FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 SEPTEMBER 1975
This week's many stories include the high level of teenage unemployment in St Helens, the head-lice checks on St Helens' school kids, the faulty radiogram that was lost by Loyd's of Ormskirk Street, the Headingley-style attack on a Sutton Manor bowling green, the bed and breakfast at the Nelson that only cost £3.20 and complaints are made about a planned temporary tip in Parr.
We begin just after midnight on the 8th when firemen were called out to deal with a blaze at Saints rugby ground in Knowsley Road. A boiler in the laundry room had been left on by mistake and 15 pairs of shorts were damaged.
On the 8th Coronation Street stars and husband and wife Alan Browning and Pat Phoenix returned to the Theatre Royal. The couple were performing in a play called 'Random Harvest'. Browning had left Coronation Street in 1973 where he had been the screen husband of Elsie Tanner, played by Pat.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 12th and described how a team of hygienists were "combing" the area's schoolchildren in a bid to discover whether pediculosis was on the rise. In other words, whether the kids had head lice. Local hairdressers had noticed an increase in the bug, possibly because youngsters had longer hair and so research was being undertaken to discover the extent of the increase. If a child was found to have head lice, then school health workers were informed and they would advise the child's parents on ways of treating the lice.
The Reporter described how plummeting job prospects were pointing to a grim winter for unemployed teenagers in St Helens. Figures released earlier in the week revealed that 1,200 school-leavers were presently jobless, compared to a figure of 764 after the school holidays had ended in 1974. And Derek Brown, the principal careers officer for St Helens, said he thought the situation would only get worse, adding:
"Our department is concerned because there is no prospect of industrial expansion in St. Helens which would provide jobs for young people." The biggest concern was among 16-year-olds who had left school in the summer without any qualifications, as the jobs that they traditionally would have gone into no longer existed.
The Reporter profiled Joe McCormack from Chester Lane, who, along with his brother Terry, thought they had found the sunken treasure ship San Florencia. That had been part of the Spanish Armada, which had sunk over 400 years ago.
And Betty Swart described how violence and crime had driven her and her pharmacist husband Fred and three of their children from their home in America to live in St Helens. The family had swapped Flint in Michigan for Griffin Close in Eccleston after a nearby drugstore owner had been murdered during a robbery. That was the final straw, with Betty saying the violence in the USA had become sickening.
Mrs Swart had been born in Prescot and lived in St Helens as a girl. She told how before leaving America, she had written a letter to their local paper in Michigan saying that although the USA was supposed to be a country with great liberty, the most basic freedom, freedom from fear, no longer existed.
I wonder how it's possible not to be able to find a radiogram inside a repair depot? I mean it's not as if they were little things that could easily get misplaced. Adrienne McEvoy was complaining in the Reporter about her missing radiogram which had gone astray nearly a year after being taken for repair to Loyd's of Ormskirk Street.
Mrs McEvoy said she was told that a workshop in Jubits Lane would repair it and the job would take a fortnight. However, ten months later not only had the radiogram not been repaired, Loyd's did not know where it was. Adrienne told the Reporter: "I am beginning to think I will never see it again. It has a sentimental value because it was a present, and my three sons really miss it – they are record-mad. I just got so angry about being told one thing and then another. It's been nearly a year now, and I think the thing is lost."
But a spokesman for Loyd's said they had now located the radiogram blaming the problem on "rationalisation", as one of their two depots had closed. "The matter is now in hand," said the spokesman, suggesting that they hadn't yet got round to repairing it!
This advert in the Reporter said: "Victoria Hotel (Little Pig), Ellamsbridge Road, Sutton, NOW RE-OPEN After Alterations. Mine Host JOHN & NORMA HARDY extend a sincere welcome to you." Many St Helens pubs have had nicknames but the Victoria / Little Pig has been quite schizophrenic!
Officially the Victoria Vaults, it was listed as 'The Little Pig' in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses. Until 2013 the pub was unusual in bearing both names on the building but is now known just as The Little Pig. The origin of its nickname was through its proximity to Fletcher's slaughterhouse and the habit of one landlord in accepting piglets from one customer to pay off his slate.
