FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (23rd - 29th NOVEMBER 1970)
This week's stories include the calamity kid from Parr, the high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids return from their class in the sky, complaints about rats in Rainford, Blaster Bates is back in town and a feature on Barclaycard is in the Reporter.
We begin with butcher Betty Whalley who this week became the first woman president of the St. Helens and District Master Butchers' Association. In fact the widow from Devonshire Road was the only female member of the 150-strong group! Betty carved meat in the covered market on a stall that her late father Ronald Litherland had run – although the family butchery business in St Helens went back to the 1850s.
At the Rainford Council meeting on the 23rd, Cllr. Ron Jones complained about rats having moved onto a building site after workmen had left. Cllr. Jones reckoned that the debris left after a site canteen had been vacated had attracted the vermin, leading to complaints from residents in Muncaster Drive and Heyes Avenue. Although a rodent control official had visited the area and not being able to find any rats, a resident of Heyes Avenue discovered one in her garage shortly afterwards. It was agreed that the council surveyor would investigate the complaints.
Derek "Blaster" Bates was back in town on the 25th demolishing a 120ft. high chimney at the old Ravenhead brickworks. This had been built out of half a million bricks and was estimated at weighing 200 tons. Despite the size the chimney came down just two feet from Blaster's designated landing spot. The so-called "dynamite king" described the demolition as having been "quite easy", adding that the only problem had been to avoid some electric wires. He certainly was very busy blowing things up, as this had been Blaster's 80th job of the year.
On the same day a 17-year-old boy was placed on probation after burgling the Record Lounge in Duke Street. Siblings Albert and Maud Holding had founded the shop in the early 1920s and despite having lost an arm in the war, Albert was still able to insert records into bags and then tie them up securely with string. George Darwin was now the owner of the business and he told the court that twenty LPs, twenty 45s and two record carrying cases had been stolen. The boy's father blamed his son getting into bad company for what had happened.
The first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in St Helens was also held on the 25th. There'll be more about this in a future article.
"The Great Share Stampede in Pilkington's Sell-Out" was the Reporter's lead story on the 27th as they described how the newly issued shares in the 144-year-old glass giant had sold out already. This was in spite of last week's gloomy predictions in the national press that the issue price of 34 shillings was far too high for the present depressed market.
The high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids were pictured in the Reporter after returning from their geography class in the sky. This week a chartered jet had flown the 59 youngsters from Speke Airport up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air. For most of the boys and girls the £3 a head flight was their first time in an aeroplane, as headmaster John Appleton explained:
"In these days when the Concorde is going twice the speed of sound, there are many who haven't even been off the ground yet. The trip has given the children the experience of flying as well as other things. The maps they have been studying are no longer dead to them. In the plane they followed maps closely pointing out landmarks that I named for them. The whole idea was a great success."
The trip had gone so well that parents had asked to go on a similar flight and Mr Appleton said he was hoping to arrange one for them soon. After its take off from Liverpool, the plane had turned towards the East Lancs Road and flown over Carr Mill Dam and then made several low runs over the junior school. Those children unable to go on the trip had listened to a message from the pilot on an air-band radio receiver that had been set up in the school hall.
"Calamity kid" Jim Thompson from Blackdown Grove in Parr was also profiled in the Reporter after suffering yet another accident. The 14-year-old had found himself locked out of his house and so attempted to get in through a bedroom window. Jim climbed up a drainpipe, hoisted himself up onto a narrow ledge but then lost his balance and took a 10 ft. tumble onto a concrete path and broke a wrist. Mother Edna Thompson said her son had only just completed hospital treatment after having injured the same hand on a milk round.
"Jim's life of disaster" – as the Reporter put it – had begun at the age of three when he fell off a dustbin and broke his collarbone. Two years later the boy was back in hospital after his back garden swing smacked him in the face. Then in the following week, the children's swing next door gave him another blow. "I think we are going to have to keep him chained up", quipped Mrs Thompson!
