FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th DEC. 1969 - 5th JAN. 1970)
This week's twenty-two stories include the increasing number of pets put down after Christmas, the London woman who asked St Helens Police to buy her a pie, the guard dog in Walkers Lane that was a friendly witness, a robbery at Duggie Greenall's pub and how cleaners averted a serious fire at St Alban's school.
We begin during the evening of the 30th with a cigarette raid in Church Street (pictured above). The thieves got away with 37,000 cigarettes worth nearly £500 (almost £10,000 in today’s money) after breaking into Meeson's shop.
The half-crown ceased to be legal tender on the 31st and thousands of the coins were handed in to local banks on the final day. The St Helens branch of the Trustee Savings Bank said it had taken about £800 worth. Girls from Cowley Grammar School entertained residents of Moss Bank old folk's hostel in Victoria Avenue on New Year's Eve. Their programme included carols and Christmas songs.
Also on that day the Liverpool Echo reported a puzzling robbery in which an Alsatian guard dog called Ken was a "silent and apparently friendly witness". The theft of £500 worth of scrap metal was from Walkers Metal Recovery of Walkers Lane in Sutton Manor. The raiders cut through a padlock to get into the premises from which they stole a large quantity of copper and brass and a number of new and used radiators. Why the guard dog had kept quiet was a mystery. The company claimed that the Alsatian would have savaged anyone breaking into the premises unless he knew them – implying a possible inside job.
For four days from the 31st The Pilkington Players performed a Christmas play at the Theatre Royal called 'The Tinder Box' based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale. The New Year's Honours have been awarded for 130 years with the list of names released these days on December 28th. In 1970 the announcement was made on the more appropriate date of January 1st and contained the name of Alastair Pilkington. The 49-year-old was awarded a knighthood for services to technology as the inventor of float glass that had revolutionised the business model of Pilkington's Glass.
It was fortunate that cleaners were asked to work at St Alban's secondary school on New Year's Day, as they averted what could have been a serious fire. Anne James was working in the school hall in Washway Lane when she smelt smoke and saw wisps under the ceiling of the secretary's office. The fire was traced to an electrical heater in a second floor classroom and the caretaker John Halsall attempted to put it out but was driven back by the smoke. Firemen quickly arrived and had to wear breathing apparatus to overcome the fumes but soon had the blaze under control. The damage was minimal but it could have been much worse if it hadn't been for the prompt action of the cleaners.
The Reporter was published on the 2nd and its main front page story concerned the flu bug that was sweeping the country. It had now arrived in SW Lancs and this week eight people had died in St Helens and two in Ashton-in-Makerfield. About a fifth of postmen and dustbinmen were off sick and their colleagues were working overtime to keep both services running.
International telephone calls were not quite everyday events in 1970. So much so that the Reporter felt that Kenneth Mousdell's New Year greeting to his Mum and Dad from Australia was worthy of a big article on their front page. They included two photos in their piece, which described how Fred and Bertha Mousdell had taken the 5-minute call in the Parr and Hardshaw Labour Club in Park Road.
There was also a report on how Barbara Barnard wanted a good pork pie for her brother Joe Clancy. The siblings now lived together in Tottenham but had been born in Kiln Lane. Barbara wrote to St Helens Police asking them to find a pie for her brother, saying: "No doubt your men on the beat will know a good baker." The 76-year-old explained how Joe's favourite dish was a pork pie but complained that London shops did not sell anything "gradely". She added: "I would like to treat him to the kind of pie we used to enjoy as youngsters in St. Helens." A six-shilling postal order was enclosed and the bobbies duly obliged.
"After all, it was Christmas", explained Supt. Tom Shepherd to the Reporter. "We hope Mr. Clancy enjoys his pie. During the course of the year we receive many odd requests." The police contacted Arthur Cottom of Kirkland Street who with his brother John baked a special pork and egg pie weighing 3lb. This was then sent to Tom Clancy by British Rail express delivery. The Cottoms said they baked 3,000 pies a day and Arthur Cottom told the Liverpool Echo: "St Helens has always had a great reputation for the quality of its pies. They are made by hand just as they have been for the last 100 years. We use only the best quality meat. It is all English prime pork with special seasoning."
During the summer of last year I reported how Inspector Alfred Drew of the St Helens branch of the RSPCA had commented how people were regularly asking the society to put down their dogs. That was not because the animals were sick but because their owners were going away on holiday. This week Inspector Drew complained about the increasing number of pets that he had to destroy after Christmas. He told the Reporter that he was expecting to have to put down up to 70 Christmas pets at his Westfield Street clinic during the next few weeks, adding: "People often bring old pets to make room for young ones they are getting for Christmas. Then they return in a few weeks to have the new one destroyed."
