FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th MARCH - 5th APRIL 1970)
This week's stories include the tearing down of "Skid Row" inside a St Helens' brickworks, plans for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park, the first St Helens horse rides in the Grand National, the first Whalley's World is published in the Reporter and a councillor criticises savage rent rises for council houses in Jubits Lane and Four Acre.
For six nights from the 30th what was described as "a dramatic comedy of our time" called 'The Night I Chased The Women' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The play featured Bill Kenwright, the present-day West End theatre / film producer and Everton chairman. Bill had just spent a year as Gordon Clegg in Coronation Street but was now mainly focussing on producing but still undertaking the odd acting engagement.
Meanwhile at the ABC Savoy '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' starring Kirk Douglas began a 6-day run and at the Capitol, Vincent Price starred in 'Witchfinder General'.
Some of the highlights of the St Helens Show in Sherdley Park were announced this week. The 3-day event in July would feature a one-third scale model of a nuclear submarine as part of a display by the Royal Marines. They would also have a motorcycle team putting on two shows a day and displays of unarmed combat.
An RAF aerial acrobatic team of four helicopters – known as the Tomahawks – would be performing on the final day, which was then Saturday. And the United States Army Base at Burtonwood was promising a spectacular attraction but keeping it secret for the time being. Hot-air balloon flights would be available twice a day, along with the usual attractions of show jumping, arts and crafts, dog show etc.
Last September an inspector from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government had come to St Helens to hear an appeal against a council enforcement order. Five residents from Sutton Manor appeared at the hearing to complain of the noise, smoke and smell that came from the Walker Metal Company. The owner of the Walkers Lane scrap metal firm – F. W. Gardam of Mill Lane in Rainhill – had been operating the business at the property since 1963.
However from 1966 Mr Gardam began bringing in large items of scrap – including whole cars – that required cutting gear and hammers to dismantle them. No planning permission was obtained and the operations led to many complaints from neighbours. So this week the Ministry rejected the company's appeal and told Mr Gardam to cease his scrap business within a month.
An inquest opened on the 31st on three teenagers who had been killed on the previous Saturday after returning to St Helens from a rugby club dance. Their Austin A40 hit a lamp standard in Rainford Road killing David Smith (18 years, Dorset Road), Sandra Evans (17, Bridge Street) and Alison Roberts (17, Windle Hall Drive). Three other passengers were badly injured but were said to be improving in hospital. All six teenagers were sixth formers at the two Cowley schools.
A bid to end the five-week-long unofficial strike at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane failed on the 31st. The firm made seat springs for the Ford Cortina and other vehicles and a 90-minute meeting between management and union representatives came to nothing. The dispute had begun when the firm alleged that work sheets had been falsified and then some men were sacked after walking out. However some strikers had since returned to work and the company was recruiting men to take the place of those that were still out.
There was also industrial unrest at Fibreglass (pictured above) but so far it was on a small scale. On April 1st a dozen operators in the firm's moulding section had downed tools demanding an extra 8% on their basic pay for having to work in hot, fume-filled rooms.
At a St Helens Town Council meeting on the 1st, Councillor Margaret McNamara criticised the "savage" rent rises that were badly affecting households in Jubits Lane and Four Acre. Miss McNamara claimed the average weekly increase for tenants on these estates was around £2, when the Government had insisted that rents should not rise by more than ten shillings.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park took a step forward on the 2nd when Whiston Council agreed in principle to the proposals. The scheme would allow for almost 400 animals to be housed in four main enclosures over 240 acres of parkland. Councillor Tom McCormack was concerned about possible traffic congestion predicting thousands of cars going down Burrows Lane and Eccleston Lane and on to Warrington. However Cllr. Arthur Lowe said for almost ten miles there would be many notices on the roads saying "This way to Knowsley Zoo".
Cllr. Bernard Glennon was very much in favour of the zoo, saying it would increase the rateable value of the area and would make use of a park that was being wasted at the moment. Only Cllr. Lamont was against the scheme, saying she objected in principle to wild animals being kept in the park. Although Whiston Council gave its approval, permission for what would become Knowsley Safari Park had still to be obtained from Lancashire County Council.
A small number of workers staged a wildcat strike at Pilkingtons on the 2nd after an error in the wages department. This mistake would lead to a 7-week strike that the St Helens Reporter dubbed "the biggest industrial disaster to hit St. Helens since the General Strike". This huge story will be covered in great detail in these articles over the coming weeks.
