FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th JULY 1971)
This week's stories include the traffic chaos and car breakdowns in Knowsley Safari Park, the debt owed to Providence Hospital, the fire that destroyed a Rainhill Scout Group's dreams of a new hut, controversial headmaster Brother Leonard announces his departure from West Park and the two sisters that hit on the same bright idea 11,000 miles apart.
The week began with a meeting between senior police officers and officials of Knowsley Safari Park to discuss a giant traffic jam that had occurred on the reserve during the previous day. More than 6,500 vehicles had poured in off the Prescot by-pass causing a five-mile traffic jam that took six hours to clear.
Jimmy Chipperfield, partner with Lord Derby in the Safari Park venture, paid tribute to the behaviour of the drivers and their families: "In the most trying of conditions, they were really wonderful," he said. "Everyone stayed calm and there were hardly any shows of bad temper. I would like to thank these people for the way they behaved, which helped us immensely under difficult circumstances."
It was estimated that more than 30,000 visitors went through the park during its second day of opening. "Quite frankly we did not expect as many visitors," admitted Lord Derby, who at one time helped to direct cars. At the peak of the chaos, traffic stretched from the Safari Park, along the Prescot by-pass, through Knowsley Village, and up to the East Lancs.
Some visitors had travelled from as far as Wolverhampton, Leeds and the Lake District and some cars broke down in the lion enclosure. However the park manager, Laurence Tennant, said there had been no danger: "Everyone stayed in their cars until the guards arrived to tow them out. The lions were kept well out of the way all the time."
The AA had dealt with 207 breakdowns in the park, the majority due to cars running out of petrol, engines overheating and clutch and fan belt failures. The association now advised their members when visiting the reserve to ensure they had plenty of petrol and that their vehicles were mechanically sound. Superintendent Tom Challice, head of the AA's North West Patrol Force, said:
"On a busy day such as last Sunday, in a continuous crawl of traffic, the five mile run through the park is equal to a journey of 30 miles or more and this kind of stop-start motoring plays havoc with petrol consumption, cooling systems and clutches. Any car not in good condition and not previously checked to deal with this type of stress is likely to be in trouble." Superintendent Chalice pointed out that the AA patrols were not allowed to attend to breakdowns inside the lion and cheetah reserves except in cases of extreme emergency and then only under the protection of an armed warden.
On the 5th there was yet another crash on the East Lancs at Windle Island. Three people were taken to Providence Hospital, including John Shaw of Myrtle Grove in Billinge. It was announced on the following day that seven industrial design students from Liverpool Polytechnic had received an award from the Jaytee Warehouse Company. That was for their ideas that were being incorporated into the modernisation of the firm's showrooms at Palladium House in Boundary Road, St Helens. The building had originally housed the Palladium Cinema but was now a carpet showroom.
It used to be quite common for volunteer labour to at least partly construct buildings for community groups – until health and safety became much stricter. In the mid-60s dozens of parishioners built the Sutton Parish Church Hall that still exists today, with the vicar Reg Smith very much involved in the project. Photographs of the construction even show some children undertaking spadework.
The 5th Rainhill Open Scout Group had since 1964 been planning a similar volunteer labour scheme for their new headquarters off Deepdale Drive. Contractors would undertake the actual assembly of their wooden hut but volunteers had spent two months laying the concrete foundations and the Scout group had bought all the wood that would be required. The timber had been delivered in June and paid for through holding fundraising events.
However during the evening of July 6th it all went up in smoke, blamed on children playing with matches. Group Scout leader Leslie Walton said: "We have been planning the headquarters for seven years. Now everything has been destroyed inside ten minutes." When they heard about the fire, Scouts rushed to the scene and remained there until 11pm, but there was little to salvage.
On the 8th a 21-year-old sports mistress from View Road in Rainhill was fined £25 by a court in Montgomeryshire after telling police a false story that she had been forced from her car by a knife man. What actually happened was that she had driven through a ford and been unable to get up the hill on the other side, causing the car to roll back into a ditch.
On the same day the Guardian reported that Pilkington's had licensed the sixth American company to use its revolutionary float glass process, bringing the total number of licensees worldwide to 18. Licensing was clearly a "nice little earner" for the St Helens firm and its last annual report declared an annual income of £8½ million (£130m in today's money) by simply permitting others to use its process.
