FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 JULY 1974
This week's many stories include the death of sports shop owner Ben Brooks, Pilks' plans for a huge float glass plant in Gorsey Lane, the kind-hearted workers at Stoves in Rainhill, the end of the Rockware strike, Saints Sports & Leisure Centre's 60p lunchtime specials, a gas blast in Eccleston and concerns are raised over the closing of the fire brigade's control room in St Helens.
We begin on the 8th when Mary Spann of Ormskirk Road in Rainford received a shock. It was her 101st birthday and the Band of the Irish Guards turned up at her door to serenade her and wish Mary a happy birthday. Mrs Spann went outside of her home for the first time in eleven years to listen to the band play. She said: "It was a complete surprise and I was thrilled to bits." The personal performance and march past had been arranged for Mary by the organisers of Rainford Carnival, as on that day the Irish Guards were giving a pre-carnival concert on the recreation field.
Saints Sports & Leisure Centre was advertising their five 60p lunchtime special menus in the St Helens Newspaper on the 9th. These were steak and kidney pie; baked ham; gammon and pineapple; plaice and braised steak – all with peas and chips. Three of the five were available each day for 60p and for that price you could also enjoy salad with roast beef, roast chicken, ham, gala pie or prawn.
Also on the 9th Benjamin Brooks passed away in St Helens Hospital at the age of 79. In their obituary the St Helens Reporter said Ben Brooks had in 1925 changed a general store in Duke Street into a "sportsmen's delight" and his shop became known to almost every schoolboy in the town. Although partially disabled, Mr Brooks had been a keen cricketer having played for both St Helens Recs and St Helens cricket clubs.
He had also enjoyed a spell with Lancashire and had been renowned for his slow left-arm bowling. Ben Brooks had also been president of St Helens Tennis Club until his retirement in 1965 at the age of 70 and an active member of Windle Bowling Club. The versatile sportsman had also been one of the oldest members of Grange Park Golf Club and had even tried his hand at snooker for Dentons Green Conservatives.
On the 10th over 800 workers were laid off by Rockware Glass as a result of the pay strike by 100 machine operators that had begun last week. The Liverpool Echo claimed the firm was losing the production of 1½ million bottles a day while the strike continued. Rockware said they would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work and two days later they agreed to do so.
On the 10th James and Maureen Parker flew to France with their nine-year-old daughter, Lesley, in order to have an operation in Bordeaux that would close two holes in the little girl's heart. Mr Parker worked at Stoves in Rainhill and the kind-hearted staff at the cooker firm had raised more than £1,000 towards the £5,000 that was needed to help fund the operation and pay for flight and accommodation costs.
The appeal fund chairman was Tom O’Shaughnessy, a union branch secretary at Stoves, who said: "We put notices up about the fund, and everybody's responded very well – especially with Lesley's father working here. He couldn't thank everyone enough."
On the 11th a young mother and her three young children escaped injury when a gas explosion ripped through their flat. The blast blew out every window and set an airing cupboard alight. Shirley Andrews had turned on her gas central heating system in her home in Millwood Avenue in Eccleston only minutes before the explosion occurred.
As the airing cupboard caught fire smoke began filling the rooms and Mrs Andrews escaped to a neighbouring flat with her children and called the fire brigade. Her husband Ronnie was working nights at UGB and returned home as firemen were putting out the fire. He said: "Sometimes, after switching the heating on, we would feel a bit dizzy, but I did not think it was anything, so I did not report it."
For four days from the 11th what was advertised as Silcocks "New Great Annual Pleasure Fair" was held between Brookside Road and Molyneux Drive in Whiston.
In January a library book reservation fee of 5p had been introduced and this week the St Helens Leisure and Recreation Committee carried out a review of the charge. Despite a number of complaints from members of the public they decided to continue with the fee. Some councillors thought the charge should be waived for pensioners but instead the Libraries director Geoffrey Senior was asked to make a survey of the number of OAPs who reserved books, so the committee could reconsider their decision at a future meeting.
The Reporter on the 12th had a photograph of the "pretty finalists for the Pilkington Gala Glass Princess contest" which would take place on August 10th. The girls were Deborah Martin (aged 9, Dinorben Avenue, Sutton); Carole Smart (10, Culcheth); Susan Brown (10, Billinge); Claire Fairclough (10, Lynton Way, Windle); Janice McGovern (9, Charles Street); Lesley Brown (10, Tasker Terrace, Rainhill); Pamela Brogan (9, Haydock) and Pamela Gilion (9, Dentons Green Lane).
