FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 31 MARCH - 6 APRIL 1975
This week's many stories include an update on the former Kimmicks land reclamation site in Jackson Street, why the Common Market was stopping St Helens from installing new road signs, there's a cautious thumbs up for male midwives, hopes rise over an agreement to resolve the Rainhill Hospital nurses dispute, the Blott Brothers expand their Tony Sampson store and the explosion on a building site caused by the lighting of a cigar.
Knowsley Safari Park had been incredibly popular when it first opened in 1971. But it was not proving to be an attraction that many people wanted to make return visits. This week it was announced that the special summer bus services to the park were being cut by more than half. Instead of the five starting points that were used in 1974, only two services would be operated this year. Buses would only operate from Cotham Street in St Helens and from the Pier Head in Liverpool.
A spokesman for Merseyside Transport, who operated the special excursions, explained that the number of passengers to Knowsley had considerably declined and said under the current economic conditions they could not afford to run non-essential buses with only a dozen passengers.
In January I described how St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council had discussed the prospect of male midwives with some alarm. One male councillor had said: "The female's mind works in such a way that the attendance of a male midwife could have an everlasting effect on her." And the female Secretary of the Spina Bifida Association for St Helens and District had said: "A woman is never absolutely sane while in the nine months of her pregnancy. She could accuse a male midwife of all kinds of things."
But at this week's meeting of the Community Health Council the government's proposal under their Equality For Women agenda to permit male midwives was supported. However, it was only on condition that the patient was given the choice of whether a male or female midwife would attend to her.
The St Helens Reporter asked local midwives for their opinion on the subject and Maureen Boyle said she was against the idea: "Men are quite capable of dealing with the actual birth but there are many intimate problems a woman has to face before and after birth. I think the female midwife is far better able to cope with them than a man would."
And Rainhill midwife Mrs P. Shuttleworth said: "I am against it. I don't think the patients would want it. The whole thing is a very personal thing for a woman – too personal for a man." Opposition from the Royal College of Midwives and others prevented men from being allowed into the midwifery profession until 1984, although in 2020 only 0.3% of the registered midwives in the UK were male.
In January union officials at Rainhill Hospital had released a statement expressing concern that dangerous criminals from top security mental hospitals like Broadmoor were likely to be transferred to their institution. They said nurses and the public could be in serious danger of attack and claimed that a 20-bed ward had already been earmarked for the patients – but nurses had refused to staff it. That, they said, was through a fear of being harmed and because the patients could easily escape, as the hospital did not have adequate security facilities.
On the 4th the St Helens Reporter described how talks had been set for next week to try and break the impasse over what was now being described as a 14-bed medium security ward. The article revealed that it had been a government instruction to create such an interim medium security ward until a permanent hospital could be built on Merseyside.
Hospital administrator Jack Brady told the paper: "The ward would be designed to deal with those patients, possibly from Broadmoor, Rampton or Moss Side, who are not sufficiently ill to be treated in top security hospitals. But they would be too ill to be allowed in an open ward."
Smoking is not allowed on construction sites today, although I expect the ban is based more on health concerns rather than worries over explosions. But bricklayer Samuel Kirkman made the front page of the Reporter this week after his lighting of a cigar blasted a workmate clean through a window.
The 68-year-old from Marshalls Cross Road had been working on a housing estate in Runcorn and had entered a site office. Sam lit a match to light a cigar and detonated a stream of gas that had been turned on by vandals during the Easter break. "We opened the office door but none of us could smell the gas", said Sam. "There was a blinding light and a terrific noise. It was a terrible shock."
The explosion ripped the coat off Mr Kirkman's back and wrecked the office and 24-year-old Vita Nigara of Holly Road in Haydock was hurled through a window. Sam received burns to his hands and face and said he would be off work for several weeks.
Several weeks ago St Helens Council had voted to close down Leathers Chemicals and potentially pay the Sutton firm several million pounds in compensation. A controversial move as it would lead to a hike in rates. It had been written that the council was now waiting to receive permission from the government. However, an article in the Reporter stated that officials were still in the process of preparing what was known as a Discontinuance Order.