Although the company refused to give details of how its licensing worked, the Guardian believed each licensee paid a lump sum and a royalty on the amount of glass produced. The paper also stated that the next float plant to come into production would be at Pilkington's own base in St Helens later in the year.
This was the caption to a photograph in the Runcorn Weekly News on the 8th that showed a vintage car being started: "Pretty Susan Lloyd finds hot pants keep her cool – even when heaving on the starting handle of a 1929 Austin Seven. Susan, 17, lives at a pub in Rainhill, near St. Helens. The car, believed to be an early export model, belongs to a neighbour, Mr. Ken Haskayne. He bought it in Southend – and drove it back home in nine hours."
The St Helens Reporter on the 9th continued its campaign in support of Providence Hospital's appeal to raise £20,000 – around £300,000 in today's money – in order to clear its debts. The newspaper had asked St Helens people to tell them what Providence meant to them and offered to pay £1 to the hospital fund for each letter published. The generous offer was clearly going to cost them some cash, as they had been flooded with letters. Thirteen had been received from pupils at Holy Cross Junior School and the Reporter published extracts from them all.
Although the star letter was from Edward Miller of Peterlee Close in Sutton Heath who revealed that the hospital had saved his life after suffering serious kidney problems for several years when a child. "The debt I owe the sisters, nurses and doctors of the hospital is far in excess of money", he wrote.
Last August the Reporter had published a front-page article entitled "Oh, Brother…" (referencing the popular TV comedy) after Brother Leonard, the headmaster of West Park Grammar School (pictured above), had refused to give the paper the names of successful G.C.E. students. That had apparently been through him taking offence at something printed in the paper in the past.
However this week the Reporter announced that Brother Leonard was leaving the school at the end of term for a new position in South Wales. That was because the De La Salle Order only allowed their leaders to be in position for six years. The 49-year-old's successor would be Brother Damian, presently deputy head at a school in Blackheath.
A 24-year-old glassworker from Windermere Avenue in Moss Bank was sent to prison for 15 months on the 9th after what his defence counsel called an act of "jealous passion". The man had seen Kenneth Glover kiss his girlfriend at a dance and in a "drunken rage" had picked up the nearest article and "smashed this into the man's face". Mr Glover subsequently had to have 11 stiches inserted into two lacerations but the judge at Liverpool Crown Court said he had reduced the defendant's sentence because of his remorse and previous good character.
A fundraising event in aid of sixty sacked Pilkington workers took place in London on the 10th. The summer fair and cabaret evening was supported by Edward Woodward, Vanessa Redgrave and Dame Peggy Ashcroft who gave their talents for free. Hundreds of pounds were raised for men still unemployed who had been dismissed by the glass giant in the aftermath of the 1970 strike.
The Lancashire Traction Engine Club held a Steam Engine Rally at Burtonwood Aerodrome on the 10th and 11th. There were over 25 steam engines on show plus vintage cars and motorcycles, a funfair, fairground organs, model railway, a hot air balloon ascent and Morris dancers.
There was a great story given prominence in the Daily Mirror on the 10th about the planned reunion of two sisters that had gone awry: "Two sisters living 11,000 miles apart suddenly got this fantastic idea. They decided to drop in on each other out of the blue. May Bolton, 73, left her home in New South Wales, Australia, to fly across the world to St. Helens, Lancs. Mary Dawson, 58, set off from St. Helens to fly to New South Wales. But their planes passed each other in mid-air. For the two sisters had hit on the same idea about the same time and both kept quiet about it. The sisters hadn't seen each other for thirteen years.
"“I decided to come on the spur of the moment,” May, a widow, said at her son's home in Eccleston, St. Helens, yesterday. “It was only when I was met by relatives in London that I learned Mary had left to visit me in Australia. It was a great shock and an even bigger coincidence that we should have both hit on the same idea at the same time.” A third sister, Mrs. Winifred McMillan, licensee of the Bull's Head Hotel at Parr, St. Helens, said: “May and Mary were always talking about visiting one another. Mary decided to act first. But no sooner had she left than May arrived.” The reunion will finally take place in Australia – if all goes well. Mary is staying there until May returns from Britain next month."
And finally Parr Public Prize Band performed in Sherdley Park on the 11th as part of the council's 'Bands In Parks' weekly concert series. The tunes included selections from Paint Your Wagon, the Best of the Seekers and H.M.S. Pinafore.
