A FEW of you may have a caught a recent BBC feature about the gas lamps that still illuminate some of London’s streets.

Well, it just so happens that around that time Ian Bonnell, of Billinge, shared with me some information with a St Helens angle. He sent three pictures of gas lamps, taken about 1973.

The one pictured is said to be on Campbell Street. Others he sent were on Bank Street and Pigot Street.

Ian wrote: “My Dad took these pics in the early 70s. I wasn’t sure where they were until I put them on Facebook a few weeks ago.

The St Helens –Back in the Day crowd put me right though. (Still not sure about the Campbell St one though?) “My Dad always reckoned they were the last gas lamps in town, not sure if he was right or not. Just thought I’d share them.”

This got me thinking. Were there any more surviving gas lamps and what year did they fade out? My dad, Eric Coffey, was a signalman in Sutton Oak box, and that was gas lit till the very end.

Meanwhile, here is a treat for those of you with some sort of internet connection at home, or for those who can get to their local branch or central library, and who like perusing, analysing, browsing, inspecting, scanning, scrutinising, reading, studying, or simply looking at old maps.

You can download small scale outline maps of Great Britain for free from the Ordnance Survey at bit.ly/ordance358. You can view and print historical maps for free from either Old Maps Online (oldmapsonline.org) or The David Rumsey Map Collection (davidrumsey.com).

Naturally, the British Library has the largest collection with over 30,000 items, from turnpike roads of Lancashire to the Anglo Saxon Mappa Mundi.

So if the weather is bad and you have to stay in, stick on some music (I am listening while I type to the new Pink Floyd, Endless River) and visit these sites.

Of course we must not forget our own sthelens.gov.uk/history which has loads of pointers to treasures. For example, enter Nutgrove in search and it lists the 304 items it has found. You can look at images, for example “Colour photographic transparency showing a vintage fire engine in the carnival procession during the St Helens Centenary Show, 27 Jul 1968”.