FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (25th - 31st JANUARY 1971)
This week's many stories include the historic silverware stolen from St Thomas' church, the 4-month-long Liverpool Road building site dispute is finally settled, the end of RAF Haydock, more news about decimalisation, the "vicious animal attack" in Keswick Road and the Sutton Leach schoolboy beat group who performed in a garden shed.
'Mother Goose' had been performed earlier in the month at the Theatre Royal and from the 25th it was the turn of 'Cinderella'. It appeared to be an unusual version of the popular panto as it featured Shetland ponies and chimpanzees! Dash's Chimps appeared on many TV shows during the ‘70s and ‘80s and YouTube has clips of them doing their stuff on '3-2-1' and 'The Sooty Show'.
An exhibition began on the same day at the Gamble Institute called "Year In Pictures". Nearly 300 photographs taken by Liverpool Echo staff photographers during 1970 were on show. While they were exhibited at the Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool, the photos of Merseyside life attracted more than 6,000 visitors in just over a week.
On October 12th last year, nearly 1,000 workers participated in a mass march through St Helens to protest against the sacking of 130 men from Pilkingtons. Fifty-nine construction workers from what the St Helens Reporter called a "showpiece corporation housing project" in Liverpool Road took part and on the following day all were sacked for taking the time off. The remaining 16 men on the £800,000 re-development (about £13m in today's money) – that involved the building of 180 flats and maisonettes – downed tools in sympathy.
The union leaders complained that the sackings were a lock-out and the men picketed the site each day in protest. The workers insisted that they had been given permission to join the demonstration and took their case to the Building Trade Disputes Committee in Manchester. After a hearing the men were advised to turn up for work but found their bosses – Rawlinson Construction – had locked the site gates against them.
Both sides normally accepted the Disputes Committee's findings but the Stockport-based Rawlinsons refused to meet the workers or discuss the situation. So it became a stalemate – all over an hour or two's lost labour that resulted in men being sacked for protesting against other workers being sacked! It appeared to be a matter of principle for Rawlinsons who were setting down a marker for any future walkouts.
On the 25th the men resumed work on the town centre development after the 4-month-long dispute had finally been settled after a compromise was reached. One of the conditions conceded by the men was that there would not be any full-time shop stewards on the site.
A party of children from Lowe House Junior School enjoyed a trip to the Birkenhead shipyard of Cammell Laird on the 28th to watch the launch of a new ship. The 16,900-ton C.P. Trader was one of three ships intended to operate a weekly container service between London, Rotterdam and Quebec.
Also on the 28th two men were sentenced for their roles in the killing of a Widnes man in St Helens. Last September while attending a party in Keswick Road, John Fenlon had asked another guest to leave the house as he was creating a disturbance. The 26-year-old from Hempstead Close (off Sherdley Road) immediately fought with Fenlon and bit off a large chunk of his ear.
The attacker summoned his mate who ran to his assistance and using a flick knife stabbed Fenton in his heart. At Liverpool Crown Court Mr Justice Chapman told the killers: "The man who died was a quiet and totally inoffensive person, trying to keep the peace and put a stop to your foul-mouthed outbursts". The Hempstead Close man was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for wounding John Fenlon with intent. And the other from Liverpool – who claimed that he had punched Fenlon not realising the knife was in his hand – was given a life sentence for what the judge labelled a "vicious and animal attack".
In October 1968 the St Helens Reporter had described how vandalism and theft had led to many churches in the town ending open access and bolting their doors outside of service times. This had been on the advice of the police and the Church Insurance Company. Rev. Harry Bradshaw, the Vicar of St Thomas's in Westfield Street (pictured above), described how he had decided to close his doors through obscene writing being daubed on his church. Other places of worship in St Helens had also suffered thefts and vandalism.
On January 29th a man from Kirkland Street pleaded guilty in court to stealing silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to St Thomas's in 1844. Detective Inspector Cecil McCall told the magistrates that when Rev. Bradshaw left the premises on the evening of the 13th he had secured it carefully. On the following day, however, he noticed that a side window had been broken and found that a silver chalice and paten, two silver head plates and a brass bookstand were all missing.
