FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (6th - 12th JANUARY 1970)
This week's stories include the shortage of doctors in St Helens, Sidac is accused of leading the council up the garden path with their sulphuric acid plant, the man who head-butted a policeman in a St Helens court, Saints measures to combat frost and work is scheduled to start on the town centre redevelopment.
We begin with a warning by the Rev. Gordon Williams that Jehovah's Witnesses were knocking on doors in St Helens looking for new converts. The vicar of St Mark's church in North Road used his parish magazine to claim that the Witnesses' teaching was non-Christian and their followers considered Church of England and Roman Catholic churches to be "of the devil".
On the 6th the Pilkington Musical Section began two weeks of performances of their annual pantomime at the Theatre Royal. This year it was 'Babes in the Wood' and they utilised three "flying ballet" machines to propel characters across the stage.
I'm sure like me you must read some of these stories from fifty years ago and say "nothing changes". That is certainly the case with revelations made at a St Helens Health Executive Council meeting on the 6th of a doctor shortage in the town. "We are in a mess", admitted Dr Kenneth Sugden, as he described how GPs were visiting patients up to ten o’clock at night and that in some practices there was a four-day delay to see a doctor.
Not only did Dr Sugden say that the GPs in St Helens were seriously under-strength but he complained of a lack of skilled receptionists in practices. Some were trying to reduce their doctor's workload by diagnosing a patient's problem and deciding whether or not they required an early appointment. "They are not skilled enough to sort the wheat from the chaff," added Dr Sugden. Patients failing to turn up for appointments were also an issue. However Dr Wallace Aslett thought it was the patients who were to blame, saying: "Over the last 40 to 50 years, they have been spoiled. They have come to expect to see their doctor at two minutes' notice."
Snow fell this week and pavement ice led to a couple of dozen people requiring hospital treatment. The 7th was the worst day with the ambulance service fielding a dozen calls. Most of the victims were treated for minor cuts and shock but there were also a couple of fractures. The weather on the 7th also led to Ribble bus drivers on the routes into St Helens going on a six-day strike. They complained that their vehicles were too cold to work.
The flu epidemic was still raging in St Helens with Roland Craig, Superintendent Registrar, announcing on the 7th that nine more people had died in the town over the past five days. That took the number of deaths from mid-December to 21 and almost half the staff of the home help service was off with the flu.
During the evening of the 7th the annual meeting of the St Helens Budgerigar Society took place at the Clarendon Hotel in College Street.
In 1968 British Sidac had requested planning permission to build a £1.3 million sulphuric acid plant adjacent to their main works in Lancots Lane in Sutton. The company stated that the new factory would result in pollution levels being reduced. That was because the plant would recycle the sulphurous effluent that it discharged into Sutton Brook. After outline planning permission had been granted the council was surprised to learn that Leathers Chemicals would be operating the new plant and not Sidac.
Sidac blamed the decision on technical difficulties but the councillors were not impressed, with one claiming they had been "led up the garden path". Councillor William Shepherd said they should prevent Sidac / Leathers from building any further as they'd failed to honour the terms of their planning permission.
Councillor Allan Lycett also felt they had been misled, although thought it had probably not been intentional. Other councillors were more supportive, including Alderman Harold Rimmer, who argued that pollution in the Sutton Brook would still be reduced when the new plant became operational.
The Reporter was published on the 9th and described how the Government's Housing Ministry was likely to hold a public inquiry into a dispute over a slag heap. The National Coal Board had applied for permission to increase the height of their tip – that stretched over the Parr, Sutton and Bold Mosses – by 10 feet. This would take it to a height of 50 feet and Lancashire County Council had given their approval for the 3 to 4 acres of the 50-acre tip that they owned. The rest was the responsibility of St Helens Town Council who had rejected the application. The NCB was appealing the decision and so a public inquiry would likely take place.
The Reporter also described how a man furious that his brother had been fined £195 and banned from driving for 22 years had shouted: "Is this British justice?" at the magistrates. When Inspector Cecil McCall told him to be quiet, the man replied: "Shut up, you big fat slob." When other policemen tried to remove the man from the court, PC Colin Case was punched and head-butted. This week the man was fined £40 and bound over to keep the peace for 12 months in the sum of £20.
There were complaints in the Reporter about an old disused railway bridge at Boundary Road's junction with Silkstone Street that was considered hazardous to walk under. There was no pavement on one side of the road and heavy traffic passed within inches of pedestrians that walked under the bridge.
The Reporter profiled Bold Colliery worker Harold Hill from Orrell who via the British Astronomical Association gave Houston Control warnings of sun activity. Mr Hill was described as keeping a constant watch on the sun via special telescopes that monitored dangerous radiation flares.
The Reporter also described how mid-day meetings between management and coalface teams at Sutton Manor Colliery were boosting productivity. Each day the meetings highlighted any difficulties that the men on the morning shift were experiencing, which assisted the planning of the afternoon and night shifts. Manager Ken Moses brought the idea to Sutton Manor after using it successfully while working in Wigan.
