FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 22 - 28 SEPTEMBER 1975
This week's many stories include the coach operator who blacklisted Saints rugby league ground, the council support for Project Trident, there's criticism of the St Helens Show, the dilemma over Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails, the police parking blitz on Saints fans and the family who were rushed to hospital after accidentally drinking half a bottle of pest killer.
We begin on the 22nd when the Pilkington Musical Society commenced a week's performances of the "great musical" Pickwick at the Theatre Royal.
Mining deaths were rare in the 1970s but they still occasionally occurred. On the 23rd the inquest was held on Jack Taylor who had died after being buried under a mound of earth while working underground at Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows (pictured above). The 56-year-old had, with three other men, been shifting a transformer and the accident happened when it got lodged in a tunnel. Mr Taylor had used a pick to try and create more space but a mountain of earth suddenly collapsed upon him.
Recently I described how there was a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies. A newly installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, had said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from." But on the 24th at a meeting of St Helens Council, its leader Len Williams stated that British Sidac had now been identified as the guilty party, although the damage had not been quite as bad as was feared.
Conservative councillors also criticised the fact that at the St Helens Show in July, no British make had been represented in the Motor Show. Cllr Eric Clough said: "There wasn't one British manufactured car on display. In every instance there were foreign makes, and in all conscience we can't support this for the future."
But Chief Executive Tom Taylor pointed out that the spaces had been allocated to car dealers on application and no dealer selling British cars had asked for a space. To that Cllr Clough felt that the Show organisers should have gone to a local branch of a British car dealer to encourage them to be represented.
And Councillor Tony Brown criticised the fact that the catering firm awarded the contract at the Show had been an outsider. In response the Chief Executive said they had simply chosen the lowest estimate from applicants to keep down costs.
The council also decided to support Project Trident, which was a plan to make the lives better for the young people of St Helens. There were three elements to the scheme, all designed to support teenagers in making more positive contributions to society. One was that schoolchildren would be sent out to work for short spells and another was to encourage them to enjoy the adventure of an Outward Bound course.
Trident would also send youngsters out into the community to help the old, the sick and disabled. The councillors sanctioned the setting up of a trust fund so that deprived children in the outlying districts could also take part and receive some cash support.
In court this week a man from Sherdley Road in St Helens was fined £5 for giving his 12-year-old son an air pistol. The police had been called in after receiving complaints about an air gun having been fired in the street.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 26th and stated that a coach operator had blacklisted Saints rugby league ground following an attack by hooligans on a coach. That had resulted in a 13-year-old girl being injured by a flying brick. Five coaches from Salford had been leaving Knowsley Road when Angela Grimes was hit in the face as a brick crashed through a coach window, showering both her and her father with glass.
Fortunately, the girl did not require hospital treatment but St Helens Police said that she could easily have been blinded. David Bradley, the general manager of Fieldsends Coaches, said: "I am shocked that this could happen. We will certainly not be going to St. Helens again and I feel that after this we shall cancel our coaches for rugby matches all together."
It had been the second case of coach vandalism at Saints in a week, as when the club had played Leeds, stones had cracked another vehicle's window. The St Helens secretary, Geoff Sutcliffe, said: "Extra police were drafted in as a result of last week's incidents and I thought this would prevent any further trouble."
The police stated that a juvenile had been questioned but no charges had yet been brought. In May 1976 Stan Magowan of Ellison's Travel would describe how his coaches sent to take Saints' supporters to away games were regularly returning with smashed windows.
Some fans that left the ground after Saints' loss to Leeds suffered another blow when they found that the police had booked them for parking offences. Twenty-five motorists who had parked without lights in Doulton Street and Belmont Street had been affected.
But Chief Superintendent Jack Watson denied that the police had booked the cars because they had nothing else to do, telling the Reporter: "There have been complaints from the residents that because of indiscriminate parking, service vehicles would be unable to get through if there were an emergency."
There was an extraordinary story in the Reporter in which a young couple and their two-year-old son were rushed to hospital after drinking half a bottle of pest killer in mistake for milk. Malcolm and Denise Kinsey and their son Graham were allowed home from St Helens Hospital 24 hours later after receiving treatment and Mr Kinsey explained the chain of events to the Reporter:
"We have been in the house since March and have been plagued by hoards of ants. The authority have been here six times to put this fumigation liquid down to kill them but it has not done any good. In the end they got sick of coming and gave us a bottle of the stuff to keep putting down ourselves. They asked us for a bottle they could put the concentrated liquid in and the only one we had was a milk bottle. They put the stuff in that but didn't bother putting a stopper or a label on it."
