FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 23 - 29 JUNE 1975
This week's many stories include worries that the new Tontine Market could be wiped out by fire, Austen Brothers Circus comes to Parr, residents raise objections to the proposed site of a Blackbrook recreational club, the lengthening dole queue in St Helens, the golfers accused of injuring children on the Rainford rec, a profile of a successful St Helens-born playwright and Ravenhead residents complain about proposals to create a tip behind their homes.
We begin with Austen Brothers Circus who twice daily from the 23rd until the 28th performed on land by the Parr Stocks Road fire station where Silcock's Fair often set up. Advance tickets could be booked at Dixon's World Wide Travel in Baldwin Street.
I wonder when animals stopped appearing in St Helens' circuses? Austen's had African lions, Peruvian llamas, Indian elephants and Shetland ponies. And "Red Indian fire rituals" demonstrated by Running Fox and Juanita were also advertised.
On the 24th and 25th Help The Aged ran 22 collection centres in St Helens where the public could donate winter clothes and blankets. These would find their way to elderly persons that were described as being in desperate need of clothing.
The Summerland leisure centre fire (pictured above) had taken place in Douglas on the Isle of Man in August 1973 killing 50 people. Among the 80 seriously injured were teenage sisters Joyce and Anne Quirk of Brynn Street in St Helens and 58-year-old Ellen Palfrey of Waring Avenue in Parr.
Albert McCann and his wife Hilda and children from Newton Road had been witnesses to the disaster, with only a chance decision to visit a show instead of the leisure centre having saved them from being involved.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 27th Mr McCann warned that a similar horror to the Summerfield disaster could wipe out the town's Tontine Market and he said he had banned his wife and kids from going inside:
"I would be scared stiff if Hilda or the kids went in there again. It took the four of us nearly 10 minutes to find an exit from the market. I feel that I must tell shoppers to beware. It has been preying on my mind since I paid my first visit to the market. It could be pandemonium if a fire started on a busy day. In a panic shoppers would rush for the narrow stairs from the first floor."
A Town Hall spokesman admitted that not all of the special fire exit signs had been installed in the market because of a production hitch, but said they would be put in soon: "We are hoping to get the signs in the near future. All the stallholders and attendants at the market have been briefed about what to do in the event of a fire and would help shoppers. Suggestions that our fire precautions are inadequate are absolute rubbish."
It was now more than 5 months since the Tontine Market had opened and they were still "hoping" to receive the signs in the "near future". I don't expect that the Tontine would have been allowed to open today without the exit signs being in place.
The Reporter profiled St Helens born writer Ian Taylor who they said had travelled far since the day a pit accident at Sutton Manor Colliery had cost him a finger. Fifteen years later Ian was now a successful playwright with 12 stage plays and two television dramas under his belt. His latest play called 'The Mixed Forest' was set to open at Liverpool Playhouse in July and Ian was currently staying at his mother-in-law's home in Station Road in Prescot.
This week a 12-strong deputation from the Heathfield Residents Association went to St Helens Town Hall to protest about a plan put forward by Merseyside County Council to create a tip behind their homes. The county council said they desperately needed extra tipping space on derelict land at Ravenhead behind Heathfield and Mayfield Avenues to replace the rapidly filling Chester Lane tip at Sutton Manor.
But the householders said they already had to contend with a Fibreglass dump on the site, as well as a tip belonging to the Waste Clearance Company. The protesters spokesman was Charles Ryan, who said:
"The County say there is no suitable alternative site – but there is the equivalent of 350 Wembley pitches in derelict land in St. Helens." The residents were particularly concerned about the possible dumping of toxic waste and smells from chemicals and domestic refuse.
Also unhappy were residents of Boardmans Lane who said they were going to fight plans for a new social club opposite their homes. The proposed site was on a bend in the road which the residents said was dangerous and they predicted a rise in accidents if the new club went ahead.
The Blackbrook Recreational Organisation were behind the scheme and comprised a committee, two football teams and three rugby teams and said they had been struggling to set up a social club that would incorporate dressing room facilities since 1967. At present they only had access to council-rented showers and changing rooms in McDonald Avenue.
