FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 20 - 26 OCTOBER 1975
This week's many stories include the teenage firebugs causing havoc in Haresfinch Park, the hypocritical prosecution of Ena Shaw, the St Helens hospital doctors that were refusing to treat most non-urgent cases, the increasing crime in St Helens, the new type of fashion merchandising devised by Rainford Metals and a Rainhill headmaster attacks the permissive society and soft treatment of criminals.
We begin during the evening of the 20th in the Derby Arms in Rainford. There, Ray Charnock, chairman of Rainford Charities Association, presented the Royal National Institute for the Blind with a cheque for £150 towards their talking book scheme. Percy Taylor, the area organiser for the RNIB who received the cash, revealed that only 10% of blind people could read Braille and said consequently talking books were a great help to the visually impaired.
In January 1974 a security officer at Pilkington's HQ in Prescot Road (pictured above) was injured when a letter bomb exploded. 57-year-old Joe Hampton was a former top policeman and he lost the tip of the little finger on his right hand. The device had been addressed to company chairman Sir Alastair Pilkington and had been contained within a hollowed-out book on antiques, which the head of Lancashire's CID described as "very unstable and highly volatile".
This week it was announced that a 20-year-old student from Londonderry had been charged with the crime. The individual had also been charged with sending other letter bombs, including to the Bank of England and the Daily Express.
Just before a visit to Merseyside this week by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, the latest crime stats for the county were released. These covered the period for the first eight months of 1975 and showed that in St Helens a total of 5,509 crimes were recorded, an increase of more than 38% over the same period in 1974. However, the good news was that St Helens Police had improved their detection rate, which now stood at 44%, a figure that, I think, could only be dreamt of today.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 24th and described how "militant" junior hospital doctors in St Helens were now blacking most non-urgent cases in a bid for better pay and conditions. The St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority Administrator was Ken Worthington who said: "We still haven't caught up on the backlog of cases built up by the consultants' work-to-rule last winter." The dispute was becoming a national one and at a mass meeting this week, Merseyside doctors agreed to continue to treat all emergency cases, as well as sick children and pregnant women.
The Reporter described how Tower College in Rainhill (pictured above) had held its annual speech day. And the private school's headmaster, Charles Oxley, had taken the opportunity to blast the permissive society and the treatment of criminals, saying:
"The bone of this age is the apparently easy way in which society has come to accept wrong-doing, be it permissiveness in moral conduct, vandalism or violence, and the potty way in which villains are protected and pampered while the safety and well-being of law-abiding citizens are callously disregarded. Young people today are subject to enormous pressures to conform to the pattern of a Godless life. I hope that the boys and girls of Tower College will grow strong enough to withstand these pressures and temptations."
There was some good news on the jobs front with the number of jobless in St Helens over the last month having been reduced by 722. However, much of that improvement was down to students who had been claiming out of work benefits returning to full-time education. The total number of those unemployed in St Helens was 4,699.
Pictured in the Reporter were pupils past and present from Blackbrook Junior School of Chain Lane presenting gifts to headmistress Margaret Griffiths, who was retiring at the end of term. Mrs Griffiths had been teaching at the school since 1938.
"Teenage firebugs have mounted a campaign of destruction in a local park," wrote David Lawrenson in a Reporter article. For a week Haresfinch Park had been a target for fire raisers who had caused damage to buildings and property. The house of James Heyes was situated in the grounds of the park and the police had awakened him at midnight to tell him his garden shed was on fire.
Fortunately, the Fire Brigade were already in the park dealing with other buildings that had been set alight. Park warden Roy Hunter described the arson attacks to the Reporter: "Teenagers were to blame. The fire brigade have been here almost every night during the week. I just cannot understand why this should happen. They have set fire to the pensioners' hut and even broken the windows of the shed where the park equipment is kept [in order] to throw in lighted papers. It's lucky that there was no petrol in the place or the whole lot could have gone up."
The Reporter also described how children from St Helens, who lived in community homes run by Lancashire County Council, would still be at risk of being caned if they misbehaved. At a meeting of the council's Social Services Committee this week, it was decided by just four votes to retain corporal punishment.
The committee were swayed by the heads of children's homes wanting to retain the cane, with Councillor Leonard Broughton saying that an untrue picture was being painted of sadistic headmasters flogging children almost to death. "The cane," he insisted, "had been used only a dozen times in the previous six months, with the maximum of six strokes being administered on just five occasions. If it was abolished in the homes, it follows that it should also be abolished in the schools and surely no-one would want that."
