FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7 - 13 AUGUST 1973)
This week's many stories include the pensioner who lost his pants and was then inundated with gifts of clothes, the unknown man who saved a new church in Blackbrook from arson, plans to use the new Chester Lane library as a community centre, the heatwave in St Helens and the child left in the lost children's marquee of the St Helens Show for seven hours.
We begin on the 9th when the three St Helens victims of the Summerland leisure centre disaster in Douglas were flown to Liverpool by special ambulance plane for further hospital treatment. Sisters Joyce (19) and Anne Quirk (17) of Brynn Street and Ellen Palfrey (58) of Waring Avenue had all suffered serious burns in the fire that would ultimately kill fifty people.
The new Four Acre Lane housing estate now had 1,550 residents but a community centre had yet to be built. And so this week Terry Denier, the St Helens Director of Social Services, appealed to the council's Libraries Committee to keep the new Chester Lane library open at night. The library near the Four Acre estate was due to be completed next March and Mr Denier said it would have a central area where clubs and societies could meet in the evenings. The old library in Gartons Lane could also be put to community use when the new building was opened.
The lead story in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th concerned the death of Bill Halton. The 54-year-old was disabled and died of a heart attack three days after his invalid car had been stolen. His friend told the paper that the loss of his vehicle had greatly upset Bill and he claimed that it had been the cause of his death.
In last week's Reporter pensioner George Simpson had been bemoaning his lot after losing his new pair of trousers on a bus. The 73-year-old from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had scrimped and saved their £5 cost out of his £9 a week income. But instead of handing the pants in as lost property, the person that found the trousers had seemingly decided to keep them. However, well-wishers concerned about George's plight had now come to his rescue.
The Reporter said so far he had received two pairs of trousers, a suit, three jackets and five shirts. George told the paper: "I couldn't believe it – most of it was brand new stuff. It's great to be able to dress up a bit." Some weeks later it transpired that a passenger on the bus had found the lost trousers and done the right thing in handing them in to the driver. But he left them on his bus, the pants subsequently went astray and so St Helens Corporation compensated George for their £5 cost. And so it was a good result all-round for the 73-year-old!
Above is the popular schools’ ‘It’s A Knock Out!’ segment of the St Helens Show. During the 1970s the programme for the Show advised parents to tell their children that if they became separated from them in Sherdley Park, they should approach an adult and ask to be taken to the lost children's marquee. I don't think such an instruction would be made today – telling kids to approach a total stranger and invite them to take them away.
For the 1973 event it had been decided that announcements concerning lost children would no longer be made over the public address system. That was on the ground that there were so many separated kids that the regular announcements were becoming a nuisance. The change was something that irritated the Reporter and in their Tuesday paper they had described how one boy had been left in the lost children's tent for 7 hours.
However, their article on "the agony of one lost child" upset the rather sensitive WRVS who ran the service. They told Thomas Taylor, the St Helens Town Clerk, of the distress the piece had caused them and he complained to the Reporter. His letter said the child had been well looked after and pointed out that the WRVS voluntarily gave their time to look after and comfort several hundred lost children during the three days of the St Helens Show. The Reporter's response was to say they had made no criticism of the WRVS but had simply been pointing out the consequence of public announcements not being made.
Pictured in the paper having fun in their playgroup were Carl Dixon and Derek Lewis, who had used old cigarette packets, cereal boxes and margarine cartons to make a robot man. That had been at a scheme for 8 to 9-year-olds at St Philips Hall in Derbyshire Hill. Other holiday play schemes were taking place at St Vincent's school and at St Cuthbert's.
There was also a picture in the paper of the Lavin family who had got together at the Engine Hotel in Newton Road in Parr to celebrate Catherine Lavin's 70th birthday. And it was a big family as Mrs Lavin of Reynolds Avenue in Parr had eight sons and two daughters, 39 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren who lived in London, Burnley, Bolton and Blackpool.
