FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (20th - 26th DECEMBER 1971)
This week's stories include the Christmas Day babies and New Year baby contest, fury over intrusive telegraph poles around Boundary Road, how Christmas was spent in St Helens, the New Year scheme to reduce the council house waiting list and the Dean of St Helens upsets ex-soldiers by delivering a fiery Christmas sermon on Northern Ireland.
We begin on the 21st in Alice Street in Sutton when a fire ravaged a teenager's bedroom while he was sat downstairs with his father watching TV. Joe Robinson and his 15-year-old son James raised the alarm when they heard the blaze crackling above their heads. Muriel Robinson told the Reporter:
"When I got home, the upstairs room was on fire. My husband and son were running upstairs with buckets of water. The fire destroyed everything in the room except the mattress and a few Christmas presents. It's an awful thing to happen, so near to Christmas. But I'm just thankful no one was hurt."
The Very Reverend Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens, could be a controversial figure, unafraid to speak his mind. Last year the leader of the 36,000 Catholics in St Helens had criticised a book called "Variations on a Sexual Theme" that was intended as a lovemaking aid, saying it was: "….absolutely scandalous and disgraceful. It is part of the wicked society we live in. People may laugh at things like this, but if their daughter gets raped or their wife leaves them they will think again."
Later in the year the Dean criticised the newly created St Helens branch of Alcoholics Anonymous. That was after they'd complained that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the area had attended their inaugural meeting in spite of invitations being despatched. This week Rev. Fitzpatrick delivered his Christmas message from the pulpit of Sacred Heart Church – and it was not well received by ex-servicemen. The Dean launched a blistering attack on the policy of internment of IRA prisoners without trial, labelling it "a disgrace on the British Army" and saying British soldiers were the "instruments of injustice".
Of course, today we might reflect on internment as unwise and counterproductive – but last December the Reporter had talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland. For this December to hear criticism of soldiers was too much for some to bear. One former serviceman in the congregation at Sacred Heart told the St Helens Reporter: "I was amazed and shocked. When he asked us to think of the poor man in Ulster, I expected him to mean British troops. I can't understand how you can have sympathy for terrorists who have caused young soldiers to die."
The days were numbered for the chemists' emergency rota what with the rise of supermarkets and doctors' surgeries closing earlier in the evening. This week it was announced that the nightly service was being reduced from an hour to thirty minutes. The Clerk of the St Helens Executive Council of the NHS explained: "The cuts have been made because public demand has been falling off. Now that most doctors' surgeries close at 6 p.m., we have found that there is not much call for dispensing prescriptions after 6.30pm." However, emergency duty on Sundays and Bank Holidays would still last one hour.
It might be Christmas week but there was not much festive cheer for the Post Office – or at least the bit of it that dealt with telephones. There was a very long waiting list in St Helens as the building of new estates and increasing demand for phones meant the Post Office was constantly having to play catch up. A new exchange was being built in Marshalls Cross and new overhead lines were being installed, which, of course, meant that many telegraph poles had to be sunk.
These and their patchwork of wiring did not improve the environment and led to the Liverpool Echo on the 22nd describing anger in the Boundary Road area over the unsightly siting of poles. "People are very sore about this kind of thing", declared Leslie Spriggs, the town's MP. "Although the poles have been erected between the houses, they are nevertheless right next door to people's windows."
Allan Jones of Virgil Street told the Echo: "They did not even come and ask if they could put up the poles. I am going to seek a cut in rates. I organised a petition about the matter. "There are about 50 houses in the street and 75 per cent of the occupiers signed. I sent the petition to the St. Helens Borough Engineers Department and I understand it was passed on to the Liverpool Telephone Exchange.
"These poles are a hideous monstrosity and I do not want one outside my house. It is less than two yards from my front door and it looks most unsightly." A Post Office spokesman said: "We do not place these poles haphazardly. We take great care in siting them and we had the permission of St. Helens Town Council on their location."
With the rehousing of St Helens' residents involved in slum clearance zones being a priority, it must have been a long wait for others on the council house waiting list.
One way to prune the list was to get applicants to reapply and so the Christmas Eve edition of the Reporter contained this large advert: "Notice To Applicants For Council Dwellings – Applicants on the General Waiting List who still wish to be considered for accommodation must renew their claims by calling at, or communicating with the Housing Department, Century House, during January 1972, as follows:
"Surname Initial A – F 4th to 7th January, Surname Initial G – I 10th to 14th January, Surname Initial M – R 17th to 21st January, Surname Initial S – Z 24th to 26th January. Aged persons can renew their claims at any time during January and these may be done by post. Claims not renewed will be cancelled."
As in 2021, Christmas Day fifty years ago was a Saturday and so all the shops in St Helens closed on the following Monday but reopened for business on the Tuesday. Factories in the town stayed shut until the Wednesday. The days of many firms shutting down for ten days or a fortnight over Christmas and New Year had not yet arrived – apart from at Bold and Sutton Manor collieries. The mineworkers would not be returning to their jobs until January 3rd 1972 – although there was a catch, as explained by a spokesman for the National Coal Board: "The men have earned their long holiday by saving rest-days owing to them."
