FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd NOVEMBER 1970)
This week's many stories include a Carr Mill geography lesson from the air, the "landlord of the flies" of Newton Road, the Clock Face boy who thought school dinners were rotten and why a huge hole that appeared in Parr was blamed on the 1926 miners strike.
We begin on 16th with the death of James Foulkes in Whiston Hospital. The 70-year-old had been a bowling champion in St Helens during the 1930s and he was also the father of Bill Foulkes. The ex-Lea Green Colliery miner and Manchester United star had only recently retired from football with his benefit match having been played last week. However his father had been too ill to attend.
During the evening of the 16th Ben Brooks' sports shop in Duke Street was raided by thieves. Their haul included six air rifles, four cricket sweaters, a pair of binoculars, two pistols and six sheath knives. This had been their second break-in in three months. Police this week were also investigating the theft of a fish tank from the biology lab of Rivington Road School.
In June Pilkingtons had announced that after 144 years as a private concern, they planned to become a public company within a year. The firm's 34,000 workers – 12,000 in St Helens – along with Pilks' pensioners were promised a special priority to buy shares. On the 18th the glass giant announced that they would be "going public" as early as next week, although some of the national press were not impressed with their share price of 34 shillings. The Daily Express described it as an "astronomical 18.8 times earnings" and the Daily Telegraph thought it "fairly steep", with the share issue being a lot smaller than the Stock Market had been expecting.
The Reporter described on the 20th how a huge hole that had appeared on a Parr housing estate was being blamed on the 1926 miners strike. Last week's sudden earth movement on a lawn yards from houses in Cotswold Grove had created a hole measuring 10 ft. deep and 5 ft. wide. St Helens Corporation and National Coal Board officials had investigated the collapse and felt the most likely cause was a surface mining shaft giving way.
A Town Hall spokesman said: "The hole is still something of a mystery, but we think it was caused by old coal workings. Many people dug for coal in the area during the miners' strike in 1926. Timber pit props probably rotted and caved in. It was an isolated case and there was no danger to houses."
When a Reporter journalist asked Mark Derbyshire what he thought of school meals, the six-year-old from Northfield Close in Clock Face did not hold back: "They're rotten", he declared, before adding: "They never give you enough". Mark was at the centre of a row at St Theresa's infants' school because his dinner money had arrived three hours late.
On the previous Friday morning his mother Barbara had forgotten to give her son his 8s 9d lunch money for the following week. She remembered mid-morning and rushed to the school to hand the cash in but the teachers refused to take it. Mark's Dad, Alan Derbyshire, told the Reporter: "This is carrying red tape too far. They are giving Mark a penance for something which was not his fault."
Not that Mark appeared to see things that way as he tucked into a plate of chips and stew at his grannie's house in Farm Road – despite having to make a two mile round trip every lunchtime. "I can eat as much as I like here and get toffees afterwards", he beamed. And probably got spoiled by his doting granny too! The headmistress of the school, Sister Mary, said if the parents had any complaints they should go to see her. "I am quite willing to explain to them our rules about school dinner money", she added.
The paper also reported how pupils from Carr Mill junior school would be taking an unusual geography class next week. An aeroplane had been chartered to fly from Speke Airport and take the class up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air. The £3 a head flight would traverse the Fylde coast, fly down over North Wales, go across the Dee estuary and then return to Liverpool. Headmaster Douglas Appleton said:
"A lot of the children live in places like Windermere Avenue, Bowness Avenue and other Lake District names. They will be able to see the real places where the names came from. For the lesson each of them will have maps of the area to follow as we fly over. The trip should only take a couple of hours." Then the pupils would return to their desks.
Alan Whalley wrote an article in the Reporter on the "dustbin of St Helens" – which was the district of Parr that contained sprawling rubbish dumps and waste tips. Don Roy of the Engine Inn in Newton Road was dubbed the "landlord of the flies" as the ex-Salford rugby league player bemoaned the tips on his doorstep:
"I have worked hard to make this place highly respectable and comfortable. Yet I have to put up with an eyesore of a tip, right behind me, and insects and vermin that try to invade my premises from it. In bad times during the hot weather I have to keep windows shut to keep the insects out. Refuse vehicles are passing my forecourt constantly, going down either to the council tip or the private one. It's time that something was done to improve the bad name that Parr has always had." Alan Whalley talked to a couple of the pub's customers with 51-year-old railway worker Tom Bavis of Mount Pleasant Avenue saying:
"I'm ashamed of living here. I have always been a hard-working respectable man, and I think we deserve a better deal from the council. They should stop this tipping and take the rubbish somewhere else for a change. I've lived in Parr for most of my life at a number of different addresses but I have never been more than 300 yards off a rubbish tip." Rockware sorter Tony Wright reckoned that cockroaches and rats had been coming to his home in Malvern Road from the refuse tips for as long as twelve years, adding: "There's been no improvement since then – in fact things have got worse."
