FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (4th - 10th OCTOBER 1971)
This week's 25 stories include the Dubliners IRA songs dispute at the Theatre Royal, St Helens Council's derelict land reclamation programme, the woman who gave cooking sherry to a 4-year-old in Victoria Park, the Pilkington strike leader prosecuted as a benefit cheat and the demolition of the covered market.
We begin this week with Knowsley Safari Park, which was continuing to do good business. It looked like the reserve would easily surpass its target of 2 million visits during its first year. On the 5th the Liverpool Echo quipped how a car "loaded with mum, dad and the children" had stopped for directions to the park while in Knotty Ash: "Mother wound down the window and asked: “How safari to Knowsley, please?”"
It was announced on the 5th that St Helens Council was planning to spend nearly a million pounds on a massive clean up of derelict areas in the town. In today's money the cost of the ten-year scheme amounted to about £14m and included was the reclamation of old railway lines, disused canals and land made derelict by mining and brickworks. The chemical waste-heaps in Jackson Street were set to receive special attention. A £3,000 a year post was also going to be created for a council officer with responsibility for environmental improvements.
Separately it was announced that the Covered Market was going to be demolished to make way for the second phase of the St Helens town centre redevelopment programme. The market was going to be cleared in two phases and plans had been drawn up to temporarily move the stalls to the Water Street car park next Spring. St Helens Council also announced plans to improve the appearance of streets in the Standish Street area. That would cost £41,000 and the improvements would include alterations at the rear of houses and the provision of trees and flowerbeds.
A woman from Rivington Avenue was fined £5 by St Helens magistrates on the 5th for giving a child under the age of five intoxicating liquor. Inspector D. Johnstone, prosecuting, told the court that the woman had been in Victoria Park (pictured above) with a four-year-old girl. She had cooking sherry in her carrier bag and when the child said she was thirsty, the woman gave her the bottle to drink from. The girl subsequently became unconscious and had to be taken to hospital and detained overnight.
There was another collision between a car and a motorbike during the evening of the 6th. 17-year-old John Mather of Mount Pleasant Avenue in Parr was admitted to Providence Hospital with head and wrist injuries. Then at 11pm a car struck down Christina Worley and her daughter Winifred while the pair was crossing Pocket Nook Road. Both women would sadly die from their injuries.
The new winter season of concerts at the Theatre Royal opened on the 6th with a concert by lieder star Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Six weeks earlier the Echo's arts correspondent George Harrison had written: "They tell me in St. Helens it's harder to get tickets for her show than it ever was for the Wembley Cup Final." In their review of the 55-year-old's performance, the Echo wrote that Elisabeth had:
"…captivated a capacity audience with a programme that made few concessions to popular taste. If her upper register showed signs of wear and the highest notes no longer come quite so easefully [sic], this incomparable singer's command of tone colour for an infinite variety of emotions and characterisations was as complete as ever."
Two 11-year-old boys appeared before Prescot Juvenile Court on the 7th and pleaded guilty to maliciously setting fire to St Luke's School in Shaw Lane in Prescot last May. Classrooms had been set on fire by means of piling up desks and igniting books. The damage amounted to £1,000 and the boys were remanded in the care of the local authority for reports.
On the 7th, St Helens-born Stanley Parr was appointed to Britain's top police job outside of London when he was made Chief Constable designate of Lancashire. The 54-year-old would succeed William Palfrey, who would retire from the post next March. The job carried a salary of just over £9,000 and Mr Parr would have responsibility for directing the 7,000-strong Lancashire force, the biggest in the provinces.
The new chief had attended Allanson Street School in St Helens and studied at the Gamble Institute. He was currently the county's deputy chief constable and had been a former chief constable of Blackpool, having joined Lancashire Police in 1937. His father Thomas had served on the St Helens force for thirty years and was a long-time resident of Robins Lane.
Radiant House, on the corner of Cotham Street and Ormskirk Street, is now occupied by the HoneyRose Foundation charity. However, as many will recall, the building served as the town's gas showrooms for many years. The North Western Gas Board's advisory Home Service also had offices there and on the 7th police said they were looking for a sneak thief who'd stolen two purses from the offices containing £18 and a book of stamps.
