FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (20th - 26th MARCH 1973)
This week's many stories include the orgy of window smashing in Peter Street, the Rainford milkman's daffodil give-away, JJB Sports comes to Sutton, there's a tragic accident in Ashcroft Street, Stuart Hall judges a beauty contest and the land reclamation schemes in Rainford that could transform the village's worst eyesores.
"What the hell are you doing here?", was what Tom Poole exclaimed on the 20th when Keith Mellor burst into his Prescot Road flat. Mr Poole had been sat on the sofa watching TV with his wife and was stunned to receive the reply: "Get out. Your home is on fire". Keith Mellor was an ambulance man and had spotted the flames while returning to his HQ.
He raced inside the building to find smoke pouring out of the kitchen. After getting the young couple outside, Mr Mellor tackled the blaze with an ambulance fire extinguisher until it ran out. It took the Fire Brigade using breathing apparatus to be able to enter the kitchen and put out the blaze.
Hi-Fi is another of those terms that has pretty much died out but was very much in vogue during the ‘70s. On the 22nd Cobalt Hi-Fi of Penketh presented a hi-fi exhibition at the Lingholme Hotel in Dentons Green Lane.
There was an extraordinary lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd in which it was claimed that Tom Seddon had been banned for life from the Windle Hotel. The man that the Reporter dubbed "the old people’s friend" had, allegedly, upset Greenall Whitley by holding a party for OAPs at the Springfield Hotel in Thatto Heath. That was after the Windle had been unable to accommodate him on the day in question.
Mr Seddon from Windle Hall Drive claimed that landlord Eric Halliwell had been furious with him for taking his business elsewhere and had ordered him out of the pub. But Mr Halliwell said it had been a brewery decision and although the Reporter had asked Greenalls for comment, no one had been available.
Valda Glover was pictured on the front page of the Reporter cheek-to-cheek with "BBC personality" Stuart Hall. The 24-year-old furniture assembler from Kendal Drive in Rainford had beaten 12 other young women employed by Foster Buildings to become the firm's first "Miss Foster". Valda won £25 cash, a dress allowance of between £75 and £100 and a "beauty box" worth £25.
In addition to the now disgraced Stuart Hall, the other judges at the Rainford Village Hall event included Saints' captain Kel Coslett, former Miss Great Britain Kathleen Winstanley and Jimmy Meadows, the manager of Southport Football Club.
It was announced in the Reporter that two proposed land reclamation schemes in Rainford could transform the village's worst eyesores. These were the Siding Lane tip that originally had been the site of Rainford Colliery and the disused railway line that ran through the village. The site at Siding Lane covered over 20 acres and Rainford Council had for many years used it as a dump for its domestic refuse.
Rainford Colliery had closed in 1928 leaving behind heaps of mining waste that were also still present. The council now intended to relocate its tip and wanted to convert the Siding Lane land into what the Reporter called a "pleasure park" at a cost of £32,000. The councillors were looking to develop woodland, a playing field, three picnicking areas, a children's playground and seven car parks.
The second scheme would involve landscaping the old railway line and making it into a pleasant walk at a cost of £37,000. The council's clerk, Ken Isherwood, had asked the Department of the Environment about a grant that would pay for about 80% of the work. This week Mr Isherwood said he was confident of receiving cash for the railway renovation but was not so sure of the chances of getting a grant for the Siding Lane scheme.
He explained that a previous planning application had wanted to develop that area industrially – but the Department had turned it down claiming it would have led to more cars turning out onto the Rainford bypass. So Mr Isherwood feared that the recreation scheme at Siding Lane would run into the same objection. But as we know, the old railway line crossing Cross Pit Lane through Rookery Lane towards Mill Lane is now the Rainford Linear Park and the Siding Lane Nature Reserve has existed for many years.
The Reporter also commented on what they called an "orgy of window smashing" on the previous Saturday night in the Peter Street area of St Helens. Five shops were attacked and plate glass windows worth £270 were broken. Magistrate Ken McGhie whose own premises were attacked called for tough treatment of the vandals, saying: "I believe the birch is a deterrent. Psychological methods will not work."
