FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th AUGUST 1970)
This week's many stories include the Sidac "acid drop dollies" who dodged sulphuric acid bubbles, a car is stolen at gun point in Eccleston, Rainford Carnival ’70 takes place, the armed vigilante gardeners of Alder Hey Road and "Radio Saints" returns to the air.
We begin with Sutton Parish Church's Holiday Club ‘70 which took place at the Parish Hall in New Street. Every morning this week the boys and girls were able to paint, play games, make models and participate in plays.
A tale of armed vigilante gardeners was told in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 26th when a 58-year-old man appeared in court. Allotment holders at plots in Alder Hey Road in Eccleston had got so fed up with thefts and vandalism that they decided to set up a night-time patrol. On the previous Saturday at 6:20am, Stanley Pennington had jumped out of a cluster of trees to nab a man snapping the heads off his dahlias.
And the 46-year-old from Gladstone Street was armed, as he explained to the St Helens Reporter: "I chased the man with a gun and caught him. I terrified him and hope it will act as a deterrent to others. So far I have got one [thief], but I won't be happy until I get them all. They have ruined my show hopes this year. I had high hopes this year but the thieves have ruined me. A vase of five dahlias for a show sounds easy, but they must be perfectly matched and that takes some doing." The flower robber was fined £10.
Another incident of a gun being used in Eccleston occurred within hours of the court hearing. At 3am on the 27th Christopher Alexander was awakened by the sound of a car starting up outside his home in Osborne Road. The 22-year-old looked outside his bedroom window and saw a woman attempting to move his car from between two other parked vehicles. Christopher said:
"I ran downstairs and into the middle of the road. Then I saw another car parked on the opposite side of the road, with a man behind the driving wheel. As soon as he saw me, the man stuck a revolver out of his window and threatened to shoot me if I moved. He said “one move and I will kill you”. I must have been standing there for about 30 seconds before the woman managed to drive my car away after colliding with the rear of a parked car." An hour later the police found the stolen vehicle abandoned on the East Lancs Road and were searching for the two thieves.
There was a cast of 100 performers under the age of 20 appearing in the 'Sound of Youth' show at the Theatre Royal this week. These included Redgate Boys Silver Band who had just returned from Holland after performing in a festival.
The Reporter was published on the 28th and described complaints from what they called the "acid drop dollies" at British Sidac. These were office staff at the Lancots Lane cellulose maker who claimed that sulphuric acid bubbles from the adjacent Leathers Chemicals (shown above) were damaging their tights. Twenty-two-year-old Helen Marsh of Dixon Avenue in Newton told the paper:
"It looked like a sea of champagne bubbles coming towards me. I was wearing boots and a mini-skirt and when the bubbles landed on my tights they just disintegrated between the top of my boots to where my skirt started. There was so much of it about it made me choke. I had to run to the lodge gates to escape the great cloud."
However Helen's experience upon arriving at work was far from unique, as 20-year-old Margaret Gaskell of Fleet Lane in Parr explained: "It has happened quite a few times. My tights have had great holes in them when I have got into work. All the men watch us sidestepping the bubbles. Some days we get quite an audience. We try and dodge the bubbles but there are so many of them, it's a losing battle. We feel the least the chemical company could do is apologise."
Elizabeth Beard of Boardmans Lane reckoned that more than twenty of the girls had had their tights ruined by the sulphur bubbles: "It's beginning to get expensive to work here. My husband is getting worried about having to keep forking out for new tights for me." British Sidac's joint managing director, Dr. George Britten, seemed more concerned about possible damage to cars than to his employees' clothing, telling the Reporter:
"We are having a staff car park built near the works and we are carrying out atmospheric tests there. Acid could quite possibly damage cars. Our company have often been blamed for the state of the atmosphere. This time we are blameless. Complaints I have received from residents about the acid I have passed on to Leathers".
The Reporter also described how a squad of 15 detectives had been drafted in to hunt for two robbers who had attacked a man in Parr. The raiders with stockings worn over their heads had forced their way into a farmhouse in Newton Road occupied by Moses Leyland. The 68-year-old had ammonia squirted in his face and then he was bound and gagged and tied to a bed, with his attackers making off with £500.
