FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (19th - 25th JULY 1971)
This week's many stories include the 100-strong scooter gangs that took part in the battle of Billinge, a woman silent in Rainhill Hospital for 30 years who could now talk, the wet St Helens Show in Sherdley Park, Harold Wilson gets involved in the Prescot grammar school row and a woman who lost her children in a Nazi concentration camp is honoured.
We begin with a burglary over the weekend when a house in Meadow Lane in Parr was entered and cash and a £28 wristwatch stolen. There had been a big increase in such incidents over the past year and so on the 19th St Helens Police announced a 10-point plan to combat burglaries. Chief Superintendent Jack Watson said: "Houses are becoming a special target for criminals, especially during the day, when husbands and wives are at work and the children are at school. Last year, housebreaking offences increased, and a high percentage of these crimes were committed because doors and windows were left open."
Detective Sergeant Harry Maughan, the Divisional Crime Prevention Officer, added: "On numerous occasions I have had the unenviable task of visiting houses which have been broken into. The disorder which some criminals can, and have, caused havoc with the person's health."
The 10 ways to beat the thieves were essentially good common security sense that I expect most people these days follow but probably didn't do quite so much 50 years ago. So householders in St Helens were advised to keep their ground-floor windows closed at night or when the house was unoccupied, not to leave keys under mats or in other places outside, fit good mortice locks and leave a light on when out of the house. "Be a good neighbour and keep an eye on the house next door when the occupants are away. They will do the same for you," said the advice.
However it wasn't just homes that were being burgled. On the same day that the advice was issued, there was a series of petty thefts from shops in St Helens. Hurst's Shoes in Jackson Street had six wage packets stolen and some keys; a florist's shop in Clock Face Road lost £14 and a book of trading stamps and a shop in Lugsmore Lane had £3 stolen. Thieves also broke into Houghton's millinery shop in Duke Street but only got away with 25p.
Last week I reported that the Parent Teachers Association of St Luke's RC Primary School in Shaw Lane, Prescot, was angry that ten girls that had passed their 11-plus exam could not find a place at grammar school. Instead they were being sent to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive. A Parents' Action Committee had been set up and a delegation had planned a trip to London to protest to Margaret Thatcher, the then Secretary of State for Education.
However the committee chairman, Terence Bretherton from Whiston, told the Echo on the 20th that Mrs Thatcher's department had rung to say she was too busy to meet them. However Harold Wilson was definitely available. Currently the leader of the Opposition, the MP for Huyton (which included Prescot and Eccleston) would shortly be holding what Mr Bretherton called a "special meeting" with his committee. "As part of our campaign, we have also sent a telegram to Cardinal Heenan, asking if he can help," added Mr Bretherton.
On the 21st a 71-year-old woman who lost her two children in a Nazi concentration camp and had lived in St Helens was honoured by Germany. At the outbreak of the war Ilse Joseph was living in Holland and two months before the Nazis invaded, fled with her second husband to Britain. Her two children were then in the care of a Jewish orphanage and were set to follow them – but never arrived here. Since coming to Britain, Mrs Joseph – a violinist – lived firstly at St Helens and then moved to the Wirral. For making annual visits to Germany to make violin recitals, the German Consul in Liverpool awarded Mrs Joseph the Officers' Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The award was made in recognition of her efforts to reconcile and create friendly relations between Jews and Germans by offering free violin recitals. Mrs. Joseph said: "Every year I return to Germany to give concerts in the hope that I can help people to forget the past. But I believe there is a new spirit in Germany now – they know that hate only creates wars."
Pilkingtons released its annual report on the 21st in which chairman Lord Pilkington told shareholders of the glass giant's modernisation and expansion plans. The firm intended to spend £20 million a year (about £300m in today's money) on factories and plants throughout the world. He said last year's prolonged strike had cost more than just the £5 million lost in profits.
"The indirect cost is higher, because some of the motor manufacturers, though not all, have shown a desire to search elsewhere for part of their supplies, and have shown readiness even to pay something extra in order to render themselves secure." Lord Pilkington said that although the group had cut back on staff in the past year, it had to expect more reductions in the future. The meeting of Pilkington shareholders to discuss the annual report would be held in the Theatre Royal.
The Echo reported on the 21st that a couple who had left St Helens twenty years earlier were making a holiday visit to the town. Sam Fenney and his wife Elinor used to have a bakery business in Hall Street but had moved to Tasmania. Harry Wilkinson had also flown in from Australia to see his 86-year-old mother, Hannah, who he had not seen for 44 years. Harry had left home when he was 16 and was staying at his mum's house in Chamberlain Street.
The latest unemployment figures were released on the 22nd and showed a big jump in the jobless rate in St Helens from 3.6% during last month to 4.4%. Nationally the figure was 3.4%.
