FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13 - 19 NOVEMBER 1973)
This week's many stories include the bogus Spina Bifida collectors in Parr, Rockware's open day for the families of grumpy workers, the Snoopy Club in the Reporter, the community service pilot scheme, a traffic light delay in Rainhill, St Helens ambulance staff join a national pay dispute, Currys, Martin Dawes and Lakeland Pennine come to St Helens and Rainford Council decides to accept the advice of a man called Robert Kilroy-Silk.
We begin on the 13th with Saints 11 - 7 win over the touring Australian rugby league team. It was the Aussies only loss to a club side on their tour and their defeat took place in front of the biggest crowd of the season at Knowsley Road.
It was reported on the 13th that two-dozen rare glass vessels dating from the 4th century BC to the 18th century had been added to the collection at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road. The items were on loan from the British Museum.
The 14th was the day of the wedding between Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and St Helens' children were granted a day off school. It was also when the first electricity restrictions began under the Government's State of Emergency. The Yom Kippur War in the Middle East had been the trigger for the fuel and power crisis that was being exacerbated by miners banning overtime and working to rule.
As a consequence illuminated display advertising and floodlights were now banned and the thermostats in commercial premises needed to be turned down. The Government also said that they were asking for voluntary economies in heating and lighting of about 10% from everyone. As a result Saints' floodlit game scheduled for the evening of the 16th would now take place on the following Sunday afternoon.
At the Theatre Royal for four nights this week there was a production of Agatha Christie's 'The Hollow'. The classic country house murder mystery featured the Australian actor Cicely Courtneidge and her husband Jack Hulbert.
Currys opened a new store at 54 Church Street in St Helens at 10:30am on the 16th. The Reporter was published on that day and had a full-page feature promoting the 'Currys Plus Charter of Fair Trading'. The article was, no doubt, advertising but it had a journalist's by-line and certainly gave the impression that it was a Reporter piece. I don’t think that would be allowed today by advertising standards watchdogs.
Martin Dawes also had a new branch open at 5 Brownlow Arcade in what they described as the New Market Precinct in St Helens. They were guaranteeing immediate delivery of colour TV for rental or purchase. Also new in St Helens was Lakeland Pennine, "the people who do more than just clean clothes." Their premises were at 15 Duke Street and they invited readers to try their "special introductory offer … now", although they failed to say what it was! Lakeland Pennine did write that they offered a "cuddly clean" blanket service, as well as suede and leather cleaning.
The Reporter also published this article: "Major fuel companies may have to ration petrol but they are certainly not rationing beauty. Among more than 100 girls aiming to win the title 'Shell Console Girl ‘74' is 24-year-old Sandra Mather from St. Helens. "Sandra, who is married and lives in Elton Head Road, has worked at Rainhill Service Station for two years and her interests are dancing, swimming, reading and she enjoys making her own clothes."
The paper also described how a charity worker was warning people to be on the lookout for bogus collectors. That was after reports had been received of young people going round homes in Parr claiming to be collecting for Spina Bifida. Nancy Maddox, the secretary of St Helens and District Spina Bifida Association, said:
"We've had reports that this is going on. Every year around Christmas things get worse, and people call from door to door saying they belong to us. The Association does not make door-to-door calls, and people should at once be suspicious. We get a great deal of support from St. Helens and we do not want to get a bad name. The people here do so much for us."
In 1970 the Reporter launched 'The Snoopy Club' for youngsters aged from 4 to 11. It had nothing to do with the pet beagle of Charlie Brown – instead Snoopy was a glove puppet penguin who could type! This week the column thanked all the children that had sent in Green Shield and Co-op stamps. They were being used to buy food for birds at the Three Owls Bird Sanctuary and Bird Hospital in Rochdale. Snoopy also gently chastised his many young readers for sending in letters – but forgetting to put their name at the end.
Club members that were celebrating birthdays included Barry Dodd and Paul Goldthorpe both from Gower Street, off Sutton Road; Brenda Haunch from Derby Drive in Rainford; Michael Fogerty from O’Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook; Denise White from Pewfall; Bernadette Hamilton from Friar Street, Dentons Green; Jeffrey Smith of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath; Jeanette Dolan, Greenfield Road and Janice Bate of Chapel Street.
