FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 21 - 27 JULY 1975
This week's many stories include the backbreaking suit of armour at the St Helens Show, why Fredericks ice cream vans were boycotting the Show, TV comic Stevie Faye entertains kids at the YMCA, the golfers causing a nuisance in Eccleston and the public inquiry into the council's plans to demolish 251 homes in Thatto Heath.
At the beginning of the month Pilkington's had make the shock announcement that they were closing their Ravenhead works with the loss of several hundred jobs. The television glassware factory was believed to be losing £400,000 a month and the government had rejected Pilks' application for a temporary employment subsidy. But the workforce was not prepared to see their plant shut down without a fight.
A Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed and they were distributing 15,000 leaflets round the town, as well as to visitors at the St Helens Show. On the 21st the committee met union representatives from Thorn Colour Tubes in Skelmersdale and they agreed to send telegrams calling for emergency meetings to be set up involving Pilkingtons, Thorn, unions and government officials to try and resolve the crisis.
Also on the 21st TV comic Stevie Faye was the guest at the first meeting of a summer day care centre for children of single parent families. The St Helens branch of the Gingerbread Group had obtained the services of one of the stars of The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club to entertain the 25 kids. The Reporter said that within seconds of entering the YMCA Gymnasium in North Road, Stevie had reduced the children to helpless laughter with his clowning and jokes.
On the 22nd St Helens Planning Committee agreed that motorists that returned late to the car parks at the Tontine or St Mary's Market should have to pay a call-out fee to reclaim their cars. Currently those that took no notice of the warning notices about closing times and found their vehicles locked in, often complained to the police who had to arrange for an emergency opening. No charge was presently being made but £2 would have to be paid in future.
Every few months for the past few years, St Helens Corporation would issue compulsory purchase orders on houses that were deemed unfit to live in. Understandably some people didn't appreciate losing the homes that they'd occupied for many years – in spite of the poor state that a lot were in and so appealed against the orders to the Government. A public inquiry was then held at St Helens Town Hall and an inspector would hear the evidence, inspect some houses himself and then later report back with his decision, which almost always went in favour of the Corporation.
On the 22nd a public inquiry was held at the Town Hall into the council's plans to demolish 251 homes in Thatto Heath. These were mainly situated in Elephant Lane but also in the surrounding streets of Sandon Street, Cairne Street, Balmer Street, Carnarvon Street, Leicester Street and Parliament Street. Sixty residents were present at the inquiry to object to the proposals.
Most of the houses were built before 1900 and Elsie Robinson of Elephant Lane was one of many residents present who insisted that a lot of the properties had been modernised by their occupants and could not by any stretch of the imagination be deemed unfit. They would now have to wait two or three months for the inspector's decision but could expect the worst outcome.
On the 24th the latest unemployment figures for St Helens were released and revealed a rise of 1,000 over the past month. Currently, 4,617 persons were out of work, with the Employment Agency attributing the increase to students registering for the summer, along with a reduction in vacancies. The number of workers out of a job was likely to go up even further if those employed at Pilks' Ravenhead works were made redundant.
The 3-day St Helens Show began on the 24th but a stunt involving a suit of armour had to be cancelled. Museum assistant Will McCooey was due to walk in the suit of armour from the town to Sherdley Park – but he only managed 20 yards. "It weighed a ton, and we had to get it there in a day," said Will. "I would still have been walking there three days after the show finished, so we decided it would be best to take it on the van."
Frederick's ice-cream firm was boycotting the show because of a 40% increase in rent. Last year the firm had 13 of the 20 ice-cream vans that were allowed on the showground and said with the increase they would have had to pay an extra £130. That, Philip Frederick insisted would have meant they'd have needed to increase their prices which could have damaged their reputation: "We are a local firm and have a good name in St. Helens. We didn't want people to say we had increased our prices just because of the show." Christine Cardwell of Church Road in Rainford was this year's Show Queen.
A woman described as a gypsy and who had been evicted from a site in Southport Street in Parr along with her ten children, told the St Helens Reporter on the 25th that the council was "callous and unfeeling". Theresa Morhan explained that she had been forced to stop at the local authority's tipping site because of illness after the birth of her 11th child two days before. The baby had died an hour after being born two months prematurely in a Liverpool Hospital. Mrs Morhan said:
"This was the first site we came to after leaving Liverpool. I had to stop because I couldn't go on any further – I was feeling so ill." It does sound as if the woman had discharged herself early from the hospital but later the family found room on a caravan site outside Newton-le-Willows.
