FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 15 - 21 JANUARY 1974
This week's many stories include the armed robbery at McLean and Appleton's Prescot Road garage, the fishing for tropical fish in the Hotties, the claim that Middlehurst Avenue in Windle was being turned into a strip joint, the crisis appeal for the return of medicine bottles, the proposed extension to Robins Lane School and why it was the end of an era in cobbling in Sutton.
We begin with a letter from the Wigan and Leigh Hospital Management Committee that had been sent to Billinge Council's Local Services Committee. Its subject was the regular vandalism to the public conveniences in the grounds of Billinge Hospital, which was making it impossible to keep them in a good state of repair. The hospital bosses said they were considering closing the toilets and wondered whether the council would be prepared to build them new ones. The answer was no, as it was hospital property.
On the evening of the 16th the Kings Singers performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. The ensemble was founded in 1968 and named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began.
An armed robbery at McLean and Appleton's garage on Prescot Road in St Helens was the lead story in the Reporter on the 18th. Ann Appleton and Marjorie O’Keeffe were about to lock the petrol pumps when a man burst open their kiosk door. He rammed an air rifle into Mrs Appleton's stomach and forced Mrs O’Keefe to open the till. However, the masked gunman only got away with £12.22p after threatening to return on the following day.
The Reporter published the home addresses of both of the women, as well as stating their ages and family details and printing a photo of the pair. I don't think that would be done today but it was standard in the ‘70s. Marjorie O’Keeffe was from Price Grove in Parr and told the paper: "I was pretty shaken. I couldn't believe it had happened to me." And McLean and Appleton's General Manager, Peter Glover, said: "When a man has to point a gun at women for £12.22, it emphasises the state of the world."
The Reporter also carried an appeal for the return of medicine bottles in order to help chemists get through a crisis. Difficulties in obtaining raw materials in the glass and plastics industries had led to a desperate shortage of containers. The Clerk to St Helens Health Executive Council, Kenneth Barrow, explained: "There must be hundreds of bottles lying around. If people would take them back to the chemists it would go a long way to help out." A Boots spokesman said: "The energy crisis has not helped the problem but it started before that. Now it's growing worse."
The Reporter described the end of an era in Robins Lane in Sutton with the retirement of Ernie Whalley. The "master cobbler's" grandfather had started the business around 1860 and his father inherited it in 1898. Ernie only became the boss in 1960, although he had been working in the shop since he was 14. Until recent times clog-making had been their main trade in Robins Lane, as Ernie explained:
"Clogs used to be very popular, particularly with children and the miners. For best they used to wear decorated clogs they called dandies. But the demand for clogs began to slacken off during the 1920s. They made a bit of a comeback in the war but it must be around 1950 since a pair was made at this shop."
Howard Travel of Barrow Street in St Helens had an advert in the Reporter promoting holidays for 18 to 30 years old. It said: "If you're between 18 and 30 years old, married or single, we've got something rather special for you. Call at Howard Travel, ask for Kevin (it's his age group and his baby) and get the holiday excitement you've been searching for." Club 18 - 30 had been founded in 1968.
The Reporter also described how work on the planned extension to Robins Lane Secondary School would begin in 1975 – if it survived budget cutbacks forced on the council by the government. Twenty-five acres of land between Elton Head Road and Sherdley Park had been earmarked for the extra classrooms. Originally a new school was to be built there but these plans had been delayed to allow for the introduction of the comprehensive system in Robins Lane. A sports complex was also going to be built in Elton Head Road.
Allan Stewart was quoted in the St Helens Reporter complaining how his street had been turned into a "strip joint". But this was not a reference to the Thursday night stag nights at the Plaza or shows in certain St Helens drinking establishments on Sundays. The 60-year-old from Middlehurst Avenue in Windle was furious with Fishwick's car firm who he claimed cluttered the street up with old vehicles waiting to be stripped and broken up. Mr Stewart said: "At times the street is so blocked you couldn't get an ambulance or fire engine up here. The meals-on-wheels lady leaves her van at the bottom of the street to deliver dinner to one old lady."
But the owner of the firm, Harry Fishwick, said Mr Stewart was the only person out of five families in the street who was complaining and he also denied working in the evenings beyond the hours allowed under enforcement notices. St Helens Council said they were investigating the claims and confirmed that it was not permissible to dump cars on the street, but those that were awaiting attention from a garage could legally be parked in the road.