There was also an advert from the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street, which had been undergoing a revamp. The most striking bit of information was that from December 1st they would be offering, "well furnished double and single rooms. All fitted with toilet requisites."
Presumably, the term en-suite had yet to gain currency. What was eye opening was the cost of bed and breakfast at the Nelson – £3.20 per head plus VAT, with evening meals provided extra upon request. From October 10th a new dining room complete with bar would be opened and the ad also offered: "A wide range of superb Greenall Whitley beers, wines & spirits served by our pleasant bar staff."
The Reporter also described how proposals for a temporary tip in Parr had brought seven objections – all from councillors. There was a great shortage of tipping space in St Helens and Merseyside County officials wanted to use land between the edge of the old domestic tip in Parr and the Sankey Valley.
The land had already been earmarked for reclamation and inclusion as part of a linear park. Those plans would not be cancelled but simply delayed for nine months or so until other tipping arrangements had been made. But the tips at Parr had been a blot on its landscape for many years and the councillors did not want to go down that route again – even for a short while.
Cllr Tony Harvey said: "We don't want the residents here to be bothered with tips again. They were just getting over it and now it's likely to start again." He feared that the County Council could be planning to fill in the whole Sankey Valley, in spite of their approval for the linear park scheme.
The Reporter also described how a "Headingley-style attack" had been made on the bowling green at Sutton Manor Miners Welfare Institute. They were referring to the vandalism at the Headingley Cricket Ground in August 1975 by individuals protesting against the imprisonment of George Davis for armed robbery. In that incident in Leeds, holes had been dug and one end of the pitch covered in oil.
But in Jubits Lane vandals had sliced up the green and carved drawings and obscenities in the turf. Steward Harry Jones said: "It looked like a ploughed-up field. And it is one of the best bowling greens around. We take care of it. It must have happened in the early hours of the morning after I took the dog for a stroll around the club. Whoever did it must have taken some time, using a knife." But over a 3-hour period, the club officials managed to piece the turf back as best they could just in time for the start of an annual bowling tournament.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Billinge man who blamed chest medicine for his indecent assault of a child, the axing of the Pilkington Gala, the campaign to save Carr Mill Dam and the recession finally catches up with Rockware Glass.
We begin just after midnight on the 8th when firemen were called out to deal with a blaze at Saints rugby ground in Knowsley Road. A boiler in the laundry room had been left on by mistake and 15 pairs of shorts were damaged.
On the 8th Coronation Street stars and husband and wife Alan Browning and Pat Phoenix returned to the Theatre Royal. The couple were performing in a play called 'Random Harvest'. Browning had left Coronation Street in 1973 where he had been the screen husband of Elsie Tanner, played by Pat.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 12th and described how a team of hygienists were "combing" the area's schoolchildren in a bid to discover whether pediculosis was on the rise. In other words, whether the kids had head lice. Local hairdressers had noticed an increase in the bug, possibly because youngsters had longer hair and so research was being undertaken to discover the extent of the increase. If a child was found to have head lice, then school health workers were informed and they would advise the child's parents on ways of treating the lice.
The Reporter described how plummeting job prospects were pointing to a grim winter for unemployed teenagers in St Helens. Figures released earlier in the week revealed that 1,200 school-leavers were presently jobless, compared to a figure of 764 after the school holidays had ended in 1974. And Derek Brown, the principal careers officer for St Helens, said he thought the situation would only get worse, adding:
"Our department is concerned because there is no prospect of industrial expansion in St. Helens which would provide jobs for young people." The biggest concern was among 16-year-olds who had left school in the summer without any qualifications, as the jobs that they traditionally would have gone into no longer existed.
The Reporter profiled Joe McCormack from Chester Lane, who, along with his brother Terry, thought they had found the sunken treasure ship San Florencia. That had been part of the Spanish Armada, which had sunk over 400 years ago.
