FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (27th JUNE - 3rd JULY 1972)
This week's many stories include the St Helens woman who escaped from a Persian vice club, more on the Chain Lane dangerous flues dispute, Alan Whalley describes rough and tumble Gerards Bridge, an update on the Corporation buses in Canada, concern over danger in Hardshaw Street and the controversy over the biggest shake-up in the 192-year history of St Helens market.
Last week's lead story in the Reporter had described how hundreds of families in Blackbrook had been ordered to switch off their gas boilers after what was called a potential killer in their central heating systems had been detected. North Sea gas conversion inspectors on the Chain Lane estate had discovered that the residents' flues were capable of allowing deadly fumes to blow back into their homes. Homeowners were concerned that they might have to pay bills of up to £30 (about £450 in today's money) to rectify the problem. The North Western Gas Board blamed the builders, Daleholme Estates, for having badly installed the flues.
On the 28th of this week, angry families from the estate met in the Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club and decided to set up a fighting fund to finance legal test cases against the builders. Over 300 men and women in homes without heating or hot water agreed to donate 50p each. They also agreed to contact the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, to ask him to raise the matter in Parliament.
Daleholme Estates had now decided that they had no responsibility to fix the central heating flues. They claimed that all the homes on the estate that they had built had complied with building by-law regulations, but not, seemingly, with gas regulations. A spokesman said: "The greatest pity is that the Gas Board have requirements which are of a higher standard. But we go by the building regulations."
Danny McDonald, the Corporation’s chief building control officer for St Helens, appeared to support the builders, telling the Reporter: "Some of those houses have been occupied for four years. Until last week we had received no complaints about the gas central heating on the Chain Lane estate. It seems strange to me that these flues function reasonably on town gas, but now that they are burning North Sea gas they are not satisfactory."
However, the gas board denied that switching to natural gas had anything to do with the matter – it was simply that the changeover had brought the issue to the attention of their engineers undertaking the work.
"How I Escaped From A Persian Vice Club" was a headline that you might expect to find in the News of the World, rather than the St Helens Reporter. However, the story of how Carol Broderick from Kitchener Street had departed Iran in a hurry was its front-page lead on the 30th. The 22-year-old beautician claimed that she had been lured to Tehran by an offer of top money as a cabaret dancer. But, as the newspaper explained, dancing was not all that was expected of Carol:
"The routine at the Persian night spot, popular with millionaires and Arab princes, involved more than a few high kicks on stage. The girls – mainly from the North of England – were expected to sit around until rich men picked them out like the next course on the menu."
Concern was also expressed in the Reporter for what they called the "biggest shake-up in the 192-year history of St. Helens market", which was set to begin next month. The move would mean that for the next two years the town would have three separate markets. The splitting up was set to start on July 21st when all the fruiterers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market traders relocated to a temporary market at Water Street.
Then three days later, the first stage of the new St Mary's market complex would open. Those who would be moving in would be the rest of the open market traders, the stallholders from the market hall (which would be closed) and about a quarter of the traders from the Bridge Street covered market – making a total of 87. However thirty-four traders in the covered market were set to remain where they were.
And because of building work, access through the covered market from Bridge Street to the old market hall was to be blocked off and stallholders claimed this would severely affect their trade. They were also angry about the council's decision to increase stall rents. One stallholder told reporter Jim Collins: "I think this is a scandal and now they are putting up our rents. Boarding up the passageway is definitely going to hit our sales. A lot of trade in the market has always been passing trade, but blocking up the passage will cut all that out."
However, Jim Boardman, the council's assistant treasurer, said he thought many of the traders' fears were unfounded: "There could be some fall in trade because I suppose people were attracted to walk through the covered market to get to the fruit and vegetable stalls that are to move to Water Street open market. But all the butchers will still be in the covered market so they will still attract the passing trade for the other stalls."
