FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th OCTOBER 1972)
This week's stories include the opening of St Mary's Market, criticism of the Corporation rubbish dump in Chester Lane, the Parr vendetta between police and youths, the council house tenants refusing to pay a rent increase, the Billinge vicar that criticised the village's adults and the debate over how long St Helens schoolchildren should be allowed to work out of school.
We begin on the 24th when a 60-year-old grandmother from Thatto Heath was released from St Helens Hospital after requiring 28 stitches to a head wound. I often report on street fights between neighbours in my '100 Years Ago' and '150 Years Ago' articles. Such violent rows were rare in the ‘70s but, if they did occur, children were often the root cause, as they often had been in the neighbourly battles of the past. The trouble in Sandon Street had begun following a dispute between neighbours over kids playing near parked cars. A police spokesman said: "We are inquiring into an incident involving members of several families in which several people were injured."
A magistrate on the St Helens Bench this week hit out at what he described as a "vendetta" between the police and groups of youths in Parr. William Livesey said he was "tired of listening to the goings on at the corner of Malvern Road and Broad Oak Road." That was after dismissing a charge against a 17-year-old youth for using obscene language against the police.
The lad denied the charge, although admitted running off when officers approached him, claiming he and his mates did so to avoid trouble. Despite being cleared, the youth was still giving a ticking off by the magistrate who said: "You ran away just because the police were approaching. We have heard the police referred to as “pigs.” It is clear something is going on which should not be. If you stayed in your homes at this time of night, instead of hanging round corners, there would not be so much trouble."
On the 25th three St Helens councillors addressed a meeting of striking council tenants from the Portico and Grange Park Tenants Association. Since the council had adopted the Housing Finance Act (aka Fair Rents Act) most Corporation tenants had been told that they had to pay more rent. However, four weeks earlier an estimated 1,000 council house tenants in Parr, Portico and Grange Park had refused to pay their increases.
They continued to pay their existing rents – but not the additional £1 a week that was now being demanded. The meeting decided that the association's members would present the council's Housing Department with what was described as a "lorry load" of house repair demands. That was to support the tenants' case that their rents should not have been increased due to the state of their properties.
Also on the 25th, the council's Works Committee considered a 220-name petition protesting about a Corporation rubbish dump in a disused clay quarry in Chester Lane. However, Kenneth Perks, the deputy borough engineer, told the committee that the council was using the tip in accordance with regulations laid down by the Department of the Environment and so it was decided to take no action.
But petition organiser James Scully, whose house in Heswall Avenue backed onto the quarry, was far from happy, saying: "I'm thinking of getting in touch with the Minister of the Environment about the matter. There will also be a meeting of residents within the next week or two to discuss further plans." James' wife, Eileen, added: "If necessary we will block the gates with prams to stop lorries getting onto the tip."
The couple explained that they had only moved in to their home two weeks before the tipping began and they had no idea that household rubbish was going to be dumped there. "When the wind's in the right direction", explained Mr Scully, "the smell is terrible, and I can't describe the number of flies that get into the house. We moved here for a bit of fresh air, but I think we'd be better off back in Liverpool. We were not told of any plans to use the quarry as a refuse tip before we moved."
The Reporter on the 27th described mixed views from local headmasters over proposed changes to children's working hours in St Helens. Some feared exploitation by employers and possible detrimental effects on schoolwork. Others welcomed the changes, saying they would encourage children to take more responsibility and give them a taste of working life. But all agreed that the new rules would only legalise the existing situation in which underage children were already undertaking work that they shouldn't – such as delivering milk and the morning newspapers.
Allan Smart, the headmaster of Central Secondary School, said: "Children have been breaking the rules for a long time. Some quite young children work too long out of school, and go to bed too late. It's bad for the child, bad for his schoolwork. Many parents don't take a positive attitude, and there are homes where the child's contribution is needed." John Deane, headmaster of St Anselm's Secondary School, believed that working after school was a good thing if the child's learning did not suffer. "It helps children assume responsibility, and gives them experience of working life and of adults other than teachers or parents. But it must be watched, particularly by parents, to make sure their youngsters aren't being exploited."
And Peter Knight, the head of Robins Lane Secondary (pictured above at an awards ceremony), was anxious that children should not work for the full seven hours that was now allowed on Saturdays without taking proper breaks, adding: "Many of our pupils if they didn't work, would get no pocket money." However, Patrick Booth of the Edmund Campion School for Boys had mixed experience of working scholars, remarking: "We get some so beat that they fall asleep in class. But one boy had a delivery round every day for three years, and obtained nine O-Levels."