A neighbour who was babysitting for the couple while they were out came across the bottle and gave some to 2-year-old Graham thinking it was milk. And when Mr Kinsey returned home with his wife, he made himself a cup of hot chocolate using the bottle that the babysitter had left out on the kitchen table.
"The chocolate tasted putrid, it was terrible; I could feel it burning my throat and my chest", he said. Fortunately, the toddler had not touched much of the liquid and the couple, realising what had occurred, called for an ambulance.
Mr Kinsey said no one knew what the pest killer was and the hospital had to spend hours telephoning round various poison centres to try and find an antidote. Asked for a comment, a council spokesman would only say that the matter was being investigated.
On the 27th the new Methodist church in Corporation Street was opened. It was described as ultra-modern because the building had been combined with an office block. The new church replaced the old Wesleyan Methodist building that had been a landmark in St Helens for 100 years.
The council's Public Safety Joint Sub-Committee was told of a knotty puppet problem at their meeting that was held this week. Their safety officer, Derek Jamieson, said that for years they had been using a pair of puppets called Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails to teach children road safety. But Merseyside County Council had decided to rename the characters Sam and Sue and had sent St Helens posters, badges and stickers bearing their new names. Mr Jamieson said:
"I can't really go into the schools and introduce the children to Sam and Sue, when for three years the same puppets have been known as Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails. I would be laughed out of the place. Quite frankly, I cannot think of a solution." Neither could members of the committee, apart from asking Merseyside County to provide an explanation for the renaming. But in the meantime Charlie and Polly – alias Sam and Sue – were being boxed away.
And finally, from the 28th at the ABC Savoy, 'The Eiger Sanction' starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy replaced a sex film called 'Enter The 7 Virgins'. And at the Capitol, the gangster film 'Lepke' starring Tony Curtis was replaced by 'Swedish Love Games'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the closure of a naughty knickers shop, the tree planting campaign, the small garages caught in a petrol price-cutting war and the new bus shelter in Kiln Lane that was blamed for causing accidents.
We begin on the 22nd when the Pilkington Musical Society commenced a week's performances of the "great musical" Pickwick at the Theatre Royal.
Recently I described how there was a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies. A newly installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, had said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from." But on the 24th at a meeting of St Helens Council, its leader Len Williams stated that British Sidac had now been identified as the guilty party, although the damage had not been quite as bad as was feared.
Conservative councillors also criticised the fact that at the St Helens Show in July, no British make had been represented in the Motor Show. Cllr Eric Clough said: "There wasn't one British manufactured car on display. In every instance there were foreign makes, and in all conscience we can't support this for the future."
But Chief Executive Tom Taylor pointed out that the spaces had been allocated to car dealers on application and no dealer selling British cars had asked for a space. To that Cllr Clough felt that the Show organisers should have gone to a local branch of a British car dealer to encourage them to be represented.
And Councillor Tony Brown criticised the fact that the catering firm awarded the contract at the Show had been an outsider. In response the Chief Executive said they had simply chosen the lowest estimate from applicants to keep down costs.
The council also decided to support Project Trident, which was a plan to make the lives better for the young people of St Helens. There were three elements to the scheme, all designed to support teenagers in making more positive contributions to society. One was that schoolchildren would be sent out to work for short spells and another was to encourage them to enjoy the adventure of an Outward Bound course.
Trident would also send youngsters out into the community to help the old, the sick and disabled. The councillors sanctioned the setting up of a trust fund so that deprived children in the outlying districts could also take part and receive some cash support.
In court this week a man from Sherdley Road in St Helens was fined £5 for giving his 12-year-old son an air pistol. The police had been called in after receiving complaints about an air gun having been fired in the street.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 26th and stated that a coach operator had blacklisted Saints rugby league ground following an attack by hooligans on a coach. That had resulted in a 13-year-old girl being injured by a flying brick. Five coaches from Salford had been leaving Knowsley Road when Angela Grimes was hit in the face as a brick crashed through a coach window, showering both her and her father with glass.
