FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th MAY 1971)
This week's many stories include the Taylor Park rescue of a child that was not believed, double trouble as a result of a Parr British Legion disco, the Labour gains at local council elections, the Moss Bank Labour Club robbery culprits appear in court, Christian Barnard responds to a plea to help the Haydock hole-in-the heart boys and the problems getting used to those tricky new self-service petrol pumps.
We begin on the 10th in the Guardian where five more St Helens school vacancies were being advertised. Grange Park Secondary was seeking an assistant teacher to teach German and an assistant teacher to help with remedial work. St Cuthbert's Secondary School wanted an assistant master / mistress to teach French, with an ability to help in Spanish classes an advantage. Application forms were to be returned to the Very Rev. Fr. Keenan at St Anne's Monastery – or Retreat, as it was officially known. Cowley Girls was seeking a Latin teacher and Cowley Boys wanted a maths teacher.
"Be A Pilkington Girl", was the headline to a recruitment advert in the Echo on the 11th offering secretarial, typewriting and clerical training courses on full pay: "Girls taking G.C.E. ‘O’ level or C.S.E. English and / or Mathematics this Summer are invited to apply for training on one of Pilkington's special courses. Excellent career prospects with extra pay when qualified."
Also recruiting was the RAF who for the whole of this month had a mobile trailer parked in St Helens on the Ring Road South Car Park opposite the market. "You don't need a skill, you don't need O-Levels. Opportunities now for men, women and apprentices. Visit the caravan," said their ad.
Late in the evening of the 11th there was a dreadful accident at the corner of Newton Road and Waring Avenue in Parr when a motorbike crashed into a pedestrian. As a result 56-year-old nurse Ann Palfrey of nearby Winter Grove and 17-year-old John Byrom of Derbyshire Hill Road both died. It was later discovered that the pair were aunt and nephew and the crash at a renowned accident blackspot led to renewed protests from safety campaigners.
Last year the St Helens Reporter profiled the female telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange in St Mary's Street who enthused about their work. Veronica Maddison from Langtree Street had described it as "absorbing" and Jane Pennington from Boundary Road said: "the whole of the job is exciting". The St Helens Exchange then employed 58 full-time day telephonists and 15 part-time night staff. Pay for 15-year-old recruits started at £8 2s 6d per week and increased to £18 9s., according to age.
I wrote at the time: "Being a telephonist was clearly considered women's work, with no suggestion in the lengthy article that men might be employed." But clearly men were – or were now going to be working there – as an ad in the Echo on the 12th said: "We need men aged 21-45 for evening, night and Sunday work as Telephonists at St. Helens exchange. It's an interesting job with paid holidays and a pension. We pay full rates during training and there are allowances for night and Sunday shifts."
During the evening of the 12th a disco was held at the Parr British Legion. There was some trouble and a group of teenagers were turned out. Later as secretary Robert Burrows was leaving the club, the gang knocked him to the ground, kicked him and hit with a brick. Mr Burrows of Ramford Street was rushed to hospital where he had four stitches inserted in a gash at the back of his head.
And just before midnight in Parr Stocks Road, three youths making their way home from the dance were struck down by a van that mounted the pavement. They were Peter Kerr (19), Charles Wright (21) and David Proudlove (18) who were all taken to Providence Hospital. David, an apprentice butcher from Brookway Lane, said: "We were lying on the pavement and people in nearby houses came running out and called the ambulance."
It was local Election Day on the 13th and the Labour party made four gains in North Eccleston, South Eccleston, South Windle and Moss Bank wards. Three of the gains were from the Conservative party and one from the Liberals. The Echo wrote that Tory seats had fallen in Merseyside "like ninepins". At Warrington there had been a Labour landslide, with their candidates winning all nine contests.
The socialist swing was largely a reaction to the austerity measures of Ted Heath's government – which included Margaret Thatcher's ending of free school milk for children over seven. By coincidence the Secretary of State for Education was in Liverpool this week and a dozen demonstrators interrupted Mrs Thatcher's speech at the Philharmonic Hall by chanting slogans and hurling leaflets. The protestors chanted "School milk, school meals" and sang "If you all hate the Tories clap your hands" and an egg hit the Lady Mayoress of Liverpool.
The Plaza Club in Duke Street in St Helens had a "Stag Night Special" that evening, with their adverts saying: "You be the judge, the Best Exotic Dancer goes through to the final on Thursday June 17, 1971. 12 Exotic Dancers Plus Go Go dancers plus top cabaret."
For three nights from the 13th, The Pilkington Players performed the Glenn Melvyn comedy 'The Love Racket' at the Theatre Royal. The Echo felt Bill Roughley's show was "an excellent production" that "kept the laughs coming". Those that preferred the cinema could watch Alistair Maclean's 'When Eight Bells Toll' at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street this week – which had Eric Sykes' great comedy 'The Plank' in support. Meanwhile the Capitol was showing 'Murphy's War' featuring Peter O’Toole.
Three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 14th accused of robbing Edwin Price, the treasurer of Moss Bank Labour Club. A fortnight earlier at midnight, the 71-year-old had been making his way home from the club carrying a leather briefcase containing £500 of takings (about £8,000 in today's money). Suddenly two men waylaid Mr Price, pushed him into a front garden, jumped on him and then robbed him of the money.
