FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th APRIL 1973)
This week's many stories include the destruction of the vandal-proof Haresfinch superloo, the rise in food prices that threatened traditional St Helens' Sundays, the Rainford residents concerned about losing their view, the 30-year wait for a Home Guard medal and Cowley Girls thinking of a medical career are told to expect prejudice.
We begin on the 3rd when the Echo reported that a detached house in Hartington Road in St Helens (off Kiln Lane) owned by consultant chest physician Dr James McArthur had suffered an art robbery. One painting that had been taken during the night had been of Queen Elizabeth I and valued at £10,000. Bizarrely, one of the thieves wrote "Sorry" on the door of the house using a crayon.
Dr Phyllis Partington was the guest speaker at Cowley Girls Founders Day this week and her speech emphasised what a difficult career medicine still was for females. The ex-Cowley pupil warned the girls at St Helens Town Hall that they needed to be better than boys with more academic ability. "There is not the need for the same fighting spirit women doctors needed a hundred years ago when they were battling for recognition," explained Dr Partington. "But determination is still called for."
She suggested that colleges were prejudiced against girl medical students because the course lasted six years and during that period females might marry and leave the profession. Dr Partington added that married women doctors with full family commitments that were not able to do a full week's work were seen as misfits. And she warned of the struggle married women doctors had to regain their footing in the profession after leaving to have children.
On the 6th the St Helens Reporter described having received this letter from the mother of 13-year-old Julie McCabe of Rowan Close in Laffak who had Spina Bifida: "I would like to thank you and the reporter man for the kindness in helping Julie to meet the New Seekers. I wish you could have been there to see her face when the Seekers walked up the steps. We kept it as a surprise. She didn't think that she would even get their autograph, let alone speak to them. Thank you ever so much. You have made a little girl's dream, come true."
The Reporter's front-page lead story described the high food prices in the shops that they said "threatened Lancashire's traditional Sunday". Offered as examples of food price inflation were bacon at a record price of up to 45p per pound and large eggs costing 31p a dozen – a 7p rise in two months.
Fresh tomatoes had also shot up to 48p a pound and as a result shoppers were buying cheaper tinned tomatoes. Dennis Foster of wholesalers Foster Brothers from Shaw Street told the Reporter: "This week has been disastrous for the tomato trade. Normally we sell about 1,500 cartons, but I don't think we've sold 200."
George Benton looked proud as punch on the front page of the Reporter. The former Home Guard Quartermaster Sergeant had finally received the medal that he should have got in 1944. The Defence Medal had been issued to all that served in the Home Guard but for some reason George never received his. The 86-year-old from Islands Brow told the Reporter:
"I never thought I’d live to see the day when I could at last pin it on my chest. Last week I was flabbergasted to get it through the post. I asked the Mayor, Councillor Allan Lycett, to present it to me and he agreed." George recalled the early days of the Home Guard in St Helens: "I was a Quartermaster Sergeant, and we started off using broomsticks and garden forks for weapons. We were a keen lot though, even in those early days."
The Reporter announced that a pay rise was in the pipeline for 300 St Helens busmen and women. The increase was expected to be around £1.70 per week. At present the weekly wages in St Helens were £25.40 for double-decker bus drivers, £29 for one-man operated drivers and £21 for conductors. All bus staff also had the option of boosting their pay through guaranteed overtime.
It is hardly surprising that few public toilets exist these days in St Helens after the battering that they used to receive from vandals. The Reporter lamented how hooligans had wrecked a block of supposedly vandal-proof toilets at Haresfinch. The super-loo on the corner of Woodlands Road and Haresfinch Road had been reconstructed so that the washbasins were built into the walls and all the pipes and cisterns hidden.
Even the walls had been roughened to prevent them being scrawled upon by felt tip pens. However, the vandals had torn down the doors, smashed toilet bowls and washbasins and used aerosol sprays to disfigure the walls. The Corporation had since boarded the toilets up and were considering a new plan to thwart hooligans using stainless steel bowls and washbasins.
"I just can't understand the mentality of the people who've done this," said Leonard Cundy, the St Helens Cleansing Superintendent. "This block was specially redesigned by the Borough Engineers and Cleansing Departments to make it vandal proof. Now it will cost about £300 to renew the toilets – and that's without the extra expense of putting stainless steel bowls and basins in, which we will have to think about doing after this."