The Reporter also described how schoolgirl Lynne Ball of Birch Avenue had won the St Helens Junior Chamber of Commerce public speaking contest. The 17-year-old Notre Dame student had won a pen for being the best individual speaker appearing in front of a 150-strong audience in the annual competition held at St Helens "Tech". I wonder if the youngsters of today would be impressed if the prize they won in a contest was a pen? Or happy to do the old Cycling Proficiency Test?
Perhaps if they did they wouldn't ride bikes on pavements without bells and consequently frighten the life out of folk like me as they hurtle past! Pictured in the Reporter with their Cycling Proficiency certificates were Ruth Dunn of Higher Lane in Crank and John Adams from Heyes Avenue in Rainford. The 10-year-olds were among a group of twenty kids from Crank Primary School (pictured above on the right) who had received their certificates from George Friar, the Chairman of Rainford council.
Sam and Elizabeth Spencer of St Matthew's Grove in Thatto Heath were also pictured in the Reporter after celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary. And Sam's recipe for wedded bliss was to have a good row! "We've had our ups and downs during the years, but we've never separated or anything like that", the 82-year-old told the paper. "I think the best thing is a good row now and again. It clears the air, but the making up is the best part."
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter called "Winter Fashion Scene". Toni Wigs at 11 Baldwin Street were inviting customers to "Go To Any Length This Christmas With A Wig." Other advertisers included: Lilian Rogers, 30 Duke Street ("Midi for the Christmas season – fashions for all ages, teenage to outsize"); Charley Girl Boutique, 48-50 Baldwin Street ("Minis – Midis – Maxis") and The Cut an’ Curl Boutique, 460 Fleet Lane ("Have a new hairpieced wig for Christmas").
Also advertising in the feature were: Phyll's Fashions, 57 Duke Street; Oblique Dress Boutique, Gartons Lane, Sutton Manor; P. & H. Jolley, 80 Westfield Street; Barbara Punshon, 64 Dentons Green Lane; Laurie Higgins, 33 North Road and the Byzantine Boutique, 36 Baldwin Street.
There were several adverts for discos in the paper. The Baccardi Club in Ormskirk Street were promoting their 'Crazy Dazy Disco' on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings: "Dance to all the latest records. Top D.J.’s and a group on Saturdays, plus every Saturday afternoon from 1 – 4p.m. Guys 5/-, Dollies 3/-"
Rainhill Labour Club hosted a disco every Tuesday. "Fantastic Hi-Fi", said their ad. There was also 'The Place' at 57 Ormskirk Street: "St. Helens only true disco for the young." It was also 'Disco Night' in Windle on the 21st at St Helens RUFC's club in Moss Lane – admission was 3/-.
Next week's stories will include the calamity kid from Parr, the high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids return from their class in the sky, the dynamite king Blaster Bates is back in town and a feature on Barclaycard is in the Reporter.
We begin on 16th with the death of James Foulkes in Whiston Hospital. The 70-year-old had been a bowling champion in St Helens during the 1930s and he was also the father of Bill Foulkes. The ex-Lea Green Colliery miner and Manchester United star had only recently retired from football with his benefit match having been played last week. However his father had been too ill to attend.
During the evening of the 16th Ben Brooks' sports shop in Duke Street was raided by thieves. Their haul included six air rifles, four cricket sweaters, a pair of binoculars, two pistols and six sheath knives. This had been their second break-in in three months. Police this week were also investigating the theft of a fish tank from the biology lab of Rivington Road School.
