FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (11th - 17th JANUARY 1971)
This week's many stories include the reign of terror in Haresfinch, a new main police station is planned for St Helens, the train vandals that caused disruption at Rainford, a lorry theft from Sherdley Road and the start of a long postal strike.
We begin on the 11th when St Helens police put out an appeal to members of the public to help them trace a lorry stolen over the weekend. The Leyland vehicle belonged to Joe Pickavance and had been taken from the rear of the haulage contractor's premises in Sherdley Road. Last year the St Helens Reporter had profiled Joe, describing how in 1938 the 21-year-old had borrowed £15 from his mother and with £15 of his own savings bought a three-ton Bedford tipper lorry. Now he had a fleet of 80 lorries with a turnover of over £1 million and drove to work in a Rolls Royce.
Also stolen over the weekend had been six Timex wristwatches worth £22, after a smash and grab raid at a shop in Concourse Way in Parr. The police also reported £33 had been stolen from Matty Coan's betting shop in Elephant Lane after the counter assistant had been distracted.
It was also announced on the 11th that improvements were going to be carried out to the conservatory in Sherdley Park, which would include a new roof. The conservatory was open to the public and situated near to Pets Corner.
Also on the 11th vandals disrupted rush-hour rail services from Liverpool's Exchange Station to Wigan and Bolton after cutting wires at Kirkby. Signals failed and trains halted at Rainford, with passengers having to sit in their carriages for the best part of two hours before communications were restored.
On the 12th the Liverpool Echo reported that work on building the new £30,000 St Helens police headquarters was expected to begin in April. Planning approval had already been given and the new block was going to be constructed on a site off College Street, near the junction with Corporation Street. When the offices were ready in about 18 months' time, the police would move out of their old Central Police Office premises at the Town Hall. They had occupied these offices for almost one hundred years and its entrance is pictured above.
The Echo added that the new police station was going to be built near the proposed new court buildings, which were to be built at a cost of £270,000. A county court, a juvenile court, and two magistrates' courts would be included in the new building, which was expected to be ready for use in 1973. Whether these new buildings would help to reduce crime, however, was another matter.
During the evening of the 13th St Thomas's church in Westfield Street was broken into and silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to the church almost 130 years earlier was stolen. Then three days later "Gang Terrorises Town By Night" was the headline to a big story on the front page of the Echo. The article described how a 5-hour long "reign of terror" had prevailed throughout the Haresfinch and Parr areas of St Helens.
A police spokesman told the paper how a "brutally alarming gang" of three youths had attacked and robbed three lone pedestrians, committing the worst night of brutality experienced in St Helens for a long time. The drama unfolded around midnight when a 20-year-old youth was walking along Standish Street. On some wasteland near the junction of Earl Street he was attacked from behind and had some of his possessions taken.
Twenty minutes later the trio attacked a 57-year-old man as he was walking through Haresfinch Park, robbing him of a wallet and £14. The man was knocked to the ground from behind and received a broken nose and other facial injuries and was now in hospital. "The thugs must have lain low for an hour or two", continued the police spokesman, as he described how the next incident did not occur until 4:15 a.m. Then the gang kicked in the door of a kiosk in Washway Lane at Lennon's garage near to the park. However a night watchman beat them off using a bottle and the gang ran off.
But fifteen minutes later in Carr Mill Road, the trio waylaid a 21-year-old cook going home from work, again attacking him from behind and stealing £2 5s and a scarf. Detective Superintendent Frank Ward of St Helens CID declared: "This was an intolerable series of attacks and robberies and I appeal to the public to help us in every way to trace the gang responsible. We must trace this gang, otherwise the night's incidents may be repeated, and we cannot have the community terrorised."
There were two St Helens stories on the same page of the Daily Mirror on the 16th. The first concerned Gerry Caughey, the leader of the strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year. The 36-year-old former Triplex worker was now declaring his desire to "bury the hatchet" with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Mirror put it, was the union "on which he declared war". The paper wrote that Mr Caughey from Sutton Manor had not being able to get a job since being sacked, despite applying for many labouring jobs.
They added: "Now he is one of 20 ex-rebels who have formally applied for re-admission to the General and Municipal Workers Union. They believe that the only way they will ever work again, without moving to another town, is to rejoin their old union, and persuade its leaders to get them their old jobs back."