The Hillsiders returned to the Theatre Royal on the 7th with guest star Tom O’Connor. The former Bootle maths and music teacher was starting to make a name for himself after appearances on the new TV show called 'The Comedians' that had begun in June. On the following evening The Tremeloes appeared at the Corporation Street theatre.
At the Capitol cinema this week a 3D film called 'The Eyes of Hell' was being screened. Manager Alan Peel said he had 5,000 cardboard glasses available for cinema-goers to pop on. It was the first three-dimensional picture in ten years and claimed as very lifelike.
Paul Bryan, a Minister in the Department of Employment, officially opened the new Government Training Centre in Bedford Street in St Helens on the morning of the 8th. Located on the Parr Industrial Estate, an Open Day was held during the afternoon and evening – although seemingly only men were invited. This advert was published in the Echo under the headline "An Invitation To Every Man Who Wants To Learn A Trade":
"On Friday, October 8, in the afternoon and evening, the St. Helens Government Training Centre is opening its doors to the public. Come and have a look around! This Centre could give you training in any one of a selection of trades. Courses last about 6 months. During training we will pay you a generous weekly allowance, and help you find a job to go to when you're trained."
The Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road in St Helens was advertising that their glass sculpture exhibition by Eric Hylton was being extended to December 1st.
The St Helens Reporter revealed on the 8th that two sold-out concerts by the Dubliners (pictured above) – that were set to take place at the Theatre Royal in a fortnight's time – had been cancelled because of an IRA dispute. The theatre's manager, James Lovelace, had asked the popular folk group not to perform any Irish rebel songs while in St Helens – but they had refused to bow to what they saw as censorship. "I felt that some people might take offence because the Ulster situation is so critical at the moment", explained Mr Lovelace.
However, the paper's lead story on its front-page was that 57,000 homes in the St Helens district would have their gas appliances converted to use natural gas from April 1972 at a cost of nearly £2m. A Gas Board spokesman referred to the operation involving 300 engineers as being like a military campaign and promised householders a 5% cut in their bills as a result.
Another front-page story was that St Helens police were dismissing rumours that had spread like wildfire through the town's schools this week of a "bovver boy mass attack". A 600-strong "army" of Liverpool skinheads were said to be planning raids on St Helens' schools – but the police felt there was no truth in the claims. However, a separate story described how forty skinheads had chased after a bus in Westfield Street. Two of its windows were smashed in a dispute with four other skinheads from Prescot who were passengers on the single-decker. The Reporter also revealed that a new maternity and child welfare clinic was set to open in Thatto Heath next spring and replace an old building in Lacey Street.
In July the Guardian wrote how Gerry Caughey was claiming to be penniless, with his family of five in Sutton Manor living on food begged from relatives. That was after the leader of last year's Pilkington strike had had his £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit stopped after claims he'd been working – something Mr Caughey denied. Councillor John Potter had been another leading light in the 7-week long dispute and on the 8th was found guilty of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining benefit and fined £30.
That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader. An investigator had watched Mr Potter over several days in June leave his home in Parbold Avenue early in the morning and travel to either St Helens or Earlestown markets. Goods were then unloaded from his car and after erecting a stall, he had been seen to man it. However, Mr Potter claimed he had simply been helping out his family and had received no payment for his efforts.
Early on the morning of the 9th, over thirty St Helens firemen tackled a blaze, which destroyed a dutch barn and machinery on Windle Hall Farm. The fire in Abbey Road was got under control after about an hour – but not before the barn had collapsed and machinery stored inside had been severely damaged.
It was reported on the 9th that nearly 150 St Helens bus drivers had qualified for safe driving awards. The top driver was 58-year-old Dick Waine of Penny Lane of Haydock, who had been employed by St Helens Transport Department for 36 years and was due to receive a bronze bar to his 25 year service cross. Three other drivers had chalked up 28 years of accident-free driving. They were Joseph Glover of Woodlands Road, William Taylor of Denbigh Avenue in Sutton and Tom Atherton of Hatfield Close in Sutton Heath.
And finally, this item in the Echo this week made me smile: "More than half the audience of U.S. television newscasts are unable to remember a single item they have seen and heard, a survey has indicated. The survey consisted of 2,000 telephone calls over a two-week period. More than 200 adults said they had just watched all or part of a television newscast and 51 per cent of them said they could not remember anything they had seen or heard. One third of those questioned said they had seen only part of a newscast because of distractions. The main distraction was dinner."
