FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 10 - 16 AUGUST 1976
This week's many stories include the Atlas Street market court battle, the Francoise Beach Party Night, the fall-out from Leathers Chemicals that damaged cars in Lancots Lane, the oil painting that went missing from the St Helens Show, the dangerous Sutton roundabout, the heatwave strike and the inquest is held on the little girl that drowned in the St Helens Canal.
A month ago an advert in the Reporter had announced the opening of the St Helens Atlas Street New Market, which was offering: "Bargains Galore – Bargains like you have never seen before. Yes clothes, knitwear, china etc – At prices to amaze you." The advert said the market would operate on Thursdays and Saturdays.
A man called Derek Morgan privately ran the Atlas Street market from a former Cash and Carry warehouse owned by A.C. Collins. And on the 11th a deputy High Court judge at a private hearing granted St Helens Council an interim injunction to ban Mr Morgan from opening his market for a week.
The council argued that under an Act of Parliament they held exclusive rights to run markets in the town and Morgan's market, with about 100 stalls both inside and outside the building, had caused traffic hold ups. These had led to the police having banned car parking in Atlas Street. A full court hearing would be held next week to decide whether the alternative market could go ahead.
Speaking from his Scottish headquarters after the initial hearing, Derek Morgan said: "We are still confident that we will win our fight to keep the market open. The public are behind me in this. Many of the market customers are not satisfied with the two council markets run in St. Helens. In my opinion, the court has just given the council a licence to make the public pay more money for goods."
Later in the week the Reporter described how tenants at both St Mary's and the Tontine markets had submitted a 200-signature petition to the Council threatening to withhold their rents if they failed to close down the rival Atlas Street concern. Although Derek Morgan saw his private market as fair competition, longstanding fruiterer Tom Bannister saw things differently:
"The new market is interfering with free enterprise. I pay £68.40 per week to run a stall on the Council's market, some other traders pay much more. All the stallholders are ratepayers and residents of the town. We have all worked hard to build up our businesses. Mr. Morgan isn't only at war with the council over this issue. He is at war with 155 stallholders who are striving to carry on their businesses."
On the 11th the Francoise discotheque in Waterloo Street held a Beach Party Night. There was free admission to all who wore bathing costumes, while those who were too modest had to pay 70p. Their advert promised balloons, streamers and spot prizes, with £5 for "the girl with the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Briefest Bikini"! There was also a special guest appearance of King Neptune.
For 5 days from Thursday 12th, 'Tommy', starring Ann Margaret, Oliver Reed and Roger Daltrey, was screened at the Capitol Cinema. Also from that day, Silcocks Pleasure Fair appeared on the playing fields on Windermere Avenue in Clinkham Wood. The advert said it was to be the last to be held at that location and would last four days. As Sunday opening was not generally allowed yet in St Helens, the final day would be on the Monday.
On the 13th the inquest was held on Margaret Matthews of Dominic Way in Sutton who on July 11th during the heatwave had drowned in the St Helens Canal. The death of the 9-year-old was another tragedy at the Hotties (pictured above), the stretch of water where Pilkingtons Sheet Works pumped out warm effluent, which made it very attractive to youngsters.
The coroner Ronald Lloyd commended 32-year-old mining deputy Robert Greaves of Brookway Lane in St Helens, who had pulled Margaret to the bank and applied artificial respiration for 20 minutes. "He did everything he could to save her", said Mr Lloyd. Margaret's 12-year-old brother, William, described how he had also been swimming in the canal when someone asked where Margaret was.
William said he rode down the bank of the canal on his bike looking for his sister. He then returned to the Hotties where she was last seen and on jumping into the water touched something soft with his feet and then shouted to Mr Greaves for help. There were 40 children playing on the canal bank and in the water at the time, and some adults were also among the swimmers.
The canal at that spot was 20 yards wide and 6 feet deep. In returning a verdict of misadventure, the coroner warned about the danger of playing in open stretches of water, such as canals: "Even in supervised swimming baths it is very difficult to keep an eye on everyone concerned. It is quite clear the canal is a resort for adults and children, particularly during any hot spell.
"Water of this kind is irresistible to children but there is obviously an element of danger where you get a large number of people and the water is 6 feet in depth. With everyone playing and the water splashing it is easy for someone to go under unnoticed." The Hotties safety patrol of volunteers who kept swimmers out of the water only operated during the summer holidays.
