FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 25 - 31 DECEMBER 1973
This week's many stories include the Christmas Day babies, a fireman is injured fighting a Christmas fire in a Bridge Street butcher's, the Reporter's New Year's Day baby competition, the distemper epidemic in St Helens, a review of the Christmas TV shows and Rainford Council have to delay finding a solution to the monster lorries accused of destroying their village.
There were three Christmas Day births this year, all in Whiston Hospital's new maternity unit that had opened last July. Pearl Slater of Dean Way in Sutton was the first new mum, giving birth to a little girl at 3:37am. Although only weighing 5lb 3oz, Sharon Anne was reported as "doing fine". Two hours later Denise Morris of Beth Avenue in Sutton gave birth to Christopher who weighed in at 8lb 6oz. And Joan Matthews of Whiteside Road in Haydock gave birth to Anthony at 10:25am, weighing 7lb 7oz.
At least thirteen managed pubs in St Helens defied tradition and closed on Christmas night after four years of discussions over what had been a controversial topic. However, the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association were opposed to a Christmas night shutdown with a spokesman having said: "We won't be closing – we feel we have a duty to the public."
Christmas Day was on a Tuesday and both the local cinemas closed. But on Boxing Day Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was shown at the ABC Savoy and 'Bless This House' starring Sid James began a run at the Capitol. And there was, of course, television, which during the 1970s at Christmastime meant specials from Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies etc. This is how the Liverpool Echo reviewed the festive TV fare:
"If Christmastime is the season for belly-laughs, then full marks to the B.B.C. and ITV for providing them in plenty. Mike Yarwood was in splendid fettle on Christmas night with Edward Heath a-carolling and Harold Wilson chairing a send-up of Twenty Questions. He has now added the final polish to his impression of Michael Crawford's gormless Frank and his Christmas turkey sketch would have been difficult to distinguish from the real thing. He also has Larry Grayson off to a fine turn and it was a kindly gesture to invite along as guest Eddie Waring, who has taken his fair share of lampooning on this show.
"Vanilla Redgrave – sorry Vanessa – loaned her not insignificant talents to the Morecambe and Wise show, which also boasted guest appearances from Nureyev, Sir Laurence Olivier and Yehudi Menuhin. The laughs came thick and fast in a production that was pure pantomime. The Queen's Christmas message was relieved by shots taken inside Buckingham Palace at the time of Princess Anne's wedding, but marred somewhat by the strange snatches of conversation filmed at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers get-together.
"By the time it got round to last night [Boxing Day] the majority of viewers were probably suffering from a surfeit of the same formula and an overdose of the star spectaculars. Fortunately, there was Dick Emery, whose comparatively snappy half-hour was a welcome relief to some of the earlier long drawn out Christmas specials. There were flashes too of the real Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker once all the extravagance and “cast of thousands” was penetrated.
"Finally the prize for the biggest insult to the viewing public over the whole holiday period goes to the episode of Crossroads. A hotchpotch of the regulars in fancy dress ostensibly for the village party was just too bad to be true. Not even the injection of Larry Grayson, invited to play Father Christmas, could lift anything as meaningless as this."
Fireman Leo Westhead was injured over the Christmas holidays while fighting a fire in a St Helens butcher's shop. The brigade had been summoned after smoke was seen coming from Fishwick's butcher's in Bridge Street. Sub-Officer Westhead of Tickle Avenue was wearing breathing apparatus to combat thick, billowing black smoke when he suddenly plunged out of sight down the steps of the shop's cellar. The 41-year-old lay stunned and unable to move and his colleagues brought him out in considerable pain on a stretcher using ropes. Leo was rushed to Providence Hospital where his condition was later reported as satisfactory.
Throughout the year a big talking point in Rainford had been the large lorries trundling through the village, many going to and from the new Holiday Moss tip. Residents said the vehicles were destroying their village and posed a danger and the creation of a special access road was seen as a practical solution to the problem. But that would be expensive and time-consuming to organise, with planning surveys and compulsory purchase needed prior to construction starting.
And Rainford Council was running out of time. In April 1974 it would become a parish council with most of its powers subsumed into the new St Helens District Council. This week the Reporter stated that the council had bowed to the inevitable and agreed to pass the problem onto the new authority.
