FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th MAY - 5th JUNE 1972)
This week's stories include Prince Philip's visit to Grange Park, the drivers at Sutton's haulage firm go on strike, there's good news for the "mad mile" road safety campaigners in Rainhill and it is the end of the line at the Railway Inn in Moss Bank.
We begin in the 30th with a long advert in the Liverpool Echo from St Helens Council's Director of Education. Howard Cubitt was looking to recruit teaching staff to work at thirteen of the town's schools. It was still the era of masters and mistresses and so Robins Lane Secondary School wanted an assistant master or an assistant mistress to teach music in their "newly constructed and fully equipped music room".
Some subjects demanded certain genders – and so Parr Secondary only required woman to apply for their assistant mistress in domestic science vacancy. And at St Anselm's Secondary in Blackbrook, only masters were expected to send in their CVs for their Technical Drawing position. The subject was clearly considered too hard for women to teach!
On the 31st two hundred drivers at Sutton's haulage firm went out on strike – because one man refused to join a union. Last week Alan Ball began work at the firm's Elton Head Road depot but said he wouldn't enrol in the Transport and General Workers Union. Instead he signed up to the rival United Road Transport Union. That led to workers at Alf Sutton's depots in St Helens, Stalybridge and Manchester stopping work.
Although Mr Ball had now said he would switch to the TGWU, the men declared they would remain out until a separate pay dispute had been resolved. It was also uncertain whether they would be prepared to work with Mr Ball in future, as he was considered to be a management stooge. Shop steward Bill Rigby told the press: "We think that he has been put up to this to test us." Still out on strike were the 200 boilermen at William Neill's engineering factory at Bold, which was now in its seventh week of idleness.
On June 1st Prince Philip paid a brief visit to St Helens to inspect teenagers' work on his Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. It had originally been announced that the prince would arrive by helicopter at Grange Park secondary school. In the event he came to St Helens by train, with just a small crowd having gathered to greet him at Shaw Street station. The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, then escorted the Duke as he was driven to Grange Park.
There, Philip viewed a display in the school's newly built sports hall with 600 youngsters in attendance. Few of them were from the school itself, as it was half-term week. The young people present had come from Wigan and Warrington, as well as St Helens – and included Susan Plant. The 14-year-old from Wrigley Road in Haydock was with other teenagers on the St John Ambulance Brigade's childcare stand. On her knee was little Jamie Burke, who was celebrating his first birthday. The Duke embarrassed Susan by saying: "Is it yours?", then wished Jamie a happy birthday. Susan said later: "I know the Duke was only joking but I could feel myself blushing."
"The art of entertaining" was also demonstrated at Grange Park by three St Helens girls in long evening wear. Jane Archer, Maria Phillipson and Alice Baines stood by a table laid for dinner, with candles burning and holding glasses of "sherry". However 17-year-old Jane said: "We assured the Duke the drink in our glass was really only cold tea."
During his 90-minute stay, Prince Philip also watched gymnastics, judo and fencing displays and met hobby groups. Although the Duke hadn’t arrived by helicopter, that was how he left – taking the controls of the Wessex aircraft himself en route to Liverpool. The St Helens Awards Officer, Marjorie Rothwell, said: "It was absolutely splendid. The directors of the scheme were particularly pleased. Everybody was doing his own thing."
During the evening of the 1st, a party was thrown at the Railway Inn in Moss Bank in honour of its retiring landlady. Margaret Sumner's decision to go into retirement after 21 years meant that for the first time in one hundred years, there would not be a member of her family standing behind the bar. Her father and grandfather had both kept the pub in the past – with Margaret's dad being the licensee for an astonishing 54 years. At the retirement party, locals said a big thank you to Margaret and presented her with a radio, silver rose bowl, cut glass vase and flowers. Regular drinker Taffy Lewis of Ambleside Place in Clinkham Wood said: "We are all going to miss Margaret. She's a wonderful woman – and she pulls the best pint in town."