The Reporter also described how miners at Parkside Colliery at Newton (pictured above) had smashed their productivity record. During the financial year that had just ended, 740,000 tons of coal had been produced which beat their record by 90,000 tons. The colliery had also turned a forecast loss into an operating profit – the first time it had been in the black since the mine had opened in 1964. There were now 1,735 men employed at the mine and its General Manager Cliff Daniels said: “The future of Parkside now seems secure".
The paper also reported how work had begun on an extension to Rainhill Village Hall, which would house two committee rooms, a small kitchen and an assembly lounge. It was also reported that fundraising was underway to pay for a new youth centre in Rainhill. The building would cost £50,000 but several grants had reduced the amount needed to £10,000, which was being raised by voluntary efforts.
The housing estate on Heyes Avenue in Rainford was relatively new and a Reporter article pointed out that the starting price for some of the homes was nearly £10,000. Despite rapidly increasing house price inflation, that was still a lot of money in 1973 and I suppose the more you pay for your house, the more you worry about new developments spoiling your view. So over twenty Heyes Avenue residents had signed a petition to Rainford Council after surveyors had been seen taking measurements on a field behind their homes.
One of the protesters was Charles Rhodes, who told the Reporter: "There is a lake bounded by trees in the field, and the scene looks beautiful. One house has been built on the field recently, and it has spoiled the view from the house in front of it. If the land is going to be developed, let's have it developed properly. We're afraid that the spot will be spoiled. It could be put to better use for the community as a whole." Rainford Council said there had been some interest shown in developing the land but no application for planning permission had yet been received.
On the 8th 'The Professionals' starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin began a week's screening at the Capitol. And at the ABC Savoy down Bridge Street, 'The Valachi Papers' starring Charles Bronson was shown for seven days. It was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 8th with performances by George Melly and the Alan Elsdon Jazzmen.
And then on the 9th for a full week, 'Lift Off With Sooty' was presented at the Corporation Street theatre. As well as the popular teddy bear, Soo, Sweep and the all-important Harry Corbett were also in attendance. Harry had originally seen Sooty in a toy shop window on Blackpool's North Pier in 1950 and had bought it for his son David.
Eventually Corbett reclaimed his gift and incorporated it into one of his conjuring shows that he performed in his spare time. Harry used to travel by caravan and when he was performing in the district would park it outside the Wheatsheaf in Rainford. The 9th was also when G. and W. Collins reopened their cash and carry wholesale "trademarket" in Jackson Street after extensive alterations.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include Mary Whitehouse's appearance in Sutton, how youth unemployment was being cut in St Helens, the Theatre Royal audience ordered to stay in their seats and St Helens fire brigade's two-time saving of a puppy.
We begin on the 3rd when the Echo reported that a detached house in Hartington Road in St Helens (off Kiln Lane) owned by consultant chest physician Dr James McArthur had suffered an art robbery. One painting that had been taken during the night had been of Queen Elizabeth I and valued at £10,000. Bizarrely, one of the thieves wrote "Sorry" on the door of the house using a crayon.
Dr Phyllis Partington was the guest speaker at Cowley Girls Founders Day this week and her speech emphasised what a difficult career medicine still was for females. The ex-Cowley pupil warned the girls at St Helens Town Hall that they needed to be better than boys with more academic ability. "There is not the need for the same fighting spirit women doctors needed a hundred years ago when they were battling for recognition," explained Dr Partington. "But determination is still called for."
She suggested that colleges were prejudiced against girl medical students because the course lasted six years and during that period females might marry and leave the profession. Dr Partington added that married women doctors with full family commitments that were not able to do a full week's work were seen as misfits. And she warned of the struggle married women doctors had to regain their footing in the profession after leaving to have children.
On the 6th the St Helens Reporter described having received this letter from the mother of 13-year-old Julie McCabe of Rowan Close in Laffak who had Spina Bifida: "I would like to thank you and the reporter man for the kindness in helping Julie to meet the New Seekers. I wish you could have been there to see her face when the Seekers walked up the steps. We kept it as a surprise. She didn't think that she would even get their autograph, let alone speak to them. Thank you ever so much. You have made a little girl's dream, come true."
The Reporter's front-page lead story described the high food prices in the shops that they said "threatened Lancashire's traditional Sunday". Offered as examples of food price inflation were bacon at a record price of up to 45p per pound and large eggs costing 31p a dozen – a 7p rise in two months.