Mr McGhie described how terrified old people locally had asked for his help and he accused the Corporation of not maintaining the street lighting, saying: "If the lights had been in at the corner, these attacks may not have happened." Ken McGhie added that teenage hooligans had threatened him after he'd caught them scrawling obscenities on the door of his shop. "They told me that they would come back, and ‘do me’ with their knives."
One elderly lady told the Reporter: "I am very nervous, I have a chain on my door, but I don't answer the door after six o’clock. I often hear noises from the empty house next door." The Sue Ryder charity shop in Lyon Street was also damaged and a voluntary worker agreed with Mr McGhie's sentiments, saying: "The birch should be brought back. We are a charity and this is terrible. Many old people are afraid to leave their houses because they fear break-ins."
Whelan's Discount Stores had opened its doors in Baxters Lane inside the former Sutton Oak engine sheds during the summer of 1971. As well as groceries a wide range of electrical products were on sale with owner Dave Whelan saying: "We plan to be the Marks and Spencers of the discount world, with good quality stock in a good clean store."
In this week's Reporter the firm said it had expanded its sales of non-food with the opening of two new departments. One housed Kiwi Travel described as "St. Helens Newest Travel Agents" and the other department was devoted to sport and menswear and was being called JJB Sports Ltd.
This was Dave Whelan's second outlet using that name, with the first having been acquired in Wigan in 1971 and which actually dated back to the turn of the century. By 2005 there were over 430 JJB stores in the UK and Ireland before the firm went bankrupt in 2012. Morrison's supermarket now operates from new premises adjacent to the Sutton site.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror wrote about the benevolence of a Rainford milkie: "Milkman Alan Grice said a surprise thank-you to his loyal customers yesterday – with 6,000 golden daffodils. He delivered the flowers on his morning pinta round. Every one of Alan's 500 customers found a bouquet of a dozen daffs on the doorstep with the milk. His round has blossomed from four families in just two-and-a-half years. So Alan decided to say thank-you to the housewives with flowers."
Tricia Cornell of Keswick Way was quoted as saying: "What a delightful surprise. I was still in bed this morning when my young son came up with these gorgeous daffs." And Barbara Huddart of Buttermere Crescent said: "Our milkman is the tops. Nothing is ever too much trouble for him and our milk is on the doorstep at 5.30 every morning, hail, rain or shine."
Apparently Alan had bought fridges for his first four customers to ensure that he retained their custom! Tragically in 1995 at the age of 54, Alan would die in a shooting incident in Bickerstaffe, two years after the death of his wife.
On the 25th the Capitol Cinema (pictured above) on the corner of Duke Street and North Road in St Helens began a week's screening of 'Maid In Sweden' and the ABC Savoy started showing Steve McQueen in 'The Getaway'.
During the evening of the 26th, Keith Miller of Chiltern Road in St Helens was tragically killed when the 17-year-old's motorbike was in collision with a pick-up truck. The accident occurred in Ashcroft Street, near the junction with Lascelles Street, and the crash also led to two men being seriously injured. Keith's pillion passenger, Terence Smith of Windle Hall Drive, received serious head and leg injuries and the truck driver, Vincent Standish of Newton Road, had to be cut free by firemen.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the council vote to give Leathers Chemicals another chance, the training scheme on the Parr Industrial Estate, the slippery plan to foil the Victoria Square birds and the Burgy Banks tree vandals.
"What the hell are you doing here?", was what Tom Poole exclaimed on the 20th when Keith Mellor burst into his Prescot Road flat. Mr Poole had been sat on the sofa watching TV with his wife and was stunned to receive the reply: "Get out. Your home is on fire". Keith Mellor was an ambulance man and had spotted the flames while returning to his HQ.
He raced inside the building to find smoke pouring out of the kitchen. After getting the young couple outside, Mr Mellor tackled the blaze with an ambulance fire extinguisher until it ran out. It took the Fire Brigade using breathing apparatus to be able to enter the kitchen and put out the blaze.
Hi-Fi is another of those terms that has pretty much died out but was very much in vogue during the ‘70s. On the 22nd Cobalt Hi-Fi of Penketh presented a hi-fi exhibition at the Lingholme Hotel in Dentons Green Lane.
