FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14 - 20 AUGUST 1973)
This week's many stories include the 6-hour baby unit at Whiston Hospital, the old men that lurked in Central Library to leer at women, the shocking vandalism on the building site for Chester Lane Library, Sutton Transport's planned helicopter hire service, criticism of the cost of the St Helens Show and the Rainhill actor milkman who delivered his milk in the evening.
We begin on the 15th when the Liverpool Echo described Bold Colliery (pictured above) as "top of the pits" as it had been named the North West Area's most productive coalmine with 1,500 men employed there. But although Bold and Parkside in Newton were profitable pits, the National Coal Board’s NW Area had lost £12.1 million during the last financial year.
The days of new mothers routinely spending many days in hospital were becoming numbered. The council's Health Committee heard on the 15th that Whiston Hospital was planning to introduce a special maternity unit where mothers were discharged six hours after giving birth. Billinge had been the first place within the St Helens district to embrace this innovation, with the Roy Hartley Maternity Unit converting days of maternity care into hours in 1971.
However, first-time mothers at Whiston – or ones that had experienced complications when previously giving birth – would still have between 48 hours and a week before being discharged. And the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Julian Baines, told the committee that he was keen on the scheme.
"This to my mind gives the mother the best of both worlds," he said. "She has all the facilities of a major hospital and then an amount of time at home. She will be visited regularly by a midwife as soon as she comes home and be given constant care. There were still a lot of details to be worked out", added Dr. Baines, "But I would like to see our participation in this."
When the St Helens Libraries Committee met this week its members were told that old men were lurking in Central Library's reading room – but not doing much reading. Instead they were staring at the women that were inside, causing them to feel uncomfortable and leave. Cllr. Shepherd later told the Reporter: "This is a social problem. These men are often from hostels – they have nothing to do. But they will have to stop using the reading room. It's a nice bright room, but it should be for reading."
The Chief Librarian, Geoffrey Senior, added: "People tend to go into this room – and not read. People like to sit in it. Now, this is becoming a problem. Up to now there has been no supervision, but we will ask people to leave and make way for others who want to use the room. We will be keeping our eyes open."
The committee also heard that young vandals were causing considerable damage to the new library that was being built at Chester Lane. Maurice Lord, the Corporation's Chief Assistant Surveyor, said as windows were being installed children and teenagers were smashing them and the builders had been forced to fortify the site by putting up a barrier topped with barbed wire. Later a spokesman for the builders George Moss and Co. said:
"The situation is terrible. Vandals are wrecking everything. They have thrown tarpaulin sheets about, destroyed papers, and every day they are breaking our armour-plated glass windows. They must have caused more than £200 worth of damage – and that's a conservative estimate." The spokesman also explained why they had not hired a night watchman: "Round here if a night-watchman reported anyone he would be in danger from these hooligans. We couldn't put a man’s safety in jeopardy."
The St Helens Reporter's lead story on the 17th bore the headline "Police Warn: Beware Get-Rich-Quick Gang" and was about tricksters who had duped householders in the Windle Grove area of Eccleston. The men had offered to do jobs on the cheap for cash in advance but did not complete them.
The Reporter predicted that helicopters "skimming low over rooftops" as they prepared to land at a new "heli-pad" could soon become a common site in St Helens. That was because Suttons haulage contractors in Eltonhead Road were planning to build a landing area for two helicopters at the rear of their offices.
The firm's directors already had one helicopter that they used to fly to depots all over the country but it was only usually in flight once a week. Suttons now planned to buy a second, low-cost machine and run a commercial hire operation for firms wanting to cut down on their travelling times. Their helicopter hire rates would be about £35 and £85 for the two aircraft, which were three-seater's and five-seater's, respectively.
Milkman Bill Moores was also featured after confusing some of his customers on his Rainhill round by delivered their morning milk on the previous evening. The 36-year-old from Cross Lane in Prescot was also an actor and was delivering his milk so early because he had a part in a TV play. He needed to be at the Granada Television Studios in Manchester by 9am and so was splitting his round – delivering some milk first thing and the rest in the evening.
