FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th August 1969)
This week's stories include the gangs of marauding dogs that roamed St Helens' parks, a 49-year-old Lowe House priest quits the priesthood to marry a 19-year-old woman, Pilkington's Gala and Parade takes place, there's anger at bus cuts in Haydock and the Pilkington Glass Museum shows off its new additions spanning 2,500 years.
I believe that there are a still a handful of organisations in St Helens that organise summer day trips for the elderly. However these are not on the scale of fifty years ago and I doubt their members are still given pocket money like children! On the 5th 140 pensioners from Blackbrook Working Men's Club went on a day trip to Southport with each having been given £3 to spend at the seaside. During the evening a special concert was put on for the OAPs in the club.
There were angry protests at Haydock's Finance and General Purposes committee meeting on the 6th when it was revealed that St Helens Corporation planned to withdraw the no. 3 bus service during non-peak times.
The St Helens Transport Manager Alex Barlow had written to say services were being revised through a decline in passenger traffic and an inability to maintain schedules through staff shortages. However this cut no ice with the councillors who said that if the proposed cutback went ahead they would look into the possibility of using another transport operator to run services in Haydock.
Triplex was fined £60 on the 6th for failing to keep fire escape doors free from obstruction. The Eccleston-based glass firm then employed 1,800 people.
In reviewing two new books by Nikolaus Pevsner on Lancashire on the 7th, Geoffrey Moorhouse wrote in the Guardian: "I'm glad to see he [Pevsner] confirms my native suspicion that St. Helens is just about the backside of the world." A century earlier the renowned poet and writer Matthew Arnold had dubbed St Helens a "hell-hole". I suppose backside of the world is an improvement on that!
The final of the Pilkington National Gala Girls contest was held in the Locarno Ballroom in Blackpool on the 7th with the winner being Jennifer Green. The 22-year-old from Daresbury Road in Eccleston worked at Pilks' Head Office as a statistics clerk and she was a keen bell ringer. Jennifer received a dress for the forthcoming Pilkington Gala Day and a holiday in London in which she would be able to select a complete outfit from an Oxford Street store.
"Labourer's Secret: He is a Baron's Stepson" was the headline to an article and photograph in the Birmingham Daily Post on the 7th. It was about Nicholas Wilding, the 20-year-old son of Lady Pilkington, who for the past two months had been working as a £16 a week motorway labourer while on vacation from university.
The business law student told the paper: "None of the men I work with know my full identity and I would have hoped that it could have stayed that way. To them I am just an ordinary labourer. The work is hard, but I enjoy it." The St Helens Reporter's article published later in the week bore the headline "Nicholas is a Navvy" and upgraded his earnings to £25 per week.
During the evening of the 7th Allan Rathbone from The Crescent in Whiston was presented with an inscribed gold watch on attaining his 21st birthday. The Mayor Tom Wilcock made the presentation for nine years loyal service to Redgate Boys Silver Band. A highly qualified musician, Allan had been abroad many times with the band competing at music festivals and had often appeared on television.
There was a picture in the St Helens Reporter on the 8th of Jennifer and Anne Rawsthorne handing £12 over to members of the Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club. They and other children had held a mini-field day and raffle with the proceeds going towards the Darby and Joan club's new centre off O’Sullivan Crescent.
Their 110 members were having to relocate as their existing centre at Brookfield Mission Hall in Park Road would soon be demolished and up to £10,000 was needed to pay for the new building. The sum of £12 would not put a great dent in their target but, as they say, it's the thought that counts!
William and Alice Bonney from Clinkham Wood were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in the Reporter. The couple had met while working at Pilkingtons during WW1 with Alice one of the many women doing the work of the men that had gone to fight. She drove a crane and her future husband worked as a glass flattener until William was called up. "We did most of our courting during working hours", said Mrs Bonney.
Also pictured was Kenneth Bottomer from Haydock who for the past two years had been entering autocross championships and next month, when competing at Silverstone, the 35-year-old would be chasing his 18th trophy. Next to his photo was an advert from Oxley's Department Store in Barrow Street that said: "Bigger Bargains, Better Values plus Green Shield Stamps on all Purchases!" There was also an ad for Suede Fayre of Westfield Street offering "quality sheepskins, suedes and leathers".