An unidentified man who raised the alarm after spotting smoke coming from a church that was being built in Blackbrook was praised in the Reporter. The parish rector, the Rev. John Roberts, said if the man had not intervened and thrown out some of the blazing fibreglass and called the fire brigade, the new St Paul's Church would have been practically destroyed. Vandals had set fire to the fibreglass and the blaze had spread to the wooden framework of the pre-fabricated building which was due to open in November.
It's early August and so the inevitable 'Back To School' advertising feature was in the Reporter. Advertisers included sports equipment supplier Ben Brooks of Duke Street ("Tennis, cricket, golf, fishing, sub aqua, football, rugby, squash, badminton, camping, table tennis etc."); Tyrers, Bridge Street ("St. Helens Schoolwear specialists – blouses £1.35, skirts £2.40, blazers £4.85"); Clinkards Shoe Shop, Westfield Street ("Ladies' and gent's better than ever sale now on – children's starts Tuesday, 14th) and Slaters, Gerrard Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield ("School outfitters").
On the 11th an attempt by a 61-year-old St Helens joiner to swim the River Mersey from Bootle to New Brighton had to be abandoned after 15 minutes when he developed cramp. Richard Farrar of Stevens Street in Thatto Heath suffered what he described as "intolerable pains" in his leg and had to be pulled onto one of the support boats that were following him.
The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 11th: "There was nothing charitable about one incident in the Charity Cup game at Knowsley Road last night when St. Helens were beaten 18-15 by Salford. The season was only 18 minutes old when the Saints winger Frank Wilson appeared to be butted in the face during a play-the-ball. He retaliated and left Salford skipper David Watkins flat out. Salford loose forward Eric Prescott – facing his old club for the first time – joined in and both he and Wilson were given their marching orders."
Also on the 11th what was described as a group of housewives held a gala and Morris dancing competition at the Bold Miners Welfare Institute in Fleet Lane. They had hoped to be able to raise over £100 for Providence Hospital but fell well short of their target. One of the organisers was Gladys Patchett of Sexton Avenue in Parr who blamed the poor attendance on a clash of dates:
"We found out only a week before that our gala fell on the day of the miners' children’s outing. It was very disappointing after all the hard work we had put in, but we're not discouraged. Anything we do is worth doing for the hospital and we're determined to give £300 this year. We have lots of things planned."
On the 13th Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher announced a big boost for nursery education nationwide. St Helens was set to receive £110,000 over two years and the local education authority would be able to introduce its first nursery classes. Other playgroups in the town were privately run and were mainly staffed by volunteers.
The country was presently basking in a heatwave but the town's Chief Water Engineer, Fraser Millar, told a Water Committee meeting on the 13th that there were no immediate plans to introduce a hosepipe ban in St Helens. However, Liverpool Corporation's water chief had issued a "go easy" message to those local authorities that used its water and Mr Millar said the situation needed watching closely. St Helens had a total daily water supply of 11 million gallons with 2½ million of them supplied from Liverpool.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 6-hour baby unit planned for Whiston Hospital, Sutton Transport's planned helicopter hire service, the men that lurked in the library to leer at women and criticism of the cost of the St Helens Show.
We begin on the 9th when the three St Helens victims of the Summerland leisure centre disaster in Douglas were flown to Liverpool by special ambulance plane for further hospital treatment. Sisters Joyce (19) and Anne Quirk (17) of Brynn Street and Ellen Palfrey (58) of Waring Avenue had all suffered serious burns in the fire that would ultimately kill fifty people.
The new Four Acre Lane housing estate now had 1,550 residents but a community centre had yet to be built. And so this week Terry Denier, the St Helens Director of Social Services, appealed to the council's Libraries Committee to keep the new Chester Lane library open at night. The library near the Four Acre estate was due to be completed next March and Mr Denier said it would have a central area where clubs and societies could meet in the evenings. The old library in Gartons Lane could also be put to community use when the new building was opened.