And Betty Swart described how violence and crime had driven her and her pharmacist husband Fred and three of their children from their home in America to live in St Helens. The family had swapped Flint in Michigan for Griffin Close in Eccleston after a nearby drugstore owner had been murdered during a robbery. That was the final straw, with Betty saying the violence in the USA had become sickening.
Mrs Swart had been born in Prescot and lived in St Helens as a girl. She told how before leaving America, she had written a letter to their local paper in Michigan saying that although the USA was supposed to be a country with great liberty, the most basic freedom, freedom from fear, no longer existed.
I wonder how it's possible not to be able to find a radiogram inside a repair depot? I mean it's not as if they were little things that could easily get misplaced. Adrienne McEvoy was complaining in the Reporter about her missing radiogram which had gone astray nearly a year after being taken for repair to Loyd's of Ormskirk Street.
Mrs McEvoy said she was told that a workshop in Jubits Lane would repair it and the job would take a fortnight. However, ten months later not only had the radiogram not been repaired, Loyd's did not know where it was. Adrienne told the Reporter: "I am beginning to think I will never see it again. It has a sentimental value because it was a present, and my three sons really miss it – they are record-mad. I just got so angry about being told one thing and then another. It's been nearly a year now, and I think the thing is lost."
But a spokesman for Loyd's said they had now located the radiogram blaming the problem on "rationalisation", as one of their two depots had closed. "The matter is now in hand," said the spokesman, suggesting that they hadn't yet got round to repairing it!
Officially the Victoria Vaults, it was listed as 'The Little Pig' in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses. Until 2013 the pub was unusual in bearing both names on the building but is now known just as The Little Pig. The origin of its nickname was through its proximity to Fletcher's slaughterhouse and the habit of one landlord in accepting piglets from one customer to pay off his slate.
There was also an advert from the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street, which had been undergoing a revamp. The most striking bit of information was that from December 1st they would be offering, "well furnished double and single rooms. All fitted with toilet requisites."
Presumably, the term en-suite had yet to gain currency. What was eye opening was the cost of bed and breakfast at the Nelson – £3.20 per head plus VAT, with evening meals provided extra upon request. From October 10th a new dining room complete with bar would be opened and the ad also offered: "A wide range of superb Greenall Whitley beers, wines & spirits served by our pleasant bar staff."
The Reporter also described how proposals for a temporary tip in Parr had brought seven objections – all from councillors. There was a great shortage of tipping space in St Helens and Merseyside County officials wanted to use land between the edge of the old domestic tip in Parr and the Sankey Valley.
The land had already been earmarked for reclamation and inclusion as part of a linear park. Those plans would not be cancelled but simply delayed for nine months or so until other tipping arrangements had been made. But the tips at Parr had been a blot on its landscape for many years and the councillors did not want to go down that route again – even for a short while.
Cllr Tony Harvey said: "We don't want the residents here to be bothered with tips again. They were just getting over it and now it's likely to start again." He feared that the County Council could be planning to fill in the whole Sankey Valley, in spite of their approval for the linear park scheme.
The Reporter also described how a "Headingley-style attack" had been made on the bowling green at Sutton Manor Miners Welfare Institute. They were referring to the vandalism at the Headingley Cricket Ground in August 1975 by individuals protesting against the imprisonment of George Davis for armed robbery. In that incident in Leeds, holes had been dug and one end of the pitch covered in oil.
But in Jubits Lane vandals had sliced up the green and carved drawings and obscenities in the turf. Steward Harry Jones said: "It looked like a ploughed-up field. And it is one of the best bowling greens around. We take care of it. It must have happened in the early hours of the morning after I took the dog for a stroll around the club. Whoever did it must have taken some time, using a knife." But over a 3-hour period, the club officials managed to piece the turf back as best they could just in time for the start of an annual bowling tournament.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Billinge man who blamed chest medicine for his indecent assault of a child, the axing of the Pilkington Gala, the campaign to save Carr Mill Dam and the recession finally catches up with Rockware Glass.