In June Pilkingtons had announced that after 144 years as a private concern, they planned to become a public company within a year. The firm's 34,000 workers – 12,000 in St Helens – along with Pilks' pensioners were promised a special priority to buy shares. On the 18th the glass giant announced that they would be "going public" as early as next week, although some of the national press were not impressed with their share price of 34 shillings. The Daily Express described it as an "astronomical 18.8 times earnings" and the Daily Telegraph thought it "fairly steep", with the share issue being a lot smaller than the Stock Market had been expecting.
The Reporter described on the 20th how a huge hole that had appeared on a Parr housing estate was being blamed on the 1926 miners strike. Last week's sudden earth movement on a lawn yards from houses in Cotswold Grove had created a hole measuring 10 ft. deep and 5 ft. wide. St Helens Corporation and National Coal Board officials had investigated the collapse and felt the most likely cause was a surface mining shaft giving way.
A Town Hall spokesman said: "The hole is still something of a mystery, but we think it was caused by old coal workings. Many people dug for coal in the area during the miners' strike in 1926. Timber pit props probably rotted and caved in. It was an isolated case and there was no danger to houses."
When a Reporter journalist asked Mark Derbyshire what he thought of school meals, the six-year-old from Northfield Close in Clock Face did not hold back: "They're rotten", he declared, before adding: "They never give you enough". Mark was at the centre of a row at St Theresa's infants' school because his dinner money had arrived three hours late.
On the previous Friday morning his mother Barbara had forgotten to give her son his 8s 9d lunch money for the following week. She remembered mid-morning and rushed to the school to hand the cash in but the teachers refused to take it. Mark's Dad, Alan Derbyshire, told the Reporter: "This is carrying red tape too far. They are giving Mark a penance for something which was not his fault."
Not that Mark appeared to see things that way as he tucked into a plate of chips and stew at his grannie's house in Farm Road – despite having to make a two mile round trip every lunchtime. "I can eat as much as I like here and get toffees afterwards", he beamed. And probably got spoiled by his doting granny too! The headmistress of the school, Sister Mary, said if the parents had any complaints they should go to see her. "I am quite willing to explain to them our rules about school dinner money", she added.
The paper also reported how pupils from Carr Mill junior school would be taking an unusual geography class next week. An aeroplane had been chartered to fly from Speke Airport and take the class up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air. The £3 a head flight would traverse the Fylde coast, fly down over North Wales, go across the Dee estuary and then return to Liverpool. Headmaster Douglas Appleton said:
"A lot of the children live in places like Windermere Avenue, Bowness Avenue and other Lake District names. They will be able to see the real places where the names came from. For the lesson each of them will have maps of the area to follow as we fly over. The trip should only take a couple of hours." Then the pupils would return to their desks.
Alan Whalley wrote an article in the Reporter on the "dustbin of St Helens" – which was the district of Parr that contained sprawling rubbish dumps and waste tips. Don Roy of the Engine Inn in Newton Road was dubbed the "landlord of the flies" as the ex-Salford rugby league player bemoaned the tips on his doorstep:
"I have worked hard to make this place highly respectable and comfortable. Yet I have to put up with an eyesore of a tip, right behind me, and insects and vermin that try to invade my premises from it. In bad times during the hot weather I have to keep windows shut to keep the insects out. Refuse vehicles are passing my forecourt constantly, going down either to the council tip or the private one. It's time that something was done to improve the bad name that Parr has always had." Alan Whalley talked to a couple of the pub's customers with 51-year-old railway worker Tom Bavis of Mount Pleasant Avenue saying:
"I'm ashamed of living here. I have always been a hard-working respectable man, and I think we deserve a better deal from the council. They should stop this tipping and take the rubbish somewhere else for a change. I've lived in Parr for most of my life at a number of different addresses but I have never been more than 300 yards off a rubbish tip." Rockware sorter Tony Wright reckoned that cockroaches and rats had been coming to his home in Malvern Road from the refuse tips for as long as twelve years, adding: "There's been no improvement since then – in fact things have got worse."
The Reporter also described how schoolgirl Lynne Ball of Birch Avenue had won the St Helens Junior Chamber of Commerce public speaking contest. The 17-year-old Notre Dame student had won a pen for being the best individual speaker appearing in front of a 150-strong audience in the annual competition held at St Helens "Tech". I wonder if the youngsters of today would be impressed if the prize they won in a contest was a pen? Or happy to do the old Cycling Proficiency Test?