The lead story in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th concerned the death of Bill Halton. The 54-year-old was disabled and died of a heart attack three days after his invalid car had been stolen. His friend told the paper that the loss of his vehicle had greatly upset Bill and he claimed that it had been the cause of his death.
In last week's Reporter pensioner George Simpson had been bemoaning his lot after losing his new pair of trousers on a bus. The 73-year-old from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had scrimped and saved their £5 cost out of his £9 a week income. But instead of handing the pants in as lost property, the person that found the trousers had seemingly decided to keep them. However, well-wishers concerned about George's plight had now come to his rescue.
The Reporter said so far he had received two pairs of trousers, a suit, three jackets and five shirts. George told the paper: "I couldn't believe it – most of it was brand new stuff. It's great to be able to dress up a bit." Some weeks later it transpired that a passenger on the bus had found the lost trousers and done the right thing in handing them in to the driver. But he left them on his bus, the pants subsequently went astray and so St Helens Corporation compensated George for their £5 cost. And so it was a good result all-round for the 73-year-old!
For the 1973 event it had been decided that announcements concerning lost children would no longer be made over the public address system. That was on the ground that there were so many separated kids that the regular announcements were becoming a nuisance. The change was something that irritated the Reporter and in their Tuesday paper they had described how one boy had been left in the lost children's tent for 7 hours.
However, their article on "the agony of one lost child" upset the rather sensitive WRVS who ran the service. They told Thomas Taylor, the St Helens Town Clerk, of the distress the piece had caused them and he complained to the Reporter. His letter said the child had been well looked after and pointed out that the WRVS voluntarily gave their time to look after and comfort several hundred lost children during the three days of the St Helens Show. The Reporter's response was to say they had made no criticism of the WRVS but had simply been pointing out the consequence of public announcements not being made.
Pictured in the paper having fun in their playgroup were Carl Dixon and Derek Lewis, who had used old cigarette packets, cereal boxes and margarine cartons to make a robot man. That had been at a scheme for 8 to 9-year-olds at St Philips Hall in Derbyshire Hill. Other holiday play schemes were taking place at St Vincent's school and at St Cuthbert's.
There was also a picture in the paper of the Lavin family who had got together at the Engine Hotel in Newton Road in Parr to celebrate Catherine Lavin's 70th birthday. And it was a big family as Mrs Lavin of Reynolds Avenue in Parr had eight sons and two daughters, 39 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren who lived in London, Burnley, Bolton and Blackpool.
An unidentified man who raised the alarm after spotting smoke coming from a church that was being built in Blackbrook was praised in the Reporter. The parish rector, the Rev. John Roberts, said if the man had not intervened and thrown out some of the blazing fibreglass and called the fire brigade, the new St Paul's Church would have been practically destroyed. Vandals had set fire to the fibreglass and the blaze had spread to the wooden framework of the pre-fabricated building which was due to open in November.
It's early August and so the inevitable 'Back To School' advertising feature was in the Reporter. Advertisers included sports equipment supplier Ben Brooks of Duke Street ("Tennis, cricket, golf, fishing, sub aqua, football, rugby, squash, badminton, camping, table tennis etc."); Tyrers, Bridge Street ("St. Helens Schoolwear specialists – blouses £1.35, skirts £2.40, blazers £4.85"); Clinkards Shoe Shop, Westfield Street ("Ladies' and gent's better than ever sale now on – children's starts Tuesday, 14th) and Slaters, Gerrard Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield ("School outfitters").
On the 11th an attempt by a 61-year-old St Helens joiner to swim the River Mersey from Bootle to New Brighton had to be abandoned after 15 minutes when he developed cramp. Richard Farrar of Stevens Street in Thatto Heath suffered what he described as "intolerable pains" in his leg and had to be pulled onto one of the support boats that were following him.
