FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (11th - 17th February 1969)
This week's sixteen stories include the end of the Greenall's beer strike, an MP protests over child killer Mary Bell being held in Newton-le-Willows, a bomb scare at the Plaza in Duke Street, a new dancing school in Prescot Road, prime minister Harold Wilson writes about Eccleston's new library and the fury of the ladies of the Victoria Park bowls team.
We begin on the 11th with a fear of an explosion at Bold after propane began leaking from an intake valve at Lignacite. The company in Bold Road manufactured concrete insulation blocks for the building trade and a strong wind began blowing the gas towards their office block.
So the order went out to extinguish all naked lights, including cigarettes, until the all clear could be given. St Helens' firemen stood by for an hour until all the gas had dispersed and the fire danger averted.
Beer deliveries to Greenall Whitley pubs resumed on the 11th after the week-long strike by more than sixty draymen was brought to an end. This was as a result of talks between the management and union officials.
The strike was over non-union labour and had resulted in many pubs in St Helens running out of beer. Among the hardest hit were those in Thatto Heath, where supplies had not been received for 12 days.
Also on the 11th Fred Lee, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and MP for Newton-le-Willows, demanded that Mary Bell be removed from his constituency. The 11-year-old had been sentenced to life detention for the manslaughter of two small boys and transferred to the Red Bank Approved School in Newton.
Although this was a home for boys, Mary had been placed in a newly created self-contained unit for girls for "extended observation and assessment". In a letter to Home Secretary James Callaghan, Mr Lee said: "It really begins to look as if we are the receiving centre of the worst type of undesirables in the country." Speaking to the Guardian, the MP added:
"I am calling for the stopping of the arrival of girls at Red Bank School. Why should girls of this character, who have been rejected by society everywhere else, be allowed to come to Newton-le-Willows?"
There was a bomb scare at the Plaza (pictured above in 1967) on the 12th after someone rang the fire brigade in Parr Stocks Road and claimed a device had been planted inside the Duke Street club. A disco night was being held and about 100 people, mostly teenagers, had to be cleared from the premises.
For three evenings from the 13th, the Octagon Company performed John Osborne's 1956 play 'Look Back in Anger' at the Theatre Royal.
During his parliamentary career Harold Wilson represented two constituencies, both of which had St Helens connections. Between 1945 and 1950 he was the MP for Ormskirk, which then included Rainford.
Then from 1950 until 1983 the two-time prime minister served as MP for Huyton, which had Eccleston within its electoral boundaries. Last December Eccleston Parish Council had written to Wilson wanting to know when work would start on the planned new library in Broadway.
At their meeting on the 14th the councillors were told that a reply had been received in which the prime minister had said the "current financial difficulties" were preventing loan sanction being granted. However Wilson felt that the project would stand a good chance of starting during the early ‘70s, if not in the next financial year.
Last June the existing library in Eccleston had been declared "utterly inadequate" with books overflowing from its shelves onto every available space. It was so small that the staff had to be kept down to two. To add to the problems the clerk to the parish council informed the members at their meeting that a hole had been discovered in the roof of the library.
After fourteen years of being published on a Saturday, the St Helens Reporter announced in its edition on the 15th that from next week it would be reverting to Fridays. The paper also stated that another public inquiry was going to be held next week at the Town Hall to consider objections to proposed Compulsory Purchase Orders.
St Helens Corporation were seeking orders to buy and then demolish over fifty properties in Duke Street, Mill Street, Volunteer Street, Ormskirk Street, Hill Street, Leach Street, Haswell Street and Wilfred Street. Most of them were houses but there were also businesses, including the Anne Barrow gown shop that had been in Duke Street since 1933. Wilf Sefton's printing firm at the junction of Duke Street and Ormskirk Street – which had been in business for over 35 years – was also going to be affected.
There were many such inquiries in St Helens in the late ‘60s as the large-scale redevelopment of the town was taking place and residents and business owners appealed against the council's orders. Understandably some people didn't appreciate losing the properties that they'd occupied for many years, despite the shocking state that some were in.
The paper profiled a couple from College Street who were celebrating their diamond anniversary after eloping to get married in 1909. Sarah Carter said she was happier now than ever before and explained how she and her husband Joe had defied her parents' wishes and married at Whiston Registry Office.
Her mother felt that Joe at 25 was too old for her 18-year-old daughter, despite having given birth to Sarah when she was only 16. "I don't regret one minute", said Mrs Carter, "Joe's the best husband in the world. Although we only had 18s. a week income when we were married, we've loved every minute of our married life."
Also celebrating sixty years of wedded bliss were Richard and Sarah Lowe of McCormack Avenue in Parr. They had gone against tradition by travelling together in a horse-drawn cab to their wedding at St Peter's Church. The couple had first met at a fairground and had no honeymoon, with Richard having to return to his job as a miner forty-eight hours after their wedding.
