FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (18th - 24th NOVEMBER 1969)
This week's many stories include fears that St Helens could be flooded with forged 50p coins, the 18th century condition of houses in Haydock, the thumbs up for four road improvement schemes in St Helens, a hairdressing feature is in the Reporter and the little boy from Birchley Street who got a cake tin stuck on his head!
We begin on the 19th when the council's Works Committee was told that the Ministry of Housing had approved their bid to borrow £84,923 for road improvements. That's around £1½m in today's money and the bulk of the cash would be spent on a project to improve Marshalls Cross Road – including road works, street lighting and bridge works. Four Acre Lane would benefit from £21,000 worth of improvements, including better street lighting. Chancery Lane would be widened and improved and similar work undertaken in Blackbrook Road. Bridges in both streets would be padded to form embankments.
The committee also discussed the problem of motorists avoiding the traffic lights at Peasley Cross by using Cleveland Street and Manville Street as short cuts. This, along with the heavy tankers parked on the streets, was causing concern to parents worried over their children's safety. The police had been told about the parking and the committee were waiting for their comments.
The men involved in a three-week strike over the use of "lump labour" on a Westfield Street building site returned to work this week. The modern-day equivalent of lump labourers are those working in the so-called "gig economy", who are considered self-employed.
A Regional Disputes Commission had told a firm of sub-contractors utilising lump labourers to quit the site. However the striking men – who had lost three weeks' wages in the run up to Christmas – bitterly attacked the Labour members of the council for a lack of support. They claimed that their poor response had badly damaged the confidence of trade unionists in the council.
St Helens Chamber of Trade announced their recommendations for Christmas opening this week. They had agreed that as well as shops closing on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, they should also remain shut on Saturday 27th in order to give their staff an extra day's holiday. Not much chance of that today! Stores would also close their doors on New Year's Day.
It was also announced this week that the sub-post office in Park Road would close for demolition on December 5th.
A number of schools in Rainford, Rainhill and Prescot were closed during the morning of the 20th as teachers went on strike. They were demanding a rise of £135 per year but had only been offered £50. More half-day strikes were planned at many St Helens' schools next week which would affect as many as 18,000 children.
The St Helens Reporter on the 21st wrote of fears that St Helens could be "flooded" with forged 50p coins over the busy Christmas shopping period. However the prediction was based on just one such counterfeit coin being identified in St Helens. Machinist Linda Storey – who worked for J. and P. Jacobs of Parr – had discovered the fake 50p in her wage packet. Her Dad, Wallace, then tested the 7-sided coin – that had only been introduced in October – on three shopkeepers and none had noticed that it was a forgery.
There were also fears of an increase in shoplifting this Christmas with William Barrow of the Chamber of Trade reporting far more stealing offences this year than ever before. Mr Barrow was also the General Manager of Hart's Stores and called for stiffer fines for thieves.
The paper praised Joan Yates from Mount Pleasant Avenue in Parr and four other pupils at Central Modern School (shown above), namely Sandra Mathews, Fiona Smith, Carol Sefton and Maureen Briscoe. The girls had organised a fancy dress party and raised £4 for handicapped children at the Junior Training Centre in Derbyshire Hill Road.
Christopher and Andrew Dyer of Birchley Street were also pictured in the paper. Their mother Sheila had left a cake tin in her kitchen after bringing it home from her sister's. Three-year-old Christopher began playing with the tin but found it wouldn't go on his own head and so he jammed it onto the head of his 20-month-old brother's. It was a perfect fit – so perfect that Andrew's parents could not get the cake tin off! So St Helens fire brigade was summoned and they had to use their cutting gear to free the boy.
Twelve-year-old Karen Rockcliffe of Dentons Green Lane and thirteen-year-old Susan Reynolds of Furness Avenue also had their photos in the Reporter. The two youngsters were seen examining a white rabbit at Pilkington's fur and Feather Show at the Town Hall on the previous Saturday. The number of pigeon entries was at an all-time low, which the show secretary blamed on British Railways hiking the rail fares for carrying birds and animals.