Cliff Archbold was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th after claiming that he had had to fight a "wall of incompetence" after one of his paintings had gone missing. The 19-year-old artist from Haydock had submitted two oil paintings to the arts and crafts section of the St Helens Show – but only got one back. The lost painting was a landscape in oils, which Cliff said he had received a number of offers for.
The regulations for the Show stated that paintings should be collected from the Town Clerk's Department from the Monday following the last day of the show. But they also stated that no exhibit should be removed from Sherdley Park until 7 pm on the show's closing day.
Mr Archbold said he adhered to the first rule but when he went to the Town Clerk's Department they could only find one of his paintings and he was told he should have collected it from the park. A council spokesman insisted that they were not responsible for any loss or damage to the property of any exhibitor but advised the man to write to the Town Clerk for an offer of compensation.
The government's decision on whether to approve St Helens Council's closure order on Leathers Chemicals was still awaited – seven months after a public inquiry had been held. In the meantime incidents involving the controversial sulphuric acid factory were still occurring.
In July a worker at the Lancots Lane plant had died and another was badly injured. And this week at least six cars were damaged after being showered by a spray of chemicals. The vehicles had been parked in the adjoining British Sidac car park and the damage to their paintwork caused by the Leathers' fallout was considered so bad that all the cars involved required re-sprays. Councillor Jim Bond said he had reported the matter to Leslie Spriggs MP and claimed there had been similar incidents in the past.
The Reporter described how the Miners Institute at Sutton Manor Colliery was having a £25,000 facelift. The refurbishment was the first since the club had been opened in Jubits Lane in 1959. That is assuming you don't count the embarrassing changes that needed to be made some time after opening when three walls were knocked down and the club was rebuilt at a cost of over £2,000. That was because there was not enough elbowroom in their snooker room! Club steward Edward Gallagher was quoted at the time as saying that he thought that when the club was being designed, they had simply measured two snooker tables, forgetting that people had to stand behind them!
The paper also reported how widow Janet Sidebottom of Mill Lane in Sutton was anxious because of the roundabout next to her home (pictured above), which was badly in need of road surface repairs. The 69-year-old said: "There are countless accidents on the roundabout. I have started sleeping downstairs now not only because of the terrible noise the heavy traffic makes but because I feel safer downstairs. I am living on my nerves.
"Any moment I am expecting one of those big articulated lorries to run out of control and come crashing through the wall. There have been quite a few near misses. Some of the recent accidents include a large lorry which shed its load of glass on the road-side just missing a group of schoolchildren. Just after that, a lorry, which took the roundabout too fast, shed its load of steel sheets. It's a miracle no one has been killed."
Under the headline "Factory Heat Inflames Workers", the Reporter described how the heatwave had led to a strike at the Osram electric lamp-making factory in Lea Green Road which had so far lasted five weeks: The 40 production line workers walked out after claiming that rising temperatures and conditions in the factory were unbearable.
"The strikers want more money to compensate for the high working temperatures and more breaks from work at the factory which makes fluorescent tubes. And one picket claimed the thermometer shot up to 112 degrees [44°C] at times and that women had passed out in the heat from machines."
The Reporter also described how prices of new potatoes in St Helens had "rocketed" by nearly 33% in the past fortnight: "Last week shoppers were paying up to 9½p for a pound of new spuds…But this week the asking price is as much as 12p. One local farmer said the higher prices were due to excessive drought which had led to low crops."
And finally, it was all change at the ABC Savoy cinema from the 15th, with ‘Kelly’s Heroes', starring Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas, replacing 'One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the skateboard bans in St Helens, the two new park cafes, the Beechams' women's victory under the Equal Pay Act, the heatwave's increase in beer sales and the campaign to stamp out child battering.
A month ago an advert in the Reporter had announced the opening of the St Helens Atlas Street New Market, which was offering: "Bargains Galore – Bargains like you have never seen before. Yes clothes, knitwear, china etc – At prices to amaze you." The advert said the market would operate on Thursdays and Saturdays.
A man called Derek Morgan privately ran the Atlas Street market from a former Cash and Carry warehouse owned by A.C. Collins. And on the 11th a deputy High Court judge at a private hearing granted St Helens Council an interim injunction to ban Mr Morgan from opening his market for a week.
The council argued that under an Act of Parliament they held exclusive rights to run markets in the town and Morgan's market, with about 100 stalls both inside and outside the building, had caused traffic hold ups. These had led to the police having banned car parking in Atlas Street. A full court hearing would be held next week to decide whether the alternative market could go ahead.
