FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 27 JAN - 2 FEB 1975
This week's many stories include the burglaries in the new Tontine Market, the car sharing to work scheme in the Reporter, the new Francoise night spot promises to bring a barrel full of fun to St Helens, the anger over the delay in a vote to close Leathers, the periscope for a nosey parker in Providence Hospital and the Triplex workers generous gesture in helping a colleague's wife use a kidney machine.
The traders in the new Tontine Market had now spent nearly three weeks in their new abode – but eighteen of the stallholders had not had a happy experience. That was because they had all been broken into, as the market's security system was not working. As a result the robbers had been able to beat the special alarm rays and lift up the steel shutters to help themselves.
They had not taken much – in most cases just petty cash. But one trader had skirts and trousers taken from her women's outfitting stall. The shutters were supposed to be pulled down and locked at the end of each day's trading to safeguard the stalls. But instead they had been pulled out from the frames of the stalls, allowing the thieves easy access to the tills and stock.
Sardar Mohammed lost £30 and said: "There couldn't have been any security. The thieves came and left without anyone knowing a thing about it." And Maurice Furmen – who in the old Covered Market was known as the "key man" – said that none of the traders should have transferred to the Tontine until the alarm was functioning properly. The council blamed teething troubles and said the security system was being put right.
It had been expected that at the St Helens Council meeting on the 29th, a decision would be taken to close down Leathers Chemicals (pictured above). That was after an earlier meeting of all Labour councillors had voted for a shutdown. As Labour dominated the council it was expected that the decision to close would be a formality. But the Mayor, Cllr Pat Gill, surprised the council members by declaring that he would not permit a vote and then he closed the meeting.
As compensation would have to be paid to Leathers Chemicals if its plant was closed, Cllr Gill insisted that any proposal involving the authority in capital expenditure needed to be discussed in committee first. Angry councillors later claimed that the move was simply a delaying tactic by opponents of the closure with Cllr Jim Bond saying he was disgusted and Cllr Paton claiming the move brought the council into disrepute.
From the 30th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near to Beechams, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
Also on the 30th Tom Bowden, the licensee at the Wellington Hotel in Eccleston Park and his wife Elizabeth, were given a surprise farewell party by their regulars upon retiring after twenty years in the trade. The couple had only been at the Wellington for seven years, having previously been the licensee at the Red Cat in Crank.
There was a cute story in the St Helens Reporter on the 31st about "little busybody" Catherine Hoyland. The little girl that her father called a "bit of a nosey parker" was flat on her back in Providence Hospital (pictured above) recovering from a fractured pelvis and unable to see what was going on in her ward because a bed-cage lay over her knees. And there was plenty she could have been watching, with doctors and nurses bustling back and forth, telephones ringing, visitors talking and babies giggling and crying.
Catherine's father was Sid Hoyland, the licensee of the Starting Gate Hotel in St Helens, and he hit upon a solution to his daughter's problems – a periscope. But he could not find one in the shops and so Reporter photographer and handyman Eric Manchester made a temporary one for the little girl.
And two other firms were rushing their own periscopes to Catherine who excitedly told the Reporter: "It's great. I can see all round and watch the babies. All the other children wave to me and I can see them any time I like."
There was an unusual coupon printed in the paper, which had nothing to do with any special offer or competition. Readers were invited to complete the form and send it in to the Reporter and when their details were published, along with many others, they could "pick the partner most suited to your requirements".
But it was nothing to do with dating and was instead part of a government campaign to save fuel by encouraging car sharing to work. Just how many complete strangers would go for the idea, I'm not sure, but I suppose it was one way to make friends.
The Reporter also wrote: "A team of volunteer brickies, plumbers and joiners are standing by to build a home extension so a workmate's wife can be saved from death. They are pledged to work 24 hours a day for nothing to relieve the plight of Jack and Mary Philbin."
Mrs Philbin required a kidney machine but the couple's terraced house in Gleave Street in St Helens was too small to accommodate one and there was no room to add an extension. The 42-year-old was also told that she had to leave hospital where she was connected to a kidney machine because others were waiting to use it, news that had upset the family.