The three accused were committed for trial at Liverpool Crown Court and on June 11th both men and their get-away driver were each sentenced to two years in prison. Their car had driven off without lights but someone had been able to note part of its registration number. All but £160 of the stolen money was recovered.
At the end of last month pram-pushing mothers had brought traffic to a halt on Warrington Road between Rainhill village and the Ship Hotel (pictured above). The women were demanding that the speed limit be reduced from 40 to 30 mph and they kept up their protests for three consecutive nights. One demonstrator, lollipop lady Harriet Devereux, had called that stretch of road the "mad mile" and the mothers' longstanding concerns had been reignited by the death of a six-year-old girl.
She was Beverley Cookson of Moor Way in Rainhill and her inquest was held on the 14th. Beverley's mother Veronica told the hearing that she had been attempting to cross the road in heavy rain to get to the shops. Her daughter had stepped out too soon and was struck down by a car that suddenly appeared after apparently overtaking a lorry.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th (price 4p). Its lead story was how the Government was taxing a fund that the paper had set up ten years earlier to aid the disabled son of Michael McGuire. At the time he was the NUM secretary at Sutton Manor Colliery but Mr McGuire from Eccleston Park had since become MP for Ince. When aged four his son Niall had lost both his legs after an accident with a bus in Ellison Drive in Eccleston. After what the Reporter called an "avalanche of requests from readers", the paper launched an appeal. Local people subsequently raised £2,800 (about £45,000 in today's money) to support the boy but now the Treasury wanted its share.
Also on the front page was the story of twelve-year-old Gary Pilkington whose heroics in Taylor Park were not believed by his family. The Reporter wrote: "Schoolboy Gary Pilkington was a strong-arm hero – but no-one believed him. For 15 agonising minutes Gary, 12, had clung onto a struggling toddler to save him from drowning. But when he dashed home to tell about his life-or-death rescue, everyone thought he was joking. “It seemed a bit of a tall story,” Gary's father Mr. Larry Pilkington, said at his home in Grange Park Road, St. Helens, yesterday. “I thought he must be exaggerating. It wasn't until we got an official letter from the Parks Director about it, a few days later, that we realised what had really happened. He was a real hero and we're proud of him.”" The 6-year-old in trouble had been Anthony Hill of Fiddler Street in Thatto Heath.
Last week it was reported that Elizabeth Livesey of Eccleston had written to Dr Christian Barnard pleading for his help to save the lives of her two nephews. She had sent the letter to the South African heart transplant pioneer on behalf of 13-year-old John Bickerstaffe and his 9-year-old brother Harold of Bishop Reeves Road in Haydock, who both had holes in their hearts.
On the 15th the Echo reported that Professor Barnard had replied to Mrs Livesey of Clarkes Crescent in Eccleston. The letter headed University of Cape Town Medical School and signed by the professor asked for a full medical report of the boys' condition to be sent to him to "enable me to give you a more accurate opinion on their illness."
Also on the 15th it was reported that former Rugby League international and Warrington full back Eric Frodsham was leaving the Railway Hotel in Earlestown and moving to Blackpool.
There were a couple of unusual burglaries that took place in St Helens over the weekend. French polishers H. Tebb, Molyneux and Co. of Borough Road had two Victorian dark mahogany tables stolen. Police were also searching for thieves who broke into the builders' premises of Asbury, Bate and O'Connor in Henry Street and helped themselves to a full book of building and civil engineering holiday scheme stamps.
And finally do you remember when self-service petrol pumps were first introduced? They took a bit of getting used to after motorists had long been accustomed to attendants filling their tanks for them. Echo reporter Ann Cummings was not a great fan of the new set up, as she revealed this week in an article titled "When a Petrol Pump Speaks To You":
"If you want a good giggle one wet, boring night, then go along to one of the new self-service petrol stations. It's often as good as a Laurel and Hardy film. Picture the scene. Enter an unsuspecting motorist. He drives on to the forecourt, switches off his engine, and waits. Five minutes later, it suddenly sinks in that it's no use expecting the attendant to come out and serve him. There isn't one. So he climbs reluctantly out of his car and goes up suspiciously to the new-fangled pump, which stands there looking all sullen and unhelpful.
"After reading the instructions, he struggles with the hose, but when he presses the trigger, nothing happens. No petrol. He's scratching his head, all puzzled, thinking perhaps he'd better clear off to a reassuring old-fashioned station, when a dis-embodied voice appears from nowhere. “Press the starter button first, mate,” it booms. Our poor motorist, visibly shaken, looks round to see where the message came from.
"Then he realises there's this chap sitting in the office, who's been watching him all the time, using a loud speaker device. It's a lot funnier when you have a supporting cast. The last time I appeared in a forecourt frolic, I managed to put the hose in the tank all right, but couldn't get the petrol to flow properly.
"A chap using the next pump said, confidentially: “That one's a bit temperamental, luv, you want to give the trigger quick bursts.” “Like this?” says I, and a spurt of petrol went all over his new flared trousers. I know garage proprietors will argue, that the new self-service stations are more efficient, and labour-saving, and so on. But I'm scared to death of them, and I'd rather drive on a few more miles to one where I don't have to budge out of my car."