A number of shops were advertising their New Year sales, including Jack Barnes at 60 Bridge Street who had a "gigantic menswear sale". He was offering jeans from ten shillings and branded shirts from £1. "Everything drastically reduced" was the claim of Phyl's of Duke Street. Lilian Rogers had "many wonderful bargains" in her sale including coats, suits and dresses. P. & H. Jolley’s "great sale" at their Westfield Street shop was offering similar women's wear, with some less than half-price.
The opening of new facilities for the 500 members of the St. Anne's Catholic Men's Society and Social Club was also pictured in the Reporter. These included a lounge, concert hall, games room and three bars and utilised the old St. Anne's Junior School.
The managers of the Capitol cinema (pictured above on the corner of North Road and Duke Street) and the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street were shown handing a cheque over to the Mayor of St Helens, Tom Wilcock. Every year a collection took place in their cinemas for local Derby and Joan Clubs. This year £84 10 shillings was donated by patrons, which would be divided between 15 clubs.
Pilkingtons did conduct some odd experiments. The Reporter described how the company's technical sales laboratory had created a "mechanical housewife" to study long-term wear on glass. The device spent eight hours a day cleaning the same pane of glass and undertaking the task "exactly the way a woman does" but with one difference – the machine had three arms! This led to the paper posing the rhetorical question: "Men, how would you like to come home after a hard day's work to find a metallic three-armed 'little woman' waiting for you?"
On the 3rd the pillar-box at Earlestown Market Square went up in flames destroying all the letters that had been posted between the last collection at midday and 7pm.
On the following day thieves broke into the Talbot Hotel in Duke Street by climbing over a rear wall. The pub was then run by former Saints star Duggie Greenall and bottles of whisky, gin, rum, and brandy were taken, together with a quantity of cigars and cigarettes. During the same night thieves attempted to break into the Lord Nelson Hotel in Parr Stocks Road and the Clock Face Hotel. However in each case they fled empty handed.
On the 5th Merseyside was again blanketed in freezing fog with the AA saying: "This is winter at its most treacherous. Ice on the roads and one of the worst fogs in the last five years." Visibility in St Helens was down to 50 yards in some places but only one road accident involving injury was reported. That was when Charles Bell of Irene Avenue in Haresfinch suffered a wrist injury and a cut lip when his van was in a collision with a lamppost in College Street.
The sentences for sexual offences were quite lenient by today's standards. On the 5th the magistrates in St Helens fined a 21-man from Reginald Road just £15 for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
During the evening of the 5th a "Grand Holiday Film Show" organised by Smiths Travel Agency of Bridge Street was held in the ballroom of Helena House. Tickets were free. At the Capitol from the same day the war film 'The Dirty Heroes' began a six day-run and at the ABC Savoy they had a Western called 'Good Guys, Bad Guys', starring Robert Mitchum.
Next week's stories will include the shortage of doctors in St Helens, Sidac is accused of leading the council up the garden path, the man who head-butted a policeman in a St Helens court, Saints measures to combat frost and work is scheduled to start on the town centre redevelopment.
The half-crown ceased to be legal tender on the 31st and thousands of the coins were handed in to local banks on the final day. The St Helens branch of the Trustee Savings Bank said it had taken about £800 worth. Girls from Cowley Grammar School entertained residents of Moss Bank old folk's hostel in Victoria Avenue on New Year's Eve. Their programme included carols and Christmas songs.
Also on that day the Liverpool Echo reported a puzzling robbery in which an Alsatian guard dog called Ken was a "silent and apparently friendly witness". The theft of £500 worth of scrap metal was from Walkers Metal Recovery of Walkers Lane in Sutton Manor. The raiders cut through a padlock to get into the premises from which they stole a large quantity of copper and brass and a number of new and used radiators. Why the guard dog had kept quiet was a mystery. The company claimed that the Alsatian would have savaged anyone breaking into the premises unless he knew them – implying a possible inside job.
For four days from the 31st The Pilkington Players performed a Christmas play at the Theatre Royal called 'The Tinder Box' based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale. The New Year's Honours have been awarded for 130 years with the list of names released these days on December 28th. In 1970 the announcement was made on the more appropriate date of January 1st and contained the name of Alastair Pilkington. The 49-year-old was awarded a knighthood for services to technology as the inventor of float glass that had revolutionised the business model of Pilkington's Glass.
It was fortunate that cleaners were asked to work at St Alban's secondary school on New Year's Day, as they averted what could have been a serious fire. Anne James was working in the school hall in Washway Lane when she smelt smoke and saw wisps under the ceiling of the secretary's office. The fire was traced to an electrical heater in a second floor classroom and the caretaker John Halsall attempted to put it out but was driven back by the smoke. Firemen quickly arrived and had to wear breathing apparatus to overcome the fumes but soon had the blaze under control. The damage was minimal but it could have been much worse if it hadn't been for the prompt action of the cleaners.