The women of the bowls team in Victoria Park (pictured above) used the columns of the Reporter to vent their frustration at the lack of a changing hut. The council's Parks Committee had promised them one back in 1930 but failed to deliver. Then their average age was twenty-eight but now most of the team were pensioners but still waiting for their hut.
Every year they had sent in an application to the council but without success. The ladies had been remarkably patient but the final straw came with the announcement of a £64,000 golf course for Sherdley Park. Margaret Boston from Harris Street said:
"The golf course won't even be used by most people in St. Helens. During a game the team have to leave their handbags and clothes on the edge of the green, or pay half-a-crown each for a locker in the tiny bowls house. Other parks have the facilities we are asking for. Why have the Council done nothing for us when they have done so much for everyone else over the years?
"When visiting teams come here, they have to queue up at the café in the park and pay 6d. for a cup of tea. We have nowhere to make refreshments. Male members of the park's tennis team also have to change behind trees and the ladies can recall many an embarrassing moment."
Also in the Reporter was an advert from 'Pilkingtons The Garden People' who were promoting a "Removal Sale", offering a two-shillings in the pound discount on purchases over £1. I suppose that sounds a bit better than 10%! They were closing down their Baldwin Street store and consolidating operations at their "highly successful" garden centre at Bold Heath.
A special meeting of the Newton-le-Willows Trades and Labour Council was held on the 16th to discuss expected redundancies at English Electric's Vulcan Foundry. If the 1,200 engine builders lost their jobs as expected, it was predicted that Newton would have the highest level of unemployment in the North West.
At the ABC in Bridge Street (aka Savoy) on the 16th seven days of screenings began of 'Thoroughly Modern Millie', starring Julie Andrews (who was "singing, dancing, delighting"), Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing.
A new dancing school in Prescot Road called 'The Court' opened its doors on the 17th. Those who turned up for the opening night could meet Courtenay Castle, who according to their ad in the Reporter was "the man who brings “have fun” dancing to the millions". Castle owned a chain of dance schools and is credited with making dancing accessible to the general British public.
The dress code was "informal, but collar and tie, please, gentlemen." Their school was open six days a week offering classes for 4/6d (Saturdays 5/6), with an annual membership fee of one shilling. The dances that were taught were waltzes, Paul Jones dance, modern trend and the quicksteps.
Six evenings of 'Old Time Music Hall' began at the Theatre Royal on the 17th starring Reginald Dixon, Nat Gonella and Margery Manners. Seats cost 7/6 in the stalls and 8/6 or 6 shillings in the circle.
A double dose of Daleks was on offer during the afternoon of the 17th at the Capitol, with screenings of 'Dr Who and the Daleks' and 'Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD'. Both films starred Peter Cushing, who also appeared during the evening at the Cap along with Christopher Lee in 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors'.
Next week's stories will include the shame of a St Helens' bobby, a strike at BICC in Prescot, the residents of Woodville Street fear being "shaken to pieces", a gas outage in Blackbrook, communal TV for council tenants in Berrys Lane and in Pendlebury Street and Pilks' announce expansion plans.
We begin on the 11th with a fear of an explosion at Bold after propane began leaking from an intake valve at Lignacite. The company in Bold Road manufactured concrete insulation blocks for the building trade and a strong wind began blowing the gas towards their office block.
So the order went out to extinguish all naked lights, including cigarettes, until the all clear could be given. St Helens' firemen stood by for an hour until all the gas had dispersed and the fire danger averted.
Beer deliveries to Greenall Whitley pubs resumed on the 11th after the week-long strike by more than sixty draymen was brought to an end. This was as a result of talks between the management and union officials.
The strike was over non-union labour and had resulted in many pubs in St Helens running out of beer. Among the hardest hit were those in Thatto Heath, where supplies had not been received for 12 days.
Also on the 11th Fred Lee, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and MP for Newton-le-Willows, demanded that Mary Bell be removed from his constituency. The 11-year-old had been sentenced to life detention for the manslaughter of two small boys and transferred to the Red Bank Approved School in Newton.
Although this was a home for boys, Mary had been placed in a newly created self-contained unit for girls for "extended observation and assessment". In a letter to Home Secretary James Callaghan, Mr Lee said: "It really begins to look as if we are the receiving centre of the worst type of undesirables in the country." Speaking to the Guardian, the MP added:
"I am calling for the stopping of the arrival of girls at Red Bank School. Why should girls of this character, who have been rejected by society everywhere else, be allowed to come to Newton-le-Willows?"
For three evenings from the 13th, the Octagon Company performed John Osborne's 1956 play 'Look Back in Anger' at the Theatre Royal.
During his parliamentary career Harold Wilson represented two constituencies, both of which had St Helens connections. Between 1945 and 1950 he was the MP for Ormskirk, which then included Rainford.
Then from 1950 until 1983 the two-time prime minister served as MP for Huyton, which had Eccleston within its electoral boundaries. Last December Eccleston Parish Council had written to Wilson wanting to know when work would start on the planned new library in Broadway.
