FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th AUGUST 1970)
This week's many stories include skinhead attacks on the College Street home of six Pakistanis, more strike trouble at Pilkingtons, the Rainford storm over eleven-plus failures, how they don't bury 'em like they used to in Parr and the St Helens vicar who accused bookshops and cinemas of sinking to the gutter.
We begin with more trouble at Pilkingtons. At the end of last week 300 workers at Cowley Hill had taken part in a 3-day strike demanding recognition for the new Glass and General Workers Union. The glass giant would only recognise the General and Municipal Workers Union and over the weekend had dismissed all the strikers. When some had tried to resume work on Sunday afternoon, security staff had turned them away. Around 300 workers then marched through St Helens singing "We shall not be moved".
On the morning of Monday the 10th, newspapers quoted Gerry Caughey – the leader of the Glass and General Workers Union – warning Pilkingtons that he planned to have 5,000 men on strike in support of the sacked workers. As a result pickets were out in force at the firm's glass plants in St Helens as employees arrived for their day shift. However the company had made it known that they planned to terminate the employment of anyone else who withdrew their labour. That was a big gamble by Pilkingtons and it worked – with only 400 unexplained absences on that day. And some of these would have been sick or had other valid reasons for not showing up.
By the end of the week it was revealed that the total number of sacked workers was 480 and 100 of these had been given their jobs back. A further 160 applications for reinstatement were also being considered. However Pilks was only allowing the strikers to return on condition they joined the approved General and Municipal Workers Union. They would also be treated as new recruits and lose all of their pension rights that some had built up over many years, as well as their holiday entitlements.
People – especially children – were fascinated by Space with last year's Apollo moon landing still fresh in many minds. Throughout this week a Holiday Club with a space theme was held at St Luke's School in Eccleston. Children aged between 7 and 11 were able to enjoy games, stories, modelling sessions, filmstrips and sport.
'Beneath The Planet of The Apes' started six days of screenings at the ABC Savoy on the 10th with 'Captain Nemo and the Underwater City' beginning a 3-day run on the same day at the Capitol.
Pilkington's Glass Museum was featured on Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour' on the 11th. In a seven-minute-piece, presenter Tom Heaney talked to curator Dan Hogan about the historic items on show.
On the 13th Superintendent Tom Shepherd warned skinhead troublemakers that the police in St Helens were determined to stop their activities. The comments were made after teenage gangs had made two attacks in two weeks on a College Street house occupied by six Pakistani men. The latest outrage had occurred on Sunday when bricks were hurled through downstairs windows. One of the men was sleeping in the room and narrowly escaped injury.
Immigrants had occupied the three-bedroomed house since 1964 but had not previously experienced any incidents. 30-year-old Abdul Hashim said: "We are terrified of going out. We are scared that the next attacks might be on us. This trouble has only started in the last month. I think the people doing it hate us because we're from Pakistan." Although the police had made a number of arrests, the teenagers had been released through lack of evidence.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th and described soaring sales of their weekly paper. Over the past six months these had increased by an average of 1,741 copies to a total of 37,103. The cost of the paper was then 8d.
The comments of the Vicar of St Mark's Church in North Road were a big front-page story in the Reporter. The Rev. Gordon Williams slammed the rising level of permissiveness within the town, writing in his parish magazine: "Here in St. Helens some of our bookshops and cinemas and the increasing number of sleazy clubs should cause us concern. Their literature, films and programmes are rapidly and boldly dropping to the levels of the London gutter."
The 60-year-old admitted that he had little first-hand knowledge of the places that he criticised, although his parishioners had told him about them. However the vicar said he had passed bookshops in the town that were openly displaying books showing nudes. "I feel revulsion and a sense of shame", Rev. Williams added, "when I see them, to think that people are making money oblivious of the possible consequences – especially to young people. These books are being peddled in works and schools just for the purpose of pornographic fun. I cannot help but feel that people who see ‘Oh Calcutta!’ come out soiled."
