FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (22 - 28 MAY 1973)
This week's many stories include the football stars that were coming to St Helens to learn how to be a manager, the rescue of doomed ducklings at Pilks Prescot Road HQ, the glue-sniffing craze in St Helens, Hughie Green's return visit to Eccleston, the 91-year-old Rainhill woman attacked in her bed and St Helens is listed as the second worst place in the country for its provision of GPs.
We begin during the evening of the 22nd when neighbours rescued Brian Heaps from his blazing Cowley Street home. Firemen gave the 26-year-old oxygen before he was taken to Providence Hospital for treatment. Thomas Spratt also lived at the house and had raised the alarm. He was returning home when he spotted smoke and alerted neighbours who tackled the flames with buckets of water until the Fire Brigade arrived.
It would be eight more years before Jim Bowen presented quiz show 'Bullseye' on TV but his appearances on ITV's 'The Comedians' were boosting his fame. On the 22nd The Jim Bowen Show was presented at Parr Labour Club with tickets costing 15p.
Throughout this week the Frederick Knott thriller 'Wait Until Dark' was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. It was the fourth and final production in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series and starred Valentine Dyall. For many years he was known as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series 'Appointment with Fear'.
Early on the 24th 91-year-old Florence Marsh was dozing in her bed at her home in Rainhill Road when she saw a man in the room. The burglar immediately struck her in the face with his fist and ran from the house. Distressed and bleeding Miss Marsh staggered next door and knocked up her neighbour, Frank Brown, who sent for the police and an ambulance.
She was taken to Whiston Hospital where her condition later in the day was said to be satisfactory. This had been the second break-in at Miss Marsh's home in recent weeks after a man had taken a bag containing £100 from under her pillow. The neighbour, Frank Brown, said: "Miss Marsh was very frightened. There was blood coming from above her left eye and on her cheek." It was not yet known if anything had been stolen.
Also on the 24th the Echo reported that 36 people in St Helens had in April won premium bond prizes worth at least £50 (around £800 in today's money).
"Doomed Ducklings Saved By Dave" was the St Helens Reporter's headline to their article about the rescue of four 2-day-old mallards. The fluffy ducklings had waddled out of their nest for the first time and dropped straight through the bars of a drain cover into the water beneath. The "feather-raising adventure" had occurred in the grounds of Pilkingtons Prescot Road HQ (pictured above) and groundsman Dave Nicholl immediately dashed to their rescue.
The 33-year-old used a crowbar to lever off the cover only to find that the ducklings had already sailed straight through the drain into the sewer. But still hearing some faint chirping, Dave ran to the nearest sewer manhole lid and attempted to lift it – but it refused to budge. A small mobile crane was quickly brought in to yank the lid off – but he was too late as the ducklings had already swept by.
And so Dave went closer to the pipe's junction with the main town sewer and raised another lid. Fortunately, he was just in time to pluck the young birds out one by one as they appeared. Dave said: "The ducks have a nest just across the road from the lake in the grounds. They were completely unharmed. "They gave me a pretty hectic morning though. But they are very popular with all the men here and it would have been a pity if anything had happened to them."
The Reporter's front-page lead story was about the growth of glue sniffing amongst mid-teen youngsters. The extent of the addiction had been laid bare in a report on drug abuse in St Helens that the Junior Chamber of Commerce had compiled. Surprisingly, the document felt that glue sniffing was largely exclusive to St Helens, saying: "According to probation and police sources, this appears to be a particularly local problem". Quoting an anonymous expert, the Reporter warned that sniffers risked unconsciousness and death from suffocation or heart failure.
Chief Probation Officer Ken Sharp said he was alarmed at the increase, adding: "We became aware of it at first hand, and through club leaders and teachers who noticed the erratic behaviour of people who had been sniffing." Some youngsters had even required treatment at Rainhill Hospital to break their habit. However, the report's good news was that it was believed that St Helens did not generally have a large problem with hard drugs.
Concern was also raised in the Reporter that doctors working in general practice in the town were badly overworked and unable to devote sufficient time to preventive medicine. A recent report had placed St Helens in second place in a list of towns that were worst off for doctors. There were currently only 42 GPs in St Helens with an average of 3,028 patients for each.