There was a long list of successful "O" level candidates in the Reporter with Keith Rice of Dinorben Avenue undertaking the customary "jumping for joy" pose. The 16-year-old Cowley student had passed eight O–levels.
Not quite so happy was Jack Whalley, who had a bungalow and adjacent business selling concrete products in Normans Road, Sutton. He was livid over fine dust clouds, which he claimed drifted over his property from Bold Power Station (pictured above). Jack told the Reporter: "I don't see any reason why so much filth and pollution needs to be released into the atmosphere causing a health hazard and a nuisance."
The 56-year-old was demanding face-to-face talks with the power station's bosses and a cut in his rates bill. Mr Whalley also believed that the drifting ash from the power station possessed an acid content, which damaged the concrete products stored in his yard. "I was here before the power station was built", he added. "I objected when it was proposed to build the station so close to my yard. But I was just a voice in the wilderness then."
Alan Whalley's column 'Whalley's World' this week criticised what he described as the "force-fed learning" of youngsters at schools. However another beef was Sutton and its odours: "Sutton stinks. Nobody standing downwind of the place would deny that! And the good people of Sutton – that dreary wilderness tacked to one end of the unlovely borough of St. Helens – have learned to live with it.
"Nostrils have become accustomed to the stench of the polluted “Stinking Brook”, wending its evil way past the local school. The whiff of various smell-adhering industries has been gulped in without comment. Steam, smoke and pollution has poured across the skyline without causing a revolution. But now, the stolid citizens of Sutton seem to be showing signs of becoming stirred into action. Some alarming bulletins came from deepest Sutton this week.
"Office girls complained that their nylon tights are falling apart in the acid atmosphere, a business chief protests that his health and industry is being put at hazard by drifting ash. A new wave of anxiety has arisen in smelly Sutton. Searching questions have been raised in popular meeting places, such as clubs and pubs. The people want to know whether or not the heady laden atmosphere is playing havoc with their lungs, homes and gardens. This is a very reasonable question. Here's hoping that the local “powers that be” get down to sniffing out the answers."
The Reporter also profiled the broadcasting service that provided radio commentary of rugby league matches to patients in five local hospitals. Founded in 1948, "Radio Saints" had recently been off the air as vandals had smashed their equipment. But they were now back in business, with a commentary team of Joe Webb, Len Kilshaw and Billy Lewis, who rented the broadcasting system off the GPO for £215 a year.
On the 29th Rainford Carnival ’70 was held, the first time for many years that such an event had taken place in the village. The many attractions included a horse show, bird show and horticultural competition, the crowning of carnival queen Linda Rimmer, a police dog display, roast ox carving, a piano smashing contest, fashion show, brass bands and Morris dancing. During the evening there was a "Grand Carnival Marquee Dance" and for the younger set, a "Carnival ’70 Discotheque".
Fine weather helped to draw more than 6,000 people to the event, with a procession through the village led by the Carnival Queen, being a highlight. Long-gone advertisers in the St Helens Reporter's preview of the event included Wainwright's Electrical Services (my Dad!), Beavan Maples Estate Agents, Owen's Post Office and Pimbletts (all Church Road) and, within Ormskirk Road, A & H. Bradbury, Huyton's bread and cake shop and E. W. Moulton's fruit shop.
Next week's stories will include the choking gas that struck the streets of Sutton, the Clock Face champion gunslinger, parents demand an investigation into a Rainford school and the siege of a church youth club by revengeful teenagers.
We begin with Sutton Parish Church's Holiday Club ‘70 which took place at the Parish Hall in New Street. Every morning this week the boys and girls were able to paint, play games, make models and participate in plays.
A tale of armed vigilante gardeners was told in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 26th when a 58-year-old man appeared in court. Allotment holders at plots in Alder Hey Road in Eccleston had got so fed up with thefts and vandalism that they decided to set up a night-time patrol. On the previous Saturday at 6:20am, Stanley Pennington had jumped out of a cluster of trees to nab a man snapping the heads off his dahlias.
