FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1st - 7th MARCH 1971)
This week's many stories include the extremely treacherous roads that led to a pile-up at Haydock, hopes rise that the post office dispute could be drawing to a close, the Lowe House boxing and the no-deposit homes available to buy in St Helens for just a fiver a week.
We begin on March 1st with a one-day protest strike by engineering workers in St Helens against the Conservative Government's controversial Industrial Relations Bill. The national stoppage was described as the biggest political strike in Britain in 45 years. The proposed Act would allow workers to opt out of joining a union and give employers the power to insert "no strike" clauses in employees’ contracts.
The Industrial Relations Act would affect Pilkingtons, as the glass giant had a closed shop agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union that all employees must be union members. The new Act weakened the power of the trade unions and was one of the most short-lived pieces of legislation as the Labour Party repealed it in 1974 upon returning to power.
Later that same day, the Scottish folk group The Corries were in concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
On the following day ten vehicles were involved in a pile-up on the Manchester-bound carriageway of the East Lancs at Haydock. It might be March with Easter and Spring not far off – but it was still very cold with the icy roads described as "extremely treacherous" in places.
A man from Kirkby overturned his vehicle on an ice-covered stretch of the East Lancs near to Evelyn's Cafe. No sooner had his car been cleared from the road and the driver taken to hospital, than another vehicle overturned and the following ones concertinaed into each other. The road was blocked for a time but the three men taken to St Helens Hospital were described as only slightly injured.
Giving the excuse for speeding to magistrates that "I was late for a funeral" is perhaps not the wisest of courses in court – as it invites the response of: "You'll be going to your own funeral soon if you continue driving fast." But that was what Peter Catterall told the St Helens Bench on the 2nd as his reason for breaking the limit on Marshalls Cross Road and he was fined £15.
Pictured in the Tuesday St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd were a group of boys with the caption: "Sherdley Rovers soccer team who have joined forces with Sutton Cricket Club to play both the Winter and Summer games."
I reported last month that Pilkingtons was slashing its sheet glass production capacity because the housing market was so poor. New homes needed windows and a reduced number of new houses had the knock-on effect of reducing the demand for glass. That would also impact on people's jobs. However it was a good time to buy a new home if you were working and earning decent money. This advert was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 3rd:
"ST. HELENS. No deposit new Houses and Bungalows available for immediate occupation or for occupation in 2 to 12 months; weekly repayments £5.50 per week to purchaser who is earning in excess of £24 per week and whose wife is employed. Telephone 74 32067 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m."
Margaret Thatcher was presently the Secretary of State for Education and she had recently taken the controversial decision to end free school milk for children over seven. That led to opposition taunts of "Thatcher, Thatcher the Milk Snatcher", despite the fact that the Labour government three years earlier had been the ones that had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools.
Speaking at a Lancashire County Council meeting on the 4th, Newton-le-Willows representative Alderman John Selwyn Jones criticised the Government for increasing the cost of school meals and stopping free milk by saying: "This is a clear example of Scrooge denying children meals and milk, with money sadly becoming a medium to play politics."
I recently quoted this overheard conversation on decimalisation that the Echo had published: "Two old dears were talking in a post office about decimal coins. One said it will be all right soon, the top people will tire of it and we will go back to the English coins again. The other said: “I am not worried about it. I am going to live in St. Helens next week”."
In the same paper on the 4th, a letter from a J. Ashton was published which denounced the slur on his town for not being up-to-date with the latest developments: "Sir, With reference to your quip on decimalisation and St. Helens I can assure you that the residents of the town are progressive, being fully aware that Mafeking is now relieved, and are up to date with the monetary system. I enclose four groats, buy yourself a quart."
I don't think the Church considers boxing to be an appropriate sport for them to promote quite so much these days. However in the past "the noble art" was considered a healthy outlet for young lads to help keep them off the streets. Three years ago the St Helens Reporter described how Lowe House Boxing Club had been revived after losing popularity in the 1950s with the onset of television. An average of 45 boys were then attending the evening training sessions at their gym in Hatefield Street.
During the evening of the 4th the club held their schoolboys amateur boxing tournament at their Crab Street HQ with a young lad called Stephen Shiel much praised for his performance. His uncle Ray Shiel from Sutton had had a quite remarkable amateur record himself, with only six defeats in 400 fights. After turning professional Ray fought as a heavyweight and became a contender for the British and European titles.
