FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th JULY 1971)
This week's many stories include the lengthy telephone waiting list in St Helens, the putrid smells in Borough Road, the worsening woes of strike rebel Gerry Caughey, the run up to the third St Helens Show, the bent Knowsley policeman and concern over a lack of grammar school places for Prescot girls who had passed their 11-plus.
We begin on the 12th when the Liverpool Echo reported that the final arrangements were being made for the third St Helens Show, which would start its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd. Because of an outbreak of fowl pest earlier in the year, the poultry section of the show had been cancelled – but rabbit and similar classes had been extended to compensate. Some people were coming to St Helens purely for the rabbit section as part of national club shows that included the exhibition of dwarf rabbits. Later in the week this advert would appear in the Echo:
"FREE! FREE! FREE! ST. HELENS SHOW. Sherdley Park. July 22, 23, 24. Show Jumping, Horticulture, Arts & Crafts, Fur & Feather, Dog Show, Clay Pigeon Shooting. Red Devils; Royal Marines Motor Cycles; R.A.F. Police Dogs; Fashion Shows; Army Combat Displays; Fleet Air Arm Exhibition. Coal Carrying Race (Saturday). Children's Concerts & Talent Competitions Daily. Thursday: Disco Night (8.0 to 11.30). Saturday: All-in Wrestling. Car Parks – 15p. Admission to Showground – Free."
The Parent Teachers Association of St Luke's R.C. Primary School in Prescot held a meeting on the 13th to express their concern over children passing the 11-plus but not getting a place at grammar school. Twenty-one pupils at the Shaw Lane school had passed the examination and nine boys and two girls had found places. But ten other girls were told there were no vacancies at any Catholic grammar school in the area and they would be sent instead to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive.
Terence Bretherton of Foxshaw Close in Whiston was chairman of the PTA and said: "The girls' parents are upset about this. We want to know what is the point in taking the 11-plus if it is not going to guarantee a place in the grammar school, and why there is a shortage of grammar school places." Parents in Penketh and Great Sankey had sent letters to Margaret Thatcher, the Secretary of State for Education, complaining of the same problem.
The woes of Gerry Caughey continue to worsen. The leader of the 7-week strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year had for months been trying to get his old job back at Triplex. Pilks had sacked Caughey after the 37-year-old had led a further brief strike later in the year. Despite making dozens of job applications, the father of three from Sutton Manor had not been able to find work elsewhere after being labelled a troublemaker.
Peace had now been made with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Daily Mirror put it, was the union on which Gerry Caughey had last year "declared war". That had been an important first step to his re-employment at Triplex. However the Eccleston works was not presently hiring because a lengthy Ford strike had reduced demand for car safety glass.
On the 15th The Guardian published this article about an increasingly desperate man: "Mr Gerry Caughey, the man who led the Pilkington strike, said yesterday: “I'm penniless.” He claims that for the last three weeks his family of five have lived on food begged from relatives. Mr Caughey's £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit have been stopped. Social Security investigators claim that he has been working. At his council home in Kipling Grove, Sutton Manor, St Helens, Mr Caughey said:
"“We haven't had a penny in the house since I was seen helping a friend to put up a stall on the market. No one will employ me. In 12 months the employment exchange has not been able to find me a single job. I have applied for 80 on my own and I have been turned down for every one. Sometimes you feel you are just going out of your mind staring at four walls. I was in town and I thought I would give this bloke a hand putting up his stall. It was just for the pleasure of having something to do. I couldn't have been there more than a quarter of an hour. I didn't get a penny for it. The next thing I knew was I had been told I had been seen working and the money stopped.”"
On the 15th a police officer appeared before Prescot magistrates charged with stealing from his colleagues at the police hostel within Knowsley Hall. As a result of a series of thefts from the hostel, notes were marked with a dye and left in a room. Some were found in the possession of the 19-year-old constable who was fined a total of £40 and no doubt dismissed from the force.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 16th, Corporal James Robinson was pictured being presented with a silver trophy after being chosen Cadet of the Year for the St Helens Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade.
The newspaper continued its fundraising drive for the indebted Providence Hospital and on its front page printed this letter from Joe Dyas of Peet Avenue in Eccleston: "I was in St Peter's ward at Providence Hospital. There I was treated just like all the rest in the ward – as a VIP. I shall always be grateful to the staff's kindness and understanding, and they can be jolly, too, when the occasion arises. I regard them all as trainee angels."
Those promoting their wares in the Reporter's St Helens Show advertising feature included Harold Stott of Westfield Street. The former Rothery Radio service manager had a "magnificent display of Colour TVs" on show within the Trades' Marquee, along with "top quality stereo sound equipment". The message was "Music Comes Alive With Stereo".