Chairman Harold Swift said: "We've struggled for a long time to get a club and now the council have given us a site. I would say the club is important, both to our teams and to the people of Blackbrook, who have to leave their area to have a night out. We will provide social functions, dances, whatever the people want."
But Frank Lockley of Boardmans Lane was concerned over safety, saying: "It's a terrible place to have a club. The bend is dangerous. If a club is built there, it's planning gone mad. Cars coming in and out of the car park will cause more accidents. My only complaint is from a safety point of view."
Timber merchants Laithwaites of College Street had been a three-generation family firm but this week announced that they had sold a controlling interest to another timber business from Chorley. The takeover had been triggered by a recession in the building trade.
It was revealed this week that the dole queue in St Helens was getting longer as job opportunities disappeared. Already in June another 106 persons had registered as unemployed taking the jobless total to 3,612 and the unemployed rate to 6.3%. There were only 93 vacancies, with the majority being for skilled labour and most of the jobless were considered to be unskilled.
Roy Corkill and Timmy Divine were celebrated in the Reporter after the 11-year-old fourth year pupils at Longton Lane Junior School in Rainhill had both won prizes in handwriting competitions. Roy from Pottery Lane in Whiston came second and received a prize of £15 and Timmy from Kendal Drive in Rainhill was a runner-up and won a radio.
The Jack Barnes shop in Bridge Street was advertising denim jeans from £3.99 and stating that they were one of St Helens' main Wrangler stockists. The advert said they had thousands of T-shirts from £2.50 and "A-Line Flares" from £6.99.
Concerns were raised in the paper over the number of golfers that were using the parish church field in Rainford that was known to locals as "the rec". Barbara Moore said that over half a dozen balls had landed in her back garden in Scarisbrick Road, adding: "One boy was struck on the head in the first week of the Whit holidays and a little girl also came into the firing line. They could have been killed."
Rainford Cricket club was also concerned that some of the golfers were using their club square of beautifully mown grass as a putting green. Team captain Arthur Punshon from Eagle Crescent said: "Three holes have been made just on the outfield so that the golfers can practice putting. Beer cans had been sunk into the ground so that the golfers can hole their ball."
Another golf story in the Reporter concerned the Sherdley Park professional Peter Parkinson who was aiming for another record. Peter already held the British record for the longest hole-in-one, which was a 393-yard strike on the West Lancashire golf club's course made three years ago and which was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. Next month Peter was setting out on a sponsored golf marathon with proceeds going to the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children, and other charities.
On the 29th 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' was replaced at the ABC Savoy with 'The Towering Inferno', starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. And the Capitol replaced 'Big Bad Mama', starring Angie Dickinson, with 'Dirty O’Neil', which was subtitled "The love life of a cop".
What was described as a "fantastic group" with the strange name of The Royal Variety Show headlined Saints Sports and Leisure Centre on the 29th. But, interestingly, in support was Jimmy Cricket who was advertised simply as "comic" and had yet to make his name on television and radio. The cabaret room at the Dunriding Lane leisure centre would then close for a couple of days for alterations before reopening with the Fortunes in concert.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the huge Rainford police search for clues to a killing, the shock closure announcement of Pilkington's Ravenhead works, the Reporter's war of words with a councillor and the big pay bonanza for Town Hall bosses.
We begin with Austen Brothers Circus who twice daily from the 23rd until the 28th performed on land by the Parr Stocks Road fire station where Silcock's Fair often set up. Advance tickets could be booked at Dixon's World Wide Travel in Baldwin Street.
I wonder when animals stopped appearing in St Helens' circuses? Austen's had African lions, Peruvian llamas, Indian elephants and Shetland ponies. And "Red Indian fire rituals" demonstrated by Running Fox and Juanita were also advertised.
On the 24th and 25th Help The Aged ran 22 collection centres in St Helens where the public could donate winter clothes and blankets. These would find their way to elderly persons that were described as being in desperate need of clothing.