Some of the tenants of old houses in West End Road in Haydock were up in arms in the Reporter about the state they were in. Edith Bradbury complained that she and her husband Norman suffered regularly from colds caused, they believed, by the severe dampness of their home. "Everywhere in the house – walls, floors, ceilings – there is dampness", she said. We have lived here for twenty-one-years and are sick of complaining."
Mrs Marsh of 232 West End Road claimed they were living in 18th century conditions. She said she had found rats and mice in her outside toilet on many occasions and complained of the walls in her house being "wringing wet". Edward Clarke at no. 220 told the Reporter: "The damp is terrible. It is cracking the walls and can be seen all over the ceiling." The National Coal Board owned the problem homes and Haydock Council said they’d asked them to rehouse their tenants but they'd yet to make a decision.
The Royal Oak Hotel on the East Lancs Road near Rainford had an advert in the Echo on the 21st. Now known as The Game Bird, the Greenhall Whitley pub said they were: “The ideal rendezvous for good food with speciality dishes to order under the personal supervision of Mr. N. Fabro, Restaurateur, with the experience of Master Chef."
BBC1 and ITV began colour broadcasts this week and Rothery's of Baldwin Street (and Atherton Street, Prescot) had an ad in the Reporter in large text that said: "See Coronation Street in Colour - Only 24/9". That wasn't strictly true as customers had to make an upfront payment of £64 9s 7d and pay nothing more for a year. That sum was equivalent to 24/9 per week and this was to rent a Ferguson, HMV or Ultra set and not to buy one.
Tesco's were advertising double Green Shield stamps every Tuesday and Wednesday at their Bridge Street store and had lots of money off vouchers for customers to cut out. And Helena House in Baldwin Street was offering a Hoovermatic Twin Tub for 59½ guineas, with HP available.
There was a Christmas advertising feature in the Reporter, which included many hairdressers. R. Du-Fay in Oxleys Department Store in Claughton Street had a special perming offer costing 21/- with shampoo, set, trim and conditioner. The ad of Fozard's Hair Fashion & Wig Boutique of Bickerstaffe Street said: "Swing into the party season by adding a cluster of ringlets or elegant curls. Hairpieces are inexpensive and do so much for your hairstyle."
The Cut an' Curl Boutique of Fleet Lane was also advertising hairpieces and was offering "100% human hair" pieces that were 10 to 11 inches long for £4 10 shillings. Barbara Punshon was promoting the opening of her new salon in Dentons Green Lane and The Bamboo Salon was reopening in Toll Bar. Moira Lawrenson had previously been hairdressing in Park Road but had now relocated to Grange Park Road.
On the 23rd Kevin Helsby was with a group of boys playing on the premises of Crosby Spring Interiors near to his home in Granville Street in Parr when the lads came across some paraffin in a tank. Some of the paraffin got onto the 7-year-old's clothes, which then caught fire. Kevin suffered extensive burns and was taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital where his condition was reported as improving. Since the accident Crosby Spring Interiors had employed a security firm to patrol their premises with guard dogs to keep mischievous boys away.
John Wayne and Rock Hudson's film 'The Undefeated' began seven days of screenings at the ABC Savoy on the 23rd. Then on the following day 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' starring Maggie Smith was shown at the Capitol for six days. Also on the 24th the Trooping of the Colour was held in Malta in the presence of Prince Charles, with Staff Sergeant H. Gravener of St Helens in charge of the No. Three Guard of the Lancashire Regiment.
And finally St Helens Juvenile Bench heard on the 24th how two schoolboys had burgled a hen shed and stolen 60 dozen eggs. The boys aged 10 and 11 both admitted the offence and were ordered to attend an attendance centre for 18 hours and their parents told to pay £7 10s compensation. Just what the lads wanted 60 dozen eggs for (a giant cake, perhaps?), was not stated!
