FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (6th - 12th FEBRUARY 1973)
This week's many stories include the high number of betting shops in St Helens, a bus hits a baby's pram in Warrington New Road, the Talbot Street home that had been taken over by mice, the new Sherdley Park golf course, the Rainford pre-school play group and why Clock Face Road looked like a Christmas card.
I begin with the latest industrial news. On the 6th one thousand staff at Stoves factory in Rainhill returned to work after a fortnight-long strike. The workers had downed tools at the cooker factory after management had announced 120 redundancies – but the workers now accepted their battle to save their colleagues' jobs had been lost. Two hundred workers at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane in Parr also returned to work on that day. The firm made seats for the car industry and the employees had walked out on the previous day after a dispute over training allowances.
However, 230 workers at the Sutton factory of Jefferson Smurfitt on the Reginald Road industrial estate started a sit-in this week, which would continue for some time. The dispute began at the paper-based packaging firm after workers claimed that the management had technically locked out seven women employees for refusing to do a man's job. And 100 gas workers based in Pocket Nook were now in the third week of their strike over pay.
On the 6th as Irene Callan was preparing to cross Warrington New Road in St Helens (pictured above in flood in 1978), a double-decker bus struck the pram that she was pushing and dragged it 15 yards down the street. Inside the overturned pram was her 8-month old daughter Julie who, miraculously, was none the worst for her experience. Mrs Callan told the St Helens Reporter: "It went about 15 yards, then came loose and turned over. I ran to it and picked Julie up. She was crying, and I thought she would be badly hurt. In fact, she came out of it better than me. She's not at all upset – I still can't stop shaking."
St Helens Police said the accident had apparently happened because the front of Irene's pram had been overhanging into the road and as a result they appealed for more care from pram-pushing mothers. A police spokesman said: "Often you see young mothers wanting to cross a road swing their pram round so that it's partly in the road before they even look to see what’s coming."
There was a reminder of the dangers of being a fire-fighter on the 7th. That was when Leading Fireman Cyril Porter of Vincent Street in St Helens was rushed to hospital with back injuries after a gas main exploded as he dealt with a fire at Todd's steel factory.
The St Helens Amenities Committee decided on the 7th to apply for a liquor licence for the newly built clubhouse at their municipal golf course. The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, was set to open the building in Sherdley Park on April 18th. The committee also set the prices for playing a round of golf on the course, which on weekdays would cost 30p (with 10p discounts for children and pensioners) and 40p on weekends and Bank Holidays.
Also on the 7th, it was revealed that St Helens had the highest number of betting shops to every 10,000 people than any other town in England – apart from Warrington. The St Helens rate (per 10,000) was 6.24 betting shops and Warrington's was 6.33. The national average was 2.73 but the statistics were only concerned with population and did not take into account those workers who commuted into towns and used betting shops in their lunch breaks.
St Helens had 71 betting shops in total which angered Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens and leader of 30,000 Roman Catholics, who said: "I'm shocked to hear that we're almost ‘top of the pops’ in this table. There are too many tragedies in homes caused by excess spending on horses." And Methodist minister the Rev. Roy Shimmin added: "There is no doubt, whatsoever, that there are thousands of people who are cursed with the prolification of betting shops. Our church has always preached against this and other evils of gambling."
Playgroups were still few and far between in 1973 with parents mainly the ones organising them. On the 8th the Liverpool Echo published a photo of about 40 kids, alongside this brief article:
"Children from quiet estates and isolated lanes in rural Rainford are meeting new friends at a play school. Mrs Audrey Parr runs the Rainford Pre-School Play Group every day at the old congregational church hall in the village. She is helped by Mesdames Eva Slade, Gladys Singleton and Norma King, all of Rainford. The group also accepts handicapped children. A youngster with spina bifida and a small boy who finds it difficult to communicate, because of deafness, play happily with other youngsters. Says Mrs Parr: “If you are going to exclude them at three years of age, what chance will they have in later life”."
The paper's 'Helping Hand' column was again writing about the long wait for telephones in the St Helens area caused by a lack of capacity and high demand. "Mr. R. C." from Haydock had applied for a telephone in October 1971 and was told it would be the middle of 1972 before he could have one installed. However, R. C. was still without his phone.
The Post Office explained that the extension of the St Mary's Street exchange and the opening of a new one at Marshalls Cross was improving the situation in the St Helens area, with 3,500 new telephones provided in 1972. However, there were still a few places where the cabling work had not been finished, and where Mr. R. C. lived in Haydock had been one of them. But the Post Office could now announce that the wires were available to connect up Mr. R. C. to the exchange – obviously unconnected to the newspaper publicity!
