FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 1 - 7 JULY 1974
This week's many stories include more on the pitched battle in Prescot that involved a shotgun and a flame thrower, why St Helens Council had dropped its High Court appeal against Leathers, NUPE consider a ban on private beds in St Helens and Whiston hospitals, a strike takes place at Rockware, the Cowley School Gala and how the writers of printable suggestions as to how St Helens Council could be improved could win a fiver.
We begin on July 1st when Rainhill Parish Council decided to donate £500 to the 1st and 2nd Rainhill Brownies and Guides Association to help their fundraising for a new headquarters. The full cost of the building on their present site in Old Lane would be £12,000 of which the Association's Parents Committee had already raised £1,000.
At the end of May St Helens Council had decided to appeal to the High Court against a recent decision by the Department of Environment to uphold Leathers Chemicals own appeal against two enforcement notices. The council had issued the notices as a result of numerous claims of atmospheric pollution by Leathers in Sutton. The intention of their action was to make it easier to prosecute the sulphuric acid factory if acid fallout incidents re-occurred.
But on the 2nd at a meeting with East Sutton Residents Association, the St Helens Planning Committee informed the campaigners that they had decided to drop their appeal. That had been on the ground that it could take many months for the court hearing to take place and the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, had told the committee that a Government Commission would visit St Helens soon to investigate. The Department of the Environment had signalled that while the council's appeal was ongoing, they could not take any action.
It was hoped that the plant could eventually be closed down. However, if that decision was ever taken, the local authority would have to pay a huge sum in compensation to the controversial chemicals company. At the meeting with 50 members of East Sutton Residents Association, Cllr Bill Paton, the chairman of the St Helens Planning Committee, stated that a figure as high as £10 million (about £150m in today's money) was feasible.
I did not know that Helena House used to have its own fish and chip shop. But Ian and Bessie McLeod certainly knew all about it! They were featured in the St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd complaining that the smells, noises and fumes from the chip shop invaded their terraced home in Bickerstaffe Street.
"The chip shop is open seven nights a week, and the noise goes on into the early hours so we can't get any rest," said Mr McLeod. "They not only bang things around but shout to each other at the top of their voices." He also complained of a permanent "chip shop" smell in his home that got worse throughout the day and that bags of rubbish from the shop were often put into a narrow entry attracting vermin.
On the 4th a coroner criticised staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital after they had failed to appreciate the worsening condition of a 4-year-old St Helens boy. Brendon Hudson of Darwin Grove in Thatto Heath had died through inhaling vomit and asphyxiating. The little lad had been suffering from gastro-enteritis but the senior house officer told the coroner that he had not been informed of the rapid deterioration in the boy's condition despite speaking to the ward by telephone three times on the day of his death.
If he or his colleagues had been informed, he said, specialist attention would have been directed to the child much earlier. Although medical negligence cases still occur today, of course, hospitals are far better at expressing sympathy and apologising to bereaved parents. When contacted by the St Helens Reporter a spokesman for Alder Hey said he had no comment to make on the case.
The Reporter on the 5th described how a boycott of treating private patients at both St Helens and Whiston hospitals could begin within the next few days. If a meeting of nurses decided on such an action, as was expected, it would form part of a national campaign organised by the National Union of Public Employees. At St Helens Hospital there were about 16 beds in a private block and six at Whiston, although only one bed there was presently occupied.
The paper also reported how over 4,000 people had attended a Donkey Derby at Rainhill Hospital. The event had been organised by Prescot Round Table in aid of the new HQ for Rainhill Guides and Brownies. About £1,000 was raised and as well as nine donkey races there had been music from Pemberton Old Band and many stalls and sideshows.
The Reporter also described how St Helens Council had approved a scheme to pay a £5 prize to any of their employees making "sensible suggestions" for improving the way the local authority was run. The paper said the idea should not be restricted to council staff, writing: "It ought to be open to those who pay for the council . . . YOU, the public." And so they were offering their own £5 prize for what they described as the "best printable suggestion" – implying that they might well receive some good suggestions for what should be done with the council that were not fit to print!
Also on the 5th more than 100 machine operators walked out of Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook (pictured above) because of a dispute over what was referred to as pay differentials. Glass sorters working on new machinery had been awarded a higher wage rate that would average about £45 per week. That had narrowed the pay gap between them and the machine operators.