The third St Helens Show began its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd. It then cost only 15p to park your car. The arena shows scheduled included displays by the Red Devils, Royal Marines Motor Cycles, R.A.F. Police Dogs, Army Combat Displays and a Fleet Air Arm Exhibition. Other novel attractions were a coal carrying race and all-in wrestling.
However it rained on all three days and thunderstorms caused some of the outdoor events – such as the Royal Marine motorcycle display – to be cancelled. The Red Devils skydiving team jumped as normal but a paratrooper came down off-course and a woman injured her ankle as a result. The St Helens inter-school 'It’s A Knock Out' competitions (pictured above) went ahead as well and both Robins Lane Secondary boys and girls' teams won both their sections. Rivington Road Boys and Cowley Girls were the runner-ups.
It was reported on the 22nd that the newly opened Knowsley Safari Park had been going so well that Lord Derby – in association with former circus owner Jimmy Chipperfield – planned to open a similar safari park in 275 acres of parkland on the Shropshire-Worcester border.
"Bovver Boys Do Battle" was the headline to the lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd. The article began: "Bloodstained bovver boys fought a pitched battle for revenge in a three-gang clash outside a village club. More than 100 teenagers rode in scooter convoys to the battleground on a car park. They swung clubs, hatchets and knives during a violent riot on the forecourt of the British Legion Club at Billinge on Wednesday night. Teenage youths and girls from St. Helens and Kirkby were the first to clash. Later local youngsters dancing at the Legion's weekly discotheque pitched in. Horrified villagers watched as the gang warfare erupted into bloodshed."
12-year-old Anne Cunliffe from Main Street told the Reporter that over 100 youths had been involved in what the paper dubbed the "battle of Billinge". She said she had seen one boy staggering away with his face and chest covered in blood. "All the local kids knew that the fight was planned", added Anne. "We were out on the pavement watching it. About 60 scooters turned up. most of them with two riders. The local boys were expecting them." Another villager, Graham Whalley, 22, said: "A lot of them were using heavy clubs in the fight. It was a frightening sight. None of us could do anything to stop it." The fight had been in revenge for a similar battle in Southport some weeks earlier.
In March 1970 the Reporter had written how student Brian Cotter had been stopped from being served in the lounge of the Black Horse Hotel in Moss Bank (pictured above) because his hair was too long. The landlord, Arthur Pridham, told the Reporter: "This is one of my own private rulings. I don't want customers with long hair in the lounge. If they want a drink they can go into the public bar."
This week barman George Ellis from Whittle Street revealed that he had quit the pub because another customer had been asked to leave. "I would be the first to kick yobs out if they were causing trouble", said George. "But these days most young men with long hair are impeccably dressed, well-educated and very well-mannered. I just don't agree with this prejudice." On this occasion it had been Mrs Pridham who had issued the marching orders and she told the Reporter: "We serve the type of people we want. Young men with long hair are not barred from the pub, only from the lounge."
The Reporter also revealed more details of Ernie Buckley's police raid from the previous week. Under the headline "Police Swoop On Sex Books", the paper explained that the Duke Street newsagent had been forced to close for three hours while the police searched his premises. As well as so-called "girly" magazines, controversial novels – such as 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' by Hubert Selby Jnr and Henry Miller's 'Sexus' – had also been seized. The business had been in Mr Buckley's family for 19 years and this had been their first police raid.
John Burke of Kitchener Street was appealing for the return of his valuable Italian greyhound in the Echo on the 23rd. Three weeks ago, while bringing Beringhill Dancing Boy, aka Buster, from a breeder in Weybridge to its new home in St Helens, Mr Burke had let the dog out of its box at Bootle for some fresh air. That was a big mistake as the dog bolted and being a greyhound knew how to run and hadn't been seen since!
On the same day Ena Hampton of Fleet Lane in Parr was awarded £7,182 damages in Liverpool Assizes after an accident between a scooter – on which she had been a pillion passenger – and a car. During the four years since the collision, the now 21-year-old had bravely undergone nine major operations to her left leg. However it had not all been doom and gloom, as while in Whiston Hospital, Ena had met Ronald Hampton who had fractured a cheek playing amateur Rugby League. The couple fell in love and had since married.
On the 24th the Guardian wrote that therapists at Rainhill Hospital had "almost cured" a patient who had been mute for the past 30 years. The unnamed woman had been admitted in 1941 with schizophrenia and until this year had not spoken a single word. Now after two months of treatment she can hold a conversation "undistinguishable from that of any other woman of similar age and social background."
Michael Cliffe, one of the psychologists who treated her, told the Guardian: "Her only difficulty was coping with traffic after her 30 years' silence. We learned that, although she was mute, she had been keeping up with current affairs by watching television." Sixteen mute or almost mute patients were now being treated at Rainhill – however results with the new technique had not all been good. The same page of the Guardian reported that the 600 foremen employed at the various Pilkington glass works were to receive a pay rise of £5 per week.