But Mrs Philbin's husband, Jack, worked at Triplex and his workmates told him to find another house and leave the rest to them. So a bigger home in Newlands Road was obtained and as soon as Jack signed the contract and was able to move in, the team of Triplex workers – which the Reporter dubbed a flying squad – would begin a 24-hour-a day building roster.
Half of the money needed to pay for materials had already been raised and a helicopter was on standby to fly Mrs Philbin's kidney machine to St Helens and drop it into the newly-built extension before its roof was added. Said Jack, "I can't find the words to thank my mates. I can never repay them."
The Reporter had a photo of a dancing display at Rainford United Reformed Church's sale of work and gift day. Visitors, the paper wrote: "…were entertained by the Sunday School children who sang, guides and brownies from the local troop who gave camp fire songs and dancers from the Burns School. It was the first sale and gift day to be held in the new £22,000 hall opened last November by Lord and Lady Pilkington."
The Reporter also described how the new Community Night Nursing Service in which a "dedicated band of district nurses, equipped with cars full of medical supplies, take to the road to attend the local sick" was proving a great success. As well as general nursing staff, psychiatric nurses were also part of the team and this aspect was being considered to be a pioneering initiative. Since the service started in September of 1974, 1,000 visits in St Helens and Knowsley had been made.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote how a new disco and restaurant capable of accommodating 250 people was going to open in St Helens. Run by a business company from Birmingham, the two-storey building in Waterloo Street would have go-go dancers, DJs and facilities for three bars. The article in the Reporter did not mention the name of the club that was scheduled to open on February 5th.
But in this week's paper there was an advertorial feature that revealed that the club would be called the Francoise Discotheque. Curiously, their adverts had the caveat that their opening was subject to the magistrates granting them a licence, with the court hearing scheduled for three days before their planned opening.
They were certainly giving the impression that the hearing was just a formality and they had already spent £50,000 converting the old building into a club venue. The licensing magistrates in St Helens had a long history of refusing applications and would not have appreciated, seemingly, being taken for granted.
This is the introduction to Francoise's advertising feature: "It's here! At last it has arrived – yes folks, a stunning night-spot guaranteed to bring new life and a barrel full of fun to St. Helens. The new club, dubbed Francoise, should revolutionise the town's night life by knocking on the head the concept that St. Helens is a dreary town with a dull entertainments scene."
I recently reported that British Sidac was struggling after a steep drop in orders and were, in their own words, suffering a "severe crisis". Pakcel Convertors was also based in Lancots Lane in Sutton and this week admitted that they too were in difficulties through a reduced order book.
About 200 workers were expected to go on a four-day week as their managing director was planning a trip to Nigeria to try and drum up fresh orders. Pakcel was a subsidiary company of British Sidac and described itself as a specialist supplier of printed flexible packaging films and laminates. In other words, wrappers and packets for food, such as crisps.
And finally, on February 2nd 'Stardust' starring David Essex and Adam Faith began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, with the Capitol Cinema replacing 'Enter The Dragon' with Blake Edward's 'The Tamarind Seed', starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the burglary at Babyworld, the Rainhill rape claim that a judge rejected, the Langtree Street shirt factory's pools winners, the disco ban in Eccleston Village Hall and the row over Town Hall parking spaces.
The traders in the new Tontine Market had now spent nearly three weeks in their new abode – but eighteen of the stallholders had not had a happy experience. That was because they had all been broken into, as the market's security system was not working. As a result the robbers had been able to beat the special alarm rays and lift up the steel shutters to help themselves.
They had not taken much – in most cases just petty cash. But one trader had skirts and trousers taken from her women's outfitting stall. The shutters were supposed to be pulled down and locked at the end of each day's trading to safeguard the stalls. But instead they had been pulled out from the frames of the stalls, allowing the thieves easy access to the tills and stock.
