FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th SEPTEMBER 1971)
This week's 15 stories include the Theatre Royal stars who drowned their sorrows by getting drunk, the many St Helens Christmas Clubs, praise for the caring Rainhill Hospital staff, another industrial dispute at Pilks and the crowds of Liverpool supporters that blocked the M6 entrance at Haydock trying to hitch a lift to the match.
We begin on the 13th with a multiple-pile up involving 200 vehicles on the fog-bound M6 motorway at Thelwall Viaduct. Ten people died and over sixty were injured, including Brian McGovern of Snowdon Grove in St Helens, who was admitted to Warrington Infirmary with chest injuries. A Department of Environment spokesman said a £250,000 anti-hazards warning system for the M6 would not come into operation until November. It had been originally scheduled for earlier in the year but the computer behind the system had developed problems.
The 13th also heralded more industrial trouble at Pilkingtons that had resulted in work constructing a new float glass tank having to be suspended. Refractory Services Limited was one of several contractors engaged in building the new £10 million tank at Pilks' Cowley Hill works. A union official explained that the problems had arisen eight weeks earlier after Refractory Services had given thirteen workers their cards.
Ever since the sacked men had been picketing the City Road gates claiming victimisation and demanding re-employment – and now the other workers had come out in sympathy. However a spokesman for Refractory Services claimed that they had simply laid the men off because of some temporary technical difficulties.
John Spencer, the current world snooker champion, returned to St Helens on the 13th appearing at Lowe House Club – almost exactly a year to the day after Alex Higgins had played an exhibition match there.
Also on that day, what was described as a "lavishly staged costume drama" called 'Conduct Unbecoming' began a week-long run at the Theatre Royal. The drama owed much to a highly realistic set that took seventeen hours to erect and it had cost £1,000 to bring the play to St Helens. The thriller had previously played in the West End and was said to feature a star-studded cast of stage and television fame.
These included Mark Eden (who went on to play Alan Bradley in 'Corrie'), Eric Lander (DS Harry Baxter in 'No Hiding Place'), Jeremy Bulloch ('Dr Who' and later 'Star Wars'), Ivan Beavis (Harry Hewitt in 'Corrie'), Janet Hargreaves (Rosemary Hunter in 'Crossroads') and Derek Murcott ('Dr Who' and later 'The Kentucky Fried Movie').
However, the show flopped on its first night taking just £26 on the door with the company's manager telling the Reporter: "We were extremely upset after the disappointing first night on Monday. We all went out and got drunk to forget about it. It has been a disaster." Embarrassed theatre manager Slim Ingram said it was the finest play ever put on at the Theatre Royal, adding: "It's a tragedy that audiences have stayed away from such a good production."
On the 14th this letter in praise of Rainhill Hospital by Gordon H. Perry was published in the Echo: "Sir, – Angela Ince's article (September 1) scathingly condemns some mental hospitals, but I would like to say something in defence, or rather in wholehearted praise, of the staff and conditions at Rainhill. My brother, due to service in the last War, became a mental patient. In the years since the war he has been in Rainhill for long periods and I and other relatives have visited him regularly. We have always been aware of the great patience, consideration and real kindness shown to the patients by the nurses.
"The decorations and improvements to the buildings over the years have been fabulous and must have cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds and any extensions are most modern. New wards are like beautiful bungalows with large picture windows overlooking well maintained lawns. I wish to emphasise this particular feature of concern for the patients' comfort. I have at different times stayed in hotels and paid the usual high charges and some of them have not been as beautiful and comfortable as the new Birkdale and Crosby wards at Rainhill."
Also on the 14th, three sixteen-year-old Liverpool youths appeared before Newton-le-Willows Juvenile Court charged with trespassing beyond the access point on the M6 motorway link road. Inspector Andrew Holland told the court that every time Liverpool FC played an away match that necessitated travel on the M6, more than 200 youths blocked the motorway entrance road at Haydock. Inspector Holland said the situation was so bad that special police patrols had to go on duty at that point to clear the youths.
