FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th JANUARY 1972)
This week's 16 stories include the explosive situation in Billinge, Pierre the Clown comes to St Helens schools to talk teeth, the Carr Mill garage in trouble for opening on a Sunday, the taxi-driver who claimed he had been brainwashed by his radio and the St Helens MP puts down a Commons motion deploring the lowering of moral standards on television.
We begin on the 24th when three men were killed on the dangerous East Lancs when a car turning right into Blindfoot Lane collided with a van on the opposite carriageway. An ambulance that was racing to the crash found its path blocked by a sightseeing queue of motorists that had slowed down to gawp at the wreckage. In order to reach the scene the ambulance was forced to travel on the central reservation. Two of the deceased were from Middlesex and the third came from Liverpool.
It was panto time at the Theatre Royal (pictured above in the 1980s) from the 24th with a performance of what was described as the "spectacular family pantomime" 'Aladdin'. Unusually, the show would remain in Corporation Street for a fortnight. The price of admission was 50p in the Stalls and 50p or 60p in the Circle. Children and OAPs paid half-price, apart from on Saturday evenings.
On the 25th Prescot magistrates fined the manager of the Royal Oak Hotel on the East Lancs a total of £210 after he was accused of having a dirty kitchen. The 14 summonses that were brought against Nello Fabro included not ensuring that kitchen walls, doors and window were kept clean and allowing refuse to accumulate in the kitchen. Mr Fabro was also accused of exposing food to the risk of contamination.
You have to feel sorry for Francis Melia who was summoned to appear in St Helens Magistrates' court on the 25th after being caught in a speed trap. The harassed taxi driver had been having a really bad day, as reported by the Liverpool Echo:
"Charged before St. Helens magistrates on a speeding charge, a taxi driver claimed his two-way radio “was acting as a brain-washing machine.” Francis Melia, aged 26, of Red Acre, Clock Face, St. Helens, was fined £15 after pleading guilty by letter. Inspector D. Johnstone said that on October 18 Melia had passed through a radar check on Prescot Road, St. Helens, at 50 m.p.h. The limit on the road was 30 m.p.h. Taxi driver Melia said in his letter he had only been doing the job for two-and-a-half days, and was not used to the car. He added: “The two-way radio was acting as a brain-washing machine, saying ‘Where are you now, aren't you there yet, hurry up with that one, there's another one waiting in the office.’”"
Pierre the Clown was a busy man this week having visited forty St Helens schools to talk to nearly 6,000 children about their teeth. Pierre was the stage name of Peter Picton and he often appeared on TV during the ‘60s and ‘70s – he also, incidentally, owned the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car. While in St Helens, Pierre instructed the children, aged from 5 to 11, how sweets and cakes caused decay and encouraged them to eat apples instead. The General Dental Council was supporting Pierre's nationwide tour in order to stem a rise in childhood tooth decay.
The clown's audience would have been higher but lack of fuel meant that a number of St Helens schools had been forced to close and a total of 4,000 children had been sent home. That was because of the nationwide miners' strike, which was now three weeks old. Many of the men striking at Bold Colliery participated in a march in Liverpool on the 26th. The demonstration in heavy rain was to protest against unemployment. Work on Pilkington's new float glass tank at Cowley Hill came to a standstill as 200 workers downed tools to join the march.
John Smyth caused a bit of a panic in Billinge on the 26th after crashing his Mercedes in Upholland Road. The 52-year-old contractor's car was in collision with an articulated lorry – and a third vehicle then rammed his boot from behind. Inside the boot was a load of gelignite and detonators that Mr Smyth used in his work and as he warned ambulancemen about the explosives, the crowd of onlookers melted away.
Police closed the road and roped off the wreckage and later an explosives expert removed the gelignite. After receiving treatment for head injuries, Mr Smyth was discharged back to his home in Crank Road in Billinge and told the Reporter: "The crowd cleared off rather quickly, and I don't suppose the police were too keen on sitting around. But I know my gelignite, and it was a million to one chance that it would explode."
