FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th APRIL 1971)
This week's many stories include the dramatic action taken by West Park governors over the sleeping pills scare, a party of 45 French schoolchildren come to Billinge, the brave Haydock policemen and an invitation to join the Easter Parade and buy a new home.
We begin on the 5th when John Middlehurst was pictured in the Liverpool Echo after winning the country's top award for apprentice joiners. The student's work and examination marks at St Helens "Tech" had made him the number 1 apprentice carpenter in Britain out of a total of 1,760. Employed in the building department of Pilkingtons, John would receive a silver medal to mark his success.
The Echo also profiled Liverpool born Paul Raymond – the "king of Britain's nudie shows" – who was also now the owner of Men Only magazine. One snippet in the piece said: "Determined to break into show business somehow, he cooked up a mind-reading act and performed it in music halls in Bolton, Blackburn and St. Helens." Perhaps Raymond got some ideas for his future shows through reading men's minds?
The Liverpool Chamber Orchestra performed at the Theatre Royal on the 6th, with the Hillsiders making yet another appearance in Corporation Street on the following day, with support from the Angleband.
Last week I described how a boy at West Park Grammar had taken his mother's sleeping pills to school and as the result of a dare, a number of sixth formers had taken overdoses – seemingly unaware of the possible consequences. Five pupils ended up being rushed to either St Helens or Providence hospitals and each spent two or three days as an inpatient. During the evening of the 6th, an emergency meeting of the governors of West Park was held to consider the case.
One might have thought that the scare to themselves and their families would have been sufficient punishment for what the boys had done. However the Catholic grammar school then had a reputation for strictness and after ninety minutes of discussion, all five were expelled. Following the meeting the headmaster, Brother Leonard, said:
"The governors of the school take a very serious view of this matter. They consider that any flirtation with drugs of this nature by senior boys is too serious to be regarded merely as an April Fools Day prank that misfired. Taking into account therefore, the varying degrees of irresponsibility shown by the boys concerned, they are asking five boys to leave this school. They note that two others have already left and they are recommending demotion and that restrictions be imposed on others involved. I may allow the boys who must now leave the school to return to sit for the G.C.E. examination at the school," he added.
The chairman of the governors was the Dean of St Helens, Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, who told the Press: "It is a regrettable episode and I am very sorry about it. Demotion means that any of the boys who were prefects will lose that status and restriction will mean the loss of privileges normally enjoyed by sixth formers." Superintendent Tom Shepherd, head of the St Helens police, said he had made inquiries into the incident but could not yet say whether or not the circumstances would justify court proceedings.
Bill Thomas was profiled in the Echo on the 7th. The 43-year-old Scot had moved from Eccleston to a country location in Tilston in Cheshire in order to learn to play the bagpipes without annoying his neighbours. "The world's full of funny people who actually don't like the sound of the pipes", said Bill, "and I wanted somewhere where I wasn't going to offend anyone."
Employees of Rael Brook – "the world's leading shirt manufacturers" in Warrington Road, Rainhill – had been holding raffles and bingo evenings to raise money for the Alder Hey Children's Hospital Kidney Fund. On the 7th the sum of £230 (about £4,000 in today's money) was officially handed over to the fund on behalf of the workers by Liverpool footballers Ron Yeats, John Toshack, Larry Lloyd and Emlyn Hughes.
A party of 45 schoolboys from the Carcassone area of France arrived in Billinge this week to play a series of rugby league matches over the Easter period. The lads were staying at Greenfields House in Billinge along with six teachers. One of them was François de Nadaï, who would represent France as a forward in four Rugby League World Cups. On the 7th a combined 3rd year team of players from Robins Lane and St Cuthbert's schools were beaten 8 - 20 by their French visitors.
The surnames of the St Helens players were stated as O’Neill, Peers, Richardson, Donnellan, Crompton, Gilford, Cunningham, Fairhurst, Brookfield, Sheffield, Spriggs, Arkwright, Hation, Usher and Fairhurst. On the following day at Knowsley Road, a combined team from Robins Lane, St Cuthbert's and Parr got revenge on Carcassone beating them 14 - 6.
On the 8th “Join In The Easter Parade To View Our New Homes This Weekend!", was the headline to a half-page advert in the Echo from Northern Development Homes. "For as little as £6 per week", they wrote, "you can own your own superb home on one of these delightful developments which are all within easy commuting distance of Liverpool. All facilities – transport, schools and shops are readily at hand. Many attractive designs of Detached and Semi-Detached Bungalows and Houses to choose from."
