FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 23 - 29 DECEMBER 1974
This week's many stories include the Eccleston girl who left home to find Gary Glitter, a dramatic drop in car sales leads to short time at Triplex, the Reporter's New Year's Day baby contest, the many derelict sites in St Helens ripe for reclamation and why comic Tom O’Connor had been in Rainhill inspecting women's legs.
In the days before Christmas members of St Helens Angling Association had been busy collecting signatures against plans to build a leisure complex at Carr Mill Dam. A London-based company had applied for permission for a 150-bed hotel, conference centre, casino, club, cinema, swimming pool, sauna and a boating centre. The association's campaign had led to their members canvassing Christmas shoppers in St Helens town centre and going door-to-door on housing estates. Petitions had also been left in factories, clubs and pubs.
This week they announced that they had collected over 6,000 signatures and on the 24th their members visited the homes of all 16 members of the council's Planning Committee. In a letter to the committee the association's match secretary, Frank Burgess, pointed out that the 3,300 members of the Association already had very little fishing room in St Helens and argued that each angler had less than 32 inches of bank fishing space. The association claimed that if permission was granted for the new development, half of the dam's fishing could be lost and its daily cost would rise considerably.
Also on Christmas Eve, Tesco's branch in Bridge Street closed for good with the supermarket planning to move into the new shopping precinct early next year.
The highlights of Christmas Day TV on BBC 1 included Billy Smart's Christmas Circus, The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show, one-hour specials of Bruce Forsyth & the Generation Game and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, with Bridge On The River Kwai being the evening film. And ITV had Meet Peters and Lee, The Tommy Cooper Hour, This Is Your Life and their evening film was The Undefeated with John Wayne. There was no Morecambe and Wise on Christmas Day this year.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th provided few details of how Christmas had been spent in the town but they did mention a couple of births that had taken place on the 25th. Catherine McDonald of Broad Lane in Moss Bank had been born at Billinge Hospital and Barbara Riley of Amanda Road in Rainhill had given birth at Whiston Hospital.
The lead story in the Reporter described how over 1,000 workers at Triplex were going to start the New Year on short time. The company that made toughened safety glass for car windscreens had been hit by what the paper called a "dramatic recession in the motor trade". Domestic car sales had slumped by a quarter during 1974 and because of "spiralling" petrol costs they were expected to fall even further during 1975.
As a result a large build up of stock had accumulated at Triplex's Eccleston factory and so the firm had decided that 1,200 hourly paid employees would from January 2nd work a four-day-week. However, due to the firm's agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union, their members' earnings would be fully protected until February.
There was a picture in the Reporter of comedian Tom O’Connor inspecting ladies' legs. The comedian had been invited to the Rael Brook shirt factory in Rainhill to judge three contests. In the loveliest legs competition Barbara Rawlinson was judged the winner with Linda Evans and Linda Smith runners up. The honour of being acclaimed Mr Knobbly Knees 1974 went to Sam Plumpton. And the winner of the third competition, Best Hat, was Joan Worthington.
The Reporter also described how Windle Parish Council was fighting to save the historic Grange Estate in Rainford Road from demolition. They had decided to apply to the Department of the Environment for a preservation order on the near-200 year old buildings that included a country house, estate office and malt house.
The paper reported how police were searching for a schoolgirl who had "mysteriously vanished" from her home in Eccleston. The 13-year-old had returned home from Notre Dame High School on December 16th, put £10 in her purse and left after leaving a note for her parents asking them to look after her pets.
The girl's mother told the paper: "We've all had a very worrying Christmas. We just have to sit here and wait. And that is the worst part of all." Explaining that her daughter had left home without having had any row with her parents, the mother appealed for her daughter to get in touch.
It took almost three months before the police found the girl in London after having passed herself off as 17 and managing to obtain a job and digs. I'm not naming her in case it causes embarrassment. But it turned out the main reason that she went to London was to locate her idol, Gary Glitter. Very fortunately despite her searches and some near-misses, she was unsuccessful.