Next week's stories will include the worsening woes of strike rebel Gerry Caughey, the third St Helens Show is held, the bent Knowsley policeman and concern over the lack of grammar school places for Prescot girls who had passed the 11-plus.
The week began with a meeting between senior police officers and officials of Knowsley Safari Park to discuss a giant traffic jam that had occurred on the reserve during the previous day. More than 6,500 vehicles had poured in off the Prescot by-pass causing a five-mile traffic jam that took six hours to clear.
Jimmy Chipperfield, partner with Lord Derby in the Safari Park venture, paid tribute to the behaviour of the drivers and their families: "In the most trying of conditions, they were really wonderful," he said. "Everyone stayed calm and there were hardly any shows of bad temper. I would like to thank these people for the way they behaved, which helped us immensely under difficult circumstances."
It was estimated that more than 30,000 visitors went through the park during its second day of opening. "Quite frankly we did not expect as many visitors," admitted Lord Derby, who at one time helped to direct cars. At the peak of the chaos, traffic stretched from the Safari Park, along the Prescot by-pass, through Knowsley Village, and up to the East Lancs.
Some visitors had travelled from as far as Wolverhampton, Leeds and the Lake District and some cars broke down in the lion enclosure. However the park manager, Laurence Tennant, said there had been no danger: "Everyone stayed in their cars until the guards arrived to tow them out. The lions were kept well out of the way all the time."
The AA had dealt with 207 breakdowns in the park, the majority due to cars running out of petrol, engines overheating and clutch and fan belt failures. The association now advised their members when visiting the reserve to ensure they had plenty of petrol and that their vehicles were mechanically sound. Superintendent Tom Challice, head of the AA's North West Patrol Force, said:
"On a busy day such as last Sunday, in a continuous crawl of traffic, the five mile run through the park is equal to a journey of 30 miles or more and this kind of stop-start motoring plays havoc with petrol consumption, cooling systems and clutches. Any car not in good condition and not previously checked to deal with this type of stress is likely to be in trouble." Superintendent Chalice pointed out that the AA patrols were not allowed to attend to breakdowns inside the lion and cheetah reserves except in cases of extreme emergency and then only under the protection of an armed warden.
On the 5th there was yet another crash on the East Lancs at Windle Island. Three people were taken to Providence Hospital, including John Shaw of Myrtle Grove in Billinge. It was announced on the following day that seven industrial design students from Liverpool Polytechnic had received an award from the Jaytee Warehouse Company. That was for their ideas that were being incorporated into the modernisation of the firm's showrooms at Palladium House in Boundary Road, St Helens. The building had originally housed the Palladium Cinema but was now a carpet showroom.
It used to be quite common for volunteer labour to at least partly construct buildings for community groups – until health and safety became much stricter. In the mid-60s dozens of parishioners built the Sutton Parish Church Hall that still exists today, with the vicar Reg Smith very much involved in the project. Photographs of the construction even show some children undertaking spadework.
The 5th Rainhill Open Scout Group had since 1964 been planning a similar volunteer labour scheme for their new headquarters off Deepdale Drive. Contractors would undertake the actual assembly of their wooden hut but volunteers had spent two months laying the concrete foundations and the Scout group had bought all the wood that would be required. The timber had been delivered in June and paid for through holding fundraising events.
However during the evening of July 6th it all went up in smoke, blamed on children playing with matches. Group Scout leader Leslie Walton said: "We have been planning the headquarters for seven years. Now everything has been destroyed inside ten minutes." When they heard about the fire, Scouts rushed to the scene and remained there until 11pm, but there was little to salvage.
On the 8th a 21-year-old sports mistress from View Road in Rainhill was fined £25 by a court in Montgomeryshire after telling police a false story that she had been forced from her car by a knife man. What actually happened was that she had driven through a ford and been unable to get up the hill on the other side, causing the car to roll back into a ditch.
On the same day the Guardian reported that Pilkington's had licensed the sixth American company to use its revolutionary float glass process, bringing the total number of licensees worldwide to 18. Licensing was clearly a "nice little earner" for the St Helens firm and its last annual report declared an annual income of £8½ million (£130m in today's money) by simply permitting others to use its process.
Although the company refused to give details of how its licensing worked, the Guardian believed each licensee paid a lump sum and a royalty on the amount of glass produced. The paper also stated that the next float plant to come into production would be at Pilkington's own base in St Helens later in the year.