Getting pedestrian crossings and traffic lights installed in St Helens has tended to be a difficult and time-consuming task in the past. The authorities were reluctant to interfere with traffic flows, fearing more problems might be created. The Reporter described a delay in installing traffic lights in Rainhill at the junction of Warrington Road and Rainhill Road. The Department of the Environment had not yet given its permission for the installation and the Divisional Surveyor said he would be asking them for an explanation of the hold up.
The paper also described how Tom Mawdsley had received some surprise visitors at his bedside in St Helens Hospital. The 60-year-old from Weymouth Avenue was recovering from a leg amputation caused by an infection and his workmates at the town's Cleansing Department had collected £14 for him (about £200 in today’s money). They'd asked the Mayor of St Helens, Cllr. Harry Williams, to present their whip-round and Leonard Cundy, the Borough Cleansing Superintendent, was also in attendance.
It was comedy night at the Theatre Royal on the 17th with ventriloquist Ray Alan starring along with Lord Charles. Also on the bill was Colin Crompton of The Comedians TV fame. It was also Open Day at Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook. But not everyone was invited to take a look behind the scenes – only the families of workers. And that was so they would be more understanding of their grumpy husbands and dads when they came home from work, as a Rockware spokesman explained:
"We thought that it would be a good idea to give employees' families a glimpse of the kind of work the bread winner has to do. It was an exercise in internal community relations. Now, when a husband comes home tired and irritable, his wife will have had a chance to look behind the scenes and she will be able to understand the pressures under which he has been working. It was encouraging to see the children coming along, because when it comes to recruiting you can't get them too young."
On the 18th 'Shaft In Africa' starring Richard Roundtree began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, while the Capitol began showing a sex comedy about a private eye called 'Super Dick'.
In 1972 it had been announced that St Helens would be among five pilot areas that would be trialling the new community service orders. The scheme had been due to start at the end of the year – or early 1973 – and last for several years in order to thoroughly test its effectiveness. However, the first time it had been used in St Helens was at the end of September 1973.
This week a 21-year-old man from Ellison Drive in St Helens was given 50 hours community service after admitting a burglary at St Teresa's Club in Windsor Road. Upon the police's arrival on the scene a man and a youth had tried to escape from the club by jumping through a window – but both were caught.
On the 19th Rainford Council decided to accept the advice of a man called Robert Kilroy-Silk. The 31-year-old lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool was the prospective Labour candidate for the Ormskirk constituency – which then included Rainford.
Kilroy-Silk had written to the council calling for an "open forum" with members of the public to take place at the end of each council meeting in which questions could be asked. He wrote that: "It would allow councils to explain and defend decisions and the spending of ratepayers' money." There was some opposition to the suggestion but it was decided to try it out from January. The BBC talk show 'Kilroy', incidentally, was still some thirteen years away.
And finally on the 19th, ambulance staff at the St Helens station in Jackson Street (pictured above) joined the national pay dispute. They said they would only deal with emergencies, hospital transfers and maternity cases as part of their demand for a £7 a week pay rise. Union leader Ray Pownall of Parliament Street in Thatto Heath said: "The hospitals will be flooded". He explained that his members' industrial action would result in discharged patients not being taken home by ambulance and the transport of outpatients to and from hospital would also be affected.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of a new church in Sutton, St Helens Council reveal their new coat of arms, a Parr abuser of boys and his blackmailer are both jailed and an update on the ambulance strike.
We begin on the 13th with Saints 11 - 7 win over the touring Australian rugby league team. It was the Aussies only loss to a club side on their tour and their defeat took place in front of the biggest crowd of the season at Knowsley Road.
It was reported on the 13th that two-dozen rare glass vessels dating from the 4th century BC to the 18th century had been added to the collection at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road. The items were on loan from the British Museum.
The 14th was the day of the wedding between Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and St Helens' children were granted a day off school. It was also when the first electricity restrictions began under the Government's State of Emergency. The Yom Kippur War in the Middle East had been the trigger for the fuel and power crisis that was being exacerbated by miners banning overtime and working to rule.