Next week's stories will include the terrified widow driven from her home by strip night rowdies at the Plaza, an update on abandoned dog Faithful Fred, the mysterious draining of the deadly Haydock canal and the Pilkington Recs scrum collapse tragedy.
We begin this week with Knowsley Safari Park, which was continuing to do good business. It looked like the reserve would easily surpass its target of 2 million visits during its first year. On the 5th the Liverpool Echo quipped how a car "loaded with mum, dad and the children" had stopped for directions to the park while in Knotty Ash: "Mother wound down the window and asked: “How safari to Knowsley, please?”"
It was announced on the 5th that St Helens Council was planning to spend nearly a million pounds on a massive clean up of derelict areas in the town. In today's money the cost of the ten-year scheme amounted to about £14m and included was the reclamation of old railway lines, disused canals and land made derelict by mining and brickworks. The chemical waste-heaps in Jackson Street were set to receive special attention. A £3,000 a year post was also going to be created for a council officer with responsibility for environmental improvements.
Separately it was announced that the Covered Market was going to be demolished to make way for the second phase of the St Helens town centre redevelopment programme. The market was going to be cleared in two phases and plans had been drawn up to temporarily move the stalls to the Water Street car park next Spring. St Helens Council also announced plans to improve the appearance of streets in the Standish Street area. That would cost £41,000 and the improvements would include alterations at the rear of houses and the provision of trees and flowerbeds.
There was another collision between a car and a motorbike during the evening of the 6th. 17-year-old John Mather of Mount Pleasant Avenue in Parr was admitted to Providence Hospital with head and wrist injuries. Then at 11pm a car struck down Christina Worley and her daughter Winifred while the pair was crossing Pocket Nook Road. Both women would sadly die from their injuries.
The new winter season of concerts at the Theatre Royal opened on the 6th with a concert by lieder star Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Six weeks earlier the Echo's arts correspondent George Harrison had written: "They tell me in St. Helens it's harder to get tickets for her show than it ever was for the Wembley Cup Final." In their review of the 55-year-old's performance, the Echo wrote that Elisabeth had:
"…captivated a capacity audience with a programme that made few concessions to popular taste. If her upper register showed signs of wear and the highest notes no longer come quite so easefully [sic], this incomparable singer's command of tone colour for an infinite variety of emotions and characterisations was as complete as ever."
Two 11-year-old boys appeared before Prescot Juvenile Court on the 7th and pleaded guilty to maliciously setting fire to St Luke's School in Shaw Lane in Prescot last May. Classrooms had been set on fire by means of piling up desks and igniting books. The damage amounted to £1,000 and the boys were remanded in the care of the local authority for reports.
On the 7th, St Helens-born Stanley Parr was appointed to Britain's top police job outside of London when he was made Chief Constable designate of Lancashire. The 54-year-old would succeed William Palfrey, who would retire from the post next March. The job carried a salary of just over £9,000 and Mr Parr would have responsibility for directing the 7,000-strong Lancashire force, the biggest in the provinces.
The new chief had attended Allanson Street School in St Helens and studied at the Gamble Institute. He was currently the county's deputy chief constable and had been a former chief constable of Blackpool, having joined Lancashire Police in 1937. His father Thomas had served on the St Helens force for thirty years and was a long-time resident of Robins Lane.
Radiant House, on the corner of Cotham Street and Ormskirk Street, is now occupied by the HoneyRose Foundation charity. However, as many will recall, the building served as the town's gas showrooms for many years. The North Western Gas Board's advisory Home Service also had offices there and on the 7th police said they were looking for a sneak thief who'd stolen two purses from the offices containing £18 and a book of stamps.
The Hillsiders returned to the Theatre Royal on the 7th with guest star Tom O’Connor. The former Bootle maths and music teacher was starting to make a name for himself after appearances on the new TV show called 'The Comedians' that had begun in June. On the following evening The Tremeloes appeared at the Corporation Street theatre.
At the Capitol cinema this week a 3D film called 'The Eyes of Hell' was being screened. Manager Alan Peel said he had 5,000 cardboard glasses available for cinema-goers to pop on. It was the first three-dimensional picture in ten years and claimed as very lifelike.