The Vicar of St Aidan's Church in Billinge complained in the Reporter about the lack of facilities for the village's teenagers. The Rev. Derek Harris also accused the adults of Billinge of looking after their own needs but not caring about suitable provision for their youngsters, saying: "The adults in Billinge look after themselves very nicely. There are seven pubs and three clubs in Billinge for adults. Youth is a dirty word among older people. They don't want to know. A minority of youngsters have created a bad image and the vast majority are paying for it by lack of facilities or leaders coming forward."
The Reporter had an advertising feature called "Hoover Goes Hand-In-Hand With The Housewife" which included these shops: E. Bromilow, Baldwin Street ("Why use a launderette? Eric Bromilow has Hoover washing machines from £47.17"); Oxleys The St. Helens Store, Claughton Street ("Join with Hoover in solving your cleaning problems") and Chas. A. Critchey, the Hoover Centre, 109 Church Street ("We are not in the new shopping area. But immediately opposite, next to the Raven Hotel").
Also Alan Hunter at 21 - 25 Peckers Hill Road in Sutton ("For all your Hoover appliances"); Rigbys, 52 Peter Street ("Pay our collector at your door. Why go into town in the rain?"); K. Twist and Son, 60 - 62 Ormskirk Street ("House furnishers"); Dingsdales, 97 Higher Parr Street & 321 Church Road, Haydock ("For all your Hoover needs") and Red Rose, 72 Peckers Hill Road, Sutton ("Hoover sales, service, spares").
The new Water Street Open Market behind Beechams opened on the 27th. All the greengrocers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market stallholders were relocating there. Then on the 30th the new St Mary's Market opened, populated by all the Market Hall traders; the remaining half of the open market sellers and a quarter of the stallholders from the covered market. The public were advised to enter St Mary's Market from either behind the parish church in Church Street or from the ring road, opposite the Weights and Measures building.
In the weeks leading up to the changeovers there had been numerous complaints from traders and so the council would have been hoping for a smooth transition. The Reporter wrote positively of the new development: "The new St. Mary's Market, part of the town's multi-million pound shopping precinct, opens next Monday, and all the signs point to the fact that it will become the hub of pre-Christmas shopping activity. Since pedestrians and traffic are segregated in the vicinity of the new market, parents with young children will find it a much less anxious business shopping round for Christmas toys and goods.
"The battle against wind and rain currently waged by the public in walking from the current car parking site to the present Covered and Open Markets will be a thing of the past. Motorists will be able to drive from the Inner Ring Road on to a ramp leading to a 380-vehicle multi-storey car park with covered inlets to the new Market Hall. The hall itself is large and roomy – 110 ft. by 90 ft. – and is warmed by hot air blankets at the two service doorways and at the entrance to the precinct. Inside, high intensity lighting dispels the gloom of the Winter day outside, and illuminated direction signs make an orderly flow of shoppers round the stalls."
And finally, it was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 29th with performances by George Melly, George Chisholm and Nat Gonella, along with the Alex Welsh Band. Then on the following evening, Reginald Dixon performed in Corporation Street. The advert in the Reporter called the organist "Mr Blackpool" after his popular shows at the Tower Ballroom.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new community centre for New Street, the unhappy greengrocers in Water Street, a call not to be a Guy Fawkes goon and the toppling of a 130-foot chimney at the former Wood Pit in Haydock.
We begin on the 24th when a 60-year-old grandmother from Thatto Heath was released from St Helens Hospital after requiring 28 stitches to a head wound. I often report on street fights between neighbours in my '100 Years Ago' and '150 Years Ago' articles. Such violent rows were rare in the ‘70s but, if they did occur, children were often the root cause, as they often had been in the neighbourly battles of the past. The trouble in Sandon Street had begun following a dispute between neighbours over kids playing near parked cars. A police spokesman said: "We are inquiring into an incident involving members of several families in which several people were injured."
A magistrate on the St Helens Bench this week hit out at what he described as a "vendetta" between the police and groups of youths in Parr. William Livesey said he was "tired of listening to the goings on at the corner of Malvern Road and Broad Oak Road." That was after dismissing a charge against a 17-year-old youth for using obscene language against the police.