As a consequence illuminated display advertising and floodlights were now banned and the thermostats in commercial premises needed to be turned down. The Government also said that they were asking for voluntary economies in heating and lighting of about 10% from everyone. As a result Saints' floodlit game scheduled for the evening of the 16th would now take place on the following Sunday afternoon.
At the Theatre Royal for four nights this week there was a production of Agatha Christie's 'The Hollow'. The classic country house murder mystery featured the Australian actor Cicely Courtneidge and her husband Jack Hulbert.
Currys opened a new store at 54 Church Street in St Helens at 10:30am on the 16th. The Reporter was published on that day and had a full-page feature promoting the 'Currys Plus Charter of Fair Trading'. The article was, no doubt, advertising but it had a journalist's by-line and certainly gave the impression that it was a Reporter piece. I don’t think that would be allowed today by advertising standards watchdogs.
Martin Dawes also had a new branch open at 5 Brownlow Arcade in what they described as the New Market Precinct in St Helens. They were guaranteeing immediate delivery of colour TV for rental or purchase. Also new in St Helens was Lakeland Pennine, "the people who do more than just clean clothes." Their premises were at 15 Duke Street and they invited readers to try their "special introductory offer … now", although they failed to say what it was! Lakeland Pennine did write that they offered a "cuddly clean" blanket service, as well as suede and leather cleaning.
The Reporter also published this article: "Major fuel companies may have to ration petrol but they are certainly not rationing beauty. Among more than 100 girls aiming to win the title 'Shell Console Girl ‘74' is 24-year-old Sandra Mather from St. Helens. "Sandra, who is married and lives in Elton Head Road, has worked at Rainhill Service Station for two years and her interests are dancing, swimming, reading and she enjoys making her own clothes."
The paper also described how a charity worker was warning people to be on the lookout for bogus collectors. That was after reports had been received of young people going round homes in Parr claiming to be collecting for Spina Bifida. Nancy Maddox, the secretary of St Helens and District Spina Bifida Association, said:
"We've had reports that this is going on. Every year around Christmas things get worse, and people call from door to door saying they belong to us. The Association does not make door-to-door calls, and people should at once be suspicious. We get a great deal of support from St. Helens and we do not want to get a bad name. The people here do so much for us."
Club members that were celebrating birthdays included Barry Dodd and Paul Goldthorpe both from Gower Street, off Sutton Road; Brenda Haunch from Derby Drive in Rainford; Michael Fogerty from O’Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook; Denise White from Pewfall; Bernadette Hamilton from Friar Street, Dentons Green; Jeffrey Smith of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath; Jeanette Dolan, Greenfield Road and Janice Bate of Chapel Street.
Getting pedestrian crossings and traffic lights installed in St Helens has tended to be a difficult and time-consuming task in the past. The authorities were reluctant to interfere with traffic flows, fearing more problems might be created. The Reporter described a delay in installing traffic lights in Rainhill at the junction of Warrington Road and Rainhill Road. The Department of the Environment had not yet given its permission for the installation and the Divisional Surveyor said he would be asking them for an explanation of the hold up.
The paper also described how Tom Mawdsley had received some surprise visitors at his bedside in St Helens Hospital. The 60-year-old from Weymouth Avenue was recovering from a leg amputation caused by an infection and his workmates at the town's Cleansing Department had collected £14 for him (about £200 in today’s money). They'd asked the Mayor of St Helens, Cllr. Harry Williams, to present their whip-round and Leonard Cundy, the Borough Cleansing Superintendent, was also in attendance.
It was comedy night at the Theatre Royal on the 17th with ventriloquist Ray Alan starring along with Lord Charles. Also on the bill was Colin Crompton of The Comedians TV fame. It was also Open Day at Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook. But not everyone was invited to take a look behind the scenes – only the families of workers. And that was so they would be more understanding of their grumpy husbands and dads when they came home from work, as a Rockware spokesman explained:
"We thought that it would be a good idea to give employees' families a glimpse of the kind of work the bread winner has to do. It was an exercise in internal community relations. Now, when a husband comes home tired and irritable, his wife will have had a chance to look behind the scenes and she will be able to understand the pressures under which he has been working. It was encouraging to see the children coming along, because when it comes to recruiting you can't get them too young."