"They were a real menace to traffic on that road", he said. Already one pedestrian had been knocked down as a result of going on to the motorway attempting to get a lift to the match. Inspector Holland added that a number of further prosecutions would follow. "I cannot stress enough how dangerous this practice is becoming", he said. "The police are trying to stamp it out in the interests of safety for all." All the youths in court claimed they had not seen the sign telling pedestrians not to go beyond certain points of the link road. The boys were each fined £3.
Stephen Smith and his little sister Susan from St Helens caused a stir this week when they took their pet goat Esme to school. Their father Robert Smith told the Echo: "All the pupils at the school – Knowsley Road Junior – had heard so much about her that they wanted to see her for themselves. Everyone was delighted with her, and I think she enjoyed all the fuss that was made." Esme was kept on an allotment near the Smiths' home in Grafton Street and had been in the family for a couple of weeks.
Parr Stocks Annual Great Pleasure Fair (as it was styled) began on the 16th on land by the fire station. It lasted for two weeks but was closed on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Former fireman Geoff Scott was featured on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 17th. The 24-year-old had quit his £17 a week job to protect his mother from thieves and vandals at their Mill Street home. Said Geoff: "I didn't want to give up my job, but I had to for the sake of my mother. She is terrified living here. It has become a prison."
However, the Reporter's lead story bore the headline "Shock Rent Rises Loom". The article described how some council house tenants in St Helens were likely to have to pay up to 75p per week more rent for their home because of a new Government scheme.
Colin Rigby from Dunriding Lane was pictured in the Reporter. The 16-year-old former Cowley pupil was flying alone to Australia to try and obtain an engineering job after having no success in St Helens. Concern was also expressed in the paper for a 25-foot deep crack that had appeared on the side of Billinge Hill and which was feared could cause a "killer landslide".
"Time To Join A Christmas Club" was the name of a Reporter advertising feature. They wrote: "Christmas clubs can be the passport to a happy festive season for many people unable to afford the sudden extra expense." A carpet might not be exactly the ideal Christmas gift – but it is certainly a practical one. And the Swan Mill Carpet Warehouse of 44/46 Duke Street was proud to announce that their Christmas Club was open for business. So was the club belonging to kids' fashion shop Junior Choice, which was located across the road at 37 Duke Street.
"Join Our Christmas Club NOW", was the command from Dingsdales. The cycle store with hundreds of bikes in stock then had three shops in Higher Parr Street, Duke Street and Church Road in Haydock. "Lay away that cycle for Christmas to avoid disappointment", recommended their advert. Other traders officially opening their Christmas Clubs in the Reporter were:
H. M. Hampson ("DIY"), Shaw Street; Brian Fairclough (butcher), Duke Street; T. & M. Metcalfe (grocer), Fir Street & Elephant Lane; Janet Heyes (off-licence), Boundary Road; Eric Bromilow & Son (TV / electrical), North Road; Barton's (hardware / crockery), Duke Street; Burgess Brothers (toys / gifts), East Street and Dennis Cowley (V.G. food market) of Rainford Road at Windle.
On the 17th a youth from Princess Way in Moss Bank was fined £35 and banned from driving for eighteen months by St Helens magistrates. That was for driving a motorbike in a dangerous manner, speeding and not displaying L-plates. A police officer had seen the young man riding along Warrington New Road at a fast speed and so followed him. Approximately 200 yards from the railway bridge, the rider took both his hands from the handlebars and began to wave his arms in the air. That caused his bike to swerve from side to side and go on to the wrong side of the road.
The officer then saw the 17-year-old look round and laugh at a scooter rider who was travelling behind him. Upon spotting the police, he put his hands back on the handlebars and drove away at a fast speed. When the officer eventually stopped him, he said: "I was just showing off to my mate. It was a daft thing to do." When told he would be prosecuted for dangerous driving, the youth replied: "Always the unlucky one."
A party of schoolchildren from Robins Lane Secondary School (pictured above) began a rather special geography lesson on the 19th. They sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Nevassa, first to Lisbon and then onto Gibraltar where they would ascend the Rock and see the famous apes. From there the group would journey to Pisa and then onto Florence.
The last place to be visited was Cadiz, where their tour was set to include the ancient narrow cobbled streets of the city and its collection of Roman relics. In the cathedral treasury they were due to see jewels from the Spanish conquest of America. The St Helens group were part of a much larger party of Merseyside and Isle of Man children from a number of schools that had signed up for the adventure.