The Reporter also published this brief piece under the headline "Long-Eared ‘Prisoner’": "Police had to take a fluffy grey rabbit into protective custody last week after a Haydock Street, Newton-le-Willows resident brought it in from the cold. The tame rabbit was lost and Newton police kept it in the detention room. It was not lonely for long, however, for the owner, Diane Bryan, of Haydock Street, collected it the following day shortly before it was due to have been taken to the Warrington RSPCA."
Rothery Radio of Baldwin Street was advertising a "Television Sensation" next week at the YMCA in North Road. "This is the post-budget exhibition you have been waiting for", said their ad. Their "gigantic show" would feature Murphy, Pye, Bush, Ekco and HMV colour sets.
Two schoolgirls, Yvonne Howe (14) from Rainhill and Jacalyn Sharp (13) from Eccleston Park were pictured in the Reporter. Both girls attended schools in Whiston and the pair would be taking part in the regional finals of the United Kingdom Schools Fish Cookery Competition.
The Reporter also described how a pioneer scheme was being set up to allow crown green bowling in winter. The council had approved plans to allow one of the five greens in the Queens Recreation Park to be opened in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday for the whole year. Spearheading the scheme were a group of ten bowling enthusiasts led by Henry Houghton of Grafton Street, who said: "At present the season is far too short. It only lasts from April until September. Very often you get some fine days outside these months and it seems a pity a green cannot be used."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st received a 30-shilling gift. However, thirty bob or £1.50 was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had last year been increased – but only to £2.
The Reporter called that amount a "bonanza" and it is worth around £30 in today's money and so it was not to be sneered at. But it probably did little to change the winners' lives. And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter. However, there were other prizes, as well as the two quid gift. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a "colour enlargement photograph of the lucky baby" and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
Pimbletts were offering free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies living in St Helens. In addition, all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram cover free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the cover!
The Reporter concluded their piece by writing: "We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on." Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning £2 and a voucher or two!
Hannan Myerscough was pictured in the paper with a group of Robins Lane schoolchildren after they had visited the elderly lady's home in Marina Avenue in Sutton to sing carols. A total of 240 children aged from five to seven had visited 100 homes of Sutton pensioners dressed in nativity costumes and as well as carol singing they gave each one a small Christmas gift of a box of tea bags. Money for the gifts came from collections of wool that had been gathered by the children throughout the school term.
This week a report was issued which stated that St Helens had more derelict land than any other part of Merseyside. There were numerous sites considered ripe for reclamation, including:
The Greengate Fibreglass waste tip that Pilkington's were considering as the location for their new factory; the Alexandra, Ravenhead and Sherdley collieries waste heaps; Roughdale 's abandoned brickworks and clay pits; a tip belonging to a firm called Waste Clearance and the solid toxic waste site of the former Old Teapot clay pit. The report mentioned how one important reclamation scheme that was due to begin soon was a 54-acre site at Wagon Lane in Haydock.
And finally, on the 28th the panto Puss In Boots began at the Theatre Royal. The show was presented by the Pilkington Musical Society and would continue until January 4th.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bizarre hospital consultants' dispute, the New Year window smashing, the plans to revamp the Gamble, the two burglaries at the Fleece and the nocturnal racket in Reginald Road that was annoying neighbours.
In the days before Christmas members of St Helens Angling Association had been busy collecting signatures against plans to build a leisure complex at Carr Mill Dam. A London-based company had applied for permission for a 150-bed hotel, conference centre, casino, club, cinema, swimming pool, sauna and a boating centre. The association's campaign had led to their members canvassing Christmas shoppers in St Helens town centre and going door-to-door on housing estates. Petitions had also been left in factories, clubs and pubs.
This week they announced that they had collected over 6,000 signatures and on the 24th their members visited the homes of all 16 members of the council's Planning Committee. In a letter to the committee the association's match secretary, Frank Burgess, pointed out that the 3,300 members of the Association already had very little fishing room in St Helens and argued that each angler had less than 32 inches of bank fishing space. The association claimed that if permission was granted for the new development, half of the dam's fishing could be lost and its daily cost would rise considerably.
Also on Christmas Eve, Tesco's branch in Bridge Street closed for good with the supermarket planning to move into the new shopping precinct early next year.