There was an extraordinary lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd in which it was claimed that Tom Seddon had been banned for life from the Windle Hotel. The man that the Reporter dubbed "the old people’s friend" had, allegedly, upset Greenall Whitley by holding a party for OAPs at the Springfield Hotel in Thatto Heath. That was after the Windle had been unable to accommodate him on the day in question.
Mr Seddon from Windle Hall Drive claimed that landlord Eric Halliwell had been furious with him for taking his business elsewhere and had ordered him out of the pub. But Mr Halliwell said it had been a brewery decision and although the Reporter had asked Greenalls for comment, no one had been available.
Valda Glover was pictured on the front page of the Reporter cheek-to-cheek with "BBC personality" Stuart Hall. The 24-year-old furniture assembler from Kendal Drive in Rainford had beaten 12 other young women employed by Foster Buildings to become the firm's first "Miss Foster". Valda won £25 cash, a dress allowance of between £75 and £100 and a "beauty box" worth £25.
In addition to the now disgraced Stuart Hall, the other judges at the Rainford Village Hall event included Saints' captain Kel Coslett, former Miss Great Britain Kathleen Winstanley and Jimmy Meadows, the manager of Southport Football Club.
It was announced in the Reporter that two proposed land reclamation schemes in Rainford could transform the village's worst eyesores. These were the Siding Lane tip that originally had been the site of Rainford Colliery and the disused railway line that ran through the village. The site at Siding Lane covered over 20 acres and Rainford Council had for many years used it as a dump for its domestic refuse.
Rainford Colliery had closed in 1928 leaving behind heaps of mining waste that were also still present. The council now intended to relocate its tip and wanted to convert the Siding Lane land into what the Reporter called a "pleasure park" at a cost of £32,000. The councillors were looking to develop woodland, a playing field, three picnicking areas, a children's playground and seven car parks.
The second scheme would involve landscaping the old railway line and making it into a pleasant walk at a cost of £37,000. The council's clerk, Ken Isherwood, had asked the Department of the Environment about a grant that would pay for about 80% of the work. This week Mr Isherwood said he was confident of receiving cash for the railway renovation but was not so sure of the chances of getting a grant for the Siding Lane scheme.
He explained that a previous planning application had wanted to develop that area industrially – but the Department had turned it down claiming it would have led to more cars turning out onto the Rainford bypass. So Mr Isherwood feared that the recreation scheme at Siding Lane would run into the same objection. But as we know, the old railway line crossing Cross Pit Lane through Rookery Lane towards Mill Lane is now the Rainford Linear Park and the Siding Lane Nature Reserve has existed for many years.
The Reporter also commented on what they called an "orgy of window smashing" on the previous Saturday night in the Peter Street area of St Helens. Five shops were attacked and plate glass windows worth £270 were broken. Magistrate Ken McGhie whose own premises were attacked called for tough treatment of the vandals, saying: "I believe the birch is a deterrent. Psychological methods will not work."
Mr McGhie described how terrified old people locally had asked for his help and he accused the Corporation of not maintaining the street lighting, saying: "If the lights had been in at the corner, these attacks may not have happened." Ken McGhie added that teenage hooligans had threatened him after he'd caught them scrawling obscenities on the door of his shop. "They told me that they would come back, and ‘do me’ with their knives."
One elderly lady told the Reporter: "I am very nervous, I have a chain on my door, but I don't answer the door after six o’clock. I often hear noises from the empty house next door." The Sue Ryder charity shop in Lyon Street was also damaged and a voluntary worker agreed with Mr McGhie's sentiments, saying: "The birch should be brought back. We are a charity and this is terrible. Many old people are afraid to leave their houses because they fear break-ins."
Whelan's Discount Stores had opened its doors in Baxters Lane inside the former Sutton Oak engine sheds during the summer of 1971. As well as groceries a wide range of electrical products were on sale with owner Dave Whelan saying: "We plan to be the Marks and Spencers of the discount world, with good quality stock in a good clean store."
In this week's Reporter the firm said it had expanded its sales of non-food with the opening of two new departments. One housed Kiwi Travel described as "St. Helens Newest Travel Agents" and the other department was devoted to sport and menswear and was being called JJB Sports Ltd.