Next week's stories will include the shocking vandalism at Christ Church in Eccleston, 300 "militant mothers" barricade Warrington Road in Rainhill, Jimmy Jewel injures himself at the Theatre Royal and Ken Loach's play on the Pilkington strike is shown on TV.
We begin on the 10th in the Guardian where five more St Helens school vacancies were being advertised. Grange Park Secondary was seeking an assistant teacher to teach German and an assistant teacher to help with remedial work. St Cuthbert's Secondary School wanted an assistant master / mistress to teach French, with an ability to help in Spanish classes an advantage. Application forms were to be returned to the Very Rev. Fr. Keenan at St Anne's Monastery – or Retreat, as it was officially known. Cowley Girls was seeking a Latin teacher and Cowley Boys wanted a maths teacher.
"Be A Pilkington Girl", was the headline to a recruitment advert in the Echo on the 11th offering secretarial, typewriting and clerical training courses on full pay: "Girls taking G.C.E. ‘O’ level or C.S.E. English and / or Mathematics this Summer are invited to apply for training on one of Pilkington's special courses. Excellent career prospects with extra pay when qualified."
Also recruiting was the RAF who for the whole of this month had a mobile trailer parked in St Helens on the Ring Road South Car Park opposite the market. "You don't need a skill, you don't need O-Levels. Opportunities now for men, women and apprentices. Visit the caravan," said their ad.
Late in the evening of the 11th there was a dreadful accident at the corner of Newton Road and Waring Avenue in Parr when a motorbike crashed into a pedestrian. As a result 56-year-old nurse Ann Palfrey of nearby Winter Grove and 17-year-old John Byrom of Derbyshire Hill Road both died. It was later discovered that the pair were aunt and nephew and the crash at a renowned accident blackspot led to renewed protests from safety campaigners.
Last year the St Helens Reporter profiled the female telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange in St Mary's Street who enthused about their work. Veronica Maddison from Langtree Street had described it as "absorbing" and Jane Pennington from Boundary Road said: "the whole of the job is exciting". The St Helens Exchange then employed 58 full-time day telephonists and 15 part-time night staff. Pay for 15-year-old recruits started at £8 2s 6d per week and increased to £18 9s., according to age.
I wrote at the time: "Being a telephonist was clearly considered women's work, with no suggestion in the lengthy article that men might be employed." But clearly men were – or were now going to be working there – as an ad in the Echo on the 12th said: "We need men aged 21-45 for evening, night and Sunday work as Telephonists at St. Helens exchange. It's an interesting job with paid holidays and a pension. We pay full rates during training and there are allowances for night and Sunday shifts."
During the evening of the 12th a disco was held at the Parr British Legion. There was some trouble and a group of teenagers were turned out. Later as secretary Robert Burrows was leaving the club, the gang knocked him to the ground, kicked him and hit with a brick. Mr Burrows of Ramford Street was rushed to hospital where he had four stitches inserted in a gash at the back of his head.
And just before midnight in Parr Stocks Road, three youths making their way home from the dance were struck down by a van that mounted the pavement. They were Peter Kerr (19), Charles Wright (21) and David Proudlove (18) who were all taken to Providence Hospital. David, an apprentice butcher from Brookway Lane, said: "We were lying on the pavement and people in nearby houses came running out and called the ambulance."
It was local Election Day on the 13th and the Labour party made four gains in North Eccleston, South Eccleston, South Windle and Moss Bank wards. Three of the gains were from the Conservative party and one from the Liberals. The Echo wrote that Tory seats had fallen in Merseyside "like ninepins". At Warrington there had been a Labour landslide, with their candidates winning all nine contests.
The socialist swing was largely a reaction to the austerity measures of Ted Heath's government – which included Margaret Thatcher's ending of free school milk for children over seven. By coincidence the Secretary of State for Education was in Liverpool this week and a dozen demonstrators interrupted Mrs Thatcher's speech at the Philharmonic Hall by chanting slogans and hurling leaflets. The protestors chanted "School milk, school meals" and sang "If you all hate the Tories clap your hands" and an egg hit the Lady Mayoress of Liverpool.
For three nights from the 13th, The Pilkington Players performed the Glenn Melvyn comedy 'The Love Racket' at the Theatre Royal. The Echo felt Bill Roughley's show was "an excellent production" that "kept the laughs coming". Those that preferred the cinema could watch Alistair Maclean's 'When Eight Bells Toll' at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street this week – which had Eric Sykes' great comedy 'The Plank' in support. Meanwhile the Capitol was showing 'Murphy's War' featuring Peter O’Toole.
Three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 14th accused of robbing Edwin Price, the treasurer of Moss Bank Labour Club. A fortnight earlier at midnight, the 71-year-old had been making his way home from the club carrying a leather briefcase containing £500 of takings (about £8,000 in today's money). Suddenly two men waylaid Mr Price, pushed him into a front garden, jumped on him and then robbed him of the money.
The three accused were committed for trial at Liverpool Crown Court and on June 11th both men and their get-away driver were each sentenced to two years in prison. Their car had driven off without lights but someone had been able to note part of its registration number. All but £160 of the stolen money was recovered.
