FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10 - 16 JULY 1973)
This week's 14 stories include a claim that Sutton folk were being slowly poisoned, anger over Greenall's treatment of their tenant landlords, St Helens school dinner ladies complain about the food they dish up, the Bold Colliery Band appeals for new junior recruits, the straw solution to a noisy Rainford pump and the scheme to prevent traffic chaos when resurfacing work started on the East Lancs.
We begin with an announcement that the bottle and table glassmakers UGB were going to spend £3m (£45m in today's money) modernising their two factories in Peasley Cross. The company then had 2,500 workers in St Helens at their Peasley and Ravenhead plants.
On the 11th St Helens Council's Works Committee were told that traffic lights were going to be fitted at an accident blackspot in Parr. The signals were to be installed at the junction of Fleet Lane, Parr Stocks Road and Chancery Lane. Parking restrictions would also be introduced around the lights. Between 1969 and 1971 there had been 36 accidents there, 29 involving pedestrians. The scheme would also involve making Gaskell Street one-way for vehicles going away from the junction and Granville Street one-way for those approaching.
Two St Helens men who assaulted the assistant manager of the Sefton Arms Hotel (pictured above) after being asked to leave the Baldwin Street pub were sent to prison this week. Their attack on Robert Whitley had left him with multiple bruises and needing seven stitches. One of the men from North Road was given 6 months and the other from Grizedale Avenue received 8 months.
After only a 10-minute retirement at the end of an eight-day trial, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on the 12th cleared five St Helens men of raping a 29-year-old woman. The prosecution had alleged that on the pretext of driving the mother of two from one St Helens club to another, they had instead taken her to a field and raped her. Pleading not guilty, the men claimed that what had occurred was with the woman's consent.
The Reporter’s lead story on the 13th concerned anger by the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association over their treatment by Greenall Whitley. Their main complaint was a claim that the firm was replacing tenant landlords in their best houses with managers in order to make more money. Harry Grennan, spokesman for the association’s 130-strong membership, said:
"Greenalls are the villains of the piece. In the last two years they have raised rents more than any other brewery, so they are out of reach of many tenants. And they have removed people for the smallest mistakes." Mr Grennan claimed that pubs that once paid Greenalls rent at £250 a year were now having to pay £1,500 and what had been £700 houses now cost around £4,500 to rent.
He said one pub's annual rent had risen from £640 to £6,900. "They won't say so," he said, "but it is obvious Greenalls are following a policy of putting managers in their best pubs. They already have the manufacturing and wholesale profit, now they want the retail profit as well." The association were planning to take part in a protest march in London demanding Parliament pass legislation to halt the spread of pub managers.
Last week the Reporter had featured man called John Evason who claimed that he had lost his job delivering vegetables to schools partly through protesting about their poor quality. Seven of the schools that the Burscough firm made deliveries to were located in Rainford, Windle and Eccleston. Mr Evason had told the paper: "All the best stuff is picked out and sent to supermarkets. The worst is sent out to the schools."
This week four school dinners' staff from St Helens supported Mr Evason's allegations. Not wishing to be named in case of reprisals, the ladies agreed that the vegetables were inferior but said the same also applied to meat, bacon, frozen foods and fruit. Although Lancashire County Council allowed schools to reject any sub-standard food, the women said they were so busy that they did not have the opportunity to check everything they received. Three of the women said their own children did not have school dinners, with one commenting: "I told them they'd get a good meal at school – now I know different."
The Reporter also stated that major repairs to the St Helens stretch of the East Lancs Road would be taking place in 1974.
The "car-clogged road" that carried about 33,000 vehicles a day would only have a single carriageway open during the resurfacing work. But it was hoped that chaos would be avoided through much of the traffic being channelled onto a new section of the M62 that was due to be completed in December. The 9-month long scheme from Carr Mill railway bridge to near Windle island had been due to start in 1972 but was put back until the new motorway was ready.
Bold Colliery Welfare Band was appealing in the Reporter for new junior recruits. Band treasurer Frank Kenyon said: "We are the last colliery band in Lancashire and it would be sad if we disappeared like the rest. I suppose in their heyday there must have been 20–30 Lancashire pit bands. At the moment we have 20 adult bandsmen, which is only four short of our full complement. We also have 10 juniors but we need youngsters to train for the future." Founded in 1971 the band used instruments from the defunct Clock Face Colliery Band and others from Bickershaw Colliery Band.
