FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th FEBRUARY 1970)
This week's stories include vandalism at Allanson Street School, a new maternity unit for Whiston Hospital, what St Helens' folk think of sending Valentines, the Television Toppers dance group are in Prescot Road, a profile of conductresses on St Helens' buses, the new Century House prepares for occupation and the drunken driver that went through traffic lights on red at Windle Island and Moss Bank with a wheel missing!
We begin on the 3rd when a two-day unofficial strike by Pilkington's lorry drivers came to an end. They'd stopped work out of concern they'd lose pay when a Government regulation came into effect limiting the maximum number of driving hours to 60.
An inquest held on the 3rd was told a man had thought he'd seen an abandoned Guy Fawkes in a field near the East Lancs at Windle while out with his dog. A few hours later Geoffrey Whitehouse decided to return to the spot and he found that the pair of trouser legs was in fact the body of a man. The inquest was told that it was 63-year-old Charles Featherstone from Speakman Road who had been missing for three months. A pathologist said the cause of death could not be determined due to the decomposed state of the body and so an open verdict was returned.
St Helens Town Council announced this week that they planned to increase the rent on their 12,000 homes. The rent rise – the first in three years – would vary according to property and be between 2 shillings and 19s. 7d. per week. The minimum weekly rent on a one-bedroom flat would now be £1 and at the other end of the scale, a three-bedroom council house with central heating would cost up to £3 15 shillings per week.
Another announcement from the council was that the new municipal offices on the site of the former Hardshaw Street car park would be ready for occupation in a fortnight's time. The Engineer's department would be the first to transfer from the Town Hall to the nine-storey office block, followed by the Treasurer's and Education departments. The £300,000 building had yet to be named. However it would be called Century House in recognition of the borough centenary celebrations of 1968 when construction work first began.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 6th and described how vandals and thieves had struck at Allanson Street School three times during the previous three weeks. However headmaster Thomas Twist praised two of his pupils for scaring off some intruders. They were 8-year-old Ian Marsh and his 10-year-old pal Mark Anders who both lived in nearby Somerset Street. The pair had been playing near the school on a Sunday when they saw some youngsters inside the building. So they ran to a nearby shop and asked the owner to call the police.
Ian and Mark also went to a school cleaner's home and alerted her. Within minutes three Panda cars were on the scene but just missed the intruders. The headmaster's desk had been smashed open and brass locks on the cupboards in his room had been broken as the thieves made an unsuccessful search for cash. Unfortunately the cable operating a tropical fish tank was cut and about 15 fish died. "It sticks in my gullet", said Mr Twist, "when I think of people doing things like this. The children got a lot of fun out of the fish."
Last week I stated that John Henderson had been fighting proposals to set up a permanent gipsy camp off Sherdley Road. The landlord of the Pig and Whistle was demanding that the camp be "put well away from people's homes". This was after Reginald Road residents had repeatedly complained about the behaviour of the gipsies on their doorstep. In this week's paper Susan Turpee of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath had a letter published in the paper which took the opposite view:
"I live on the new estate he mentioned, but am not among his supporters. Having lived near a pub for several years, I can't imagine that a gipsy camp could disturb the surrounding householders any more than one of these establishments. Gipsies, incidentally, are people too. I wonder if it would be worth bringing Mr. Henderson's activities to the notice of the Race Relations Board. He really does sound rather prejudiced."
There was also a letter in support of the police after William Barrow had in last week's paper blamed Panda cars for a crime wave in the town. Mr J. O’Grady from North Road thought that the General Manager of Hart's Stores and former President of the St Helens Chamber of Trade was on the wrong track:
"I have never heard such utter rubbish as spoken by Mr. Barrow when he says the Panda cars are to blame for all the crime. I suggest he starts at the real causes of the increase of crime, the courts and magistrates who, instead of dealing out punishment, deal out sympathy and all this pat-on-the-back and fatherly talk. As a manager myself of a large store, I suggest he does what I do – employ dogs. I have had dogs for years in my stores at night, and woe betide anyone who breaks in my place at night. I say leave the police alone. They are overworked and under strength as it is."