This week's many stories include the high level of teenage unemployment in St Helens, the head-lice checks on St Helens' school kids, the faulty radiogram that was lost by Loyd's of Ormskirk Street, the Headingley-style attack on a Sutton Manor bowling green, the bed and breakfast at the Nelson that only cost £3.20 and complaints are made about a planned temporary tip in Parr.
We begin just after midnight on the 8th when firemen were called out to deal with a blaze at Saints rugby ground in Knowsley Road.
A boiler in the laundry room had been left on by mistake and 15 pairs of shorts were damaged.
On the 8th Coronation Street stars and husband and wife Alan Browning and Pat Phoenix returned to the Theatre Royal. The couple were performing in a play called 'Random Harvest'.
Browning had left Coronation Street in 1973 where he had been the screen husband of Elsie Tanner, played by Pat.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 12th and described how a team of hygienists were "combing" the area's schoolchildren in a bid to discover whether pediculosis was on the rise. In other words, whether the kids had head lice.
Local hairdressers had noticed an increase in the bug, possibly because youngsters had longer hair and so research was being undertaken to discover the extent of the increase.
If a child was found to have head lice, then school health workers were informed and they would advise the child's parents on ways of treating the lice.
The Reporter described how plummeting job prospects were pointing to a grim winter for unemployed teenagers in St Helens.
Figures released earlier in the week revealed that 1,200 school-leavers were presently jobless, compared to a figure of 764 after the school holidays had ended in 1974.
And Derek Brown, the principal careers officer for St Helens, said he thought the situation would only get worse, adding:
"Our department is concerned because there is no prospect of industrial expansion in St. Helens which would provide jobs for young people."
The biggest concern was among 16-year-olds who had left school in the summer without any qualifications, as the jobs that they traditionally would have gone into no longer existed.
The Reporter profiled Joe McCormack from Chester Lane, who, along with his brother Terry, thought they had found the sunken treasure ship San Florencia. That had been part of the Spanish Armada, which had sunk over 400 years ago.
And Betty Swart described how violence and crime had driven her and her pharmacist husband Fred and three of their children from their home in America to live in St Helens.
The family had swapped Flint in Michigan for Griffin Close in Eccleston after a nearby drugstore owner had been murdered during a robbery. That was the final straw, with Betty saying the violence in the USA had become sickening.
Mrs Swart had been born in Prescot and lived in St Helens as a girl. She told how before leaving America, she had written a letter to their local paper in Michigan saying that although the USA was supposed to be a country with great liberty, the most basic freedom, freedom from fear, no longer existed.
I wonder how it's possible not to be able to find a radiogram inside a repair depot? I mean it's not as if they were little things that could easily get misplaced.
Adrienne McEvoy was complaining in the Reporter about her missing radiogram which had gone astray nearly a year after being taken for repair to Loyd's of Ormskirk Street.
Mrs McEvoy said she was told that a workshop in Jubits Lane would repair it and the job would take a fortnight.
However, ten months later not only had the radiogram not been repaired, Loyd's did not know where it was. Adrienne told the Reporter:
"I am beginning to think I will never see it again. It has a sentimental value because it was a present, and my three sons really miss it – they are record-mad. I just got so angry about being told one thing and then another. It's been nearly a year now, and I think the thing is lost."
But a spokesman for Loyd's said they had now located the radiogram blaming the problem on "rationalisation", as one of their two depots had closed.
"The matter is now in hand," said the spokesman, suggesting that they hadn't yet got round to repairing it!
This advert in the Reporter said: "Victoria Hotel (Little Pig), Ellamsbridge Road, Sutton, NOW RE-OPEN After Alterations. Mine Host JOHN & NORMA HARDY extend a sincere welcome to you."
Many St Helens pubs have had nicknames but the Victoria / Little Pig has been quite schizophrenic!
Officially the Victoria Vaults, it was listed as 'The Little Pig' in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses. Until 2013 the pub was unusual in bearing both names on the building but is now known just as The Little Pig.
The origin of its nickname was through its proximity to Fletcher's slaughterhouse and the habit of one landlord in accepting piglets from one customer to pay off his slate.