Sam and Elizabeth Spencer of St Matthew's Grove in Thatto Heath were also pictured in the Reporter after celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary. And Sam's recipe for wedded bliss was to have a good row! "We've had our ups and downs during the years, but we've never separated or anything like that", the 82-year-old told the paper. "I think the best thing is a good row now and again. It clears the air, but the making up is the best part."
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter called "Winter Fashion Scene". Toni Wigs at 11 Baldwin Street were inviting customers to "Go To Any Length This Christmas With A Wig." Other advertisers included: Lilian Rogers, 30 Duke Street ("Midi for the Christmas season – fashions for all ages, teenage to outsize"); Charley Girl Boutique, 48-50 Baldwin Street ("Minis – Midis – Maxis") and The Cut an’ Curl Boutique, 460 Fleet Lane ("Have a new hairpieced wig for Christmas").
Also advertising in the feature were: Phyll's Fashions, 57 Duke Street; Oblique Dress Boutique, Gartons Lane, Sutton Manor; P. & H. Jolley, 80 Westfield Street; Barbara Punshon, 64 Dentons Green Lane; Laurie Higgins, 33 North Road and the Byzantine Boutique, 36 Baldwin Street.
There were several adverts for discos in the paper. The Baccardi Club in Ormskirk Street were promoting their 'Crazy Dazy Disco' on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings: "Dance to all the latest records. Top D.J.’s and a group on Saturdays, plus every Saturday afternoon from 1 – 4p.m. Guys 5/-, Dollies 3/-"
Rainhill Labour Club hosted a disco every Tuesday. "Fantastic Hi-Fi", said their ad. There was also 'The Place' at 57 Ormskirk Street: "St. Helens only true disco for the young." It was also 'Disco Night' in Windle on the 21st at St Helens RUFC's club in Moss Lane – admission was 3/-.
Next week's stories will include the calamity kid from Parr, the high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids return from their class in the sky, the dynamite king Blaster Bates is back in town and a feature on Barclaycard is in the Reporter.
This week's many stories include a Carr Mill geography lesson from the air, the "landlord of the flies" of Newton Road, the Clock Face boy who thought school dinners were rotten and why a huge hole that appeared in Parr was blamed on the 1926 miners strike.
We begin on November 16th with the death of James Foulkes in Whiston Hospital.
The 70-year-old had been a bowling champion in St Helens during the 1930s and he was also the father of Bill Foulkes.
The ex-Lea Green Colliery miner and Manchester United star had only recently retired from football with his benefit match having been played last week.
However his father had been too ill to attend.
During the evening of the 16th Ben Brooks' sports shop in Duke Street was raided by thieves.
Their haul included six air rifles, four cricket sweaters, a pair of binoculars, two pistols and six sheath knives.
This had been their second break-in in three months. Police this week were also investigating the theft of a fish tank from the biology lab of Rivington Road School.
In June Pilkingtons had announced that after 144 years as a private concern, they planned to become a public company within a year.
The firm's 34,000 workers – 12,000 in St Helens – along with Pilks' pensioners were promised a special priority to buy shares.
On the 18th the glass giant announced that they would be "going public" as early as next week, although some of the national press were not impressed with their share price of 34 shillings.
The Daily Express described it as an "astronomical 18.8 times earnings" and the Daily Telegraph thought it "fairly steep", with the share issue being a lot smaller than the Stock Market had been expecting.
The Reporter described on the 20th how a huge hole that had appeared on a Parr housing estate was being blamed on the 1926 miners strike.
Last week's sudden earth movement on a lawn yards from houses in Cotswold Grove had created a hole measuring 10 ft. deep and 5 ft. wide.
St Helens Corporation and National Coal Board officials had investigated the collapse and felt the most likely cause was a surface mining shaft giving way. A Town Hall spokesman said:
"The hole is still something of a mystery, but we think it was caused by old coal workings. Many people dug for coal in the area during the miners' strike in 1926. Timber pit props probably rotted and caved in. It was an isolated case and there was no danger to houses."
When a Reporter journalist asked Mark Derbyshire what he thought of school meals, the six-year-old from Northfield Close in Clock Face did not hold back:
"They're rotten", he declared, before adding: "They never give you enough".
Mark was at the centre of a row at St Theresa's infants' school because his dinner money had arrived three hours late.
On the previous Friday morning his mother Barbara had forgotten to give her son his 8s 9d lunch money for the following week.