Speaking from his Scottish headquarters after the initial hearing, Derek Morgan said: "We are still confident that we will win our fight to keep the market open. The public are behind me in this. Many of the market customers are not satisfied with the two council markets run in St. Helens. In my opinion, the court has just given the council a licence to make the public pay more money for goods."
Later in the week the Reporter described how tenants at both St Mary's and the Tontine markets had submitted a 200-signature petition to the Council threatening to withhold their rents if they failed to close down the rival Atlas Street concern. Although Derek Morgan saw his private market as fair competition, longstanding fruiterer Tom Bannister saw things differently:
"The new market is interfering with free enterprise. I pay £68.40 per week to run a stall on the Council's market, some other traders pay much more. All the stallholders are ratepayers and residents of the town. We have all worked hard to build up our businesses. Mr. Morgan isn't only at war with the council over this issue. He is at war with 155 stallholders who are striving to carry on their businesses."
On the 11th the Francoise discotheque in Waterloo Street held a Beach Party Night. There was free admission to all who wore bathing costumes, while those who were too modest had to pay 70p. Their advert promised balloons, streamers and spot prizes, with £5 for "the girl with the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Briefest Bikini"! There was also a special guest appearance of King Neptune.
For 5 days from Thursday 12th, 'Tommy', starring Ann Margaret, Oliver Reed and Roger Daltrey, was screened at the Capitol Cinema. Also from that day, Silcocks Pleasure Fair appeared on the playing fields on Windermere Avenue in Clinkham Wood. The advert said it was to be the last to be held at that location and would last four days. As Sunday opening was not generally allowed yet in St Helens, the final day would be on the Monday.
The coroner Ronald Lloyd commended 32-year-old mining deputy Robert Greaves of Brookway Lane in St Helens, who had pulled Margaret to the bank and applied artificial respiration for 20 minutes. "He did everything he could to save her", said Mr Lloyd. Margaret's 12-year-old brother, William, described how he had also been swimming in the canal when someone asked where Margaret was.
William said he rode down the bank of the canal on his bike looking for his sister. He then returned to the Hotties where she was last seen and on jumping into the water touched something soft with his feet and then shouted to Mr Greaves for help. There were 40 children playing on the canal bank and in the water at the time, and some adults were also among the swimmers.
The canal at that spot was 20 yards wide and 6 feet deep. In returning a verdict of misadventure, the coroner warned about the danger of playing in open stretches of water, such as canals: "Even in supervised swimming baths it is very difficult to keep an eye on everyone concerned. It is quite clear the canal is a resort for adults and children, particularly during any hot spell.
"Water of this kind is irresistible to children but there is obviously an element of danger where you get a large number of people and the water is 6 feet in depth. With everyone playing and the water splashing it is easy for someone to go under unnoticed." The Hotties safety patrol of volunteers who kept swimmers out of the water only operated during the summer holidays.
Cliff Archbold was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th after claiming that he had had to fight a "wall of incompetence" after one of his paintings had gone missing. The 19-year-old artist from Haydock had submitted two oil paintings to the arts and crafts section of the St Helens Show – but only got one back. The lost painting was a landscape in oils, which Cliff said he had received a number of offers for.
The regulations for the Show stated that paintings should be collected from the Town Clerk's Department from the Monday following the last day of the show. But they also stated that no exhibit should be removed from Sherdley Park until 7 pm on the show's closing day.
Mr Archbold said he adhered to the first rule but when he went to the Town Clerk's Department they could only find one of his paintings and he was told he should have collected it from the park. A council spokesman insisted that they were not responsible for any loss or damage to the property of any exhibitor but advised the man to write to the Town Clerk for an offer of compensation.
The government's decision on whether to approve St Helens Council's closure order on Leathers Chemicals was still awaited – seven months after a public inquiry had been held. In the meantime incidents involving the controversial sulphuric acid factory were still occurring.
In July a worker at the Lancots Lane plant had died and another was badly injured. And this week at least six cars were damaged after being showered by a spray of chemicals. The vehicles had been parked in the adjoining British Sidac car park and the damage to their paintwork caused by the Leathers' fallout was considered so bad that all the cars involved required re-sprays. Councillor Jim Bond said he had reported the matter to Leslie Spriggs MP and claimed there had been similar incidents in the past.
