FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 27 APRIL - 3 MAY 1976
This week's many stories include the campaign of terror against Alex Murphy's mum, the green light is given for the major Parr Street / Higher Parr Street road scheme, the row between the Labour and Communist candidates in the Parr council election, Pilks' land swap with UGB, the St Helens May Day demonstration and the launch of Pilkington's 150th anniversary celebrations.
Recently the Reporter had described a "storm of protest" over "shock proposals" to shut St Helens Hospital's A&E department at night. A low level of usage was why the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority felt the emergency facility should close at night-time. It was said that so few people were dropping in to A & E that in one in every four weeks, there were no patient attendances at all between midnight and 8 am.
But at a meeting of the St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council on the 27th, Dr John Packer blamed a chronic lack of doctors for casualty work as the reason for the proposed closure. He said the new restrictions on employing immigrant doctors had been a big factor, with 60% of overseas doctors failing recently introduced examinations that tested proficiency in the English language and medical competence.
Obtaining the funding from Merseyside County Council to pay for badly needed transport schemes was proving difficult, as there simply wasn't the cash to go round. The Liverpool Daily Post on the 27th claimed that 30 major Merseyside road plans that would have cost at least £200 million had over the past few years been abandoned through lack of funds.
Some of those projects might really have been delayed rather than abandoned, such as the scheme to vastly improve a half-mile stretch of road in St Helens. This ran from the bottom of Church Street towards Fingerpost and it was set to be converted into a dual carriageway, with roundabouts and a flyover. But the County Council had turned down the proposed Parr Street / Higher Parr Street improvement in 1974 through lack of money, although the first stage of the scheme was finally approved in April 1975 and work had started in January 1976.
The Post said the second stage of the scheme had now got the nod of approval from the county's highways and tunnels committee at a cost of £1.2 million, although the town's proposed new westerly by-pass scheme had been rejected. The second phase would create a dual, two-lane road leading from the end of phase one along Parr Street, Higher Parr Street and Traverse Street and terminating at Ashcroft Street and Park Road.
The St Helens Reporter began its lead story on its front page on the 30th by writing: "A campaign of terror has shattered the nerves of widow Sarah Murphy – for each night, after dark, her home is the target for a bombardment of bricks." The mysterious attacks on the house in Thatto Heath that was occupied by the mother of rugby league personality Alex Murphy had been taking place for nearly three months.
"Why are we being persecuted?", said the 74-year-old to the Reporter. "I can't relax, I can't sleep – I can't do anything. It's just mental cruelty." Neither Sarah nor her 66-year-old brother Alex Smith who shared the house with her could work out why the mystery assailant was picking on them. Mrs Murphy had lived in her home in Sunbury Street for 70 years and said life had always been quiet until the second week in January.
"It started on a Saturday night," she explained. "I was just putting my coat on to go out when all at once a brick came through the bedroom window upstairs. From then on it's never ceased. Except for a fortnight, bricks have come every night."
The Reporter also described how Pilkingtons, who were about to celebrate their 150th anniversary, were planning to build a new £650,000 transport depot at a site in Washway Lane in St Helens. It would replace their existing depot in Burtonhead Road, which was to be turned over to the United Glass company as part of their expansion plans. In return, Pilkingtons would receive land at the Greengate site in the Ravenhead area for their proposed new float glass plant.
A council election was due to take place in Parr and the Labour candidate Dorothy Fogg told the Reporter that she was furious about the language that the Communist candidate was using in his election address. Peter Lenahan had accused Councillor Fogg – who was the chair of the Social Services Committee – of voting for a controversial move to deprive children living in their community homes of £20 worth of birthday treats.
The cost-saving move was eventually dropped after furious protests from the public. But Mrs Fogg said she had not voted for it and complained that the Communists had taken other remarks of hers out of context but Lenahan from Carr Mill said he had no intention of retracting his comments.
The Reporter also profiled Cyril and Brenda Winstanley who kept a shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford. Of interest to the paper was their 5-year-old labrador Cindy who had taken over a parental role with two kittens and was described as very wary and protective of them when strangers came near.
On May 1st hundreds of trade union members marched through St Helens to protest at the town's high level of unemployment. The May Day demonstration from Queen's Recreation Ground to the Town Hall was organised by St Helens Trades Council and led by the borough's three MPs. They were Leslie Spriggs (St Helens), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Ormskirk, inc. Rainford) and John Evans (Newton-le-Willows).
Spriggs had caused controversy by initially turning down the invitation to jointly lead the march. That was through having obtained a ticket for the FA Cup Final at Wembley, which was held on the same day in which Southampton beat Manchester United 1 - 0.
