FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th October 1969)
This week's stories include the "Jack the Ripper" street in Sutton Manor, the end of a 5-day bin strike in St Helens, plans are announced for the Beth Avenue estate in Sutton, the decline of the bobby on the beat and the closure of the historic Windle Smithy Stores, followed by the opening of Dennis Cowley's replacement Food Market.
We begin with an announcement by UGB of St Helens that they were out of the red. Now controlled by Distillers, United Glass had made a loss of £285,000 last year. However for the first six months of this year, the bottlemakers had made a profit of £14,000.
On the 14th St Helens' dustmen held a 90-minute meeting in which they agreed to return to work following their strike for better pay and conditions. Over 100 men had been out since the 9th in support of London bin workers. During the weekend the rest of the cleansing department joined them, making a total of 200 out on strike.
Hundreds of townsfolk collected plastic sacks from the town's libraries to store their rubbish and the main tips in St Helens were thrown open for the dumping of filled sacks. The only refuse service operating was an emergency one for hospitals. The bin men decided to accept an offer of a 30-shilling increase on their basic pay of £14 a week and they returned to work on the following day. However householders were warned that it would take two to three weeks for the refuse collection service to return to normal.
The St Helens Peace in Vietnam Committee met in the White Hart Hotel in Church Street during the evening of the 14th. Their forthcoming jumble sale was one item on the agenda.
At 5:30pm on the 15th the Windle Smithy Stores in Rainford Road closed its doors for the final time after serving the people of the district for more than 160 years. On the following morning at 7:30am on an adjacent site, the newsagency of the VG Food Market opened its doors. Run by Denis Cowley, the new shop was almost four times as large as its predecessor. The building had two entrances, one for the food market and the other for the newsagents and once the old Smithy Stores was bulldozed, forty spaces for customers' cars would be created.
It was, of course, an age when most people got their newspapers delivered and Mr Cowley employed ten paper boys to deliver 800 newspapers every day with 1,500 shoved through letter boxes on Sundays. As an opening attraction Dennis Cowley was offering a free tasting of the new Lyons Maid Napoli ice cream. The food prices on offer included a 2lb. bag of sugar for 1 shilling, 3lbs. of MacDougalls flour for 1/9 and a ¼ lb. of Typhoo or PG Tips for 1/4.
The front-page splash of the St Helens Reporter on the 17th bore the headline "Curfew for Children of the Jack the Ripper Street". They were referring to Milton Street in Sutton Manor, where at 6:30pm parents would call in their children from play, frightened that something might happen to them in the "gloomy, gaslit street with a Jack the Ripper atmosphere". Eileen Maleedy told the paper: "As soon as it goes dark, I close the door, draw the curtains and don't go out."
Three hundred frustrated residents – who paid £43 to £50 in rates each year – had signed a petition calling for electric street lamps and better pavements. Jane Baybutt at number 70 said: "It gets pitch black outside, because more often than not the gas lamps aren't working. People are always falling, partly because of the bad lighting and also because the pavements are in a terrible condition."
Shirley Evans at no 56 told the Reporter that she was terrified of the eerie, night-time atmosphere in Milton Street and wouldn't let her children Keith and Lynn play out after tea. "As soon as it goes dark the street empties", she added. "It really is disgraceful. There are men on the moon and here we are living like this." However the Reporter had good news to tell the residents. The Corporation had been aware of the problem for some time and this week had agreed to give Milton Street priority with electric lighting and a budget had already been allocated.
The Reporter also stated that the cost of the paper would be rising from 7d to 8d next week due to "rising production costs". However more news from Haydock and Ashton was going to be incorporated into future editions, which they claimed would make the paper a "bigger bargain than ever".
In January the Reporter had stated that the council's Housing Committee had decided to ask architects to submit plans for dwellings on what would become known as the "Beth Avenue" estate in Sutton. In this week's edition they wrote: "St. Helens is to move into the 70s with a 1990's-style housing development. More than 700 dwellings in a scheme costing £2,600,000 are to be built on a 49-acre site bounded by New Street and Gerard's Lane, Sutton."