On the 18th 'Shaft In Africa' starring Richard Roundtree began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, while the Capitol began showing a sex comedy about a private eye called 'Super Dick'.
In 1972 it had been announced that St Helens would be among five pilot areas that would be trialling the new community service orders. The scheme had been due to start at the end of the year – or early 1973 – and last for several years in order to thoroughly test its effectiveness. However, the first time it had been used in St Helens was at the end of September 1973.
This week a 21-year-old man from Ellison Drive in St Helens was given 50 hours community service after admitting a burglary at St Teresa's Club in Windsor Road. Upon the police's arrival on the scene a man and a youth had tried to escape from the club by jumping through a window – but both were caught.
On the 19th Rainford Council decided to accept the advice of a man called Robert Kilroy-Silk. The 31-year-old lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool was the prospective Labour candidate for the Ormskirk constituency – which then included Rainford.
Kilroy-Silk had written to the council calling for an "open forum" with members of the public to take place at the end of each council meeting in which questions could be asked. He wrote that: "It would allow councils to explain and defend decisions and the spending of ratepayers' money." There was some opposition to the suggestion but it was decided to try it out from January. The BBC talk show 'Kilroy', incidentally, was still some thirteen years away.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of a new church in Sutton, St Helens Council reveal their new coat of arms, a Parr abuser of boys and his blackmailer are both jailed and an update on the ambulance strike.
This week's many stories include the bogus Spina Bifida collectors in Parr, Rockware's open day for the families of grumpy workers, the Snoopy Club in the Reporter, the community service pilot scheme, a traffic light delay in Rainhill, St Helens ambulance staff join a national pay dispute, Currys, Martin Dawes and Lakeland Pennine come to St Helens and Rainford Council decides to accept the advice of a man called Robert Kilroy-Silk.
We begin on the 13th with Saints 11 - 7 win over the touring Australian rugby league team.
It was the Aussies only loss to a club side on their tour and their defeat took place in front of the biggest crowd of the season at Knowsley Road.
It was reported on the 13th that two-dozen rare glass vessels dating from the 4th century BC to the 18th century had been added to the collection at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road. The items were on loan from the British Museum.
The 14th was the day of the wedding between Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and St Helens' children were granted a day off school.
It was also when the first electricity restrictions began under the Government's State of Emergency.
The Yom Kippur War in the Middle East had been the trigger for the fuel and power crisis that was being exacerbated by miners banning overtime and working to rule.
As a consequence illuminated display advertising and floodlights were now banned and the thermostats in commercial premises needed to be turned down.
The Government also said that they were asking for voluntary economies in heating and lighting of about 10% from everyone.
As a result Saints' floodlit game scheduled for the evening of the 16th would now take place on the following Sunday afternoon.
At the Theatre Royal for four nights this week there was a production of Agatha Christie's 'The Hollow'.
The classic country house murder mystery featured the Australian actor Cicely Courtneidge and her husband Jack Hulbert.
Currys opened a new store at 54 Church Street in St Helens at 10:30am on the 16th. The Reporter was published on that day and had a full-page feature promoting the 'Currys Plus Charter of Fair Trading'.
The article was, no doubt, advertising but it had a journalist's by-line and certainly gave the impression that it was a Reporter piece. I don’t think that would be allowed today by advertising standards watchdogs.
Martin Dawes also had a new branch open at 5 Brownlow Arcade in what they described as the New Market Precinct in St Helens. They were guaranteeing immediate delivery of colour TV for rental or purchase.
Also new in St Helens was Lakeland Pennine, "the people who do more than just clean clothes."
Their premises were at 15 Duke Street and they invited readers to try their "special introductory offer … now", although they failed to say what it was!
Lakeland Pennine did write that they offered a "cuddly clean" blanket service, as well as suede and leather cleaning.