Upon being arrested the man told the police that he had sold the two silver head plates for £5 and added: "I don't know why, but I took the cup and a plate back to the church and left them at the door, and then I sold the remaining plate for £1." After telling the magistrates "I was a bit drunk when I did it", he was sentenced to six months in prison. The 38-year-old was already subject to a suspended sentence of six months for another offence and so in total was committed for 12 months.
At the beginning of the month I wrote how St Helens was among 950 towns and cities that would be having posters put up advising its citizens on decimalisation. The Decimal Currency Board was also popping through everyone's letterbox a booklet initially to be called "Your Guide to Decimal Currency" but which had now been renamed "Your Guide to Decimal Money". Well, of course, it was the postman who would be doing the actual popping and he was now out on strike and would be until well after "D-Day" on February 15th.
So for the benefit of those that had not received their copy, the Board decided to reproduce the entire booklet in newspapers and it was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 29th. The title had clearly been changed to make it as easily understood as possible but 4,000 plus words crammed on to a single page made the text very cramped and I would have thought somewhat off-putting to those yet to get to grips with the upcoming switchover.
The three new silver coins (50p, 10p and 5p) had already been phased in as they had precise old money equivalents of ten shillings, two shillings and one shilling. However the new "decimal coppers" – as they were being called – did not have exact equivalents with the old pounds, shillings and pence and there was also concern over their size and weight. The guide said: "The three bronze coins (2p, 1p and ½p) are much smaller and lighter than the £sd penny, so we shall have to take a little extra care with them at first." I shall be reporting on the success of the decimalisation switchover in a couple of weeks.
There were five glum-looking Sutton Leach lads staring out of the St Helens Reporter on the 29th (shown above). David Nilsson, Philip Pokato, Geoffrey Robinson, David and Geoffrey Brown comprised The Effigy but they were a band without instruments – as the Reporter explained:
"The sixpenny “disco” dance was the talk of the neighbourhood. Teenagers flocked to dance to the schoolboy beat group in the old garden shed. But the music stopped when a midnight sneak thief raided the “disco” and got away with two guitars. Now the Saturday sessions at Mr. Dennis Brown's home in Leach Lane, Sutton, will be “records only.” For the boys have given up playing until they can save enough money to replace the stolen instruments."
As many as 30 teenagers had regularly crammed into the 30-foot-long shed, with each of them paying sixpence admission that the lads used to buy records and refreshments. 15-year-old Geoffrey Brown described the theft as a "really mean trick after all the hard work we have put in making a place for our friends to dance. We painted the shed and then formed a beat group to play at our own dances on Saturday nights."
Another 15-year-old member, Geoffrey Robinson, said he had undertaken a paper-round to save up for his guitar. "Now I will have to start all over again," he added. "We've been playing together for four months and we've done six concerts for charity. We even went to the trouble of having cards printed with the group's name, Effigy, on them. The disco dances will carry on but we'll only be able to play records until we can afford new guitars."
It was reported on the 30th that after being in existence for 30 years, Haydock RAF camp was to close down in June. As a result about 45 civilians would lose their jobs and the 60 RAF men that were currently based there would be transferred to other stations all over the country.
The station had been set up during WW2 as a signals unit for secret projects on telephones and telegraphs. About half the base was situated in Ashton-in-Makerfield and the rest in Haydock and over the last two years the camp had been gradually run down. After the closure the camp would be offered to other Government departments. If they did not want it, the land would then be offered to Haydock and Ashton councils.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Liverpool Echo this week. It concerned a sword-swallowing act at the Royal Court Theatre called "Stromboli". His real name was Daniel Lynch and as the Echo wrote: "[He] is a man who thinks nothing of downing a sword or two as an appetiser before dinner".
The only recognised sword-swallower in the country kept X-ray photos to show to those who thought his act was a fake and the Echo added that Stromboli had performed for several documentary films made for the medical profession. Gives you stomach ache just thinking about it!