The latter subsequently demanded a higher rate for themselves and in response Rockware management offered to increase the wages of a quarter of the operators to about £50. However, the union wanted the increase to apply to them all and so called a strike. David Shepherd was the factory's Operations Director and he said he would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work – and so there was presently stalemate.
The men who had been remanded in Huyton Magistrates Court last week as the consequence of a pitched battle in Prescot involving 40 people returned to court on the 5th. Fourteen police officers had been called to the incident in Shaw Lane in which a flamethrower and a shotgun were among the weapons used. Chief Inspector Bernard Roney told the court that an uneasy truce currently existed in Prescot after the incident caused by a long-standing feud between two factions. He explained:
"One of these groups comes from Huyton and the other from Prescot. There has been ill-feeling between them for some considerable time and the police were aware of the situation. A shotgun was fired and that seemed to have a calming effect. People were carrying staves of wood, hammers, bricks and chains, and a flame thrower was also being used." One of the defendants was charged with attempted murder and the others with using threatening behaviour and unlawfully fighting and making an affray. The case was adjourned for three more weeks.
The Liverpool Daily Post described on the 5th how a former Whiston Hospital doctor had been gunned down in a New York hotel in a botched robbery attempt. Dr Philip Gett had only left Prescot last weekend to begin an American lecture tour and while at Whiston had conducted lifesaving research into respiratory diseases.
It was the Cowley School Gala at Hard Lane on the 6th and according to their advert in the Reporter there was a lot to see. The attractions included fire eating and sword swallowing, inter-schools athletics, a cartoon festival, a fashion show by Oxleys, a puppet spectacular, a cosmetics demonstration by Boots, a pet show, model exhibitions, army displays, Battle of Waterloo war games and a pet stall courtesy of Sutton Corn Stores. Admission was free for children and only 10p for adults.
Also on the 6th, six hundred persons, mainly schoolchildren, from St Theresa's in Sutton Manor took part in their annual walk. The event finished with a gala on the St Theresa's church field.
On the 7th Lord and Lady Pilkington's gardens at their Windle Hall home were opened to the public. Proceeds from the annual event went to the Retired District Nurses' Benevolent Fund.
From the same day the ABC Savoy began screening 'Serpico' starring Al Pacino with the Capitol showing a film called 'King Of Kung Fu'. The Capitol's Reporter advert was also inviting cinemagoers to book for a "special presentation" of 'Woodstock' on the 17th, which it described as "4 days of peace, music and love".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the death of sports shop owner Ben Brooks, Pilks' plans for a huge float glass plant in Gorsey Lane, a gas blast in Eccleston and concerns are raised over the closing of the fire brigade's control room in St Helens.
We begin on July 1st when Rainhill Parish Council decided to donate £500 to the 1st and 2nd Rainhill Brownies and Guides Association to help their fundraising for a new headquarters. The full cost of the building on their present site in Old Lane would be £12,000 of which the Association's Parents Committee had already raised £1,000.
At the end of May St Helens Council had decided to appeal to the High Court against a recent decision by the Department of Environment to uphold Leathers Chemicals own appeal against two enforcement notices. The council had issued the notices as a result of numerous claims of atmospheric pollution by Leathers in Sutton. The intention of their action was to make it easier to prosecute the sulphuric acid factory if acid fallout incidents re-occurred.
But on the 2nd at a meeting with East Sutton Residents Association, the St Helens Planning Committee informed the campaigners that they had decided to drop their appeal. That had been on the ground that it could take many months for the court hearing to take place and the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, had told the committee that a Government Commission would visit St Helens soon to investigate. The Department of the Environment had signalled that while the council's appeal was ongoing, they could not take any action.
It was hoped that the plant could eventually be closed down. However, if that decision was ever taken, the local authority would have to pay a huge sum in compensation to the controversial chemicals company. At the meeting with 50 members of East Sutton Residents Association, Cllr Bill Paton, the chairman of the St Helens Planning Committee, stated that a figure as high as £10 million (about £150m in today's money) was feasible.
"The chip shop is open seven nights a week, and the noise goes on into the early hours so we can't get any rest," said Mr McLeod. "They not only bang things around but shout to each other at the top of their voices." He also complained of a permanent "chip shop" smell in his home that got worse throughout the day and that bags of rubbish from the shop were often put into a narrow entry attracting vermin.
On the 4th a coroner criticised staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital after they had failed to appreciate the worsening condition of a 4-year-old St Helens boy. Brendon Hudson of Darwin Grove in Thatto Heath had died through inhaling vomit and asphyxiating. The little lad had been suffering from gastro-enteritis but the senior house officer told the coroner that he had not been informed of the rapid deterioration in the boy's condition despite speaking to the ward by telephone three times on the day of his death.