At their meeting on the 14th the councillors were told that a reply had been received in which the prime minister had said the "current financial difficulties" were preventing loan sanction being granted. However Wilson felt that the project would stand a good chance of starting during the early ‘70s, if not in the next financial year.
Last June the existing library in Eccleston had been declared "utterly inadequate" with books overflowing from its shelves onto every available space. It was so small that the staff had to be kept down to two. To add to the problems the clerk to the parish council informed the members at their meeting that a hole had been discovered in the roof of the library.
After fourteen years of being published on a Saturday, the St Helens Reporter announced in its edition on the 15th that from next week it would be reverting to Fridays. The paper also stated that another public inquiry was going to be held next week at the Town Hall to consider objections to proposed Compulsory Purchase Orders.
St Helens Corporation were seeking orders to buy and then demolish over fifty properties in Duke Street, Mill Street, Volunteer Street, Ormskirk Street, Hill Street, Leach Street, Haswell Street and Wilfred Street. Most of them were houses but there were also businesses, including the Anne Barrow gown shop that had been in Duke Street since 1933. Wilf Sefton's printing firm at the junction of Duke Street and Ormskirk Street – which had been in business for over 35 years – was also going to be affected.
There were many such inquiries in St Helens in the late ‘60s as the large-scale redevelopment of the town was taking place and residents and business owners appealed against the council's orders. Understandably some people didn't appreciate losing the properties that they'd occupied for many years, despite the shocking state that some were in.
The paper profiled a couple from College Street who were celebrating their diamond anniversary after eloping to get married in 1909. Sarah Carter said she was happier now than ever before and explained how she and her husband Joe had defied her parents' wishes and married at Whiston Registry Office.
Her mother felt that Joe at 25 was too old for her 18-year-old daughter, despite having given birth to Sarah when she was only 16. "I don't regret one minute", said Mrs Carter, "Joe's the best husband in the world. Although we only had 18s. a week income when we were married, we've loved every minute of our married life."
Also celebrating sixty years of wedded bliss were Richard and Sarah Lowe of McCormack Avenue in Parr. They had gone against tradition by travelling together in a horse-drawn cab to their wedding at St Peter's Church. The couple had first met at a fairground and had no honeymoon, with Richard having to return to his job as a miner forty-eight hours after their wedding.
Every year they had sent in an application to the council but without success. The ladies had been remarkably patient but the final straw came with the announcement of a £64,000 golf course for Sherdley Park. Margaret Boston from Harris Street said:
"The golf course won't even be used by most people in St. Helens. During a game the team have to leave their handbags and clothes on the edge of the green, or pay half-a-crown each for a locker in the tiny bowls house. Other parks have the facilities we are asking for. Why have the Council done nothing for us when they have done so much for everyone else over the years?
"When visiting teams come here, they have to queue up at the café in the park and pay 6d. for a cup of tea. We have nowhere to make refreshments. Male members of the park's tennis team also have to change behind trees and the ladies can recall many an embarrassing moment."
Also in the Reporter was an advert from 'Pilkingtons The Garden People' who were promoting a "Removal Sale", offering a two-shillings in the pound discount on purchases over £1. I suppose that sounds a bit better than 10%! They were closing down their Baldwin Street store and consolidating operations at their "highly successful" garden centre at Bold Heath.
A special meeting of the Newton-le-Willows Trades and Labour Council was held on the 16th to discuss expected redundancies at English Electric's Vulcan Foundry. If the 1,200 engine builders lost their jobs as expected, it was predicted that Newton would have the highest level of unemployment in the North West.
At the ABC in Bridge Street (aka Savoy) on the 16th seven days of screenings began of 'Thoroughly Modern Millie', starring Julie Andrews (who was "singing, dancing, delighting"), Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing.
A new dancing school in Prescot Road called 'The Court' opened its doors on the 17th. Those who turned up for the opening night could meet Courtenay Castle, who according to their ad in the Reporter was "the man who brings “have fun” dancing to the millions". Castle owned a chain of dance schools and is credited with making dancing accessible to the general British public.
The dress code was "informal, but collar and tie, please, gentlemen." Their school was open six days a week offering classes for 4/6d (Saturdays 5/6), with an annual membership fee of one shilling. The dances that were taught were waltzes, Paul Jones dance, modern trend and the quicksteps.
Six evenings of 'Old Time Music Hall' began at the Theatre Royal on the 17th starring Reginald Dixon, Nat Gonella and Margery Manners. Seats cost 7/6 in the stalls and 8/6 or 6 shillings in the circle.
A double dose of Daleks was on offer during the afternoon of the 17th at the Capitol, with screenings of 'Dr Who and the Daleks' and 'Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD'. Both films starred Peter Cushing, who also appeared during the evening at the Cap along with Christopher Lee in 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors'.
Next week's stories will include the shame of a St Helens' bobby, a strike at BICC in Prescot, the residents of Woodville Street fear being "shaken to pieces", a gas outage in Blackbrook, communal TV for council tenants in Berrys Lane and in Pendlebury Street and Pilks' announce expansion plans.