Gerry Caughey seemed a shadow of the highly vocal rebel who had led the damaging 7-week glass strike. In the paper he sounded rather desperate, telling the Mirror that he was even prepared to pay off his union subscription arrears if they would allow him back into the fold.
The second story in the paper was a rather odd one, which might have been headlined "Councillor Leaves Meetings at 9:45pm". "So what!", may well have been many readers' response to that. So instead the headline was the slightly more interesting "Work-To-Rule Protest Over Chatterboxes". Rainford Council meetings were scheduled to end at 9:45pm but sometimes they dragged on past 10pm – so one councillor had decided to always leave on the dot at quarter-to-ten.
That was the story in a nutshell but the Mirror chose to make a meal of it, writing: "A village councillor is working to rule – in protest against overtime at council meetings. Councillor James Hurst, 72, claims the late nights are caused by some committee members talking too much." They also got a quote from the council's clerk Ken Isherwood, who said: "I don't think we have any windbags on the council, although it's true some meetings do go on late."
Britain's first national postal strike was due to begin in a few days caused by the Post Office's refusal to meet the posties' demand of a 15% to 20% pay rise. The dispute would last for seven weeks and create a dilemma for those who provided services by mail. They had to try to find alternative means of sending and receiving letters – not least 'Place the Ball' in the Echo. That was quite a big deal then with weekly cash prizes on offer of £5,000 (around £80,000 in today's money). On the 16th the Echo said that "due to the postal emergency" coupons could be handed in at their branch offices, including at Shaw Street in St Helens.
Some people were clearly avid entrants to the contest. I've only mentioned 'Place the Ball' in these articles on two or three occasions and in one remarked how F. Ward from Queensway in Moss Bank had been a "near miss" winner. Then s/he had received £55 and this week they had won again, pocketing £57 this time, worth nearly £1,000 in today's money.
Although a nice little earner you could spend a lot of money participating in the competition. Up to fifty attempts could be made on each coupon at a total cost of six shillings (just one attempt cost threepence) and you could send in twenty coupons if you bought twenty papers. First class letter postage was then 5d – it is now 85p. That's around 40 times more expensive and more than double the average inflation increase over the past 50 years.
Next week's stories will include the arrest of the violent Haresfinch thugs, the creation of Knowsley Safari Park, the under-pitch heating at Knowsley Road and the start of the post office workers strike.
We begin on the 11th when St Helens police put out an appeal to members of the public to help them trace a lorry stolen over the weekend. The Leyland vehicle belonged to Joe Pickavance and had been taken from the rear of the haulage contractor's premises in Sherdley Road. Last year the St Helens Reporter had profiled Joe, describing how in 1938 the 21-year-old had borrowed £15 from his mother and with £15 of his own savings bought a three-ton Bedford tipper lorry. Now he had a fleet of 80 lorries with a turnover of over £1 million and drove to work in a Rolls Royce.
Also stolen over the weekend had been six Timex wristwatches worth £22, after a smash and grab raid at a shop in Concourse Way in Parr. The police also reported £33 had been stolen from Matty Coan's betting shop in Elephant Lane after the counter assistant had been distracted.
It was also announced on the 11th that improvements were going to be carried out to the conservatory in Sherdley Park, which would include a new roof. The conservatory was open to the public and situated near to Pets Corner.
Also on the 11th vandals disrupted rush-hour rail services from Liverpool's Exchange Station to Wigan and Bolton after cutting wires at Kirkby. Signals failed and trains halted at Rainford, with passengers having to sit in their carriages for the best part of two hours before communications were restored.
The Echo added that the new police station was going to be built near the proposed new court buildings, which were to be built at a cost of £270,000. A county court, a juvenile court, and two magistrates' courts would be included in the new building, which was expected to be ready for use in 1973. Whether these new buildings would help to reduce crime, however, was another matter.
During the evening of the 13th St Thomas's church in Westfield Street was broken into and silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to the church almost 130 years earlier was stolen. Then three days later "Gang Terrorises Town By Night" was the headline to a big story on the front page of the Echo. The article described how a 5-hour long "reign of terror" had prevailed throughout the Haresfinch and Parr areas of St Helens.
