FARMERS are seldom found lacking when it comes to making an extra bob or two.

And octogenarian reader Peter Pimblett can recall how one of their number cutely cashed in when the great eclipse of 1927 was witnessed by St Helens folk in their thousands.

Though just a kid of eight at the time, Peter, from Windsor Road, Billinge, still vividly recalls that great day of eerie darkness. He says: "My father took me by motorcycle and sidecar to see the event at Scarth Hill, near Ormskirk."

This was because St Helens was then a forest of belching factory chimneys which added to the billowing domestic smoke in polluting the district's skies.

But there was a price to be paid for that clearer view! "We went on to a field and were met by the farmer, charging sixpence a vehicle." This was quite a hefty sum, those 72 years ago.

Peter adds: "Being just eight, I found the eclipse to be a weird experience. Birds stopped singing, flowers closed up, and a particular memory is of seeing two owls venture forth from a nearby barn."

The entire landscape seemed, for a time, to be under a pall of grey. And Peter, like an earlier correspondent on the subject, watched the spectacle through a piece of arc-screen, spirited out of the Pilkington factory.

Apparently, so much of this material went missing as the day of the eclipse approached, that it would have taken an extra production run to make up the losses!

NICE to note that Peter has survived to witness two eclipses in his long lifetime.

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