Last October, Councillor John Potter had been found guilty by St Helens magistrates of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining unemployment benefit and fined £30. That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader at St Helens and Earlestown markets. However, Mr Potter – one of the organisers of the 7-week long Pilkington strike of 1970 – claimed he'd simply been helping out his family and had received no payments.
On the 26th Mr Potter successfully appealed against his conviction at Liverpool Crown Court. The Recorder ruled that not all of the witnesses giving evidence against the councillor for East Sutton had been telling the truth. That was despite the prosecution telling the court: "This was just a fiddle in order to get the State to pay him while he was working for his mother."
On the 27th Leslie Spriggs (pictured above, left) put down a Commons motion deploring: "The lowering moral standards of television presentations." The MP for St Helens called on the Posts and Telecommunications Minister Christopher Chataway (pictured above, right) to "reverse the trend", telling the press that he was not a "do-gooder or a puritan" but that many television programmes "made ordinary people ashamed". Mr Spriggs drafted the motion after receiving a petition from the Women's Guild of Christian Service, covering Congregational churches in St Helens.
The Reporter described on the 28th how County Councillor Nellie Holley was appealing for adult helpers to save Rainhill's only youth club. The 150 Club met in the Rainhill Parish Church Hall but was non-denominational. The club was desperately in need of adult support and Mrs Holley said: "If we can keep this one going, it will at least keep some children off the streets."
The Fleece Hotel of Church Street in St Helens had this advert in the Reporter: "We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting reservations for our new Banqueting Suite which will be available from 1st September, 1972 for all types of private functions. The ballroom which will accommodate numbers up to 260 persons for a dinner and dance, will have its own reception lounge with private bar facilities and will undoubtedly be one of the finest in the North West."
Asda took out a rare full-page advert in the Reporter for their new "superstore" at Golborne, which would open on February 1st. The paper also wrote how Terence McGarrity and Kenneth Adkins had been fined £2 each by St Helens magistrates for selling cars on a Sunday. The pair ran Carr Mill Motors and had advertised in newspapers that their showrooms would be open on the Sabbath. That led to a warning from a shops inspector that they would be breaking the law if they went ahead. The partners in the Carr Mill Road garage ignored the advice and when the inspector found the business open on the Sunday, Mr McGarrity pushed him out of the door, ripping buttons off the man's shirt. For that he was fined a further £10.
"Looking For Lunch? Try The Green Dragon at Sutton Manor", said their ad in the Reporter. "Inclusive Buffet 50p. Plus a new grill room."
Last week "A Pitman's Pittance" had been the headline to an article in the paper about a Bold Colliery mineworker taking home just £12.70 a week. This week the paper published a highly critical letter from someone using the penname "Pro Bono Publico". The individual felt the article had been disingenuous by not pointing out that coal miners received concessionary coal and could live in rented houses subsidised by the coal board. The letter ended: "I know you'll not have the courage to publish this letter because the ignorant savages will break your windows, smash your presses and spit on your wives and children as they did at Doncaster."
During the evening of the 28th, nineteen young women took part in a beauty contest in Parr. The competitors were mainly machine operators employed at clothing manufacturer's Northgate and they were competing for a first prize of £20 and a cosmetics set.
Veterans of WW1 were profiled from time to time in the Reporter, often when celebrating golden wedding anniversaries. That was the case with George Waring of Evelyn Avenue who had married wife Bessie at St Nicholas Church on January 21st 1922. The couple went on to have nine children and had met when George was on leave from the army.
"I am only five feet tall and I was a sergeant in the Bantam Battalion, which was for smaller men whose height stopped them getting into a normal regiment," George told the Reporter. Not only had he won medals for service and bravery on the Somme, George was the holder of three medals for rescuing a woman and a boy in two separate incidents. George worked at Ashtons Green on colliery engines after the war and Bessie had been employed at the railway sheeting sheds in Penlake Lane in Sutton. "With nine children we've had a hard life, but we've always been very happy", remarked Bessie.