If he or his colleagues had been informed, he said, specialist attention would have been directed to the child much earlier. Although medical negligence cases still occur today, of course, hospitals are far better at expressing sympathy and apologising to bereaved parents. When contacted by the St Helens Reporter a spokesman for Alder Hey said he had no comment to make on the case.
The Reporter on the 5th described how a boycott of treating private patients at both St Helens and Whiston hospitals could begin within the next few days. If a meeting of nurses decided on such an action, as was expected, it would form part of a national campaign organised by the National Union of Public Employees. At St Helens Hospital there were about 16 beds in a private block and six at Whiston, although only one bed there was presently occupied.
The paper also reported how over 4,000 people had attended a Donkey Derby at Rainhill Hospital. The event had been organised by Prescot Round Table in aid of the new HQ for Rainhill Guides and Brownies. About £1,000 was raised and as well as nine donkey races there had been music from Pemberton Old Band and many stalls and sideshows.
The Reporter also described how St Helens Council had approved a scheme to pay a £5 prize to any of their employees making "sensible suggestions" for improving the way the local authority was run. The paper said the idea should not be restricted to council staff, writing: "It ought to be open to those who pay for the council . . . YOU, the public." And so they were offering their own £5 prize for what they described as the "best printable suggestion" – implying that they might well receive some good suggestions for what should be done with the council that were not fit to print!
The latter subsequently demanded a higher rate for themselves and in response Rockware management offered to increase the wages of a quarter of the operators to about £50. However, the union wanted the increase to apply to them all and so called a strike. David Shepherd was the factory's Operations Director and he said he would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work – and so there was presently stalemate.
The men who had been remanded in Huyton Magistrates Court last week as the consequence of a pitched battle in Prescot involving 40 people returned to court on the 5th. Fourteen police officers had been called to the incident in Shaw Lane in which a flamethrower and a shotgun were among the weapons used. Chief Inspector Bernard Roney told the court that an uneasy truce currently existed in Prescot after the incident caused by a long-standing feud between two factions. He explained:
"One of these groups comes from Huyton and the other from Prescot. There has been ill-feeling between them for some considerable time and the police were aware of the situation. A shotgun was fired and that seemed to have a calming effect. People were carrying staves of wood, hammers, bricks and chains, and a flame thrower was also being used." One of the defendants was charged with attempted murder and the others with using threatening behaviour and unlawfully fighting and making an affray. The case was adjourned for three more weeks.
The Liverpool Daily Post described on the 5th how a former Whiston Hospital doctor had been gunned down in a New York hotel in a botched robbery attempt. Dr Philip Gett had only left Prescot last weekend to begin an American lecture tour and while at Whiston had conducted lifesaving research into respiratory diseases.
It was the Cowley School Gala at Hard Lane on the 6th and according to their advert in the Reporter there was a lot to see. The attractions included fire eating and sword swallowing, inter-schools athletics, a cartoon festival, a fashion show by Oxleys, a puppet spectacular, a cosmetics demonstration by Boots, a pet show, model exhibitions, army displays, Battle of Waterloo war games and a pet stall courtesy of Sutton Corn Stores. Admission was free for children and only 10p for adults.
Also on the 6th, six hundred persons, mainly schoolchildren, from St Theresa's in Sutton Manor took part in their annual walk. The event finished with a gala on the St Theresa's church field.
On the 7th Lord and Lady Pilkington's gardens at their Windle Hall home were opened to the public. Proceeds from the annual event went to the Retired District Nurses' Benevolent Fund.
From the same day the ABC Savoy began screening 'Serpico' starring Al Pacino with the Capitol showing a film called 'King Of Kung Fu'. The Capitol's Reporter advert was also inviting cinemagoers to book for a "special presentation" of 'Woodstock' on the 17th, which it described as "4 days of peace, music and love".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the death of sports shop owner Ben Brooks, Pilks' plans for a huge float glass plant in Gorsey Lane, a gas blast in Eccleston and concerns are raised over the closing of the fire brigade's control room in St Helens.
This week's many stories include more on the pitched battle in Prescot that involved a shotgun and a flame thrower, why St Helens Council had dropped its High Court appeal against Leathers, NUPE consider a ban on private beds in St Helens and Whiston hospitals, a strike takes place at Rockware, the Cowley School Gala and how the writers of printable suggestions as to how St Helens Council could be improved could win a fiver.