Concern was expressed in the Reporter over a decision to shut the fire brigade control room in St Helens. No longer would emergency calls go straight through to the local station. Instead such calls would in future connect to Liverpool firemen who would pass the message onto colleagues in St Helens. Merseyside County Council had made the decision, as they wanted to centralise all control activities in Hatton Gardens in Liverpool. The intention was to gradually shut down all the outlying control rooms with the six staff at St Helens being deployed elsewhere.
Percy Carmen was the Managing Secretary of the St Helens Co-op at Helena House and said his firm had a direct line to the St Helens control room that would have to be discontinued. "I don't like this idea at all," said Mr Carmen. "I think there could be delays. At the moment St Helens Fire Brigade know within minutes when there is a fire. They come out straight away. There is no bother at all. We are the biggest town outside Liverpool and we are being treated just the same as a small place."
John Tyrer, whose Bridge Street clothing store also had a direct line to the fire station, said he was "unhappy" with the situation, adding: "It looks as though you are paying more rates for less service." A Fire Brigade spokesman in Liverpool said the process of reporting would take no longer under the new system because the Liverpool control centre had a direct link with St Helens. And centralisation was estimated to save ratepayers as much as £1,000 a week.
A big story in the Reporter described how Pilkingtons had set their sights on 100 acres of farmland on which it planned to build a £20 million float glass plant. In today's money, that would be something like £300m. Earlier in the week the glass giant had submitted an application for outline planning permission to build a factory on Gorsey Lane to the District Planning office at St Mary's House in St Helens.
The article stated that Bert and Mary Whitfield of Willow Tree Farm on Leach Lane had already received notice of the proposed plant and had been given 30 days to object. The Reporter said Pilks were hoping that any Town Hall objections to their scheme would be "muted by the danger that the town would lose 800 jobs". That was because if their application was rejected the firm might choose to build their new factory away from St Helens.
And finally, the annual Inter-Schools Swimming Gala took place this week at Boundary Road Baths, which involved both junior and senior schools throughout St Helens. Twenty-three of last year's records were broken and for the second year running three pupils of Rivington Road Junior School – Gillian Friar, Janet Ellis and Karen Williams – won the junior girls trophy after beating swimmers from St Mary's and St Thomas's.
St Helens Newspaper and Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of Newton Lake, the claim that people in St Helens lived in worse conditions than pigs, the dogs running wild around Boundary Road and Leathers Chemicals appeal against their pollution conviction.
We begin on the 8th when Mary Spann of Ormskirk Road in Rainford received a shock. It was her 101st birthday and the Band of the Irish Guards turned up at her door to serenade her and wish Mary a happy birthday. Mrs Spann went outside of her home for the first time in eleven years to listen to the band play. She said: "It was a complete surprise and I was thrilled to bits." The personal performance and march past had been arranged for Mary by the organisers of Rainford Carnival, as on that day the Irish Guards were giving a pre-carnival concert on the recreation field.
Saints Sports & Leisure Centre was advertising their five 60p lunchtime special menus in the St Helens Newspaper on the 9th. These were steak and kidney pie; baked ham; gammon and pineapple; plaice and braised steak – all with peas and chips. Three of the five were available each day for 60p and for that price you could also enjoy salad with roast beef, roast chicken, ham, gala pie or prawn.
Also on the 9th Benjamin Brooks passed away in St Helens Hospital at the age of 79. In their obituary the St Helens Reporter said Ben Brooks had in 1925 changed a general store in Duke Street into a "sportsmen's delight" and his shop became known to almost every schoolboy in the town. Although partially disabled, Mr Brooks had been a keen cricketer having played for both St Helens Recs and St Helens cricket clubs.
He had also enjoyed a spell with Lancashire and had been renowned for his slow left-arm bowling. Ben Brooks had also been president of St Helens Tennis Club until his retirement in 1965 at the age of 70 and an active member of Windle Bowling Club. The versatile sportsman had also been one of the oldest members of Grange Park Golf Club and had even tried his hand at snooker for Dentons Green Conservatives.
On the 10th over 800 workers were laid off by Rockware Glass as a result of the pay strike by 100 machine operators that had begun last week. The Liverpool Echo claimed the firm was losing the production of 1½ million bottles a day while the strike continued. Rockware said they would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work and two days later they agreed to do so.