Bill was a member of the Rainhill Garrick Society and had appeared on Opportunity Knocks in 1970. He'd also had walk-on roles and small parts in several TV shows, including Coronation Street. "There's a lot of luck involved in getting television work", said Bill. "It's largely a question of availability which is why my job is ideal. I can vary the hours slightly to be at the studios or on location at the right time."
The paper also described how the new £100,000 centre for alcoholics that was to be built at Rainhill Hospital had hit a snag. Problems had been experienced in installing the building's foundations through unstable soil conditions and construction work would be delayed for 2 to 3 months. When completed twenty people with drink problems would be accommodated and treated at the centre on six-week courses.
The Reporter commented how rumours that the Capitol Cinema was going to close for redevelopment as an entertainment complex had been denied. A spokesman for EMI Films said they had applied to St Helens Council to develop the building as a cinema and sports hall with indoor games. But they insisted that the application was only a formal one to give the company flexibility in the future and no decision had yet been made about any alterations that might be made.
The spokesman added that they had been redeveloping some of their chain of 207 cinemas: "We've been building triple and double cinemas, adding squash courts, sports halls, bingo rooms and even pubs. We're constantly changing the shape of present buildings and putting in the sort of amenities which the public wants. There are no plans for St. Helens at the moment …It's just a safeguard for the future." The cinema on the corner of Duke Street and North Road would close in 1998.
There was a letter from a G. I. Fletcher in the Reporter criticising the cost of the recent St Helens Show: "The curtains are once again drawn on the St. Helens Show, and the time to assess its attributes and costs has come. If the announcement in the Press is a guide, it has been a costly extravaganza to the tune of a £20,000 loss – an expensive luxury to the ratepayers who have to bear the brunt of this figure. Coupled with the deficits of previous years, this gives a grand total of nearly £50,000. Not a lot when you say it quickly, but what a price to pay for a cultural fiasco!
"When are the organisers and planners of this town going to realise that the rate assessment does not include the subsidy of a social function unless there is some form of return! It is a bonanza for the amusement, catering, ice-cream, candy floss merchants whose profits for the period must have been of bumper proportions, even after Value Added Tax has been accounted for.
"This town, although well off, is not a philanthropic society to mobile sales unit type of exhibitors who were in attendance at this year's show, and making handsome profits. Let us wake up to reality. If this show is to continue, make it pay its way and give the ratepayers (including the council tenants) a bonus of better services and something the town can be proud of."
On the 19th a 17-year-old Huyton youth was drowned while swimming at Carr Mill Dam. It was two-and-a-half hours before an underwater search unit from Lancashire Police was able to recover Francis Mullady's body.
And finally, I wonder how many times 'Mary Poppins' was screened in St Helens? A lot I should think and the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke musical began seven more days at the ABC Savoy from the 19th. Meanwhile at the Capitol, 'Pancho Villa' starring Telly Savalas was screened, along with 'The Glass House'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dangerous concrete pipes in Ashcroft Street, the horror toy rattle of Hinckley Road, the glue sniffing craze in St Helens, the Rainford Festival takes place and the damage and thefts to St David's in Carr Mill.
The days of new mothers routinely spending many days in hospital were becoming numbered. The council's Health Committee heard on the 15th that Whiston Hospital was planning to introduce a special maternity unit where mothers were discharged six hours after giving birth. Billinge had been the first place within the St Helens district to embrace this innovation, with the Roy Hartley Maternity Unit converting days of maternity care into hours in 1971.
However, first-time mothers at Whiston – or ones that had experienced complications when previously giving birth – would still have between 48 hours and a week before being discharged. And the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Julian Baines, told the committee that he was keen on the scheme.