This was Dave Whelan's second outlet using that name, with the first having been acquired in Wigan in 1971 and which actually dated back to the turn of the century. By 2005 there were over 430 JJB stores in the UK and Ireland before the firm went bankrupt in 2012. Morrison's supermarket now operates from new premises adjacent to the Sutton site.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror wrote about the benevolence of a Rainford milkie: "Milkman Alan Grice said a surprise thank-you to his loyal customers yesterday – with 6,000 golden daffodils. He delivered the flowers on his morning pinta round. Every one of Alan's 500 customers found a bouquet of a dozen daffs on the doorstep with the milk. His round has blossomed from four families in just two-and-a-half years. So Alan decided to say thank-you to the housewives with flowers."
Tricia Cornell of Keswick Way was quoted as saying: "What a delightful surprise. I was still in bed this morning when my young son came up with these gorgeous daffs." And Barbara Huddart of Buttermere Crescent said: "Our milkman is the tops. Nothing is ever too much trouble for him and our milk is on the doorstep at 5.30 every morning, hail, rain or shine."
Apparently Alan had bought fridges for his first four customers to ensure that he retained their custom! Tragically in 1995 at the age of 54, Alan would die in a shooting incident in Bickerstaffe, two years after the death of his wife.
During the evening of the 26th, Keith Miller of Chiltern Road in St Helens was tragically killed when the 17-year-old's motorbike was in collision with a pick-up truck. The accident occurred in Ashcroft Street, near the junction with Lascelles Street, and the crash also led to two men being seriously injured. Keith's pillion passenger, Terence Smith of Windle Hall Drive, received serious head and leg injuries and the truck driver, Vincent Standish of Newton Road, had to be cut free by firemen.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the council vote to give Leathers Chemicals another chance, the training scheme on the Parr Industrial Estate, the slippery plan to foil the Victoria Square birds and the Burgy Banks tree vandals.
This week's many stories include the orgy of window smashing in Peter Street, the Rainford milkman's daffodil give-away, JJB Sports comes to Sutton, there's a tragic accident in Ashcroft Street, Stuart Hall judges a beauty contest and the land reclamation schemes in Rainford that could transform the village's worst eyesores.
"What the hell are you doing here?", was what Tom Poole exclaimed on the 20th when Keith Mellor burst into his Prescot Road flat.
Mr Poole had been sat on the sofa watching TV with his wife and was stunned to receive the reply: "Get out. Your home is on fire".
Keith Mellor was an ambulance man and had spotted the flames while returning to his HQ. He raced inside the building to find smoke pouring out of the kitchen.
After getting the young couple outside, Mr Mellor tackled the blaze with an ambulance fire extinguisher until it ran out.
It took the Fire Brigade using breathing apparatus to be able to enter the kitchen and put out the blaze.
Hi-Fi is another of those terms that has pretty much died out but was very much in vogue during the ‘70s.
On the 22nd Cobalt Hi-Fi of Penketh presented a hi-fi exhibition at the Lingholme Hotel in Dentons Green Lane.
There was an extraordinary lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd in which it was claimed that Tom Seddon had been banned for life from the Windle Hotel.
The man that the Reporter dubbed "the old people’s friend" had, allegedly, upset Greenall Whitley by holding a party for OAPs at the Springfield Hotel in Thatto Heath.
That was after the Windle had been unable to accommodate him on the day in question.
Mr Seddon from Windle Hall Drive claimed that landlord Eric Halliwell had been furious with him for taking his business elsewhere and had ordered him out of the pub.
But Mr Halliwell said it had been a brewery decision and although the Reporter had asked Greenalls for comment, no one had been available.
Valda Glover was pictured on the front page of the Reporter cheek-to-cheek with "BBC personality" Stuart Hall.
The 24-year-old furniture assembler from Kendal Drive in Rainford had beaten 12 other young women employed by Foster Buildings to become the firm's first "Miss Foster".
Valda won £25 cash, a dress allowance of between £75 and £100 and a "beauty box" worth £25.