And the 46-year-old from Gladstone Street was armed, as he explained to the St Helens Reporter: "I chased the man with a gun and caught him. I terrified him and hope it will act as a deterrent to others. So far I have got one [thief], but I won't be happy until I get them all. They have ruined my show hopes this year. I had high hopes this year but the thieves have ruined me. A vase of five dahlias for a show sounds easy, but they must be perfectly matched and that takes some doing." The flower robber was fined £10.
Another incident of a gun being used in Eccleston occurred within hours of the court hearing. At 3am on the 27th Christopher Alexander was awakened by the sound of a car starting up outside his home in Osborne Road. The 22-year-old looked outside his bedroom window and saw a woman attempting to move his car from between two other parked vehicles. Christopher said:
"I ran downstairs and into the middle of the road. Then I saw another car parked on the opposite side of the road, with a man behind the driving wheel. As soon as he saw me, the man stuck a revolver out of his window and threatened to shoot me if I moved. He said “one move and I will kill you”. I must have been standing there for about 30 seconds before the woman managed to drive my car away after colliding with the rear of a parked car." An hour later the police found the stolen vehicle abandoned on the East Lancs Road and were searching for the two thieves.
There was a cast of 100 performers under the age of 20 appearing in the 'Sound of Youth' show at the Theatre Royal this week. These included Redgate Boys Silver Band who had just returned from Holland after performing in a festival.
"It looked like a sea of champagne bubbles coming towards me. I was wearing boots and a mini-skirt and when the bubbles landed on my tights they just disintegrated between the top of my boots to where my skirt started. There was so much of it about it made me choke. I had to run to the lodge gates to escape the great cloud."
However Helen's experience upon arriving at work was far from unique, as 20-year-old Margaret Gaskell of Fleet Lane in Parr explained: "It has happened quite a few times. My tights have had great holes in them when I have got into work. All the men watch us sidestepping the bubbles. Some days we get quite an audience. We try and dodge the bubbles but there are so many of them, it's a losing battle. We feel the least the chemical company could do is apologise."
Elizabeth Beard of Boardmans Lane reckoned that more than twenty of the girls had had their tights ruined by the sulphur bubbles: "It's beginning to get expensive to work here. My husband is getting worried about having to keep forking out for new tights for me." British Sidac's joint managing director, Dr. George Britten, seemed more concerned about possible damage to cars than to his employees' clothing, telling the Reporter:
"We are having a staff car park built near the works and we are carrying out atmospheric tests there. Acid could quite possibly damage cars. Our company have often been blamed for the state of the atmosphere. This time we are blameless. Complaints I have received from residents about the acid I have passed on to Leathers".
The Reporter also described how a squad of 15 detectives had been drafted in to hunt for two robbers who had attacked a man in Parr. The raiders with stockings worn over their heads had forced their way into a farmhouse in Newton Road occupied by Moses Leyland. The 68-year-old had ammonia squirted in his face and then he was bound and gagged and tied to a bed, with his attackers making off with £500.
There was a long list of successful "O" level candidates in the Reporter with Keith Rice of Dinorben Avenue undertaking the customary "jumping for joy" pose. The 16-year-old Cowley student had passed eight O–levels.
The 56-year-old was demanding face-to-face talks with the power station's bosses and a cut in his rates bill. Mr Whalley also believed that the drifting ash from the power station possessed an acid content, which damaged the concrete products stored in his yard. "I was here before the power station was built", he added. "I objected when it was proposed to build the station so close to my yard. But I was just a voice in the wilderness then."
Alan Whalley's column 'Whalley's World' this week criticised what he described as the "force-fed learning" of youngsters at schools. However another beef was Sutton and its odours: "Sutton stinks. Nobody standing downwind of the place would deny that! And the good people of Sutton – that dreary wilderness tacked to one end of the unlovely borough of St. Helens – have learned to live with it.
"Nostrils have become accustomed to the stench of the polluted “Stinking Brook”, wending its evil way past the local school. The whiff of various smell-adhering industries has been gulped in without comment. Steam, smoke and pollution has poured across the skyline without causing a revolution. But now, the stolid citizens of Sutton seem to be showing signs of becoming stirred into action. Some alarming bulletins came from deepest Sutton this week.