The Reporter was published on the 2nd and its main front page story concerned the flu bug that was sweeping the country. It had now arrived in SW Lancs and this week eight people had died in St Helens and two in Ashton-in-Makerfield. About a fifth of postmen and dustbinmen were off sick and their colleagues were working overtime to keep both services running.
International telephone calls were not quite everyday events in 1970. So much so that the Reporter felt that Kenneth Mousdell's New Year greeting to his Mum and Dad from Australia was worthy of a big article on their front page. They included two photos in their piece, which described how Fred and Bertha Mousdell had taken the 5-minute call in the Parr and Hardshaw Labour Club in Park Road.
There was also a report on how Barbara Barnard wanted a good pork pie for her brother Joe Clancy. The siblings now lived together in Tottenham but had been born in Kiln Lane. Barbara wrote to St Helens Police asking them to find a pie for her brother, saying: "No doubt your men on the beat will know a good baker." The 76-year-old explained how Joe's favourite dish was a pork pie but complained that London shops did not sell anything "gradely". She added: "I would like to treat him to the kind of pie we used to enjoy as youngsters in St. Helens." A six-shilling postal order was enclosed and the bobbies duly obliged.
"After all, it was Christmas", explained Supt. Tom Shepherd to the Reporter. "We hope Mr. Clancy enjoys his pie. During the course of the year we receive many odd requests." The police contacted Arthur Cottom of Kirkland Street who with his brother John baked a special pork and egg pie weighing 3lb. This was then sent to Tom Clancy by British Rail express delivery. The Cottoms said they baked 3,000 pies a day and Arthur Cottom told the Liverpool Echo: "St Helens has always had a great reputation for the quality of its pies. They are made by hand just as they have been for the last 100 years. We use only the best quality meat. It is all English prime pork with special seasoning."
During the summer of last year I reported how Inspector Alfred Drew of the St Helens branch of the RSPCA had commented how people were regularly asking the society to put down their dogs. That was not because the animals were sick but because their owners were going away on holiday. This week Inspector Drew complained about the increasing number of pets that he had to destroy after Christmas. He told the Reporter that he was expecting to have to put down up to 70 Christmas pets at his Westfield Street clinic during the next few weeks, adding: "People often bring old pets to make room for young ones they are getting for Christmas. Then they return in a few weeks to have the new one destroyed."
A number of shops were advertising their New Year sales, including Jack Barnes at 60 Bridge Street who had a "gigantic menswear sale". He was offering jeans from ten shillings and branded shirts from £1. "Everything drastically reduced" was the claim of Phyl's of Duke Street. Lilian Rogers had "many wonderful bargains" in her sale including coats, suits and dresses. P. & H. Jolley’s "great sale" at their Westfield Street shop was offering similar women's wear, with some less than half-price.
The opening of new facilities for the 500 members of the St. Anne's Catholic Men's Society and Social Club was also pictured in the Reporter. These included a lounge, concert hall, games room and three bars and utilised the old St. Anne's Junior School.
The managers of the Capitol cinema (pictured above on the corner of North Road and Duke Street) and the ABC Savoy in Bridge Street were shown handing a cheque over to the Mayor of St Helens, Tom Wilcock. Every year a collection took place in their cinemas for local Derby and Joan Clubs. This year £84 10 shillings was donated by patrons, which would be divided between 15 clubs.
Pilkingtons did conduct some odd experiments. The Reporter described how the company's technical sales laboratory had created a "mechanical housewife" to study long-term wear on glass. The device spent eight hours a day cleaning the same pane of glass and undertaking the task "exactly the way a woman does" but with one difference – the machine had three arms! This led to the paper posing the rhetorical question: "Men, how would you like to come home after a hard day's work to find a metallic three-armed 'little woman' waiting for you?"
On the 3rd the pillar-box at Earlestown Market Square went up in flames destroying all the letters that had been posted between the last collection at midday and 7pm.
On the following day thieves broke into the Talbot Hotel in Duke Street by climbing over a rear wall. The pub was then run by former Saints star Duggie Greenall and bottles of whisky, gin, rum, and brandy were taken, together with a quantity of cigars and cigarettes. During the same night thieves attempted to break into the Lord Nelson Hotel in Parr Stocks Road and the Clock Face Hotel. However in each case they fled empty handed.
The sentences for sexual offences were quite lenient by today's standards. On the 5th the magistrates in St Helens fined a 21-man from Reginald Road just £15 for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
During the evening of the 5th a "Grand Holiday Film Show" organised by Smiths Travel Agency of Bridge Street was held in the ballroom of Helena House. Tickets were free. At the Capitol from the same day the war film 'The Dirty Heroes' began a six day-run and at the ABC Savoy they had a Western called 'Good Guys, Bad Guys', starring Robert Mitchum.