FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (19th - 25th OCTOBER 1970)
This week's stories include a sit-down strike at the Town Hall, complaints of jerry building on the new Sutton Manor estates, the Moss Bank girl who ate cream buns to get into the army, a discussion on whether dolly bird wives live longer and why Rainhill Hospital was searching for kind-hearted landladies.
A few months earlier Pat Phoenix had performed in a play at the Theatre Royal. This week it was the turn of Elsie Tanner's "oppo" in 'Coronation Street', Len Fairclough, to tread the boards in St Helens. Peter Adamson starred in a thriller called 'Someone Waiting', which also featured Alan Rothwell, who had appeared in the soap as David Barlow. Meanwhile at the Capitol cinema 'Midnight Cowboy' starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight was screened, with 'Gone With The Wind' continuing its run at the ABC Savoy.
At St Helens Council's Housing Committee meeting on the 19th there were complaints of "jerry building" and bad design of new housing estates in Sutton Manor. These had been made by the residents of newly-built council homes in Jubits Lane and Four Acre Lane. Councillor Harry Williams began the debate by criticising four Jubits Lane houses that he said had loose coping stones on the roof which could fall at any time.
That led to Cllr. Peggy McNamara referring to conditions on the new Four Acre Lane estate: "It is absolutely scandalous. When you close the door in one house, the kitchen wall shakes. In the same house, all the plugs in the wall are loose." Miss McNamara added that she knew of a woman afraid to use the electrical appliances because water ran from the bathroom through the living room light fitting. Alderman Margaret Shard said that many complaints had also been received about the state of homes in the Berry's Lane area.
The council architect explained that many of these problems were being resolved and implied that new homes were being handed over to tenants before inspections had been completed. Derek Billam added that mistakes in construction occurred because the price of houses was being pared down to the absolute minimum.
The newspapers in the Midlands had been very interested in the Pilkington strike earlier in the year, due to the knock-on effects on car production. On the 19th the Coventry Evening Telegraph described a report that had been published in "Industrial Management" magazine:
"The Government's proposed anti-strike legislation would have done nothing to help prevent, or solve, the seven-week strike at the Pilkington glass works. The dispute cost the company £5 million. Instead, it would probably have only made things worse. It was giving the verdict of a team of Liverpool University social scientists who, at St. Helens during the dispute, interviewed the three parties to the dispute: the company, the union and the breakaway members.
"Applying the analysis of what they had found to the various strike combating measures being put forward, particularly those of the present Government, the two-man team say that such legislation, had it been in force then, might have aggravated rather than prevented the strike. Their findings are that strikes should be regarded as a “normal” part of everyday industrial life and that they should be thought of in the same vein as a row between husband and wife."
On the 22nd the Daily Mirror published this article about a Moss Bank girl's unusual diet in order to be accepted into the Women's Royal Army Corps: "Teenager Valerie Hutton was turned down by the Army. They said she was too skinny. So she went on a diet – of cream buns. She ate six every day for six weeks. Her weight climbed steadily from 7½ stone to 8½ stone.
"Yesterday, 252 buns fatter, 18-year-old Valerie, of Dalehead-place, St. Helens, Lancs, was signed on by the WRAC. She said: “I'm glad I made the weight but I won't be able to look a cream bun in the face again for ages.” Valerie, 5ft. 6in. tall, added: “I find it very difficult to put on weight, and I badly wanted to get into the Army. I ate lots of other things, but I'm sure it was the buns that did the trick.” Valerie, who is working as a warehouse assistant, has been told to report for training in a few weeks' time."
Also on the 22nd, two hundred Corporation staff held a three-hour sit-in at the Town Hall in support of their 55 shillings a week pay claim, in what was being called the "dirty jobs" dispute. Well, the intention was for it to be a sit-in but one Town Hall official told the Liverpool Echo: "There were not enough chairs, so they had a “stand-in.”"
The St Helens Reporter described the scene: "For three hours, secretaries and local government officials jostled their way past an army of legs as the roadworkers, dustmen and gardeners held their ground." The sit-in / stand-in was called off after the council promised the union leaders more talks.
