A COUPLE of intriguing yedscratters have popped up in the old mailbag. And they're certain to test the memories of our silver-thatched brigade.

C. B. of Eccleston asks: "Whatever happened to the St Helens street-directory map which used to be located near Burton's tailors?"

And he also wonders if any of the once-familiar 'Tardis-type' police boxes have survived around the borough.

Our guest questionmaster (who wishes to remain anonymous) explains: "I came from a poor background, like so many others kids of the time, whose entertainment - so attractive because it cost nowt! - was to play with that street directory.

"I believe it was sponsored by local businesses, who took adverts on it, and it operated by lighting up various town-centre locations."

This, says C. B., was during a time when the famous Fleece Hotel was still standing, "and it would be interesting to study the town-centre layout then, compared with today."

Could the map, he wonders, be still gathering dust somewhere in the town hall or one of the civic buildings?

Our long-memoried chum next flips back to the late 1950s, when the borough force decided to dispense with those large, green police boxes which provided refuge for the local beat bobby of yesteryear,

C. B. particularly recalls one in Woodlands Road, Haresfinch, at its junction with Merton Bank Road and another at the top of Liverpool Road, near its junction with Borough Road.

I, TOO, am curious to know if any of the Tardis structures survived, obsolete though they might now be.

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