On the 5th Post Office workers in St Helens began voting on a formula to end their 7-week national strike. Their union executive had recommended that members return to work and accept an independent inquiry, although many in St Helens were far from happy with the proposed settlement. Meanwhile the Echo on that day wrote about the "big pile-up".
The article had nothing to do with motorists shunting on the ice at Haydock or Windle but described a deluge of international mail waiting to be delivered to the UK. Although pillar-boxes in this country had been sealed and most post offices closed, letters, parcels and postcards destined for Britain had still been accepted at many offices all over the world – at least for a time. New York alone had 9,832 sacks of surface mail and 400 pouches of airmail in terminals all waiting to be cleared for delivery to Britain.
On the 6th The Casuals performed at the Plaza Theatre Club in Duke Street. The three-time Opportunity Knocks winners are best remembered for their 1968 no. 2 hit, 'Jesamine'.
I have often been told how St Helens after the war was a great place for young couples to dance. There was a wide range of venues with most employing a small dance band and others playing records. In Sutton dance nights were held at St Anne's Hall (on the corner of Robins Lane and Edgeworth Street) and at the Sutton Conservative Club. Parr Oddfellows Hall and Burtonwood Church Hall also held regular dances and others took place at the Town Hall, the Co-op Ballroom (pictured above), the George Street Assembly Rooms, Holy Cross Parish Centre, Boundary Road Baths and the Engineer Hall.
Writing to me about these venues some years ago, George Houghton wrote: "All of these places provided entertainment for the youth of the day and brought happiness in a troubled world, many a romance started by being able to do a few dance steps to the Waltz or Quickstep!"
This week in the Echo a correspondent blamed the Beatles for the demise of intimate, conversational dancing. So I shall end this week with his lamenting letter written under the pseudonym "One of Many Bachelors":
"Prior to the Beatles, a dance was really a social occasion; couples had an opportunity to dance closely and to converse for a reasonably lengthy spell. But with the advent of the beat group the genuine social side of dancing has gone. We now have 75 per cent of the girls shaking together and, where girls and men are dancing together they are yards apart.
"The large dance-hall operators in this country have embarked on a deliberate policy of installing alcoholic bars in their ballrooms knowing that beer sales will rocket as a result of the use of non-social beat music. The sad fact is that dancing is no longer a happy social occasion; there is a deliberate policy to create music patterned and manufactured to create a phoney situation resulting in frustration which turns people from the dance floor to alcohol for social discourse."
Next week's stories will include the welcome end of the postal strike, the St Helens origin of "A Mon Like Thee", the continuing storm over the closure of Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital and the job opportunities at Knowsley Safari Park and Rainhill Hospital.
We begin on March 1st with a one-day protest strike by engineering workers in St Helens against the Conservative Government's controversial Industrial Relations Bill. The national stoppage was described as the biggest political strike in Britain in 45 years. The proposed Act would allow workers to opt out of joining a union and give employers the power to insert "no strike" clauses in employees’ contracts.
The Industrial Relations Act would affect Pilkingtons, as the glass giant had a closed shop agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union that all employees must be union members. The new Act weakened the power of the trade unions and was one of the most short-lived pieces of legislation as the Labour Party repealed it in 1974 upon returning to power.
Later that same day, the Scottish folk group The Corries were in concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
On the following day ten vehicles were involved in a pile-up on the Manchester-bound carriageway of the East Lancs at Haydock. It might be March with Easter and Spring not far off – but it was still very cold with the icy roads described as "extremely treacherous" in places.
A man from Kirkby overturned his vehicle on an ice-covered stretch of the East Lancs near to Evelyn's Cafe. No sooner had his car been cleared from the road and the driver taken to hospital, than another vehicle overturned and the following ones concertinaed into each other. The road was blocked for a time but the three men taken to St Helens Hospital were described as only slightly injured.
Giving the excuse for speeding to magistrates that "I was late for a funeral" is perhaps not the wisest of courses in court – as it invites the response of: "You'll be going to your own funeral soon if you continue driving fast." But that was what Peter Catterall told the St Helens Bench on the 2nd as his reason for breaking the limit on Marshalls Cross Road and he was fined £15.
Pictured in the Tuesday St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd were a group of boys with the caption: "Sherdley Rovers soccer team who have joined forces with Sutton Cricket Club to play both the Winter and Summer games."