Paul Bryan, a Minister in the Department of Employment, officially opened the new Government Training Centre in Bedford Street in St Helens on the morning of the 8th. Located on the Parr Industrial Estate, an Open Day was held during the afternoon and evening – although seemingly only men were invited. This advert was published in the Echo under the headline "An Invitation To Every Man Who Wants To Learn A Trade":
"On Friday, October 8, in the afternoon and evening, the St. Helens Government Training Centre is opening its doors to the public. Come and have a look around! This Centre could give you training in any one of a selection of trades. Courses last about 6 months. During training we will pay you a generous weekly allowance, and help you find a job to go to when you're trained."
The Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road in St Helens was advertising that their glass sculpture exhibition by Eric Hylton was being extended to December 1st.
However, the paper's lead story on its front-page was that 57,000 homes in the St Helens district would have their gas appliances converted to use natural gas from April 1972 at a cost of nearly £2m. A Gas Board spokesman referred to the operation involving 300 engineers as being like a military campaign and promised householders a 5% cut in their bills as a result.
Another front-page story was that St Helens police were dismissing rumours that had spread like wildfire through the town's schools this week of a "bovver boy mass attack". A 600-strong "army" of Liverpool skinheads were said to be planning raids on St Helens' schools – but the police felt there was no truth in the claims. However, a separate story described how forty skinheads had chased after a bus in Westfield Street. Two of its windows were smashed in a dispute with four other skinheads from Prescot who were passengers on the single-decker. The Reporter also revealed that a new maternity and child welfare clinic was set to open in Thatto Heath next spring and replace an old building in Lacey Street.
In July the Guardian wrote how Gerry Caughey was claiming to be penniless, with his family of five in Sutton Manor living on food begged from relatives. That was after the leader of last year's Pilkington strike had had his £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit stopped after claims he'd been working – something Mr Caughey denied. Councillor John Potter had been another leading light in the 7-week long dispute and on the 8th was found guilty of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining benefit and fined £30.
That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader. An investigator had watched Mr Potter over several days in June leave his home in Parbold Avenue early in the morning and travel to either St Helens or Earlestown markets. Goods were then unloaded from his car and after erecting a stall, he had been seen to man it. However, Mr Potter claimed he had simply been helping out his family and had received no payment for his efforts.
Early on the morning of the 9th, over thirty St Helens firemen tackled a blaze, which destroyed a dutch barn and machinery on Windle Hall Farm. The fire in Abbey Road was got under control after about an hour – but not before the barn had collapsed and machinery stored inside had been severely damaged.
It was reported on the 9th that nearly 150 St Helens bus drivers had qualified for safe driving awards. The top driver was 58-year-old Dick Waine of Penny Lane of Haydock, who had been employed by St Helens Transport Department for 36 years and was due to receive a bronze bar to his 25 year service cross. Three other drivers had chalked up 28 years of accident-free driving. They were Joseph Glover of Woodlands Road, William Taylor of Denbigh Avenue in Sutton and Tom Atherton of Hatfield Close in Sutton Heath.
And finally, this item in the Echo this week made me smile: "More than half the audience of U.S. television newscasts are unable to remember a single item they have seen and heard, a survey has indicated. The survey consisted of 2,000 telephone calls over a two-week period. More than 200 adults said they had just watched all or part of a television newscast and 51 per cent of them said they could not remember anything they had seen or heard. One third of those questioned said they had seen only part of a newscast because of distractions. The main distraction was dinner."
Next week's stories will include the terrified widow driven from her home by strip night rowdies at the Plaza, an update on abandoned dog Faithful Fred, the mysterious draining of the deadly Haydock canal and the Pilkington Recs scrum collapse tragedy.
This week's 25 stories include the Dubliners IRA songs dispute at the Theatre Royal, St Helens Council's derelict land reclamation programme, the woman who gave cooking sherry to a 4-year-old in Victoria Park, the Pilkington strike leader prosecuted as a benefit cheat and the demolition of the covered market.
We begin this week with Knowsley Safari Park, which was continuing to do good business. It looked like the reserve would easily surpass its target of 2 million visits during its first year.