She was Beverley Cookson of Moor Way in Rainhill and her inquest was held on the 14th. Beverley's mother Veronica told the hearing that she had been attempting to cross the road in heavy rain to get to the shops. Her daughter had stepped out too soon and was struck down by a car that suddenly appeared after apparently overtaking a lorry.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th (price 4p). Its lead story was how the Government was taxing a fund that the paper had set up ten years earlier to aid the disabled son of Michael McGuire. At the time he was the NUM secretary at Sutton Manor Colliery but Mr McGuire from Eccleston Park had since become MP for Ince. When aged four his son Niall had lost both his legs after an accident with a bus in Ellison Drive in Eccleston. After what the Reporter called an "avalanche of requests from readers", the paper launched an appeal. Local people subsequently raised £2,800 (about £45,000 in today's money) to support the boy but now the Treasury wanted its share.
Also on the front page was the story of twelve-year-old Gary Pilkington whose heroics in Taylor Park were not believed by his family. The Reporter wrote: "Schoolboy Gary Pilkington was a strong-arm hero – but no-one believed him. For 15 agonising minutes Gary, 12, had clung onto a struggling toddler to save him from drowning. But when he dashed home to tell about his life-or-death rescue, everyone thought he was joking. “It seemed a bit of a tall story,” Gary's father Mr. Larry Pilkington, said at his home in Grange Park Road, St. Helens, yesterday. “I thought he must be exaggerating. It wasn't until we got an official letter from the Parks Director about it, a few days later, that we realised what had really happened. He was a real hero and we're proud of him.”" The 6-year-old in trouble had been Anthony Hill of Fiddler Street in Thatto Heath.
Last week it was reported that Elizabeth Livesey of Eccleston had written to Dr Christian Barnard pleading for his help to save the lives of her two nephews. She had sent the letter to the South African heart transplant pioneer on behalf of 13-year-old John Bickerstaffe and his 9-year-old brother Harold of Bishop Reeves Road in Haydock, who both had holes in their hearts.
On the 15th the Echo reported that Professor Barnard had replied to Mrs Livesey of Clarkes Crescent in Eccleston. The letter headed University of Cape Town Medical School and signed by the professor asked for a full medical report of the boys' condition to be sent to him to "enable me to give you a more accurate opinion on their illness."
Also on the 15th it was reported that former Rugby League international and Warrington full back Eric Frodsham was leaving the Railway Hotel in Earlestown and moving to Blackpool.
There were a couple of unusual burglaries that took place in St Helens over the weekend. French polishers H. Tebb, Molyneux and Co. of Borough Road had two Victorian dark mahogany tables stolen. Police were also searching for thieves who broke into the builders' premises of Asbury, Bate and O'Connor in Henry Street and helped themselves to a full book of building and civil engineering holiday scheme stamps.
And finally do you remember when self-service petrol pumps were first introduced? They took a bit of getting used to after motorists had long been accustomed to attendants filling their tanks for them. Echo reporter Ann Cummings was not a great fan of the new set up, as she revealed this week in an article titled "When a Petrol Pump Speaks To You":
"If you want a good giggle one wet, boring night, then go along to one of the new self-service petrol stations. It's often as good as a Laurel and Hardy film. Picture the scene. Enter an unsuspecting motorist. He drives on to the forecourt, switches off his engine, and waits. Five minutes later, it suddenly sinks in that it's no use expecting the attendant to come out and serve him. There isn't one. So he climbs reluctantly out of his car and goes up suspiciously to the new-fangled pump, which stands there looking all sullen and unhelpful.
"After reading the instructions, he struggles with the hose, but when he presses the trigger, nothing happens. No petrol. He's scratching his head, all puzzled, thinking perhaps he'd better clear off to a reassuring old-fashioned station, when a dis-embodied voice appears from nowhere. “Press the starter button first, mate,” it booms. Our poor motorist, visibly shaken, looks round to see where the message came from.
"Then he realises there's this chap sitting in the office, who's been watching him all the time, using a loud speaker device. It's a lot funnier when you have a supporting cast. The last time I appeared in a forecourt frolic, I managed to put the hose in the tank all right, but couldn't get the petrol to flow properly.
"A chap using the next pump said, confidentially: “That one's a bit temperamental, luv, you want to give the trigger quick bursts.” “Like this?” says I, and a spurt of petrol went all over his new flared trousers. I know garage proprietors will argue, that the new self-service stations are more efficient, and labour-saving, and so on. But I'm scared to death of them, and I'd rather drive on a few more miles to one where I don't have to budge out of my car."
Next week's stories will include the shocking vandalism at Christ Church in Eccleston, 300 "militant mothers" barricade Warrington Road in Rainhill, Jimmy Jewel injures himself at the Theatre Royal and Ken Loach's play on the Pilkington strike is shown on TV.
This week's many stories include the Taylor Park rescue of a child that was not believed, double trouble as a result of a Parr British Legion disco, the Labour gains at local council elections, the Moss Bank Labour Club robbery culprits appear in court, Christian Barnard responds to a plea to help the Haydock hole-in-the heart boys and the problems getting used to those tricky new self-service petrol pumps.
We begin on the 10th in the Guardian where five more St Helens school vacancies were being advertised.
