FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th September 1969)
This week's stories include the increase in VD cases in Claughton Street through the "decadence of moral values", pet blessing in Sherdley Park, vandalism at Lacey Street Child Welfare Clinic, power-cut chaos, the mortgages from St Helens Council and how the Co-op was coping without its divi.
We begin with Nigerian-born boxer Victor Paul who was based in St Helens and fought at lightweight. On the 9th at Shoreditch Town Hall in London, Victor recovered from an early knock down and stopped the former ABA featherweight champion Johnny Cheshire in the fifth round.
Also on the 9th a cable fault in a transformer at Golborne Power Station caused a 90-minute power cut in St Helens, Haydock, Ashton, Golborne, Culcheth and Leigh. There were jams on the East Lancs when the traffic lights stopped working and it also affected petrol stations and workers underground at Wood Pit, Bickershaw and Golborne Collieries. Evelyn's Café on the East Lancs lost about 100 customers as hot meals could not be served and bottled beer had to replace draught beer in pubs when their electric pumps failed.
The greyhounds racing at Park Road during the evening of the 9th on the 487-yard course included 'Zippy', 'Wee Girl', 'Barmy', 'Gay Remark', 'Old Bill', 'Bonny Boy', 'Delilah', 'El Cid', 'Irish Stew', 'Beach Boy' and 'Tom's Paddle'. Talking of dogs it was announced this week that the British Whippet Racing Association had chosen Bold Miners Institute in Fleet Lane as the venue for two of its main autumn events. Whippet racing had only resumed in St Helens in June after an absence of 25 years.
At the council's Health Committee meeting on the 10th it was revealed that vandalism at the Lacey Street Child Welfare Clinic would cost £1,000 to put right (about £17,000 in today's money). The chairman, Alderman Margaret Shard, said disregarding the vandalism the clinic had deteriorated considerably, particularly in its brickwork, and she said it rained in when there was wet weather. So the committee decided to consider buying a pre-fabricated building as an alternative to making the repairs.
The St Helens Co-op Society issued a report this week that said business in their food shops had boomed in the three weeks since they’d replaced their "divi" with trading stamps. A spokesman said: "The people are flocking into the food shops. It has been a great success. We are giving dividend money in our other stores as usual, but we dropped this practice in the food shops because we went over to the cut-price principle."
The Hillsiders were becoming regulars at the Theatre Royal and they returned for another country and western night on the 10th, supported again by the Kentuckians. The Liverpool group's career had begun five years earlier and would continue until 1999. Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were also often in Corporation Street and they played in the theatre once again on the 11th. Last year the group had weekly spots on the Morecambe and Wise Show.
The front-page splash in the St Helens Reporter on the 12th described how the permissive society had led to an increase in cases of VD, with half the sufferers aged between 16 and 24. The Claughton Street clinic had been established in 1917 in what was an ordinary looking house and patients were promised treatment "under conditions of secrecy".
Not much had changed in fifty years and the stigma was still so great that many St Helens' patients visited a treatment centre in Liverpool and the Liverpool victims of the disease came to St Helens. A consultant at Claughton Street told the Reporter: "I blame the rise on the decadence of moral values. Promiscuity has increased."
The Reporter also described how almost 150 new jobs were being created at a new shoe factory in Peasley Cross Lane. George Ward already had 27 factories – mainly in the Midlands – and their 10,000 sq. ft. St Helens' works would start operations next week.
The paper also stated that mortgages would soon be available again from St Helens Council, as they had received £100,000 from the Government for home loans. The mortgages would only apply to older properties in the borough and be charged at 10¼% interest. The Reporter added that the Council had some months earlier received £30,000 for mortgages and these had been snapped up in about a fortnight.
This week's public opinion poll by the Reporter on the streets of St Helens covered the timely subject of school uniforms. The consensus of opinion was that uniforms were necessary and prevented class distinction, although one schoolgirl thought they should be modernised. Agnes Carroll of Chamberlain Street thought they made children look "respectable and neat and tidy in appearance" but one or two people expressed concerns over the expense.
Lenny the Lion was delighting young children at the Theatre Royal on the 13th supported by Jerramy the Giraffe, and, of course, Terry Hall.
The Rev. Eric Rotherham, the new curate at Sutton, was introduced to his parishioners in an informal meeting on the 13th. He replaced Derek Bailey as curate-in-charge at St Michael's.
A police hunt started on the 13th for a 14-year-old girl who had disappeared from her home in Winston Avenue in Parr. Of particular concern was that the Parr Central pupil was an epileptic who had left behind the medication that she needed to take to control her condition.
An unusual open-air service was held on the 14th in Sherdley Park when clergy representing the three denominations blessed people's pets. The event known as 'Horsemen's Sunday' was organised by Laffak Hunt Committee and the blessed pets ranged from birds to horses, with cats and dogs unsurprisingly being the most popular.
St Helens Fire Service fought a blaze in Sherdley Road on the 15th that destroyed a caravan on a garage site.