Silcock's annual pleasure fair in Thatto Heath began in Elephant Lane on the 22nd and would continue until the 30th – although it closed on Sundays.
The Reporter was published on the 23rd and put out this appeal for accommodation for Rainhill Hospital patients who were now well enough to return to the community: "Kind-hearted landladies are wanted by a mental hospital – to give cured patients a fresh start in life. Two hundred and fifty patients at Rainhill Hospital are well enough to live outside, it was revealed this week. But no one is willing to give them a home. Relatives refuse to take them in and local authority homes are overcrowded. Now hospital officials have made an urgent plea to local landladies to take in the new lodgers – as paying guests."
None of the patients were described as dangerous or violent with some having spent as long as thirty years in the institution. Each patient unnecessarily living in the hospital was costing the taxpayer £13 per week and occupying beds required by those needing treatment. "It is a very distressing state of affairs", said John Wilson, group secretary of the Rainhill Management Committee. These patients are completely cured and it is a myth to say that psychiatric cases are never really cured. They are men and women who at some stage in their lives became depressed and unable to cope with things. We feel that if landladies would take them in they could start new lives."
Another article in the Reporter bore the headline: "Dolly Birds Live Longer Says Boffin" – which gave the paper an excuse to conduct another mini-survey among the St Helens public. A German medical expert had concluded that wives who made themselves look pretty lived longer than "frumps" who did not. Professor Fromm also felt that husbands should encourage their wives to spend both time and money enhancing their appearance, as a woman unhappy with how she looked could suffer nervous complexes and serious ill-health.
"Yes. He's right", said Beryl Foreman of Arnside Road in Haydock. "I know from my own experience when I've felt a bit down in the dumps, I've put my make-up on – false eyelashes, the lot – and I've felt a new person. I know it's just one of the facts of life, but a pity nevertheless, that many women once they start to raise a family, just let themselves go. They can look awful and they probably feel awful as well."
June Morrison of Longridge Avenue in Blackbrook was spotted in a department store buying some nail varnish and said she agreed with the professor: "A new make-up and hair-do can give a woman a new lease of life. It can make her feel – and look – years younger." Tom Welsby from Alfred Street was in favour of ladies keeping up appearances: "I think women should make the best of themselves, and who knows it could make them live longer if it makes them feel younger." Mr Welsby added that he had no problem with women spending money on lipstick, foundation cream and false eyelashes, "as long as she doesn’t spend all her housekeeping money on it."
Four St. Cuthbert's schoolboys were pictured in the Reporter with the shield that had been presented to them after winning a photographic contest. Gerard Davey from Moss Lane, Philip Mather of Douglas Avenue, David Turley of Alice Street and Stephen Mulcahy from Derbyshire Hill Road had won St Helens Photographic Society's first ever competition for local schools. The 15 and 16-year-olds had impressed the judges after photographing a day's activities at the Berry's Lane school.
The Reporter also revealed that Keith Orrell was leaving the oldest newsagents in St Helens to help run a menswear shop with his wife. Mr Orrell's grandfather, Ted Cawley, had founded the business in Fingerpost in 1895 and after WW1 his father Peter Orrell had taken it over.
The era of cheap foreign holidays was now underway with Clarksons offering four-day winter breaks to Majorca from £18 – including flights, hotel, meals and excursions. However the use of the phrase "terms and conditions apply" was not yet required in adverts and so I think there were a few extras bolted on and a number of conditions – such as having to fly from Luton Airport. However it was still a good deal for the time, although £18 is equivalent to about £300 in today's money.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror published a photo and an accompanying article describing a young St Helens couple who'd chosen the deal for their honeymoon: "More than 120 people left Britain yesterday for the first of the new £18 holidays in Majorca. And among them were a honeymoon couple from St. Helens, Lancs, who arranged their wedding to fit in with the flight.
"The honeymooners, 25-year-old Arthur Griffiths and his bride Pearl, 21, got married on Thursday. “We intended marrying on a Saturday,” said Mrs. Griffiths. “But when we saw the £18 holiday flight was on a Friday, we changed the date.” Licences for the flights from Luton Airport – on Mondays and Fridays – were granted five days ago."
