FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7th - 13th January 1969)
This week's twenty-two stories include the damp state of many St Helens homes, the demise of dawn queuing in the New Year sales, the Plaza Theatre Club is in court, Sidac buy a computer costing £1 million in today's money, a Prescot butcher's assistant is mugged, more car parking places and a Dentons Green man wins the Echo's 'Place the Ball' contest.
But first stand by your smelling salts, 'Helga' is back in town! When the documentary described as a "sex education film for all" was shown at the ABC in Bridge Street in early December, many men fainted during the childbirth scenes.
Throughout this week the film was playing again in St Helens, this time at the Capitol. Those with a weaker disposition could instead stroll down Bridge Street and enjoy Tommy Steele in 'Half A Sixpence' or watch 'Cinderella' at the Theatre Royal performed by the Pilkington Musical Section.
Another alternative was the Blue Parrot restaurant club and casino in Ormskirk Street who were offering cabaret dancing with the Bill Harrison Trio. They were licensed until 2am with their casino open until dawn. "Ladies invited. Old members cordially welcomed", said their ad. Does that mean that young or new members would be rudely welcomed?
The greyhounds that were racing at Park Road during the evening of the 7th had the usual selection of odd names. They included 'Freckles', 'Bonzo', 'Boomerang', 'Dolly', 'Totty', 'Ashton's Flash', 'Firecracker', 'Singing Gal', 'Paleface', 'My Girl', 'Schooldays' and 'Candy Floss'.
It was announced this week that St Helens' libraries had lent almost a million books during the past year, an increase of 48,000 on the previous twelve months. It had been the sixth year of the gramophone record library with 2,297 discs now available to borrow, compared to 2,107 during the previous year. Members were thanked for taking care of the records, with only two having been damaged.
St Helens Corporation began work this week clearing the disused Central Station buildings on the Corporation Street / Birchley Street car park. When completed in mid-March there would be additional parking spaces for about 400 vehicles, bringing the total accommodation to about 900.
The Plaza in Duke Street won an appeal in Preston on the 8th over the St Helens Licensing Justices' refusal to allow the club to carry out alterations. Any change to licensed premises required the approval of the Justices but the theatre club had gone ahead and built an internal wall without permission.
They applied for retrospective permission but the fire department submitted a report criticising the safety of the premises and so consent was refused. However after being given many assurances by the club, the Lancashire Sessions overturned the St Helens' decision but warned that the Plaza could be closed down if it was not run properly in future.
15-year-olds Rose Topping and Maureen Fisher from Derbyshire Hill Youth Centre presented a cheque to the Parr Darby and Joan Club during the evening of the 8th. It was only for three guineas but it was the thought that counted with the money coming from the raffling of a box of chocolates at the centre's Christmas party.
Oxfam announced this week that collectors in twenty-five St Helens' pubs on Christmas Eve had raised £80 (around £1,300 in today's money), with the bulk of the cash going to the Biafra Relief Fund.
The St Helens Wine and Beer Circle held a meeting at the Lamb Hotel in College Street on the 8th. A Mr M. Shaw from Ilfracombe Road was the secretary of the home brew society.
Also on that day two boys aged 12 and 15 from Newton-le-Willows were sent to an approved school for stealing £42 from All Saints Church. The elder boy asked for five cases of stealing to be taken into consideration, including theft from St Peter's Vicarage in Newton.
Although health and safety at work had greatly improved since the early years of the 20th century, it was still nothing like today. David Sharrock from Cherry Street in Newton had been painting a crane at Pilkington's Cowley Hill glassworks when he fell off a plank. He dropped 25 feet and was taken to Whiston Hospital but died on the 8th.
Residents of Newton-le-Willows were reported on the 9th to be angry over overflowing rubbish bins containing Christmas waste that had yet to be collected. A spokesman for Newton Health Department said the reason for the delay in emptying the bins was that two of their wagons had broken down.
Three or four times a week during 1969 the Liverpool Echo profiled an 'Echo Girl ‘69' and on the 9th it was Christine Tomlinson from Prescot whose picture appeared in the paper. The 20-year-old worked in her father's newsagents shop in Prescot and had her own paper round to keep her fit.
The new Manor Farm estate in Mill Lane in Rainhill was advertised in the Echo on the 10th. The detached houses would be available for occupancy in February and a 3-bedroom house with carport and central heating could be snapped up for £5,950.
The controversial double-yellow lines were back in the news in the Reporter on the 11th. Leslie Danson claimed that trade at his handyman's shop in Bickerstaffe Street had been reduced by half once the "yellow peril" had been painted outside his premises.
Also featured was Enid Barker from Whittle Street in Thatto Heath who claimed that she had to share her bedroom with her two sons and baby daughter because only half of their terraced home was fit to live in. The 34-year-old said that every room in her house was affected by damp and the chimney-stack was in danger of collapsing through the roof.