The Reporter regularly ran "vox pop" pieces in which they wandered the streets of the town asking people their views on the subject of the day. In June a local RSPCA official had said that the number of cases of dogs put to sleep during holiday times went up "with a hell of a thump", while other pets were simply abandoned.
So a Reporter journo went to Queens Park at lunchtime where he found lots of unaccompanied dogs with some running about where children were playing. After talking to people in the park the Reporter man wrote: "St. Helens dog lovers are fed-up of the mass slaughter of pets at peak holiday periods, the gangs of marauding dogs that roam children's parks and not least, of walking on dog-fouled pavements."
Brian Clarke of nearby Bruce Street felt that increasing the cost of dog licences from 7s 6d to £5 would reduce the numbers of strays and animals being put down: "We must put an end to all this slaughter of dogs at holiday times. If licences were increased, it would definitely discourage people from getting a dog. Many people buy one and then the novelty wears off. They just get fed up of it and, consequently, the animal is left to its own devices."
Thirteen-year-old John Briers of Campbell Street and the owner of a greyhound called Paddy agreed, feeling that an increase in the licence fee might stop dogs from "running wild". And Mildred Leyland from Marsden Avenue said: "There are far too many dogs just roaming the streets."
There was also a profile of Alf Whalley from Freckleton Road in Toll Bar who was retiring from the St Helens Transport Department after 42 years. Alf had initially worked for the small St Helens and District Bus Company, which the Corporation took over soon after he joined. Alf recalled how the 1920s buses were single-deckers with solid rubber tyres, crash gearboxes and unreliable petrol engines.
The Reporter also described how the collection of Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road had been boosted by forty pieces of glassware. These represented techniques in glass production that spanned 2,500 years with the oldest object dating back to 700 BC.
A big story in the paper (and the Liverpool Echo) was the decision of a 49-year-old Jesuit priest to quit the priesthood in order to marry a 19-year-old St Helens woman. Fr. Bernard Griffin – who had been at Lowe House for four years – said he had applied for a Papal dispensation to leave the Jesuit Order and become a social worker.
In another article a man from Penrith Road (off Scholes Lane) claimed his 35-year-old wife – who was a mother of nine – had "run off" with his 15-year-old daughter's teenage boyfriend. On the following day the Daily Mirror ran the story in which they quoted the husband of the runaway mother describing how his wife's skirts had got shorter and shorter over the past few weeks and her hair had been dyed.
The 9th was the main day of Pilkington's two-day Gala, which began with a spectacular parade involving 22 colourful floats. These included 'Camberwick Green' by the Ruskin Hall Playgroup, 'Dougal and the Magic Roundabout' by Fibreglass of Birkenhead and the float of Pilks' Doncaster Works was themed on the 'Diddy Men'. However the trophy for best float was awarded to Fibreglass of Ravenhead for their entry of 'Cleopatra and her Handmaidens'. And the Lady Pilkington Trophy for most witty float went to the City Road Works for 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.
The procession travelled through St Helens from Pilks' Head Office in Prescot Road to Ruskin Drive via Croppers Hill, Westfield Street, Ormskirk Street, Church Street, Hall Street, Corporation Street, Duke Street and Dentons Green Lane. The sports events at Ruskin Drive included cricket, football, athletics, bowls, hockey and rugby league competitions. There was also a flower and vegetable show (that attracted 500 entries), an arts and crafts exhibition, a miniature train, a display by the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and Chris Barber's Jazzmen and Terry Gore provided the music.
The most popular entertainment for the children was a 'Moon Station' built by Pilkington's R & D department at Lathom in which the kids took an astronaut test and then went on a trip to the Moon. During the day seventy children got lost (I don't think it was on the Moon!) but all were reunited with their parents and St John's Ambulance treated nineteen casualties but none of them were serious.
I don't know what advice was given to parents if their children got lost at the Gala. However in the St Helens Show programmes of the '70s, parents were told to tell their children to approach a stranger and ask them to take them to the lost children tent. Not advice that's likely to be issued today, I think.