Rainford Council's Clerk, Ken Isherwood, told the Reporter on the 28th: "We would have to set up site surveys and so on. We could also get ourselves involved with compulsory purchase and we thought it best to ask the new authority to take over. We just hadn't got enough time to carry on."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st would receive a 30-shilling gift. However, thirty bob was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had this year been increased – but only to £2. And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter. As we've seen, only three were born on Christmas Day in the large new Whiston maternity block where most mothers were now giving birth. However, there were other prizes too as well as the two quid gift. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a framed full-size photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
In addition all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the canopy! And Pimblett's were giving free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies that lived in St Helens. The Reporter concluded their piece by writing: "We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on."
Twelve months earlier the Liverpool Echo had published a disturbing story with the headline "Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets". The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens with 300 animals having died or been put down over the previous three months. The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated.
On the 29th of this week the Echo published another report on the problem, which revealed that it was getting no better. An unnamed St Helens veterinary surgeon stated that the epidemic was leading to more than a dozen dogs a week dying from the disease.
"We are in the grip of an epidemic at the moment," he said. "There have been some very sad cases in the last week. About 40 per cent. of the dogs we see have to be put down immediately because of the symptoms that develop." The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be its cost at £3 to £4.
And finally, from the 31st two Disney films were shown at the Capitol Cinema in 'The Incredible Journey' and 'The Sword in the Stone'. Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the start of the 3-day working week, the death of the Blackbrook kidney donor, the vandalism at the Victoria Park Meteorological Station, a boost for Rockware Glass and St Helens is dubbed a blackspot for child abnormalities.
There were three Christmas Day births this year, all in Whiston Hospital's new maternity unit that had opened last July. Pearl Slater of Dean Way in Sutton was the first new mum, giving birth to a little girl at 3:37am. Although only weighing 5lb 3oz, Sharon Anne was reported as "doing fine". Two hours later Denise Morris of Beth Avenue in Sutton gave birth to Christopher who weighed in at 8lb 6oz. And Joan Matthews of Whiteside Road in Haydock gave birth to Anthony at 10:25am, weighing 7lb 7oz.
At least thirteen managed pubs in St Helens defied tradition and closed on Christmas night after four years of discussions over what had been a controversial topic. However, the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association were opposed to a Christmas night shutdown with a spokesman having said: "We won't be closing – we feel we have a duty to the public."
Christmas Day was on a Tuesday and both the local cinemas closed. But on Boxing Day Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was shown at the ABC Savoy and 'Bless This House' starring Sid James began a run at the Capitol. And there was, of course, television, which during the 1970s at Christmastime meant specials from Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies etc. This is how the Liverpool Echo reviewed the festive TV fare:
"If Christmastime is the season for belly-laughs, then full marks to the B.B.C. and ITV for providing them in plenty. Mike Yarwood was in splendid fettle on Christmas night with Edward Heath a-carolling and Harold Wilson chairing a send-up of Twenty Questions. He has now added the final polish to his impression of Michael Crawford's gormless Frank and his Christmas turkey sketch would have been difficult to distinguish from the real thing. He also has Larry Grayson off to a fine turn and it was a kindly gesture to invite along as guest Eddie Waring, who has taken his fair share of lampooning on this show.
"Vanilla Redgrave – sorry Vanessa – loaned her not insignificant talents to the Morecambe and Wise show, which also boasted guest appearances from Nureyev, Sir Laurence Olivier and Yehudi Menuhin. The laughs came thick and fast in a production that was pure pantomime. The Queen's Christmas message was relieved by shots taken inside Buckingham Palace at the time of Princess Anne's wedding, but marred somewhat by the strange snatches of conversation filmed at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers get-together.
"By the time it got round to last night [Boxing Day] the majority of viewers were probably suffering from a surfeit of the same formula and an overdose of the star spectaculars. Fortunately, there was Dick Emery, whose comparatively snappy half-hour was a welcome relief to some of the earlier long drawn out Christmas specials. There were flashes too of the real Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker once all the extravagance and “cast of thousands” was penetrated.
"Finally the prize for the biggest insult to the viewing public over the whole holiday period goes to the episode of Crossroads. A hotchpotch of the regulars in fancy dress ostensibly for the village party was just too bad to be true. Not even the injection of Larry Grayson, invited to play Father Christmas, could lift anything as meaningless as this."
Fireman Leo Westhead was injured over the Christmas holidays while fighting a fire in a St Helens butcher's shop. The brigade had been summoned after smoke was seen coming from Fishwick's butcher's in Bridge Street. Sub-Officer Westhead of Tickle Avenue was wearing breathing apparatus to combat thick, billowing black smoke when he suddenly plunged out of sight down the steps of the shop's cellar. The 41-year-old lay stunned and unable to move and his colleagues brought him out in considerable pain on a stretcher using ropes. Leo was rushed to Providence Hospital where his condition was later reported as satisfactory.