It was revealed by the Reporter that 400 sacks of clothing had been collected in St Helens for Help The Aged, which would be shipped overseas for the needy.
Harry Partington of Kiln Lane was complaining in the paper about golfers practicing their shots on Eccleston's playing fields. The 70-year-old said he kept finding balls in his back garden and had been almost struck by one whilst gardening. Mr Partington said he challenged one of the golfers who said there were no signs up forbidding the playing of the sport. Eccleston Parish Councillor Tom McCormack said as a result such signs would now be installed.
Harold Stott had been the service manager at Rothery Radio since 1948 before starting his own TV and radio firm in a tiny shop in Liverpool Road in 1961. Initially he worked up to 16 hours a day to try and make his business a success and in 1963 was able to move to better premises in Westfield Street. Mr Stott now had a booming business with a staff of 26 and a £300,000 a year turnover and in 1973 he'd sold all the shares in his shop to a Liverpool company called George Sturia & Son for £150,000.
That's over £2 million in today's money, although Mr Stott remained as managing director of the firm. In this week's Reporter the 64-year-old from Moss Bank Road announced his retirement and said he would now have more time to spend as a director of Saints.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the row at Moss Lane over Ray French, Greenall's announce the closure date of their St Helens brewery, the Eccleston woman who lost nearly 30 stone in weight and concern over the dangers of Sutton Mill Dam.
At the beginning of the month Pilkington's had make the shock announcement that they were closing their Ravenhead works with the loss of several hundred jobs. The television glassware factory was believed to be losing £400,000 a month and the government had rejected Pilks' application for a temporary employment subsidy. But the workforce was not prepared to see their plant shut down without a fight.
A Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed and they were distributing 15,000 leaflets round the town, as well as to visitors at the St Helens Show. On the 21st the committee met union representatives from Thorn Colour Tubes in Skelmersdale and they agreed to send telegrams calling for emergency meetings to be set up involving Pilkingtons, Thorn, unions and government officials to try and resolve the crisis.
Also on the 21st TV comic Stevie Faye was the guest at the first meeting of a summer day care centre for children of single parent families. The St Helens branch of the Gingerbread Group had obtained the services of one of the stars of The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club to entertain the 25 kids. The Reporter said that within seconds of entering the YMCA Gymnasium in North Road, Stevie had reduced the children to helpless laughter with his clowning and jokes.
Every few months for the past few years, St Helens Corporation would issue compulsory purchase orders on houses that were deemed unfit to live in. Understandably some people didn't appreciate losing the homes that they'd occupied for many years – in spite of the poor state that a lot were in and so appealed against the orders to the Government. A public inquiry was then held at St Helens Town Hall and an inspector would hear the evidence, inspect some houses himself and then later report back with his decision, which almost always went in favour of the Corporation.
On the 22nd a public inquiry was held at the Town Hall into the council's plans to demolish 251 homes in Thatto Heath. These were mainly situated in Elephant Lane but also in the surrounding streets of Sandon Street, Cairne Street, Balmer Street, Carnarvon Street, Leicester Street and Parliament Street. Sixty residents were present at the inquiry to object to the proposals.
Most of the houses were built before 1900 and Elsie Robinson of Elephant Lane was one of many residents present who insisted that a lot of the properties had been modernised by their occupants and could not by any stretch of the imagination be deemed unfit. They would now have to wait two or three months for the inspector's decision but could expect the worst outcome.
On the 24th the latest unemployment figures for St Helens were released and revealed a rise of 1,000 over the past month. Currently, 4,617 persons were out of work, with the Employment Agency attributing the increase to students registering for the summer, along with a reduction in vacancies. The number of workers out of a job was likely to go up even further if those employed at Pilks' Ravenhead works were made redundant.
The 3-day St Helens Show began on the 24th but a stunt involving a suit of armour had to be cancelled. Museum assistant Will McCooey was due to walk in the suit of armour from the town to Sherdley Park – but he only managed 20 yards. "It weighed a ton, and we had to get it there in a day," said Will. "I would still have been walking there three days after the show finished, so we decided it would be best to take it on the van."
Frederick's ice-cream firm was boycotting the show because of a 40% increase in rent. Last year the firm had 13 of the 20 ice-cream vans that were allowed on the showground and said with the increase they would have had to pay an extra £130. That, Philip Frederick insisted would have meant they'd have needed to increase their prices which could have damaged their reputation: "We are a local firm and have a good name in St. Helens. We didn't want people to say we had increased our prices just because of the show." Christine Cardwell of Church Road in Rainford was this year's Show Queen.