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 9th and John and Susan Elsby were complaining about the state of their home in Talbot Street. They said that since nearby demolition work had occurred six months earlier, mice had practically taken possession of their home.
"I'm terrified. I can't stay in during the day," complained Mrs Elsby. "I have to go to my mother's or to friends. Our three children are frightened too. We can't use the upstairs rooms because of damp. We sleep downstairs – where the mice run over the floors, tables, food and furniture. The toddlers sleep on the bed and [the] baby in a carry-cot. I have the settee, and my husband has nowhere but the floor. And the mice get everywhere. We even found one in the cot. John and I take it in turns to stay up at night, to make sure they don't get at the children. Even so, one has been bitten on the thumb."
The Elsbys said they had been complaining to the Town Hall since well before Christmas but had got nowhere. The council's Chief Public Health Inspector, Nat Birch, admitted to the Reporter that there had been a delay in dealing with the matter. However, he explained that the Elsbys owned the property and resolving their mice infestation had been slowed because of the couple's desire for the Corporation to purchase their home and re-house them.
The Reporter also described how earlier in the week a 100-yard stretch of Clock Face Road had the look of a Christmas card after a "blizzard of waste paper" had descended upon it. The problem had been caused by strong winds lifting paper from a council tip and carrying it across the road.
"It just looked as though the paper had dropped out of the sky", said local resident Kenneth Treacher. "One tree was a mass of paper." Mr Treacher felt the paper being blown across the road had been a danger to passing traffic. And Michael Lloyd of Eastham Crescent added: "Clock Face Road looked absolutely hideous. You couldn't see the hedge because it was completely hidden by paper and rubbish."
At the Capitol from the 11th 'Dany The Ravager', a French sexploitation road movie, began a week's screenings. And at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street, Stanley Kubrick's 'Clockwork Orange' was retained for a third week.
And finally, we return to Clock Face when at 1:30am on the 12th, barber Barry McDermott raised the alarm when he discovered his neighbouring premises to be on fire. Jean Parsonage was the manager of the adjacent off-licence, near the Clock Face Hotel, and she lived with her husband George and three children in the flat above. The couple were trapped by smoke in an upstairs bedroom but were uninjured and all five were later discharged from hospital.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the controversial Hardshaw Street car parking ban, traders in the new St Mary's Market complain about a big drop in takings, Pilks go green and the cheeky cartwheel theft from Westfield Street.
I begin with the latest industrial news. On the 6th one thousand staff at Stoves factory in Rainhill returned to work after a fortnight-long strike. The workers had downed tools at the cooker factory after management had announced 120 redundancies – but the workers now accepted their battle to save their colleagues' jobs had been lost. Two hundred workers at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane in Parr also returned to work on that day. The firm made seats for the car industry and the employees had walked out on the previous day after a dispute over training allowances.
However, 230 workers at the Sutton factory of Jefferson Smurfitt on the Reginald Road industrial estate started a sit-in this week, which would continue for some time. The dispute began at the paper-based packaging firm after workers claimed that the management had technically locked out seven women employees for refusing to do a man's job. And 100 gas workers based in Pocket Nook were now in the third week of their strike over pay.
St Helens Police said the accident had apparently happened because the front of Irene's pram had been overhanging into the road and as a result they appealed for more care from pram-pushing mothers. A police spokesman said: "Often you see young mothers wanting to cross a road swing their pram round so that it's partly in the road before they even look to see what’s coming."
There was a reminder of the dangers of being a fire-fighter on the 7th. That was when Leading Fireman Cyril Porter of Vincent Street in St Helens was rushed to hospital with back injuries after a gas main exploded as he dealt with a fire at Todd's steel factory.
The St Helens Amenities Committee decided on the 7th to apply for a liquor licence for the newly built clubhouse at their municipal golf course. The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, was set to open the building in Sherdley Park on April 18th. The committee also set the prices for playing a round of golf on the course, which on weekdays would cost 30p (with 10p discounts for children and pensioners) and 40p on weekends and Bank Holidays.
Also on the 7th, it was revealed that St Helens had the highest number of betting shops to every 10,000 people than any other town in England – apart from Warrington. The St Helens rate (per 10,000) was 6.24 betting shops and Warrington's was 6.33. The national average was 2.73 but the statistics were only concerned with population and did not take into account those workers who commuted into towns and used betting shops in their lunch breaks.