Next week's stories will include the Duke Street newsagent who bought a new car with cigarette coupons, the browned off St Helens Show organisers contact a gypsy weather prophet, the Robins Lane attendance watches and an update on Knowsley Safari Park.
We begin with a burglary over the weekend when a house in Meadow Lane in Parr was entered and cash and a £28 wristwatch stolen. There had been a big increase in such incidents over the past year and so on the 19th St Helens Police announced a 10-point plan to combat burglaries. Chief Superintendent Jack Watson said: "Houses are becoming a special target for criminals, especially during the day, when husbands and wives are at work and the children are at school. Last year, housebreaking offences increased, and a high percentage of these crimes were committed because doors and windows were left open."
Detective Sergeant Harry Maughan, the Divisional Crime Prevention Officer, added: "On numerous occasions I have had the unenviable task of visiting houses which have been broken into. The disorder which some criminals can, and have, caused havoc with the person's health."
The 10 ways to beat the thieves were essentially good common security sense that I expect most people these days follow but probably didn't do quite so much 50 years ago. So householders in St Helens were advised to keep their ground-floor windows closed at night or when the house was unoccupied, not to leave keys under mats or in other places outside, fit good mortice locks and leave a light on when out of the house. "Be a good neighbour and keep an eye on the house next door when the occupants are away. They will do the same for you," said the advice.
However it wasn't just homes that were being burgled. On the same day that the advice was issued, there was a series of petty thefts from shops in St Helens. Hurst's Shoes in Jackson Street had six wage packets stolen and some keys; a florist's shop in Clock Face Road lost £14 and a book of trading stamps and a shop in Lugsmore Lane had £3 stolen. Thieves also broke into Houghton's millinery shop in Duke Street but only got away with 25p.
Last week I reported that the Parent Teachers Association of St Luke's RC Primary School in Shaw Lane, Prescot, was angry that ten girls that had passed their 11-plus exam could not find a place at grammar school. Instead they were being sent to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive. A Parents' Action Committee had been set up and a delegation had planned a trip to London to protest to Margaret Thatcher, the then Secretary of State for Education.
However the committee chairman, Terence Bretherton from Whiston, told the Echo on the 20th that Mrs Thatcher's department had rung to say she was too busy to meet them. However Harold Wilson was definitely available. Currently the leader of the Opposition, the MP for Huyton (which included Prescot and Eccleston) would shortly be holding what Mr Bretherton called a "special meeting" with his committee. "As part of our campaign, we have also sent a telegram to Cardinal Heenan, asking if he can help," added Mr Bretherton.
On the 21st a 71-year-old woman who lost her two children in a Nazi concentration camp and had lived in St Helens was honoured by Germany. At the outbreak of the war Ilse Joseph was living in Holland and two months before the Nazis invaded, fled with her second husband to Britain. Her two children were then in the care of a Jewish orphanage and were set to follow them – but never arrived here. Since coming to Britain, Mrs Joseph – a violinist – lived firstly at St Helens and then moved to the Wirral. For making annual visits to Germany to make violin recitals, the German Consul in Liverpool awarded Mrs Joseph the Officers' Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The award was made in recognition of her efforts to reconcile and create friendly relations between Jews and Germans by offering free violin recitals. Mrs. Joseph said: "Every year I return to Germany to give concerts in the hope that I can help people to forget the past. But I believe there is a new spirit in Germany now – they know that hate only creates wars."
Pilkingtons released its annual report on the 21st in which chairman Lord Pilkington told shareholders of the glass giant's modernisation and expansion plans. The firm intended to spend £20 million a year (about £300m in today's money) on factories and plants throughout the world. He said last year's prolonged strike had cost more than just the £5 million lost in profits.
"The indirect cost is higher, because some of the motor manufacturers, though not all, have shown a desire to search elsewhere for part of their supplies, and have shown readiness even to pay something extra in order to render themselves secure." Lord Pilkington said that although the group had cut back on staff in the past year, it had to expect more reductions in the future. The meeting of Pilkington shareholders to discuss the annual report would be held in the Theatre Royal.
The Echo reported on the 21st that a couple who had left St Helens twenty years earlier were making a holiday visit to the town. Sam Fenney and his wife Elinor used to have a bakery business in Hall Street but had moved to Tasmania. Harry Wilkinson had also flown in from Australia to see his 86-year-old mother, Hannah, who he had not seen for 44 years. Harry had left home when he was 16 and was staying at his mum's house in Chamberlain Street.
The latest unemployment figures were released on the 22nd and showed a big jump in the jobless rate in St Helens from 3.6% during last month to 4.4%. Nationally the figure was 3.4%.