Next week's stories will include Beecham's prosecution of Dave Whelan, Providence Hospital nears its fundraising target, Greenall's controversial leap in profits and oil tankers get past a picket line into Bold Power Station under cover of darkness.
We begin on the 24th when three men were killed on the dangerous East Lancs when a car turning right into Blindfoot Lane collided with a van on the opposite carriageway. An ambulance that was racing to the crash found its path blocked by a sightseeing queue of motorists that had slowed down to gawp at the wreckage. In order to reach the scene the ambulance was forced to travel on the central reservation. Two of the deceased were from Middlesex and the third came from Liverpool.
On the 25th Prescot magistrates fined the manager of the Royal Oak Hotel on the East Lancs a total of £210 after he was accused of having a dirty kitchen. The 14 summonses that were brought against Nello Fabro included not ensuring that kitchen walls, doors and window were kept clean and allowing refuse to accumulate in the kitchen. Mr Fabro was also accused of exposing food to the risk of contamination.
You have to feel sorry for Francis Melia who was summoned to appear in St Helens Magistrates' court on the 25th after being caught in a speed trap. The harassed taxi driver had been having a really bad day, as reported by the Liverpool Echo:
"Charged before St. Helens magistrates on a speeding charge, a taxi driver claimed his two-way radio “was acting as a brain-washing machine.” Francis Melia, aged 26, of Red Acre, Clock Face, St. Helens, was fined £15 after pleading guilty by letter. Inspector D. Johnstone said that on October 18 Melia had passed through a radar check on Prescot Road, St. Helens, at 50 m.p.h. The limit on the road was 30 m.p.h. Taxi driver Melia said in his letter he had only been doing the job for two-and-a-half days, and was not used to the car. He added: “The two-way radio was acting as a brain-washing machine, saying ‘Where are you now, aren't you there yet, hurry up with that one, there's another one waiting in the office.’”"
Pierre the Clown was a busy man this week having visited forty St Helens schools to talk to nearly 6,000 children about their teeth. Pierre was the stage name of Peter Picton and he often appeared on TV during the ‘60s and ‘70s – he also, incidentally, owned the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car. While in St Helens, Pierre instructed the children, aged from 5 to 11, how sweets and cakes caused decay and encouraged them to eat apples instead. The General Dental Council was supporting Pierre's nationwide tour in order to stem a rise in childhood tooth decay.
The clown's audience would have been higher but lack of fuel meant that a number of St Helens schools had been forced to close and a total of 4,000 children had been sent home. That was because of the nationwide miners' strike, which was now three weeks old. Many of the men striking at Bold Colliery participated in a march in Liverpool on the 26th. The demonstration in heavy rain was to protest against unemployment. Work on Pilkington's new float glass tank at Cowley Hill came to a standstill as 200 workers downed tools to join the march.
John Smyth caused a bit of a panic in Billinge on the 26th after crashing his Mercedes in Upholland Road. The 52-year-old contractor's car was in collision with an articulated lorry – and a third vehicle then rammed his boot from behind. Inside the boot was a load of gelignite and detonators that Mr Smyth used in his work and as he warned ambulancemen about the explosives, the crowd of onlookers melted away.
Police closed the road and roped off the wreckage and later an explosives expert removed the gelignite. After receiving treatment for head injuries, Mr Smyth was discharged back to his home in Crank Road in Billinge and told the Reporter: "The crowd cleared off rather quickly, and I don't suppose the police were too keen on sitting around. But I know my gelignite, and it was a million to one chance that it would explode."
Last October, Councillor John Potter had been found guilty by St Helens magistrates of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining unemployment benefit and fined £30. That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader at St Helens and Earlestown markets. However, Mr Potter – one of the organisers of the 7-week long Pilkington strike of 1970 – claimed he'd simply been helping out his family and had received no payments.