Albert McCann and his wife Hilda and children from Newton Road had been witnesses to the disaster, with only a chance decision to visit a show instead of the leisure centre having saved them from being involved.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 27th Mr McCann warned that a similar horror to the Summerfield disaster could wipe out the town's Tontine Market and he said he had banned his wife and kids from going inside:
"I would be scared stiff if Hilda or the kids went in there again. It took the four of us nearly 10 minutes to find an exit from the market. I feel that I must tell shoppers to beware. It has been preying on my mind since I paid my first visit to the market. It could be pandemonium if a fire started on a busy day. In a panic shoppers would rush for the narrow stairs from the first floor."
A Town Hall spokesman admitted that not all of the special fire exit signs had been installed in the market because of a production hitch, but said they would be put in soon: "We are hoping to get the signs in the near future. All the stallholders and attendants at the market have been briefed about what to do in the event of a fire and would help shoppers. Suggestions that our fire precautions are inadequate are absolute rubbish."
It was now more than 5 months since the Tontine Market had opened and they were still "hoping" to receive the signs in the "near future". I don't expect that the Tontine would have been allowed to open today without the exit signs being in place.
The Reporter profiled St Helens born writer Ian Taylor who they said had travelled far since the day a pit accident at Sutton Manor Colliery had cost him a finger. Fifteen years later Ian was now a successful playwright with 12 stage plays and two television dramas under his belt. His latest play called 'The Mixed Forest' was set to open at Liverpool Playhouse in July and Ian was currently staying at his mother-in-law's home in Station Road in Prescot.
This week a 12-strong deputation from the Heathfield Residents Association went to St Helens Town Hall to protest about a plan put forward by Merseyside County Council to create a tip behind their homes. The county council said they desperately needed extra tipping space on derelict land at Ravenhead behind Heathfield and Mayfield Avenues to replace the rapidly filling Chester Lane tip at Sutton Manor.
But the householders said they already had to contend with a Fibreglass dump on the site, as well as a tip belonging to the Waste Clearance Company. The protesters spokesman was Charles Ryan, who said:
"The County say there is no suitable alternative site – but there is the equivalent of 350 Wembley pitches in derelict land in St. Helens." The residents were particularly concerned about the possible dumping of toxic waste and smells from chemicals and domestic refuse.
Also unhappy were residents of Boardmans Lane who said they were going to fight plans for a new social club opposite their homes. The proposed site was on a bend in the road which the residents said was dangerous and they predicted a rise in accidents if the new club went ahead.
The Blackbrook Recreational Organisation were behind the scheme and comprised a committee, two football teams and three rugby teams and said they had been struggling to set up a social club that would incorporate dressing room facilities since 1967. At present they only had access to council-rented showers and changing rooms in McDonald Avenue.
Chairman Harold Swift said: "We've struggled for a long time to get a club and now the council have given us a site. I would say the club is important, both to our teams and to the people of Blackbrook, who have to leave their area to have a night out. We will provide social functions, dances, whatever the people want."
But Frank Lockley of Boardmans Lane was concerned over safety, saying: "It's a terrible place to have a club. The bend is dangerous. If a club is built there, it's planning gone mad. Cars coming in and out of the car park will cause more accidents. My only complaint is from a safety point of view."
Timber merchants Laithwaites of College Street had been a three-generation family firm but this week announced that they had sold a controlling interest to another timber business from Chorley. The takeover had been triggered by a recession in the building trade.
It was revealed this week that the dole queue in St Helens was getting longer as job opportunities disappeared. Already in June another 106 persons had registered as unemployed taking the jobless total to 3,612 and the unemployed rate to 6.3%. There were only 93 vacancies, with the majority being for skilled labour and most of the jobless were considered to be unskilled.
Roy Corkill and Timmy Divine were celebrated in the Reporter after the 11-year-old fourth year pupils at Longton Lane Junior School in Rainhill had both won prizes in handwriting competitions. Roy from Pottery Lane in Whiston came second and received a prize of £15 and Timmy from Kendal Drive in Rainhill was a runner-up and won a radio.