It had been twenty years since a new general practice had been established in the town and one local doctor told the Reporter: "Basically, St. Helens is an undesirable place to come to", but added that the problem should ease as more doctors were being trained and new health centres created. A spokesman for the St Helens Executive Council of the National Health Service said:
"The situation is very bad, but then it always has been, certainly since 1948 when the Health Service started. Most doctors don't want to work here. It really takes something to get them to come. I think they realise they are going to have more patients on their list than if they were to work elsewhere."
The spokesman added that some doctors were turning down patients when they applied to join their practice because their list was full. The new Four Acre Lane estate was singled out as one of the worst areas in St Helens with only three doctors practising there.
The Reporter also revealed that a number of former football stars were coming to St Helens to learn how to be a manager. The 3-week long course was being organised by the Professional Footballers Association and was being held at the St Helens College of Technology's hall of residence annexe in Portico Lane.
The list of stars included Bobby Charlton, Ian St John and Ron Yeats and the tutors would include Don Revie, Jimmy Armfield and Tony Walters. And Sir Matt Busby was due to kick-off proceedings with an opening address. Bobby Charlton was the newly appointed Preston manager and said:
"I think that the course can help me pick up things that might take me longer to learn myself. So many managers have gone into the business a little bit cold and they've been caught flat-footed. It's a good idea and I'll be looking forward to coming to St. Helens."
The residents of Chapel Street, Windle Street and Argyle Street were up in arms this week. Fifty of them had signed a petition to the council claiming that for the past five years they had been troubled by fly tippers, vandals and thieves. Angela Owens of Chapel Street told the Reporter: "People have been living in Hell. The rubbish, the smell and the vandalism is appalling. We get huge flies, nearly as big as your thumb, and people have seen rats in the rubbish."
The Reporter described how Hughie Green would be returning to St Helens in June. The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising gala for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years earlier when their parish was just a field. Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built and Hughie would be able to see the success of the parish that he'd helped to get off the ground.
The TV personality would be attending St Julie's 13th annual gala at the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and the Parish Priest, the Rev. Father Cyril Higham, said: "It's very good of Hughie. The first time he came, there was nothing here except a field, but we've built it up now." The gala's main attraction was going to be a version of "It's A Knockout" between six local junior schools. There would also be a parade, roundabouts, sideshows and stalls. The annual event used to feature a Donkey Derby but that ended a couple of years ago.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the £1m computer brain to be installed at Scholes Park, fury over an unused car park in Parr, the Providence Hospital fundraisers and the dangerous acetylene cylinder dumped in Southport Street.
We begin during the evening of the 22nd when neighbours rescued Brian Heaps from his blazing Cowley Street home. Firemen gave the 26-year-old oxygen before he was taken to Providence Hospital for treatment. Thomas Spratt also lived at the house and had raised the alarm. He was returning home when he spotted smoke and alerted neighbours who tackled the flames with buckets of water until the Fire Brigade arrived.
It would be eight more years before Jim Bowen presented quiz show 'Bullseye' on TV but his appearances on ITV's 'The Comedians' were boosting his fame. On the 22nd The Jim Bowen Show was presented at Parr Labour Club with tickets costing 15p.
Throughout this week the Frederick Knott thriller 'Wait Until Dark' was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. It was the fourth and final production in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series and starred Valentine Dyall. For many years he was known as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series 'Appointment with Fear'.
Early on the 24th 91-year-old Florence Marsh was dozing in her bed at her home in Rainhill Road when she saw a man in the room. The burglar immediately struck her in the face with his fist and ran from the house. Distressed and bleeding Miss Marsh staggered next door and knocked up her neighbour, Frank Brown, who sent for the police and an ambulance.
She was taken to Whiston Hospital where her condition later in the day was said to be satisfactory. This had been the second break-in at Miss Marsh's home in recent weeks after a man had taken a bag containing £100 from under her pillow. The neighbour, Frank Brown, said: "Miss Marsh was very frightened. There was blood coming from above her left eye and on her cheek." It was not yet known if anything had been stolen.
Also on the 24th the Echo reported that 36 people in St Helens had in April won premium bond prizes worth at least £50 (around £800 in today's money).
The 33-year-old used a crowbar to lever off the cover only to find that the ducklings had already sailed straight through the drain into the sewer. But still hearing some faint chirping, Dave ran to the nearest sewer manhole lid and attempted to lift it – but it refused to budge. A small mobile crane was quickly brought in to yank the lid off – but he was too late as the ducklings had already swept by.