Ron Tasker, manager of the ABC Savoy, told the Reporter that he showed extremely few sex films, insisting that his Bridge Street cinema had only screened three programmes this year containing sexual content. "Most of the people who come to the cinema are in the 18 to 25 age bracket and they want adult entertainment, but not necessarily sex entertainment", explained Mr Tasker. "Most of the ‘X’ films have been concerned with violence or horror."
Also on the front page of the Reporter was a picture of "blonde" Lesley Richards who, according to the paper, had "whipped up a storm in a pint glass". The 21-year-old journalist had been refused a pint of cider in the Windle Hotel after being told by a barmaid that women supping pints was "unladylike".
So Lesley – who was with two male colleagues – ordered two pints and two halves and began drinking one of the pints. This so upset the barmaid that Lesley agreed to drink the halves. 65-year-old Alice Davies from Lionel Street in Sutton told the Reporter: "I've been behind a bar for 12 years and never served a pint to a girl – and I never will. It doesn't look right for a girl to have a pint in her hand."
The Reporter also described how Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults in Cooper Street was moving to the Royal Hotel in Westfield Street after being mine-host at the so-called "Pop Inn" for 36 years. The pub – also known as "Chessies" – was being demolished as part of the Corporation's redevelopment of the town. Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers and had been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd. In a previous Reporter piece, Jack had also claimed to have once booted out the future Beatles for strumming guitars and annoying his customers!
There were still several weeks to go of the summer holidays but a "Back To School" advertising feature was in the Reporter with Marsdens taking a prominent ad. "For all your footwear – you name it we have it", was their slogan, with shops in Barrow Street, Parr Street, Cooper Street and Eccleston Street in Prescot. Helena House had an even larger advert offering the usual school gear, as well as a "Co-op Back To School Competition" with 50 Raleigh bikes to be won.
Ben Brooks was promoting their line of school sports clothing and advising readers that their Hardshaw Street shop – which went under the name of Booths – was to close, with business transferred to their premises in Duke Street. Other adverts came from Clinkards of Westfield Street ("Back to school with Clarks shoes"); Fitzgeralds of Parr Stocks Road ("Footwear fitting specialists"); Oxleys in Claughton Street ("Top class selection"); Alan Hunter, Peckers Hill Road ("Come to us for your back to schoolwear") and Slaters in Gerard Street, Ashton ("School outfitters, save £££’s, and we mean £££’s").
Under the headline "They Don't Bury 'Em Like They Used To", the Reporter wrote an article about "silver haired undertaker" Bertie Woodward. The 76-year-old from Broad Oak Road in Parr had retired last year and told the paper:
"Burials just aren't the same anymore. They don't bury ’em the same nowadays. I’ve noticed a tremendous change in my life-time. I've been burying Parr people for 50 years or more and making their coffins. In the old days people used to want a fine, hand-made oak coffin. Now they're content with a cheap elm one. I remember the hours and hours I've spent in my father's workshop making the coffins. It was a real art then. But now people seem to only want the cheapest. But they always want big cars and lots of flowers.
"But then the price of things has gone up a tremendous lot. New graves for instance used to cost £2 10s but now they're £9. And once you could get a beautiful coffin for £10. They vary in price now. But the cheapest is about £18. Then lots of people want cremations instead of burials. No, it's not the same at all. There's a real revolution going on. In a way I'm glad I'm out of it all."
The Reporter also described a "storm" over the number of eleven-plus failures at Bushey Lane School in Rainford. Only two of their children had passed the exam in three years, with no successes this year from about 30 entries. In comparison the similar-sized primary school at Crank had fourteen passes in 1970. Headmaster Jim Blackburn – who was also a councillor – had not helped matters by telling worried parents that their children had simply not been intelligent enough to pass the exam.
On the 15th a talent audition took place at the Theatre Royal for amateur performers wanting to participate in 'The Sound of Youth Show' at the theatre. And on the same day the British Sidac Sports and Social Club held their first horticultural show at their Bude Avenue club in Sutton. The event attracted 371 exhibits from gardening enthusiasts.