From the 1st St Helens telephone users were able to dial directly to over 250 million telephones in 26 countries when International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) was introduced within the borough. As well as not having to go through the operator, telephone users were no longer limited to a three-minute minimum charge, with the caller paying only for the time used.
The cost per minute of ISD calls was also cheaper than an operator controlled call. As an example, the Post Office said a one-minute call to Switzerland would only cost 36p in the standard rate period and during cheap rate periods overnight and at weekends, the ISD call would only cost 22p. Although dialled calls to some countries would take up to 30 seconds to connect over the global network of cable connections.
From May 2nd Diana Ross in 'The Lady Sings The Blues', along with Clint Eastwood in 'Play Misty For Me' replaced 'Gone With The Wind' at the ABC Savoy. And at the Capitol, 'Frauleins In Uniform' replaced 'The Happy Hooker'.
And finally, on the 3rd a 19th century style luncheon featuring such delicacies as dressed crab and Baron of beef took place to launch the 150th anniversary celebrations of Pilkington's. The lunch preceded the opening by Sir Alastair Pilkington of a special anniversary exhibition at the Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road, which was made available to the public on the following day.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the conclusion of the Radio Caroline Roadshow trial, Fossett's Circus comes to Parr, the expansion of one-man bus operations is halted and 300 female employees of Beecham's open an equal pay claim.
Recently the Reporter had described a "storm of protest" over "shock proposals" to shut St Helens Hospital's A&E department at night. A low level of usage was why the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority felt the emergency facility should close at night-time. It was said that so few people were dropping in to A & E that in one in every four weeks, there were no patient attendances at all between midnight and 8 am.
But at a meeting of the St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council on the 27th, Dr John Packer blamed a chronic lack of doctors for casualty work as the reason for the proposed closure. He said the new restrictions on employing immigrant doctors had been a big factor, with 60% of overseas doctors failing recently introduced examinations that tested proficiency in the English language and medical competence.
Obtaining the funding from Merseyside County Council to pay for badly needed transport schemes was proving difficult, as there simply wasn't the cash to go round. The Liverpool Daily Post on the 27th claimed that 30 major Merseyside road plans that would have cost at least £200 million had over the past few years been abandoned through lack of funds.
Some of those projects might really have been delayed rather than abandoned, such as the scheme to vastly improve a half-mile stretch of road in St Helens. This ran from the bottom of Church Street towards Fingerpost and it was set to be converted into a dual carriageway, with roundabouts and a flyover. But the County Council had turned down the proposed Parr Street / Higher Parr Street improvement in 1974 through lack of money, although the first stage of the scheme was finally approved in April 1975 and work had started in January 1976.
The Post said the second stage of the scheme had now got the nod of approval from the county's highways and tunnels committee at a cost of £1.2 million, although the town's proposed new westerly by-pass scheme had been rejected. The second phase would create a dual, two-lane road leading from the end of phase one along Parr Street, Higher Parr Street and Traverse Street and terminating at Ashcroft Street and Park Road.
The St Helens Reporter began its lead story on its front page on the 30th by writing: "A campaign of terror has shattered the nerves of widow Sarah Murphy – for each night, after dark, her home is the target for a bombardment of bricks." The mysterious attacks on the house in Thatto Heath that was occupied by the mother of rugby league personality Alex Murphy had been taking place for nearly three months.
"Why are we being persecuted?", said the 74-year-old to the Reporter. "I can't relax, I can't sleep – I can't do anything. It's just mental cruelty." Neither Sarah nor her 66-year-old brother Alex Smith who shared the house with her could work out why the mystery assailant was picking on them. Mrs Murphy had lived in her home in Sunbury Street for 70 years and said life had always been quiet until the second week in January.
"It started on a Saturday night," she explained. "I was just putting my coat on to go out when all at once a brick came through the bedroom window upstairs. From then on it's never ceased. Except for a fortnight, bricks have come every night."
The Reporter also described how Pilkingtons, who were about to celebrate their 150th anniversary, were planning to build a new £650,000 transport depot at a site in Washway Lane in St Helens. It would replace their existing depot in Burtonhead Road, which was to be turned over to the United Glass company as part of their expansion plans. In return, Pilkingtons would receive land at the Greengate site in the Ravenhead area for their proposed new float glass plant.
A council election was due to take place in Parr and the Labour candidate Dorothy Fogg told the Reporter that she was furious about the language that the Communist candidate was using in his election address. Peter Lenahan had accused Councillor Fogg – who was the chair of the Social Services Committee – of voting for a controversial move to deprive children living in their community homes of £20 worth of birthday treats.