The Reporter also described an unusual noise muffler in Rainford. The residents of Carter Avenue had complained of a noisy pump that was part of road works outside their homes. As a result 150 bales of straw were used to construct two 12 ft high walls on either side of the pump that was being operated 24 hours a day.
Resident Ada Critchley told the paper: "The pump is going all the time and for the first two nights I read a book because I couldn't sleep. When I saw the straw arrive I wondered what was happening. I thought we'd got a farmyard. Most people had to smile."
A big story in the Reporter was how Philip Taylor of Taylor Brothers was planning to claim compensation from St Helens Corporation for loss of business. The owner of the Market Street furnishers also accused the Town Hall of showing a lack of consideration for the "small man". His premises were going to be demolished as part of the town centre redevelopment but claimed he was being prematurely forced out. Mr Taylor told the paper:
"We've been hustled from our old buildings after 25 years, before our new shop is ready – and after the Corporation had agreed we wouldn't have to move until it was. It's costing us a fortune." The Corporation in response said the premises had to be knocked down soon or they would fall down and insisted public safety was at stake. To that Mr Taylor countered:
"Our premises were left isolated on a demolition site for a year. They demolished everything around us, then said our building was unsafe. If the others hadn't been knocked down, ours would have been alright. People [customers] were frightened off by the demolition work, and Wimpey's [the demolition contractor] built their offices beside the Parish Church, hiding us from view." The completion of Mr Taylor's new shop in Church Street had been delayed by a building strike but would open on July 21st despite not being quite ready.
There was more criticism of Leathers Chemicals after another chemical fallout in Sutton. The incident took place at lunchtime in Junction Lane with the Reporter writing: "People scurried into shops – spluttering, coughing, choking and with their eyes streaming." Butcher Bill Hatton said he saw men running to their cars with handkerchiefs covering their faces. Chip shop owner Ethel Bailey said:
"I went to close the windows at the back when it hit me. My nose and chest started burning, and my breath was taken away. My eyes were watering. When I came in the shop it was full of people coughing and sneezing." Agnes Henderson of Hoghton Road suffered from asthma and was badly affected. She said: "My throat burned, my head started throbbing and I felt physically sick. I recognised the smell from my school days – from the chemistry laboratory – it was sulphuric acid."
Mrs Henderson explained how she had been on the verge of collapse by the time she reached her home, adding: "People in Sutton are being slowly poisoned, and no one cares. Does it need a death for the Corporation to act?" British Sidac denied responsibility but Leathers continued with their poor public relations by simply refusing to comment.
Also on the 13th the current Miss Great Britain made a personal appearance at Nevins new store in Robins Lane. She had a long stint smiling at shoppers that began at 11am and did not end until 6:30pm.
On the 15th Christopher Ashcroft from Haresfinch Road in St Helens suffered a suspected broken leg while climbing Snowdonia. Members of an RAF mountain rescue team were needed to bring the 15-year-old off the mountain.
Also on that day 'The Thief Who Came To Dinner' starring Ryan O’Neal and 'The Train Robbers' starring John Wayne began 7 days of screenings at the ABC Savoy. And at the Capitol Cinema, the "outrageously saucy" film 'Danish Dentist On The Job' was shown for a week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of the new Prescot baths, the angry Blackbrook mothers school blockade, concern over the future of Greenalls club in Alder Hey Road and plans for a new Windleshaw RC Primary school.
We begin with an announcement that the bottle and table glassmakers UGB were going to spend £3m (£45m in today's money) modernising their two factories in Peasley Cross. The company then had 2,500 workers in St Helens at their Peasley and Ravenhead plants.
On the 11th St Helens Council's Works Committee were told that traffic lights were going to be fitted at an accident blackspot in Parr. The signals were to be installed at the junction of Fleet Lane, Parr Stocks Road and Chancery Lane. Parking restrictions would also be introduced around the lights. Between 1969 and 1971 there had been 36 accidents there, 29 involving pedestrians. The scheme would also involve making Gaskell Street one-way for vehicles going away from the junction and Granville Street one-way for those approaching.