I've always thought of TIM as being what you dialled to hear "at the third stroke…" from the GPO's Speaking Clock. However the Reporter revealed that it was also an acronym for "Ticket Issuing Machine" as they profiled the work of conductresses on St Helens' buses. The paper appeared to be doing their bit to boost recruitment of the under-strength service as they stated that the 65 conductresses employed by St Helens Corporation received good pay. Their wages averaged £17 per week and "on top of that they get smart, made-to-measure uniforms every 12 months, free travel, generous bonus schemes and holidays."
Hilda Garner from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had been on the buses in St Helens for 14 years. "I love this job", said the 52-year-old. "I suppose it is because I meet so many different people every day. We never know what one day is going to bring, so it is quite exciting. The good conductress should be smart and always polite to her passengers. But I think above anything else she should have a sense of humour."
All prospective conductors and conductresses had a week's training before starting work and 27-year-old Ann Rogers from Chancery Lane said she met her future husband in the classroom. Edward Rogers would become a driver and for five years the couple had been partners on the same bus with Ann working as conductress.
On the front page of the St Helens Reporter there was a photograph of the dancers known as 'The Television Toppers' (pictured above) who were appearing in Liverpool with the Black and White Minstrels. This is part of the caption: "A group of the gorgeous dollies took time off from rehearsals at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool, to take a trip round the Pilkington Glass Museum. Almost half of the 65-strong cast visited the museum and the male staff at Pilkington's head office crammed the windows trying to catch a glimpse of those famous legs."
With February 14th just a week away, the Reporter's 'What People Think' column chose St Valentine's Day as this week's subject. However there was little romance in the air as every person that the paper spoke to on the streets thought sending cards to be a joke and waste of hard-earned cash. Student Carol Nash from Marsland Grove in Sutton said some of her friends at the art school did send Valentine cards but not many. The 18-year-old added that she stopped sending cards two years ago when she met her present boyfriend. "We both think that when you are going steady, card-buying is just a waste of money", she said.
However sending a Valentine's card appeared to have had a positive result for Ann Melding from College Street. The 25-year-old revealed that she had only sent one card in her life when aged 14 and that was to the boy who became her husband. "I only send them for a laugh now", said Mrs Melding. "It's a waste of money isn't it? I don't think many people bother to send them any more."
The Reporter added to the embarrassment of Billy Jackson of Archer Grove in Parr. The paper described how the 30-year-old glassworker had gone onto the roof of his house to change the position of a television aerial wire. All went well until Billy tried to come down and found his feet slithering about. So he had to sit astride the apex of the roof for half-an-hour until the fire brigade arrived and brought him down.
During the evenings of the 6th and 7th, the Sutton Parish Drama Group presented 'Pools Paradise' in the Parish Hall in New Street. Both the vicar and his wife had parts in the play. The Rev. Paul Conder played the role of a bishop and Lesley Conder played the wife of a vicar – a role that should have been easy for her!
On the 7th the Liverpool Echo wrote that work would begin at the end of February on a new maternity unit for Whiston Hospital. The existing ward had 73 beds and would close when the new 160-bed unit opened, which was scheduled for January 1972. The cost would be £820,000 – about £13 million in today's money – and upon completion the 50-bed Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital would close.
For six days from the 9th, Disney's 'The Love Bug' was screened at the Capitol and 'The Magic Christian' starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr was shown at the ABC Savoy.
And finally on the 9th St Helens Magistrates fined a driver from Ashton-in-Makerfield £120 and banned him from the road for a year. This was after he admitted driving at 60 mph through the traffic lights on the East Lancs at Windle island, while being over the limit and with one of his front wheels missing! The Reporter wrote: "On three wheels, the swerving car went through two sets of traffic lights at 60 m.p.h. Sparks and flames shot up as the brake drum from the missing wheel touched the road." When the driver was finally stopped he told the policeman who arrested him: "What's the matter? Have you no sense of adventure?"
