FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (18th - 24th JANUARY 1971)
This week's many stories include the arrest of the violent Haresfinch thugs, the creation of Knowsley Safari Park, the under-pitch heating at Knowsley Road and the start of the post office workers strike.
We begin on the 18th when it was announced that Hull dockers' "blacking" of Pilkington glass products had ended – at least for the moment. The men's ban on handling export consignments from Pilks had been in place since last summer in retaliation for the glass firm's refusal to reinstate all their sacked strikers. However a permanent lifting of the embargo would depend on meetings of dockers at Manchester and Liverpool.
It was also revealed on the 18th that thieves had taken three typewriters worth £60 from the Windle Pilkington Primary School in Waterloo Street (pictured above c.1960). The original school had opened in 1915 and was named after William Windle Pilkington, the first chairman of the St Helens Education Committee. The boys' playground – would you believe – was on the roof! I hope none of the kids fell off!
Britain's first national postal strike began at midnight on the 19th causing considerable inconvenience to St Helens businesses and residents. The Post Office took out newspaper adverts to explain that they could not afford the union demand for a 15 to 20 per cent increase in wages but had offered 8 per cent, which had been rejected. It was then a monolithic organisation and so the 7-week strike did not just affect letter deliveries but most telephone, telegram and post office counter services too. "An attempt will be made to deliver “Life and Death” telegrams but delivery cannot be assured", they wrote.
Despite the Post Office's pleas for people not to post any letters after 5:30pm on the 18th, people in the Merseyside area were still stuffing pillar-boxes. Some were reported to be half-full at midday on the 19th and on the previous day, 100,000 second-class letters had been posted in Liverpool alone, despite requests to only post first-class mail on that day.
The Liverpool Echo reported that a local businessman planned to mobilise 600 housewives on "military lines" to establish a strikebreaking Merseyside mail service. This would include St Helens and users of the scheme would be charged 1s 6d a letter, compared with 5d for first-class mail via the Post Office. However the "housewives' army" could only guarantee delivery within four days.
On the 18th three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court in connection with last week's series of assaults and robberies in Haresfinch and Standish Street. The police had dubbed the trio a "brutally alarming gang" having committed the worst night of attacks in St Helens for a long time. The threesome turned out to be older than had been originally thought. One from Albion Street in St Helens was aged 25; another from Charles Street was 27 and the third, a 20-year-old from Liverpool.
The victims were named as Samuel Omah, Frank Wilson and John Coleman. The man who at 4:15am in Washway Lane had heroically used a bottle to fight back against the thugs was named as 63-year-old Mathew Preston. The three accused men were remanded in custody.
It was reported on the 18th that 20-year-old Brian Cotterall of Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor and 16-year-old Margaret McKeneinery from Robins Lane had died in a tragic accident over the weekend. The car in which they were travelling had been in collision with a tree at Scarisbrick and two other passengers in the vehicle were injured and taken to Ormskirk Hospital for treatment.
On the 19th St Helens-based supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon sold off his nags after deciding to give up being a racehorse owner. His three horses had not proved good investments – either on the racetrack or when auctioned. Lennon had paid 40,000 guineas in total for them but at the Ascot sales they went for just 8,700 guineas. One horse called 'Permit' was sold to Sherdley Road haulage contractor Joe Pickavance.
Also on the 20th the Echo reported that Saints were planning to experiment with a new type of under-pitch heating. Tests would be carried out at Knowsley Road using plastic piping to channel warm air under the playing surface. Test strips were going to be laid in readiness for the next cold spell to demonstrate how well the system worked. An automatic setting would switch on the heating whenever the temperature dropped below a certain level.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park had been in the works for a year or two with all the necessary planning permissions having now been obtained. On the 20th Lord Derby announced details of what was being called the biggest safari park outside of Africa – which was scheduled to open on July 1st. Once work costing £¾ million (around £12m in today's money) had been completed, visitors would be able to see herds of elephants, lions and cheetahs roaming in natural surroundings.