The third St Helens Show began its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd. It then cost only 15p to park your car. The arena shows scheduled included displays by the Red Devils, Royal Marines Motor Cycles, R.A.F. Police Dogs, Army Combat Displays and a Fleet Air Arm Exhibition. Other novel attractions were a coal carrying race and all-in wrestling.
It was reported on the 22nd that the newly opened Knowsley Safari Park had been going so well that Lord Derby – in association with former circus owner Jimmy Chipperfield – planned to open a similar safari park in 275 acres of parkland on the Shropshire-Worcester border.
"Bovver Boys Do Battle" was the headline to the lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd. The article began: "Bloodstained bovver boys fought a pitched battle for revenge in a three-gang clash outside a village club. More than 100 teenagers rode in scooter convoys to the battleground on a car park. They swung clubs, hatchets and knives during a violent riot on the forecourt of the British Legion Club at Billinge on Wednesday night. Teenage youths and girls from St. Helens and Kirkby were the first to clash. Later local youngsters dancing at the Legion's weekly discotheque pitched in. Horrified villagers watched as the gang warfare erupted into bloodshed."
12-year-old Anne Cunliffe from Main Street told the Reporter that over 100 youths had been involved in what the paper dubbed the "battle of Billinge". She said she had seen one boy staggering away with his face and chest covered in blood. "All the local kids knew that the fight was planned", added Anne. "We were out on the pavement watching it. About 60 scooters turned up. most of them with two riders. The local boys were expecting them." Another villager, Graham Whalley, 22, said: "A lot of them were using heavy clubs in the fight. It was a frightening sight. None of us could do anything to stop it." The fight had been in revenge for a similar battle in Southport some weeks earlier.
This week barman George Ellis from Whittle Street revealed that he had quit the pub because another customer had been asked to leave. "I would be the first to kick yobs out if they were causing trouble", said George. "But these days most young men with long hair are impeccably dressed, well-educated and very well-mannered. I just don't agree with this prejudice." On this occasion it had been Mrs Pridham who had issued the marching orders and she told the Reporter: "We serve the type of people we want. Young men with long hair are not barred from the pub, only from the lounge."
The Reporter also revealed more details of Ernie Buckley's police raid from the previous week. Under the headline "Police Swoop On Sex Books", the paper explained that the Duke Street newsagent had been forced to close for three hours while the police searched his premises. As well as so-called "girly" magazines, controversial novels – such as 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' by Hubert Selby Jnr and Henry Miller's 'Sexus' – had also been seized. The business had been in Mr Buckley's family for 19 years and this had been their first police raid.
John Burke of Kitchener Street was appealing for the return of his valuable Italian greyhound in the Echo on the 23rd. Three weeks ago, while bringing Beringhill Dancing Boy, aka Buster, from a breeder in Weybridge to its new home in St Helens, Mr Burke had let the dog out of its box at Bootle for some fresh air. That was a big mistake as the dog bolted and being a greyhound knew how to run and hadn't been seen since!
On the same day Ena Hampton of Fleet Lane in Parr was awarded £7,182 damages in Liverpool Assizes after an accident between a scooter – on which she had been a pillion passenger – and a car. During the four years since the collision, the now 21-year-old had bravely undergone nine major operations to her left leg. However it had not all been doom and gloom, as while in Whiston Hospital, Ena had met Ronald Hampton who had fractured a cheek playing amateur Rugby League. The couple fell in love and had since married.
On the 24th the Guardian wrote that therapists at Rainhill Hospital had "almost cured" a patient who had been mute for the past 30 years. The unnamed woman had been admitted in 1941 with schizophrenia and until this year had not spoken a single word. Now after two months of treatment she can hold a conversation "undistinguishable from that of any other woman of similar age and social background."
Michael Cliffe, one of the psychologists who treated her, told the Guardian: "Her only difficulty was coping with traffic after her 30 years' silence. We learned that, although she was mute, she had been keeping up with current affairs by watching television." Sixteen mute or almost mute patients were now being treated at Rainhill – however results with the new technique had not all been good. The same page of the Guardian reported that the 600 foremen employed at the various Pilkington glass works were to receive a pay rise of £5 per week.
Next week's stories will include the Duke Street newsagent who bought a new car with cigarette coupons, the browned off St Helens Show organisers contact a gypsy weather prophet, the Robins Lane attendance watches and an update on Knowsley Safari Park.
This week's many stories include the 100-strong scooter gangs that took part in the battle of Billinge, a woman silent in Rainhill Hospital for 30 years who could now talk, the wet St Helens Show in Sherdley Park, Harold Wilson gets involved in the Prescot grammar school row and a woman who lost her children in a Nazi concentration camp is honoured.