Grange Park Secondary was seeking an assistant teacher to teach German and an assistant teacher to help with remedial work.
St Cuthbert's Secondary School wanted an assistant master / mistress to teach French, with an ability to help in Spanish classes an advantage.
Application forms were to be returned to the Very Rev. Fr. Keenan at St Anne's Monastery – or Retreat, as it was officially known.
Cowley Girls was seeking a Latin teacher and Cowley Boys wanted a maths teacher.
"Be A Pilkington Girl", was the headline to a recruitment advert in the Echo on the 11th offering secretarial, typewriting and clerical training courses on full pay:
"Girls taking G.C.E. ‘O’ level or C.S.E. English and / or Mathematics this Summer are invited to apply for training on one of Pilkington's special courses. Excellent career prospects with extra pay when qualified."
Also recruiting was the RAF who for the whole of this month had a mobile trailer parked in St Helens on the Ring Road South Car Park opposite the market.
"You don't need a skill, you don't need O-Levels. Opportunities now for men, women and apprentices. Visit the caravan," said their ad.
Late in the evening of the 11th there was a dreadful accident at the corner of Newton Road and Waring Avenue in Parr when a motorbike crashed into a pedestrian.
As a result 56-year-old nurse Ann Palfrey of nearby Winter Grove and 17-year-old John Byrom of Derbyshire Hill Road both died.
It was later discovered that the pair were aunt and nephew and the crash at a renowned accident blackspot led to renewed protests from safety campaigners.
Last year the St Helens Reporter profiled the female telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange in St Mary's Street who enthused about their work.
Veronica Maddison from Langtree Street had described it as "absorbing" and Jane Pennington from Boundary Road said: "the whole of the job is exciting".
The St Helens Exchange then employed 58 full-time day telephonists and 15 part-time night staff.
Pay for 15-year-old recruits started at £8 2s 6d per week and increased to £18 9s., according to age.
I wrote at the time: "Being a telephonist was clearly considered women's work, with no suggestion in the lengthy article that men might be employed."
But clearly men were – or were now going to be working there – as an ad in the Echo on the 12th said:
"We need men aged 21-45 for evening, night and Sunday work as Telephonists at St. Helens exchange. It's an interesting job with paid holidays and a pension. We pay full rates during training and there are allowances for night and Sunday shifts."
During the evening of the 12th a disco was held at the Parr British Legion. There was some trouble and a group of teenagers were turned out.
Later as secretary Robert Burrows was leaving the club, the gang knocked him to the ground, kicked him and hit with a brick.
Mr Burrows of Ramford Street was rushed to hospital where he had four stitches inserted in a gash at the back of his head.
And just before midnight in Parr Stocks Road, three youths making their way home from the dance were struck down by a van that mounted the pavement.
They were Peter Kerr (19), Charles Wright (21) and David Proudlove (18) who were all taken to Providence Hospital.
David, an apprentice butcher from Brookway Lane, said: "We were lying on the pavement and people in nearby houses came running out and called the ambulance."
It was local Election Day on the 13th and the Labour party made four gains in North Eccleston, South Eccleston, South Windle and Moss Bank wards.
Three of the gains were from the Conservative party and one from the Liberals. The Echo wrote that Tory seats had fallen in Merseyside "like ninepins".
At Warrington there had been a Labour landslide, with their candidates winning all nine contests.
The socialist swing was largely a reaction to the austerity measures of Ted Heath's government – which included Margaret Thatcher's ending of free school milk for children over seven.
By coincidence the Secretary of State for Education was in Liverpool this week and a dozen demonstrators interrupted Mrs Thatcher's speech at the Philharmonic Hall by chanting slogans and hurling leaflets.
The protestors chanted "School milk, school meals" and sang "If you all hate the Tories clap your hands" and an egg hit the Lady Mayoress of Liverpool.
The Plaza Club in Duke Street in St Helens had a "Stag Night Special" that evening, with their adverts saying:
"You be the judge, the Best Exotic Dancer goes through to the final on Thursday June 17, 1971. 12 Exotic Dancers Plus Go Go dancers plus top cabaret."
For three nights from the 13th, The Pilkington Players performed the Glenn Melvyn comedy 'The Love Racket' at the Theatre Royal.
The Echo felt Bill Roughley's show was "an excellent production" that "kept the laughs coming".
Those that preferred the cinema could watch Alistair Maclean's 'When Eight Bells Toll' at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street this week – which had Eric Sykes' great comedy 'The Plank' in support.
Meanwhile the Capitol was showing 'Murphy's War' featuring Peter O’Toole.
Three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 14th accused of robbing Edwin Price, the treasurer of Moss Bank Labour Club.
A fortnight earlier at midnight, the 71-year-old had been making his way home from the club carrying a leather briefcase containing £500 of takings (about £8,000 in today's money).
Suddenly two men waylaid Mr Price, pushed him into a front garden, jumped on him and then robbed him of the money.
The three accused were committed for trial at Liverpool Crown Court and on June 11th both men and their get-away driver were each sentenced to two years in prison.
Their car had driven off without lights but someone had been able to note part of its registration number. All but £160 of the stolen money was recovered.