In April four St Helens Corporation buses that had been pensioned off by the council were formally handed over to two Canadian businessmen. A company called Tweed Line Tourists Ltd from Victoria in Canada had bought the double-deckers to add a touch of English novelty to their sightseeing tours. Company secretary Wayne McArthur confirmed that the St Helens Transport colours would be retained, saying: "I think they're terrific." Mr MacArthur explained that English-style buses were very popular with American tourists in Canada and they hoped to return to St Helens in 1973 to buy another nine.
This week under the headline "Gee . . . Your Buses Are Real Swell", the Reporter updated its readers on how the buses had been received by American tourists. Alex Barlow, the St Helens Transport Manager, had received a letter from a former St Helens man called Henry Williams who now worked for the bus company in Canada. Mr Williams said the Corporation buses were proving a great attraction and the company was prepared to offer a free tour of the city to any visitor from St Helens.
Alan Whalley in his Whalley's World column in the Reporter wrote: "Rough and tumble Gerards Bridge might be crumbling under the hammer of progress, but they still jangle in the taprooms there about the stirring sports challenges that used to electrify the terrace dwellers." Alan was particularly interested in the bare fist fighters and those who indulged in house tennis for money. That was a variation of handball in which a tennis ball was hit flat-handed against the gable end of a house. Alan explained:
"In the turbulent ‘20's and ‘30's, the mean side-streets were alive with men on the dole, seeking escapism and the price of a pint or two from their handball expertise. Ironically, a social security building now spreads across what was a key venue for old-time card schools and challenge matches. Today, not even the last remaining kids from the slum clearance area carry on the proud wall-tennis tradition. It's a vanished art – taken to the grave by most of the old time “characters,” along with broken noses and scar tissue proudly sported in the days when Gerards Bridge was known as “Fight of the Week” district."
Also on the 30th, fifteen young people aged between 15 and 19 left for a visit to St Helens' twin town of Chalon-Sur-Saone. During their 14-day visit, the group would stay in the French town as guests of local families. The trips to Chalon-Sur-Saone were available to all young people from St Helens aged between 15 and 21, with no special qualifications needed.
Eighteen months ago two people walking along the pavement in Hardshaw Street in St Helens were killed when huge pieces of masonry crashed down on them while building work took place. This week the St Helens Fire Brigade received a report of a loose coping stone in Hardshaw Street and acted swiftly to check if there was any danger. The police sealed off the street from traffic while firemen using a turntable ladder were raised to the top of the Britannic Assurance Company building to inspect the projecting stone.
Then the council's chief building inspector, Danny McDonald, was taken up on the ladder to examine the slab for himself. However, after an inspection, Mr McDonald pronounced the scare a false alarm, saying the stone had been installed that way. But better safe than sorry!
The strike over pay at Neill's steel fabricating works at Bold was now entering its 11th week with no sign of the dispute ending. The management of the engineering plant declared this week that they would stick it out rather than agree to the strikers’ demands, which they called "completely unreasonable". That was in spite of the strike having a serious effect on the firm's business in a highly competitive industry, with new orders unable to be won. The plant made storage vessels for the chemical and oil industries and its chairman warned that profits for the first six months of the year would likely be poor.
Next week's stories will include an explosion at Bold Colliery, the introduction of a one-way traffic system in St Helens, an accident in building the Church Street multi-storey car park and a profile of supermarket boss "Jolly" Jack Nevin.
Last week's lead story in the Reporter had described how hundreds of families in Blackbrook had been ordered to switch off their gas boilers after what was called a potential killer in their central heating systems had been detected. North Sea gas conversion inspectors on the Chain Lane estate had discovered that the residents' flues were capable of allowing deadly fumes to blow back into their homes. Homeowners were concerned that they might have to pay bills of up to £30 (about £450 in today's money) to rectify the problem. The North Western Gas Board blamed the builders, Daleholme Estates, for having badly installed the flues.
On the 28th of this week, angry families from the estate met in the Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club and decided to set up a fighting fund to finance legal test cases against the builders. Over 300 men and women in homes without heating or hot water agreed to donate 50p each. They also agreed to contact the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, to ask him to raise the matter in Parliament.