Next week's stories will include the Clock Face Road residents living in fear, the death of a pioneering Duke Street record dealer, a one-eyed puppy called Mouse needs a home, there's a 'Back to School' feature in the Reporter, a fire at Melias Bridge Street supermarket and the Sherdley Park homes for £180 down and a fiver a week.
I believe that there are a still a handful of organisations in St Helens that organise summer day trips for the elderly. However these are not on the scale of fifty years ago and I doubt their members are still given pocket money like children! On the 5th 140 pensioners from Blackbrook Working Men's Club went on a day trip to Southport with each having been given £3 to spend at the seaside. During the evening a special concert was put on for the OAPs in the club.
There were angry protests at Haydock's Finance and General Purposes committee meeting on the 6th when it was revealed that St Helens Corporation planned to withdraw the no. 3 bus service during non-peak times.
The St Helens Transport Manager Alex Barlow had written to say services were being revised through a decline in passenger traffic and an inability to maintain schedules through staff shortages. However this cut no ice with the councillors who said that if the proposed cutback went ahead they would look into the possibility of using another transport operator to run services in Haydock.
Triplex was fined £60 on the 6th for failing to keep fire escape doors free from obstruction. The Eccleston-based glass firm then employed 1,800 people.
In reviewing two new books by Nikolaus Pevsner on Lancashire on the 7th, Geoffrey Moorhouse wrote in the Guardian: "I'm glad to see he [Pevsner] confirms my native suspicion that St. Helens is just about the backside of the world." A century earlier the renowned poet and writer Matthew Arnold had dubbed St Helens a "hell-hole". I suppose backside of the world is an improvement on that!
The final of the Pilkington National Gala Girls contest was held in the Locarno Ballroom in Blackpool on the 7th with the winner being Jennifer Green. The 22-year-old from Daresbury Road in Eccleston worked at Pilks' Head Office as a statistics clerk and she was a keen bell ringer. Jennifer received a dress for the forthcoming Pilkington Gala Day and a holiday in London in which she would be able to select a complete outfit from an Oxford Street store.
The Birmingham Daily Post's article on Nicholas Wilding and Liverpool Echo's report on the Pilkington Gala Girl contest
Birmingham Daily Post on Nicholas Wilding and Liverpool Echo on Pilkington Gala Girl
Birmingham Daily Post on Nicholas Wilding
The business law student told the paper: "None of the men I work with know my full identity and I would have hoped that it could have stayed that way. To them I am just an ordinary labourer. The work is hard, but I enjoy it." The St Helens Reporter's article published later in the week bore the headline "Nicholas is a Navvy" and upgraded his earnings to £25 per week.
During the evening of the 7th Allan Rathbone from The Crescent in Whiston was presented with an inscribed gold watch on attaining his 21st birthday. The Mayor Tom Wilcock made the presentation for nine years loyal service to Redgate Boys Silver Band. A highly qualified musician, Allan had been abroad many times with the band competing at music festivals and had often appeared on television.
There was a picture in the St Helens Reporter on the 8th of Jennifer and Anne Rawsthorne handing £12 over to members of the Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club. They and other children had held a mini-field day and raffle with the proceeds going towards the Darby and Joan club's new centre off O’Sullivan Crescent.
Their 110 members were having to relocate as their existing centre at Brookfield Mission Hall in Park Road would soon be demolished and up to £10,000 was needed to pay for the new building. The sum of £12 would not put a great dent in their target but, as they say, it's the thought that counts!
William and Alice Bonney from Clinkham Wood were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in the Reporter. The couple had met while working at Pilkingtons during WW1 with Alice one of the many women doing the work of the men that had gone to fight. She drove a crane and her future husband worked as a glass flattener until William was called up. "We did most of our courting during working hours", said Mrs Bonney.
Also pictured was Kenneth Bottomer from Haydock who for the past two years had been entering autocross championships and next month, when competing at Silverstone, the 35-year-old would be chasing his 18th trophy. Next to his photo was an advert from Oxley's Department Store in Barrow Street that said: "Bigger Bargains, Better Values plus Green Shield Stamps on all Purchases!" There was also an ad for Suede Fayre of Westfield Street offering "quality sheepskins, suedes and leathers".