The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 11th: "There was nothing charitable about one incident in the Charity Cup game at Knowsley Road last night when St. Helens were beaten 18-15 by Salford. The season was only 18 minutes old when the Saints winger Frank Wilson appeared to be butted in the face during a play-the-ball. He retaliated and left Salford skipper David Watkins flat out. Salford loose forward Eric Prescott – facing his old club for the first time – joined in and both he and Wilson were given their marching orders."
Also on the 11th what was described as a group of housewives held a gala and Morris dancing competition at the Bold Miners Welfare Institute in Fleet Lane. They had hoped to be able to raise over £100 for Providence Hospital but fell well short of their target. One of the organisers was Gladys Patchett of Sexton Avenue in Parr who blamed the poor attendance on a clash of dates:
"We found out only a week before that our gala fell on the day of the miners' children’s outing. It was very disappointing after all the hard work we had put in, but we're not discouraged. Anything we do is worth doing for the hospital and we're determined to give £300 this year. We have lots of things planned."
On the 13th Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher announced a big boost for nursery education nationwide. St Helens was set to receive £110,000 over two years and the local education authority would be able to introduce its first nursery classes. Other playgroups in the town were privately run and were mainly staffed by volunteers.
The country was presently basking in a heatwave but the town's Chief Water Engineer, Fraser Millar, told a Water Committee meeting on the 13th that there were no immediate plans to introduce a hosepipe ban in St Helens. However, Liverpool Corporation's water chief had issued a "go easy" message to those local authorities that used its water and Mr Millar said the situation needed watching closely. St Helens had a total daily water supply of 11 million gallons with 2½ million of them supplied from Liverpool.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 6-hour baby unit planned for Whiston Hospital, Sutton Transport's planned helicopter hire service, the men that lurked in the library to leer at women and criticism of the cost of the St Helens Show.
This week's many stories include the pensioner who lost his pants and was then inundated with gifts of clothes, the unknown man who saved a new church in Blackbrook from arson, plans to use the new Chester Lane library as a community centre, the heatwave in St Helens and the child left in the lost children's marquee of the St Helens Show for seven hours.
We begin on the 9th when the three St Helens victims of the Summerland leisure centre disaster in Douglas were flown to Liverpool by special ambulance plane for further hospital treatment.
Sisters Joyce (19) and Anne Quirk (17) of Brynn Street and Ellen Palfrey (58) of Waring Avenue had all suffered serious burns in the fire that would ultimately kill fifty people.
The new Four Acre Lane housing estate now had 1,550 residents but a community centre had yet to be built.
And so this week Terry Denier, the St Helens Director of Social Services, appealed to the council's Libraries Committee to keep the new Chester Lane library open at night.
The library near the Four Acre estate was due to be completed next March and Mr Denier said it would have a central area where clubs and societies could meet in the evenings.
The old library in Gartons Lane could also be put to community use when the new building was opened.
The lead story in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th concerned the death of Bill Halton.
The 54-year-old was disabled and died of a heart attack three days after his invalid car had been stolen.
His friend told the paper that the loss of his vehicle had greatly upset Bill and he claimed that it had been the cause of his death.
In last week's Reporter pensioner George Simpson had been bemoaning his lot after losing his new pair of trousers on a bus.
The 73-year-old from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had scrimped and saved their £5 cost out of his £9 a week income.
But instead of handing the pants in as lost property, the person that found the trousers had seemingly decided to keep them.
However, well-wishers concerned about George's plight had now come to his rescue.
The Reporter said so far he had received two pairs of trousers, a suit, three jackets and five shirts.
George told the paper: "I couldn't believe it – most of it was brand new stuff. It's great to be able to dress up a bit."
Some weeks later it transpired that a passenger on the bus had found the lost trousers and done the right thing in handing them in to the driver.
But he left them on his bus, the pants subsequently went astray and so St Helens Corporation compensated George for their £5 cost. And so it was a good result all-round for the 73-year-old!