"This to my mind gives the mother the best of both worlds," he said. "She has all the facilities of a major hospital and then an amount of time at home. She will be visited regularly by a midwife as soon as she comes home and be given constant care. There were still a lot of details to be worked out", added Dr. Baines, "But I would like to see our participation in this."
When the St Helens Libraries Committee met this week its members were told that old men were lurking in Central Library's reading room – but not doing much reading. Instead they were staring at the women that were inside, causing them to feel uncomfortable and leave. Cllr. Shepherd later told the Reporter: "This is a social problem. These men are often from hostels – they have nothing to do. But they will have to stop using the reading room. It's a nice bright room, but it should be for reading."
The Chief Librarian, Geoffrey Senior, added: "People tend to go into this room – and not read. People like to sit in it. Now, this is becoming a problem. Up to now there has been no supervision, but we will ask people to leave and make way for others who want to use the room. We will be keeping our eyes open."
The committee also heard that young vandals were causing considerable damage to the new library that was being built at Chester Lane. Maurice Lord, the Corporation's Chief Assistant Surveyor, said as windows were being installed children and teenagers were smashing them and the builders had been forced to fortify the site by putting up a barrier topped with barbed wire. Later a spokesman for the builders George Moss and Co. said:
"The situation is terrible. Vandals are wrecking everything. They have thrown tarpaulin sheets about, destroyed papers, and every day they are breaking our armour-plated glass windows. They must have caused more than £200 worth of damage – and that's a conservative estimate." The spokesman also explained why they had not hired a night watchman: "Round here if a night-watchman reported anyone he would be in danger from these hooligans. We couldn't put a man’s safety in jeopardy."
The St Helens Reporter's lead story on the 17th bore the headline "Police Warn: Beware Get-Rich-Quick Gang" and was about tricksters who had duped householders in the Windle Grove area of Eccleston. The men had offered to do jobs on the cheap for cash in advance but did not complete them.
The Reporter predicted that helicopters "skimming low over rooftops" as they prepared to land at a new "heli-pad" could soon become a common site in St Helens. That was because Suttons haulage contractors in Eltonhead Road were planning to build a landing area for two helicopters at the rear of their offices.
The firm's directors already had one helicopter that they used to fly to depots all over the country but it was only usually in flight once a week. Suttons now planned to buy a second, low-cost machine and run a commercial hire operation for firms wanting to cut down on their travelling times. Their helicopter hire rates would be about £35 and £85 for the two aircraft, which were three-seater's and five-seater's, respectively.
Milkman Bill Moores was also featured after confusing some of his customers on his Rainhill round by delivered their morning milk on the previous evening. The 36-year-old from Cross Lane in Prescot was also an actor and was delivering his milk so early because he had a part in a TV play. He needed to be at the Granada Television Studios in Manchester by 9am and so was splitting his round – delivering some milk first thing and the rest in the evening.
Bill was a member of the Rainhill Garrick Society and had appeared on Opportunity Knocks in 1970. He'd also had walk-on roles and small parts in several TV shows, including Coronation Street. "There's a lot of luck involved in getting television work", said Bill. "It's largely a question of availability which is why my job is ideal. I can vary the hours slightly to be at the studios or on location at the right time."
The paper also described how the new £100,000 centre for alcoholics that was to be built at Rainhill Hospital had hit a snag. Problems had been experienced in installing the building's foundations through unstable soil conditions and construction work would be delayed for 2 to 3 months. When completed twenty people with drink problems would be accommodated and treated at the centre on six-week courses.
The Reporter commented how rumours that the Capitol Cinema was going to close for redevelopment as an entertainment complex had been denied. A spokesman for EMI Films said they had applied to St Helens Council to develop the building as a cinema and sports hall with indoor games. But they insisted that the application was only a formal one to give the company flexibility in the future and no decision had yet been made about any alterations that might be made.