Also on the 18th the Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter was published and reviewed a recent combined production of 'Cinderella' by the Rainhill Garrick and Amateur Operatic societies:
"Delightful singing and surprises awaited the unsuspecting audience, the two most impressive for their colour and the reaction they prompted being when sweets were thrown among the children and Cinderella drove to the grand ball in a coach pulled by a real live pony! The coach passed round the crowded village hall en route to Prince Charming's palace. Leading “Bobby” the Dartmoor pony was his owner nine-year-old Caroline Longster of Rainhill."
On the 19th there was a reminder of the days when part of the St Helens / Sankey Canal that was known as the "Hotties" (pictured above) played host to tropical fish. The 200-yard stretch was warmed by the boiling hot water that Pilkington's discharged into the waterway. When in the mid-‘60s a pet shop owner had closed down he'd disposed of his tropical fish by dumping them into the Hotties.
There were apparently several different species but most of them were cichlids and soon there were thousands of the colourful fish swimming in the canal. In general the cichlids annoyed anglers as they fed on roach but a short piece in the Liverpool Echo described how some bobbies had recently caught some:
"High winds and rain played havoc with Merseyside anglers' sport throughout the North West, with most clubs having to contend with severe weather conditions. The Liverpool and Bootle Police A.C. 'copped' it weatherwise in their mid-week outing on the "Hotties" at St. Helens. But despite gale force winds and driving rain every member caught fish.
"With a point a fish and a point an ounce, Graham Walsh won the match with 37 small fish for 15oz. 10drs; this gave him 53 points. Graham's catch was made up of small roach and the tropical fish which abound in this water, cychlids, taken on float-fished single maggot."
On the 20th the male and female nurses at Rainhill Hospital played each other at rugby – and the women won! And they did it convincingly too, although the women did field more players. The match on the hospital playing field was played with such intensity that 19-year-old assistant nurse Julie Whittle broke her leg.
From the 20th 'Holiday On The Buses' starring Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis began a week’s screening at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol there was a double-header in 'Count Dracula' starring Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom, as well as 'Dorian Gray'. And finally, from the 21st 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The fortnight-long panto was described as being "for children of all ages" and was presented by Duggie Chapman and starred Tommy Trafford.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the explosion at a College Street electricity sub-station, a letter bomb explodes at Pilkington's HQ, the pioneering Open University graduate and Sutton Manor miners discuss the conditions of their workplace.
We begin with a letter from the Wigan and Leigh Hospital Management Committee that had been sent to Billinge Council's Local Services Committee. Its subject was the regular vandalism to the public conveniences in the grounds of Billinge Hospital, which was making it impossible to keep them in a good state of repair. The hospital bosses said they were considering closing the toilets and wondered whether the council would be prepared to build them new ones. The answer was no, as it was hospital property.
On the evening of the 16th the Kings Singers performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. The ensemble was founded in 1968 and named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began.
An armed robbery at McLean and Appleton's garage on Prescot Road in St Helens was the lead story in the Reporter on the 18th. Ann Appleton and Marjorie O’Keeffe were about to lock the petrol pumps when a man burst open their kiosk door. He rammed an air rifle into Mrs Appleton's stomach and forced Mrs O’Keefe to open the till. However, the masked gunman only got away with £12.22p after threatening to return on the following day.
The Reporter published the home addresses of both of the women, as well as stating their ages and family details and printing a photo of the pair. I don't think that would be done today but it was standard in the ‘70s. Marjorie O’Keeffe was from Price Grove in Parr and told the paper: "I was pretty shaken. I couldn't believe it had happened to me." And McLean and Appleton's General Manager, Peter Glover, said: "When a man has to point a gun at women for £12.22, it emphasises the state of the world."
The Reporter also carried an appeal for the return of medicine bottles in order to help chemists get through a crisis. Difficulties in obtaining raw materials in the glass and plastics industries had led to a desperate shortage of containers. The Clerk to St Helens Health Executive Council, Kenneth Barrow, explained: "There must be hundreds of bottles lying around. If people would take them back to the chemists it would go a long way to help out." A Boots spokesman said: "The energy crisis has not helped the problem but it started before that. Now it's growing worse."