This was the caption to a photograph in the Runcorn Weekly News on the 8th that showed a vintage car being started: "Pretty Susan Lloyd finds hot pants keep her cool – even when heaving on the starting handle of a 1929 Austin Seven. Susan, 17, lives at a pub in Rainhill, near St. Helens. The car, believed to be an early export model, belongs to a neighbour, Mr. Ken Haskayne. He bought it in Southend – and drove it back home in nine hours."
The St Helens Reporter on the 9th continued its campaign in support of Providence Hospital's appeal to raise £20,000 – around £300,000 in today's money – in order to clear its debts. The newspaper had asked St Helens people to tell them what Providence meant to them and offered to pay £1 to the hospital fund for each letter published. The generous offer was clearly going to cost them some cash, as they had been flooded with letters. Thirteen had been received from pupils at Holy Cross Junior School and the Reporter published extracts from them all.
Although the star letter was from Edward Miller of Peterlee Close in Sutton Heath who revealed that the hospital had saved his life after suffering serious kidney problems for several years when a child. "The debt I owe the sisters, nurses and doctors of the hospital is far in excess of money", he wrote.
However this week the Reporter announced that Brother Leonard was leaving the school at the end of term for a new position in South Wales. That was because the De La Salle Order only allowed their leaders to be in position for six years. The 49-year-old's successor would be Brother Damian, presently deputy head at a school in Blackheath.
A 24-year-old glassworker from Windermere Avenue in Moss Bank was sent to prison for 15 months on the 9th after what his defence counsel called an act of "jealous passion". The man had seen Kenneth Glover kiss his girlfriend at a dance and in a "drunken rage" had picked up the nearest article and "smashed this into the man's face". Mr Glover subsequently had to have 11 stiches inserted into two lacerations but the judge at Liverpool Crown Court said he had reduced the defendant's sentence because of his remorse and previous good character.
A fundraising event in aid of sixty sacked Pilkington workers took place in London on the 10th. The summer fair and cabaret evening was supported by Edward Woodward, Vanessa Redgrave and Dame Peggy Ashcroft who gave their talents for free. Hundreds of pounds were raised for men still unemployed who had been dismissed by the glass giant in the aftermath of the 1970 strike.
The Lancashire Traction Engine Club held a Steam Engine Rally at Burtonwood Aerodrome on the 10th and 11th. There were over 25 steam engines on show plus vintage cars and motorcycles, a funfair, fairground organs, model railway, a hot air balloon ascent and Morris dancers.
There was a great story given prominence in the Daily Mirror on the 10th about the planned reunion of two sisters that had gone awry: "Two sisters living 11,000 miles apart suddenly got this fantastic idea. They decided to drop in on each other out of the blue. May Bolton, 73, left her home in New South Wales, Australia, to fly across the world to St. Helens, Lancs. Mary Dawson, 58, set off from St. Helens to fly to New South Wales. But their planes passed each other in mid-air. For the two sisters had hit on the same idea about the same time and both kept quiet about it. The sisters hadn't seen each other for thirteen years.
"“I decided to come on the spur of the moment,” May, a widow, said at her son's home in Eccleston, St. Helens, yesterday. “It was only when I was met by relatives in London that I learned Mary had left to visit me in Australia. It was a great shock and an even bigger coincidence that we should have both hit on the same idea at the same time.” A third sister, Mrs. Winifred McMillan, licensee of the Bull's Head Hotel at Parr, St. Helens, said: “May and Mary were always talking about visiting one another. Mary decided to act first. But no sooner had she left than May arrived.” The reunion will finally take place in Australia – if all goes well. Mary is staying there until May returns from Britain next month."
And finally Parr Public Prize Band performed in Sherdley Park on the 11th as part of the council's 'Bands In Parks' weekly concert series. The tunes included selections from Paint Your Wagon, the Best of the Seekers and H.M.S. Pinafore.
Next week's stories will include the worsening woes of strike rebel Gerry Caughey, the third St Helens Show is held, the bent Knowsley policeman and concern over the lack of grammar school places for Prescot girls who had passed the 11-plus.