The Reporter also published this article: "Major fuel companies may have to ration petrol but they are certainly not rationing beauty. Among more than 100 girls aiming to win the title 'Shell Console Girl ‘74' is 24-year-old Sandra Mather from St. Helens.
"Sandra, who is married and lives in Elton Head Road, has worked at Rainhill Service Station for two years and her interests are dancing, swimming, reading and she enjoys making her own clothes."
The paper also described how a charity worker was warning people to be on the lookout for bogus collectors.
That was after reports had been received of young people going round homes in Parr claiming to be collecting for Spina Bifida.
Nancy Maddox, the secretary of St Helens and District Spina Bifida Association, said:
"We've had reports that this is going on. Every year around Christmas things get worse, and people call from door to door saying they belong to us.
"The Association does not make door-to-door calls, and people should at once be suspicious. We get a great deal of support from St. Helens and we do not want to get a bad name. The people here do so much for us."
In 1970 the Reporter launched 'The Snoopy Club' for youngsters aged from 4 to 11. It had nothing to do with the pet beagle of Charlie Brown – instead Snoopy was a glove puppet penguin who could type!
This week the column thanked all the children that had sent in Green Shield and Co-op stamps.
They were being used to buy food for birds at the Three Owls Bird Sanctuary and Bird Hospital in Rochdale.
Snoopy also gently chastised his many young readers for sending in letters – but forgetting to put their name at the end.
Club members that were celebrating birthdays included Barry Dodd and Paul Goldthorpe both from Gower Street, off Sutton Road; Brenda Haunch from Derby Drive in Rainford; Michael Fogerty from O’Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook; Denise White from Pewfall; Bernadette Hamilton from Friar Street, Dentons Green; Jeffrey Smith of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath; Jeanette Dolan, Greenfield Road and Janice Bate of Chapel Street.
Getting pedestrian crossings and traffic lights installed in St Helens has tended to be a difficult and time-consuming task in the past.
The authorities were reluctant to interfere with traffic flows, fearing more problems might be created.
The Reporter described a delay in installing traffic lights in Rainhill at the junction of Warrington Road and Rainhill Road.
The Department of the Environment had not yet given its permission for the installation and the Divisional Surveyor said he would be asking them for an explanation of the hold up.
The paper also described how Tom Mawdsley had received some surprise visitors at his bedside in St Helens Hospital.
The 60-year-old from Weymouth Avenue was recovering from a leg amputation caused by an infection and his workmates at the town's Cleansing Department had collected £14 for him (about £200 in today’s money).
They'd asked the Mayor of St Helens, Cllr. Harry Williams, to present their whip-round and Leonard Cundy, the Borough Cleansing Superintendent, was also in attendance.
It was comedy night at the Theatre Royal on the 17th with ventriloquist Ray Alan starring along with Lord Charles. Also on the bill was Colin Crompton of The Comedians TV fame.
It was also Open Day at Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook. But not everyone was invited to take a look behind the scenes – only the families of workers.
And that was so they would be more understanding of their grumpy husbands and dads when they came home from work, as a Rockware spokesman explained:
"We thought that it would be a good idea to give employees' families a glimpse of the kind of work the bread winner has to do. It was an exercise in internal community relations.
"Now, when a husband comes home tired and irritable, his wife will have had a chance to look behind the scenes and she will be able to understand the pressures under which he has been working.
"It was encouraging to see the children coming along, because when it comes to recruiting you can't get them too young."
On the 18th 'Shaft In Africa' starring Richard Roundtree began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, while the Capitol began showing a sex comedy about a private eye called 'Super Dick'.
In 1972 it had been announced that St Helens would be among five pilot areas that would be trialling the new community service orders.
The scheme had been due to start at the end of the year – or early 1973 – and last for several years in order to thoroughly test its effectiveness. However, the first time it had been used in St Helens was at the end of September 1973.
This week a 21-year-old man from Ellison Drive in St Helens was given 50 hours community service after admitting a burglary at St Teresa's Club in Windsor Road.
Upon the police's arrival on the scene a man and a youth had tried to escape from the club by jumping through a window – but both were caught.
On the 19th Rainford Council decided to accept the advice of a man called Robert Kilroy-Silk.