Fortunately, the girl did not require hospital treatment but St Helens Police said that she could easily have been blinded. David Bradley, the general manager of Fieldsends Coaches, said: "I am shocked that this could happen. We will certainly not be going to St. Helens again and I feel that after this we shall cancel our coaches for rugby matches all together."
It had been the second case of coach vandalism at Saints in a week, as when the club had played Leeds, stones had cracked another vehicle's window. The St Helens secretary, Geoff Sutcliffe, said: "Extra police were drafted in as a result of last week's incidents and I thought this would prevent any further trouble."
The police stated that a juvenile had been questioned but no charges had yet been brought. In May 1976 Stan Magowan of Ellison's Travel would describe how his coaches sent to take Saints' supporters to away games were regularly returning with smashed windows.
Some fans that left the ground after Saints' loss to Leeds suffered another blow when they found that the police had booked them for parking offences. Twenty-five motorists who had parked without lights in Doulton Street and Belmont Street had been affected.
But Chief Superintendent Jack Watson denied that the police had booked the cars because they had nothing else to do, telling the Reporter: "There have been complaints from the residents that because of indiscriminate parking, service vehicles would be unable to get through if there were an emergency."
There was an extraordinary story in the Reporter in which a young couple and their two-year-old son were rushed to hospital after drinking half a bottle of pest killer in mistake for milk. Malcolm and Denise Kinsey and their son Graham were allowed home from St Helens Hospital 24 hours later after receiving treatment and Mr Kinsey explained the chain of events to the Reporter:
"We have been in the house since March and have been plagued by hoards of ants. The authority have been here six times to put this fumigation liquid down to kill them but it has not done any good. In the end they got sick of coming and gave us a bottle of the stuff to keep putting down ourselves. They asked us for a bottle they could put the concentrated liquid in and the only one we had was a milk bottle. They put the stuff in that but didn't bother putting a stopper or a label on it."
A neighbour who was babysitting for the couple while they were out came across the bottle and gave some to 2-year-old Graham thinking it was milk. And when Mr Kinsey returned home with his wife, he made himself a cup of hot chocolate using the bottle that the babysitter had left out on the kitchen table.
"The chocolate tasted putrid, it was terrible; I could feel it burning my throat and my chest", he said. Fortunately, the toddler had not touched much of the liquid and the couple, realising what had occurred, called for an ambulance.
Mr Kinsey said no one knew what the pest killer was and the hospital had to spend hours telephoning round various poison centres to try and find an antidote. Asked for a comment, a council spokesman would only say that the matter was being investigated.
On the 27th the new Methodist church in Corporation Street was opened. It was described as ultra-modern because the building had been combined with an office block. The new church replaced the old Wesleyan Methodist building that had been a landmark in St Helens for 100 years.
The council's Public Safety Joint Sub-Committee was told of a knotty puppet problem at their meeting that was held this week. Their safety officer, Derek Jamieson, said that for years they had been using a pair of puppets called Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails to teach children road safety. But Merseyside County Council had decided to rename the characters Sam and Sue and had sent St Helens posters, badges and stickers bearing their new names. Mr Jamieson said:
"I can't really go into the schools and introduce the children to Sam and Sue, when for three years the same puppets have been known as Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails. I would be laughed out of the place. Quite frankly, I cannot think of a solution." Neither could members of the committee, apart from asking Merseyside County to provide an explanation for the renaming. But in the meantime Charlie and Polly – alias Sam and Sue – were being boxed away.
And finally, from the 28th at the ABC Savoy, 'The Eiger Sanction' starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy replaced a sex film called 'Enter The 7 Virgins'. And at the Capitol, the gangster film 'Lepke' starring Tony Curtis was replaced by 'Swedish Love Games'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the closure of a naughty knickers shop, the tree planting campaign, the small garages caught in a petrol price-cutting war and the new bus shelter in Kiln Lane that was blamed for causing accidents.
This week's many stories include the coach operator who blacklisted Saints rugby league ground, the council support for Project Trident, there's criticism of the St Helens Show, the dilemma over Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails, the police parking blitz on Saints fans and the family who were rushed to hospital after accidentally drinking half a bottle of pest killer.