"Office girls complained that their nylon tights are falling apart in the acid atmosphere, a business chief protests that his health and industry is being put at hazard by drifting ash. A new wave of anxiety has arisen in smelly Sutton. Searching questions have been raised in popular meeting places, such as clubs and pubs. The people want to know whether or not the heady laden atmosphere is playing havoc with their lungs, homes and gardens. This is a very reasonable question. Here's hoping that the local “powers that be” get down to sniffing out the answers."
The Reporter also profiled the broadcasting service that provided radio commentary of rugby league matches to patients in five local hospitals. Founded in 1948, "Radio Saints" had recently been off the air as vandals had smashed their equipment. But they were now back in business, with a commentary team of Joe Webb, Len Kilshaw and Billy Lewis, who rented the broadcasting system off the GPO for £215 a year.
On the 29th Rainford Carnival ’70 was held, the first time for many years that such an event had taken place in the village. The many attractions included a horse show, bird show and horticultural competition, the crowning of carnival queen Linda Rimmer, a police dog display, roast ox carving, a piano smashing contest, fashion show, brass bands and Morris dancing. During the evening there was a "Grand Carnival Marquee Dance" and for the younger set, a "Carnival ’70 Discotheque".
Fine weather helped to draw more than 6,000 people to the event, with a procession through the village led by the Carnival Queen, being a highlight. Long-gone advertisers in the St Helens Reporter's preview of the event included Wainwright's Electrical Services (my Dad!), Beavan Maples Estate Agents, Owen's Post Office and Pimbletts (all Church Road) and, within Ormskirk Road, A & H. Bradbury, Huyton's bread and cake shop and E. W. Moulton's fruit shop.
Next week's stories will include the choking gas that struck the streets of Sutton, the Clock Face champion gunslinger, parents demand an investigation into a Rainford school and the siege of a church youth club by revengeful teenagers.
This week's many stories include the Sidac "acid drop dollies" who dodged sulphuric acid bubbles, a car is stolen at gun point in Eccleston, Rainford Carnival ’70 takes place, the armed vigilante gardeners of Alder Hey Road and "Radio Saints" returns to the air.
We begin with Sutton Parish Church's Holiday Club ‘70 which took place at the Parish Hall in New Street.
Every morning this week the boys and girls were able to paint, play games, make models and participate in plays.
A tale of armed vigilante gardeners was told in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 26th when a 58-year-old man appeared in court.
Allotment holders at plots in Alder Hey Road in Eccleston had got so fed up with thefts and vandalism that they decided to set up a night-time patrol.
On the previous Saturday at 6:20am, Stanley Pennington had jumped out of a cluster of trees to nab a man snapping the heads off his dahlias.
And the 46-year-old from Gladstone Street was armed, as he explained to the St Helens Reporter:
"I chased the man with a gun and caught him. I terrified him and hope it will act as a deterrent to others. So far I have got one [thief], but I won't be happy until I get them all. They have ruined my show hopes this year.
"I had high hopes this year but the thieves have ruined me. A vase of five dahlias for a show sounds easy, but they must be perfectly matched and that takes some doing." The flower robber was fined £10.
Another incident of a gun being used in Eccleston occurred within hours of the court hearing.
At 3am on the 27th Christopher Alexander was awakened by the sound of a car starting up outside his home in Osborne Road.
The 22-year-old looked outside his bedroom window and saw a woman attempting to move his car from between two other parked vehicles. Christopher said:
"I ran downstairs and into the middle of the road. Then I saw another car parked on the opposite side of the road, with a man behind the driving wheel. As soon as he saw me, the man stuck a revolver out of his window and threatened to shoot me if I moved.
"He said “one move and I will kill you”. I must have been standing there for about 30 seconds before the woman managed to drive my car away after colliding with the rear of a parked car."
An hour later the police found the stolen vehicle abandoned on the East Lancs Road and were searching for the two thieves.
There was a cast of 100 performers under the age of 20 appearing in the 'Sound of Youth' show at the Theatre Royal this week.
These included Redgate Boys Silver Band who had just returned from Holland after performing in a festival.
The Reporter was published on the 28th and described complaints from what they called the "acid drop dollies" at British Sidac.