The spokesman added that they had been redeveloping some of their chain of 207 cinemas: "We've been building triple and double cinemas, adding squash courts, sports halls, bingo rooms and even pubs. We're constantly changing the shape of present buildings and putting in the sort of amenities which the public wants. There are no plans for St. Helens at the moment …It's just a safeguard for the future." The cinema on the corner of Duke Street and North Road would close in 1998.
There was a letter from a G. I. Fletcher in the Reporter criticising the cost of the recent St Helens Show: "The curtains are once again drawn on the St. Helens Show, and the time to assess its attributes and costs has come. If the announcement in the Press is a guide, it has been a costly extravaganza to the tune of a £20,000 loss – an expensive luxury to the ratepayers who have to bear the brunt of this figure. Coupled with the deficits of previous years, this gives a grand total of nearly £50,000. Not a lot when you say it quickly, but what a price to pay for a cultural fiasco!
"When are the organisers and planners of this town going to realise that the rate assessment does not include the subsidy of a social function unless there is some form of return! It is a bonanza for the amusement, catering, ice-cream, candy floss merchants whose profits for the period must have been of bumper proportions, even after Value Added Tax has been accounted for.
"This town, although well off, is not a philanthropic society to mobile sales unit type of exhibitors who were in attendance at this year's show, and making handsome profits. Let us wake up to reality. If this show is to continue, make it pay its way and give the ratepayers (including the council tenants) a bonus of better services and something the town can be proud of."
On the 19th a 17-year-old Huyton youth was drowned while swimming at Carr Mill Dam. It was two-and-a-half hours before an underwater search unit from Lancashire Police was able to recover Francis Mullady's body.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dangerous concrete pipes in Ashcroft Street, the horror toy rattle of Hinckley Road, the glue sniffing craze in St Helens, the Rainford Festival takes place and the damage and thefts to St David's in Carr Mill.
This week's many stories include the 6-hour baby unit at Whiston Hospital, the old men that lurked in Central Library to leer at women, the shocking vandalism on the building site for Chester Lane Library, Sutton Transport's planned helicopter hire service, criticism of the cost of the St Helens Show and the Rainhill actor milkman who delivered his milk in the evening.
We begin on the 15th when the Liverpool Echo described Bold Colliery as "top of the pits" as it had been named the North West Area's most productive coalmine with 1,500 men employed there.
But although Bold and Parkside in Newton were profitable pits, the National Coal Board’s NW Area had lost £12.1 million during the last financial year.
The days of new mothers routinely spending many days in hospital were becoming numbered.
The council's Health Committee heard on the 15th that Whiston Hospital was planning to introduce a special maternity unit where mothers were discharged six hours after giving birth.
Billinge had been the first place within the St Helens district to embrace this innovation, with the Roy Hartley Maternity Unit converting days of maternity care into hours in 1971.
However, first-time mothers at Whiston – or ones that had experienced complications when previously giving birth – would still have between 48 hours and a week before being discharged.
And the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Julian Baines, told the committee that he was keen on the scheme.
"This to my mind gives the mother the best of both worlds," he said. "She has all the facilities of a major hospital and then an amount of time at home. She will be visited regularly by a midwife as soon as she comes home and be given constant care.
"There were still a lot of details to be worked out", added Dr. Baines, "But I would like to see our participation in this."
When the St Helens Libraries Committee met this week its members were told that old men were lurking in Central Library's reading room – but not doing much reading.
Instead they were staring at the women that were inside, causing them to feel uncomfortable and leave. Cllr. Shepherd later told the Reporter:
"This is a social problem. These men are often from hostels – they have nothing to do. But they will have to stop using the reading room. It's a nice bright room, but it should be for reading."
The Chief Librarian, Geoffrey Senior, added: "People tend to go into this room – and not read. People like to sit in it. Now, this is becoming a problem.
"Up to now there has been no supervision, but we will ask people to leave and make way for others who want to use the room. We will be keeping our eyes open."
