah Ltd was owned by Cadbury-Schweppes and they were cutting down on their specialised tea operations.
Kardomah blended and packed tea and tea bags under its own name but was only sold in the North West.
The firm had been in St Helens for just three years and its parent company wanted to concentrate on its bigger national brands, such as Typhoo.
A company spokesman told the Newspaper: "It's a question of the market. We're in the day of the big brands."
The St Helens Newspaper also reported how an opportunistic thief had reached over the counter of the cigarette kiosk at Whelan's Discount Store in Baxters Lane and got away with £126.
St Helens Council's Leisure and Recreation Committee met on the 19th and were told that gangs of youths on the Four Acre estate were frightening elderly people.
In a letter to the committee, the Four Acre and District Community Council wrote:
"The gangs that are roaming this estate are unmanageable. Pensioners are frightened to go out in case they might be attacked.
"There is a great need for more sporting facilities. Children have said they want somewhere to go, and our committee feel if premises were provided it would combat vandalism."
It was announced this week that a £1½ million schools building programme would take place within the St Helens district during the next financial year.
Not all of the schemes had been finalised but Robins Lane Secondary (pictured above) was to have an annexe built to accommodate 300 pupils at a cost of £415,000.
A new school for 280 pupils to be called Ashurst County Primary was going to be built at Chain Lane in Blackbrook costing £177,000 and a new RC school costing £145,000 was to be built in Sutton.
The council had wisely set aside £140,000 as a contingency fund to "beat" inflation with building costs expected to have risen by the time workers' spades hit the ground.
But as price inflation in 1975 turned out to be 24%, it might not have been beaten, just reduced, perhaps.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 21st, Eckersley Coaches of St Helens were advertising free transport to Tiffany's nightclub in Blackpool.
There were two pick-up points for clubbers wanting to enjoy "non-stop dancing" at "the North's No. 1 night spot".
The coach left Birchley Street at 7pm and stopped at the Golden Lion in Rainford at 7:15pm, with the return trip for home leaving Blackpool at 1am.
The Reporter described how St Helens councillors had agreed in principle to buy Blackbrook Canal and the St Helens - Sankey Canal down to Newton.
Their Leisure and Recreation Committee had decided on the move, as they said they wanted the canals and the land for a linear park.
Last week St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals.
The factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who had to give his blessing to the decision.
But the compulsory closure of the sulphuric acid manufacturer would result in compensation having to be paid to Leathers of around £3 to £5 million.
That would have to be paid by the town's ratepayers and this week, somewhat predictably, the grumblings began.
St Helens Council was already planning a rates rise of 22% that would begin in April and the prospect of a further rise – albeit being sometime in the future – was not going down well.
It had only been in April 1974 when Rainhill was absorbed into an enlarged St Helens District Council.
And so the Reporter stated that Rainhill people were asking why they should have to pay for the closure of a factory that the old St Helens council had allowed to open.
Councillor Alan Parry, who represented Rainhill and Bold, said:
"We've had no complaints in the last nine months about Leather's but, if they are polluting the area let's hound the life out of them.
"Let's implant in their minds that they should leave. But we should not be giving them a golden handshake of £3 million for pouring out filth into St. Helens since 1968."
In another Rainhill story the Reporter described how Brian Harris had made an extraordinary find.
The 12-year-old Whiston Higher Side schoolboy had been walking along Rainhill Road when he looked down and spotted a filthy figurine.
When his find was cleaned up and checked by experts at Liverpool Museum, Brian was told it was around 2,500 years old.
The Reporter's headline to their article was "Treasure From The Gutter!" and they said Brian was mystified how his tiny sandstone carving had ended up mud-splattered in Rainhill Road.
The troubles of Stan Leyland of Grimshaw Street were told in the Reporter.
The 67-year-old kept peacocks in his yard in Leach Lane but during the last five years 29 of them had been killed or stolen. Dogs had savaged most of the birds with others shot by prowlers.
The 1970s was still a time when dogs could roam the streets, sometimes in packs, and Stan thought dogs from Beth Avenue were mainly responsible for the killing spree.
What the Reporter journalist did not seemingly know was that Stan's love of animals, birds and fish had caused him much angst during his life.
In 1956 two three-year-old girls that had wandered into his garden had drowned while admiring his goldfish pond.
And Stan's beloved pet monkey called Chico – who sat on his handlebars when he cycled to his yard or on the bonnet of his truck on the days that he drove down – had one day attacked him for no apparent reason.