Next week's stories will include a boycott by motorists of the St Helens' car parks, more complaints about the gipsies of Reginald Road, the latest on the teachers' strike, the erroneous Pudden Bag Hotel, the police's wild goose chase and the man who claimed to have been "bombed" on Billinge Beacon.
We begin on the 19th when the council's Works Committee was told that the Ministry of Housing had approved their bid to borrow £84,923 for road improvements. That's around £1½m in today's money and the bulk of the cash would be spent on a project to improve Marshalls Cross Road – including road works, street lighting and bridge works. Four Acre Lane would benefit from £21,000 worth of improvements, including better street lighting. Chancery Lane would be widened and improved and similar work undertaken in Blackbrook Road. Bridges in both streets would be padded to form embankments.
The committee also discussed the problem of motorists avoiding the traffic lights at Peasley Cross by using Cleveland Street and Manville Street as short cuts. This, along with the heavy tankers parked on the streets, was causing concern to parents worried over their children's safety. The police had been told about the parking and the committee were waiting for their comments.
The men involved in a three-week strike over the use of "lump labour" on a Westfield Street building site returned to work this week. The modern-day equivalent of lump labourers are those working in the so-called "gig economy", who are considered self-employed.
A Regional Disputes Commission had told a firm of sub-contractors utilising lump labourers to quit the site. However the striking men – who had lost three weeks' wages in the run up to Christmas – bitterly attacked the Labour members of the council for a lack of support. They claimed that their poor response had badly damaged the confidence of trade unionists in the council.
St Helens Chamber of Trade announced their recommendations for Christmas opening this week. They had agreed that as well as shops closing on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, they should also remain shut on Saturday 27th in order to give their staff an extra day's holiday. Not much chance of that today! Stores would also close their doors on New Year's Day.
It was also announced this week that the sub-post office in Park Road would close for demolition on December 5th.
A number of schools in Rainford, Rainhill and Prescot were closed during the morning of the 20th as teachers went on strike. They were demanding a rise of £135 per year but had only been offered £50. More half-day strikes were planned at many St Helens' schools next week which would affect as many as 18,000 children.
The St Helens Reporter on the 21st wrote of fears that St Helens could be "flooded" with forged 50p coins over the busy Christmas shopping period. However the prediction was based on just one such counterfeit coin being identified in St Helens. Machinist Linda Storey – who worked for J. and P. Jacobs of Parr – had discovered the fake 50p in her wage packet. Her Dad, Wallace, then tested the 7-sided coin – that had only been introduced in October – on three shopkeepers and none had noticed that it was a forgery.
There were also fears of an increase in shoplifting this Christmas with William Barrow of the Chamber of Trade reporting far more stealing offences this year than ever before. Mr Barrow was also the General Manager of Hart's Stores and called for stiffer fines for thieves.
Christopher and Andrew Dyer of Birchley Street were also pictured in the paper. Their mother Sheila had left a cake tin in her kitchen after bringing it home from her sister's. Three-year-old Christopher began playing with the tin but found it wouldn't go on his own head and so he jammed it onto the head of his 20-month-old brother's. It was a perfect fit – so perfect that Andrew's parents could not get the cake tin off! So St Helens fire brigade was summoned and they had to use their cutting gear to free the boy.
Twelve-year-old Karen Rockcliffe of Dentons Green Lane and thirteen-year-old Susan Reynolds of Furness Avenue also had their photos in the Reporter. The two youngsters were seen examining a white rabbit at Pilkington's fur and Feather Show at the Town Hall on the previous Saturday. The number of pigeon entries was at an all-time low, which the show secretary blamed on British Railways hiking the rail fares for carrying birds and animals.
Some of the tenants of old houses in West End Road in Haydock were up in arms in the Reporter about the state they were in. Edith Bradbury complained that she and her husband Norman suffered regularly from colds caused, they believed, by the severe dampness of their home. "Everywhere in the house – walls, floors, ceilings – there is dampness", she said. We have lived here for twenty-one-years and are sick of complaining."