Next week's stories will include a big fire at a Rainhill supermarket caused (probably) by fireworks, a claim that sacked Pilkington workers had been blacklisted and the first female rugby league team in St Helens is formed as well as two new Sutton youth clubs.
A few months earlier Pat Phoenix had performed in a play at the Theatre Royal. This week it was the turn of Elsie Tanner's "oppo" in 'Coronation Street', Len Fairclough, to tread the boards in St Helens. Peter Adamson starred in a thriller called 'Someone Waiting', which also featured Alan Rothwell, who had appeared in the soap as David Barlow. Meanwhile at the Capitol cinema 'Midnight Cowboy' starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight was screened, with 'Gone With The Wind' continuing its run at the ABC Savoy.
At St Helens Council's Housing Committee meeting on the 19th there were complaints of "jerry building" and bad design of new housing estates in Sutton Manor. These had been made by the residents of newly-built council homes in Jubits Lane and Four Acre Lane. Councillor Harry Williams began the debate by criticising four Jubits Lane houses that he said had loose coping stones on the roof which could fall at any time.
That led to Cllr. Peggy McNamara referring to conditions on the new Four Acre Lane estate: "It is absolutely scandalous. When you close the door in one house, the kitchen wall shakes. In the same house, all the plugs in the wall are loose." Miss McNamara added that she knew of a woman afraid to use the electrical appliances because water ran from the bathroom through the living room light fitting. Alderman Margaret Shard said that many complaints had also been received about the state of homes in the Berry's Lane area.
The council architect explained that many of these problems were being resolved and implied that new homes were being handed over to tenants before inspections had been completed. Derek Billam added that mistakes in construction occurred because the price of houses was being pared down to the absolute minimum.
The newspapers in the Midlands had been very interested in the Pilkington strike earlier in the year, due to the knock-on effects on car production. On the 19th the Coventry Evening Telegraph described a report that had been published in "Industrial Management" magazine:
"The Government's proposed anti-strike legislation would have done nothing to help prevent, or solve, the seven-week strike at the Pilkington glass works. The dispute cost the company £5 million. Instead, it would probably have only made things worse. It was giving the verdict of a team of Liverpool University social scientists who, at St. Helens during the dispute, interviewed the three parties to the dispute: the company, the union and the breakaway members.
"Applying the analysis of what they had found to the various strike combating measures being put forward, particularly those of the present Government, the two-man team say that such legislation, had it been in force then, might have aggravated rather than prevented the strike. Their findings are that strikes should be regarded as a “normal” part of everyday industrial life and that they should be thought of in the same vein as a row between husband and wife."
On the 22nd the Daily Mirror published this article about a Moss Bank girl's unusual diet in order to be accepted into the Women's Royal Army Corps: "Teenager Valerie Hutton was turned down by the Army. They said she was too skinny. So she went on a diet – of cream buns. She ate six every day for six weeks. Her weight climbed steadily from 7½ stone to 8½ stone.
"Yesterday, 252 buns fatter, 18-year-old Valerie, of Dalehead-place, St. Helens, Lancs, was signed on by the WRAC. She said: “I'm glad I made the weight but I won't be able to look a cream bun in the face again for ages.” Valerie, 5ft. 6in. tall, added: “I find it very difficult to put on weight, and I badly wanted to get into the Army. I ate lots of other things, but I'm sure it was the buns that did the trick.” Valerie, who is working as a warehouse assistant, has been told to report for training in a few weeks' time."
The St Helens Reporter described the scene: "For three hours, secretaries and local government officials jostled their way past an army of legs as the roadworkers, dustmen and gardeners held their ground." The sit-in / stand-in was called off after the council promised the union leaders more talks.
Silcock's annual pleasure fair in Thatto Heath began in Elephant Lane on the 22nd and would continue until the 30th – although it closed on Sundays.
The Reporter was published on the 23rd and put out this appeal for accommodation for Rainhill Hospital patients who were now well enough to return to the community: "Kind-hearted landladies are wanted by a mental hospital – to give cured patients a fresh start in life. Two hundred and fifty patients at Rainhill Hospital are well enough to live outside, it was revealed this week. But no one is willing to give them a home. Relatives refuse to take them in and local authority homes are overcrowded. Now hospital officials have made an urgent plea to local landladies to take in the new lodgers – as paying guests."