The committee also heard that young vandals were causing considerable damage to the new library that was being built at Chester Lane.
Maurice Lord, the Corporation's Chief Assistant Surveyor, said as windows were being installed children and teenagers were smashing them and the builders had been forced to fortify the site by putting up a barrier topped with barbed wire.
Later a spokesman for the builders George Moss and Co. said:
"The situation is terrible. Vandals are wrecking everything. They have thrown tarpaulin sheets about, destroyed papers, and every day they are breaking our armour-plated glass windows. They must have caused more than £200 worth of damage – and that's a conservative estimate."
The spokesman also explained why they had not hired a night watchman:
"Round here if a night-watchman reported anyone he would be in danger from these hooligans. We couldn't put a man's safety in jeopardy."
The St Helens Reporter's lead story on the 17th bore the headline "Police Warn: Beware Get-Rich-Quick Gang" and was about tricksters who had duped householders in the Windle Grove area of Eccleston.
The men had offered to do jobs on the cheap for cash in advance but did not complete them.
The Reporter predicted that helicopters "skimming low over rooftops" as they prepared to land at a new "heli-pad" could soon become a common site in St Helens.
That was because Suttons haulage contractors in Eltonhead Road were planning to build a landing area for two helicopters at the rear of their offices.
The firm's directors already had one helicopter that they used to fly to depots all over the country but it was only usually in flight once a week.
Suttons now planned to buy a second, low-cost machine and run a commercial hire operation for firms wanting to cut down on their travelling times.
Milkman Bill Moores was also featured after confusing some of his customers on his Rainhill round by delivered their morning milk on the previous evening.
The 36-year-old from Cross Lane in Prescot was also an actor and was delivering his milk so early because he had a part in a TV play.
He needed to be at the Granada Television Studios in Manchester by 9am and so was splitting his round – delivering some milk first thing and the rest in the evening.
Bill was a member of the Rainhill Garrick Society and had appeared on Opportunity Knocks in 1970.
He'd also had walk-on roles and small parts in several TV shows, including Coronation Street.
"There's a lot of luck involved in getting television work", said Bill. "It's largely a question of availability which is why my job is ideal. I can vary the hours slightly to be at the studios or on location at the right time."
The paper also described how the new £100,000 centre for alcoholics that was to be built at Rainhill Hospital had hit a snag.
Problems had been experienced in installing the building's foundations through unstable soil conditions and construction work would be delayed for 2 to 3 months.
When completed twenty people with drink problems would be accommodated and treated at the centre on six-week courses.
The Reporter commented how rumours that the Capitol Cinema was going to close for redevelopment as an entertainment complex had been denied.
A spokesman for EMI Films said they had applied to St Helens Council to develop the building as a cinema and sports hall with indoor games.
But they insisted that the application was only a formal one to give the company flexibility in the future and no decision had yet been made about any alterations that might be made.
The spokesman added that they had been redeveloping some of their chain of 207 cinemas:
"We've been building triple and double cinemas, adding squash courts, sports halls, bingo rooms and even pubs.
"We're constantly changing the shape of present buildings and putting in the sort of amenities which the public wants. There are no plans for St. Helens at the moment …It's just a safeguard for the future."
The cinema on the corner of Duke Street and North Road would close in 1998.
There was a letter from a G. I. Fletcher in the Reporter criticising the cost of the recent St Helens Show:
"The curtains are once again drawn on the St. Helens Show, and the time to assess its attributes and costs has come.
"If the announcement in the Press is a guide, it has been a costly extravaganza to the tune of a £20,000 loss – an expensive luxury to the ratepayers who have to bear the brunt of this figure.
"Coupled with the deficits of previous years, this gives a grand total of nearly £50,000. Not a lot when you say it quickly, but what a price to pay for a cultural fiasco!
"When are the organisers and planners of this town going to realise that the rate assessment does not include the subsidy of a social function unless there is some form of return!