A police spokesman told the paper how a "brutally alarming gang" of three youths had attacked and robbed three lone pedestrians, committing the worst night of brutality experienced in St Helens for a long time. The drama unfolded around midnight when a 20-year-old youth was walking along Standish Street. On some wasteland near the junction of Earl Street he was attacked from behind and had some of his possessions taken.
Twenty minutes later the trio attacked a 57-year-old man as he was walking through Haresfinch Park, robbing him of a wallet and £14. The man was knocked to the ground from behind and received a broken nose and other facial injuries and was now in hospital. "The thugs must have lain low for an hour or two", continued the police spokesman, as he described how the next incident did not occur until 4:15 a.m. Then the gang kicked in the door of a kiosk in Washway Lane at Lennon's garage near to the park. However a night watchman beat them off using a bottle and the gang ran off.
But fifteen minutes later in Carr Mill Road, the trio waylaid a 21-year-old cook going home from work, again attacking him from behind and stealing £2 5s and a scarf. Detective Superintendent Frank Ward of St Helens CID declared: "This was an intolerable series of attacks and robberies and I appeal to the public to help us in every way to trace the gang responsible. We must trace this gang, otherwise the night's incidents may be repeated, and we cannot have the community terrorised."
There were two St Helens stories on the same page of the Daily Mirror on the 16th. The first concerned Gerry Caughey, the leader of the strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year. The 36-year-old former Triplex worker was now declaring his desire to "bury the hatchet" with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Mirror put it, was the union "on which he declared war". The paper wrote that Mr Caughey from Sutton Manor had not being able to get a job since being sacked, despite applying for many labouring jobs.
They added: "Now he is one of 20 ex-rebels who have formally applied for re-admission to the General and Municipal Workers Union. They believe that the only way they will ever work again, without moving to another town, is to rejoin their old union, and persuade its leaders to get them their old jobs back."
Gerry Caughey seemed a shadow of the highly vocal rebel who had led the damaging 7-week glass strike. In the paper he sounded rather desperate, telling the Mirror that he was even prepared to pay off his union subscription arrears if they would allow him back into the fold.
The second story in the paper was a rather odd one, which might have been headlined "Councillor Leaves Meetings at 9:45pm". "So what!", may well have been many readers' response to that. So instead the headline was the slightly more interesting "Work-To-Rule Protest Over Chatterboxes". Rainford Council meetings were scheduled to end at 9:45pm but sometimes they dragged on past 10pm – so one councillor had decided to always leave on the dot at quarter-to-ten.
That was the story in a nutshell but the Mirror chose to make a meal of it, writing: "A village councillor is working to rule – in protest against overtime at council meetings. Councillor James Hurst, 72, claims the late nights are caused by some committee members talking too much." They also got a quote from the council's clerk Ken Isherwood, who said: "I don't think we have any windbags on the council, although it's true some meetings do go on late."
Britain's first national postal strike was due to begin in a few days caused by the Post Office's refusal to meet the posties' demand of a 15% to 20% pay rise. The dispute would last for seven weeks and create a dilemma for those who provided services by mail. They had to try to find alternative means of sending and receiving letters – not least 'Place the Ball' in the Echo. That was quite a big deal then with weekly cash prizes on offer of £5,000 (around £80,000 in today's money). On the 16th the Echo said that "due to the postal emergency" coupons could be handed in at their branch offices, including at Shaw Street in St Helens.
Some people were clearly avid entrants to the contest. I've only mentioned 'Place the Ball' in these articles on two or three occasions and in one remarked how F. Ward from Queensway in Moss Bank had been a "near miss" winner. Then s/he had received £55 and this week they had won again, pocketing £57 this time, worth nearly £1,000 in today's money.
Although a nice little earner you could spend a lot of money participating in the competition. Up to fifty attempts could be made on each coupon at a total cost of six shillings (just one attempt cost threepence) and you could send in twenty coupons if you bought twenty papers. First class letter postage was then 5d – it is now 85p. That's around 40 times more expensive and more than double the average inflation increase over the past 50 years.
Next week's stories will include the arrest of the violent Haresfinch thugs, the creation of Knowsley Safari Park, the under-pitch heating at Knowsley Road and the start of the post office workers strike.
This week's many stories include the reign of terror in Haresfinch, a new main police station is planned for St Helens, the train vandals that caused disruption at Rainford, a lorry theft from Sherdley Road and the start of a long postal strike.