After only a 10-minute retirement at the end of an eight-day trial, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on the 12th cleared five St Helens men of raping a 29-year-old woman. The prosecution had alleged that on the pretext of driving the mother of two from one St Helens club to another, they had instead taken her to a field and raped her. Pleading not guilty, the men claimed that what had occurred was with the woman's consent.
The Reporter’s lead story on the 13th concerned anger by the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association over their treatment by Greenall Whitley. Their main complaint was a claim that the firm was replacing tenant landlords in their best houses with managers in order to make more money. Harry Grennan, spokesman for the association’s 130-strong membership, said:
"Greenalls are the villains of the piece. In the last two years they have raised rents more than any other brewery, so they are out of reach of many tenants. And they have removed people for the smallest mistakes." Mr Grennan claimed that pubs that once paid Greenalls rent at £250 a year were now having to pay £1,500 and what had been £700 houses now cost around £4,500 to rent.
He said one pub's annual rent had risen from £640 to £6,900. "They won't say so," he said, "but it is obvious Greenalls are following a policy of putting managers in their best pubs. They already have the manufacturing and wholesale profit, now they want the retail profit as well." The association were planning to take part in a protest march in London demanding Parliament pass legislation to halt the spread of pub managers.
Last week the Reporter had featured man called John Evason who claimed that he had lost his job delivering vegetables to schools partly through protesting about their poor quality. Seven of the schools that the Burscough firm made deliveries to were located in Rainford, Windle and Eccleston. Mr Evason had told the paper: "All the best stuff is picked out and sent to supermarkets. The worst is sent out to the schools."
This week four school dinners' staff from St Helens supported Mr Evason's allegations. Not wishing to be named in case of reprisals, the ladies agreed that the vegetables were inferior but said the same also applied to meat, bacon, frozen foods and fruit. Although Lancashire County Council allowed schools to reject any sub-standard food, the women said they were so busy that they did not have the opportunity to check everything they received. Three of the women said their own children did not have school dinners, with one commenting: "I told them they'd get a good meal at school – now I know different."
The Reporter also stated that major repairs to the St Helens stretch of the East Lancs Road would be taking place in 1974.
The "car-clogged road" that carried about 33,000 vehicles a day would only have a single carriageway open during the resurfacing work. But it was hoped that chaos would be avoided through much of the traffic being channelled onto a new section of the M62 that was due to be completed in December. The 9-month long scheme from Carr Mill railway bridge to near Windle island had been due to start in 1972 but was put back until the new motorway was ready.
Bold Colliery Welfare Band was appealing in the Reporter for new junior recruits. Band treasurer Frank Kenyon said: "We are the last colliery band in Lancashire and it would be sad if we disappeared like the rest. I suppose in their heyday there must have been 20–30 Lancashire pit bands. At the moment we have 20 adult bandsmen, which is only four short of our full complement. We also have 10 juniors but we need youngsters to train for the future." Founded in 1971 the band used instruments from the defunct Clock Face Colliery Band and others from Bickershaw Colliery Band.
The Reporter also described an unusual noise muffler in Rainford. The residents of Carter Avenue had complained of a noisy pump that was part of road works outside their homes. As a result 150 bales of straw were used to construct two 12 ft high walls on either side of the pump that was being operated 24 hours a day.
Resident Ada Critchley told the paper: "The pump is going all the time and for the first two nights I read a book because I couldn't sleep. When I saw the straw arrive I wondered what was happening. I thought we'd got a farmyard. Most people had to smile."
A big story in the Reporter was how Philip Taylor of Taylor Brothers was planning to claim compensation from St Helens Corporation for loss of business. The owner of the Market Street furnishers also accused the Town Hall of showing a lack of consideration for the "small man". His premises were going to be demolished as part of the town centre redevelopment but claimed he was being prematurely forced out. Mr Taylor told the paper:
"We've been hustled from our old buildings after 25 years, before our new shop is ready – and after the Corporation had agreed we wouldn't have to move until it was. It's costing us a fortune." The Corporation in response said the premises had to be knocked down soon or they would fall down and insisted public safety was at stake. To that Mr Taylor countered:
"Our premises were left isolated on a demolition site for a year. They demolished everything around us, then said our building was unsafe. If the others hadn't been knocked down, ours would have been alright. People [customers] were frightened off by the demolition work, and Wimpey's [the demolition contractor] built their offices beside the Parish Church, hiding us from view." The completion of Mr Taylor's new shop in Church Street had been delayed by a building strike but would open on July 21st despite not being quite ready.