These adverts from Pilkington's Glass Museum, Glovers and Stamina Foods were in the Liverpool Echo during this week
These adverts were in the Liverpool Echo during this week
The Glass Museum's ad in the Echo
So a Reporter journo went to Queens Park at lunchtime where he found lots of unaccompanied dogs with some running about where children were playing. After talking to people in the park the Reporter man wrote: "St. Helens dog lovers are fed-up of the mass slaughter of pets at peak holiday periods, the gangs of marauding dogs that roam children's parks and not least, of walking on dog-fouled pavements."
Brian Clarke of nearby Bruce Street felt that increasing the cost of dog licences from 7s 6d to £5 would reduce the numbers of strays and animals being put down: "We must put an end to all this slaughter of dogs at holiday times. If licences were increased, it would definitely discourage people from getting a dog. Many people buy one and then the novelty wears off. They just get fed up of it and, consequently, the animal is left to its own devices."
Thirteen-year-old John Briers of Campbell Street and the owner of a greyhound called Paddy agreed, feeling that an increase in the licence fee might stop dogs from "running wild". And Mildred Leyland from Marsden Avenue said: "There are far too many dogs just roaming the streets."
There was also a profile of Alf Whalley from Freckleton Road in Toll Bar who was retiring from the St Helens Transport Department after 42 years. Alf had initially worked for the small St Helens and District Bus Company, which the Corporation took over soon after he joined. Alf recalled how the 1920s buses were single-deckers with solid rubber tyres, crash gearboxes and unreliable petrol engines.
Gaynor Joyce outside Pilkingtons Head Office with one of the historic glass pieces - Contributed by Gaynor Joyce
Gaynor Joyce outside Pilkingtons with one of the historic glass pieces
Gaynor Joyce with one of the historic pieces
A big story in the paper (and the Liverpool Echo) was the decision of a 49-year-old Jesuit priest to quit the priesthood in order to marry a 19-year-old St Helens woman. Fr. Bernard Griffin – who had been at Lowe House for four years – said he had applied for a Papal dispensation to leave the Jesuit Order and become a social worker.
In another article a man from Penrith Road (off Scholes Lane) claimed his 35-year-old wife – who was a mother of nine – had "run off" with his 15-year-old daughter's teenage boyfriend. On the following day the Daily Mirror ran the story in which they quoted the husband of the runaway mother describing how his wife's skirts had got shorter and shorter over the past few weeks and her hair had been dyed.
The 9th was the main day of Pilkington's two-day Gala, which began with a spectacular parade involving 22 colourful floats. These included 'Camberwick Green' by the Ruskin Hall Playgroup, 'Dougal and the Magic Roundabout' by Fibreglass of Birkenhead and the float of Pilks' Doncaster Works was themed on the 'Diddy Men'. However the trophy for best float was awarded to Fibreglass of Ravenhead for their entry of 'Cleopatra and her Handmaidens'. And the Lady Pilkington Trophy for most witty float went to the City Road Works for 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.
The procession travelled through St Helens from Pilks' Head Office in Prescot Road to Ruskin Drive via Croppers Hill, Westfield Street, Ormskirk Street, Church Street, Hall Street, Corporation Street, Duke Street and Dentons Green Lane. The sports events at Ruskin Drive included cricket, football, athletics, bowls, hockey and rugby league competitions. There was also a flower and vegetable show (that attracted 500 entries), an arts and crafts exhibition, a miniature train, a display by the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and Chris Barber's Jazzmen and Terry Gore provided the music.
The most popular entertainment for the children was a 'Moon Station' built by Pilkington's R & D department at Lathom in which the kids took an astronaut test and then went on a trip to the Moon. During the day seventy children got lost (I don't think it was on the Moon!) but all were reunited with their parents and St John's Ambulance treated nineteen casualties but none of them were serious.
I don't know what advice was given to parents if their children got lost at the Gala. However in the St Helens Show programmes of the '70s, parents were told to tell their children to approach a stranger and ask them to take them to the lost children tent. Not advice that's likely to be issued today, I think.
Next week's stories will include the Clock Face Road residents living in fear, the death of a pioneering Duke Street record dealer, a one-eyed puppy called Mouse needs a home, there's a 'Back to School' feature in the Reporter, a fire at Melias Bridge Street supermarket and the Sherdley Park homes for £180 down and a fiver a week.