There was also an advert from the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street, which had been undergoing a revamp.
The most striking bit of information was that from December 1st they would be offering, "well furnished double and single rooms. All fitted with toilet requisites."
Presumably, the term en-suite had yet to gain currency. What was eye opening was the cost of bed and breakfast at the Nelson – £3.20 per head plus VAT, with evening meals provided extra upon request.
From October 10th a new dining room complete with bar would be opened and the ad also offered:
"A wide range of superb Greenall Whitley beers, wines & spirits served by our pleasant bar staff."
The Reporter also described how proposals for a temporary tip in Parr had brought seven objections – all from councillors.
There was a great shortage of tipping space in St Helens and Merseyside County officials wanted to use land between the edge of the old domestic tip in Parr and the Sankey Valley.
The land had already been earmarked for reclamation and inclusion as part of a linear park.
Those plans would not be cancelled but simply delayed for nine months or so until other tipping arrangements had been made.
But the tips at Parr had been a blot on its landscape for many years and the councillors did not want to go down that route again – even for a short while.
Cllr Tony Harvey said: "We don't want the residents here to be bothered with tips again. They were just getting over it and now it's likely to start again."
He feared that the County Council could be planning to fill in the whole Sankey Valley, in spite of their approval for the linear park scheme.
The Reporter also described how a "Headingley-style attack" had been made on the bowling green at Sutton Manor Miners Welfare Institute.
They were referring to the vandalism at the Headingley Cricket Ground in August 1975 by individuals protesting against the imprisonment of George Davis for armed robbery.
In that incident in Leeds, holes had been dug and one end of the pitch covered in oil.
But in Jubits Lane vandals had sliced up the green and carved drawings and obscenities in the turf.
Steward Harry Jones said: "It looked like a ploughed-up field. And it is one of the best bowling greens around. We take care of it. It must have happened in the early hours of the morning after I took the dog for a stroll around the club. Whoever did it must have taken some time, using a knife."
But over a 3-hour period, the club officials managed to piece the turf back as best they could just in time for the start of an annual bowling tournament.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Billinge man who blamed chest medicine for his indecent assault of a child, the axing of the Pilkington Gala, the campaign to save Carr Mill Dam and the recession finally catches up with Rockware Glass.
We begin just after midnight on the 8th when firemen were called out to deal with a blaze at Saints rugby ground in Knowsley Road.
A boiler in the laundry room had been left on by mistake and 15 pairs of shorts were damaged.
On the 8th Coronation Street stars and husband and wife Alan Browning and Pat Phoenix returned to the Theatre Royal. The couple were performing in a play called 'Random Harvest'.
Browning had left Coronation Street in 1973 where he had been the screen husband of Elsie Tanner, played by Pat.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 12th and described how a team of hygienists were "combing" the area's schoolchildren in a bid to discover whether pediculosis was on the rise. In other words, whether the kids had head lice.
Local hairdressers had noticed an increase in the bug, possibly because youngsters had longer hair and so research was being undertaken to discover the extent of the increase.
If a child was found to have head lice, then school health workers were informed and they would advise the child's parents on ways of treating the lice.
The Reporter described how plummeting job prospects were pointing to a grim winter for unemployed teenagers in St Helens.
Figures released earlier in the week revealed that 1,200 school-leavers were presently jobless, compared to a figure of 764 after the school holidays had ended in 1974.
And Derek Brown, the principal careers officer for St Helens, said he thought the situation would only get worse, adding:
"Our department is concerned because there is no prospect of industrial expansion in St. Helens which would provide jobs for young people."
The biggest concern was among 16-year-olds who had left school in the summer without any qualifications, as the jobs that they traditionally would have gone into no longer existed.
The Reporter profiled Joe McCormack from Chester Lane, who, along with his brother Terry, thought they had found the sunken treasure ship San Florencia. That had been part of the Spanish Armada, which had sunk over 400 years ago.
And Betty Swart described how violence and crime had driven her and her pharmacist husband Fred and three of their children from their home in America to live in St Helens.