On the 26th Mr Potter successfully appealed against his conviction at Liverpool Crown Court. The Recorder ruled that not all of the witnesses giving evidence against the councillor for East Sutton had been telling the truth. That was despite the prosecution telling the court: "This was just a fiddle in order to get the State to pay him while he was working for his mother."
The Reporter described on the 28th how County Councillor Nellie Holley was appealing for adult helpers to save Rainhill's only youth club. The 150 Club met in the Rainhill Parish Church Hall but was non-denominational. The club was desperately in need of adult support and Mrs Holley said: "If we can keep this one going, it will at least keep some children off the streets."
The Fleece Hotel of Church Street in St Helens had this advert in the Reporter: "We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting reservations for our new Banqueting Suite which will be available from 1st September, 1972 for all types of private functions. The ballroom which will accommodate numbers up to 260 persons for a dinner and dance, will have its own reception lounge with private bar facilities and will undoubtedly be one of the finest in the North West."
Asda took out a rare full-page advert in the Reporter for their new "superstore" at Golborne, which would open on February 1st. The paper also wrote how Terence McGarrity and Kenneth Adkins had been fined £2 each by St Helens magistrates for selling cars on a Sunday. The pair ran Carr Mill Motors and had advertised in newspapers that their showrooms would be open on the Sabbath. That led to a warning from a shops inspector that they would be breaking the law if they went ahead. The partners in the Carr Mill Road garage ignored the advice and when the inspector found the business open on the Sunday, Mr McGarrity pushed him out of the door, ripping buttons off the man's shirt. For that he was fined a further £10.
"Looking For Lunch? Try The Green Dragon at Sutton Manor", said their ad in the Reporter. "Inclusive Buffet 50p. Plus a new grill room."
Last week "A Pitman's Pittance" had been the headline to an article in the paper about a Bold Colliery mineworker taking home just £12.70 a week. This week the paper published a highly critical letter from someone using the penname "Pro Bono Publico". The individual felt the article had been disingenuous by not pointing out that coal miners received concessionary coal and could live in rented houses subsidised by the coal board. The letter ended: "I know you'll not have the courage to publish this letter because the ignorant savages will break your windows, smash your presses and spit on your wives and children as they did at Doncaster."
During the evening of the 28th, nineteen young women took part in a beauty contest in Parr. The competitors were mainly machine operators employed at clothing manufacturer's Northgate and they were competing for a first prize of £20 and a cosmetics set.
Veterans of WW1 were profiled from time to time in the Reporter, often when celebrating golden wedding anniversaries. That was the case with George Waring of Evelyn Avenue who had married wife Bessie at St Nicholas Church on January 21st 1922. The couple went on to have nine children and had met when George was on leave from the army.
"I am only five feet tall and I was a sergeant in the Bantam Battalion, which was for smaller men whose height stopped them getting into a normal regiment," George told the Reporter. Not only had he won medals for service and bravery on the Somme, George was the holder of three medals for rescuing a woman and a boy in two separate incidents. George worked at Ashtons Green on colliery engines after the war and Bessie had been employed at the railway sheeting sheds in Penlake Lane in Sutton. "With nine children we've had a hard life, but we've always been very happy", remarked Bessie.
Next week's stories will include Beecham's prosecution of Dave Whelan, Providence Hospital nears its fundraising target, Greenall's controversial leap in profits and oil tankers get past a picket line into Bold Power Station under cover of darkness.
This week's 16 stories include the explosive situation in Billinge, Pierre the Clown comes to St Helens schools to talk teeth, the Carr Mill garage in trouble for opening on a Sunday, the taxi-driver who claimed he had been brainwashed by his radio and the St Helens MP puts down a Commons motion deploring the lowering of moral standards on television.