Next week's stories will include the shocking dog castration in North Road, St Helens schools ban the new clackers craze, the opening of the Bridge Street post office, the re-development of the Westfield Street area gets the green light and the local men honoured for their bravery.
We begin on the 13th with a multiple-pile up involving 200 vehicles on the fog-bound M6 motorway at Thelwall Viaduct. Ten people died and over sixty were injured, including Brian McGovern of Snowdon Grove in St Helens, who was admitted to Warrington Infirmary with chest injuries. A Department of Environment spokesman said a £250,000 anti-hazards warning system for the M6 would not come into operation until November. It had been originally scheduled for earlier in the year but the computer behind the system had developed problems.
The 13th also heralded more industrial trouble at Pilkingtons that had resulted in work constructing a new float glass tank having to be suspended. Refractory Services Limited was one of several contractors engaged in building the new £10 million tank at Pilks' Cowley Hill works. A union official explained that the problems had arisen eight weeks earlier after Refractory Services had given thirteen workers their cards.
Ever since the sacked men had been picketing the City Road gates claiming victimisation and demanding re-employment – and now the other workers had come out in sympathy. However a spokesman for Refractory Services claimed that they had simply laid the men off because of some temporary technical difficulties.
John Spencer, the current world snooker champion, returned to St Helens on the 13th appearing at Lowe House Club – almost exactly a year to the day after Alex Higgins had played an exhibition match there.
These included Mark Eden (who went on to play Alan Bradley in 'Corrie'), Eric Lander (DS Harry Baxter in 'No Hiding Place'), Jeremy Bulloch ('Dr Who' and later 'Star Wars'), Ivan Beavis (Harry Hewitt in 'Corrie'), Janet Hargreaves (Rosemary Hunter in 'Crossroads') and Derek Murcott ('Dr Who' and later 'The Kentucky Fried Movie').
However, the show flopped on its first night taking just £26 on the door with the company's manager telling the Reporter: "We were extremely upset after the disappointing first night on Monday. We all went out and got drunk to forget about it. It has been a disaster." Embarrassed theatre manager Slim Ingram said it was the finest play ever put on at the Theatre Royal, adding: "It's a tragedy that audiences have stayed away from such a good production."
On the 14th this letter in praise of Rainhill Hospital by Gordon H. Perry was published in the Echo: "Sir, – Angela Ince's article (September 1) scathingly condemns some mental hospitals, but I would like to say something in defence, or rather in wholehearted praise, of the staff and conditions at Rainhill. My brother, due to service in the last War, became a mental patient. In the years since the war he has been in Rainhill for long periods and I and other relatives have visited him regularly. We have always been aware of the great patience, consideration and real kindness shown to the patients by the nurses.
"The decorations and improvements to the buildings over the years have been fabulous and must have cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds and any extensions are most modern. New wards are like beautiful bungalows with large picture windows overlooking well maintained lawns. I wish to emphasise this particular feature of concern for the patients' comfort. I have at different times stayed in hotels and paid the usual high charges and some of them have not been as beautiful and comfortable as the new Birkdale and Crosby wards at Rainhill."
Also on the 14th, three sixteen-year-old Liverpool youths appeared before Newton-le-Willows Juvenile Court charged with trespassing beyond the access point on the M6 motorway link road. Inspector Andrew Holland told the court that every time Liverpool FC played an away match that necessitated travel on the M6, more than 200 youths blocked the motorway entrance road at Haydock. Inspector Holland said the situation was so bad that special police patrols had to go on duty at that point to clear the youths.
"They were a real menace to traffic on that road", he said. Already one pedestrian had been knocked down as a result of going on to the motorway attempting to get a lift to the match. Inspector Holland added that a number of further prosecutions would follow. "I cannot stress enough how dangerous this practice is becoming", he said. "The police are trying to stamp it out in the interests of safety for all." All the youths in court claimed they had not seen the sign telling pedestrians not to go beyond certain points of the link road. The boys were each fined £3.