Other advertisers included Tom Collins & Sons, Boundary Road ("Motor cycle and scooter dealers"); Hattons, Prescot Road ("See us at the Show for the display of Austin cars"); Ashalls Cars, City Road ("During the Show our ‘Dr. Who’ Ford car Priscilla II will be giving rides around the showground") and Helena House ("St. Helens leading department store").
The latter was holding a fashion show at the annual event in Sherdley Park. The Post Office would also have a caravan at the St Helens Show, having now dropped “General” from its name after becoming a corporation. That change had done nothing for its long telephone waiting list. Indeed 1,800 homes within the St Helens district had over a year to wait before being connected.
However the Reporter revealed that a big investment in the telephone exchange in St Mary's Street would be paying dividends soon. And a new exchange in Marshalls Cross would be coming on stream in 1974 with a temporary building to be brought into service next year. All told £1.6 million was being spent – around £25m in today's money.
The residents of Borough Road were also featured in the Reporter after complaining that the sun brought with it "smells, rats and flies an inch long". The cause of the stench was said to be fly-tipping on an old railway line, which led to “thick, black oil, and pools of green, stagnant water." 66-year-old Cyril Hillan said: "It’s disgusting. People come from everywhere to dump their rubbish here. With the hot weather we are having now, the smell is terrible." Neighbour Lucy Williams added: "We have rats running round all the time in our back yards. When the wind blows our way, the smell from the rubbish is really putrid."
On the 18th thieves broke into the Maypole Dairy in Westfield Street in St Helens and stole cigarettes worth £100. A transistor radio, cash and cigarettes worth a total of £27 were also taken from Kendrick's general store in Edgeworth Street in Sutton. The furniture premises of H. Tebb and Son of Borough Road also suffered a break-in and had a sideboard worth £30 stolen.
And finally at the end of last month I mentioned that the Queen had opened the second Mersey Tunnel and named it 'Kingsway'. However hopes that the new tube under the river would immediately lift the pressure on motorists using the existing tunnel to Birkenhead known as 'Queensway' had been dashed. That was partly because a new computerised traffic control system had been introduced to the old tunnel and it was driving drivers daft! On June 16th the Echo had written:
"Regular Mersey Tunnel motorists caught up in the peak hour chaos this morning gave the new computer traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance a unanimous thumbs down. Angry and frustrated motorists blew off steam by blaring their horns at the impersonal traffic signals. Scores of drivers interviewed during this morning's rush hour claimed that the sophisticated electronic control system designed to give everybody an equal chance of reaching the overcrowded toll booths and the tunnel was just making things worse.
"One tunnel policeman admitted that the sudden rash of green and red lights, arrows, crosses and direction signs seemed too much for the average motorist to absorb.
"Not one motorist interviewed this morning had a kind word to say about the new system. Having travelled only 50 yards in 30 minutes, Mr. Harry Lester, of Claughton, claimed: “The traffic lights want ripping down, they are just causing chaos.” Mr. Douglas Allender, of Osmaston Road, Birkenhead, claimed: “It is chronic this week and it's getting worse.” He said that the explanation offered by the firm of installation engineers that motorists were causing the chaos by ignoring signs and crossing lanes was rubbish and contended that the computer was obviously not working properly."
But the computer was working perfectly well. The trouble was the system had been designed for the perfect motorist – not normal people! Fast-forward a month to this week and the Echo published this article explaining what was going wrong, under the headline "Tunnel Traffic Fools Computer":
"The new traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance to the Mersey Tunnel is not working satisfactorily, says the tunnel manager Mr. Sam Jones. In a letter to the Town Clerk of Birkenhead, Mr. Jones, says that whether the electrical equipment at the tunnel entrance is working properly or not, it acts “in a peculiar way at times.” He says tunnel users may be to blame, but adds: “I think we are in for a long period of virulent complaints which are not yet at their peak.”
"The chairman of the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee, Alderman H. Macdonald Steward, said yesterday they would have to keep an eye on the equipment. “If anyone changes lanes approaching the booths,” added Alderman Steward, “it fools the computer and causes confusion. Another problem seems to be that there is not enough prior notice to motorists of the need for lane discipline.” Councillor Bill Wells (Wallasey) said: “It seems to boil down to the fact that if all drivers were perfect and obeyed the instructions we would have no problems.”"
