FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 21 - 27 APRIL 1975
This week's many stories include the shop buying frenzy to beat a hike in VAT, a worshipper's handbag is stolen from a church pew while she knelt at the altar, why a trade union was praising Rockware Glass, the graveyard desecration in Eccleston and the baby delivered by ambulancemen outside Whiston Hospital.
We begin on the 21st when Windle Parish Council was due to hold its monthly meeting at Bleak Hill Primary School in Hamilton Road. The councillors turned up but were left out in the cold as the building was locked up. A spokesman at St Helens Town Hall put the cock-up down to two caretakers getting ill. He explained that the regular caretaker had been off sick. His stand-in deputy had also gone on sick leave and his replacement had not been told about the meeting.
Harry Corbett returned to the Theatre Royal for a week from the 21st with his show that for 1975 was being called 'Laugh With Sooty', with "giggles from Soo & Sweep".
On the 23rd there was a reminder of the days when people routinely had autograph books and the word "selfie" was unknown. On that day football stars Ian Callaghan and Derek Dougan made a two-hour visit to Preedy's newsagents in St Helens town centre to promote their autobiographies. Many an autograph was reported to have been signed.
On the 25th St Helens magistrates closed Derbyshire Hill Labour Club for a year after police complaints of mismanagement and debt. The club owed Greenall Whitley £50,000 and the prosecuting solicitor claimed that the sole function of its committee had been to collect money from the club's fruit machines. Although its licence was now cancelled, they would have an opportunity to apply to have it restored next year.
The St Helens Reporter's front-page lead story on the 25th began: "Panic buying roared through St. Helens this week as shoppers scrambled to beat the May Day deadline on pre-Budget prices. Up to yesterday, shoppers were swooping on televisions, radios and washing machines before VAT goes up, on many items, in five days' time."
Denis Healey's April 15th budget had raised income tax by 2% and changes to duty had put beer up by 2p, wine was increased by 24p and spirits had gone up up by 64p. But the biggest change was to VAT, with the higher 25% rate being applied to most domestic electrical appliances in place of the 8% basic rate.
However, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a mistake. Today such changes would take place rapidly but Healey decided not to implement them until May 1st, giving shoppers over a fortnight to buy items at pre-budget prices. Electrical dealer Harold Stott of Westfield Street told the Reporter that they had never had it so good in such a short space of time:
"There has been a tremendous boom in sales of high-class audio systems. It is even better than Christmas. But we must accept that there will be an inevitable slackening off after May 1." And Currys electrical shop in the new Church Street precinct said they were completely sold out of washing machines and refrigerators. Manager Kenneth Sinclair said:
"It has been fantastic. Far better than Christmas. Our warehouses are pushing out orders as quickly as possible. Shoppers are buying kettles, irons and toasters, all in one go." And at Lennons supermarkets and off-licences, families had been spending up to £30 a time on beer and spirits and a lot of champagne was also being bought.
A spokesman for Helena House in Baldwin Street told the Reporter: "All the people who had intended buying electrical goods this year have bought them now before the increased VAT is added. Now they realise that they can make big savings on the larger items." And May Spencer, the manageress of Ashe and Nephew's wine and spirits shop at Carr Mill, said customers had cleared her shelves of whiskey and people were even stocking up with liqueurs for Christmas.
Anne Armstrong and her baby Sharon were pictured in the Reporter after the 18-year-old from Beth Avenue in Sutton had given birth in an ambulance outside Whiston Hospital. Ambulancemen Mike Neve and Les Parks found themselves forced to deliver the 8lb 6oz baby, as Les told the Reporter:
"There was nothing we could do about it, and we delivered the baby as we pulled up at the hospital steps. She wasn't going to wait for anybody." In thanking the men Mrs Armstrong said: "I think they did just as well as a midwife would have. They were really smashing, and I think I got just as good of treatment from them as I would have in the hospital. I would just like to say thank you very much."
The Reporter described how the Capitol Cinema had introduced a scheme in which parents were being allowed to attend the Saturday children's matinee for free. Manager Howard Hookham said: "We are inviting parents along to see how we look after their kids, and they are enjoying it as much as the kids. The audience at the Saturday before last was the biggest we've had for a year." Last Saturday seventy parents and 650 children had attended the cinema, although the scheme would soon end.
Rockware Glass (pictured above), like many other St Helens firms, was suffering badly from the economic crisis in the country. A decline in orders had led to a cut in production by 30%. But, instead of laying off workers, they were deploying them onto other jobs such as cleaning and painting the factory in Pocket Nook.