Of course nobody bats an eyelid today over international telephone calls. However Anne Derbyshire receiving two birthday calls from her son and daughter-in-law in Australia was a big story in the St Helens Reporter on the 3rd. The 55-year-old from Pennine Drive in Parr had not seen the couple for eight years and described the calls and promise of a visit to England later in the year as: "The most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."
The very first 'Whalley's World' was published in the Reporter this week. Alan Whalley's column is remembered for its thirty year run in the St Helens Star but began in their rival paper. Alan's first words were: "So John Lennon and Co. smoked ‘pot’ at Buckingham Palace. SO WHAT?" He was referring, of course, to the revelation that the Beatles had smoked marijuana in the palace toilets when they went to collect their MBEs.
Alan also profiled "Jovial" Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults pub by Cowley Hill glass works. Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers in "Chessies" and claimed to have been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd in the late 1950s, paying the comic a 30-shilling fee.
Alan certainly had a way with words and in a separate piece wrote about the homeless men who were being evicted from a place known as "skid row": "Skid Row is being torn down. Its pathetic, broken-down occupants are being forced to take up their ragbag beds and flee as bulldozers threaten to crash through their grim, twilight world.
"Skid Row is a local nickname for an old brickworks, now being ripped from the skyline of St. Helens. Huddled inside the rubble strewn ruins are the outcasts who live a stark existence, defending their few square yards of territory from rats and from the wandering hobos who try to stake a claim to their prized warmer corners. The drop-out community slinks each night to its damp mattresses, scourged from the local rubbish dumps. Smoke-blackened and tattered, they sit gazing into their makeshift home fires … expressions fixed … like people who have opted out of life."
The Reporter also described a public appeal by St John's Church in Ravenhead to raise £3,000 to repair its day school. The Government would then pay the remaining £12,000 of the scheme to carry out essential repairs to the junior school that had been built in the early 1890s.
This week's subject in the Reporter's 'Other People's Jobs' series was trainee hairdresser Julie Green from Exeter Street. The 16-year-old had been apprenticed to Chadwicks in North Road for the last 12 months and told the Reporter that she found the job fascinating. "I have to sweep up and shampoo the clients' hair but it is all part of the training", said Julie who earned just £3 10 shillings per week. When qualified Julie and fellow trainee Anne Woodhead from South Street could expect to earn about £10, plus tips.
The Mayor, Tom Wilcock, officially opened the new Air Training Corps headquarters in Crab Street on the 4th. It was built on the same site as their previous building, which was opened in 1942.
On the 4th the first St Helens-owned horse ran in the Grand National on Aintree racecourse. The 7-year-old steeplechaser was called 'Permit' and belonged to supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon, who in 1968 had paid 14,000 guineas for the horse. Permit had won a number of races recently and was ridden by Pat Buckley, who in 1963 had won the National on Ayala, co-owned by hairdresser Mr Teasy-Weasy. So the omens were good but Permit only lasted sixty seconds in the race, as it was one of eight horses that came to grief at the third fence.
Next week's stories will include the industrial disaster of the Pilkington strike, Lady Pilkington is jostled by an angry mob, the campaign to overturn a byelaw banning Sunday sport, a special feature on weddings is in the Reporter and Alan Whalley's views on the pipedreams of St Helens' planners.
The noted theatre and film producer Bill Kenwright as a young man and the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was appearing
Bill Kenwright and the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was appearing
Bill Kenwright as a young man
Meanwhile at the ABC Savoy '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' starring Kirk Douglas began a 6-day run and at the Capitol, Vincent Price starred in 'Witchfinder General'.
Some of the highlights of the St Helens Show in Sherdley Park were announced this week. The 3-day event in July would feature a one-third scale model of a nuclear submarine as part of a display by the Royal Marines. They would also have a motorcycle team putting on two shows a day and displays of unarmed combat.
An RAF aerial acrobatic team of four helicopters – known as the Tomahawks – would be performing on the final day, which was then Saturday. And the United States Army Base at Burtonwood was promising a spectacular attraction but keeping it secret for the time being. Hot-air balloon flights would be available twice a day, along with the usual attractions of show jumping, arts and crafts, dog show etc.