"It is a bonanza for the amusement, catering, ice-cream, candy floss merchants whose profits for the period must have been of bumper proportions, even after Value Added Tax has been accounted for.
"This town, although well off, is not a philanthropic society to mobile sales unit type of exhibitors who were in attendance at this year's show, and making handsome profits.
"Let us wake up to reality. If this show is to continue, make it pay its way and give the ratepayers (including the council tenants) a bonus of better services and something the town can be proud of."
On the 19th a 17-year-old Huyton youth was drowned while swimming at Carr Mill Dam.
It was two-and-a-half hours before an underwater search unit from Lancashire Police was able to recover Francis Mullady's body.
And finally, I wonder how many times 'Mary Poppins' was screened in St Helens? A lot I should think and the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke musical began seven more days at the ABC Savoy from the 19th.
Meanwhile at the Capitol, 'Pancho Villa' starring Telly Savalas was screened, along with 'The Glass House'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dangerous concrete pipes in Ashcroft Street, the horror toy rattle of Hinckley Road, the glue sniffing craze in St Helens, the Rainford Festival takes place and the damage and thefts to St David's in Carr Mill.
We begin on the 15th when the Liverpool Echo described Bold Colliery as "top of the pits" as it had been named the North West Area's most productive coalmine with 1,500 men employed there.
But although Bold and Parkside in Newton were profitable pits, the National Coal Board’s NW Area had lost £12.1 million during the last financial year.
The days of new mothers routinely spending many days in hospital were becoming numbered.
The council's Health Committee heard on the 15th that Whiston Hospital was planning to introduce a special maternity unit where mothers were discharged six hours after giving birth.
Billinge had been the first place within the St Helens district to embrace this innovation, with the Roy Hartley Maternity Unit converting days of maternity care into hours in 1971.
However, first-time mothers at Whiston – or ones that had experienced complications when previously giving birth – would still have between 48 hours and a week before being discharged.
And the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Julian Baines, told the committee that he was keen on the scheme.
"This to my mind gives the mother the best of both worlds," he said. "She has all the facilities of a major hospital and then an amount of time at home. She will be visited regularly by a midwife as soon as she comes home and be given constant care.
"There were still a lot of details to be worked out", added Dr. Baines, "But I would like to see our participation in this."
When the St Helens Libraries Committee met this week its members were told that old men were lurking in Central Library's reading room – but not doing much reading.
Instead they were staring at the women that were inside, causing them to feel uncomfortable and leave. Cllr. Shepherd later told the Reporter:
"This is a social problem. These men are often from hostels – they have nothing to do. But they will have to stop using the reading room. It's a nice bright room, but it should be for reading."
The Chief Librarian, Geoffrey Senior, added: "People tend to go into this room – and not read. People like to sit in it. Now, this is becoming a problem.
"Up to now there has been no supervision, but we will ask people to leave and make way for others who want to use the room. We will be keeping our eyes open."
The committee also heard that young vandals were causing considerable damage to the new library that was being built at Chester Lane.
Maurice Lord, the Corporation's Chief Assistant Surveyor, said as windows were being installed children and teenagers were smashing them and the builders had been forced to fortify the site by putting up a barrier topped with barbed wire.
Later a spokesman for the builders George Moss and Co. said:
"The situation is terrible. Vandals are wrecking everything. They have thrown tarpaulin sheets about, destroyed papers, and every day they are breaking our armour-plated glass windows. They must have caused more than £200 worth of damage – and that's a conservative estimate."
The spokesman also explained why they had not hired a night watchman:
"Round here if a night-watchman reported anyone he would be in danger from these hooligans. We couldn't put a man's safety in jeopardy."
The St Helens Reporter's lead story on the 17th bore the headline "Police Warn: Beware Get-Rich-Quick Gang" and was about tricksters who had duped householders in the Windle Grove area of Eccleston.
The men had offered to do jobs on the cheap for cash in advance but did not complete them.