The family had swapped Flint in Michigan for Griffin Close in Eccleston after a nearby drugstore owner had been murdered during a robbery. That was the final straw, with Betty saying the violence in the USA had become sickening.
Mrs Swart had been born in Prescot and lived in St Helens as a girl. She told how before leaving America, she had written a letter to their local paper in Michigan saying that although the USA was supposed to be a country with great liberty, the most basic freedom, freedom from fear, no longer existed.
I wonder how it's possible not to be able to find a radiogram inside a repair depot? I mean it's not as if they were little things that could easily get misplaced.
Adrienne McEvoy was complaining in the Reporter about her missing radiogram which had gone astray nearly a year after being taken for repair to Loyd's of Ormskirk Street.
Mrs McEvoy said she was told that a workshop in Jubits Lane would repair it and the job would take a fortnight.
However, ten months later not only had the radiogram not been repaired, Loyd's did not know where it was. Adrienne told the Reporter:
"I am beginning to think I will never see it again. It has a sentimental value because it was a present, and my three sons really miss it – they are record-mad. I just got so angry about being told one thing and then another. It's been nearly a year now, and I think the thing is lost."
But a spokesman for Loyd's said they had now located the radiogram blaming the problem on "rationalisation", as one of their two depots had closed.
"The matter is now in hand," said the spokesman, suggesting that they hadn't yet got round to repairing it!
Many St Helens pubs have had nicknames but the Victoria / Little Pig has been quite schizophrenic!
Officially the Victoria Vaults, it was listed as 'The Little Pig' in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses. Until 2013 the pub was unusual in bearing both names on the building but is now known just as The Little Pig.
The origin of its nickname was through its proximity to Fletcher's slaughterhouse and the habit of one landlord in accepting piglets from one customer to pay off his slate.
There was also an advert from the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street, which had been undergoing a revamp.
The most striking bit of information was that from December 1st they would be offering, "well furnished double and single rooms. All fitted with toilet requisites."
Presumably, the term en-suite had yet to gain currency. What was eye opening was the cost of bed and breakfast at the Nelson – £3.20 per head plus VAT, with evening meals provided extra upon request.
From October 10th a new dining room complete with bar would be opened and the ad also offered:
"A wide range of superb Greenall Whitley beers, wines & spirits served by our pleasant bar staff."
The Reporter also described how proposals for a temporary tip in Parr had brought seven objections – all from councillors.
There was a great shortage of tipping space in St Helens and Merseyside County officials wanted to use land between the edge of the old domestic tip in Parr and the Sankey Valley.
The land had already been earmarked for reclamation and inclusion as part of a linear park.
Those plans would not be cancelled but simply delayed for nine months or so until other tipping arrangements had been made.
But the tips at Parr had been a blot on its landscape for many years and the councillors did not want to go down that route again – even for a short while.
Cllr Tony Harvey said: "We don't want the residents here to be bothered with tips again. They were just getting over it and now it's likely to start again."
He feared that the County Council could be planning to fill in the whole Sankey Valley, in spite of their approval for the linear park scheme.
The Reporter also described how a "Headingley-style attack" had been made on the bowling green at Sutton Manor Miners Welfare Institute.
They were referring to the vandalism at the Headingley Cricket Ground in August 1975 by individuals protesting against the imprisonment of George Davis for armed robbery.
In that incident in Leeds, holes had been dug and one end of the pitch covered in oil.
But in Jubits Lane vandals had sliced up the green and carved drawings and obscenities in the turf.
Steward Harry Jones said: "It looked like a ploughed-up field. And it is one of the best bowling greens around. We take care of it. It must have happened in the early hours of the morning after I took the dog for a stroll around the club. Whoever did it must have taken some time, using a knife."
But over a 3-hour period, the club officials managed to piece the turf back as best they could just in time for the start of an annual bowling tournament.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Billinge man who blamed chest medicine for his indecent assault of a child, the axing of the Pilkington Gala, the campaign to save Carr Mill Dam and the recession finally catches up with Rockware Glass.