Next week's stories will include an update on the sacked Pilkington strikers, a claim of a petty boycott by the head of West Park Grammar, the melting helmets of St Helens firemen and vandals smash a recently restored stained glass window in Sutton.
We begin with more trouble at Pilkingtons. At the end of last week 300 workers at Cowley Hill had taken part in a 3-day strike demanding recognition for the new Glass and General Workers Union. The glass giant would only recognise the General and Municipal Workers Union and over the weekend had dismissed all the strikers. When some had tried to resume work on Sunday afternoon, security staff had turned them away. Around 300 workers then marched through St Helens singing "We shall not be moved".
On the morning of Monday the 10th, newspapers quoted Gerry Caughey – the leader of the Glass and General Workers Union – warning Pilkingtons that he planned to have 5,000 men on strike in support of the sacked workers. As a result pickets were out in force at the firm's glass plants in St Helens as employees arrived for their day shift. However the company had made it known that they planned to terminate the employment of anyone else who withdrew their labour. That was a big gamble by Pilkingtons and it worked – with only 400 unexplained absences on that day. And some of these would have been sick or had other valid reasons for not showing up.
By the end of the week it was revealed that the total number of sacked workers was 480 and 100 of these had been given their jobs back. A further 160 applications for reinstatement were also being considered. However Pilks was only allowing the strikers to return on condition they joined the approved General and Municipal Workers Union. They would also be treated as new recruits and lose all of their pension rights that some had built up over many years, as well as their holiday entitlements.
People – especially children – were fascinated by Space with last year's Apollo moon landing still fresh in many minds. Throughout this week a Holiday Club with a space theme was held at St Luke's School in Eccleston. Children aged between 7 and 11 were able to enjoy games, stories, modelling sessions, filmstrips and sport.
'Beneath The Planet of The Apes' started six days of screenings at the ABC Savoy on the 10th with 'Captain Nemo and the Underwater City' beginning a 3-day run on the same day at the Capitol.
Pilkington's Glass Museum was featured on Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour' on the 11th. In a seven-minute-piece, presenter Tom Heaney talked to curator Dan Hogan about the historic items on show.
On the 13th Superintendent Tom Shepherd warned skinhead troublemakers that the police in St Helens were determined to stop their activities. The comments were made after teenage gangs had made two attacks in two weeks on a College Street house occupied by six Pakistani men. The latest outrage had occurred on Sunday when bricks were hurled through downstairs windows. One of the men was sleeping in the room and narrowly escaped injury.
Immigrants had occupied the three-bedroomed house since 1964 but had not previously experienced any incidents. 30-year-old Abdul Hashim said: "We are terrified of going out. We are scared that the next attacks might be on us. This trouble has only started in the last month. I think the people doing it hate us because we're from Pakistan." Although the police had made a number of arrests, the teenagers had been released through lack of evidence.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th and described soaring sales of their weekly paper. Over the past six months these had increased by an average of 1,741 copies to a total of 37,103. The cost of the paper was then 8d.
The comments of the Vicar of St Mark's Church in North Road were a big front-page story in the Reporter. The Rev. Gordon Williams slammed the rising level of permissiveness within the town, writing in his parish magazine: "Here in St. Helens some of our bookshops and cinemas and the increasing number of sleazy clubs should cause us concern. Their literature, films and programmes are rapidly and boldly dropping to the levels of the London gutter."
The 60-year-old admitted that he had little first-hand knowledge of the places that he criticised, although his parishioners had told him about them. However the vicar said he had passed bookshops in the town that were openly displaying books showing nudes. "I feel revulsion and a sense of shame", Rev. Williams added, "when I see them, to think that people are making money oblivious of the possible consequences – especially to young people. These books are being peddled in works and schools just for the purpose of pornographic fun. I cannot help but feel that people who see ‘Oh Calcutta!’ come out soiled."
St Mark's Church in North Road in St Helens and the ABC Savoy cinema in Bridge Street, St Helens
St Marks Church and the ABC Savoy cinema in Bridge Street, St Helens
St Mark's church and the ABC Savoy
Also on the front page of the Reporter was a picture of "blonde" Lesley Richards who, according to the paper, had "whipped up a storm in a pint glass". The 21-year-old journalist had been refused a pint of cider in the Windle Hotel after being told by a barmaid that women supping pints was "unladylike".
