FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th Jan. - 3rd Feb. 1969)
This week's many stories include the house where five slept in a bed, a claim that the Corporation was killing off the residents of Princess Avenue, a married couple are wanted at Windle island, a Thatto Heath toy collection for under-privileged children, Crank School prepares for decimalisation and a call for a new old people's hut for Gaskell Park.
However we begin at the Theatre Royal in Corporation Street where throughout this week the Everyman Theatre Company was performing 'Dracula'. However it was a musical version of Bram Stoker's gothic horror with songs such as 'Fangs Ain't What They Used To Be' and 'A Fine Ghoul You Are'.
At a session of the St Helens Juvenile Panel on the 29th a childcare officer said she had been physically sick after her first visit to a house in the town containing three small children. Mrs N. Carter said the conditions were "appalling" with their living room "dark, dismal and dirty". The parents and their children slept in the one bed and the officer described their bed linen as filthy.
There was also an "appalling stench" from a bucket of urine situated in the middle of their uncarpeted floor. The hearing heard that the father was a heavy drinker and the mother was described as mentally sub-normal.
The panel was being asked to consider the parents' objection to a decision to transfer their rights over their children to the council. The appeal was rejected and no details of the family concerned were reported.
During the evening of the 29th the parents of children at Crank Primary School were shown how their youngsters were being instructed in the new decimal currency system. Decimalisation was due to happen in 1971 but already the children had become experts in converting between old and new money. They had also been prepared for metric measurements, which was due to be phased in two years later.
The Liverpool Echo on the 29th featured an advert for an "energetic and intelligent married couple" to serve as an office manager at the "refill service station" at Windle island with house provided.
Two people were expected to fill a single position, although there was what was described as a "possibility of clerical vacancy for wife". The duties of the successful applicants would include "control of busy petrol station", which perhaps suggests operating the pumps might well be the main role expected of the woman!
However there was some semblance of gender equality this week with the announcement that five of the eleven new St Helens' magistrates were women. The new female JPs were Marjorie Daghistani from Eccleston (deputy head of Allanson Street infants); Ann Snowling, Eccleston; Evelyn Tickle, Sutton, as well as Cathryn Marsden and Evelyn Capper.
The Rev. Roberts of St Matthew's in Thatto Heath said this week that he had received a letter from the NSPCC thanking the church for their donated toys. Every year in December a special service was held at St Matthew's in which the congregation brought in toys for the NSPCC.
These were then passed onto local under-privileged children who received few gifts on Christmas Day. One of the churchwardens – Mr D. Side of Nutgrove Hall Drive – had already started collecting gifts for the next Toy Service.
Park Road Baptist Church also reported that they had cleared the £3,000 debt (about £50,000 in today's money) on their new church building that had opened last year and were now planning to purchase some furnishings.
Most of the cash had come from donations from worshippers with Rev. Derek Cook saying: "When I came to St. Helens five years ago I never thought we would have a new church, let alone pay for it within a year".
Lord Harry Pilkington celebrated his glass giant's best ever year in his annual review for employees this week. The firm boasted record trading profits of £9.6 million with their Flat Glass Division mainly responsible for the improvement. The fairly new Float Division was described as making real progress.
The company's chairman also paid a "sincere and grateful tribute" to the trade unions, saying he believed they knew how much the firm cared for their workforce. What Lord Harry couldn't have then known was that before too long there would be a damaging strike at Pilks that would undermine industrial relations for years.
"Death Bungalows Claim Residents" was the alarming front-page headline in the Reporter on February 1st. Their article claimed that elderly council tenants in Princess Avenue were dying because their homes were cold and damp. Henry Darwin told the paper that twelve of his neighbours had died over the past fourteen months and he attributed some of their deaths to the state of their homes.