Stephen Smith and his little sister Susan from St Helens caused a stir this week when they took their pet goat Esme to school. Their father Robert Smith told the Echo: "All the pupils at the school – Knowsley Road Junior – had heard so much about her that they wanted to see her for themselves. Everyone was delighted with her, and I think she enjoyed all the fuss that was made." Esme was kept on an allotment near the Smiths' home in Grafton Street and had been in the family for a couple of weeks.
Parr Stocks Annual Great Pleasure Fair (as it was styled) began on the 16th on land by the fire station. It lasted for two weeks but was closed on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Former fireman Geoff Scott was featured on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 17th. The 24-year-old had quit his £17 a week job to protect his mother from thieves and vandals at their Mill Street home. Said Geoff: "I didn't want to give up my job, but I had to for the sake of my mother. She is terrified living here. It has become a prison."
However, the Reporter's lead story bore the headline "Shock Rent Rises Loom". The article described how some council house tenants in St Helens were likely to have to pay up to 75p per week more rent for their home because of a new Government scheme.
Colin Rigby from Dunriding Lane was pictured in the Reporter. The 16-year-old former Cowley pupil was flying alone to Australia to try and obtain an engineering job after having no success in St Helens. Concern was also expressed in the paper for a 25-foot deep crack that had appeared on the side of Billinge Hill and which was feared could cause a "killer landslide".
"Time To Join A Christmas Club" was the name of a Reporter advertising feature. They wrote: "Christmas clubs can be the passport to a happy festive season for many people unable to afford the sudden extra expense." A carpet might not be exactly the ideal Christmas gift – but it is certainly a practical one. And the Swan Mill Carpet Warehouse of 44/46 Duke Street was proud to announce that their Christmas Club was open for business. So was the club belonging to kids' fashion shop Junior Choice, which was located across the road at 37 Duke Street.
"Join Our Christmas Club NOW", was the command from Dingsdales. The cycle store with hundreds of bikes in stock then had three shops in Higher Parr Street, Duke Street and Church Road in Haydock. "Lay away that cycle for Christmas to avoid disappointment", recommended their advert. Other traders officially opening their Christmas Clubs in the Reporter were:
H. M. Hampson ("DIY"), Shaw Street; Brian Fairclough (butcher), Duke Street; T. & M. Metcalfe (grocer), Fir Street & Elephant Lane; Janet Heyes (off-licence), Boundary Road; Eric Bromilow & Son (TV / electrical), North Road; Barton's (hardware / crockery), Duke Street; Burgess Brothers (toys / gifts), East Street and Dennis Cowley (V.G. food market) of Rainford Road at Windle.
On the 17th a youth from Princess Way in Moss Bank was fined £35 and banned from driving for eighteen months by St Helens magistrates. That was for driving a motorbike in a dangerous manner, speeding and not displaying L-plates. A police officer had seen the young man riding along Warrington New Road at a fast speed and so followed him. Approximately 200 yards from the railway bridge, the rider took both his hands from the handlebars and began to wave his arms in the air. That caused his bike to swerve from side to side and go on to the wrong side of the road.
The officer then saw the 17-year-old look round and laugh at a scooter rider who was travelling behind him. Upon spotting the police, he put his hands back on the handlebars and drove away at a fast speed. When the officer eventually stopped him, he said: "I was just showing off to my mate. It was a daft thing to do." When told he would be prosecuted for dangerous driving, the youth replied: "Always the unlucky one."
The last place to be visited was Cadiz, where their tour was set to include the ancient narrow cobbled streets of the city and its collection of Roman relics. In the cathedral treasury they were due to see jewels from the Spanish conquest of America. The St Helens group were part of a much larger party of Merseyside and Isle of Man children from a number of schools that had signed up for the adventure.
Next week's stories will include the shocking dog castration in North Road, St Helens schools ban the new clackers craze, the opening of the Bridge Street post office, the re-development of the Westfield Street area gets the green light and the local men honoured for their bravery.
This week's 15 stories include the Theatre Royal stars who drowned their sorrows by getting drunk, the many St Helens Christmas Clubs, praise for the caring Rainhill Hospital staff, another industrial dispute at Pilks and the crowds of Liverpool supporters that blocked the M6 entrance at Haydock trying to hitch a lift to the match.