There was more criticism of Leathers Chemicals after another chemical fallout in Sutton. The incident took place at lunchtime in Junction Lane with the Reporter writing: "People scurried into shops – spluttering, coughing, choking and with their eyes streaming." Butcher Bill Hatton said he saw men running to their cars with handkerchiefs covering their faces. Chip shop owner Ethel Bailey said:
"I went to close the windows at the back when it hit me. My nose and chest started burning, and my breath was taken away. My eyes were watering. When I came in the shop it was full of people coughing and sneezing." Agnes Henderson of Hoghton Road suffered from asthma and was badly affected. She said: "My throat burned, my head started throbbing and I felt physically sick. I recognised the smell from my school days – from the chemistry laboratory – it was sulphuric acid."
Mrs Henderson explained how she had been on the verge of collapse by the time she reached her home, adding: "People in Sutton are being slowly poisoned, and no one cares. Does it need a death for the Corporation to act?" British Sidac denied responsibility but Leathers continued with their poor public relations by simply refusing to comment.
Also on the 13th the current Miss Great Britain made a personal appearance at Nevins new store in Robins Lane. She had a long stint smiling at shoppers that began at 11am and did not end until 6:30pm.
On the 15th Christopher Ashcroft from Haresfinch Road in St Helens suffered a suspected broken leg while climbing Snowdonia. Members of an RAF mountain rescue team were needed to bring the 15-year-old off the mountain.
Also on that day 'The Thief Who Came To Dinner' starring Ryan O’Neal and 'The Train Robbers' starring John Wayne began 7 days of screenings at the ABC Savoy. And at the Capitol Cinema, the "outrageously saucy" film 'Danish Dentist On The Job' was shown for a week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of the new Prescot baths, the angry Blackbrook mothers school blockade, concern over the future of Greenalls club in Alder Hey Road and plans for a new Windleshaw RC Primary school.
This week's 14 stories include a claim that Sutton folk were being slowly poisoned, anger over Greenall's treatment of their tenant landlords, St Helens school dinner ladies complain about the food they dish up, the Bold Colliery Band appeals for new junior recruits, the straw solution to a noisy Rainford pump and the scheme to prevent traffic chaos when resurfacing work started on the East Lancs.
We begin with an announcement that the bottle and table glassmakers UGB were going to spend £3m (£45m in today's money) modernising their two factories in Peasley Cross.
The company then had 2,500 workers in St Helens at their Peasley and Ravenhead plants.
On the 11th St Helens Council's Works Committee were told that traffic lights were going to be fitted at an accident blackspot in Parr.
The signals were to be installed at the junction of Fleet Lane, Parr Stocks Road and Chancery Lane. Parking restrictions would also be introduced around the lights.
Between 1969 and 1971 there had been 36 accidents there, 29 involving pedestrians.
The scheme would also involve making Gaskell Street one-way for vehicles going away from the junction and Granville Street one-way for those approaching.
Two St Helens men who assaulted the assistant manager of the Sefton Arms Hotel (pictured above) after being asked to leave the Baldwin Street pub were sent to prison this week.
Their attack on Robert Whitley had left him with multiple bruises and needing seven stitches.
One of the men from North Road was given 6 months and the other from Grizedale Avenue received 8 months.
After only a 10-minute retirement at the end of an eight-day trial, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on the 12th cleared five St Helens men of raping a 29-year-old woman.
The prosecution had alleged that on the pretext of driving the mother of two from one St Helens club to another, they had instead taken her to a field and raped her.
Pleading not guilty, the men claimed that what had occurred was with the woman's consent.
The Reporter’s lead story on the 13th concerned anger by the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association over their treatment by Greenall Whitley.
Their main complaint was a claim that the firm was replacing tenant landlords in their best houses with managers in order to make more money.
Harry Grennan, spokesman for the association’s 130-strong membership, said:
"Greenalls are the villains of the piece. In the last two years they have raised rents more than any other brewery, so they are out of reach of many tenants. And they have removed people for the smallest mistakes."
Mr Grennan claimed that pubs that once paid Greenalls rent at £250 a year were now having to pay £1,500 and what had been £700 houses now cost around £4,500 to rent.