Last September an inspector from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government had come to St Helens to hear an appeal against a council enforcement order. Five residents from Sutton Manor appeared at the hearing to complain of the noise, smoke and smell that came from the Walker Metal Company. The owner of the Walkers Lane scrap metal firm – F. W. Gardam of Mill Lane in Rainhill – had been operating the business at the property since 1963.
However from 1966 Mr Gardam began bringing in large items of scrap – including whole cars – that required cutting gear and hammers to dismantle them. No planning permission was obtained and the operations led to many complaints from neighbours. So this week the Ministry rejected the company's appeal and told Mr Gardam to cease his scrap business within a month.
An inquest opened on the 31st on three teenagers who had been killed on the previous Saturday after returning to St Helens from a rugby club dance. Their Austin A40 hit a lamp standard in Rainford Road killing David Smith (18 years, Dorset Road), Sandra Evans (17, Bridge Street) and Alison Roberts (17, Windle Hall Drive). Three other passengers were badly injured but were said to be improving in hospital. All six teenagers were sixth formers at the two Cowley schools.
A bid to end the five-week-long unofficial strike at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane failed on the 31st. The firm made seat springs for the Ford Cortina and other vehicles and a 90-minute meeting between management and union representatives came to nothing. The dispute had begun when the firm alleged that work sheets had been falsified and then some men were sacked after walking out. However some strikers had since returned to work and the company was recruiting men to take the place of those that were still out.
At a St Helens Town Council meeting on the 1st, Councillor Margaret McNamara criticised the "savage" rent rises that were badly affecting households in Jubits Lane and Four Acre. Miss McNamara claimed the average weekly increase for tenants on these estates was around £2, when the Government had insisted that rents should not rise by more than ten shillings.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park took a step forward on the 2nd when Whiston Council agreed in principle to the proposals. The scheme would allow for almost 400 animals to be housed in four main enclosures over 240 acres of parkland. Councillor Tom McCormack was concerned about possible traffic congestion predicting thousands of cars going down Burrows Lane and Eccleston Lane and on to Warrington. However Cllr. Arthur Lowe said for almost ten miles there would be many notices on the roads saying "This way to Knowsley Zoo".
Cllr. Bernard Glennon was very much in favour of the zoo, saying it would increase the rateable value of the area and would make use of a park that was being wasted at the moment. Only Cllr. Lamont was against the scheme, saying she objected in principle to wild animals being kept in the park. Although Whiston Council gave its approval, permission for what would become Knowsley Safari Park had still to be obtained from Lancashire County Council.
A small number of workers staged a wildcat strike at Pilkingtons on the 2nd after an error in the wages department. This mistake would lead to a 7-week strike that the St Helens Reporter dubbed "the biggest industrial disaster to hit St. Helens since the General Strike". This huge story will be covered in great detail in these articles over the coming weeks.
Of course nobody bats an eyelid today over international telephone calls. However Anne Derbyshire receiving two birthday calls from her son and daughter-in-law in Australia was a big story in the St Helens Reporter on the 3rd. The 55-year-old from Pennine Drive in Parr had not seen the couple for eight years and described the calls and promise of a visit to England later in the year as: "The most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."
The very first 'Whalley's World' was published in the Reporter this week. Alan Whalley's column is remembered for its thirty year run in the St Helens Star but began in their rival paper. Alan's first words were: "So John Lennon and Co. smoked ‘pot’ at Buckingham Palace. SO WHAT?" He was referring, of course, to the revelation that the Beatles had smoked marijuana in the palace toilets when they went to collect their MBEs.
Alan also profiled "Jovial" Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults pub by Cowley Hill glass works. Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers in "Chessies" and claimed to have been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd in the late 1950s, paying the comic a 30-shilling fee.
Alan certainly had a way with words and in a separate piece wrote about the homeless men who were being evicted from a place known as "skid row": "Skid Row is being torn down. Its pathetic, broken-down occupants are being forced to take up their ragbag beds and flee as bulldozers threaten to crash through their grim, twilight world.
"Skid Row is a local nickname for an old brickworks, now being ripped from the skyline of St. Helens. Huddled inside the rubble strewn ruins are the outcasts who live a stark existence, defending their few square yards of territory from rats and from the wandering hobos who try to stake a claim to their prized warmer corners. The drop-out community slinks each night to its damp mattresses, scourged from the local rubbish dumps. Smoke-blackened and tattered, they sit gazing into their makeshift home fires … expressions fixed … like people who have opted out of life."