A woman described as a gypsy and who had been evicted from a site in Southport Street in Parr along with her ten children, told the St Helens Reporter on the 25th that the council was "callous and unfeeling". Theresa Morhan explained that she had been forced to stop at the local authority's tipping site because of illness after the birth of her 11th child two days before. The baby had died an hour after being born two months prematurely in a Liverpool Hospital. Mrs Morhan said:
"This was the first site we came to after leaving Liverpool. I had to stop because I couldn't go on any further – I was feeling so ill." It does sound as if the woman had discharged herself early from the hospital but later the family found room on a caravan site outside Newton-le-Willows.
It was revealed by the Reporter that 400 sacks of clothing had been collected in St Helens for Help The Aged, which would be shipped overseas for the needy.
Harry Partington of Kiln Lane was complaining in the paper about golfers practicing their shots on Eccleston's playing fields. The 70-year-old said he kept finding balls in his back garden and had been almost struck by one whilst gardening. Mr Partington said he challenged one of the golfers who said there were no signs up forbidding the playing of the sport. Eccleston Parish Councillor Tom McCormack said as a result such signs would now be installed.
Harold Stott had been the service manager at Rothery Radio since 1948 before starting his own TV and radio firm in a tiny shop in Liverpool Road in 1961. Initially he worked up to 16 hours a day to try and make his business a success and in 1963 was able to move to better premises in Westfield Street. Mr Stott now had a booming business with a staff of 26 and a £300,000 a year turnover and in 1973 he'd sold all the shares in his shop to a Liverpool company called George Sturia & Son for £150,000.
That's over £2 million in today's money, although Mr Stott remained as managing director of the firm. In this week's Reporter the 64-year-old from Moss Bank Road announced his retirement and said he would now have more time to spend as a director of Saints.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the row at Moss Lane over Ray French, Greenall's announce the closure date of their St Helens brewery, the Eccleston woman who lost nearly 30 stone in weight and concern over the dangers of Sutton Mill Dam.
This week's many stories include the backbreaking suit of armour at the St Helens Show, why Fredericks ice cream vans had boycotted the Show, TV comic Stevie Faye entertains kids at the YMCA, the golfers causing a nuisance in Eccleston and the public inquiry into the council's plans to demolish 251 homes in Thatto Heath.
At the beginning of the month Pilkington's had make the shock announcement that they were closing their Ravenhead works with the loss of several hundred jobs.
The television glassware factory was believed to be losing £400,000 a month and the government had rejected Pilks' application for a temporary employment subsidy.
But the workforce was not prepared to see their plant shut down without a fight.
A Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed and they were distributing 15,000 leaflets round the town, as well as to visitors at the St Helens Show.
On the 21st the committee met union representatives from Thorn Colour Tubes in Skelmersdale and they agreed to send telegrams calling for emergency meetings to be set up involving Pilkingtons, Thorn, unions and government officials to try and resolve the crisis.
Also on the 21st TV comic Stevie Faye was the guest at the first meeting of a summer day care centre for children of single parent families.
The St Helens branch of the Gingerbread Group had obtained the services of one of the stars of The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club to entertain the 25 kids.
The Reporter said that within seconds of entering the YMCA Gymnasium in North Road, Stevie had reduced the children to helpless laughter with his clowning and jokes.
On the 22nd St Helens Planning Committee agreed that motorists that returned late to the car parks at the Tontine or St Mary's Market should have to pay a call-out fee to reclaim their cars.
Currently those that took no notice of the warning notices about closing times and found their vehicles locked in, often complained to the police who had to arrange for an emergency opening.
No charge was presently being made but £2 would have to be paid in future.
Every few months for the past few years, St Helens Corporation would issue compulsory purchase orders on houses that were deemed unfit to live in.
Understandably some people didn't appreciate losing the homes that they'd occupied for many years – in spite of the poor state that a lot were in and so appealed against the orders to the Government.
A public inquiry was then held at St Helens Town Hall and an inspector would hear the evidence, inspect some houses himself and then later report back with his decision, which almost always went in favour of the Corporation.
On the 22nd a public inquiry was held at the Town Hall into the council's plans to demolish 251 homes in Thatto Heath.
These were mainly situated in Elephant Lane but also in the surrounding streets of Sandon Street, Cairne Street, Balmer Street, Carnarvon Street, Leicester Street and Parliament Street.
Sixty residents were present at the inquiry to object to the proposals.