Daleholme Estates had now decided that they had no responsibility to fix the central heating flues. They claimed that all the homes on the estate that they had built had complied with building by-law regulations, but not, seemingly, with gas regulations. A spokesman said: "The greatest pity is that the Gas Board have requirements which are of a higher standard. But we go by the building regulations."
Danny McDonald, the Corporation’s chief building control officer for St Helens, appeared to support the builders, telling the Reporter: "Some of those houses have been occupied for four years. Until last week we had received no complaints about the gas central heating on the Chain Lane estate. It seems strange to me that these flues function reasonably on town gas, but now that they are burning North Sea gas they are not satisfactory."
However, the gas board denied that switching to natural gas had anything to do with the matter – it was simply that the changeover had brought the issue to the attention of their engineers undertaking the work.
"How I Escaped From A Persian Vice Club" was a headline that you might expect to find in the News of the World, rather than the St Helens Reporter. However, the story of how Carol Broderick from Kitchener Street had departed Iran in a hurry was its front-page lead on the 30th. The 22-year-old beautician claimed that she had been lured to Tehran by an offer of top money as a cabaret dancer. But, as the newspaper explained, dancing was not all that was expected of Carol:
"The routine at the Persian night spot, popular with millionaires and Arab princes, involved more than a few high kicks on stage. The girls – mainly from the North of England – were expected to sit around until rich men picked them out like the next course on the menu."
Concern was also expressed in the Reporter for what they called the "biggest shake-up in the 192-year history of St. Helens market", which was set to begin next month. The move would mean that for the next two years the town would have three separate markets. The splitting up was set to start on July 21st when all the fruiterers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market traders relocated to a temporary market at Water Street.
Then three days later, the first stage of the new St Mary's market complex would open. Those who would be moving in would be the rest of the open market traders, the stallholders from the market hall (which would be closed) and about a quarter of the traders from the Bridge Street covered market – making a total of 87. However thirty-four traders in the covered market were set to remain where they were.
And because of building work, access through the covered market from Bridge Street to the old market hall was to be blocked off and stallholders claimed this would severely affect their trade. They were also angry about the council's decision to increase stall rents. One stallholder told reporter Jim Collins: "I think this is a scandal and now they are putting up our rents. Boarding up the passageway is definitely going to hit our sales. A lot of trade in the market has always been passing trade, but blocking up the passage will cut all that out."
However, Jim Boardman, the council's assistant treasurer, said he thought many of the traders' fears were unfounded: "There could be some fall in trade because I suppose people were attracted to walk through the covered market to get to the fruit and vegetable stalls that are to move to Water Street open market. But all the butchers will still be in the covered market so they will still attract the passing trade for the other stalls."
This week under the headline "Gee . . . Your Buses Are Real Swell", the Reporter updated its readers on how the buses had been received by American tourists. Alex Barlow, the St Helens Transport Manager, had received a letter from a former St Helens man called Henry Williams who now worked for the bus company in Canada. Mr Williams said the Corporation buses were proving a great attraction and the company was prepared to offer a free tour of the city to any visitor from St Helens.
Alan Whalley in his Whalley's World column in the Reporter wrote: "Rough and tumble Gerards Bridge might be crumbling under the hammer of progress, but they still jangle in the taprooms there about the stirring sports challenges that used to electrify the terrace dwellers." Alan was particularly interested in the bare fist fighters and those who indulged in house tennis for money. That was a variation of handball in which a tennis ball was hit flat-handed against the gable end of a house. Alan explained:
"In the turbulent ‘20's and ‘30's, the mean side-streets were alive with men on the dole, seeking escapism and the price of a pint or two from their handball expertise. Ironically, a social security building now spreads across what was a key venue for old-time card schools and challenge matches. Today, not even the last remaining kids from the slum clearance area carry on the proud wall-tennis tradition. It's a vanished art – taken to the grave by most of the old time “characters,” along with broken noses and scar tissue proudly sported in the days when Gerards Bridge was known as “Fight of the Week” district."