St Helens had 71 betting shops in total which angered Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens and leader of 30,000 Roman Catholics, who said: "I'm shocked to hear that we're almost ‘top of the pops’ in this table. There are too many tragedies in homes caused by excess spending on horses." And Methodist minister the Rev. Roy Shimmin added: "There is no doubt, whatsoever, that there are thousands of people who are cursed with the prolification of betting shops. Our church has always preached against this and other evils of gambling."
Playgroups were still few and far between in 1973 with parents mainly the ones organising them. On the 8th the Liverpool Echo published a photo of about 40 kids, alongside this brief article:
"Children from quiet estates and isolated lanes in rural Rainford are meeting new friends at a play school. Mrs Audrey Parr runs the Rainford Pre-School Play Group every day at the old congregational church hall in the village. She is helped by Mesdames Eva Slade, Gladys Singleton and Norma King, all of Rainford. The group also accepts handicapped children. A youngster with spina bifida and a small boy who finds it difficult to communicate, because of deafness, play happily with other youngsters. Says Mrs Parr: “If you are going to exclude them at three years of age, what chance will they have in later life”."
The paper's 'Helping Hand' column was again writing about the long wait for telephones in the St Helens area caused by a lack of capacity and high demand. "Mr. R. C." from Haydock had applied for a telephone in October 1971 and was told it would be the middle of 1972 before he could have one installed. However, R. C. was still without his phone.
The Post Office explained that the extension of the St Mary's Street exchange and the opening of a new one at Marshalls Cross was improving the situation in the St Helens area, with 3,500 new telephones provided in 1972. However, there were still a few places where the cabling work had not been finished, and where Mr. R. C. lived in Haydock had been one of them. But the Post Office could now announce that the wires were available to connect up Mr. R. C. to the exchange – obviously unconnected to the newspaper publicity!
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 9th and John and Susan Elsby were complaining about the state of their home in Talbot Street. They said that since nearby demolition work had occurred six months earlier, mice had practically taken possession of their home.
"I'm terrified. I can't stay in during the day," complained Mrs Elsby. "I have to go to my mother's or to friends. Our three children are frightened too. We can't use the upstairs rooms because of damp. We sleep downstairs – where the mice run over the floors, tables, food and furniture. The toddlers sleep on the bed and [the] baby in a carry-cot. I have the settee, and my husband has nowhere but the floor. And the mice get everywhere. We even found one in the cot. John and I take it in turns to stay up at night, to make sure they don't get at the children. Even so, one has been bitten on the thumb."
The Elsbys said they had been complaining to the Town Hall since well before Christmas but had got nowhere. The council's Chief Public Health Inspector, Nat Birch, admitted to the Reporter that there had been a delay in dealing with the matter. However, he explained that the Elsbys owned the property and resolving their mice infestation had been slowed because of the couple's desire for the Corporation to purchase their home and re-house them.
The Reporter also described how earlier in the week a 100-yard stretch of Clock Face Road had the look of a Christmas card after a "blizzard of waste paper" had descended upon it. The problem had been caused by strong winds lifting paper from a council tip and carrying it across the road.
"It just looked as though the paper had dropped out of the sky", said local resident Kenneth Treacher. "One tree was a mass of paper." Mr Treacher felt the paper being blown across the road had been a danger to passing traffic. And Michael Lloyd of Eastham Crescent added: "Clock Face Road looked absolutely hideous. You couldn't see the hedge because it was completely hidden by paper and rubbish."
At the Capitol from the 11th 'Dany The Ravager', a French sexploitation road movie, began a week's screenings. And at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street, Stanley Kubrick's 'Clockwork Orange' was retained for a third week.
And finally, we return to Clock Face when at 1:30am on the 12th, barber Barry McDermott raised the alarm when he discovered his neighbouring premises to be on fire. Jean Parsonage was the manager of the adjacent off-licence, near the Clock Face Hotel, and she lived with her husband George and three children in the flat above. The couple were trapped by smoke in an upstairs bedroom but were uninjured and all five were later discharged from hospital.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the controversial Hardshaw Street car parking ban, traders in the new St Mary's Market complain about a big drop in takings, Pilks go green and the cheeky cartwheel theft from Westfield Street.
This week's many stories include the high number of betting shops in St Helens, a bus hits a baby's pram in Warrington New Road, the Talbot Street home that had been taken over by mice, the new Sherdley Park golf course, the Rainford pre-school play group and why Clock Face Road looked like a Christmas card.