We begin with a burglary over the weekend when a house in Meadow Lane in Parr was entered and cash and a £28 wristwatch stolen.
There had been a big increase in such incidents over the past year and so on the 19th St Helens Police announced a 10-point plan to combat burglaries.
Chief Superintendent Jack Watson said: "Houses are becoming a special target for criminals, especially during the day, when husbands and wives are at work and the children are at school.
"Last year, housebreaking offences increased, and a high percentage of these crimes were committed because doors and windows were left open."
Detective Sergeant Harry Maughan, the Divisional Crime Prevention Officer, added: "On numerous occasions I have had the unenviable task of visiting houses which have been broken into. The disorder which some criminals can, and have, caused havoc with the person's health."
The 10 ways to beat the thieves were essentially good common security sense that I expect most people these days follow but probably didn't do quite so much 50 years ago.
So householders in St Helens were advised to keep their ground-floor windows closed at night or when the house was unoccupied, not to leave keys under mats or in other places outside, fit good mortice locks and leave a light on when out of the house.
"Be a good neighbour and keep an eye on the house next door when the occupants are away. They will do the same for you," said the advice.
However it wasn't just homes that were being burgled. On the same day that the advice was issued, there was a series of petty thefts from shops in St Helens.
Hurst's Shoes in Jackson Street had six wage packets stolen and some keys; a florist's shop in Clock Face Road lost £14 and a book of trading stamps and a shop in Lugsmore Lane had £3 stolen.
Thieves also broke into Houghton's millinery shop in Duke Street but only got away with 25p.
Last week I reported that the Parent Teachers Association of St Luke's RC Primary School in Shaw Lane, Prescot, was angry that ten girls that had passed their 11-plus exam could not find a place at grammar school.
Instead they were being sent to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive.
A Parents' Action Committee had been set up and a delegation had planned a trip to London to protest to Margaret Thatcher, the then Secretary of State for Education.
However the committee chairman, Terence Bretherton from Whiston, told the Echo on the 20th that Mrs Thatcher's department had rung to say she was too busy to meet them.
However Harold Wilson was definitely available. Currently the leader of the Opposition, the MP for Huyton (which included Prescot and Eccleston) would shortly be holding what Mr Bretherton called a "special meeting" with his committee.
"As part of our campaign, we have also sent a telegram to Cardinal Heenan, asking if he can help," added Mr Bretherton.
On the 21st a 71-year-old woman who lost her two children in a Nazi concentration camp and had lived in St Helens was honoured by Germany.
At the outbreak of the war Ilse Joseph was living in Holland and two months before the Nazis invaded, fled with her second husband to Britain.
Her two children were then in the care of a Jewish orphanage and were set to follow them – but never arrived here.
Since coming to Britain, Mrs Joseph – a violinist – lived firstly at St Helens and then moved to the Wirral.
For making annual visits to Germany to make violin recitals, the German Consul in Liverpool awarded Mrs Joseph the Officers' Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The award was made in recognition of her efforts to reconcile and create friendly relations between Jews and Germans by offering free violin recitals.
Mrs. Joseph said: "Every year I return to Germany to give concerts in the hope that I can help people to forget the past. But I believe there is a new spirit in Germany now – they know that hate only creates wars."
Pilkingtons released its annual report on the 21st in which chairman Lord Pilkington told shareholders of the glass giant's modernisation and expansion plans.
The firm intended to spend £20 million a year (about £300m in today's money) on factories and plants throughout the world.
He said last year's prolonged strike had cost more than just the £5 million lost in profits.
"The indirect cost is higher, because some of the motor manufacturers, though not all, have shown a desire to search elsewhere for part of their supplies, and have shown readiness even to pay something extra in order to render themselves secure."
Lord Pilkington said that although the group had cut back on staff in the past year, it had to expect more reductions in the future.
The meeting of Pilkington shareholders to discuss the annual report would be held in the Theatre Royal.
The Echo reported on the 21st that a couple who had left St Helens twenty years earlier were making a holiday visit to the town.
Sam Fenney and his wife Elinor used to have a bakery business in Hall Street but had moved to Tasmania.
Harry Wilkinson had also flown in from Australia to see his 86-year-old mother, Hannah, who he had not seen for 44 years.
Harry had left home when he was 16 and was staying at his mum's house in Chamberlain Street.
The latest unemployment figures were released on the 22nd and showed a big jump in the jobless rate in St Helens from 3.6% during last month to 4.4%. Nationally the figure was 3.4%.
The third St Helens Show began its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd. It then cost only 15p to park your car.
The arena shows scheduled included displays by the Red Devils, Royal Marines Motor Cycles, R.A.F. Police Dogs, Army Combat Displays and a Fleet Air Arm Exhibition.
Other novel attractions were a coal carrying race and all-in wrestling.