The lad denied the charge, although admitted running off when officers approached him, claiming he and his mates did so to avoid trouble. Despite being cleared, the youth was still giving a ticking off by the magistrate who said: "You ran away just because the police were approaching. We have heard the police referred to as “pigs.” It is clear something is going on which should not be. If you stayed in your homes at this time of night, instead of hanging round corners, there would not be so much trouble."
On the 25th three St Helens councillors addressed a meeting of striking council tenants from the Portico and Grange Park Tenants Association. Since the council had adopted the Housing Finance Act (aka Fair Rents Act) most Corporation tenants had been told that they had to pay more rent. However, four weeks earlier an estimated 1,000 council house tenants in Parr, Portico and Grange Park had refused to pay their increases.
They continued to pay their existing rents – but not the additional £1 a week that was now being demanded. The meeting decided that the association's members would present the council's Housing Department with what was described as a "lorry load" of house repair demands. That was to support the tenants' case that their rents should not have been increased due to the state of their properties.
Also on the 25th, the council's Works Committee considered a 220-name petition protesting about a Corporation rubbish dump in a disused clay quarry in Chester Lane. However, Kenneth Perks, the deputy borough engineer, told the committee that the council was using the tip in accordance with regulations laid down by the Department of the Environment and so it was decided to take no action.
But petition organiser James Scully, whose house in Heswall Avenue backed onto the quarry, was far from happy, saying: "I'm thinking of getting in touch with the Minister of the Environment about the matter. There will also be a meeting of residents within the next week or two to discuss further plans." James' wife, Eileen, added: "If necessary we will block the gates with prams to stop lorries getting onto the tip."
The couple explained that they had only moved in to their home two weeks before the tipping began and they had no idea that household rubbish was going to be dumped there. "When the wind's in the right direction", explained Mr Scully, "the smell is terrible, and I can't describe the number of flies that get into the house. We moved here for a bit of fresh air, but I think we'd be better off back in Liverpool. We were not told of any plans to use the quarry as a refuse tip before we moved."
The Reporter on the 27th described mixed views from local headmasters over proposed changes to children's working hours in St Helens. Some feared exploitation by employers and possible detrimental effects on schoolwork. Others welcomed the changes, saying they would encourage children to take more responsibility and give them a taste of working life. But all agreed that the new rules would only legalise the existing situation in which underage children were already undertaking work that they shouldn't – such as delivering milk and the morning newspapers.
Allan Smart, the headmaster of Central Secondary School, said: "Children have been breaking the rules for a long time. Some quite young children work too long out of school, and go to bed too late. It's bad for the child, bad for his schoolwork. Many parents don't take a positive attitude, and there are homes where the child's contribution is needed." John Deane, headmaster of St Anselm's Secondary School, believed that working after school was a good thing if the child's learning did not suffer. "It helps children assume responsibility, and gives them experience of working life and of adults other than teachers or parents. But it must be watched, particularly by parents, to make sure their youngsters aren't being exploited."
The Vicar of St Aidan's Church in Billinge complained in the Reporter about the lack of facilities for the village's teenagers. The Rev. Derek Harris also accused the adults of Billinge of looking after their own needs but not caring about suitable provision for their youngsters, saying: "The adults in Billinge look after themselves very nicely. There are seven pubs and three clubs in Billinge for adults. Youth is a dirty word among older people. They don't want to know. A minority of youngsters have created a bad image and the vast majority are paying for it by lack of facilities or leaders coming forward."
The Reporter had an advertising feature called "Hoover Goes Hand-In-Hand With The Housewife" which included these shops: E. Bromilow, Baldwin Street ("Why use a launderette? Eric Bromilow has Hoover washing machines from £47.17"); Oxleys The St. Helens Store, Claughton Street ("Join with Hoover in solving your cleaning problems") and Chas. A. Critchey, the Hoover Centre, 109 Church Street ("We are not in the new shopping area. But immediately opposite, next to the Raven Hotel").
Also Alan Hunter at 21 - 25 Peckers Hill Road in Sutton ("For all your Hoover appliances"); Rigbys, 52 Peter Street ("Pay our collector at your door. Why go into town in the rain?"); K. Twist and Son, 60 - 62 Ormskirk Street ("House furnishers"); Dingsdales, 97 Higher Parr Street & 321 Church Road, Haydock ("For all your Hoover needs") and Red Rose, 72 Peckers Hill Road, Sutton ("Hoover sales, service, spares").