And this week at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee it was decided to give the sulphuric acid factory six months to shut down their factory "and move out of town" if the closure order was confirmed. "You can't expect it to close down overnight – you've got to give the firm time to wind up their affairs", said Michael McNaughton, a council legal boss.
The paper also wrote: "A land reclamation site at Jackson Street, St. Helens is ready for a new lease of life. Up to 23 acres of the area will be developed for light industry. The plan includes landscaping to shield nearby houses from the development."
The site had previously contained chemical waste and was known locally as the Kimmicks. The council had contracted Pickavances to remove the 50-feet-high mounds of chemical waste (as shown above) and twenty 24-ton tipper lorries had dumped it all into old clay pits off Burtonhead Road – formerly used by the Old Teapot Brickworks.
Britain had only been a member of what was then known as the European Economic Community – or Common Market – for two years. However, irritation at the demand for uniformity of standards was one reason why a referendum on whether we should remain in the EEC was going to be held in June – and the uniformity included street signs.
The Reporter described how the Chairman of St Helens Civic Society, Brian Wilson, had complained over the town's "tatty" boundary signs. He had written to Ken Parks, the Director of the Council's Technical Services Dept., to ask why one year after local government reorganisation, St Helens still did not have new signs installed.
As an example, Mr Wilson pointed out that the "tatty remnant" of the old Haydock Urban District Council sign was still in place but on the other side of the boundary, signs identifying the new Wigan Metropolitan Council and Greater Manchester had been installed. The answer was that initially the Department of the Environment had not given its approval to St Helens Council's proposed new signs. After modifications were made, government approval was granted but then the EEC stepped in, as Mr Parks explained:
"Subsequently, there’s been a change of heart and the matter is being dealt with on a European Economic Community basis. The Department of the Environment are looking at a revised scheme to see if they can fit in with Continental practice. Other authorities may have jumped the gun, and the signs they have put up may prove contrary to requirements. In the meantime, we're not doing anything."
The Reporter also wrote: "The Blott Brothers have done it again! Yes, Tony and Ted, who gave St. Helens Gatsby Girl, have now extended “elder brother” Tony Sampson to make it the town's largest modern man's clothing store." The ten-year-old store had been extended and modernised, doubling its ground floor space.
Under the headline "Summat For Nowt" the paper described how they were starting a new free classified ad service for readers with small items for sale priced at less than £5.
On March 27th 1970 the Reporter had launched its new column for kids, which dispensed with the usual uncle or auntie handle and targeted youngsters aged 4 to 11. It was called 'The Snoopy Club' but had nothing to do with the pet beagle of Charlie Brown – instead Snoopy was a glove puppet penguin who could type! In this week's paper Snoopy wrote:
"Hello Children, Well, did any of you remember what the special day was? Ah well, don't worry if you forgot. But Tuesday was my birthday! My fifth birthday. Doesn't time fly! This year I had my party at a special play group, for mentally and physically handicapped children, in Albion Street, St. Helens."
The Sefton Arms in Baldwin Street had an advert in the paper in which they said their dining room was now open Monday to Friday with businessmen's lunches from 40p.
On the 4th the Theatre Royal played host to a theatrical version of ITV's 'Mr. & Mrs. Show', which was compered by its TV host Derek Batey.
And finally, from the 6th 'The Man With The Golden Gun' starring Roger Moore as James Bond was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy. And the Capitol Cinema replaced 'The Island At The Top Of The World' with 'The Marseille Contract' starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire in a clay pit that was visible ten miles away, the deep-sea diving chambers made in Bold, the measures to improve Beth Avenue and Haydock Male Voice Choir upset the touchy St Helens Council.
A spokesman for Merseyside Transport, who operated the special excursions, explained that the number of passengers to Knowsley had considerably declined and said under the current economic conditions they could not afford to run non-essential buses with only a dozen passengers.
In January I described how St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council had discussed the prospect of male midwives with some alarm. One male councillor had said: "The female's mind works in such a way that the attendance of a male midwife could have an everlasting effect on her." And the female Secretary of the Spina Bifida Association for St Helens and District had said: "A woman is never absolutely sane while in the nine months of her pregnancy. She could accuse a male midwife of all kinds of things."