At the end of last month pram-pushing mothers had brought traffic to a halt on Warrington Road between Rainhill village and the Ship Hotel (pictured above).
The women were demanding that the speed limit be reduced from 40 to 30 mph and they kept up their protests for three consecutive nights.
One demonstrator, lollipop lady Harriet Devereux, had called that stretch of road the "mad mile" and the mothers' longstanding concerns had been reignited by the death of a six-year-old girl.
She was Beverley Cookson of Moor Way in Rainhill and her inquest was held on the 14th.
Beverley's mother Veronica told the hearing that she had been attempting to cross the road in heavy rain to get to the shops.
Her daughter had stepped out too soon and was struck down by a car that suddenly appeared after apparently overtaking a lorry.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th (price 4p). Its lead story was how the Government was taxing a fund that the paper had set up ten years earlier to aid the disabled son of Michael McGuire.
At the time he was the NUM secretary at Sutton Manor Colliery but Mr McGuire from Eccleston Park had since become MP for Ince.
When aged four his son Niall had lost both his legs after an accident with a bus in Ellison Drive in Eccleston.
After what the Reporter called an "avalanche of requests from readers", the paper launched an appeal.
Local people subsequently raised £2,800 (about £45,000 in today's money) to support the boy but now the Treasury wanted its share.
Also on the front page was the story of twelve-year-old Gary Pilkington whose heroics in Taylor Park were not believed by his family. The Reporter wrote:
"Schoolboy Gary Pilkington was a strong-arm hero – but no-one believed him. For 15 agonising minutes Gary, 12, had clung onto a struggling toddler to save him from drowning.
But when he dashed home to tell about his life-or-death rescue, everyone thought he was joking.
"“It seemed a bit of a tall story,” Gary's father Mr. Larry Pilkington, said at his home in Grange Park Road, St. Helens, yesterday.
"“I thought he must be exaggerating. It wasn't until we got an official letter from the Parks Director about it, a few days later, that we realised what had really happened. He was a real hero and we're proud of him.”"
The six-year-old in trouble had been Anthony Hill of Fiddler Street in Thatto Heath.
Last week it was reported that Elizabeth Livesey of Eccleston had written to Dr Christian Barnard pleading for his help to save the lives of her two nephews.
She had sent the letter to the South African heart transplant pioneer on behalf of 13-year-old John Bickerstaffe and his 9-year-old brother Harold of Bishop Reeves Road in Haydock, who both had holes in their hearts.
On the 15th the Echo reported that Professor Barnard had replied to Mrs Livesey of Clarkes Crescent in Eccleston.
The letter headed University of Cape Town Medical School and signed by the professor asked for a full medical report of the boys' condition to be sent to him to "enable me to give you a more accurate opinion on their illness."
Also on the 15th it was reported that former Rugby League international and Warrington full back Eric Frodsham was leaving the Railway Hotel in Earlestown and moving to Blackpool.
There were a couple of unusual burglaries that took place in St Helens over the weekend.
French polishers H. Tebb, Molyneux and Co. of Borough Road had two Victorian dark mahogany tables stolen.
Police were also searching for thieves who broke into the builders' premises of Asbury, Bate and O'Connor in Henry Street and helped themselves to a full book of building and civil engineering holiday scheme stamps.
And finally do you remember when self-service petrol pumps were first introduced?
They took a bit of getting used to after motorists had long been accustomed to attendants filling their tanks for them.
Echo reporter Ann Cummings was not a great fan of the new set up, as she revealed this week in an article titled "When a Petrol Pump Speaks To You":
"If you want a good giggle one wet, boring night, then go along to one of the new self-service petrol stations. It's often as good as a Laurel and Hardy film.
"Picture the scene. Enter an unsuspecting motorist. He drives on to the forecourt, switches off his engine, and waits.
"Five minutes later, it suddenly sinks in that it's no use expecting the attendant to come out and serve him. There isn't one.
"So he climbs reluctantly out of his car and goes up suspiciously to the new-fangled pump, which stands there looking all sullen and unhelpful.
"After reading the instructions, he struggles with the hose, but when he presses the trigger, nothing happens. No petrol.
"He's scratching his head, all puzzled, thinking perhaps he'd better clear off to a reassuring old-fashioned station, when a dis-embodied voice appears from nowhere.
"“Press the starter button first, mate,” it booms. Our poor motorist, visibly shaken, looks round to see where the message came from.
"Then he realises there's this chap sitting in the office, who's been watching him all the time, using a loud speaker device.
"It's a lot funnier when you have a supporting cast. The last time I appeared in a forecourt frolic, I managed to put the hose in the tank all right, but couldn't get the petrol to flow properly.
"A chap using the next pump said, confidentially: “That one's a bit temperamental, luv, you want to give the trigger quick bursts.”
"“Like this?” says I, and a spurt of petrol went all over his new flared trousers.
"I know garage proprietors will argue, that the new self-service stations are more efficient, and labour-saving, and so on.
"But I'm scared to death of them, and I'd rather drive on a few more miles to one where I don't have to budge out of my car."
Next week's stories will include the shocking vandalism at Christ Church in Eccleston, 300 "militant mothers" barricade Warrington Road in Rainhill, Jimmy Jewel injures himself at the Theatre Royal and Ken Loach's play on the Pilkington strike is shown on TV.