The 18th earl was partnering with Jimmy Chipperfield of the famous circus family who had been in charge of developing the wild animal schemes at Woburn Abbey and Longleat. Lord Derby said that the new Knowsley Safari Park would cover over 360 acres of his land and be the home of the largest herd of elephants outside of Africa. Other attractions would include a restaurant to seat 500 people and a boating lake for children. Also planned was a pets corner featuring a large variety of young and tame animals and birds.
However this would not be the first time that Knowsley Park had been an important nature reserve. During the first half of the 19th century the 13th Earl of Derby had curated a remarkable menagerie, which his successor sold off in 1851.
At the Theatre Royal on the 20th there was 'Folk with Jackie & Bridie' with support from the Hennesseys. On the following evening the Hillsiders were back in town. The Merseyside country music group must have a made a huge number of appearances at the Corporation Street theatre during their 35-year-long career.
Also on the 21st it was reported that the National Society for Autistic Children would be opening a new residential school at Wargrave House in Newton-le-Willows in May as a joint venture with the Society of Friends.
Robins Lane Secondary School pupil Susan Smith was pictured in the St Helens Reporter on the 22nd holding a frying pan. The 14-year-old from Hempstead Close in Sutton Heath had won her way into the North West regional final of the United Kingdom Schools fish cookery competition. So far Susan had won a book and a set of kitchen tools and was now hoping to win a weekend in London.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Daily Mirror this week – other than the front-page splash of "Vicar's Wife And The Bank Clerk" which the Mirror considered far more important than the post office strike! It concerned women's rugby league and was treated as something new, although last October I wrote that the first female rugby league side in St Helens had been formed. The farsighted Saints coach Jim Challenor had been behind the initiative but the players were having trouble finding other teams to play.
Barbara Harris from Mill Brow in Eccleston said she had not been able to persuade other girls to take up the sport: "Many of them said they were scared of getting injured or looking silly, but we've had a practice game and it was good fun. There's nothing dangerous about it."
Well this week the Mirror caught up with the Reporter's story, which they headlined "Girls Are Wanted …To Play Rugby". Rugby League secretary Bill Fallowfield was calling for females to play the sport, although in a modified form called "touch rugby". Attendances at rugby league matches were down and Mr Fallowfield's theory was that once girls became interested in playing the sport, their boyfriends would have no difficulty in taking them to see matches.
However Wakefield Trinity skipper Neil Fox was not impressed, telling the Mirror: "Rugby League is a man's game and I think it should be for men only." The legendary Alex Murphy – who was then player coach at Leigh – said: "It would be treated as a joke. The game is having a bit of a bad spell and I don't think this idea would help. It might be all right as an interval gimmick – a bit of entertainment – but people go to see a good game of rugby."
Next week's stories will include the historic silverware stolen from St Thomas' church, the 4-month-long Liverpool Road building site dispute is settled, the end of RAF Haydock, more news about decimalisation, a "vicious animal attack" in Keswick Road and the Sutton Leach schoolboy beat group who played in a garden shed.
We begin on the 18th when it was announced that Hull dockers' "blacking" of Pilkington glass products had ended – at least for the moment. The men's ban on handling export consignments from Pilks had been in place since last summer in retaliation for the glass firm's refusal to reinstate all their sacked strikers. However a permanent lifting of the embargo would depend on meetings of dockers at Manchester and Liverpool.
Britain's first national postal strike began at midnight on the 19th causing considerable inconvenience to St Helens businesses and residents. The Post Office took out newspaper adverts to explain that they could not afford the union demand for a 15 to 20 per cent increase in wages but had offered 8 per cent, which had been rejected. It was then a monolithic organisation and so the 7-week strike did not just affect letter deliveries but most telephone, telegram and post office counter services too. "An attempt will be made to deliver “Life and Death” telegrams but delivery cannot be assured", they wrote.