The Reporter described how the Miners Institute at Sutton Manor Colliery was having a £25,000 facelift. The refurbishment was the first since the club had been opened in Jubits Lane in 1959. That is assuming you don't count the embarrassing changes that needed to be made some time after opening when three walls were knocked down and the club was rebuilt at a cost of over £2,000. That was because there was not enough elbowroom in their snooker room! Club steward Edward Gallagher was quoted at the time as saying that he thought that when the club was being designed, they had simply measured two snooker tables, forgetting that people had to stand behind them!
"Any moment I am expecting one of those big articulated lorries to run out of control and come crashing through the wall. There have been quite a few near misses. Some of the recent accidents include a large lorry which shed its load of glass on the road-side just missing a group of schoolchildren. Just after that, a lorry, which took the roundabout too fast, shed its load of steel sheets. It's a miracle no one has been killed."
Under the headline "Factory Heat Inflames Workers", the Reporter described how the heatwave had led to a strike at the Osram electric lamp-making factory in Lea Green Road which had so far lasted five weeks: The 40 production line workers walked out after claiming that rising temperatures and conditions in the factory were unbearable.
"The strikers want more money to compensate for the high working temperatures and more breaks from work at the factory which makes fluorescent tubes. And one picket claimed the thermometer shot up to 112 degrees [44°C] at times and that women had passed out in the heat from machines."
The Reporter also described how prices of new potatoes in St Helens had "rocketed" by nearly 33% in the past fortnight: "Last week shoppers were paying up to 9½p for a pound of new spuds…But this week the asking price is as much as 12p. One local farmer said the higher prices were due to excessive drought which had led to low crops."
And finally, it was all change at the ABC Savoy cinema from the 15th, with ‘Kelly’s Heroes', starring Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas, replacing 'One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the skateboard bans in St Helens, the two new park cafes, the Beechams' women's victory under the Equal Pay Act, the heatwave's increase in beer sales and the campaign to stamp out child battering.
This week's many stories include the Atlas Street market court battle, the Francoise Beach Party Night, the fall-out from Leathers Chemicals that damaged cars in Lancots Lane, the oil painting that went missing from the St Helens Show, the dangerous Sutton roundabout, the heatwave strike and the inquest is held on the little girl that drowned in the St Helens Canal.
A month ago an advert in the Reporter had announced the opening of the St Helens Atlas Street New Market, which was offering:
"Bargains Galore – Bargains like you have never seen before. Yes clothes, knitwear, china etc – At prices to amaze you."
The advert said the market would operate on Thursdays and Saturdays.
A man called Derek Morgan privately ran the Atlas Street market from a former Cash and Carry warehouse owned by A.C. Collins.
And on the 11th a deputy High Court judge at a private hearing granted St Helens Council an interim injunction to ban Mr Morgan from opening his market for a week.
The council argued that under an Act of Parliament they held exclusive rights to run markets in the town and Morgan's market, with about 100 stalls both inside and outside the building, had caused traffic hold ups.
These had led to the police having banned car parking in Atlas Street. A full court hearing would be held next week to decide whether the alternative market could go ahead.
Speaking from his Scottish headquarters after the initial hearing, Derek Morgan said:
"We are still confident that we will win our fight to keep the market open. The public are behind me in this. Many of the market customers are not satisfied with the two council markets run in St. Helens. In my opinion, the court has just given the council a licence to make the public pay more money for goods."
Later in the week the Reporter described how tenants at both St Mary's and the Tontine markets had submitted a 200-signature petition to the Council threatening to withhold their rents if they failed to close down the rival Atlas Street concern.
Although Derek Morgan saw his private market as fair competition, longstanding fruiterer Tom Bannister saw things differently:
"The new market is interfering with free enterprise. I pay £68.40 per week to run a stall on the Council's market, some other traders pay much more. All the stallholders are ratepayers and residents of the town.
"We have all worked hard to build up our businesses. Mr. Morgan isn't only at war with the council over this issue. He is at war with 155 stallholders who are striving to carry on their businesses."
On the 11th the Francoise discotheque in Waterloo Street held a Beach Party Night. There was free admission to all who wore bathing costumes, while those who were too modest had to pay 70p.
Their advert promised balloons, streamers and spot prizes, with £5 for "the girl with the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Briefest Bikini"! There was also a special guest appearance of King Neptune.