The Reporter also revealed that a £400,000 loan from the Housing Ministry to St Helens Town Council had now come through. Equivalent to around £7 million in today's money, the loan was to be used on implementing the first phase of the council's three-phase, 15-year plan to redevelop the town centre. Work would begin in the area of St Mary Street. This used to run down the side of the Parish Church from Church Street down to Foundry Street, where there was the telephone exchange on one side and an abattoir on the other.
The Deputy Town Clerk, Brian Lace, told the Reporter that men and machines would be on site before the end of the year creating St Mary's Market and Chalon Way East – although these had yet to be named. The Reporter wrote: "The plan will give St. Helens a mini-Manhattan-type skyline with tall office blocks and brand new buildings. Once work gets underway it will mean the almost complete demolition of some town centre areas."
Helena House Travel Services had an advertising feature in the paper promoting foreign holidays. One of the advertisers was Gaytours offering holidays to Spain and Italy from 30 guineas. Their name, would, of course, suggest a quite different type of holiday today! There was a "special announcement" in the feature that the travel shop in Baldwin Street would be open all day on Thursdays during the peak booking period. It sounds quite odd today but, of course, half-day closing on Thursdays then applied to the vast majority of shops in St Helens.
Clinkard's Shoe Shop began their annual sale on the 9th with another January sale taking place at the Mill Wool Shop in the Covered Market.
Despite the severe weather this week Saints game against Batley at Knowley Road went ahead on the 10th as planned. That was because fifteen tons of straw had been laid on the pitch in order to protect it from the frost. They had also experimented with polystyrene sheets. Some time ago the club had tried using heavy gauge polythene foam as a pitch protector but abandoned it in favour of polystyrene. Saints had considered installing underground heating but the cost would now be around £15,000 (about £¼ million in today's money), which the club could not afford. Saints won the game against Batley 22 - 9, with the try scorers Frank Myler, Frank Wilson, Les Jones and David Critchley.
'True Grit' starring John Wayne began 7 days of screenings at the ABC Savoy from the 11th. Meanwhile at the Capitol Julie Andrews played a 1920s actress in 'Star!'.
The town's Water Committee met on the 12th and heard that the new three-million gallon Crank Reservoir had sprung a leak, which had delayed its commissioning by seven months.
And finally a youth from Marsden Avenue was fined £5 in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 12th after making three 999 calls demanding a lift home. Upon being told he would be reported, the youth said: "Fair enough, will you give me a lift home now?"
Next week's stories will include a raid on a Higher Parr Street post office, the flood of funerals in St Helens, the Reporter's new Spot Ball competition, the Thatto Heath clinic riddled with air raid shelters and the "rocket gantry" that was towering over Sutton.
We begin with a warning by the Rev. Gordon Williams that Jehovah's Witnesses were knocking on doors in St Helens looking for new converts. The vicar of St Mark's church in North Road used his parish magazine to claim that the Witnesses' teaching was non-Christian and their followers considered Church of England and Roman Catholic churches to be "of the devil".
St Mark's Church in North Road and the Theatre Royal in Corporation Street in St Helens
St Mark's Church in North Road and the Theatre Royal in St Helens
St Mark's Church in North Road
I'm sure like me you must read some of these stories from fifty years ago and say "nothing changes". That is certainly the case with revelations made at a St Helens Health Executive Council meeting on the 6th of a doctor shortage in the town. "We are in a mess", admitted Dr Kenneth Sugden, as he described how GPs were visiting patients up to ten o’clock at night and that in some practices there was a four-day delay to see a doctor.
Not only did Dr Sugden say that the GPs in St Helens were seriously under-strength but he complained of a lack of skilled receptionists in practices. Some were trying to reduce their doctor's workload by diagnosing a patient's problem and deciding whether or not they required an early appointment. "They are not skilled enough to sort the wheat from the chaff," added Dr Sugden. Patients failing to turn up for appointments were also an issue. However Dr Wallace Aslett thought it was the patients who were to blame, saying: "Over the last 40 to 50 years, they have been spoiled. They have come to expect to see their doctor at two minutes' notice."
Snow fell this week and pavement ice led to a couple of dozen people requiring hospital treatment. The 7th was the worst day with the ambulance service fielding a dozen calls. Most of the victims were treated for minor cuts and shock but there were also a couple of fractures. The weather on the 7th also led to Ribble bus drivers on the routes into St Helens going on a six-day strike. They complained that their vehicles were too cold to work.
The flu epidemic was still raging in St Helens with Roland Craig, Superintendent Registrar, announcing on the 7th that nine more people had died in the town over the past five days. That took the number of deaths from mid-December to 21 and almost half the staff of the home help service was off with the flu.
During the evening of the 7th the annual meeting of the St Helens Budgerigar Society took place at the Clarendon Hotel in College Street.