The cost-saving move was eventually dropped after furious protests from the public. But Mrs Fogg said she had not voted for it and complained that the Communists had taken other remarks of hers out of context but Lenahan from Carr Mill said he had no intention of retracting his comments.
The Reporter also profiled Cyril and Brenda Winstanley who kept a shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford. Of interest to the paper was their 5-year-old labrador Cindy who had taken over a parental role with two kittens and was described as very wary and protective of them when strangers came near.
On May 1st hundreds of trade union members marched through St Helens to protest at the town's high level of unemployment. The May Day demonstration from Queen's Recreation Ground to the Town Hall was organised by St Helens Trades Council and led by the borough's three MPs. They were Leslie Spriggs (St Helens), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Ormskirk, inc. Rainford) and John Evans (Newton-le-Willows).
Spriggs had caused controversy by initially turning down the invitation to jointly lead the march. That was through having obtained a ticket for the FA Cup Final at Wembley, which was held on the same day in which Southampton beat Manchester United 1 - 0.
From the 1st St Helens telephone users were able to dial directly to over 250 million telephones in 26 countries when International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) was introduced within the borough. As well as not having to go through the operator, telephone users were no longer limited to a three-minute minimum charge, with the caller paying only for the time used.
The cost per minute of ISD calls was also cheaper than an operator controlled call. As an example, the Post Office said a one-minute call to Switzerland would only cost 36p in the standard rate period and during cheap rate periods overnight and at weekends, the ISD call would only cost 22p. Although dialled calls to some countries would take up to 30 seconds to connect over the global network of cable connections.
From May 2nd Diana Ross in 'The Lady Sings The Blues', along with Clint Eastwood in 'Play Misty For Me' replaced 'Gone With The Wind' at the ABC Savoy. And at the Capitol, 'Frauleins In Uniform' replaced 'The Happy Hooker'.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the conclusion of the Radio Caroline Roadshow trial, Fossett's Circus comes to Parr, the expansion of one-man bus operations is halted and 300 female employees of Beecham's open an equal pay claim.
This week's many stories include the campaign of terror against Alex Murphy's mum, the green light is given for the major Parr Street / Higher Parr Street road scheme, the row between the Labour and Communist candidates in the Parr council election, Pilks' land swap with UGB, the St Helens May Day demonstration and the launch of Pilkington's 150th anniversary celebrations.
Recently the Reporter had described a "storm of protest" over "shock proposals" to shut St Helens Hospital's A&E department at night.
A low level of usage was why the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority felt the emergency facility should close at night-time.
It was said that so few people were dropping in to A & E that in one in every four weeks, there were no patient attendances at all between midnight and 8 am.
But at a meeting of the St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council on the 27th, Dr John Packer blamed a chronic lack of doctors for casualty work as the reason for the proposed closure.
He said the new restrictions on employing immigrant doctors had been a big factor, with 60% of overseas doctors failing recently introduced examinations that tested proficiency in the English language and medical competence.
Obtaining the funding from Merseyside County Council to pay for badly needed transport schemes was proving difficult, as there simply wasn't the cash to go round.
The Liverpool Daily Post on the 27th claimed that 30 major Merseyside road plans that would have cost at least £200 million had over the past few years been abandoned through lack of funds.
Some of those projects might really have been delayed rather than abandoned, such as the scheme to vastly improve a half-mile stretch of road in St Helens.
This ran from the bottom of Church Street towards Fingerpost and it was set to be converted into a dual carriageway, with roundabouts and a flyover.
But the County Council had turned down the proposed Parr Street / Higher Parr Street improvement in 1974 through lack of money, although the first stage of the scheme was finally approved in April 1975 and work had started in January 1976.
The Post said the second stage of the scheme had now got the nod of approval from the county's highways and tunnels committee at a cost of £1.2 million, although the town's proposed new westerly by-pass scheme had been rejected.
The second phase would create a dual, two-lane road leading from the end of phase one along Parr Street, Higher Parr Street and Traverse Street and terminating at Ashcroft Street and Park Road.
The St Helens Reporter began its lead story on its front page on the 30th by writing:
"A campaign of terror has shattered the nerves of widow Sarah Murphy – for each night, after dark, her home is the target for a bombardment of bricks."
The mysterious attacks on the house in Thatto Heath that was occupied by the mother of rugby league personality Alex Murphy had been taking place for nearly three months.
"Why are we being persecuted?", said the 74-year-old to the Reporter. "I can't relax, I can't sleep – I can't do anything. It's just mental cruelty."