So Lesley – who was with two male colleagues – ordered two pints and two halves and began drinking one of the pints. This so upset the barmaid that Lesley agreed to drink the halves. 65-year-old Alice Davies from Lionel Street in Sutton told the Reporter: "I've been behind a bar for 12 years and never served a pint to a girl – and I never will. It doesn't look right for a girl to have a pint in her hand."
The Reporter also described how Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults in Cooper Street was moving to the Royal Hotel in Westfield Street after being mine-host at the so-called "Pop Inn" for 36 years. The pub – also known as "Chessies" – was being demolished as part of the Corporation's redevelopment of the town. Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers and had been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd. In a previous Reporter piece, Jack had also claimed to have once booted out the future Beatles for strumming guitars and annoying his customers!
There were still several weeks to go of the summer holidays but a "Back To School" advertising feature was in the Reporter with Marsdens taking a prominent ad. "For all your footwear – you name it we have it", was their slogan, with shops in Barrow Street, Parr Street, Cooper Street and Eccleston Street in Prescot. Helena House had an even larger advert offering the usual school gear, as well as a "Co-op Back To School Competition" with 50 Raleigh bikes to be won.
Ben Brooks was promoting their line of school sports clothing and advising readers that their Hardshaw Street shop – which went under the name of Booths – was to close, with business transferred to their premises in Duke Street. Other adverts came from Clinkards of Westfield Street ("Back to school with Clarks shoes"); Fitzgeralds of Parr Stocks Road ("Footwear fitting specialists"); Oxleys in Claughton Street ("Top class selection"); Alan Hunter, Peckers Hill Road ("Come to us for your back to schoolwear") and Slaters in Gerard Street, Ashton ("School outfitters, save £££’s, and we mean £££’s").
Under the headline "They Don't Bury 'Em Like They Used To", the Reporter wrote an article about "silver haired undertaker" Bertie Woodward. The 76-year-old from Broad Oak Road in Parr had retired last year and told the paper:
"Burials just aren't the same anymore. They don't bury ’em the same nowadays. I’ve noticed a tremendous change in my life-time. I've been burying Parr people for 50 years or more and making their coffins. In the old days people used to want a fine, hand-made oak coffin. Now they're content with a cheap elm one. I remember the hours and hours I've spent in my father's workshop making the coffins. It was a real art then. But now people seem to only want the cheapest. But they always want big cars and lots of flowers.
"But then the price of things has gone up a tremendous lot. New graves for instance used to cost £2 10s but now they're £9. And once you could get a beautiful coffin for £10. They vary in price now. But the cheapest is about £18. Then lots of people want cremations instead of burials. No, it's not the same at all. There's a real revolution going on. In a way I'm glad I'm out of it all."
The Reporter also described a "storm" over the number of eleven-plus failures at Bushey Lane School in Rainford. Only two of their children had passed the exam in three years, with no successes this year from about 30 entries. In comparison the similar-sized primary school at Crank had fourteen passes in 1970. Headmaster Jim Blackburn – who was also a councillor – had not helped matters by telling worried parents that their children had simply not been intelligent enough to pass the exam.
On the 15th a talent audition took place at the Theatre Royal for amateur performers wanting to participate in 'The Sound of Youth Show' at the theatre. And on the same day the British Sidac Sports and Social Club held their first horticultural show at their Bude Avenue club in Sutton. The event attracted 371 exhibits from gardening enthusiasts.
Next week's stories will include an update on the sacked Pilkington strikers, a claim of a petty boycott by the head of West Park Grammar, the melting helmets of St Helens firemen and vandals smash a recently restored stained glass window in Sutton.
This week's many stories include skinhead attacks on the College Street home of six Pakistanis, more strike trouble at Pilkingtons, the Rainford storm over eleven-plus failures, how they don't bury 'em like they used to in Parr and the St Helens vicar who accused bookshops and cinemas of sinking to the gutter.