The Jack Barnes shop in Bridge Street was advertising denim jeans from £3.99 and stating that they were one of St Helens' main Wrangler stockists. The advert said they had thousands of T-shirts from £2.50 and "A-Line Flares" from £6.99.
Concerns were raised in the paper over the number of golfers that were using the parish church field in Rainford that was known to locals as "the rec". Barbara Moore said that over half a dozen balls had landed in her back garden in Scarisbrick Road, adding: "One boy was struck on the head in the first week of the Whit holidays and a little girl also came into the firing line. They could have been killed."
Rainford Cricket club was also concerned that some of the golfers were using their club square of beautifully mown grass as a putting green. Team captain Arthur Punshon from Eagle Crescent said: "Three holes have been made just on the outfield so that the golfers can practice putting. Beer cans had been sunk into the ground so that the golfers can hole their ball."
Another golf story in the Reporter concerned the Sherdley Park professional Peter Parkinson who was aiming for another record. Peter already held the British record for the longest hole-in-one, which was a 393-yard strike on the West Lancashire golf club's course made three years ago and which was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. Next month Peter was setting out on a sponsored golf marathon with proceeds going to the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children, and other charities.
On the 29th 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' was replaced at the ABC Savoy with 'The Towering Inferno', starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. And the Capitol replaced 'Big Bad Mama', starring Angie Dickinson, with 'Dirty O’Neil', which was subtitled "The love life of a cop".
What was described as a "fantastic group" with the strange name of The Royal Variety Show headlined Saints Sports and Leisure Centre on the 29th. But, interestingly, in support was Jimmy Cricket who was advertised simply as "comic" and had yet to make his name on television and radio. The cabaret room at the Dunriding Lane leisure centre would then close for a couple of days for alterations before reopening with the Fortunes in concert.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the huge Rainford police search for clues to a killing, the shock closure announcement of Pilkington's Ravenhead works, the Reporter's war of words with a councillor and the big pay bonanza for Town Hall bosses.
This week's many stories include worries that the new Tontine Market could be wiped out by fire, Austen Brothers Circus comes to Parr, residents raise objections to the proposed site of a Blackbrook recreational club, the lengthening dole queue in St Helens, the golfers accused of injuring children on the Rainford rec, a profile of a successful St Helens-born playwright and Ravenhead residents complain about proposals to create a tip behind their homes.
We begin with Austen Brothers Circus who twice daily from the 23rd until the 28th performed on land by the Parr Stocks Road fire station where Silcock's Fair often set up.
Advance tickets could be booked at Dixon's World Wide Travel in Baldwin Street.
I wonder when animals stopped appearing in St Helens' circuses? Austen's had African lions, Peruvian llamas, Indian elephants and Shetland ponies.
And "Red Indian fire rituals" demonstrated by Running Fox and Juanita were also advertised.
On the 24th and 25th Help The Aged ran 22 collection centres in St Helens where the public could donate winter clothes and blankets.
These would find their way to elderly persons that were described as being in desperate need of clothing.
The Summerland leisure centre fire (pictured above) had taken place in Douglas on the Isle of Man in August 1973 killing 50 people.
Among the 80 seriously injured were teenage sisters Joyce and Anne Quirk of Brynn Street in St Helens and 58-year-old Ellen Palfrey of Waring Avenue in Parr.
Albert McCann and his wife Hilda and children from Newton Road had been witnesses to the disaster, with only a chance decision to visit a show instead of the leisure centre having saved them from being involved.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 27th Mr McCann warned that a similar horror to the Summerfield disaster could wipe out the town's Tontine Market and he said he had banned his wife and kids from going inside:
"I would be scared stiff if Hilda or the kids went in there again. It took the four of us nearly 10 minutes to find an exit from the market. I feel that I must tell shoppers to beware. It has been preying on my mind since I paid my first visit to the market.
"It could be pandemonium if a fire started on a busy day. In a panic shoppers would rush for the narrow stairs from the first floor."
A Town Hall spokesman admitted that not all of the special fire exit signs had been installed in the market because of a production hitch, but said they would be put in soon:
"We are hoping to get the signs in the near future. All the stallholders and attendants at the market have been briefed about what to do in the event of a fire and would help shoppers. Suggestions that our fire precautions are inadequate are absolute rubbish."