However it rained on all three days and thunderstorms caused some of the outdoor events – such as the Royal Marine motorcycle display – to be cancelled.
The Red Devils skydiving team jumped as normal but a paratrooper came down off-course and a woman injured her ankle as a result.
The St Helens inter-school 'Its A Knock Out' competitions went ahead as well and both Robins Lane Secondary boys and girls' teams won both their sections. Rivington Road Boys and Cowley Girls were the runner-ups.
It was reported on the 22nd that the newly opened Knowsley Safari Park had been going so well that Lord Derby – in association with former circus owner Jimmy Chipperfield – planned to open a similar safari park in 275 acres of parkland on the Shropshire-Worcester border.
"Bovver Boys Do Battle" was the headline to the lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd. The article began:
"Bloodstained bovver boys fought a pitched battle for revenge in a three-gang clash outside a village club. More than 100 teenagers rode in scooter convoys to the battleground on a car park.
"They swung clubs, hatchets and knives during a violent riot on the forecourt of the British Legion Club at Billinge on Wednesday night.
"Teenage youths and girls from St. Helens and Kirkby were the first to clash. Later local youngsters dancing at the Legion's weekly discotheque pitched in. Horrified villagers watched as the gang warfare erupted into bloodshed."
12-year-old Anne Cunliffe from Main Street told the Reporter that over 100 youths had been involved in what the paper dubbed the "battle of Billinge". She said she had seen one boy staggering away with his face and chest covered in blood.
"All the local kids knew that the fight was planned", added Anne. "We were out on the pavement watching it. About 60 scooters turned up. most of them with two riders. The local boys were expecting them."
Another villager, Graham Whalley, 22, said: "A lot of them were using heavy clubs in the fight. It was a frightening sight. None of us could do anything to stop it."
The fight had been in revenge for a similar battle in Southport some weeks earlier.
In March 1970 the Reporter had written how student Brian Cotter had been stopped from being served in the lounge of the Black Horse Hotel in Moss Bank (pictured above) because his hair was too long.
The landlord, Arthur Pridham, told the Reporter: "This is one of my own private rulings. I don't want customers with long hair in the lounge. If they want a drink they can go into the public bar."
This week barman George Ellis from Whittle Street revealed that he had quit the pub because another customer had been asked to leave.
"I would be the first to kick yobs out if they were causing trouble", said George. "But these days most young men with long hair are impeccably dressed, well-educated and very well-mannered. I just don't agree with this prejudice."
On this occasion it had been Mrs Pridham who had issued the marching orders and she told the Reporter: "We serve the type of people we want. Young men with long hair are not barred from the pub, only from the lounge."
The Reporter also revealed more details of Ernie Buckley's police raid from the previous week.
Under the headline "Police Swoop On Sex Books", the paper explained that the Duke Street newsagent had been forced to close for three hours while the police searched his premises.
As well as so-called "girly" magazines, controversial novels – such as 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' by Hubert Selby Jnr and Henry Miller's 'Sexus' – had also been seized.
The business had been in Mr Buckley's family for 19 years and this had been their first police raid.
John Burke of Kitchener Street was appealing for the return of his valuable Italian greyhound in the Echo on the 23rd.
Three weeks ago, while bringing Beringhill Dancing Boy, aka Buster, from a breeder in Weybridge to its new home in St Helens, Mr Burke had let the dog out of its box at Bootle for some fresh air.
That was a big mistake as the dog bolted and being a greyhound knew how to run and hadn't been seen since!
On the same day Ena Hampton of Fleet Lane in Parr was awarded £7,182 damages in Liverpool Assizes after an accident between a scooter – on which she had been a pillion passenger – and a car.
During the four years since the collision, the now 21-year-old had bravely undergone nine major operations to her left leg.
However it had not all been doom and gloom, as while in Whiston Hospital, Ena had met Ronald Hampton who had fractured a cheek playing amateur Rugby League. The couple fell in love and had since married.
On the 24th the Guardian wrote that therapists at Rainhill Hospital had "almost cured" a patient who had been mute for the past 30 years.
The unnamed woman had been admitted in 1941 with schizophrenia and until this year had not spoken a single word.
Now after two months of treatment she can hold a conversation "undistinguishable from that of any other woman of similar age and social background."
Michael Cliffe, one of the psychologists who treated her, told the Guardian:
"Her only difficulty was coping with traffic after her 30 years' silence. We learned that, although she was mute, she had been keeping up with current affairs by watching television."
Sixteen mute or almost mute patients were now being treated at Rainhill – however results with the new technique had not all been good.
The same page of the Guardian reported that the 600 foremen employed at the various Pilkington glass works were to receive a pay rise of £5 per week.