I begin with the latest industrial news. On the 6th one thousand staff at Stoves factory in Rainhill returned to work after a fortnight-long strike.
The workers had downed tools at the cooker factory after management had announced 120 redundancies – but the workers now accepted their battle to save their colleagues' jobs had been lost.
Two hundred workers at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane in Parr also returned to work on that day.
The firm made seats for the car industry and the employees had walked out on the previous day after a dispute over training allowances.
However, 230 workers at the Sutton factory of Jefferson Smurfitt on the Reginald Road industrial estate started a sit-in this week, which would continue for some time.
The dispute began at the paper-based packaging firm after workers claimed that the management had technically locked out seven women employees for refusing to do a man's job.
And 100 gas workers based in Pocket Nook were now in the third week of their strike over pay.
On the 6th as Irene Callan was preparing to cross Warrington New Road in St Helens (pictured above in flood in 1978), a double-decker bus struck the pram that she was pushing and dragged it 15 yards down the street.
Inside the overturned pram was her 8-month old daughter Julie who, miraculously, was none the worst for her experience.
Mrs Callan told the St Helens Reporter: "It went about 15 yards, then came loose and turned over. I ran to it and picked Julie up. She was crying, and I thought she would be badly hurt.
"In fact, she came out of it better than me. She's not at all upset – I still can't stop shaking."
St Helens Police said the accident had apparently happened because the front of Irene's pram had been overhanging into the road and as a result they appealed for more care from pram-pushing mothers.
A police spokesman said: "Often you see young mothers wanting to cross a road swing their pram round so that it's partly in the road before they even look to see what’s coming."
There was a reminder of the dangers of being a fire-fighter on the 7th. That was when Leading Fireman Cyril Porter of Vincent Street in St Helens was rushed to hospital with back injuries after a gas main exploded as he dealt with a fire at Todd's steel factory.
The St Helens Amenities Committee decided on the 7th to apply for a liquor licence for the newly built clubhouse at their municipal golf course. The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, was set to open the building in Sherdley Park on April 18th.
The committee also set the prices for playing a round of golf on the course, which on weekdays would cost 30p (with 10p discounts for children and pensioners) and 40p on weekends and Bank Holidays.
Also on the 7th, it was revealed that St Helens had the highest number of betting shops to every 10,000 people than any other town in England – apart from Warrington.
The St Helens rate (per 10,000) was 6.24 betting shops and Warrington's was 6.33.
The national average was 2.73 but the statistics were only concerned with population and did not take into account those workers who commuted into towns and used betting shops in their lunch breaks.
St Helens had 71 betting shops in total which angered Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens and leader of 30,000 Roman Catholics, who said:
"I'm shocked to hear that we're almost ‘top of the pops’ in this table. There are too many tragedies in homes caused by excess spending on horses."
And Methodist minister the Rev. Roy Shimmin added: "There is no doubt, whatsoever, that there are thousands of people who are cursed with the prolification of betting shops. Our church has always preached against this and other evils of gambling."
Playgroups were still few and far between in 1973 with parents mainly the ones organising them. On the 8th the Liverpool Echo published a photo of about 40 kids, alongside this brief article:
"Children from quiet estates and isolated lanes in rural Rainford are meeting new friends at a play school. Mrs Audrey Parr runs the Rainford Pre-School Play Group every day at the old congregational church hall in the village. She is helped by Mesdames Eva Slade, Gladys Singleton and Norma King, all of Rainford.
"The group also accepts handicapped children. A youngster with spina bifida and a small boy who finds it difficult to communicate, because of deafness, play happily with other youngsters. Says Mrs Parr: “If you are going to exclude them at three years of age, what chance will they have in later life”."
The paper's 'Helping Hand' column was again writing about the long wait for telephones in the St Helens area caused by a lack of capacity and high demand.
"Mr. R. C." from Haydock had applied for a telephone in October 1971 and was told it would be the middle of 1972 before he could have one installed. However, R. C. was still without his phone.
The Post Office explained that the extension of the St Mary's Street exchange and the opening of a new one at Marshalls Cross was improving the situation in the St Helens area, with 3,500 new telephones provided in 1972.
However, there were still a few places where the cabling work had not been finished, and where Mr. R. C. lived in Haydock had been one of them.
But the Post Office could now announce that the wires were available to connect up Mr. R. C. to the exchange – obviously unconnected to the newspaper publicity!
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 9th and John and Susan Elsby were complaining about the state of their home in Talbot Street.