We begin with more trouble at Pilkingtons. At the end of last week 300 workers at Cowley Hill had taken part in a 3-day strike demanding recognition for the new Glass and General Workers Union.
The glass giant would only recognise the General and Municipal Workers Union and over the weekend had dismissed all the strikers.
When some had tried to resume work on Sunday afternoon, security staff had turned them away.
Around 300 workers then marched through St Helens singing "We shall not be moved".
On the morning of Monday the 10th, newspapers quoted Gerry Caughey – the leader of the Glass and General Workers Union – warning Pilkingtons that he planned to have 5,000 men on strike in support of the sacked workers.
As a result pickets were out in force at the firm's glass plants in St Helens as employees arrived for their day shift.
However the company had made it known that they planned to terminate the employment of anyone else who withdrew their labour.
That was a big gamble by Pilkingtons and it worked – with only 400 unexplained absences on that day.
And some of these would have been sick or had other valid reasons for not showing up.
By the end of the week it was revealed that the total number of sacked workers was 480 and 100 of these had been given their jobs back.
A further 160 applications for reinstatement were also being considered.
However Pilks was only allowing the strikers to return on condition they joined the approved General and Municipal Workers Union.
They would also be treated as new recruits and lose all of their pension rights that some had built up over many years, as well as their holiday entitlements.
People – especially children – were fascinated by Space with last year's Apollo moon landing still fresh in many minds.
Throughout this week a Holiday Club with a space theme was held at St Luke's School in Eccleston.
Children aged between 7 and 11 were able to enjoy games, stories, modelling sessions, filmstrips and sport.
'Beneath The Planet of The Apes' started six days of screenings at the ABC Savoy on the 10th with 'Captain Nemo and the Underwater City' beginning a 3-day run on the same day at the Capitol.
Pilkington's Glass Museum was featured on Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour' on the 11th.
In a seven-minute-piece, presenter Tom Heaney talked to curator Dan Hogan about the historic items on show.
On the 13th Superintendent Tom Shepherd warned skinhead troublemakers that the police in St Helens were determined to stop their activities.
The comments were made after teenage gangs had made two attacks in two weeks on a College Street house occupied by six Pakistani men.
The latest outrage had occurred on Sunday when bricks were hurled through downstairs windows.
One of the men was sleeping in the room and narrowly escaped injury.
Immigrants had occupied the three-bedroomed house since 1964 but had not previously experienced any incidents. 30-year-old Abdul Hashim said:
"We are terrified of going out. We are scared that the next attacks might be on us. This trouble has only started in the last month. I think the people doing it hate us because we're from Pakistan."
Although the police had made a number of arrests, the teenagers had been released through lack of evidence.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th and described soaring sales of their weekly paper.
Over the past six months these had increased by an average of 1,741 copies to a total of 37,103. The cost of the paper was then 8d.
The comments of the Vicar of St Mark's Church in North Road were a big front-page story in the Reporter.
The Rev. Gordon Williams slammed the rising level of permissiveness within the town, writing in his parish magazine:
"Here in St. Helens some of our bookshops and cinemas and the increasing number of sleazy clubs should cause us concern. Their literature, films and programmes are rapidly and boldly dropping to the levels of the London gutter."
The 60-year-old admitted that he had little first-hand knowledge of the places that he criticised, although his parishioners had told him about them.
However the vicar said he had passed bookshops in the town that were openly displaying books showing nudes.
"I feel revulsion and a sense of shame", Rev. Williams added, "when I see them, to think that people are making money oblivious of the possible consequences – especially to young people.
"These books are being peddled in works and schools just for the purpose of pornographic fun. I cannot help but feel that people who see ‘Oh Calcutta!’ come out soiled."
Ron Tasker, manager of the ABC Savoy, told the Reporter that he showed extremely few sex films, insisting that his Bridge Street cinema had only screened three programmes this year containing sexual content.
"Most of the people who come to the cinema are in the 18 to 25 age bracket and they want adult entertainment, but not necessarily sex entertainment", explained Mr Tasker.