He said one pub's annual rent had risen from £640 to £6,900. "They won't say so," he said, "but it is obvious Greenalls are following a policy of putting managers in their best pubs.
"They already have the manufacturing and wholesale profit, now they want the retail profit as well."
The association were planning to take part in a protest march in London demanding Parliament pass legislation to halt the spread of pub managers.
Last week the Reporter had featured man called John Evason who claimed that he had lost his job delivering vegetables to schools partly through protesting about their poor quality.
Seven of the schools that the Burscough firm made deliveries to were located in Rainford, Windle and Eccleston. Mr Evason had told the paper:
"All the best stuff is picked out and sent to supermarkets. The worst is sent out to the schools."
This week four school dinners' staff from St Helens supported Mr Evason's allegations. Not wishing to be named in case of reprisals, the ladies agreed that the vegetables were inferior but said the same also applied to meat, bacon, frozen foods and fruit.
Although Lancashire County Council allowed schools to reject any sub-standard food, the women said they were so busy that they did not have the opportunity to check everything they received.
Three of the women said their own children did not have school dinners, with one commenting:
"I told them they'd get a good meal at school – now I know different."
The Reporter also stated that major repairs to the St Helens stretch of the East Lancs Road would be taking place in 1974.
The "car-clogged road" that carried about 33,000 vehicles a day would only have a single carriageway open during the resurfacing work.
But it was hoped that chaos would be avoided through much of the traffic being channelled onto a new section of the M62 that was due to be completed in December.
The 9-month long scheme from Carr Mill railway bridge to near Windle island had been due to start in 1972 but was put back until the new motorway was ready.
Bold Colliery Welfare Band was appealing in the Reporter for new junior recruits. Band treasurer Frank Kenyon said:
"We are the last colliery band in Lancashire and it would be sad if we disappeared like the rest. I suppose in their heyday there must have been 20–30 Lancashire pit bands.
"At the moment we have 20 adult bandsmen, which is only four short of our full complement. We also have 10 juniors but we need youngsters to train for the future."
Founded in 1971 the band used instruments from the defunct Clock Face Colliery Band and others from Bickershaw Colliery Band.
The Reporter also described an unusual noise muffler in Rainford. The residents of Carter Avenue had complained of a noisy pump that was part of road works outside their homes.
As a result 150 bales of straw were used to construct two 12 ft high walls on either side of the pump that was being operated 24 hours a day. Resident Ada Critchley told the paper:
"The pump is going all the time and for the first two nights I read a book because I couldn't sleep. When I saw the straw arrive I wondered what was happening. I thought we'd got a farmyard. Most people had to smile."
A big story in the Reporter was how Philip Taylor of Taylor Brothers was planning to claim compensation from St Helens Corporation for loss of business.
The owner of the Market Street furnishers also accused the Town Hall of showing a lack of consideration for the "small man".
His premises were going to be demolished as part of the town centre redevelopment but claimed he was being prematurely forced out. Mr Taylor told the paper:
"We've been hustled from our old buildings after 25 years, before our new shop is ready – and after the Corporation had agreed we wouldn't have to move until it was. It's costing us a fortune."
The Corporation in response said the premises had to be knocked down soon or they would fall down and insisted public safety was at stake. To that Mr Taylor countered:
"Our premises were left isolated on a demolition site for a year. They demolished everything around us, then said our building was unsafe. If the others hadn't been knocked down, ours would have been alright.
"People [customers] were frightened off by the demolition work, and Wimpey's [the demolition contractor] built their offices beside the Parish Church, hiding us from view."
The completion of Mr Taylor's new shop in Church Street had been delayed by a building strike but would open on July 21st despite not being quite ready.
There was more criticism of Leathers Chemicals after another chemical fallout in Sutton. The incident took place at lunchtime in Junction Lane with the Reporter writing:
"People scurried into shops – spluttering, coughing, choking and with their eyes streaming."
Butcher Bill Hatton said he saw men running to their cars with handkerchiefs covering their faces. Chip shop owner Ethel Bailey said:
"I went to close the windows at the back when it hit me. My nose and chest started burning, and my breath was taken away. My eyes were watering. When I came in the shop it was full of people coughing and sneezing."
Agnes Henderson of Hoghton Road suffered from asthma and was badly affected. She said:
"My throat burned, my head started throbbing and I felt physically sick. I recognised the smell from my school days – from the chemistry laboratory – it was sulphuric acid."