Barclaycard had only been introduced in 1966 and they took out a two-page advert in the Reporter. They were clearly still struggling to persuade people of the merits of their credit card – and that includes traders, as well as shoppers. When Barclaycard advertised in the Liverpool Echo in November 1968 they listed all the shops in the Merseyside district that took their card – with only fifteen in St Helens.
Their Reporter feature did not specify the present number of Barclaycard-taking businesses but did state that the number of cardholders nationwide had reached 1.25 million. They were keen to promote their slogan "makes shopping easier". It doesn't though if the shop won't take the card! Although shoppers had 25 days to pay off the balance of their monthly statement free of charges (similar to today), the interest on outstanding amounts was only 1½%.
The advertisers included Penman the Jewellers of Corporation Street ("Barclaycards always welcome"); Grosvenor House, Duke Street ("Now stocked with only the finest ranges of menswear"); H. & A. E. Williams, Westfield Street ("Plenty of Xmas gifts in stock") and Lilian Rogers, Duke Street ("With the latest in evening dresses, cocktail dresses, leisure wear, teenage to outsize"). There was also C. A. Critchley, The Hoover Centre, Church Street; The Model Shop, Duke Street; Toni Wigs, Baldwin Street and A. Watkinson jewellers, Church Street.
Automatic car washes were still quite new – having only arrived in St Helens in 1969. I wonder if Carr Mill Motors were having difficulty in persuading customers to try them out? Promising a "showroom shine in two minutes", the Carr Mill Road garage had previously advertised their car wash in the Reporter at a charge of 5 shillings a time. Now the "fully automatic car wash, wax & rinse" would be completely free for a whole week from 8am to 10pm, no doubt to try and stimulate some more business.
It would be the Lancashire Cup Final between Saints and Leigh on the following day and the Reporter had the inevitable advertising feature. The advertisers included Bob Collins whose head office was at 1 Borough Road. "Enjoy your betting with a firm of repute", was their slogan as they offered odds of 8 - 11 on Saints and 11 - 8 on Leigh. It was the latter team that won the game 7 - 4, with Kel Coslett scoring two goals for the Saints.
Other advertisers included Emmet's Taxi Service, Corporation Street, ("Cars for all occasions"); The Karalius Brothers, Widnes ("Demolition and dismantling contractors") and a joint ad featuring Ellison's Travel Service, Westfield Street and Gavin Murray, Boundary Road ("Follow the Saints example…for all your travel arrangements").
A Conservative Bazaar was held on the 28th in the Town Hall, which was opened by the wife of Anthony Barber, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. More than £600 was raised for party funds. During the evening the St Helens country folk band called The Poachers (pictured above) played at a dance at Newton Congregational Church. The ensemble led by Roy Hordley of Rainford performed at hundreds of dances in the district for over 40 years.
On the following day the Capitol began showing the film MASH with Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland – although I think the spin-off TV version two years later was better. Meanwhile down Bridge Street, the ABC Savoy started screening a western called El Condor with Lee Van Cleef.
Next week's stories will include calls for tougher sentences for those who attack bar staff, the new gipsy site off Dobson's Lane, a Christmas gifts feature is in the Reporter and the Billinge girl who sent a letter to the States bearing a Toytown stamp.
We begin with butcher Betty Whalley who this week became the first woman president of the St. Helens and District Master Butchers' Association. In fact the widow from Devonshire Road was the only female member of the 150-strong group! Betty carved meat in the covered market on a stall that her late father Ronald Litherland had run – although the family butchery business in St Helens went back to the 1850s.
At the Rainford Council meeting on the 23rd, Cllr. Ron Jones complained about rats having moved onto a building site after workmen had left. Cllr. Jones reckoned that the debris left after a site canteen had been vacated had attracted the vermin, leading to complaints from residents in Muncaster Drive and Heyes Avenue. Although a rodent control official had visited the area and not being able to find any rats, a resident of Heyes Avenue discovered one in her garage shortly afterwards. It was agreed that the council surveyor would investigate the complaints.