For 5 days from Thursday 12th, 'Tommy', starring Ann Margaret, Oliver Reed and Roger Daltrey, was screened at the Capitol Cinema.
Also from that day, Silcocks Pleasure Fair appeared on the playing fields on Windermere Avenue in Clinkham Wood.
The advert said it was to be the last to be held at that location and would last four days.
As Sunday opening was not generally allowed yet in St Helens, the final day would be on the Monday.
On the 13th the inquest was held on Margaret Matthews of Dominic Way in Sutton who on July 11th during the heatwave had drowned in the St Helens Canal.
The death of the 9-year-old was another tragedy at the Hotties (pictured above), the stretch of water where Pilkingtons Sheet Works pumped out warm effluent, which made it very attractive to youngsters.
The coroner Ronald Lloyd commended 32-year-old mining deputy Robert Greaves of Brookway Lane in St Helens, who had pulled Margaret to the bank and applied artificial respiration for 20 minutes.
"He did everything he could to save her", said Mr Lloyd.
Margaret's 12-year-old brother, William, described how he had also been swimming in the canal when someone asked where Margaret was.
William said he rode down the bank of the canal on his bike looking for his sister.
He then returned to the Hotties where she was last seen and on jumping into the water touched something soft with his feet and then shouted to Mr Greaves for help.
There were 40 children playing on the canal bank and in the water at the time, and some adults were also among the swimmers. The canal at that spot was 20 yards wide and 6 feet deep.
In returning a verdict of misadventure, the coroner warned about the danger of playing in open stretches of water, such as canals:
"Even in supervised swimming baths it is very difficult to keep an eye on everyone concerned. It is quite clear the canal is a resort for adults and children, particularly during any hot spell.
"Water of this kind is irresistible to children but there is obviously an element of danger where you get a large number of people and the water is 6 feet in depth. With everyone playing and the water splashing it is easy for someone to go under unnoticed."
The Hotties safety patrol of volunteers who kept swimmers out of the water only operated during the summer holidays.
Cliff Archbold was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th after claiming that he had had to fight a "wall of incompetence" after one of his paintings had gone missing.
The 19-year-old artist from Haydock had submitted two oil paintings to the arts and crafts section of the St Helens Show – but only got one back.
The lost painting was a landscape in oils, which Cliff said he had received a number of offers for.
The regulations for the Show stated that paintings should be collected from the Town Clerk's Department from the Monday following the last day of the show.
But they also stated that no exhibit should be removed from Sherdley Park until 7 pm on the show's closing day.
Mr Archbold said he adhered to the first rule but when he went to the Town Clerk's Department they could only find one of his paintings and he was told he should have collected it from the park.
A council spokesman insisted that they were not responsible for any loss or damage to the property of any exhibitor but advised the man to write to the Town Clerk for an offer of compensation.
The government's decision on whether to approve St Helens Council's closure order on Leathers Chemicals was still awaited – seven months after a public inquiry had been held.
In the meantime incidents involving the controversial sulphuric acid factory were still occurring.
In July a worker at the Lancots Lane plant had died and another was badly injured.
And this week at least six cars were damaged after being showered by a spray of chemicals.
The vehicles had been parked in the adjoining British Sidac car park and the damage to their paintwork caused by the Leathers' fallout was considered so bad that all the cars involved required re-sprays.
Councillor Jim Bond said he had reported the matter to Leslie Spriggs MP and claimed there had been similar incidents in the past.
The Reporter described how the Miners Institute at Sutton Manor Colliery was having a £25,000 facelift. The refurbishment was the first since the club had been opened in Jubits Lane in 1959.
That is assuming you don't count the embarrassing changes that needed to be made some time after opening when three walls were knocked down and the club was rebuilt at a cost of over £2,000. That was because there was not enough elbowroom in their snooker room!
Club steward Edward Gallagher was quoted at the time as saying that he thought that when the club was being designed, they had simply measured two snooker tables, forgetting that people had to stand behind them!
The paper also reported how widow Janet Sidebottom of Mill Lane in Sutton was anxious because of the roundabout next to her home (pictured above), which was badly in need of road surface repairs.
The 69-year-old said: "There are countless accidents on the roundabout. I have started sleeping downstairs now not only because of the terrible noise the heavy traffic makes but because I feel safer downstairs. I am living on my nerves.
"Any moment I am expecting one of those big articulated lorries to run out of control and come crashing through the wall. There have been quite a few near misses.