I reported last month that Pilkingtons was slashing its sheet glass production capacity because the housing market was so poor. New homes needed windows and a reduced number of new houses had the knock-on effect of reducing the demand for glass. That would also impact on people's jobs. However it was a good time to buy a new home if you were working and earning decent money. This advert was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 3rd:
"ST. HELENS. No deposit new Houses and Bungalows available for immediate occupation or for occupation in 2 to 12 months; weekly repayments £5.50 per week to purchaser who is earning in excess of £24 per week and whose wife is employed. Telephone 74 32067 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m."
Margaret Thatcher was presently the Secretary of State for Education and she had recently taken the controversial decision to end free school milk for children over seven. That led to opposition taunts of "Thatcher, Thatcher the Milk Snatcher", despite the fact that the Labour government three years earlier had been the ones that had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools.
Speaking at a Lancashire County Council meeting on the 4th, Newton-le-Willows representative Alderman John Selwyn Jones criticised the Government for increasing the cost of school meals and stopping free milk by saying: "This is a clear example of Scrooge denying children meals and milk, with money sadly becoming a medium to play politics."
I recently quoted this overheard conversation on decimalisation that the Echo had published: "Two old dears were talking in a post office about decimal coins. One said it will be all right soon, the top people will tire of it and we will go back to the English coins again. The other said: “I am not worried about it. I am going to live in St. Helens next week”."
In the same paper on the 4th, a letter from a J. Ashton was published which denounced the slur on his town for not being up-to-date with the latest developments: "Sir, With reference to your quip on decimalisation and St. Helens I can assure you that the residents of the town are progressive, being fully aware that Mafeking is now relieved, and are up to date with the monetary system. I enclose four groats, buy yourself a quart."
I don't think the Church considers boxing to be an appropriate sport for them to promote quite so much these days. However in the past "the noble art" was considered a healthy outlet for young lads to help keep them off the streets. Three years ago the St Helens Reporter described how Lowe House Boxing Club had been revived after losing popularity in the 1950s with the onset of television. An average of 45 boys were then attending the evening training sessions at their gym in Hatefield Street.
During the evening of the 4th the club held their schoolboys amateur boxing tournament at their Crab Street HQ with a young lad called Stephen Shiel much praised for his performance. His uncle Ray Shiel from Sutton had had a quite remarkable amateur record himself, with only six defeats in 400 fights. After turning professional Ray fought as a heavyweight and became a contender for the British and European titles.
On the 5th Post Office workers in St Helens began voting on a formula to end their 7-week national strike. Their union executive had recommended that members return to work and accept an independent inquiry, although many in St Helens were far from happy with the proposed settlement. Meanwhile the Echo on that day wrote about the "big pile-up".
The article had nothing to do with motorists shunting on the ice at Haydock or Windle but described a deluge of international mail waiting to be delivered to the UK. Although pillar-boxes in this country had been sealed and most post offices closed, letters, parcels and postcards destined for Britain had still been accepted at many offices all over the world – at least for a time. New York alone had 9,832 sacks of surface mail and 400 pouches of airmail in terminals all waiting to be cleared for delivery to Britain.
On the 6th The Casuals performed at the Plaza Theatre Club in Duke Street. The three-time Opportunity Knocks winners are best remembered for their 1968 no. 2 hit, 'Jesamine'.
Writing to me about these venues some years ago, George Houghton wrote: "All of these places provided entertainment for the youth of the day and brought happiness in a troubled world, many a romance started by being able to do a few dance steps to the Waltz or Quickstep!"
This week in the Echo a correspondent blamed the Beatles for the demise of intimate, conversational dancing. So I shall end this week with his lamenting letter written under the pseudonym "One of Many Bachelors":
"Prior to the Beatles, a dance was really a social occasion; couples had an opportunity to dance closely and to converse for a reasonably lengthy spell. But with the advent of the beat group the genuine social side of dancing has gone. We now have 75 per cent of the girls shaking together and, where girls and men are dancing together they are yards apart.
"The large dance-hall operators in this country have embarked on a deliberate policy of installing alcoholic bars in their ballrooms knowing that beer sales will rocket as a result of the use of non-social beat music. The sad fact is that dancing is no longer a happy social occasion; there is a deliberate policy to create music patterned and manufactured to create a phoney situation resulting in frustration which turns people from the dance floor to alcohol for social discourse."
Next week's stories will include the welcome end of the postal strike, the St Helens origin of "A Mon Like Thee", the continuing storm over the closure of Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital and the job opportunities at Knowsley Safari Park and Rainhill Hospital.
This week's many stories include the extremely treacherous roads that led to a pile-up at Haydock, hopes rise that the post office dispute could be drawing to a close, the Lowe House boxing and the no-deposit homes available to buy in St Helens for just a fiver a week.