Throughout the year a big talking point in Rainford had been the large lorries trundling through the village, many going to and from the new Holiday Moss tip. Residents said the vehicles were destroying their village and posed a danger and the creation of a special access road was seen as a practical solution to the problem. But that would be expensive and time-consuming to organise, with planning surveys and compulsory purchase needed prior to construction starting.
And Rainford Council was running out of time. In April 1974 it would become a parish council with most of its powers subsumed into the new St Helens District Council. This week the Reporter stated that the council had bowed to the inevitable and agreed to pass the problem onto the new authority.
Rainford Council's Clerk, Ken Isherwood, told the Reporter on the 28th: "We would have to set up site surveys and so on. We could also get ourselves involved with compulsory purchase and we thought it best to ask the new authority to take over. We just hadn't got enough time to carry on."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st would receive a 30-shilling gift. However, thirty bob was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had this year been increased – but only to £2. And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter. As we've seen, only three were born on Christmas Day in the large new Whiston maternity block where most mothers were now giving birth. However, there were other prizes too as well as the two quid gift. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a framed full-size photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
In addition all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the canopy! And Pimblett's were giving free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies that lived in St Helens. The Reporter concluded their piece by writing: "We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on."
Twelve months earlier the Liverpool Echo had published a disturbing story with the headline "Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets". The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens with 300 animals having died or been put down over the previous three months. The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated.
On the 29th of this week the Echo published another report on the problem, which revealed that it was getting no better. An unnamed St Helens veterinary surgeon stated that the epidemic was leading to more than a dozen dogs a week dying from the disease.
"We are in the grip of an epidemic at the moment," he said. "There have been some very sad cases in the last week. About 40 per cent. of the dogs we see have to be put down immediately because of the symptoms that develop." The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be its cost at £3 to £4.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the start of the 3-day working week, the death of the Blackbrook kidney donor, the vandalism at the Victoria Park Meteorological Station, a boost for Rockware Glass and St Helens is dubbed a blackspot for child abnormalities.
This week's many stories include the Christmas Day babies, a fireman is injured fighting a Christmas fire in a Bridge Street butcher's, the Reporter's New Year's Day baby competition, the distemper epidemic in St Helens, a review of the Christmas TV shows and Rainford Council have to delay finding a solution to the monster lorries accused of destroying their village.
There were three Christmas Day births this year, all in Whiston Hospital's new maternity unit that had opened last July.
Pearl Slater of Dean Way in Sutton was the first new mum, giving birth to a little girl at 3:37am. Although only weighing 5lb 3oz, Sharon Anne was reported as "doing fine".
Two hours later Denise Morris of Beth Avenue in Sutton gave birth to Christopher who weighed in at 8lb 6oz.
And Joan Matthews of Whiteside Road in Haydock gave birth to Anthony at 10:25am, weighing 7lb 7oz.
At least thirteen managed pubs in St Helens defied tradition and closed on Christmas night after four years of discussions over what had been a controversial topic.
However, the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association were opposed to a Christmas night shutdown with a spokesman having said: "We won't be closing – we feel we have a duty to the public."
Christmas Day was on a Tuesday and both the local cinemas closed. But on Boxing Day Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was shown at the ABC Savoy and 'Bless This House' starring Sid James began a run at the Capitol.
And there was, of course, television, which during the 1970s at Christmastime meant specials from Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies etc. This is how the Liverpool Echo reviewed the festive TV fare:
"If Christmastime is the season for belly-laughs, then full marks to the B.B.C. and ITV for providing them in plenty. Mike Yarwood was in splendid fettle on Christmas night with Edward Heath a-carolling and Harold Wilson chairing a send-up of Twenty Questions.
"He has now added the final polish to his impression of Michael Crawford's gormless Frank and his Christmas turkey sketch would have been difficult to distinguish from the real thing. He also has Larry Grayson off to a fine turn and it was a kindly gesture to invite along as guest Eddie Waring, who has taken his fair share of lampooning on this show.
"Vanilla Redgrave – sorry Vanessa – loaned her not insignificant talents to the Morecambe and Wise show, which also boasted guest appearances from Nureyev, Sir Laurence Olivier and Yehudi Menuhin. The laughs came thick and fast in a production that was pure pantomime.
"The Queen's Christmas message was relieved by shots taken inside Buckingham Palace at the time of Princess Anne's wedding, but marred somewhat by the strange snatches of conversation filmed at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers get-together.