Derek "Blaster" Bates was back in town on the 25th demolishing a 120ft. high chimney at the old Ravenhead brickworks. This had been built out of half a million bricks and was estimated at weighing 200 tons. Despite the size the chimney came down just two feet from Blaster's designated landing spot. The so-called "dynamite king" described the demolition as having been "quite easy", adding that the only problem had been to avoid some electric wires. He certainly was very busy blowing things up, as this had been Blaster's 80th job of the year.
On the same day a 17-year-old boy was placed on probation after burgling the Record Lounge in Duke Street. Siblings Albert and Maud Holding had founded the shop in the early 1920s and despite having lost an arm in the war, Albert was still able to insert records into bags and then tie them up securely with string. George Darwin was now the owner of the business and he told the court that twenty LPs, twenty 45s and two record carrying cases had been stolen. The boy's father blamed his son getting into bad company for what had happened.
The first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in St Helens was also held on the 25th. There'll be more about this in a future article.
"The Great Share Stampede in Pilkington's Sell-Out" was the Reporter's lead story on the 27th as they described how the newly issued shares in the 144-year-old glass giant had sold out already. This was in spite of last week's gloomy predictions in the national press that the issue price of 34 shillings was far too high for the present depressed market.
The high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids were pictured in the Reporter after returning from their geography class in the sky. This week a chartered jet had flown the 59 youngsters from Speke Airport up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air. For most of the boys and girls the £3 a head flight was their first time in an aeroplane, as headmaster John Appleton explained:
"In these days when the Concorde is going twice the speed of sound, there are many who haven't even been off the ground yet. The trip has given the children the experience of flying as well as other things. The maps they have been studying are no longer dead to them. In the plane they followed maps closely pointing out landmarks that I named for them. The whole idea was a great success."
The trip had gone so well that parents had asked to go on a similar flight and Mr Appleton said he was hoping to arrange one for them soon. After its take off from Liverpool, the plane had turned towards the East Lancs Road and flown over Carr Mill Dam and then made several low runs over the junior school. Those children unable to go on the trip had listened to a message from the pilot on an air-band radio receiver that had been set up in the school hall.
"Calamity kid" Jim Thompson from Blackdown Grove in Parr was also profiled in the Reporter after suffering yet another accident. The 14-year-old had found himself locked out of his house and so attempted to get in through a bedroom window. Jim climbed up a drainpipe, hoisted himself up onto a narrow ledge but then lost his balance and took a 10 ft. tumble onto a concrete path and broke a wrist. Mother Edna Thompson said her son had only just completed hospital treatment after having injured the same hand on a milk round.
"Jim's life of disaster" – as the Reporter put it – had begun at the age of three when he fell off a dustbin and broke his collarbone. Two years later the boy was back in hospital after his back garden swing smacked him in the face. Then in the following week, the children's swing next door gave him another blow. "I think we are going to have to keep him chained up", quipped Mrs Thompson!
Barclaycard had only been introduced in 1966 and they took out a two-page advert in the Reporter. They were clearly still struggling to persuade people of the merits of their credit card – and that includes traders, as well as shoppers. When Barclaycard advertised in the Liverpool Echo in November 1968 they listed all the shops in the Merseyside district that took their card – with only fifteen in St Helens.
Their Reporter feature did not specify the present number of Barclaycard-taking businesses but did state that the number of cardholders nationwide had reached 1.25 million. They were keen to promote their slogan "makes shopping easier". It doesn't though if the shop won't take the card! Although shoppers had 25 days to pay off the balance of their monthly statement free of charges (similar to today), the interest on outstanding amounts was only 1½%.
The advertisers included Penman the Jewellers of Corporation Street ("Barclaycards always welcome"); Grosvenor House, Duke Street ("Now stocked with only the finest ranges of menswear"); H. & A. E. Williams, Westfield Street ("Plenty of Xmas gifts in stock") and Lilian Rogers, Duke Street ("With the latest in evening dresses, cocktail dresses, leisure wear, teenage to outsize"). There was also C. A. Critchley, The Hoover Centre, Church Street; The Model Shop, Duke Street; Toni Wigs, Baldwin Street and A. Watkinson jewellers, Church Street.