"Some of the recent accidents include a large lorry which shed its load of glass on the road-side just missing a group of schoolchildren.
"Just after that, a lorry, which took the roundabout too fast, shed its load of steel sheets. It's a miracle no one has been killed."
Under the headline "Factory Heat Inflames Workers", the Reporter described how the heatwave had led to a strike at the Osram electric lamp-making factory in Lea Green Road which had so far lasted five weeks:
"The 40 production line workers walked out after claiming that rising temperatures and conditions in the factory were unbearable.
"The strikers want more money to compensate for the high working temperatures and more breaks from work at the factory which makes fluorescent tubes.
"And one picket claimed the thermometer shot up to 112 degrees [44°C] at times and that women had passed out in the heat from machines."
The Reporter also described how prices of new potatoes in St Helens had "rocketed" by nearly 33% in the past fortnight:
"Last week shoppers were paying up to 9½p for a pound of new spuds…But this week the asking price is as much as 12p. One local farmer said the higher prices were due to excessive drought which had led to low crops."
And finally, it was all change at the ABC Savoy cinema from the 15th, with ‘Kelly’s Heroes', starring Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas, replacing 'One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the skateboard bans in St Helens, the two new park cafes, the Beechams' women's victory under the Equal Pay Act, the heatwave's increase in beer sales and the campaign to stamp out child battering.
A month ago an advert in the Reporter had announced the opening of the St Helens Atlas Street New Market, which was offering:
"Bargains Galore – Bargains like you have never seen before. Yes clothes, knitwear, china etc – At prices to amaze you."
The advert said the market would operate on Thursdays and Saturdays.
A man called Derek Morgan privately ran the Atlas Street market from a former Cash and Carry warehouse owned by A.C. Collins.
And on the 11th a deputy High Court judge at a private hearing granted St Helens Council an interim injunction to ban Mr Morgan from opening his market for a week.
The council argued that under an Act of Parliament they held exclusive rights to run markets in the town and Morgan's market, with about 100 stalls both inside and outside the building, had caused traffic hold ups.
These had led to the police having banned car parking in Atlas Street. A full court hearing would be held next week to decide whether the alternative market could go ahead.
Speaking from his Scottish headquarters after the initial hearing, Derek Morgan said:
"We are still confident that we will win our fight to keep the market open. The public are behind me in this. Many of the market customers are not satisfied with the two council markets run in St. Helens. In my opinion, the court has just given the council a licence to make the public pay more money for goods."
Later in the week the Reporter described how tenants at both St Mary's and the Tontine markets had submitted a 200-signature petition to the Council threatening to withhold their rents if they failed to close down the rival Atlas Street concern.
Although Derek Morgan saw his private market as fair competition, longstanding fruiterer Tom Bannister saw things differently:
"The new market is interfering with free enterprise. I pay £68.40 per week to run a stall on the Council's market, some other traders pay much more. All the stallholders are ratepayers and residents of the town.
"We have all worked hard to build up our businesses. Mr. Morgan isn't only at war with the council over this issue. He is at war with 155 stallholders who are striving to carry on their businesses."
On the 11th the Francoise discotheque in Waterloo Street held a Beach Party Night. There was free admission to all who wore bathing costumes, while those who were too modest had to pay 70p.
Their advert promised balloons, streamers and spot prizes, with £5 for "the girl with the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Briefest Bikini"! There was also a special guest appearance of King Neptune.
For 5 days from Thursday 12th, 'Tommy', starring Ann Margaret, Oliver Reed and Roger Daltrey, was screened at the Capitol Cinema.
Also from that day, Silcocks Pleasure Fair appeared on the playing fields on Windermere Avenue in Clinkham Wood.
The advert said it was to be the last to be held at that location and would last four days.
As Sunday opening was not generally allowed yet in St Helens, the final day would be on the Monday.
The death of the 9-year-old was another tragedy at the Hotties (pictured above), the stretch of water where Pilkingtons Sheet Works pumped out warm effluent, which made it very attractive to youngsters.
The coroner Ronald Lloyd commended 32-year-old mining deputy Robert Greaves of Brookway Lane in St Helens, who had pulled Margaret to the bank and applied artificial respiration for 20 minutes.
"He did everything he could to save her", said Mr Lloyd.
Margaret's 12-year-old brother, William, described how he had also been swimming in the canal when someone asked where Margaret was.
William said he rode down the bank of the canal on his bike looking for his sister.