Also on the 30th, fifteen young people aged between 15 and 19 left for a visit to St Helens' twin town of Chalon-Sur-Saone. During their 14-day visit, the group would stay in the French town as guests of local families. The trips to Chalon-Sur-Saone were available to all young people from St Helens aged between 15 and 21, with no special qualifications needed.
Eighteen months ago two people walking along the pavement in Hardshaw Street in St Helens were killed when huge pieces of masonry crashed down on them while building work took place. This week the St Helens Fire Brigade received a report of a loose coping stone in Hardshaw Street and acted swiftly to check if there was any danger. The police sealed off the street from traffic while firemen using a turntable ladder were raised to the top of the Britannic Assurance Company building to inspect the projecting stone.
Then the council's chief building inspector, Danny McDonald, was taken up on the ladder to examine the slab for himself. However, after an inspection, Mr McDonald pronounced the scare a false alarm, saying the stone had been installed that way. But better safe than sorry!
The strike over pay at Neill's steel fabricating works at Bold was now entering its 11th week with no sign of the dispute ending. The management of the engineering plant declared this week that they would stick it out rather than agree to the strikers’ demands, which they called "completely unreasonable". That was in spite of the strike having a serious effect on the firm's business in a highly competitive industry, with new orders unable to be won. The plant made storage vessels for the chemical and oil industries and its chairman warned that profits for the first six months of the year would likely be poor.
Next week's stories will include an explosion at Bold Colliery, the introduction of a one-way traffic system in St Helens, an accident in building the Church Street multi-storey car park and a profile of supermarket boss "Jolly" Jack Nevin.
This week's many stories include the St Helens woman who escaped from a Persian vice club, more on the Chain Lane dangerous flues dispute, Alan Whalley describes rough and tumble Gerards Bridge, an update on the Corporation buses in Canada, concern over danger in Hardshaw Street and the controversy over the biggest shake-up in the 192-year history of St Helens market.
Last week's lead story in the Reporter had described how hundreds of families in Blackbrook had been ordered to switch off their gas boilers after what was called a potential killer in their central heating systems had been detected.
North Sea gas conversion inspectors on the Chain Lane estate had discovered that the residents' flues were capable of allowing deadly fumes to blow back into their homes.
Homeowners were concerned that they might have to pay bills of up to £30 (about £450 in today's money) to rectify the problem.
The North Western Gas Board blamed the builders, Daleholme Estates, for having badly installed the flues.
On the 28th of this week, angry families from the estate met in the Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club and decided to set up a fighting fund to finance legal test cases against the builders.
Over 300 men and women in homes without heating or hot water agreed to donate 50p each.
They also agreed to contact the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, to ask him to raise the matter in Parliament.
Daleholme Estates had now decided that they had no responsibility to fix the central heating flues.
They claimed that all the homes on the estate that they had built had complied with building by-law regulations, but not, seemingly, with gas regulations. A spokesman said:
"The greatest pity is that the Gas Board have requirements which are of a higher standard. But we go by the building regulations."
Danny McDonald, the Corporation’s chief building control officer for St Helens, appeared to support the builders, telling the Reporter:
"Some of those houses have been occupied for four years. Until last week we had received no complaints about the gas central heating on the Chain Lane estate. It seems strange to me that these flues function reasonably on town gas, but now that they are burning North Sea gas they are not satisfactory."
However, the gas board denied that switching to natural gas had anything to do with the matter – it was simply that the changeover had brought the issue to the attention of their engineers undertaking the work.
"How I Escaped From A Persian Vice Club" was a headline that you might expect to find in the News of the World, rather than the St Helens Reporter.
However, the story of how Carol Broderick from Kitchener Street had departed Iran in a hurry was its front-page lead on the 30th.