The estates included those opposite Sherdley Park in St Helens and what was then called the "Mill Farm" estate between Leach Lane and Clock Face Road. Those homes cost from £4,199, as did new houses in Old Whint Road in Haydock, with properties at Windy Arbour Lane in Whiston available from £4,550.
During the evening of the 8th, Judith Durham – formerly of Australian folk-influenced pop quartet The Seekers – performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens (pic of Judith by Allan Warren).
It was Good Friday on the 9th and as snow lay five feet deep in parts of the desert kingdom of Saudia Arabia, the temperatures soared in England. Saints played Wigan away at Central Park in the traditional Easter game and beat them 6 - 9 in front of a 24,000-strong crowd. It was the third victory of the season for the Knowsley Road side over their old rivals and John Walsh scored the game's only try.
Being so warm many St Helens folk made for the coast or the Lake District – along with lots of other motorists. On Easter Saturday the M6 in Lancashire was said to be the busiest road in Britain. However early on the 10th, Ronald Jones of Loughrigg Avenue in Clinkham Wood was killed on the East Lancs at Windle Island after his motorbike was in an accident with a car. It had been Ronald's 28th birthday and he left a widow and three young children.
Then at midnight two cars were in collision on the East Lancs and four people were taken to Providence Hospital. Three days later it was reported that two of them – Ronald Ellison of Ashton Avenue in Rainhill and Mary Broadstock – were still detained in hospital. However Michael West of Warrington Road in Rainhill had been discharged after treatment for leg injuries.
On the same day it was announced that the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society planned to give two Haydock policemen bravery awards. Last November Constables Geoffrey Harper and William Potts of Lancashire Constabulary had rescued Frances Bate from her gas-filled bedroom in Chapel Street in Haydock. The Chairman of Haydock Urban District Council, Councillor Joseph Roberts, would later present the pair with certificates.
And finally an interesting article on the first motor ambulance in Liverpool was published this week in the Echo. St Helens Hospital's first such vehicle was acquired in May of 1917 and was a Ford Model T Field Ambulance that employed a large canvas on a wooden frame. That type was used extensively in WW1 and although not very spacious inside, it seems an improvement on what Liverpool hospitals had to make do with:
"Nearly 60 years ago, Mr. Francis Sanderson drove Liverpool's first motor ambulance as the days of horse-drawn vehicles came to an end. Now 80, Mr. Sanderson finds himself being taken by modern ambulance once a fortnight to Newsham General Hospital for treatment – and the memories are flooding back of his early days with the service. At his home at Acheson Road, West Derby, he recalls that the first motor had to be started with a handle every time, and that it was all open at the sides.
"“We carried a hot brick to keep patients warm, and a man had to hold a candle in the back when it was dark.” Mr. Sanderson was moved from the City Engineer's Department to ambulances in 1912 because of a shortage of drivers, and stayed with them during both world wars until 1956. “I drove a small green van which carried infectious cases,” he says. “The ambulance was so small that the patient's feet had to go under the driver's seat. We had no siren or any sign that it was an ambulance, and we had to take our place in traffic like any ordinary vehicle.”"
Next week's stories will include a Knowsley Safari Park update, the nippy Tesco thief who stole cash from their Bridge Street supermarket, Pilkingtons breakthrough in space and Billinge maternity hospital's staffing problems.
We begin on the 5th when John Middlehurst was pictured in the Liverpool Echo after winning the country's top award for apprentice joiners. The student's work and examination marks at St Helens "Tech" had made him the number 1 apprentice carpenter in Britain out of a total of 1,760. Employed in the building department of Pilkingtons, John would receive a silver medal to mark his success.
The Echo also profiled Liverpool born Paul Raymond – the "king of Britain's nudie shows" – who was also now the owner of Men Only magazine. One snippet in the piece said: "Determined to break into show business somehow, he cooked up a mind-reading act and performed it in music halls in Bolton, Blackburn and St. Helens." Perhaps Raymond got some ideas for his future shows through reading men's minds?
The Liverpool Chamber Orchestra performed at the Theatre Royal on the 6th, with the Hillsiders making yet another appearance in Corporation Street on the following day, with support from the Angleband.