Next week's stories will include the woman silent in Rainhill Hospital for 30 years who could now talk, Harold Wilson gets involved in the Prescot grammar school row and the woman who lost her children in a Nazi concentration camp is honoured.
We begin on the 12th when the Liverpool Echo reported that the final arrangements were being made for the third St Helens Show, which would start its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd. Because of an outbreak of fowl pest earlier in the year, the poultry section of the show had been cancelled – but rabbit and similar classes had been extended to compensate. Some people were coming to St Helens purely for the rabbit section as part of national club shows that included the exhibition of dwarf rabbits. Later in the week this advert would appear in the Echo:
"FREE! FREE! FREE! ST. HELENS SHOW. Sherdley Park. July 22, 23, 24. Show Jumping, Horticulture, Arts & Crafts, Fur & Feather, Dog Show, Clay Pigeon Shooting. Red Devils; Royal Marines Motor Cycles; R.A.F. Police Dogs; Fashion Shows; Army Combat Displays; Fleet Air Arm Exhibition. Coal Carrying Race (Saturday). Children's Concerts & Talent Competitions Daily. Thursday: Disco Night (8.0 to 11.30). Saturday: All-in Wrestling. Car Parks – 15p. Admission to Showground – Free."
Terence Bretherton of Foxshaw Close in Whiston was chairman of the PTA and said: "The girls' parents are upset about this. We want to know what is the point in taking the 11-plus if it is not going to guarantee a place in the grammar school, and why there is a shortage of grammar school places." Parents in Penketh and Great Sankey had sent letters to Margaret Thatcher, the Secretary of State for Education, complaining of the same problem.
The woes of Gerry Caughey continue to worsen. The leader of the 7-week strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year had for months been trying to get his old job back at Triplex. Pilks had sacked Caughey after the 37-year-old had led a further brief strike later in the year. Despite making dozens of job applications, the father of three from Sutton Manor had not been able to find work elsewhere after being labelled a troublemaker.
Peace had now been made with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Daily Mirror put it, was the union on which Gerry Caughey had last year "declared war". That had been an important first step to his re-employment at Triplex. However the Eccleston works was not presently hiring because a lengthy Ford strike had reduced demand for car safety glass.
On the 15th The Guardian published this article about an increasingly desperate man: "Mr Gerry Caughey, the man who led the Pilkington strike, said yesterday: “I'm penniless.” He claims that for the last three weeks his family of five have lived on food begged from relatives. Mr Caughey's £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit have been stopped. Social Security investigators claim that he has been working. At his council home in Kipling Grove, Sutton Manor, St Helens, Mr Caughey said:
"“We haven't had a penny in the house since I was seen helping a friend to put up a stall on the market. No one will employ me. In 12 months the employment exchange has not been able to find me a single job. I have applied for 80 on my own and I have been turned down for every one. Sometimes you feel you are just going out of your mind staring at four walls. I was in town and I thought I would give this bloke a hand putting up his stall. It was just for the pleasure of having something to do. I couldn't have been there more than a quarter of an hour. I didn't get a penny for it. The next thing I knew was I had been told I had been seen working and the money stopped.”"
On the 15th a police officer appeared before Prescot magistrates charged with stealing from his colleagues at the police hostel within Knowsley Hall. As a result of a series of thefts from the hostel, notes were marked with a dye and left in a room. Some were found in the possession of the 19-year-old constable who was fined a total of £40 and no doubt dismissed from the force.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 16th, Corporal James Robinson was pictured being presented with a silver trophy after being chosen Cadet of the Year for the St Helens Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade.
The newspaper continued its fundraising drive for the indebted Providence Hospital and on its front page printed this letter from Joe Dyas of Peet Avenue in Eccleston: "I was in St Peter's ward at Providence Hospital. There I was treated just like all the rest in the ward – as a VIP. I shall always be grateful to the staff's kindness and understanding, and they can be jolly, too, when the occasion arises. I regard them all as trainee angels."
Those promoting their wares in the Reporter's St Helens Show advertising feature included Harold Stott of Westfield Street. The former Rothery Radio service manager had a "magnificent display of Colour TVs" on show within the Trades' Marquee, along with "top quality stereo sound equipment". The message was "Music Comes Alive With Stereo".
Other advertisers included Tom Collins & Sons, Boundary Road ("Motor cycle and scooter dealers"); Hattons, Prescot Road ("See us at the Show for the display of Austin cars"); Ashalls Cars, City Road ("During the Show our ‘Dr. Who’ Ford car Priscilla II will be giving rides around the showground") and Helena House ("St. Helens leading department store").