We begin on March 1st with a one-day protest strike by engineering workers in St Helens against the Conservative Government's controversial Industrial Relations Bill.
The national stoppage was described as the biggest political strike in Britain in 45 years.
The proposed Act would allow workers to opt out of joining a union and give employers the power to insert "no strike" clauses in employees’ contracts.
The Industrial Relations Act would affect Pilkingtons, as the glass giant had a closed shop agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union that all employees must be union members.
The new Act weakened the power of the trade unions and was one of the most short-lived pieces of legislation as the Labour Party repealed it in 1974 upon returning to power.
Later that same day, the Scottish folk group The Corries were in concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
On the following day ten vehicles were involved in a pile-up on the Manchester-bound carriageway of the East Lancs at Haydock.
It might be March with Easter and Spring not far off – but it was still very cold with the icy roads described as "extremely treacherous" in places.
A man from Kirkby overturned his vehicle on an ice-covered stretch of the East Lancs near to Evelyn's Cafe.
No sooner had his car been cleared from the road and the driver taken to hospital, than another vehicle overturned and the following ones concertinaed into each other.
The road was blocked for a time but the three men taken to St Helens Hospital were described as only slightly injured.
Giving the excuse for speeding to magistrates that "I was late for a funeral" is perhaps not the wisest of courses in court – as it invites the response of: "You'll be going to your own funeral soon if you continue driving fast."
But that was what Peter Catterall told the St Helens Bench on the 2nd as his reason for breaking the limit on Marshalls Cross Road and he was fined £15.
Pictured in the Tuesday St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd were a group of boys with the caption:
"Sherdley Rovers soccer team who have joined forces with Sutton Cricket Club to play both the Winter and Summer games."
I reported last month that Pilkingtons was slashing its sheet glass production capacity because the housing market was so poor.
New homes needed windows and a reduced number of new houses had the knock-on effect of reducing the demand for glass.
That would also impact on people's jobs. However it was a good time to buy a new home if you were working and earning decent money. This advert was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 3rd:
"ST. HELENS. No deposit new Houses and Bungalows available for immediate occupation or for occupation in 2 to 12 months; weekly repayments £5.50 per week to purchaser who is earning in excess of £24 per week and whose wife is employed. Telephone 74 32067 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m."
Margaret Thatcher was presently the Secretary of State for Education and she had recently taken the controversial decision to end free school milk for children over seven.
That led to opposition taunts of "Thatcher, Thatcher the Milk Snatcher", despite the fact that the Labour government three years earlier had been the ones that had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools.
Speaking at a Lancashire County Council meeting on the 4th, Newton-le-Willows representative Alderman John Selwyn Jones criticised the Government for increasing the cost of school meals and stopping free milk by saying:
"This is a clear example of Scrooge denying children meals and milk, with money sadly becoming a medium to play politics."
I recently quoted this overheard conversation on decimalisation that the Echo had published:
"Two old dears were talking in a post office about decimal coins. One said it will be all right soon, the top people will tire of it and we will go back to the English coins again.
"The other said: “I am not worried about it. I am going to live in St. Helens next week”."
In the same paper on the 4th, a letter from a J. Ashton was published which denounced the slur on his town for not being up-to-date with the latest developments:
"Sir, With reference to your quip on decimalisation and St. Helens I can assure you that the residents of the town are progressive, being fully aware that Mafeking is now relieved, and are up to date with the monetary system. I enclose four groats, buy yourself a quart."
I don't think the Church considers boxing to be an appropriate sport for them to promote quite so much these days.
However in the past "the noble art" was considered a healthy outlet for young lads to help keep them off the streets.
Three years ago the St Helens Reporter described how Lowe House Boxing Club had been revived after losing popularity in the 1950s with the onset of television.
An average of 45 boys were then attending the evening training sessions at their gym in Hatefield Street.
During the evening of the 4th the club held their schoolboys amateur boxing tournament at their Crab Street HQ with a young lad called Stephen Shiel much praised for his performance.
His uncle Ray Shiel from Sutton had had a quite remarkable amateur record himself, with only six defeats in 400 fights.
After turning professional Ray fought as a heavyweight and became a contender for the British and European titles.
On the 5th Post Office workers in St Helens began voting on a formula to end their 7-week national strike.
Their union executive had recommended that members return to work and accept an independent inquiry, although many in St Helens were far from happy with the proposed settlement.
Meanwhile the Echo on that day wrote about the "big pile-up".