Despite the Post Office's pleas for people not to post any letters after 5:30pm on the 18th, people in the Merseyside area were still stuffing pillar-boxes. Some were reported to be half-full at midday on the 19th and on the previous day, 100,000 second-class letters had been posted in Liverpool alone, despite requests to only post first-class mail on that day.
The Liverpool Echo reported that a local businessman planned to mobilise 600 housewives on "military lines" to establish a strikebreaking Merseyside mail service. This would include St Helens and users of the scheme would be charged 1s 6d a letter, compared with 5d for first-class mail via the Post Office. However the "housewives' army" could only guarantee delivery within four days.
On the 18th three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court in connection with last week's series of assaults and robberies in Haresfinch and Standish Street. The police had dubbed the trio a "brutally alarming gang" having committed the worst night of attacks in St Helens for a long time. The threesome turned out to be older than had been originally thought. One from Albion Street in St Helens was aged 25; another from Charles Street was 27 and the third, a 20-year-old from Liverpool.
The victims were named as Samuel Omah, Frank Wilson and John Coleman. The man who at 4:15am in Washway Lane had heroically used a bottle to fight back against the thugs was named as 63-year-old Mathew Preston. The three accused men were remanded in custody.
It was reported on the 18th that 20-year-old Brian Cotterall of Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor and 16-year-old Margaret McKeneinery from Robins Lane had died in a tragic accident over the weekend. The car in which they were travelling had been in collision with a tree at Scarisbrick and two other passengers in the vehicle were injured and taken to Ormskirk Hospital for treatment.
On the 19th St Helens-based supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon sold off his nags after deciding to give up being a racehorse owner. His three horses had not proved good investments – either on the racetrack or when auctioned. Lennon had paid 40,000 guineas in total for them but at the Ascot sales they went for just 8,700 guineas. One horse called 'Permit' was sold to Sherdley Road haulage contractor Joe Pickavance.
Also on the 20th the Echo reported that Saints were planning to experiment with a new type of under-pitch heating. Tests would be carried out at Knowsley Road using plastic piping to channel warm air under the playing surface. Test strips were going to be laid in readiness for the next cold spell to demonstrate how well the system worked. An automatic setting would switch on the heating whenever the temperature dropped below a certain level.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park had been in the works for a year or two with all the necessary planning permissions having now been obtained. On the 20th Lord Derby announced details of what was being called the biggest safari park outside of Africa – which was scheduled to open on July 1st. Once work costing £¾ million (around £12m in today's money) had been completed, visitors would be able to see herds of elephants, lions and cheetahs roaming in natural surroundings.
The 18th earl was partnering with Jimmy Chipperfield of the famous circus family who had been in charge of developing the wild animal schemes at Woburn Abbey and Longleat. Lord Derby said that the new Knowsley Safari Park would cover over 360 acres of his land and be the home of the largest herd of elephants outside of Africa. Other attractions would include a restaurant to seat 500 people and a boating lake for children. Also planned was a pets corner featuring a large variety of young and tame animals and birds.
However this would not be the first time that Knowsley Park had been an important nature reserve. During the first half of the 19th century the 13th Earl of Derby had curated a remarkable menagerie, which his successor sold off in 1851.
At the Theatre Royal on the 20th there was 'Folk with Jackie & Bridie' with support from the Hennesseys. On the following evening the Hillsiders were back in town. The Merseyside country music group must have a made a huge number of appearances at the Corporation Street theatre during their 35-year-long career.
Also on the 21st it was reported that the National Society for Autistic Children would be opening a new residential school at Wargrave House in Newton-le-Willows in May as a joint venture with the Society of Friends.