And so Dave went closer to the pipe's junction with the main town sewer and raised another lid. Fortunately, he was just in time to pluck the young birds out one by one as they appeared. Dave said: "The ducks have a nest just across the road from the lake in the grounds. They were completely unharmed. "They gave me a pretty hectic morning though. But they are very popular with all the men here and it would have been a pity if anything had happened to them."
The Reporter's front-page lead story was about the growth of glue sniffing amongst mid-teen youngsters. The extent of the addiction had been laid bare in a report on drug abuse in St Helens that the Junior Chamber of Commerce had compiled. Surprisingly, the document felt that glue sniffing was largely exclusive to St Helens, saying: "According to probation and police sources, this appears to be a particularly local problem". Quoting an anonymous expert, the Reporter warned that sniffers risked unconsciousness and death from suffocation or heart failure.
Chief Probation Officer Ken Sharp said he was alarmed at the increase, adding: "We became aware of it at first hand, and through club leaders and teachers who noticed the erratic behaviour of people who had been sniffing." Some youngsters had even required treatment at Rainhill Hospital to break their habit. However, the report's good news was that it was believed that St Helens did not generally have a large problem with hard drugs.
Concern was also raised in the Reporter that doctors working in general practice in the town were badly overworked and unable to devote sufficient time to preventive medicine. A recent report had placed St Helens in second place in a list of towns that were worst off for doctors. There were currently only 42 GPs in St Helens with an average of 3,028 patients for each.
It had been twenty years since a new general practice had been established in the town and one local doctor told the Reporter: "Basically, St. Helens is an undesirable place to come to", but added that the problem should ease as more doctors were being trained and new health centres created. A spokesman for the St Helens Executive Council of the National Health Service said:
"The situation is very bad, but then it always has been, certainly since 1948 when the Health Service started. Most doctors don't want to work here. It really takes something to get them to come. I think they realise they are going to have more patients on their list than if they were to work elsewhere."
The spokesman added that some doctors were turning down patients when they applied to join their practice because their list was full. The new Four Acre Lane estate was singled out as one of the worst areas in St Helens with only three doctors practising there.
The Reporter also revealed that a number of former football stars were coming to St Helens to learn how to be a manager. The 3-week long course was being organised by the Professional Footballers Association and was being held at the St Helens College of Technology's hall of residence annexe in Portico Lane.
The list of stars included Bobby Charlton, Ian St John and Ron Yeats and the tutors would include Don Revie, Jimmy Armfield and Tony Walters. And Sir Matt Busby was due to kick-off proceedings with an opening address. Bobby Charlton was the newly appointed Preston manager and said:
"I think that the course can help me pick up things that might take me longer to learn myself. So many managers have gone into the business a little bit cold and they've been caught flat-footed. It's a good idea and I'll be looking forward to coming to St. Helens."
The residents of Chapel Street, Windle Street and Argyle Street were up in arms this week. Fifty of them had signed a petition to the council claiming that for the past five years they had been troubled by fly tippers, vandals and thieves. Angela Owens of Chapel Street told the Reporter: "People have been living in Hell. The rubbish, the smell and the vandalism is appalling. We get huge flies, nearly as big as your thumb, and people have seen rats in the rubbish."
The Reporter described how Hughie Green would be returning to St Helens in June. The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising gala for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years earlier when their parish was just a field. Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built and Hughie would be able to see the success of the parish that he'd helped to get off the ground.
The TV personality would be attending St Julie's 13th annual gala at the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and the Parish Priest, the Rev. Father Cyril Higham, said: "It's very good of Hughie. The first time he came, there was nothing here except a field, but we've built it up now." The gala's main attraction was going to be a version of "It's A Knockout" between six local junior schools. There would also be a parade, roundabouts, sideshows and stalls. The annual event used to feature a Donkey Derby but that ended a couple of years ago.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the £1m computer brain to be installed at Scholes Park, fury over an unused car park in Parr, the Providence Hospital fundraisers and the dangerous acetylene cylinder dumped in Southport Street.
This week's many stories include the football stars that were coming to St Helens to learn how to be a manager, the rescue of doomed ducklings at Pilks Prescot Road HQ, the glue-sniffing craze in St Helens, Hughie Green's return visit to Eccleston, the 91-year-old Rainhill woman attacked in her bed and St Helens is listed as the second worst place in the country for its provision of GPs.