None of the patients were described as dangerous or violent with some having spent as long as thirty years in the institution. Each patient unnecessarily living in the hospital was costing the taxpayer £13 per week and occupying beds required by those needing treatment. "It is a very distressing state of affairs", said John Wilson, group secretary of the Rainhill Management Committee. These patients are completely cured and it is a myth to say that psychiatric cases are never really cured. They are men and women who at some stage in their lives became depressed and unable to cope with things. We feel that if landladies would take them in they could start new lives."
Another article in the Reporter bore the headline: "Dolly Birds Live Longer Says Boffin" – which gave the paper an excuse to conduct another mini-survey among the St Helens public. A German medical expert had concluded that wives who made themselves look pretty lived longer than "frumps" who did not. Professor Fromm also felt that husbands should encourage their wives to spend both time and money enhancing their appearance, as a woman unhappy with how she looked could suffer nervous complexes and serious ill-health.
"Yes. He's right", said Beryl Foreman of Arnside Road in Haydock. "I know from my own experience when I've felt a bit down in the dumps, I've put my make-up on – false eyelashes, the lot – and I've felt a new person. I know it's just one of the facts of life, but a pity nevertheless, that many women once they start to raise a family, just let themselves go. They can look awful and they probably feel awful as well."
June Morrison of Longridge Avenue in Blackbrook was spotted in a department store buying some nail varnish and said she agreed with the professor: "A new make-up and hair-do can give a woman a new lease of life. It can make her feel – and look – years younger." Tom Welsby from Alfred Street was in favour of ladies keeping up appearances: "I think women should make the best of themselves, and who knows it could make them live longer if it makes them feel younger." Mr Welsby added that he had no problem with women spending money on lipstick, foundation cream and false eyelashes, "as long as she doesn’t spend all her housekeeping money on it."
Four St. Cuthbert's schoolboys were pictured in the Reporter with the shield that had been presented to them after winning a photographic contest. Gerard Davey from Moss Lane, Philip Mather of Douglas Avenue, David Turley of Alice Street and Stephen Mulcahy from Derbyshire Hill Road had won St Helens Photographic Society's first ever competition for local schools. The 15 and 16-year-olds had impressed the judges after photographing a day's activities at the Berry's Lane school.
The Reporter also revealed that Keith Orrell was leaving the oldest newsagents in St Helens to help run a menswear shop with his wife. Mr Orrell's grandfather, Ted Cawley, had founded the business in Fingerpost in 1895 and after WW1 his father Peter Orrell had taken it over.
The era of cheap foreign holidays was now underway with Clarksons offering four-day winter breaks to Majorca from £18 – including flights, hotel, meals and excursions. However the use of the phrase "terms and conditions apply" was not yet required in adverts and so I think there were a few extras bolted on and a number of conditions – such as having to fly from Luton Airport. However it was still a good deal for the time, although £18 is equivalent to about £300 in today's money.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror published a photo and an accompanying article describing a young St Helens couple who'd chosen the deal for their honeymoon: "More than 120 people left Britain yesterday for the first of the new £18 holidays in Majorca. And among them were a honeymoon couple from St. Helens, Lancs, who arranged their wedding to fit in with the flight.
"The honeymooners, 25-year-old Arthur Griffiths and his bride Pearl, 21, got married on Thursday. “We intended marrying on a Saturday,” said Mrs. Griffiths. “But when we saw the £18 holiday flight was on a Friday, we changed the date.” Licences for the flights from Luton Airport – on Mondays and Fridays – were granted five days ago."
Next week's stories will include a big fire at a Rainhill supermarket caused (probably) by fireworks, a claim that sacked Pilkington workers had been blacklisted and the first female rugby league team in St Helens is formed as well as two new Sutton youth clubs.
This week's stories include a sit-down strike at the Town Hall, complaints of jerry building on the new Sutton Manor estates, the Moss Bank girl who ate cream buns to get into the army, a discussion on whether dolly bird wives live longer and why Rainhill Hospital was searching for kind-hearted landladies.