The 22-year-old beautician claimed that she had been lured to Tehran by an offer of top money as a cabaret dancer. But, as the newspaper explained, dancing was not all that was expected of Carol:
"The routine at the Persian night spot, popular with millionaires and Arab princes, involved more than a few high kicks on stage. The girls – mainly from the North of England – were expected to sit around until rich men picked them out like the next course on the menu."
Concern was also expressed in the Reporter for what they called the "biggest shake-up in the 192-year history of St. Helens market", which was set to begin next month.
The move would mean that for the next two years the town would have three separate markets.
The splitting up was set to start on July 21st when all the fruiterers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market traders relocated to a temporary market at Water Street.
Then three days later, the first stage of the new St Mary's market complex would open.
Those who would be moving in would be the rest of the open market traders, the stallholders from the market hall (which would be closed) and about a quarter of the traders from the Bridge Street covered market – making a total of 87.
However thirty-four traders in the covered market were set to remain where they were.
And because of building work, access through the covered market from Bridge Street to the old market hall was to be blocked off and stallholders claimed this would severely affect their trade.
They were also angry about the council's decision to increase stall rents. One stallholder told reporter Jim Collins:
"I think this is a scandal and now they are putting up our rents. Boarding up the passageway is definitely going to hit our sales. A lot of trade in the market has always been passing trade, but blocking up the passage will cut all that out."
However, Jim Boardman, the council's assistant treasurer, said he thought many of the traders' fears were unfounded:
"There could be some fall in trade because I suppose people were attracted to walk through the covered market to get to the fruit and vegetable stalls that are to move to Water Street open market. But all the butchers will still be in the covered market so they will still attract the passing trade for the other stalls."
In April four St Helens Corporation buses that had been pensioned off by the council were formally handed over to two Canadian businessmen.
A company called Tweed Line Tourists Ltd from Victoria in Canada had bought the double-deckers to add a touch of English novelty to their sightseeing tours.
Company secretary Wayne McArthur confirmed that the St Helens Transport colours would be retained, saying: "I think they're terrific."
Mr MacArthur explained that English-style buses were very popular with American tourists in Canada and they hoped to return to St Helens in 1973 to buy another nine.
This week under the headline "Gee . . . Your Buses Are Real Swell", the Reporter updated its readers on how the buses had been received by American tourists.
Alex Barlow, the St Helens Transport Manager, had received a letter from a former St Helens man called Henry Williams who now worked for the bus company in Canada.
Mr Williams said the Corporation buses were proving a great attraction and the company was prepared to offer a free tour of the city to any visitor from St Helens.
Alan Whalley in his Whalley's World column in the Reporter wrote:
"Rough and tumble Gerards Bridge might be crumbling under the hammer of progress, but they still jangle in the taprooms there about the stirring sports challenges that used to electrify the terrace dwellers."
Alan was particularly interested in the bare fist fighters and those who indulged in house tennis for money.
That was a variation of handball in which a tennis ball was hit flat-handed against the gable end of a house. Alan explained:
"In the turbulent ‘20's and ‘30's, the mean side-streets were alive with men on the dole, seeking escapism and the price of a pint or two from their handball expertise.
"Ironically, a social security building now spreads across what was a key venue for old-time card schools and challenge matches.
"Today, not even the last remaining kids from the slum clearance area carry on the proud wall-tennis tradition.
"It's a vanished art – taken to the grave by most of the old time “characters,” along with broken noses and scar tissue proudly sported in the days when Gerards Bridge was known as “Fight of the Week” district."
Also on the 30th, fifteen young people aged between 15 and 19 left for a visit to St Helens' twin town of Chalon-Sur-Saone.
During their 14-day visit, the group would stay in the French town as guests of local families.
The trips to Chalon-Sur-Saone were available to all young people from St Helens aged between 15 and 21, with no special qualifications needed.
Eighteen months ago two people walking along the pavement in Hardshaw Street in St Helens were killed when huge pieces of masonry crashed down on them while building work took place.
This week the St Helens Fire Brigade received a report of a loose coping stone in Hardshaw Street and acted swiftly to check if there was any danger.