The Reporter described the end of an era in Robins Lane in Sutton with the retirement of Ernie Whalley. The "master cobbler's" grandfather had started the business around 1860 and his father inherited it in 1898. Ernie only became the boss in 1960, although he had been working in the shop since he was 14. Until recent times clog-making had been their main trade in Robins Lane, as Ernie explained:
"Clogs used to be very popular, particularly with children and the miners. For best they used to wear decorated clogs they called dandies. But the demand for clogs began to slacken off during the 1920s. They made a bit of a comeback in the war but it must be around 1950 since a pair was made at this shop."
Howard Travel of Barrow Street in St Helens had an advert in the Reporter promoting holidays for 18 to 30 years old. It said: "If you're between 18 and 30 years old, married or single, we've got something rather special for you. Call at Howard Travel, ask for Kevin (it's his age group and his baby) and get the holiday excitement you've been searching for." Club 18 - 30 had been founded in 1968.
The Reporter also described how work on the planned extension to Robins Lane Secondary School would begin in 1975 – if it survived budget cutbacks forced on the council by the government. Twenty-five acres of land between Elton Head Road and Sherdley Park had been earmarked for the extra classrooms. Originally a new school was to be built there but these plans had been delayed to allow for the introduction of the comprehensive system in Robins Lane. A sports complex was also going to be built in Elton Head Road.
Allan Stewart was quoted in the St Helens Reporter complaining how his street had been turned into a "strip joint". But this was not a reference to the Thursday night stag nights at the Plaza or shows in certain St Helens drinking establishments on Sundays. The 60-year-old from Middlehurst Avenue in Windle was furious with Fishwick's car firm who he claimed cluttered the street up with old vehicles waiting to be stripped and broken up. Mr Stewart said: "At times the street is so blocked you couldn't get an ambulance or fire engine up here. The meals-on-wheels lady leaves her van at the bottom of the street to deliver dinner to one old lady."
But the owner of the firm, Harry Fishwick, said Mr Stewart was the only person out of five families in the street who was complaining and he also denied working in the evenings beyond the hours allowed under enforcement notices. St Helens Council said they were investigating the claims and confirmed that it was not permissible to dump cars on the street, but those that were awaiting attention from a garage could legally be parked in the road.
Also on the 18th the Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter was published and reviewed a recent combined production of 'Cinderella' by the Rainhill Garrick and Amateur Operatic societies:
"Delightful singing and surprises awaited the unsuspecting audience, the two most impressive for their colour and the reaction they prompted being when sweets were thrown among the children and Cinderella drove to the grand ball in a coach pulled by a real live pony! The coach passed round the crowded village hall en route to Prince Charming's palace. Leading “Bobby” the Dartmoor pony was his owner nine-year-old Caroline Longster of Rainhill."
There were apparently several different species but most of them were cichlids and soon there were thousands of the colourful fish swimming in the canal. In general the cichlids annoyed anglers as they fed on roach but a short piece in the Liverpool Echo described how some bobbies had recently caught some:
"High winds and rain played havoc with Merseyside anglers' sport throughout the North West, with most clubs having to contend with severe weather conditions. The Liverpool and Bootle Police A.C. 'copped' it weatherwise in their mid-week outing on the "Hotties" at St. Helens. But despite gale force winds and driving rain every member caught fish.
"With a point a fish and a point an ounce, Graham Walsh won the match with 37 small fish for 15oz. 10drs; this gave him 53 points. Graham's catch was made up of small roach and the tropical fish which abound in this water, cychlids, taken on float-fished single maggot."
On the 20th the male and female nurses at Rainhill Hospital played each other at rugby – and the women won! And they did it convincingly too, although the women did field more players. The match on the hospital playing field was played with such intensity that 19-year-old assistant nurse Julie Whittle broke her leg.
From the 20th 'Holiday On The Buses' starring Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis began a week’s screening at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol there was a double-header in 'Count Dracula' starring Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom, as well as 'Dorian Gray'. And finally, from the 21st 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The fortnight-long panto was described as being "for children of all ages" and was presented by Duggie Chapman and starred Tommy Trafford.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the explosion at a College Street electricity sub-station, a letter bomb explodes at Pilkington's HQ, the pioneering Open University graduate and Sutton Manor miners discuss the conditions of their workplace.
This week's many stories include the armed robbery at McLean and Appleton's Prescot Road garage, the fishing for tropical fish in the Hotties, the claim that Middlehurst Avenue in Windle was being turned into a strip joint, the crisis appeal for the return of medicine bottles, the proposed extension to Robins Lane School and why it was the end of an era in cobbling in Sutton.