This week an appeal went out for "People with tact, integrity and tolerance who are capable of seeing both sides of an argument." That rare breed was required by the St Helens Marriage Guidance, who was running short of counsellors. The Reporter wrote: "An SOS has gone out from the people who pull wrecked marriages off the rocks. The rising tide of love troubles is threatening to swamp a rescue team of five women and one man in St. Helens."
The Reporter also described on the 2nd how Pilkingtons were cashing in on the colour television boom. Their Ravenhead plant had recently installed a £5 million production line to make television glassware. Most of their business was with the Thorn Group, which had a colour tube factory at Skelmersdale, and other orders came from places like Belgium.
The newspaper also described how church walkers had braved blustery Bank Holiday weather to raise their banners. The St Helens Parish Church's Spring Festival had gone ahead despite a strong wind, although it ended an hour earlier than planned. Fewer people also joined the procession from the church to the recreation field in Rainford Road where George Myers, the retiring headmaster of the Parish CE School, declared the festival open.
Meanwhile in Parr, the three churches within St Peter's parish participated in their annual walking and field day. Uniformed organisations met at St Philip's Church Hall and marched to St Peter's Hall, to join other walkers. Members of St Paul's then met them at the top of Boardmans Lane en route to the church field.
"Miss Northern Bird" was an odd title to bear, with the current holder being Barbara Kelly. She was one of three beauty queens who attended St Julie's Carnival at Eccleston on the 3rd. Pauline Harkness, the current Miss St Helens Show Queen and Miss Northgate, Doreen Cheshire, were are also in attendance on the UGB sports field at Bobby's Lane. The attractions included an 'It's A Knock Out' contest, involving five local junior schools and one from Widnes.
The police put out an appeal this week to catch a cheeky robber. The wanted man was described as about 40 with a swarthy complexion, who had walked off with two nude statues from the front garden of a Prescot Road house. The theft of the 2ft 6ins tall, fawn-coloured terracotta stone cherubs had taken place at 3:30am, with the thief seen placing the statues into a blue van before driving off.
Organisers of the so-called "Mad Mile" protests in Warrington Road in Rainhill (pictured above) – who had been campaigning for a 30mph speed limit and a pedestrian crossing – received some promising news this week. The Department of the Environment had finally agreed to a meeting with the campaigners to discuss the A57 danger road. As a result the Rainhill Parents Action Committee suspended further action pending the outcome of the meeting. But its chairman, Ray Ferguson, told the Reporter:
"If nothing comes of this meeting, we will be out on the roads again. Although the parents don't like demonstrating they're still prepared to take militant action if the need arises. At last we're beginning to convince people we're not just hot-heads. It proves how responsibly we have tried to conduct this campaign. This is very much a breakthrough because the Department has never recognised us in the past. Now they've seen the light."
And finally, 'Dial M For Murder' was the production at the Theatre Royal this week starring former Crossroads actor David Davenport. It was the first of three professionally produced plays taking place at the Corporation Street venue over the coming weeks, with comedian Hugh Lloyd set to appear in one.
Next week's stories will include the prospect of industrial action at Pilks, the petticoat protest at Ashall's Garage, the rising show business star called Bernie Clifton and a solution is found to resolve the cold ambulance HQ dispute in Jackson Street.
We begin in the 30th with a long advert in the Liverpool Echo from St Helens Council's Director of Education. Howard Cubitt was looking to recruit teaching staff to work at thirteen of the town's schools. It was still the era of masters and mistresses and so Robins Lane Secondary School wanted an assistant master or an assistant mistress to teach music in their "newly constructed and fully equipped music room".
Some subjects demanded certain genders – and so Parr Secondary only required woman to apply for their assistant mistress in domestic science vacancy. And at St Anselm's Secondary in Blackbrook, only masters were expected to send in their CVs for their Technical Drawing position. The subject was clearly considered too hard for women to teach!