The final batch of Christmas party photos was printed this week in the Reporter. "Singing cowboy" Jerry Carsen was shown at Parr Oddfellows Hall entertaining the children of employees of Lantor Ltd and Tootal Mens Wear. And the NALGO club in Bishop Road hosted 170 kids whose parents worked at the Borough Engineer's and Water Departments at St Helens. Little Susan Milner was also pictured pulling a cracker with Paul Cunliffe at the Greenall Whitley party.
Every Christmas the Reporter ran their "First Baby Contest" with the first twelve "bonny bouncers" born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st set to receive a 30-shilling gift from the paper. Not exactly a fortune but worth around £20 in today's money – and there were additional gifts on offer. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first New Year's baby with a full-size framed photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give a £5 voucher.
Nevins would also be presenting £1 vouchers to the mothers of the first five babies. The food store's advert in the feature included an illustration of a beaming baby wearing just a nappy, surrounded by balloons and holding a top hat over its full head of hair and carrying a suitcase. Being a single man I have no experience of the subject but I didn't think babies arrived quite like that! And all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost much more than the canopy!
And the Reporter had this message for pregnant readers desperate to win the contest: "We know babies, like the British weather, are unpredictable, so just cross your fingers and hope your countdown turns out correctly." Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning thirty bob and a voucher or two.
But what did the three St Helens Christmas Day babies win? Nothing really, apart from the prospect of combined birthday / Christmas presents in future years and their picture in the Reporter. The lucky / unlucky babies (all girls) were Sharon McGurk of Napier Street (7lb 12oz) who at 9.10am was the first of the trio to be born in Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital. She was followed at 3.20pm at Whiston Hospital by Claire Burrows of Arbury Avenue, Islands Brow (8lb 9oz) and then three hours later, Jennifer Rucker of Rainhill Road (7lb 7oz) was the third "bonny baby girl" to arrive.
Michael and Margaret Warner from Scholes Lane were praised in the paper for giving up their Christmas Day to provide a dinner for sixty old folk, mainly from Thatto Heath Over 60s Club. The young couple were in charge of the Salvation Army Hall in Nutgrove Road where the dinner was held. Mr Warner said: "A lot of old people find themselves left on their own at Christmas. They stay shut in at home with no relatives to visit them. So we have decided to give some of them a Christmas to remember."
In 1921 the St Helens trams did not run on Christmas Day to give hard-working transport staff a break. However, in 1971 St Helens Corporation had a limited bus service on the big day with special buses running in the early morning and other reduced services starting around mid-day. Council staff were given Christmas Eve and the Monday (Dec 27th) off – but would return to work on the Tuesday.
In order to combat poor attendance at his Christmas Day services, the Rev. Paul Conder was encouraging whole families to come to church, with the children invited to bring a toy and sing a carol on their own. Writing in his church magazine, the Vicar of Sutton said: "They can bring their favourite present and say “thank you” to Jesus in the crib and they will each receive a little gift from the church."
Hopefully, the crib at the New Street church was still intact on Boxing Day. Last year the Christmas crib outside Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street burst into flames only two hours after being installed – seemingly through arson. And in 1971 thieves targeted the crib in the Casualty Department at St Helens Hospital, with six statues stolen late on Christmas night.
Can you remember what you talked about after eating your Christmas dinner in 1971? No, neither can I – but Howard Travel thought they knew. The Barrow Street travel agents had this ad in the Reporter:
"REMEMBER! – The main talking point after Christmas dinner is “Where shall we go for our summer holidays?”" There was certainly plenty of advice available from Howard Travel and from other agents. Dixons of Baldwin Street were inviting holidaymakers to pick up a free copy of Clarksons 276 page "Summer ’72 Sun Book". They were also agents for Gaytours holidays, which has a somewhat different connotation today!
Talking of emergency chemists' rotas earlier in this article, those allocated Christmas Day duties between 4 and 5pm were Boots in Ormskirk Street and T. A. Ashcroft of Greenfield Road. Then on the 26th, it was P. A. White of North Road and Jacksons of Westfield Street.
Providence Hospital held a Christmas concert each year and in 1971 it was held on Boxing Day at 6.30pm. The town's cinemas were closed on Christmas Day but reopened on the 26th with the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street screening 'Paint Your Wagon' with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood – "Your perfect holiday entertainment", said their ad. Meanwhile the Capitol decided that horror made a good festive genre and screened 'Blood On Satan's Claw' and 'Beast in the Cellar' starring Patrick Wymark and Beryl Reid, respectively. That sounds an odd choice to me but from next week there would be matinee-only performances of 'Black Beauty' starring Mark Lester.
