FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (21st - 27th October 1969)
This week's stories include Billy the mysterious goat of Leach Lane, the bogus gasman of Randon Street who handed back cash rebates, the new seven-sided 50p coin goes down badly in St Helens, town centre parking meter plans are shelved, criticism over police numbers in Newton and Rediffusion's colour television-by-wire service.
The bakers of Merseyside were on strike this week and many housewives in St Helens were busy baking their own bread – if they could obtain the yeast. Many shops were sold out and so some had to make do with baking soda bread instead.
The Daily Mirror wrote on the 22nd how a bogus gasman in uniform had gone round all eighteen even-numbered houses in Randon Street in St Helens. The man raided the meters at five of the homes, either by using a key or by secretly forcing the lock. After emptying the meters the thief handed back cash "rebates" to the householders. Mary Frodsham was one of them and she told the Mirror: "He took over £13 but gave me £5 1s. rebate. I thought it was high but did not suspect him."
It wasn't until the real gasman called four days later that the families realised they'd been tricked, with about £40 taken in total (about £700 in today's money). All the stolen cash would have to be made up by the victims, although the gas board said they would give sympathetic treatment to hardship cases. This was the second blow for the residents, as recently St Helens Corporation had issued compulsory purchase orders on their homes. Randon Street (which was at the rear of Duke Street, near Lowe Street) would soon be demolished as part of the town centre redevelopment.
The council's Fire Services Committee met on the 22nd and was told that Arthur Downes, their Chief Fire Officer, had quit following a report on the running of his department. However the details of the report had not been made public and so it was not known what exactly had prompted the sudden resignation.
It wasn't a good week to be on the East Lancashire Road as a new 21-inch water main from Knowsley pumping station to Brown Edge and Eccleston Hill reservoirs was laid across the carriageways. The roadworks were at the junction of the East Lancs with Catchdale Moss Lane in Eccleston and led to lengthy single file traffic queues.
On the 22nd Newton-le-Willows Urban Council sent a letter to the Home Secretary James Callaghan calling for the town to be better policed. The chairman of the council, Councillor Spencer Findley, claimed that Newton did not have sufficient police to curb hooliganism, vandalism and robberies. While Cllr. Findley was discussing the problem at a council meeting, the home of Cllr. Eric Kershaw and his wife Cllr. Nancy Kershaw was being ransacked. This was the fourth time that their home in Newton Park Drive had been burgled.
At the beginning of the year it was reported that St Helens Council's Works Committee had approved in principle the installation of parking meters in St Helens town centre. However on the 22nd the committee decided to scrap their plans because the streets that they felt would be most suitable for metering would be affected by the on-going redevelopment scheme.
Decimalisation was planned for February 15th 1971 but a number of the new decimal coins were being phased in in advance of D-Day to allow the public to become accustomed to them. The new 5p and 10p coins had been introduced into circulation last year and ten days ago it had been the turn of the seven-sided 50p coin. This was intended to replace the 10-shilling note but was not initially liked by many. A retired Army colonel even formed a campaign group called the Anti-Heptagonists who said the "ugly" coin was "an insult to our sovereign whose image it bears".
So it was a good subject for the St Helens Reporter's 'What The People Think' column on the 24th and predictably many citizens of the town did not like it. Tom Davies from Clock Face Road had poor eyesight and said the new piece was terrible for people like him: "I was given a new 10s. piece in change in a pub. I thought it was just 2s. and started to kick up a fuss. Then the landlord explained it was one of those new coins. Paper money is much better for people with bad eyes, or old folk. You don't know where you are with this thing."
Sheila Archer from Dentons Green Lane told the man from the Reporter that she worked as a petrol pump attendant and had already handled over a dozen 50p coins. "Whenever I've been given a new coin", explained Sheila, "I like to get rid of it straightaway. I give it back in customers' change. The coins would have been much better if they had been coloured like the 3d. bit. I know it is something we've just got to get used to. I think it will take a lot longer than anyone thinks, though."
The only person that the Reporter spoke to who had something good to say about the new coin was Garry Freeman. He was the general manager of Joan's Fashions in Church Street and thought the 50p piece was a "vast improvement" over the ten-bob note and he predicted that: "all this fuss will soon die down".
Rediffusion was advertising a "nine-point guide to colour TV-by-wire" in the Reporter. They had pioneered cable radio and television decades before Cable North West began digging up the streets of St Helens in 1995 to offer multi-channel cable TV. However Rediffusion's wired service only offered the existing TV and radio stations and attracted viewers in parts of the town that suffered from poor reception. Indeed Rediffusion's ad claimed that the new 625-line colour television was more difficult to receive through an aerial than 405-line black-and-white TV. However they argued that their wired colour pictures were an "absolute knock-out".