But Councillor Gordon Payne said he believed the heads of community homes were exaggerating the deterrent value of the cane and said there is strong evidence that caning can act as a stimulant to further anti-social behaviour: "The type of boys in our homes – many from unstable and broken homes – are the ones who will least benefit. Many are accustomed to being beaten by their parents as a matter of course. They accept violence as part of their lives."
The Reporter also revealed that Ena Shaw of Duke Street had been fined £50 by St Helens magistrates after pleading guilty to not having the legally required number of disabled people working in their business. But the paper said an organiser for a leading London disability employment agency had said the Department of Employment – who had brought the case – were guilty of "disgraceful hypocrisy". Arthur Carr claimed that 26 of the 29 government departments were currently employing less than the legally required percentage of disabled persons.
On the 24th the new Edward John boutique opened in Church Street. The shop utilised a new design in display systems that had been devised by Rainford Metals. The firm's managing director, Barry Houghton, felt there was a tremendous market for this type of fashion merchandising made of tubular steel fittings and said up to 50 jobs could eventually be created at his premises in Mill Lane: "A department at Rainford Metals has been converted to deal with it, and we hope to build a special factory next door to the existing one in around a month's time."
And finally, on the 26th 'Shampoo' starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie replaced 'Where Eagles Dare' at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol Cinema, 'Straw Dogs' and 'Soldier Blue' were presented as a week-long double-bill.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the angry words hurled at councillors attending a meeting in Derbyshire Hill, the big rise in bus fares, the Helena House Christmas Grotto and how one Rainhill eyesore had been replaced by another.
We begin during the evening of the 20th in the Derby Arms in Rainford. There, Ray Charnock, chairman of Rainford Charities Association, presented the Royal National Institute for the Blind with a cheque for £150 towards their talking book scheme. Percy Taylor, the area organiser for the RNIB who received the cash, revealed that only 10% of blind people could read Braille and said consequently talking books were a great help to the visually impaired.
This week it was announced that a 20-year-old student from Londonderry had been charged with the crime. The individual had also been charged with sending other letter bombs, including to the Bank of England and the Daily Express.
Just before a visit to Merseyside this week by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, the latest crime stats for the county were released. These covered the period for the first eight months of 1975 and showed that in St Helens a total of 5,509 crimes were recorded, an increase of more than 38% over the same period in 1974. However, the good news was that St Helens Police had improved their detection rate, which now stood at 44%, a figure that, I think, could only be dreamt of today.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 24th and described how "militant" junior hospital doctors in St Helens were now blacking most non-urgent cases in a bid for better pay and conditions. The St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority Administrator was Ken Worthington who said: "We still haven't caught up on the backlog of cases built up by the consultants' work-to-rule last winter." The dispute was becoming a national one and at a mass meeting this week, Merseyside doctors agreed to continue to treat all emergency cases, as well as sick children and pregnant women.
"The bone of this age is the apparently easy way in which society has come to accept wrong-doing, be it permissiveness in moral conduct, vandalism or violence, and the potty way in which villains are protected and pampered while the safety and well-being of law-abiding citizens are callously disregarded. Young people today are subject to enormous pressures to conform to the pattern of a Godless life. I hope that the boys and girls of Tower College will grow strong enough to withstand these pressures and temptations."
There was some good news on the jobs front with the number of jobless in St Helens over the last month having been reduced by 722. However, much of that improvement was down to students who had been claiming out of work benefits returning to full-time education. The total number of those unemployed in St Helens was 4,699.
Pictured in the Reporter were pupils past and present from Blackbrook Junior School of Chain Lane presenting gifts to headmistress Margaret Griffiths, who was retiring at the end of term. Mrs Griffiths had been teaching at the school since 1938.
"Teenage firebugs have mounted a campaign of destruction in a local park," wrote David Lawrenson in a Reporter article. For a week Haresfinch Park had been a target for fire raisers who had caused damage to buildings and property. The house of James Heyes was situated in the grounds of the park and the police had awakened him at midnight to tell him his garden shed was on fire.
Fortunately, the Fire Brigade were already in the park dealing with other buildings that had been set alight. Park warden Roy Hunter described the arson attacks to the Reporter: "Teenagers were to blame. The fire brigade have been here almost every night during the week. I just cannot understand why this should happen. They have set fire to the pensioners' hut and even broken the windows of the shed where the park equipment is kept [in order] to throw in lighted papers. It's lucky that there was no petrol in the place or the whole lot could have gone up."