Fresh tomatoes had also shot up to 48p a pound and as a result shoppers were buying cheaper tinned tomatoes. Dennis Foster of wholesalers Foster Brothers from Shaw Street told the Reporter: "This week has been disastrous for the tomato trade. Normally we sell about 1,500 cartons, but I don't think we've sold 200."
George Benton looked proud as punch on the front page of the Reporter. The former Home Guard Quartermaster Sergeant had finally received the medal that he should have got in 1944. The Defence Medal had been issued to all that served in the Home Guard but for some reason George never received his. The 86-year-old from Islands Brow told the Reporter:
"I never thought I’d live to see the day when I could at last pin it on my chest. Last week I was flabbergasted to get it through the post. I asked the Mayor, Councillor Allan Lycett, to present it to me and he agreed." George recalled the early days of the Home Guard in St Helens: "I was a Quartermaster Sergeant, and we started off using broomsticks and garden forks for weapons. We were a keen lot though, even in those early days."
It is hardly surprising that few public toilets exist these days in St Helens after the battering that they used to receive from vandals. The Reporter lamented how hooligans had wrecked a block of supposedly vandal-proof toilets at Haresfinch. The super-loo on the corner of Woodlands Road and Haresfinch Road had been reconstructed so that the washbasins were built into the walls and all the pipes and cisterns hidden.
Even the walls had been roughened to prevent them being scrawled upon by felt tip pens. However, the vandals had torn down the doors, smashed toilet bowls and washbasins and used aerosol sprays to disfigure the walls. The Corporation had since boarded the toilets up and were considering a new plan to thwart hooligans using stainless steel bowls and washbasins.
"I just can't understand the mentality of the people who've done this," said Leonard Cundy, the St Helens Cleansing Superintendent. "This block was specially redesigned by the Borough Engineers and Cleansing Departments to make it vandal proof. Now it will cost about £300 to renew the toilets – and that's without the extra expense of putting stainless steel bowls and basins in, which we will have to think about doing after this."
The paper also reported how work had begun on an extension to Rainhill Village Hall, which would house two committee rooms, a small kitchen and an assembly lounge. It was also reported that fundraising was underway to pay for a new youth centre in Rainhill. The building would cost £50,000 but several grants had reduced the amount needed to £10,000, which was being raised by voluntary efforts.
The housing estate on Heyes Avenue in Rainford was relatively new and a Reporter article pointed out that the starting price for some of the homes was nearly £10,000. Despite rapidly increasing house price inflation, that was still a lot of money in 1973 and I suppose the more you pay for your house, the more you worry about new developments spoiling your view. So over twenty Heyes Avenue residents had signed a petition to Rainford Council after surveyors had been seen taking measurements on a field behind their homes.
One of the protesters was Charles Rhodes, who told the Reporter: "There is a lake bounded by trees in the field, and the scene looks beautiful. One house has been built on the field recently, and it has spoiled the view from the house in front of it. If the land is going to be developed, let's have it developed properly. We're afraid that the spot will be spoiled. It could be put to better use for the community as a whole." Rainford Council said there had been some interest shown in developing the land but no application for planning permission had yet been received.
On the 8th 'The Professionals' starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin began a week's screening at the Capitol. And at the ABC Savoy down Bridge Street, 'The Valachi Papers' starring Charles Bronson was shown for seven days. It was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 8th with performances by George Melly and the Alan Elsdon Jazzmen.
And then on the 9th for a full week, 'Lift Off With Sooty' was presented at the Corporation Street theatre. As well as the popular teddy bear, Soo, Sweep and the all-important Harry Corbett were also in attendance. Harry had originally seen Sooty in a toy shop window on Blackpool's North Pier in 1950 and had bought it for his son David.
Eventually Corbett reclaimed his gift and incorporated it into one of his conjuring shows that he performed in his spare time. Harry used to travel by caravan and when he was performing in the district would park it outside the Wheatsheaf in Rainford. The 9th was also when G. and W. Collins reopened their cash and carry wholesale "trademarket" in Jackson Street after extensive alterations.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include Mary Whitehouse's appearance in Sutton, how youth unemployment was being cut in St Helens, the Theatre Royal audience ordered to stay in their seats and St Helens fire brigade's two-time saving of a puppy.
This week's many stories include the destruction of the vandal-proof Haresfinch superloo, the rise in food prices that threatened traditional St Helens' Sundays, the Rainford residents concerned about losing their view, the 30-year wait for a Home Guard medal and Cowley Girls thinking of a medical career are told to expect prejudice.