Next week's stories will include Scruffy the lost Thatto Heath dog, the St Helens MP calls for a TV clean up of sex and violence, the Rivoli bingo grocery collection and a family feud continues at a funeral at St Helens Parish Church.
We begin on the 21st in Alice Street in Sutton when a fire ravaged a teenager's bedroom while he was sat downstairs with his father watching TV. Joe Robinson and his 15-year-old son James raised the alarm when they heard the blaze crackling above their heads. Muriel Robinson told the Reporter:
"When I got home, the upstairs room was on fire. My husband and son were running upstairs with buckets of water. The fire destroyed everything in the room except the mattress and a few Christmas presents. It's an awful thing to happen, so near to Christmas. But I'm just thankful no one was hurt."
The Very Reverend Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens, could be a controversial figure, unafraid to speak his mind. Last year the leader of the 36,000 Catholics in St Helens had criticised a book called "Variations on a Sexual Theme" that was intended as a lovemaking aid, saying it was: "….absolutely scandalous and disgraceful. It is part of the wicked society we live in. People may laugh at things like this, but if their daughter gets raped or their wife leaves them they will think again."
Later in the year the Dean criticised the newly created St Helens branch of Alcoholics Anonymous. That was after they'd complained that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the area had attended their inaugural meeting in spite of invitations being despatched. This week Rev. Fitzpatrick delivered his Christmas message from the pulpit of Sacred Heart Church – and it was not well received by ex-servicemen. The Dean launched a blistering attack on the policy of internment of IRA prisoners without trial, labelling it "a disgrace on the British Army" and saying British soldiers were the "instruments of injustice".
Of course, today we might reflect on internment as unwise and counterproductive – but last December the Reporter had talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland. For this December to hear criticism of soldiers was too much for some to bear. One former serviceman in the congregation at Sacred Heart told the St Helens Reporter: "I was amazed and shocked. When he asked us to think of the poor man in Ulster, I expected him to mean British troops. I can't understand how you can have sympathy for terrorists who have caused young soldiers to die."
The days were numbered for the chemists' emergency rota what with the rise of supermarkets and doctors' surgeries closing earlier in the evening. This week it was announced that the nightly service was being reduced from an hour to thirty minutes. The Clerk of the St Helens Executive Council of the NHS explained: "The cuts have been made because public demand has been falling off. Now that most doctors' surgeries close at 6 p.m., we have found that there is not much call for dispensing prescriptions after 6.30pm." However, emergency duty on Sundays and Bank Holidays would still last one hour.
It might be Christmas week but there was not much festive cheer for the Post Office – or at least the bit of it that dealt with telephones. There was a very long waiting list in St Helens as the building of new estates and increasing demand for phones meant the Post Office was constantly having to play catch up. A new exchange was being built in Marshalls Cross and new overhead lines were being installed, which, of course, meant that many telegraph poles had to be sunk.
These and their patchwork of wiring did not improve the environment and led to the Liverpool Echo on the 22nd describing anger in the Boundary Road area over the unsightly siting of poles. "People are very sore about this kind of thing", declared Leslie Spriggs, the town's MP. "Although the poles have been erected between the houses, they are nevertheless right next door to people's windows."
Allan Jones of Virgil Street told the Echo: "They did not even come and ask if they could put up the poles. I am going to seek a cut in rates. I organised a petition about the matter. "There are about 50 houses in the street and 75 per cent of the occupiers signed. I sent the petition to the St. Helens Borough Engineers Department and I understand it was passed on to the Liverpool Telephone Exchange.
"These poles are a hideous monstrosity and I do not want one outside my house. It is less than two yards from my front door and it looks most unsightly." A Post Office spokesman said: "We do not place these poles haphazardly. We take great care in siting them and we had the permission of St. Helens Town Council on their location."
With the rehousing of St Helens' residents involved in slum clearance zones being a priority, it must have been a long wait for others on the council house waiting list.
One way to prune the list was to get applicants to reapply and so the Christmas Eve edition of the Reporter contained this large advert: "Notice To Applicants For Council Dwellings – Applicants on the General Waiting List who still wish to be considered for accommodation must renew their claims by calling at, or communicating with the Housing Department, Century House, during January 1972, as follows:
"Surname Initial A – F 4th to 7th January, Surname Initial G – I 10th to 14th January, Surname Initial M – R 17th to 21st January, Surname Initial S – Z 24th to 26th January. Aged persons can renew their claims at any time during January and these may be done by post. Claims not renewed will be cancelled."
As in 2021, Christmas Day fifty years ago was a Saturday and so all the shops in St Helens closed on the following Monday but reopened for business on the Tuesday. Factories in the town stayed shut until the Wednesday. The days of many firms shutting down for ten days or a fortnight over Christmas and New Year had not yet arrived – apart from at Bold and Sutton Manor collieries. The mineworkers would not be returning to their jobs until January 3rd 1972 – although there was a catch, as explained by a spokesman for the National Coal Board: "The men have earned their long holiday by saving rest-days owing to them."
