TWO weeks ago I showed a photograph of Victoria Square in bygone times when St Helens Corporation Transport utilised it as a bus station with several bus stops, with the Gamble Institute, home of the central library and the local history and archives, in the background.

It was a time when a library was basically full of books and computers were unheard of. It was a time when columns like mine were written using a typewriter.

Maggie Cheetham writes: “I remember Victoria Square when it was a major bus stop zone as shown in your Snapshots page. The number 22 to Lancots Lane stopped right in front of the library.

"To the right of the picture, where Century House now stands, was waste ground, the Earlestown bus left from there and there was a stall selling tea, coffee, Bovril and Horlicks.”

Actually, from 1960 to 1966 I attended West Park Grammar School but lived in Earlestown and then Wargrave.

The 39 bus left from behind the stall at the far end, turned left and went past the side of the Gamble, then turned right and went past the front of the Gamble, and then turned right down Corporation Street and past the Theatre Royal.

If we were running a bit late, from Westfield Street, we could run across the square and leap onto the bus as it slowed from going past the Gamble and pausing to turn into Corporation Street.

Speaking of school, I was brought up to remember that with punctuation, an abbreviation was followed by a full stop, e.g., St. Helens.

Now I have learned (from the Oxford Dictionaries site), that if an abbreviation consists of the first and last letters of a word, you don’t need to use a full stop at the end: thus St Helens. If you are using initial (i.e. first) letters to represent words, you don’t normally need to put a full stop after them: thus BBC, UK, NATO. If the abbreviation consists only of the first part of a word, then you should put a full stop at the end: Wed. or Dec. Mind you it seems that with texting, etc., anything goes.

Back to the Gamble. I received this message from local historian Pauline Hurst.

“I wonder if you could put a plea out to the folk of St Helens for me. The Gamble Institute is 120 years old in November 2016.

"The St Helens Townships Family History Society are working with the library to celebrate it in the library in the week of the event.

"Our society is preparing a presentation on the Gamble family and the legacy to St Helens. We are asking if anyone has anything that may be of interest, could they please contact us."

Email address is townshipsfhs@googlemail.com or come along to the archives library any Tuesday 3:45-6:45.