These were office staff at the Lancots Lane cellulose maker who claimed that sulphuric acid bubbles from the adjacent Leathers Chemicals (shown above) were damaging their tights.
Twenty-two-year-old Helen Marsh of Dixon Avenue in Newton told the paper:
"It looked like a sea of champagne bubbles coming towards me. I was wearing boots and a mini-skirt and when the bubbles landed on my tights they just disintegrated between the top of my boots to where my skirt started.
"There was so much of it about it made me choke. I had to run to the lodge gates to escape the great cloud."
However Helen's experience upon arriving at work was far from unique, as 20-year-old Margaret Gaskell of Fleet Lane in Parr explained:
"It has happened quite a few times. My tights have had great holes in them when I have got into work. All the men watch us sidestepping the bubbles. Some days we get quite an audience.
"We try and dodge the bubbles but there are so many of them, it's a losing battle. We feel the least the chemical company could do is apologise."
Elizabeth Beard of Boardmans Lane reckoned that more than twenty of the girls had had their tights ruined by the sulphur bubbles:
"It's beginning to get expensive to work here. My husband is getting worried about having to keep forking out for new tights for me."
British Sidac's joint managing director, Dr. George Britten, seemed more concerned about possible damage to cars than to his employees' clothing, telling the Reporter:
"We are having a staff car park built near the works and we are carrying out atmospheric tests there. Acid could quite possibly damage cars.
"Our company have often been blamed for the state of the atmosphere. This time we are blameless. Complaints I have received from residents about the acid I have passed on to Leathers".
The Reporter also described how a squad of 15 detectives had been drafted in to hunt for two robbers who had attacked a man in Parr.
The raiders with stockings worn over their heads had forced their way into a farmhouse in Newton Road occupied by Moses Leyland.
The 68-year-old had ammonia squirted in his face and then he was bound and gagged and tied to a bed, with his attackers making off with £500.
There was a long list of successful "O" level candidates in the Reporter with Keith Rice of Dinorben Avenue undertaking the customary "jumping for joy" pose.
The sixteen-year-old Cowley student had passed eight O–levels.
Not quite so happy was Jack Whalley, who had a bungalow and adjacent business selling concrete products in Normans Road, Sutton.
He was livid over fine dust clouds, which he claimed drifted over his property from Bold Power Station (pictured above).
Jack told the Reporter: "I don't see any reason why so much filth and pollution needs to be released into the atmosphere causing a health hazard and a nuisance."
The 56-year-old was demanding face-to-face talks with the power station's bosses and a cut in his rates bill.
Mr Whalley also believed that the drifting ash from the power station possessed an acid content, which damaged the concrete products stored in his yard.
"I was here before the power station was built", he added. "I objected when it was proposed to build the station so close to my yard. But I was just a voice in the wilderness then."
Alan Whalley's column 'Whalley's World' this week criticised what he described as the "force-fed learning" of youngsters at schools. However another beef was Sutton and its odours:
"Sutton stinks. Nobody standing downwind of the place would deny that! And the good people of Sutton – that dreary wilderness tacked to one end of the unlovely borough of St. Helens – have learned to live with it.
"Nostrils have become accustomed to the stench of the polluted “Stinking Brook”, wending its evil way past the local school. The whiff of various smell-adhering industries has been gulped in without comment.
Steam, smoke and pollution has poured across the skyline without causing a revolution. But now, the stolid citizens of Sutton seem to be showing signs of becoming stirred into action. Some alarming bulletins came from deepest Sutton this week.
"Office girls complained that their nylon tights are falling apart in the acid atmosphere, a business chief protests that his health and industry is being put at hazard by drifting ash. A new wave of anxiety has arisen in smelly Sutton. Searching questions have been raised in popular meeting places, such as clubs and pubs.
"The people want to know whether or not the heady laden atmosphere is playing havoc with their lungs, homes and gardens. This is a very reasonable question. Here's hoping that the local “powers that be” get down to sniffing out the answers."
The Reporter also profiled the broadcasting service that provided radio commentary of rugby league matches to patients in five local hospitals.
Founded in 1948, "Radio Saints" had recently been off the air as vandals had smashed their equipment.
But they were now back in business, with a commentary team of Joe Webb, Len Kilshaw and Billy Lewis, who rented the broadcasting system off the GPO for £215 a year.