The Reporter also described how children from St Helens, who lived in community homes run by Lancashire County Council, would still be at risk of being caned if they misbehaved. At a meeting of the council's Social Services Committee this week, it was decided by just four votes to retain corporal punishment.
The committee were swayed by the heads of children's homes wanting to retain the cane, with Councillor Leonard Broughton saying that an untrue picture was being painted of sadistic headmasters flogging children almost to death. "The cane," he insisted, "had been used only a dozen times in the previous six months, with the maximum of six strokes being administered on just five occasions. If it was abolished in the homes, it follows that it should also be abolished in the schools and surely no-one would want that."
But Councillor Gordon Payne said he believed the heads of community homes were exaggerating the deterrent value of the cane and said there is strong evidence that caning can act as a stimulant to further anti-social behaviour: "The type of boys in our homes – many from unstable and broken homes – are the ones who will least benefit. Many are accustomed to being beaten by their parents as a matter of course. They accept violence as part of their lives."
The Reporter also revealed that Ena Shaw of Duke Street had been fined £50 by St Helens magistrates after pleading guilty to not having the legally required number of disabled people working in their business. But the paper said an organiser for a leading London disability employment agency had said the Department of Employment – who had brought the case – were guilty of "disgraceful hypocrisy". Arthur Carr claimed that 26 of the 29 government departments were currently employing less than the legally required percentage of disabled persons.
On the 24th the new Edward John boutique opened in Church Street. The shop utilised a new design in display systems that had been devised by Rainford Metals. The firm's managing director, Barry Houghton, felt there was a tremendous market for this type of fashion merchandising made of tubular steel fittings and said up to 50 jobs could eventually be created at his premises in Mill Lane: "A department at Rainford Metals has been converted to deal with it, and we hope to build a special factory next door to the existing one in around a month's time."
And finally, on the 26th 'Shampoo' starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie replaced 'Where Eagles Dare' at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol Cinema, 'Straw Dogs' and 'Soldier Blue' were presented as a week-long double-bill.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the angry words hurled at councillors attending a meeting in Derbyshire Hill, the big rise in bus fares, the Helena House Christmas Grotto and how one Rainhill eyesore had been replaced by another.
This week's many stories include the teenage firebugs causing havoc in Haresfinch Park, a man is charged in connection with the letter bomb explosion at Pilks, the hypocritical prosecution of Ena Shaw, the St Helens hospital doctors that were refusing to treat most non-urgent cases, the increasing crime in St Helens, the new type of fashion merchandising devised by Rainford Metals and a Rainhill headmaster attacks the permissive society.
We begin during the evening of the 20th in the Derby Arms in Rainford. There, Ray Charnock, chairman of Rainford Charities Association, presented the Royal National Institute for the Blind with a cheque for £150 towards their talking book scheme.
Percy Taylor, the area organiser for the RNIB who received the cash, revealed that only 10% of blind people could read Braille and said consequently talking books were a great help to the visually impaired.
In January 1974 a security officer at Pilkington's HQ in Prescot Road (pictured above) was injured when a letter bomb exploded. 57-year-old Joe Hampton was a former top policeman and he lost the tip of the little finger on his right hand.
The device had been addressed to company chairman Sir Alastair Pilkington and had been contained within a hollowed-out book on antiques, which the head of Lancashire's CID described as "very unstable and highly volatile".
This week it was announced that a 20-year-old student from Londonderry had been charged with the crime.
The individual had also been charged with sending other letter bombs, including to the Bank of England and the Daily Express.
Just before a visit to Merseyside this week by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, the latest crime stats for the county were released.
These covered the period for the first eight months of 1975 and showed that in St Helens a total of 5,509 crimes were recorded, an increase of more than 38% over the same period in 1974.
However, the good news was that St Helens Police had improved their detection rate, which now stood at 44%, a figure that, I think, could only be dreamt of today.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 24th and described how "militant" junior hospital doctors in St Helens were now blacking most non-urgent cases in a bid for better pay and conditions.
The St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority Administrator was Ken Worthington who said: "We still haven't caught up on the backlog of cases built up by the consultants' work-to-rule last winter."
The dispute was becoming a national one and at a mass meeting this week, Merseyside doctors agreed to continue to treat all emergency cases, as well as sick children and pregnant women.
The Reporter described how Tower College in Rainhill (pictured above) had held its annual speech day.
And the private school's headmaster, Charles Oxley, had taken the opportunity to blast the permissive society and the treatment of criminals, saying:
"The bone of this age is the apparently easy way in which society has come to accept wrong-doing, be it permissiveness in moral conduct, vandalism or violence, and the potty way in which villains are protected and pampered while the safety and well-being of law-abiding citizens are callously disregarded.