Automatic car washes were still quite new – having only arrived in St Helens in 1969. I wonder if Carr Mill Motors were having difficulty in persuading customers to try them out? Promising a "showroom shine in two minutes", the Carr Mill Road garage had previously advertised their car wash in the Reporter at a charge of 5 shillings a time. Now the "fully automatic car wash, wax & rinse" would be completely free for a whole week from 8am to 10pm, no doubt to try and stimulate some more business.
It would be the Lancashire Cup Final between Saints and Leigh on the following day and the Reporter had the inevitable advertising feature. The advertisers included Bob Collins whose head office was at 1 Borough Road. "Enjoy your betting with a firm of repute", was their slogan as they offered odds of 8 - 11 on Saints and 11 - 8 on Leigh. It was the latter team that won the game 7 - 4, with Kel Coslett scoring two goals for the Saints.
Other advertisers included Emmet's Taxi Service, Corporation Street, ("Cars for all occasions"); The Karalius Brothers, Widnes ("Demolition and dismantling contractors") and a joint ad featuring Ellison's Travel Service, Westfield Street and Gavin Murray, Boundary Road ("Follow the Saints example…for all your travel arrangements").
On the following day the Capitol began showing the film MASH with Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland – although I think the spin-off TV version two years later was better. Meanwhile down Bridge Street, the ABC Savoy started screening a western called El Condor with Lee Van Cleef.
Next week's stories will include calls for tougher sentences for those who attack bar staff, the new gipsy site off Dobson's Lane, a Christmas gifts feature is in the Reporter and the Billinge girl who sent a letter to the States bearing a Toytown stamp.
This week's stories include the calamity kid from Parr, the high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids return from their class in the sky, complaints about rats in Rainford, Blaster Bates is back in town and a feature on Barclaycard is in the Reporter.
We begin with butcher Betty Whalley who this week became the first woman president of the St. Helens and District Master Butchers' Association.
In fact the widow from Devonshire Road was the only female member of the 150-strong group!
Betty carved meat in the covered market on a stall that her late father Ronald Litherland had run – although the family butchery business in St Helens went back to the 1850s.
At the Rainford Council meeting on the 23rd, Cllr. Ron Jones complained about rats having moved onto a building site after workmen had left.
Cllr. Jones reckoned that the debris left after a site canteen had been vacated had attracted the vermin, leading to complaints from residents in Muncaster Drive and Heyes Avenue.
Although a rodent control official had visited the area and not being able to find any rats, a resident of Heyes Avenue discovered one in her garage shortly afterwards.
It was agreed that the council surveyor would investigate the complaints.
Derek "Blaster" Bates was back in town on the 25th demolishing a 120ft. high chimney at the old Ravenhead brickworks.
This had been built out of half a million bricks and was estimated at weighing 200 tons.
Despite the size the chimney came down just two feet from Blaster's designated landing spot.
The so-called "dynamite king" described the demolition as having been "quite easy", adding that the only problem had been to avoid some electric wires.
He certainly was very busy blowing things up, as this had been Blaster's 80th job of the year.
On the same day a 17-year-old boy was placed on probation after burgling the Record Lounge in Duke Street.
Siblings Albert and Maud Holding had founded the shop in the early 1920s and despite having lost an arm in the war,
Albert was still able to insert records into bags and then tie them up securely with string.
George Darwin was now the owner of the business and he told the court that twenty LPs, twenty 45s and two record carrying cases had been stolen.
The boy's father blamed his son getting into bad company for what had happened.
The first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in St Helens was also held on the 25th. There'll be more about this in a future article.
"The Great Share Stampede in Pilkington's Sell-Out" was the Reporter's lead story on the 27th as they described how the newly issued shares in the 144-year-old glass giant had sold out already.
This was in spite of last week's gloomy predictions in the national press that the issue price of 34 shillings was far too high for the present depressed market.