"I've never lived in conditions like this", Mr Darwin told the Reporter, explaining that he was unable to close an inner door as smoke would blow back down a chimney. The 82-year-old believed that the cold and damp in his house had caused the shingles that he suffered from. Meanwhile his neighbour James Scott said his arthritis had considerably worsened since moving to Dentons Green:
"It was the worst move I ever made. It's warmer in the shed outside, than it is in this house. All the houses along the row are just the same. The Corporation are killing old people off along here." In response the council said their £5m scheme (about £85m in today's money) to bring up to modern standards around 5,000 pre-war council houses that had been announced last week, would include the bungalows in Princess Avenue.
Also featured on the front page of the Reporter were William and Maud Wiseman from Moss Bank. The couple had just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary despite their marriage having got off to a ropy start.
Before going to the church the bride had decided to get some drink for their reception and ended up getting delayed at the shop. Maud was so late that people inside St Joseph's Church in Sutton Road were thinking of leaving, when suddenly the doors flung open and the bride came running down the aisle, followed by her "frantic" bridesmaid.
The newspaper also reported how St Helens Corporation's Transport Manager had been upset by critical remarks made at a recent Rainhill Parish Council meeting about the new one-man buses. Alex Barlow had written to the council to say that the statements made by their councillors had been grossly exaggerated. These included a claim that it now took 35 minutes for buses to get from the Coach and Horses to St Helens.
The council members said they had been misquoted in the press, although some repeated their statements that journeys without a conductor now took much longer. Mr Barlow also called for the words "Bus Stop" to be painted on the roadway adjacent to stops, saying the indiscriminate parking of private vehicles at bus stops was causing considerable difficulties for drivers.
There was also a plea in the Reporter for a new "old people's hut" for Gaskell Park in Parr. The existing hut was not only small but had in its centre an old stove that the paper said resembled those seen in German POW escape films.
The paper added that the resemblance was so strong that "one is tempted to ask if there is an escape tunnel underneath it"! 67-year-old ex-miner John Smith added that the fumes from the stove meant that the door to the hut had to be kept open, which made it very cold in winter.
In 1969 Rainford had an urban district council with some real powers – unlike today's parish council. Included in their remit was housing and the Reporter revealed that this was causing the councillors a headache. They had a severe shortage of council homes in Rainford with a long waiting list comprising 150 applications. At the present rate only three or four of these families were likely to be housed each year.
However work on a new 72-house estate at Rainford North End was due to begin soon which was likely to improve matters. Some of their existing housing stock was not in great shape and to pay for improvements, the council had decided to raise the rents of their tenants for the first time in twelve years.
The St Helens Caledonian Society and the Folk Dance and Song Society jointly hosted an Anglo-Scottish dance during the evening of the 1st.
The event took place at the Dodd Memorial Hall in Dentons Green Lane with Roy Hordley's popular Poachers performing. The Caledonian Society had been founded in 1922 and every Wednesday they held dancing classes at the Tolver Street Presbyterian Church Hall.
There was a recruitment advert for Triplex in the Echo on the 3rd in which the safety glass firm was seeking women to work on two shifts from 6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10pm. "Attractive overalls supplied", they wrote, although the actual work involved at their Eccleston Works was not specified. Basic pay was £9 13s 2d per week, with shift allowance of £1 12s 2d, plus bonus.
A pseudo-documentary about sex called 'Love In Our Time' was shown at the ABC (Savoy) in Bridge Street for six days from the 3rd. "A bold, frank film – specially for adults", said the ad in the Reporter. That film had been made in 1968, however the Capitol went back to the 1950s with a horror double header of Vincent Price in 'The Fly' and 'Return of the Fly'.
Meanwhile at the Theatre Royal from the 3rd the St Helens Catholic Amateur Gilbert & Sullivan Society presented 'The Yeoman of the Guard' over six nights. George Mercer was the producer of the comic opera with soprano Mary Mounfield and tenor Terence Follin in the leading roles. The admission prices ranged from 3s 6d to 7s 6d.