We begin with a letter from the Wigan and Leigh Hospital Management Committee that had been sent to Billinge Council's Local Services Committee.
Its subject was the regular vandalism to the public conveniences in the grounds of Billinge Hospital, which was making it impossible to keep them in a good state of repair.
The hospital bosses said they were considering closing the toilets and wondered whether the council would be prepared to build them new ones. The answer was no, as it was hospital property.
On the evening of the 16th the Kings Singers performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. The ensemble was founded in 1968 and named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began.
An armed robbery at McLean and Appleton's garage on Prescot Road in St Helens was the lead story in the Reporter on the 18th.
Ann Appleton and Marjorie O’Keeffe were about to lock the petrol pumps when a man burst open their kiosk door. He rammed an air rifle into Mrs Appleton's stomach and forced Mrs O’Keefe to open the till.
However, the masked gunman only got away with £12.22p after threatening to return on the following day.
The Reporter published the home addresses of both of the women, as well as stating their ages and family details and printing a photo of the pair. I don't think that would be done today but it was standard in the ‘70s.
Marjorie O’Keeffe was from Price Grove in Parr and told the paper: "I was pretty shaken. I couldn't believe it had happened to me."
And McLean and Appleton's General Manager, Peter Glover, said: "When a man has to point a gun at women for £12.22, it emphasises the state of the world."
The Reporter also carried an appeal for the return of medicine bottles in order to help chemists get through a crisis.
Difficulties in obtaining raw materials in the glass and plastics industries had led to a desperate shortage of containers. The Clerk to St Helens Health Executive Council, Kenneth Barrow, explained:
"There must be hundreds of bottles lying around. If people would take them back to the chemists it would go a long way to help out."
A Boots spokesman said: "The energy crisis has not helped the problem but it started before that. Now it's growing worse."
The Reporter described the end of an era in Robins Lane in Sutton with the retirement of Ernie Whalley.
The "master cobbler's" grandfather had started the business around 1860 and his father inherited it in 1898.
Ernie only became the boss in 1960, although he had been working in the shop since he was 14.
Until recent times clog-making had been their main trade in Robins Lane, as Ernie explained:
"Clogs used to be very popular, particularly with children and the miners. For best they used to wear decorated clogs they called dandies. But the demand for clogs began to slacken off during the 1920s.
"They made a bit of a comeback in the war but it must be around 1950 since a pair was made at this shop."
Howard Travel of Barrow Street in St Helens had an advert in the Reporter promoting holidays for 18 to 30 years old. It said:
"If you're between 18 and 30 years old, married or single, we've got something rather special for you.
"Call at Howard Travel, ask for Kevin (it's his age group and his baby) and get the holiday excitement you've been searching for." Club 18 - 30 had been founded in 1968.
The Reporter also described how work on the planned extension to Robins Lane Secondary School would begin in 1975 – if it survived budget cutbacks forced on the council by the government.
Twenty-five acres of land between Elton Head Road and Sherdley Park had been earmarked for the extra classrooms.
Originally a new school was to be built there but these plans had been delayed to allow for the introduction of the comprehensive system in Robins Lane. A sports complex was also going to be built in Elton Head Road.
Allan Stewart was quoted in the St Helens Reporter complaining how his street had been turned into a "strip joint".
But this was not a reference to the Thursday night stag nights at the Plaza or shows in certain St Helens drinking establishments on Sundays.
The 60-year-old from Middlehurst Avenue in Windle was furious with Fishwick's car firm who he claimed cluttered the street up with old vehicles waiting to be stripped and broken up.
Mr Stewart said: "At times the street is so blocked you couldn't get an ambulance or fire engine up here. The meals-on-wheels lady leaves her van at the bottom of the street to deliver dinner to one old lady."
But the owner of the firm, Harry Fishwick, said Mr Stewart was the only person out of five families in the street who was complaining and he also denied working in the evenings beyond the hours allowed under enforcement notices.
St Helens Council said they were investigating the claims and confirmed that it was not permissible to dump cars on the street, but those that were awaiting attention from a garage could legally be parked in the road.
