FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1st - 7th MAY 1973)
This week's 15 stories include the Siding Lane tip inferno in Rainford, the reckless horse riding on Eccleston Fields, the Pilkington Fountain in Church Square, a new lease of life for Sutton Manor Colliery and an assurance that the end of the acid fallout in Sutton from Leathers Chemicals was in sight.
We begin on May 1st at the Theatre Royal in St Helens with a production of Agathie Christie's 'Verdict'. Performances continued throughout the week and the play was the first in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series.
This week a plan to build 54 houses on Bobbies Lane was rejected by Whiston Council. Bottlemakers UGB had claimed that the demand for sports facilities was declining and they wanted to use five acres of its sports ground in Eccleston to construct homes. Although Whiston Council’s planning committee was in favour of the scheme, there needed to be extensions to Parr Sewage Works before the green light could be given.
On the 3rd the Liverpool Echo reported that the Wesley Methodist Church in Corporation Street – one of St Helens most well-known landmarks – would soon be demolished. The last church service would take place on May 27th and then a new building would be constructed on the same site.
The Echo also described how St Helens Corporation had recently spent £8,000 cleaning up the buildings in Victoria Square but still had a problem with infestation by pigeons and other birds. So a firm was being recruited to treat the Town Hall and adjoining buildings – but there was no question of any birds being killed.
A big news story in the Reporter on the 4th was something that would not be happening – Geoffrey Rippon was not coming to St Helens. The Secretary of State for the Environment under Prime Minister Ted Heath had rebuffed an invitation to inspect the troublesome Leathers Chemicals. "He doesn't feel it necessary", said a letter from his department that had been sent to St Helens Town Hall.
However, Alderman Harold Rimmer, chairman of the Planning Committee, said he was convinced that the end of the fallout from the Sutton plant was in sight. Addressing St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting this week, he said he felt the installation of a new cooling system at Leathers would stop sudden fractures of pipes that had previously caused sulphuric acid blowouts. "When the new system is installed, no-one will realise Leathers is there," Ald. Rimmer optimistically remarked at the meeting, rejecting suggestions he or his committee were trying to hide anything.
However, Cllr. Ron Kerr was not satisfied, saying Ald. Rimmer was giving the impression the council was trying to sweep the issue under the carpet. But it would be a while before the assurance could be tested, as the new cooling system planned for the sulphuric acid factory in Lancots Lane would not be in operation for about six months.
Do you remember the Pilkington Fountain (pictured above) that for a while adorned Church Square in St Helens? Well, this week the Reporter described its genesis when it was disclosed that Pilks planned to donate £25,000 to the town to mark the glass giant's 150th anniversary in 1976. Lord Pilkington had written to the mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, suggesting the £25,000 be spent on a "water feature in some appropriate setting as an integral part of the town's development."
Cllr. Lycett's term as mayor was coming to an end and this week tributes were paid to him and his wife Wynne. Ald. James Hand, the leader of the Conservative group on the council, said: "He has certainly been a with-it Mayor". Allan Lycett's liking for golf and his singing wife had, according to the Reporter, made them "outstanding characters in the municipal year".
Plans to convert a disused railway line in Rainford into a linear park and a waste tip into a nature reserve were currently in their infancy. The dump at Siding Lane was on the site of the former Rainford Colliery and could be quite problematic. The Reporter disclosed that the latest incident there had involved the illegal dumping of fifty 45-gallon drums of chemical waste that had then been set alight. A black column of acrid smoke hung over the tip for several days after the fire had broken out, with firemen and council workers fighting to keep the blaze under control.
Rainford Council's Chief Public Health Inspector, John Wilde, said: "Whoever dumped the drums may have set them alight to try to destroy the labels. There were flames on two acres of the tip and it was still burning into the next week. Now we've covered the area with earth and I think the fire is out." Several drums had exploded in the heat and a nearby wood had caught fire. Efforts were now underway to try and identify the culprits and initiate prosecutions.