Next week's stories will include the repercussions of the postal strike, a retrospective of the 7-week Pilkington glass strike, success for a severely disabled Rainford man at Crufts, the Rank Xerox workshops in Haydock and a puppet show at the Theatre Royal.
'Mother Goose' had been performed earlier in the month at the Theatre Royal and from the 25th it was the turn of 'Cinderella'. It appeared to be an unusual version of the popular panto as it featured Shetland ponies and chimpanzees! Dash's Chimps appeared on many TV shows during the ‘70s and ‘80s and YouTube has clips of them doing their stuff on '3-2-1' and 'The Sooty Show'.
An exhibition began on the same day at the Gamble Institute called "Year In Pictures". Nearly 300 photographs taken by Liverpool Echo staff photographers during 1970 were on show. While they were exhibited at the Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool, the photos of Merseyside life attracted more than 6,000 visitors in just over a week.
On October 12th last year, nearly 1,000 workers participated in a mass march through St Helens to protest against the sacking of 130 men from Pilkingtons. Fifty-nine construction workers from what the St Helens Reporter called a "showpiece corporation housing project" in Liverpool Road took part and on the following day all were sacked for taking the time off. The remaining 16 men on the £800,000 re-development (about £13m in today's money) – that involved the building of 180 flats and maisonettes – downed tools in sympathy.
The union leaders complained that the sackings were a lock-out and the men picketed the site each day in protest. The workers insisted that they had been given permission to join the demonstration and took their case to the Building Trade Disputes Committee in Manchester. After a hearing the men were advised to turn up for work but found their bosses – Rawlinson Construction – had locked the site gates against them.
Both sides normally accepted the Disputes Committee's findings but the Stockport-based Rawlinsons refused to meet the workers or discuss the situation. So it became a stalemate – all over an hour or two's lost labour that resulted in men being sacked for protesting against other workers being sacked! It appeared to be a matter of principle for Rawlinsons who were setting down a marker for any future walkouts.
On the 25th the men resumed work on the town centre development after the 4-month-long dispute had finally been settled after a compromise was reached. One of the conditions conceded by the men was that there would not be any full-time shop stewards on the site.
A party of children from Lowe House Junior School enjoyed a trip to the Birkenhead shipyard of Cammell Laird on the 28th to watch the launch of a new ship. The 16,900-ton C.P. Trader was one of three ships intended to operate a weekly container service between London, Rotterdam and Quebec.
Also on the 28th two men were sentenced for their roles in the killing of a Widnes man in St Helens. Last September while attending a party in Keswick Road, John Fenlon had asked another guest to leave the house as he was creating a disturbance. The 26-year-old from Hempstead Close (off Sherdley Road) immediately fought with Fenlon and bit off a large chunk of his ear.
The attacker summoned his mate who ran to his assistance and using a flick knife stabbed Fenton in his heart. At Liverpool Crown Court Mr Justice Chapman told the killers: "The man who died was a quiet and totally inoffensive person, trying to keep the peace and put a stop to your foul-mouthed outbursts". The Hempstead Close man was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for wounding John Fenlon with intent. And the other from Liverpool – who claimed that he had punched Fenlon not realising the knife was in his hand – was given a life sentence for what the judge labelled a "vicious and animal attack".
On January 29th a man from Kirkland Street pleaded guilty in court to stealing silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to St Thomas's in 1844. Detective Inspector Cecil McCall told the magistrates that when Rev. Bradshaw left the premises on the evening of the 13th he had secured it carefully. On the following day, however, he noticed that a side window had been broken and found that a silver chalice and paten, two silver head plates and a brass bookstand were all missing.
Upon being arrested the man told the police that he had sold the two silver head plates for £5 and added: "I don't know why, but I took the cup and a plate back to the church and left them at the door, and then I sold the remaining plate for £1." After telling the magistrates "I was a bit drunk when I did it", he was sentenced to six months in prison. The 38-year-old was already subject to a suspended sentence of six months for another offence and so in total was committed for 12 months.