Although Mr Ball had now said he would switch to the TGWU, the men declared they would remain out until a separate pay dispute had been resolved. It was also uncertain whether they would be prepared to work with Mr Ball in future, as he was considered to be a management stooge. Shop steward Bill Rigby told the press: "We think that he has been put up to this to test us." Still out on strike were the 200 boilermen at William Neill's engineering factory at Bold, which was now in its seventh week of idleness.
On June 1st Prince Philip paid a brief visit to St Helens to inspect teenagers' work on his Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. It had originally been announced that the prince would arrive by helicopter at Grange Park secondary school. In the event he came to St Helens by train, with just a small crowd having gathered to greet him at Shaw Street station. The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, then escorted the Duke as he was driven to Grange Park.
There, Philip viewed a display in the school's newly built sports hall with 600 youngsters in attendance. Few of them were from the school itself, as it was half-term week. The young people present had come from Wigan and Warrington, as well as St Helens – and included Susan Plant. The 14-year-old from Wrigley Road in Haydock was with other teenagers on the St John Ambulance Brigade's childcare stand. On her knee was little Jamie Burke, who was celebrating his first birthday. The Duke embarrassed Susan by saying: "Is it yours?", then wished Jamie a happy birthday. Susan said later: "I know the Duke was only joking but I could feel myself blushing."
"The art of entertaining" was also demonstrated at Grange Park by three St Helens girls in long evening wear. Jane Archer, Maria Phillipson and Alice Baines stood by a table laid for dinner, with candles burning and holding glasses of "sherry". However 17-year-old Jane said: "We assured the Duke the drink in our glass was really only cold tea."
During his 90-minute stay, Prince Philip also watched gymnastics, judo and fencing displays and met hobby groups. Although the Duke hadn’t arrived by helicopter, that was how he left – taking the controls of the Wessex aircraft himself en route to Liverpool. The St Helens Awards Officer, Marjorie Rothwell, said: "It was absolutely splendid. The directors of the scheme were particularly pleased. Everybody was doing his own thing."
During the evening of the 1st, a party was thrown at the Railway Inn in Moss Bank in honour of its retiring landlady. Margaret Sumner's decision to go into retirement after 21 years meant that for the first time in one hundred years, there would not be a member of her family standing behind the bar. Her father and grandfather had both kept the pub in the past – with Margaret's dad being the licensee for an astonishing 54 years. At the retirement party, locals said a big thank you to Margaret and presented her with a radio, silver rose bowl, cut glass vase and flowers. Regular drinker Taffy Lewis of Ambleside Place in Clinkham Wood said: "We are all going to miss Margaret. She's a wonderful woman – and she pulls the best pint in town."
This week an appeal went out for "People with tact, integrity and tolerance who are capable of seeing both sides of an argument." That rare breed was required by the St Helens Marriage Guidance, who was running short of counsellors. The Reporter wrote: "An SOS has gone out from the people who pull wrecked marriages off the rocks. The rising tide of love troubles is threatening to swamp a rescue team of five women and one man in St. Helens."
The Reporter also described on the 2nd how Pilkingtons were cashing in on the colour television boom. Their Ravenhead plant had recently installed a £5 million production line to make television glassware. Most of their business was with the Thorn Group, which had a colour tube factory at Skelmersdale, and other orders came from places like Belgium.
The newspaper also described how church walkers had braved blustery Bank Holiday weather to raise their banners. The St Helens Parish Church's Spring Festival had gone ahead despite a strong wind, although it ended an hour earlier than planned. Fewer people also joined the procession from the church to the recreation field in Rainford Road where George Myers, the retiring headmaster of the Parish CE School, declared the festival open.
Meanwhile in Parr, the three churches within St Peter's parish participated in their annual walking and field day. Uniformed organisations met at St Philip's Church Hall and marched to St Peter's Hall, to join other walkers. Members of St Paul's then met them at the top of Boardmans Lane en route to the church field.