In addition to the now disgraced Stuart Hall, the other judges at the Rainford Village Hall event included Saints' captain Kel Coslett, former Miss Great Britain Kathleen Winstanley and Jimmy Meadows, the manager of Southport Football Club.
It was announced in the Reporter that two proposed land reclamation schemes in Rainford could transform the village's worst eyesores.
These were the Siding Lane tip that originally had been the site of Rainford Colliery and the disused railway line that ran through the village.
The site at Siding Lane covered over 20 acres and Rainford Council had for many years used it as a dump for its domestic refuse.
Rainford Colliery had closed in 1928 leaving behind heaps of mining waste that were also still present.
The council now intended to relocate its tip and wanted to convert the Siding Lane land into what the Reporter called a "pleasure park" at a cost of £32,000.
The councillors were looking to develop woodland, a playing field, three picnicking areas, a children's playground and seven car parks.
The second scheme would involve landscaping the old railway line and making it into a pleasant walk at a cost of £37,000.
The council's clerk, Ken Isherwood, had asked the Department of the Environment about a grant that would pay for about 80% of the work.
This week Mr Isherwood said he was confident of receiving cash for the railway renovation but was not so sure of the chances of getting a grant for the Siding Lane scheme.
He explained that a previous planning application had wanted to develop that area industrially – but the Department had turned it down claiming it would have led to more cars turning out onto the Rainford bypass.
So Mr Isherwood feared that the recreation scheme at Siding Lane would run into the same objection.
But as we know, the old railway line crossing Cross Pit Lane through Rookery Lane towards Mill Lane is now the Rainford Linear Park and the Siding Lane Nature Reserve has existed for many years.
The Reporter also commented on what they called an "orgy of window smashing" on the previous Saturday night in the Peter Street area of St Helens.
Five shops were attacked and plate glass windows worth £270 were broken.
Magistrate Ken McGhie whose own premises were attacked called for tough treatment of the vandals, saying: "I believe the birch is a deterrent. Psychological methods will not work."
Mr McGhie described how terrified old people locally had asked for his help and he accused the Corporation of not maintaining the street lighting, saying: "If the lights had been in at the corner, these attacks may not have happened."
Ken McGhie added that teenage hooligans had threatened him after he'd caught them scrawling obscenities on the door of his shop. "They told me that they would come back, and ‘do me’ with their knives."
One elderly lady told the Reporter: "I am very nervous, I have a chain on my door, but I don't answer the door after six o’clock. I often hear noises from the empty house next door."
The Sue Ryder charity shop in Lyon Street was also damaged and a voluntary worker agreed with Mr McGhie's sentiments, saying:
"The birch should be brought back. We are a charity and this is terrible. Many old people are afraid to leave their houses because they fear break-ins."
Whelan's Discount Stores had opened its doors in Baxters Lane inside the former Sutton Oak engine sheds during the summer of 1971.
As well as groceries a wide range of electrical products were on sale with owner Dave Whelan saying: "We plan to be the Marks and Spencers of the discount world, with good quality stock in a good clean store."
In this week's Reporter the firm said it had expanded its sales of non-food with the opening of two new departments.
One housed Kiwi Travel described as "St. Helens Newest Travel Agents" and the other department was devoted to sport and menswear and was being called JJB Sports Ltd.
This was Dave Whelan's second outlet using that name, with the first having been acquired in Wigan in 1971 and which actually dated back to the turn of the century.
By 2005 there were over 430 JJB stores in the UK and Ireland before the firm went bankrupt in 2012. Morrison's supermarket now operates from new premises adjacent to the Sutton site.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror wrote about the benevolence of a Rainford milkie:
"Milkman Alan Grice said a surprise thank-you to his loyal customers yesterday – with 6,000 golden daffodils. He delivered the flowers on his morning pinta round. Every one of Alan's 500 customers found a bouquet of a dozen daffs on the doorstep with the milk.
"His round has blossomed from four families in just two-and-a-half years. So Alan decided to say thank-you to the housewives with flowers."
Tricia Cornell of Keswick Way was quoted as saying: "What a delightful surprise. I was still in bed this morning when my young son came up with these gorgeous daffs."