The latter was holding a fashion show at the annual event in Sherdley Park. The Post Office would also have a caravan at the St Helens Show, having now dropped “General” from its name after becoming a corporation. That change had done nothing for its long telephone waiting list. Indeed 1,800 homes within the St Helens district had over a year to wait before being connected.
However the Reporter revealed that a big investment in the telephone exchange in St Mary's Street would be paying dividends soon. And a new exchange in Marshalls Cross would be coming on stream in 1974 with a temporary building to be brought into service next year. All told £1.6 million was being spent – around £25m in today's money.
The residents of Borough Road were also featured in the Reporter after complaining that the sun brought with it "smells, rats and flies an inch long". The cause of the stench was said to be fly-tipping on an old railway line, which led to “thick, black oil, and pools of green, stagnant water." 66-year-old Cyril Hillan said: "It’s disgusting. People come from everywhere to dump their rubbish here. With the hot weather we are having now, the smell is terrible." Neighbour Lucy Williams added: "We have rats running round all the time in our back yards. When the wind blows our way, the smell from the rubbish is really putrid."
On the 18th thieves broke into the Maypole Dairy in Westfield Street in St Helens and stole cigarettes worth £100. A transistor radio, cash and cigarettes worth a total of £27 were also taken from Kendrick's general store in Edgeworth Street in Sutton. The furniture premises of H. Tebb and Son of Borough Road also suffered a break-in and had a sideboard worth £30 stolen.
And finally at the end of last month I mentioned that the Queen had opened the second Mersey Tunnel and named it 'Kingsway'. However hopes that the new tube under the river would immediately lift the pressure on motorists using the existing tunnel to Birkenhead known as 'Queensway' had been dashed. That was partly because a new computerised traffic control system had been introduced to the old tunnel and it was driving drivers daft! On June 16th the Echo had written:
"Regular Mersey Tunnel motorists caught up in the peak hour chaos this morning gave the new computer traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance a unanimous thumbs down. Angry and frustrated motorists blew off steam by blaring their horns at the impersonal traffic signals. Scores of drivers interviewed during this morning's rush hour claimed that the sophisticated electronic control system designed to give everybody an equal chance of reaching the overcrowded toll booths and the tunnel was just making things worse.
"One tunnel policeman admitted that the sudden rash of green and red lights, arrows, crosses and direction signs seemed too much for the average motorist to absorb.
"Not one motorist interviewed this morning had a kind word to say about the new system. Having travelled only 50 yards in 30 minutes, Mr. Harry Lester, of Claughton, claimed: “The traffic lights want ripping down, they are just causing chaos.” Mr. Douglas Allender, of Osmaston Road, Birkenhead, claimed: “It is chronic this week and it's getting worse.” He said that the explanation offered by the firm of installation engineers that motorists were causing the chaos by ignoring signs and crossing lanes was rubbish and contended that the computer was obviously not working properly."
But the computer was working perfectly well. The trouble was the system had been designed for the perfect motorist – not normal people! Fast-forward a month to this week and the Echo published this article explaining what was going wrong, under the headline "Tunnel Traffic Fools Computer":
"The new traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance to the Mersey Tunnel is not working satisfactorily, says the tunnel manager Mr. Sam Jones. In a letter to the Town Clerk of Birkenhead, Mr. Jones, says that whether the electrical equipment at the tunnel entrance is working properly or not, it acts “in a peculiar way at times.” He says tunnel users may be to blame, but adds: “I think we are in for a long period of virulent complaints which are not yet at their peak.”
"The chairman of the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee, Alderman H. Macdonald Steward, said yesterday they would have to keep an eye on the equipment. “If anyone changes lanes approaching the booths,” added Alderman Steward, “it fools the computer and causes confusion. Another problem seems to be that there is not enough prior notice to motorists of the need for lane discipline.” Councillor Bill Wells (Wallasey) said: “It seems to boil down to the fact that if all drivers were perfect and obeyed the instructions we would have no problems.”"
Next week's stories will include the woman silent in Rainhill Hospital for 30 years who could now talk, Harold Wilson gets involved in the Prescot grammar school row and the woman who lost her children in a Nazi concentration camp is honoured.
This week's many stories include the lengthy telephone waiting list in St Helens, the putrid smells in Borough Road, the worsening woes of strike rebel Gerry Caughey, the run up to the third St Helens Show, the bent Knowsley policeman and concern over a lack of grammar school places for Prescot girls who had passed their 11-plus.
We begin on the 12th when the Liverpool Echo reported that the final arrangements were being made for the third St Helens Show, which would start its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd.