The highlights of Christmas Day TV on BBC 1 included Billy Smart's Christmas Circus, The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show, one-hour specials of Bruce Forsyth & the Generation Game and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, with Bridge On The River Kwai being the evening film. And ITV had Meet Peters and Lee, The Tommy Cooper Hour, This Is Your Life and their evening film was The Undefeated with John Wayne. There was no Morecambe and Wise on Christmas Day this year.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th provided few details of how Christmas had been spent in the town but they did mention a couple of births that had taken place on the 25th. Catherine McDonald of Broad Lane in Moss Bank had been born at Billinge Hospital and Barbara Riley of Amanda Road in Rainhill had given birth at Whiston Hospital.
The lead story in the Reporter described how over 1,000 workers at Triplex were going to start the New Year on short time. The company that made toughened safety glass for car windscreens had been hit by what the paper called a "dramatic recession in the motor trade". Domestic car sales had slumped by a quarter during 1974 and because of "spiralling" petrol costs they were expected to fall even further during 1975.
As a result a large build up of stock had accumulated at Triplex's Eccleston factory and so the firm had decided that 1,200 hourly paid employees would from January 2nd work a four-day-week. However, due to the firm's agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union, their members' earnings would be fully protected until February.
The Reporter also described how Windle Parish Council was fighting to save the historic Grange Estate in Rainford Road from demolition. They had decided to apply to the Department of the Environment for a preservation order on the near-200 year old buildings that included a country house, estate office and malt house.
The paper reported how police were searching for a schoolgirl who had "mysteriously vanished" from her home in Eccleston. The 13-year-old had returned home from Notre Dame High School on December 16th, put £10 in her purse and left after leaving a note for her parents asking them to look after her pets.
The girl's mother told the paper: "We've all had a very worrying Christmas. We just have to sit here and wait. And that is the worst part of all." Explaining that her daughter had left home without having had any row with her parents, the mother appealed for her daughter to get in touch.
It took almost three months before the police found the girl in London after having passed herself off as 17 and managing to obtain a job and digs. I'm not naming her in case it causes embarrassment. But it turned out the main reason that she went to London was to locate her idol, Gary Glitter. Very fortunately despite her searches and some near-misses, she was unsuccessful.
The Reporter also published this brief piece under the headline "Long-Eared ‘Prisoner’": "Police had to take a fluffy grey rabbit into protective custody last week after a Haydock Street, Newton-le-Willows resident brought it in from the cold. The tame rabbit was lost and Newton police kept it in the detention room. It was not lonely for long, however, for the owner, Diane Bryan, of Haydock Street, collected it the following day shortly before it was due to have been taken to the Warrington RSPCA."
Rothery Radio of Baldwin Street was advertising a "Television Sensation" next week at the YMCA in North Road. "This is the post-budget exhibition you have been waiting for", said their ad. Their "gigantic show" would feature Murphy, Pye, Bush, Ekco and HMV colour sets.
Two schoolgirls, Yvonne Howe (14) from Rainhill and Jacalyn Sharp (13) from Eccleston Park were pictured in the Reporter. Both girls attended schools in Whiston and the pair would be taking part in the regional finals of the United Kingdom Schools Fish Cookery Competition.
The Reporter also described how a pioneer scheme was being set up to allow crown green bowling in winter. The council had approved plans to allow one of the five greens in the Queens Recreation Park to be opened in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday for the whole year. Spearheading the scheme were a group of ten bowling enthusiasts led by Henry Houghton of Grafton Street, who said: "At present the season is far too short. It only lasts from April until September. Very often you get some fine days outside these months and it seems a pity a green cannot be used."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st received a 30-shilling gift. However, thirty bob or £1.50 was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had last year been increased – but only to £2.
The Reporter called that amount a "bonanza" and it is worth around £30 in today's money and so it was not to be sneered at. But it probably did little to change the winners' lives. And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter. However, there were other prizes, as well as the two quid gift. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a "colour enlargement photograph of the lucky baby" and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
Pimbletts were offering free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies living in St Helens. In addition, all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram cover free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the cover!
The Reporter concluded their piece by writing: "We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on." Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning £2 and a voucher or two!