The police sealed off the street from traffic while firemen using a turntable ladder were raised to the top of the Britannic Assurance Company building to inspect the projecting stone.
Then the council's chief building inspector, Danny McDonald, was taken up on the ladder to examine the slab for himself.
However, after an inspection, Mr McDonald pronounced the scare a false alarm, saying the stone had been installed that way. But better safe than sorry!
The strike over pay at Neill's steel fabricating works at Bold was now entering its 11th week with no sign of the dispute ending.
The management of the engineering plant declared this week that they would stick it out rather than agree to the strikers’ demands, which they called "completely unreasonable".
That was in spite of the strike having a serious effect on the firm's business in a highly competitive industry, with new orders unable to be won.
The plant made storage vessels for the chemical and oil industries and its chairman warned that profits for the first six months of the year would likely be poor.
Next week's stories will include an explosion at Bold Colliery, the introduction of a one-way traffic system in St Helens, an accident in building the Church Street multi-storey car park and a profile of supermarket boss "Jolly" Jack Nevin.
Last week's lead story in the Reporter had described how hundreds of families in Blackbrook had been ordered to switch off their gas boilers after what was called a potential killer in their central heating systems had been detected.
North Sea gas conversion inspectors on the Chain Lane estate had discovered that the residents' flues were capable of allowing deadly fumes to blow back into their homes.
Homeowners were concerned that they might have to pay bills of up to £30 (about £450 in today's money) to rectify the problem.
The North Western Gas Board blamed the builders, Daleholme Estates, for having badly installed the flues.
On the 28th of this week, angry families from the estate met in the Blackbrook Darby and Joan Club and decided to set up a fighting fund to finance legal test cases against the builders.
Over 300 men and women in homes without heating or hot water agreed to donate 50p each.
They also agreed to contact the St Helens MP, Leslie Spriggs, to ask him to raise the matter in Parliament.
Daleholme Estates had now decided that they had no responsibility to fix the central heating flues.
They claimed that all the homes on the estate that they had built had complied with building by-law regulations, but not, seemingly, with gas regulations. A spokesman said:
"The greatest pity is that the Gas Board have requirements which are of a higher standard. But we go by the building regulations."
Danny McDonald, the Corporation’s chief building control officer for St Helens, appeared to support the builders, telling the Reporter:
"Some of those houses have been occupied for four years. Until last week we had received no complaints about the gas central heating on the Chain Lane estate. It seems strange to me that these flues function reasonably on town gas, but now that they are burning North Sea gas they are not satisfactory."
However, the gas board denied that switching to natural gas had anything to do with the matter – it was simply that the changeover had brought the issue to the attention of their engineers undertaking the work.
"How I Escaped From A Persian Vice Club" was a headline that you might expect to find in the News of the World, rather than the St Helens Reporter.
However, the story of how Carol Broderick from Kitchener Street had departed Iran in a hurry was its front-page lead on the 30th.
The 22-year-old beautician claimed that she had been lured to Tehran by an offer of top money as a cabaret dancer. But, as the newspaper explained, dancing was not all that was expected of Carol:
"The routine at the Persian night spot, popular with millionaires and Arab princes, involved more than a few high kicks on stage. The girls – mainly from the North of England – were expected to sit around until rich men picked them out like the next course on the menu."
Concern was also expressed in the Reporter for what they called the "biggest shake-up in the 192-year history of St. Helens market", which was set to begin next month.
The move would mean that for the next two years the town would have three separate markets.
The splitting up was set to start on July 21st when all the fruiterers and market gardeners from New Market Place and half of the open market traders relocated to a temporary market at Water Street.
Then three days later, the first stage of the new St Mary's market complex would open.
Those who would be moving in would be the rest of the open market traders, the stallholders from the market hall (which would be closed) and about a quarter of the traders from the Bridge Street covered market – making a total of 87.
However thirty-four traders in the covered market were set to remain where they were.
And because of building work, access through the covered market from Bridge Street to the old market hall was to be blocked off and stallholders claimed this would severely affect their trade.