The scheme would be similar to one that was being developed in Runcorn where the accent was placed on community living. The houses would be in groups of sixteen with many having their own gardens. It was also planned to incorporate small open spaces where children could play and still be watched by their parents. A seven-acre site has been set aside for a library, clinic, shops and possibly a public house.
When built the houses would be given the nickname of “Legoland” and their distinctive build was believed to be a factor in the high crime rate in the area. One St Helens newspaper (shown above) dubbed the district “Downtown Morocco”. During the 1990s the three-storey / bungalow combination houses within the estate were demolished and the distinctive tops of the remaining houses were removed and replaced by traditional roofs.
The Reporter's 'What The People Think' column this week focussed on the town's police service, which had changed tactics since the borough force amalgamated with Lancashire Constabulary last April. There were now far less bobbies on the beat, with a much greater reliance on policemen in cars.
Surprisingly most people that the Reporter talked to approved of the change, such as Thomas Birchall from Elephant Lane. The 72-year-old said: "I think it's a good thing that they've taken to cars. The odd bobby on the street is sufficient. I'd rather know they can race to the scene of an accident or a crime in a car."
Trainee store manager John Walsh from Doulton Street agreed, saying: "We get a great service from them now, better than ever. All we have to do is pick up a phone." However Joan MacDonald from Clipsley Lane had reservations: "Since this amalgamation they are losing contact with ordinary people in the street". The 20-year-old also joked: "What do people do if they want to know the time now?"
There was also criticism of the police spending far too much time in their cars booking motorists. Donald Florence supported this in a letter to the paper in which he told the police to: "Get after the villains and for heaven's sake [spend] less time and petrol checking, chasing and trapping motorists."
The Plaza Theatre Club (pictured above) was "searching for stars" in their 'Talent Night' on the 17th and on the following day The Platters – "direct from America" – performed in Duke Street. They no doubt sang their greatest hits 'Only You', 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' and 'The Great Pretender'.
UGB held an open day on the 18th and 1,000 employees and ex-employees with friends and relatives were able to walk round the glass plants and watch work being carried out. In 1973 the St Helens Official Guide would state that almost 3,000 people were employed at United Glass: "The Peasley / Sherdley factory is one of the largest in the group producing millions of bottles, jars and other containers every week in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes…Ravenhead has one of the largest single production units in the world for the automatic manufacture of stemmed glasses."
On the 19th 'Carry On Camping' began a seven-day run at the Capitol and on the following day the Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom film 'Three into Two Won't Go' began six days of screenings at the ABC Savoy.
On the 20th St Helens Corporation was advertising in the Guardian for tenders for the erection of an extension to Robins Lane Secondary School. This would comprise a gymnasium, a science laboratory and metal and woodwork rooms. The original gym had been built at the school in 1939, probably as a result of an accident to Elsie Williams during the previous year.
The twelve-year-old from Powell Street had fallen while jumping a two-foot high rope during a gym class in a school corridor with a stone floor. Elsie fractured her right knee and in 1940 she sued St Helens Corporation and was awarded £60 damages (about £4,000 in today’s money).
Back to 1969 and the children at Robins Lane School were now ending their school day 15 minutes earlier in order to give them a choice of three buses to get home. The revised timetable of St Helens Corporation's Transport Department had meant that only one bus was available for them when they finished at 3:30pm. However the bad news for the kids was that the quarter of an hour was taken off the lunch break, so no schooling was lost.
Also on the 20th Harry H. Corbett (of Steptoe not Sooty fame!) began six nights of performances at the Theatre Royal. The actor was appearing in what was described as a new adult comedy called 'Little Jack'. The Guardian's reviewer, Rosalind Morris, went to the Corporation Street theatre to watch the play. She liked Corbett’s performance but not the play, which she felt had an unconvincing plot.
There was panic buying of bread in St Helens on the 20th as Merseyside bakers went on strike. A Helena House spokesman said: "Everyone has gone mad today" and by lunchtime Tesco's in Bridge Street had sold 240 loaves.