A few months earlier Pat Phoenix had performed in a play at the Theatre Royal.
This week it was the turn of Elsie Tanner's "oppo" in 'Coronation Street', Len Fairclough, to tread the boards in St Helens.
Peter Adamson starred in a thriller called 'Someone Waiting', which also featured Alan Rothwell, who had appeared in the soap as David Barlow.
Meanwhile at the Capitol cinema 'Midnight Cowboy' starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight was screened, with 'Gone With The Wind' continuing its run at the ABC Savoy.
At St Helens Council's Housing Committee meeting on the 19th there were complaints of "jerry building" and bad design of new housing estates in Sutton Manor.
These had been made by the residents of newly-built council homes in Jubits Lane and Four Acre Lane.
Councillor Harry Williams began the debate by criticising four Jubits Lane houses that he said had loose coping stones on the roof which could fall at any time.
That led to Cllr. Peggy McNamara referring to conditions on the new Four Acre Lane estate:
"It is absolutely scandalous. When you close the door in one house, the kitchen wall shakes. In the same house, all the plugs in the wall are loose."
Miss McNamara added that she knew of a woman afraid to use the electrical appliances because water ran from the bathroom through the living room light fitting.
Alderman Margaret Shard said that many complaints had also been received about the state of homes in the Berry's Lane area.
The council architect explained that many of these problems were being resolved and implied that new homes were being handed over to tenants before inspections had been completed.
Derek Billam added that mistakes in construction occurred because the price of houses was being pared down to the absolute minimum.
The newspapers in the Midlands had been very interested in the Pilkington strike earlier in the year, due to the knock-on effects on car production.
On the 19th the Coventry Evening Telegraph described a report that had been published in "Industrial Management" magazine:
"The Government's proposed anti-strike legislation would have done nothing to help prevent, or solve, the seven-week strike at the Pilkington glass works. The dispute cost the company £5 million. Instead, it would probably have only made things worse.
"It was giving the verdict of a team of Liverpool University social scientists who, at St. Helens during the dispute, interviewed the three parties to the dispute: the company, the union and the breakaway members.
"Applying the analysis of what they had found to the various strike combating measures being put forward, particularly those of the present Government, the two-man team say that such legislation, had it been in force then, might have aggravated rather than prevented the strike.
"Their findings are that strikes should be regarded as a “normal” part of everyday industrial life and that they should be thought of in the same vein as a row between husband and wife."
On the 22nd the Daily Mirror published this article about a Moss Bank girl's unusual diet in order to be accepted into the Women's Royal Army Corps:
"Teenager Valerie Hutton was turned down by the Army. They said she was too skinny. So she went on a diet – of cream buns. She ate six every day for six weeks. Her weight climbed steadily from 7½ stone to 8½ stone.
"Yesterday, 252 buns fatter, 18-year-old Valerie, of Dalehead-place, St. Helens, Lancs, was signed on by the WRAC. She said: “I'm glad I made the weight but I won't be able to look a cream bun in the face again for ages.”
"Valerie, 5ft. 6in. tall, added: “I find it very difficult to put on weight, and I badly wanted to get into the Army. I ate lots of other things, but I'm sure it was the buns that did the trick.” Valerie, who is working as a warehouse assistant, has been told to report for training in a few weeks' time."
Also on the 22nd, two hundred Corporation staff held a three-hour sit-in at the Town Hall in support of their 55 shillings a week pay claim, in what was being called the "dirty jobs" dispute.
Well, the intention was for it to be a sit-in but one Town Hall official told the Liverpool Echo: "There were not enough chairs, so they had a “stand-in.”"
The St Helens Reporter described the scene: "For three hours, secretaries and local government officials jostled their way past an army of legs as the roadworkers, dustmen and gardeners held their ground."
The sit-in / stand-in was called off after the council promised the union leaders more talks.
Silcock's annual pleasure fair in Thatto Heath began in Elephant Lane on the 22nd and would continue until the 30th – although it closed on Sundays.