They said that since nearby demolition work had occurred six months earlier, mice had practically taken possession of their home.
"I'm terrified. I can't stay in during the day," complained Mrs Elsby. "I have to go to my mother's or to friends. Our three children are frightened too. We can't use the upstairs rooms because of damp. We sleep downstairs – where the mice run over the floors, tables, food and furniture. The toddlers sleep on the bed and [the] baby in a carry-cot.
"I have the settee, and my husband has nowhere but the floor. And the mice get everywhere. We even found one in the cot. John and I take it in turns to stay up at night, to make sure they don't get at the children. Even so, one has been bitten on the thumb."
The Elsbys said they had been complaining to the Town Hall since well before Christmas but had got nowhere.
The council's Chief Public Health Inspector, Nat Birch, admitted to the Reporter that there had been a delay in dealing with the matter.
However, he explained that the Elsbys owned the property and resolving their mice infestation had been slowed because of the couple's desire for the Corporation to purchase their home and re-house them.
The Reporter also described how earlier in the week a 100-yard stretch of Clock Face Road had the look of a Christmas card after a "blizzard of waste paper" had descended upon it.
The problem had been caused by strong winds lifting paper from a council tip and carrying it across the road.
"It just looked as though the paper had dropped out of the sky", said local resident Kenneth Treacher. "One tree was a mass of paper."
Mr Treacher felt the paper being blown across the road had been a danger to passing traffic.
And Michael Lloyd of Eastham Crescent added: "Clock Face Road looked absolutely hideous. You couldn't see the hedge because it was completely hidden by paper and rubbish."
At the Capitol from the 11th 'Dany The Ravager', a French sexploitation road movie, began a week's screenings.
And at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street, Stanley Kubrick's 'Clockwork Orange' was retained for a third week.
And finally, we return to Clock Face when at 1:30am on the 12th, barber Barry McDermott raised the alarm when he discovered his neighbouring premises to be on fire.
Jean Parsonage was the manager of the adjacent off-licence, near the Clock Face Hotel, and she lived with her husband George and three children in the flat above.
The couple were trapped by smoke in an upstairs bedroom but were uninjured and all five were later discharged from hospital.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the controversial Hardshaw Street car parking ban, traders in the new St Mary's Market complain about a big drop in takings, Pilks go green and the cheeky cartwheel theft from Westfield Street.
I begin with the latest industrial news. On the 6th one thousand staff at Stoves factory in Rainhill returned to work after a fortnight-long strike.
The workers had downed tools at the cooker factory after management had announced 120 redundancies – but the workers now accepted their battle to save their colleagues' jobs had been lost.
Two hundred workers at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane in Parr also returned to work on that day.
The firm made seats for the car industry and the employees had walked out on the previous day after a dispute over training allowances.
However, 230 workers at the Sutton factory of Jefferson Smurfitt on the Reginald Road industrial estate started a sit-in this week, which would continue for some time.
The dispute began at the paper-based packaging firm after workers claimed that the management had technically locked out seven women employees for refusing to do a man's job.
And 100 gas workers based in Pocket Nook were now in the third week of their strike over pay.
Inside the overturned pram was her 8-month old daughter Julie who, miraculously, was none the worst for her experience.
Mrs Callan told the St Helens Reporter: "It went about 15 yards, then came loose and turned over. I ran to it and picked Julie up. She was crying, and I thought she would be badly hurt.
"In fact, she came out of it better than me. She's not at all upset – I still can't stop shaking."
St Helens Police said the accident had apparently happened because the front of Irene's pram had been overhanging into the road and as a result they appealed for more care from pram-pushing mothers.
A police spokesman said: "Often you see young mothers wanting to cross a road swing their pram round so that it's partly in the road before they even look to see what’s coming."
There was a reminder of the dangers of being a fire-fighter on the 7th. That was when Leading Fireman Cyril Porter of Vincent Street in St Helens was rushed to hospital with back injuries after a gas main exploded as he dealt with a fire at Todd's steel factory.
The St Helens Amenities Committee decided on the 7th to apply for a liquor licence for the newly built clubhouse at their municipal golf course. The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, was set to open the building in Sherdley Park on April 18th.
The committee also set the prices for playing a round of golf on the course, which on weekdays would cost 30p (with 10p discounts for children and pensioners) and 40p on weekends and Bank Holidays.
Also on the 7th, it was revealed that St Helens had the highest number of betting shops to every 10,000 people than any other town in England – apart from Warrington.