Sardar Mohammed lost £30 and said: "There couldn't have been any security. The thieves came and left without anyone knowing a thing about it." And Maurice Furmen – who in the old Covered Market was known as the "key man" – said that none of the traders should have transferred to the Tontine until the alarm was functioning properly. The council blamed teething troubles and said the security system was being put right.
As compensation would have to be paid to Leathers Chemicals if its plant was closed, Cllr Gill insisted that any proposal involving the authority in capital expenditure needed to be discussed in committee first. Angry councillors later claimed that the move was simply a delaying tactic by opponents of the closure with Cllr Jim Bond saying he was disgusted and Cllr Paton claiming the move brought the council into disrepute.
From the 30th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near to Beechams, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
Also on the 30th Tom Bowden, the licensee at the Wellington Hotel in Eccleston Park and his wife Elizabeth, were given a surprise farewell party by their regulars upon retiring after twenty years in the trade. The couple had only been at the Wellington for seven years, having previously been the licensee at the Red Cat in Crank.
Catherine's father was Sid Hoyland, the licensee of the Starting Gate Hotel in St Helens, and he hit upon a solution to his daughter's problems – a periscope. But he could not find one in the shops and so Reporter photographer and handyman Eric Manchester made a temporary one for the little girl.
And two other firms were rushing their own periscopes to Catherine who excitedly told the Reporter: "It's great. I can see all round and watch the babies. All the other children wave to me and I can see them any time I like."
There was an unusual coupon printed in the paper, which had nothing to do with any special offer or competition. Readers were invited to complete the form and send it in to the Reporter and when their details were published, along with many others, they could "pick the partner most suited to your requirements".
But it was nothing to do with dating and was instead part of a government campaign to save fuel by encouraging car sharing to work. Just how many complete strangers would go for the idea, I'm not sure, but I suppose it was one way to make friends.
The Reporter also wrote: "A team of volunteer brickies, plumbers and joiners are standing by to build a home extension so a workmate's wife can be saved from death. They are pledged to work 24 hours a day for nothing to relieve the plight of Jack and Mary Philbin."
Mrs Philbin required a kidney machine but the couple's terraced house in Gleave Street in St Helens was too small to accommodate one and there was no room to add an extension. The 42-year-old was also told that she had to leave hospital where she was connected to a kidney machine because others were waiting to use it, news that had upset the family.
But Mrs Philbin's husband, Jack, worked at Triplex and his workmates told him to find another house and leave the rest to them. So a bigger home in Newlands Road was obtained and as soon as Jack signed the contract and was able to move in, the team of Triplex workers – which the Reporter dubbed a flying squad – would begin a 24-hour-a day building roster.
Half of the money needed to pay for materials had already been raised and a helicopter was on standby to fly Mrs Philbin's kidney machine to St Helens and drop it into the newly-built extension before its roof was added. Said Jack, "I can't find the words to thank my mates. I can never repay them."
The Reporter had a photo of a dancing display at Rainford United Reformed Church's sale of work and gift day. Visitors, the paper wrote: "…were entertained by the Sunday School children who sang, guides and brownies from the local troop who gave camp fire songs and dancers from the Burns School. It was the first sale and gift day to be held in the new £22,000 hall opened last November by Lord and Lady Pilkington."
The Reporter also described how the new Community Night Nursing Service in which a "dedicated band of district nurses, equipped with cars full of medical supplies, take to the road to attend the local sick" was proving a great success. As well as general nursing staff, psychiatric nurses were also part of the team and this aspect was being considered to be a pioneering initiative. Since the service started in September of 1974, 1,000 visits in St Helens and Knowsley had been made.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote how a new disco and restaurant capable of accommodating 250 people was going to open in St Helens. Run by a business company from Birmingham, the two-storey building in Waterloo Street would have go-go dancers, DJs and facilities for three bars. The article in the Reporter did not mention the name of the club that was scheduled to open on February 5th.