Robins Lane Secondary School pupil Susan Smith was pictured in the St Helens Reporter on the 22nd holding a frying pan. The 14-year-old from Hempstead Close in Sutton Heath had won her way into the North West regional final of the United Kingdom Schools fish cookery competition. So far Susan had won a book and a set of kitchen tools and was now hoping to win a weekend in London.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Daily Mirror this week – other than the front-page splash of "Vicar's Wife And The Bank Clerk" which the Mirror considered far more important than the post office strike! It concerned women's rugby league and was treated as something new, although last October I wrote that the first female rugby league side in St Helens had been formed. The farsighted Saints coach Jim Challenor had been behind the initiative but the players were having trouble finding other teams to play.
Barbara Harris from Mill Brow in Eccleston said she had not been able to persuade other girls to take up the sport: "Many of them said they were scared of getting injured or looking silly, but we've had a practice game and it was good fun. There's nothing dangerous about it."
Well this week the Mirror caught up with the Reporter's story, which they headlined "Girls Are Wanted …To Play Rugby". Rugby League secretary Bill Fallowfield was calling for females to play the sport, although in a modified form called "touch rugby". Attendances at rugby league matches were down and Mr Fallowfield's theory was that once girls became interested in playing the sport, their boyfriends would have no difficulty in taking them to see matches.
However Wakefield Trinity skipper Neil Fox was not impressed, telling the Mirror: "Rugby League is a man's game and I think it should be for men only." The legendary Alex Murphy – who was then player coach at Leigh – said: "It would be treated as a joke. The game is having a bit of a bad spell and I don't think this idea would help. It might be all right as an interval gimmick – a bit of entertainment – but people go to see a good game of rugby."
Next week's stories will include the historic silverware stolen from St Thomas' church, the 4-month-long Liverpool Road building site dispute is settled, the end of RAF Haydock, more news about decimalisation, a "vicious animal attack" in Keswick Road and the Sutton Leach schoolboy beat group who played in a garden shed.
This week's many stories include the arrest of the violent Haresfinch thugs, the creation of Knowsley Safari Park, the under-pitch heating at Knowsley Road and the start of the post office workers strike.
We begin on the 18th when it was announced that Hull dockers' "blacking" of Pilkington glass products had ended – at least for the moment.
The men's ban on handling export consignments from Pilks had been in place since last summer in retaliation for the glass firm's refusal to reinstate all their sacked strikers.
However a permanent lifting of the embargo would depend on meetings of dockers at Manchester and Liverpool.
It was also revealed on the 18th that thieves had taken three typewriters worth £60 from the Windle Pilkington Primary School in Waterloo Street (pictured above c.1960).
The original school had opened in 1915 and was named after William Windle Pilkington, the first chairman of the St Helens Education Committee.
The boys' playground – would you believe – was on the roof! I hope none of the kids fell off!
Britain's first national postal strike began at midnight on the 19th causing considerable inconvenience to St Helens businesses and residents.
The Post Office took out newspaper adverts to explain that they could not afford the union demand for a 15 to 20 per cent increase in wages but had offered 8 per cent, which had been rejected.
It was then a monolithic organisation and so the 7-week strike did not just affect letter deliveries but most telephone, telegram and post office counter services too.
"An attempt will be made to deliver “Life and Death” telegrams but delivery cannot be assured", they wrote.
Despite the Post Office's pleas for people not to post any letters after 5:30pm on the 18th, people in the Merseyside area were still stuffing pillar-boxes.
Some were reported to be half-full at midday on the 19th and on the previous day, 100,000 second-class letters had been posted in Liverpool alone, despite requests to only post first-class mail on that day.
The Liverpool Echo reported that a local businessman planned to mobilise 600 housewives on "military lines" to establish a strikebreaking Merseyside mail service.
This would include St Helens and users of the scheme would be charged 1s 6d a letter, compared with 5d for first-class mail via the Post Office.
However the "housewives' army" could only guarantee delivery within four days.
On the 18th three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court in connection with last week's series of assaults and robberies in Haresfinch and Standish Street.