Because of an outbreak of fowl pest earlier in the year, the poultry section of the show had been cancelled – but rabbit and similar classes had been extended to compensate.
Some people were coming to St Helens purely for the rabbit section as part of national club shows that included the exhibition of dwarf rabbits.
Later in the week this advert would appear in the Echo:
"FREE! FREE! FREE! ST. HELENS SHOW. Sherdley Park. July 22, 23, 24.
Show Jumping, Horticulture, Arts & Crafts, Fur & Feather, Dog Show, Clay Pigeon Shooting. Red Devils; Royal Marines Motor Cycles; R.A.F. Police Dogs; Fashion Shows; Army Combat Displays; Fleet Air Arm Exhibition.
Coal Carrying Race (Saturday). Children's Concerts & Talent Competitions Daily. Thursday: Disco Night (8.0 to 11.30). Saturday: All-in Wrestling. Car Parks – 15p. Admission to Showground – Free."
The Parent Teachers Association of St Luke's R.C. Primary School in Prescot held a meeting on the 13th to express their concern over children passing the 11-plus but not getting a place at grammar school.
Twenty-one pupils at the Shaw Lane school had passed the examination and nine boys and two girls had found places.
But ten other girls were told there were no vacancies at any Catholic grammar school in the area and they would be sent instead to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive.
Terence Bretherton of Foxshaw Close in Whiston was chairman of the PTA and said:
"The girls' parents are upset about this. We want to know what is the point in taking the 11-plus if it is not going to guarantee a place in the grammar school, and why there is a shortage of grammar school places."
Parents in Penketh and Great Sankey had sent letters to Margaret Thatcher, the Secretary of State for Education, complaining of the same problem.
The woes of Gerry Caughey continue to worsen. The leader of the 7-week strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year had for months been trying to get his old job back at Triplex.
Pilks had sacked Caughey after the 37-year-old had led a further brief strike later in the year.
Despite making dozens of job applications, the father of three from Sutton Manor had not been able to find work elsewhere after being labelled a troublemaker.
Peace had now been made with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Daily Mirror put it, was the union on which Gerry Caughey had last year "declared war".
That had been an important first step to his re-employment at Triplex. However the Eccleston works was not presently hiring because a lengthy Ford strike had reduced demand for car safety glass.
On the 15th The Guardian published this article about an increasingly desperate man:
"Mr Gerry Caughey, the man who led the Pilkington strike, said yesterday: “I'm penniless.” He claims that for the last three weeks his family of five have lived on food begged from relatives.
"Mr Caughey's £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit have been stopped. Social Security investigators claim that he has been working.
"At his council home in Kipling Grove, Sutton Manor, St Helens, Mr Caughey said:
"“We haven't had a penny in the house since I was seen helping a friend to put up a stall on the market. No one will employ me.
"“In 12 months the employment exchange has not been able to find me a single job. I have applied for 80 on my own and I have been turned down for every one.
"“Sometimes you feel you are just going out of your mind staring at four walls. I was in town and I thought I would give this bloke a hand putting up his stall. It was just for the pleasure of having something to do.
"“I couldn't have been there more than a quarter of an hour. I didn't get a penny for it. The next thing I knew was I had been told I had been seen working and the money stopped.”
"Mr Caughey, a former works convenor at Pilkington's Triplex plant, St Helens, was dismissed with 250 workmates 12 months ago for taking part in an unofficial strike."
On the 15th a police officer appeared before Prescot magistrates charged with stealing from his colleagues at the police hostel within Knowsley Hall.
As a result of a series of thefts from the hostel, notes were marked with a dye and left in a room.
Some were found in the possession of the 19-year-old constable who was fined a total of £40 and no doubt dismissed from the force.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 16th, Corporal James Robinson was pictured being presented with a silver trophy after being chosen Cadet of the Year for the St Helens Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade.
The newspaper continued its fundraising drive for the indebted Providence Hospital and on its front page printed this letter from Joe Dyas of Peet Avenue in Eccleston:
"I was in St Peter's ward at Providence Hospital. There I was treated just like all the rest in the ward – as a VIP. I shall always be grateful to the staff's kindness and understanding, and they can be jolly, too, when the occasion arises. I regard them all as trainee angels."
Those promoting their wares in the Reporter's St Helens Show advertising feature included Harold Stott of Westfield Street.
The former Rothery Radio service manager had a "magnificent display of Colour TVs" on show within the Trades' Marquee, along with "top quality stereo sound equipment". The message was "Music Comes Alive With Stereo".