Sidac blamed the decision on technical difficulties but the councillors were not impressed, with one claiming they had been "led up the garden path". Councillor William Shepherd said they should prevent Sidac / Leathers from building any further as they'd failed to honour the terms of their planning permission.
Councillor Allan Lycett also felt they had been misled, although thought it had probably not been intentional. Other councillors were more supportive, including Alderman Harold Rimmer, who argued that pollution in the Sutton Brook would still be reduced when the new plant became operational.
The Reporter was published on the 9th and described how the Government's Housing Ministry was likely to hold a public inquiry into a dispute over a slag heap. The National Coal Board had applied for permission to increase the height of their tip – that stretched over the Parr, Sutton and Bold Mosses – by 10 feet. This would take it to a height of 50 feet and Lancashire County Council had given their approval for the 3 to 4 acres of the 50-acre tip that they owned. The rest was the responsibility of St Helens Town Council who had rejected the application. The NCB was appealing the decision and so a public inquiry would likely take place.
The Reporter also described how a man furious that his brother had been fined £195 and banned from driving for 22 years had shouted: "Is this British justice?" at the magistrates. When Inspector Cecil McCall told him to be quiet, the man replied: "Shut up, you big fat slob." When other policemen tried to remove the man from the court, PC Colin Case was punched and head-butted. This week the man was fined £40 and bound over to keep the peace for 12 months in the sum of £20.
There were complaints in the Reporter about an old disused railway bridge at Boundary Road's junction with Silkstone Street that was considered hazardous to walk under. There was no pavement on one side of the road and heavy traffic passed within inches of pedestrians that walked under the bridge.
The Reporter profiled Bold Colliery worker Harold Hill from Orrell who via the British Astronomical Association gave Houston Control warnings of sun activity. Mr Hill was described as keeping a constant watch on the sun via special telescopes that monitored dangerous radiation flares.
The Reporter also described how mid-day meetings between management and coalface teams at Sutton Manor Colliery were boosting productivity. Each day the meetings highlighted any difficulties that the men on the morning shift were experiencing, which assisted the planning of the afternoon and night shifts. Manager Ken Moses brought the idea to Sutton Manor after using it successfully while working in Wigan.
The Reporter also revealed that a £400,000 loan from the Housing Ministry to St Helens Town Council had now come through. Equivalent to around £7 million in today's money, the loan was to be used on implementing the first phase of the council's three-phase, 15-year plan to redevelop the town centre. Work would begin in the area of St Mary Street. This used to run down the side of the Parish Church from Church Street down to Foundry Street, where there was the telephone exchange on one side and an abattoir on the other.
The Deputy Town Clerk, Brian Lace, told the Reporter that men and machines would be on site before the end of the year creating St Mary's Market and Chalon Way East – although these had yet to be named. The Reporter wrote: "The plan will give St. Helens a mini-Manhattan-type skyline with tall office blocks and brand new buildings. Once work gets underway it will mean the almost complete demolition of some town centre areas."
Helena House Travel Services had an advertising feature in the paper promoting foreign holidays. One of the advertisers was Gaytours offering holidays to Spain and Italy from 30 guineas. Their name, would, of course, suggest a quite different type of holiday today! There was a "special announcement" in the feature that the travel shop in Baldwin Street would be open all day on Thursdays during the peak booking period. It sounds quite odd today but, of course, half-day closing on Thursdays then applied to the vast majority of shops in St Helens.
Clinkard's Shoe Shop began their annual sale on the 9th with another January sale taking place at the Mill Wool Shop in the Covered Market.
Despite the severe weather this week Saints game against Batley at Knowley Road went ahead on the 10th as planned. That was because fifteen tons of straw had been laid on the pitch in order to protect it from the frost. They had also experimented with polystyrene sheets. Some time ago the club had tried using heavy gauge polythene foam as a pitch protector but abandoned it in favour of polystyrene. Saints had considered installing underground heating but the cost would now be around £15,000 (about £¼ million in today's money), which the club could not afford. Saints won the game against Batley 22 - 9, with the try scorers Frank Myler, Frank Wilson, Les Jones and David Critchley.
'True Grit' starring John Wayne began 7 days of screenings at the ABC Savoy from the 11th. Meanwhile at the Capitol Julie Andrews played a 1920s actress in 'Star!'.
The town's Water Committee met on the 12th and heard that the new three-million gallon Crank Reservoir had sprung a leak, which had delayed its commissioning by seven months.
And finally a youth from Marsden Avenue was fined £5 in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 12th after making three 999 calls demanding a lift home. Upon being told he would be reported, the youth said: "Fair enough, will you give me a lift home now?"
Next week's stories will include a raid on a Higher Parr Street post office, the flood of funerals in St Helens, the Reporter's new Spot Ball competition, the Thatto Heath clinic riddled with air raid shelters and the "rocket gantry" that was towering over Sutton.