Above is the popular schools’ ‘It’s A Knock Out!’ segment of the St Helens Show. During the 1970s the programme for the Show advised parents to tell their children that if they became separated from them in Sherdley Park, they should approach an adult and ask to be taken to the lost children's marquee.
I don't think such an instruction would be made today – telling kids to approach a total stranger and invite them to take them away.
For the 1973 event it had been decided that announcements concerning lost children would no longer be made over the public address system.
That was on the ground that there were so many separated kids that the regular announcements were becoming a nuisance.
The change was something that irritated the Reporter and in their Tuesday paper they had described how one boy had been left in the lost children's tent for 7 hours.
However, their article on "the agony of one lost child" upset the rather sensitive WRVS who ran the service.
They told Thomas Taylor, the St Helens Town Clerk, of the distress the piece had caused them and he complained to the Reporter.
His letter said the child had been well looked after and pointed out that the WRVS voluntarily gave their time to look after and comfort several hundred lost children during the three days of the St Helens Show.
The Reporter's response was to say they had made no criticism of the WRVS but had simply been pointing out the consequence of public announcements not being made.
Pictured in the paper having fun in their playgroup were Carl Dixon and Derek Lewis, who had used old cigarette packets, cereal boxes and margarine cartons to make a robot man.
That had been at a scheme for 8 to 9-year-olds at St Philips Hall in Derbyshire Hill. Other holiday play schemes were taking place at St Vincent's school and at St Cuthbert's.
There was also a picture in the paper of the Lavin family who had got together at the Engine Hotel in Newton Road in Parr to celebrate Catherine Lavin's 70th birthday.
And it was a big family as Mrs Lavin of Reynolds Avenue in Parr had eight sons and two daughters, 39 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren who lived in London, Burnley, Bolton and Blackpool.
An unidentified man who raised the alarm after spotting smoke coming from a church that was being built in Blackbrook was praised in the Reporter.
The parish rector, the Rev. John Roberts, said if the man had not intervened and thrown out some of the blazing fibreglass and called the fire brigade, the new St Paul's Church would have been practically destroyed.
Vandals had set fire to the fibreglass and the blaze had spread to the wooden framework of the pre-fabricated building which was due to open in November.
It's early August and so the inevitable 'Back To School' advertising feature was in the Reporter.
Advertisers included sports equipment supplier Ben Brooks of Duke Street ("Tennis, cricket, golf, fishing, sub aqua, football, rugby, squash, badminton, camping, table tennis etc."); Tyrers, Bridge Street ("St. Helens Schoolwear specialists – blouses £1.35, skirts £2.40, blazers £4.85"); Clinkards Shoe Shop, Westfield Street ("Ladies' and gent's better than ever sale now on – children's starts Tuesday, 14th) and Slaters, Gerrard Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield ("School outfitters").
On the 11th an attempt by a 61-year-old St Helens joiner to swim the River Mersey from Bootle to New Brighton had to be abandoned after 15 minutes when he developed cramp.
Richard Farrar of Stevens Street in Thatto Heath suffered what he described as "intolerable pains" in his leg and had to be pulled onto one of the support boats that were following him.
The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 11th:
"There was nothing charitable about one incident in the Charity Cup game at Knowsley Road last night when St. Helens were beaten 18-15 by Salford. The season was only 18 minutes old when the Saints winger Frank Wilson appeared to be butted in the face during a play-the-ball.
"He retaliated and left Salford skipper David Watkins flat out. Salford loose forward Eric Prescott – facing his old club for the first time – joined in and both he and Wilson were given their marching orders."
Also on the 11th what was described as a group of housewives held a gala and Morris dancing competition at the Bold Miners Welfare Institute in Fleet Lane.
They had hoped to be able to raise over £100 for Providence Hospital but fell well short of their target.