"Miss Northern Bird" was an odd title to bear, with the current holder being Barbara Kelly. She was one of three beauty queens who attended St Julie's Carnival at Eccleston on the 3rd. Pauline Harkness, the current Miss St Helens Show Queen and Miss Northgate, Doreen Cheshire, were are also in attendance on the UGB sports field at Bobby's Lane. The attractions included an 'It's A Knock Out' contest, involving five local junior schools and one from Widnes.
The police put out an appeal this week to catch a cheeky robber. The wanted man was described as about 40 with a swarthy complexion, who had walked off with two nude statues from the front garden of a Prescot Road house. The theft of the 2ft 6ins tall, fawn-coloured terracotta stone cherubs had taken place at 3:30am, with the thief seen placing the statues into a blue van before driving off.
"If nothing comes of this meeting, we will be out on the roads again. Although the parents don't like demonstrating they're still prepared to take militant action if the need arises. At last we're beginning to convince people we're not just hot-heads. It proves how responsibly we have tried to conduct this campaign. This is very much a breakthrough because the Department has never recognised us in the past. Now they've seen the light."
And finally, 'Dial M For Murder' was the production at the Theatre Royal this week starring former Crossroads actor David Davenport. It was the first of three professionally produced plays taking place at the Corporation Street venue over the coming weeks, with comedian Hugh Lloyd set to appear in one.
Next week's stories will include the prospect of industrial action at Pilks, the petticoat protest at Ashall's Garage, the rising show business star called Bernie Clifton and a solution is found to resolve the cold ambulance HQ dispute in Jackson Street.
This week's stories include Prince Philip's visit to Grange Park, the drivers at Sutton's haulage firm go on strike, there's good news for the "mad mile" road safety campaigners in Rainhill and it is the end of the line at the Railway Inn in Moss Bank.
We begin in the 30th with a long advert in the Liverpool Echo from St Helens Council's Director of Education.
Howard Cubitt was looking to recruit teaching staff to work at thirteen of the town's schools.
It was still the era of masters and mistresses and so Robins Lane Secondary School wanted an assistant master or an assistant mistress to teach music in their "newly constructed and fully equipped music room".
Some subjects demanded certain genders – and so Parr Secondary only required woman to apply for their assistant mistress in domestic science vacancy.
And at St Anselm's Secondary in Blackbrook, only masters were expected to send in their CVs for their Technical Drawing position. The subject was clearly considered too hard for women to teach!
On the 31st two hundred drivers at Sutton's haulage firm went out on strike – because one man refused to join a union.
Last week Alan Ball began work at the firm's Elton Head Road depot but said he wouldn't enrol in the Transport and General Workers Union. Instead he signed up to the rival United Road Transport Union.
That led to workers at Alf Sutton's depots in St Helens, Stalybridge and Manchester stopping work.
Although Mr Ball had now said he would switch to the TGWU, the men declared they would remain out until a separate pay dispute had been resolved.
It was also uncertain whether they would be prepared to work with Mr Ball in future, as he was considered to be a management stooge.
Shop steward Bill Rigby told the press: "We think that he has been put up to this to test us."
Still out on strike were the 200 boilermen at William Neill's engineering factory at Bold, which was now in its seventh week of idleness.
On June 1st Prince Philip paid a brief visit to St Helens to inspect teenagers' work on his Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.
It had originally been announced that the prince would arrive by helicopter at Grange Park secondary school.
In the event he came to St Helens by train, with just a small crowd having gathered to greet him at Shaw Street station.
The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, then escorted the Duke as he was driven to Grange Park.
There, Philip viewed a display in the school's newly built sports hall with 600 youngsters in attendance. Few of them were from the school itself, as it was half-term week.
The young people present had come from Wigan and Warrington, as well as St Helens – and included Susan Plant.