The strike was unofficial and the bakers wanted their basic pay increasing from £14 16s 8d to £20 per week.
Next week's stories will include Billy the mysterious goat of Leach Lane, the bogus gasman of Randon Street who handed back cash rebates, the new seven-sided 50p coin goes down badly in St Helens, town centre parking meter plans are shelved, criticism over police numbers in Newton and Rediffusion's colour television-by-wire service.
We begin with an announcement by UGB of St Helens that they were out of the red. Now controlled by Distillers, United Glass had made a loss of £285,000 last year. However for the first six months of this year, the bottlemakers had made a profit of £14,000.
On the 14th St Helens' dustmen held a 90-minute meeting in which they agreed to return to work following their strike for better pay and conditions. Over 100 men had been out since the 9th in support of London bin workers. During the weekend the rest of the cleansing department joined them, making a total of 200 out on strike.
Hundreds of townsfolk collected plastic sacks from the town's libraries to store their rubbish and the main tips in St Helens were thrown open for the dumping of filled sacks. The only refuse service operating was an emergency one for hospitals. The bin men decided to accept an offer of a 30-shilling increase on their basic pay of £14 a week and they returned to work on the following day. However householders were warned that it would take two to three weeks for the refuse collection service to return to normal.
The St Helens Peace in Vietnam Committee met in the White Hart Hotel in Church Street during the evening of the 14th. Their forthcoming jumble sale was one item on the agenda.
At 5:30pm on the 15th the Windle Smithy Stores in Rainford Road closed its doors for the final time after serving the people of the district for more than 160 years. On the following morning at 7:30am on an adjacent site, the newsagency of the VG Food Market opened its doors. Run by Denis Cowley, the new shop was almost four times as large as its predecessor. The building had two entrances, one for the food market and the other for the newsagents and once the old Smithy Stores was bulldozed, forty spaces for customers' cars would be created.
It was, of course, an age when most people got their newspapers delivered and Mr Cowley employed ten paper boys to deliver 800 newspapers every day with 1,500 shoved through letter boxes on Sundays. As an opening attraction Dennis Cowley was offering a free tasting of the new Lyons Maid Napoli ice cream. The food prices on offer included a 2lb. bag of sugar for 1 shilling, 3lbs. of MacDougalls flour for 1/9 and a ¼ lb. of Typhoo or PG Tips for 1/4.
The front-page splash of the St Helens Reporter on the 17th bore the headline "Curfew for Children of the Jack the Ripper Street". They were referring to Milton Street in Sutton Manor, where at 6:30pm parents would call in their children from play, frightened that something might happen to them in the "gloomy, gaslit street with a Jack the Ripper atmosphere". Eileen Maleedy told the paper: "As soon as it goes dark, I close the door, draw the curtains and don't go out."
Three hundred frustrated residents – who paid £43 to £50 in rates each year – had signed a petition calling for electric street lamps and better pavements. Jane Baybutt at number 70 said: "It gets pitch black outside, because more often than not the gas lamps aren't working. People are always falling, partly because of the bad lighting and also because the pavements are in a terrible condition."
Shirley Evans at no 56 told the Reporter that she was terrified of the eerie, night-time atmosphere in Milton Street and wouldn't let her children Keith and Lynn play out after tea. "As soon as it goes dark the street empties", she added. "It really is disgraceful. There are men on the moon and here we are living like this." However the Reporter had good news to tell the residents. The Corporation had been aware of the problem for some time and this week had agreed to give Milton Street priority with electric lighting and a budget had already been allocated.
The Reporter also stated that the cost of the paper would be rising from 7d to 8d next week due to "rising production costs". However more news from Haydock and Ashton was going to be incorporated into future editions, which they claimed would make the paper a "bigger bargain than ever".