But at this week's meeting of the Community Health Council the government's proposal under their Equality For Women agenda to permit male midwives was supported. However, it was only on condition that the patient was given the choice of whether a male or female midwife would attend to her.
The St Helens Reporter asked local midwives for their opinion on the subject and Maureen Boyle said she was against the idea: "Men are quite capable of dealing with the actual birth but there are many intimate problems a woman has to face before and after birth. I think the female midwife is far better able to cope with them than a man would."
And Rainhill midwife Mrs P. Shuttleworth said: "I am against it. I don't think the patients would want it. The whole thing is a very personal thing for a woman – too personal for a man." Opposition from the Royal College of Midwives and others prevented men from being allowed into the midwifery profession until 1984, although in 2020 only 0.3% of the registered midwives in the UK were male.
In January union officials at Rainhill Hospital had released a statement expressing concern that dangerous criminals from top security mental hospitals like Broadmoor were likely to be transferred to their institution. They said nurses and the public could be in serious danger of attack and claimed that a 20-bed ward had already been earmarked for the patients – but nurses had refused to staff it. That, they said, was through a fear of being harmed and because the patients could easily escape, as the hospital did not have adequate security facilities.
On the 4th the St Helens Reporter described how talks had been set for next week to try and break the impasse over what was now being described as a 14-bed medium security ward. The article revealed that it had been a government instruction to create such an interim medium security ward until a permanent hospital could be built on Merseyside.
Hospital administrator Jack Brady told the paper: "The ward would be designed to deal with those patients, possibly from Broadmoor, Rampton or Moss Side, who are not sufficiently ill to be treated in top security hospitals. But they would be too ill to be allowed in an open ward."
Smoking is not allowed on construction sites today, although I expect the ban is based more on health concerns rather than worries over explosions. But bricklayer Samuel Kirkman made the front page of the Reporter this week after his lighting of a cigar blasted a workmate clean through a window.
The 68-year-old from Marshalls Cross Road had been working on a housing estate in Runcorn and had entered a site office. Sam lit a match to light a cigar and detonated a stream of gas that had been turned on by vandals during the Easter break. "We opened the office door but none of us could smell the gas", said Sam. "There was a blinding light and a terrific noise. It was a terrible shock."
The explosion ripped the coat off Mr Kirkman's back and wrecked the office and 24-year-old Vita Nigara of Holly Road in Haydock was hurled through a window. Sam received burns to his hands and face and said he would be off work for several weeks.
Several weeks ago St Helens Council had voted to close down Leathers Chemicals and potentially pay the Sutton firm several million pounds in compensation. A controversial move as it would lead to a hike in rates. It had been written that the council was now waiting to receive permission from the government. However, an article in the Reporter stated that officials were still in the process of preparing what was known as a Discontinuance Order.
And this week at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee it was decided to give the sulphuric acid factory six months to shut down their factory "and move out of town" if the closure order was confirmed. "You can't expect it to close down overnight – you've got to give the firm time to wind up their affairs", said Michael McNaughton, a council legal boss.
The site had previously contained chemical waste and was known locally as the Kimmicks. The council had contracted Pickavances to remove the 50-feet-high mounds of chemical waste (as shown above) and twenty 24-ton tipper lorries had dumped it all into old clay pits off Burtonhead Road – formerly used by the Old Teapot Brickworks.
Britain had only been a member of what was then known as the European Economic Community – or Common Market – for two years. However, irritation at the demand for uniformity of standards was one reason why a referendum on whether we should remain in the EEC was going to be held in June – and the uniformity included street signs.
The Reporter described how the Chairman of St Helens Civic Society, Brian Wilson, had complained over the town's "tatty" boundary signs. He had written to Ken Parks, the Director of the Council's Technical Services Dept., to ask why one year after local government reorganisation, St Helens still did not have new signs installed.
As an example, Mr Wilson pointed out that the "tatty remnant" of the old Haydock Urban District Council sign was still in place but on the other side of the boundary, signs identifying the new Wigan Metropolitan Council and Greater Manchester had been installed. The answer was that initially the Department of the Environment had not given its approval to St Helens Council's proposed new signs. After modifications were made, government approval was granted but then the EEC stepped in, as Mr Parks explained:
"Subsequently, there’s been a change of heart and the matter is being dealt with on a European Economic Community basis. The Department of the Environment are looking at a revised scheme to see if they can fit in with Continental practice. Other authorities may have jumped the gun, and the signs they have put up may prove contrary to requirements. In the meantime, we're not doing anything."