Last week I described how a boy at West Park Grammar had taken his mother's sleeping pills to school and as the result of a dare, a number of sixth formers had taken overdoses – seemingly unaware of the possible consequences. Five pupils ended up being rushed to either St Helens or Providence hospitals and each spent two or three days as an inpatient. During the evening of the 6th, an emergency meeting of the governors of West Park was held to consider the case.
One might have thought that the scare to themselves and their families would have been sufficient punishment for what the boys had done. However the Catholic grammar school then had a reputation for strictness and after ninety minutes of discussion, all five were expelled. Following the meeting the headmaster, Brother Leonard, said:
"The governors of the school take a very serious view of this matter. They consider that any flirtation with drugs of this nature by senior boys is too serious to be regarded merely as an April Fools Day prank that misfired. Taking into account therefore, the varying degrees of irresponsibility shown by the boys concerned, they are asking five boys to leave this school. They note that two others have already left and they are recommending demotion and that restrictions be imposed on others involved. I may allow the boys who must now leave the school to return to sit for the G.C.E. examination at the school," he added.
The chairman of the governors was the Dean of St Helens, Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, who told the Press: "It is a regrettable episode and I am very sorry about it. Demotion means that any of the boys who were prefects will lose that status and restriction will mean the loss of privileges normally enjoyed by sixth formers." Superintendent Tom Shepherd, head of the St Helens police, said he had made inquiries into the incident but could not yet say whether or not the circumstances would justify court proceedings.
Bill Thomas was profiled in the Echo on the 7th. The 43-year-old Scot had moved from Eccleston to a country location in Tilston in Cheshire in order to learn to play the bagpipes without annoying his neighbours. "The world's full of funny people who actually don't like the sound of the pipes", said Bill, "and I wanted somewhere where I wasn't going to offend anyone."
Employees of Rael Brook – "the world's leading shirt manufacturers" in Warrington Road, Rainhill – had been holding raffles and bingo evenings to raise money for the Alder Hey Children's Hospital Kidney Fund. On the 7th the sum of £230 (about £4,000 in today's money) was officially handed over to the fund on behalf of the workers by Liverpool footballers Ron Yeats, John Toshack, Larry Lloyd and Emlyn Hughes.
The surnames of the St Helens players were stated as O’Neill, Peers, Richardson, Donnellan, Crompton, Gilford, Cunningham, Fairhurst, Brookfield, Sheffield, Spriggs, Arkwright, Hation, Usher and Fairhurst. On the following day at Knowsley Road, a combined team from Robins Lane, St Cuthbert's and Parr got revenge on Carcassone beating them 14 - 6.
On the 8th “Join In The Easter Parade To View Our New Homes This Weekend!", was the headline to a half-page advert in the Echo from Northern Development Homes. "For as little as £6 per week", they wrote, "you can own your own superb home on one of these delightful developments which are all within easy commuting distance of Liverpool. All facilities – transport, schools and shops are readily at hand. Many attractive designs of Detached and Semi-Detached Bungalows and Houses to choose from."
The estates included those opposite Sherdley Park in St Helens and what was then called the "Mill Farm" estate between Leach Lane and Clock Face Road. Those homes cost from £4,199, as did new houses in Old Whint Road in Haydock, with properties at Windy Arbour Lane in Whiston available from £4,550.
It was Good Friday on the 9th and as snow lay five feet deep in parts of the desert kingdom of Saudia Arabia, the temperatures soared in England. Saints played Wigan away at Central Park in the traditional Easter game and beat them 6 - 9 in front of a 24,000-strong crowd. It was the third victory of the season for the Knowsley Road side over their old rivals and John Walsh scored the game's only try.
Being so warm many St Helens folk made for the coast or the Lake District – along with lots of other motorists. On Easter Saturday the M6 in Lancashire was said to be the busiest road in Britain. However early on the 10th, Ronald Jones of Loughrigg Avenue in Clinkham Wood was killed on the East Lancs at Windle Island after his motorbike was in an accident with a car. It had been Ronald's 28th birthday and he left a widow and three young children.
Then at midnight two cars were in collision on the East Lancs and four people were taken to Providence Hospital. Three days later it was reported that two of them – Ronald Ellison of Ashton Avenue in Rainhill and Mary Broadstock – were still detained in hospital. However Michael West of Warrington Road in Rainhill had been discharged after treatment for leg injuries.