The high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids were pictured in the Reporter after returning from their geography class in the sky.
This week a chartered jet had flown the 59 youngsters from Speke Airport up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air.
For most of the boys and girls the £3 a head flight was their first time in an aeroplane, as headmaster John Appleton explained:
"In these days when the Concorde is going twice the speed of sound, there are many who haven't even been off the ground yet. The trip has given the children the experience of flying as well as other things.
"The maps they have been studying are no longer dead to them. In the plane they followed maps closely pointing out landmarks that I named for them. The whole idea was a great success."
The trip had gone so well that parents had asked to go on a similar flight and Mr Appleton said he was hoping to arrange one for them soon.
After its take off from Liverpool, the plane had turned towards the East Lancs Road and flown over Carr Mill Dam and then made several low runs over the junior school.
Those children unable to go on the trip had listened to a message from the pilot on an air-band radio receiver that had been set up in the school hall.
"Calamity kid" Jim Thompson from Blackdown Grove in Parr was also profiled in the Reporter after suffering yet another accident.
The 14-year-old had found himself locked out of his house and so attempted to get in through a bedroom window.
Jim climbed up a drainpipe, hoisted himself up onto a narrow ledge but then lost his balance and took a 10 ft. tumble onto a concrete path and broke a wrist.
Mother Edna Thompson said her son had only just completed hospital treatment after having injured the same hand on a milk round.
"Jim's life of disaster" – as the Reporter put it – had begun at the age of three when he fell off a dustbin and broke his collarbone.
Two years later the boy was back in hospital after his back garden swing smacked him in the face.
Then in the following week, the children's swing next door gave him another blow. "I think we are going to have to keep him chained up", quipped Mrs Thompson!
Barclaycard had only been introduced in 1966 and they took out a two-page advert in the Reporter.
They were clearly still struggling to persuade people of the merits of their credit card – and that includes traders, as well as shoppers.
When Barclaycard advertised in the Liverpool Echo in November 1968 they listed all the shops in the Merseyside district that took their card – with only fifteen in St Helens.
Their Reporter feature did not specify the present number of Barclaycard-taking businesses but did state that the number of cardholders nationwide had reached 1.25 million.
They were keen to promote their slogan "makes shopping easier". It doesn't though if the shop won't take the card!
Although shoppers had 25 days to pay off the balance of their monthly statement free of charges (similar to today), the interest on outstanding amounts was only 1½%.
The advertisers included Penman the Jewellers of Corporation Street ("Barclaycards always welcome"); Grosvenor House, Duke Street ("Now stocked with only the finest ranges of menswear"); H. & A. E. Williams, Westfield Street ("Plenty of Xmas gifts in stock") and Lilian Rogers, Duke Street ("With the latest in evening dresses, cocktail dresses, leisure wear, teenage to outsize").
There was also C. A. Critchley, The Hoover Centre, Church Street; The Model Shop, Duke Street; Toni Wigs, Baldwin Street and A. Watkinson jewellers, Church Street.
Automatic car washes were still quite new – having only arrived in St Helens in 1969.
I wonder if Carr Mill Motors were having difficulty in persuading customers to try them out?
Promising a "showroom shine in two minutes", the Carr Mill Road garage had previously advertised their car wash in the Reporter at a charge of 5 shillings a time.
Now the "fully automatic car wash, wax & rinse" would be completely free for a whole week from 8am to 10pm, no doubt to try and stimulate some more business.
It would be the Lancashire Cup Final between Saints and Leigh on the following day and the Reporter had the inevitable advertising feature.
The advertisers included Bob Collins whose head office was at 1 Borough Road.
"Enjoy your betting with a firm of repute", was their slogan as they offered odds of 8 - 11 on Saints and 11 - 8 on Leigh.
It was the latter team that won the game 7 - 4, with Kel Coslett scoring two goals for the Saints.
Other advertisers included Emmet's Taxi Service, Corporation Street, ("Cars for all occasions"); The Karalius Brothers, Widnes ("Demolition and dismantling contractors”).