On the 5th the Liverpool Echo quipped how a car "loaded with mum, dad and the children" had stopped for directions to the park while in Knotty Ash:
"Mother wound down the window and asked: “How safari to Knowsley, please?”"
It was announced on the 5th that St Helens Council was planning to spend nearly a million pounds on a massive clean up of derelict areas in the town.
In today's money the cost of the ten-year scheme amounted to about £14m and included was the reclamation of old railway lines, disused canals and land made derelict by mining and brickworks.
The chemical waste-heaps in Jackson Street were set to receive special attention.
A £3,000 a year post was also going to be created for a council officer with responsibility for environmental improvements.
Separately it was announced that the Covered Market was going to be demolished to make way for the second phase of the St Helens town centre redevelopment programme.
The market was going to be cleared in two phases and plans had been drawn up to temporarily move the stalls to the Water Street car park next Spring.
St Helens Council also announced plans to improve the appearance of streets in the Standish Street area.
That would cost £41,000 and the improvements would include alterations at the rear of houses and the provision of trees and flowerbeds.
A woman from Rivington Avenue was fined £5 by St Helens magistrates on the 5th for giving a child under the age of five intoxicating liquor.
Inspector D. Johnstone, prosecuting, told the court that the woman had been in Victoria Park (pictured above) with a four-year-old girl.
She had cooking sherry in her carrier bag and when the child said she was thirsty, the woman gave her the bottle to drink from.
The girl subsequently became unconscious and had to be taken to hospital and detained overnight.
There was another collision between a car and a motorbike during the evening of the 6th.
17-year-old John Mather of Mount Pleasant Avenue in Parr was admitted to Providence Hospital with head and wrist injuries.
Then at 11pm a car struck down Christina Worley and her daughter Winifred while the pair was crossing Pocket Nook Road. Both women would sadly die from their injuries.
The new winter season of concerts at the Theatre Royal opened on the 6th with a concert by lieder star Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Six weeks earlier the Echo's arts correspondent George Harrison had written:
"They tell me in St. Helens it's harder to get tickets for her show than it ever was for the Wembley Cup Final."
In their review of the 55-year-old's performance, the Echo wrote that Elisabeth had:
"…captivated a capacity audience with a programme that made few concessions to popular taste. If her upper register showed signs of wear and the highest notes no longer come quite so easefully [sic], this incomparable singer's command of tone colour for an infinite variety of emotions and characterisations was as complete as ever."
Two 11-year-old boys appeared before Prescot Juvenile Court on the 7th and pleaded guilty to maliciously setting fire to St Luke's School in Shaw Lane in Prescot last May.
Classrooms had been set on fire by means of piling up desks and igniting books. The damage amounted to £1,000 and the boys were remanded in the care of the local authority for reports.
On the 7th, St Helens-born Stanley Parr was appointed to Britain's top police job outside of London when he was made Chief Constable designate of Lancashire.
The 54-year-old would succeed William Palfrey, who would retire from the post next March.
The job carried a salary of just over £9,000 and Mr Parr would have responsibility for directing the 7,000-strong Lancashire force, the biggest in the provinces.
The new chief had attended Allanson Street School in St Helens and studied at the Gamble Institute.
He was currently the county's deputy chief constable and had been a former chief constable of Blackpool, having joined Lancashire Police in 1937.
His father Thomas had served on the St Helens force for thirty years and was a long-time resident of Robins Lane.
Radiant House, on the corner of Cotham Street and Ormskirk Street, is now occupied by the HoneyRose Foundation charity. However, as many will recall, the building served as the town's gas showrooms for many years.
The North Western Gas Board's advisory Home Service also had offices there and on the 7th police said they were looking for a sneak thief who'd stolen two purses from the offices containing £18 and a book of stamps.
The Hillsiders returned to the Theatre Royal on the 7th with guest star Tom O’Connor.
The former Bootle maths and music teacher was starting to make a name for himself after appearances on the new TV show called 'The Comedians' that had begun in June.
On the following evening The Tremeloes appeared at the Corporation Street theatre.
At the Capitol cinema this week a 3D film called 'The Eyes of Hell' was being screened. Manager Alan Peel said he had 5,000 cardboard glasses available for cinema-goers to pop on.