The 14-year-old from Wrigley Road in Haydock was with other teenagers on the St John Ambulance Brigade's childcare stand. On her knee was little Jamie Burke, who was celebrating his first birthday.
The Duke embarrassed Susan by saying: "Is it yours?", then wished Jamie a happy birthday. Susan said later: "I know the Duke was only joking but I could feel myself blushing."
"The art of entertaining" was also demonstrated at Grange Park by three St Helens girls in long evening wear.
Jane Archer, Maria Phillipson and Alice Baines stood by a table laid for dinner, with candles burning and holding glasses of "sherry".
However 17-year-old Jane said: "We assured the Duke the drink in our glass was really only cold tea."
During his 90-minute stay, Prince Philip also watched gymnastics, judo and fencing displays and met hobby groups.
Although the Duke hadn’t arrived by helicopter, that was how he left – taking the controls of the Wessex aircraft himself en route to Liverpool.
The St Helens Awards Officer, Marjorie Rothwell, said: "It was absolutely splendid. The directors of the scheme were particularly pleased. Everybody was doing his own thing."
During the evening of the 1st, a party was thrown at the Railway Inn in Moss Bank in honour of its retiring landlady.
Margaret Sumner's decision to go into retirement after 21 years meant that for the first time in one hundred years, there would not be a member of her family standing behind the bar.
Her father and grandfather had both kept the pub in the past – with Margaret's dad being the licensee for an astonishing 54 years.
At the retirement party, locals said a big thank you to Margaret and presented her with a radio, silver rose bowl, cut glass vase and flowers.
Regular drinker Taffy Lewis of Ambleside Place in Clinkham Wood said: "We are all going to miss Margaret. She's a wonderful woman – and she pulls the best pint in town."
This week an appeal went out for "People with tact, integrity and tolerance who are capable of seeing both sides of an argument."
That rare breed was required by the St Helens Marriage Guidance, who was running short of counsellors. The Reporter wrote:
"An SOS has gone out from the people who pull wrecked marriages off the rocks. The rising tide of love troubles is threatening to swamp a rescue team of five women and one man in St. Helens."
The Reporter also described on the 2nd how Pilkingtons were cashing in on the colour television boom.
Their Ravenhead plant had recently installed a £5 million production line to make television glassware.
Most of their business was with the Thorn Group, which had a colour tube factory at Skelmersdale, and other orders came from places like Belgium.
The newspaper also described how church walkers had braved blustery Bank Holiday weather to raise their banners.
The St Helens Parish Church's Spring Festival had gone ahead despite a strong wind, although it ended an hour earlier than planned.
Fewer people also joined the procession from the church to the recreation field in Rainford Road where George Myers, the retiring headmaster of the Parish CE School, declared the festival open.
Meanwhile in Parr, the three churches within St Peter's parish participated in their annual walking and field day.
Uniformed organisations met at St Philip's Church Hall and marched to St Peter's Hall, to join other walkers.
Members of St Paul's then met them at the top of Boardmans Lane en route to the church field.
"Miss Northern Bird" was an odd title to bear, with the current holder being Barbara Kelly.
She was one of three beauty queens who attended St Julie's Carnival at Eccleston on the 3rd.
Pauline Harkness, the current Miss St Helens Show Queen and Miss Northgate, Doreen Cheshire, were are also in attendance on the UGB sports field at Bobby's Lane.
The attractions included an 'It's A Knock Out' contest, involving five local junior schools and one from Widnes.
The police put out an appeal this week to catch a cheeky robber. The wanted man was described as about 40 with a swarthy complexion, who had walked off with two nude statues from the front garden of a Prescot Road house.
The theft of the 2ft 6ins tall, fawn-coloured terracotta stone cherubs had taken place at 3:30am, with the thief seen placing the statues into a blue van before driving off.
Organisers of the so-called "Mad Mile" protests in Warrington Road in Rainhill (pictured above) – who had been campaigning for a 30mph speed limit and a pedestrian crossing – received some promising news this week.