At the beginning of the month I wrote how St Helens was among 950 towns and cities that would be having posters put up advising its citizens on decimalisation. The Decimal Currency Board was also popping through everyone's letterbox a booklet initially to be called "Your Guide to Decimal Currency" but which had now been renamed "Your Guide to Decimal Money". Well, of course, it was the postman who would be doing the actual popping and he was now out on strike and would be until well after "D-Day" on February 15th.
So for the benefit of those that had not received their copy, the Board decided to reproduce the entire booklet in newspapers and it was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 29th. The title had clearly been changed to make it as easily understood as possible but 4,000 plus words crammed on to a single page made the text very cramped and I would have thought somewhat off-putting to those yet to get to grips with the upcoming switchover.
The three new silver coins (50p, 10p and 5p) had already been phased in as they had precise old money equivalents of ten shillings, two shillings and one shilling. However the new "decimal coppers" – as they were being called – did not have exact equivalents with the old pounds, shillings and pence and there was also concern over their size and weight. The guide said: "The three bronze coins (2p, 1p and ½p) are much smaller and lighter than the £sd penny, so we shall have to take a little extra care with them at first." I shall be reporting on the success of the decimalisation switchover in a couple of weeks.
"The sixpenny “disco” dance was the talk of the neighbourhood. Teenagers flocked to dance to the schoolboy beat group in the old garden shed. But the music stopped when a midnight sneak thief raided the “disco” and got away with two guitars. Now the Saturday sessions at Mr. Dennis Brown's home in Leach Lane, Sutton, will be “records only.” For the boys have given up playing until they can save enough money to replace the stolen instruments."
As many as 30 teenagers had regularly crammed into the 30-foot-long shed, with each of them paying sixpence admission that the lads used to buy records and refreshments. 15-year-old Geoffrey Brown described the theft as a "really mean trick after all the hard work we have put in making a place for our friends to dance. We painted the shed and then formed a beat group to play at our own dances on Saturday nights."
Another 15-year-old member, Geoffrey Robinson, said he had undertaken a paper-round to save up for his guitar. "Now I will have to start all over again," he added. "We've been playing together for four months and we've done six concerts for charity. We even went to the trouble of having cards printed with the group's name, Effigy, on them. The disco dances will carry on but we'll only be able to play records until we can afford new guitars."
It was reported on the 30th that after being in existence for 30 years, Haydock RAF camp was to close down in June. As a result about 45 civilians would lose their jobs and the 60 RAF men that were currently based there would be transferred to other stations all over the country.
The station had been set up during WW2 as a signals unit for secret projects on telephones and telegraphs. About half the base was situated in Ashton-in-Makerfield and the rest in Haydock and over the last two years the camp had been gradually run down. After the closure the camp would be offered to other Government departments. If they did not want it, the land would then be offered to Haydock and Ashton councils.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Liverpool Echo this week. It concerned a sword-swallowing act at the Royal Court Theatre called "Stromboli". His real name was Daniel Lynch and as the Echo wrote: "[He] is a man who thinks nothing of downing a sword or two as an appetiser before dinner".
The only recognised sword-swallower in the country kept X-ray photos to show to those who thought his act was a fake and the Echo added that Stromboli had performed for several documentary films made for the medical profession. Gives you stomach ache just thinking about it!
Next week's stories will include the repercussions of the postal strike, a retrospective of the 7-week Pilkington glass strike, success for a severely disabled Rainford man at Crufts, the Rank Xerox workshops in Haydock and a puppet show at the Theatre Royal.
This week's many stories include the historic silverware stolen from St Thomas' church, the 4-month-long Liverpool Road building site dispute is finally settled, the end of RAF Haydock, more news about decimalisation, the "vicious animal attack" in Keswick Road and the Sutton Leach schoolboy beat group who performed in a garden shed.
'Mother Goose' had been performed earlier in the month at the Theatre Royal and from the 25th it was the turn of 'Cinderella'.