The Reporter also described how a £200,000 boost would give Sutton Manor Colliery a new lease of life and save the mine from closure. The Coal Board planned to use the cash injection to exploit virgin coal reserves at Barrows Green. This would boost production by almost 2,000 tons a week, with Peter Tregnelles, Director of NCB North-Western Area, remarking:
"Without this injection of cash, the pit would have exhausted its workable reserves by 1980. The new seams are of good quality, and there is no reason why Sutton Manor should not continue to make a valuable contribution to the nation's energy needs for many years."
You wouldn't expect a senior police officer to use the word "diddy" when making a statement to the press – unless he was talking about Ken Dodd! However, Chief Inspector Eric Fletcher used the word when telling the Reporter about reckless horse riders on Eccleston Fields, near where he lived. He said:
"I have seen five large horses galloping at full bore on the fields when children – little diddy ones – have been playing. Several residents have complained to me in my official capacity. People regularly exercise their dogs on the fields. It only needs a dog to go for one of these horses and there could be a tragedy."
At a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council, Cllr. Tom McCormack had said people had described the galloping on the fields as a "five furlong scatter". Pressure was now building, said the Reporter, for horse riding to be banned on the fields.
It was announced this week that Rainford Carnival would not be taking place this year. The event's publicity officer, David Laycock, explained why: "Almost a year's work goes into planning a carnival and as we've had three on the run, we thought we would give it a rest this year and arrange something different."
And so a three-day festival would be taking place instead starting on August 23rd. The draft programme of events included a folk evening, cake competition, a performance by the Alex Welsh jazz band, a children's fancy dress competition, a display of Scottish dancing and a junior 'It's A Knockout'.
There was a picture of little Jenny Lamb in the Reporter. The three-year-old from Neville Avenue in Parr had been helping her mother do some mopping up when she got her thumb stuck in a bucket. Mum Dorothy Lamb explained what happened: "We tried everything – soap, pliers – the lot. But after an hour or so we had to call the [fire] brigade. Now Jenny gives the bucket a wide berth."
On the 6th it was all change at the two St Helens cinemas. At the ABC Savoy 'Soldier Blue' starring Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss replaced 'Lady Caroline Lamb'. And at the Capitol 'Dr. Phibes Rises Again' starring Vincent Price replaced 'Bonnie and Clyde'.
"Explore Britain By Train" was the headline to British Rail's advert in the Echo on the 7th that promised mystery trips for "those that like the unexpected". At 9:42 am on both the following Saturday and Sunday, a train would stop at St Helens Junction and then pick up more passengers at Earlestown and Warrington Bank Quay.
Then it would go to ….somewhere. The only clue was the time it would take to get to the secret destination, which was nearly 2 hours from Bank Quay on the Saturday and just over an hour and a half on the Sunday. You then had about seven hours to spend at your mystery destination before returning home. Prices were £1.50 for the Saturday trip and just £1 on the Sunday, with half-fare for children under 14.
And finally, a four-day auction of the contents of Windle Hall Farm took place from the 7th. Mrs Margery Almond had lived at the farm since 1935 but was now leaving after the death of her husband and around 1,000 valuable items were up for grabs.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Grange Park geography lesson from the air, the mass escape of baboons from Knowsley Safari Park, Ashalls are fined for breaching Sunday trading laws and Lenny the Lion comes to Hamblett school.
We begin on May 1st at the Theatre Royal in St Helens with a production of Agathie Christie's 'Verdict'. Performances continued throughout the week and the play was the first in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series.
This week a plan to build 54 houses on Bobbies Lane was rejected by Whiston Council. Bottlemakers UGB had claimed that the demand for sports facilities was declining and they wanted to use five acres of its sports ground in Eccleston to construct homes. Although Whiston Council’s planning committee was in favour of the scheme, there needed to be extensions to Parr Sewage Works before the green light could be given.
On the 3rd the Liverpool Echo reported that the Wesley Methodist Church in Corporation Street – one of St Helens most well-known landmarks – would soon be demolished. The last church service would take place on May 27th and then a new building would be constructed on the same site.