We begin on the 11th when St Helens police put out an appeal to members of the public to help them trace a lorry stolen over the weekend.
The Leyland vehicle belonged to Joe Pickavance and had been taken from the rear of the haulage contractor's premises in Sherdley Road.
Last year the St Helens Reporter had profiled Joe, describing how in 1938 the 21-year-old had borrowed £15 from his mother and with £15 of his own savings bought a three-ton Bedford tipper lorry.
Now he had a fleet of 80 lorries with a turnover of over £1 million and drove to work in a Rolls Royce.
Also stolen over the weekend had been six Timex wristwatches worth £22, after a smash and grab raid at a shop in Concourse Way in Parr.
The police also reported £33 had been stolen from Matty Coan's betting shop in Elephant Lane after the counter assistant had been distracted.
It was also announced on the 11th that improvements were going to be carried out to the conservatory in Sherdley Park, which would include a new roof.
The conservatory was open to the public and situated near to Pets Corner.
Also on the 11th vandals disrupted rush-hour rail services from Liverpool's Exchange Station to Wigan and Bolton after cutting wires at Kirkby.
Signals failed and trains halted at Rainford, with passengers having to sit in their carriages for the best part of two hours before communications were restored.
On the 12th the Liverpool Echo reported that work on building the new £30,000 St Helens police headquarters was expected to begin in April.
Planning approval had already been given and the new block was going to be constructed on a site off College Street, near the junction with Corporation Street.
When the offices were ready in about 18 months' time, the police would move out of their old Central Police Office premises at the Town Hall.
They had occupied these offices for almost one hundred years and its entrance is pictured above.
The Echo added that the new police station was going to be built near the proposed new court buildings, which were to be built at a cost of £270,000.
A county court, a juvenile court, and two magistrates' courts would be included in the new building, which was expected to be ready for use in 1973.
Whether these new buildings would help to reduce crime, however, was another matter.
During the evening of the 13th St Thomas's church in Westfield Street was broken into and silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to the church almost 130 years earlier was stolen.
Then three days later "Gang Terrorises Town By Night" was the headline to a big story on the front page of the Echo.
The article described how a 5-hour long "reign of terror" had prevailed throughout the Haresfinch and Parr areas of St Helens.
A police spokesman told the paper how a "brutally alarming gang" of three youths had attacked and robbed three lone pedestrians, committing the worst night of brutality experienced in St Helens for a long time.
The drama unfolded around midnight when a 20-year-old youth was walking along Standish Street.
On some wasteland near the junction of Earl Street he was attacked from behind and had some of his possessions taken.
Twenty minutes later the trio attacked a 57-year-old man as he was walking through Haresfinch Park, robbing him of a wallet and £14.
The man was knocked to the ground from behind and received a broken nose and other facial injuries and was now in hospital.
"The thugs must have lain low for an hour or two", continued the police spokesman, as he described how the next incident did not occur until 4:15 a.m.
Then the gang kicked in the door of a kiosk in Washway Lane at Lennon's garage near to the park. However a night watchman beat them off using a bottle and the gang ran off.
But fifteen minutes later in Carr Mill Road, the trio waylaid a 21-year-old cook going home from work, again attacking him from behind and stealing £2 5s and a scarf.
Detective Superintendent Frank Ward of St Helens CID declared:
"This was an intolerable series of attacks and robberies and I appeal to the public to help us in every way to trace the gang responsible. We must trace this gang, otherwise the night's incidents may be repeated, and we cannot have the community terrorised."
There were two St Helens stories on the same page of the Daily Mirror on the 16th.
The first concerned Gerry Caughey, the leader of the strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year.
The 36-year-old former Triplex worker was now declaring his desire to "bury the hatchet" with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Mirror put it, was the union "on which he declared war".
The paper wrote that Mr Caughey from Sutton Manor had not being able to get a job since being sacked, despite applying for many labouring jobs. They added:
"Now he is one of 20 ex-rebels who have formally applied for re-admission to the General and Municipal Workers Union. They believe that the only way they will ever work again, without moving to another town, is to rejoin their old union, and persuade its leaders to get them their old jobs back."
Gerry Caughey seemed a shadow of the highly vocal rebel who had led the damaging 7-week glass strike.
In the paper he sounded rather desperate, telling the Mirror that he was even prepared to pay off his union subscription arrears if they would allow him back into the fold.