But in this week's paper there was an advertorial feature that revealed that the club would be called the Francoise Discotheque. Curiously, their adverts had the caveat that their opening was subject to the magistrates granting them a licence, with the court hearing scheduled for three days before their planned opening.
They were certainly giving the impression that the hearing was just a formality and they had already spent £50,000 converting the old building into a club venue. The licensing magistrates in St Helens had a long history of refusing applications and would not have appreciated, seemingly, being taken for granted.
This is the introduction to Francoise's advertising feature: "It's here! At last it has arrived – yes folks, a stunning night-spot guaranteed to bring new life and a barrel full of fun to St. Helens. The new club, dubbed Francoise, should revolutionise the town's night life by knocking on the head the concept that St. Helens is a dreary town with a dull entertainments scene."
I recently reported that British Sidac was struggling after a steep drop in orders and were, in their own words, suffering a "severe crisis". Pakcel Convertors was also based in Lancots Lane in Sutton and this week admitted that they too were in difficulties through a reduced order book.
About 200 workers were expected to go on a four-day week as their managing director was planning a trip to Nigeria to try and drum up fresh orders. Pakcel was a subsidiary company of British Sidac and described itself as a specialist supplier of printed flexible packaging films and laminates. In other words, wrappers and packets for food, such as crisps.
And finally, on February 2nd 'Stardust' starring David Essex and Adam Faith began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, with the Capitol Cinema replacing 'Enter The Dragon' with Blake Edward's 'The Tamarind Seed', starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the burglary at Babyworld, the Rainhill rape claim that a judge rejected, the Langtree Street shirt factory's pools winners, the disco ban in Eccleston Village Hall and the row over Town Hall parking spaces.
This week's many stories include the burglaries in the new Tontine Market, the car sharing to work scheme in the Reporter, the new Francoise night spot promises to bring a barrel full of fun to St Helens, the anger over the delay in a vote to close Leathers, the periscope for a nosey parker in Providence Hospital and the Triplex workers generous gesture in helping a colleague's wife use a kidney machine.
The traders in the new Tontine Market had now spent nearly three weeks in their new abode – but eighteen of the stallholders had not had a happy experience.
That was because they had all been broken into, as the market's security system was not working.
As a result the robbers had been able to beat the special alarm rays and lift up the steel shutters to help themselves.
They had not taken much – in most cases just petty cash. But one trader had skirts and trousers taken from her women's outfitting stall.
The shutters were supposed to be pulled down and locked at the end of each day's trading to safeguard the stalls.
But instead they had been pulled out from the frames of the stalls, allowing the thieves easy access to the tills and stock.
Sardar Mohammed lost £30 and said: "There couldn't have been any security. The thieves came and left without anyone knowing a thing about it."
And Maurice Furmen – who in the old Covered Market was known as the "key man" – said that none of the traders should have transferred to the Tontine until the alarm was functioning properly.
The council blamed teething troubles and said the security system was being put right.
It had been expected that at the St Helens Council meeting on the 29th, a decision would be taken to close down Leathers Chemicals (pictured above).
That was after an earlier meeting of all Labour councillors had voted for a shutdown.
As Labour dominated the council it was expected that the decision to close would be a formality.
But the Mayor, Cllr Pat Gill, surprised the council members by declaring that he would not permit a vote and then he closed the meeting.
As compensation would have to be paid to Leathers Chemicals if its plant was closed, Cllr Gill insisted that any proposal involving the authority in capital expenditure needed to be discussed in committee first.
Angry councillors later claimed that the move was simply a delaying tactic by opponents of the closure with Cllr Jim Bond saying he was disgusted and Cllr Paton claiming the move brought the council into disrepute.
From the 30th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near to Beechams, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
Also on the 30th Tom Bowden, the licensee at the Wellington Hotel in Eccleston Park and his wife Elizabeth, were given a surprise farewell party by their regulars upon retiring after twenty years in the trade.
The couple had only been at the Wellington for seven years, having previously been the licensee at the Red Cat in Crank.
There was a cute story in the St Helens Reporter on the 31st about "little busybody" Catherine Hoyland.