The Echo also described how St Helens Corporation had recently spent £8,000 cleaning up the buildings in Victoria Square but still had a problem with infestation by pigeons and other birds. So a firm was being recruited to treat the Town Hall and adjoining buildings – but there was no question of any birds being killed.
A big news story in the Reporter on the 4th was something that would not be happening – Geoffrey Rippon was not coming to St Helens. The Secretary of State for the Environment under Prime Minister Ted Heath had rebuffed an invitation to inspect the troublesome Leathers Chemicals. "He doesn't feel it necessary", said a letter from his department that had been sent to St Helens Town Hall.
However, Alderman Harold Rimmer, chairman of the Planning Committee, said he was convinced that the end of the fallout from the Sutton plant was in sight. Addressing St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting this week, he said he felt the installation of a new cooling system at Leathers would stop sudden fractures of pipes that had previously caused sulphuric acid blowouts. "When the new system is installed, no-one will realise Leathers is there," Ald. Rimmer optimistically remarked at the meeting, rejecting suggestions he or his committee were trying to hide anything.
However, Cllr. Ron Kerr was not satisfied, saying Ald. Rimmer was giving the impression the council was trying to sweep the issue under the carpet. But it would be a while before the assurance could be tested, as the new cooling system planned for the sulphuric acid factory in Lancots Lane would not be in operation for about six months.
Cllr. Lycett's term as mayor was coming to an end and this week tributes were paid to him and his wife Wynne. Ald. James Hand, the leader of the Conservative group on the council, said: "He has certainly been a with-it Mayor". Allan Lycett's liking for golf and his singing wife had, according to the Reporter, made them "outstanding characters in the municipal year".
Plans to convert a disused railway line in Rainford into a linear park and a waste tip into a nature reserve were currently in their infancy. The dump at Siding Lane was on the site of the former Rainford Colliery and could be quite problematic. The Reporter disclosed that the latest incident there had involved the illegal dumping of fifty 45-gallon drums of chemical waste that had then been set alight. A black column of acrid smoke hung over the tip for several days after the fire had broken out, with firemen and council workers fighting to keep the blaze under control.
Rainford Council's Chief Public Health Inspector, John Wilde, said: "Whoever dumped the drums may have set them alight to try to destroy the labels. There were flames on two acres of the tip and it was still burning into the next week. Now we've covered the area with earth and I think the fire is out." Several drums had exploded in the heat and a nearby wood had caught fire. Efforts were now underway to try and identify the culprits and initiate prosecutions.
The Reporter also described how a £200,000 boost would give Sutton Manor Colliery a new lease of life and save the mine from closure. The Coal Board planned to use the cash injection to exploit virgin coal reserves at Barrows Green. This would boost production by almost 2,000 tons a week, with Peter Tregnelles, Director of NCB North-Western Area, remarking:
"Without this injection of cash, the pit would have exhausted its workable reserves by 1980. The new seams are of good quality, and there is no reason why Sutton Manor should not continue to make a valuable contribution to the nation's energy needs for many years."
You wouldn't expect a senior police officer to use the word "diddy" when making a statement to the press – unless he was talking about Ken Dodd! However, Chief Inspector Eric Fletcher used the word when telling the Reporter about reckless horse riders on Eccleston Fields, near where he lived. He said:
"I have seen five large horses galloping at full bore on the fields when children – little diddy ones – have been playing. Several residents have complained to me in my official capacity. People regularly exercise their dogs on the fields. It only needs a dog to go for one of these horses and there could be a tragedy."
At a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council, Cllr. Tom McCormack had said people had described the galloping on the fields as a "five furlong scatter". Pressure was now building, said the Reporter, for horse riding to be banned on the fields.
It was announced this week that Rainford Carnival would not be taking place this year. The event's publicity officer, David Laycock, explained why: "Almost a year's work goes into planning a carnival and as we've had three on the run, we thought we would give it a rest this year and arrange something different."
And so a three-day festival would be taking place instead starting on August 23rd. The draft programme of events included a folk evening, cake competition, a performance by the Alex Welsh jazz band, a children's fancy dress competition, a display of Scottish dancing and a junior 'It's A Knockout'.