The police had dubbed the trio a "brutally alarming gang" having committed the worst night of attacks in St Helens for a long time.
The threesome turned out to be older than had been originally thought.
One from Albion Street in St Helens was aged 25; another from Charles Street was 27 and the third, a 20-year-old from Liverpool.
The victims were named as Samuel Omah, Frank Wilson and John Coleman.
The man who at 4:15am in Washway Lane had heroically used a bottle to fight back against the thugs was named as 63-year-old Mathew Preston. The three accused men were remanded in custody.
It was reported on the 18th that 20-year-old Brian Cotterall of Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor and 16-year-old Margaret McKeneinery from Robins Lane had died in a tragic accident over the weekend.
The car in which they were travelling had been in collision with a tree at Scarisbrick and two other passengers in the vehicle were injured and taken to Ormskirk Hospital for treatment.
On the 19th St Helens-based supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon sold off his nags after deciding to give up being a racehorse owner.
His three horses had not proved good investments – either on the racetrack or when auctioned.
Lennon had paid 40,000 guineas in total for them but at the Ascot sales they went for just 8,700 guineas.
One horse called 'Permit' was sold to Sherdley Road haulage contractor Joe Pickavance.
Also on the 20th the Echo reported that Saints were planning to experiment with a new type of under-pitch heating.
Tests would be carried out at Knowsley Road using plastic piping to channel warm air under the playing surface.
Test strips were going to be laid in readiness for the next cold spell to demonstrate how well the system worked.
An automatic setting would switch on the heating whenever the temperature dropped below a certain level.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park had been in the works for a year or two with all the necessary planning permissions having now been obtained.
On the 20th Lord Derby announced details of what was being called the biggest safari park outside of Africa – which was scheduled to open on July 1st.
Once work costing £¾ million (around £12m in today's money) had been completed, visitors would be able to see herds of elephants, lions and cheetahs roaming in natural surroundings.
The 18th earl was partnering with Jimmy Chipperfield of the famous circus family who had been in charge of developing the wild animal schemes at Woburn Abbey and Longleat.
Lord Derby said that the new Knowsley Safari Park would cover over 360 acres of his land and be the home of the largest herd of elephants outside of Africa.
Other attractions would include a restaurant to seat 500 people and a boating lake for children.
Also planned was a pets corner featuring a large variety of young and tame animals and birds.
However this would not be the first time that Knowsley Park had been an important nature reserve.
During the first half of the 19th century the 13th Earl of Derby had curated a remarkable menagerie, which his successor sold off in 1851.
At the Theatre Royal on the 20th there was 'Folk with Jackie & Bridie' with support from the Hennesseys. On the following evening the Hillsiders were back in town.
The Merseyside country music group must have a made a huge number of appearances at the Corporation Street theatre during their 35-year-long career.
Also on the 21st it was reported that the National Society for Autistic Children would be opening a new residential school at Wargrave House in Newton-le-Willows in May as a joint venture with the Society of Friends.
Robins Lane Secondary School pupil Susan Smith was pictured in the St Helens Reporter on the 22nd holding a frying pan.
The 14-year-old from Hempstead Close in Sutton Heath had won her way into the North West regional final of the United Kingdom Schools fish cookery competition.
So far Susan had won a book and a set of kitchen tools and was now hoping to win a weekend in London.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Daily Mirror this week – other than the front-page splash of "Vicar's Wife And The Bank Clerk" which the Mirror considered far more important than the post office strike!
It concerned women's rugby league and was treated as something new, although last October I wrote that the first female rugby league side in St Helens had been formed.
The farsighted Saints coach Jim Challenor had been behind the initiative but the players were having trouble finding other teams to play.
Barbara Harris from Mill Brow in Eccleston said she had not been able to persuade other girls to take up the sport:
"Many of them said they were scared of getting injured or looking silly, but we've had a practice game and it was good fun. There's nothing dangerous about it."
