FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (29th April - 5th May 1969)
This week's stories include Blaster Bates in Jackson Street, polygamy at the Theatre Royal, a critical shortage of St Helens bus staff, a public inquiry into an Elephant Lane amusement arcade and trouble looms in Reginald Road at an illegal caravan site.
We begin on the 29th when Derek "Blaster" Bates demolished a 100 ft. high chimney at the old Roughdales brickworks in Jackson Street. This was not the first time that he'd blown something up in St Helens, having previously demolished another chimney and a waste heap.
However the Jackson Street chimney was one of his trickiest jobs as it was situated by a new factory. It was also broad at its base and not particularly high, which Blaster said was the most difficult kind to destroy.
The police held up traffic in Jackson Street at 4:45pm ready for the drop and a small crowd of onlookers watched dozens of tons of bricks and mortar crash down over an old kiln house, as intended. Then Blaster lit up his pipe. No doubt relieved that it had all gone to plan!
Some house building stats were released this week. During 1968 1,052 dwellings were built in St Helens, of which 620 were private and the rest council built. Properties still under construction by the end of 1968 totalled 1,418 and 539 houses had either been demolished or closed. The estimated population of St Helens was 102,500, although the borough boundaries of the town did not stretch as far as they do today.
Passions ran high at a Town Hall inquiry on the 30th into an appeal by Grange Valley Amusements. The company wanted to open an arcade at 69 Elephant Lane but the council had refused permission – although they had allowed the premises to be used as a snack bar.
The inspector conducting the appeal had to warn resident Laura Denton that if she made any further outbursts she would have to leave the room. Mrs Denton had interrupted proceedings to say it was ridiculous to have an amusement arcade next to houses and Rita Molyneux told the hearing that mothers were concerned about the noise factor.
A trustee of Balmer Street Mission claimed the planned arcade would interfere with their services and a petition signed by 166 members of the church was submitted. However some local residents had signed another petition saying they had no objection to the arcade. The inspector would consider the submissions and then make his decision.
Councillor Len Williams warned on the 30th that unless recruitment of bus staff improved in the near future, more cuts to services were on the cards. The Chairman of the Transport Committee told a meeting of the Town Council that they were presently short of 73 drivers and 49 conductors.
As a result staff had to work long hours of overtime to keep the buses running. There was still, he said, a "critical shortage" of personnel despite measure that had been taken to ameliorate the situation.
These included introducing one-man buses, reducing the frequency of services and intensifying attempts at recruitment. The latter included a TV advertising campaign that had started that week. Cllr. Williams also expressed concern that having to reduce bus services would lead to more people using personal transport and so increase congestion on the roads.
Last September a site in Reginald Road in Sutton began to be occupied by gipsies – as travellers were then described. The residents of the street complained that the fifty caravans were unsightly and a danger to health and safety.
Allegations were made that the travellers had threatened people and a few months earlier a policeman had been attacked on the site. Locals were also fed up with their new neighbours calling at their homes for water. However the council was powerless to act, as the field that they were occupying was private land.
This week the landowners – the Sutton Oak Industrial Estate Ltd. – gave permission to Cllr. Joe Tickle to act as their agent and on the 2nd he gave the travellers 48 hours notice to quit.
Some were prepared to go quietly. One woman holding a young baby told the Reporter that they'd been lucky to stay there for so long, adding: "If the Corporation would give us a permanent site, we would be more than willing to pay rent to stay there."
However other travellers claimed that the Reginald Road site was their last refuge and warned they would "meet any violence with violence". A threat was also made to block St Helens town centre by abandoning vehicles. Cllr. Tickle said a "show of strength" by the police would probably take place next week as the site's occupiers were evicted.
The Reporter stated on the 2nd that a BBC TV crew had visited Tower College in Rainhill (pictured above) to interview principal Charles Oxley and some of his pupils for an edition of 'Look North'. Mr Oxley was leading a campaign against the decision by Lancashire County Council to discontinue free milk for children at independent schools.
Nine-year-old Barbara Gordon-Jones from Barrowfield Road in Eccleston was pictured in the Reporter with some of the many animals that lived in her house. There were eight 10-week-old Labrador puppies, their mother, a rabbit and a large ginger tom cat.
Also shown in the paper was May Gilligan from Central Drive in Haydock who had just won the Bingo Championship of St Helens. The Rivoli Star Bingo and Social Club – on the corner of Corporation Street and Hall Street – had invited all winners from the past three weeks to compete for the title. May was pictured receiving her trophy and a cheque for £25.
The Sutton Parish school building fund was boosted by £206 (about £3,500 in today's money) on the 3rd as a result of a Spring Fair held at the junior school in Ellamsbridge Road.
During the evening there was a special attraction at the Theatre Royal with a performance by the Nigerian National Dance Company. The title of the show was 'Oh-Ogunde – The Dancers and Drummers of Nigeria'. This was named after the troupe's leader Chief Herbert Ogunde.
Not only were eight of the women in the 40-strong company his wives; many of the other performers were his own children. Now that's what I call a family business! The Chief claimed to have been born into a family of witch doctors and "fetish priests" but ran away to join his father, who was a Baptist clergyman.