There was a picture of little Jenny Lamb in the Reporter. The three-year-old from Neville Avenue in Parr had been helping her mother do some mopping up when she got her thumb stuck in a bucket. Mum Dorothy Lamb explained what happened: "We tried everything – soap, pliers – the lot. But after an hour or so we had to call the [fire] brigade. Now Jenny gives the bucket a wide berth."
On the 6th it was all change at the two St Helens cinemas. At the ABC Savoy 'Soldier Blue' starring Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss replaced 'Lady Caroline Lamb'. And at the Capitol 'Dr. Phibes Rises Again' starring Vincent Price replaced 'Bonnie and Clyde'.
"Explore Britain By Train" was the headline to British Rail's advert in the Echo on the 7th that promised mystery trips for "those that like the unexpected". At 9:42 am on both the following Saturday and Sunday, a train would stop at St Helens Junction and then pick up more passengers at Earlestown and Warrington Bank Quay.
Then it would go to ….somewhere. The only clue was the time it would take to get to the secret destination, which was nearly 2 hours from Bank Quay on the Saturday and just over an hour and a half on the Sunday. You then had about seven hours to spend at your mystery destination before returning home. Prices were £1.50 for the Saturday trip and just £1 on the Sunday, with half-fare for children under 14.
And finally, a four-day auction of the contents of Windle Hall Farm took place from the 7th. Mrs Margery Almond had lived at the farm since 1935 but was now leaving after the death of her husband and around 1,000 valuable items were up for grabs.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Grange Park geography lesson from the air, the mass escape of baboons from Knowsley Safari Park, Ashalls are fined for breaching Sunday trading laws and Lenny the Lion comes to Hamblett school.
This week's 15 stories include the Siding Lane tip inferno in Rainford, the reckless horse riding on Eccleston Fields, the Pilkington Fountain in Church Square, a new lease of life for Sutton Manor Colliery and an assurance that the end of the acid fallout in Sutton from Leathers Chemicals was in sight.
We begin on May 1st at the Theatre Royal in St Helens with a production of Agathie Christie's 'Verdict'.
Performances continued throughout the week and the play was the first in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series.
This week a plan to build 54 houses on Bobbies Lane was rejected by Whiston Council.
Bottlemakers UGB had claimed that the demand for sports facilities was declining and they wanted to use five acres of its sports ground in Eccleston to construct homes.
Although Whiston Council’s planning committee was in favour of the scheme, there needed to be extensions to Parr Sewage Works before the green light could be given.
On the 3rd the Liverpool Echo reported that the Wesley Methodist Church in Corporation Street – one of St Helens most well-known landmarks – would soon be demolished.
The last church service would take place on May 27th and then a new building would be constructed on the same site.
The Echo also described how St Helens Corporation had recently spent £8,000 cleaning up the buildings in Victoria Square but still had a problem with infestation by pigeons and other birds.
So a firm was being recruited to treat the Town Hall and adjoining buildings – but there was no question of any birds being killed.
A big news story in the Reporter on the 4th was something that would not be happening – Geoffrey Rippon was not coming to St Helens.
The Secretary of State for the Environment under Prime Minister Ted Heath had rebuffed an invitation to inspect the troublesome Leathers Chemicals.
"He doesn't feel it necessary", said a letter from his department that had been sent to St Helens Town Hall.
However, Alderman Harold Rimmer, chairman of the Planning Committee, said he was convinced that the end of the fallout from the Sutton plant was in sight.
Addressing St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting this week, he said he felt the installation of a new cooling system at Leathers would stop sudden fractures of pipes that had previously caused sulphuric acid blowouts.
"When the new system is installed, no-one will realise Leathers is there," Ald. Rimmer optimistically remarked at the meeting, rejecting suggestions he or his committee were trying to hide anything.
However, Cllr. Ron Kerr was not satisfied, saying Ald. Rimmer was giving the impression the council was trying to sweep the issue under the carpet.