We begin on the 22nd when the Pilkington Musical Society commenced a week's performances of the "great musical" Pickwick at the Theatre Royal.
Mining deaths were rare in the 1970s but they still occasionally occurred. On the 23rd the inquest was held on Jack Taylor who had died after being buried under a mound of earth while working underground at Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows (pictured above).
The 56-year-old had, with three other men, been shifting a transformer and the accident happened when it got lodged in a tunnel.
Mr Taylor had used a pick to try and create more space but a mountain of earth suddenly collapsed upon him.
Recently I described how there was a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies.
A newly installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, had said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from."
But on the 24th at a meeting of St Helens Council, its leader Len Williams stated that British Sidac had now been identified as the guilty party, although the damage had not been quite as bad as was feared.
Conservative councillors also criticised the fact that at the St Helens Show in July, no British make had been represented in the Motor Show.
Cllr Eric Clough said: "There wasn't one British manufactured car on display. In every instance there were foreign makes, and in all conscience we can't support this for the future."
But Chief Executive Tom Taylor pointed out that the spaces had been allocated to car dealers on application and no dealer selling British cars had asked for a space.
To that Cllr Clough felt that the Show organisers should have gone to a local branch of a British car dealer to encourage them to be represented.
And Councillor Tony Brown criticised the fact that the catering firm awarded the contract at the Show had been an outsider.
In response the Chief Executive said they had simply chosen the lowest estimate from applicants to keep down costs.
The council also decided to support Project Trident, which was a plan to make the lives better for the young people of St Helens.
There were three elements to the scheme, all designed to support teenagers in making more positive contributions to society.
One was that schoolchildren would be sent out to work for short spells and another was to encourage them to enjoy the adventure of an Outward Bound course.
Trident would also send youngsters out into the community to help the old, the sick and disabled.
The councillors sanctioned the setting up of a trust fund so that deprived children in the outlying districts could also take part and receive some cash support.
In court this week a man from Sherdley Road in St Helens was fined £5 for giving his 12-year-old son an air pistol.
The police had been called in after receiving complaints about an air gun having been fired in the street.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 26th and stated that a coach operator had blacklisted Saints rugby league ground following an attack by hooligans on a coach. That had resulted in a 13-year-old girl being injured by a flying brick.
Five coaches from Salford had been leaving Knowsley Road when Angela Grimes was hit in the face as a brick crashed through a coach window, showering both her and her father with glass.
Fortunately, the girl did not require hospital treatment but St Helens Police said that she could easily have been blinded.
David Bradley, the general manager of Fieldsends Coaches, said: "I am shocked that this could happen. We will certainly not be going to St. Helens again and I feel that after this we shall cancel our coaches for rugby matches all together."
It had been the second case of coach vandalism at Saints in a week, as when the club had played Leeds, stones had cracked another vehicle's window.
The St Helens secretary, Geoff Sutcliffe, said: "Extra police were drafted in as a result of last week's incidents and I thought this would prevent any further trouble."
The police stated that a juvenile had been questioned but no charges had yet been brought.
In May 1976 Stan Magowan of Ellison's Travel would describe how his coaches sent to take Saints' supporters to away games were regularly returning with smashed windows.
Some fans that left the ground after Saints' loss to Leeds suffered another blow when they found that the police had booked them for parking offences.
Twenty-five motorists who had parked without lights in Doulton Street and Belmont Street had been affected.
But Chief Superintendent Jack Watson denied that the police had booked the cars because they had nothing else to do, telling the Reporter:
"There have been complaints from the residents that because of indiscriminate parking, service vehicles would be unable to get through if there were an emergency."
There was an extraordinary story in the Reporter in which a young couple and their two-year-old son were rushed to hospital after drinking half a bottle of pest killer in mistake for milk.
Malcolm and Denise Kinsey and their son Graham were allowed home from St Helens Hospital 24 hours later after receiving treatment and Mr Kinsey explained the chain of events to the Reporter:
"We have been in the house since March and have been plagued by hoards of ants.
"The authority have been here six times to put this fumigation liquid down to kill them but it has not done any good.
"In the end they got sick of coming and gave us a bottle of the stuff to keep putting down ourselves.
"They asked us for a bottle they could put the concentrated liquid in and the only one we had was a milk bottle. They put the stuff in that but didn't bother putting a stopper or a label on it."