The 31-year-old lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool was the prospective Labour candidate for the Ormskirk constituency – which then included Rainford.
Kilroy-Silk had written to the council calling for an "open forum" with members of the public to take place at the end of each council meeting in which questions could be asked.
He wrote that: "It would allow councils to explain and defend decisions and the spending of ratepayers' money."
There was some opposition to the suggestion but it was decided to try it out from January. The BBC talk show 'Kilroy', incidentally, was still some thirteen years away.
And finally on the 19th, ambulance staff at the St Helens station in Jackson Street (pictured above) joined the national pay dispute.
They said they would only deal with emergencies, hospital transfers and maternity cases as part of their demand for a £7 a week pay rise.
Union leader Ray Pownall of Parliament Street in Thatto Heath said: "The hospitals will be flooded".
He explained that his members' industrial action would result in discharged patients not being taken home by ambulance and the transport of outpatients to and from hospital would also be affected.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of a new church in Sutton, St Helens Council reveal their new coat of arms, a Parr abuser of boys and his blackmailer are both jailed and an update on the ambulance strike.
We begin on the 13th with Saints 11 - 7 win over the touring Australian rugby league team.
It was the Aussies only loss to a club side on their tour and their defeat took place in front of the biggest crowd of the season at Knowsley Road.
It was reported on the 13th that two-dozen rare glass vessels dating from the 4th century BC to the 18th century had been added to the collection at the Pilkington Glass Museum in Prescot Road. The items were on loan from the British Museum.
The 14th was the day of the wedding between Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and St Helens' children were granted a day off school.
It was also when the first electricity restrictions began under the Government's State of Emergency.
The Yom Kippur War in the Middle East had been the trigger for the fuel and power crisis that was being exacerbated by miners banning overtime and working to rule.
As a consequence illuminated display advertising and floodlights were now banned and the thermostats in commercial premises needed to be turned down.
The Government also said that they were asking for voluntary economies in heating and lighting of about 10% from everyone.
As a result Saints' floodlit game scheduled for the evening of the 16th would now take place on the following Sunday afternoon.
At the Theatre Royal for four nights this week there was a production of Agatha Christie's 'The Hollow'.
The classic country house murder mystery featured the Australian actor Cicely Courtneidge and her husband Jack Hulbert.
Currys opened a new store at 54 Church Street in St Helens at 10:30am on the 16th. The Reporter was published on that day and had a full-page feature promoting the 'Currys Plus Charter of Fair Trading'.
The article was, no doubt, advertising but it had a journalist's by-line and certainly gave the impression that it was a Reporter piece. I don’t think that would be allowed today by advertising standards watchdogs.
Martin Dawes also had a new branch open at 5 Brownlow Arcade in what they described as the New Market Precinct in St Helens. They were guaranteeing immediate delivery of colour TV for rental or purchase.
Also new in St Helens was Lakeland Pennine, "the people who do more than just clean clothes."
Their premises were at 15 Duke Street and they invited readers to try their "special introductory offer … now", although they failed to say what it was!
Lakeland Pennine did write that they offered a "cuddly clean" blanket service, as well as suede and leather cleaning.
The Reporter also published this article: "Major fuel companies may have to ration petrol but they are certainly not rationing beauty. Among more than 100 girls aiming to win the title 'Shell Console Girl ‘74' is 24-year-old Sandra Mather from St. Helens.
"Sandra, who is married and lives in Elton Head Road, has worked at Rainhill Service Station for two years and her interests are dancing, swimming, reading and she enjoys making her own clothes."
The paper also described how a charity worker was warning people to be on the lookout for bogus collectors.
That was after reports had been received of young people going round homes in Parr claiming to be collecting for Spina Bifida.
Nancy Maddox, the secretary of St Helens and District Spina Bifida Association, said:
"We've had reports that this is going on. Every year around Christmas things get worse, and people call from door to door saying they belong to us.
"The Association does not make door-to-door calls, and people should at once be suspicious. We get a great deal of support from St. Helens and we do not want to get a bad name. The people here do so much for us."
This week the column thanked all the children that had sent in Green Shield and Co-op stamps.