We begin on July 1st when Rainhill Parish Council decided to donate £500 to the 1st and 2nd Rainhill Brownies and Guides Association to help their fundraising for a new headquarters.
The full cost of the building on their present site in Old Lane would be £12,000 of which the Association's Parents Committee had already raised £1,000.
At the end of May St Helens Council had decided to appeal to the High Court against a recent decision by the Department of Environment to uphold Leathers Chemicals own appeal against two enforcement notices.
The council had issued the notices as a result of numerous claims of atmospheric pollution by Leathers in Sutton.
The intention of their action was to make it easier to prosecute the sulphuric acid factory if acid fallout incidents re-occurred.
But on the 2nd at a meeting with East Sutton Residents Association, the St Helens Planning Committee informed the campaigners that they had decided to drop their appeal.
That had been on the ground that it could take many months for the court hearing to take place and the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, had told the committee that a Government Commission would visit St Helens soon to investigate.
The Department of the Environment had signalled that while the council's appeal was ongoing, they could not take any action.
It was hoped that the plant could eventually be closed down. However, if that decision was ever taken, the local authority would have to pay a huge sum in compensation to the controversial chemicals company.
At the meeting with 50 members of East Sutton Residents Association, Cllr Bill Paton, the chairman of the St Helens Planning Committee, stated that a figure as high as £10 million (about £150m in today's money) was feasible.
I did not know that Helena House used to have its own fish and chip shop. But Ian and Bessie McLeod certainly knew all about it!
They were featured in the St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd complaining that the smells, noises and fumes from the chip shop invaded their terraced home in Bickerstaffe Street.
"The chip shop is open seven nights a week, and the noise goes on into the early hours so we can't get any rest," said Mr McLeod.
"They not only bang things around but shout to each other at the top of their voices."
He also complained of a permanent "chip shop" smell in his home that got worse throughout the day and that bags of rubbish from the shop were often put into a narrow entry attracting vermin.
On the 4th a coroner criticised staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital after they had failed to appreciate the worsening condition of a 4-year-old St Helens boy.
Brendon Hudson of Darwin Grove in Thatto Heath had died through inhaling vomit and asphyxiating.
The little lad had been suffering from gastro-enteritis but the senior house officer told the coroner that he had not been informed of the rapid deterioration in the boy's condition despite speaking to the ward by telephone three times on the day of his death.
If he or his colleagues had been informed, he said, specialist attention would have been directed to the child much earlier.
Although medical negligence cases still occur today, of course, hospitals are far better at expressing sympathy and apologising to bereaved parents.
When contacted by the St Helens Reporter a spokesman for Alder Hey said he had no comment to make on the case.
The Reporter on the 5th described how a boycott of treating private patients at both St Helens and Whiston hospitals could begin within the next few days.
If a meeting of nurses decided on such an action, as was expected, it would form part of a national campaign organised by the National Union of Public Employees.
At St Helens Hospital there were about 16 beds in a private block and six at Whiston, although only one bed there was presently occupied.
The paper also reported how over 4,000 people had attended a Donkey Derby at Rainhill Hospital.
The event had been organised by Prescot Round Table in aid of the new HQ for Rainhill Guides and Brownies.
About £1,000 was raised and as well as nine donkey races there had been music from Pemberton Old Band and many stalls and sideshows.
The Reporter also described how St Helens Council had approved a scheme to pay a £5 prize to any of their employees making "sensible suggestions" for improving the way the local authority was run.
The paper said the idea should not be restricted to council staff, writing: "It ought to be open to those who pay for the council . . . YOU, the public."
And so they were offering their own £5 prize for what they described as the "best printable suggestion" – implying that they might well receive some good suggestions for what should be done with the council that were not fit to print!
Also on the 5th more than 100 machine operators walked out of Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook (pictured above) because of a dispute over what was referred to as pay differentials.
Glass sorters working on new machinery had been awarded a higher wage rate that would average about £45 per week. That had narrowed the pay gap between them and the machine operators.
The latter subsequently demanded a higher rate for themselves and in response Rockware management offered to increase the wages of a quarter of the operators to about £50.
However, the union wanted the increase to apply to them all and so called a strike.
David Shepherd was the factory's Operations Director and he said he would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work – and so there was presently stalemate.
The men who had been remanded in Huyton Magistrates Court last week as the consequence of a pitched battle in Prescot involving 40 people returned to court on the 5th.