The Reporter also described a public appeal by St John's Church in Ravenhead to raise £3,000 to repair its day school. The Government would then pay the remaining £12,000 of the scheme to carry out essential repairs to the junior school that had been built in the early 1890s.
This week's subject in the Reporter's 'Other People's Jobs' series was trainee hairdresser Julie Green from Exeter Street. The 16-year-old had been apprenticed to Chadwicks in North Road for the last 12 months and told the Reporter that she found the job fascinating. "I have to sweep up and shampoo the clients' hair but it is all part of the training", said Julie who earned just £3 10 shillings per week. When qualified Julie and fellow trainee Anne Woodhead from South Street could expect to earn about £10, plus tips.
The Mayor, Tom Wilcock, officially opened the new Air Training Corps headquarters in Crab Street on the 4th. It was built on the same site as their previous building, which was opened in 1942.
On the 4th the first St Helens-owned horse ran in the Grand National on Aintree racecourse. The 7-year-old steeplechaser was called 'Permit' and belonged to supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon, who in 1968 had paid 14,000 guineas for the horse. Permit had won a number of races recently and was ridden by Pat Buckley, who in 1963 had won the National on Ayala, co-owned by hairdresser Mr Teasy-Weasy. So the omens were good but Permit only lasted sixty seconds in the race, as it was one of eight horses that came to grief at the third fence.
Next week's stories will include the industrial disaster of the Pilkington strike, Lady Pilkington is jostled by an angry mob, the campaign to overturn a byelaw banning Sunday sport, a special feature on weddings is in the Reporter and Alan Whalley's views on the pipedreams of St Helens' planners.
This week's stories include the tearing down of "Skid Row" inside a St Helens' brickworks, plans for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park, the first St Helens horse rides in the Grand National, the first Whalley's World is published in the Reporter and a councillor criticises savage rent rises for council houses in Jubits Lane and Four Acre.
For six nights from the 30th what was described as "a dramatic comedy of our time" called 'The Night I Chased The Women' was performed at the Theatre Royal.
The play featured Bill Kenwright, the present-day West End theatre / film producer and Everton chairman.
Bill had just spent a year as Gordon Clegg in Coronation Street but was now mainly focussing on producing but still undertaking the odd acting engagement.
Meanwhile at the ABC Savoy '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' starring Kirk Douglas began a 6-day run and at the Capitol, Vincent Price starred in 'Witchfinder General'.
Some of the highlights of the St Helens Show in Sherdley Park were announced this week.
The 3-day event in July would feature a one-third scale model of a nuclear submarine as part of a display by the Royal Marines.
They would also have a motorcycle team putting on two shows a day and displays of unarmed combat.
An RAF aerial acrobatic team of four helicopters – known as the Tomahawks – would be performing on the final day, which was then Saturday.
And the United States Army Base at Burtonwood was promising a spectacular attraction but keeping it secret for the time being.
Hot-air balloon flights would be available twice a day, along with the usual attractions of show jumping, arts and crafts, dog show etc.
Last September an inspector from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government had come to St Helens to hear an appeal against a council enforcement order.
Five residents from Sutton Manor appeared at the hearing to complain of the noise, smoke and smell that came from the Walker Metal Company.
The owner of the Walkers Lane scrap metal firm – F. W. Gardam of Mill Lane in Rainhill – had been operating the business at the property since 1963.
However from 1966 Mr Gardam began bringing in large items of scrap – including whole cars – that required cutting gear and hammers to dismantle them.
No planning permission was obtained and the operations led to many complaints from neighbours.
So this week the Ministry rejected the company's appeal and told Mr Gardam to cease his scrap business within a month.
An inquest opened on the 31st on three teenagers who had been killed on the previous Saturday after returning to St Helens from a rugby club dance.
Their Austin A40 hit a lamp standard in Rainford Road killing David Smith (18 years, Dorset Road), Sandra Evans (17, Bridge Street) and Alison Roberts (17, Windle Hall Drive).
Three other passengers were badly injured but were said to be improving in hospital. All six teenagers were sixth formers at the two Cowley schools.
A bid to end the five-week-long unofficial strike at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane failed on the 31st.