Next week's stories will include the Duke Street newsagent who bought a new car with cigarette coupons, the browned off St Helens Show organisers contact a gypsy weather prophet, the Robins Lane attendance watches and an update on Knowsley Safari Park.
We begin with a burglary over the weekend when a house in Meadow Lane in Parr was entered and cash and a £28 wristwatch stolen.
There had been a big increase in such incidents over the past year and so on the 19th St Helens Police announced a 10-point plan to combat burglaries.
Chief Superintendent Jack Watson said: "Houses are becoming a special target for criminals, especially during the day, when husbands and wives are at work and the children are at school.
"Last year, housebreaking offences increased, and a high percentage of these crimes were committed because doors and windows were left open."
Detective Sergeant Harry Maughan, the Divisional Crime Prevention Officer, added: "On numerous occasions I have had the unenviable task of visiting houses which have been broken into. The disorder which some criminals can, and have, caused havoc with the person's health."
The 10 ways to beat the thieves were essentially good common security sense that I expect most people these days follow but probably didn't do quite so much 50 years ago.
So householders in St Helens were advised to keep their ground-floor windows closed at night or when the house was unoccupied, not to leave keys under mats or in other places outside, fit good mortice locks and leave a light on when out of the house.
"Be a good neighbour and keep an eye on the house next door when the occupants are away. They will do the same for you," said the advice.
However it wasn't just homes that were being burgled. On the same day that the advice was issued, there was a series of petty thefts from shops in St Helens.
Hurst's Shoes in Jackson Street had six wage packets stolen and some keys; a florist's shop in Clock Face Road lost £14 and a book of trading stamps and a shop in Lugsmore Lane had £3 stolen.
Thieves also broke into Houghton's millinery shop in Duke Street but only got away with 25p.
Last week I reported that the Parent Teachers Association of St Luke's RC Primary School in Shaw Lane, Prescot, was angry that ten girls that had passed their 11-plus exam could not find a place at grammar school.
Instead they were being sent to Rainford County High School – which was now a comprehensive.
A Parents' Action Committee had been set up and a delegation had planned a trip to London to protest to Margaret Thatcher, the then Secretary of State for Education.
However the committee chairman, Terence Bretherton from Whiston, told the Echo on the 20th that Mrs Thatcher's department had rung to say she was too busy to meet them.
However Harold Wilson was definitely available. Currently the leader of the Opposition, the MP for Huyton (which included Prescot and Eccleston) would shortly be holding what Mr Bretherton called a "special meeting" with his committee.
"As part of our campaign, we have also sent a telegram to Cardinal Heenan, asking if he can help," added Mr Bretherton.
On the 21st a 71-year-old woman who lost her two children in a Nazi concentration camp and had lived in St Helens was honoured by Germany.
At the outbreak of the war Ilse Joseph was living in Holland and two months before the Nazis invaded, fled with her second husband to Britain.
Her two children were then in the care of a Jewish orphanage and were set to follow them – but never arrived here.
Since coming to Britain, Mrs Joseph – a violinist – lived firstly at St Helens and then moved to the Wirral.
For making annual visits to Germany to make violin recitals, the German Consul in Liverpool awarded Mrs Joseph the Officers' Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The award was made in recognition of her efforts to reconcile and create friendly relations between Jews and Germans by offering free violin recitals.
Mrs. Joseph said: "Every year I return to Germany to give concerts in the hope that I can help people to forget the past. But I believe there is a new spirit in Germany now – they know that hate only creates wars."
Pilkingtons released its annual report on the 21st in which chairman Lord Pilkington told shareholders of the glass giant's modernisation and expansion plans.
The firm intended to spend £20 million a year (about £300m in today's money) on factories and plants throughout the world.
He said last year's prolonged strike had cost more than just the £5 million lost in profits.
"The indirect cost is higher, because some of the motor manufacturers, though not all, have shown a desire to search elsewhere for part of their supplies, and have shown readiness even to pay something extra in order to render themselves secure."
Lord Pilkington said that although the group had cut back on staff in the past year, it had to expect more reductions in the future.
The meeting of Pilkington shareholders to discuss the annual report would be held in the Theatre Royal.
The Echo reported on the 21st that a couple who had left St Helens twenty years earlier were making a holiday visit to the town.
Sam Fenney and his wife Elinor used to have a bakery business in Hall Street but had moved to Tasmania.
Harry Wilkinson had also flown in from Australia to see his 86-year-old mother, Hannah, who he had not seen for 44 years.
Harry had left home when he was 16 and was staying at his mum's house in Chamberlain Street.
The latest unemployment figures were released on the 22nd and showed a big jump in the jobless rate in St Helens from 3.6% during last month to 4.4%. Nationally the figure was 3.4%.
The third St Helens Show began its three-day run in Sherdley Park on the 22nd. It then cost only 15p to park your car.