It was now more than 5 months since the Tontine Market had opened and they were still "hoping" to receive the signs in the "near future".
I don't expect that the Tontine would have been allowed to open today without the exit signs being in place.
The Reporter profiled St Helens born writer Ian Taylor who they said had travelled far since the day a pit accident at Sutton Manor Colliery had cost him a finger.
Fifteen years later Ian was now a successful playwright with 12 stage plays and two television dramas under his belt.
His latest play called 'The Mixed Forest' was set to open at Liverpool Playhouse in July and Ian was currently staying at his mother-in-law's home in Station Road in Prescot.
This week a 12-strong deputation from the Heathfield Residents Association went to St Helens Town Hall to protest about a plan put forward by Merseyside County Council to create a tip behind their homes.
The county council said they desperately needed extra tipping space on derelict land at Ravenhead behind Heathfield and Mayfield Avenues to replace the rapidly filling Chester Lane tip at Sutton Manor.
But the householders said they already had to contend with a Fibreglass dump on the site, as well as a tip belonging to the Waste Clearance Company. The protesters spokesman was Charles Ryan, who said:
"The County say there is no suitable alternative site – but there is the equivalent of 350 Wembley pitches in derelict land in St. Helens."
The residents were particularly concerned about the possible dumping of toxic waste and smells from chemicals and domestic refuse.
Also unhappy were residents of Boardmans Lane who said they were going to fight plans for a new social club opposite their homes.
The proposed site was on a bend in the road which the residents said was dangerous and they predicted a rise in accidents if the new club went ahead.
The Blackbrook Recreational Organisation were behind the scheme and comprised a committee, two football teams and three rugby teams and said they had been struggling to set up a social club that would incorporate dressing room facilities since 1967.
At present they only had access to council-rented showers and changing rooms in McDonald Avenue.
Chairman Harold Swift said: "We've struggled for a long time to get a club and now the council have given us a site. I would say the club is important, both to our teams and to the people of Blackbrook, who have to leave their area to have a night out. We will provide social functions, dances, whatever the people want."
But Frank Lockley of Boardmans Lane was concerned over safety, saying: "It's a terrible place to have a club. The bend is dangerous. If a club is built there, it's planning gone mad. Cars coming in and out of the car park will cause more accidents. My only complaint is from a safety point of view."
Timber merchants Laithwaites of College Street had been a three-generation family firm but this week announced that they had sold a controlling interest to another timber business from Chorley.
The takeover had been triggered by a recession in the building trade.
It was revealed this week that the dole queue in St Helens was getting longer as job opportunities disappeared.
Already in June another 106 persons had registered as unemployed taking the jobless total to 3,612 and the unemployed rate to 6.3%.
There were only 93 vacancies, with the majority being for skilled labour and most of the jobless were considered to be unskilled.
Roy Corkill and Timmy Divine were celebrated in the Reporter after the 11-year-old fourth year pupils at Longton Lane Junior School in Rainhill had both won prizes in handwriting competitions.
Roy from Pottery Lane in Whiston came second and received a prize of £15 and Timmy from Kendal Drive in Rainhill was a runner-up and won a radio.
The Jack Barnes shop in Bridge Street was advertising denim jeans from £3.99 and stating that they were one of St Helens' main Wrangler stockists.
The advert said they had thousands of T-shirts from £2.50 and "A-Line Flares" from £6.99.
Concerns were raised in the paper over the number of golfers that were using the parish church field in Rainford that was known to locals as "the rec".
Barbara Moore said that over half a dozen balls had landed in her back garden in Scarisbrick Road, adding:
"One boy was struck on the head in the first week of the Whit holidays and a little girl also came into the firing line. They could have been killed."
Rainford Cricket club was also concerned that some of the golfers were using their club square of beautifully mown grass as a putting green.
Team captain Arthur Punshon from Eagle Crescent said: "Three holes have been made just on the outfield so that the golfers can practice putting. Beer cans had been sunk into the ground so that the golfers can hole their ball."