Stamina Foods was advertising for security patrolmen in the Liverpool Echo on the 15th. Applicants had to be over 25 and either a former policeman or ex-security guard. For about thirty years until the early 1970s, Stamina made pet food and dog biscuits on a site off Baxters Lane in Sutton.
On the same day 'What's Good for the Goose' starring Norman Wisdom began a run at the Capitol and down Bridge Street, the 'Swedish Fanny Hall' was screened at the ABC Savoy.
To end here are some stories that were in the national press this week. The Daily Mirror reported that a man in Richmond had taken his former boss to court for paying his wages by cheque instead of cash. Wily Albert Bridgeman knew that the 1831 Truck Act stipulated that payment to a workman had to be in the current coin of the realm.
Although the Act had been amended in 1960, it was still an offence to pay an employee by cheque unless they had been notified in advance. The employer was fined £4 for breaking the Act. Albert Bridgeman complained that people were "too fond of giving cheques without asking". The 58-year-old had recently been sacked from his job, which probably gave him extra motivation to go to court.
A new early evening news magazine programme began this week, which initially was called 'London – Nationwide', before soon dropping the London prefix. Michael Barratt had left '24 Hours' to be the anchor man on the show which was screened from Tuesday to Thursday at 6pm.
Editor Derrick Amoore said: "This will be the most complex technical TV project we have undertaken. We link London with studios all over the country." 'Nationwide' was extended to 5 days a week in 1972 and ended in 1983. The show's long list of presenters included Bob Langley, Esther Rantzen, Bob Wellings, John Stapleton, Valerie Singleton, Richard Stilgoe, Frank Bough, James Hogg and Sue Lawley.
The Post Office published its annual report this week, which revealed that the introduction of first and second-class post last year had done wonders for the GPO's finances. From April until mid-September when the new scheme was introduced, the Post Office had lost £5½ million. But from September to April the new 4d and 5d tiered system had made a profit of £3.5m. All told the Post Office made a profit of £44 million, around £¾ billion in today's money. It was also stated in the report that the average waiting time for a new telephone was 4½ months.
Pregnancy testing kits costing £2 became available to buy over the counter in chemists' shops from this week. However doctors were not happy about the competition. The Daily Express reported that the availability of the kits had created a major rift between the chemists and the British Medical Association.
And finally John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a "film happening" at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in front of a specially invited audience of 500. While John and Yoko's films were being screened, the audience members were encouraged to bang wooden spoons as hard as they could on the tops of sandwich tins. Meanwhile the Beatle and his Japanese wife sat beside the screen with white sheets over their heads listening to the cacophony but seeing nothing. And that was art 1969 style!
Next week's stories will include a report that called St Helens socially deprived and a slum town, the missing towels at Boundary Road Baths, savage criticism of the planned St Helens bus cuts, news of the new Parr baths, a fashion feature in the Reporter, the unreturned ATC uniforms and the St Helens Operatic Society get their Desert Song donkey.
We begin with Nigerian-born boxer Victor Paul who was based in St Helens and fought at lightweight. On the 9th at Shoreditch Town Hall in London, Victor recovered from an early knock down and stopped the former ABA featherweight champion Johnny Cheshire in the fifth round.
Also on the 9th a cable fault in a transformer at Golborne Power Station caused a 90-minute power cut in St Helens, Haydock, Ashton, Golborne, Culcheth and Leigh. There were jams on the East Lancs when the traffic lights stopped working and it also affected petrol stations and workers underground at Wood Pit, Bickershaw and Golborne Collieries. Evelyn's Café on the East Lancs lost about 100 customers as hot meals could not be served and bottled beer had to replace draught beer in pubs when their electric pumps failed.
The greyhounds racing at Park Road during the evening of the 9th on the 487-yard course included 'Zippy', 'Wee Girl', 'Barmy', 'Gay Remark', 'Old Bill', 'Bonny Boy', 'Delilah', 'El Cid', 'Irish Stew', 'Beach Boy' and 'Tom's Paddle'. Talking of dogs it was announced this week that the British Whippet Racing Association had chosen Bold Miners Institute in Fleet Lane as the venue for two of its main autumn events. Whippet racing had only resumed in St Helens in June after an absence of 25 years.
At the council's Health Committee meeting on the 10th it was revealed that vandalism at the Lacey Street Child Welfare Clinic would cost £1,000 to put right (about £17,000 in today's money). The chairman, Alderman Margaret Shard, said disregarding the vandalism the clinic had deteriorated considerably, particularly in its brickwork, and she said it rained in when there was wet weather. So the committee decided to consider buying a pre-fabricated building as an alternative to making the repairs.
The St Helens Co-op Society issued a report this week that said business in their food shops had boomed in the three weeks since they’d replaced their "divi" with trading stamps. A spokesman said: "The people are flocking into the food shops. It has been a great success. We are giving dividend money in our other stores as usual, but we dropped this practice in the food shops because we went over to the cut-price principle."