The firm made seat springs for the Ford Cortina and other vehicles and a 90-minute meeting between management and union representatives came to nothing.
The dispute had begun when the firm alleged that work sheets had been falsified and then some men were sacked after walking out.
However some strikers had since returned to work and the company was recruiting men to take the place of those that were still out.
There was also industrial unrest at Fibreglass (pictured above) but so far it was on a small scale.
On April 1st a dozen operators in the firm's moulding section had downed tools demanding an extra 8% on their basic pay for having to work in hot, fume-filled rooms.
At a St Helens Town Council meeting on the 1st, Councillor Margaret McNamara criticised the "savage" rent rises that were badly affecting households in Jubits Lane and Four Acre.
Miss McNamara claimed the average weekly increase for tenants on these estates was around £2, when the Government had insisted that rents should not rise by more than ten shillings.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park took a step forward on the 2nd when Whiston Council agreed in principle to the proposals.
The scheme would allow for almost 400 animals to be housed in four main enclosures over 240 acres of parkland.
Councillor Tom McCormack was concerned about possible traffic congestion predicting thousands of cars going down Burrows Lane and Eccleston Lane and on to Warrington.
However Cllr. Arthur Lowe said for almost ten miles there would be many notices on the roads saying "This way to Knowsley Zoo".
Cllr. Bernard Glennon was very much in favour of the zoo, saying it would increase the rateable value of the area and would make use of a park that was being wasted at the moment.
Only Cllr. Lamont was against the scheme, saying she objected in principle to wild animals being kept in the park.
Although Whiston Council gave its approval, permission for what would become Knowsley Safari Park had still to be obtained from Lancashire County Council.
A small number of workers staged a wildcat strike at Pilkingtons on the 2nd after an error in the wages department.
This mistake would lead to a 7-week strike that the St Helens Reporter dubbed "the biggest industrial disaster to hit St. Helens since the General Strike".
This huge story will be covered in great detail in these articles over the coming weeks.
Of course nobody bats an eyelid today over international telephone calls.
However Anne Derbyshire receiving two birthday calls from her son and daughter-in-law in Australia was a big story in the St Helens Reporter on the 3rd.
The 55-year-old from Pennine Drive in Parr had not seen the couple for eight years and described the calls and promise of a visit to England later in the year as:
"The most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."
The very first 'Whalley's World' was published in the Reporter this week.
Alan Whalley's column is remembered for its thirty year run in the St Helens Star but began in their rival paper.
Alan's first words were: "So John Lennon and Co. smoked ‘pot’ at Buckingham Palace. SO WHAT?"
He was referring, of course, to the revelation that the Beatles had smoked marijuana in the palace toilets when they went to collect their MBEs.
Alan also profiled "Jovial" Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults pub by Cowley Hill glass works.
Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers in "Chessies" and claimed to have been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd in the late 1950s, paying the comic a 30-shilling fee.
Alan certainly had a way with words and in a separate piece wrote about the homeless men who were being evicted from a place known as "skid row":
"Skid Row is being torn down. Its pathetic, broken-down occupants are being forced to take up their ragbag beds and flee as bulldozers threaten to crash through their grim, twilight world.
"Skid Row is a local nickname for an old brickworks, now being ripped from the skyline of St. Helens. Huddled inside the rubble strewn ruins are the outcasts who live a stark existence, defending their few square yards of territory from rats and from the wandering hobos who try to stake a claim to their prized warmer corners.
"The drop-out community slinks each night to its damp mattresses, scourged from the local rubbish dumps. Smoke-blackened and tattered, they sit gazing into their makeshift home fires … expressions fixed … like people who have opted out of life."
The Reporter also described a public appeal by St John's Church in Ravenhead to raise £3,000 to repair its day school.
The Government would then pay the remaining £12,000 of the scheme to carry out essential repairs to the junior school that had been built in the early 1890s.
This week's subject in the Reporter's 'Other People's Jobs' series was trainee hairdresser Julie Green from Exeter Street.
The 16-year-old had been apprenticed to Chadwicks in North Road for the last 12 months and told the Reporter that she found the job fascinating.
"I have to sweep up and shampoo the clients' hair but it is all part of the training", said Julie who earned just £3 10 shillings per week.
When qualified Julie and fellow trainee Anne Woodhead from South Street could expect to earn about £10, plus tips.