On the same day it was announced that the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society planned to give two Haydock policemen bravery awards. Last November Constables Geoffrey Harper and William Potts of Lancashire Constabulary had rescued Frances Bate from her gas-filled bedroom in Chapel Street in Haydock. The Chairman of Haydock Urban District Council, Councillor Joseph Roberts, would later present the pair with certificates.
And finally an interesting article on the first motor ambulance in Liverpool was published this week in the Echo. St Helens Hospital's first such vehicle was acquired in May of 1917 and was a Ford Model T Field Ambulance that employed a large canvas on a wooden frame. That type was used extensively in WW1 and although not very spacious inside, it seems an improvement on what Liverpool hospitals had to make do with:
"Nearly 60 years ago, Mr. Francis Sanderson drove Liverpool's first motor ambulance as the days of horse-drawn vehicles came to an end. Now 80, Mr. Sanderson finds himself being taken by modern ambulance once a fortnight to Newsham General Hospital for treatment – and the memories are flooding back of his early days with the service. At his home at Acheson Road, West Derby, he recalls that the first motor had to be started with a handle every time, and that it was all open at the sides.
"“We carried a hot brick to keep patients warm, and a man had to hold a candle in the back when it was dark.” Mr. Sanderson was moved from the City Engineer's Department to ambulances in 1912 because of a shortage of drivers, and stayed with them during both world wars until 1956. “I drove a small green van which carried infectious cases,” he says. “The ambulance was so small that the patient's feet had to go under the driver's seat. We had no siren or any sign that it was an ambulance, and we had to take our place in traffic like any ordinary vehicle.”"
Next week's stories will include a Knowsley Safari Park update, the nippy Tesco thief who stole cash from their Bridge Street supermarket, Pilkingtons breakthrough in space and Billinge maternity hospital's staffing problems.
This week's many stories include the dramatic action taken by West Park governors over the sleeping pills scare, a party of 45 French schoolchildren come to Billinge, the brave Haydock policemen and an invitation to join the Easter Parade and buy a new home.
We begin on the 5th when John Middlehurst was pictured in the Liverpool Echo after winning the country's top award for apprentice joiners.
The student's work and examination marks at St Helens "Tech" had made him the number 1 apprentice carpenter in Britain out of a total of 1,760.
Employed in the building department of Pilkingtons, John would receive a silver medal to mark his success.
The Echo also profiled Liverpool born Paul Raymond – the "king of Britain's nudie shows" – who was also now the owner of Men Only magazine. One snippet in the piece said:
"Determined to break into show business somehow, he cooked up a mind-reading act and performed it in music halls in Bolton, Blackburn and St. Helens."
Perhaps Raymond got some ideas for his future shows through reading men's minds?
The Liverpool Chamber Orchestra performed at the Theatre Royal on the 6th, with the Hillsiders making yet another appearance in Corporation Street on the following day, with support from the Angleband.
Last week I described how a boy at West Park Grammar had taken his mother's sleeping pills to school and as the result of a dare, a number of sixth formers had taken overdoses – seemingly unaware of the possible consequences.
Five pupils ended up being rushed to either St Helens or Providence hospitals and each spent two or three days as an inpatient.
During the evening of the 6th, an emergency meeting of the governors of West Park was held to consider the case.
One might have thought that the scare to themselves and their families would have been sufficient punishment for what the boys had done.
However the Catholic grammar school then had a reputation for strictness and after ninety minutes of discussion, all five were expelled.
Following the meeting the headmaster, Brother Leonard, said:
"The governors of the school take a very serious view of this matter. They consider that any flirtation with drugs of this nature by senior boys is too serious to be regarded merely as an April Fools Day prank that misfired.
"Taking into account therefore, the varying degrees of irresponsibility shown by the boys concerned, they are asking five boys to leave this school.
"They note that two others have already left and they are recommending demotion and that restrictions be imposed on others involved.
"I may allow the boys who must now leave the school to return to sit for the G.C.E. examination at the school," he added.
The chairman of the governors was the Dean of St Helens, Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, who told the Press:
"It is a regrettable episode and I am very sorry about it. Demotion means that any of the boys who were prefects will lose that status and restriction will mean the loss of privileges normally enjoyed by sixth formers."