He then returned to the Hotties where she was last seen and on jumping into the water touched something soft with his feet and then shouted to Mr Greaves for help.
There were 40 children playing on the canal bank and in the water at the time, and some adults were also among the swimmers. The canal at that spot was 20 yards wide and 6 feet deep.
In returning a verdict of misadventure, the coroner warned about the danger of playing in open stretches of water, such as canals:
"Even in supervised swimming baths it is very difficult to keep an eye on everyone concerned. It is quite clear the canal is a resort for adults and children, particularly during any hot spell.
"Water of this kind is irresistible to children but there is obviously an element of danger where you get a large number of people and the water is 6 feet in depth. With everyone playing and the water splashing it is easy for someone to go under unnoticed."
The Hotties safety patrol of volunteers who kept swimmers out of the water only operated during the summer holidays.
Cliff Archbold was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 13th after claiming that he had had to fight a "wall of incompetence" after one of his paintings had gone missing.
The 19-year-old artist from Haydock had submitted two oil paintings to the arts and crafts section of the St Helens Show – but only got one back.
The lost painting was a landscape in oils, which Cliff said he had received a number of offers for.
The regulations for the Show stated that paintings should be collected from the Town Clerk's Department from the Monday following the last day of the show.
But they also stated that no exhibit should be removed from Sherdley Park until 7 pm on the show's closing day.
Mr Archbold said he adhered to the first rule but when he went to the Town Clerk's Department they could only find one of his paintings and he was told he should have collected it from the park.
A council spokesman insisted that they were not responsible for any loss or damage to the property of any exhibitor but advised the man to write to the Town Clerk for an offer of compensation.
The government's decision on whether to approve St Helens Council's closure order on Leathers Chemicals was still awaited – seven months after a public inquiry had been held.
In the meantime incidents involving the controversial sulphuric acid factory were still occurring.
In July a worker at the Lancots Lane plant had died and another was badly injured.
And this week at least six cars were damaged after being showered by a spray of chemicals.
The vehicles had been parked in the adjoining British Sidac car park and the damage to their paintwork caused by the Leathers' fallout was considered so bad that all the cars involved required re-sprays.
Councillor Jim Bond said he had reported the matter to Leslie Spriggs MP and claimed there had been similar incidents in the past.
The Reporter described how the Miners Institute at Sutton Manor Colliery was having a £25,000 facelift. The refurbishment was the first since the club had been opened in Jubits Lane in 1959.
That is assuming you don't count the embarrassing changes that needed to be made some time after opening when three walls were knocked down and the club was rebuilt at a cost of over £2,000. That was because there was not enough elbowroom in their snooker room!
Club steward Edward Gallagher was quoted at the time as saying that he thought that when the club was being designed, they had simply measured two snooker tables, forgetting that people had to stand behind them!
The 69-year-old said: "There are countless accidents on the roundabout. I have started sleeping downstairs now not only because of the terrible noise the heavy traffic makes but because I feel safer downstairs. I am living on my nerves.
"Any moment I am expecting one of those big articulated lorries to run out of control and come crashing through the wall. There have been quite a few near misses.
"Some of the recent accidents include a large lorry which shed its load of glass on the road-side just missing a group of schoolchildren.
"Just after that, a lorry, which took the roundabout too fast, shed its load of steel sheets. It's a miracle no one has been killed."
Under the headline "Factory Heat Inflames Workers", the Reporter described how the heatwave had led to a strike at the Osram electric lamp-making factory in Lea Green Road which had so far lasted five weeks:
"The 40 production line workers walked out after claiming that rising temperatures and conditions in the factory were unbearable.
"The strikers want more money to compensate for the high working temperatures and more breaks from work at the factory which makes fluorescent tubes.
"And one picket claimed the thermometer shot up to 112 degrees [44°C] at times and that women had passed out in the heat from machines."
The Reporter also described how prices of new potatoes in St Helens had "rocketed" by nearly 33% in the past fortnight:
"Last week shoppers were paying up to 9½p for a pound of new spuds…But this week the asking price is as much as 12p. One local farmer said the higher prices were due to excessive drought which had led to low crops."
And finally, it was all change at the ABC Savoy cinema from the 15th, with ‘Kelly’s Heroes', starring Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas, replacing 'One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the skateboard bans in St Helens, the two new park cafes, the Beechams' women's victory under the Equal Pay Act, the heatwave's increase in beer sales and the campaign to stamp out child battering.