But it would be a while before the assurance could be tested, as the new cooling system planned for the sulphuric acid factory in Lancots Lane would not be in operation for about six months.
Do you remember the Pilkington Fountain (pictured above) that for a while adorned Church Square in St Helens?
Well, this week the Reporter described its genesis when it was disclosed that Pilks planned to donate £25,000 to the town to mark the glass giant's 150th anniversary in 1976.
Lord Pilkington had written to the mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, suggesting the £25,000 be spent on a "water feature in some appropriate setting as an integral part of the town's development."
Cllr. Lycett's term as mayor was coming to an end and this week tributes were paid to him and his wife Wynne.
Ald. James Hand, the leader of the Conservative group on the council, said: "He has certainly been a with-it Mayor".
Allan Lycett's liking for golf and his singing wife had, according to the Reporter, made them "outstanding characters in the municipal year".
Plans to convert a disused railway line in Rainford into a linear park and a waste tip into a nature reserve were currently in their infancy.
The dump at Siding Lane was on the site of the former Rainford Colliery and could be quite problematic.
The Reporter disclosed that the latest incident there had involved the illegal dumping of fifty 45-gallon drums of chemical waste that had then been set alight.
A black column of acrid smoke hung over the tip for several days after the fire had broken out, with firemen and council workers fighting to keep the blaze under control.
Rainford Council's Chief Public Health Inspector, John Wilde, said:
"Whoever dumped the drums may have set them alight to try to destroy the labels. There were flames on two acres of the tip and it was still burning into the next week. Now we've covered the area with earth and I think the fire is out."
Several drums had exploded in the heat and a nearby wood had caught fire. Efforts were now underway to try and identify the culprits and initiate prosecutions.
The Reporter also described how a £200,000 boost would give Sutton Manor Colliery a new lease of life and save the mine from closure.
The Coal Board planned to use the cash injection to exploit virgin coal reserves at Barrows Green.
This would boost production by almost 2,000 tons a week, with Peter Tregnelles, Director of NCB North-Western Area, remarking:
"Without this injection of cash, the pit would have exhausted its workable reserves by 1980. The new seams are of good quality, and there is no reason why Sutton Manor should not continue to make a valuable contribution to the nation's energy needs for many years."
You wouldn't expect a senior police officer to use the word "diddy" when making a statement to the press – unless he was talking about Ken Dodd!
However, Chief Inspector Eric Fletcher used the word when telling the Reporter about reckless horse riders on Eccleston Fields, near where he lived. He said:
"I have seen five large horses galloping at full bore on the fields when children – little diddy ones – have been playing. Several residents have complained to me in my official capacity. People regularly exercise their dogs on the fields. It only needs a dog to go for one of these horses and there could be a tragedy."
At a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council, Cllr. Tom McCormack had said people had described the galloping on the fields as a "five furlong scatter".
Pressure was now building, said the Reporter, for horse riding to be banned on the fields.
It was announced this week that Rainford Carnival would not be taking place this year. The event's publicity officer, David Laycock, explained why:
"Almost a year's work goes into planning a carnival and as we've had three on the run, we thought we would give it a rest this year and arrange something different."
And so a three-day festival would be taking place instead starting on August 23rd.
The draft programme of events included a folk evening, cake competition, a performance by the Alex Welsh jazz band, a children's fancy dress competition, a display of Scottish dancing and a junior 'It's A Knockout'.
There was a picture of little Jenny Lamb in the Reporter. The three-year-old from Neville Avenue in Parr had been helping her mother do some mopping up when she got her thumb stuck in a bucket.
Mum Dorothy Lamb explained what happened: "We tried everything – soap, pliers – the lot. But after an hour or so we had to call the [fire] brigade. Now Jenny gives the bucket a wide berth."
On the 6th it was all change at the two St Helens cinemas. At the ABC Savoy 'Soldier Blue' starring Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss replaced 'Lady Caroline Lamb'.
And at the Capitol 'Dr. Phibes Rises Again' starring Vincent Price replaced 'Bonnie and Clyde'.