The little girl that her father called a "bit of a nosey parker" was flat on her back in Providence Hospital (pictured above) recovering from a fractured pelvis and unable to see what was going on in her ward because a bed-cage lay over her knees.
And there was plenty she could have been watching, with doctors and nurses bustling back and forth, telephones ringing, visitors talking and babies giggling and crying.
Catherine's father was Sid Hoyland, the licensee of the Starting Gate Hotel in St Helens, and he hit upon a solution to his daughter's problems – a periscope.
But he could not find one in the shops and so Reporter photographer and handyman Eric Manchester made a temporary one for the little girl.
And two other firms were rushing their own periscopes to Catherine who excitedly told the Reporter:
"It's great. I can see all round and watch the babies. All the other children wave to me and I can see them any time I like."
There was an unusual coupon printed in the paper, which had nothing to do with any special offer or competition.
Readers were invited to complete the form and send it in to the Reporter and when their details were published, along with many others, they could "pick the partner most suited to your requirements".
But it was nothing to do with dating and was instead part of a government campaign to save fuel by encouraging car sharing to work.
Just how many complete strangers would go for the idea, I'm not sure, but I suppose it was one way to make friends.
The Reporter also wrote: "A team of volunteer brickies, plumbers and joiners are standing by to build a home extension so a workmate's wife can be saved from death.
"They are pledged to work 24 hours a day for nothing to relieve the plight of Jack and Mary Philbin."
Mrs Philbin required a kidney machine but the couple's terraced house in Gleave Street in St Helens was too small to accommodate one and there was no room to add an extension.
The 42-year-old was also told that she had to leave hospital where she was connected to a kidney machine because others were waiting to use it, news that had upset the family.
But Mrs Philbin's husband, Jack, worked at Triplex and his workmates told him to find another house and leave the rest to them.
So a bigger home in Newlands Road was obtained and as soon as Jack signed the contract and was able to move in, the team of Triplex workers – which the Reporter dubbed a flying squad – would begin a 24-hour-a day building roster.
Half of the money needed to pay for materials had already been raised and a helicopter was on standby to fly Mrs Philbin's kidney machine to St Helens and drop it into the newly-built extension before its roof was added.
Said Jack, "I can't find the words to thank my mates. I can never repay them."
The Reporter had a photo of a dancing display at Rainford United Reformed Church's sale of work and gift day. Visitors, the paper wrote:
"…were entertained by the Sunday School children who sang, guides and brownies from the local troop who gave camp fire songs and dancers from the Burns School. It was the first sale and gift day to be held in the new £22,000 hall opened last November by Lord and Lady Pilkington."
The Reporter also described how the new Community Night Nursing Service in which a "dedicated band of district nurses, equipped with cars full of medical supplies, take to the road to attend the local sick" was proving a great success.
As well as general nursing staff, psychiatric nurses were also part of the team and this aspect was being considered to be a pioneering initiative.
Since the service started in September of 1974, 1,000 visits in St Helens and Knowsley had been made.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote how a new disco and restaurant capable of accommodating 250 people was going to open in St Helens.
Run by a business company from Birmingham, the two-storey building in Waterloo Street would have go-go dancers, DJs and facilities for three bars.
The article in the Reporter did not mention the name of the club that was scheduled to open on February 5th.
But in this week's paper there was an advertorial feature that revealed that the club would be called the Francoise Discotheque.
Curiously, their adverts had the caveat that their opening was subject to the magistrates granting them a licence, with the court hearing scheduled for three days before their planned opening.
They were certainly giving the impression that the hearing was just a formality and they had already spent £50,000 converting the old building into a club venue.
The licensing magistrates in St Helens had a long history of refusing applications and would not have appreciated, seemingly, being taken for granted.
This is the introduction to Francoise's advertising feature:
"It's here! At last it has arrived – yes folks, a stunning night-spot guaranteed to bring new life and a barrel full of fun to St. Helens.