"Most of the ‘X’ films have been concerned with violence or horror."
Also on the front page of the Reporter was a picture of "blonde" Lesley Richards who, according to the paper, had "whipped up a storm in a pint glass".
The 21-year-old journalist had been refused a pint of cider in the Windle Hotel after being told by a barmaid that women supping pints was "unladylike".
So Lesley – who was with two male colleagues – ordered two pints and two halves and began drinking one of the pints.
This so upset the barmaid that Lesley agreed to drink the halves.
65-year-old Alice Davies from Lionel Street in Sutton told the Reporter:
"I've been behind a bar for 12 years and never served a pint to a girl – and I never will. It doesn't look right for a girl to have a pint in her hand."
The Reporter also described how Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults in Cooper Street was moving to the Royal Hotel in Westfield Street after being mine-host at the so-called "Pop Inn" for 36 years.
The pub – also known as "Chessies" – was being demolished as part of the Corporation's redevelopment of the town.
Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers and had been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd.
In a previous Reporter piece, Jack had also claimed to have once booted out the future Beatles for strumming guitars and annoying his customers!
There were still several weeks to go of the summer holidays but a "Back To School" advertising feature was in the Reporter with Marsdens taking a prominent ad.
"For all your footwear – you name it we have it", was their slogan, with shops in Barrow Street, Parr Street, Cooper Street and Eccleston Street in Prescot.
Helena House had an even larger advert offering the usual school gear, as well as a "Co-op Back To School Competition" with 50 Raleigh bikes to be won.
Ben Brooks was promoting their line of school sports clothing and advising readers that their Hardshaw Street shop – which went under the name of Booths – was to close, with business transferred to their premises in Duke Street.
Other adverts came from Clinkards of Westfield Street ("Back to school with Clarks shoes"); Fitzgeralds of Parr Stocks Road ("Footwear fitting specialists"); Oxleys in Claughton Street ("Top class selection"); Alan Hunter, Peckers Hill Road ("Come to us for your back to schoolwear") and Slaters in Gerard Street, Ashton ("School outfitters, save £££’s, and we mean £££’s").
Under the headline "They Don't Bury 'Em Like They Used To", the Reporter wrote an article about "silver haired undertaker" Bertie Woodward.
The 76-year-old from Broad Oak Road in Parr had retired last year and told the paper:
"Burials just aren't the same anymore. They don't bury ’em the same nowadays. I’ve noticed a tremendous change in my life-time. I've been burying Parr people for 50 years or more and making their coffins. In the old days people used to want a fine, hand-made oak coffin.
"Now they're content with a cheap elm one. I remember the hours and hours I've spent in my father's workshop making the coffins. It was a real art then. But now people seem to only want the cheapest. But they always want big cars and lots of flowers.
"But then the price of things has gone up a tremendous lot. New graves for instance used to cost £2 10s but now they're £9. And once you could get a beautiful coffin for £10. They vary in price now. But the cheapest is about £18.
"Then lots of people want cremations instead of burials. No, it's not the same at all. There's a real revolution going on. In a way I'm glad I'm out of it all."
The Reporter also described a "storm" over the number of eleven-plus failures at Bushey Lane School in Rainford.
Only two of their children had passed the exam in three years, with no successes this year from about 30 entries.
In comparison the similar-sized primary school at Crank had fourteen passes in 1970.
Headmaster Jim Blackburn – who was also a councillor – had not helped matters by telling worried parents that their children had simply not been intelligent enough to pass the exam.
On the 15th a talent audition took place at the Theatre Royal for amateur performers wanting to participate in 'The Sound of Youth Show' at the theatre.
And on the same day the British Sidac Sports and Social Club held their first horticultural show at their Bude Avenue club in Sutton.
The event attracted 371 exhibits from gardening enthusiasts.
Next week's stories will include an update on the sacked Pilkington strikers, a claim of a petty boycott by the head of West Park Grammar, the melting helmets of St Helens firemen and vandals smash a recently restored stained glass window in Sutton.