Next week's stories will include the first ever strike at Stoves in Rainhill, a street in Parr is labelled "squalor row", a profile of the telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange, the ABC Minors Club at the Capitol and the record-breaking Bold Colliery.
We begin on the 3rd when a two-day unofficial strike by Pilkington's lorry drivers came to an end. They'd stopped work out of concern they'd lose pay when a Government regulation came into effect limiting the maximum number of driving hours to 60.
An inquest held on the 3rd was told a man had thought he'd seen an abandoned Guy Fawkes in a field near the East Lancs at Windle while out with his dog. A few hours later Geoffrey Whitehouse decided to return to the spot and he found that the pair of trouser legs was in fact the body of a man. The inquest was told that it was 63-year-old Charles Featherstone from Speakman Road who had been missing for three months. A pathologist said the cause of death could not be determined due to the decomposed state of the body and so an open verdict was returned.
St Helens Town Council announced this week that they planned to increase the rent on their 12,000 homes. The rent rise – the first in three years – would vary according to property and be between 2 shillings and 19s. 7d. per week. The minimum weekly rent on a one-bedroom flat would now be £1 and at the other end of the scale, a three-bedroom council house with central heating would cost up to £3 15 shillings per week.
Century House in St Helens on the site of the former Hardshaw Street car park and used as municipal offices
Century House on the site of the former Hardshaw Street car park
Century House in Hardshaw Street
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 6th and described how vandals and thieves had struck at Allanson Street School three times during the previous three weeks. However headmaster Thomas Twist praised two of his pupils for scaring off some intruders. They were 8-year-old Ian Marsh and his 10-year-old pal Mark Anders who both lived in nearby Somerset Street. The pair had been playing near the school on a Sunday when they saw some youngsters inside the building. So they ran to a nearby shop and asked the owner to call the police.
Ian and Mark also went to a school cleaner's home and alerted her. Within minutes three Panda cars were on the scene but just missed the intruders. The headmaster's desk had been smashed open and brass locks on the cupboards in his room had been broken as the thieves made an unsuccessful search for cash. Unfortunately the cable operating a tropical fish tank was cut and about 15 fish died. "It sticks in my gullet", said Mr Twist, "when I think of people doing things like this. The children got a lot of fun out of the fish."
Last week I stated that John Henderson had been fighting proposals to set up a permanent gipsy camp off Sherdley Road. The landlord of the Pig and Whistle was demanding that the camp be "put well away from people's homes". This was after Reginald Road residents had repeatedly complained about the behaviour of the gipsies on their doorstep. In this week's paper Susan Turpee of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath had a letter published in the paper which took the opposite view:
"I live on the new estate he mentioned, but am not among his supporters. Having lived near a pub for several years, I can't imagine that a gipsy camp could disturb the surrounding householders any more than one of these establishments. Gipsies, incidentally, are people too. I wonder if it would be worth bringing Mr. Henderson's activities to the notice of the Race Relations Board. He really does sound rather prejudiced."
There was also a letter in support of the police after William Barrow had in last week's paper blamed Panda cars for a crime wave in the town. Mr J. O’Grady from North Road thought that the General Manager of Hart's Stores and former President of the St Helens Chamber of Trade was on the wrong track:
"I have never heard such utter rubbish as spoken by Mr. Barrow when he says the Panda cars are to blame for all the crime. I suggest he starts at the real causes of the increase of crime, the courts and magistrates who, instead of dealing out punishment, deal out sympathy and all this pat-on-the-back and fatherly talk. As a manager myself of a large store, I suggest he does what I do – employ dogs. I have had dogs for years in my stores at night, and woe betide anyone who breaks in my place at night. I say leave the police alone. They are overworked and under strength as it is."
