ALAN WHALLEY'S WORLD

HERE'S a tall story - but one which reader Ron Honey swears is absolutely true!

Ron, from Haresfinch (brother of the legendary Saints stand-off Jimmy) takes us back in time to the days of the tightly-bunched terraced communities which once occupied much of the St Helens town centre.

"During the second world war we lived close to the Pilkington top works," he explains, "and some of the old terraced houses were very small.

"To give some idea of how cramped they were, I knew of one Pilks worker who, on entering the house, had to squeeze up the lobby sideways." He was something of a local giant, being very tall as well as well-made.

"One morning,"adds Ron, "my dad was talking to a friend who was also going on work. Conversation turned to their giant colleague who hadn't by then shown up."

'Oh', Ron's dad was informed, 'I think he'll be late this morning . . . I've just seen his feet sticking out of the bedroom window.'

It's typical of the warm, friendly humour which pervaded the ancient Gerards Bridge, old Bruck, Greenbank and other side-street areas before the town was bulldozed and re-shaped in relatively recent times.

Those were the bicycle-clip days when Pilks had a vast army of employees counted by the thousand.

And Ron explains that it was possible for the odd worker to 'slip through the net.'

One of the old-time employees, on reaching his 65th birthday, went to see the chief clerk about his retirement arrangements.

He was shocked to find that there was no official record of his ever having worked there. This despite the fact that he'd been employed for close on 30 years!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.