Superintendent Tom Shepherd, head of the St Helens police, said he had made inquiries into the incident but could not yet say whether or not the circumstances would justify court proceedings.
Bill Thomas was profiled in the Echo on the 7th. The 43-year-old Scot had moved from Eccleston to a country location in Tilston in Cheshire in order to learn to play the bagpipes without annoying his neighbours.
"The world's full of funny people who actually don't like the sound of the pipes", said Bill, "and I wanted somewhere where I wasn't going to offend anyone."
Employees of Rael Brook – "the world's leading shirt manufacturers" in Warrington Road, Rainhill – had been holding raffles and bingo evenings to raise money for the Alder Hey Children's Hospital Kidney Fund.
On the 7th the sum of £230 (about £4,000 in today's money) was officially handed over to the fund on behalf of the workers by Liverpool footballers Ron Yeats, John Toshack, Larry Lloyd and Emlyn Hughes.
A party of 45 schoolboys from the Carcassone area of France arrived in Billinge this week to play a series of rugby league matches over the Easter period.
The lads were staying at Greenfields House in Billinge along with six teachers. One of them was François de Nadaï, who would represent France as a forward in four Rugby League World Cups.
On the 7th a combined 3rd year team of players from Robins Lane and St Cuthbert's schools were beaten 8 - 20 by their French visitors.
The surnames of the St Helens players were stated as O’Neill, Peers, Richardson, Donnellan, Crompton, Gilford, Cunningham, Fairhurst, Brookfield, Sheffield, Spriggs, Arkwright, Hation, Usher and Fairhurst.
On the following day at Knowsley Road, a combined team from Robins Lane, St Cuthbert's and Parr got revenge on Carcassone beating them 14 - 6.
"Join In The Easter Parade To View Our New Homes This Weekend!", was the headline to a half-page advert in the Echo on the 8th from Northern Development Homes.
"For as little as £6 per week", they wrote, "you can own your own superb home on one of these delightful developments which are all within easy commuting distance of Liverpool.
"All facilities – transport, schools and shops are readily at hand. Many attractive designs of Detached and Semi-Detached Bungalows and Houses to choose from."
The estates included those opposite Sherdley Park in St Helens and what was then called the "Mill Farm" estate between Leach Lane and Clock Face Road.
Those homes cost from £4,199, as did new houses in Old Whint Road in Haydock, with properties at Windy Arbour Lane in Whiston available from £4,550.
During the evening of the 8th, Judith Durham – formerly of Australian folk-influenced pop quartet The Seekers – performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens (pic of Judith by Allan Warren).
It was Good Friday on the 9th and as snow lay five feet deep in parts of the desert kingdom of Saudia Arabia, the temperatures soared in England.
Saints played Wigan away at Central Park in the traditional Easter game and beat them 6 - 9 in front of a 24,000-strong crowd.
It was the third victory of the season for the Knowsley Road side over their old rivals and John Walsh scored the game's only try.
Being so warm many St Helens folk made for the coast or the Lake District – along with lots of other motorists.
On Easter Saturday the M6 in Lancashire was said to be the busiest road in Britain.
However early on the 10th, Ronald Jones of Loughrigg Avenue in Clinkham Wood was killed on the East Lancs at Windle Island after his motorbike was in an accident with a car.
It had been Ronald's 28th birthday and he left a widow and three young children.
Then at midnight two cars were in collision on the East Lancs and four people were taken to Providence Hospital.
Three days later it was reported that two of them – Ronald Ellison of Ashton Avenue in Rainhill and Mary Broadstock – were still detained in hospital.
However Michael West of Warrington Road in Rainhill had been discharged after treatment for leg injuries.
On the same day it was announced that the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society planned to give two Haydock policemen bravery awards.
Last November Constables Geoffrey Harper and William Potts of Lancashire Constabulary had rescued Frances Bate from her gas-filled bedroom in Chapel Street in Haydock.
The Chairman of Haydock Urban District Council, Councillor Joseph Roberts, would be presenting the pair with certificates.
And finally an interesting article on the first motor ambulance in Liverpool was published this week in the Echo.
St Helens Hospital's first such vehicle was acquired in May of 1917 and was a Ford Model T Field Ambulance that employed a large canvas on a wooden frame.