Next week' stories will include the Reporter's feature on the new Rivington Comprehensive, a shocking case of gang rape on a 14-year-old girl, the father who gave his son the most severe thrashing of his life, a strike by Greenall Whitley draymen, Prescot Council controversially donates cash to Radio Merseyside and a noble ufologist gives a lecture in the Theatre Royal.
However we begin at the Theatre Royal in Corporation Street where throughout this week the Everyman Theatre Company was performing 'Dracula'. However it was a musical version of Bram Stoker's gothic horror with songs such as 'Fangs Ain't What They Used To Be' and 'A Fine Ghoul You Are'.
At a session of the St Helens Juvenile Panel on the 29th a childcare officer said she had been physically sick after her first visit to a house in the town containing three small children. Mrs N. Carter said the conditions were "appalling" with their living room "dark, dismal and dirty". The parents and their children slept in the one bed and the officer described their bed linen as filthy.
There was also an "appalling stench" from a bucket of urine situated in the middle of their uncarpeted floor. The hearing heard that the father was a heavy drinker and the mother was described as mentally sub-normal.
The panel was being asked to consider the parents' objection to a decision to transfer their rights over their children to the council. The appeal was rejected and no details of the family concerned were reported.
During the evening of the 29th the parents of children at Crank Primary School were shown how their youngsters were being instructed in the new decimal currency system. Decimalisation was due to happen in 1971 but already the children had become experts in converting between old and new money. They had also been prepared for metric measurements, which was due to be phased in two years later.
The Liverpool Echo on the 29th featured an advert for an "energetic and intelligent married couple" to serve as an office manager at the "refill service station" at Windle island with house provided.
However there was some semblance of gender equality this week with the announcement that five of the eleven new St Helens' magistrates were women. The new female JPs were Marjorie Daghistani from Eccleston (deputy head of Allanson Street infants); Ann Snowling, Eccleston; Evelyn Tickle, Sutton, as well as Cathryn Marsden and Evelyn Capper.
The Rev. Roberts of St Matthew's in Thatto Heath said this week that he had received a letter from the NSPCC thanking the church for their donated toys. Every year in December a special service was held at St Matthew's in which the congregation brought in toys for the NSPCC.
These were then passed onto local under-privileged children who received few gifts on Christmas Day. One of the churchwardens – Mr D. Side of Nutgrove Hall Drive – had already started collecting gifts for the next Toy Service.
Park Road Baptist Church also reported that they had cleared the £3,000 debt (about £50,000 in today's money) on their new church building that had opened last year and were now planning to purchase some furnishings.
Most of the cash had come from donations from worshippers with Rev. Derek Cook saying: "When I came to St. Helens five years ago I never thought we would have a new church, let alone pay for it within a year".
Lord Harry Pilkington celebrated his glass giant's best ever year in his annual review for employees this week. The firm boasted record trading profits of £9.6 million with their Flat Glass Division mainly responsible for the improvement. The fairly new Float Division was described as making real progress.
The company's chairman also paid a "sincere and grateful tribute" to the trade unions, saying he believed they knew how much the firm cared for their workforce. What Lord Harry couldn't have then known was that before too long there would be a damaging strike at Pilks that would undermine industrial relations for years.
"Death Bungalows Claim Residents" was the alarming front-page headline in the Reporter on February 1st. Their article claimed that elderly council tenants in Princess Avenue were dying because their homes were cold and damp. Henry Darwin told the paper that twelve of his neighbours had died over the past fourteen months and he attributed some of their deaths to the state of their homes.
"I've never lived in conditions like this", Mr Darwin told the Reporter, explaining that he was unable to close an inner door as smoke would blow back down a chimney. The 82-year-old believed that the cold and damp in his house had caused the shingles that he suffered from. Meanwhile his neighbour James Scott said his arthritis had considerably worsened since moving to Dentons Green:
"It was the worst move I ever made. It's warmer in the shed outside, than it is in this house. All the houses along the row are just the same. The Corporation are killing old people off along here." In response the council said their £5m scheme (about £85m in today's money) to bring up to modern standards around 5,000 pre-war council houses that had been announced last week, would include the bungalows in Princess Avenue.