This week's stories include the traffic chaos and car breakdowns in Knowsley Safari Park, the debt owed to Providence Hospital, the fire that destroyed a Rainhill Scout Group's dreams of a new hut, controversial headmaster Brother Leonard announces his departure from West Park and the two sisters that hit on the same bright idea 11,000 miles apart.
The week began with a meeting between senior police officers and officials of Knowsley Safari Park to discuss a giant traffic jam that had occurred on the reserve during the previous day.
More than 6,500 vehicles had poured in off the Prescot by-pass causing a five-mile traffic jam that took six hours to clear.
Jimmy Chipperfield, partner with Lord Derby in the Safari Park venture, paid tribute to the behaviour of the drivers and their families:
"In the most trying of conditions, they were really wonderful," he said. "Everyone stayed calm and there were hardly any shows of bad temper. I would like to thank these people for the way they behaved, which helped us immensely under difficult circumstances."
It was estimated that more than 30,000 visitors went through the park during its second day of opening.
"Quite frankly we did not expect as many visitors," admitted Lord Derby, who at one time helped to direct cars.
At the peak of the chaos, traffic stretched from the Safari Park, along the Prescot by-pass, through Knowsley Village, and up to the East Lancs.
Some visitors had travelled from as far as Wolverhampton, Leeds and the Lake District and some cars broke down in the lion enclosure. However the park manager, Laurence Tennant, said there had been no danger:
"Everyone stayed in their cars until the guards arrived to tow them out. The lions were kept well out of the way all the time."
The AA had dealt with 207 breakdowns in the park, the majority due to cars running out of petrol, engines overheating and clutch and fan belt failures.
The association now advised their members when visiting the reserve to ensure they had plenty of petrol and that their vehicles were mechanically sound. Superintendent Tom Challice, head of the AA's North West Patrol Force, said:
"On a busy day such as last Sunday, in a continuous crawl of traffic, the five mile run through the park is equal to a journey of 30 miles or more and this kind of stop-start motoring plays havoc with petrol consumption, cooling systems and clutches.
"Any car not in good condition and not previously checked to deal with this type of stress is likely to be in trouble."
Superintendent Chalice pointed out that the AA patrols were not allowed to attend to breakdowns inside the lion and cheetah reserves except in cases of extreme emergency and then only under the protection of an armed warden.
On the 5th there was yet another crash on the East Lancs at Windle Island. Three people were taken to Providence Hospital, including John Shaw of Myrtle Grove in Billinge.
It was announced on the following day that seven industrial design students from Liverpool Polytechnic had received an award from the Jaytee Warehouse Company.
That was for their ideas that were being incorporated into the modernisation of the firm's showrooms at Palladium House in Boundary Road, St Helens.
The building had originally housed the Palladium Cinema but was now a carpet showroom.
It used to be quite common for volunteer labour to at least partly construct buildings for community groups – until health and safety became much stricter.
In the mid-60s dozens of parishioners built the Sutton Parish Church Hall that still exists today, with the vicar Reg Smith very much involved in the project. Photographs of the construction even show some children undertaking spadework.
The 5th Rainhill Open Scout Group had since 1964 been planning a similar volunteer labour scheme for their new headquarters off Deepdale Drive.
Contractors would undertake the actual assembly of their wooden hut but volunteers had spent two months laying the concrete foundations and the Scout group had bought all the wood that would be required.
The timber had been delivered in June and paid for through holding fundraising events.
However during the evening of July 6th it all went up in smoke, blamed on children playing with matches.
Group Scout leader Leslie Walton said: "We have been planning the headquarters for seven years. Now everything has been destroyed inside ten minutes."
When they heard about the fire, Scouts rushed to the scene and remained there until 11pm, but there was little to salvage.
On the 8th a 21-year-old sports mistress from View Road in Rainhill was fined £25 by a court in Montgomeryshire after telling police a false story that she had been forced from her car by a knife man.
What actually happened was that she had driven through a ford and been unable to get up the hill on the other side, causing the car to roll back into a ditch.
On the same day the Guardian reported that Pilkington's had licensed the sixth American company to use its revolutionary float glass process, bringing the total number of licensees worldwide to 18.
Licensing was clearly a "nice little earner" for the St Helens firm and its last annual report declared an annual income of £8½ million (£130m in today's money) by simply permitting others to use its process.
Although the company refused to give details of how its licensing worked, the Guardian believed each licensee paid a lump sum and a royalty on the amount of glass produced.