The Department of the Environment had finally agreed to a meeting with the campaigners to discuss the A57 danger road.
As a result the Rainhill Parents Action Committee suspended further action pending the outcome of the meeting. But its chairman, Ray Ferguson, told the Reporter:
"If nothing comes of this meeting, we will be out on the roads again. Although the parents don't like demonstrating they're still prepared to take militant action if the need arises.
"At last we're beginning to convince people we're not just hot-heads. It proves how responsibly we have tried to conduct this campaign. This is very much a breakthrough because the Department has never recognised us in the past. Now they've seen the light."
And finally, 'Dial M For Murder' was the production at the Theatre Royal this week starring former Crossroads actor David Davenport.
It was the first of three professionally produced plays taking place at the Corporation Street venue over the coming weeks, with comedian Hugh Lloyd set to appear in one.
Next week's stories will include the prospect of industrial action at Pilks, the petticoat protest at Ashall's Garage, the rising show business star called Bernie Clifton and a solution is found to resolve the cold ambulance HQ dispute in Jackson Street.
We begin in the 30th with a long advert in the Liverpool Echo from St Helens Council's Director of Education.
Howard Cubitt was looking to recruit teaching staff to work at thirteen of the town's schools.
It was still the era of masters and mistresses and so Robins Lane Secondary School wanted an assistant master or an assistant mistress to teach music in their "newly constructed and fully equipped music room".
Some subjects demanded certain genders – and so Parr Secondary only required woman to apply for their assistant mistress in domestic science vacancy.
And at St Anselm's Secondary in Blackbrook, only masters were expected to send in their CVs for their Technical Drawing position. The subject was clearly considered too hard for women to teach!
Last week Alan Ball began work at the firm's Elton Head Road depot but said he wouldn't enrol in the Transport and General Workers Union. Instead he signed up to the rival United Road Transport Union.
That led to workers at Alf Sutton's depots in St Helens, Stalybridge and Manchester stopping work.
Although Mr Ball had now said he would switch to the TGWU, the men declared they would remain out until a separate pay dispute had been resolved.
It was also uncertain whether they would be prepared to work with Mr Ball in future, as he was considered to be a management stooge.
Shop steward Bill Rigby told the press: "We think that he has been put up to this to test us."
Still out on strike were the 200 boilermen at William Neill's engineering factory at Bold, which was now in its seventh week of idleness.
On June 1st Prince Philip paid a brief visit to St Helens to inspect teenagers' work on his Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.
It had originally been announced that the prince would arrive by helicopter at Grange Park secondary school.
In the event he came to St Helens by train, with just a small crowd having gathered to greet him at Shaw Street station.
The Mayor, Cllr. Allan Lycett, then escorted the Duke as he was driven to Grange Park.
There, Philip viewed a display in the school's newly built sports hall with 600 youngsters in attendance. Few of them were from the school itself, as it was half-term week.
The young people present had come from Wigan and Warrington, as well as St Helens – and included Susan Plant.
The 14-year-old from Wrigley Road in Haydock was with other teenagers on the St John Ambulance Brigade's childcare stand. On her knee was little Jamie Burke, who was celebrating his first birthday.
The Duke embarrassed Susan by saying: "Is it yours?", then wished Jamie a happy birthday. Susan said later: "I know the Duke was only joking but I could feel myself blushing."
"The art of entertaining" was also demonstrated at Grange Park by three St Helens girls in long evening wear.
Jane Archer, Maria Phillipson and Alice Baines stood by a table laid for dinner, with candles burning and holding glasses of "sherry".
However 17-year-old Jane said: "We assured the Duke the drink in our glass was really only cold tea."
During his 90-minute stay, Prince Philip also watched gymnastics, judo and fencing displays and met hobby groups.
Although the Duke hadn’t arrived by helicopter, that was how he left – taking the controls of the Wessex aircraft himself en route to Liverpool.