I've always thought of TIM as being what you dialled to hear "at the third stroke…" from the GPO's Speaking Clock. However the Reporter revealed that it was also an acronym for "Ticket Issuing Machine" as they profiled the work of conductresses on St Helens' buses. The paper appeared to be doing their bit to boost recruitment of the under-strength service as they stated that the 65 conductresses employed by St Helens Corporation received good pay. Their wages averaged £17 per week and "on top of that they get smart, made-to-measure uniforms every 12 months, free travel, generous bonus schemes and holidays."
Hilda Garner from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had been on the buses in St Helens for 14 years. "I love this job", said the 52-year-old. "I suppose it is because I meet so many different people every day. We never know what one day is going to bring, so it is quite exciting. The good conductress should be smart and always polite to her passengers. But I think above anything else she should have a sense of humour."
All prospective conductors and conductresses had a week's training before starting work and 27-year-old Ann Rogers from Chancery Lane said she met her future husband in the classroom. Edward Rogers would become a driver and for five years the couple had been partners on the same bus with Ann working as conductress.
With February 14th just a week away, the Reporter's 'What People Think' column chose St Valentine's Day as this week's subject. However there was little romance in the air as every person that the paper spoke to on the streets thought sending cards to be a joke and waste of hard-earned cash. Student Carol Nash from Marsland Grove in Sutton said some of her friends at the art school did send Valentine cards but not many. The 18-year-old added that she stopped sending cards two years ago when she met her present boyfriend. "We both think that when you are going steady, card-buying is just a waste of money", she said.
However sending a Valentine's card appeared to have had a positive result for Ann Melding from College Street. The 25-year-old revealed that she had only sent one card in her life when aged 14 and that was to the boy who became her husband. "I only send them for a laugh now", said Mrs Melding. "It's a waste of money isn't it? I don't think many people bother to send them any more."
The Reporter added to the embarrassment of Billy Jackson of Archer Grove in Parr. The paper described how the 30-year-old glassworker had gone onto the roof of his house to change the position of a television aerial wire. All went well until Billy tried to come down and found his feet slithering about. So he had to sit astride the apex of the roof for half-an-hour until the fire brigade arrived and brought him down.
During the evenings of the 6th and 7th, the Sutton Parish Drama Group presented 'Pools Paradise' in the Parish Hall in New Street. Both the vicar and his wife had parts in the play. The Rev. Paul Conder played the role of a bishop and Lesley Conder played the wife of a vicar – a role that should have been easy for her!
On the 7th the Liverpool Echo wrote that work would begin at the end of February on a new maternity unit for Whiston Hospital. The existing ward had 73 beds and would close when the new 160-bed unit opened, which was scheduled for January 1972. The cost would be £820,000 – about £13 million in today's money – and upon completion the 50-bed Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital would close.
For six days from the 9th, Disney's 'The Love Bug' was screened at the Capitol and 'The Magic Christian' starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr was shown at the ABC Savoy.
And finally on the 9th St Helens Magistrates fined a driver from Ashton-in-Makerfield £120 and banned him from the road for a year. This was after he admitted driving at 60 mph through the traffic lights on the East Lancs at Windle island, while being over the limit and with one of his front wheels missing! The Reporter wrote: "On three wheels, the swerving car went through two sets of traffic lights at 60 m.p.h. Sparks and flames shot up as the brake drum from the missing wheel touched the road." When the driver was finally stopped he told the policeman who arrested him: "What's the matter? Have you no sense of adventure?"
Next week's stories will include the first ever strike at Stoves in Rainhill, a street in Parr is labelled "squalor row", a profile of the telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange, the ABC Minors Club at the Capitol and the record-breaking Bold Colliery.
This week's stories include vandalism at Allanson Street School, a new maternity unit for Whiston Hospital, what St Helens' folk thought of sending Valentines, support for the Sherdley Road gipsy camp, a profile of conductresses on St Helens' buses and the new Century House is ready for occupation.