Hannan Myerscough was pictured in the paper with a group of Robins Lane schoolchildren after they had visited the elderly lady's home in Marina Avenue in Sutton to sing carols. A total of 240 children aged from five to seven had visited 100 homes of Sutton pensioners dressed in nativity costumes and as well as carol singing they gave each one a small Christmas gift of a box of tea bags. Money for the gifts came from collections of wool that had been gathered by the children throughout the school term.
This week a report was issued which stated that St Helens had more derelict land than any other part of Merseyside. There were numerous sites considered ripe for reclamation, including:
The Greengate Fibreglass waste tip that Pilkington's were considering as the location for their new factory; the Alexandra, Ravenhead and Sherdley collieries waste heaps; Roughdale 's abandoned brickworks and clay pits; a tip belonging to a firm called Waste Clearance and the solid toxic waste site of the former Old Teapot clay pit. The report mentioned how one important reclamation scheme that was due to begin soon was a 54-acre site at Wagon Lane in Haydock.
And finally, on the 28th the panto Puss In Boots began at the Theatre Royal. The show was presented by the Pilkington Musical Society and would continue until January 4th.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bizarre hospital consultants' dispute, the New Year window smashing, the plans to revamp the Gamble, the two burglaries at the Fleece and the nocturnal racket in Reginald Road that was annoying neighbours.
This week's many stories include the Eccleston girl who left home to find Gary Glitter, a dramatic drop in car sales leads to short time at Triplex, the Reporter's New Year's Day baby contest, the many derelict sites in St Helens ripe for reclamation and why comic Tom O’Connor had been in Rainhill inspecting women's legs.
In the days before Christmas members of St Helens Angling Association had been busy collecting signatures against plans to build a leisure complex at Carr Mill Dam.
A London-based company had applied for permission for a 150-bed hotel, conference centre, casino, club, cinema, swimming pool, sauna and a boating centre.
The association's campaign had led to their members canvassing Christmas shoppers in St Helens town centre and going door-to-door on housing estates. Petitions had also been left in factories, clubs and pubs.
This week they announced that they had collected over 6,000 signatures and on the 24th their members visited the homes of all 16 members of the council's Planning Committee.
In a letter to the committee the association's match secretary, Frank Burgess, pointed out that the 3,300 members of the Association already had very little fishing room in St Helens and argued that each angler had less than 32 inches of bank fishing space.
The association claimed that if permission was granted for the new development, half of the dam's fishing could be lost and its daily cost would rise considerably.
Also on Christmas Eve, Tesco's branch in Bridge Street closed for good with the supermarket planning to move into the new shopping precinct early next year.
The highlights of Christmas Day TV on BBC 1 included Billy Smart's Christmas Circus, The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show, one-hour specials of Bruce Forsyth & the Generation Game and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, with Bridge On The River Kwai being the evening film.
And ITV had Meet Peters and Lee, The Tommy Cooper Hour, This Is Your Life and their evening film was The Undefeated with John Wayne. There was no Morecambe and Wise on Christmas Day this year.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th provided few details of how Christmas had been spent in the town but they did mention a couple of births that had taken place on the 25th.
Catherine McDonald of Broad Lane in Moss Bank had been born at Billinge Hospital and Barbara Riley of Amanda Road in Rainhill had given birth at Whiston Hospital.
The lead story in the Reporter described how over 1,000 workers at Triplex were going to start the New Year on short time.
The company that made toughened safety glass for car windscreens had been hit by what the paper called a "dramatic recession in the motor trade".
Domestic car sales had slumped by a quarter during 1974 and because of "spiralling" petrol costs they were expected to fall even further during 1975.
As a result a large build up of stock had accumulated at Triplex's Eccleston factory and so the firm had decided that 1,200 hourly paid employees would from January 2nd work a four-day-week.
However, due to the firm's agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union, their members' earnings would be fully protected until February.
There was a picture in the Reporter of comedian Tom O’Connor inspecting ladies' legs.
The comedian had been invited to the Rael Brook shirt factory in Rainhill to judge three contests.
In the loveliest legs competition Barbara Rawlinson was judged the winner with Linda Evans and Linda Smith runners up.