"The new club, dubbed Francoise, should revolutionise the town's night life by knocking on the head the concept that St. Helens is a dreary town with a dull entertainments scene."
I recently reported that British Sidac was struggling after a steep drop in orders and were, in their own words, suffering a "severe crisis".
Pakcel Convertors was also based in Lancots Lane in Sutton and this week admitted that they too were in difficulties through a reduced order book.
About 200 workers were expected to go on a four-day week as their managing director was planning a trip to Nigeria to try and drum up fresh orders.
Pakcel was a subsidiary company of British Sidac and described itself as a specialist supplier of printed flexible packaging films and laminates. In other words, wrappers and packets for food, such as crisps.
And finally, on February 2nd 'Stardust' starring David Essex and Adam Faith began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, with the Capitol Cinema replacing 'Enter The Dragon' with Blake Edward's 'The Tamarind Seed', starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the burglary at Babyworld, the Rainhill rape claim that a judge rejected, the Langtree Street shirt factory's pools winners, the disco ban in Eccleston Village Hall and the row over Town Hall parking spaces.
The traders in the new Tontine Market had now spent nearly three weeks in their new abode – but eighteen of the stallholders had not had a happy experience.
That was because they had all been broken into, as the market's security system was not working.
As a result the robbers had been able to beat the special alarm rays and lift up the steel shutters to help themselves.
They had not taken much – in most cases just petty cash. But one trader had skirts and trousers taken from her women's outfitting stall.
The shutters were supposed to be pulled down and locked at the end of each day's trading to safeguard the stalls.
But instead they had been pulled out from the frames of the stalls, allowing the thieves easy access to the tills and stock.
Sardar Mohammed lost £30 and said: "There couldn't have been any security. The thieves came and left without anyone knowing a thing about it."
And Maurice Furmen – who in the old Covered Market was known as the "key man" – said that none of the traders should have transferred to the Tontine until the alarm was functioning properly.
The council blamed teething troubles and said the security system was being put right.
That was after an earlier meeting of all Labour councillors had voted for a shutdown.
As Labour dominated the council it was expected that the decision to close would be a formality.
But the Mayor, Cllr Pat Gill, surprised the council members by declaring that he would not permit a vote and then he closed the meeting.
As compensation would have to be paid to Leathers Chemicals if its plant was closed, Cllr Gill insisted that any proposal involving the authority in capital expenditure needed to be discussed in committee first.
Angry councillors later claimed that the move was simply a delaying tactic by opponents of the closure with Cllr Jim Bond saying he was disgusted and Cllr Paton claiming the move brought the council into disrepute.
From the 30th Silcock's Pleasure Fair opened on Water Street, near to Beechams, for what was described as three weekends, i.e. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday, with Sunday opening not yet allowed.
Also on the 30th Tom Bowden, the licensee at the Wellington Hotel in Eccleston Park and his wife Elizabeth, were given a surprise farewell party by their regulars upon retiring after twenty years in the trade.
The couple had only been at the Wellington for seven years, having previously been the licensee at the Red Cat in Crank.
The little girl that her father called a "bit of a nosey parker" was flat on her back in Providence Hospital (pictured above) recovering from a fractured pelvis and unable to see what was going on in her ward because a bed-cage lay over her knees.
And there was plenty she could have been watching, with doctors and nurses bustling back and forth, telephones ringing, visitors talking and babies giggling and crying.
Catherine's father was Sid Hoyland, the licensee of the Starting Gate Hotel in St Helens, and he hit upon a solution to his daughter's problems – a periscope.
But he could not find one in the shops and so Reporter photographer and handyman Eric Manchester made a temporary one for the little girl.
And two other firms were rushing their own periscopes to Catherine who excitedly told the Reporter:
"It's great. I can see all round and watch the babies. All the other children wave to me and I can see them any time I like."
There was an unusual coupon printed in the paper, which had nothing to do with any special offer or competition.
Readers were invited to complete the form and send it in to the Reporter and when their details were published, along with many others, they could "pick the partner most suited to your requirements".