We begin on the 3rd when the Echo reported that a detached house in Hartington Road in St Helens (off Kiln Lane) owned by consultant chest physician Dr James McArthur had suffered an art robbery.
One painting that had been taken during the night had been of Queen Elizabeth I and valued at £10,000. Bizarrely, one of the thieves wrote "Sorry" on the door of the house using a crayon.
Dr Phyllis Partington was the guest speaker at Cowley Girls Founders Day this week and her speech emphasised what a difficult career medicine still was for females.
The ex-Cowley pupil warned the girls at St Helens Town Hall that they needed to be better than boys with more academic ability.
"There is not the need for the same fighting spirit women doctors needed a hundred years ago when they were battling for recognition," explained Dr Partington. "But determination is still called for."
She suggested that colleges were prejudiced against girl medical students because the course lasted six years and during that period females might marry and leave the profession.
Dr Partington added that married women doctors with full family commitments that were not able to do a full week's work were seen as misfits.
And she warned of the struggle married women doctors had to regain their footing in the profession after leaving to have children.
On the 6th the St Helens Reporter described having received this letter from the mother of 13-year-old Julie McCabe of Rowan Close in Laffak who had Spina Bifida:
"I would like to thank you and the reporter man for the kindness in helping Julie to meet the New Seekers. I wish you could have been there to see her face when the Seekers walked up the steps. We kept it as a surprise.
"She didn't think that she would even get their autograph, let alone speak to them. Thank you ever so much. You have made a little girl's dream, come true."
The Reporter's front-page lead story described the high food prices in the shops that they said "threatened Lancashire's traditional Sunday".
Offered as examples of food price inflation were bacon at a record price of up to 45p per pound and large eggs costing 31p a dozen – a 7p rise in two months.
Fresh tomatoes had also shot up to 48p a pound and as a result shoppers were buying cheaper tinned tomatoes. Dennis Foster of wholesalers Foster Brothers from Shaw Street told the Reporter:
"This week has been disastrous for the tomato trade. Normally we sell about 1,500 cartons, but I don't think we've sold 200."
George Benton looked proud as punch on the front page of the Reporter. The former Home Guard Quartermaster Sergeant had finally received the medal that he should have got in 1944.
The Defence Medal had been issued to all that served in the Home Guard but for some reason George never received his. The 86-year-old from Islands Brow told the Reporter:
"I never thought I’d live to see the day when I could at last pin it on my chest. Last week I was flabbergasted to get it through the post. I asked the Mayor, Councillor Allan Lycett, to present it to me and he agreed."
George recalled the early days of the Home Guard in St Helens:
"I was a Quartermaster Sergeant, and we started off using broomsticks and garden forks for weapons. We were a keen lot though, even in those early days."
The Reporter announced that a pay rise was in the pipeline for 300 St Helens busmen and women. The increase was expected to be around £1.70 per week.
At present the weekly wages in St Helens were £25.40 for double-decker bus drivers, £29 for one-man operated drivers and £21 for conductors. All bus staff also had the option of boosting their pay through guaranteed overtime.
It is hardly surprising that few public toilets exist these days in St Helens after the battering that they used to receive from vandals.
The Reporter lamented how hooligans had wrecked a block of supposedly vandal-proof toilets at Haresfinch.
The super-loo on the corner of Woodlands Road and Haresfinch Road had been reconstructed so that the washbasins were built into the walls and all the pipes and cisterns hidden.
Even the walls had been roughened to prevent them being scrawled upon by felt tip pens.
However, the vandals had torn down the doors, smashed toilet bowls and washbasins and used aerosol sprays to disfigure the walls.
The Corporation had since boarded the toilets up and were considering a new plan to thwart hooligans using stainless steel bowls and washbasins.
"I just can't understand the mentality of the people who've done this," said Leonard Cundy, the St Helens Cleansing Superintendent.
"This block was specially redesigned by the Borough Engineers and Cleansing Departments to make it vandal proof.
"Now it will cost about £300 to renew the toilets – and that's without the extra expense of putting stainless steel bowls and basins in, which we will have to think about doing after this."
The Reporter also described how miners at Parkside Colliery at Newton (pictured above) had smashed their productivity record.
During the financial year that had just ended, 740,000 tons of coal had been produced which beat their record by 90,000 tons.
The colliery had also turned a forecast loss into an operating profit – the first time it had been in the black since the mine had opened in 1964.
There were now 1,735 men employed at the mine and its General Manager Cliff Daniels said: “The future of Parkside now seems secure".