She remembered mid-morning and rushed to the school to hand the cash in but the teachers refused to take it.
Mark's Dad, Alan Derbyshire, told the Reporter: "This is carrying red tape too far. They are giving Mark a penance for something which was not his fault."
Not that Mark appeared to see things that way as he tucked into a plate of chips and stew at his grannie's house in Farm Road – despite having to make a two mile round trip every lunchtime.
"I can eat as much as I like here and get toffees afterwards", he beamed. And probably got spoiled by his doting granny too!
The headmistress of the school, Sister Mary, said if the parents had any complaints they should go to see her.
"I am quite willing to explain to them our rules about school dinner money", she added.
The paper also reported how pupils from Carr Mill junior school would be taking an unusual geography class next week.
An aeroplane had been chartered to fly from Speke Airport and take the class up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air.
The £3 a head flight would traverse the Fylde coast, fly down over North Wales, go across the Dee estuary and then return to Liverpool. Headmaster Douglas Appleton said:
"A lot of the children live in places like Windermere Avenue, Bowness Avenue and other Lake District names. They will be able to see the real places where the names came from.
"For the lesson each of them will have maps of the area to follow as we fly over. The trip should only take a couple of hours." Then the pupils would return to their desks.
Alan Whalley wrote an article in the Reporter on the "dustbin of St Helens" – which was the district of Parr that contained sprawling rubbish dumps and waste tips.
Don Roy of the Engine Inn in Newton Road was dubbed the "landlord of the flies" as the ex-Salford rugby league player bemoaned the tips on his doorstep:
"I have worked hard to make this place highly respectable and comfortable. Yet I have to put up with an eyesore of a tip, right behind me, and insects and vermin that try to invade my premises from it. In bad times during the hot weather I have to keep windows shut to keep the insects out.
"Refuse vehicles are passing my forecourt constantly, going down either to the council tip or the private one. It's time that something was done to improve the bad name that Parr has always had."
Alan Whalley talked to a couple of the pub's customers with 51-year-old railway worker Tom Bavis of Mount Pleasant Avenue saying:
"I'm ashamed of living here. I have always been a hard-working respectable man, and I think we deserve a better deal from the council. They should stop this tipping and take the rubbish somewhere else for a change.
"I've lived in Parr for most of my life at a number of different addresses but I have never been more than 300 yards off a rubbish tip."
Rockware sorter Tony Wright reckoned that cockroaches and rats had been coming to his home in Malvern Road from the refuse tips for as long as twelve years, adding: "There's been no improvement since then – in fact things have got worse."
The Reporter also described how schoolgirl Lynne Ball of Birch Avenue had won the St Helens Junior Chamber of Commerce public speaking contest.
The 17-year-old Notre Dame student had won a pen for being the best individual speaker appearing in front of a 150-strong audience in the annual competition held at St Helens "Tech".
I wonder if the youngsters of today would be impressed if the prize they won in a contest was a pen? Or happy to do the old Cycling Proficiency Test?
Perhaps if they did they wouldn't ride bikes on pavements without bells and consequently frighten the life out of folk like me as they hurtle past!
Pictured in the Reporter with their Cycling Proficiency certificates were Ruth Dunn of Higher Lane in Crank and John Adams from Heyes Avenue in Rainford.
The 10-year-olds were among a group of twenty kids from Crank Primary School (pictured above on the right) who had received their certificates from George Friar, the Chairman of Rainford council.
Sam and Elizabeth Spencer of St Matthew's Grove in Thatto Heath were also pictured in the Reporter after celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.
And Sam's recipe for wedded bliss was to have a good row!
"We've had our ups and downs during the years, but we've never separated or anything like that", the 82-year-old told the paper.
"I think the best thing is a good row now and again. It clears the air, but the making up is the best part."
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter called "Winter Fashion Scene".
Toni Wigs at 11 Baldwin Street were inviting customers to "Go To Any Length This Christmas With A Wig." Other advertisers included:
Lilian Rogers, 30 Duke Street ("Midi for the Christmas season – fashions for all ages, teenage to outsize"); Charley Girl Boutique, 48-50 Baldwin Street ("Minis – Midis – Maxis") and The Cut an’ Curl Boutique, 460 Fleet Lane ("Have a new hairpieced wig for Christmas").