The honour of being acclaimed Mr Knobbly Knees 1974 went to Sam Plumpton. And the winner of the third competition, Best Hat, was Joan Worthington.
The Reporter also described how Windle Parish Council was fighting to save the historic Grange Estate in Rainford Road from demolition.
They had decided to apply to the Department of the Environment for a preservation order on the near-200 year old buildings that included a country house, estate office and malt house.
The paper reported how police were searching for a schoolgirl who had "mysteriously vanished" from her home in Eccleston.
The 13-year-old had returned home from Notre Dame High School on December 16th, put £10 in her purse and left after leaving a note for her parents asking them to look after her pets.
The girl's mother told the paper: "We've all had a very worrying Christmas. We just have to sit here and wait. And that is the worst part of all."
Explaining that her daughter had left home without having had any row with her parents, the mother appealed for her daughter to get in touch.
It took almost three months before the police found the girl in London after having passed herself off as 17 and managing to obtain a job and digs.
I'm not naming her in case it causes embarrassment. But it turned out the main reason that she went to London was to locate her idol, Gary Glitter.
Very fortunately despite her searches and some near-misses, she was unsuccessful.
The Reporter also published this brief piece under the headline "Long-Eared ‘Prisoner’":
"Police had to take a fluffy grey rabbit into protective custody last week after a Haydock Street, Newton-le-Willows resident brought it in from the cold.
"The tame rabbit was lost and Newton police kept it in the detention room. It was not lonely for long, however, for the owner, Diane Bryan, of Haydock Street, collected it the following day shortly before it was due to have been taken to the Warrington RSPCA."
Rothery Radio of Baldwin Street was advertising a "Television Sensation" next week at the YMCA in North Road. "This is the post-budget exhibition you have been waiting for", said their ad.
Their "gigantic show" would feature Murphy, Pye, Bush, Ekco and HMV colour sets.
Two schoolgirls, Yvonne Howe (14) from Rainhill and Jacalyn Sharp (13) from Eccleston Park were pictured in the Reporter.
Both girls attended schools in Whiston and the pair would be taking part in the regional finals of the United Kingdom Schools Fish Cookery Competition.
The Reporter also described how a pioneer scheme was being set up to allow crown green bowling in winter.
The council had approved plans to allow one of the five greens in the Queens Recreation Park to be opened in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday for the whole year.
Spearheading the scheme were a group of ten bowling enthusiasts led by Henry Houghton of Grafton Street, who said: "At present the season is far too short. It only lasts from April until September.
"Very often you get some fine days outside these months and it seems a pity a green cannot be used."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st received a 30-shilling gift.
However, thirty bob or £1.50 was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had last year been increased – but only to £2.
The Reporter called that amount a "bonanza" and it is worth around £30 in today's money and so it was not to be sneered at. But it probably did little to change the winners' lives.
And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter.
However, there were other prizes, as well as the two quid gift. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a "colour enlargement photograph of the lucky baby" and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
Pimbletts were offering free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies living in St Helens.
In addition, all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram cover free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the cover!
The Reporter concluded their piece by writing: "We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on."
Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning £2 and a voucher or two!
Hannan Myerscough was pictured in the paper with a group of Robins Lane schoolchildren after they had visited the elderly lady's home in Marina Avenue in Sutton to sing carols.
A total of 240 children aged from five to seven had visited 100 homes of Sutton pensioners dressed in nativity costumes and as well as carol singing they gave each one a small Christmas gift of a box of tea bags.
Money for the gifts came from collections of wool that had been gathered by the children throughout the school term.
This week a report was issued which stated that St Helens had more derelict land than any other part of Merseyside. There were numerous sites considered ripe for reclamation, including:
The Greengate Fibreglass waste tip that Pilkington's were considering as the location for their new factory; the Alexandra, Ravenhead and Sherdley collieries waste heaps; Roughdale 's abandoned brickworks and clay pits; a tip belonging to a firm called Waste Clearance and the solid toxic waste site of the former Old Teapot clay pit.
The report mentioned how one important reclamation scheme that was due to begin soon was a 54-acre site at Wagon Lane in Haydock.