The article had nothing to do with motorists shunting on the ice at Haydock or Windle but described a deluge of international mail waiting to be delivered to the UK.
Although pillar-boxes in this country had been sealed and most post offices closed, letters, parcels and postcards destined for Britain had still been accepted at many offices all over the world – at least for a time.
New York alone had 9,832 sacks of surface mail and 400 pouches of airmail in terminals all waiting to be cleared for delivery to Britain.
On the 6th The Casuals performed at the Plaza Theatre Club in Duke Street. The three-time Opportunity Knocks winners are best remembered for their 1968 no. 2 hit, 'Jesamine'.
I have often been told how St Helens after the war was a great place for young couples to dance.
There was a wide range of venues with most employing a small dance band and others playing records.
In Sutton dance nights were held at St Anne's Hall (on the corner of Robins Lane and Edgeworth Street) and at the Sutton Conservative Club.
Parr Oddfellows Hall and Burtonwood Church Hall also held regular dances and others took place at the Co-op Ballroom (pictured above), the Town Hall, the George Street Assembly Rooms, Holy Cross Parish Centre, Boundary Road Baths and the Engineer Hall.
Writing to me about these venues some years ago, George Houghton wrote:
"All of these places provided entertainment for the youth of the day and brought happiness in a troubled world, many a romance started by being able to do a few dance steps to the Waltz or Quickstep!"
This week in the Echo a correspondent blamed the Beatles for the demise of intimate, conversational dancing.
So I shall end this week with his lamenting letter written under the pseudonym "One of Many Bachelors":
"Prior to the Beatles, a dance was really a social occasion; couples had an opportunity to dance closely and to converse for a reasonably lengthy spell.
"But with the advent of the beat group the genuine social side of dancing has gone.
"We now have 75 per cent of the girls shaking together and, where girls and men are dancing together they are yards apart.
"The large dance-hall operators in this country have embarked on a deliberate policy of installing alcoholic bars in their ballrooms knowing that beer sales will rocket as a result of the use of non-social beat music.
"The sad fact is that dancing is no longer a happy social occasion; there is a deliberate policy to create music patterned and manufactured to create a phoney situation resulting in frustration which turns people from the dance floor to alcohol for social discourse."
Next week's stories include the welcome end of the postal strike, the St Helens origin of "A Mon Like Thee", the continuing storm over the closure of Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital and the job opportunities at Knowsley Safari Park and Rainhill Hospital.
We begin on March 1st with a one-day protest strike by engineering workers in St Helens against the Conservative Government's controversial Industrial Relations Bill.
The national stoppage was described as the biggest political strike in Britain in 45 years.
The proposed Act would allow workers to opt out of joining a union and give employers the power to insert "no strike" clauses in employees’ contracts.
The Industrial Relations Act would affect Pilkingtons, as the glass giant had a closed shop agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union that all employees must be union members.
The new Act weakened the power of the trade unions and was one of the most short-lived pieces of legislation as the Labour Party repealed it in 1974 upon returning to power.
Later that same day, the Scottish folk group The Corries were in concert at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
On the following day ten vehicles were involved in a pile-up on the Manchester-bound carriageway of the East Lancs at Haydock.
It might be March with Easter and Spring not far off – but it was still very cold with the icy roads described as "extremely treacherous" in places.
A man from Kirkby overturned his vehicle on an ice-covered stretch of the East Lancs near to Evelyn's Cafe.
No sooner had his car been cleared from the road and the driver taken to hospital, than another vehicle overturned and the following ones concertinaed into each other.
The road was blocked for a time but the three men taken to St Helens Hospital were described as only slightly injured.
Giving the excuse for speeding to magistrates that "I was late for a funeral" is perhaps not the wisest of courses in court – as it invites the response of: "You'll be going to your own funeral soon if you continue driving fast."
But that was what Peter Catterall told the St Helens Bench on the 2nd as his reason for breaking the limit on Marshalls Cross Road and he was fined £15.
Pictured in the Tuesday St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd were a group of boys with the caption:
"Sherdley Rovers soccer team who have joined forces with Sutton Cricket Club to play both the Winter and Summer games."
I reported last month that Pilkingtons was slashing its sheet glass production capacity because the housing market was so poor.
New homes needed windows and a reduced number of new houses had the knock-on effect of reducing the demand for glass.
That would also impact on people's jobs. However it was a good time to buy a new home if you were working and earning decent money. This advert was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 3rd:
"ST. HELENS. No deposit new Houses and Bungalows available for immediate occupation or for occupation in 2 to 12 months; weekly repayments £5.50 per week to purchaser who is earning in excess of £24 per week and whose wife is employed. Telephone 74 32067 between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m."