Fourteen police officers had been called to the incident in Shaw Lane in which a flamethrower and a shotgun were among the weapons used.
Chief Inspector Bernard Roney told the court that an uneasy truce currently existed in Prescot after the incident caused by a long-standing feud between two factions. He explained:
"One of these groups comes from Huyton and the other from Prescot. There has been ill-feeling between them for some considerable time and the police were aware of the situation.
"A shotgun was fired and that seemed to have a calming effect. People were carrying staves of wood, hammers, bricks and chains, and a flame thrower was also being used."
One of the defendants was charged with attempted murder and the others with using threatening behaviour and unlawfully fighting and making an affray. The case was adjourned for three more weeks.
The Liverpool Daily Post described on the 5th how a former Whiston Hospital doctor had been gunned down in a New York hotel in a botched robbery attempt.
Dr Philip Gett had only left Prescot last weekend to begin an American lecture tour and while at Whiston had conducted lifesaving research into respiratory diseases.
It was the Cowley School Gala at Hard Lane on the 6th and according to their advert in the Reporter there was a lot to see.
The attractions included fire eating and sword swallowing, inter-schools athletics, a cartoon festival, a fashion show by Oxleys, a puppet spectacular, a cosmetics demonstration by Boots, a pet show, model exhibitions, army displays, Battle of Waterloo war games and a pet stall courtesy of Sutton Corn Stores.
Admission was free for children and only 10p for adults.
Also on the 6th, six hundred persons, mainly schoolchildren, from St Theresa's in Sutton Manor took part in their annual walk. The event finished with a gala on the St Theresa's church field.
On the 7th Lord and Lady Pilkington's gardens at their Windle Hall home were opened to the public.
Proceeds from the annual event went to the Retired District Nurses' Benevolent Fund.
From the same day the ABC Savoy began screening 'Serpico' starring Al Pacino with the Capitol showing a film called 'King Of Kung Fu'.
The Capitol's Reporter advert was also inviting cinemagoers to book for a "special presentation" of 'Woodstock' on the 17th, which it described as "4 days of peace, music and love".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the death of sports shop owner Ben Brooks, Pilks' plans for a huge float glass plant in Gorsey Lane, a gas blast in Eccleston and concerns are raised over the closing of the fire brigade's control room in St Helens.
We begin on July 1st when Rainhill Parish Council decided to donate £500 to the 1st and 2nd Rainhill Brownies and Guides Association to help their fundraising for a new headquarters.
The full cost of the building on their present site in Old Lane would be £12,000 of which the Association's Parents Committee had already raised £1,000.
At the end of May St Helens Council had decided to appeal to the High Court against a recent decision by the Department of Environment to uphold Leathers Chemicals own appeal against two enforcement notices.
The council had issued the notices as a result of numerous claims of atmospheric pollution by Leathers in Sutton.
The intention of their action was to make it easier to prosecute the sulphuric acid factory if acid fallout incidents re-occurred.
But on the 2nd at a meeting with East Sutton Residents Association, the St Helens Planning Committee informed the campaigners that they had decided to drop their appeal.
That had been on the ground that it could take many months for the court hearing to take place and the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, had told the committee that a Government Commission would visit St Helens soon to investigate.
The Department of the Environment had signalled that while the council's appeal was ongoing, they could not take any action.
It was hoped that the plant could eventually be closed down. However, if that decision was ever taken, the local authority would have to pay a huge sum in compensation to the controversial chemicals company.
At the meeting with 50 members of East Sutton Residents Association, Cllr Bill Paton, the chairman of the St Helens Planning Committee, stated that a figure as high as £10 million (about £150m in today's money) was feasible.
They were featured in the St Helens Newspaper on the 2nd complaining that the smells, noises and fumes from the chip shop invaded their terraced home in Bickerstaffe Street.
"The chip shop is open seven nights a week, and the noise goes on into the early hours so we can't get any rest," said Mr McLeod.
"They not only bang things around but shout to each other at the top of their voices."
He also complained of a permanent "chip shop" smell in his home that got worse throughout the day and that bags of rubbish from the shop were often put into a narrow entry attracting vermin.
On the 4th a coroner criticised staff at Alder Hey Children's Hospital after they had failed to appreciate the worsening condition of a 4-year-old St Helens boy.
Brendon Hudson of Darwin Grove in Thatto Heath had died through inhaling vomit and asphyxiating.