On the 10th James and Maureen Parker flew to France with their nine-year-old daughter, Lesley, in order to have an operation in Bordeaux that would close two holes in the little girl's heart. Mr Parker worked at Stoves in Rainhill and the kind-hearted staff at the cooker firm had raised more than £1,000 towards the £5,000 that was needed to help fund the operation and pay for flight and accommodation costs.
The appeal fund chairman was Tom O’Shaughnessy, a union branch secretary at Stoves, who said: "We put notices up about the fund, and everybody's responded very well – especially with Lesley's father working here. He couldn't thank everyone enough."
On the 11th a young mother and her three young children escaped injury when a gas explosion ripped through their flat. The blast blew out every window and set an airing cupboard alight. Shirley Andrews had turned on her gas central heating system in her home in Millwood Avenue in Eccleston only minutes before the explosion occurred.
As the airing cupboard caught fire smoke began filling the rooms and Mrs Andrews escaped to a neighbouring flat with her children and called the fire brigade. Her husband Ronnie was working nights at UGB and returned home as firemen were putting out the fire. He said: "Sometimes, after switching the heating on, we would feel a bit dizzy, but I did not think it was anything, so I did not report it."
For four days from the 11th what was advertised as Silcocks "New Great Annual Pleasure Fair" was held between Brookside Road and Molyneux Drive in Whiston.
In January a library book reservation fee of 5p had been introduced and this week the St Helens Leisure and Recreation Committee carried out a review of the charge. Despite a number of complaints from members of the public they decided to continue with the fee. Some councillors thought the charge should be waived for pensioners but instead the Libraries director Geoffrey Senior was asked to make a survey of the number of OAPs who reserved books, so the committee could reconsider their decision at a future meeting.
The Reporter on the 12th had a photograph of the "pretty finalists for the Pilkington Gala Glass Princess contest" which would take place on August 10th. The girls were Deborah Martin (aged 9, Dinorben Avenue, Sutton); Carole Smart (10, Culcheth); Susan Brown (10, Billinge); Claire Fairclough (10, Lynton Way, Windle); Janice McGovern (9, Charles Street); Lesley Brown (10, Tasker Terrace, Rainhill); Pamela Brogan (9, Haydock) and Pamela Gilion (9, Dentons Green Lane).
Concern was expressed in the Reporter over a decision to shut the fire brigade control room in St Helens. No longer would emergency calls go straight through to the local station. Instead such calls would in future connect to Liverpool firemen who would pass the message onto colleagues in St Helens. Merseyside County Council had made the decision, as they wanted to centralise all control activities in Hatton Gardens in Liverpool. The intention was to gradually shut down all the outlying control rooms with the six staff at St Helens being deployed elsewhere.
Percy Carmen was the Managing Secretary of the St Helens Co-op at Helena House and said his firm had a direct line to the St Helens control room that would have to be discontinued. "I don't like this idea at all," said Mr Carmen. "I think there could be delays. At the moment St Helens Fire Brigade know within minutes when there is a fire. They come out straight away. There is no bother at all. We are the biggest town outside Liverpool and we are being treated just the same as a small place."
A big story in the Reporter described how Pilkingtons had set their sights on 100 acres of farmland on which it planned to build a £20 million float glass plant. In today's money, that would be something like £300m. Earlier in the week the glass giant had submitted an application for outline planning permission to build a factory on Gorsey Lane to the District Planning office at St Mary's House in St Helens.
The article stated that Bert and Mary Whitfield of Willow Tree Farm on Leach Lane had already received notice of the proposed plant and had been given 30 days to object. The Reporter said Pilks were hoping that any Town Hall objections to their scheme would be "muted by the danger that the town would lose 800 jobs". That was because if their application was rejected the firm might choose to build their new factory away from St Helens.
And finally, the annual Inter-Schools Swimming Gala took place this week at Boundary Road Baths, which involved both junior and senior schools throughout St Helens. Twenty-three of last year's records were broken and for the second year running three pupils of Rivington Road Junior School – Gillian Friar, Janet Ellis and Karen Williams – won the junior girls trophy after beating swimmers from St Mary's and St Thomas's.
St Helens Newspaper and Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of Newton Lake, the claim that people in St Helens lived in worse conditions than pigs, the dogs running wild around Boundary Road and Leathers Chemicals appeal against their pollution conviction.