We begin during the evening of the 22nd when neighbours rescued Brian Heaps from his blazing Cowley Street home.
Firemen gave the 26-year-old oxygen before he was taken to Providence Hospital for treatment.
Thomas Spratt also lived at the house and had raised the alarm. He was returning home when he spotted smoke and alerted neighbours who tackled the flames with buckets of water until the Fire Brigade arrived.
It would be eight more years before Jim Bowen presented quiz show 'Bullseye' on TV but his appearances on ITV's 'The Comedians' were boosting his fame.
On the 22nd The Jim Bowen Show was presented at Parr Labour Club with tickets costing 15p.
Throughout this week the Frederick Knott thriller 'Wait Until Dark' was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
It was the fourth and final production in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series and starred Valentine Dyall.
For many years he was known as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series 'Appointment with Fear'.
Early on the 24th 91-year-old Florence Marsh was dozing in her bed at her home in Rainhill Road when she saw a man in the room.
The burglar immediately struck her in the face with his fist and ran from the house.
Distressed and bleeding Miss Marsh staggered next door and knocked up her neighbour, Frank Brown, who sent for the police and an ambulance.
She was taken to Whiston Hospital where her condition later in the day was said to be satisfactory.
This had been the second break-in at Miss Marsh's home in recent weeks after a man had taken a bag containing £100 from under her pillow.
The neighbour, Frank Brown, said: "Miss Marsh was very frightened. There was blood coming from above her left eye and on her cheek." It was not yet known if anything had been stolen.
Also on the 24th the Echo reported that 36 people in St Helens had in April won premium bond prizes worth at least £50 (around £800 in today's money).
"Doomed Ducklings Saved By Dave" was the St Helens Reporter's headline to their article about the rescue of four 2-day-old mallards.
The fluffy ducklings had waddled out of their nest for the first time and dropped straight through the bars of a drain cover into the water beneath.
The "feather-raising adventure" had occurred in the grounds of Pilkingtons Prescot Road HQ (shown above) and groundsman Dave Nicholl immediately dashed to their rescue.
The 33-year-old used a crowbar to lever off the cover only to find that the ducklings had already sailed straight through the drain into the sewer.
But still hearing some faint chirping, Dave ran to the nearest sewer manhole lid and attempted to lift it – but it refused to budge.
A small mobile crane was quickly brought in to yank the lid off – but he was too late as the ducklings had already swept by.
And so Dave went closer to the pipe's junction with the main town sewer and raised another lid.
Fortunately, he was just in time to pluck the young birds out one by one as they appeared.
Dave said: "The ducks have a nest just across the road from the lake in the grounds. They were completely unharmed.
"They gave me a pretty hectic morning though. But they are very popular with all the men here and it would have been a pity if anything had happened to them."
The Reporter's front-page lead story was about the growth of glue sniffing amongst mid-teen youngsters.
The extent of the addiction had been laid bare in a report on drug abuse in St Helens that the Junior Chamber of Commerce had compiled.
Surprisingly, the document felt that glue sniffing was largely exclusive to St Helens, saying:
"According to probation and police sources, this appears to be a particularly local problem".
Quoting an anonymous expert, the Reporter warned that sniffers risked unconsciousness and death from suffocation or heart failure.
Chief Probation Officer Ken Sharp said he was alarmed at the increase, adding: "We became aware of it at first hand, and through club leaders and teachers who noticed the erratic behaviour of people who had been sniffing."
Some youngsters had even required treatment at Rainhill Hospital to break their habit.
However, the report's good news was that it was believed that St Helens did not generally have a large problem with hard drugs.
Concern was also raised in the Reporter that doctors working in general practice in the town were badly overworked and unable to devote sufficient time to preventive medicine.
A recent report had placed St Helens in second place in a list of towns that were worst off for doctors.
There were currently only 42 GPs in St Helens with an average of 3,028 patients for each.
It had been twenty years since a new general practice had been established in the town and one local doctor told the Reporter:
"Basically, St. Helens is an undesirable place to come to", but added that the problem should ease as more doctors were being trained and new health centres created.
A spokesman for the St Helens Executive Council of the National Health Service said:
"The situation is very bad, but then it always has been, certainly since 1948 when the Health Service started. Most doctors don't want to work here.