The St Helens Awards Officer, Marjorie Rothwell, said: "It was absolutely splendid. The directors of the scheme were particularly pleased. Everybody was doing his own thing."
During the evening of the 1st, a party was thrown at the Railway Inn in Moss Bank in honour of its retiring landlady.
Margaret Sumner's decision to go into retirement after 21 years meant that for the first time in one hundred years, there would not be a member of her family standing behind the bar.
Her father and grandfather had both kept the pub in the past – with Margaret's dad being the licensee for an astonishing 54 years.
At the retirement party, locals said a big thank you to Margaret and presented her with a radio, silver rose bowl, cut glass vase and flowers.
Regular drinker Taffy Lewis of Ambleside Place in Clinkham Wood said: "We are all going to miss Margaret. She's a wonderful woman – and she pulls the best pint in town."
This week an appeal went out for "People with tact, integrity and tolerance who are capable of seeing both sides of an argument."
That rare breed was required by the St Helens Marriage Guidance, who was running short of counsellors. The Reporter wrote:
"An SOS has gone out from the people who pull wrecked marriages off the rocks. The rising tide of love troubles is threatening to swamp a rescue team of five women and one man in St. Helens."
The Reporter also described on the 2nd how Pilkingtons were cashing in on the colour television boom.
Their Ravenhead plant had recently installed a £5 million production line to make television glassware.
Most of their business was with the Thorn Group, which had a colour tube factory at Skelmersdale, and other orders came from places like Belgium.
The newspaper also described how church walkers had braved blustery Bank Holiday weather to raise their banners.
The St Helens Parish Church's Spring Festival had gone ahead despite a strong wind, although it ended an hour earlier than planned.
Fewer people also joined the procession from the church to the recreation field in Rainford Road where George Myers, the retiring headmaster of the Parish CE School, declared the festival open.
Meanwhile in Parr, the three churches within St Peter's parish participated in their annual walking and field day.
Uniformed organisations met at St Philip's Church Hall and marched to St Peter's Hall, to join other walkers.
Members of St Paul's then met them at the top of Boardmans Lane en route to the church field.
"Miss Northern Bird" was an odd title to bear, with the current holder being Barbara Kelly.
She was one of three beauty queens who attended St Julie's Carnival at Eccleston on the 3rd.
Pauline Harkness, the current Miss St Helens Show Queen and Miss Northgate, Doreen Cheshire, were are also in attendance on the UGB sports field at Bobby's Lane.
The attractions included an 'It's A Knock Out' contest, involving five local junior schools and one from Widnes.
The police put out an appeal this week to catch a cheeky robber. The wanted man was described as about 40 with a swarthy complexion, who had walked off with two nude statues from the front garden of a Prescot Road house.
The theft of the 2ft 6ins tall, fawn-coloured terracotta stone cherubs had taken place at 3:30am, with the thief seen placing the statues into a blue van before driving off.
The Department of the Environment had finally agreed to a meeting with the campaigners to discuss the A57 danger road.
As a result the Rainhill Parents Action Committee suspended further action pending the outcome of the meeting. But its chairman, Ray Ferguson, told the Reporter:
"If nothing comes of this meeting, we will be out on the roads again. Although the parents don't like demonstrating they're still prepared to take militant action if the need arises.
"At last we're beginning to convince people we're not just hot-heads. It proves how responsibly we have tried to conduct this campaign. This is very much a breakthrough because the Department has never recognised us in the past. Now they've seen the light."
And finally, 'Dial M For Murder' was the production at the Theatre Royal this week starring former Crossroads actor David Davenport.
It was the first of three professionally produced plays taking place at the Corporation Street venue over the coming weeks, with comedian Hugh Lloyd set to appear in one.
Next week's stories will include the prospect of industrial action at Pilks, the petticoat protest at Ashall's Garage, the rising show business star called Bernie Clifton and a solution is found to resolve the cold ambulance HQ dispute in Jackson Street.