The Reporter also wrote: "The Blott Brothers have done it again! Yes, Tony and Ted, who gave St. Helens Gatsby Girl, have now extended “elder brother” Tony Sampson to make it the town's largest modern man's clothing store." The ten-year-old store had been extended and modernised, doubling its ground floor space.
Under the headline "Summat For Nowt" the paper described how they were starting a new free classified ad service for readers with small items for sale priced at less than £5.
On March 27th 1970 the Reporter had launched its new column for kids, which dispensed with the usual uncle or auntie handle and targeted youngsters aged 4 to 11. It was called 'The Snoopy Club' but had nothing to do with the pet beagle of Charlie Brown – instead Snoopy was a glove puppet penguin who could type! In this week's paper Snoopy wrote:
"Hello Children, Well, did any of you remember what the special day was? Ah well, don't worry if you forgot. But Tuesday was my birthday! My fifth birthday. Doesn't time fly! This year I had my party at a special play group, for mentally and physically handicapped children, in Albion Street, St. Helens."
The Sefton Arms in Baldwin Street had an advert in the paper in which they said their dining room was now open Monday to Friday with businessmen's lunches from 40p.
On the 4th the Theatre Royal played host to a theatrical version of ITV's 'Mr. & Mrs. Show', which was compered by its TV host Derek Batey.
And finally, from the 6th 'The Man With The Golden Gun' starring Roger Moore as James Bond was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy. And the Capitol Cinema replaced 'The Island At The Top Of The World' with 'The Marseille Contract' starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire in a clay pit that was visible ten miles away, the deep-sea diving chambers made in Bold, the measures to improve Beth Avenue and Haydock Male Voice Choir upset the touchy St Helens Council.
This week's many stories include an update on the former Kimmicks land reclamation site in Jackson Street, why the Common Market was stopping St Helens from installing new road signs, there's a cautious thumbs up for male midwives, hopes rise over an agreement to resolve the Rainhill Hospital nurses dispute, the Blott Brothers expand their Tony Sampson store and the explosion on a building site caused by the lighting of a cigar.
Knowsley Safari Park had been incredibly popular when it first opened in 1971. But it was not proving to be an attraction that many people wanted to make return visits.
This week it was announced that the special summer bus services to the park were being cut by more than half.
Instead of the five starting points that were used in 1974, only two services would be operated this year.
Buses would only operate from Cotham Street in St Helens and from the Pier Head in Liverpool.
A spokesman for Merseyside Transport, who operated the special excursions, explained that the number of passengers to Knowsley had considerably declined and said under the current economic conditions they could not afford to run non-essential buses with only a dozen passengers.
In January I described how St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council had discussed the prospect of male midwives with some alarm.
One male councillor had said: "The female's mind works in such a way that the attendance of a male midwife could have an everlasting effect on her."
And the female Secretary of the Spina Bifida Association for St Helens and District had said:
"A woman is never absolutely sane while in the nine months of her pregnancy. She could accuse a male midwife of all kinds of things."
But at this week's meeting of the Community Health Council the government's proposal under their Equality For Women agenda to permit male midwives was supported.
However, it was only on condition that the patient was given the choice of whether a male or female midwife would attend to her.
The St Helens Reporter asked local midwives for their opinion on the subject and Maureen Boyle said she was against the idea:
"Men are quite capable of dealing with the actual birth but there are many intimate problems a woman has to face before and after birth. I think the female midwife is far better able to cope with them than a man would."
And Rainhill midwife Mrs P. Shuttleworth said: "I am against it. I don't think the patients would want it. The whole thing is a very personal thing for a woman – too personal for a man."
Opposition from the Royal College of Midwives and others prevented men from being allowed into the midwifery profession until 1984, although in 2020 only 0.3% of the registered midwives in the UK were male.
In January union officials at Rainhill Hospital had released a statement expressing concern that dangerous criminals from top security mental hospitals like Broadmoor were likely to be transferred to their institution.