That type was used extensively in WW1 and although not very spacious inside, it seems an improvement on what Liverpool hospitals were using:
"Nearly 60 years ago, Mr. Francis Sanderson drove Liverpool's first motor ambulance as the days of horse-drawn vehicles came to an end.
"Now 80, Mr. Sanderson finds himself being taken by modern ambulance once a fortnight to Newsham General Hospital for treatment – and the memories are flooding back of his early days with the service.
"At his home at Acheson Road, West Derby, he recalls that the first motor had to be started with a handle every time, and that it was all open at the sides.
"“We carried a hot brick to keep patients warm, and a man had to hold a candle in the back when it was dark.”
"Mr. Sanderson was moved from the City Engineer's Department to ambulances in 1912 because of a shortage of drivers, and stayed with them during both world wars until 1956.
"“I drove a small green van which carried infectious cases,” he says. “The ambulance was so small that the patient's feet had to go under the driver's seat.
"“We had no siren or any sign that it was an ambulance, and we had to take our place in traffic like any ordinary vehicle.”"
Next week's stories will include a Knowsley Safari Park update, the nippy Tesco thief who stole cash from their Bridge Street supermarket, Pilkingtons breakthrough in space and Billinge maternity hospital's staffing problems.
We begin on the 5th when John Middlehurst was pictured in the Liverpool Echo after winning the country's top award for apprentice joiners.
The student's work and examination marks at St Helens "Tech" had made him the number 1 apprentice carpenter in Britain out of a total of 1,760.
Employed in the building department of Pilkingtons, John would receive a silver medal to mark his success.
The Echo also profiled Liverpool born Paul Raymond – the "king of Britain's nudie shows" – who was also now the owner of Men Only magazine. One snippet in the piece said:
"Determined to break into show business somehow, he cooked up a mind-reading act and performed it in music halls in Bolton, Blackburn and St. Helens."
Perhaps Raymond got some ideas for his future shows through reading men's minds?
The Liverpool Chamber Orchestra performed at the Theatre Royal on the 6th, with the Hillsiders making yet another appearance in Corporation Street on the following day, with support from the Angleband.
Last week I described how a boy at West Park Grammar had taken his mother's sleeping pills to school and as the result of a dare, a number of sixth formers had taken overdoses – seemingly unaware of the possible consequences.
Five pupils ended up being rushed to either St Helens or Providence hospitals and each spent two or three days as an inpatient.
During the evening of the 6th, an emergency meeting of the governors of West Park was held to consider the case.
One might have thought that the scare to themselves and their families would have been sufficient punishment for what the boys had done.
However the Catholic grammar school then had a reputation for strictness and after ninety minutes of discussion, all five were expelled.
Following the meeting the headmaster, Brother Leonard, said:
"The governors of the school take a very serious view of this matter. They consider that any flirtation with drugs of this nature by senior boys is too serious to be regarded merely as an April Fools Day prank that misfired.
"Taking into account therefore, the varying degrees of irresponsibility shown by the boys concerned, they are asking five boys to leave this school.
"They note that two others have already left and they are recommending demotion and that restrictions be imposed on others involved.
"I may allow the boys who must now leave the school to return to sit for the G.C.E. examination at the school," he added.
The chairman of the governors was the Dean of St Helens, Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, who told the Press:
"It is a regrettable episode and I am very sorry about it. Demotion means that any of the boys who were prefects will lose that status and restriction will mean the loss of privileges normally enjoyed by sixth formers."
Superintendent Tom Shepherd, head of the St Helens police, said he had made inquiries into the incident but could not yet say whether or not the circumstances would justify court proceedings.
Bill Thomas was profiled in the Echo on the 7th. The 43-year-old Scot had moved from Eccleston to a country location in Tilston in Cheshire in order to learn to play the bagpipes without annoying his neighbours.
"The world's full of funny people who actually don't like the sound of the pipes", said Bill, "and I wanted somewhere where I wasn't going to offend anyone."
Employees of Rael Brook – "the world's leading shirt manufacturers" in Warrington Road, Rainhill – had been holding raffles and bingo evenings to raise money for the Alder Hey Children's Hospital Kidney Fund.
On the 7th the sum of £230 (about £4,000 in today's money) was officially handed over to the fund on behalf of the workers by Liverpool footballers Ron Yeats, John Toshack, Larry Lloyd and Emlyn Hughes.