They were also angry about the council's decision to increase stall rents. One stallholder told reporter Jim Collins:
"I think this is a scandal and now they are putting up our rents. Boarding up the passageway is definitely going to hit our sales. A lot of trade in the market has always been passing trade, but blocking up the passage will cut all that out."
However, Jim Boardman, the council's assistant treasurer, said he thought many of the traders' fears were unfounded:
"There could be some fall in trade because I suppose people were attracted to walk through the covered market to get to the fruit and vegetable stalls that are to move to Water Street open market. But all the butchers will still be in the covered market so they will still attract the passing trade for the other stalls."
A company called Tweed Line Tourists Ltd from Victoria in Canada had bought the double-deckers to add a touch of English novelty to their sightseeing tours.
Company secretary Wayne McArthur confirmed that the St Helens Transport colours would be retained, saying: "I think they're terrific."
Mr MacArthur explained that English-style buses were very popular with American tourists in Canada and they hoped to return to St Helens in 1973 to buy another nine.
This week under the headline "Gee . . . Your Buses Are Real Swell", the Reporter updated its readers on how the buses had been received by American tourists.
Alex Barlow, the St Helens Transport Manager, had received a letter from a former St Helens man called Henry Williams who now worked for the bus company in Canada.
Mr Williams said the Corporation buses were proving a great attraction and the company was prepared to offer a free tour of the city to any visitor from St Helens.
Alan Whalley in his Whalley's World column in the Reporter wrote:
"Rough and tumble Gerards Bridge might be crumbling under the hammer of progress, but they still jangle in the taprooms there about the stirring sports challenges that used to electrify the terrace dwellers."
Alan was particularly interested in the bare fist fighters and those who indulged in house tennis for money.
That was a variation of handball in which a tennis ball was hit flat-handed against the gable end of a house. Alan explained:
"In the turbulent ‘20's and ‘30's, the mean side-streets were alive with men on the dole, seeking escapism and the price of a pint or two from their handball expertise.
"Ironically, a social security building now spreads across what was a key venue for old-time card schools and challenge matches.
"Today, not even the last remaining kids from the slum clearance area carry on the proud wall-tennis tradition.
"It's a vanished art – taken to the grave by most of the old time “characters,” along with broken noses and scar tissue proudly sported in the days when Gerards Bridge was known as “Fight of the Week” district."
Also on the 30th, fifteen young people aged between 15 and 19 left for a visit to St Helens' twin town of Chalon-Sur-Saone.
During their 14-day visit, the group would stay in the French town as guests of local families.
The trips to Chalon-Sur-Saone were available to all young people from St Helens aged between 15 and 21, with no special qualifications needed.
Eighteen months ago two people walking along the pavement in Hardshaw Street in St Helens were killed when huge pieces of masonry crashed down on them while building work took place.
This week the St Helens Fire Brigade received a report of a loose coping stone in Hardshaw Street and acted swiftly to check if there was any danger.
The police sealed off the street from traffic while firemen using a turntable ladder were raised to the top of the Britannic Assurance Company building to inspect the projecting stone.
Then the council's chief building inspector, Danny McDonald, was taken up on the ladder to examine the slab for himself.
However, after an inspection, Mr McDonald pronounced the scare a false alarm, saying the stone had been installed that way. But better safe than sorry!
The strike over pay at Neill's steel fabricating works at Bold was now entering its 11th week with no sign of the dispute ending.
The management of the engineering plant declared this week that they would stick it out rather than agree to the strikers’ demands, which they called "completely unreasonable".
That was in spite of the strike having a serious effect on the firm's business in a highly competitive industry, with new orders unable to be won.
The plant made storage vessels for the chemical and oil industries and its chairman warned that profits for the first six months of the year would likely be poor.
Next week's stories will include an explosion at Bold Colliery, the introduction of a one-way traffic system in St Helens, an accident in building the Church Street multi-storey car park and a profile of supermarket boss "Jolly" Jack Nevin.