The front-page splash in the St Helens Reporter on the 12th described how the permissive society had led to an increase in cases of VD, with half the sufferers aged between 16 and 24. The Claughton Street clinic had been established in 1917 in what was an ordinary looking house and patients were promised treatment "under conditions of secrecy".
Not much had changed in fifty years and the stigma was still so great that many St Helens' patients visited a treatment centre in Liverpool and the Liverpool victims of the disease came to St Helens. A consultant at Claughton Street told the Reporter: "I blame the rise on the decadence of moral values. Promiscuity has increased."
The Reporter also described how almost 150 new jobs were being created at a new shoe factory in Peasley Cross Lane. George Ward already had 27 factories – mainly in the Midlands – and their 10,000 sq. ft. St Helens' works would start operations next week.
The paper also stated that mortgages would soon be available again from St Helens Council, as they had received £100,000 from the Government for home loans. The mortgages would only apply to older properties in the borough and be charged at 10¼% interest. The Reporter added that the Council had some months earlier received £30,000 for mortgages and these had been snapped up in about a fortnight.
This week's public opinion poll by the Reporter on the streets of St Helens covered the timely subject of school uniforms. The consensus of opinion was that uniforms were necessary and prevented class distinction, although one schoolgirl thought they should be modernised. Agnes Carroll of Chamberlain Street thought they made children look "respectable and neat and tidy in appearance" but one or two people expressed concerns over the expense.
Lenny the Lion was delighting young children at the Theatre Royal on the 13th supported by Jerramy the Giraffe, and, of course, Terry Hall.
The Rev. Eric Rotherham, the new curate at Sutton, was introduced to his parishioners in an informal meeting on the 13th. He replaced Derek Bailey as curate-in-charge at St Michael's.
A police hunt started on the 13th for a 14-year-old girl who had disappeared from her home in Winston Avenue in Parr. Of particular concern was that the Parr Central pupil was an epileptic who had left behind the medication that she needed to take to control her condition.
An unusual open-air service was held on the 14th in Sherdley Park when clergy representing the three denominations blessed people's pets. The event known as 'Horsemen's Sunday' was organised by Laffak Hunt Committee and the blessed pets ranged from birds to horses, with cats and dogs unsurprisingly being the most popular.
St Helens Fire Service fought a blaze in Sherdley Road on the 15th that destroyed a caravan on a garage site.
Stamina Foods was advertising for security patrolmen in the Liverpool Echo on the 15th. Applicants had to be over 25 and either a former policeman or ex-security guard. For about thirty years until the early 1970s, Stamina made pet food and dog biscuits on a site off Baxters Lane in Sutton.
On the same day 'What's Good for the Goose' starring Norman Wisdom began a run at the Capitol and down Bridge Street, the 'Swedish Fanny Hall' was screened at the ABC Savoy.
To end here are some stories that were in the national press this week. The Daily Mirror reported that a man in Richmond had taken his former boss to court for paying his wages by cheque instead of cash. Wily Albert Bridgeman knew that the 1831 Truck Act stipulated that payment to a workman had to be in the current coin of the realm.
Although the Act had been amended in 1960, it was still an offence to pay an employee by cheque unless they had been notified in advance. The employer was fined £4 for breaking the Act. Albert Bridgeman complained that people were "too fond of giving cheques without asking". The 58-year-old had recently been sacked from his job, which probably gave him extra motivation to go to court.
A new early evening news magazine programme began this week, which initially was called 'London – Nationwide', before soon dropping the London prefix. Michael Barratt had left '24 Hours' to be the anchor man on the show which was screened from Tuesday to Thursday at 6pm.
Editor Derrick Amoore said: "This will be the most complex technical TV project we have undertaken. We link London with studios all over the country." 'Nationwide' was extended to 5 days a week in 1972 and ended in 1983. The show's long list of presenters included Bob Langley, Esther Rantzen, Bob Wellings, John Stapleton, Valerie Singleton, Richard Stilgoe, Frank Bough, James Hogg and Sue Lawley.
Pregnancy testing kits costing £2 became available to buy over the counter in chemists' shops from this week. However doctors were not happy about the competition. The Daily Express reported that the availability of the kits had created a major rift between the chemists and the British Medical Association.
And finally John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a "film happening" at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in front of a specially invited audience of 500. While John and Yoko's films were being screened, the audience members were encouraged to bang wooden spoons as hard as they could on the tops of sandwich tins. Meanwhile the Beatle and his Japanese wife sat beside the screen with white sheets over their heads listening to the cacophony but seeing nothing. And that was art 1969 style!
Next week's stories will include a report that called St Helens socially deprived and a slum town, the missing towels at Boundary Road Baths, savage criticism of the planned St Helens bus cuts, news of the new Parr baths, a fashion feature in the Reporter, the unreturned ATC uniforms and the St Helens Operatic Society get their Desert Song donkey.