Most of the houses were built before 1900 and Elsie Robinson of Elephant Lane was one of many residents present who insisted that a lot of the properties had been modernised by their occupants and could not by any stretch of the imagination be deemed unfit.
They would now have to wait two or three months for the inspector's decision but could expect the worst outcome.
On the 24th the latest unemployment figures for St Helens were released and revealed a rise of 1,000 over the past month.
Currently, 4,617 persons were out of work, with the Employment Agency attributing the increase to students registering for the summer, along with a reduction in vacancies.
The number of workers out of a job was likely to go up even further if those employed at Pilks' Ravenhead works were made redundant.
The 3-day St Helens Show began on the 24th but a stunt involving a suit of armour had to be cancelled.
Museum assistant Will McCooey was due to walk in the suit of armour from the town to Sherdley Park – but he only managed 20 yards.
"It weighed a ton, and we had to get it there in a day," said Will. "I would still have been walking there three days after the show finished, so we decided it would be best to take it on the van."
Frederick's ice-cream firm was boycotting the show because of a 40% increase in rent.
Last year the firm had 13 of the 20 ice-cream vans that were allowed on the showground and said with the increase they would have had to pay an extra £130.
That, Philip Frederick insisted would have meant they'd have needed to increase their prices which could have damaged their reputation:
"We are a local firm and have a good name in St. Helens. We didn't want people to say we had increased our prices just because of the show."
Christine Cardwell of Church Road in Rainford was this year's Show Queen.
A woman described as a gypsy and who had been evicted from a site in Southport Street in Parr along with her ten children, told the St Helens Reporter on the 25th that the council was "callous and unfeeling".
Theresa Morhan explained that she had been forced to stop at the local authority's tipping site because of illness after the birth of her 11th child two days before.
The baby had died an hour after being born two months prematurely in a Liverpool Hospital. Mrs Morhan said:
"This was the first site we came to after leaving Liverpool. I had to stop because I couldn't go on any further – I was feeling so ill."
It does sound as if the woman had discharged herself early from the hospital but later the family found room on a caravan site outside Newton-le-Willows.
It was revealed by the Reporter that 400 sacks of clothing had been collected in St Helens for Help The Aged, which would be shipped overseas for the needy.
Harry Partington of Kiln Lane was complaining in the paper about golfers practicing their shots on Eccleston's playing fields.
The 70-year-old said he kept finding balls in his back garden and had been almost struck by one whilst gardening.
Mr Partington said he challenged one of the golfers who said there were no signs up forbidding the playing of the sport.
Eccleston Parish Councillor Tom McCormack said as a result such signs would now be installed.
Harold Stott had been the service manager at Rothery Radio since 1948 before starting his own TV and radio firm in a tiny shop in Liverpool Road in 1961.
Initially he worked up to 16 hours a day to try and make his business a success and in 1963 was able to move to better premises in Westfield Street.
Mr Stott now had a booming business with a staff of 26 and a £300,000 a year turnover and in 1973 he'd sold all the shares in his shop to a Liverpool company called George Sturia & Son for £150,000.
That's over £2 million in today's money, although Mr Stott remained as managing director of the firm.
In this week's Reporter the 64-year-old from Moss Bank Road announced his retirement and said he would now have more time to spend as a director of Saints.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the row at Moss Lane over Ray French, Greenall's announce the closure date of their St Helens brewery, the Eccleston woman who lost nearly 30 stone in weight and concern over the dangers of Sutton Mill Dam.
At the beginning of the month Pilkington's had make the shock announcement that they were closing their Ravenhead works with the loss of several hundred jobs.
The television glassware factory was believed to be losing £400,000 a month and the government had rejected Pilks' application for a temporary employment subsidy.
But the workforce was not prepared to see their plant shut down without a fight.
A Ravenhead Action Committee had been formed and they were distributing 15,000 leaflets round the town, as well as to visitors at the St Helens Show.
On the 21st the committee met union representatives from Thorn Colour Tubes in Skelmersdale and they agreed to send telegrams calling for emergency meetings to be set up involving Pilkingtons, Thorn, unions and government officials to try and resolve the crisis.
Also on the 21st TV comic Stevie Faye was the guest at the first meeting of a summer day care centre for children of single parent families.
The St Helens branch of the Gingerbread Group had obtained the services of one of the stars of The Comedians and The Wheeltappers and Shunters Club to entertain the 25 kids.
The Reporter said that within seconds of entering the YMCA Gymnasium in North Road, Stevie had reduced the children to helpless laughter with his clowning and jokes.