We begin on the 10th in the Guardian where five more St Helens school vacancies were being advertised.
Grange Park Secondary was seeking an assistant teacher to teach German and an assistant teacher to help with remedial work.
St Cuthbert's Secondary School wanted an assistant master / mistress to teach French, with an ability to help in Spanish classes an advantage.
Application forms were to be returned to the Very Rev. Fr. Keenan at St Anne's Monastery – or Retreat, as it was officially known.
Cowley Girls was seeking a Latin teacher and Cowley Boys wanted a maths teacher.
"Be A Pilkington Girl", was the headline to a recruitment advert in the Echo on the 11th offering secretarial, typewriting and clerical training courses on full pay:
"Girls taking G.C.E. ‘O’ level or C.S.E. English and / or Mathematics this Summer are invited to apply for training on one of Pilkington's special courses. Excellent career prospects with extra pay when qualified."
Also recruiting was the RAF who for the whole of this month had a mobile trailer parked in St Helens on the Ring Road South Car Park opposite the market.
"You don't need a skill, you don't need O-Levels. Opportunities now for men, women and apprentices. Visit the caravan," said their ad.
Late in the evening of the 11th there was a dreadful accident at the corner of Newton Road and Waring Avenue in Parr when a motorbike crashed into a pedestrian.
As a result 56-year-old nurse Ann Palfrey of nearby Winter Grove and 17-year-old John Byrom of Derbyshire Hill Road both died.
It was later discovered that the pair were aunt and nephew and the crash at a renowned accident blackspot led to renewed protests from safety campaigners.
Last year the St Helens Reporter profiled the female telephonists in the St Helens Telephone Exchange in St Mary's Street who enthused about their work.
Veronica Maddison from Langtree Street had described it as "absorbing" and Jane Pennington from Boundary Road said: "the whole of the job is exciting".
The St Helens Exchange then employed 58 full-time day telephonists and 15 part-time night staff.
Pay for 15-year-old recruits started at £8 2s 6d per week and increased to £18 9s., according to age.
I wrote at the time: "Being a telephonist was clearly considered women's work, with no suggestion in the lengthy article that men might be employed."
But clearly men were – or were now going to be working there – as an ad in the Echo on the 12th said:
"We need men aged 21-45 for evening, night and Sunday work as Telephonists at St. Helens exchange. It's an interesting job with paid holidays and a pension. We pay full rates during training and there are allowances for night and Sunday shifts."
During the evening of the 12th a disco was held at the Parr British Legion. There was some trouble and a group of teenagers were turned out.
Later as secretary Robert Burrows was leaving the club, the gang knocked him to the ground, kicked him and hit with a brick.
Mr Burrows of Ramford Street was rushed to hospital where he had four stitches inserted in a gash at the back of his head.
And just before midnight in Parr Stocks Road, three youths making their way home from the dance were struck down by a van that mounted the pavement.
They were Peter Kerr (19), Charles Wright (21) and David Proudlove (18) who were all taken to Providence Hospital.
David, an apprentice butcher from Brookway Lane, said: "We were lying on the pavement and people in nearby houses came running out and called the ambulance."
It was local Election Day on the 13th and the Labour party made four gains in North Eccleston, South Eccleston, South Windle and Moss Bank wards.
Three of the gains were from the Conservative party and one from the Liberals. The Echo wrote that Tory seats had fallen in Merseyside "like ninepins".
At Warrington there had been a Labour landslide, with their candidates winning all nine contests.
The socialist swing was largely a reaction to the austerity measures of Ted Heath's government – which included Margaret Thatcher's ending of free school milk for children over seven.
By coincidence the Secretary of State for Education was in Liverpool this week and a dozen demonstrators interrupted Mrs Thatcher's speech at the Philharmonic Hall by chanting slogans and hurling leaflets.
The protestors chanted "School milk, school meals" and sang "If you all hate the Tories clap your hands" and an egg hit the Lady Mayoress of Liverpool.
"You be the judge, the Best Exotic Dancer goes through to the final on Thursday June 17, 1971. 12 Exotic Dancers Plus Go Go dancers plus top cabaret."
For three nights from the 13th, The Pilkington Players performed the Glenn Melvyn comedy 'The Love Racket' at the Theatre Royal.
The Echo felt Bill Roughley's show was "an excellent production" that "kept the laughs coming".
Those that preferred the cinema could watch Alistair Maclean's 'When Eight Bells Toll' at the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street this week – which had Eric Sykes' great comedy 'The Plank' in support.
Meanwhile the Capitol was showing 'Murphy's War' featuring Peter O’Toole.
Three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 14th accused of robbing Edwin Price, the treasurer of Moss Bank Labour Club.
A fortnight earlier at midnight, the 71-year-old had been making his way home from the club carrying a leather briefcase containing £500 of takings (about £8,000 in today's money).
Suddenly two men waylaid Mr Price, pushed him into a front garden, jumped on him and then robbed him of the money.
The three accused were committed for trial at Liverpool Crown Court and on June 11th both men and their get-away driver were each sentenced to two years in prison.
Their car had driven off without lights but someone had been able to note part of its registration number. All but £160 of the stolen money was recovered.