It appeared to be an unusual version of the popular panto as it featured Shetland ponies and chimpanzees!
Dash's Chimps appeared on many TV shows during the ‘70s and ‘80s and YouTube has clips of them doing their stuff on '3-2-1' and 'The Sooty Show'.
An exhibition began on the same day at the Gamble Institute called "Year In Pictures". Nearly 300 photographs taken by Liverpool Echo staff photographers during 1970 were on show.
While they were exhibited at the Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool, the photos of Merseyside life attracted more than 6,000 visitors in just over a week.
On October 12th last year, nearly 1,000 workers participated in a mass march through St Helens to protest against the sacking of 130 men from Pilkingtons.
Fifty-nine construction workers from what the St Helens Reporter called a "showpiece corporation housing project" in Liverpool Road took part and on the following day all were sacked for taking the time off.
The remaining 16 men on the £800,000 re-development (about £13m in today's money) – that involved the building of 180 flats and maisonettes – downed tools in sympathy.
The union leaders complained that the sackings were a lock-out and the men picketed the site each day in protest.
The workers insisted that they had been given permission to join the demonstration and took their case to the Building Trade Disputes Committee in Manchester.
After a hearing the men were advised to turn up for work but found their bosses – Rawlinson Construction – had locked the site gates against them.
Both sides normally accepted the Disputes Committee's findings but the Stockport-based Rawlinsons refused to meet the workers or discuss the situation.
So it became a stalemate – all over an hour or two's lost labour that resulted in men being sacked for protesting against other workers being sacked!
It appeared to be a matter of principle for Rawlinsons who were setting down a marker for any future walkouts.
On the 25th the men resumed work on the town centre development after the 4-month-long dispute had finally been settled after a compromise was reached.
One of the conditions conceded by the men was that there would not be any full-time shop stewards on the site.
A party of children from Lowe House Junior School enjoyed a trip to the Birkenhead shipyard of Cammell Laird on the 28th to watch the launch of a new ship.
The 16,900-ton C.P. Trader was one of three ships intended to operate a weekly container service between London, Rotterdam and Quebec.
Also on the 28th two men were sentenced for their roles in the killing of a Widnes man in St Helens.
Last September while attending a party in Keswick Road, John Fenlon had asked another guest to leave the house as he was creating a disturbance.
The 26-year-old from Hempstead Close (off Sherdley Road) immediately fought with Fenlon and bit off a large chunk of his ear.
The attacker summoned his mate who ran to his assistance and using a flick knife stabbed Fenton in his heart.
At Liverpool Crown Court Mr Justice Chapman told the killers: "The man who died was a quiet and totally inoffensive person, trying to keep the peace and put a stop to your foul-mouthed outbursts".
The Hempstead Close man was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for wounding John Fenlon with intent.
And the other from Liverpool – who claimed that he had punched Fenlon not realising the knife was in his hand – was given a life sentence for what the judge labelled a "vicious and animal attack".
In October 1968 the St Helens Reporter had described how vandalism and theft had led to many churches in the town ending open access and bolting their doors outside of service times.
This had been on the advice of the police and the Church Insurance Company.
Rev. Harry Bradshaw, the Vicar of St Thomas's in Westfield Street (pictured above), described how he had decided to close his doors through obscene writing being daubed on his church.
Other places of worship in St Helens had also suffered thefts and vandalism.
On January 29th a man from Kirkland Street pleaded guilty in court to stealing silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to St Thomas's in 1844.
Detective Inspector Cecil McCall told the magistrates that when Rev. Bradshaw left the premises on the evening of the 13th he had secured it carefully.
On the following day, however, he noticed that a side window had been broken and found that a silver chalice and paten, two silver head plates and a brass bookstand were all missing.
Upon being arrested the man told the police that he had sold the two silver head plates for £5 and added:
"I don't know why, but I took the cup and a plate back to the church and left them at the door, and then I sold the remaining plate for £1."