"It really takes something to get them to come. I think they realise they are going to have more patients on their list than if they were to work elsewhere."
The spokesman added that some doctors were turning down patients when they applied to join their practice because their list was full.
The new Four Acre Lane estate was singled out as one of the worst areas with only three doctors practising there.
The Reporter also revealed that a number of former football stars were coming to St Helens to learn how to be a manager.
The 3-week long course was being organised by the Professional Footballers Association and was being held at the St Helens College of Technology's hall of residence annexe in Portico Lane.
The list of stars included Bobby Charlton, Ian St John and Ron Yeats and the tutors would include Don Revie, Jimmy Armfield and Tony Walters. And Sir Matt Busby was due to kick-off proceedings with an opening address.
Bobby Charlton was the newly appointed Preston manager and said:
"I think that the course can help me pick up things that might take me longer to learn myself. So many managers have gone into the business a little bit cold and they've been caught flat-footed. It's a good idea and I'll be looking forward to coming to St. Helens."
The residents of Chapel Street, Windle Street and Argyle Street were up in arms this week.
Fifty of them had signed a petition to the council claiming that for the past five years they had been troubled by fly tippers, vandals and thieves.
Angela Owens of Chapel Street told the Reporter: "People have been living in Hell. The rubbish, the smell and the vandalism is appalling. We get huge flies, nearly as big as your thumb, and people have seen rats in the rubbish."
The Reporter described how Hughie Green would be returning to St Helens in June. The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising gala for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years earlier when their parish was just a field.
Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built and Hughie would be able to see the success of the parish that he'd helped to get off the ground.
The TV personality would be attending St Julie's 13th annual gala at the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and the Parish Priest, the Rev. Father Cyril Higham, said:
"It's very good of Hughie. The first time he came, there was nothing here except a field, but we've built it up now."
The gala's main attraction was going to be a version of "It's A Knockout" between six local junior schools.
There would also be a parade, roundabouts, sideshows and stalls. The annual event used to feature a Donkey Derby but that ended a couple of years ago.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the £1m computer brain to be installed at Scholes Park, fury over an unused car park in Parr, the Providence Hospital fundraisers and the dangerous acetylene cylinder dumped in Southport Street.
We begin during the evening of the 22nd when neighbours rescued Brian Heaps from his blazing Cowley Street home.
Firemen gave the 26-year-old oxygen before he was taken to Providence Hospital for treatment.
Thomas Spratt also lived at the house and had raised the alarm. He was returning home when he spotted smoke and alerted neighbours who tackled the flames with buckets of water until the Fire Brigade arrived.
It would be eight more years before Jim Bowen presented quiz show 'Bullseye' on TV but his appearances on ITV's 'The Comedians' were boosting his fame.
On the 22nd The Jim Bowen Show was presented at Parr Labour Club with tickets costing 15p.
Throughout this week the Frederick Knott thriller 'Wait Until Dark' was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
It was the fourth and final production in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series and starred Valentine Dyall.
For many years he was known as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series 'Appointment with Fear'.
Early on the 24th 91-year-old Florence Marsh was dozing in her bed at her home in Rainhill Road when she saw a man in the room.
The burglar immediately struck her in the face with his fist and ran from the house.
Distressed and bleeding Miss Marsh staggered next door and knocked up her neighbour, Frank Brown, who sent for the police and an ambulance.
She was taken to Whiston Hospital where her condition later in the day was said to be satisfactory.
This had been the second break-in at Miss Marsh's home in recent weeks after a man had taken a bag containing £100 from under her pillow.
The neighbour, Frank Brown, said: "Miss Marsh was very frightened. There was blood coming from above her left eye and on her cheek." It was not yet known if anything had been stolen.
Also on the 24th the Echo reported that 36 people in St Helens had in April won premium bond prizes worth at least £50 (around £800 in today's money).
The fluffy ducklings had waddled out of their nest for the first time and dropped straight through the bars of a drain cover into the water beneath.
The "feather-raising adventure" had occurred in the grounds of Pilkingtons Prescot Road HQ (shown above) and groundsman Dave Nicholl immediately dashed to their rescue.
The 33-year-old used a crowbar to lever off the cover only to find that the ducklings had already sailed straight through the drain into the sewer.
But still hearing some faint chirping, Dave ran to the nearest sewer manhole lid and attempted to lift it – but it refused to budge.