The Mayor, Tom Wilcock, officially opened the new Air Training Corps headquarters in Crab Street on the 4th.
It was built on the same site as their previous building, which was opened in 1942.
On the 4th the first St Helens-owned horse ran in the Grand National on Aintree racecourse.
The 7-year-old steeplechaser was called 'Permit' and belonged to supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon, who in 1968 had paid 14,000 guineas for the horse.
Permit had won a number of races recently and was ridden by Pat Buckley, who in 1963 had won the National on Ayala, co-owned by hairdresser Mr Teasy-Weasy.
So the omens were good but Permit only lasted sixty seconds in the race, as it was one of eight horses that came to grief at the third fence.
Next week's stories will include the industrial disaster of the Pilkington strike, Lady Pilkington is jostled by an angry mob, the campaign to overturn a byelaw banning Sunday sport, a special feature on weddings is in the Reporter and Alan Whalley's views on the pipedreams of St Helens' planners.
The noted theatre and film producer Bill Kenwright as a young man and the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was appearing
Bill Kenwright and the Theatre Royal in St Helens where he was appearing
Bill Kenwright as a young man
The play featured Bill Kenwright, the present-day West End theatre / film producer and Everton chairman.
Bill had just spent a year as Gordon Clegg in Coronation Street but was now mainly focussing on producing but still undertaking the odd acting engagement.
Meanwhile at the ABC Savoy '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' starring Kirk Douglas began a 6-day run and at the Capitol, Vincent Price starred in 'Witchfinder General'.
Some of the highlights of the St Helens Show in Sherdley Park were announced this week.
The 3-day event in July would feature a one-third scale model of a nuclear submarine as part of a display by the Royal Marines.
They would also have a motorcycle team putting on two shows a day and displays of unarmed combat.
An RAF aerial acrobatic team of four helicopters – known as the Tomahawks – would be performing on the final day, which was then Saturday.
And the United States Army Base at Burtonwood was promising a spectacular attraction but keeping it secret for the time being.
Hot-air balloon flights would be available twice a day, along with the usual attractions of show jumping, arts and crafts, dog show etc.
Last September an inspector from the Ministry of Housing and Local Government had come to St Helens to hear an appeal against a council enforcement order.
Five residents from Sutton Manor appeared at the hearing to complain of the noise, smoke and smell that came from the Walker Metal Company.
The owner of the Walkers Lane scrap metal firm – F. W. Gardam of Mill Lane in Rainhill – had been operating the business at the property since 1963.
However from 1966 Mr Gardam began bringing in large items of scrap – including whole cars – that required cutting gear and hammers to dismantle them.
No planning permission was obtained and the operations led to many complaints from neighbours.
So this week the Ministry rejected the company's appeal and told Mr Gardam to cease his scrap business within a month.
An inquest opened on the 31st on three teenagers who had been killed on the previous Saturday after returning to St Helens from a rugby club dance.
Their Austin A40 hit a lamp standard in Rainford Road killing David Smith (18 years, Dorset Road), Sandra Evans (17, Bridge Street) and Alison Roberts (17, Windle Hall Drive).
Three other passengers were badly injured but were said to be improving in hospital. All six teenagers were sixth formers at the two Cowley schools.
A bid to end the five-week-long unofficial strike at Crosby Spring Interiors of Fleet Lane failed on the 31st.
The firm made seat springs for the Ford Cortina and other vehicles and a 90-minute meeting between management and union representatives came to nothing.
The dispute had begun when the firm alleged that work sheets had been falsified and then some men were sacked after walking out.
However some strikers had since returned to work and the company was recruiting men to take the place of those that were still out.
On April 1st a dozen operators in the firm's moulding section had downed tools demanding an extra 8% on their basic pay for having to work in hot, fume-filled rooms.
At a St Helens Town Council meeting on the 1st, Councillor Margaret McNamara criticised the "savage" rent rises that were badly affecting households in Jubits Lane and Four Acre.
Miss McNamara claimed the average weekly increase for tenants on these estates was around £2, when the Government had insisted that rents should not rise by more than ten shillings.
Proposals for a huge zoo in the grounds of Knowsley Park took a step forward on the 2nd when Whiston Council agreed in principle to the proposals.
The scheme would allow for almost 400 animals to be housed in four main enclosures over 240 acres of parkland.