One of the organisers was Gladys Patchett of Sexton Avenue in Parr who blamed the poor attendance on a clash of dates:
"We found out only a week before that our gala fell on the day of the miners' children's outing. It was very disappointing after all the hard work we had put in, but we're not discouraged.
"Anything we do is worth doing for the hospital and we're determined to give £300 this year. We have lots of things planned."
On the 13th Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher announced a big boost for nursery education nationwide.
St Helens was set to receive £110,000 over two years and the local education authority would be able to introduce its first nursery classes.
Other playgroups in the town were privately run and were mainly staffed by volunteers.
The country was presently basking in a heatwave but the town's Chief Water Engineer, Fraser Millar, told a Water Committee meeting on the 13th that there were no immediate plans to introduce a hosepipe ban in St Helens.
However, Liverpool Corporation's water chief had issued a "go easy" message to those local authorities that used its water and Mr Millar said the situation needed watching closely.
St Helens had a total daily water supply of 11 million gallons with 2½ million of them supplied from Liverpool.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 6-hour baby unit planned for Whiston Hospital, Sutton Transport's planned helicopter hire service, the men that lurked in the library to leer at women and criticism of the cost of the St Helens Show.
We begin on the 9th when the three St Helens victims of the Summerland leisure centre disaster in Douglas were flown to Liverpool by special ambulance plane for further hospital treatment.
Sisters Joyce (19) and Anne Quirk (17) of Brynn Street and Ellen Palfrey (58) of Waring Avenue had all suffered serious burns in the fire that would ultimately kill fifty people.
The new Four Acre Lane housing estate now had 1,550 residents but a community centre had yet to be built.
And so this week Terry Denier, the St Helens Director of Social Services, appealed to the council's Libraries Committee to keep the new Chester Lane library open at night.
The library near the Four Acre estate was due to be completed next March and Mr Denier said it would have a central area where clubs and societies could meet in the evenings.
The old library in Gartons Lane could also be put to community use when the new building was opened.
The lead story in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th concerned the death of Bill Halton.
The 54-year-old was disabled and died of a heart attack three days after his invalid car had been stolen.
His friend told the paper that the loss of his vehicle had greatly upset Bill and he claimed that it had been the cause of his death.
In last week's Reporter pensioner George Simpson had been bemoaning his lot after losing his new pair of trousers on a bus.
The 73-year-old from Chadwick Road in Haresfinch had scrimped and saved their £5 cost out of his £9 a week income.
But instead of handing the pants in as lost property, the person that found the trousers had seemingly decided to keep them.
However, well-wishers concerned about George's plight had now come to his rescue.
The Reporter said so far he had received two pairs of trousers, a suit, three jackets and five shirts.
George told the paper: "I couldn't believe it – most of it was brand new stuff. It's great to be able to dress up a bit."
Some weeks later it transpired that a passenger on the bus had found the lost trousers and done the right thing in handing them in to the driver.
But he left them on his bus, the pants subsequently went astray and so St Helens Corporation compensated George for their £5 cost. And so it was a good result all-round for the 73-year-old!
I don't think such an instruction would be made today – telling kids to approach a total stranger and invite them to take them away.
For the 1973 event it had been decided that announcements concerning lost children would no longer be made over the public address system.
That was on the ground that there were so many separated kids that the regular announcements were becoming a nuisance.
The change was something that irritated the Reporter and in their Tuesday paper they had described how one boy had been left in the lost children's tent for 7 hours.
However, their article on "the agony of one lost child" upset the rather sensitive WRVS who ran the service.
They told Thomas Taylor, the St Helens Town Clerk, of the distress the piece had caused them and he complained to the Reporter.
His letter said the child had been well looked after and pointed out that the WRVS voluntarily gave their time to look after and comfort several hundred lost children during the three days of the St Helens Show.
The Reporter's response was to say they had made no criticism of the WRVS but had simply been pointing out the consequence of public announcements not being made.