A small mobile crane was quickly brought in to yank the lid off – but he was too late as the ducklings had already swept by.
And so Dave went closer to the pipe's junction with the main town sewer and raised another lid.
Fortunately, he was just in time to pluck the young birds out one by one as they appeared.
Dave said: "The ducks have a nest just across the road from the lake in the grounds. They were completely unharmed.
"They gave me a pretty hectic morning though. But they are very popular with all the men here and it would have been a pity if anything had happened to them."
The Reporter's front-page lead story was about the growth of glue sniffing amongst mid-teen youngsters.
The extent of the addiction had been laid bare in a report on drug abuse in St Helens that the Junior Chamber of Commerce had compiled.
Surprisingly, the document felt that glue sniffing was largely exclusive to St Helens, saying:
"According to probation and police sources, this appears to be a particularly local problem".
Quoting an anonymous expert, the Reporter warned that sniffers risked unconsciousness and death from suffocation or heart failure.
Chief Probation Officer Ken Sharp said he was alarmed at the increase, adding: "We became aware of it at first hand, and through club leaders and teachers who noticed the erratic behaviour of people who had been sniffing."
Some youngsters had even required treatment at Rainhill Hospital to break their habit.
However, the report's good news was that it was believed that St Helens did not generally have a large problem with hard drugs.
Concern was also raised in the Reporter that doctors working in general practice in the town were badly overworked and unable to devote sufficient time to preventive medicine.
A recent report had placed St Helens in second place in a list of towns that were worst off for doctors.
There were currently only 42 GPs in St Helens with an average of 3,028 patients for each.
It had been twenty years since a new general practice had been established in the town and one local doctor told the Reporter:
"Basically, St. Helens is an undesirable place to come to", but added that the problem should ease as more doctors were being trained and new health centres created.
A spokesman for the St Helens Executive Council of the National Health Service said:
"The situation is very bad, but then it always has been, certainly since 1948 when the Health Service started. Most doctors don't want to work here.
"It really takes something to get them to come. I think they realise they are going to have more patients on their list than if they were to work elsewhere."
The spokesman added that some doctors were turning down patients when they applied to join their practice because their list was full.
The new Four Acre Lane estate was singled out as one of the worst areas with only three doctors practising there.
The Reporter also revealed that a number of former football stars were coming to St Helens to learn how to be a manager.
The 3-week long course was being organised by the Professional Footballers Association and was being held at the St Helens College of Technology's hall of residence annexe in Portico Lane.
The list of stars included Bobby Charlton, Ian St John and Ron Yeats and the tutors would include Don Revie, Jimmy Armfield and Tony Walters. And Sir Matt Busby was due to kick-off proceedings with an opening address.
Bobby Charlton was the newly appointed Preston manager and said:
"I think that the course can help me pick up things that might take me longer to learn myself. So many managers have gone into the business a little bit cold and they've been caught flat-footed. It's a good idea and I'll be looking forward to coming to St. Helens."
The residents of Chapel Street, Windle Street and Argyle Street were up in arms this week.
Fifty of them had signed a petition to the council claiming that for the past five years they had been troubled by fly tippers, vandals and thieves.
Angela Owens of Chapel Street told the Reporter: "People have been living in Hell. The rubbish, the smell and the vandalism is appalling. We get huge flies, nearly as big as your thumb, and people have seen rats in the rubbish."
The Reporter described how Hughie Green would be returning to St Helens in June. The 'Opportunity Knocks' presenter had opened a fundraising gala for St Julie's in Eccleston twelve years earlier when their parish was just a field.
Since then a church, presbytery and two schools had been built and Hughie would be able to see the success of the parish that he'd helped to get off the ground.
The TV personality would be attending St Julie's 13th annual gala at the UGB Sports Ground in Bobbies Lane and the Parish Priest, the Rev. Father Cyril Higham, said:
"It's very good of Hughie. The first time he came, there was nothing here except a field, but we've built it up now."
The gala's main attraction was going to be a version of "It's A Knockout" between six local junior schools.
There would also be a parade, roundabouts, sideshows and stalls. The annual event used to feature a Donkey Derby but that ended a couple of years ago.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the £1m computer brain to be installed at Scholes Park, fury over an unused car park in Parr, the Providence Hospital fundraisers and the dangerous acetylene cylinder dumped in Southport Street.