They said nurses and the public could be in serious danger of attack and claimed that a 20-bed ward had already been earmarked for the patients – but nurses had refused to staff it.
That, they said, was through a fear of being harmed and because the patients could easily escape, as the hospital did not have adequate security facilities.
On the 4th the St Helens Reporter described how talks had been set for next week to try and break the impasse over what was now being described as a 14-bed medium security ward.
The article revealed that it had been a government instruction to create such an interim medium security ward until a permanent hospital could be built on Merseyside.
Hospital administrator Jack Brady told the paper: "The ward would be designed to deal with those patients, possibly from Broadmoor, Rampton or Moss Side, who are not sufficiently ill to be treated in top security hospitals. But they would be too ill to be allowed in an open ward."
Smoking is not allowed on construction sites today, although I expect the ban is based more on health concerns rather than worries over explosions.
But bricklayer Samuel Kirkman made the front page of the Reporter this week after his lighting of a cigar blasted a workmate clean through a window.
The 68-year-old from Marshalls Cross Road had been working on a housing estate in Runcorn and had entered a site office.
Sam lit a match to light a cigar and detonated a stream of gas that had been turned on by vandals during the Easter break.
"We opened the office door but none of us could smell the gas", said Sam. "There was a blinding light and a terrific noise. It was a terrible shock."
The explosion ripped the coat off Mr Kirkman's back and wrecked the office and 24-year-old Vita Nigara of Holly Road in Haydock was hurled through a window.
Sam received burns to his hands and face and said he would be off work for several weeks.
Several weeks ago St Helens Council had voted to close down Leathers Chemicals and potentially pay the Sutton firm several million pounds in compensation. A controversial move as it would lead to a hike in rates.
It had been written that the council was now waiting to receive permission from the government.
However, an article in the Reporter stated that officials were still in the process of preparing what was known as a Discontinuance Order.
And this week at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee it was decided to give the sulphuric acid factory six months to shut down their factory "and move out of town" if the closure order was confirmed.
"You can't expect it to close down overnight – you've got to give the firm time to wind up their affairs", said Michael McNaughton, a council legal boss.
The paper also wrote: "A land reclamation site at Jackson Street, St. Helens is ready for a new lease of life. Up to 23 acres of the area will be developed for light industry. The plan includes landscaping to shield nearby houses from the development."
The site had previously contained chemical waste and was known locally as the Kimmicks.
The council had contracted Pickavances to remove the 50-feet-high mounds of chemical waste (as shown above) and twenty 24-ton tipper lorries had dumped it all into old clay pits off Burtonhead Road – formerly used by the Old Teapot Brickworks.
Britain had only been a member of what was then known as the European Economic Community – or Common Market – for two years.
However, irritation at the demand for uniformity of standards was one reason why a referendum on whether we should remain in the EEC was going to be held in June – and the uniformity included street signs.
The Reporter described how the Chairman of St Helens Civic Society, Brian Wilson, had complained over the town's "tatty" boundary signs.
He had written to Ken Parks, the Director of the Council's Technical Services Dept., to ask why one year after local government reorganisation, St Helens still did not have new signs installed.
As an example, Mr Wilson pointed out that the "tatty remnant" of the old Haydock Urban District Council sign was still in place but on the other side of the boundary, signs identifying the new Wigan Metropolitan Council and Greater Manchester had been installed.
The answer was that initially the Department of the Environment had not given its approval to St Helens Council's proposed new signs.
After modifications were made, government approval was granted but then the EEC stepped in, as Mr Parks explained:
"Subsequently, there’s been a change of heart and the matter is being dealt with on a European Economic Community basis.
"The Department of the Environment are looking at a revised scheme to see if they can fit in with Continental practice.
"Other authorities may have jumped the gun, and the signs they have put up may prove contrary to requirements. In the meantime, we're not doing anything."
The Reporter also wrote: "The Blott Brothers have done it again! Yes, Tony and Ted, who gave St. Helens Gatsby Girl, have now extended “elder brother” Tony Sampson to make it the town's largest modern man's clothing store."
The ten-year-old store had been extended and modernised, doubling its ground floor space.
Under the headline "Summat For Nowt" the paper described how they were starting a new free classified ad service for readers with small items for sale priced at less than £5.