And Barbara Huddart of Buttermere Crescent said: "Our milkman is the tops. Nothing is ever too much trouble for him and our milk is on the doorstep at 5.30 every morning, hail, rain or shine."
Apparently Alan had bought fridges for his first four customers to ensure that he retained their custom!
Tragically in 1995 at the age of 54, Alan would die in a shooting incident in Bickerstaffe, two years after the death of his wife.
On the 25th the Capitol Cinema (pictured above) on the corner of Duke Street and North Road in St Helens began a week's screening of 'Maid In Sweden' and the ABC Savoy started showing Steve McQueen in 'The Getaway'.
During the evening of the 26th, Keith Miller of Chiltern Road in St Helens was tragically killed when the 17-year-old's motorbike was in collision with a pick-up truck.
The accident occurred in Ashcroft Street, near the junction with Lascelles Street, and the crash also led to two men being seriously injured.
Keith's pillion passenger, Terence Smith of Windle Hall Drive, received serious head and leg injuries and the truck driver, Vincent Standish of Newton Road, had to be cut free by firemen.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the council vote to give Leathers Chemicals another chance, the training scheme on the Parr Industrial Estate, the slippery plan to foil the Victoria Square birds and the Burgy Banks tree vandals.
"What the hell are you doing here?", was what Tom Poole exclaimed on the 20th when Keith Mellor burst into his Prescot Road flat.
Mr Poole had been sat on the sofa watching TV with his wife and was stunned to receive the reply: "Get out. Your home is on fire".
Keith Mellor was an ambulance man and had spotted the flames while returning to his HQ. He raced inside the building to find smoke pouring out of the kitchen.
After getting the young couple outside, Mr Mellor tackled the blaze with an ambulance fire extinguisher until it ran out.
It took the Fire Brigade using breathing apparatus to be able to enter the kitchen and put out the blaze.
Hi-Fi is another of those terms that has pretty much died out but was very much in vogue during the ‘70s.
On the 22nd Cobalt Hi-Fi of Penketh presented a hi-fi exhibition at the Lingholme Hotel in Dentons Green Lane.
There was an extraordinary lead story on the front page of the St Helens Reporter on the 23rd in which it was claimed that Tom Seddon had been banned for life from the Windle Hotel.
The man that the Reporter dubbed "the old people’s friend" had, allegedly, upset Greenall Whitley by holding a party for OAPs at the Springfield Hotel in Thatto Heath.
That was after the Windle had been unable to accommodate him on the day in question.
Mr Seddon from Windle Hall Drive claimed that landlord Eric Halliwell had been furious with him for taking his business elsewhere and had ordered him out of the pub.
But Mr Halliwell said it had been a brewery decision and although the Reporter had asked Greenalls for comment, no one had been available.
Valda Glover was pictured on the front page of the Reporter cheek-to-cheek with "BBC personality" Stuart Hall.
The 24-year-old furniture assembler from Kendal Drive in Rainford had beaten 12 other young women employed by Foster Buildings to become the firm's first "Miss Foster".
Valda won £25 cash, a dress allowance of between £75 and £100 and a "beauty box" worth £25.
In addition to the now disgraced Stuart Hall, the other judges at the Rainford Village Hall event included Saints' captain Kel Coslett, former Miss Great Britain Kathleen Winstanley and Jimmy Meadows, the manager of Southport Football Club.
It was announced in the Reporter that two proposed land reclamation schemes in Rainford could transform the village's worst eyesores.
These were the Siding Lane tip that originally had been the site of Rainford Colliery and the disused railway line that ran through the village.
The site at Siding Lane covered over 20 acres and Rainford Council had for many years used it as a dump for its domestic refuse.
Rainford Colliery had closed in 1928 leaving behind heaps of mining waste that were also still present.
The council now intended to relocate its tip and wanted to convert the Siding Lane land into what the Reporter called a "pleasure park" at a cost of £32,000.
The councillors were looking to develop woodland, a playing field, three picnicking areas, a children's playground and seven car parks.
The second scheme would involve landscaping the old railway line and making it into a pleasant walk at a cost of £37,000.
The council's clerk, Ken Isherwood, had asked the Department of the Environment about a grant that would pay for about 80% of the work.