"Billy The Jail Breaker Gets A Home" was the odd headline to an article in the Reporter. They were referring to a goat that the police had found wandering around Leach Lane a fortnight earlier. Billy had been temporarily lodged in the Children's Corner in Sherdley Park until he broke down the side of a shed that was housing him (hence the jail breaker reference).
So the goat was taken to Grove House Farm on Elton Head Road where he was looked after until a permanent home could be found. Now a Mr Robinson from the village of Weaverham in Cheshire had offered to take Billy and the RSPCA had checked out his proposed new accommodation and given it their approval. But just where Billy had come from in the first place was still a mystery.
There was also a discussion in the Reporter about the selling of "grotesque masks of monster Frankenstein and gruesome ghouls and ghosts" for Hallowe'en. June Quarrie was shopping in Woolworths when she was approached by the paper at the horror mask counter and said: "They are terrible. They're enough to frighten even me."
The mother of 2-year-old David from Leopold Grove (off Mill Lane, Sutton) criticised other parents for buying masks for their children, saying: "They are dangling horror before their children's eyes." There were no sales when the Reporter's man was monitoring the horror mask counter. However Gerry Biggins, the trainee manager of Woolies, said things would change when Hallowe'en got closer: "You just wait and see. Sales will soar."
Workers on a building site in Westfield Street downed tools on the 24th in protest at "lump labour" and were still out a week later. The modern-day equivalent of lump labourers would be those working in the so-called "gig economy", who are considered self-employed with few of the rights that employees enjoy.
On the 25th hundreds of members of the Boys Brigade from all over Lancashire and Cheshire travelled to St Helens on foot. They were taking part in a special relay race to mark the 50th anniversary of the movement's Lancashire and Cheshire district and teams set off from almost every brigade within the two counties. The chairman of every local authority that they passed through officially handed the baton over to the next runner and the race ended at St Helens Town Hall.
At Rainford Council's monthly meeting on the 27th Arthur Houghton from Eagle Crescent was presented with an award from the Royal Humane Society for attempting to rescue a child that had drowned in the Sheffield Navigation Canal. During the meeting Councillor Ron Jones lashed out at the red tape that was hindering council efforts to close a "hell of a hole in the youth services in Rainford". The council had agreed to launch a youth club in the Village Hall some months earlier but nothing had yet happened. "It seems as though the bureaucratic machinery is slowly creeping to a halt", added Councillor Jones.
Agatha Christie's 'Spiders Web' began six nights of performances at the Theatre Royal (pictured above) on the 27th. The play starred Robertson Hare and Cicely Courtneidge, who had recently been on TV in 'On The Buses' with Reg Varney. On the same day the ABC Savoy started screening 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' for six days starring, of course, Dick Van Dyke.
Next week's stories will include a damning report in The Economist on "greyland" St Helens, calls for organised fireworks shows on Bonfire Night, a fire at Rainhill Cricket Club, concern that the small trader would be driven out of the new town centre and the 100 dog lovers who wanted to give a wandering Golden Labrador at Carr Mill a new home.
The bakers of Merseyside were on strike this week and many housewives in St Helens were busy baking their own bread – if they could obtain the yeast. Many shops were sold out and so some had to make do with baking soda bread instead.
The Daily Mirror wrote on the 22nd how a bogus gasman in uniform had gone round all eighteen even-numbered houses in Randon Street in St Helens. The man raided the meters at five of the homes, either by using a key or by secretly forcing the lock. After emptying the meters the thief handed back cash "rebates" to the householders. Mary Frodsham was one of them and she told the Mirror: "He took over £13 but gave me £5 1s. rebate. I thought it was high but did not suspect him."
Daily Mirror account of the bogus gasman in Randon Street and ads in the Liverpool Echo this week
Daily Mirror bogus gasman article and ads in the Liverpool Echo
Daily Mirror account of the bogus gasman
The council's Fire Services Committee met on the 22nd and was told that Arthur Downes, their Chief Fire Officer, had quit following a report on the running of his department. However the details of the report had not been made public and so it was not known what exactly had prompted the sudden resignation.
It wasn't a good week to be on the East Lancashire Road as a new 21-inch water main from Knowsley pumping station to Brown Edge and Eccleston Hill reservoirs was laid across the carriageways. The roadworks were at the junction of the East Lancs with Catchdale Moss Lane in Eccleston and led to lengthy single file traffic queues.
On the 22nd Newton-le-Willows Urban Council sent a letter to the Home Secretary James Callaghan calling for the town to be better policed. The chairman of the council, Councillor Spencer Findley, claimed that Newton did not have sufficient police to curb hooliganism, vandalism and robberies. While Cllr. Findley was discussing the problem at a council meeting, the home of Cllr. Eric Kershaw and his wife Cllr. Nancy Kershaw was being ransacked. This was the fourth time that their home in Newton Park Drive had been burgled.
At the beginning of the year it was reported that St Helens Council's Works Committee had approved in principle the installation of parking meters in St Helens town centre. However on the 22nd the committee decided to scrap their plans because the streets that they felt would be most suitable for metering would be affected by the on-going redevelopment scheme.