After telling the magistrates "I was a bit drunk when I did it", he was sentenced to six months in prison.
The 38-year-old was already subject to a suspended sentence of six months for another offence and so in total was committed for 12 months.
At the beginning of the month I wrote how St Helens was among 950 towns and cities that would be having posters put up advising its citizens on decimalisation.
The Decimal Currency Board was also popping through everyone's letterbox a booklet initially to be called "Your Guide to Decimal Currency" but which had now been renamed "Your Guide to Decimal Money".
Well, of course, it was the postman who would be doing the actual popping and he was now out on strike and would be until well after "D-Day" on February 15th.
So for the benefit of those that had not received their copy, the Board decided to reproduce the entire booklet in newspapers and it was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 29th.
The title had clearly been changed to make it as easily understood as possible but 4,000 plus words crammed on to a single page made the text very cramped and I would have thought somewhat off-putting to those yet to get to grips with the upcoming switchover.
The three new silver coins (50p, 10p and 5p) had already been phased in as they had precise old money equivalents of ten shillings, two shillings and one shilling.
However the new "decimal coppers" – as they were being called – did not have exact equivalents with the old pounds, shillings and pence and there was also concern over their size and weight. The guide said:
"The three bronze coins (2p, 1p and ½p) are much smaller and lighter than the £sd penny, so we shall have to take a little extra care with them at first."
I shall be reporting on the success of the decimalisation switchover in a couple of weeks.
There were five glum-looking Sutton Leach lads staring out of the St Helens Reporter on the 29th (shown above).
David Nilsson, Philip Pokato, Geoffrey Robinson, David and Geoffrey Brown comprised The Effigy but they were a band without instruments – as the Reporter explained:
"The sixpenny “disco” dance was the talk of the neighbourhood. Teenagers flocked to dance to the schoolboy beat group in the old garden shed.
"But the music stopped when a midnight sneak thief raided the “disco” and got away with two guitars.
"Now the Saturday sessions at Mr. Dennis Brown's home in Leach Lane, Sutton, will be “records only.”
"For the boys have given up playing until they can save enough money to replace the stolen instruments."
As many as 30 teenagers had regularly crammed into the 30-foot-long shed, with each of them paying sixpence admission that the lads used to buy records and refreshments.
15-year-old Geoffrey Brown described the theft as a "really mean trick after all the hard work we have put in making a place for our friends to dance.
"We painted the shed and then formed a beat group to play at our own dances on Saturday nights."
Another 15-year-old member, Geoffrey Robinson, said he had undertaken a paper-round to save up for his guitar.
"Now I will have to start all over again," he added. "We've been playing together for four months and we've done six concerts for charity.
"We even went to the trouble of having cards printed with the group's name, Effigy, on them. The disco dances will carry on but we'll only be able to play records until we can afford new guitars."
It was reported on the 30th that after being in existence for 30 years, Haydock RAF camp was to close down in June.
As a result about 45 civilians would lose their jobs and the 60 RAF men that were currently based there would be transferred to other stations all over the country.
The station had been set up during WW2 as a signals unit for secret projects on telephones and telegraphs.
About half the base was situated in Ashton-in-Makerfield and the rest in Haydock and over the last two years the camp had been gradually run down.
After the closure the camp would be offered to other Government departments. If they did not want it, the land would then be offered to Haydock and Ashton councils.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Liverpool Echo this week. It concerned a sword-swallowing act at the Royal Court Theatre called "Stromboli".
His real name was Daniel Lynch and as the Echo wrote: "[He] is a man who thinks nothing of downing a sword or two as an appetiser before dinner".
The only recognised sword-swallower in the country kept X-ray photos to show to those who thought his act was a fake and the Echo added that Stromboli had performed for several documentary films made for the medical profession.
Gives you stomach ache just thinking about it!
Next week's stories will include the repercussions of the postal strike, a retrospective of the 7-week Pilkington glass strike, success for a severely disabled Rainford man at Crufts, the Rank Xerox workshops in Haydock and a puppet show at the Theatre Royal.