We begin with more trouble at Pilkingtons. At the end of last week 300 workers at Cowley Hill had taken part in a 3-day strike demanding recognition for the new Glass and General Workers Union.
The glass giant would only recognise the General and Municipal Workers Union and over the weekend had dismissed all the strikers.
When some had tried to resume work on Sunday afternoon, security staff had turned them away.
Around 300 workers then marched through St Helens singing "We shall not be moved".
On the morning of Monday the 10th, newspapers quoted Gerry Caughey – the leader of the Glass and General Workers Union – warning Pilkingtons that he planned to have 5,000 men on strike in support of the sacked workers.
As a result pickets were out in force at the firm's glass plants in St Helens as employees arrived for their day shift.
However the company had made it known that they planned to terminate the employment of anyone else who withdrew their labour.
That was a big gamble by Pilkingtons and it worked – with only 400 unexplained absences on that day.
And some of these would have been sick or had other valid reasons for not showing up.
By the end of the week it was revealed that the total number of sacked workers was 480 and 100 of these had been given their jobs back.
A further 160 applications for reinstatement were also being considered.
However Pilks was only allowing the strikers to return on condition they joined the approved General and Municipal Workers Union.
They would also be treated as new recruits and lose all of their pension rights that some had built up over many years, as well as their holiday entitlements.
People – especially children – were fascinated by Space with last year's Apollo moon landing still fresh in many minds.
Throughout this week a Holiday Club with a space theme was held at St Luke's School in Eccleston.
Children aged between 7 and 11 were able to enjoy games, stories, modelling sessions, filmstrips and sport.
'Beneath The Planet of The Apes' started six days of screenings at the ABC Savoy on the 10th with 'Captain Nemo and the Underwater City' beginning a 3-day run on the same day at the Capitol.
Pilkington's Glass Museum was featured on Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour' on the 11th.
In a seven-minute-piece, presenter Tom Heaney talked to curator Dan Hogan about the historic items on show.
On the 13th Superintendent Tom Shepherd warned skinhead troublemakers that the police in St Helens were determined to stop their activities.
The comments were made after teenage gangs had made two attacks in two weeks on a College Street house occupied by six Pakistani men.
The latest outrage had occurred on Sunday when bricks were hurled through downstairs windows.
One of the men was sleeping in the room and narrowly escaped injury.
Immigrants had occupied the three-bedroomed house since 1964 but had not previously experienced any incidents. 30-year-old Abdul Hashim said:
"We are terrified of going out. We are scared that the next attacks might be on us. This trouble has only started in the last month. I think the people doing it hate us because we're from Pakistan."
Although the police had made a number of arrests, the teenagers had been released through lack of evidence.
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 14th and described soaring sales of their weekly paper.
Over the past six months these had increased by an average of 1,741 copies to a total of 37,103. The cost of the paper was then 8d.
The comments of the Vicar of St Mark's Church in North Road were a big front-page story in the Reporter.
The Rev. Gordon Williams slammed the rising level of permissiveness within the town, writing in his parish magazine:
"Here in St. Helens some of our bookshops and cinemas and the increasing number of sleazy clubs should cause us concern. Their literature, films and programmes are rapidly and boldly dropping to the levels of the London gutter."
The 60-year-old admitted that he had little first-hand knowledge of the places that he criticised, although his parishioners had told him about them.
However the vicar said he had passed bookshops in the town that were openly displaying books showing nudes.
"I feel revulsion and a sense of shame", Rev. Williams added, "when I see them, to think that people are making money oblivious of the possible consequences – especially to young people.
"These books are being peddled in works and schools just for the purpose of pornographic fun. I cannot help but feel that people who see ‘Oh Calcutta!’ come out soiled."
St Mark's Church in North Road in St Helens and the ABC Savoy cinema in Bridge Street, St Helens
St Marks Church and the ABC Savoy cinema in Bridge Street, St Helens
St Mark's church and the ABC Savoy
"Most of the people who come to the cinema are in the 18 to 25 age bracket and they want adult entertainment, but not necessarily sex entertainment", explained Mr Tasker.
"Most of the ‘X’ films have been concerned with violence or horror."