"Young people today are subject to enormous pressures to conform to the pattern of a Godless life. I hope that the boys and girls of Tower College will grow strong enough to withstand these pressures and temptations."
There was some good news on the jobs front with the number of jobless in St Helens over the last month having been reduced by 722.
However, much of that improvement was down to students who had been claiming out of work benefits returning to full-time education. The total number of those unemployed in St Helens was 4,699.
Pictured in the Reporter were pupils past and present from Blackbrook Junior School of Chain Lane presenting gifts to headmistress Margaret Griffiths, who was retiring at the end of term. Mrs Griffiths had been teaching at the school since 1938.
"Teenage firebugs have mounted a campaign of destruction in a local park," wrote David Lawrenson in a Reporter article.
For a week Haresfinch Park had been a target for fire raisers who had caused damage to buildings and property.
The house of James Heyes was situated in the grounds of the park and the police had awakened him at midnight to tell him his garden shed was on fire.
Fortunately, the Fire Brigade were already in the park dealing with other buildings that had been set alight. Park warden Roy Hunter described the arson attacks to the Reporter:
"Teenagers were to blame. The fire brigade have been here almost every night during the week. I just cannot understand why this should happen.
"They have set fire to the pensioners' hut and even broken the windows of the shed where the park equipment is kept [in order] to throw in lighted papers. It's lucky that there was no petrol in the place or the whole lot could have gone up."
The Reporter also described how children from St Helens, who lived in community homes run by Lancashire County Council, would still be at risk of being caned if they misbehaved.
At a meeting of the council's Social Services Committee this week, it was decided by just four votes to retain corporal punishment.
The committee were swayed by the heads of children's homes wanting to retain the cane, with Councillor Leonard Broughton saying that an untrue picture was being painted of sadistic headmasters flogging children almost to death.
"The cane," he insisted, "had been used only a dozen times in the previous six months, with the maximum of six strokes being administered on just five occasions. If it was abolished in the homes, it follows that it should also be abolished in the schools and surely no-one would want that."
But Councillor Gordon Payne said he believed the heads of community homes were exaggerating the deterrent value of the cane and said there is strong evidence that caning can act as a stimulant to further anti-social behaviour:
"The type of boys in our homes – many from unstable and broken homes – are the ones who will least benefit. Many are accustomed to being beaten by their parents as a matter of course. They accept violence as part of their lives."
The Reporter also revealed that Ena Shaw of Duke Street had been fined £50 by St Helens magistrates after pleading guilty to not having the legally required number of disabled people working in their business.
But the paper said an organiser for a leading London disability employment agency had said the Department of Employment – who had brought the case – were guilty of "disgraceful hypocrisy".
Arthur Carr claimed that 26 of the 29 government departments were currently employing less than the legally required percentage of disabled persons.
On the 24th the new Edward John boutique opened in Church Street. The shop utilised a new design in display systems that had been devised by Rainford Metals.
The firm's managing director, Barry Houghton, felt there was a tremendous market for this type of fashion merchandising made of tubular steel fittings and said up to 50 jobs could eventually be created at his premises in Mill Lane:
"A department at Rainford Metals has been converted to deal with it, and we hope to build a special factory next door to the existing one in around a month's time."
And finally, on the 26th 'Shampoo' starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie replaced 'Where Eagles Dare' at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol Cinema, 'Straw Dogs' and 'Soldier Blue' were presented as a week-long double-bill.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the angry words hurled at councillors attending a meeting in Derbyshire Hill, the big rise in bus fares, the Helena House Christmas Grotto and how one Rainhill eyesore had been replaced by another.
We begin during the evening of the 20th in the Derby Arms in Rainford. There, Ray Charnock, chairman of Rainford Charities Association, presented the Royal National Institute for the Blind with a cheque for £150 towards their talking book scheme.
Percy Taylor, the area organiser for the RNIB who received the cash, revealed that only 10% of blind people could read Braille and said consequently talking books were a great help to the visually impaired.
The device had been addressed to company chairman Sir Alastair Pilkington and had been contained within a hollowed-out book on antiques, which the head of Lancashire's CID described as "very unstable and highly volatile".
This week it was announced that a 20-year-old student from Londonderry had been charged with the crime.
The individual had also been charged with sending other letter bombs, including to the Bank of England and the Daily Express.
Just before a visit to Merseyside this week by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, the latest crime stats for the county were released.
These covered the period for the first eight months of 1975 and showed that in St Helens a total of 5,509 crimes were recorded, an increase of more than 38% over the same period in 1974.