Other advertisers included Tom Collins & Sons, Boundary Road ("Motor cycle and scooter dealers"); Hattons, Prescot Road ("See us at the Show for the display of Austin cars"); Ashalls Cars, City Road ("During the Show our ‘Dr. Who’ Ford car Priscilla II will be giving rides around the showground") and Helena House ("St. Helens leading department store").
The latter was holding a fashion show at the annual event in Sherdley Park. The Post Office would also have a caravan at the St Helens Show, having now dropped “General” from its name after becoming a corporation.
That change had done nothing for its long telephone waiting list. Indeed 1,800 homes within the St Helens district had over a year to wait before being connected.
However the Reporter revealed that a big investment in the telephone exchange in St Mary's Street would be paying dividends soon.
And a new exchange in Marshalls Cross would be coming on stream in 1974 with a temporary building to be brought into service next year. All told £1.6 million was being spent – around £25m in today's money.
The residents of Borough Road were also featured in the Reporter after complaining that the sun brought with it "smells, rats and flies an inch long".
The cause of the stench was said to be fly-tipping on an old railway line, which led to “thick, black oil, and pools of green, stagnant water."
66-year-old Cyril Hillan said: "It’s disgusting. People come from everywhere to dump their rubbish here. With the hot weather we are having now, the smell is terrible."
Neighbour Lucy Williams added: "We have rats running round all the time in our back yards. When the wind blows our way, the smell from the rubbish is really putrid."
On the 18th thieves broke into the Maypole Dairy in Westfield Street in St Helens and stole cigarettes worth £100.
A transistor radio, cash and cigarettes worth a total of £27 were also taken from Kendrick's general store in Edgeworth Street in Sutton.
The furniture premises of H. Tebb and Son of Borough Road also suffered a break-in and had a sideboard worth £30 stolen.
And finally at the end of last month I mentioned that the Queen had opened the second Mersey Tunnel and named it 'Kingsway'.
However hopes that the new tube under the river would immediately lift the pressure on motorists using the existing tunnel to Birkenhead known as 'Queensway' had been dashed.
That was partly because a new computerised traffic control system had been introduced to the old tunnel and it was driving drivers daft! On June 16th the Echo had written:
"Regular Mersey Tunnel motorists caught up in the peak hour chaos this morning gave the new computer traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance a unanimous thumbs down.
"Angry and frustrated motorists blew off steam by blaring their horns at the impersonal traffic signals.
"Scores of drivers interviewed during this morning's rush hour claimed that the sophisticated electronic control system designed to give everybody an equal chance of reaching the overcrowded toll booths and the tunnel was just making things worse.
"One tunnel policeman admitted that the sudden rash of green and red lights, arrows, crosses and direction signs seemed too much for the average motorist to absorb.
"Not one motorist interviewed this morning had a kind word to say about the new system. Having travelled only 50 yards in 30 minutes, Mr. Harry Lester, of Claughton, claimed: “The traffic lights want ripping down, they are just causing chaos.”
"Mr. Douglas Allender, of Osmaston Road, Birkenhead, claimed: “It is chronic this week and it's getting worse.”
"He said that the explanation offered by the firm of installation engineers that motorists were causing the chaos by ignoring signs and crossing lanes was rubbish and contended that the computer was obviously not working properly."
But the computer was working perfectly well. The trouble was the system had been designed for the perfect motorist – not normal people!
Fast-forward a month to this week and the Echo published this article explaining what was going wrong, under the headline "Tunnel Traffic Fools Computer":
"The new traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance to the Mersey Tunnel is not working satisfactorily, says the tunnel manager Mr. Sam Jones.
"In a letter to the Town Clerk of Birkenhead, Mr. Jones, says that whether the electrical equipment at the tunnel entrance is working properly or not, it acts “in a peculiar way at times.”
"He says tunnel users may be to blame, but adds: “I think we are in for a long period of virulent complaints which are not yet at their peak.”
"The chairman of the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee, Alderman H. Macdonald Steward, said yesterday they would have to keep an eye on the equipment.
"“If anyone changes lanes approaching the booths,” added Alderman Steward, “it fools the computer and causes confusion. Another problem seems to be that there is not enough prior notice to motorists of the need for lane discipline.”
"Councillor Bill Wells (Wallasey) said: “It seems to boil down to the fact that if all drivers were perfect and obeyed the instructions we would have no problems.”"
Next week's stories will include the woman silent in Rainhill Hospital for 30 years who could now talk, Harold Wilson gets involved in the Prescot grammar school row and the woman who lost her children in a Nazi concentration camp is honoured.
We begin on the 12th when the Liverpool Echo reported that the final arrangements were being made for the third St Helens Show, which would start its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd.