The little lad had been suffering from gastro-enteritis but the senior house officer told the coroner that he had not been informed of the rapid deterioration in the boy's condition despite speaking to the ward by telephone three times on the day of his death.
If he or his colleagues had been informed, he said, specialist attention would have been directed to the child much earlier.
Although medical negligence cases still occur today, of course, hospitals are far better at expressing sympathy and apologising to bereaved parents.
When contacted by the St Helens Reporter a spokesman for Alder Hey said he had no comment to make on the case.
The Reporter on the 5th described how a boycott of treating private patients at both St Helens and Whiston hospitals could begin within the next few days.
If a meeting of nurses decided on such an action, as was expected, it would form part of a national campaign organised by the National Union of Public Employees.
At St Helens Hospital there were about 16 beds in a private block and six at Whiston, although only one bed there was presently occupied.
The paper also reported how over 4,000 people had attended a Donkey Derby at Rainhill Hospital.
The event had been organised by Prescot Round Table in aid of the new HQ for Rainhill Guides and Brownies.
About £1,000 was raised and as well as nine donkey races there had been music from Pemberton Old Band and many stalls and sideshows.
The Reporter also described how St Helens Council had approved a scheme to pay a £5 prize to any of their employees making "sensible suggestions" for improving the way the local authority was run.
The paper said the idea should not be restricted to council staff, writing: "It ought to be open to those who pay for the council . . . YOU, the public."
And so they were offering their own £5 prize for what they described as the "best printable suggestion" – implying that they might well receive some good suggestions for what should be done with the council that were not fit to print!
Also on the 5th more than 100 machine operators walked out of Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook (pictured above) because of a dispute over what was referred to as pay differentials.
Glass sorters working on new machinery had been awarded a higher wage rate that would average about £45 per week. That had narrowed the pay gap between them and the machine operators.
The latter subsequently demanded a higher rate for themselves and in response Rockware management offered to increase the wages of a quarter of the operators to about £50.
However, the union wanted the increase to apply to them all and so called a strike.
David Shepherd was the factory's Operations Director and he said he would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work – and so there was presently stalemate.
The men who had been remanded in Huyton Magistrates Court last week as the consequence of a pitched battle in Prescot involving 40 people returned to court on the 5th.
Fourteen police officers had been called to the incident in Shaw Lane in which a flamethrower and a shotgun were among the weapons used.
Chief Inspector Bernard Roney told the court that an uneasy truce currently existed in Prescot after the incident caused by a long-standing feud between two factions. He explained:
"One of these groups comes from Huyton and the other from Prescot. There has been ill-feeling between them for some considerable time and the police were aware of the situation.
"A shotgun was fired and that seemed to have a calming effect. People were carrying staves of wood, hammers, bricks and chains, and a flame thrower was also being used."
One of the defendants was charged with attempted murder and the others with using threatening behaviour and unlawfully fighting and making an affray. The case was adjourned for three more weeks.
The Liverpool Daily Post described on the 5th how a former Whiston Hospital doctor had been gunned down in a New York hotel in a botched robbery attempt.
Dr Philip Gett had only left Prescot last weekend to begin an American lecture tour and while at Whiston had conducted lifesaving research into respiratory diseases.
It was the Cowley School Gala at Hard Lane on the 6th and according to their advert in the Reporter there was a lot to see.
The attractions included fire eating and sword swallowing, inter-schools athletics, a cartoon festival, a fashion show by Oxleys, a puppet spectacular, a cosmetics demonstration by Boots, a pet show, model exhibitions, army displays, Battle of Waterloo war games and a pet stall courtesy of Sutton Corn Stores.
Admission was free for children and only 10p for adults.
Also on the 6th, six hundred persons, mainly schoolchildren, from St Theresa's in Sutton Manor took part in their annual walk. The event finished with a gala on the St Theresa's church field.
On the 7th Lord and Lady Pilkington's gardens at their Windle Hall home were opened to the public.
Proceeds from the annual event went to the Retired District Nurses' Benevolent Fund.
From the same day the ABC Savoy began screening 'Serpico' starring Al Pacino with the Capitol showing a film called 'King Of Kung Fu'.
The Capitol's Reporter advert was also inviting cinemagoers to book for a "special presentation" of 'Woodstock' on the 17th, which it described as "4 days of peace, music and love".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the death of sports shop owner Ben Brooks, Pilks' plans for a huge float glass plant in Gorsey Lane, a gas blast in Eccleston and concerns are raised over the closing of the fire brigade's control room in St Helens.