Decimalisation was planned for February 15th 1971 but a number of the new decimal coins were being phased in in advance of D-Day to allow the public to become accustomed to them. The new 5p and 10p coins had been introduced into circulation last year and ten days ago it had been the turn of the seven-sided 50p coin. This was intended to replace the 10-shilling note but was not initially liked by many. A retired Army colonel even formed a campaign group called the Anti-Heptagonists who said the "ugly" coin was "an insult to our sovereign whose image it bears".
So it was a good subject for the St Helens Reporter's 'What The People Think' column on the 24th and predictably many citizens of the town did not like it. Tom Davies from Clock Face Road had poor eyesight and said the new piece was terrible for people like him: "I was given a new 10s. piece in change in a pub. I thought it was just 2s. and started to kick up a fuss. Then the landlord explained it was one of those new coins. Paper money is much better for people with bad eyes, or old folk. You don't know where you are with this thing."
Sheila Archer from Dentons Green Lane told the man from the Reporter that she worked as a petrol pump attendant and had already handled over a dozen 50p coins. "Whenever I've been given a new coin", explained Sheila, "I like to get rid of it straightaway. I give it back in customers' change. The coins would have been much better if they had been coloured like the 3d. bit. I know it is something we've just got to get used to. I think it will take a lot longer than anyone thinks, though."
The only person that the Reporter spoke to who had something good to say about the new coin was Garry Freeman. He was the general manager of Joan's Fashions in Church Street and thought the 50p piece was a "vast improvement" over the ten-bob note and he predicted that: "all this fuss will soon die down".
Rediffusion was advertising a "nine-point guide to colour TV-by-wire" in the Reporter. They had pioneered cable radio and television decades before Cable North West began digging up the streets of St Helens in 1995 to offer multi-channel cable TV. However Rediffusion's wired service only offered the existing TV and radio stations and attracted viewers in parts of the town that suffered from poor reception. Indeed Rediffusion's ad claimed that the new 625-line colour television was more difficult to receive through an aerial than 405-line black-and-white TV. However they argued that their wired colour pictures were an "absolute knock-out".
"Billy The Jail Breaker Gets A Home" was the odd headline to an article in the Reporter. They were referring to a goat that the police had found wandering around Leach Lane a fortnight earlier. Billy had been temporarily lodged in the Children's Corner in Sherdley Park until he broke down the side of a shed that was housing him (hence the jail breaker reference).
So the goat was taken to Grove House Farm on Elton Head Road where he was looked after until a permanent home could be found. Now a Mr Robinson from the village of Weaverham in Cheshire had offered to take Billy and the RSPCA had checked out his proposed new accommodation and given it their approval. But just where Billy had come from in the first place was still a mystery.
There was also a discussion in the Reporter about the selling of "grotesque masks of monster Frankenstein and gruesome ghouls and ghosts" for Hallowe'en. June Quarrie was shopping in Woolworths when she was approached by the paper at the horror mask counter and said: "They are terrible. They're enough to frighten even me."
The mother of 2-year-old David from Leopold Grove (off Mill Lane, Sutton) criticised other parents for buying masks for their children, saying: "They are dangling horror before their children's eyes." There were no sales when the Reporter's man was monitoring the horror mask counter. However Gerry Biggins, the trainee manager of Woolies, said things would change when Hallowe'en got closer: "You just wait and see. Sales will soar."
Workers on a building site in Westfield Street downed tools on the 24th in protest at "lump labour" and were still out a week later. The modern-day equivalent of lump labourers would be those working in the so-called "gig economy", who are considered self-employed with few of the rights that employees enjoy.
On the 25th hundreds of members of the Boys Brigade from all over Lancashire and Cheshire travelled to St Helens on foot. They were taking part in a special relay race to mark the 50th anniversary of the movement's Lancashire and Cheshire district and teams set off from almost every brigade within the two counties. The chairman of every local authority that they passed through officially handed the baton over to the next runner and the race ended at St Helens Town Hall.
At Rainford Council's monthly meeting on the 27th Arthur Houghton from Eagle Crescent was presented with an award from the Royal Humane Society for attempting to rescue a child that had drowned in the Sheffield Navigation Canal. During the meeting Councillor Ron Jones lashed out at the red tape that was hindering council efforts to close a "hell of a hole in the youth services in Rainford". The council had agreed to launch a youth club in the Village Hall some months earlier but nothing had yet happened. "It seems as though the bureaucratic machinery is slowly creeping to a halt", added Councillor Jones.
Next week's stories will include a damning report in The Economist on "greyland" St Helens, calls for organised fireworks shows on Bonfire Night, a fire at Rainhill Cricket Club, concern that the small trader would be driven out of the new town centre and the 100 dog lovers who wanted to give a wandering Golden Labrador at Carr Mill a new home.