Chico sank his teeth into Stan's leg and refused to let go and so he had to use an axe to kill his pet in order to free himself.
The Trustee Savings Bank had an advert in the Reporter promoting cheque books, saying:
"With a cheque book you can pay your bills more easily, shop without carrying a lot of cash around, and keep a careful note of what you've spent. And a cheque account with the TSB can cost you nothing to run."
The TSB then had three branches in St Helens in Hardshaw Street, Higher Parr Street and at Ellamsbridge Road.
Do you remember Charlie Williams, who appeared on The Comedians and The Golden Shot?
The Yorkshire comic performed at the Theatre Royal on the 22nd. His advert in the Reporter said: "The Charlie Williams Show Starring Charlie Williams" – just in case anyone was expecting Bob Monkhouse or Eric Morecambe to be the star!
One thing I didn't know about Charlie until I looked him up was that he was one of the first black players in British football, having played 150 times for Doncaster Rovers.
On Sunday 23rd the second stage of the new one-way traffic system was introduced into Victoria Square.
The first stage had been brought in a month ago and the changes had included traffic forced to flow one-way in a clockwise direction past the Gamble Institute and one-way clockwise along the south side of Victoria Square.
Also traffic travelling north past Century House on Hardshaw Street had to go around the square to access Corporation Street.
For the second and final stage, Corporation Street became one-way from Cotham Street to Hall Street and a new pelican crossing replaced the existing zebra crossing in front of the Town Hall.
And traffic coming up Cotham Street now had to give way when entering the square.
Priority was being given to allow a free flow of traffic from Bickerstaffe Street across the south side of Victoria Square and on into Corporation Street where it passed the courthouse.
And finally, on the 23rd at the ABC Savoy, Walt Disney's 'The Island At The Top Of The World' replaced 'The Amorous Milkman' and the Capitol Cinema replaced 'Slade In ‘Flame’' with 'Escape From The Planet Of The Apes'.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Barclays Bank robbery, a vow to stop building big council estates in St Helens, the Sherdley Park Golf Shop and why government ministers were investigating a redundancy crisis at Pilkingtons.
We begin at the Theatre Royal on the 17th when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed a special concert in honour of Sir Thomas Beecham.
On the 18th the St Helens Newspaper described how a tea factory in Reginald Road in Sutton would be closing in two months with 130 job losses.
Kardomah Ltd was owned by Cadbury-Schweppes and they were cutting down on their specialised tea operations.
Kardomah blended and packed tea and tea bags under its own name but was only sold in the North West.
The firm had been in St Helens for just three years and its parent company wanted to concentrate on its bigger national brands, such as Typhoo.
A company spokesman told the Newspaper: "It's a question of the market. We're in the day of the big brands."
The St Helens Newspaper also reported how an opportunistic thief had reached over the counter of the cigarette kiosk at Whelan's Discount Store in Baxters Lane and got away with £126.
St Helens Council's Leisure and Recreation Committee met on the 19th and were told that gangs of youths on the Four Acre estate were frightening elderly people.
In a letter to the committee, the Four Acre and District Community Council wrote:
"The gangs that are roaming this estate are unmanageable. Pensioners are frightened to go out in case they might be attacked.
"There is a great need for more sporting facilities. Children have said they want somewhere to go, and our committee feel if premises were provided it would combat vandalism."
Not all of the schemes had been finalised but Robins Lane Secondary (pictured above) was to have an annexe built to accommodate 300 pupils at a cost of £415,000.
A new school for 280 pupils to be called Ashurst County Primary was going to be built at Chain Lane in Blackbrook costing £177,000 and a new RC school costing £145,000 was to be built in Sutton.
The council had wisely set aside £140,000 as a contingency fund to "beat" inflation with building costs expected to have risen by the time workers' spades hit the ground.
But as price inflation in 1975 turned out to be 24%, it might not have been beaten, just reduced, perhaps.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 21st, Eckersley Coaches of St Helens were advertising free transport to Tiffany's nightclub in Blackpool.
There were two pick-up points for clubbers wanting to enjoy "non-stop dancing" at "the North's No. 1 night spot".
The coach left Birchley Street at 7pm and stopped at the Golden Lion in Rainford at 7:15pm, with the return trip for home leaving Blackpool at 1am.
The Reporter described how St Helens councillors had agreed in principle to buy Blackbrook Canal and the St Helens - Sankey Canal down to Newton.