The Reporter was published on the 23rd and put out this appeal for accommodation for Rainhill Hospital patients who were now well enough to return to the community:
"Kind-hearted landladies are wanted by a mental hospital – to give cured patients a fresh start in life. Two hundred and fifty patients at Rainhill Hospital are well enough to live outside, it was revealed this week.
"But no one is willing to give them a home. Relatives refuse to take them in and local authority homes are overcrowded. Now hospital officials have made an urgent plea to local landladies to take in the new lodgers – as paying guests."
None of the patients were described as dangerous or violent with some having spent as long as thirty years in the institution.
Each patient unnecessarily living in the hospital was costing the taxpayer £13 per week and occupying beds required by those needing treatment.
"It is a very distressing state of affairs", said John Wilson, group secretary of the Rainhill Management Committee.
These patients are completely cured and it is a myth to say that psychiatric cases are never really cured.
They are men and women who at some stage in their lives became depressed and unable to cope with things.
We feel that if landladies would take them in they could start new lives."
Another article in the Reporter bore the headline: "Dolly Birds Live Longer Says Boffin" – which gave the paper an excuse to conduct another mini-survey among the St Helens public.
A German medical expert had concluded that wives who made themselves look pretty lived longer than "frumps" who did not.
Professor Fromm also felt that husbands should encourage their wives to spend both time and money enhancing their appearance, as a woman unhappy with how she looked could suffer nervous complexes and serious ill-health.
"Yes. He's right", said Beryl Foreman of Arnside Road in Haydock. "I know from my own experience when I've felt a bit down in the dumps, I've put my make-up on – false eyelashes, the lot – and I've felt a new person.
"I know it's just one of the facts of life, but a pity nevertheless, that many women once they start to raise a family, just let themselves go. They can look awful and they probably feel awful as well."
June Morrison of Longridge Avenue in Blackbrook was spotted in a department store buying some nail varnish and said she agreed with the professor:
"A new make-up and hair-do can give a woman a new lease of life. It can make her feel – and look – years younger."
Tom Welsby from Alfred Street was in favour of ladies keeping up appearances: "I think women should make the best of themselves, and who knows it could make them live longer if it makes them feel younger."
Mr Welsby added that he had no problem with women spending money on lipstick, foundation cream and false eyelashes, "as long as she doesn’t spend all her housekeeping money on it."
Four St. Cuthbert's schoolboys were pictured in the Reporter with the shield that had been presented to them after winning a photographic contest.
Gerard Davey from Moss Lane, Philip Mather of Douglas Avenue, David Turley of Alice Street and Stephen Mulcahy from Derbyshire Hill Road had won St Helens Photographic Society's first ever competition for local schools.
The 15 and 16-year-olds had impressed the judges after photographing a day's activities at the Berry's Lane school.
The Reporter also revealed that Keith Orrell was leaving the oldest newsagents in St Helens to help run a menswear shop with his wife.
Mr Orrell's grandfather, Ted Cawley, had founded the business in Fingerpost in 1895 and after WW1 his father Peter Orrell had taken it over.
The era of cheap foreign holidays was now underway with Clarksons offering four-day winter breaks to Majorca from £18 – including flights, hotel, meals and excursions.
However the use of the phrase "terms and conditions apply" was not yet required in adverts and so I think there were a few extras bolted on and a number of conditions – such as having to fly from Luton Airport.
However it was still a good deal for the time, although £18 is equivalent to about £300 in today's money.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror published a photo and an accompanying article describing a young St Helens couple who'd chosen the deal for their honeymoon:
"More than 120 people left Britain yesterday for the first of the new £18 holidays in Majorca. And among them were a honeymoon couple from St. Helens, Lancs, who arranged their wedding to fit in with the flight.
"The honeymooners, 25-year-old Arthur Griffiths and his bride Pearl, 21, got married on Thursday. “We intended marrying on a Saturday,” said Mrs. Griffiths. “But when we saw the £18 holiday flight was on a Friday, we changed the date.”
"Licences for the flights from Luton Airport – on Mondays and Fridays – were granted five days ago."