Well this week the Mirror caught up with the Reporter's story, which they headlined "Girls Are Wanted …To Play Rugby".
Rugby League secretary Bill Fallowfield was calling for females to play the sport, although in a modified form called "touch rugby".
Attendances at rugby league matches were down and Mr Fallowfield's theory was that once girls became interested in playing the sport, their boyfriends would have no difficulty in taking them to see matches.
However Wakefield Trinity skipper Neil Fox was not impressed, telling the Mirror: "Rugby League is a man's game and I think it should be for men only."
The legendary Alex Murphy – who was then player coach at Leigh – said: "It would be treated as a joke. The game is having a bit of a bad spell and I don't think this idea would help.
"It might be all right as an interval gimmick – a bit of entertainment – but people go to see a good game of rugby."
Next week's stories will include the historic silverware stolen from St Thomas' church, the 4-month-long Liverpool Road building site dispute is settled, the end of RAF Haydock, more news about decimalisation, a "vicious animal attack" in Keswick Road and the Sutton Leach schoolboy beat group who played in a garden shed.
We begin on the 18th when it was announced that Hull dockers' "blacking" of Pilkington glass products had ended – at least for the moment.
The men's ban on handling export consignments from Pilks had been in place since last summer in retaliation for the glass firm's refusal to reinstate all their sacked strikers.
However a permanent lifting of the embargo would depend on meetings of dockers at Manchester and Liverpool.
The original school had opened in 1915 and was named after William Windle Pilkington, the first chairman of the St Helens Education Committee.
The boys' playground – would you believe – was on the roof! I hope none of the kids fell off!
Britain's first national postal strike began at midnight on the 19th causing considerable inconvenience to St Helens businesses and residents.
The Post Office took out newspaper adverts to explain that they could not afford the union demand for a 15 to 20 per cent increase in wages but had offered 8 per cent, which had been rejected.
It was then a monolithic organisation and so the 7-week strike did not just affect letter deliveries but most telephone, telegram and post office counter services too.
"An attempt will be made to deliver “Life and Death” telegrams but delivery cannot be assured", they wrote.
Despite the Post Office's pleas for people not to post any letters after 5:30pm on the 18th, people in the Merseyside area were still stuffing pillar-boxes.
Some were reported to be half-full at midday on the 19th and on the previous day, 100,000 second-class letters had been posted in Liverpool alone, despite requests to only post first-class mail on that day.
The Liverpool Echo reported that a local businessman planned to mobilise 600 housewives on "military lines" to establish a strikebreaking Merseyside mail service.
This would include St Helens and users of the scheme would be charged 1s 6d a letter, compared with 5d for first-class mail via the Post Office.
However the "housewives' army" could only guarantee delivery within four days.
On the 18th three men appeared in St Helens Magistrates Court in connection with last week's series of assaults and robberies in Haresfinch and Standish Street.
The police had dubbed the trio a "brutally alarming gang" having committed the worst night of attacks in St Helens for a long time.
The threesome turned out to be older than had been originally thought.
One from Albion Street in St Helens was aged 25; another from Charles Street was 27 and the third, a 20-year-old from Liverpool.
The victims were named as Samuel Omah, Frank Wilson and John Coleman.
The man who at 4:15am in Washway Lane had heroically used a bottle to fight back against the thugs was named as 63-year-old Mathew Preston. The three accused men were remanded in custody.
It was reported on the 18th that 20-year-old Brian Cotterall of Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor and 16-year-old Margaret McKeneinery from Robins Lane had died in a tragic accident over the weekend.
The car in which they were travelling had been in collision with a tree at Scarisbrick and two other passengers in the vehicle were injured and taken to Ormskirk Hospital for treatment.
On the 19th St Helens-based supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon sold off his nags after deciding to give up being a racehorse owner.
His three horses had not proved good investments – either on the racetrack or when auctioned.
Lennon had paid 40,000 guineas in total for them but at the Ascot sales they went for just 8,700 guineas.