On March 27th 1970 the Reporter had launched its new column for kids, which dispensed with the usual uncle or auntie handle and targeted youngsters aged 4 to 11.
It was called 'The Snoopy Club' but had nothing to do with the pet beagle of Charlie Brown – instead Snoopy was a glove puppet penguin who could type! In this week's paper Snoopy wrote:
"Hello Children, Well, did any of you remember what the special day was? Ah well, don't worry if you forgot. But Tuesday was my birthday! My fifth birthday. Doesn't time fly! This year I had my party at a special play group, for mentally and physically handicapped children, in Albion Street, St. Helens."
The Sefton Arms in Baldwin Street had an advert in the paper in which they said their dining room was now open Monday to Friday with businessmen's lunches from 40p.
On the 4th the Theatre Royal played host to a theatrical version of ITV's 'Mr. & Mrs. Show', which was compered by its TV host Derek Batey.
And finally, from the 6th 'The Man With The Golden Gun' starring Roger Moore as James Bond was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy.
And the Capitol Cinema replaced 'The Island At The Top Of The World' with 'The Marseille Contract' starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire in a clay pit that was visible ten miles away, the deep-sea diving chambers made in Bold, the measures to improve Beth Avenue and Haydock Male Voice Choir upset the touchy St Helens Council.
This week it was announced that the special summer bus services to the park were being cut by more than half.
Instead of the five starting points that were used in 1974, only two services would be operated this year.
Buses would only operate from Cotham Street in St Helens and from the Pier Head in Liverpool.
A spokesman for Merseyside Transport, who operated the special excursions, explained that the number of passengers to Knowsley had considerably declined and said under the current economic conditions they could not afford to run non-essential buses with only a dozen passengers.
In January I described how St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council had discussed the prospect of male midwives with some alarm.
One male councillor had said: "The female's mind works in such a way that the attendance of a male midwife could have an everlasting effect on her."
And the female Secretary of the Spina Bifida Association for St Helens and District had said:
"A woman is never absolutely sane while in the nine months of her pregnancy. She could accuse a male midwife of all kinds of things."
But at this week's meeting of the Community Health Council the government's proposal under their Equality For Women agenda to permit male midwives was supported.
However, it was only on condition that the patient was given the choice of whether a male or female midwife would attend to her.
The St Helens Reporter asked local midwives for their opinion on the subject and Maureen Boyle said she was against the idea:
"Men are quite capable of dealing with the actual birth but there are many intimate problems a woman has to face before and after birth. I think the female midwife is far better able to cope with them than a man would."
And Rainhill midwife Mrs P. Shuttleworth said: "I am against it. I don't think the patients would want it. The whole thing is a very personal thing for a woman – too personal for a man."
Opposition from the Royal College of Midwives and others prevented men from being allowed into the midwifery profession until 1984, although in 2020 only 0.3% of the registered midwives in the UK were male.
In January union officials at Rainhill Hospital had released a statement expressing concern that dangerous criminals from top security mental hospitals like Broadmoor were likely to be transferred to their institution.
They said nurses and the public could be in serious danger of attack and claimed that a 20-bed ward had already been earmarked for the patients – but nurses had refused to staff it.
That, they said, was through a fear of being harmed and because the patients could easily escape, as the hospital did not have adequate security facilities.
On the 4th the St Helens Reporter described how talks had been set for next week to try and break the impasse over what was now being described as a 14-bed medium security ward.
The article revealed that it had been a government instruction to create such an interim medium security ward until a permanent hospital could be built on Merseyside.
Hospital administrator Jack Brady told the paper: "The ward would be designed to deal with those patients, possibly from Broadmoor, Rampton or Moss Side, who are not sufficiently ill to be treated in top security hospitals. But they would be too ill to be allowed in an open ward."
Smoking is not allowed on construction sites today, although I expect the ban is based more on health concerns rather than worries over explosions.
But bricklayer Samuel Kirkman made the front page of the Reporter this week after his lighting of a cigar blasted a workmate clean through a window.
The 68-year-old from Marshalls Cross Road had been working on a housing estate in Runcorn and had entered a site office.
Sam lit a match to light a cigar and detonated a stream of gas that had been turned on by vandals during the Easter break.