We begin on the 3rd when a two-day unofficial strike by Pilkington's lorry drivers came to an end.
They'd stopped work out of concern they'd lose pay when a Government regulation came into effect limiting the maximum number of driving hours to 60.
An inquest held on the 3rd was told a man had thought he'd seen an abandoned Guy Fawkes in a field near the East Lancs at Windle while out with his dog.
A few hours later Geoffrey Whitehouse decided to return to the spot and he found that the pair of trouser legs was in fact the body of a man.
The inquest was told that it was 63-year-old Charles Featherstone from Speakman Road who had been missing for three months.
A pathologist said the cause of death could not be determined due to the decomposed state of the body and so an open verdict was returned.
St Helens Town Council announced this week that they planned to increase the rent on their 12,000 homes.
The rent rise – the first in three years – would vary according to property and be between 2 shillings and 19s. 7d. per week.
The minimum weekly rent on a one-bedroom flat would now be £1 and at the other end of the scale, a three-bedroom council house with central heating would cost up to £3 15 shillings per week.
Another announcement from the council was that the new municipal offices on the site of the former Hardshaw Street car park would be ready for occupation in a fortnight's time.
The Engineer's department would be the first to transfer from the Town Hall to the nine-storey office block, followed by the Treasurer's and Education departments.
The £300,000 building had yet to be named. However it would be called Century House in recognition of the borough centenary celebrations of 1968 when construction work first began.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 6th and described how vandals and thieves had struck at Allanson Street School three times during the previous three weeks.
However headmaster Thomas Twist praised two of his pupils for scaring off some intruders.
They were 8-year-old Ian Marsh and his 10-year-old pal Mark Anders who both lived in nearby Somerset Street.
The pair had been playing near the school on a Sunday when they saw some youngsters inside the building. So they ran to a nearby shop and asked the owner to call the police.
Ian and Mark also went to a school cleaner's home and alerted her. Within minutes three Panda cars were on the scene but just missed the intruders.
The headmaster's desk had been smashed open and brass locks on the cupboards in his room had been broken as the thieves made an unsuccessful search for cash.
Unfortunately the cable operating a tropical fish tank was cut and about fifteen fish died.
"It sticks in my gullet", said Mr Twist, "when I think of people doing things like this. The children got a lot of fun out of the fish."
Last week I stated that John Henderson had been fighting proposals to set up a permanent gipsy camp off Sherdley Road.
The landlord of the Pig and Whistle was demanding that the camp be "put well away from people's homes".
This was after Reginald Road residents had repeatedly complained about the behaviour of the gipsies on their doorstep.
In this week's paper Susan Turpee of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath had a letter published in the paper which took the opposite view:
"I live on the new estate he mentioned, but am not among his supporters. Having lived near a pub for several years, I can't imagine that a gipsy camp could disturb the surrounding householders any more than one of these establishments.
“Gipsies, incidentally, are people too. I wonder if it would be worth bringing Mr. Henderson's activities to the notice of the Race Relations Board. He really does sound rather prejudiced."
There was also a letter in support of the police after William Barrow had in last week's paper blamed Panda cars for a crime wave in the town.
Mr J. O’Grady from North Road thought that the General Manager of Hart's Stores and former President of the St Helens Chamber of Trade was on the wrong track:
"I have never heard such utter rubbish as spoken by Mr. Barrow when he says the Panda cars are to blame for all the crime. I suggest he starts at the real causes of the increase of crime, the courts and magistrates who, instead of dealing out punishment, deal out sympathy and all this pat-on-the-back and fatherly talk.
“As a manager myself of a large store, I suggest he does what I do – employ dogs. I have had dogs for years in my stores at night, and woe betide anyone who breaks in my place at night. I say leave the police alone. They are overworked and under strength as it is."
I've always thought of TIM as being what you dialled to hear "at the third stroke…" from the GPO's Speaking Clock.
However the Reporter revealed that it was also an acronym for "Ticket Issuing Machine" as they profiled the work of conductresses on St Helens' buses.