The second story in the paper was a rather odd one, which might have been headlined "Councillor Leaves Meetings at 9:45pm".
"So what!", may well have been many readers' response to that. So instead the headline was the slightly more interesting "Work-To-Rule Protest Over Chatterboxes".
Rainford Council meetings were scheduled to end at 9:45pm but sometimes they dragged on past 10pm – so one councillor had decided to always leave on the dot at quarter-to-ten.
That was the story in a nutshell but the Mirror chose to make a meal of it, writing:
"A village councillor is working to rule – in protest against overtime at council meetings. Councillor James Hurst, 72, claims the late nights are caused by some committee members talking too much."
They also got a quote from the council's clerk Ken Isherwood, who said: "I don't think we have any windbags on the council, although it's true some meetings do go on late."
Britain's first national postal strike was due to begin in a few days caused by the Post Office's refusal to meet the posties' demand of a 15% to 20% pay rise.
The dispute would last for seven weeks and create a dilemma for those who provided services by mail.
They had to try to find alternative means of sending and receiving letters – not least 'Place the Ball' in the Echo.
That was quite a big deal then with weekly cash prizes on offer of £5,000 (around £80,000 in today's money).
On the 16th the Echo said that "due to the postal emergency" coupons could be handed in at their branch offices, including at Shaw Street in St Helens.
Some people were clearly avid entrants to the contest.
I've only mentioned 'Place the Ball' in these articles on two or three occasions and in one remarked how F. Ward from Queensway in Moss Bank had been a "near miss" winner.
Then s/he had received £55 and this week they had won again, pocketing £57 this time, worth nearly £1,000 in today's money.
Although a nice little earner you could spend a lot of money participating in the competition.
Up to fifty attempts could be made on each coupon at a total cost of six shillings (just one attempt cost threepence) and you could send in twenty coupons if you bought twenty papers.
First class letter postage was then 5d – it is now 85p.
That's around 40 times more expensive and more than double the average inflation increase over the past 50 years.
Next week's stories will include the arrest of the violent Haresfinch thugs, the creation of Knowsley Safari Park, the under-pitch heating at Knowsley Road and the start of the post office workers strike.
We begin on the 11th when St Helens police put out an appeal to members of the public to help them trace a lorry stolen over the weekend.
The Leyland vehicle belonged to Joe Pickavance and had been taken from the rear of the haulage contractor's premises in Sherdley Road.
Last year the St Helens Reporter had profiled Joe, describing how in 1938 the 21-year-old had borrowed £15 from his mother and with £15 of his own savings bought a three-ton Bedford tipper lorry.
Now he had a fleet of 80 lorries with a turnover of over £1 million and drove to work in a Rolls Royce.
Also stolen over the weekend had been six Timex wristwatches worth £22, after a smash and grab raid at a shop in Concourse Way in Parr.
The police also reported £33 had been stolen from Matty Coan's betting shop in Elephant Lane after the counter assistant had been distracted.
It was also announced on the 11th that improvements were going to be carried out to the conservatory in Sherdley Park, which would include a new roof.
The conservatory was open to the public and situated near to Pets Corner.
Also on the 11th vandals disrupted rush-hour rail services from Liverpool's Exchange Station to Wigan and Bolton after cutting wires at Kirkby.
Signals failed and trains halted at Rainford, with passengers having to sit in their carriages for the best part of two hours before communications were restored.
On the 12th the Liverpool Echo reported that work on building the new £30,000 St Helens police headquarters was expected to begin in April.
Planning approval had already been given and the new block was going to be constructed on a site off College Street, near the junction with Corporation Street.
When the offices were ready in about 18 months' time, the police would move out of their old Central Police Office premises at the Town Hall.
The Echo added that the new police station was going to be built near the proposed new court buildings, which were to be built at a cost of £270,000.
A county court, a juvenile court, and two magistrates' courts would be included in the new building, which was expected to be ready for use in 1973.
Whether these new buildings would help to reduce crime, however, was another matter.
During the evening of the 13th St Thomas's church in Westfield Street was broken into and silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to the church almost 130 years earlier was stolen.
Then three days later "Gang Terrorises Town By Night" was the headline to a big story on the front page of the Echo.
The article described how a 5-hour long "reign of terror" had prevailed throughout the Haresfinch and Parr areas of St Helens.