The final batch of Christmas party photos was printed this week in the Reporter. "Singing cowboy" Jerry Carsen was shown at Parr Oddfellows Hall entertaining the children of employees of Lantor Ltd and Tootal Mens Wear. And the NALGO club in Bishop Road hosted 170 kids whose parents worked at the Borough Engineer's and Water Departments at St Helens. Little Susan Milner was also pictured pulling a cracker with Paul Cunliffe at the Greenall Whitley party.
Nevins would also be presenting £1 vouchers to the mothers of the first five babies. The food store's advert in the feature included an illustration of a beaming baby wearing just a nappy, surrounded by balloons and holding a top hat over its full head of hair and carrying a suitcase. Being a single man I have no experience of the subject but I didn't think babies arrived quite like that! And all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost much more than the canopy!
And the Reporter had this message for pregnant readers desperate to win the contest: "We know babies, like the British weather, are unpredictable, so just cross your fingers and hope your countdown turns out correctly." Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning thirty bob and a voucher or two.
But what did the three St Helens Christmas Day babies win? Nothing really, apart from the prospect of combined birthday / Christmas presents in future years and their picture in the Reporter. The lucky / unlucky babies (all girls) were Sharon McGurk of Napier Street (7lb 12oz) who at 9.10am was the first of the trio to be born in Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital. She was followed at 3.20pm at Whiston Hospital by Claire Burrows of Arbury Avenue, Islands Brow (8lb 9oz) and then three hours later, Jennifer Rucker of Rainhill Road (7lb 7oz) was the third "bonny baby girl" to arrive.
Michael and Margaret Warner from Scholes Lane were praised in the paper for giving up their Christmas Day to provide a dinner for sixty old folk, mainly from Thatto Heath Over 60s Club. The young couple were in charge of the Salvation Army Hall in Nutgrove Road where the dinner was held. Mr Warner said: "A lot of old people find themselves left on their own at Christmas. They stay shut in at home with no relatives to visit them. So we have decided to give some of them a Christmas to remember."
In 1921 the St Helens trams did not run on Christmas Day to give hard-working transport staff a break. However, in 1971 St Helens Corporation had a limited bus service on the big day with special buses running in the early morning and other reduced services starting around mid-day. Council staff were given Christmas Eve and the Monday (Dec 27th) off – but would return to work on the Tuesday.
In order to combat poor attendance at his Christmas Day services, the Rev. Paul Conder was encouraging whole families to come to church, with the children invited to bring a toy and sing a carol on their own. Writing in his church magazine, the Vicar of Sutton said: "They can bring their favourite present and say “thank you” to Jesus in the crib and they will each receive a little gift from the church."
Hopefully, the crib at the New Street church was still intact on Boxing Day. Last year the Christmas crib outside Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street burst into flames only two hours after being installed – seemingly through arson. And in 1971 thieves targeted the crib in the Casualty Department at St Helens Hospital, with six statues stolen late on Christmas night.
Can you remember what you talked about after eating your Christmas dinner in 1971? No, neither can I – but Howard Travel thought they knew. The Barrow Street travel agents had this ad in the Reporter:
"REMEMBER! – The main talking point after Christmas dinner is “Where shall we go for our summer holidays?”" There was certainly plenty of advice available from Howard Travel and from other agents. Dixons of Baldwin Street were inviting holidaymakers to pick up a free copy of Clarksons 276 page "Summer ’72 Sun Book". They were also agents for Gaytours holidays, which has a somewhat different connotation today!
Talking of emergency chemists' rotas earlier in this article, those allocated Christmas Day duties between 4 and 5pm were Boots in Ormskirk Street and T. A. Ashcroft of Greenfield Road. Then on the 26th, it was P. A. White of North Road and Jacksons of Westfield Street.
Providence Hospital held a Christmas concert each year and in 1971 it was held on Boxing Day at 6.30pm. The town's cinemas were closed on Christmas Day but reopened on the 26th with the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street screening 'Paint Your Wagon' with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood – "Your perfect holiday entertainment", said their ad. Meanwhile the Capitol decided that horror made a good festive genre and screened 'Blood On Satan's Claw' and 'Beast in the Cellar' starring Patrick Wymark and Beryl Reid, respectively. That sounds an odd choice to me but from next week there would be matinee-only performances of 'Black Beauty' starring Mark Lester.
Next week's stories will include Scruffy the lost Thatto Heath dog, the St Helens MP calls for a TV clean up of sex and violence, the Rivoli bingo grocery collection and a family feud continues at a funeral at St Helens Parish Church.
This week's stories include the Christmas Day babies and New Year baby contest, fury over intrusive telegraph poles around Boundary Road, how Christmas was spent in St Helens, the New Year scheme to reduce the council house waiting list and the Dean of St Helens upsets ex-soldiers by delivering a fiery Christmas sermon on Northern Ireland.