'Mother Goose' had been performed earlier in the month at the Theatre Royal and from the 25th it was the turn of 'Cinderella'.
It appeared to be an unusual version of the popular panto as it featured Shetland ponies and chimpanzees!
Dash's Chimps appeared on many TV shows during the ‘70s and ‘80s and YouTube has clips of them doing their stuff on '3-2-1' and 'The Sooty Show'.
An exhibition began on the same day at the Gamble Institute called "Year In Pictures". Nearly 300 photographs taken by Liverpool Echo staff photographers during 1970 were on show.
While they were exhibited at the Bluecoat Chambers in Liverpool, the photos of Merseyside life attracted more than 6,000 visitors in just over a week.
On October 12th last year, nearly 1,000 workers participated in a mass march through St Helens to protest against the sacking of 130 men from Pilkingtons.
Fifty-nine construction workers from what the St Helens Reporter called a "showpiece corporation housing project" in Liverpool Road took part and on the following day all were sacked for taking the time off.
The remaining 16 men on the £800,000 re-development (about £13m in today's money) – that involved the building of 180 flats and maisonettes – downed tools in sympathy.
The union leaders complained that the sackings were a lock-out and the men picketed the site each day in protest.
The workers insisted that they had been given permission to join the demonstration and took their case to the Building Trade Disputes Committee in Manchester.
After a hearing the men were advised to turn up for work but found their bosses – Rawlinson Construction – had locked the site gates against them.
Both sides normally accepted the Disputes Committee's findings but the Stockport-based Rawlinsons refused to meet the workers or discuss the situation.
So it became a stalemate – all over an hour or two's lost labour that resulted in men being sacked for protesting against other workers being sacked!
It appeared to be a matter of principle for Rawlinsons who were setting down a marker for any future walkouts.
On the 25th the men resumed work on the town centre development after the 4-month-long dispute had finally been settled after a compromise was reached.
One of the conditions conceded by the men was that there would not be any full-time shop stewards on the site.
A party of children from Lowe House Junior School enjoyed a trip to the Birkenhead shipyard of Cammell Laird on the 28th to watch the launch of a new ship.
The 16,900-ton C.P. Trader was one of three ships intended to operate a weekly container service between London, Rotterdam and Quebec.
Also on the 28th two men were sentenced for their roles in the killing of a Widnes man in St Helens.
Last September while attending a party in Keswick Road, John Fenlon had asked another guest to leave the house as he was creating a disturbance.
The 26-year-old from Hempstead Close (off Sherdley Road) immediately fought with Fenlon and bit off a large chunk of his ear.
The attacker summoned his mate who ran to his assistance and using a flick knife stabbed Fenton in his heart.
At Liverpool Crown Court Mr Justice Chapman told the killers: "The man who died was a quiet and totally inoffensive person, trying to keep the peace and put a stop to your foul-mouthed outbursts".
The Hempstead Close man was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for wounding John Fenlon with intent.
And the other from Liverpool – who claimed that he had punched Fenlon not realising the knife was in his hand – was given a life sentence for what the judge labelled a "vicious and animal attack".
In October 1968 the St Helens Reporter had described how vandalism and theft had led to many churches in the town ending open access and bolting their doors outside of service times.
This had been on the advice of the police and the Church Insurance Company.
Other places of worship in St Helens had also suffered thefts and vandalism.
On January 29th a man from Kirkland Street pleaded guilty in court to stealing silverware valued at £266 that had been presented to St Thomas's in 1844.
Detective Inspector Cecil McCall told the magistrates that when Rev. Bradshaw left the premises on the evening of the 13th he had secured it carefully.
On the following day, however, he noticed that a side window had been broken and found that a silver chalice and paten, two silver head plates and a brass bookstand were all missing.
Upon being arrested the man told the police that he had sold the two silver head plates for £5 and added:
"I don't know why, but I took the cup and a plate back to the church and left them at the door, and then I sold the remaining plate for £1."