The new Water Street Open Market behind Beechams opened on the 27th. All the greengrocers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market stallholders were relocating there. Then on the 30th the new St Mary's Market opened, populated by all the Market Hall traders; the remaining half of the open market sellers and a quarter of the stallholders from the covered market. The public were advised to enter St Mary's Market from either behind the parish church in Church Street or from the ring road, opposite the Weights and Measures building.
In the weeks leading up to the changeovers there had been numerous complaints from traders and so the council would have been hoping for a smooth transition. The Reporter wrote positively of the new development: "The new St. Mary's Market, part of the town's multi-million pound shopping precinct, opens next Monday, and all the signs point to the fact that it will become the hub of pre-Christmas shopping activity. Since pedestrians and traffic are segregated in the vicinity of the new market, parents with young children will find it a much less anxious business shopping round for Christmas toys and goods.
"The battle against wind and rain currently waged by the public in walking from the current car parking site to the present Covered and Open Markets will be a thing of the past. Motorists will be able to drive from the Inner Ring Road on to a ramp leading to a 380-vehicle multi-storey car park with covered inlets to the new Market Hall. The hall itself is large and roomy – 110 ft. by 90 ft. – and is warmed by hot air blankets at the two service doorways and at the entrance to the precinct. Inside, high intensity lighting dispels the gloom of the Winter day outside, and illuminated direction signs make an orderly flow of shoppers round the stalls."
And finally, it was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 29th with performances by George Melly, George Chisholm and Nat Gonella, along with the Alex Welsh Band. Then on the following evening, Reginald Dixon performed in Corporation Street. The advert in the Reporter called the organist "Mr Blackpool" after his popular shows at the Tower Ballroom.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new community centre for New Street, the unhappy greengrocers in Water Street, a call not to be a Guy Fawkes goon and the toppling of a 130-foot chimney at the former Wood Pit in Haydock.
This week's stories include the opening of St Mary's Market, criticism of the Corporation rubbish dump in Chester Lane, the Parr vendetta between police and youths, the council house tenants refusing to pay a rent increase, the Billinge vicar that criticised the village's adults and the debate over how long St Helens schoolchildren should be allowed to work out of school.
We begin on the 24th when a 60-year-old grandmother from Thatto Heath was released from St Helens Hospital after requiring 28 stitches to a head wound.
I often report on street fights between neighbours in my '100 Years Ago' and '150 Years Ago' articles.
Such violent rows were rare in the ‘70s but, if they did occur, children were often the root cause, as they often had been in the neighbourly battles of the past.
The trouble in Sandon Street had begun following a dispute between neighbours over kids playing near parked cars. A police spokesman said:
"We are inquiring into an incident involving members of several families in which several people were injured."
A magistrate on the St Helens Bench this week hit out at what he described as a "vendetta" between the police and groups of youths in Parr.
William Livesey said he was "tired of listening to the goings on at the corner of Malvern Road and Broad Oak Road."
That was after dismissing a charge against a 17-year-old youth for using obscene language against the police.
The lad denied the charge, although admitted running off when officers approached him, claiming he and his mates did so to avoid trouble.
Despite being cleared, the youth was still giving a ticking off by the magistrate who said:
"You ran away just because the police were approaching. We have heard the police referred to as “pigs.” It is clear something is going on which should not be. If you stayed in your homes at this time of night, instead of hanging round corners, there would not be so much trouble."
On the 25th three St Helens councillors addressed a meeting of striking council tenants from the Portico and Grange Park Tenants Association.
Since the council had adopted the Housing Finance Act (aka Fair Rents Act) most Corporation tenants had been told that they had to pay more rent.
However, four weeks earlier an estimated 1,000 council house tenants in Parr, Portico and Grange Park had refused to pay their increases.
They continued to pay their existing rents – but not the additional £1 a week that was now being demanded.
The meeting decided that the association's members would present the council's Housing Department with what was described as a "lorry load" of house repair demands.
That was to support the tenants' case that their rents should not have been increased due to the state of their properties.
Also on the 25th, the council's Works Committee considered a 220-name petition protesting about a Corporation rubbish dump in a disused clay quarry in Chester Lane.
However, Kenneth Perks, the deputy borough engineer, told the committee that the council was using the tip in accordance with regulations laid down by the Department of the Environment and so it was decided to take no action.