We begin on the 21st in Alice Street in Sutton when a fire ravaged a teenager's bedroom while he was sat downstairs with his father watching TV.
Joe Robinson and his 15-year-old son James raised the alarm when they heard the blaze crackling above their heads. Muriel Robinson told the Reporter:
"When I got home, the upstairs room was on fire. My husband and son were running upstairs with buckets of water.
"The fire destroyed everything in the room except the mattress and a few Christmas presents. It's an awful thing to happen, so near to Christmas. But I'm just thankful no one was hurt."
The Very Reverend Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens, could be a controversial figure, unafraid to speak his mind.
Last year the leader of the 36,000 Catholics in St Helens had criticised a book called "Variations on a Sexual Theme" that was intended as a lovemaking aid, saying it was:
"….absolutely scandalous and disgraceful. It is part of the wicked society we live in. People may laugh at things like this, but if their daughter gets raped or their wife leaves them they will think again."
Later in the year the Dean criticised the newly created St Helens branch of Alcoholics Anonymous.
That was after they'd complained that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the area had attended their inaugural meeting in spite of invitations having being despatched.
This week Rev. Fitzpatrick delivered his Christmas message from the pulpit of Sacred Heart Church – and it was not well received by ex-servicemen.
The Dean launched a blistering attack on the policy of internment of IRA prisoners without trial, labelling it "a disgrace on the British Army" and saying British soldiers were the "instruments of injustice".
Of course, today we might reflect on internment as unwise and counterproductive – but last December the Reporter had talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland.
For this December to hear criticism of soldiers was too much for some to bear.
One former serviceman in the congregation at Sacred Heart told the St Helens Reporter:
"I was amazed and shocked. When he asked us to think of the poor man in Ulster, I expected him to mean British troops. I can't understand how you can have sympathy for terrorists who have caused young soldiers to die."
The days were numbered for the chemists' emergency rota what with the rise of supermarkets and doctors' surgeries closing earlier in the evening.
This week it was announced that the nightly service was being reduced from an hour to thirty minutes. The Clerk of the St Helens Executive Council of the NHS explained:
"The cuts have been made because public demand has been falling off. Now that most doctors' surgeries close at 6 p.m., we have found that there is not much call for dispensing prescriptions after 6.30pm."
However, emergency duty on Sundays and Bank Holidays would still last one hour.
It might be Christmas week but there was not much festive cheer for the Post Office – or at least the bit of it that dealt with telephones.
There was a very long waiting list in St Helens as the building of new estates and increasing demand for phones meant the Post Office was constantly having to play catch up.
A new exchange was being built in Marshalls Cross and new overhead lines were being installed, which, of course, meant that many telegraph poles had to be sunk.
These and their patchwork of wiring did not improve the environment and led to the Liverpool Echo on the 22nd describing anger in the Boundary Road area over the unsightly siting of poles.
"People are very sore about this kind of thing", declared Leslie Spriggs, the town's MP. "Although the poles have been erected between the houses, they are nevertheless right next door to people's windows."
Allan Jones of Virgil Street told the Echo: "They did not even come and ask if they could put up the poles. I am going to seek a cut in rates. I organised a petition about the matter.
"There are about 50 houses in the street and 75 per cent of the occupiers signed. I sent the petition to the St. Helens Borough Engineers Department and I understand it was passed on to the Liverpool Telephone Exchange.
"These poles are a hideous monstrosity and I do not want one outside my house. It is less than two yards from my front door and it looks most unsightly."
A Post Office spokesman said: "We do not place these poles haphazardly. We take great care in siting them and we had the permission of St. Helens Town Council on their location."
With the rehousing of St Helens' residents involved in slum clearance zones being a priority, it must have been a long wait for others on the council house waiting list.
One way to prune the list was to get applicants to reapply and so the Christmas Eve edition of the Reporter contained this large advert:
"Notice To Applicants For Council Dwellings – Applicants on the General Waiting List who still wish to be considered for accommodation must renew their claims by calling at, or communicating with the Housing Department, Century House, during January 1972, as follows:
"Surname Initial A – F 4th to 7th January, Surname Initial G – I 10th to 14th January, Surname Initial M – R 17th to 21st January, Surname Initial S – Z 24th to 26th January.
"Aged persons can renew their claims at any time during January and these may be done by post. Claims not renewed will be cancelled."
As in 2021, Christmas Day fifty years ago was a Saturday and so all the shops in St Helens closed on the following Monday but reopened for business on the Tuesday.
Factories in the town stayed shut until the Wednesday. The days of many firms shutting down for ten days or a fortnight over Christmas and New Year had not yet arrived – apart from at Bold and Sutton Manor collieries.
The mineworkers would not be returning to their jobs until January 3rd 1972 – although there was a catch, as explained by a spokesman for the National Coal Board:
"The men have earned their long holiday by saving rest-days owing to them."