Pictured in the paper having fun in their playgroup were Carl Dixon and Derek Lewis, who had used old cigarette packets, cereal boxes and margarine cartons to make a robot man.
That had been at a scheme for 8 to 9-year-olds at St Philips Hall in Derbyshire Hill. Other holiday play schemes were taking place at St Vincent's school and at St Cuthbert's.
There was also a picture in the paper of the Lavin family who had got together at the Engine Hotel in Newton Road in Parr to celebrate Catherine Lavin's 70th birthday.
And it was a big family as Mrs Lavin of Reynolds Avenue in Parr had eight sons and two daughters, 39 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren who lived in London, Burnley, Bolton and Blackpool.
An unidentified man who raised the alarm after spotting smoke coming from a church that was being built in Blackbrook was praised in the Reporter.
The parish rector, the Rev. John Roberts, said if the man had not intervened and thrown out some of the blazing fibreglass and called the fire brigade, the new St Paul's Church would have been practically destroyed.
Vandals had set fire to the fibreglass and the blaze had spread to the wooden framework of the pre-fabricated building which was due to open in November.
It's early August and so the inevitable 'Back To School' advertising feature was in the Reporter.
Advertisers included sports equipment supplier Ben Brooks of Duke Street ("Tennis, cricket, golf, fishing, sub aqua, football, rugby, squash, badminton, camping, table tennis etc."); Tyrers, Bridge Street ("St. Helens Schoolwear specialists – blouses £1.35, skirts £2.40, blazers £4.85"); Clinkards Shoe Shop, Westfield Street ("Ladies' and gent's better than ever sale now on – children's starts Tuesday, 14th) and Slaters, Gerrard Street, Ashton-in-Makerfield ("School outfitters").
On the 11th an attempt by a 61-year-old St Helens joiner to swim the River Mersey from Bootle to New Brighton had to be abandoned after 15 minutes when he developed cramp.
Richard Farrar of Stevens Street in Thatto Heath suffered what he described as "intolerable pains" in his leg and had to be pulled onto one of the support boats that were following him.
The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 11th:
"There was nothing charitable about one incident in the Charity Cup game at Knowsley Road last night when St. Helens were beaten 18-15 by Salford. The season was only 18 minutes old when the Saints winger Frank Wilson appeared to be butted in the face during a play-the-ball.
"He retaliated and left Salford skipper David Watkins flat out. Salford loose forward Eric Prescott – facing his old club for the first time – joined in and both he and Wilson were given their marching orders."
Also on the 11th what was described as a group of housewives held a gala and Morris dancing competition at the Bold Miners Welfare Institute in Fleet Lane.
They had hoped to be able to raise over £100 for Providence Hospital but fell well short of their target.
One of the organisers was Gladys Patchett of Sexton Avenue in Parr who blamed the poor attendance on a clash of dates:
"We found out only a week before that our gala fell on the day of the miners' children's outing. It was very disappointing after all the hard work we had put in, but we're not discouraged.
"Anything we do is worth doing for the hospital and we're determined to give £300 this year. We have lots of things planned."
On the 13th Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher announced a big boost for nursery education nationwide.
St Helens was set to receive £110,000 over two years and the local education authority would be able to introduce its first nursery classes.
Other playgroups in the town were privately run and were mainly staffed by volunteers.
The country was presently basking in a heatwave but the town's Chief Water Engineer, Fraser Millar, told a Water Committee meeting on the 13th that there were no immediate plans to introduce a hosepipe ban in St Helens.
However, Liverpool Corporation's water chief had issued a "go easy" message to those local authorities that used its water and Mr Millar said the situation needed watching closely.
St Helens had a total daily water supply of 11 million gallons with 2½ million of them supplied from Liverpool.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the 6-hour baby unit planned for Whiston Hospital, Sutton Transport's planned helicopter hire service, the men that lurked in the library to leer at women and criticism of the cost of the St Helens Show.