We begin on the 13th with a multiple-pile up involving 200 vehicles on the fog-bound M6 motorway at Thelwall Viaduct.
Ten people died and over sixty were injured, including Brian McGovern of Snowdon Grove in St Helens, who was admitted to Warrington Infirmary with chest injuries.
A Department of Environment spokesman said a £250,000 anti-hazards warning system for the M6 would not come into operation until November.
It had been originally scheduled for earlier in the year but the computer behind the system had developed problems.
The 13th also heralded more industrial trouble at Pilkingtons that had resulted in work constructing a new float glass tank having to be suspended.
Refractory Services Limited was one of several contractors engaged in building the new £10 million tank at Pilks' Cowley Hill works.
A union official explained that the problems had arisen eight weeks earlier after Refractory Services had given thirteen workers their cards.
Ever since the sacked men had been picketing the City Road gates claiming victimisation and demanding re-employment – and now the other workers had come out in sympathy.
However a spokesman for Refractory Services claimed that they had simply laid the men off because of some temporary technical difficulties.
John Spencer, the current world snooker champion, returned to St Helens on the 13th appearing at Lowe House Club – almost exactly a year to the day after Alex Higgins had played an exhibition match there.
Also on that day, what was described as a "lavishly staged costume drama" called 'Conduct Unbecoming' began a week-long run at the Theatre Royal (pictured above).
The drama owed much to a highly realistic set that took seventeen hours to erect and it had cost £1,000 to bring the play to St Helens.
The thriller had previously played in the West End and was said to feature a star-studded cast of stage and television fame.
These included Mark Eden (who went on to play Alan Bradley in 'Corrie'), Eric Lander (DS Harry Baxter in 'No Hiding Place'), Jeremy Bulloch ('Dr Who' and later 'Star Wars'), Ivan Beavis (Harry Hewitt in 'Corrie'), Janet Hargreaves (Rosemary Hunter in 'Crossroads') and Derek Murcott ('Dr Who' and later 'The Kentucky Fried Movie').
However the show flopped on its first night taking just £26 on the door with the company's manager telling the Reporter:
"We were extremely upset after the disappointing first night on Monday. We all went out and got drunk to forget about it. It has been a disaster."
Embarrassed theatre manager Slim Ingram said it was the finest play ever put on at the Theatre Royal, adding: "It's a tragedy that audiences have stayed away from such a good production."
On the 14th this letter in praise of Rainhill Hospital by Gordon H. Perry was published in the Echo:
"Sir, – Angela Ince's article (September 1) scathingly condemns some mental hospitals, but I would like to say something in defence, or rather in wholehearted praise, of the staff and conditions at Rainhill.
"My brother, due to service in the last War, became a mental patient. In the years since the war he has been in Rainhill for long periods and I and other relatives have visited him regularly.
"We have always been aware of the great patience, consideration and real kindness shown to the patients by the nurses.
"The decorations and improvements to the buildings over the years have been fabulous and must have cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds and any extensions are most modern.
"New wards are like beautiful bungalows with large picture windows overlooking well maintained lawns.
"I wish to emphasise this particular feature of concern for the patients' comfort.
"I have at different times stayed in hotels and paid the usual high charges and some of them have not been as beautiful and comfortable as the new Birkdale and Crosby wards at Rainhill."
Also on the 14th, three sixteen-year-old Liverpool youths appeared before Newton-le-Willows Juvenile Court charged with trespassing beyond the access point on the M6 motorway link road.
Inspector Andrew Holland told the court that every time Liverpool FC played an away match that necessitated travel on the M6, more than 200 youths blocked the motorway entrance road at Haydock.
Inspector Holland said the situation was so bad that special police patrols had to go on duty at that point to clear the youths.
"They were a real menace to traffic on that road", he said. Already one pedestrian had been knocked down as a result of going on to the motorway attempting to get a lift to the match.
Inspector Holland added that a number of further prosecutions would follow. "I cannot stress enough how dangerous this practice is becoming", he said. "The police are trying to stamp it out in the interests of safety for all."
All the youths in court claimed they had not seen the sign telling pedestrians not to go beyond certain points of the link road. The boys were each fined £3.