The final batch of Christmas party photos was printed this week in the Reporter. "Singing cowboy" Jerry Carsen was shown at Parr Oddfellows Hall entertaining the children of employees of Lantor Ltd and Tootal Mens Wear.
And the NALGO club in Bishop Road hosted 170 kids whose parents worked at the Borough Engineer's and Water Departments at St Helens.
Little Susan Milner was also pictured pulling a cracker with Paul Cunliffe at the Greenall Whitley party.
Every Christmas the Reporter ran their "First Baby Contest" with the first twelve "bonny bouncers" born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st set to receive a 30-shilling gift from the paper.
Not exactly a fortune but worth around £20 in today's money – and there were additional gifts on offer.
Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first New Year's baby with a full-size framed photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give a £5 voucher.
Nevins would also be presenting £1 vouchers to the mothers of the first five babies. The food store's advert in the feature included an illustration of a beaming baby wearing just a nappy, surrounded by balloons and holding a top hat over its full head of hair and carrying a suitcase.
Being a single man I have no experience of the subject but I didn't think babies arrived quite like that!
And all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost much more than the canopy!
And the Reporter had this message for pregnant readers desperate to win the contest:
"We know babies, like the British weather, are unpredictable, so just cross your fingers and hope your countdown turns out correctly."
Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning thirty bob and a voucher or two.
But what did the three St Helens Christmas Day babies win? Nothing really, apart from the prospect of combined birthday / Christmas presents in future years and their picture in the Reporter.
The lucky / unlucky babies (all girls) were Sharon McGurk of Napier Street (7lb 12oz) who at 9.10am was the first of the trio to be born in Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital.
She was followed at 3.20pm at Whiston Hospital by Claire Burrows of Arbury Avenue, Islands Brow (8lb 9oz) and then three hours later, Jennifer Rucker of Rainhill Road (7lb 7oz) was the third "bonny baby girl" to arrive.
Michael and Margaret Warner from Scholes Lane were praised in the paper for giving up their Christmas Day to provide a dinner for sixty old folk, mainly from Thatto Heath Over 60s Club.
The young couple were in charge of the Salvation Army Hall in Nutgrove Road where the dinner was held.
Mr Warner said: "A lot of old people find themselves left on their own at Christmas. They stay shut in at home with no relatives to visit them. So we have decided to give some of them a Christmas to remember."
In 1921 the St Helens trams did not run on Christmas Day to give hard-working transport staff a break.
However, in 1971 St Helens Corporation had a limited bus service on the big day with special buses running in the early morning and other reduced services starting around mid-day.
Council staff were given Christmas Eve and the Monday (Dec 27th) off – but would return to work on the Tuesday.
In order to combat poor attendance at his Christmas Day services, the Rev. Paul Conder was encouraging whole families to come to church, with the children invited to bring a toy and sing a carol on their own.
Writing in his church magazine, the Vicar of Sutton said:
"They can bring their favourite present and say “thank you” to Jesus in the crib and they will each receive a little gift from the church."
Hopefully, the crib at the New Street church was still intact on Boxing Day.
Last year the Christmas crib outside Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street burst into flames only two hours after being installed – seemingly through arson.
And in 1971 thieves targeted the crib in the Casualty Department at St Helens Hospital, with six statues stolen late on Christmas night.
Can you remember what you talked about after eating your Christmas dinner in 1971? No, neither can I – but Howard Travel thought they knew. The Barrow Street travel agents had this ad in the Reporter:
"REMEMBER! – The main talking point after Christmas dinner is “Where shall we go for our summer holidays?”"
There was certainly plenty of advice available from Howard Travel and from other agents.
Dixons of Baldwin Street were inviting holidaymakers to pick up a free copy of Clarksons 276 page "Summer ’72 Sun Book".
They were also agents for Gaytours holidays, which has a somewhat different connotation today!
Talking of emergency chemists' rotas earlier in this article, those allocated Christmas Day duties between 4 and 5pm were Boots in Ormskirk Street and T. A. Ashcroft of Greenfield Road.
Then on the 26th, it was P. A. White of North Road and Jacksons of Westfield Street.
Providence Hospital held a Christmas concert each year and in 1971 it was held on Boxing Day at 6.30pm.
The town's cinemas were closed on Christmas Day but reopened on the 26th with the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street screening 'Paint Your Wagon' with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood – "Your perfect holiday entertainment", said their ad.
Meanwhile the Capitol decided that horror made a good festive genre and screened 'Blood On Satan's Claw' and 'Beast in the Cellar' starring Patrick Wymark and Beryl Reid, respectively.
That sounds an odd choice to me but from next week there would be matinee-only performances of 'Black Beauty' starring Mark Lester.
Next week's stories will include Scruffy the lost Thatto Heath dog, the St Helens MP calls for a TV clean up of sex and violence, the Rivoli bingo grocery collection and a family feud continues at a funeral at St Helens Parish Church.