But petition organiser James Scully, whose house in Heswall Avenue backed onto the quarry, was far from happy, saying:
"I'm thinking of getting in touch with the Minister of the Environment about the matter. There will also be a meeting of residents within the next week or two to discuss further plans."
James' wife, Eileen, added: "If necessary we will block the gates with prams to stop lorries getting onto the tip."
The couple explained that they had only moved in to their home two weeks before the tipping began and they had no idea that household rubbish was going to be dumped there.
"When the wind's in the right direction", explained Mr Scully, "the smell is terrible, and I can't describe the number of flies that get into the house.
"We moved here for a bit of fresh air, but I think we'd be better off back in Liverpool. We were not told of any plans to use the quarry as a refuse tip before we moved."
The Reporter on the 27th described mixed views from local headmasters over proposed changes to children's working hours in St Helens.
Some feared exploitation by employers and possible detrimental effects on schoolwork.
Others welcomed the changes, saying they would encourage children to take more responsibility and give them a taste of working life.
But all agreed that the new rules would only legalise the existing situation in which underage children were already undertaking work that they shouldn't – such as delivering milk and the morning newspapers.
Allan Smart, the headmaster of Central Secondary School, said:
"Children have been breaking the rules for a long time. Some quite young children work too long out of school, and go to bed too late. It's bad for the child, bad for his schoolwork. Many parents don't take a positive attitude, and there are homes where the child's contribution is needed."
John Deane, headmaster of St Anselm's Secondary School, believed that working after school was a good thing if the child's learning did not suffer.
"It helps children assume responsibility, and gives them experience of working life and of adults other than teachers or parents. But it must be watched, particularly by parents, to make sure their youngsters aren't being exploited."
And Peter Knight, the head of Robins Lane Secondary (pictured above at an awards ceremony), was anxious that children should not work for the full seven hours that was now allowed on Saturdays without taking proper breaks, adding:
"Many of our pupils if they didn't work, would get no pocket money."
However, Patrick Booth of the Edmund Campion School for Boys had mixed experience of working scholars, remarking:
"We get some so beat that they fall asleep in class. But one boy had a delivery round every day for three years, and obtained nine O-Levels."
The Vicar of St Aidan's Church in Billinge complained in the Reporter about the lack of facilities for the village's teenagers.
The Rev. Derek Harris also accused the adults of Billinge of looking after their own needs but not caring about suitable provision for their youngsters, saying:
"The adults in Billinge look after themselves very nicely. There are seven pubs and three clubs in Billinge for adults. Youth is a dirty word among older people.
"They don't want to know. A minority of youngsters have created a bad image and the vast majority are paying for it by lack of facilities or leaders coming forward."
The Reporter had an advertising feature called "Hoover Goes Hand-In-Hand With The Housewife" which included these shops:
E. Bromilow, Baldwin Street ("Why use a launderette? Eric Bromilow has Hoover washing machines from £47.17"); Oxleys The St. Helens Store, Claughton Street ("Join with Hoover in solving your cleaning problems") and Chas. A. Critchey, the Hoover Centre, 109 Church Street ("We are not in the new shopping area. But immediately opposite, next to the Raven Hotel").
Also Alan Hunter at 21 - 25 Peckers Hill Road in Sutton ("For all your Hoover appliances"); Rigbys, 52 Peter Street ("Pay our collector at your door. Why go into town in the rain?"); K. Twist and Son, 60 - 62 Ormskirk Street ("House furnishers"); Dingsdales, 97 Higher Parr Street & 321 Church Road, Haydock ("For all your Hoover needs") and Red Rose, 72 Peckers Hill Road, Sutton ("Hoover sales, service, spares").
The new Water Street Open Market behind Beechams opened on the 27th. All the greengrocers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market stallholders were relocating there.
Then on the 30th the new St Mary's Market opened, populated by all the Market Hall traders; the remaining half of the open market sellers and a quarter of the stallholders from the covered market.
The public were advised to enter St Mary's Market from either behind the parish church in Church Street or from the ring road, opposite the Weights and Measures building.
In the weeks leading up to the changeovers there had been numerous complaints from traders and so the council would have been hoping for a smooth transition. The Reporter wrote positively of the new development:
"The new St. Mary's Market, part of the town's multi-million pound shopping precinct, opens next Monday, and all the signs point to the fact that it will become the hub of pre-Christmas shopping activity.
