Memories of comic-swapping days COMIC-swopping days when Big Eggo, Korky the Cat and Ping the Elastic Man were the cartoon heroes of every kid in town have been brought rushing back.

For we're taken for a stroll along the path of childhood innocence by Denis Brown who can recite by heart every one of the multitude of comic publications (catering for tiny-tot readers to teenagers) which flourished in decades long past.

He sets the scene by referring to "one of the worst authorised act of vandalism to take place in St Helens."

This was the demolition of the huge and imposing central Co-op building, known as Helena House, explains Denis, from Gerards Lane, Sutton Leach.

The main entrance on the corner of Cotham Street, later added to that Victorian edifice, was known as the warm corner. It proved a favourite place for meeting one's date, thanks to the heated air issuing from above the entrance, keeping some of the chill off a cold winter's evening.

But getting back to his childhood trek, Denis recalls that the Co-op building hadn't always extended as far as Cotham Street. It had originally ended about 20 yards short of the busy junction with that space then taken up by a couple of shops and then a house at the end.

One of the businesses was an umbrella shop, but it was Preston's next door that Denis remembers best. That's where he and his schoolboy mates made a bee-line for as soon as they got their Saturday pocket money. "It was a kids' treasure trove," he recalls. Among the lip-smacking sweet treats were licquorish sticks, creamy whirls, spanish bootlaces and Pontefract cakes. "There was Coltsfoot rock, aniseed balls, gobstoppers and bubble gum."

And the novelties were almost endless . . . ruby-red wax lips, Dracula's teeth, imitation dogg-dos and trick ink blots. Pea-shooters, catapults, spud and cap guns. Boxes of single caps for toy revolvers and rolls of caps for the more sophisticated automatic weapons. You mention it, Prestons had it!

But perhaps the biggest magnet of all was the array of comics . . . just about every one ever published.

There was the Beano, with the original Big Eggo the ostrich on the front cover; the Dandy, with Korky the Kat as main headliner; the Knock-Out, Film Fun, Radio Fun, Chips, and Comic Cuts justled together on the display counter.

For the bigger lads there was the Rover, Hotspur, Adventure - later,The Lion and, much later, The Eagle.

For the toddlers there was Rainbow, Playbox and Chick's Own.

Denis reminisces onward: "There was also a good assortment of American comics, my own particular favourite being the amazing Captain Marvel of Shazzam fame."

When the row of old house extending along Cotham Street was flattened (Denis can't quite remember the date) a patch of waste land was left in its place.

A phonebox was erected at the Sefton junction end, with the rest of the clearance site left unused for quite some time. "Well, not entirely unused," adds Denis, "because I can remember that on certain Saturday afternoons a man would arrive and bend himself backward into the crab position, while a mate placed a huge sandstone paving flag on his chest."

The cap was quickly taken round for a collection among the ever-gathering crowd of shopping-day onlookers, as the mate promised to smash the paving stone across his partner with a sledgehammer.

"But I never saw this happen," says Denis. "A policeman always seemed to arrive in the nick of time to move them on."

It was probably the same pair who would arrive with one of the partners tied up in chains and padlocks, promising to make a Houdini-like escape when enough coppers had been coughed up by the crowd.

"Again, a bobby would appear in the nick of time, so I never saw this feat performed, either," says Denis. "I think they had their act perfectly timed, carrying on with the cap collection until they saw a policeman's helmet loom into view."

All this came to an end when the Co-op eventually constructed their new modern entrance and the place became known as Helena House.

And Denis signs off with an intriguing snippet of information. "I believe that the Co-op Ballroom dance floor was bought by the well-known St Helens-born comedian, Bernie Clifton."

WONDER if that could be true? And if so, what on earth did Bernie do with it? Construct an ostrich compound, perhaps?

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