We begin on the 24th when three men were killed on the dangerous East Lancs when a car turning right into Blindfoot Lane collided with a van on the opposite carriageway.
An ambulance that was racing to the crash found its path blocked by a sightseeing queue of motorists that had slowed down to gawp at the wreckage.
In order to reach the scene the ambulance was forced to travel on the central reservation. Two of the deceased were from Middlesex and the third came from Liverpool.
It was panto time at the Theatre Royal (pictured above in the 1980s) from the 24th with a performance of what was described as the "spectacular family pantomime" 'Aladdin'. Unusually, the show would remain in Corporation Street for a fortnight.
The price of admission was 50p in the Stalls and 50p or 60p in the Circle. Children and OAPs paid half-price, apart from on Saturday evenings.
On the 25th Prescot magistrates fined the manager of the Royal Oak Hotel on the East Lancs a total of £210 after he was accused of having a dirty kitchen.
The 14 summonses that were brought against Nello Fabro included not ensuring that kitchen walls, doors and window were kept clean and allowing refuse to accumulate in the kitchen.
Mr Fabro was also accused of exposing food to the risk of contamination.
You have to feel sorry for Francis Melia who was summoned to appear in St Helens Magistrates' court on the 25th after being caught in a speed trap.
The harassed taxi driver had been having a really bad day, as reported by the Liverpool Echo:
"Charged before St. Helens magistrates on a speeding charge, a taxi driver claimed his two-way radio “was acting as a brain-washing machine.” Francis Melia, aged 26, of Red Acre, Clock Face, St. Helens, was fined £15 after pleading guilty by letter.
"Inspector D. Johnstone said that on October 18 Melia had passed through a radar check on Prescot Road, St. Helens, at 50 m.p.h. The limit on the road was 30 m.p.h.
"Taxi driver Melia said in his letter he had only been doing the job for two-and-a-half days, and was not used to the car.
"He added: “The two-way radio was acting as a brain-washing machine, saying ‘Where are you now, aren't you there yet, hurry up with that one, there's another one waiting in the office.’”"
Pierre the Clown was a busy man this week having visited forty St Helens schools to talk to nearly 6,000 children about their teeth.
Pierre was the stage name of Peter Picton and he often appeared on TV during the ‘60s and ‘70s – he also, incidentally, owned the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car.
While in St Helens, Pierre instructed the children, aged from 5 to 11, how sweets and cakes caused decay and encouraged them to eat apples instead.
The General Dental Council was supporting Pierre's nationwide tour in order to stem a rise in childhood tooth decay.
The clown's audience would have been higher but lack of fuel meant that a number of St Helens schools had been forced to close and a total of 4,000 children had been sent home.
That was because of the nationwide miners' strike, which was now three weeks old.
Many of the men striking at Bold Colliery participated in a march in Liverpool on the 26th. The demonstration in heavy rain was to protest against unemployment.
Work on Pilkington's new float glass tank at Cowley Hill came to a standstill as 200 workers downed tools to join the march.
John Smyth caused a bit of a panic in Billinge on the 26th after crashing his Mercedes in Upholland Road.
The 52-year-old contractor's car was in collision with an articulated lorry – and a third vehicle then rammed his boot from behind.
Inside the boot was a load of gelignite and detonators that Mr Smyth used in his work and as he warned ambulancemen about the explosives, the crowd of onlookers melted away.
Police closed the road and roped off the wreckage and later an explosives expert removed the gelignite.
After receiving treatment for head injuries, Mr Smyth was discharged back to his home in Crank Road in Billinge and told the Reporter:
"The crowd cleared off rather quickly, and I don't suppose the police were too keen on sitting around. But I know my gelignite, and it was a million to one chance that it would explode."
Last October, Councillor John Potter had been found guilty by St Helens magistrates of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining unemployment benefit and fined £30.
That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader at St Helens and Earlestown markets.