After telling the magistrates "I was a bit drunk when I did it", he was sentenced to six months in prison.
The 38-year-old was already subject to a suspended sentence of six months for another offence and so in total was committed for 12 months.
At the beginning of the month I wrote how St Helens was among 950 towns and cities that would be having posters put up advising its citizens on decimalisation.
The Decimal Currency Board was also popping through everyone's letterbox a booklet initially to be called "Your Guide to Decimal Currency" but which had now been renamed "Your Guide to Decimal Money".
Well, of course, it was the postman who would be doing the actual popping and he was now out on strike and would be until well after "D-Day" on February 15th.
So for the benefit of those that had not received their copy, the Board decided to reproduce the entire booklet in newspapers and it was published in the Liverpool Echo on the 29th.
The title had clearly been changed to make it as easily understood as possible but 4,000 plus words crammed on to a single page made the text very cramped and I would have thought somewhat off-putting to those yet to get to grips with the upcoming switchover.
The three new silver coins (50p, 10p and 5p) had already been phased in as they had precise old money equivalents of ten shillings, two shillings and one shilling.
However the new "decimal coppers" – as they were being called – did not have exact equivalents with the old pounds, shillings and pence and there was also concern over their size and weight. The guide said:
"The three bronze coins (2p, 1p and ½p) are much smaller and lighter than the £sd penny, so we shall have to take a little extra care with them at first."
I shall be reporting on the success of the decimalisation switchover in a couple of weeks.
David Nilsson, Philip Pokato, Geoffrey Robinson, David and Geoffrey Brown comprised The Effigy but they were a band without instruments – as the Reporter explained:
"The sixpenny “disco” dance was the talk of the neighbourhood. Teenagers flocked to dance to the schoolboy beat group in the old garden shed.
"But the music stopped when a midnight sneak thief raided the “disco” and got away with two guitars.
"Now the Saturday sessions at Mr. Dennis Brown's home in Leach Lane, Sutton, will be “records only.”
"For the boys have given up playing until they can save enough money to replace the stolen instruments."
As many as 30 teenagers had regularly crammed into the 30-foot-long shed, with each of them paying sixpence admission that the lads used to buy records and refreshments.
15-year-old Geoffrey Brown described the theft as a "really mean trick after all the hard work we have put in making a place for our friends to dance.
"We painted the shed and then formed a beat group to play at our own dances on Saturday nights."
Another 15-year-old member, Geoffrey Robinson, said he had undertaken a paper-round to save up for his guitar.
"Now I will have to start all over again," he added. "We've been playing together for four months and we've done six concerts for charity.
"We even went to the trouble of having cards printed with the group's name, Effigy, on them. The disco dances will carry on but we'll only be able to play records until we can afford new guitars."
It was reported on the 30th that after being in existence for 30 years, Haydock RAF camp was to close down in June.
As a result about 45 civilians would lose their jobs and the 60 RAF men that were currently based there would be transferred to other stations all over the country.
The station had been set up during WW2 as a signals unit for secret projects on telephones and telegraphs.
About half the base was situated in Ashton-in-Makerfield and the rest in Haydock and over the last two years the camp had been gradually run down.
After the closure the camp would be offered to other Government departments. If they did not want it, the land would then be offered to Haydock and Ashton councils.
And finally a story that caught my eye in the Liverpool Echo this week. It concerned a sword-swallowing act at the Royal Court Theatre called "Stromboli".
His real name was Daniel Lynch and as the Echo wrote: "[He] is a man who thinks nothing of downing a sword or two as an appetiser before dinner".
The only recognised sword-swallower in the country kept X-ray photos to show to those who thought his act was a fake and the Echo added that Stromboli had performed for several documentary films made for the medical profession.
Gives you stomach ache just thinking about it!
Next week's stories will include the repercussions of the postal strike, a retrospective of the 7-week Pilkington glass strike, success for a severely disabled Rainford man at Crufts, the Rank Xerox workshops in Haydock and a puppet show at the Theatre Royal.