Also on the front page of the Reporter was a picture of "blonde" Lesley Richards who, according to the paper, had "whipped up a storm in a pint glass".
The 21-year-old journalist had been refused a pint of cider in the Windle Hotel after being told by a barmaid that women supping pints was "unladylike".
So Lesley – who was with two male colleagues – ordered two pints and two halves and began drinking one of the pints.
This so upset the barmaid that Lesley agreed to drink the halves.
65-year-old Alice Davies from Lionel Street in Sutton told the Reporter:
"I've been behind a bar for 12 years and never served a pint to a girl – and I never will. It doesn't look right for a girl to have a pint in her hand."
The Reporter also described how Jack Chesworth of the Exchange Vaults in Cooper Street was moving to the Royal Hotel in Westfield Street after being mine-host at the so-called "Pop Inn" for 36 years.
The pub – also known as "Chessies" – was being demolished as part of the Corporation's redevelopment of the town.
Jack regularly acted as DJ to his customers and had been the first licensee in St Helens to engage Ken Dodd.
In a previous Reporter piece, Jack had also claimed to have once booted out the future Beatles for strumming guitars and annoying his customers!
There were still several weeks to go of the summer holidays but a "Back To School" advertising feature was in the Reporter with Marsdens taking a prominent ad.
"For all your footwear – you name it we have it", was their slogan, with shops in Barrow Street, Parr Street, Cooper Street and Eccleston Street in Prescot.
Helena House had an even larger advert offering the usual school gear, as well as a "Co-op Back To School Competition" with 50 Raleigh bikes to be won.
Ben Brooks was promoting their line of school sports clothing and advising readers that their Hardshaw Street shop – which went under the name of Booths – was to close, with business transferred to their premises in Duke Street.
Other adverts came from Clinkards of Westfield Street ("Back to school with Clarks shoes"); Fitzgeralds of Parr Stocks Road ("Footwear fitting specialists"); Oxleys in Claughton Street ("Top class selection"); Alan Hunter, Peckers Hill Road ("Come to us for your back to schoolwear") and Slaters in Gerard Street, Ashton ("School outfitters, save £££’s, and we mean £££’s").
Under the headline "They Don't Bury 'Em Like They Used To", the Reporter wrote an article about "silver haired undertaker" Bertie Woodward.
The 76-year-old from Broad Oak Road in Parr had retired last year and told the paper:
"Burials just aren't the same anymore. They don't bury ’em the same nowadays. I’ve noticed a tremendous change in my life-time. I've been burying Parr people for 50 years or more and making their coffins. In the old days people used to want a fine, hand-made oak coffin.
"Now they're content with a cheap elm one. I remember the hours and hours I've spent in my father's workshop making the coffins. It was a real art then. But now people seem to only want the cheapest. But they always want big cars and lots of flowers.
"But then the price of things has gone up a tremendous lot. New graves for instance used to cost £2 10s but now they're £9. And once you could get a beautiful coffin for £10. They vary in price now. But the cheapest is about £18.
"Then lots of people want cremations instead of burials. No, it's not the same at all. There's a real revolution going on. In a way I'm glad I'm out of it all."
The Reporter also described a "storm" over the number of eleven-plus failures at Bushey Lane School in Rainford.
Only two of their children had passed the exam in three years, with no successes this year from about 30 entries.
In comparison the similar-sized primary school at Crank had fourteen passes in 1970.
Headmaster Jim Blackburn – who was also a councillor – had not helped matters by telling worried parents that their children had simply not been intelligent enough to pass the exam.
On the 15th a talent audition took place at the Theatre Royal for amateur performers wanting to participate in 'The Sound of Youth Show' at the theatre.
And on the same day the British Sidac Sports and Social Club held their first horticultural show at their Bude Avenue club in Sutton.
The event attracted 371 exhibits from gardening enthusiasts.
Next week's stories will include an update on the sacked Pilkington strikers, a claim of a petty boycott by the head of West Park Grammar, the melting helmets of St Helens firemen and vandals smash a recently restored stained glass window in Sutton.