The paper also reported how work had begun on an extension to Rainhill Village Hall, which would house two committee rooms, a small kitchen and an assembly lounge.
It was also reported that fundraising was underway to pay for a new youth centre in Rainhill.
The building would cost £50,000 but several grants had reduced the amount needed to £10,000, which was being raised by voluntary efforts.
The housing estate on Heyes Avenue in Rainford was relatively new and a Reporter article pointed out that the starting price for some of the homes was nearly £10,000.
Despite rapidly increasing house price inflation, that was still a lot of money in 1973 and I suppose the more you pay for your house, the more you worry about new developments spoiling your view.
So over twenty Heyes Avenue residents had signed a petition to Rainford Council after surveyors had been seen taking measurements on a field behind their homes. One of the protesters was Charles Rhodes, who told the Reporter:
"There is a lake bounded by trees in the field, and the scene looks beautiful. One house has been built on the field recently, and it has spoiled the view from the house in front of it. If the land is going to be developed, let's have it developed properly. We're afraid that the spot will be spoiled. It could be put to better use for the community as a whole."
Rainford Council said there had been some interest shown in developing the land but no application for planning permission had yet been received.
On the 8th 'The Professionals' starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin began a week's screening at the Capitol.
And at the ABC Savoy down Bridge Street, 'The Valachi Papers' starring Charles Bronson was shown for seven days.
It was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 8th with performances by George Melly and the Alan Elsdon Jazzmen.
And then on the 9th for a full week, 'Lift Off With Sooty' was presented at the Corporation Street theatre.
As well as the popular teddy bear, Soo, Sweep and the all-important Harry Corbett were also in attendance.
Harry had originally seen Sooty in a toy shop window on Blackpool's North Pier in 1950 and had bought it for his son David.
Eventually Corbett reclaimed his gift and incorporated it into one of his conjuring shows that he performed in his spare time.
Harry used to travel by caravan and when he was performing in the district would park it outside the Wheatsheaf in Rainford.
The 9th was also when G. and W. Collins reopened their cash and carry wholesale "trademarket" in Jackson Street after extensive alterations.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include Mary Whitehouse's appearance in Sutton, how youth unemployment was being cut in St Helens, the Theatre Royal audience ordered to stay in their seats and St Helens fire brigade's two-time saving of a puppy.
We begin on the 3rd when the Echo reported that a detached house in Hartington Road in St Helens (off Kiln Lane) owned by consultant chest physician Dr James McArthur had suffered an art robbery.
One painting that had been taken during the night had been of Queen Elizabeth I and valued at £10,000. Bizarrely, one of the thieves wrote "Sorry" on the door of the house using a crayon.
Dr Phyllis Partington was the guest speaker at Cowley Girls Founders Day this week and her speech emphasised what a difficult career medicine still was for females.
The ex-Cowley pupil warned the girls at St Helens Town Hall that they needed to be better than boys with more academic ability.
"There is not the need for the same fighting spirit women doctors needed a hundred years ago when they were battling for recognition," explained Dr Partington. "But determination is still called for."
She suggested that colleges were prejudiced against girl medical students because the course lasted six years and during that period females might marry and leave the profession.
Dr Partington added that married women doctors with full family commitments that were not able to do a full week's work were seen as misfits.
And she warned of the struggle married women doctors had to regain their footing in the profession after leaving to have children.
On the 6th the St Helens Reporter described having received this letter from the mother of 13-year-old Julie McCabe of Rowan Close in Laffak who had Spina Bifida:
"I would like to thank you and the reporter man for the kindness in helping Julie to meet the New Seekers. I wish you could have been there to see her face when the Seekers walked up the steps. We kept it as a surprise.
"She didn't think that she would even get their autograph, let alone speak to them. Thank you ever so much. You have made a little girl's dream, come true."
The Reporter's front-page lead story described the high food prices in the shops that they said "threatened Lancashire's traditional Sunday".
Offered as examples of food price inflation were bacon at a record price of up to 45p per pound and large eggs costing 31p a dozen – a 7p rise in two months.
Fresh tomatoes had also shot up to 48p a pound and as a result shoppers were buying cheaper tinned tomatoes. Dennis Foster of wholesalers Foster Brothers from Shaw Street told the Reporter:
"This week has been disastrous for the tomato trade. Normally we sell about 1,500 cartons, but I don't think we've sold 200."