This week's many stories include the death of sports shop owner Ben Brooks, the kind-hearted workers at Stoves in Rainhill, Pilks' plans for a huge float glass plant in Gorsey Lane, the end of the Rockware strike, Saints Sports & Leisure Centre's 60p lunchtime specials, a gas blast in Eccleston and concerns are raised over the closing of the fire brigade's control room in St Helens.
We begin on the 8th when Mary Spann of Ormskirk Road in Rainford received a shock.
It was her 101st birthday and the Band of the Irish Guards turned up at her door to serenade her and wish Mary a happy birthday.
Mrs Spann went outside of her home for the first time in eleven years to listen to the band play. She said: "It was a complete surprise and I was thrilled to bits."
The personal performance and march past had been arranged for Mary by the organisers of Rainford Carnival, as on that day the Irish Guards were giving a pre-carnival concert on the recreation field.
Saints Sports & Leisure Centre was advertising their five 60p lunchtime special menus in the St Helens Newspaper on the 9th.
These were steak and kidney pie; baked ham; gammon and pineapple; plaice and braised steak – all with peas and chips.
Three of the five were available each day for 60p and for that price you could also enjoy salad with roast beef, roast chicken, ham, gala pie or prawn.
Also on the 9th Benjamin Brooks passed away in St Helens Hospital at the age of 79.
In their obituary the St Helens Reporter said Ben Brooks had in 1925 changed a general store in Duke Street into a "sportsmen's delight" and his shop became known to almost every schoolboy in the town.
Although partially disabled, Mr Brooks had been a keen cricketer having played for both St Helens Recs and St Helens cricket clubs.
He had also enjoyed a spell with Lancashire and had been renowned for his slow left-arm bowling.
Ben Brooks had also been president of St Helens Tennis Club until his retirement in 1965 at the age of 70 and an active member of Windle Bowling Club.
The versatile sportsman had also been one of the oldest members of Grange Park Golf Club and had even tried his hand at snooker for Dentons Green Conservatives.
On the 10th over 800 workers were laid off by Rockware Glass as a result of the pay strike by 100 machine operators that had begun last week.
The Liverpool Echo claimed the firm was losing the production of 1½ million bottles a day while the strike continued.
Rockware said they would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work and two days later they agreed to do so.
On the 10th James and Maureen Parker flew to France with their nine-year-old daughter, Lesley, in order to have an operation in Bordeaux that would close two holes in the little girl's heart.
Mr Parker worked at Stoves in Rainhill and the kind-hearted staff at the cooker firm had raised more than £1,000 towards the £5,000 that was needed to help fund the operation and pay for flight and accommodation costs.
The appeal fund chairman was Tom O’Shaughnessy, a union branch secretary at Stoves, who said:
"We put notices up about the fund, and everybody's responded very well – especially with Lesley's father working here. He couldn't thank everyone enough."
On the 11th a young mother and her three young children escaped injury when a gas explosion ripped through their flat. The blast blew out every window and set an airing cupboard alight.
Shirley Andrews had turned on her gas central heating system in her home in Millwood Avenue in Eccleston only minutes before the explosion occurred.
As the airing cupboard caught fire smoke began filling the rooms and Mrs Andrews escaped to a neighbouring flat with her children and called the fire brigade.
Her husband Ronnie was working nights at UGB and returned home as firemen were putting out the fire. He said:
"Sometimes, after switching the heating on, we would feel a bit dizzy, but I did not think it was anything, so I did not report it."
For four days from the 11th what was advertised as Silcocks "New Great Annual Pleasure Fair" was held between Brookside Road and Molyneux Drive in Whiston.
In January a library book reservation fee of 5p had been introduced and this week the St Helens Leisure and Recreation Committee carried out a review of the charge.
Despite a number of complaints from members of the public they decided to continue with the fee.
Some councillors thought the charge should be waived for pensioners but instead the Libraries director Geoffrey Senior was asked to make a survey of the number of OAPs who reserved books, so the committee could reconsider their decision at a future meeting.
The Reporter on the 12th had a photograph of the "pretty finalists for the Pilkington Gala Glass Princess contest" which would take place on August 10th.
The girls were Deborah Martin (aged 9, Dinorben Avenue, Sutton); Carole Smart (10, Culcheth); Susan Brown (10, Billinge); Claire Fairclough (10, Lynton Way, Windle); Janice McGovern (9, Charles Street); Lesley Brown (10, Tasker Terrace, Rainhill); Pamela Brogan (9, Haydock) and Pamela Gilion (9, Dentons Green Lane).
Concern was expressed in the Reporter over a decision to shut the fire brigade control room in St Helens.