It was the first three-dimensional picture in ten years and claimed as very lifelike.
Paul Bryan, a Minister in the Department of Employment, officially opened the new Government Training Centre in Bedford Street in St Helens on the morning of the 8th.
Located on the Parr Industrial Estate, an Open Day was held during the afternoon and evening – although seemingly only men were invited.
This advert was published in the Echo under the headline "An Invitation To Every Man Who Wants To Learn A Trade":
"On Friday, October 8, in the afternoon and evening, the St. Helens Government Training Centre is opening its doors to the public. Come and have a look around! This Centre could give you training in any one of a selection of trades. Courses last about 6 months.
"During training we will pay you a generous weekly allowance, and help you find a job to go to when you're trained."
The Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road in St Helens was advertising that their glass sculpture exhibition by Eric Hylton was being extended to December 1st.
The St Helens Reporter revealed on the 8th that two sold-out concerts by the Dubliners (pictured above) – that were set to take place at the Theatre Royal in a fortnight's time – had been cancelled because of an IRA dispute.
The theatre's manager, James Lovelace, had asked the popular folk group not to perform any Irish rebel songs while in St Helens – but they had refused to bow to what they saw as censorship.
"I felt that some people might take offence because the Ulster situation is so critical at the moment", explained Mr Lovelace.
However, the paper's lead story on its front-page was that 57,000 homes in the St Helens district would have their gas appliances converted to use natural gas from April 1972 at a cost of nearly £2m.
A Gas Board spokesman referred to the operation involving 300 engineers as being like a military campaign and promised householders a 5% cut in their bills as a result.
Another front-page story was that St Helens police were dismissing rumours that had spread like wildfire through the town's schools this week of a "bovver boy mass attack".
A 600-strong "army" of Liverpool skinheads were said to be planning raids on St Helens' schools – but the police felt there was no truth in the claims.
However, a separate story described how forty skinheads had chased after a bus in Westfield Street.
Two of its windows were smashed in a dispute with four other skinheads from Prescot who were passengers on the single-decker.
The Reporter also revealed that a new maternity and child welfare clinic was set to open in Thatto Heath next spring and replace an old building in Lacey Street.
In July the Guardian wrote how Gerry Caughey was claiming to be penniless, with his family of five in Sutton Manor living on food begged from relatives.
That was after the leader of last year's Pilkington strike had had his £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit stopped after claims he'd been working – something Mr Caughey denied.
Councillor John Potter had been another leading light in the 7-week long dispute and on the 8th was found guilty of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining benefit and fined £30.
That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader.
An investigator had watched Mr Potter over several days in June leave his home in Parbold Avenue early in the morning and travel to either St Helens or Earlestown markets.
Goods were then unloaded from his car and after erecting a stall, he had been seen to man it.
However, Mr Potter claimed he had simply been helping out his family and had received no payment for his efforts.
Early on the morning of the 9th, over thirty St Helens firemen tackled a blaze, which destroyed a dutch barn and machinery on Windle Hall Farm.
The fire in Abbey Road was got under control after about an hour – but not before the barn had collapsed and machinery stored inside had been severely damaged.
It was reported on the 9th that nearly 150 St Helens bus drivers had qualified for safe driving awards.
The top driver was 58-year-old Dick Waine of Penny Lane of Haydock, who had been employed by St Helens Transport Department for 36 years and was due to receive a bronze bar to his 25 year service cross.
Three other drivers had chalked up 28 years of accident-free driving. They were Joseph Glover of Woodlands Road, William Taylor of Denbigh Avenue in Sutton and Tom Atherton of Hatfield Close in Sutton Heath.
And finally, this item in the Echo this week made me smile: "More than half the audience of U.S. television newscasts are unable to remember a single item they have seen and heard, a survey has indicated.
"The survey consisted of 2,000 telephone calls over a two-week period. More than 200 adults said they had just watched all or part of a television newscast and 51 per cent of them said they could not remember anything they had seen or heard.
"One third of those questioned said they had seen only part of a newscast because of distractions. The main distraction was dinner."
Next week's stories will include the terrified widow driven from her home by strip night rowdies at the Plaza, an update on abandoned dog Faithful Fred, the mysterious draining of the deadly Haydock canal and the Pilkington Recs scrum collapse tragedy.