However Mrs Barker admitted that she had turned down the tenancy of a council house a year earlier and her landlord was only asking her to pay 15 shillings a week. The council's Health Department told the Reporter that they had hundreds of similar cases to deal with every year and the only practical solution was to demolish such houses.
The Reporter also ran a feature on the New Year sales, writing: "The days when the January sales meant dawn queuing for housewives would appear to be a thing of the past – in St. Helens at least. No more does opening time spell survival of the fittest, with shoppers engaging in an almost physical battle for that great trophy – the marked down article. That sense of excitement and urgency, once synonymous with sale-time, has disappeared.”
"Sidac Orders Computer" was the headline to another article in the paper. A company buying a PC has zero news value today, of course, but in 1969 they were big beasts and very expensive.
British Sidac of Lancots Lane in Sutton was paying £65,000 for their machine, around £1.1 million in today's money. The Reporter said that there were "unique plans" being considered for the use of the computer that might involve the machine talking via communication lines to the company's other plants and depots.
There was good news on the 11th for John Davock from King Edward Road in Dentons Green. Not only had the 66-year-old won the first prize of £3,000 (about £50,000 in today's money) in the Liverpool Echo's 'Place the Ball' competition but a colour TV set would also be installed in his home.
A new television was John's bonus prize and with colour sets then being in their infancy, they were quite expensive and so most folk chose to rent them. One attempt at identifying the location of the football in the Echo's version of 'Spot the Ball' then cost 3d or 6 goes for a shilling.
On January 12th revised fares for St Helens Corporation buses were introduced, which it was hoped would bring in an additional £89,000 per year. The minimum fare was now fourpence, with increases on other fares of between 1d - 2d. The Transport Department justified the increases by saying they had higher labour and material costs and their income had been hit by a fall in passenger traffic.
Also on the 12th butcher's assistant Thomas Hedges was attacked and robbed by three men in Prescot. The 18-year-old was taking £300 of takings to the night safe at William Deacon's bank at the corner of High Street and Leyland Street.
Tom was only 15 yards away from the safe when he was punched in the stomach and head-butted. While doubled up on the ground he saw the three thugs responsible run to a Mini parked outside the Hope and Anchor and drive off towards St Helens. Despite blood pouring from his nose, Tom was able to run back to the shop in Eccleston Street to raise the alarm. £300 is equivalent to around £5,000 in today's money.
Next week's stories will include Grange Park Labour Club's court case, an Eccleston bus compromise, the Mayor's Christmas Party Fund is explained, a puppet spectacular takes place at the Theatre Royal, parking meters for St Helens are criticised, the St Helens AA restock part of the canal and two St Helens' people are in the money after winning 'spot the ball' football competitions.
But first stand by your smelling salts, 'Helga' is back in town! When the documentary described as a "sex education film for all" was shown at the ABC in Bridge Street in early December, many men fainted during the childbirth scenes.
Throughout this week the film was playing again in St Helens, this time at the Capitol. Those with a weaker disposition could instead stroll down Bridge Street and enjoy Tommy Steele in 'Half A Sixpence' or watch 'Cinderella' at the Theatre Royal performed by the Pilkington Musical Section.
The greyhounds that were racing at Park Road during the evening of the 7th had the usual selection of odd names. They included 'Freckles', 'Bonzo', 'Boomerang', 'Dolly', 'Totty', 'Ashton's Flash', 'Firecracker', 'Singing Gal', 'Paleface', 'My Girl', 'Schooldays' and 'Candy Floss'.
It was announced this week that St Helens' libraries had lent almost a million books during the past year, an increase of 48,000 on the previous twelve months. It had been the sixth year of the gramophone record library with 2,297 discs now available to borrow, compared to 2,107 during the previous year. Members were thanked for taking care of the records, with only two having been damaged.
St Helens Corporation began work this week clearing the disused Central Station buildings on the Corporation Street / Birchley Street car park. When completed in mid-March there would be additional parking spaces for about 400 vehicles, bringing the total accommodation to about 900.
The Plaza in Duke Street won an appeal in Preston on the 8th over the St Helens Licensing Justices' refusal to allow the club to carry out alterations. Any change to licensed premises required the approval of the Justices but the theatre club had gone ahead and built an internal wall without permission.
They applied for retrospective permission but the fire department submitted a report criticising the safety of the premises and so consent was refused. However after being given many assurances by the club, the Lancashire Sessions overturned the St Helens' decision but warned that the Plaza could be closed down if it was not run properly in future.
15-year-olds Rose Topping and Maureen Fisher from Derbyshire Hill Youth Centre presented a cheque to the Parr Darby and Joan Club during the evening of the 8th. It was only for three guineas but it was the thought that counted with the money coming from the raffling of a box of chocolates at the centre's Christmas party.