Margaret Thatcher was presently the Secretary of State for Education and she had recently taken the controversial decision to end free school milk for children over seven.
That led to opposition taunts of "Thatcher, Thatcher the Milk Snatcher", despite the fact that the Labour government three years earlier had been the ones that had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools.
Speaking at a Lancashire County Council meeting on the 4th, Newton-le-Willows representative Alderman John Selwyn Jones criticised the Government for increasing the cost of school meals and stopping free milk by saying:
"This is a clear example of Scrooge denying children meals and milk, with money sadly becoming a medium to play politics."
I recently quoted this overheard conversation on decimalisation that the Echo had published:
"Two old dears were talking in a post office about decimal coins. One said it will be all right soon, the top people will tire of it and we will go back to the English coins again.
"The other said: “I am not worried about it. I am going to live in St. Helens next week”."
In the same paper on the 4th, a letter from a J. Ashton was published which denounced the slur on his town for not being up-to-date with the latest developments:
"Sir, With reference to your quip on decimalisation and St. Helens I can assure you that the residents of the town are progressive, being fully aware that Mafeking is now relieved, and are up to date with the monetary system. I enclose four groats, buy yourself a quart."
I don't think the Church considers boxing to be an appropriate sport for them to promote quite so much these days.
However in the past "the noble art" was considered a healthy outlet for young lads to help keep them off the streets.
Three years ago the St Helens Reporter described how Lowe House Boxing Club had been revived after losing popularity in the 1950s with the onset of television.
An average of 45 boys were then attending the evening training sessions at their gym in Hatefield Street.
During the evening of the 4th the club held their schoolboys amateur boxing tournament at their Crab Street HQ with a young lad called Stephen Shiel much praised for his performance.
His uncle Ray Shiel from Sutton had had a quite remarkable amateur record himself, with only six defeats in 400 fights.
After turning professional Ray fought as a heavyweight and became a contender for the British and European titles.
On the 5th Post Office workers in St Helens began voting on a formula to end their 7-week national strike.
Their union executive had recommended that members return to work and accept an independent inquiry, although many in St Helens were far from happy with the proposed settlement.
Meanwhile the Echo on that day wrote about the "big pile-up".
The article had nothing to do with motorists shunting on the ice at Haydock or Windle but described a deluge of international mail waiting to be delivered to the UK.
Although pillar-boxes in this country had been sealed and most post offices closed, letters, parcels and postcards destined for Britain had still been accepted at many offices all over the world – at least for a time.
New York alone had 9,832 sacks of surface mail and 400 pouches of airmail in terminals all waiting to be cleared for delivery to Britain.
On the 6th The Casuals performed at the Plaza Theatre Club in Duke Street. The three-time Opportunity Knocks winners are best remembered for their 1968 no. 2 hit, 'Jesamine'.
I have often been told how St Helens after the war was a great place for young couples to dance.
There was a wide range of venues with most employing a small dance band and others playing records.
In Sutton dance nights were held at St Anne's Hall (on the corner of Robins Lane and Edgeworth Street) and at the Sutton Conservative Club.
Writing to me about these venues some years ago, George Houghton wrote:
"All of these places provided entertainment for the youth of the day and brought happiness in a troubled world, many a romance started by being able to do a few dance steps to the Waltz or Quickstep!"
This week in the Echo a correspondent blamed the Beatles for the demise of intimate, conversational dancing.
So I shall end this week with his lamenting letter written under the pseudonym "One of Many Bachelors":
"Prior to the Beatles, a dance was really a social occasion; couples had an opportunity to dance closely and to converse for a reasonably lengthy spell.
"But with the advent of the beat group the genuine social side of dancing has gone.
"We now have 75 per cent of the girls shaking together and, where girls and men are dancing together they are yards apart.
"The large dance-hall operators in this country have embarked on a deliberate policy of installing alcoholic bars in their ballrooms knowing that beer sales will rocket as a result of the use of non-social beat music.
"The sad fact is that dancing is no longer a happy social occasion; there is a deliberate policy to create music patterned and manufactured to create a phoney situation resulting in frustration which turns people from the dance floor to alcohol for social discourse."
Next week's stories include the welcome end of the postal strike, the St Helens origin of "A Mon Like Thee", the continuing storm over the closure of Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital and the job opportunities at Knowsley Safari Park and Rainhill Hospital.