Stephen Smith and his little sister Susan from St Helens caused a stir this week when they took their pet goat Esme to school. Their father Robert Smith told the Echo:
"All the pupils at the school – Knowsley Road Junior – had heard so much about her that they wanted to see her for themselves. Everyone was delighted with her, and I think she enjoyed all the fuss that was made."
Esme was kept on an allotment near the Smiths' home in Grafton Street and had been in the family for a couple of weeks.
Parr Stocks Annual Great Pleasure Fair (as it was styled) began on the 16th on land by the fire station. It lasted for two weeks but was closed on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Former fireman Geoff Scott was featured on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 17th.
The 24-year-old had quit his £17 a week job to protect his mother from thieves and vandals at their Mill Street home. Said Geoff:
"I didn't want to give up my job, but I had to for the sake of my mother. She is terrified living here. It has become a prison."
However, the Reporter's lead story bore the headline "Shock Rent Rises Loom".
The article described how some council house tenants in St Helens were likely to have to pay up to 75p per week more rent for their home because of a new Government scheme.
Colin Rigby from Dunriding Lane was pictured in the Reporter. The 16-year-old former Cowley pupil was flying alone to Australia to try and obtain an engineering job after having no success in St Helens.
Concern was also expressed in the paper for a 25-foot deep crack that had appeared on the side of Billinge Hill and which was feared could cause a "killer landslide".
"Time To Join A Christmas Club" was the name of a Reporter advertising feature. They wrote: "Christmas clubs can be the passport to a happy festive season for many people unable to afford the sudden extra expense."
A carpet might not be exactly the ideal Christmas gift – but it is certainly a practical one.
And the Swan Mill Carpet Warehouse of 44/46 Duke Street was proud to announce that their Christmas Club was open for business.
So was the club belonging to kids' fashion shop Junior Choice, which was located across the road at 37 Duke Street.
"Join Our Christmas Club NOW", was the command from Dingsdales. The cycle store with hundreds of bikes in stock then had three shops in Higher Parr Street, Duke Street and Church Road in Haydock.
"Lay away that cycle for Christmas to avoid disappointment", recommended their advert.
Other traders officially opening their Christmas Clubs in the Reporter were:
H. M. Hampson ("DIY"), Shaw Street; Brian Fairclough (butcher), Duke Street; T. & M. Metcalfe (grocer), Fir Street & Elephant Lane; Janet Heyes (off-licence), Boundary Road; Eric Bromilow & Son (TV / electrical), North Road; Barton's (hardware / crockery), Duke Street; Burgess Brothers (toys / gifts), East Street and Dennis Cowley (V.G. food market) of Rainford Road at Windle.
On the 17th a youth from Princess Way in Moss Bank was fined £35 and banned from driving for eighteen months by St Helens magistrates.
That was for driving a motorbike in a dangerous manner, speeding and not displaying L-plates.
A police officer had seen the young man riding along Warrington New Road at a fast speed and so followed him.
Approximately 200 yards from the railway bridge, the rider took both his hands from the handlebars and began to wave his arms in the air.
That caused his bike to swerve from side to side and go on to the wrong side of the road.
The officer then saw the 17-year-old look round and laugh at a scooter rider who was travelling behind him.
Upon spotting the police, he put his hands back on the handlebars and drove away at a fast speed.
When the officer eventually stopped him, he said: "I was just showing off to my mate. It was a daft thing to do."
When told he would be prosecuted for dangerous driving, the youth replied: "Always the unlucky one."
A party of schoolchildren from Robins Lane Secondary School (pictured above) began a rather special geography lesson on the 19th.
They sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Nevassa, first to Lisbon and then onto Gibraltar where they would ascend the Rock and see the famous apes.
From there the group would journey to Pisa and then onto Florence. The last place to be visited was Cadiz, where their tour was set to include the ancient narrow cobbled streets of the city and its collection of Roman relics.
In the cathedral treasury they were due to see jewels from the Spanish conquest of America.
The St Helens group were part of a much larger party of Merseyside and Isle of Man children from a number of schools that had signed up for the adventure.