But it was nothing to do with dating and was instead part of a government campaign to save fuel by encouraging car sharing to work.
Just how many complete strangers would go for the idea, I'm not sure, but I suppose it was one way to make friends.
The Reporter also wrote: "A team of volunteer brickies, plumbers and joiners are standing by to build a home extension so a workmate's wife can be saved from death.
"They are pledged to work 24 hours a day for nothing to relieve the plight of Jack and Mary Philbin."
Mrs Philbin required a kidney machine but the couple's terraced house in Gleave Street in St Helens was too small to accommodate one and there was no room to add an extension.
The 42-year-old was also told that she had to leave hospital where she was connected to a kidney machine because others were waiting to use it, news that had upset the family.
But Mrs Philbin's husband, Jack, worked at Triplex and his workmates told him to find another house and leave the rest to them.
So a bigger home in Newlands Road was obtained and as soon as Jack signed the contract and was able to move in, the team of Triplex workers – which the Reporter dubbed a flying squad – would begin a 24-hour-a day building roster.
Half of the money needed to pay for materials had already been raised and a helicopter was on standby to fly Mrs Philbin's kidney machine to St Helens and drop it into the newly-built extension before its roof was added.
Said Jack, "I can't find the words to thank my mates. I can never repay them."
The Reporter had a photo of a dancing display at Rainford United Reformed Church's sale of work and gift day. Visitors, the paper wrote:
"…were entertained by the Sunday School children who sang, guides and brownies from the local troop who gave camp fire songs and dancers from the Burns School. It was the first sale and gift day to be held in the new £22,000 hall opened last November by Lord and Lady Pilkington."
The Reporter also described how the new Community Night Nursing Service in which a "dedicated band of district nurses, equipped with cars full of medical supplies, take to the road to attend the local sick" was proving a great success.
As well as general nursing staff, psychiatric nurses were also part of the team and this aspect was being considered to be a pioneering initiative.
Since the service started in September of 1974, 1,000 visits in St Helens and Knowsley had been made.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote how a new disco and restaurant capable of accommodating 250 people was going to open in St Helens.
Run by a business company from Birmingham, the two-storey building in Waterloo Street would have go-go dancers, DJs and facilities for three bars.
The article in the Reporter did not mention the name of the club that was scheduled to open on February 5th.
But in this week's paper there was an advertorial feature that revealed that the club would be called the Francoise Discotheque.
Curiously, their adverts had the caveat that their opening was subject to the magistrates granting them a licence, with the court hearing scheduled for three days before their planned opening.
They were certainly giving the impression that the hearing was just a formality and they had already spent £50,000 converting the old building into a club venue.
The licensing magistrates in St Helens had a long history of refusing applications and would not have appreciated, seemingly, being taken for granted.
This is the introduction to Francoise's advertising feature:
"It's here! At last it has arrived – yes folks, a stunning night-spot guaranteed to bring new life and a barrel full of fun to St. Helens.
"The new club, dubbed Francoise, should revolutionise the town's night life by knocking on the head the concept that St. Helens is a dreary town with a dull entertainments scene."
I recently reported that British Sidac was struggling after a steep drop in orders and were, in their own words, suffering a "severe crisis".
Pakcel Convertors was also based in Lancots Lane in Sutton and this week admitted that they too were in difficulties through a reduced order book.
About 200 workers were expected to go on a four-day week as their managing director was planning a trip to Nigeria to try and drum up fresh orders.
Pakcel was a subsidiary company of British Sidac and described itself as a specialist supplier of printed flexible packaging films and laminates. In other words, wrappers and packets for food, such as crisps.
And finally, on February 2nd 'Stardust' starring David Essex and Adam Faith began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, with the Capitol Cinema replacing 'Enter The Dragon' with Blake Edward's 'The Tamarind Seed', starring Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the burglary at Babyworld, the Rainhill rape claim that a judge rejected, the Langtree Street shirt factory's pools winners, the disco ban in Eccleston Village Hall and the row over Town Hall parking spaces.