And they were earning rare praise from unions. The ASTMS staff union said: "We appreciate the efforts that have been made in not laying men off, like other firms have done. Some firms take the easiest way out and lay people off. But they've [Rockware] been very reasonable."
The Reporter had a dreadful story of a pensioner's handbag being stolen from a church pew while she was kneeling at the altar receiving Holy Communion. Catharine Lohan came from St Helens but after getting married had moved to Kent with her husband after he had been offered work. Mrs Lohan was now a widow and said:
"Down in Kent everyone leaves their handbags on the pews when they take Communion. I never dreamt something would happen like this in St. Helens." The theft had taken place at Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street while Mrs Lohan was staying in the town visiting relatives. Inside the handbag had been £45 and many possessions, including family pictures. Mrs Lohan told the Reporter:
"It's not really the money that I'm worried about. It's all my personal possessions I had in the bag. I know that the person who took my bag will not return the money but I appeal to them to return my pension book, the birth certificates and photo's. I was only gone from the seat for about three minutes. It came as a terrible blow to learn that someone would steal from inside a church."
In a separate story the Reporter described how tombs in a burial ground in Hewitt Avenue had been smashed and broken by young vandals as they walked through the cemetery on their way home from school. Rubbish was also being dumped there and graffiti written on headstones. John Lally, of nearby Ellison Drive, said:
"The sacrilegious way in which the graveyard is being used is appalling and disgusting. Walking around the cemetery recently with my young son, Sean, I saw a woman get out of a car and dump an old carpet over one of the graves. On several occasions I've seen people come into the graveyard and take away stones, probably for use in their garden rockeries." The cemetery had since 1887 been used by St Thomas' Church in Westfield Street but no burials had taken place there since 1960.
There was by today's standards an offensive photo in the Reporter of members of St Teresa's Choir who had staged their own version of the Black and White Minstrel Show. The children's blackened faces had been far more exaggerated than in the TV version.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 27th, 'Freebie and the Bean' starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, was replaced by 'Death Wish' starring Charles Bronson. And the Capitol retained 'Dirty Mary – Crazy Larry', starring Peter Fonda and Susan George for a second week "by public demand".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the orgy of destruction that took place in College Street, St Helens is deemed a great place to retire, BICC changes its name and a report on the Blackbrook and Billinge schools for disturbed adolescents.
We begin on the 21st when Windle Parish Council was due to hold its monthly meeting at Bleak Hill Primary School in Hamilton Road. The councillors turned up but were left out in the cold as the building was locked up. A spokesman at St Helens Town Hall put the cock-up down to two caretakers getting ill. He explained that the regular caretaker had been off sick. His stand-in deputy had also gone on sick leave and his replacement had not been told about the meeting.
Harry Corbett returned to the Theatre Royal for a week from the 21st with his show that for 1975 was being called 'Laugh With Sooty', with "giggles from Soo & Sweep".
On the 23rd there was a reminder of the days when people routinely had autograph books and the word "selfie" was unknown. On that day football stars Ian Callaghan and Derek Dougan made a two-hour visit to Preedy's newsagents in St Helens town centre to promote their autobiographies. Many an autograph was reported to have been signed.
On the 25th St Helens magistrates closed Derbyshire Hill Labour Club for a year after police complaints of mismanagement and debt. The club owed Greenall Whitley £50,000 and the prosecuting solicitor claimed that the sole function of its committee had been to collect money from the club's fruit machines. Although its licence was now cancelled, they would have an opportunity to apply to have it restored next year.
The St Helens Reporter's front-page lead story on the 25th began: "Panic buying roared through St. Helens this week as shoppers scrambled to beat the May Day deadline on pre-Budget prices. Up to yesterday, shoppers were swooping on televisions, radios and washing machines before VAT goes up, on many items, in five days' time."
Denis Healey's April 15th budget had raised income tax by 2% and changes to duty had put beer up by 2p, wine was increased by 24p and spirits had gone up up by 64p. But the biggest change was to VAT, with the higher 25% rate being applied to most domestic electrical appliances in place of the 8% basic rate.
However, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a mistake. Today such changes would take place rapidly but Healey decided not to implement them until May 1st, giving shoppers over a fortnight to buy items at pre-budget prices. Electrical dealer Harold Stott of Westfield Street told the Reporter that they had never had it so good in such a short space of time:
"There has been a tremendous boom in sales of high-class audio systems. It is even better than Christmas. But we must accept that there will be an inevitable slackening off after May 1." And Currys electrical shop in the new Church Street precinct said they were completely sold out of washing machines and refrigerators. Manager Kenneth Sinclair said:
"It has been fantastic. Far better than Christmas. Our warehouses are pushing out orders as quickly as possible. Shoppers are buying kettles, irons and toasters, all in one go." And at Lennons supermarkets and off-licences, families had been spending up to £30 a time on beer and spirits and a lot of champagne was also being bought.
A spokesman for Helena House in Baldwin Street told the Reporter: "All the people who had intended buying electrical goods this year have bought them now before the increased VAT is added. Now they realise that they can make big savings on the larger items." And May Spencer, the manageress of Ashe and Nephew's wine and spirits shop at Carr Mill, said customers had cleared her shelves of whiskey and people were even stocking up with liqueurs for Christmas.
Anne Armstrong and her baby Sharon were pictured in the Reporter after the 18-year-old from Beth Avenue in Sutton had given birth in an ambulance outside Whiston Hospital. Ambulancemen Mike Neve and Les Parks found themselves forced to deliver the 8lb 6oz baby, as Les told the Reporter:
"There was nothing we could do about it, and we delivered the baby as we pulled up at the hospital steps. She wasn't going to wait for anybody." In thanking the men Mrs Armstrong said: "I think they did just as well as a midwife would have. They were really smashing, and I think I got just as good of treatment from them as I would have in the hospital. I would just like to say thank you very much."
The Reporter described how the Capitol Cinema had introduced a scheme in which parents were being allowed to attend the Saturday children's matinee for free. Manager Howard Hookham said: "We are inviting parents along to see how we look after their kids, and they are enjoying it as much as the kids. The audience at the Saturday before last was the biggest we've had for a year." Last Saturday seventy parents and 650 children had attended the cinema, although the scheme would soon end.
And they were earning rare praise from unions. The ASTMS staff union said: "We appreciate the efforts that have been made in not laying men off, like other firms have done. Some firms take the easiest way out and lay people off. But they've [Rockware] been very reasonable."
The Reporter had a dreadful story of a pensioner's handbag being stolen from a church pew while she was kneeling at the altar receiving Holy Communion. Catharine Lohan came from St Helens but after getting married had moved to Kent with her husband after he had been offered work. Mrs Lohan was now a widow and said:
"Down in Kent everyone leaves their handbags on the pews when they take Communion. I never dreamt something would happen like this in St. Helens." The theft had taken place at Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street while Mrs Lohan was staying in the town visiting relatives. Inside the handbag had been £45 and many possessions, including family pictures. Mrs Lohan told the Reporter:
"It's not really the money that I'm worried about. It's all my personal possessions I had in the bag. I know that the person who took my bag will not return the money but I appeal to them to return my pension book, the birth certificates and photo's. I was only gone from the seat for about three minutes. It came as a terrible blow to learn that someone would steal from inside a church."
In a separate story the Reporter described how tombs in a burial ground in Hewitt Avenue had been smashed and broken by young vandals as they walked through the cemetery on their way home from school. Rubbish was also being dumped there and graffiti written on headstones. John Lally, of nearby Ellison Drive, said:
"The sacrilegious way in which the graveyard is being used is appalling and disgusting. Walking around the cemetery recently with my young son, Sean, I saw a woman get out of a car and dump an old carpet over one of the graves. On several occasions I've seen people come into the graveyard and take away stones, probably for use in their garden rockeries." The cemetery had since 1887 been used by St Thomas' Church in Westfield Street but no burials had taken place there since 1960.
There was by today's standards an offensive photo in the Reporter of members of St Teresa's Choir who had staged their own version of the Black and White Minstrel Show. The children's blackened faces had been far more exaggerated than in the TV version.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 27th, 'Freebie and the Bean' starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, was replaced by 'Death Wish' starring Charles Bronson. And the Capitol retained 'Dirty Mary – Crazy Larry', starring Peter Fonda and Susan George for a second week "by public demand".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the orgy of destruction that took place in College Street, St Helens is deemed a great place to retire, BICC changes its name and a report on the Blackbrook and Billinge schools for disturbed adolescents.
This week's many stories include the shop buying frenzy to beat a hike in VAT, a worshipper's handbag is stolen from a church pew while she knelt at the altar, why a trade union was praising Rockware Glass, the graveyard desecration in Eccleston and the baby delivered by ambulancemen outside Whiston Hospital.