The arena shows scheduled included displays by the Red Devils, Royal Marines Motor Cycles, R.A.F. Police Dogs, Army Combat Displays and a Fleet Air Arm Exhibition.
Other novel attractions were a coal carrying race and all-in wrestling.
However it rained on all three days and thunderstorms caused some of the outdoor events – such as the Royal Marine motorcycle display – to be cancelled.
The Red Devils skydiving team jumped as normal but a paratrooper came down off-course and a woman injured her ankle as a result.
It was reported on the 22nd that the newly opened Knowsley Safari Park had been going so well that Lord Derby – in association with former circus owner Jimmy Chipperfield – planned to open a similar safari park in 275 acres of parkland on the Shropshire-Worcester border.
"Bovver Boys Do Battle" was the headline to the lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd. The article began:
"Bloodstained bovver boys fought a pitched battle for revenge in a three-gang clash outside a village club. More than 100 teenagers rode in scooter convoys to the battleground on a car park.
"They swung clubs, hatchets and knives during a violent riot on the forecourt of the British Legion Club at Billinge on Wednesday night.
"Teenage youths and girls from St. Helens and Kirkby were the first to clash. Later local youngsters dancing at the Legion's weekly discotheque pitched in. Horrified villagers watched as the gang warfare erupted into bloodshed."
12-year-old Anne Cunliffe from Main Street told the Reporter that over 100 youths had been involved in what the paper dubbed the "battle of Billinge". She said she had seen one boy staggering away with his face and chest covered in blood.
"All the local kids knew that the fight was planned", added Anne. "We were out on the pavement watching it. About 60 scooters turned up. most of them with two riders. The local boys were expecting them."
Another villager, Graham Whalley, 22, said: "A lot of them were using heavy clubs in the fight. It was a frightening sight. None of us could do anything to stop it."
The fight had been in revenge for a similar battle in Southport some weeks earlier.
The landlord, Arthur Pridham, told the Reporter: "This is one of my own private rulings. I don't want customers with long hair in the lounge. If they want a drink they can go into the public bar."
This week barman George Ellis from Whittle Street revealed that he had quit the pub because another customer had been asked to leave.
"I would be the first to kick yobs out if they were causing trouble", said George. "But these days most young men with long hair are impeccably dressed, well-educated and very well-mannered. I just don't agree with this prejudice."
On this occasion it had been Mrs Pridham who had issued the marching orders and she told the Reporter: "We serve the type of people we want. Young men with long hair are not barred from the pub, only from the lounge."
The Reporter also revealed more details of Ernie Buckley's police raid from the previous week.
Under the headline "Police Swoop On Sex Books", the paper explained that the Duke Street newsagent had been forced to close for three hours while the police searched his premises.
As well as so-called "girly" magazines, controversial novels – such as 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' by Hubert Selby Jnr and Henry Miller's 'Sexus' – had also been seized.
The business had been in Mr Buckley's family for 19 years and this had been their first police raid.
John Burke of Kitchener Street was appealing for the return of his valuable Italian greyhound in the Echo on the 23rd.
Three weeks ago, while bringing Beringhill Dancing Boy, aka Buster, from a breeder in Weybridge to its new home in St Helens, Mr Burke had let the dog out of its box at Bootle for some fresh air.
That was a big mistake as the dog bolted and being a greyhound knew how to run and hadn't been seen since!
On the same day Ena Hampton of Fleet Lane in Parr was awarded £7,182 damages in Liverpool Assizes after an accident between a scooter – on which she had been a pillion passenger – and a car.
During the four years since the collision, the now 21-year-old had bravely undergone nine major operations to her left leg.
However it had not all been doom and gloom, as while in Whiston Hospital, Ena had met Ronald Hampton who had fractured a cheek playing amateur Rugby League. The couple fell in love and had since married.
On the 24th the Guardian wrote that therapists at Rainhill Hospital had "almost cured" a patient who had been mute for the past 30 years.
The unnamed woman had been admitted in 1941 with schizophrenia and until this year had not spoken a single word.
Now after two months of treatment she can hold a conversation "undistinguishable from that of any other woman of similar age and social background."
Michael Cliffe, one of the psychologists who treated her, told the Guardian:
"Her only difficulty was coping with traffic after her 30 years' silence. We learned that, although she was mute, she had been keeping up with current affairs by watching television."
Sixteen mute or almost mute patients were now being treated at Rainhill – however results with the new technique had not all been good.
The same page of the Guardian reported that the 600 foremen employed at the various Pilkington glass works were to receive a pay rise of £5 per week.
Next week's stories will include the Duke Street newsagent who bought a new car with cigarette coupons, the browned off St Helens Show organisers contact a gypsy weather prophet, the Robins Lane attendance watches and an update on Knowsley Safari Park.