We begin this week with Knowsley Safari Park, which was continuing to do good business. It looked like the reserve would easily surpass its target of 2 million visits during its first year.
On the 5th the Liverpool Echo quipped how a car "loaded with mum, dad and the children" had stopped for directions to the park while in Knotty Ash:
"Mother wound down the window and asked: “How safari to Knowsley, please?”"
It was announced on the 5th that St Helens Council was planning to spend nearly a million pounds on a massive clean up of derelict areas in the town.
In today's money the cost of the ten-year scheme amounted to about £14m and included was the reclamation of old railway lines, disused canals and land made derelict by mining and brickworks.
The chemical waste-heaps in Jackson Street were set to receive special attention.
A £3,000 a year post was also going to be created for a council officer with responsibility for environmental improvements.
Separately it was announced that the Covered Market was going to be demolished to make way for the second phase of the St Helens town centre redevelopment programme.
The market was going to be cleared in two phases and plans had been drawn up to temporarily move the stalls to the Water Street car park next Spring.
St Helens Council also announced plans to improve the appearance of streets in the Standish Street area.
That would cost £41,000 and the improvements would include alterations at the rear of houses and the provision of trees and flowerbeds.
A woman from Rivington Avenue was fined £5 by St Helens magistrates on the 5th for giving a child under the age of five intoxicating liquor.
She had cooking sherry in her carrier bag and when the child said she was thirsty, the woman gave her the bottle to drink from.
The girl subsequently became unconscious and had to be taken to hospital and detained overnight.
There was another collision between a car and a motorbike during the evening of the 6th.
17-year-old John Mather of Mount Pleasant Avenue in Parr was admitted to Providence Hospital with head and wrist injuries.
Then at 11pm a car struck down Christina Worley and her daughter Winifred while the pair was crossing Pocket Nook Road. Both women would sadly die from their injuries.
The new winter season of concerts at the Theatre Royal opened on the 6th with a concert by lieder star Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Six weeks earlier the Echo's arts correspondent George Harrison had written:
"They tell me in St. Helens it's harder to get tickets for her show than it ever was for the Wembley Cup Final."
In their review of the 55-year-old's performance, the Echo wrote that Elisabeth had:
"…captivated a capacity audience with a programme that made few concessions to popular taste. If her upper register showed signs of wear and the highest notes no longer come quite so easefully [sic], this incomparable singer's command of tone colour for an infinite variety of emotions and characterisations was as complete as ever."
Two 11-year-old boys appeared before Prescot Juvenile Court on the 7th and pleaded guilty to maliciously setting fire to St Luke's School in Shaw Lane in Prescot last May.
Classrooms had been set on fire by means of piling up desks and igniting books. The damage amounted to £1,000 and the boys were remanded in the care of the local authority for reports.
On the 7th, St Helens-born Stanley Parr was appointed to Britain's top police job outside of London when he was made Chief Constable designate of Lancashire.
The 54-year-old would succeed William Palfrey, who would retire from the post next March.
The job carried a salary of just over £9,000 and Mr Parr would have responsibility for directing the 7,000-strong Lancashire force, the biggest in the provinces.
The new chief had attended Allanson Street School in St Helens and studied at the Gamble Institute.
He was currently the county's deputy chief constable and had been a former chief constable of Blackpool, having joined Lancashire Police in 1937.
His father Thomas had served on the St Helens force for thirty years and was a long-time resident of Robins Lane.
Radiant House, on the corner of Cotham Street and Ormskirk Street, is now occupied by the HoneyRose Foundation charity. However, as many will recall, the building served as the town's gas showrooms for many years.
The North Western Gas Board's advisory Home Service also had offices there and on the 7th police said they were looking for a sneak thief who'd stolen two purses from the offices containing £18 and a book of stamps.
The Hillsiders returned to the Theatre Royal on the 7th with guest star Tom O’Connor.
The former Bootle maths and music teacher was starting to make a name for himself after appearances on the new TV show called 'The Comedians' that had begun in June.
On the following evening The Tremeloes appeared at the Corporation Street theatre.
At the Capitol cinema this week a 3D film called 'The Eyes of Hell' was being screened. Manager Alan Peel said he had 5,000 cardboard glasses available for cinema-goers to pop on.