Currently those that took no notice of the warning notices about closing times and found their vehicles locked in, often complained to the police who had to arrange for an emergency opening.
No charge was presently being made but £2 would have to be paid in future.
Every few months for the past few years, St Helens Corporation would issue compulsory purchase orders on houses that were deemed unfit to live in.
Understandably some people didn't appreciate losing the homes that they'd occupied for many years – in spite of the poor state that a lot were in and so appealed against the orders to the Government.
A public inquiry was then held at St Helens Town Hall and an inspector would hear the evidence, inspect some houses himself and then later report back with his decision, which almost always went in favour of the Corporation.
On the 22nd a public inquiry was held at the Town Hall into the council's plans to demolish 251 homes in Thatto Heath.
These were mainly situated in Elephant Lane but also in the surrounding streets of Sandon Street, Cairne Street, Balmer Street, Carnarvon Street, Leicester Street and Parliament Street.
Sixty residents were present at the inquiry to object to the proposals.
Most of the houses were built before 1900 and Elsie Robinson of Elephant Lane was one of many residents present who insisted that a lot of the properties had been modernised by their occupants and could not by any stretch of the imagination be deemed unfit.
They would now have to wait two or three months for the inspector's decision but could expect the worst outcome.
On the 24th the latest unemployment figures for St Helens were released and revealed a rise of 1,000 over the past month.
Currently, 4,617 persons were out of work, with the Employment Agency attributing the increase to students registering for the summer, along with a reduction in vacancies.
The number of workers out of a job was likely to go up even further if those employed at Pilks' Ravenhead works were made redundant.
The 3-day St Helens Show began on the 24th but a stunt involving a suit of armour had to be cancelled.
Museum assistant Will McCooey was due to walk in the suit of armour from the town to Sherdley Park – but he only managed 20 yards.
"It weighed a ton, and we had to get it there in a day," said Will. "I would still have been walking there three days after the show finished, so we decided it would be best to take it on the van."
Frederick's ice-cream firm was boycotting the show because of a 40% increase in rent.
Last year the firm had 13 of the 20 ice-cream vans that were allowed on the showground and said with the increase they would have had to pay an extra £130.
That, Philip Frederick insisted would have meant they'd have needed to increase their prices which could have damaged their reputation:
"We are a local firm and have a good name in St. Helens. We didn't want people to say we had increased our prices just because of the show."
Christine Cardwell of Church Road in Rainford was this year's Show Queen.
A woman described as a gypsy and who had been evicted from a site in Southport Street in Parr along with her ten children, told the St Helens Reporter on the 25th that the council was "callous and unfeeling".
Theresa Morhan explained that she had been forced to stop at the local authority's tipping site because of illness after the birth of her 11th child two days before.
The baby had died an hour after being born two months prematurely in a Liverpool Hospital. Mrs Morhan said:
"This was the first site we came to after leaving Liverpool. I had to stop because I couldn't go on any further – I was feeling so ill."
It does sound as if the woman had discharged herself early from the hospital but later the family found room on a caravan site outside Newton-le-Willows.
It was revealed by the Reporter that 400 sacks of clothing had been collected in St Helens for Help The Aged, which would be shipped overseas for the needy.
Harry Partington of Kiln Lane was complaining in the paper about golfers practicing their shots on Eccleston's playing fields.
The 70-year-old said he kept finding balls in his back garden and had been almost struck by one whilst gardening.
Mr Partington said he challenged one of the golfers who said there were no signs up forbidding the playing of the sport.
Eccleston Parish Councillor Tom McCormack said as a result such signs would now be installed.
Harold Stott had been the service manager at Rothery Radio since 1948 before starting his own TV and radio firm in a tiny shop in Liverpool Road in 1961.
Initially he worked up to 16 hours a day to try and make his business a success and in 1963 was able to move to better premises in Westfield Street.
Mr Stott now had a booming business with a staff of 26 and a £300,000 a year turnover and in 1973 he'd sold all the shares in his shop to a Liverpool company called George Sturia & Son for £150,000.
That's over £2 million in today's money, although Mr Stott remained as managing director of the firm.
In this week's Reporter the 64-year-old from Moss Bank Road announced his retirement and said he would now have more time to spend as a director of Saints.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the row at Moss Lane over Ray French, Greenall's announce the closure date of their St Helens brewery, the Eccleston woman who lost nearly 30 stone in weight and concern over the dangers of Sutton Mill Dam.