We begin on the 21st when Windle Parish Council was due to hold its monthly meeting at Bleak Hill Primary School in Hamilton Road.
The councillors turned up but were left out in the cold as the building was locked up.
A spokesman at St Helens Town Hall put the cock-up down to two caretakers getting ill.
He explained that the regular caretaker had been off sick. His stand-in deputy had also gone on sick leave and his replacement had not been told about the meeting.
Harry Corbett returned to the Theatre Royal for a week from the 21st with his show that for 1975 was being called 'Laugh With Sooty', with "giggles from Soo & Sweep".
On the 23rd there was a reminder of the days when people routinely had autograph books and the word "selfie" was unknown.
On that day football stars Ian Callaghan and Derek Dougan made a two-hour visit to Preedy's newsagents in St Helens town centre to promote their autobiographies. Many an autograph was reported to have been signed.
On the 25th St Helens magistrates closed Derbyshire Hill Labour Club for a year after police complaints of mismanagement and debt.
The club owed Greenall Whitley £50,000 and the prosecuting solicitor claimed that the sole function of its committee had been to collect money from the club's fruit machines.
Although its licence was now cancelled, they would have an opportunity to apply to have it restored next year.
The St Helens Reporter's front-page lead story on the 25th began:
"Panic buying roared through St. Helens this week as shoppers scrambled to beat the May Day deadline on pre-Budget prices.
"Up to yesterday, shoppers were swooping on televisions, radios and washing machines before VAT goes up, on many items, in five days' time."
Denis Healey's April 15th budget had raised income tax by 2% and changes to duty had put beer up by 2p, wine was increased by 24p and spirits had gone up up by 64p.
But the biggest change was to VAT, with the higher 25% rate being applied to most domestic electrical appliances in place of the 8% basic rate.
However, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a mistake. Today such changes would take place rapidly but Healey decided not to implement them until May 1st, giving shoppers over a fortnight to buy items at pre-budget prices.
Electrical dealer Harold Stott of Westfield Street told the Reporter that they had never had it so good in such a short space of time:
"There has been a tremendous boom in sales of high-class audio systems. It is even better than Christmas. But we must accept that there will be an inevitable slackening off after May 1."
And Currys electrical shop in the new Church Street precinct said they were completely sold out of washing machines and refrigerators. Manager Kenneth Sinclair said:
"It has been fantastic. Far better than Christmas. Our warehouses are pushing out orders as quickly as possible. Shoppers are buying kettles, irons and toasters, all in one go."
And at Lennons supermarkets and off-licences, families had been spending up to £30 a time on beer and spirits and a lot of champagne was also being bought.
A spokesman for Helena House in Baldwin Street told the Reporter:
"All the people who had intended buying electrical goods this year have bought them now before the increased VAT is added. Now they realise that they can make big savings on the larger items."
And May Spencer, the manageress of Ashe and Nephew's wine and spirits shop at Carr Mill, said customers had cleared her shelves of whiskey and people were even stocking up with liqueurs for Christmas.
Anne Armstrong and her baby Sharon were pictured in the Reporter after the 18-year-old from Beth Avenue in Sutton had given birth in an ambulance outside Whiston Hospital.
Ambulancemen Mike Neve and Les Parks found themselves forced to deliver the 8lb 6oz baby, as Les told the Reporter:
"There was nothing we could do about it, and we delivered the baby as we pulled up at the hospital steps. She wasn't going to wait for anybody."
In thanking the men Mrs Armstrong said: "I think they did just as well as a midwife would have. They were really smashing, and I think I got just as good of treatment from them as I would have in the hospital. I would just like to say thank you very much."
The Reporter described how the Capitol Cinema had introduced a scheme in which parents were being allowed to attend the Saturday children's matinee for free. Manager Howard Hookham said:
"We are inviting parents along to see how we look after their kids, and they are enjoying it as much as the kids. The audience at the Saturday before last was the biggest we've had for a year."
Last Saturday seventy parents and 650 children had attended the cinema, although the scheme would soon end.
Rockware Glass (pictured above), like many other St Helens firms, was suffering badly from the economic crisis in the country.
A decline in orders had led to a cut in production by 30%. But, instead of laying off workers, they were deploying them onto other jobs such as cleaning and painting the factory in Pocket Nook.