Neither Sarah nor her 66-year-old brother Alex Smith who shared the house with her could work out why the mystery assailant was picking on them.
Mrs Murphy had lived in her home in Sunbury Street for 70 years and said life had always been quiet until the second week in January.
"It started on a Saturday night," she explained. "I was just putting my coat on to go out when all at once a brick came through the bedroom window upstairs. From then on it's never ceased. Except for a fortnight, bricks have come every night."
The Reporter also described how Pilkingtons, who were about to celebrate their 150th anniversary, were planning to build a new £650,000 transport depot at a site in Washway Lane in St Helens.
It would replace their existing depot in Burtonhead Road, which was to be turned over to the United Glass company as part of their expansion plans.
In return, Pilkingtons would receive land at the Greengate site in the Ravenhead area for their proposed new float glass plant.
A council election was due to take place in Parr and the Labour candidate Dorothy Fogg told the Reporter that she was furious about the language that the Communist candidate was using in his election address.
Peter Lenahan had accused Councillor Fogg – who was the chair of the Social Services Committee – of voting for a controversial move to deprive children living in their community homes of £20 worth of birthday treats.
The cost-saving move was eventually dropped after furious protests from the public.
But Mrs Fogg said she had not voted for it and complained that the Communists had taken other remarks of hers out of context but Lenahan from Carr Mill said he had no intention of retracting his comments.
The Reporter also profiled Cyril and Brenda Winstanley who kept a shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford.
Of interest to the paper was their 5-year-old labrador Cindy who had taken over a parental role with two kittens and was described as very wary and protective of them when strangers came near.
On May 1st hundreds of trade union members marched through St Helens to protest at the town's high level of unemployment.
The May Day demonstration from Queen's Recreation Ground to the Town Hall was organised by St Helens Trades Council and led by the borough's three MPs.
They were Leslie Spriggs (St Helens), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Ormskirk, inc. Rainford) and John Evans (Newton-le-Willows).
Spriggs had caused controversy by initially turning down the invitation to jointly lead the march.
That was through having obtained a ticket for the FA Cup Final at Wembley, which was held on the same day in which Southampton beat Manchester United 1 - 0.
From the 1st, St Helens telephone users were able to dial directly to over 250 million telephones in 26 countries when International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) was introduced within the borough.
As well as not having to go through the operator, telephone users were no longer limited to a three-minute minimum charge, with the caller paying only for the time used.
The cost per minute of ISD calls was also cheaper than an operator controlled call.
As an example, the Post Office said a one-minute call to Switzerland would only cost 36p in the standard rate period and during cheap rate periods overnight and at weekends, the ISD call would only cost 22p.
Although dialled calls to some countries would take up to 30 seconds to connect over the global network of cable connections.
From May 2nd Diana Ross in 'The Lady Sings The Blues', along with Clint Eastwood in 'Play Misty For Me' replaced 'Gone With The Wind' at the ABC Savoy.
And at the Capitol, 'Frauleins In Uniform' replaced 'The Happy Hooker'.
And finally, on the 3rd a 19th century style luncheon featuring such delicacies as dressed crab and Baron of beef took place to launch the 150th anniversary celebrations of Pilkington's.
The lunch preceded the opening by Sir Alastair Pilkington of a special anniversary exhibition at the Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road, which was made available to the public on the following day.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the conclusion of the Radio Caroline Roadshow trial, Fossett's Circus comes to Parr, the expansion of one-man bus operations is halted and 300 female employees of Beecham's open an equal pay claim.
Recently the Reporter had described a "storm of protest" over "shock proposals" to shut St Helens Hospital's A&E department at night.
A low level of usage was why the St Helens and Knowsley Area Health Authority felt the emergency facility should close at night-time.
It was said that so few people were dropping in to A & E that in one in every four weeks, there were no patient attendances at all between midnight and 8 am.
But at a meeting of the St Helens and Knowsley Community Health Council on the 27th, Dr John Packer blamed a chronic lack of doctors for casualty work as the reason for the proposed closure.
He said the new restrictions on employing immigrant doctors had been a big factor, with 60% of overseas doctors failing recently introduced examinations that tested proficiency in the English language and medical competence.
Obtaining the funding from Merseyside County Council to pay for badly needed transport schemes was proving difficult, as there simply wasn't the cash to go round.
The Liverpool Daily Post on the 27th claimed that 30 major Merseyside road plans that would have cost at least £200 million had over the past few years been abandoned through lack of funds.
Some of those projects might really have been delayed rather than abandoned, such as the scheme to vastly improve a half-mile stretch of road in St Helens.