"By the time it got round to last night [Boxing Day] the majority of viewers were probably suffering from a surfeit of the same formula and an overdose of the star spectaculars. Fortunately, there was Dick Emery, whose comparatively snappy half-hour was a welcome relief to some of the earlier long drawn out Christmas specials.
"There were flashes too of the real Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker once all the extravagance and “cast of thousands” was penetrated.
"Finally the prize for the biggest insult to the viewing public over the whole holiday period goes to the episode of Crossroads. A hotchpotch of the regulars in fancy dress ostensibly for the village party was just too bad to be true.
"Not even the injection of Larry Grayson, invited to play Father Christmas, could lift anything as meaningless as this."
Fireman Leo Westhead was injured over the Christmas holidays while fighting a fire in a St Helens butcher's shop.
The brigade had been summoned after smoke was seen coming from Fishwick's butcher's in Bridge Street.
Sub-Officer Westhead of Tickle Avenue was wearing breathing apparatus to combat thick, billowing black smoke when he suddenly plunged out of sight down the steps of the shop's cellar.
The 41-year-old lay stunned and unable to move and his colleagues brought him out in considerable pain on a stretcher using ropes.
Leo was rushed to Providence Hospital where his condition was later reported as satisfactory.
Throughout the year a big talking point in Rainford had been the large lorries trundling through the village, many going to and from the new Holiday Moss tip.
Residents said the vehicles were destroying their village and posed a danger and the creation of a special access road was seen as a practical solution to the problem.
But that would be expensive and time-consuming to organise, with planning surveys and compulsory purchase needed prior to construction starting.
And Rainford Council was running out of time. In April 1974 it would become a parish council with most of its powers subsumed into the new St Helens District Council.
This week the Reporter stated that the council had bowed to the inevitable and agreed to pass the problem onto the new authority. Rainford Council's Clerk, Ken Isherwood, told the Reporter on the 28th:
"We would have to set up site surveys and so on. We could also get ourselves involved with compulsory purchase and we thought it best to ask the new authority to take over. We just hadn't got enough time to carry on."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st would receive a 30-shilling gift.
However, thirty bob was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had this year been increased – but only to £2.
And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter.
As we've seen, only three were born on Christmas Day in the large new Whiston maternity block where most mothers were now giving birth.
However, there were other prizes too as well as the two quid gift.
Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a framed full-size photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
In addition all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the canopy!
And Pimblett's were giving free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies that lived in St Helens. The Reporter concluded their piece by writing:
"We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on."
Twelve months earlier the Liverpool Echo had published a disturbing story with the headline "Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets".
The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens with 300 animals having died or been put down over the previous three months.
The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated.
On the 29th of this week the Echo published another report on the problem, which revealed that it was getting no better.
An unnamed St Helens veterinary surgeon stated that the epidemic was leading to more than a dozen dogs a week dying from the disease.
"We are in the grip of an epidemic at the moment," he said. "There have been some very sad cases in the last week.
"About 40 per cent. of the dogs we see have to be put down immediately because of the symptoms that develop."
The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be its cost at £3 to £4.
And finally, from the 31st two Disney films were shown at the Capitol Cinema in 'The Incredible Journey' and 'The Sword in the Stone'.
Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the start of the 3-day working week, the death of the Blackbrook kidney donor, the vandalism at the Victoria Park Meteorological Station, a boost for Rockware Glass and St Helens is dubbed a blackspot for child abnormalities.
There were three Christmas Day births this year, all in Whiston Hospital's new maternity unit that had opened last July.
Pearl Slater of Dean Way in Sutton was the first new mum, giving birth to a little girl at 3:37am. Although only weighing 5lb 3oz, Sharon Anne was reported as "doing fine".
Two hours later Denise Morris of Beth Avenue in Sutton gave birth to Christopher who weighed in at 8lb 6oz.
And Joan Matthews of Whiteside Road in Haydock gave birth to Anthony at 10:25am, weighing 7lb 7oz.
At least thirteen managed pubs in St Helens defied tradition and closed on Christmas night after four years of discussions over what had been a controversial topic.
However, the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association were opposed to a Christmas night shutdown with a spokesman having said: "We won't be closing – we feel we have a duty to the public."
Christmas Day was on a Tuesday and both the local cinemas closed. But on Boxing Day Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was shown at the ABC Savoy and 'Bless This House' starring Sid James began a run at the Capitol.