On the 29th Rainford Carnival ’70 was held, the first time for many years that such an event had taken place in the village.
The many attractions included a horse show, bird show and horticultural competition, the crowning of carnival queen Linda Rimmer, a police dog display, roast ox carving, a piano smashing contest, fashion show, brass bands and Morris dancing.
During the evening there was a "Grand Carnival Marquee Dance" and for the younger set, a "Carnival ’70 Discotheque".
Fine weather helped to draw more than 6,000 people to the event, with a procession through the village led by the Carnival Queen, being a highlight.
Long-gone advertisers in the St Helens Reporter's preview of the event included Wainwright's Electrical Services (my Dad!), Beavan Maples Estate Agents, Owen's Post Office and Pimbletts (all Church Road) and, within Ormskirk Road, A & H. Bradbury, Huyton's bread and cake shop and E. W. Moulton's fruit shop.
Next week's stories will include the choking gas that struck the streets of Sutton, the Clock Face champion gunslinger, parents demand an investigation into a Rainford school and the siege of a church youth club by revengeful teenagers.
We begin with Sutton Parish Church's Holiday Club ‘70 which took place at the Parish Hall in New Street.
Every morning this week the boys and girls were able to paint, play games, make models and participate in plays.
A tale of armed vigilante gardeners was told in St Helens Magistrates Court on the 26th when a 58-year-old man appeared in court.
Allotment holders at plots in Alder Hey Road in Eccleston had got so fed up with thefts and vandalism that they decided to set up a night-time patrol.
On the previous Saturday at 6:20am, Stanley Pennington had jumped out of a cluster of trees to nab a man snapping the heads off his dahlias.
And the 46-year-old from Gladstone Street was armed, as he explained to the St Helens Reporter:
"I chased the man with a gun and caught him. I terrified him and hope it will act as a deterrent to others. So far I have got one [thief], but I won't be happy until I get them all. They have ruined my show hopes this year.
"I had high hopes this year but the thieves have ruined me. A vase of five dahlias for a show sounds easy, but they must be perfectly matched and that takes some doing." The flower robber was fined £10.
Another incident of a gun being used in Eccleston occurred within hours of the court hearing.
At 3am on the 27th Christopher Alexander was awakened by the sound of a car starting up outside his home in Osborne Road.
The 22-year-old looked outside his bedroom window and saw a woman attempting to move his car from between two other parked vehicles. Christopher said:
"I ran downstairs and into the middle of the road. Then I saw another car parked on the opposite side of the road, with a man behind the driving wheel. As soon as he saw me, the man stuck a revolver out of his window and threatened to shoot me if I moved.
"He said “one move and I will kill you”. I must have been standing there for about 30 seconds before the woman managed to drive my car away after colliding with the rear of a parked car."
An hour later the police found the stolen vehicle abandoned on the East Lancs Road and were searching for the two thieves.
There was a cast of 100 performers under the age of 20 appearing in the 'Sound of Youth' show at the Theatre Royal this week.
These included Redgate Boys Silver Band who had just returned from Holland after performing in a festival.
The Reporter was published on the 28th and described complaints from what they called the "acid drop dollies" at British Sidac.
Twenty-two-year-old Helen Marsh of Dixon Avenue in Newton told the paper:
"It looked like a sea of champagne bubbles coming towards me. I was wearing boots and a mini-skirt and when the bubbles landed on my tights they just disintegrated between the top of my boots to where my skirt started.
"There was so much of it about it made me choke. I had to run to the lodge gates to escape the great cloud."
However Helen's experience upon arriving at work was far from unique, as 20-year-old Margaret Gaskell of Fleet Lane in Parr explained:
"It has happened quite a few times. My tights have had great holes in them when I have got into work. All the men watch us sidestepping the bubbles. Some days we get quite an audience.
"We try and dodge the bubbles but there are so many of them, it's a losing battle. We feel the least the chemical company could do is apologise."
Elizabeth Beard of Boardmans Lane reckoned that more than twenty of the girls had had their tights ruined by the sulphur bubbles:
"It's beginning to get expensive to work here. My husband is getting worried about having to keep forking out for new tights for me."