Also advertising in the Reporter’s feature were:
Phyll's Fashions, 57 Duke Street; Oblique Dress Boutique, Gartons Lane, Sutton Manor; P. & H. Jolley, 80 Westfield Street; Barbara Punshon, 64 Dentons Green Lane; Laurie Higgins, 33 North Road and the Byzantine Boutique, 36 Baldwin Street.
There were several adverts for discos in the paper.
The Baccardi Club in Ormskirk Street were promoting their 'Crazy Dazy Disco' on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings:
"Dance to all the latest records. Top D.J.’s and a group on Saturdays, plus every Saturday afternoon from 1 – 4p.m. Guys 5/-, Dollies 3/-"
Rainhill Labour Club hosted a disco every Tuesday. "Fantastic Hi-Fi", said their ad.
There was also 'The Place' at 57 Ormskirk Street: "St. Helens only true disco for the young."
It was also 'Disco Night' in Windle on the 21st at St Helens RUFC's club in Moss Lane – admission was 3/-.
Next week's stories will include the calamity kid from Parr, the high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids return from their class in the sky, the dynamite king Blaster Bates is back in town and a feature on Barclaycard is in the Reporter.
We begin on November 16th with the death of James Foulkes in Whiston Hospital.
The 70-year-old had been a bowling champion in St Helens during the 1930s and he was also the father of Bill Foulkes.
The ex-Lea Green Colliery miner and Manchester United star had only recently retired from football with his benefit match having been played last week.
However his father had been too ill to attend.
During the evening of the 16th Ben Brooks' sports shop in Duke Street was raided by thieves.
Their haul included six air rifles, four cricket sweaters, a pair of binoculars, two pistols and six sheath knives.
This had been their second break-in in three months. Police this week were also investigating the theft of a fish tank from the biology lab of Rivington Road School.
In June Pilkingtons had announced that after 144 years as a private concern, they planned to become a public company within a year.
The firm's 34,000 workers – 12,000 in St Helens – along with Pilks' pensioners were promised a special priority to buy shares.
On the 18th the glass giant announced that they would be "going public" as early as next week, although some of the national press were not impressed with their share price of 34 shillings.
The Daily Express described it as an "astronomical 18.8 times earnings" and the Daily Telegraph thought it "fairly steep", with the share issue being a lot smaller than the Stock Market had been expecting.
The Reporter described on the 20th how a huge hole that had appeared on a Parr housing estate was being blamed on the 1926 miners strike.
Last week's sudden earth movement on a lawn yards from houses in Cotswold Grove had created a hole measuring 10 ft. deep and 5 ft. wide.
St Helens Corporation and National Coal Board officials had investigated the collapse and felt the most likely cause was a surface mining shaft giving way. A Town Hall spokesman said:
"The hole is still something of a mystery, but we think it was caused by old coal workings. Many people dug for coal in the area during the miners' strike in 1926. Timber pit props probably rotted and caved in. It was an isolated case and there was no danger to houses."
When a Reporter journalist asked Mark Derbyshire what he thought of school meals, the six-year-old from Northfield Close in Clock Face did not hold back:
"They're rotten", he declared, before adding: "They never give you enough".
Mark was at the centre of a row at St Theresa's infants' school because his dinner money had arrived three hours late.
On the previous Friday morning his mother Barbara had forgotten to give her son his 8s 9d lunch money for the following week.
She remembered mid-morning and rushed to the school to hand the cash in but the teachers refused to take it.
Mark's Dad, Alan Derbyshire, told the Reporter: "This is carrying red tape too far. They are giving Mark a penance for something which was not his fault."
Not that Mark appeared to see things that way as he tucked into a plate of chips and stew at his grannie's house in Farm Road – despite having to make a two mile round trip every lunchtime.
"I can eat as much as I like here and get toffees afterwards", he beamed. And probably got spoiled by his doting granny too!
The headmistress of the school, Sister Mary, said if the parents had any complaints they should go to see her.
"I am quite willing to explain to them our rules about school dinner money", she added.
The paper also reported how pupils from Carr Mill junior school would be taking an unusual geography class next week.
An aeroplane had been chartered to fly from Speke Airport and take the class up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air.
The £3 a head flight would traverse the Fylde coast, fly down over North Wales, go across the Dee estuary and then return to Liverpool. Headmaster Douglas Appleton said:
"A lot of the children live in places like Windermere Avenue, Bowness Avenue and other Lake District names. They will be able to see the real places where the names came from.