One horse called 'Permit' was sold to Sherdley Road haulage contractor Joe Pickavance.
Also on the 20th the Echo reported that Saints were planning to experiment with a new type of under-pitch heating.
Tests would be carried out at Knowsley Road using plastic piping to channel warm air under the playing surface.
Test strips were going to be laid in readiness for the next cold spell to demonstrate how well the system worked.
An automatic setting would switch on the heating whenever the temperature dropped below a certain level.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park had been in the works for a year or two with all the necessary planning permissions having now been obtained.
On the 20th Lord Derby announced details of what was being called the biggest safari park outside of Africa – which was scheduled to open on July 1st.
Once work costing £¾ million (around £12m in today's money) had been completed, visitors would be able to see herds of elephants, lions and cheetahs roaming in natural surroundings.
The 18th earl was partnering with Jimmy Chipperfield of the famous circus family who had been in charge of developing the wild animal schemes at Woburn Abbey and Longleat.
Lord Derby said that the new Knowsley Safari Park would cover over 360 acres of his land and be the home of the largest herd of elephants outside of Africa.
Other attractions would include a restaurant to seat 500 people and a boating lake for children.
Also planned was a pets corner featuring a large variety of young and tame animals and birds.
However this would not be the first time that Knowsley Park had been an important nature reserve.
During the first half of the 19th century the 13th Earl of Derby had curated a remarkable menagerie, which his successor sold off in 1851.
At the Theatre Royal on the 20th there was 'Folk with Jackie & Bridie' with support from the Hennesseys. On the following evening the Hillsiders were back in town.
The Merseyside country music group must have a made a huge number of appearances at the Corporation Street theatre during their 35-year-long career.
Also on the 21st it was reported that the National Society for Autistic Children would be opening a new residential school at Wargrave House in Newton-le-Willows in May as a joint venture with the Society of Friends.
Robins Lane Secondary School pupil Susan Smith was pictured in the St Helens Reporter on the 22nd holding a frying pan.
The 14-year-old from Hempstead Close in Sutton Heath had won her way into the North West regional final of the United Kingdom Schools fish cookery competition.
So far Susan had won a book and a set of kitchen tools and was now hoping to win a weekend in London.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Daily Mirror this week – other than the front-page splash of "Vicar's Wife And The Bank Clerk" which the Mirror considered far more important than the post office strike!
It concerned women's rugby league and was treated as something new, although last October I wrote that the first female rugby league side in St Helens had been formed.
The farsighted Saints coach Jim Challenor had been behind the initiative but the players were having trouble finding other teams to play.
Barbara Harris from Mill Brow in Eccleston said she had not been able to persuade other girls to take up the sport:
"Many of them said they were scared of getting injured or looking silly, but we've had a practice game and it was good fun. There's nothing dangerous about it."
Well this week the Mirror caught up with the Reporter's story, which they headlined "Girls Are Wanted …To Play Rugby".
Rugby League secretary Bill Fallowfield was calling for females to play the sport, although in a modified form called "touch rugby".
Attendances at rugby league matches were down and Mr Fallowfield's theory was that once girls became interested in playing the sport, their boyfriends would have no difficulty in taking them to see matches.
However Wakefield Trinity skipper Neil Fox was not impressed, telling the Mirror: "Rugby League is a man's game and I think it should be for men only."
The legendary Alex Murphy – who was then player coach at Leigh – said: "It would be treated as a joke. The game is having a bit of a bad spell and I don't think this idea would help.
"It might be all right as an interval gimmick – a bit of entertainment – but people go to see a good game of rugby."
Next week's stories will include the historic silverware stolen from St Thomas' church, the 4-month-long Liverpool Road building site dispute is settled, the end of RAF Haydock, more news about decimalisation, a "vicious animal attack" in Keswick Road and the Sutton Leach schoolboy beat group who played in a garden shed.