The paper also stated that the next float plant to come into production would be at Pilkington's own base in St Helens later in the year.
This was the caption to a photograph in the Runcorn Weekly News on the 8th that showed a vintage car being started:
"Pretty Susan Lloyd finds hot pants keep her cool – even when heaving on the starting handle of a 1929 Austin Seven.
"Susan, 17, lives at a pub in Rainhill, near St. Helens. The car, believed to be an early export model, belongs to a neighbour, Mr. Ken Haskayne. He bought it in Southend – and drove it back home in nine hours."
The St Helens Reporter on the 9th continued its campaign in support of Providence Hospital's appeal to raise £20,000 – around £300,000 in today's money – in order to clear its debts.
The newspaper had asked St Helens people to tell them what Providence meant to them and offered to pay £1 to the hospital fund for each letter published.
The generous offer was clearly going to cost them some cash, as they had been flooded with letters.
Thirteen had been received from pupils at Holy Cross Junior School and the Reporter published extracts from them all.
Although the star letter was from Edward Miller of Peterlee Close in Sutton Heath who revealed that the hospital had saved his life after suffering serious kidney problems for several years when a child.
"The debt I owe the sisters, nurses and doctors of the hospital is far in excess of money", he wrote.
Last August the Reporter had published a front-page article entitled "Oh, Brother…" (referencing the popular TV comedy) after Brother Leonard, the headmaster of West Park Grammar School (pictured above), had refused to give the paper the names of successful G.C.E. students.
That had apparently been through him taking offence at something printed in the paper in the past.
However this week the Reporter announced that Brother Leonard was leaving the school at the end of term for a new position in South Wales.
That was because the De La Salle Order only allowed their leaders to be in position for six years.
The 49-year-old's successor would be Brother Damian, presently deputy head at a school in Blackheath.
A 24-year-old glassworker from Windermere Avenue in Moss Bank was sent to prison for 15 months on the 9th after what his defence counsel called an act of "jealous passion".
The man had seen Kenneth Glover kiss his girlfriend at a dance and in a "drunken rage" had picked up the nearest article and "smashed this into the man's face".
Mr Glover subsequently had to have 11 stiches inserted into two lacerations but the judge at Liverpool Crown Court said he had reduced the defendant's sentence because of his remorse and previous good character.
A fundraising event in aid of sixty sacked Pilkington workers took place in London on the 10th.
The summer fair and cabaret evening was supported by Edward Woodward, Vanessa Redgrave and Dame Peggy Ashcroft who gave their talents for free.
Hundreds of pounds were raised for men still unemployed who had been dismissed by the glass giant in the aftermath of the 1970 strike.
The Lancashire Traction Engine Club held a Steam Engine Rally at Burtonwood Aerodrome on the 10th and 11th.
There were over 25 steam engines on show plus vintage cars and motorcycles, a funfair, fairground organs, model railway, a hot air balloon ascent and Morris dancers.
There was a great story given prominence in the Daily Mirror on the 10th about the planned reunion of two sisters that had gone awry:
"Two sisters living 11,000 miles apart suddenly got this fantastic idea. They decided to drop in on each other out of the blue.
"May Bolton, 73, left her home in New South Wales, Australia, to fly across the world to St. Helens, Lancs.
"Mary Dawson, 58, set off from St. Helens to fly to New South Wales. But their planes passed each other in mid-air.
"For the two sisters had hit on the same idea about the same time and both kept quiet about it. The sisters hadn't seen each other for thirteen years.
"“I decided to come on the spur of the moment,” May, a widow, said at her son's home in Eccleston, St. Helens, yesterday. “It was only when I was met by relatives in London that I learned Mary had left to visit me in Australia.
"“It was a great shock and an even bigger coincidence that we should have both hit on the same idea at the same time.”
"A third sister, Mrs. Winifred McMillan, licensee of the Bull's Head Hotel at Parr, St. Helens, said:
"“May and Mary were always talking about visiting one another. Mary decided to act first. But no sooner had she left than May arrived.”
"The reunion will finally take place in Australia – if all goes well. Mary is staying there until May returns from Britain next month."
And finally Parr Public Prize Band performed in Sherdley Park on the 11th as part of the council's 'Bands In Parks' weekly concert series. The tunes included selections from Paint Your Wagon, the Best of the Seekers and H.M.S. Pinafore.