However, the good news was that St Helens Police had improved their detection rate, which now stood at 44%, a figure that, I think, could only be dreamt of today.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 24th and described how "militant" junior hospital doctors in St Helens were now blacking most non-urgent cases in a bid for better pay and conditions.
The St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority Administrator was Ken Worthington who said: "We still haven't caught up on the backlog of cases built up by the consultants' work-to-rule last winter."
The dispute was becoming a national one and at a mass meeting this week, Merseyside doctors agreed to continue to treat all emergency cases, as well as sick children and pregnant women.
And the private school's headmaster, Charles Oxley, had taken the opportunity to blast the permissive society and the treatment of criminals, saying:
"The bone of this age is the apparently easy way in which society has come to accept wrong-doing, be it permissiveness in moral conduct, vandalism or violence, and the potty way in which villains are protected and pampered while the safety and well-being of law-abiding citizens are callously disregarded.
"Young people today are subject to enormous pressures to conform to the pattern of a Godless life. I hope that the boys and girls of Tower College will grow strong enough to withstand these pressures and temptations."
There was some good news on the jobs front with the number of jobless in St Helens over the last month having been reduced by 722.
However, much of that improvement was down to students who had been claiming out of work benefits returning to full-time education. The total number of those unemployed in St Helens was 4,699.
Pictured in the Reporter were pupils past and present from Blackbrook Junior School of Chain Lane presenting gifts to headmistress Margaret Griffiths, who was retiring at the end of term. Mrs Griffiths had been teaching at the school since 1938.
"Teenage firebugs have mounted a campaign of destruction in a local park," wrote David Lawrenson in a Reporter article.
For a week Haresfinch Park had been a target for fire raisers who had caused damage to buildings and property.
The house of James Heyes was situated in the grounds of the park and the police had awakened him at midnight to tell him his garden shed was on fire.
Fortunately, the Fire Brigade were already in the park dealing with other buildings that had been set alight. Park warden Roy Hunter described the arson attacks to the Reporter:
"Teenagers were to blame. The fire brigade have been here almost every night during the week. I just cannot understand why this should happen.
"They have set fire to the pensioners' hut and even broken the windows of the shed where the park equipment is kept [in order] to throw in lighted papers. It's lucky that there was no petrol in the place or the whole lot could have gone up."
The Reporter also described how children from St Helens, who lived in community homes run by Lancashire County Council, would still be at risk of being caned if they misbehaved.
At a meeting of the council's Social Services Committee this week, it was decided by just four votes to retain corporal punishment.
The committee were swayed by the heads of children's homes wanting to retain the cane, with Councillor Leonard Broughton saying that an untrue picture was being painted of sadistic headmasters flogging children almost to death.
"The cane," he insisted, "had been used only a dozen times in the previous six months, with the maximum of six strokes being administered on just five occasions. If it was abolished in the homes, it follows that it should also be abolished in the schools and surely no-one would want that."
But Councillor Gordon Payne said he believed the heads of community homes were exaggerating the deterrent value of the cane and said there is strong evidence that caning can act as a stimulant to further anti-social behaviour:
"The type of boys in our homes – many from unstable and broken homes – are the ones who will least benefit. Many are accustomed to being beaten by their parents as a matter of course. They accept violence as part of their lives."
The Reporter also revealed that Ena Shaw of Duke Street had been fined £50 by St Helens magistrates after pleading guilty to not having the legally required number of disabled people working in their business.
But the paper said an organiser for a leading London disability employment agency had said the Department of Employment – who had brought the case – were guilty of "disgraceful hypocrisy".
Arthur Carr claimed that 26 of the 29 government departments were currently employing less than the legally required percentage of disabled persons.
On the 24th the new Edward John boutique opened in Church Street. The shop utilised a new design in display systems that had been devised by Rainford Metals.
The firm's managing director, Barry Houghton, felt there was a tremendous market for this type of fashion merchandising made of tubular steel fittings and said up to 50 jobs could eventually be created at his premises in Mill Lane:
"A department at Rainford Metals has been converted to deal with it, and we hope to build a special factory next door to the existing one in around a month's time."
And finally, on the 26th 'Shampoo' starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie replaced 'Where Eagles Dare' at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol Cinema, 'Straw Dogs' and 'Soldier Blue' were presented as a week-long double-bill.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the angry words hurled at councillors attending a meeting in Derbyshire Hill, the big rise in bus fares, the Helena House Christmas Grotto and how one Rainhill eyesore had been replaced by another.