Because of an outbreak of fowl pest earlier in the year, the poultry section of the show had been cancelled – but rabbit and similar classes had been extended to compensate.
Some people were coming to St Helens purely for the rabbit section as part of national club shows that included the exhibition of dwarf rabbits.
Later in the week this advert would appear in the Echo:
"FREE! FREE! FREE! ST. HELENS SHOW. Sherdley Park. July 22, 23, 24.
Show Jumping, Horticulture, Arts & Crafts, Fur & Feather, Dog Show, Clay Pigeon Shooting. Red Devils; Royal Marines Motor Cycles; R.A.F. Police Dogs; Fashion Shows; Army Combat Displays; Fleet Air Arm Exhibition.
Coal Carrying Race (Saturday). Children's Concerts & Talent Competitions Daily. Thursday: Disco Night (8.0 to 11.30). Saturday: All-in Wrestling. Car Parks – 15p. Admission to Showground – Free."
Twenty-one pupils at the Shaw Lane school had passed the examination and nine boys and two girls had found places.
But ten other girls were told there were no vacancies at any Catholic grammar school in the area and they would be sent instead to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive.
Terence Bretherton of Foxshaw Close in Whiston was chairman of the PTA and said:
"The girls' parents are upset about this. We want to know what is the point in taking the 11-plus if it is not going to guarantee a place in the grammar school, and why there is a shortage of grammar school places."
Parents in Penketh and Great Sankey had sent letters to Margaret Thatcher, the Secretary of State for Education, complaining of the same problem.
The woes of Gerry Caughey continue to worsen. The leader of the 7-week strike that crippled Pilkingtons last year had for months been trying to get his old job back at Triplex.
Pilks had sacked Caughey after the 37-year-old had led a further brief strike later in the year.
Despite making dozens of job applications, the father of three from Sutton Manor had not been able to find work elsewhere after being labelled a troublemaker.
Peace had now been made with the General and Municipal Workers Union, which, as the Daily Mirror put it, was the union on which Gerry Caughey had last year "declared war".
That had been an important first step to his re-employment at Triplex. However the Eccleston works was not presently hiring because a lengthy Ford strike had reduced demand for car safety glass.
On the 15th The Guardian published this article about an increasingly desperate man:
"Mr Gerry Caughey, the man who led the Pilkington strike, said yesterday: “I'm penniless.” He claims that for the last three weeks his family of five have lived on food begged from relatives.
"Mr Caughey's £10 a week unemployment pay and £4 supplementary benefit have been stopped. Social Security investigators claim that he has been working.
"At his council home in Kipling Grove, Sutton Manor, St Helens, Mr Caughey said:
"“We haven't had a penny in the house since I was seen helping a friend to put up a stall on the market. No one will employ me.
"“In 12 months the employment exchange has not been able to find me a single job. I have applied for 80 on my own and I have been turned down for every one.
"“Sometimes you feel you are just going out of your mind staring at four walls. I was in town and I thought I would give this bloke a hand putting up his stall. It was just for the pleasure of having something to do.
"“I couldn't have been there more than a quarter of an hour. I didn't get a penny for it. The next thing I knew was I had been told I had been seen working and the money stopped.”
"Mr Caughey, a former works convenor at Pilkington's Triplex plant, St Helens, was dismissed with 250 workmates 12 months ago for taking part in an unofficial strike."
On the 15th a police officer appeared before Prescot magistrates charged with stealing from his colleagues at the police hostel within Knowsley Hall.
As a result of a series of thefts from the hostel, notes were marked with a dye and left in a room.
Some were found in the possession of the 19-year-old constable who was fined a total of £40 and no doubt dismissed from the force.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 16th, Corporal James Robinson was pictured being presented with a silver trophy after being chosen Cadet of the Year for the St Helens Division of the St John Ambulance Brigade.
The newspaper continued its fundraising drive for the indebted Providence Hospital and on its front page printed this letter from Joe Dyas of Peet Avenue in Eccleston:
"I was in St Peter's ward at Providence Hospital. There I was treated just like all the rest in the ward – as a VIP. I shall always be grateful to the staff's kindness and understanding, and they can be jolly, too, when the occasion arises. I regard them all as trainee angels."
Those promoting their wares in the Reporter's St Helens Show advertising feature included Harold Stott of Westfield Street.
The former Rothery Radio service manager had a "magnificent display of Colour TVs" on show within the Trades' Marquee, along with "top quality stereo sound equipment". The message was "Music Comes Alive With Stereo".