Mrs Marsh of 232 West End Road claimed they were living in 18th century conditions. She said she had found rats and mice in her outside toilet on many occasions and complained of the walls in her house being "wringing wet". Edward Clarke at no. 220 told the Reporter: "The damp is terrible. It is cracking the walls and can be seen all over the ceiling." The National Coal Board owned the problem homes and Haydock Council said they’d asked them to rehouse their tenants but they'd yet to make a decision.
The Royal Oak Hotel on the East Lancs Road near Rainford had an advert in the Echo on the 21st. Now known as The Game Bird, the Greenhall Whitley pub said they were: “The ideal rendezvous for good food with speciality dishes to order under the personal supervision of Mr. N. Fabro, Restaurateur, with the experience of Master Chef."
BBC1 and ITV began colour broadcasts this week and Rothery's of Baldwin Street (and Atherton Street, Prescot) had an ad in the Reporter in large text that said: "See Coronation Street in Colour - Only 24/9". That wasn't strictly true as customers had to make an upfront payment of £64 9s 7d and pay nothing more for a year. That sum was equivalent to 24/9 per week and this was to rent a Ferguson, HMV or Ultra set and not to buy one.
Tesco's were advertising double Green Shield stamps every Tuesday and Wednesday at their Bridge Street store and had lots of money off vouchers for customers to cut out. And Helena House in Baldwin Street was offering a Hoovermatic Twin Tub for 59½ guineas, with HP available.
There was a Christmas advertising feature in the Reporter, which included many hairdressers. R. Du-Fay in Oxleys Department Store in Claughton Street had a special perming offer costing 21/- with shampoo, set, trim and conditioner. The ad of Fozard's Hair Fashion & Wig Boutique of Bickerstaffe Street said: "Swing into the party season by adding a cluster of ringlets or elegant curls. Hairpieces are inexpensive and do so much for your hairstyle."
The Cut an' Curl Boutique of Fleet Lane was also advertising hairpieces and was offering "100% human hair" pieces that were 10 to 11 inches long for £4 10 shillings. Barbara Punshon was promoting the opening of her new salon in Dentons Green Lane and The Bamboo Salon was reopening in Toll Bar. Moira Lawrenson had previously been hairdressing in Park Road but had now relocated to Grange Park Road.
On the 23rd Kevin Helsby was with a group of boys playing on the premises of Crosby Spring Interiors near to his home in Granville Street in Parr when the lads came across some paraffin in a tank. Some of the paraffin got onto the 7-year-old's clothes, which then caught fire. Kevin suffered extensive burns and was taken to Alder Hey Children's Hospital where his condition was reported as improving. Since the accident Crosby Spring Interiors had employed a security firm to patrol their premises with guard dogs to keep mischievous boys away.
John Wayne and Rock Hudson's film 'The Undefeated' began seven days of screenings at the ABC Savoy on the 23rd. Then on the following day 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' starring Maggie Smith was shown at the Capitol for six days. Also on the 24th the Trooping of the Colour was held in Malta in the presence of Prince Charles, with Staff Sergeant H. Gravener of St Helens in charge of the No. Three Guard of the Lancashire Regiment.
And finally St Helens Juvenile Bench heard on the 24th how two schoolboys had burgled a hen shed and stolen 60 dozen eggs. The boys aged 10 and 11 both admitted the offence and were ordered to attend an attendance centre for 18 hours and their parents told to pay £7 10s compensation. Just what the lads wanted 60 dozen eggs for (a giant cake, perhaps?), was not stated!
Next week's stories will include a boycott by motorists of the St Helens' car parks, more complaints about the gipsies of Reginald Road, the latest on the teachers' strike, the erroneous Pudden Bag Hotel, the police's wild goose chase and the man who claimed to have been "bombed" on Billinge Beacon.