"Since pedestrians and traffic are segregated in the vicinity of the new market, parents with young children will find it a much less anxious business shopping round for Christmas toys and goods.
"The battle against wind and rain currently waged by the public in walking from the current car parking site to the present Covered and Open Markets will be a thing of the past.
"Motorists will be able to drive from the Inner Ring Road on to a ramp leading to a 380-vehicle multi-storey car park with covered inlets to the new Market Hall.
"The hall itself is large and roomy – 110 ft. by 90 ft. – and is warmed by hot air blankets at the two service doorways and at the entrance to the precinct.
"Inside, high intensity lighting dispels the gloom of the Winter day outside, and illuminated direction signs make an orderly flow of shoppers round the stalls."
And finally, it was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 29th with performances by George Melly, George Chisholm and Nat Gonella, along with the Alex Welsh Band.
Then on the following evening, Reginald Dixon performed in Corporation Street. The advert in the Reporter called the organist "Mr Blackpool" after his popular shows at the Tower Ballroom.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new community centre for New Street, the unhappy greengrocers in Water Street, a call not to be a Guy Fawkes goon and the toppling of a 130-foot chimney at the former Wood Pit in Haydock.
We begin on the 24th when a 60-year-old grandmother from Thatto Heath was released from St Helens Hospital after requiring 28 stitches to a head wound.
I often report on street fights between neighbours in my '100 Years Ago' and '150 Years Ago' articles.
Such violent rows were rare in the ‘70s but, if they did occur, children were often the root cause, as they often had been in the neighbourly battles of the past.
The trouble in Sandon Street had begun following a dispute between neighbours over kids playing near parked cars. A police spokesman said:
"We are inquiring into an incident involving members of several families in which several people were injured."
A magistrate on the St Helens Bench this week hit out at what he described as a "vendetta" between the police and groups of youths in Parr.
William Livesey said he was "tired of listening to the goings on at the corner of Malvern Road and Broad Oak Road."
That was after dismissing a charge against a 17-year-old youth for using obscene language against the police.
The lad denied the charge, although admitted running off when officers approached him, claiming he and his mates did so to avoid trouble.
Despite being cleared, the youth was still giving a ticking off by the magistrate who said:
"You ran away just because the police were approaching. We have heard the police referred to as “pigs.” It is clear something is going on which should not be. If you stayed in your homes at this time of night, instead of hanging round corners, there would not be so much trouble."
On the 25th three St Helens councillors addressed a meeting of striking council tenants from the Portico and Grange Park Tenants Association.
Since the council had adopted the Housing Finance Act (aka Fair Rents Act) most Corporation tenants had been told that they had to pay more rent.
However, four weeks earlier an estimated 1,000 council house tenants in Parr, Portico and Grange Park had refused to pay their increases.
They continued to pay their existing rents – but not the additional £1 a week that was now being demanded.
The meeting decided that the association's members would present the council's Housing Department with what was described as a "lorry load" of house repair demands.
That was to support the tenants' case that their rents should not have been increased due to the state of their properties.
Also on the 25th, the council's Works Committee considered a 220-name petition protesting about a Corporation rubbish dump in a disused clay quarry in Chester Lane.
However, Kenneth Perks, the deputy borough engineer, told the committee that the council was using the tip in accordance with regulations laid down by the Department of the Environment and so it was decided to take no action.
But petition organiser James Scully, whose house in Heswall Avenue backed onto the quarry, was far from happy, saying:
"I'm thinking of getting in touch with the Minister of the Environment about the matter. There will also be a meeting of residents within the next week or two to discuss further plans."
James' wife, Eileen, added: "If necessary we will block the gates with prams to stop lorries getting onto the tip."
The couple explained that they had only moved in to their home two weeks before the tipping began and they had no idea that household rubbish was going to be dumped there.
"When the wind's in the right direction", explained Mr Scully, "the smell is terrible, and I can't describe the number of flies that get into the house.
"We moved here for a bit of fresh air, but I think we'd be better off back in Liverpool. We were not told of any plans to use the quarry as a refuse tip before we moved."
The Reporter on the 27th described mixed views from local headmasters over proposed changes to children's working hours in St Helens.
Some feared exploitation by employers and possible detrimental effects on schoolwork.
Others welcomed the changes, saying they would encourage children to take more responsibility and give them a taste of working life.