The St Helens rate (per 10,000) was 6.24 betting shops and Warrington's was 6.33.
The national average was 2.73 but the statistics were only concerned with population and did not take into account those workers who commuted into towns and used betting shops in their lunch breaks.
St Helens had 71 betting shops in total which angered Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens and leader of 30,000 Roman Catholics, who said:
"I'm shocked to hear that we're almost ‘top of the pops’ in this table. There are too many tragedies in homes caused by excess spending on horses."
And Methodist minister the Rev. Roy Shimmin added: "There is no doubt, whatsoever, that there are thousands of people who are cursed with the prolification of betting shops. Our church has always preached against this and other evils of gambling."
Playgroups were still few and far between in 1973 with parents mainly the ones organising them. On the 8th the Liverpool Echo published a photo of about 40 kids, alongside this brief article:
"Children from quiet estates and isolated lanes in rural Rainford are meeting new friends at a play school. Mrs Audrey Parr runs the Rainford Pre-School Play Group every day at the old congregational church hall in the village. She is helped by Mesdames Eva Slade, Gladys Singleton and Norma King, all of Rainford.
"The group also accepts handicapped children. A youngster with spina bifida and a small boy who finds it difficult to communicate, because of deafness, play happily with other youngsters. Says Mrs Parr: “If you are going to exclude them at three years of age, what chance will they have in later life”."
The paper's 'Helping Hand' column was again writing about the long wait for telephones in the St Helens area caused by a lack of capacity and high demand.
"Mr. R. C." from Haydock had applied for a telephone in October 1971 and was told it would be the middle of 1972 before he could have one installed. However, R. C. was still without his phone.
The Post Office explained that the extension of the St Mary's Street exchange and the opening of a new one at Marshalls Cross was improving the situation in the St Helens area, with 3,500 new telephones provided in 1972.
However, there were still a few places where the cabling work had not been finished, and where Mr. R. C. lived in Haydock had been one of them.
But the Post Office could now announce that the wires were available to connect up Mr. R. C. to the exchange – obviously unconnected to the newspaper publicity!
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 9th and John and Susan Elsby were complaining about the state of their home in Talbot Street.
They said that since nearby demolition work had occurred six months earlier, mice had practically taken possession of their home.
"I'm terrified. I can't stay in during the day," complained Mrs Elsby. "I have to go to my mother's or to friends. Our three children are frightened too. We can't use the upstairs rooms because of damp. We sleep downstairs – where the mice run over the floors, tables, food and furniture. The toddlers sleep on the bed and [the] baby in a carry-cot.
"I have the settee, and my husband has nowhere but the floor. And the mice get everywhere. We even found one in the cot. John and I take it in turns to stay up at night, to make sure they don't get at the children. Even so, one has been bitten on the thumb."
The Elsbys said they had been complaining to the Town Hall since well before Christmas but had got nowhere.
The council's Chief Public Health Inspector, Nat Birch, admitted to the Reporter that there had been a delay in dealing with the matter.
However, he explained that the Elsbys owned the property and resolving their mice infestation had been slowed because of the couple's desire for the Corporation to purchase their home and re-house them.
The Reporter also described how earlier in the week a 100-yard stretch of Clock Face Road had the look of a Christmas card after a "blizzard of waste paper" had descended upon it.
The problem had been caused by strong winds lifting paper from a council tip and carrying it across the road.
"It just looked as though the paper had dropped out of the sky", said local resident Kenneth Treacher. "One tree was a mass of paper."
Mr Treacher felt the paper being blown across the road had been a danger to passing traffic.
And Michael Lloyd of Eastham Crescent added: "Clock Face Road looked absolutely hideous. You couldn't see the hedge because it was completely hidden by paper and rubbish."
At the Capitol from the 11th 'Dany The Ravager', a French sexploitation road movie, began a week's screenings.
And at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street, Stanley Kubrick's 'Clockwork Orange' was retained for a third week.
And finally, we return to Clock Face when at 1:30am on the 12th, barber Barry McDermott raised the alarm when he discovered his neighbouring premises to be on fire.
Jean Parsonage was the manager of the adjacent off-licence, near the Clock Face Hotel, and she lived with her husband George and three children in the flat above.
The couple were trapped by smoke in an upstairs bedroom but were uninjured and all five were later discharged from hospital.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the controversial Hardshaw Street car parking ban, traders in the new St Mary's Market complain about a big drop in takings, Pilks go green and the cheeky cartwheel theft from Westfield Street.