The lads were staying at Greenfields House in Billinge along with six teachers. One of them was François de Nadaï, who would represent France as a forward in four Rugby League World Cups.
On the 7th a combined 3rd year team of players from Robins Lane and St Cuthbert's schools were beaten 8 - 20 by their French visitors.
The surnames of the St Helens players were stated as O’Neill, Peers, Richardson, Donnellan, Crompton, Gilford, Cunningham, Fairhurst, Brookfield, Sheffield, Spriggs, Arkwright, Hation, Usher and Fairhurst.
On the following day at Knowsley Road, a combined team from Robins Lane, St Cuthbert's and Parr got revenge on Carcassone beating them 14 - 6.
"Join In The Easter Parade To View Our New Homes This Weekend!", was the headline to a half-page advert in the Echo on the 8th from Northern Development Homes.
"For as little as £6 per week", they wrote, "you can own your own superb home on one of these delightful developments which are all within easy commuting distance of Liverpool.
"All facilities – transport, schools and shops are readily at hand. Many attractive designs of Detached and Semi-Detached Bungalows and Houses to choose from."
The estates included those opposite Sherdley Park in St Helens and what was then called the "Mill Farm" estate between Leach Lane and Clock Face Road.
Those homes cost from £4,199, as did new houses in Old Whint Road in Haydock, with properties at Windy Arbour Lane in Whiston available from £4,550.
It was Good Friday on the 9th and as snow lay five feet deep in parts of the desert kingdom of Saudia Arabia, the temperatures soared in England.
Saints played Wigan away at Central Park in the traditional Easter game and beat them 6 - 9 in front of a 24,000-strong crowd.
It was the third victory of the season for the Knowsley Road side over their old rivals and John Walsh scored the game's only try.
Being so warm many St Helens folk made for the coast or the Lake District – along with lots of other motorists.
On Easter Saturday the M6 in Lancashire was said to be the busiest road in Britain.
However early on the 10th, Ronald Jones of Loughrigg Avenue in Clinkham Wood was killed on the East Lancs at Windle Island after his motorbike was in an accident with a car.
It had been Ronald's 28th birthday and he left a widow and three young children.
Then at midnight two cars were in collision on the East Lancs and four people were taken to Providence Hospital.
Three days later it was reported that two of them – Ronald Ellison of Ashton Avenue in Rainhill and Mary Broadstock – were still detained in hospital.
However Michael West of Warrington Road in Rainhill had been discharged after treatment for leg injuries.
On the same day it was announced that the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society planned to give two Haydock policemen bravery awards.
Last November Constables Geoffrey Harper and William Potts of Lancashire Constabulary had rescued Frances Bate from her gas-filled bedroom in Chapel Street in Haydock.
The Chairman of Haydock Urban District Council, Councillor Joseph Roberts, would be presenting the pair with certificates.
And finally an interesting article on the first motor ambulance in Liverpool was published this week in the Echo.
St Helens Hospital's first such vehicle was acquired in May of 1917 and was a Ford Model T Field Ambulance that employed a large canvas on a wooden frame.
That type was used extensively in WW1 and although not very spacious inside, it seems an improvement on what Liverpool hospitals were using:
"Nearly 60 years ago, Mr. Francis Sanderson drove Liverpool's first motor ambulance as the days of horse-drawn vehicles came to an end.
"Now 80, Mr. Sanderson finds himself being taken by modern ambulance once a fortnight to Newsham General Hospital for treatment – and the memories are flooding back of his early days with the service.
"At his home at Acheson Road, West Derby, he recalls that the first motor had to be started with a handle every time, and that it was all open at the sides.
"“We carried a hot brick to keep patients warm, and a man had to hold a candle in the back when it was dark.”
"Mr. Sanderson was moved from the City Engineer's Department to ambulances in 1912 because of a shortage of drivers, and stayed with them during both world wars until 1956.
"“I drove a small green van which carried infectious cases,” he says. “The ambulance was so small that the patient's feet had to go under the driver's seat.
"“We had no siren or any sign that it was an ambulance, and we had to take our place in traffic like any ordinary vehicle.”"
Next week's stories will include a Knowsley Safari Park update, the nippy Tesco thief who stole cash from their Bridge Street supermarket, Pilkingtons breakthrough in space and Billinge maternity hospital's staffing problems.