A police spokesman told the paper how a "brutally alarming gang" of three youths had attacked and robbed three lone pedestrians, committing the worst night of brutality experienced in St Helens for a long time.
The drama unfolded around midnight when a 20-year-old youth was walking along Standish Street.
On some wasteland near the junction of Earl Street he was attacked from behind and had some of his possessions taken.
Twenty minutes later the trio attacked a 57-year-old man as he was walking through Haresfinch Park, robbing him of a wallet and £14.
The man was knocked to the ground from behind and received a broken nose and other facial injuries and was now in hospital.
"The thugs must have lain low for an hour or two", continued the police spokesman, as he described how the next incident did not occur until 4:15 a.m.
Then the gang kicked in the door of a kiosk in Washway Lane at Lennon's garage near to the park. However a night watchman beat them off using a bottle and the gang ran off.
But fifteen minutes later in Carr Mill Road, the trio waylaid a 21-year-old cook going home from work, again attacking him from behind and stealing £2 5s and a scarf.
Detective Superintendent Frank Ward of St Helens CID declared:
"This was an intolerable series of attacks and robberies and I appeal to the public to help us in every way to trace the gang responsible. We must trace this gang, otherwise the night's incidents may be repeated, and we cannot have the community terrorised."
There were two St Helens stories on the same page of the Daily Mirror on the 16th.
The first concerned Gerry Caughey, the leader of the strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year.
The 36-year-old former Triplex worker was now declaring his desire to "bury the hatchet" with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Mirror put it, was the union "on which he declared war".
The paper wrote that Mr Caughey from Sutton Manor had not being able to get a job since being sacked, despite applying for many labouring jobs. They added:
"Now he is one of 20 ex-rebels who have formally applied for re-admission to the General and Municipal Workers Union. They believe that the only way they will ever work again, without moving to another town, is to rejoin their old union, and persuade its leaders to get them their old jobs back."
Gerry Caughey seemed a shadow of the highly vocal rebel who had led the damaging 7-week glass strike.
In the paper he sounded rather desperate, telling the Mirror that he was even prepared to pay off his union subscription arrears if they would allow him back into the fold.
The second story in the paper was a rather odd one, which might have been headlined "Councillor Leaves Meetings at 9:45pm".
"So what!", may well have been many readers' response to that. So instead the headline was the slightly more interesting "Work-To-Rule Protest Over Chatterboxes".
Rainford Council meetings were scheduled to end at 9:45pm but sometimes they dragged on past 10pm – so one councillor had decided to always leave on the dot at quarter-to-ten.
That was the story in a nutshell but the Mirror chose to make a meal of it, writing:
"A village councillor is working to rule – in protest against overtime at council meetings. Councillor James Hurst, 72, claims the late nights are caused by some committee members talking too much."
They also got a quote from the council's clerk Ken Isherwood, who said: "I don't think we have any windbags on the council, although it's true some meetings do go on late."
Britain's first national postal strike was due to begin in a few days caused by the Post Office's refusal to meet the posties' demand of a 15% to 20% pay rise.
The dispute would last for seven weeks and create a dilemma for those who provided services by mail.
They had to try to find alternative means of sending and receiving letters – not least 'Place the Ball' in the Echo.
That was quite a big deal then with weekly cash prizes on offer of £5,000 (around £80,000 in today's money).
On the 16th the Echo said that "due to the postal emergency" coupons could be handed in at their branch offices, including at Shaw Street in St Helens.
Some people were clearly avid entrants to the contest.
I've only mentioned 'Place the Ball' in these articles on two or three occasions and in one remarked how F. Ward from Queensway in Moss Bank had been a "near miss" winner.
Then s/he had received £55 and this week they had won again, pocketing £57 this time, worth nearly £1,000 in today's money.
Although a nice little earner you could spend a lot of money participating in the competition.
Up to fifty attempts could be made on each coupon at a total cost of six shillings (just one attempt cost threepence) and you could send in twenty coupons if you bought twenty papers.
First class letter postage was then 5d – it is now 85p.
That's around 40 times more expensive and more than double the average inflation increase over the past 50 years.
Next week's stories will include the arrest of the violent Haresfinch thugs, the creation of Knowsley Safari Park, the under-pitch heating at Knowsley Road and the start of the post office workers strike.