However, Mr Potter – one of the organisers of the 7-week long Pilkington strike of 1970 – claimed he'd simply been helping out his family and had received no payments.
On the 26th Mr Potter successfully appealed against his conviction at Liverpool Crown Court.
The Recorder ruled that not all of the witnesses giving evidence against the councillor for East Sutton had been telling the truth.
That was despite the prosecution telling the court: "This was just a fiddle in order to get the State to pay him while he was working for his mother."
On the 27th Leslie Spriggs (pictured above, left) put down a Commons motion deploring: "The lowering moral standards of television presentations."
The MP for St Helens called on the Posts and Telecommunications Minister Christopher Chataway (pictured above, right) to "reverse the trend", telling the press that he was not a "do-gooder or a puritan" but that many television programmes "made ordinary people ashamed".
Mr Spriggs drafted the motion after receiving a petition from the Women's Guild of Christian Service, covering Congregational churches in St Helens.
The Reporter described on the 28th how County Councillor Nellie Holley was appealing for adult helpers to save Rainhill's only youth club.
The 150 Club met in the Rainhill Parish Church Hall but was non-denominational. The club was desperately in need of adult support and Mrs Holley said:
"If we can keep this one going, it will at least keep some children off the streets."
The Fleece Hotel of Church Street in St Helens had this advert in the Reporter:
"We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting reservations for our new Banqueting Suite which will be available from 1st September, 1972 for all types of private functions.
"The ballroom which will accommodate numbers up to 260 persons for a dinner and dance, will have its own reception lounge with private bar facilities and will undoubtedly be one of the finest in the North West."
Asda took out a rare full-page advert in the Reporter for their new "superstore" at Golborne, which would open on February 1st.
The paper also wrote how Terence McGarrity and Kenneth Adkins had been fined £2 each by St Helens magistrates for selling cars on a Sunday.
The pair ran Carr Mill Motors and had advertised in newspapers that their showrooms would be open on the Sabbath.
That led to a warning from a shops inspector that they would be breaking the law if they went ahead.
The partners in the Carr Mill Road garage ignored the advice and when the inspector found the business open on the Sunday, Mr McGarrity pushed him out of the door, ripping buttons off the man's shirt. For that he was fined a further £10.
"Looking For Lunch? Try The Green Dragon at Sutton Manor", said their ad in the Reporter. "Inclusive Buffet 50p. Plus a new grill room."
Last week "A Pitman's Pittance" had been the headline to an article in the paper about a Bold Colliery mineworker taking home just £12.70 a week.
This week the paper published a highly critical letter from someone using the penname "Pro Bono Publico".
The individual felt the article had been disingenuous by not pointing out that coal miners received concessionary coal and could live in rented houses subsidised by the coal board. The letter ended:
"I know you'll not have the courage to publish this letter because the ignorant savages will break your windows, smash your presses and spit on your wives and children as they did at Doncaster."
During the evening of the 28th, nineteen young women took part in a beauty contest in Parr.
The competitors were mainly machine operators employed at clothing manufacturer's Northgate and they were competing for a first prize of £20 and a cosmetics set.
Veterans of WW1 were profiled from time to time in the Reporter, often when celebrating golden wedding anniversaries.
That was the case with George Waring of Evelyn Avenue who had married wife Bessie at St Nicholas Church on January 21st 1922.
The couple went on to have nine children and had met when George was on leave from the army.
"I am only five feet tall and I was a sergeant in the Bantam Battalion, which was for smaller men whose height stopped them getting into a normal regiment," George told the Reporter.
Not only had he won medals for service and bravery on the Somme, George was the holder of three medals for rescuing a woman and a boy in two separate incidents.
George worked at Ashtons Green on colliery engines after the war and Bessie had been employed at the railway sheeting sheds in Penlake Lane in Sutton.
"With nine children we've had a hard life, but we've always been very happy", remarked Bessie.