We begin on the 21st in Alice Street in Sutton when a fire ravaged a teenager's bedroom while he was sat downstairs with his father watching TV.
Joe Robinson and his 15-year-old son James raised the alarm when they heard the blaze crackling above their heads. Muriel Robinson told the Reporter:
"When I got home, the upstairs room was on fire. My husband and son were running upstairs with buckets of water.
"The fire destroyed everything in the room except the mattress and a few Christmas presents. It's an awful thing to happen, so near to Christmas. But I'm just thankful no one was hurt."
The Very Reverend Canon Hugh Fitzpatrick, the Dean of St Helens, could be a controversial figure, unafraid to speak his mind.
Last year the leader of the 36,000 Catholics in St Helens had criticised a book called "Variations on a Sexual Theme" that was intended as a lovemaking aid, saying it was:
"….absolutely scandalous and disgraceful. It is part of the wicked society we live in. People may laugh at things like this, but if their daughter gets raped or their wife leaves them they will think again."
Later in the year the Dean criticised the newly created St Helens branch of Alcoholics Anonymous.
That was after they'd complained that none of the forty or so Catholic priests in the area had attended their inaugural meeting in spite of invitations having being despatched.
This week Rev. Fitzpatrick delivered his Christmas message from the pulpit of Sacred Heart Church – and it was not well received by ex-servicemen.
The Dean launched a blistering attack on the policy of internment of IRA prisoners without trial, labelling it "a disgrace on the British Army" and saying British soldiers were the "instruments of injustice".
Of course, today we might reflect on internment as unwise and counterproductive – but last December the Reporter had talked to several St Helens soldiers about their horrific experiences of rioting mobs in Northern Ireland.
For this December to hear criticism of soldiers was too much for some to bear.
One former serviceman in the congregation at Sacred Heart told the St Helens Reporter:
"I was amazed and shocked. When he asked us to think of the poor man in Ulster, I expected him to mean British troops. I can't understand how you can have sympathy for terrorists who have caused young soldiers to die."
The days were numbered for the chemists' emergency rota what with the rise of supermarkets and doctors' surgeries closing earlier in the evening.
This week it was announced that the nightly service was being reduced from an hour to thirty minutes. The Clerk of the St Helens Executive Council of the NHS explained:
"The cuts have been made because public demand has been falling off. Now that most doctors' surgeries close at 6 p.m., we have found that there is not much call for dispensing prescriptions after 6.30pm."
However, emergency duty on Sundays and Bank Holidays would still last one hour.
It might be Christmas week but there was not much festive cheer for the Post Office – or at least the bit of it that dealt with telephones.
There was a very long waiting list in St Helens as the building of new estates and increasing demand for phones meant the Post Office was constantly having to play catch up.
A new exchange was being built in Marshalls Cross and new overhead lines were being installed, which, of course, meant that many telegraph poles had to be sunk.
These and their patchwork of wiring did not improve the environment and led to the Liverpool Echo on the 22nd describing anger in the Boundary Road area over the unsightly siting of poles.
"People are very sore about this kind of thing", declared Leslie Spriggs, the town's MP. "Although the poles have been erected between the houses, they are nevertheless right next door to people's windows."
Allan Jones of Virgil Street told the Echo: "They did not even come and ask if they could put up the poles. I am going to seek a cut in rates. I organised a petition about the matter.
"There are about 50 houses in the street and 75 per cent of the occupiers signed. I sent the petition to the St. Helens Borough Engineers Department and I understand it was passed on to the Liverpool Telephone Exchange.
"These poles are a hideous monstrosity and I do not want one outside my house. It is less than two yards from my front door and it looks most unsightly."
A Post Office spokesman said: "We do not place these poles haphazardly. We take great care in siting them and we had the permission of St. Helens Town Council on their location."
With the rehousing of St Helens' residents involved in slum clearance zones being a priority, it must have been a long wait for others on the council house waiting list.
One way to prune the list was to get applicants to reapply and so the Christmas Eve edition of the Reporter contained this large advert:
"Notice To Applicants For Council Dwellings – Applicants on the General Waiting List who still wish to be considered for accommodation must renew their claims by calling at, or communicating with the Housing Department, Century House, during January 1972, as follows:
"Surname Initial A – F 4th to 7th January, Surname Initial G – I 10th to 14th January, Surname Initial M – R 17th to 21st January, Surname Initial S – Z 24th to 26th January.
"Aged persons can renew their claims at any time during January and these may be done by post. Claims not renewed will be cancelled."
As in 2021, Christmas Day fifty years ago was a Saturday and so all the shops in St Helens closed on the following Monday but reopened for business on the Tuesday.
Factories in the town stayed shut until the Wednesday. The days of many firms shutting down for ten days or a fortnight over Christmas and New Year had not yet arrived – apart from at Bold and Sutton Manor collieries.
The mineworkers would not be returning to their jobs until January 3rd 1972 – although there was a catch, as explained by a spokesman for the National Coal Board:
"The men have earned their long holiday by saving rest-days owing to them."