Mrs Henderson explained how she had been on the verge of collapse by the time she reached her home, adding:
"People in Sutton are being slowly poisoned, and no one cares. Does it need a death for the Corporation to act?"
British Sidac denied responsibility but Leathers continued with their poor public relations by simply refusing to comment.
Also on the 13th the current Miss Great Britain made a personal appearance at Nevins new store in Robins Lane. She had a long stint smiling at shoppers that began at 11am and did not end until 6:30pm.
On the 15th Christopher Ashcroft from Haresfinch Road in St Helens suffered a suspected broken leg while climbing Snowdonia.
Members of an RAF mountain rescue team were needed to bring the 15-year-old off the mountain.
Also on that day 'The Thief Who Came To Dinner' starring Ryan O’Neal and 'The Train Robbers' starring John Wayne began 7 days of screenings at the ABC Savoy.
And at the Capitol Cinema, the "outrageously saucy" film 'Danish Dentist On The Job' was shown for a week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of the new Prescot baths, the angry Blackbrook mothers school blockade, concern over the future of Greenalls club in Alder Hey Road and plans for a new Windleshaw RC Primary school.
We begin with an announcement that the bottle and table glassmakers UGB were going to spend £3m (£45m in today's money) modernising their two factories in Peasley Cross.
The company then had 2,500 workers in St Helens at their Peasley and Ravenhead plants.
On the 11th St Helens Council's Works Committee were told that traffic lights were going to be fitted at an accident blackspot in Parr.
The signals were to be installed at the junction of Fleet Lane, Parr Stocks Road and Chancery Lane. Parking restrictions would also be introduced around the lights.
Between 1969 and 1971 there had been 36 accidents there, 29 involving pedestrians.
The scheme would also involve making Gaskell Street one-way for vehicles going away from the junction and Granville Street one-way for those approaching.
Their attack on Robert Whitley had left him with multiple bruises and needing seven stitches.
One of the men from North Road was given 6 months and the other from Grizedale Avenue received 8 months.
After only a 10-minute retirement at the end of an eight-day trial, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on the 12th cleared five St Helens men of raping a 29-year-old woman.
The prosecution had alleged that on the pretext of driving the mother of two from one St Helens club to another, they had instead taken her to a field and raped her.
Pleading not guilty, the men claimed that what had occurred was with the woman's consent.
The Reporter’s lead story on the 13th concerned anger by the St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association over their treatment by Greenall Whitley.
Their main complaint was a claim that the firm was replacing tenant landlords in their best houses with managers in order to make more money.
Harry Grennan, spokesman for the association’s 130-strong membership, said:
"Greenalls are the villains of the piece. In the last two years they have raised rents more than any other brewery, so they are out of reach of many tenants. And they have removed people for the smallest mistakes."
Mr Grennan claimed that pubs that once paid Greenalls rent at £250 a year were now having to pay £1,500 and what had been £700 houses now cost around £4,500 to rent.
He said one pub's annual rent had risen from £640 to £6,900. "They won't say so," he said, "but it is obvious Greenalls are following a policy of putting managers in their best pubs.
"They already have the manufacturing and wholesale profit, now they want the retail profit as well."
The association were planning to take part in a protest march in London demanding Parliament pass legislation to halt the spread of pub managers.
Last week the Reporter had featured man called John Evason who claimed that he had lost his job delivering vegetables to schools partly through protesting about their poor quality.
Seven of the schools that the Burscough firm made deliveries to were located in Rainford, Windle and Eccleston. Mr Evason had told the paper:
"All the best stuff is picked out and sent to supermarkets. The worst is sent out to the schools."
This week four school dinners' staff from St Helens supported Mr Evason's allegations. Not wishing to be named in case of reprisals, the ladies agreed that the vegetables were inferior but said the same also applied to meat, bacon, frozen foods and fruit.
Although Lancashire County Council allowed schools to reject any sub-standard food, the women said they were so busy that they did not have the opportunity to check everything they received.
Three of the women said their own children did not have school dinners, with one commenting:
"I told them they'd get a good meal at school – now I know different."
The Reporter also stated that major repairs to the St Helens stretch of the East Lancs Road would be taking place in 1974.