It was the first three-dimensional picture in ten years and claimed as very lifelike.
Paul Bryan, a Minister in the Department of Employment, officially opened the new Government Training Centre in Bedford Street in St Helens on the morning of the 8th.
Located on the Parr Industrial Estate, an Open Day was held during the afternoon and evening – although seemingly only men were invited.
This advert was published in the Echo under the headline "An Invitation To Every Man Who Wants To Learn A Trade":
"On Friday, October 8, in the afternoon and evening, the St. Helens Government Training Centre is opening its doors to the public. Come and have a look around! This Centre could give you training in any one of a selection of trades. Courses last about 6 months.
"During training we will pay you a generous weekly allowance, and help you find a job to go to when you're trained."
The Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road in St Helens was advertising that their glass sculpture exhibition by Eric Hylton was being extended to December 1st.
The theatre's manager, James Lovelace, had asked the popular folk group not to perform any Irish rebel songs while in St Helens – but they had refused to bow to what they saw as censorship.
"I felt that some people might take offence because the Ulster situation is so critical at the moment", explained Mr Lovelace.
However, the paper's lead story on its front-page was that 57,000 homes in the St Helens district would have their gas appliances converted to use natural gas from April 1972 at a cost of nearly £2m.
A Gas Board spokesman referred to the operation involving 300 engineers as being like a military campaign and promised householders a 5% cut in their bills as a result.
Another front-page story was that St Helens police were dismissing rumours that had spread like wildfire through the town's schools this week of a "bovver boy mass attack".
A 600-strong "army" of Liverpool skinheads were said to be planning raids on St Helens' schools – but the police felt there was no truth in the claims.
However, a separate story described how forty skinheads had chased after a bus in Westfield Street.
Two of its windows were smashed in a dispute with four other skinheads from Prescot who were passengers on the single-decker.
The Reporter also revealed that a new maternity and child welfare clinic was set to open in Thatto Heath next spring and replace an old building in Lacey Street.
In July the Guardian wrote how Gerry Caughey was claiming to be penniless, with his family of five in Sutton Manor living on food begged from relatives.
That was after the leader of last year's Pilkington strike had had his £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit stopped after claims he'd been working – something Mr Caughey denied.
Councillor John Potter had been another leading light in the 7-week long dispute and on the 8th was found guilty of making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining benefit and fined £30.
That was after officers from the investigation branch of the Health and Social Security Department had kept observations on the 34-year-old and seen him acting as a market trader.
An investigator had watched Mr Potter over several days in June leave his home in Parbold Avenue early in the morning and travel to either St Helens or Earlestown markets.
Goods were then unloaded from his car and after erecting a stall, he had been seen to man it.
However, Mr Potter claimed he had simply been helping out his family and had received no payment for his efforts.
Early on the morning of the 9th, over thirty St Helens firemen tackled a blaze, which destroyed a dutch barn and machinery on Windle Hall Farm.
The fire in Abbey Road was got under control after about an hour – but not before the barn had collapsed and machinery stored inside had been severely damaged.
It was reported on the 9th that nearly 150 St Helens bus drivers had qualified for safe driving awards.
The top driver was 58-year-old Dick Waine of Penny Lane of Haydock, who had been employed by St Helens Transport Department for 36 years and was due to receive a bronze bar to his 25 year service cross.
Three other drivers had chalked up 28 years of accident-free driving. They were Joseph Glover of Woodlands Road, William Taylor of Denbigh Avenue in Sutton and Tom Atherton of Hatfield Close in Sutton Heath.
And finally, this item in the Echo this week made me smile: "More than half the audience of U.S. television newscasts are unable to remember a single item they have seen and heard, a survey has indicated.
"The survey consisted of 2,000 telephone calls over a two-week period. More than 200 adults said they had just watched all or part of a television newscast and 51 per cent of them said they could not remember anything they had seen or heard.
"One third of those questioned said they had seen only part of a newscast because of distractions. The main distraction was dinner."
Next week's stories will include the terrified widow driven from her home by strip night rowdies at the Plaza, an update on abandoned dog Faithful Fred, the mysterious draining of the deadly Haydock canal and the Pilkington Recs scrum collapse tragedy.