They were being used to buy food for birds at the Three Owls Bird Sanctuary and Bird Hospital in Rochdale.
Snoopy also gently chastised his many young readers for sending in letters – but forgetting to put their name at the end.
Club members that were celebrating birthdays included Barry Dodd and Paul Goldthorpe both from Gower Street, off Sutton Road; Brenda Haunch from Derby Drive in Rainford; Michael Fogerty from O’Sullivan Crescent in Blackbrook; Denise White from Pewfall; Bernadette Hamilton from Friar Street, Dentons Green; Jeffrey Smith of Kimberley Avenue in Thatto Heath; Jeanette Dolan, Greenfield Road and Janice Bate of Chapel Street.
Getting pedestrian crossings and traffic lights installed in St Helens has tended to be a difficult and time-consuming task in the past.
The authorities were reluctant to interfere with traffic flows, fearing more problems might be created.
The Reporter described a delay in installing traffic lights in Rainhill at the junction of Warrington Road and Rainhill Road.
The Department of the Environment had not yet given its permission for the installation and the Divisional Surveyor said he would be asking them for an explanation of the hold up.
The paper also described how Tom Mawdsley had received some surprise visitors at his bedside in St Helens Hospital.
The 60-year-old from Weymouth Avenue was recovering from a leg amputation caused by an infection and his workmates at the town's Cleansing Department had collected £14 for him (about £200 in today’s money).
They'd asked the Mayor of St Helens, Cllr. Harry Williams, to present their whip-round and Leonard Cundy, the Borough Cleansing Superintendent, was also in attendance.
It was comedy night at the Theatre Royal on the 17th with ventriloquist Ray Alan starring along with Lord Charles. Also on the bill was Colin Crompton of The Comedians TV fame.
It was also Open Day at Rockware Glass in Pocket Nook. But not everyone was invited to take a look behind the scenes – only the families of workers.
And that was so they would be more understanding of their grumpy husbands and dads when they came home from work, as a Rockware spokesman explained:
"We thought that it would be a good idea to give employees' families a glimpse of the kind of work the bread winner has to do. It was an exercise in internal community relations.
"Now, when a husband comes home tired and irritable, his wife will have had a chance to look behind the scenes and she will be able to understand the pressures under which he has been working.
"It was encouraging to see the children coming along, because when it comes to recruiting you can't get them too young."
On the 18th 'Shaft In Africa' starring Richard Roundtree began a week's run at the ABC Savoy, while the Capitol began showing a sex comedy about a private eye called 'Super Dick'.
In 1972 it had been announced that St Helens would be among five pilot areas that would be trialling the new community service orders.
The scheme had been due to start at the end of the year – or early 1973 – and last for several years in order to thoroughly test its effectiveness. However, the first time it had been used in St Helens was at the end of September 1973.
This week a 21-year-old man from Ellison Drive in St Helens was given 50 hours community service after admitting a burglary at St Teresa's Club in Windsor Road.
Upon the police's arrival on the scene a man and a youth had tried to escape from the club by jumping through a window – but both were caught.
On the 19th Rainford Council decided to accept the advice of a man called Robert Kilroy-Silk.
The 31-year-old lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool was the prospective Labour candidate for the Ormskirk constituency – which then included Rainford.
Kilroy-Silk had written to the council calling for an "open forum" with members of the public to take place at the end of each council meeting in which questions could be asked.
He wrote that: "It would allow councils to explain and defend decisions and the spending of ratepayers' money."
There was some opposition to the suggestion but it was decided to try it out from January. The BBC talk show 'Kilroy', incidentally, was still some thirteen years away.
They said they would only deal with emergencies, hospital transfers and maternity cases as part of their demand for a £7 a week pay rise.
Union leader Ray Pownall of Parliament Street in Thatto Heath said: "The hospitals will be flooded".
He explained that his members' industrial action would result in discharged patients not being taken home by ambulance and the transport of outpatients to and from hospital would also be affected.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening of a new church in Sutton, St Helens Council reveal their new coat of arms, a Parr abuser of boys and his blackmailer are both jailed and an update on the ambulance strike.