Next week's stories will include the worsening woes of strike rebel Gerry Caughey, the third St Helens Show is held, the bent Knowsley policeman and concern over the lack of grammar school places for Prescot girls who had passed the 11-plus.
The week began with a meeting between senior police officers and officials of Knowsley Safari Park to discuss a giant traffic jam that had occurred on the reserve during the previous day.
More than 6,500 vehicles had poured in off the Prescot by-pass causing a five-mile traffic jam that took six hours to clear.
Jimmy Chipperfield, partner with Lord Derby in the Safari Park venture, paid tribute to the behaviour of the drivers and their families:
"In the most trying of conditions, they were really wonderful," he said. "Everyone stayed calm and there were hardly any shows of bad temper. I would like to thank these people for the way they behaved, which helped us immensely under difficult circumstances."
It was estimated that more than 30,000 visitors went through the park during its second day of opening.
"Quite frankly we did not expect as many visitors," admitted Lord Derby, who at one time helped to direct cars.
At the peak of the chaos, traffic stretched from the Safari Park, along the Prescot by-pass, through Knowsley Village, and up to the East Lancs.
Some visitors had travelled from as far as Wolverhampton, Leeds and the Lake District and some cars broke down in the lion enclosure. However the park manager, Laurence Tennant, said there had been no danger:
"Everyone stayed in their cars until the guards arrived to tow them out. The lions were kept well out of the way all the time."
The AA had dealt with 207 breakdowns in the park, the majority due to cars running out of petrol, engines overheating and clutch and fan belt failures.
The association now advised their members when visiting the reserve to ensure they had plenty of petrol and that their vehicles were mechanically sound. Superintendent Tom Challice, head of the AA's North West Patrol Force, said:
"On a busy day such as last Sunday, in a continuous crawl of traffic, the five mile run through the park is equal to a journey of 30 miles or more and this kind of stop-start motoring plays havoc with petrol consumption, cooling systems and clutches.
"Any car not in good condition and not previously checked to deal with this type of stress is likely to be in trouble."
Superintendent Chalice pointed out that the AA patrols were not allowed to attend to breakdowns inside the lion and cheetah reserves except in cases of extreme emergency and then only under the protection of an armed warden.
On the 5th there was yet another crash on the East Lancs at Windle Island. Three people were taken to Providence Hospital, including John Shaw of Myrtle Grove in Billinge.
It was announced on the following day that seven industrial design students from Liverpool Polytechnic had received an award from the Jaytee Warehouse Company.
That was for their ideas that were being incorporated into the modernisation of the firm's showrooms at Palladium House in Boundary Road, St Helens.
The building had originally housed the Palladium Cinema but was now a carpet showroom.
It used to be quite common for volunteer labour to at least partly construct buildings for community groups – until health and safety became much stricter.
In the mid-60s dozens of parishioners built the Sutton Parish Church Hall that still exists today, with the vicar Reg Smith very much involved in the project. Photographs of the construction even show some children undertaking spadework.
The 5th Rainhill Open Scout Group had since 1964 been planning a similar volunteer labour scheme for their new headquarters off Deepdale Drive.
Contractors would undertake the actual assembly of their wooden hut but volunteers had spent two months laying the concrete foundations and the Scout group had bought all the wood that would be required.
The timber had been delivered in June and paid for through holding fundraising events.
However during the evening of July 6th it all went up in smoke, blamed on children playing with matches.
Group Scout leader Leslie Walton said: "We have been planning the headquarters for seven years. Now everything has been destroyed inside ten minutes."
When they heard about the fire, Scouts rushed to the scene and remained there until 11pm, but there was little to salvage.
On the 8th a 21-year-old sports mistress from View Road in Rainhill was fined £25 by a court in Montgomeryshire after telling police a false story that she had been forced from her car by a knife man.
What actually happened was that she had driven through a ford and been unable to get up the hill on the other side, causing the car to roll back into a ditch.
On the same day the Guardian reported that Pilkington's had licensed the sixth American company to use its revolutionary float glass process, bringing the total number of licensees worldwide to 18.
Licensing was clearly a "nice little earner" for the St Helens firm and its last annual report declared an annual income of £8½ million (£130m in today's money) by simply permitting others to use its process.
Although the company refused to give details of how its licensing worked, the Guardian believed each licensee paid a lump sum and a royalty on the amount of glass produced.