But all agreed that the new rules would only legalise the existing situation in which underage children were already undertaking work that they shouldn't – such as delivering milk and the morning newspapers.
Allan Smart, the headmaster of Central Secondary School, said:
"Children have been breaking the rules for a long time. Some quite young children work too long out of school, and go to bed too late. It's bad for the child, bad for his schoolwork. Many parents don't take a positive attitude, and there are homes where the child's contribution is needed."
John Deane, headmaster of St Anselm's Secondary School, believed that working after school was a good thing if the child's learning did not suffer.
"It helps children assume responsibility, and gives them experience of working life and of adults other than teachers or parents. But it must be watched, particularly by parents, to make sure their youngsters aren't being exploited."
"Many of our pupils if they didn't work, would get no pocket money."
However, Patrick Booth of the Edmund Campion School for Boys had mixed experience of working scholars, remarking:
"We get some so beat that they fall asleep in class. But one boy had a delivery round every day for three years, and obtained nine O-Levels."
The Vicar of St Aidan's Church in Billinge complained in the Reporter about the lack of facilities for the village's teenagers.
The Rev. Derek Harris also accused the adults of Billinge of looking after their own needs but not caring about suitable provision for their youngsters, saying:
"The adults in Billinge look after themselves very nicely. There are seven pubs and three clubs in Billinge for adults. Youth is a dirty word among older people.
"They don't want to know. A minority of youngsters have created a bad image and the vast majority are paying for it by lack of facilities or leaders coming forward."
The Reporter had an advertising feature called "Hoover Goes Hand-In-Hand With The Housewife" which included these shops:
E. Bromilow, Baldwin Street ("Why use a launderette? Eric Bromilow has Hoover washing machines from £47.17"); Oxleys The St. Helens Store, Claughton Street ("Join with Hoover in solving your cleaning problems") and Chas. A. Critchey, the Hoover Centre, 109 Church Street ("We are not in the new shopping area. But immediately opposite, next to the Raven Hotel").
Also Alan Hunter at 21 - 25 Peckers Hill Road in Sutton ("For all your Hoover appliances"); Rigbys, 52 Peter Street ("Pay our collector at your door. Why go into town in the rain?"); K. Twist and Son, 60 - 62 Ormskirk Street ("House furnishers"); Dingsdales, 97 Higher Parr Street & 321 Church Road, Haydock ("For all your Hoover needs") and Red Rose, 72 Peckers Hill Road, Sutton ("Hoover sales, service, spares").
The new Water Street Open Market behind Beechams opened on the 27th. All the greengrocers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market stallholders were relocating there.
Then on the 30th the new St Mary's Market opened, populated by all the Market Hall traders; the remaining half of the open market sellers and a quarter of the stallholders from the covered market.
The public were advised to enter St Mary's Market from either behind the parish church in Church Street or from the ring road, opposite the Weights and Measures building.
In the weeks leading up to the changeovers there had been numerous complaints from traders and so the council would have been hoping for a smooth transition. The Reporter wrote positively of the new development:
"The new St. Mary's Market, part of the town's multi-million pound shopping precinct, opens next Monday, and all the signs point to the fact that it will become the hub of pre-Christmas shopping activity.
"Since pedestrians and traffic are segregated in the vicinity of the new market, parents with young children will find it a much less anxious business shopping round for Christmas toys and goods.
"The battle against wind and rain currently waged by the public in walking from the current car parking site to the present Covered and Open Markets will be a thing of the past.
"Motorists will be able to drive from the Inner Ring Road on to a ramp leading to a 380-vehicle multi-storey car park with covered inlets to the new Market Hall.
"The hall itself is large and roomy – 110 ft. by 90 ft. – and is warmed by hot air blankets at the two service doorways and at the entrance to the precinct.
"Inside, high intensity lighting dispels the gloom of the Winter day outside, and illuminated direction signs make an orderly flow of shoppers round the stalls."
And finally, it was jazz night at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 29th with performances by George Melly, George Chisholm and Nat Gonella, along with the Alex Welsh Band.
Then on the following evening, Reginald Dixon performed in Corporation Street. The advert in the Reporter called the organist "Mr Blackpool" after his popular shows at the Tower Ballroom.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the new community centre for New Street, the unhappy greengrocers in Water Street, a call not to be a Guy Fawkes goon and the toppling of a 130-foot chimney at the former Wood Pit in Haydock.