"Explore Britain By Train" was the headline to British Rail's advert in the Echo on the 7th that promised mystery trips for "those that like the unexpected".
At 9:42 am on both the following Saturday and Sunday, a train would stop at St Helens Junction and then pick up more passengers at Earlestown and Warrington Bank Quay.
Then it would go to ….somewhere. The only clue was the time it would take to get to the secret destination, which was nearly 2 hours from Bank Quay on the Saturday and just over an hour and a half on the Sunday.
You then had about seven hours to spend at your mystery destination before returning home. Prices were £1.50 for the Saturday trip and just £1 on the Sunday, with half-fare for children under 14.
And finally, a four-day auction of the contents of Windle Hall Farm took place from the 7th.
Mrs Margery Almond had lived at the farm since 1935 but was now leaving after the death of her husband and around 1,000 valuable items were up for grabs.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Grange Park geography lesson from the air, the mass escape of baboons from Knowsley Safari Park, Ashalls are fined for breaching Sunday trading laws and Lenny the Lion comes to Hamblett school.
We begin on May 1st at the Theatre Royal in St Helens with a production of Agathie Christie's 'Verdict'.
Performances continued throughout the week and the play was the first in the Corporation Street theatre's 'Play For May' series.
This week a plan to build 54 houses on Bobbies Lane was rejected by Whiston Council.
Bottlemakers UGB had claimed that the demand for sports facilities was declining and they wanted to use five acres of its sports ground in Eccleston to construct homes.
Although Whiston Council’s planning committee was in favour of the scheme, there needed to be extensions to Parr Sewage Works before the green light could be given.
On the 3rd the Liverpool Echo reported that the Wesley Methodist Church in Corporation Street – one of St Helens most well-known landmarks – would soon be demolished.
The last church service would take place on May 27th and then a new building would be constructed on the same site.
The Echo also described how St Helens Corporation had recently spent £8,000 cleaning up the buildings in Victoria Square but still had a problem with infestation by pigeons and other birds.
So a firm was being recruited to treat the Town Hall and adjoining buildings – but there was no question of any birds being killed.
A big news story in the Reporter on the 4th was something that would not be happening – Geoffrey Rippon was not coming to St Helens.
The Secretary of State for the Environment under Prime Minister Ted Heath had rebuffed an invitation to inspect the troublesome Leathers Chemicals.
"He doesn't feel it necessary", said a letter from his department that had been sent to St Helens Town Hall.
However, Alderman Harold Rimmer, chairman of the Planning Committee, said he was convinced that the end of the fallout from the Sutton plant was in sight.
Addressing St Helens Town Council's monthly meeting this week, he said he felt the installation of a new cooling system at Leathers would stop sudden fractures of pipes that had previously caused sulphuric acid blowouts.
"When the new system is installed, no-one will realise Leathers is there," Ald. Rimmer optimistically remarked at the meeting, rejecting suggestions he or his committee were trying to hide anything.
However, Cllr. Ron Kerr was not satisfied, saying Ald. Rimmer was giving the impression the council was trying to sweep the issue under the carpet.
But it would be a while before the assurance could be tested, as the new cooling system planned for the sulphuric acid factory in Lancots Lane would not be in operation for about six months.
Well, this week the Reporter described its genesis when it was disclosed that Pilks planned to donate £25,000 to the town to mark the glass giant's 150th anniversary in 1976.
Lord Pilkington had written to the mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, suggesting the £25,000 be spent on a "water feature in some appropriate setting as an integral part of the town's development."
Cllr. Lycett's term as mayor was coming to an end and this week tributes were paid to him and his wife Wynne.
Ald. James Hand, the leader of the Conservative group on the council, said: "He has certainly been a with-it Mayor".
Allan Lycett's liking for golf and his singing wife had, according to the Reporter, made them "outstanding characters in the municipal year".
Plans to convert a disused railway line in Rainford into a linear park and a waste tip into a nature reserve were currently in their infancy.
The dump at Siding Lane was on the site of the former Rainford Colliery and could be quite problematic.