There was also a joint ad featuring Ellison's Travel Service, Westfield Street and Gavin Murray, Boundary Road ("Follow the Saints example…for all your travel arrangements").
A Conservative Bazaar was held on the 28th in the Town Hall, which was opened by the wife of Anthony Barber, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. More than £600 was raised for party funds.
During the evening the St Helens country folk band called The Poachers (pictured above) played at a dance at Newton Congregational Church.
The ensemble led by Roy Hordley of Rainford performed at hundreds of dances in the district for over 40 years.
On the following day the Capitol began showing the film MASH with Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland – although I think the spin-off TV version two years later was better.
Meanwhile down Bridge Street, the ABC Savoy started screening a western called El Condor with Lee Van Cleef.
Next week's stories will include calls for tougher sentences for those who attack bar staff, the new gipsy site off Dobson's Lane, a Christmas gifts feature is in the Reporter and the Billinge girl who sent a letter to the States bearing a Toytown stamp.
We begin with butcher Betty Whalley who this week became the first woman president of the St. Helens and District Master Butchers' Association.
In fact the widow from Devonshire Road was the only female member of the 150-strong group!
Betty carved meat in the covered market on a stall that her late father Ronald Litherland had run – although the family butchery business in St Helens went back to the 1850s.
At the Rainford Council meeting on the 23rd, Cllr. Ron Jones complained about rats having moved onto a building site after workmen had left.
Cllr. Jones reckoned that the debris left after a site canteen had been vacated had attracted the vermin, leading to complaints from residents in Muncaster Drive and Heyes Avenue.
Although a rodent control official had visited the area and not being able to find any rats, a resident of Heyes Avenue discovered one in her garage shortly afterwards.
It was agreed that the council surveyor would investigate the complaints.
Derek "Blaster" Bates was back in town on the 25th demolishing a 120ft. high chimney at the old Ravenhead brickworks.
This had been built out of half a million bricks and was estimated at weighing 200 tons.
Despite the size the chimney came down just two feet from Blaster's designated landing spot.
The so-called "dynamite king" described the demolition as having been "quite easy", adding that the only problem had been to avoid some electric wires.
He certainly was very busy blowing things up, as this had been Blaster's 80th job of the year.
On the same day a 17-year-old boy was placed on probation after burgling the Record Lounge in Duke Street.
Siblings Albert and Maud Holding had founded the shop in the early 1920s and despite having lost an arm in the war,
Albert was still able to insert records into bags and then tie them up securely with string.
George Darwin was now the owner of the business and he told the court that twenty LPs, twenty 45s and two record carrying cases had been stolen.
The boy's father blamed his son getting into bad company for what had happened.
The first public meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in St Helens was also held on the 25th. There'll be more about this in a future article.
"The Great Share Stampede in Pilkington's Sell-Out" was the Reporter's lead story on the 27th as they described how the newly issued shares in the 144-year-old glass giant had sold out already.
This was in spite of last week's gloomy predictions in the national press that the issue price of 34 shillings was far too high for the present depressed market.
The high-flying Carr Mill schoolkids were pictured in the Reporter after returning from their geography class in the sky.
This week a chartered jet had flown the 59 youngsters from Speke Airport up to the Lake District in order for the children to study the mountains and lakes from the air.
For most of the boys and girls the £3 a head flight was their first time in an aeroplane, as headmaster John Appleton explained:
"In these days when the Concorde is going twice the speed of sound, there are many who haven't even been off the ground yet. The trip has given the children the experience of flying as well as other things.
"The maps they have been studying are no longer dead to them. In the plane they followed maps closely pointing out landmarks that I named for them. The whole idea was a great success."
The trip had gone so well that parents had asked to go on a similar flight and Mr Appleton said he was hoping to arrange one for them soon.
After its take off from Liverpool, the plane had turned towards the East Lancs Road and flown over Carr Mill Dam and then made several low runs over the junior school.
Those children unable to go on the trip had listened to a message from the pilot on an air-band radio receiver that had been set up in the school hall.