No longer would emergency calls go straight through to the local station. Instead such calls would in future connect to Liverpool firemen who would pass the message onto colleagues in St Helens.
Merseyside County Council had made the decision, as they wanted to centralise all control activities in Hatton Gardens in Liverpool.
The intention was to gradually shut down all the outlying control rooms with the six staff at St Helens being deployed elsewhere.
Percy Carmen was the Managing Secretary of the St Helens Co-op at Helena House and said his firm had a direct line to the St Helens control room that would have to be discontinued.
"I don't like this idea at all," said Mr Carmen. "I think there could be delays. At the moment St Helens Fire Brigade know within minutes when there is a fire. They come out straight away. There is no bother at all. We are the biggest town outside Liverpool and we are being treated just the same as a small place."
John Tyrer, whose Bridge Street clothing store also had a direct line to the fire station, said he was "unhappy" with the situation, adding: "It looks as though you are paying more rates for less service."
A Fire Brigade spokesman in Liverpool said the process of reporting would take no longer under the new system because the Liverpool control centre had a direct link with St Helens.
And centralisation was estimated to save ratepayers as much as £1,000 a week.
A big story in the Reporter described how Pilkingtons had set their sights on 100 acres of farmland on which it planned to build a £20 million float glass plant. In today's money, that would be something like £300m.
Earlier in the week the glass giant had submitted an application for outline planning permission to build a factory on Gorsey Lane to the District Planning office at St Mary's House in St Helens.
The article stated that Bert and Mary Whitfield of Willow Tree Farm on Leach Lane had already received notice of the proposed plant and had been given 30 days to object.
The Reporter said Pilks were hoping that any Town Hall objections to their scheme would be "muted by the danger that the town would lose 800 jobs".
That was because if their application was rejected the firm might choose to build their new factory away from St Helens.
And finally, the annual Inter-Schools Swimming Gala took place this week at Boundary Road Baths, which involved both junior and senior schools throughout St Helens.
Twenty-three of last year's records were broken and for the second year running three pupils of Rivington Road Junior School – Gillian Friar, Janet Ellis and Karen Williams – won the junior girls trophy after beating swimmers from St Mary's and St Thomas's.
St Helens Newspaper and Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of Newton Lake, the claim that people in St Helens lived in worse conditions than pigs, the dogs running wild around Boundary Road and Leathers Chemicals appeal against their pollution conviction.
We begin on the 8th when Mary Spann of Ormskirk Road in Rainford received a shock.
It was her 101st birthday and the Band of the Irish Guards turned up at her door to serenade her and wish Mary a happy birthday.
Mrs Spann went outside of her home for the first time in eleven years to listen to the band play. She said: "It was a complete surprise and I was thrilled to bits."
The personal performance and march past had been arranged for Mary by the organisers of Rainford Carnival, as on that day the Irish Guards were giving a pre-carnival concert on the recreation field.
Saints Sports & Leisure Centre was advertising their five 60p lunchtime special menus in the St Helens Newspaper on the 9th.
These were steak and kidney pie; baked ham; gammon and pineapple; plaice and braised steak – all with peas and chips.
Three of the five were available each day for 60p and for that price you could also enjoy salad with roast beef, roast chicken, ham, gala pie or prawn.
Also on the 9th Benjamin Brooks passed away in St Helens Hospital at the age of 79.
In their obituary the St Helens Reporter said Ben Brooks had in 1925 changed a general store in Duke Street into a "sportsmen's delight" and his shop became known to almost every schoolboy in the town.
Although partially disabled, Mr Brooks had been a keen cricketer having played for both St Helens Recs and St Helens cricket clubs.
He had also enjoyed a spell with Lancashire and had been renowned for his slow left-arm bowling.
Ben Brooks had also been president of St Helens Tennis Club until his retirement in 1965 at the age of 70 and an active member of Windle Bowling Club.
The versatile sportsman had also been one of the oldest members of Grange Park Golf Club and had even tried his hand at snooker for Dentons Green Conservatives.
On the 10th over 800 workers were laid off by Rockware Glass as a result of the pay strike by 100 machine operators that had begun last week.
The Liverpool Echo claimed the firm was losing the production of 1½ million bottles a day while the strike continued.
Rockware said they would only start talks with the union once the operators had returned to work and two days later they agreed to do so.
On the 10th James and Maureen Parker flew to France with their nine-year-old daughter, Lesley, in order to have an operation in Bordeaux that would close two holes in the little girl's heart.