The Reporter disclosed that the latest incident there had involved the illegal dumping of fifty 45-gallon drums of chemical waste that had then been set alight.
A black column of acrid smoke hung over the tip for several days after the fire had broken out, with firemen and council workers fighting to keep the blaze under control.
Rainford Council's Chief Public Health Inspector, John Wilde, said:
"Whoever dumped the drums may have set them alight to try to destroy the labels. There were flames on two acres of the tip and it was still burning into the next week. Now we've covered the area with earth and I think the fire is out."
Several drums had exploded in the heat and a nearby wood had caught fire. Efforts were now underway to try and identify the culprits and initiate prosecutions.
The Reporter also described how a £200,000 boost would give Sutton Manor Colliery a new lease of life and save the mine from closure.
The Coal Board planned to use the cash injection to exploit virgin coal reserves at Barrows Green.
This would boost production by almost 2,000 tons a week, with Peter Tregnelles, Director of NCB North-Western Area, remarking:
"Without this injection of cash, the pit would have exhausted its workable reserves by 1980. The new seams are of good quality, and there is no reason why Sutton Manor should not continue to make a valuable contribution to the nation's energy needs for many years."
You wouldn't expect a senior police officer to use the word "diddy" when making a statement to the press – unless he was talking about Ken Dodd!
However, Chief Inspector Eric Fletcher used the word when telling the Reporter about reckless horse riders on Eccleston Fields, near where he lived. He said:
"I have seen five large horses galloping at full bore on the fields when children – little diddy ones – have been playing. Several residents have complained to me in my official capacity. People regularly exercise their dogs on the fields. It only needs a dog to go for one of these horses and there could be a tragedy."
At a meeting of Eccleston Parish Council, Cllr. Tom McCormack had said people had described the galloping on the fields as a "five furlong scatter".
Pressure was now building, said the Reporter, for horse riding to be banned on the fields.
It was announced this week that Rainford Carnival would not be taking place this year. The event's publicity officer, David Laycock, explained why:
"Almost a year's work goes into planning a carnival and as we've had three on the run, we thought we would give it a rest this year and arrange something different."
And so a three-day festival would be taking place instead starting on August 23rd.
The draft programme of events included a folk evening, cake competition, a performance by the Alex Welsh jazz band, a children's fancy dress competition, a display of Scottish dancing and a junior 'It's A Knockout'.
There was a picture of little Jenny Lamb in the Reporter. The three-year-old from Neville Avenue in Parr had been helping her mother do some mopping up when she got her thumb stuck in a bucket.
Mum Dorothy Lamb explained what happened: "We tried everything – soap, pliers – the lot. But after an hour or so we had to call the [fire] brigade. Now Jenny gives the bucket a wide berth."
On the 6th it was all change at the two St Helens cinemas. At the ABC Savoy 'Soldier Blue' starring Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss replaced 'Lady Caroline Lamb'.
And at the Capitol 'Dr. Phibes Rises Again' starring Vincent Price replaced 'Bonnie and Clyde'.
"Explore Britain By Train" was the headline to British Rail's advert in the Echo on the 7th that promised mystery trips for "those that like the unexpected".
At 9:42 am on both the following Saturday and Sunday, a train would stop at St Helens Junction and then pick up more passengers at Earlestown and Warrington Bank Quay.
Then it would go to ….somewhere. The only clue was the time it would take to get to the secret destination, which was nearly 2 hours from Bank Quay on the Saturday and just over an hour and a half on the Sunday.
You then had about seven hours to spend at your mystery destination before returning home. Prices were £1.50 for the Saturday trip and just £1 on the Sunday, with half-fare for children under 14.
And finally, a four-day auction of the contents of Windle Hall Farm took place from the 7th.
Mrs Margery Almond had lived at the farm since 1935 but was now leaving after the death of her husband and around 1,000 valuable items were up for grabs.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Grange Park geography lesson from the air, the mass escape of baboons from Knowsley Safari Park, Ashalls are fined for breaching Sunday trading laws and Lenny the Lion comes to Hamblett school.