Councillor Tom McCormack was concerned about possible traffic congestion predicting thousands of cars going down Burrows Lane and Eccleston Lane and on to Warrington.
However Cllr. Arthur Lowe said for almost ten miles there would be many notices on the roads saying "This way to Knowsley Zoo".
Cllr. Bernard Glennon was very much in favour of the zoo, saying it would increase the rateable value of the area and would make use of a park that was being wasted at the moment.
Only Cllr. Lamont was against the scheme, saying she objected in principle to wild animals being kept in the park.
Although Whiston Council gave its approval, permission for what would become Knowsley Safari Park had still to be obtained from Lancashire County Council.
A small number of workers staged a wildcat strike at Pilkingtons on the 2nd after an error in the wages department.
This mistake would lead to a 7-week strike that the St Helens Reporter dubbed "the biggest industrial disaster to hit St. Helens since the General Strike".
This huge story will be covered in great detail in these articles over the coming weeks.
Of course nobody bats an eyelid today over international telephone calls.
However Anne Derbyshire receiving two birthday calls from her son and daughter-in-law in Australia was a big story in the St Helens Reporter on the 3rd.
The 55-year-old from Pennine Drive in Parr had not seen the couple for eight years and described the calls and promise of a visit to England later in the year as:
"The most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me."
The very first 'Whalley's World' was published in the Reporter this week.
Alan Whalley's column is remembered for its thirty year run in the St Helens Star but began in their rival paper.
Alan's first words were: "So John Lennon and Co. smoked ‘pot’ at Buckingham Palace. SO WHAT?"
He was referring, of course, to the revelation that the Beatles had smoked marijuana in the palace toilets when they went to collect their MBEs.
Alan also profiled "Jovial" Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults pub by Cowley Hill glass works.
Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers in "Chessies" and claimed to have been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd in the late 1950s, paying the comic a 30-shilling fee.
Alan certainly had a way with words and in a separate piece wrote about the homeless men who were being evicted from a place known as "skid row":
"Skid Row is being torn down. Its pathetic, broken-down occupants are being forced to take up their ragbag beds and flee as bulldozers threaten to crash through their grim, twilight world.
"Skid Row is a local nickname for an old brickworks, now being ripped from the skyline of St. Helens. Huddled inside the rubble strewn ruins are the outcasts who live a stark existence, defending their few square yards of territory from rats and from the wandering hobos who try to stake a claim to their prized warmer corners.
"The drop-out community slinks each night to its damp mattresses, scourged from the local rubbish dumps. Smoke-blackened and tattered, they sit gazing into their makeshift home fires … expressions fixed … like people who have opted out of life."
The Reporter also described a public appeal by St John's Church in Ravenhead to raise £3,000 to repair its day school.
The Government would then pay the remaining £12,000 of the scheme to carry out essential repairs to the junior school that had been built in the early 1890s.
This week's subject in the Reporter's 'Other People's Jobs' series was trainee hairdresser Julie Green from Exeter Street.
The 16-year-old had been apprenticed to Chadwicks in North Road for the last 12 months and told the Reporter that she found the job fascinating.
"I have to sweep up and shampoo the clients' hair but it is all part of the training", said Julie who earned just £3 10 shillings per week.
When qualified Julie and fellow trainee Anne Woodhead from South Street could expect to earn about £10, plus tips.
The Mayor, Tom Wilcock, officially opened the new Air Training Corps headquarters in Crab Street on the 4th.
It was built on the same site as their previous building, which was opened in 1942.
On the 4th the first St Helens-owned horse ran in the Grand National on Aintree racecourse.
The 7-year-old steeplechaser was called 'Permit' and belonged to supermarket tycoon Terence Lennon, who in 1968 had paid 14,000 guineas for the horse.
Permit had won a number of races recently and was ridden by Pat Buckley, who in 1963 had won the National on Ayala, co-owned by hairdresser Mr Teasy-Weasy.
So the omens were good but Permit only lasted sixty seconds in the race, as it was one of eight horses that came to grief at the third fence.
Next week's stories will include the industrial disaster of the Pilkington strike, Lady Pilkington is jostled by an angry mob, the campaign to overturn a byelaw banning Sunday sport, a special feature on weddings is in the Reporter and Alan Whalley's views on the pipedreams of St Helens' planners.