A neighbour who was babysitting for the couple while they were out came across the bottle and gave some to 2-year-old Graham thinking it was milk.
And when Mr Kinsey returned home with his wife, he made himself a cup of hot chocolate using the bottle that the babysitter had left out on the kitchen table.
"The chocolate tasted putrid, it was terrible; I could feel it burning my throat and my chest", he said.
Fortunately, the toddler had not touched much of the liquid and the couple, realising what had occurred, called for an ambulance.
Mr Kinsey said no one knew what the pest killer was and the hospital had to spend hours telephoning round various poison centres to try and find an antidote.
Asked for a comment, a council spokesman would only say that the matter was being investigated.
On the 27th the new Methodist church in Corporation Street was opened. It was described as ultra-modern because the building had been combined with an office block.
The new church replaced the old Wesleyan Methodist building that had been a landmark in St Helens for 100 years.
The council's Public Safety Joint Sub-Committee was told of a knotty puppet problem at their meeting that was held this week.
Their safety officer, Derek Jamieson, said that for years they had been using a pair of puppets called Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails to teach children road safety.
But Merseyside County Council had decided to rename the characters Sam and Sue and had sent St Helens posters, badges and stickers bearing their new names. Mr Jamieson said:
"I can't really go into the schools and introduce the children to Sam and Sue, when for three years the same puppets have been known as Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails. I would be laughed out of the place. Quite frankly, I cannot think of a solution."
Neither could members of the committee, apart from asking Merseyside County to provide an explanation for the renaming. But in the meantime Charlie and Polly – alias Sam and Sue – were being boxed away.
And finally, from the 28th at the ABC Savoy, 'The Eiger Sanction' starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy replaced a sex film called 'Enter The 7 Virgins'.
And at the Capitol, the gangster film 'Lepke' starring Tony Curtis was replaced by 'Swedish Love Games'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the closure of a naughty knickers shop, the tree planting campaign, the small garages caught in a petrol price-cutting war and the new bus shelter in Kiln Lane that was blamed for causing accidents.
We begin on the 22nd when the Pilkington Musical Society commenced a week's performances of the "great musical" Pickwick at the Theatre Royal.
The 56-year-old had, with three other men, been shifting a transformer and the accident happened when it got lodged in a tunnel.
Mr Taylor had used a pick to try and create more space but a mountain of earth suddenly collapsed upon him.
Recently I described how there was a new dimension to the Leathers Chemicals and British Sidac controversies.
A newly installed section of sewer at the junction of Robins Lane and Ellamsbridge Road had suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage through acid corrosion.
Ken Perks, the Director of Technical Services, had said: "It's difficult to apportion the blame. I suppose one could hazard a guess where the acid comes from."
But on the 24th at a meeting of St Helens Council, its leader Len Williams stated that British Sidac had now been identified as the guilty party, although the damage had not been quite as bad as was feared.
Conservative councillors also criticised the fact that at the St Helens Show in July, no British make had been represented in the Motor Show.
Cllr Eric Clough said: "There wasn't one British manufactured car on display. In every instance there were foreign makes, and in all conscience we can't support this for the future."
But Chief Executive Tom Taylor pointed out that the spaces had been allocated to car dealers on application and no dealer selling British cars had asked for a space.
To that Cllr Clough felt that the Show organisers should have gone to a local branch of a British car dealer to encourage them to be represented.
And Councillor Tony Brown criticised the fact that the catering firm awarded the contract at the Show had been an outsider.
In response the Chief Executive said they had simply chosen the lowest estimate from applicants to keep down costs.
The council also decided to support Project Trident, which was a plan to make the lives better for the young people of St Helens.
There were three elements to the scheme, all designed to support teenagers in making more positive contributions to society.
One was that schoolchildren would be sent out to work for short spells and another was to encourage them to enjoy the adventure of an Outward Bound course.
Trident would also send youngsters out into the community to help the old, the sick and disabled.
The councillors sanctioned the setting up of a trust fund so that deprived children in the outlying districts could also take part and receive some cash support.
In court this week a man from Sherdley Road in St Helens was fined £5 for giving his 12-year-old son an air pistol.