This ran from the bottom of Church Street towards Fingerpost and it was set to be converted into a dual carriageway, with roundabouts and a flyover.
But the County Council had turned down the proposed Parr Street / Higher Parr Street improvement in 1974 through lack of money, although the first stage of the scheme was finally approved in April 1975 and work had started in January 1976.
The Post said the second stage of the scheme had now got the nod of approval from the county's highways and tunnels committee at a cost of £1.2 million, although the town's proposed new westerly by-pass scheme had been rejected.
The second phase would create a dual, two-lane road leading from the end of phase one along Parr Street, Higher Parr Street and Traverse Street and terminating at Ashcroft Street and Park Road.
The St Helens Reporter began its lead story on its front page on the 30th by writing:
"A campaign of terror has shattered the nerves of widow Sarah Murphy – for each night, after dark, her home is the target for a bombardment of bricks."
The mysterious attacks on the house in Thatto Heath that was occupied by the mother of rugby league personality Alex Murphy had been taking place for nearly three months.
"Why are we being persecuted?", said the 74-year-old to the Reporter. "I can't relax, I can't sleep – I can't do anything. It's just mental cruelty."
Neither Sarah nor her 66-year-old brother Alex Smith who shared the house with her could work out why the mystery assailant was picking on them.
Mrs Murphy had lived in her home in Sunbury Street for 70 years and said life had always been quiet until the second week in January.
"It started on a Saturday night," she explained. "I was just putting my coat on to go out when all at once a brick came through the bedroom window upstairs. From then on it's never ceased. Except for a fortnight, bricks have come every night."
The Reporter also described how Pilkingtons, who were about to celebrate their 150th anniversary, were planning to build a new £650,000 transport depot at a site in Washway Lane in St Helens.
It would replace their existing depot in Burtonhead Road, which was to be turned over to the United Glass company as part of their expansion plans.
In return, Pilkingtons would receive land at the Greengate site in the Ravenhead area for their proposed new float glass plant.
A council election was due to take place in Parr and the Labour candidate Dorothy Fogg told the Reporter that she was furious about the language that the Communist candidate was using in his election address.
Peter Lenahan had accused Councillor Fogg – who was the chair of the Social Services Committee – of voting for a controversial move to deprive children living in their community homes of £20 worth of birthday treats.
The cost-saving move was eventually dropped after furious protests from the public.
But Mrs Fogg said she had not voted for it and complained that the Communists had taken other remarks of hers out of context but Lenahan from Carr Mill said he had no intention of retracting his comments.
The Reporter also profiled Cyril and Brenda Winstanley who kept a shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford.
Of interest to the paper was their 5-year-old labrador Cindy who had taken over a parental role with two kittens and was described as very wary and protective of them when strangers came near.
On May 1st hundreds of trade union members marched through St Helens to protest at the town's high level of unemployment.
The May Day demonstration from Queen's Recreation Ground to the Town Hall was organised by St Helens Trades Council and led by the borough's three MPs.
They were Leslie Spriggs (St Helens), Robert Kilroy-Silk (Ormskirk, inc. Rainford) and John Evans (Newton-le-Willows).
Spriggs had caused controversy by initially turning down the invitation to jointly lead the march.
That was through having obtained a ticket for the FA Cup Final at Wembley, which was held on the same day in which Southampton beat Manchester United 1 - 0.
From the 1st, St Helens telephone users were able to dial directly to over 250 million telephones in 26 countries when International Subscriber Dialling (ISD) was introduced within the borough.
As well as not having to go through the operator, telephone users were no longer limited to a three-minute minimum charge, with the caller paying only for the time used.
The cost per minute of ISD calls was also cheaper than an operator controlled call.
As an example, the Post Office said a one-minute call to Switzerland would only cost 36p in the standard rate period and during cheap rate periods overnight and at weekends, the ISD call would only cost 22p.
Although dialled calls to some countries would take up to 30 seconds to connect over the global network of cable connections.
From May 2nd Diana Ross in 'The Lady Sings The Blues', along with Clint Eastwood in 'Play Misty For Me' replaced 'Gone With The Wind' at the ABC Savoy.
And at the Capitol, 'Frauleins In Uniform' replaced 'The Happy Hooker'.
The lunch preceded the opening by Sir Alastair Pilkington of a special anniversary exhibition at the Pilkington Glass Museum on Prescot Road, which was made available to the public on the following day.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the conclusion of the Radio Caroline Roadshow trial, Fossett's Circus comes to Parr, the expansion of one-man bus operations is halted and 300 female employees of Beecham's open an equal pay claim.