In January the Reporter had stated that the council's Housing Committee had decided to ask architects to submit plans for dwellings on what would become known as the "Beth Avenue" estate in Sutton. In this week's edition they wrote: "St. Helens is to move into the 70s with a 1990's-style housing development. More than 700 dwellings in a scheme costing £2,600,000 are to be built on a 49-acre site bounded by New Street and Gerard's Lane, Sutton."
The scheme would be similar to one that was being developed in Runcorn where the accent was placed on community living. The houses would be in groups of sixteen with many having their own gardens. It was also planned to incorporate small open spaces where children could play and still be watched by their parents. A seven-acre site has been set aside for a library, clinic, shops and possibly a public house.
The Reporter's 'What The People Think' column this week focussed on the town's police service, which had changed tactics since the borough force amalgamated with Lancashire Constabulary last April. There were now far less bobbies on the beat, with a much greater reliance on policemen in cars.
Surprisingly most people that the Reporter talked to approved of the change, such as Thomas Birchall from Elephant Lane. The 72-year-old said: "I think it's a good thing that they've taken to cars. The odd bobby on the street is sufficient. I'd rather know they can race to the scene of an accident or a crime in a car."
Trainee store manager John Walsh from Doulton Street agreed, saying: "We get a great service from them now, better than ever. All we have to do is pick up a phone." However Joan MacDonald from Clipsley Lane had reservations: "Since this amalgamation they are losing contact with ordinary people in the street". The 20-year-old also joked: "What do people do if they want to know the time now?"
There was also criticism of the police spending far too much time in their cars booking motorists. Donald Florence supported this in a letter to the paper in which he told the police to: "Get after the villains and for heaven's sake [spend] less time and petrol checking, chasing and trapping motorists."
UGB held an open day on the 18th and 1,000 employees and ex-employees with friends and relatives were able to walk round the glass plants and watch work being carried out. In 1973 the St Helens Official Guide would state that almost 3,000 people were employed at United Glass: "The Peasley / Sherdley factory is one of the largest in the group producing millions of bottles, jars and other containers every week in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes…Ravenhead has one of the largest single production units in the world for the automatic manufacture of stemmed glasses."
On the 19th 'Carry On Camping' began a seven-day run at the Capitol and on the following day the Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom film 'Three into Two Won't Go' began six days of screenings at the ABC Savoy.
On the 20th St Helens Corporation was advertising in the Guardian for tenders for the erection of an extension to Robins Lane Secondary School. This would comprise a gymnasium, a science laboratory and metal and woodwork rooms. The original gym had been built at the school in 1939, probably as a result of an accident to Elsie Williams during the previous year.
The twelve-year-old from Powell Street had fallen while jumping a two-foot high rope during a gym class in a school corridor with a stone floor. Elsie fractured her right knee and in 1940 she sued St Helens Corporation and was awarded £60 damages (about £4,000 in today’s money).
Back to 1969 and the children at Robins Lane School were now ending their school day 15 minutes earlier in order to give them a choice of three buses to get home. The revised timetable of St Helens Corporation's Transport Department had meant that only one bus was available for them when they finished at 3:30pm. However the bad news for the kids was that the quarter of an hour was taken off the lunch break, so no schooling was lost.
Also on the 20th Harry H. Corbett (of Steptoe not Sooty fame!) began six nights of performances at the Theatre Royal. The actor was appearing in what was described as a new adult comedy called 'Little Jack'. The Guardian's reviewer, Rosalind Morris, went to the Corporation Street theatre to watch the play. She liked Corbett’s performance but not the play, which she felt had an unconvincing plot.
There was panic buying of bread in St Helens on the 20th as Merseyside bakers went on strike. A Helena House spokesman said: "Everyone has gone mad today" and by lunchtime Tesco's in Bridge Street had sold 240 loaves.
The strike was unofficial and the bakers wanted their basic pay increasing from £14 16s 8d to £20 per week.
Next week's stories will include Billy the mysterious goat of Leach Lane, the bogus gasman of Randon Street who handed back cash rebates, the new seven-sided 50p coin goes down badly in St Helens, town centre parking meter plans are shelved, criticism over police numbers in Newton and Rediffusion's colour television-by-wire service.