Also on the 18th the Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter was published and reviewed a recent combined production of 'Cinderella' by the Rainhill Garrick and Amateur Operatic societies:
"Delightful singing and surprises awaited the unsuspecting audience, the two most impressive for their colour and the reaction they prompted being when sweets were thrown among the children and Cinderella drove to the grand ball in a coach pulled by a real live pony!
"The coach passed round the crowded village hall en route to Prince Charming's palace. Leading “Bobby” the Dartmoor pony was his owner nine-year-old Caroline Longster of Rainhill."
On the 19th there was a reminder of the days when part of the St Helens / Sankey Canal that was known as the "Hotties" (pictured above) played host to tropical fish.
The 200-yard stretch was warmed by the boiling hot water that Pilkington's discharged into the waterway.
When in the mid-‘60s a pet shop owner had closed down he'd disposed of his tropical fish by dumping them into the Hotties.
There were apparently several different species but most of them were cichlids and soon there were thousands of the colourful fish swimming in the canal.
In general the cichlids annoyed anglers as they fed on roach but a short piece in the Liverpool Echo described how some bobbies had recently caught some:
"High winds and rain played havoc with Merseyside anglers' sport throughout the North West, with most clubs having to contend with severe weather conditions.
"The Liverpool and Bootle Police A.C. 'copped' it weatherwise in their mid-week outing on the "Hotties" at St. Helens. But despite gale force winds and driving rain every member caught fish.
"With a point a fish and a point an ounce, Graham Walsh won the match with 37 small fish for 15oz. 10drs; this gave him 53 points. Graham's catch was made up of small roach and the tropical fish which abound in this water, cychlids, taken on float-fished single maggot."
On the 20th the male and female nurses at Rainhill Hospital played each other at rugby – and the women won! And they did it convincingly too, although the women did field more players.
The match on the hospital playing field was played with such intensity that 19-year-old assistant nurse Julie Whittle broke her leg.
From the 20th 'Holiday On The Buses' starring Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis began a week’s screening at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol there was a double-header in 'Count Dracula' starring Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom, as well as 'Dorian Gray'.
And finally, from the 21st 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The fortnight-long panto was described as being "for children of all ages" and was presented by Duggie Chapman and starred Tommy Trafford.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the explosion at a College Street electricity sub-station, a letter bomb explodes at Pilkington's HQ, the pioneering Open University graduate and Sutton Manor miners discuss the conditions of their workplace.
We begin with a letter from the Wigan and Leigh Hospital Management Committee that had been sent to Billinge Council's Local Services Committee.
Its subject was the regular vandalism to the public conveniences in the grounds of Billinge Hospital, which was making it impossible to keep them in a good state of repair.
The hospital bosses said they were considering closing the toilets and wondered whether the council would be prepared to build them new ones. The answer was no, as it was hospital property.
On the evening of the 16th the Kings Singers performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. The ensemble was founded in 1968 and named after King's College in Cambridge where they first began.
An armed robbery at McLean and Appleton's garage on Prescot Road in St Helens was the lead story in the Reporter on the 18th.
Ann Appleton and Marjorie O’Keeffe were about to lock the petrol pumps when a man burst open their kiosk door. He rammed an air rifle into Mrs Appleton's stomach and forced Mrs O’Keefe to open the till.
However, the masked gunman only got away with £12.22p after threatening to return on the following day.
The Reporter published the home addresses of both of the women, as well as stating their ages and family details and printing a photo of the pair. I don't think that would be done today but it was standard in the ‘70s.
Marjorie O’Keeffe was from Price Grove in Parr and told the paper: "I was pretty shaken. I couldn't believe it had happened to me."
And McLean and Appleton's General Manager, Peter Glover, said: "When a man has to point a gun at women for £12.22, it emphasises the state of the world."
The Reporter also carried an appeal for the return of medicine bottles in order to help chemists get through a crisis.
Difficulties in obtaining raw materials in the glass and plastics industries had led to a desperate shortage of containers. The Clerk to St Helens Health Executive Council, Kenneth Barrow, explained:
"There must be hundreds of bottles lying around. If people would take them back to the chemists it would go a long way to help out."
A Boots spokesman said: "The energy crisis has not helped the problem but it started before that. Now it's growing worse."
The Reporter described the end of an era in Robins Lane in Sutton with the retirement of Ernie Whalley.
The "master cobbler's" grandfather had started the business around 1860 and his father inherited it in 1898.
Ernie only became the boss in 1960, although he had been working in the shop since he was 14.