This week Mr Isherwood said he was confident of receiving cash for the railway renovation but was not so sure of the chances of getting a grant for the Siding Lane scheme.
He explained that a previous planning application had wanted to develop that area industrially – but the Department had turned it down claiming it would have led to more cars turning out onto the Rainford bypass.
So Mr Isherwood feared that the recreation scheme at Siding Lane would run into the same objection.
But as we know, the old railway line crossing Cross Pit Lane through Rookery Lane towards Mill Lane is now the Rainford Linear Park and the Siding Lane Nature Reserve has existed for many years.
The Reporter also commented on what they called an "orgy of window smashing" on the previous Saturday night in the Peter Street area of St Helens.
Five shops were attacked and plate glass windows worth £270 were broken.
Magistrate Ken McGhie whose own premises were attacked called for tough treatment of the vandals, saying: "I believe the birch is a deterrent. Psychological methods will not work."
Mr McGhie described how terrified old people locally had asked for his help and he accused the Corporation of not maintaining the street lighting, saying: "If the lights had been in at the corner, these attacks may not have happened."
Ken McGhie added that teenage hooligans had threatened him after he'd caught them scrawling obscenities on the door of his shop. "They told me that they would come back, and ‘do me’ with their knives."
One elderly lady told the Reporter: "I am very nervous, I have a chain on my door, but I don't answer the door after six o’clock. I often hear noises from the empty house next door."
The Sue Ryder charity shop in Lyon Street was also damaged and a voluntary worker agreed with Mr McGhie's sentiments, saying:
"The birch should be brought back. We are a charity and this is terrible. Many old people are afraid to leave their houses because they fear break-ins."
Whelan's Discount Stores had opened its doors in Baxters Lane inside the former Sutton Oak engine sheds during the summer of 1971.
As well as groceries a wide range of electrical products were on sale with owner Dave Whelan saying: "We plan to be the Marks and Spencers of the discount world, with good quality stock in a good clean store."
In this week's Reporter the firm said it had expanded its sales of non-food with the opening of two new departments.
One housed Kiwi Travel described as "St. Helens Newest Travel Agents" and the other department was devoted to sport and menswear and was being called JJB Sports Ltd.
This was Dave Whelan's second outlet using that name, with the first having been acquired in Wigan in 1971 and which actually dated back to the turn of the century.
By 2005 there were over 430 JJB stores in the UK and Ireland before the firm went bankrupt in 2012. Morrison's supermarket now operates from new premises adjacent to the Sutton site.
On the 24th the Daily Mirror wrote about the benevolence of a Rainford milkie:
"Milkman Alan Grice said a surprise thank-you to his loyal customers yesterday – with 6,000 golden daffodils. He delivered the flowers on his morning pinta round. Every one of Alan's 500 customers found a bouquet of a dozen daffs on the doorstep with the milk.
"His round has blossomed from four families in just two-and-a-half years. So Alan decided to say thank-you to the housewives with flowers."
Tricia Cornell of Keswick Way was quoted as saying: "What a delightful surprise. I was still in bed this morning when my young son came up with these gorgeous daffs."
And Barbara Huddart of Buttermere Crescent said: "Our milkman is the tops. Nothing is ever too much trouble for him and our milk is on the doorstep at 5.30 every morning, hail, rain or shine."
Apparently Alan had bought fridges for his first four customers to ensure that he retained their custom!
Tragically in 1995 at the age of 54, Alan would die in a shooting incident in Bickerstaffe, two years after the death of his wife.
During the evening of the 26th, Keith Miller of Chiltern Road in St Helens was tragically killed when the 17-year-old's motorbike was in collision with a pick-up truck.
The accident occurred in Ashcroft Street, near the junction with Lascelles Street, and the crash also led to two men being seriously injured.
Keith's pillion passenger, Terence Smith of Windle Hall Drive, received serious head and leg injuries and the truck driver, Vincent Standish of Newton Road, had to be cut free by firemen.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the council vote to give Leathers Chemicals another chance, the training scheme on the Parr Industrial Estate, the slippery plan to foil the Victoria Square birds and the Burgy Banks tree vandals.