The paper appeared to be doing their bit to boost recruitment of the under-strength service as they stated that the 65 conductresses employed by St Helens Corporation received good pay.
Their wages averaged £17 per week and "on top of that they get smart, made-to-measure uniforms every 12 months, free travel, generous bonus schemes and holidays."
Hilda Garner from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had been on the buses in St Helens for 14 years.
"I love this job", said the 52-year-old. "I suppose it is because I meet so many different people every day. We never know what one day is going to bring, so it is quite exciting.
"The good conductress should be smart and always polite to her passengers. But I think above anything else she should have a sense of humour."
All prospective conductors and conductresses had a week's training before starting work and 27-year-old Ann Rogers from Chancery Lane said she met her future husband in the classroom. Edward Rogers would become a driver and for five years the couple had been partners on the same bus with Ann working as conductress.
On the front page of the St Helens Reporter there was a photograph of the dancers known as 'The Television Toppers' (pictured above) who were appearing in Liverpool with the Black and White Minstrels. This is part of the caption:
"A group of the gorgeous dollies took time off from rehearsals at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool, to take a trip round the Pilkington Glass Museum.
"Almost half of the 65-strong cast visited the museum and the male staff at Pilkington's head office crammed the windows trying to catch a glimpse of those famous legs."
With February 14th just a week away, the Reporter's 'What People Think' column chose St Valentine's Day as this week's subject.
However there was little romance in the air as every person that the paper spoke to on the streets thought sending cards to be a joke and waste of hard-earned cash.
Student Carol Nash from Marsland Grove in Sutton said some of her friends at the art school did send Valentine cards but not many.
The 18-year-old added that she stopped sending cards two years ago when she met her present boyfriend.
"We both think that when you are going steady, card-buying is just a waste of money", she said.
However sending a Valentine's card appeared to have had a positive result for Ann Melding from College Street.
The 25-year-old revealed that she had only sent one card in her life when aged 14 and that was to the boy who became her husband.
"I only send them for a laugh now", said Mrs Melding. "It's a waste of money isn't it? I don't think many people bother to send them any more."
The Reporter added to the embarrassment of Billy Jackson of Archer Grove in Parr.
The paper described how the 30-year-old glassworker had gone onto the roof of his house to change the position of a television aerial wire.
All went well until Billy tried to come down and found his feet slithering about. So he had to sit astride the apex of the roof for half-an-hour until the fire brigade arrived and brought him down.
During the evenings of the 6th and 7th, the Sutton Parish Drama Group presented 'Pools Paradise' in the Parish Hall in New Street. Both the vicar and his wife had parts in the play.
The Rev. Paul Conder played the role of a bishop and Lesley Conder played the wife of a vicar – a role that should have been easy for her!
On the 7th the Liverpool Echo wrote that work would begin at the end of February on a new maternity unit for Whiston Hospital.
The existing ward had 73 beds and would close when the new 160-bed unit opened, which was scheduled for January 1972.
The cost would be £820,000 – about £13 million in today's money – and upon completion the 50-bed Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital would close.
For six days from the 9th, Disney's 'The Love Bug' was screened at the Capitol and 'The Magic Christian' starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr was shown at the ABC Savoy.
And finally on the 9th St Helens Magistrates fined a driver from Ashton-in-Makerfield £120 and banned him from the road for a year.
This was after he admitted driving at 60 mph through the traffic lights on the East Lancs at Windle island, while being over the limit and with one of his front wheels missing!
The Reporter wrote: "On three wheels, the swerving car went through two sets of traffic lights at 60 m.p.h.
Sparks and flames shot up as the brake drum from the missing wheel touched the road."
When the driver was finally stopped he told the policeman who arrested him: "What's the matter? Have you no sense of adventure?"
Next week's stories will include the first ever strike at Stoves in Rainhill, a street in Parr is labelled "squalor row", a profile of the telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange, the ABC Minors Club at the Capitol and the record-breaking Bold Colliery.