Until recent times clog-making had been their main trade in Robins Lane, as Ernie explained:
"Clogs used to be very popular, particularly with children and the miners. For best they used to wear decorated clogs they called dandies. But the demand for clogs began to slacken off during the 1920s.
"They made a bit of a comeback in the war but it must be around 1950 since a pair was made at this shop."
Howard Travel of Barrow Street in St Helens had an advert in the Reporter promoting holidays for 18 to 30 years old. It said:
"If you're between 18 and 30 years old, married or single, we've got something rather special for you.
"Call at Howard Travel, ask for Kevin (it's his age group and his baby) and get the holiday excitement you've been searching for." Club 18 - 30 had been founded in 1968.
The Reporter also described how work on the planned extension to Robins Lane Secondary School would begin in 1975 – if it survived budget cutbacks forced on the council by the government.
Twenty-five acres of land between Elton Head Road and Sherdley Park had been earmarked for the extra classrooms.
Originally a new school was to be built there but these plans had been delayed to allow for the introduction of the comprehensive system in Robins Lane. A sports complex was also going to be built in Elton Head Road.
Allan Stewart was quoted in the St Helens Reporter complaining how his street had been turned into a "strip joint".
But this was not a reference to the Thursday night stag nights at the Plaza or shows in certain St Helens drinking establishments on Sundays.
The 60-year-old from Middlehurst Avenue in Windle was furious with Fishwick's car firm who he claimed cluttered the street up with old vehicles waiting to be stripped and broken up.
Mr Stewart said: "At times the street is so blocked you couldn't get an ambulance or fire engine up here. The meals-on-wheels lady leaves her van at the bottom of the street to deliver dinner to one old lady."
But the owner of the firm, Harry Fishwick, said Mr Stewart was the only person out of five families in the street who was complaining and he also denied working in the evenings beyond the hours allowed under enforcement notices.
St Helens Council said they were investigating the claims and confirmed that it was not permissible to dump cars on the street, but those that were awaiting attention from a garage could legally be parked in the road.
Also on the 18th the Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter was published and reviewed a recent combined production of 'Cinderella' by the Rainhill Garrick and Amateur Operatic societies:
"Delightful singing and surprises awaited the unsuspecting audience, the two most impressive for their colour and the reaction they prompted being when sweets were thrown among the children and Cinderella drove to the grand ball in a coach pulled by a real live pony!
"The coach passed round the crowded village hall en route to Prince Charming's palace. Leading “Bobby” the Dartmoor pony was his owner nine-year-old Caroline Longster of Rainhill."
The 200-yard stretch was warmed by the boiling hot water that Pilkington's discharged into the waterway.
When in the mid-‘60s a pet shop owner had closed down he'd disposed of his tropical fish by dumping them into the Hotties.
There were apparently several different species but most of them were cichlids and soon there were thousands of the colourful fish swimming in the canal.
In general the cichlids annoyed anglers as they fed on roach but a short piece in the Liverpool Echo described how some bobbies had recently caught some:
"High winds and rain played havoc with Merseyside anglers' sport throughout the North West, with most clubs having to contend with severe weather conditions.
"The Liverpool and Bootle Police A.C. 'copped' it weatherwise in their mid-week outing on the "Hotties" at St. Helens. But despite gale force winds and driving rain every member caught fish.
"With a point a fish and a point an ounce, Graham Walsh won the match with 37 small fish for 15oz. 10drs; this gave him 53 points. Graham's catch was made up of small roach and the tropical fish which abound in this water, cychlids, taken on float-fished single maggot."
On the 20th the male and female nurses at Rainhill Hospital played each other at rugby – and the women won! And they did it convincingly too, although the women did field more players.
The match on the hospital playing field was played with such intensity that 19-year-old assistant nurse Julie Whittle broke her leg.
From the 20th 'Holiday On The Buses' starring Reg Varney and Stephen Lewis began a week’s screening at the ABC Savoy and at the Capitol there was a double-header in 'Count Dracula' starring Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom, as well as 'Dorian Gray'.
And finally, from the 21st 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The fortnight-long panto was described as being "for children of all ages" and was presented by Duggie Chapman and starred Tommy Trafford.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the explosion at a College Street electricity sub-station, a letter bomb explodes at Pilkington's HQ, the pioneering Open University graduate and Sutton Manor miners discuss the conditions of their workplace.