And finally, on the 28th the panto Puss In Boots began at the Theatre Royal. The show was presented by the Pilkington Musical Society and would continue until January 4th.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bizarre hospital consultants' dispute, the New Year window smashing, the plans to revamp the Gamble, the two burglaries at the Fleece and the nocturnal racket in Reginald Road that was annoying neighbours.
In the days before Christmas members of St Helens Angling Association had been busy collecting signatures against plans to build a leisure complex at Carr Mill Dam.
A London-based company had applied for permission for a 150-bed hotel, conference centre, casino, club, cinema, swimming pool, sauna and a boating centre.
The association's campaign had led to their members canvassing Christmas shoppers in St Helens town centre and going door-to-door on housing estates. Petitions had also been left in factories, clubs and pubs.
This week they announced that they had collected over 6,000 signatures and on the 24th their members visited the homes of all 16 members of the council's Planning Committee.
In a letter to the committee the association's match secretary, Frank Burgess, pointed out that the 3,300 members of the Association already had very little fishing room in St Helens and argued that each angler had less than 32 inches of bank fishing space.
The association claimed that if permission was granted for the new development, half of the dam's fishing could be lost and its daily cost would rise considerably.
Also on Christmas Eve, Tesco's branch in Bridge Street closed for good with the supermarket planning to move into the new shopping precinct early next year.
The highlights of Christmas Day TV on BBC 1 included Billy Smart's Christmas Circus, The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show, one-hour specials of Bruce Forsyth & the Generation Game and Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, with Bridge On The River Kwai being the evening film.
And ITV had Meet Peters and Lee, The Tommy Cooper Hour, This Is Your Life and their evening film was The Undefeated with John Wayne. There was no Morecambe and Wise on Christmas Day this year.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th provided few details of how Christmas had been spent in the town but they did mention a couple of births that had taken place on the 25th.
Catherine McDonald of Broad Lane in Moss Bank had been born at Billinge Hospital and Barbara Riley of Amanda Road in Rainhill had given birth at Whiston Hospital.
The lead story in the Reporter described how over 1,000 workers at Triplex were going to start the New Year on short time.
The company that made toughened safety glass for car windscreens had been hit by what the paper called a "dramatic recession in the motor trade".
Domestic car sales had slumped by a quarter during 1974 and because of "spiralling" petrol costs they were expected to fall even further during 1975.
As a result a large build up of stock had accumulated at Triplex's Eccleston factory and so the firm had decided that 1,200 hourly paid employees would from January 2nd work a four-day-week.
However, due to the firm's agreement with the General and Municipal Workers Union, their members' earnings would be fully protected until February.
The comedian had been invited to the Rael Brook shirt factory in Rainhill to judge three contests.
In the loveliest legs competition Barbara Rawlinson was judged the winner with Linda Evans and Linda Smith runners up.
The honour of being acclaimed Mr Knobbly Knees 1974 went to Sam Plumpton. And the winner of the third competition, Best Hat, was Joan Worthington.
The Reporter also described how Windle Parish Council was fighting to save the historic Grange Estate in Rainford Road from demolition.
They had decided to apply to the Department of the Environment for a preservation order on the near-200 year old buildings that included a country house, estate office and malt house.
The paper reported how police were searching for a schoolgirl who had "mysteriously vanished" from her home in Eccleston.
The 13-year-old had returned home from Notre Dame High School on December 16th, put £10 in her purse and left after leaving a note for her parents asking them to look after her pets.
The girl's mother told the paper: "We've all had a very worrying Christmas. We just have to sit here and wait. And that is the worst part of all."
Explaining that her daughter had left home without having had any row with her parents, the mother appealed for her daughter to get in touch.
It took almost three months before the police found the girl in London after having passed herself off as 17 and managing to obtain a job and digs.
I'm not naming her in case it causes embarrassment. But it turned out the main reason that she went to London was to locate her idol, Gary Glitter.
Very fortunately despite her searches and some near-misses, she was unsuccessful.