Next week's stories will include a big fire at a Rainhill supermarket caused (probably) by fireworks, a claim that sacked Pilkington workers had been blacklisted and the first female rugby league team in St Helens is formed as well as two new Sutton youth clubs.
A few months earlier Pat Phoenix had performed in a play at the Theatre Royal.
This week it was the turn of Elsie Tanner's "oppo" in 'Coronation Street', Len Fairclough, to tread the boards in St Helens.
Peter Adamson starred in a thriller called 'Someone Waiting', which also featured Alan Rothwell, who had appeared in the soap as David Barlow.
Meanwhile at the Capitol cinema 'Midnight Cowboy' starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight was screened, with 'Gone With The Wind' continuing its run at the ABC Savoy.
At St Helens Council's Housing Committee meeting on the 19th there were complaints of "jerry building" and bad design of new housing estates in Sutton Manor.
These had been made by the residents of newly-built council homes in Jubits Lane and Four Acre Lane.
Councillor Harry Williams began the debate by criticising four Jubits Lane houses that he said had loose coping stones on the roof which could fall at any time.
That led to Cllr. Peggy McNamara referring to conditions on the new Four Acre Lane estate:
"It is absolutely scandalous. When you close the door in one house, the kitchen wall shakes. In the same house, all the plugs in the wall are loose."
Miss McNamara added that she knew of a woman afraid to use the electrical appliances because water ran from the bathroom through the living room light fitting.
Alderman Margaret Shard said that many complaints had also been received about the state of homes in the Berry's Lane area.
The council architect explained that many of these problems were being resolved and implied that new homes were being handed over to tenants before inspections had been completed.
Derek Billam added that mistakes in construction occurred because the price of houses was being pared down to the absolute minimum.
The newspapers in the Midlands had been very interested in the Pilkington strike earlier in the year, due to the knock-on effects on car production.
On the 19th the Coventry Evening Telegraph described a report that had been published in "Industrial Management" magazine:
"The Government's proposed anti-strike legislation would have done nothing to help prevent, or solve, the seven-week strike at the Pilkington glass works. The dispute cost the company £5 million. Instead, it would probably have only made things worse.
"It was giving the verdict of a team of Liverpool University social scientists who, at St. Helens during the dispute, interviewed the three parties to the dispute: the company, the union and the breakaway members.
"Applying the analysis of what they had found to the various strike combating measures being put forward, particularly those of the present Government, the two-man team say that such legislation, had it been in force then, might have aggravated rather than prevented the strike.
"Their findings are that strikes should be regarded as a “normal” part of everyday industrial life and that they should be thought of in the same vein as a row between husband and wife."
On the 22nd the Daily Mirror published this article about a Moss Bank girl's unusual diet in order to be accepted into the Women's Royal Army Corps:
"Teenager Valerie Hutton was turned down by the Army. They said she was too skinny. So she went on a diet – of cream buns. She ate six every day for six weeks. Her weight climbed steadily from 7½ stone to 8½ stone.
"Yesterday, 252 buns fatter, 18-year-old Valerie, of Dalehead-place, St. Helens, Lancs, was signed on by the WRAC. She said: “I'm glad I made the weight but I won't be able to look a cream bun in the face again for ages.”
"Valerie, 5ft. 6in. tall, added: “I find it very difficult to put on weight, and I badly wanted to get into the Army. I ate lots of other things, but I'm sure it was the buns that did the trick.” Valerie, who is working as a warehouse assistant, has been told to report for training in a few weeks' time."
Well, the intention was for it to be a sit-in but one Town Hall official told the Liverpool Echo: "There were not enough chairs, so they had a “stand-in.”"
The St Helens Reporter described the scene: "For three hours, secretaries and local government officials jostled their way past an army of legs as the roadworkers, dustmen and gardeners held their ground."
The sit-in / stand-in was called off after the council promised the union leaders more talks.
Silcock's annual pleasure fair in Thatto Heath began in Elephant Lane on the 22nd and would continue until the 30th – although it closed on Sundays.
The Reporter was published on the 23rd and put out this appeal for accommodation for Rainhill Hospital patients who were now well enough to return to the community:
"Kind-hearted landladies are wanted by a mental hospital – to give cured patients a fresh start in life. Two hundred and fifty patients at Rainhill Hospital are well enough to live outside, it was revealed this week.