"We opened the office door but none of us could smell the gas", said Sam. "There was a blinding light and a terrific noise. It was a terrible shock."
The explosion ripped the coat off Mr Kirkman's back and wrecked the office and 24-year-old Vita Nigara of Holly Road in Haydock was hurled through a window.
Sam received burns to his hands and face and said he would be off work for several weeks.
Several weeks ago St Helens Council had voted to close down Leathers Chemicals and potentially pay the Sutton firm several million pounds in compensation. A controversial move as it would lead to a hike in rates.
It had been written that the council was now waiting to receive permission from the government.
However, an article in the Reporter stated that officials were still in the process of preparing what was known as a Discontinuance Order.
And this week at a meeting of the council's Planning Committee it was decided to give the sulphuric acid factory six months to shut down their factory "and move out of town" if the closure order was confirmed.
"You can't expect it to close down overnight – you've got to give the firm time to wind up their affairs", said Michael McNaughton, a council legal boss.
The paper also wrote: "A land reclamation site at Jackson Street, St. Helens is ready for a new lease of life. Up to 23 acres of the area will be developed for light industry. The plan includes landscaping to shield nearby houses from the development."
The site had previously contained chemical waste and was known locally as the Kimmicks.
Britain had only been a member of what was then known as the European Economic Community – or Common Market – for two years.
However, irritation at the demand for uniformity of standards was one reason why a referendum on whether we should remain in the EEC was going to be held in June – and the uniformity included street signs.
The Reporter described how the Chairman of St Helens Civic Society, Brian Wilson, had complained over the town's "tatty" boundary signs.
He had written to Ken Parks, the Director of the Council's Technical Services Dept., to ask why one year after local government reorganisation, St Helens still did not have new signs installed.
As an example, Mr Wilson pointed out that the "tatty remnant" of the old Haydock Urban District Council sign was still in place but on the other side of the boundary, signs identifying the new Wigan Metropolitan Council and Greater Manchester had been installed.
The answer was that initially the Department of the Environment had not given its approval to St Helens Council's proposed new signs.
After modifications were made, government approval was granted but then the EEC stepped in, as Mr Parks explained:
"Subsequently, there’s been a change of heart and the matter is being dealt with on a European Economic Community basis.
"The Department of the Environment are looking at a revised scheme to see if they can fit in with Continental practice.
"Other authorities may have jumped the gun, and the signs they have put up may prove contrary to requirements. In the meantime, we're not doing anything."
The Reporter also wrote: "The Blott Brothers have done it again! Yes, Tony and Ted, who gave St. Helens Gatsby Girl, have now extended “elder brother” Tony Sampson to make it the town's largest modern man's clothing store."
The ten-year-old store had been extended and modernised, doubling its ground floor space.
Under the headline "Summat For Nowt" the paper described how they were starting a new free classified ad service for readers with small items for sale priced at less than £5.
On March 27th 1970 the Reporter had launched its new column for kids, which dispensed with the usual uncle or auntie handle and targeted youngsters aged 4 to 11.
It was called 'The Snoopy Club' but had nothing to do with the pet beagle of Charlie Brown – instead Snoopy was a glove puppet penguin who could type! In this week's paper Snoopy wrote:
"Hello Children, Well, did any of you remember what the special day was? Ah well, don't worry if you forgot. But Tuesday was my birthday! My fifth birthday. Doesn't time fly! This year I had my party at a special play group, for mentally and physically handicapped children, in Albion Street, St. Helens."
The Sefton Arms in Baldwin Street had an advert in the paper in which they said their dining room was now open Monday to Friday with businessmen's lunches from 40p.
On the 4th the Theatre Royal played host to a theatrical version of ITV's 'Mr. & Mrs. Show', which was compered by its TV host Derek Batey.
And finally, from the 6th 'The Man With The Golden Gun' starring Roger Moore as James Bond was retained for a second week at the ABC Savoy.
And the Capitol Cinema replaced 'The Island At The Top Of The World' with 'The Marseille Contract' starring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire in a clay pit that was visible ten miles away, the deep-sea diving chambers made in Bold, the measures to improve Beth Avenue and Haydock Male Voice Choir upset the touchy St Helens Council.