Also featured on the front page of the Reporter were William and Maud Wiseman from Moss Bank. The couple had just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary despite their marriage having got off to a ropy start.
Before going to the church the bride had decided to get some drink for their reception and ended up getting delayed at the shop. Maud was so late that people inside St Joseph's Church in Sutton Road were thinking of leaving, when suddenly the doors flung open and the bride came running down the aisle, followed by her "frantic" bridesmaid.
The newspaper also reported how St Helens Corporation's Transport Manager had been upset by critical remarks made at a recent Rainhill Parish Council meeting about the new one-man buses. Alex Barlow had written to the council to say that the statements made by their councillors had been grossly exaggerated. These included a claim that it now took 35 minutes for buses to get from the Coach and Horses to St Helens.
The council members said they had been misquoted in the press, although some repeated their statements that journeys without a conductor now took much longer. Mr Barlow also called for the words "Bus Stop" to be painted on the roadway adjacent to stops, saying the indiscriminate parking of private vehicles at bus stops was causing considerable difficulties for drivers.
There was also a plea in the Reporter for a new "old people's hut" for Gaskell Park in Parr. The existing hut was not only small but had in its centre an old stove that the paper said resembled those seen in German POW escape films.
The paper added that the resemblance was so strong that "one is tempted to ask if there is an escape tunnel underneath it"! 67-year-old ex-miner John Smith added that the fumes from the stove meant that the door to the hut had to be kept open, which made it very cold in winter.
In 1969 Rainford had an urban district council with some real powers – unlike today's parish council. Included in their remit was housing and the Reporter revealed that this was causing the councillors a headache. They had a severe shortage of council homes in Rainford with a long waiting list comprising 150 applications. At the present rate only three or four of these families were likely to be housed each year.
However work on a new 72-house estate at Rainford North End was due to begin soon which was likely to improve matters. Some of their existing housing stock was not in great shape and to pay for improvements, the council had decided to raise the rents of their tenants for the first time in twelve years.
The St Helens Caledonian Society and the Folk Dance and Song Society jointly hosted an Anglo-Scottish dance during the evening of the 1st.
The event took place at the Dodd Memorial Hall in Dentons Green Lane with Roy Hordley's popular Poachers performing. The Caledonian Society had been founded in 1922 and every Wednesday they held dancing classes at the Tolver Street Presbyterian Church Hall.
There was a recruitment advert for Triplex in the Echo on the 3rd in which the safety glass firm was seeking women to work on two shifts from 6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10pm. "Attractive overalls supplied", they wrote, although the actual work involved at their Eccleston Works was not specified. Basic pay was £9 13s 2d per week, with shift allowance of £1 12s 2d, plus bonus.
A pseudo-documentary about sex called 'Love In Our Time' was shown at the ABC (Savoy) in Bridge Street for six days from the 3rd. "A bold, frank film – specially for adults", said the ad in the Reporter. That film had been made in 1968, however the Capitol went back to the 1950s with a horror double header of Vincent Price in 'The Fly' and 'Return of the Fly'.
Meanwhile at the Theatre Royal from the 3rd the St Helens Catholic Amateur Gilbert & Sullivan Society presented 'The Yeoman of the Guard' over six nights. George Mercer was the producer of the comic opera with soprano Mary Mounfield and tenor Terence Follin in the leading roles. The admission prices ranged from 3s 6d to 7s 6d.
Next week' stories will include the Reporter's feature on the new Rivington Comprehensive, a shocking case of gang rape on a 14-year-old girl, the father who gave his son the most severe thrashing of his life, a strike by Greenall Whitley draymen, Prescot Council controversially donates cash to Radio Merseyside and a noble ufologist gives a lecture in the Theatre Royal.