The women were demanding that the speed limit be reduced from 40 to 30 mph and they kept up their protests for three consecutive nights.
One demonstrator, lollipop lady Harriet Devereux, had called that stretch of road the "mad mile" and the mothers' longstanding concerns had been reignited by the death of a six-year-old girl.
She was Beverley Cookson of Moor Way in Rainhill and her inquest was held on the 14th.
Beverley's mother Veronica told the hearing that she had been attempting to cross the road in heavy rain to get to the shops.
Her daughter had stepped out too soon and was struck down by a car that suddenly appeared after apparently overtaking a lorry.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th (price 4p). Its lead story was how the Government was taxing a fund that the paper had set up ten years earlier to aid the disabled son of Michael McGuire.
At the time he was the NUM secretary at Sutton Manor Colliery but Mr McGuire from Eccleston Park had since become MP for Ince.
When aged four his son Niall had lost both his legs after an accident with a bus in Ellison Drive in Eccleston.
After what the Reporter called an "avalanche of requests from readers", the paper launched an appeal.
Local people subsequently raised £2,800 (about £45,000 in today's money) to support the boy but now the Treasury wanted its share.
Also on the front page was the story of twelve-year-old Gary Pilkington whose heroics in Taylor Park were not believed by his family. The Reporter wrote:
"Schoolboy Gary Pilkington was a strong-arm hero – but no-one believed him. For 15 agonising minutes Gary, 12, had clung onto a struggling toddler to save him from drowning.
But when he dashed home to tell about his life-or-death rescue, everyone thought he was joking.
"“It seemed a bit of a tall story,” Gary's father Mr. Larry Pilkington, said at his home in Grange Park Road, St. Helens, yesterday.
"“I thought he must be exaggerating. It wasn't until we got an official letter from the Parks Director about it, a few days later, that we realised what had really happened. He was a real hero and we're proud of him.”"
The six-year-old in trouble had been Anthony Hill of Fiddler Street in Thatto Heath.
Last week it was reported that Elizabeth Livesey of Eccleston had written to Dr Christian Barnard pleading for his help to save the lives of her two nephews.
She had sent the letter to the South African heart transplant pioneer on behalf of 13-year-old John Bickerstaffe and his 9-year-old brother Harold of Bishop Reeves Road in Haydock, who both had holes in their hearts.
On the 15th the Echo reported that Professor Barnard had replied to Mrs Livesey of Clarkes Crescent in Eccleston.
The letter headed University of Cape Town Medical School and signed by the professor asked for a full medical report of the boys' condition to be sent to him to "enable me to give you a more accurate opinion on their illness."
Also on the 15th it was reported that former Rugby League international and Warrington full back Eric Frodsham was leaving the Railway Hotel in Earlestown and moving to Blackpool.
There were a couple of unusual burglaries that took place in St Helens over the weekend.
French polishers H. Tebb, Molyneux and Co. of Borough Road had two Victorian dark mahogany tables stolen.
Police were also searching for thieves who broke into the builders' premises of Asbury, Bate and O'Connor in Henry Street and helped themselves to a full book of building and civil engineering holiday scheme stamps.
And finally do you remember when self-service petrol pumps were first introduced?
They took a bit of getting used to after motorists had long been accustomed to attendants filling their tanks for them.
Echo reporter Ann Cummings was not a great fan of the new set up, as she revealed this week in an article titled "When a Petrol Pump Speaks To You":
"If you want a good giggle one wet, boring night, then go along to one of the new self-service petrol stations. It's often as good as a Laurel and Hardy film.
"Picture the scene. Enter an unsuspecting motorist. He drives on to the forecourt, switches off his engine, and waits.
"Five minutes later, it suddenly sinks in that it's no use expecting the attendant to come out and serve him. There isn't one.
"So he climbs reluctantly out of his car and goes up suspiciously to the new-fangled pump, which stands there looking all sullen and unhelpful.
"After reading the instructions, he struggles with the hose, but when he presses the trigger, nothing happens. No petrol.
"He's scratching his head, all puzzled, thinking perhaps he'd better clear off to a reassuring old-fashioned station, when a dis-embodied voice appears from nowhere.
"“Press the starter button first, mate,” it booms. Our poor motorist, visibly shaken, looks round to see where the message came from.
"Then he realises there's this chap sitting in the office, who's been watching him all the time, using a loud speaker device.
"It's a lot funnier when you have a supporting cast. The last time I appeared in a forecourt frolic, I managed to put the hose in the tank all right, but couldn't get the petrol to flow properly.
"A chap using the next pump said, confidentially: “That one's a bit temperamental, luv, you want to give the trigger quick bursts.”
"“Like this?” says I, and a spurt of petrol went all over his new flared trousers.
"I know garage proprietors will argue, that the new self-service stations are more efficient, and labour-saving, and so on.
"But I'm scared to death of them, and I'd rather drive on a few more miles to one where I don't have to budge out of my car."
Next week's stories will include the shocking vandalism at Christ Church in Eccleston, 300 "militant mothers" barricade Warrington Road in Rainhill, Jimmy Jewel injures himself at the Theatre Royal and Ken Loach's play on the Pilkington strike is shown on TV.