British Sidac's joint managing director, Dr. George Britten, seemed more concerned about possible damage to cars than to his employees' clothing, telling the Reporter:
"We are having a staff car park built near the works and we are carrying out atmospheric tests there. Acid could quite possibly damage cars.
"Our company have often been blamed for the state of the atmosphere. This time we are blameless. Complaints I have received from residents about the acid I have passed on to Leathers".
The Reporter also described how a squad of 15 detectives had been drafted in to hunt for two robbers who had attacked a man in Parr.
The raiders with stockings worn over their heads had forced their way into a farmhouse in Newton Road occupied by Moses Leyland.
The 68-year-old had ammonia squirted in his face and then he was bound and gagged and tied to a bed, with his attackers making off with £500.
There was a long list of successful "O" level candidates in the Reporter with Keith Rice of Dinorben Avenue undertaking the customary "jumping for joy" pose.
The sixteen-year-old Cowley student had passed eight O–levels.
Not quite so happy was Jack Whalley, who had a bungalow and adjacent business selling concrete products in Normans Road, Sutton.
Jack told the Reporter: "I don't see any reason why so much filth and pollution needs to be released into the atmosphere causing a health hazard and a nuisance."
The 56-year-old was demanding face-to-face talks with the power station's bosses and a cut in his rates bill.
Mr Whalley also believed that the drifting ash from the power station possessed an acid content, which damaged the concrete products stored in his yard.
"I was here before the power station was built", he added. "I objected when it was proposed to build the station so close to my yard. But I was just a voice in the wilderness then."
Alan Whalley's column 'Whalley's World' this week criticised what he described as the "force-fed learning" of youngsters at schools. However another beef was Sutton and its odours:
"Sutton stinks. Nobody standing downwind of the place would deny that! And the good people of Sutton – that dreary wilderness tacked to one end of the unlovely borough of St. Helens – have learned to live with it.
"Nostrils have become accustomed to the stench of the polluted “Stinking Brook”, wending its evil way past the local school. The whiff of various smell-adhering industries has been gulped in without comment.
Steam, smoke and pollution has poured across the skyline without causing a revolution. But now, the stolid citizens of Sutton seem to be showing signs of becoming stirred into action. Some alarming bulletins came from deepest Sutton this week.
"Office girls complained that their nylon tights are falling apart in the acid atmosphere, a business chief protests that his health and industry is being put at hazard by drifting ash. A new wave of anxiety has arisen in smelly Sutton. Searching questions have been raised in popular meeting places, such as clubs and pubs.
"The people want to know whether or not the heady laden atmosphere is playing havoc with their lungs, homes and gardens. This is a very reasonable question. Here's hoping that the local “powers that be” get down to sniffing out the answers."
The Reporter also profiled the broadcasting service that provided radio commentary of rugby league matches to patients in five local hospitals.
Founded in 1948, "Radio Saints" had recently been off the air as vandals had smashed their equipment.
But they were now back in business, with a commentary team of Joe Webb, Len Kilshaw and Billy Lewis, who rented the broadcasting system off the GPO for £215 a year.
On the 29th Rainford Carnival ’70 was held, the first time for many years that such an event had taken place in the village.
The many attractions included a horse show, bird show and horticultural competition, the crowning of carnival queen Linda Rimmer, a police dog display, roast ox carving, a piano smashing contest, fashion show, brass bands and Morris dancing.
During the evening there was a "Grand Carnival Marquee Dance" and for the younger set, a "Carnival ’70 Discotheque".
Fine weather helped to draw more than 6,000 people to the event, with a procession through the village led by the Carnival Queen, being a highlight.
Long-gone advertisers in the St Helens Reporter's preview of the event included Wainwright's Electrical Services (my Dad!), Beavan Maples Estate Agents, Owen's Post Office and Pimbletts (all Church Road) and, within Ormskirk Road, A & H. Bradbury, Huyton's bread and cake shop and E. W. Moulton's fruit shop.
Next week's stories will include the choking gas that struck the streets of Sutton, the Clock Face champion gunslinger, parents demand an investigation into a Rainford school and the siege of a church youth club by revengeful teenagers.