Next week's stories will include Beecham's prosecution of Dave Whelan, Providence Hospital nears its fundraising target, Greenall's controversial leap in profits and oil tankers get past a picket line into Bold Power Station under cover of darkness.
We begin on the 24th when three men were killed on the dangerous East Lancs when a car turning right into Blindfoot Lane collided with a van on the opposite carriageway.
An ambulance that was racing to the crash found its path blocked by a sightseeing queue of motorists that had slowed down to gawp at the wreckage.
In order to reach the scene the ambulance was forced to travel on the central reservation. Two of the deceased were from Middlesex and the third came from Liverpool.
The price of admission was 50p in the Stalls and 50p or 60p in the Circle. Children and OAPs paid half-price, apart from on Saturday evenings.
On the 25th Prescot magistrates fined the manager of the Royal Oak Hotel on the East Lancs a total of £210 after he was accused of having a dirty kitchen.
The 14 summonses that were brought against Nello Fabro included not ensuring that kitchen walls, doors and window were kept clean and allowing refuse to accumulate in the kitchen.
Mr Fabro was also accused of exposing food to the risk of contamination.
You have to feel sorry for Francis Melia who was summoned to appear in St Helens Magistrates' court on the 25th after being caught in a speed trap.
The harassed taxi driver had been having a really bad day, as reported by the Liverpool Echo:
"Charged before St. Helens magistrates on a speeding charge, a taxi driver claimed his two-way radio “was acting as a brain-washing machine.” Francis Melia, aged 26, of Red Acre, Clock Face, St. Helens, was fined £15 after pleading guilty by letter.
"Inspector D. Johnstone said that on October 18 Melia had passed through a radar check on Prescot Road, St. Helens, at 50 m.p.h. The limit on the road was 30 m.p.h.
"Taxi driver Melia said in his letter he had only been doing the job for two-and-a-half days, and was not used to the car.
"He added: “The two-way radio was acting as a brain-washing machine, saying ‘Where are you now, aren't you there yet, hurry up with that one, there's another one waiting in the office.’”"
Pierre the Clown was a busy man this week having visited forty St Helens schools to talk to nearly 6,000 children about their teeth.
Pierre was the stage name of Peter Picton and he often appeared on TV during the ‘60s and ‘70s – he also, incidentally, owned the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car.
While in St Helens, Pierre instructed the children, aged from 5 to 11, how sweets and cakes caused decay and encouraged them to eat apples instead.
The General Dental Council was supporting Pierre's nationwide tour in order to stem a rise in childhood tooth decay.
The clown's audience would have been higher but lack of fuel meant that a number of St Helens schools had been forced to close and a total of 4,000 children had been sent home.
That was because of the nationwide miners' strike, which was now three weeks old.
Many of the men striking at Bold Colliery participated in a march in Liverpool on the 26th. The demonstration in heavy rain was to protest against unemployment.
Work on Pilkington's new float glass tank at Cowley Hill came to a standstill as 200 workers downed tools to join the march.
John Smyth caused a bit of a panic in Billinge on the 26th after crashing his Mercedes in Upholland Road.
The 52-year-old contractor's car was in collision with an articulated lorry – and a third vehicle then rammed his boot from behind.
Inside the boot was a load of gelignite and detonators that Mr Smyth used in his work and as he warned ambulancemen about the explosives, the crowd of onlookers melted away.
Police closed the road and roped off the wreckage and later an explosives expert removed the gelignite.
After receiving treatment for head injuries, Mr Smyth was discharged back to his home in Crank Road in Billinge and told the Reporter:
"The crowd cleared off rather quickly, and I don't suppose the police were too keen on sitting around. But I know my gelignite, and it was a million to one chance that it would explode."
Last October, Councillor John Potter had been found guilty by St Helens magistrates of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining unemployment benefit and fined £30.
That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader at St Helens and Earlestown markets.
However, Mr Potter – one of the organisers of the 7-week long Pilkington strike of 1970 – claimed he'd simply been helping out his family and had received no payments.