He later became a church organist and then joined the police where he took charge of entertainment for the force throughout Nigeria. Ogunde hadn't completely turned against witch doctors, as he was employing some in his show, as well as the so-called "juju" men.
A rather less exotic event took place during the same evening when a dance was held in the Peasley Cross Congregational Hall. The Poachers led by Roy Hordley performed.
Comic Johnnie Goon Tweed was at the Geraldo Club in Lord Street on the 4th, along with "beautiful exotic dancers". During the 1970s Johnnie was a finalist on 'New Faces' and he also appeared as an actor on 'Coronation Street' playing a top darts player.
For six nights from the 5th the Pilkington Musical Section performed the Irish-American musical 'Finian's Rainbow' at the Theatre Royal. Jim Ashton took the lead role, with Judith Hough, Enid Taylor and Keith Lewis playing other parts. Meanwhile at the Capitol four days of screenings of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti western 'A Fistful of Dollars' began.
To end here are some other stories that were in the national newspapers this week.
Les Dawson began his first TV series called 'Sez Les', having received his big break on 'Opportunity Knocks' two years earlier. Les's support in the show came from Brian Murphy, who, of course, made his own name in 'Man About The House' and 'George and Mildred'.
It was stated that a date for the start of colour television on BBC 1 and ITV would be announced within a fortnight.
This week John Lennon bought for £150,000 what he described as a "small Georgian house with seventy-two acres. A nice functional house with just a couple of rooms for Yoko and me."
In fact Tittenhurst Park in Ascot was a stately home with seven bedrooms, three reception rooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool, tennis court, lodge house, Tudor pavilion and four cottages! The Daily Mirror said the Beatle would not be continuing the tradition of opening the house up to the public.
Almost fifty years after it had been introduced, the Football Association's ban on women's football was surprisingly still in place. Recently in Derby a female team had been breaking the rules by playing against male sides for charity on grounds registered with the FA.
So this week Derby's county football association warned the male players that they faced fines and suspension if they continued to play against women. The FA's ban on matches being played on members' grounds would finally be lifted in 1971.
The Daily Express said the 14,000 cinema owners in America were waging a "bitter war" against the introduction of pay TV. A pilot scheme was in operation in Connecticut and cinemas feared a sharp drop in attendances if pay television went nationwide.
In the New York area several hundred cinemas "went into mourning" by blacking out their electric signs for two hours as a protest against the proposed competition from television.
The Express also wrote: "The electric car took a step towards general use last night with a Government-backed announcement. The G.P.O. is to introduce battery electric mail vans in a number of areas throughout Britain within three or four months. A prototype of this revolutionary new van has been on trial at Leicester for the past 18 months."
Next week's stories will include a bomb hoax in Rainford, an American boy gets in a pickle in Blackbrook, the end is in sight for gas lamps in St Helens, there's criticism of the town's only council nursery, the Westfield Street redevelopment begins and there's disgust at lorries on the Sutton Heath housing estate.
We begin on the 29th when Derek "Blaster" Bates demolished a 100 ft. high chimney at the old Roughdales brickworks in Jackson Street. This was not the first time that he'd blown something up in St Helens, having previously demolished another chimney and a waste heap.
However the Jackson Street chimney was one of his trickiest jobs as it was situated by a new factory. It was also broad at its base and not particularly high, which Blaster said was the most difficult kind to destroy.
The police held up traffic in Jackson Street at 4:45pm ready for the drop and a small crowd of onlookers watched dozens of tons of bricks and mortar crash down over an old kiln house, as intended. Then Blaster lit up his pipe. No doubt relieved that it had all gone to plan!
Some house building stats were released this week. During 1968 1,052 dwellings were built in St Helens, of which 620 were private and the rest council built. Properties still under construction by the end of 1968 totalled 1,418 and 539 houses had either been demolished or closed. The estimated population of St Helens was 102,500, although the borough boundaries of the town did not stretch as far as they do today.
Passions ran high at a Town Hall inquiry on the 30th into an appeal by Grange Valley Amusements. The company wanted to open an arcade at 69 Elephant Lane but the council had refused permission – although they had allowed the premises to be used as a snack bar.
The inspector conducting the appeal had to warn resident Laura Denton that if she made any further outbursts she would have to leave the room. Mrs Denton had interrupted proceedings to say it was ridiculous to have an amusement arcade next to houses and Rita Molyneux told the hearing that mothers were concerned about the noise factor.
A trustee of Balmer Street Mission claimed the planned arcade would interfere with their services and a petition signed by 166 members of the church was submitted. However some local residents had signed another petition saying they had no objection to the arcade. The inspector would consider the submissions and then make his decision.
As a result staff had to work long hours of overtime to keep the buses running. There was still, he said, a "critical shortage" of personnel despite measure that had been taken to ameliorate the situation.
These included introducing one-man buses, reducing the frequency of services and intensifying attempts at recruitment. The latter included a TV advertising campaign that had started that week. Cllr. Williams also expressed concern that having to reduce bus services would lead to more people using personal transport and so increase congestion on the roads.