"For the lesson each of them will have maps of the area to follow as we fly over. The trip should only take a couple of hours." Then the pupils would return to their desks.
Alan Whalley wrote an article in the Reporter on the "dustbin of St Helens" – which was the district of Parr that contained sprawling rubbish dumps and waste tips.
Don Roy of the Engine Inn in Newton Road was dubbed the "landlord of the flies" as the ex-Salford rugby league player bemoaned the tips on his doorstep:
"I have worked hard to make this place highly respectable and comfortable. Yet I have to put up with an eyesore of a tip, right behind me, and insects and vermin that try to invade my premises from it. In bad times during the hot weather I have to keep windows shut to keep the insects out.
"Refuse vehicles are passing my forecourt constantly, going down either to the council tip or the private one. It's time that something was done to improve the bad name that Parr has always had."
Alan Whalley talked to a couple of the pub's customers with 51-year-old railway worker Tom Bavis of Mount Pleasant Avenue saying:
"I'm ashamed of living here. I have always been a hard-working respectable man, and I think we deserve a better deal from the council. They should stop this tipping and take the rubbish somewhere else for a change.
"I've lived in Parr for most of my life at a number of different addresses but I have never been more than 300 yards off a rubbish tip."
Rockware sorter Tony Wright reckoned that cockroaches and rats had been coming to his home in Malvern Road from the refuse tips for as long as twelve years, adding: "There's been no improvement since then – in fact things have got worse."
The Reporter also described how schoolgirl Lynne Ball of Birch Avenue had won the St Helens Junior Chamber of Commerce public speaking contest.
The 17-year-old Notre Dame student had won a pen for being the best individual speaker appearing in front of a 150-strong audience in the annual competition held at St Helens "Tech".
I wonder if the youngsters of today would be impressed if the prize they won in a contest was a pen? Or happy to do the old Cycling Proficiency Test?
Perhaps if they did they wouldn't ride bikes on pavements without bells and consequently frighten the life out of folk like me as they hurtle past!
Pictured in the Reporter with their Cycling Proficiency certificates were Ruth Dunn of Higher Lane in Crank and John Adams from Heyes Avenue in Rainford.
Sam and Elizabeth Spencer of St Matthew's Grove in Thatto Heath were also pictured in the Reporter after celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary.
And Sam's recipe for wedded bliss was to have a good row!
"We've had our ups and downs during the years, but we've never separated or anything like that", the 82-year-old told the paper.
"I think the best thing is a good row now and again. It clears the air, but the making up is the best part."
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter called "Winter Fashion Scene".
Toni Wigs at 11 Baldwin Street were inviting customers to "Go To Any Length This Christmas With A Wig." Other advertisers included:
Lilian Rogers, 30 Duke Street ("Midi for the Christmas season – fashions for all ages, teenage to outsize"); Charley Girl Boutique, 48-50 Baldwin Street ("Minis – Midis – Maxis") and The Cut an’ Curl Boutique, 460 Fleet Lane ("Have a new hairpieced wig for Christmas").
Also advertising in the Reporter’s feature were:
Phyll's Fashions, 57 Duke Street; Oblique Dress Boutique, Gartons Lane, Sutton Manor; P. & H. Jolley, 80 Westfield Street; Barbara Punshon, 64 Dentons Green Lane; Laurie Higgins, 33 North Road and the Byzantine Boutique, 36 Baldwin Street.
There were several adverts for discos in the paper.
The Baccardi Club in Ormskirk Street were promoting their 'Crazy Dazy Disco' on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings:
"Dance to all the latest records. Top D.J.’s and a group on Saturdays, plus every Saturday afternoon from 1 – 4p.m. Guys 5/-, Dollies 3/-"
Rainhill Labour Club hosted a disco every Tuesday. "Fantastic Hi-Fi", said their ad.
There was also 'The Place' at 57 Ormskirk Street: "St. Helens only true disco for the young."
It was also 'Disco Night' in Windle on the 21st at St Helens RUFC's club in Moss Lane – admission was 3/-.
Next week's stories will include the calamity kid from Parr, the high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids return from their class in the sky, the dynamite king Blaster Bates is back in town and a feature on Barclaycard is in the Reporter.