Mr Parker worked at Stoves in Rainhill and the kind-hearted staff at the cooker firm had raised more than £1,000 towards the £5,000 that was needed to help fund the operation and pay for flight and accommodation costs.
The appeal fund chairman was Tom O’Shaughnessy, a union branch secretary at Stoves, who said:
"We put notices up about the fund, and everybody's responded very well – especially with Lesley's father working here. He couldn't thank everyone enough."
On the 11th a young mother and her three young children escaped injury when a gas explosion ripped through their flat. The blast blew out every window and set an airing cupboard alight.
Shirley Andrews had turned on her gas central heating system in her home in Millwood Avenue in Eccleston only minutes before the explosion occurred.
As the airing cupboard caught fire smoke began filling the rooms and Mrs Andrews escaped to a neighbouring flat with her children and called the fire brigade.
Her husband Ronnie was working nights at UGB and returned home as firemen were putting out the fire. He said:
"Sometimes, after switching the heating on, we would feel a bit dizzy, but I did not think it was anything, so I did not report it."
For four days from the 11th what was advertised as Silcocks "New Great Annual Pleasure Fair" was held between Brookside Road and Molyneux Drive in Whiston.
In January a library book reservation fee of 5p had been introduced and this week the St Helens Leisure and Recreation Committee carried out a review of the charge.
Despite a number of complaints from members of the public they decided to continue with the fee.
Some councillors thought the charge should be waived for pensioners but instead the Libraries director Geoffrey Senior was asked to make a survey of the number of OAPs who reserved books, so the committee could reconsider their decision at a future meeting.
The Reporter on the 12th had a photograph of the "pretty finalists for the Pilkington Gala Glass Princess contest" which would take place on August 10th.
The girls were Deborah Martin (aged 9, Dinorben Avenue, Sutton); Carole Smart (10, Culcheth); Susan Brown (10, Billinge); Claire Fairclough (10, Lynton Way, Windle); Janice McGovern (9, Charles Street); Lesley Brown (10, Tasker Terrace, Rainhill); Pamela Brogan (9, Haydock) and Pamela Gilion (9, Dentons Green Lane).
Concern was expressed in the Reporter over a decision to shut the fire brigade control room in St Helens.
No longer would emergency calls go straight through to the local station. Instead such calls would in future connect to Liverpool firemen who would pass the message onto colleagues in St Helens.
Merseyside County Council had made the decision, as they wanted to centralise all control activities in Hatton Gardens in Liverpool.
The intention was to gradually shut down all the outlying control rooms with the six staff at St Helens being deployed elsewhere.
Percy Carmen was the Managing Secretary of the St Helens Co-op at Helena House and said his firm had a direct line to the St Helens control room that would have to be discontinued.
"I don't like this idea at all," said Mr Carmen. "I think there could be delays. At the moment St Helens Fire Brigade know within minutes when there is a fire. They come out straight away. There is no bother at all. We are the biggest town outside Liverpool and we are being treated just the same as a small place."
A Fire Brigade spokesman in Liverpool said the process of reporting would take no longer under the new system because the Liverpool control centre had a direct link with St Helens.
And centralisation was estimated to save ratepayers as much as £1,000 a week.
A big story in the Reporter described how Pilkingtons had set their sights on 100 acres of farmland on which it planned to build a £20 million float glass plant. In today's money, that would be something like £300m.
Earlier in the week the glass giant had submitted an application for outline planning permission to build a factory on Gorsey Lane to the District Planning office at St Mary's House in St Helens.
The article stated that Bert and Mary Whitfield of Willow Tree Farm on Leach Lane had already received notice of the proposed plant and had been given 30 days to object.
The Reporter said Pilks were hoping that any Town Hall objections to their scheme would be "muted by the danger that the town would lose 800 jobs".
That was because if their application was rejected the firm might choose to build their new factory away from St Helens.
And finally, the annual Inter-Schools Swimming Gala took place this week at Boundary Road Baths, which involved both junior and senior schools throughout St Helens.
Twenty-three of last year's records were broken and for the second year running three pupils of Rivington Road Junior School – Gillian Friar, Janet Ellis and Karen Williams – won the junior girls trophy after beating swimmers from St Mary's and St Thomas's.
St Helens Newspaper and Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of Newton Lake, the claim that people in St Helens lived in worse conditions than pigs, the dogs running wild around Boundary Road and Leathers Chemicals appeal against their pollution conviction.