The paper also stated that the next float plant to come into production would be at Pilkington's own base in St Helens later in the year.
This was the caption to a photograph in the Runcorn Weekly News on the 8th that showed a vintage car being started:
"Pretty Susan Lloyd finds hot pants keep her cool – even when heaving on the starting handle of a 1929 Austin Seven.
"Susan, 17, lives at a pub in Rainhill, near St. Helens. The car, believed to be an early export model, belongs to a neighbour, Mr. Ken Haskayne. He bought it in Southend – and drove it back home in nine hours."
The St Helens Reporter on the 9th continued its campaign in support of Providence Hospital's appeal to raise £20,000 – around £300,000 in today's money – in order to clear its debts.
The newspaper had asked St Helens people to tell them what Providence meant to them and offered to pay £1 to the hospital fund for each letter published.
The generous offer was clearly going to cost them some cash, as they had been flooded with letters.
Thirteen had been received from pupils at Holy Cross Junior School and the Reporter published extracts from them all.
Although the star letter was from Edward Miller of Peterlee Close in Sutton Heath who revealed that the hospital had saved his life after suffering serious kidney problems for several years when a child.
"The debt I owe the sisters, nurses and doctors of the hospital is far in excess of money", he wrote.
That had apparently been through him taking offence at something printed in the paper in the past.
However this week the Reporter announced that Brother Leonard was leaving the school at the end of term for a new position in South Wales.
That was because the De La Salle Order only allowed their leaders to be in position for six years.
The 49-year-old's successor would be Brother Damian, presently deputy head at a school in Blackheath.
A 24-year-old glassworker from Windermere Avenue in Moss Bank was sent to prison for 15 months on the 9th after what his defence counsel called an act of "jealous passion".
The man had seen Kenneth Glover kiss his girlfriend at a dance and in a "drunken rage" had picked up the nearest article and "smashed this into the man's face".
Mr Glover subsequently had to have 11 stiches inserted into two lacerations but the judge at Liverpool Crown Court said he had reduced the defendant's sentence because of his remorse and previous good character.
A fundraising event in aid of sixty sacked Pilkington workers took place in London on the 10th.
The summer fair and cabaret evening was supported by Edward Woodward, Vanessa Redgrave and Dame Peggy Ashcroft who gave their talents for free.
Hundreds of pounds were raised for men still unemployed who had been dismissed by the glass giant in the aftermath of the 1970 strike.
The Lancashire Traction Engine Club held a Steam Engine Rally at Burtonwood Aerodrome on the 10th and 11th.
There were over 25 steam engines on show plus vintage cars and motorcycles, a funfair, fairground organs, model railway, a hot air balloon ascent and Morris dancers.
There was a great story given prominence in the Daily Mirror on the 10th about the planned reunion of two sisters that had gone awry:
"Two sisters living 11,000 miles apart suddenly got this fantastic idea. They decided to drop in on each other out of the blue.
"May Bolton, 73, left her home in New South Wales, Australia, to fly across the world to St. Helens, Lancs.
"Mary Dawson, 58, set off from St. Helens to fly to New South Wales. But their planes passed each other in mid-air.
"For the two sisters had hit on the same idea about the same time and both kept quiet about it. The sisters hadn't seen each other for thirteen years.
"“I decided to come on the spur of the moment,” May, a widow, said at her son's home in Eccleston, St. Helens, yesterday. “It was only when I was met by relatives in London that I learned Mary had left to visit me in Australia.
"“It was a great shock and an even bigger coincidence that we should have both hit on the same idea at the same time.”
"A third sister, Mrs. Winifred McMillan, licensee of the Bull's Head Hotel at Parr, St. Helens, said:
"“May and Mary were always talking about visiting one another. Mary decided to act first. But no sooner had she left than May arrived.”
"The reunion will finally take place in Australia – if all goes well. Mary is staying there until May returns from Britain next month."
And finally Parr Public Prize Band performed in Sherdley Park on the 11th as part of the council's 'Bands In Parks' weekly concert series. The tunes included selections from Paint Your Wagon, the Best of the Seekers and H.M.S. Pinafore.
Next week's stories will include the worsening woes of strike rebel Gerry Caughey, the third St Helens Show is held, the bent Knowsley policeman and concern over the lack of grammar school places for Prescot girls who had passed the 11-plus.