The "car-clogged road" that carried about 33,000 vehicles a day would only have a single carriageway open during the resurfacing work.
But it was hoped that chaos would be avoided through much of the traffic being channelled onto a new section of the M62 that was due to be completed in December.
The 9-month long scheme from Carr Mill railway bridge to near Windle island had been due to start in 1972 but was put back until the new motorway was ready.
Bold Colliery Welfare Band was appealing in the Reporter for new junior recruits. Band treasurer Frank Kenyon said:
"We are the last colliery band in Lancashire and it would be sad if we disappeared like the rest. I suppose in their heyday there must have been 20–30 Lancashire pit bands.
"At the moment we have 20 adult bandsmen, which is only four short of our full complement. We also have 10 juniors but we need youngsters to train for the future."
Founded in 1971 the band used instruments from the defunct Clock Face Colliery Band and others from Bickershaw Colliery Band.
The Reporter also described an unusual noise muffler in Rainford. The residents of Carter Avenue had complained of a noisy pump that was part of road works outside their homes.
As a result 150 bales of straw were used to construct two 12 ft high walls on either side of the pump that was being operated 24 hours a day. Resident Ada Critchley told the paper:
"The pump is going all the time and for the first two nights I read a book because I couldn't sleep. When I saw the straw arrive I wondered what was happening. I thought we'd got a farmyard. Most people had to smile."
A big story in the Reporter was how Philip Taylor of Taylor Brothers was planning to claim compensation from St Helens Corporation for loss of business.
The owner of the Market Street furnishers also accused the Town Hall of showing a lack of consideration for the "small man".
His premises were going to be demolished as part of the town centre redevelopment but claimed he was being prematurely forced out. Mr Taylor told the paper:
"We've been hustled from our old buildings after 25 years, before our new shop is ready – and after the Corporation had agreed we wouldn't have to move until it was. It's costing us a fortune."
The Corporation in response said the premises had to be knocked down soon or they would fall down and insisted public safety was at stake. To that Mr Taylor countered:
"Our premises were left isolated on a demolition site for a year. They demolished everything around us, then said our building was unsafe. If the others hadn't been knocked down, ours would have been alright.
"People [customers] were frightened off by the demolition work, and Wimpey's [the demolition contractor] built their offices beside the Parish Church, hiding us from view."
The completion of Mr Taylor's new shop in Church Street had been delayed by a building strike but would open on July 21st despite not being quite ready.
There was more criticism of Leathers Chemicals after another chemical fallout in Sutton. The incident took place at lunchtime in Junction Lane with the Reporter writing:
"People scurried into shops – spluttering, coughing, choking and with their eyes streaming."
Butcher Bill Hatton said he saw men running to their cars with handkerchiefs covering their faces. Chip shop owner Ethel Bailey said:
"I went to close the windows at the back when it hit me. My nose and chest started burning, and my breath was taken away. My eyes were watering. When I came in the shop it was full of people coughing and sneezing."
Agnes Henderson of Hoghton Road suffered from asthma and was badly affected. She said:
"My throat burned, my head started throbbing and I felt physically sick. I recognised the smell from my school days – from the chemistry laboratory – it was sulphuric acid."
Mrs Henderson explained how she had been on the verge of collapse by the time she reached her home, adding:
"People in Sutton are being slowly poisoned, and no one cares. Does it need a death for the Corporation to act?"
British Sidac denied responsibility but Leathers continued with their poor public relations by simply refusing to comment.
Also on the 13th the current Miss Great Britain made a personal appearance at Nevins new store in Robins Lane. She had a long stint smiling at shoppers that began at 11am and did not end until 6:30pm.
On the 15th Christopher Ashcroft from Haresfinch Road in St Helens suffered a suspected broken leg while climbing Snowdonia.
Members of an RAF mountain rescue team were needed to bring the 15-year-old off the mountain.
Also on that day 'The Thief Who Came To Dinner' starring Ryan O’Neal and 'The Train Robbers' starring John Wayne began 7 days of screenings at the ABC Savoy.
And at the Capitol Cinema, the "outrageously saucy" film 'Danish Dentist On The Job' was shown for a week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of the new Prescot baths, the angry Blackbrook mothers school blockade, concern over the future of Greenalls club in Alder Hey Road and plans for a new Windleshaw RC Primary school.