The Reporter predicted that helicopters "skimming low over rooftops" as they prepared to land at a new "heli-pad" could soon become a common site in St Helens.
That was because Suttons haulage contractors in Eltonhead Road were planning to build a landing area for two helicopters at the rear of their offices.
The firm's directors already had one helicopter that they used to fly to depots all over the country but it was only usually in flight once a week.
Suttons now planned to buy a second, low-cost machine and run a commercial hire operation for firms wanting to cut down on their travelling times.
Milkman Bill Moores was also featured after confusing some of his customers on his Rainhill round by delivered their morning milk on the previous evening.
The 36-year-old from Cross Lane in Prescot was also an actor and was delivering his milk so early because he had a part in a TV play.
He needed to be at the Granada Television Studios in Manchester by 9am and so was splitting his round – delivering some milk first thing and the rest in the evening.
Bill was a member of the Rainhill Garrick Society and had appeared on Opportunity Knocks in 1970.
He'd also had walk-on roles and small parts in several TV shows, including Coronation Street.
"There's a lot of luck involved in getting television work", said Bill. "It's largely a question of availability which is why my job is ideal. I can vary the hours slightly to be at the studios or on location at the right time."
The paper also described how the new £100,000 centre for alcoholics that was to be built at Rainhill Hospital had hit a snag.
Problems had been experienced in installing the building's foundations through unstable soil conditions and construction work would be delayed for 2 to 3 months.
When completed twenty people with drink problems would be accommodated and treated at the centre on six-week courses.
The Reporter commented how rumours that the Capitol Cinema was going to close for redevelopment as an entertainment complex had been denied.
A spokesman for EMI Films said they had applied to St Helens Council to develop the building as a cinema and sports hall with indoor games.
But they insisted that the application was only a formal one to give the company flexibility in the future and no decision had yet been made about any alterations that might be made.
The spokesman added that they had been redeveloping some of their chain of 207 cinemas:
"We've been building triple and double cinemas, adding squash courts, sports halls, bingo rooms and even pubs.
"We're constantly changing the shape of present buildings and putting in the sort of amenities which the public wants. There are no plans for St. Helens at the moment …It's just a safeguard for the future."
The cinema on the corner of Duke Street and North Road would close in 1998.
There was a letter from a G. I. Fletcher in the Reporter criticising the cost of the recent St Helens Show:
"The curtains are once again drawn on the St. Helens Show, and the time to assess its attributes and costs has come.
"If the announcement in the Press is a guide, it has been a costly extravaganza to the tune of a £20,000 loss – an expensive luxury to the ratepayers who have to bear the brunt of this figure.
"Coupled with the deficits of previous years, this gives a grand total of nearly £50,000. Not a lot when you say it quickly, but what a price to pay for a cultural fiasco!
"When are the organisers and planners of this town going to realise that the rate assessment does not include the subsidy of a social function unless there is some form of return!
"It is a bonanza for the amusement, catering, ice-cream, candy floss merchants whose profits for the period must have been of bumper proportions, even after Value Added Tax has been accounted for.
"This town, although well off, is not a philanthropic society to mobile sales unit type of exhibitors who were in attendance at this year's show, and making handsome profits.
"Let us wake up to reality. If this show is to continue, make it pay its way and give the ratepayers (including the council tenants) a bonus of better services and something the town can be proud of."
On the 19th a 17-year-old Huyton youth was drowned while swimming at Carr Mill Dam.
It was two-and-a-half hours before an underwater search unit from Lancashire Police was able to recover Francis Mullady's body.
And finally, I wonder how many times 'Mary Poppins' was screened in St Helens? A lot I should think and the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke musical began seven more days at the ABC Savoy from the 19th.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dangerous concrete pipes in Ashcroft Street, the horror toy rattle of Hinckley Road, the glue sniffing craze in St Helens, the Rainford Festival takes place and the damage and thefts to St David's in Carr Mill.