George Benton looked proud as punch on the front page of the Reporter. The former Home Guard Quartermaster Sergeant had finally received the medal that he should have got in 1944.
The Defence Medal had been issued to all that served in the Home Guard but for some reason George never received his. The 86-year-old from Islands Brow told the Reporter:
"I never thought I’d live to see the day when I could at last pin it on my chest. Last week I was flabbergasted to get it through the post. I asked the Mayor, Councillor Allan Lycett, to present it to me and he agreed."
George recalled the early days of the Home Guard in St Helens:
"I was a Quartermaster Sergeant, and we started off using broomsticks and garden forks for weapons. We were a keen lot though, even in those early days."
At present the weekly wages in St Helens were £25.40 for double-decker bus drivers, £29 for one-man operated drivers and £21 for conductors. All bus staff also had the option of boosting their pay through guaranteed overtime.
It is hardly surprising that few public toilets exist these days in St Helens after the battering that they used to receive from vandals.
The Reporter lamented how hooligans had wrecked a block of supposedly vandal-proof toilets at Haresfinch.
The super-loo on the corner of Woodlands Road and Haresfinch Road had been reconstructed so that the washbasins were built into the walls and all the pipes and cisterns hidden.
Even the walls had been roughened to prevent them being scrawled upon by felt tip pens.
However, the vandals had torn down the doors, smashed toilet bowls and washbasins and used aerosol sprays to disfigure the walls.
The Corporation had since boarded the toilets up and were considering a new plan to thwart hooligans using stainless steel bowls and washbasins.
"I just can't understand the mentality of the people who've done this," said Leonard Cundy, the St Helens Cleansing Superintendent.
"This block was specially redesigned by the Borough Engineers and Cleansing Departments to make it vandal proof.
"Now it will cost about £300 to renew the toilets – and that's without the extra expense of putting stainless steel bowls and basins in, which we will have to think about doing after this."
During the financial year that had just ended, 740,000 tons of coal had been produced which beat their record by 90,000 tons.
The colliery had also turned a forecast loss into an operating profit – the first time it had been in the black since the mine had opened in 1964.
There were now 1,735 men employed at the mine and its General Manager Cliff Daniels said: “The future of Parkside now seems secure".
The paper also reported how work had begun on an extension to Rainhill Village Hall, which would house two committee rooms, a small kitchen and an assembly lounge.
It was also reported that fundraising was underway to pay for a new youth centre in Rainhill.
The building would cost £50,000 but several grants had reduced the amount needed to £10,000, which was being raised by voluntary efforts.
The housing estate on Heyes Avenue in Rainford was relatively new and a Reporter article pointed out that the starting price for some of the homes was nearly £10,000.
Despite rapidly increasing house price inflation, that was still a lot of money in 1973 and I suppose the more you pay for your house, the more you worry about new developments spoiling your view.
So over twenty Heyes Avenue residents had signed a petition to Rainford Council after surveyors had been seen taking measurements on a field behind their homes. One of the protesters was Charles Rhodes, who told the Reporter:
"There is a lake bounded by trees in the field, and the scene looks beautiful. One house has been built on the field recently, and it has spoiled the view from the house in front of it. If the land is going to be developed, let's have it developed properly. We're afraid that the spot will be spoiled. It could be put to better use for the community as a whole."
Rainford Council said there had been some interest shown in developing the land but no application for planning permission had yet been received.
On the 8th 'The Professionals' starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin began a week's screening at the Capitol.
And at the ABC Savoy down Bridge Street, 'The Valachi Papers' starring Charles Bronson was shown for seven days.
It was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 8th with performances by George Melly and the Alan Elsdon Jazzmen.
And then on the 9th for a full week, 'Lift Off With Sooty' was presented at the Corporation Street theatre.
As well as the popular teddy bear, Soo, Sweep and the all-important Harry Corbett were also in attendance.
Harry had originally seen Sooty in a toy shop window on Blackpool's North Pier in 1950 and had bought it for his son David.
Eventually Corbett reclaimed his gift and incorporated it into one of his conjuring shows that he performed in his spare time.
Harry used to travel by caravan and when he was performing in the district would park it outside the Wheatsheaf in Rainford.
The 9th was also when G. and W. Collins reopened their cash and carry wholesale "trademarket" in Jackson Street after extensive alterations.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include Mary Whitehouse's appearance in Sutton, how youth unemployment was being cut in St Helens, the Theatre Royal audience ordered to stay in their seats and St Helens fire brigade's two-time saving of a puppy.