Another golf story in the Reporter concerned the Sherdley Park professional Peter Parkinson who was aiming for another record.
Peter already held the British record for the longest hole-in-one, which was a 393-yard strike on the West Lancashire golf club's course made three years ago and which was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.
Next month Peter was setting out on a sponsored golf marathon with proceeds going to the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children, and other charities.
On the 29th 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' was replaced at the ABC Savoy with 'The Towering Inferno', starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.
And the Capitol replaced 'Big Bad Mama', starring Angie Dickinson, with 'Dirty O’Neil', which was subtitled "The love life of a cop".
What was described as a "fantastic group" with the strange name of The Royal Variety Show headlined Saints Sports and Leisure Centre on the 29th.
But, interestingly, in support was Jimmy Cricket who was advertised simply as "comic" and had yet to make his name on television and radio.
The cabaret room at the Dunriding Lane leisure centre would then close for a couple of days for alterations before reopening with the Fortunes in concert.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the huge Rainford police search for clues to a killing, the shock closure announcement of Pilkington's Ravenhead works, the Reporter's war of words with a councillor and the big pay bonanza for Town Hall bosses.
We begin with Austen Brothers Circus who twice daily from the 23rd until the 28th performed on land by the Parr Stocks Road fire station where Silcock's Fair often set up.
Advance tickets could be booked at Dixon's World Wide Travel in Baldwin Street.
I wonder when animals stopped appearing in St Helens' circuses? Austen's had African lions, Peruvian llamas, Indian elephants and Shetland ponies.
And "Red Indian fire rituals" demonstrated by Running Fox and Juanita were also advertised.
On the 24th and 25th Help The Aged ran 22 collection centres in St Helens where the public could donate winter clothes and blankets.
These would find their way to elderly persons that were described as being in desperate need of clothing.
Among the 80 seriously injured were teenage sisters Joyce and Anne Quirk of Brynn Street in St Helens and 58-year-old Ellen Palfrey of Waring Avenue in Parr.
Albert McCann and his wife Hilda and children from Newton Road had been witnesses to the disaster, with only a chance decision to visit a show instead of the leisure centre having saved them from being involved.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 27th Mr McCann warned that a similar horror to the Summerfield disaster could wipe out the town's Tontine Market and he said he had banned his wife and kids from going inside:
"I would be scared stiff if Hilda or the kids went in there again. It took the four of us nearly 10 minutes to find an exit from the market. I feel that I must tell shoppers to beware. It has been preying on my mind since I paid my first visit to the market.
"It could be pandemonium if a fire started on a busy day. In a panic shoppers would rush for the narrow stairs from the first floor."
A Town Hall spokesman admitted that not all of the special fire exit signs had been installed in the market because of a production hitch, but said they would be put in soon:
"We are hoping to get the signs in the near future. All the stallholders and attendants at the market have been briefed about what to do in the event of a fire and would help shoppers. Suggestions that our fire precautions are inadequate are absolute rubbish."
It was now more than 5 months since the Tontine Market had opened and they were still "hoping" to receive the signs in the "near future".
I don't expect that the Tontine would have been allowed to open today without the exit signs being in place.
The Reporter profiled St Helens born writer Ian Taylor who they said had travelled far since the day a pit accident at Sutton Manor Colliery had cost him a finger.
Fifteen years later Ian was now a successful playwright with 12 stage plays and two television dramas under his belt.
His latest play called 'The Mixed Forest' was set to open at Liverpool Playhouse in July and Ian was currently staying at his mother-in-law's home in Station Road in Prescot.
This week a 12-strong deputation from the Heathfield Residents Association went to St Helens Town Hall to protest about a plan put forward by Merseyside County Council to create a tip behind their homes.
The county council said they desperately needed extra tipping space on derelict land at Ravenhead behind Heathfield and Mayfield Avenues to replace the rapidly filling Chester Lane tip at Sutton Manor.