The police had been called in after receiving complaints about an air gun having been fired in the street.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 26th and stated that a coach operator had blacklisted Saints rugby league ground following an attack by hooligans on a coach. That had resulted in a 13-year-old girl being injured by a flying brick.
Five coaches from Salford had been leaving Knowsley Road when Angela Grimes was hit in the face as a brick crashed through a coach window, showering both her and her father with glass.
Fortunately, the girl did not require hospital treatment but St Helens Police said that she could easily have been blinded.
David Bradley, the general manager of Fieldsends Coaches, said: "I am shocked that this could happen. We will certainly not be going to St. Helens again and I feel that after this we shall cancel our coaches for rugby matches all together."
It had been the second case of coach vandalism at Saints in a week, as when the club had played Leeds, stones had cracked another vehicle's window.
The St Helens secretary, Geoff Sutcliffe, said: "Extra police were drafted in as a result of last week's incidents and I thought this would prevent any further trouble."
The police stated that a juvenile had been questioned but no charges had yet been brought.
In May 1976 Stan Magowan of Ellison's Travel would describe how his coaches sent to take Saints' supporters to away games were regularly returning with smashed windows.
Some fans that left the ground after Saints' loss to Leeds suffered another blow when they found that the police had booked them for parking offences.
Twenty-five motorists who had parked without lights in Doulton Street and Belmont Street had been affected.
But Chief Superintendent Jack Watson denied that the police had booked the cars because they had nothing else to do, telling the Reporter:
"There have been complaints from the residents that because of indiscriminate parking, service vehicles would be unable to get through if there were an emergency."
There was an extraordinary story in the Reporter in which a young couple and their two-year-old son were rushed to hospital after drinking half a bottle of pest killer in mistake for milk.
Malcolm and Denise Kinsey and their son Graham were allowed home from St Helens Hospital 24 hours later after receiving treatment and Mr Kinsey explained the chain of events to the Reporter:
"We have been in the house since March and have been plagued by hoards of ants.
"The authority have been here six times to put this fumigation liquid down to kill them but it has not done any good.
"In the end they got sick of coming and gave us a bottle of the stuff to keep putting down ourselves.
"They asked us for a bottle they could put the concentrated liquid in and the only one we had was a milk bottle. They put the stuff in that but didn't bother putting a stopper or a label on it."
A neighbour who was babysitting for the couple while they were out came across the bottle and gave some to 2-year-old Graham thinking it was milk.
And when Mr Kinsey returned home with his wife, he made himself a cup of hot chocolate using the bottle that the babysitter had left out on the kitchen table.
"The chocolate tasted putrid, it was terrible; I could feel it burning my throat and my chest", he said.
Fortunately, the toddler had not touched much of the liquid and the couple, realising what had occurred, called for an ambulance.
Mr Kinsey said no one knew what the pest killer was and the hospital had to spend hours telephoning round various poison centres to try and find an antidote.
Asked for a comment, a council spokesman would only say that the matter was being investigated.
On the 27th the new Methodist church in Corporation Street was opened. It was described as ultra-modern because the building had been combined with an office block.
The new church replaced the old Wesleyan Methodist building that had been a landmark in St Helens for 100 years.
The council's Public Safety Joint Sub-Committee was told of a knotty puppet problem at their meeting that was held this week.
Their safety officer, Derek Jamieson, said that for years they had been using a pair of puppets called Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails to teach children road safety.
But Merseyside County Council had decided to rename the characters Sam and Sue and had sent St Helens posters, badges and stickers bearing their new names. Mr Jamieson said:
"I can't really go into the schools and introduce the children to Sam and Sue, when for three years the same puppets have been known as Charlie Chuckles and Polly Pigtails. I would be laughed out of the place. Quite frankly, I cannot think of a solution."
Neither could members of the committee, apart from asking Merseyside County to provide an explanation for the renaming. But in the meantime Charlie and Polly – alias Sam and Sue – were being boxed away.
And finally, from the 28th at the ABC Savoy, 'The Eiger Sanction' starring Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy replaced a sex film called 'Enter The 7 Virgins'.
And at the Capitol, the gangster film 'Lepke' starring Tony Curtis was replaced by 'Swedish Love Games'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the closure of a naughty knickers shop, the tree planting campaign, the small garages caught in a petrol price-cutting war and the new bus shelter in Kiln Lane that was blamed for causing accidents.