And they were earning rare praise from unions. The ASTMS staff union said: "We appreciate the efforts that have been made in not laying men off, like other firms have done. Some firms take the easiest way out and lay people off. But they've [Rockware] been very reasonable."
The Reporter had a dreadful story of a pensioner's handbag being stolen from a church pew while she was kneeling at the altar receiving Holy Communion.
Catharine Lohan came from St Helens but after getting married had moved to Kent with her husband after he had been offered work. Mrs Lohan was now a widow and said:
"Down in Kent everyone leaves their handbags on the pews when they take Communion. I never dreamt something would happen like this in St. Helens."
The theft had taken place at Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street while Mrs Lohan was staying in the town visiting relatives.
Inside the handbag had been £45 and many possessions, including family pictures. Mrs Lohan told the Reporter:
"It's not really the money that I'm worried about. It's all my personal possessions I had in the bag. I know that the person who took my bag will not return the money but I appeal to them to return my pension book, the birth certificates and photo's.
"I was only gone from the seat for about three minutes. It came as a terrible blow to learn that someone would steal from inside a church."
In a separate story the Reporter described how tombs in a burial ground in Hewitt Avenue had been smashed and broken by young vandals as they walked through the cemetery on their way home from school.
Rubbish was also being dumped there and graffiti written on headstones. John Lally, of nearby Ellison Drive, said:
"The sacrilegious way in which the graveyard is being used is appalling and disgusting. Walking around the cemetery recently with my young son, Sean, I saw a woman get out of a car and dump an old carpet over one of the graves.
"On several occasions I've seen people come into the graveyard and take away stones, probably for use in their garden rockeries."
The cemetery had since 1887 been used by St Thomas' Church in Westfield Street but no burials had taken place there since 1960.
There was by today's standards an offensive photo in the Reporter of members of St Teresa's Choir who had staged their own version of the Black and White Minstrel Show.
The children's blackened faces had been far more exaggerated than in the TV version.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 27th, 'Freebie and the Bean' starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, was replaced by 'Death Wish' starring Charles Bronson.
And the Capitol retained 'Dirty Mary – Crazy Larry', starring Peter Fonda and Susan George for a second week "by public demand".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the orgy of destruction that took place in College Street, St Helens is deemed a great place to retire, BICC changes its name and a report on the Blackbrook and Billinge schools for disturbed adolescents.
We begin on the 21st when Windle Parish Council was due to hold its monthly meeting at Bleak Hill Primary School in Hamilton Road.
The councillors turned up but were left out in the cold as the building was locked up.
A spokesman at St Helens Town Hall put the cock-up down to two caretakers getting ill.
He explained that the regular caretaker had been off sick. His stand-in deputy had also gone on sick leave and his replacement had not been told about the meeting.
Harry Corbett returned to the Theatre Royal for a week from the 21st with his show that for 1975 was being called 'Laugh With Sooty', with "giggles from Soo & Sweep".
On the 23rd there was a reminder of the days when people routinely had autograph books and the word "selfie" was unknown.
On that day football stars Ian Callaghan and Derek Dougan made a two-hour visit to Preedy's newsagents in St Helens town centre to promote their autobiographies. Many an autograph was reported to have been signed.
On the 25th St Helens magistrates closed Derbyshire Hill Labour Club for a year after police complaints of mismanagement and debt.
The club owed Greenall Whitley £50,000 and the prosecuting solicitor claimed that the sole function of its committee had been to collect money from the club's fruit machines.
Although its licence was now cancelled, they would have an opportunity to apply to have it restored next year.
The St Helens Reporter's front-page lead story on the 25th began:
"Panic buying roared through St. Helens this week as shoppers scrambled to beat the May Day deadline on pre-Budget prices.
"Up to yesterday, shoppers were swooping on televisions, radios and washing machines before VAT goes up, on many items, in five days' time."
Denis Healey's April 15th budget had raised income tax by 2% and changes to duty had put beer up by 2p, wine was increased by 24p and spirits had gone up up by 64p.
But the biggest change was to VAT, with the higher 25% rate being applied to most domestic electrical appliances in place of the 8% basic rate.
However, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a mistake. Today such changes would take place rapidly but Healey decided not to implement them until May 1st, giving shoppers over a fortnight to buy items at pre-budget prices.
Electrical dealer Harold Stott of Westfield Street told the Reporter that they had never had it so good in such a short space of time:
"There has been a tremendous boom in sales of high-class audio systems. It is even better than Christmas. But we must accept that there will be an inevitable slackening off after May 1."