But the householders said they already had to contend with a Fibreglass dump on the site, as well as a tip belonging to the Waste Clearance Company. The protesters spokesman was Charles Ryan, who said:
"The County say there is no suitable alternative site – but there is the equivalent of 350 Wembley pitches in derelict land in St. Helens."
The residents were particularly concerned about the possible dumping of toxic waste and smells from chemicals and domestic refuse.
Also unhappy were residents of Boardmans Lane who said they were going to fight plans for a new social club opposite their homes.
The proposed site was on a bend in the road which the residents said was dangerous and they predicted a rise in accidents if the new club went ahead.
The Blackbrook Recreational Organisation were behind the scheme and comprised a committee, two football teams and three rugby teams and said they had been struggling to set up a social club that would incorporate dressing room facilities since 1967.
At present they only had access to council-rented showers and changing rooms in McDonald Avenue.
Chairman Harold Swift said: "We've struggled for a long time to get a club and now the council have given us a site. I would say the club is important, both to our teams and to the people of Blackbrook, who have to leave their area to have a night out. We will provide social functions, dances, whatever the people want."
But Frank Lockley of Boardmans Lane was concerned over safety, saying: "It's a terrible place to have a club. The bend is dangerous. If a club is built there, it's planning gone mad. Cars coming in and out of the car park will cause more accidents. My only complaint is from a safety point of view."
Timber merchants Laithwaites of College Street had been a three-generation family firm but this week announced that they had sold a controlling interest to another timber business from Chorley.
The takeover had been triggered by a recession in the building trade.
It was revealed this week that the dole queue in St Helens was getting longer as job opportunities disappeared.
Already in June another 106 persons had registered as unemployed taking the jobless total to 3,612 and the unemployed rate to 6.3%.
There were only 93 vacancies, with the majority being for skilled labour and most of the jobless were considered to be unskilled.
Roy Corkill and Timmy Divine were celebrated in the Reporter after the 11-year-old fourth year pupils at Longton Lane Junior School in Rainhill had both won prizes in handwriting competitions.
Roy from Pottery Lane in Whiston came second and received a prize of £15 and Timmy from Kendal Drive in Rainhill was a runner-up and won a radio.
The Jack Barnes shop in Bridge Street was advertising denim jeans from £3.99 and stating that they were one of St Helens' main Wrangler stockists.
The advert said they had thousands of T-shirts from £2.50 and "A-Line Flares" from £6.99.
Concerns were raised in the paper over the number of golfers that were using the parish church field in Rainford that was known to locals as "the rec".
Barbara Moore said that over half a dozen balls had landed in her back garden in Scarisbrick Road, adding:
"One boy was struck on the head in the first week of the Whit holidays and a little girl also came into the firing line. They could have been killed."
Rainford Cricket club was also concerned that some of the golfers were using their club square of beautifully mown grass as a putting green.
Team captain Arthur Punshon from Eagle Crescent said: "Three holes have been made just on the outfield so that the golfers can practice putting. Beer cans had been sunk into the ground so that the golfers can hole their ball."
Another golf story in the Reporter concerned the Sherdley Park professional Peter Parkinson who was aiming for another record.
Peter already held the British record for the longest hole-in-one, which was a 393-yard strike on the West Lancashire golf club's course made three years ago and which was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.
Next month Peter was setting out on a sponsored golf marathon with proceeds going to the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children, and other charities.
On the 29th 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' was replaced at the ABC Savoy with 'The Towering Inferno', starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.
And the Capitol replaced 'Big Bad Mama', starring Angie Dickinson, with 'Dirty O’Neil', which was subtitled "The love life of a cop".
What was described as a "fantastic group" with the strange name of The Royal Variety Show headlined Saints Sports and Leisure Centre on the 29th.
But, interestingly, in support was Jimmy Cricket who was advertised simply as "comic" and had yet to make his name on television and radio.
The cabaret room at the Dunriding Lane leisure centre would then close for a couple of days for alterations before reopening with the Fortunes in concert.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the huge Rainford police search for clues to a killing, the shock closure announcement of Pilkington's Ravenhead works, the Reporter's war of words with a councillor and the big pay bonanza for Town Hall bosses.