The Reporter also published this brief piece under the headline "Long-Eared ‘Prisoner’":
"Police had to take a fluffy grey rabbit into protective custody last week after a Haydock Street, Newton-le-Willows resident brought it in from the cold.
"The tame rabbit was lost and Newton police kept it in the detention room. It was not lonely for long, however, for the owner, Diane Bryan, of Haydock Street, collected it the following day shortly before it was due to have been taken to the Warrington RSPCA."
Rothery Radio of Baldwin Street was advertising a "Television Sensation" next week at the YMCA in North Road. "This is the post-budget exhibition you have been waiting for", said their ad.
Their "gigantic show" would feature Murphy, Pye, Bush, Ekco and HMV colour sets.
Two schoolgirls, Yvonne Howe (14) from Rainhill and Jacalyn Sharp (13) from Eccleston Park were pictured in the Reporter.
Both girls attended schools in Whiston and the pair would be taking part in the regional finals of the United Kingdom Schools Fish Cookery Competition.
The Reporter also described how a pioneer scheme was being set up to allow crown green bowling in winter.
The council had approved plans to allow one of the five greens in the Queens Recreation Park to be opened in the afternoon from Monday to Saturday for the whole year.
Spearheading the scheme were a group of ten bowling enthusiasts led by Henry Houghton of Grafton Street, who said: "At present the season is far too short. It only lasts from April until September.
"Very often you get some fine days outside these months and it seems a pity a green cannot be used."
The Reporter was once again running its New Year baby contest, which for some years had meant that the first twelve babies born in St Helens after midnight on December 31st received a 30-shilling gift.
However, thirty bob or £1.50 was not very much in inflationary times and so the value of the prizes had last year been increased – but only to £2.
The Reporter called that amount a "bonanza" and it is worth around £30 in today's money and so it was not to be sneered at. But it probably did little to change the winners' lives.
And a further twelve gifts were to be given to readers of its sister titles – the Prescot and Huyton Reporter, the Newton Guardian and the Ashton and Haydock Reporter.
Just whether two-dozen babies would be born within the district on New Year's Day was, however, another matter.
However, there were other prizes, as well as the two quid gift. Cholerton's of 166 Duke Street would present the mother of the first-born baby with a "colour enlargement photograph of the lucky baby" and Practical Credit Services of College Street would give her a £5 voucher.
Pimbletts were offering free christening cakes to parents of New Year's Day babies living in St Helens.
In addition, all mothers of New Year's Day babies who bought their prams from Prestts of Duke Street would get a pram cover free – although I expect the pram would have cost a lot more than the cover!
The Reporter concluded their piece by writing: "We know that the arrivals of babies are just as unpredictable as the British weather, so all you “ladies-in-waiting” can do is to cross your fingers and hope your count-down turns out to be spot on."
Something tells me that the New Year mothers-to-be might have other things on their minds than the thrill of winning £2 and a voucher or two!
Hannan Myerscough was pictured in the paper with a group of Robins Lane schoolchildren after they had visited the elderly lady's home in Marina Avenue in Sutton to sing carols.
A total of 240 children aged from five to seven had visited 100 homes of Sutton pensioners dressed in nativity costumes and as well as carol singing they gave each one a small Christmas gift of a box of tea bags.
Money for the gifts came from collections of wool that had been gathered by the children throughout the school term.
This week a report was issued which stated that St Helens had more derelict land than any other part of Merseyside. There were numerous sites considered ripe for reclamation, including:
The Greengate Fibreglass waste tip that Pilkington's were considering as the location for their new factory; the Alexandra, Ravenhead and Sherdley collieries waste heaps; Roughdale 's abandoned brickworks and clay pits; a tip belonging to a firm called Waste Clearance and the solid toxic waste site of the former Old Teapot clay pit.
The report mentioned how one important reclamation scheme that was due to begin soon was a 54-acre site at Wagon Lane in Haydock.
And finally, on the 28th the panto Puss In Boots began at the Theatre Royal. The show was presented by the Pilkington Musical Society and would continue until January 4th.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bizarre hospital consultants' dispute, the New Year window smashing, the plans to revamp the Gamble, the two burglaries at the Fleece and the nocturnal racket in Reginald Road that was annoying neighbours.