We begin on the 3rd when a two-day unofficial strike by Pilkington's lorry drivers came to an end.
They'd stopped work out of concern they'd lose pay when a Government regulation came into effect limiting the maximum number of driving hours to 60.
An inquest held on the 3rd was told a man had thought he'd seen an abandoned Guy Fawkes in a field near the East Lancs at Windle while out with his dog.
A few hours later Geoffrey Whitehouse decided to return to the spot and he found that the pair of trouser legs was in fact the body of a man.
The inquest was told that it was 63-year-old Charles Featherstone from Speakman Road who had been missing for three months.
A pathologist said the cause of death could not be determined due to the decomposed state of the body and so an open verdict was returned.
St Helens Town Council announced this week that they planned to increase the rent on their 12,000 homes.
The rent rise – the first in three years – would vary according to property and be between 2 shillings and 19s. 7d. per week.
The minimum weekly rent on a one-bedroom flat would now be £1 and at the other end of the scale, a three-bedroom council house with central heating would cost up to £3 15 shillings per week.
Century House in St Helens on the site of the former Hardshaw Street car park and used as municipal offices
Century House on the site of the former Hardshaw Street car park
Century House in Hardshaw Street
The Engineer's department would be the first to transfer from the Town Hall to the nine-storey office block, followed by the Treasurer's and Education departments.
The £300,000 building had yet to be named. However it would be called Century House in recognition of the borough centenary celebrations of 1968 when construction work first began.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 6th and described how vandals and thieves had struck at Allanson Street School three times during the previous three weeks.
However headmaster Thomas Twist praised two of his pupils for scaring off some intruders.
They were 8-year-old Ian Marsh and his 10-year-old pal Mark Anders who both lived in nearby Somerset Street.
The pair had been playing near the school on a Sunday when they saw some youngsters inside the building. So they ran to a nearby shop and asked the owner to call the police.
Ian and Mark also went to a school cleaner's home and alerted her. Within minutes three Panda cars were on the scene but just missed the intruders.
The headmaster's desk had been smashed open and brass locks on the cupboards in his room had been broken as the thieves made an unsuccessful search for cash.
Unfortunately the cable operating a tropical fish tank was cut and about fifteen fish died.
"It sticks in my gullet", said Mr Twist, "when I think of people doing things like this. The children got a lot of fun out of the fish."
Last week I stated that John Henderson had been fighting proposals to set up a permanent gipsy camp off Sherdley Road.
The landlord of the Pig and Whistle was demanding that the camp be "put well away from people's homes".
This was after Reginald Road residents had repeatedly complained about the behaviour of the gipsies on their doorstep.
In this week's paper Susan Turpee of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath had a letter published in the paper which took the opposite view:
"I live on the new estate he mentioned, but am not among his supporters. Having lived near a pub for several years, I can't imagine that a gipsy camp could disturb the surrounding householders any more than one of these establishments.
“Gipsies, incidentally, are people too. I wonder if it would be worth bringing Mr. Henderson's activities to the notice of the Race Relations Board. He really does sound rather prejudiced."
There was also a letter in support of the police after William Barrow had in last week's paper blamed Panda cars for a crime wave in the town.
Mr J. O’Grady from North Road thought that the General Manager of Hart's Stores and former President of the St Helens Chamber of Trade was on the wrong track:
"I have never heard such utter rubbish as spoken by Mr. Barrow when he says the Panda cars are to blame for all the crime. I suggest he starts at the real causes of the increase of crime, the courts and magistrates who, instead of dealing out punishment, deal out sympathy and all this pat-on-the-back and fatherly talk.
“As a manager myself of a large store, I suggest he does what I do – employ dogs. I have had dogs for years in my stores at night, and woe betide anyone who breaks in my place at night. I say leave the police alone. They are overworked and under strength as it is."
I've always thought of TIM as being what you dialled to hear "at the third stroke…" from the GPO's Speaking Clock.