On the 26th Mr Potter successfully appealed against his conviction at Liverpool Crown Court.
The Recorder ruled that not all of the witnesses giving evidence against the councillor for East Sutton had been telling the truth.
That was despite the prosecution telling the court: "This was just a fiddle in order to get the State to pay him while he was working for his mother."
The MP for St Helens called on the Posts and Telecommunications Minister Christopher Chataway (pictured above, right) to "reverse the trend", telling the press that he was not a "do-gooder or a puritan" but that many television programmes "made ordinary people ashamed".
Mr Spriggs drafted the motion after receiving a petition from the Women's Guild of Christian Service, covering Congregational churches in St Helens.
The Reporter described on the 28th how County Councillor Nellie Holley was appealing for adult helpers to save Rainhill's only youth club.
The 150 Club met in the Rainhill Parish Church Hall but was non-denominational. The club was desperately in need of adult support and Mrs Holley said:
"If we can keep this one going, it will at least keep some children off the streets."
The Fleece Hotel of Church Street in St Helens had this advert in the Reporter:
"We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting reservations for our new Banqueting Suite which will be available from 1st September, 1972 for all types of private functions.
"The ballroom which will accommodate numbers up to 260 persons for a dinner and dance, will have its own reception lounge with private bar facilities and will undoubtedly be one of the finest in the North West."
Asda took out a rare full-page advert in the Reporter for their new "superstore" at Golborne, which would open on February 1st.
The paper also wrote how Terence McGarrity and Kenneth Adkins had been fined £2 each by St Helens magistrates for selling cars on a Sunday.
The pair ran Carr Mill Motors and had advertised in newspapers that their showrooms would be open on the Sabbath.
That led to a warning from a shops inspector that they would be breaking the law if they went ahead.
The partners in the Carr Mill Road garage ignored the advice and when the inspector found the business open on the Sunday, Mr McGarrity pushed him out of the door, ripping buttons off the man's shirt. For that he was fined a further £10.
"Looking For Lunch? Try The Green Dragon at Sutton Manor", said their ad in the Reporter. "Inclusive Buffet 50p. Plus a new grill room."
Last week "A Pitman's Pittance" had been the headline to an article in the paper about a Bold Colliery mineworker taking home just £12.70 a week.
This week the paper published a highly critical letter from someone using the penname "Pro Bono Publico".
The individual felt the article had been disingenuous by not pointing out that coal miners received concessionary coal and could live in rented houses subsidised by the coal board. The letter ended:
"I know you'll not have the courage to publish this letter because the ignorant savages will break your windows, smash your presses and spit on your wives and children as they did at Doncaster."
During the evening of the 28th, nineteen young women took part in a beauty contest in Parr.
The competitors were mainly machine operators employed at clothing manufacturer's Northgate and they were competing for a first prize of £20 and a cosmetics set.
Veterans of WW1 were profiled from time to time in the Reporter, often when celebrating golden wedding anniversaries.
That was the case with George Waring of Evelyn Avenue who had married wife Bessie at St Nicholas Church on January 21st 1922.
The couple went on to have nine children and had met when George was on leave from the army.
"I am only five feet tall and I was a sergeant in the Bantam Battalion, which was for smaller men whose height stopped them getting into a normal regiment," George told the Reporter.
Not only had he won medals for service and bravery on the Somme, George was the holder of three medals for rescuing a woman and a boy in two separate incidents.
George worked at Ashtons Green on colliery engines after the war and Bessie had been employed at the railway sheeting sheds in Penlake Lane in Sutton.
"With nine children we've had a hard life, but we've always been very happy", remarked Bessie.
Next week's stories will include Beecham's prosecution of Dave Whelan, Providence Hospital nears its fundraising target, Greenall's controversial leap in profits and oil tankers get past a picket line into Bold Power Station under cover of darkness.