Oxfam announced this week that collectors in twenty-five St Helens' pubs on Christmas Eve had raised £80 (around £1,300 in today's money), with the bulk of the cash going to the Biafra Relief Fund.
The St Helens Wine and Beer Circle held a meeting at the Lamb Hotel in College Street on the 8th. A Mr M. Shaw from Ilfracombe Road was the secretary of the home brew society.
Also on that day two boys aged 12 and 15 from Newton-le-Willows were sent to an approved school for stealing £42 from All Saints Church. The elder boy asked for five cases of stealing to be taken into consideration, including theft from St Peter's Vicarage in Newton.
Although health and safety at work had greatly improved since the early years of the 20th century, it was still nothing like today. David Sharrock from Cherry Street in Newton had been painting a crane at Pilkington's Cowley Hill glassworks when he fell off a plank. He dropped 25 feet and was taken to Whiston Hospital but died on the 8th.
Residents of Newton-le-Willows were reported on the 9th to be angry over overflowing rubbish bins containing Christmas waste that had yet to be collected. A spokesman for Newton Health Department said the reason for the delay in emptying the bins was that two of their wagons had broken down.
Three or four times a week during 1969 the Liverpool Echo profiled an 'Echo Girl ‘69' and on the 9th it was Christine Tomlinson from Prescot whose picture appeared in the paper. The 20-year-old worked in her father's newsagents shop in Prescot and had her own paper round to keep her fit.
The new Manor Farm estate in Mill Lane in Rainhill was advertised in the Echo on the 10th. The detached houses would be available for occupancy in February and a 3-bedroom house with carport and central heating could be snapped up for £5,950.
The controversial double-yellow lines were back in the news in the Reporter on the 11th. Leslie Danson claimed that trade at his handyman's shop in Bickerstaffe Street had been reduced by half once the "yellow peril" had been painted outside his premises.
Also featured was Enid Barker from Whittle Street in Thatto Heath who claimed that she had to share her bedroom with her two sons and baby daughter because only half of their terraced home was fit to live in. The 34-year-old said that every room in her house was affected by damp and the chimney-stack was in danger of collapsing through the roof.
However Mrs Barker admitted that she had turned down the tenancy of a council house a year earlier and her landlord was only asking her to pay 15 shillings a week. The council's Health Department told the Reporter that they had hundreds of similar cases to deal with every year and the only practical solution was to demolish such houses.
The Reporter also ran a feature on the New Year sales, writing: "The days when the January sales meant dawn queuing for housewives would appear to be a thing of the past – in St. Helens at least. No more does opening time spell survival of the fittest, with shoppers engaging in an almost physical battle for that great trophy – the marked down article. That sense of excitement and urgency, once synonymous with sale-time, has disappeared.”
British Sidac of Lancots Lane in Sutton was paying £65,000 for their machine, around £1.1 million in today's money. The Reporter said that there were "unique plans" being considered for the use of the computer that might involve the machine talking via communication lines to the company's other plants and depots.
There was good news on the 11th for John Davock from King Edward Road in Dentons Green. Not only had the 66-year-old won the first prize of £3,000 (about £50,000 in today's money) in the Liverpool Echo's 'Place the Ball' competition but a colour TV set would also be installed in his home.
A new television was John's bonus prize and with colour sets then being in their infancy, they were quite expensive and so most folk chose to rent them. One attempt at identifying the location of the football in the Echo's version of 'Spot the Ball' then cost 3d or 6 goes for a shilling.
On January 12th revised fares for St Helens Corporation buses were introduced, which it was hoped would bring in an additional £89,000 per year. The minimum fare was now fourpence, with increases on other fares of between 1d - 2d. The Transport Department justified the increases by saying they had higher labour and material costs and their income had been hit by a fall in passenger traffic.
Also on the 12th butcher's assistant Thomas Hedges was attacked and robbed by three men in Prescot. The 18-year-old was taking £300 of takings to the night safe at William Deacon's bank at the corner of High Street and Leyland Street.
Tom was only 15 yards away from the safe when he was punched in the stomach and head-butted. While doubled up on the ground he saw the three thugs responsible run to a Mini parked outside the Hope and Anchor and drive off towards St Helens. Despite blood pouring from his nose, Tom was able to run back to the shop in Eccleston Street to raise the alarm. £300 is equivalent to around £5,000 in today's money.
Next week's stories will include Grange Park Labour Club's court case, an Eccleston bus compromise, the Mayor's Christmas Party Fund is explained, a puppet spectacular takes place at the Theatre Royal, parking meters for St Helens are criticised, the St Helens AA restock part of the canal and two St Helens' people are in the money after winning 'spot the ball' football competitions.