However the Reporter revealed that it was also an acronym for "Ticket Issuing Machine" as they profiled the work of conductresses on St Helens' buses.
The paper appeared to be doing their bit to boost recruitment of the under-strength service as they stated that the 65 conductresses employed by St Helens Corporation received good pay.
Their wages averaged £17 per week and "on top of that they get smart, made-to-measure uniforms every 12 months, free travel, generous bonus schemes and holidays."
Hilda Garner from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had been on the buses in St Helens for 14 years.
"I love this job", said the 52-year-old. "I suppose it is because I meet so many different people every day. We never know what one day is going to bring, so it is quite exciting.
"The good conductress should be smart and always polite to her passengers. But I think above anything else she should have a sense of humour."
All prospective conductors and conductresses had a week's training before starting work and 27-year-old Ann Rogers from Chancery Lane said she met her future husband in the classroom. Edward Rogers would become a driver and for five years the couple had been partners on the same bus with Ann working as conductress.
"A group of the gorgeous dollies took time off from rehearsals at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool, to take a trip round the Pilkington Glass Museum.
"Almost half of the 65-strong cast visited the museum and the male staff at Pilkington's head office crammed the windows trying to catch a glimpse of those famous legs."
With February 14th just a week away, the Reporter's 'What People Think' column chose St Valentine's Day as this week's subject.
However there was little romance in the air as every person that the paper spoke to on the streets thought sending cards to be a joke and waste of hard-earned cash.
Student Carol Nash from Marsland Grove in Sutton said some of her friends at the art school did send Valentine cards but not many.
The 18-year-old added that she stopped sending cards two years ago when she met her present boyfriend.
"We both think that when you are going steady, card-buying is just a waste of money", she said.
However sending a Valentine's card appeared to have had a positive result for Ann Melding from College Street.
The 25-year-old revealed that she had only sent one card in her life when aged 14 and that was to the boy who became her husband.
"I only send them for a laugh now", said Mrs Melding. "It's a waste of money isn't it? I don't think many people bother to send them any more."
The Reporter added to the embarrassment of Billy Jackson of Archer Grove in Parr.
The paper described how the 30-year-old glassworker had gone onto the roof of his house to change the position of a television aerial wire.
All went well until Billy tried to come down and found his feet slithering about. So he had to sit astride the apex of the roof for half-an-hour until the fire brigade arrived and brought him down.
During the evenings of the 6th and 7th, the Sutton Parish Drama Group presented 'Pools Paradise' in the Parish Hall in New Street. Both the vicar and his wife had parts in the play.
The Rev. Paul Conder played the role of a bishop and Lesley Conder played the wife of a vicar – a role that should have been easy for her!
On the 7th the Liverpool Echo wrote that work would begin at the end of February on a new maternity unit for Whiston Hospital.
The existing ward had 73 beds and would close when the new 160-bed unit opened, which was scheduled for January 1972.
The cost would be £820,000 – about £13 million in today's money – and upon completion the 50-bed Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital would close.
For six days from the 9th, Disney's 'The Love Bug' was screened at the Capitol and 'The Magic Christian' starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr was shown at the ABC Savoy.
And finally on the 9th St Helens Magistrates fined a driver from Ashton-in-Makerfield £120 and banned him from the road for a year.
This was after he admitted driving at 60 mph through the traffic lights on the East Lancs at Windle island, while being over the limit and with one of his front wheels missing!
The Reporter wrote: "On three wheels, the swerving car went through two sets of traffic lights at 60 m.p.h.
Sparks and flames shot up as the brake drum from the missing wheel touched the road."
When the driver was finally stopped he told the policeman who arrested him: "What's the matter? Have you no sense of adventure?"
Next week's stories will include the first ever strike at Stoves in Rainhill, a street in Parr is labelled "squalor row", a profile of the telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange, the ABC Minors Club at the Capitol and the record-breaking Bold Colliery.