Their Leisure and Recreation Committee had decided on the move, as they said they wanted the canals and the land for a linear park.
Last week St Helens Council had taken what the Reporter called the "revolutionary" decision to close down Leathers Chemicals.
The factory's fate now lay with Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, who had to give his blessing to the decision.
But the compulsory closure of the sulphuric acid manufacturer would result in compensation having to be paid to Leathers of around £3 to £5 million.
That would have to be paid by the town's ratepayers and this week, somewhat predictably, the grumblings began.
St Helens Council was already planning a rates rise of 22% that would begin in April and the prospect of a further rise – albeit being sometime in the future – was not going down well.
It had only been in April 1974 when Rainhill was absorbed into an enlarged St Helens District Council.
And so the Reporter stated that Rainhill people were asking why they should have to pay for the closure of a factory that the old St Helens council had allowed to open.
Councillor Alan Parry, who represented Rainhill and Bold, said:
"We've had no complaints in the last nine months about Leather's but, if they are polluting the area let's hound the life out of them.
"Let's implant in their minds that they should leave. But we should not be giving them a golden handshake of £3 million for pouring out filth into St. Helens since 1968."
In another Rainhill story the Reporter described how Brian Harris had made an extraordinary find.
The 12-year-old Whiston Higher Side schoolboy had been walking along Rainhill Road when he looked down and spotted a filthy figurine.
When his find was cleaned up and checked by experts at Liverpool Museum, Brian was told it was around 2,500 years old.
The Reporter's headline to their article was "Treasure From The Gutter!" and they said Brian was mystified how his tiny sandstone carving had ended up mud-splattered in Rainhill Road.
The troubles of Stan Leyland of Grimshaw Street were told in the Reporter.
The 67-year-old kept peacocks in his yard in Leach Lane but during the last five years 29 of them had been killed or stolen. Dogs had savaged most of the birds with others shot by prowlers.
The 1970s was still a time when dogs could roam the streets, sometimes in packs, and Stan thought dogs from Beth Avenue were mainly responsible for the killing spree.
What the Reporter journalist did not seemingly know was that Stan's love of animals, birds and fish had caused him much angst during his life.
In 1956 two three-year-old girls that had wandered into his garden had drowned while admiring his goldfish pond.
And Stan's beloved pet monkey called Chico – who sat on his handlebars when he cycled to his yard or on the bonnet of his truck on the days that he drove down – had one day attacked him for no apparent reason.
Chico sank his teeth into Stan's leg and refused to let go and so he had to use an axe to kill his pet in order to free himself.
The Trustee Savings Bank had an advert in the Reporter promoting cheque books, saying:
"With a cheque book you can pay your bills more easily, shop without carrying a lot of cash around, and keep a careful note of what you've spent. And a cheque account with the TSB can cost you nothing to run."
The TSB then had three branches in St Helens in Hardshaw Street, Higher Parr Street and at Ellamsbridge Road.
Do you remember Charlie Williams, who appeared on The Comedians and The Golden Shot?
The Yorkshire comic performed at the Theatre Royal on the 22nd. His advert in the Reporter said: "The Charlie Williams Show Starring Charlie Williams" – just in case anyone was expecting Bob Monkhouse or Eric Morecambe to be the star!
One thing I didn't know about Charlie until I looked him up was that he was one of the first black players in British football, having played 150 times for Doncaster Rovers.
The first stage had been brought in a month ago and the changes had included traffic forced to flow one-way in a clockwise direction past the Gamble Institute and one-way clockwise along the south side of Victoria Square.
Also traffic travelling north past Century House on Hardshaw Street had to go around the square to access Corporation Street.
For the second and final stage, Corporation Street became one-way from Cotham Street to Hall Street and a new pelican crossing replaced the existing zebra crossing in front of the Town Hall.
And traffic coming up Cotham Street now had to give way when entering the square.
Priority was being given to allow a free flow of traffic from Bickerstaffe Street across the south side of Victoria Square and on into Corporation Street where it passed the courthouse.
And finally, on the 23rd at the ABC Savoy, Walt Disney's 'The Island At The Top Of The World' replaced 'The Amorous Milkman' and the Capitol Cinema replaced 'Slade In ‘Flame’' with 'Escape From The Planet Of The Apes'.
St Helens Reporter and Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Barclays Bank robbery, a vow to stop building big council estates in St Helens, the Sherdley Park Golf Shop and why government ministers were investigating a redundancy crisis at Pilkingtons.