Next week's stories will include the shocking dog castration in North Road, St Helens schools ban the new clackers craze, the opening of the Bridge Street post office, the re-development of the Westfield Street area gets the green light and the local men honoured for their bravery.
We begin on the 13th with a multiple-pile up involving 200 vehicles on the fog-bound M6 motorway at Thelwall Viaduct.
Ten people died and over sixty were injured, including Brian McGovern of Snowdon Grove in St Helens, who was admitted to Warrington Infirmary with chest injuries.
A Department of Environment spokesman said a £250,000 anti-hazards warning system for the M6 would not come into operation until November.
It had been originally scheduled for earlier in the year but the computer behind the system had developed problems.
The 13th also heralded more industrial trouble at Pilkingtons that had resulted in work constructing a new float glass tank having to be suspended.
Refractory Services Limited was one of several contractors engaged in building the new £10 million tank at Pilks' Cowley Hill works.
A union official explained that the problems had arisen eight weeks earlier after Refractory Services had given thirteen workers their cards.
Ever since the sacked men had been picketing the City Road gates claiming victimisation and demanding re-employment – and now the other workers had come out in sympathy.
However a spokesman for Refractory Services claimed that they had simply laid the men off because of some temporary technical difficulties.
John Spencer, the current world snooker champion, returned to St Helens on the 13th appearing at Lowe House Club – almost exactly a year to the day after Alex Higgins had played an exhibition match there.
The drama owed much to a highly realistic set that took seventeen hours to erect and it had cost £1,000 to bring the play to St Helens.
The thriller had previously played in the West End and was said to feature a star-studded cast of stage and television fame.
These included Mark Eden (who went on to play Alan Bradley in 'Corrie'), Eric Lander (DS Harry Baxter in 'No Hiding Place'), Jeremy Bulloch ('Dr Who' and later 'Star Wars'), Ivan Beavis (Harry Hewitt in 'Corrie'), Janet Hargreaves (Rosemary Hunter in 'Crossroads') and Derek Murcott ('Dr Who' and later 'The Kentucky Fried Movie').
However the show flopped on its first night taking just £26 on the door with the company's manager telling the Reporter:
"We were extremely upset after the disappointing first night on Monday. We all went out and got drunk to forget about it. It has been a disaster."
Embarrassed theatre manager Slim Ingram said it was the finest play ever put on at the Theatre Royal, adding: "It's a tragedy that audiences have stayed away from such a good production."
On the 14th this letter in praise of Rainhill Hospital by Gordon H. Perry was published in the Echo:
"Sir, – Angela Ince's article (September 1) scathingly condemns some mental hospitals, but I would like to say something in defence, or rather in wholehearted praise, of the staff and conditions at Rainhill.
"My brother, due to service in the last War, became a mental patient. In the years since the war he has been in Rainhill for long periods and I and other relatives have visited him regularly.
"We have always been aware of the great patience, consideration and real kindness shown to the patients by the nurses.
"The decorations and improvements to the buildings over the years have been fabulous and must have cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds and any extensions are most modern.
"New wards are like beautiful bungalows with large picture windows overlooking well maintained lawns.
"I wish to emphasise this particular feature of concern for the patients' comfort.
"I have at different times stayed in hotels and paid the usual high charges and some of them have not been as beautiful and comfortable as the new Birkdale and Crosby wards at Rainhill."
Also on the 14th, three sixteen-year-old Liverpool youths appeared before Newton-le-Willows Juvenile Court charged with trespassing beyond the access point on the M6 motorway link road.
Inspector Andrew Holland told the court that every time Liverpool FC played an away match that necessitated travel on the M6, more than 200 youths blocked the motorway entrance road at Haydock.
Inspector Holland said the situation was so bad that special police patrols had to go on duty at that point to clear the youths.
"They were a real menace to traffic on that road", he said. Already one pedestrian had been knocked down as a result of going on to the motorway attempting to get a lift to the match.
Inspector Holland added that a number of further prosecutions would follow. "I cannot stress enough how dangerous this practice is becoming", he said. "The police are trying to stamp it out in the interests of safety for all."
All the youths in court claimed they had not seen the sign telling pedestrians not to go beyond certain points of the link road. The boys were each fined £3.
