This is an archived website and is no longer updated. Click here to go to the www.aidan.co.uk home page
EWM Home Page | Aidan O'Rourke on Twitter and Facebook | Contact

MANCHESTER EYEWITNESS
WEEK NUMBER 28 SATURDAY, JULY 11th, 1948

HEALTH MINISTER WELCOMED AT PARK HOSPITAL
MR ANEURIN BEVAN was given a ceremonial welcome at Park Hospital, Davyhulme on Monday to mark the launching of the National Health Service, and the passing of 2751 hospitals into state ownership. Nurses formed a long guard of honour, while patients looked from the verandahs of the hospital buildings.

CIGARETTES STOLEN
RAIDERS STOLE many thousands of cigarettes from Hardy's Crown Brewery Ltd, Renshaw-street Hulme on Monday. The cigarettes were "rations" for the firm's licenced premises in the Manchester area.

COIN METERS WON'T BE CONVERTED TO SHILLINGS
MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL voted by 58 votes to 55 to reconsider the Gas Committee's decision to convert all "penny-in-the-slot" meters to "shilling-in-the-slot". Councillor A Donovan said that out of 150,000 meters in Manchester, 112,421 were of the one penny type, 31200 dual one penny and one shilling type, 73 of sixpence type and only 5,413 of the one shilling type. Complaints have been made because the shilling amount is considered to be excessive, especially where the meter is shared between families.

RUNAWAY HORSE ON PORTLAND STREET
MR J EDGAR, of Chorlton-on-Medlock managed to stop a runaway horse on Portland-street on Thursday by jumping onto the van. The horse had been startled by traffic while the driver was away, and bolted through Albert Sq, Princess-street, across the lights at Mosley-street and along Portland-street "swaying like a covered wagon" and chased by cars cycles, police and the driver! The horse was pulling a London Midland delivery van.

CHANGING FORTUNES AT THE THIRD TEST
THE THIRD TEST opened at the Lancashire County Cricket Ground, Old Trafford on Thursday with disaster again for England. Washbrook, Emmett, Cripps, Dolley and Edrich were all out for 119 runs before the tea interval. But the next day, England staged a comeback. By Saturday, Australia were all out for 221. Other dramatic events included the collapse of Sidney Barnes at the wicket.

TOWN HALL REDECORATED
WET PAINT NOTICES can be seen on the stairway railings and interior walls of Manchester Town Hall - the dim neo-Gothic corridors are being redecorated for the first time in 12 years. The stairway railings will be painted jade green. This work would have been done in 1943 but for the war.

The weather forecast is for moderate to fresh south-westerly winds - rain and cool - temperatures around 55 degrees.


Text by Aidan O'Rourke

Based on reports in the Manchester Evening News

LAST WEEK
INDEX
50 YEARS FROM NOW
NEXT WEEK
Eyewitness in Manchester Home Page | Aidan O'Rourke on Twitter and Facebook | Contact