Last September a site in Reginald Road in Sutton began to be occupied by gipsies – as travellers were then described. The residents of the street complained that the fifty caravans were unsightly and a danger to health and safety.
Allegations were made that the travellers had threatened people and a few months earlier a policeman had been attacked on the site. Locals were also fed up with their new neighbours calling at their homes for water. However the council was powerless to act, as the field that they were occupying was private land.
This week the landowners – the Sutton Oak Industrial Estate Ltd. – gave permission to Cllr. Joe Tickle to act as their agent and on the 2nd he gave the travellers 48 hours notice to quit.
Some were prepared to go quietly. One woman holding a young baby told the Reporter that they'd been lucky to stay there for so long, adding: "If the Corporation would give us a permanent site, we would be more than willing to pay rent to stay there."
However other travellers claimed that the Reginald Road site was their last refuge and warned they would "meet any violence with violence". A threat was also made to block St Helens town centre by abandoning vehicles. Cllr. Tickle said a "show of strength" by the police would probably take place next week as the site's occupiers were evicted.
Nine-year-old Barbara Gordon-Jones from Barrowfield Road in Eccleston was pictured in the Reporter with some of the many animals that lived in her house. There were eight 10-week-old Labrador puppies, their mother, a rabbit and a large ginger tom cat.
Also shown in the paper was May Gilligan from Central Drive in Haydock who had just won the Bingo Championship of St Helens. The Rivoli Star Bingo and Social Club – on the corner of Corporation Street and Hall Street – had invited all winners from the past three weeks to compete for the title. May was pictured receiving her trophy and a cheque for £25.
The Sutton Parish school building fund was boosted by £206 (about £3,500 in today's money) on the 3rd as a result of a Spring Fair held at the junior school in Ellamsbridge Road.
During the evening there was a special attraction at the Theatre Royal with a performance by the Nigerian National Dance Company. The title of the show was 'Oh-Ogunde – The Dancers and Drummers of Nigeria'. This was named after the troupe's leader Chief Herbert Ogunde.
Not only were eight of the women in the 40-strong company his wives; many of the other performers were his own children. Now that's what I call a family business! The Chief claimed to have been born into a family of witch doctors and "fetish priests" but ran away to join his father, who was a Baptist clergyman.
He later became a church organist and then joined the police where he took charge of entertainment for the force throughout Nigeria. Ogunde hadn't completely turned against witch doctors, as he was employing some in his show, as well as the so-called "juju" men.
A rather less exotic event took place during the same evening when a dance was held in the Peasley Cross Congregational Hall. The Poachers led by Roy Hordley performed.
Comic Johnnie Goon Tweed was at the Geraldo Club in Lord Street on the 4th, along with "beautiful exotic dancers". During the 1970s Johnnie was a finalist on 'New Faces' and he also appeared as an actor on 'Coronation Street' playing a top darts player.
For six nights from the 5th the Pilkington Musical Section performed the Irish-American musical 'Finian's Rainbow' at the Theatre Royal. Jim Ashton took the lead role, with Judith Hough, Enid Taylor and Keith Lewis playing other parts. Meanwhile at the Capitol four days of screenings of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti western 'A Fistful of Dollars' began.
To end here are some other stories that were in the national newspapers this week.
Les Dawson began his first TV series called 'Sez Les', having received his big break on 'Opportunity Knocks' two years earlier. Les's support in the show came from Brian Murphy, who, of course, made his own name in 'Man About The House' and 'George and Mildred'.
It was stated that a date for the start of colour television on BBC 1 and ITV would be announced within a fortnight.
This week John Lennon bought for £150,000 what he described as a "small Georgian house with seventy-two acres. A nice functional house with just a couple of rooms for Yoko and me."
In fact Tittenhurst Park in Ascot was a stately home with seven bedrooms, three reception rooms, four bathrooms, a swimming pool, tennis court, lodge house, Tudor pavilion and four cottages! The Daily Mirror said the Beatle would not be continuing the tradition of opening the house up to the public.
Almost fifty years after it had been introduced, the Football Association's ban on women's football was surprisingly still in place. Recently in Derby a female team had been breaking the rules by playing against male sides for charity on grounds registered with the FA.
So this week Derby's county football association warned the male players that they faced fines and suspension if they continued to play against women. The FA's ban on matches being played on members' grounds would finally be lifted in 1971.
The Daily Express said the 14,000 cinema owners in America were waging a "bitter war" against the introduction of pay TV. A pilot scheme was in operation in Connecticut and cinemas feared a sharp drop in attendances if pay television went nationwide.
In the New York area several hundred cinemas "went into mourning" by blacking out their electric signs for two hours as a protest against the proposed competition from television.
The Express also wrote: "The electric car took a step towards general use last night with a Government-backed announcement. The G.P.O. is to introduce battery electric mail vans in a number of areas throughout Britain within three or four months. A prototype of this revolutionary new van has been on trial at Leicester for the past 18 months."
Next week's stories will include a bomb hoax in Rainford, an American boy gets in a pickle in Blackbrook, the end is in sight for gas lamps in St Helens, there's criticism of the town's only council nursery, the Westfield Street redevelopment begins and there's disgust at lorries on the Sutton Heath housing estate.