And Currys electrical shop in the new Church Street precinct said they were completely sold out of washing machines and refrigerators. Manager Kenneth Sinclair said:
"It has been fantastic. Far better than Christmas. Our warehouses are pushing out orders as quickly as possible. Shoppers are buying kettles, irons and toasters, all in one go."
And at Lennons supermarkets and off-licences, families had been spending up to £30 a time on beer and spirits and a lot of champagne was also being bought.
A spokesman for Helena House in Baldwin Street told the Reporter:
"All the people who had intended buying electrical goods this year have bought them now before the increased VAT is added. Now they realise that they can make big savings on the larger items."
And May Spencer, the manageress of Ashe and Nephew's wine and spirits shop at Carr Mill, said customers had cleared her shelves of whiskey and people were even stocking up with liqueurs for Christmas.
Anne Armstrong and her baby Sharon were pictured in the Reporter after the 18-year-old from Beth Avenue in Sutton had given birth in an ambulance outside Whiston Hospital.
Ambulancemen Mike Neve and Les Parks found themselves forced to deliver the 8lb 6oz baby, as Les told the Reporter:
"There was nothing we could do about it, and we delivered the baby as we pulled up at the hospital steps. She wasn't going to wait for anybody."
In thanking the men Mrs Armstrong said: "I think they did just as well as a midwife would have. They were really smashing, and I think I got just as good of treatment from them as I would have in the hospital. I would just like to say thank you very much."
The Reporter described how the Capitol Cinema had introduced a scheme in which parents were being allowed to attend the Saturday children's matinee for free. Manager Howard Hookham said:
"We are inviting parents along to see how we look after their kids, and they are enjoying it as much as the kids. The audience at the Saturday before last was the biggest we've had for a year."
Last Saturday seventy parents and 650 children had attended the cinema, although the scheme would soon end.
A decline in orders had led to a cut in production by 30%. But, instead of laying off workers, they were deploying them onto other jobs such as cleaning and painting the factory in Pocket Nook.
And they were earning rare praise from unions. The ASTMS staff union said: "We appreciate the efforts that have been made in not laying men off, like other firms have done. Some firms take the easiest way out and lay people off. But they've [Rockware] been very reasonable."
The Reporter had a dreadful story of a pensioner's handbag being stolen from a church pew while she was kneeling at the altar receiving Holy Communion.
Catharine Lohan came from St Helens but after getting married had moved to Kent with her husband after he had been offered work. Mrs Lohan was now a widow and said:
"Down in Kent everyone leaves their handbags on the pews when they take Communion. I never dreamt something would happen like this in St. Helens."
The theft had taken place at Holy Cross Church in Corporation Street while Mrs Lohan was staying in the town visiting relatives.
Inside the handbag had been £45 and many possessions, including family pictures. Mrs Lohan told the Reporter:
"It's not really the money that I'm worried about. It's all my personal possessions I had in the bag. I know that the person who took my bag will not return the money but I appeal to them to return my pension book, the birth certificates and photo's.
"I was only gone from the seat for about three minutes. It came as a terrible blow to learn that someone would steal from inside a church."
In a separate story the Reporter described how tombs in a burial ground in Hewitt Avenue had been smashed and broken by young vandals as they walked through the cemetery on their way home from school.
Rubbish was also being dumped there and graffiti written on headstones. John Lally, of nearby Ellison Drive, said:
"The sacrilegious way in which the graveyard is being used is appalling and disgusting. Walking around the cemetery recently with my young son, Sean, I saw a woman get out of a car and dump an old carpet over one of the graves.
"On several occasions I've seen people come into the graveyard and take away stones, probably for use in their garden rockeries."
The cemetery had since 1887 been used by St Thomas' Church in Westfield Street but no burials had taken place there since 1960.
There was by today's standards an offensive photo in the Reporter of members of St Teresa's Choir who had staged their own version of the Black and White Minstrel Show.
The children's blackened faces had been far more exaggerated than in the TV version.
At the ABC Savoy cinema from the 27th, 'Freebie and the Bean' starring James Caan and Alan Arkin, was replaced by 'Death Wish' starring Charles Bronson.
And the Capitol retained 'Dirty Mary – Crazy Larry', starring Peter Fonda and Susan George for a second week "by public demand".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the orgy of destruction that took place in College Street, St Helens is deemed a great place to retire, BICC changes its name and a report on the Blackbrook and Billinge schools for disturbed adolescents.