"Calamity kid" Jim Thompson from Blackdown Grove in Parr was also profiled in the Reporter after suffering yet another accident.
The 14-year-old had found himself locked out of his house and so attempted to get in through a bedroom window.
Jim climbed up a drainpipe, hoisted himself up onto a narrow ledge but then lost his balance and took a 10 ft. tumble onto a concrete path and broke a wrist.
Mother Edna Thompson said her son had only just completed hospital treatment after having injured the same hand on a milk round.
"Jim's life of disaster" – as the Reporter put it – had begun at the age of three when he fell off a dustbin and broke his collarbone.
Two years later the boy was back in hospital after his back garden swing smacked him in the face.
Then in the following week, the children's swing next door gave him another blow. "I think we are going to have to keep him chained up", quipped Mrs Thompson!
Barclaycard had only been introduced in 1966 and they took out a two-page advert in the Reporter.
They were clearly still struggling to persuade people of the merits of their credit card – and that includes traders, as well as shoppers.
When Barclaycard advertised in the Liverpool Echo in November 1968 they listed all the shops in the Merseyside district that took their card – with only fifteen in St Helens.
Their Reporter feature did not specify the present number of Barclaycard-taking businesses but did state that the number of cardholders nationwide had reached 1.25 million.
They were keen to promote their slogan "makes shopping easier". It doesn't though if the shop won't take the card!
Although shoppers had 25 days to pay off the balance of their monthly statement free of charges (similar to today), the interest on outstanding amounts was only 1½%.
The advertisers included Penman the Jewellers of Corporation Street ("Barclaycards always welcome"); Grosvenor House, Duke Street ("Now stocked with only the finest ranges of menswear"); H. & A. E. Williams, Westfield Street ("Plenty of Xmas gifts in stock") and Lilian Rogers, Duke Street ("With the latest in evening dresses, cocktail dresses, leisure wear, teenage to outsize").
There was also C. A. Critchley, The Hoover Centre, Church Street; The Model Shop, Duke Street; Toni Wigs, Baldwin Street and A. Watkinson jewellers, Church Street.
Automatic car washes were still quite new – having only arrived in St Helens in 1969.
I wonder if Carr Mill Motors were having difficulty in persuading customers to try them out?
Promising a "showroom shine in two minutes", the Carr Mill Road garage had previously advertised their car wash in the Reporter at a charge of 5 shillings a time.
Now the "fully automatic car wash, wax & rinse" would be completely free for a whole week from 8am to 10pm, no doubt to try and stimulate some more business.
It would be the Lancashire Cup Final between Saints and Leigh on the following day and the Reporter had the inevitable advertising feature.
The advertisers included Bob Collins whose head office was at 1 Borough Road.
"Enjoy your betting with a firm of repute", was their slogan as they offered odds of 8 - 11 on Saints and 11 - 8 on Leigh.
It was the latter team that won the game 7 - 4, with Kel Coslett scoring two goals for the Saints.
Other advertisers included Emmet's Taxi Service, Corporation Street, ("Cars for all occasions"); The Karalius Brothers, Widnes ("Demolition and dismantling contractors”).
There was also a joint ad featuring Ellison's Travel Service, Westfield Street and Gavin Murray, Boundary Road ("Follow the Saints example…for all your travel arrangements").
A Conservative Bazaar was held on the 28th in the Town Hall, which was opened by the wife of Anthony Barber, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. More than £600 was raised for party funds.
The ensemble led by Roy Hordley of Rainford performed at hundreds of dances in the district for over 40 years.
On the following day the Capitol began showing the film MASH with Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland – although I think the spin-off TV version two years later was better.
Meanwhile down Bridge Street, the ABC Savoy started screening a western called El Condor with Lee Van Cleef.
Next week's stories will include calls for tougher sentences for those who attack bar staff, the new gipsy site off Dobson's Lane, a Christmas gifts feature is in the Reporter and the Billinge girl who sent a letter to the States bearing a Toytown stamp.