And there was, of course, television, which during the 1970s at Christmastime meant specials from Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies etc. This is how the Liverpool Echo reviewed the festive TV fare:
"If Christmastime is the season for belly-laughs, then full marks to the B.B.C. and ITV for providing them in plenty. Mike Yarwood was in splendid fettle on Christmas night with Edward Heath a-carolling and Harold Wilson chairing a send-up of Twenty Questions.
"He has now added the final polish to his impression of Michael Crawford's gormless Frank and his Christmas turkey sketch would have been difficult to distinguish from the real thing. He also has Larry Grayson off to a fine turn and it was a kindly gesture to invite along as guest Eddie Waring, who has taken his fair share of lampooning on this show.
"Vanilla Redgrave – sorry Vanessa – loaned her not insignificant talents to the Morecambe and Wise show, which also boasted guest appearances from Nureyev, Sir Laurence Olivier and Yehudi Menuhin. The laughs came thick and fast in a production that was pure pantomime.
"The Queen's Christmas message was relieved by shots taken inside Buckingham Palace at the time of Princess Anne's wedding, but marred somewhat by the strange snatches of conversation filmed at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers get-together.
"By the time it got round to last night [Boxing Day] the majority of viewers were probably suffering from a surfeit of the same formula and an overdose of the star spectaculars. Fortunately, there was Dick Emery, whose comparatively snappy half-hour was a welcome relief to some of the earlier long drawn out Christmas specials.
"There were flashes too of the real Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker once all the extravagance and “cast of thousands” was penetrated.
"Finally the prize for the biggest insult to the viewing public over the whole holiday period goes to the episode of Crossroads. A hotchpotch of the regulars in fancy dress ostensibly for the village party was just too bad to be true.
"Not even the injection of Larry Grayson, invited to play Father Christmas, could lift anything as meaningless as this."
Fireman Leo Westhead was injured over the Christmas holidays while fighting a fire in a St Helens butcher's shop.
The brigade had been summoned after smoke was seen coming from Fishwick's butcher's in Bridge Street.
Sub-Officer Westhead of Tickle Avenue was wearing breathing apparatus to combat thick, billowing black smoke when he suddenly plunged out of sight down the steps of the shop's cellar.
The 41-year-old lay stunned and unable to move and his colleagues brought him out in considerable pain on a stretcher using ropes.
Leo was rushed to Providence Hospital where his condition was later reported as satisfactory.
Throughout the year a big talking point in Rainford had been the large lorries trundling through the village, many going to and from the new Holiday Moss tip.
Residents said the vehicles were destroying their village and posed a danger and the creation of a special access road was seen as a practical solution to the problem.
But that would be expensive and time-consuming to organise, with planning surveys and compulsory purchase needed prior to construction starting.
And Rainford Council was running out of time. In April 1974 it would become a parish council with most of its powers subsumed into the new St Helens District Council.
This week the Reporter stated that the council had bowed to the inevitable and agreed to pass the problem onto the new authority. Rainford Council's Clerk, Ken Isherwood, told the Reporter on the 28th:
"We would have to set up site surveys and so on. We could also get ourselves involved with compulsory purchase and we thought it best to ask the new authority to take over. We just hadn't got enough time to carry on."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st would receive a 30-shilling gift.
However, thirty bob was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had this year been increased – but only to £2.
And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter.
As we've seen, only three were born on Christmas Day in the large new Whiston maternity block where most mothers were now giving birth.
However, there were other prizes too as well as the two quid gift.
Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a framed full-size photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
In addition all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the canopy!
And Pimblett's were giving free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies that lived in St Helens. The Reporter concluded their piece by writing:
"We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on."
Twelve months earlier the Liverpool Echo had published a disturbing story with the headline "Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets".
The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens with 300 animals having died or been put down over the previous three months.
The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated.
On the 29th of this week the Echo published another report on the problem, which revealed that it was getting no better.
An unnamed St Helens veterinary surgeon stated that the epidemic was leading to more than a dozen dogs a week dying from the disease.
"We are in the grip of an epidemic at the moment," he said. "There have been some very sad cases in the last week.
"About 40 per cent. of the dogs we see have to be put down immediately because of the symptoms that develop."
The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be its cost at £3 to £4.
Meanwhile, Clint Eastwood's 'Magnum Force' was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the start of the 3-day working week, the death of the Blackbrook kidney donor, the vandalism at the Victoria Park Meteorological Station, a boost for Rockware Glass and St Helens is dubbed a blackspot for child abnormalities.