Other advertisers included Tom Collins & Sons, Boundary Road ("Motor cycle and scooter dealers"); Hattons, Prescot Road ("See us at the Show for the display of Austin cars"); Ashalls Cars, City Road ("During the Show our ‘Dr. Who’ Ford car Priscilla II will be giving rides around the showground") and Helena House ("St. Helens leading department store").
The latter was holding a fashion show at the annual event in Sherdley Park. The Post Office would also have a caravan at the St Helens Show, having now dropped “General” from its name after becoming a corporation.
That change had done nothing for its long telephone waiting list. Indeed 1,800 homes within the St Helens district had over a year to wait before being connected.
However the Reporter revealed that a big investment in the telephone exchange in St Mary's Street would be paying dividends soon.
And a new exchange in Marshalls Cross would be coming on stream in 1974 with a temporary building to be brought into service next year. All told £1.6 million was being spent – around £25m in today's money.
The residents of Borough Road were also featured in the Reporter after complaining that the sun brought with it "smells, rats and flies an inch long".
The cause of the stench was said to be fly-tipping on an old railway line, which led to “thick, black oil, and pools of green, stagnant water."
66-year-old Cyril Hillan said: "It’s disgusting. People come from everywhere to dump their rubbish here. With the hot weather we are having now, the smell is terrible."
Neighbour Lucy Williams added: "We have rats running round all the time in our back yards. When the wind blows our way, the smell from the rubbish is really putrid."
On the 18th thieves broke into the Maypole Dairy in Westfield Street in St Helens and stole cigarettes worth £100.
A transistor radio, cash and cigarettes worth a total of £27 were also taken from Kendrick's general store in Edgeworth Street in Sutton.
The furniture premises of H. Tebb and Son of Borough Road also suffered a break-in and had a sideboard worth £30 stolen.
And finally at the end of last month I mentioned that the Queen had opened the second Mersey Tunnel and named it 'Kingsway'.
However hopes that the new tube under the river would immediately lift the pressure on motorists using the existing tunnel to Birkenhead known as 'Queensway' had been dashed.
That was partly because a new computerised traffic control system had been introduced to the old tunnel and it was driving drivers daft! On June 16th the Echo had written:
"Regular Mersey Tunnel motorists caught up in the peak hour chaos this morning gave the new computer traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance a unanimous thumbs down.
"Angry and frustrated motorists blew off steam by blaring their horns at the impersonal traffic signals.
"Scores of drivers interviewed during this morning's rush hour claimed that the sophisticated electronic control system designed to give everybody an equal chance of reaching the overcrowded toll booths and the tunnel was just making things worse.
"One tunnel policeman admitted that the sudden rash of green and red lights, arrows, crosses and direction signs seemed too much for the average motorist to absorb.
"Not one motorist interviewed this morning had a kind word to say about the new system. Having travelled only 50 yards in 30 minutes, Mr. Harry Lester, of Claughton, claimed: “The traffic lights want ripping down, they are just causing chaos.”
"Mr. Douglas Allender, of Osmaston Road, Birkenhead, claimed: “It is chronic this week and it's getting worse.”
"He said that the explanation offered by the firm of installation engineers that motorists were causing the chaos by ignoring signs and crossing lanes was rubbish and contended that the computer was obviously not working properly."
But the computer was working perfectly well. The trouble was the system had been designed for the perfect motorist – not normal people!
Fast-forward a month to this week and the Echo published this article explaining what was going wrong, under the headline "Tunnel Traffic Fools Computer":
"The new traffic control system at the Birkenhead entrance to the Mersey Tunnel is not working satisfactorily, says the tunnel manager Mr. Sam Jones.
"In a letter to the Town Clerk of Birkenhead, Mr. Jones, says that whether the electrical equipment at the tunnel entrance is working properly or not, it acts “in a peculiar way at times.”
"He says tunnel users may be to blame, but adds: “I think we are in for a long period of virulent complaints which are not yet at their peak.”
"The chairman of the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee, Alderman H. Macdonald Steward, said yesterday they would have to keep an eye on the equipment.
"“If anyone changes lanes approaching the booths,” added Alderman Steward, “it fools the computer and causes confusion. Another problem seems to be that there is not enough prior notice to motorists of the need for lane discipline.”
"Councillor Bill Wells (Wallasey) said: “It seems to boil down to the fact that if all drivers were perfect and obeyed the instructions we would have no problems.”"
Next week's stories will include the woman silent in Rainhill Hospital for 30 years who could now talk, Harold Wilson gets involved in the Prescot grammar school row and the woman who lost her children in a Nazi concentration camp is honoured.