The final batch of Christmas party photos was printed this week in the Reporter. "Singing cowboy" Jerry Carsen was shown at Parr Oddfellows Hall entertaining the children of employees of Lantor Ltd and Tootal Mens Wear.
And the NALGO club in Bishop Road hosted 170 kids whose parents worked at the Borough Engineer's and Water Departments at St Helens.
Little Susan Milner was also pictured pulling a cracker with Paul Cunliffe at the Greenall Whitley party.
Not exactly a fortune but worth around £20 in today's money – and there were additional gifts on offer.
Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first New Year's baby with a full-size framed photo of her child and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give a £5 voucher.
Nevins would also be presenting £1 vouchers to the mothers of the first five babies. The food store's advert in the feature included an illustration of a beaming baby wearing just a nappy, surrounded by balloons and holding a top hat over its full head of hair and carrying a suitcase.
Being a single man I have no experience of the subject but I didn't think babies arrived quite like that!
And all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a canopy free – although I expect the pram would have cost much more than the canopy!
And the Reporter had this message for pregnant readers desperate to win the contest:
"We know babies, like the British weather, are unpredictable, so just cross your fingers and hope your countdown turns out correctly."
Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning thirty bob and a voucher or two.
But what did the three St Helens Christmas Day babies win? Nothing really, apart from the prospect of combined birthday / Christmas presents in future years and their picture in the Reporter.
The lucky / unlucky babies (all girls) were Sharon McGurk of Napier Street (7lb 12oz) who at 9.10am was the first of the trio to be born in Cowley Hill Maternity Hospital.
She was followed at 3.20pm at Whiston Hospital by Claire Burrows of Arbury Avenue, Islands Brow (8lb 9oz) and then three hours later, Jennifer Rucker of Rainhill Road (7lb 7oz) was the third "bonny baby girl" to arrive.
Michael and Margaret Warner from Scholes Lane were praised in the paper for giving up their Christmas Day to provide a dinner for sixty old folk, mainly from Thatto Heath Over 60s Club.
The young couple were in charge of the Salvation Army Hall in Nutgrove Road where the dinner was held.
Mr Warner said: "A lot of old people find themselves left on their own at Christmas. They stay shut in at home with no relatives to visit them. So we have decided to give some of them a Christmas to remember."
In 1921 the St Helens trams did not run on Christmas Day to give hard-working transport staff a break.
However, in 1971 St Helens Corporation had a limited bus service on the big day with special buses running in the early morning and other reduced services starting around mid-day.
Council staff were given Christmas Eve and the Monday (Dec 27th) off – but would return to work on the Tuesday.
In order to combat poor attendance at his Christmas Day services, the Rev. Paul Conder was encouraging whole families to come to church, with the children invited to bring a toy and sing a carol on their own.
Writing in his church magazine, the Vicar of Sutton said:
"They can bring their favourite present and say “thank you” to Jesus in the crib and they will each receive a little gift from the church."
Hopefully, the crib at the New Street church was still intact on Boxing Day.
Last year the Christmas crib outside Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street burst into flames only two hours after being installed – seemingly through arson.
And in 1971 thieves targeted the crib in the Casualty Department at St Helens Hospital, with six statues stolen late on Christmas night.
Can you remember what you talked about after eating your Christmas dinner in 1971? No, neither can I – but Howard Travel thought they knew. The Barrow Street travel agents had this ad in the Reporter:
"REMEMBER! – The main talking point after Christmas dinner is “Where shall we go for our summer holidays?”"
There was certainly plenty of advice available from Howard Travel and from other agents.
Dixons of Baldwin Street were inviting holidaymakers to pick up a free copy of Clarksons 276 page "Summer ’72 Sun Book".
They were also agents for Gaytours holidays, which has a somewhat different connotation today!
Talking of emergency chemists' rotas earlier in this article, those allocated Christmas Day duties between 4 and 5pm were Boots in Ormskirk Street and T. A. Ashcroft of Greenfield Road.
Then on the 26th, it was P. A. White of North Road and Jacksons of Westfield Street.
Providence Hospital held a Christmas concert each year and in 1971 it was held on Boxing Day at 6.30pm.
The town's cinemas were closed on Christmas Day but reopened on the 26th with the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street screening 'Paint Your Wagon' with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood – "Your perfect holiday entertainment", said their ad.
Meanwhile the Capitol decided that horror made a good festive genre and screened 'Blood On Satan's Claw' and 'Beast in the Cellar' starring Patrick Wymark and Beryl Reid, respectively.
That sounds an odd choice to me but from next week there would be matinee-only performances of 'Black Beauty' starring Mark Lester.
Next week's stories will include Scruffy the lost Thatto Heath dog, the St Helens MP calls for a TV clean up of sex and violence, the Rivoli bingo grocery collection and a family feud continues at a funeral at St Helens Parish Church.