Stephen Smith and his little sister Susan from St Helens caused a stir this week when they took their pet goat Esme to school. Their father Robert Smith told the Echo:
"All the pupils at the school – Knowsley Road Junior – had heard so much about her that they wanted to see her for themselves. Everyone was delighted with her, and I think she enjoyed all the fuss that was made."
Esme was kept on an allotment near the Smiths' home in Grafton Street and had been in the family for a couple of weeks.
Parr Stocks Annual Great Pleasure Fair (as it was styled) began on the 16th on land by the fire station. It lasted for two weeks but was closed on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Former fireman Geoff Scott was featured on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 17th.
The 24-year-old had quit his £17 a week job to protect his mother from thieves and vandals at their Mill Street home. Said Geoff:
"I didn't want to give up my job, but I had to for the sake of my mother. She is terrified living here. It has become a prison."
However, the Reporter's lead story bore the headline "Shock Rent Rises Loom".
The article described how some council house tenants in St Helens were likely to have to pay up to 75p per week more rent for their home because of a new Government scheme.
Colin Rigby from Dunriding Lane was pictured in the Reporter. The 16-year-old former Cowley pupil was flying alone to Australia to try and obtain an engineering job after having no success in St Helens.
Concern was also expressed in the paper for a 25-foot deep crack that had appeared on the side of Billinge Hill and which was feared could cause a "killer landslide".
"Time To Join A Christmas Club" was the name of a Reporter advertising feature. They wrote: "Christmas clubs can be the passport to a happy festive season for many people unable to afford the sudden extra expense."
A carpet might not be exactly the ideal Christmas gift – but it is certainly a practical one.
And the Swan Mill Carpet Warehouse of 44/46 Duke Street was proud to announce that their Christmas Club was open for business.
So was the club belonging to kids' fashion shop Junior Choice, which was located across the road at 37 Duke Street.
"Join Our Christmas Club NOW", was the command from Dingsdales. The cycle store with hundreds of bikes in stock then had three shops in Higher Parr Street, Duke Street and Church Road in Haydock.
"Lay away that cycle for Christmas to avoid disappointment", recommended their advert.
Other traders officially opening their Christmas Clubs in the Reporter were:
H. M. Hampson ("DIY"), Shaw Street; Brian Fairclough (butcher), Duke Street; T. & M. Metcalfe (grocer), Fir Street & Elephant Lane; Janet Heyes (off-licence), Boundary Road; Eric Bromilow & Son (TV / electrical), North Road; Barton's (hardware / crockery), Duke Street; Burgess Brothers (toys / gifts), East Street and Dennis Cowley (V.G. food market) of Rainford Road at Windle.
On the 17th a youth from Princess Way in Moss Bank was fined £35 and banned from driving for eighteen months by St Helens magistrates.
That was for driving a motorbike in a dangerous manner, speeding and not displaying L-plates.
A police officer had seen the young man riding along Warrington New Road at a fast speed and so followed him.
Approximately 200 yards from the railway bridge, the rider took both his hands from the handlebars and began to wave his arms in the air.
That caused his bike to swerve from side to side and go on to the wrong side of the road.
The officer then saw the 17-year-old look round and laugh at a scooter rider who was travelling behind him.
Upon spotting the police, he put his hands back on the handlebars and drove away at a fast speed.
When the officer eventually stopped him, he said: "I was just showing off to my mate. It was a daft thing to do."
When told he would be prosecuted for dangerous driving, the youth replied: "Always the unlucky one."
They sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Nevassa, first to Lisbon and then onto Gibraltar where they would ascend the Rock and see the famous apes.
From there the group would journey to Pisa and then onto Florence. The last place to be visited was Cadiz, where their tour was set to include the ancient narrow cobbled streets of the city and its collection of Roman relics.
In the cathedral treasury they were due to see jewels from the Spanish conquest of America.
The St Helens group were part of a much larger party of Merseyside and Isle of Man children from a number of schools that had signed up for the adventure.
Next week's stories will include the shocking dog castration in North Road, St Helens schools ban the new clackers craze, the opening of the Bridge Street post office, the re-development of the Westfield Street area gets the green light and the local men honoured for their bravery.