"But no one is willing to give them a home. Relatives refuse to take them in and local authority homes are overcrowded. Now hospital officials have made an urgent plea to local landladies to take in the new lodgers – as paying guests."
None of the patients were described as dangerous or violent with some having spent as long as thirty years in the institution.
Each patient unnecessarily living in the hospital was costing the taxpayer £13 per week and occupying beds required by those needing treatment.
"It is a very distressing state of affairs", said John Wilson, group secretary of the Rainhill Management Committee.
These patients are completely cured and it is a myth to say that psychiatric cases are never really cured.
They are men and women who at some stage in their lives became depressed and unable to cope with things.
We feel that if landladies would take them in they could start new lives."
Another article in the Reporter bore the headline: "Dolly Birds Live Longer Says Boffin" – which gave the paper an excuse to conduct another mini-survey among the St Helens public.
A German medical expert had concluded that wives who made themselves look pretty lived longer than "frumps" who did not.
Professor Fromm also felt that husbands should encourage their wives to spend both time and money enhancing their appearance, as a woman unhappy with how she looked could suffer nervous complexes and serious ill-health.
"Yes. He's right", said Beryl Foreman of Arnside Road in Haydock. "I know from my own experience when I've felt a bit down in the dumps, I've put my make-up on – false eyelashes, the lot – and I've felt a new person.
"I know it's just one of the facts of life, but a pity nevertheless, that many women once they start to raise a family, just let themselves go. They can look awful and they probably feel awful as well."
June Morrison of Longridge Avenue in Blackbrook was spotted in a department store buying some nail varnish and said she agreed with the professor:
"A new make-up and hair-do can give a woman a new lease of life. It can make her feel – and look – years younger."
Tom Welsby from Alfred Street was in favour of ladies keeping up appearances: "I think women should make the best of themselves, and who knows it could make them live longer if it makes them feel younger."
Mr Welsby added that he had no problem with women spending money on lipstick, foundation cream and false eyelashes, "as long as she doesn’t spend all her housekeeping money on it."
Four St. Cuthbert's schoolboys were pictured in the Reporter with the shield that had been presented to them after winning a photographic contest.
Gerard Davey from Moss Lane, Philip Mather of Douglas Avenue, David Turley of Alice Street and Stephen Mulcahy from Derbyshire Hill Road had won St Helens Photographic Society's first ever competition for local schools.
The 15 and 16-year-olds had impressed the judges after photographing a day's activities at the Berry's Lane school.
The Reporter also revealed that Keith Orrell was leaving the oldest newsagents in St Helens to help run a menswear shop with his wife.
Mr Orrell's grandfather, Ted Cawley, had founded the business in Fingerpost in 1895 and after WW1 his father Peter Orrell had taken it over.
The era of cheap foreign holidays was now underway with Clarksons offering four-day winter breaks to Majorca from £18 – including flights, hotel, meals and excursions.
However the use of the phrase "terms and conditions apply" was not yet required in adverts and so I think there were a few extras bolted on and a number of conditions – such as having to fly from Luton Airport.
However it was still a good deal for the time, although £18 is equivalent to about £300 in today's money.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror published a photo and an accompanying article describing a young St Helens couple who'd chosen the deal for their honeymoon:
"More than 120 people left Britain yesterday for the first of the new £18 holidays in Majorca. And among them were a honeymoon couple from St. Helens, Lancs, who arranged their wedding to fit in with the flight.
"The honeymooners, 25-year-old Arthur Griffiths and his bride Pearl, 21, got married on Thursday. “We intended marrying on a Saturday,” said Mrs. Griffiths. “But when we saw the £18 holiday flight was on a Friday, we changed the date.”
"Licences for the flights from Luton Airport – on Mondays and Fridays – were granted five days ago."
Next week's stories will include a big fire at a Rainhill supermarket caused (probably) by fireworks, a claim that sacked Pilkington workers had been blacklisted and the first female rugby league team in St Helens is formed as well as two new Sutton youth clubs.