O n a grey Tuesday morning, a handful of people are milling around the centre of St Helens . It is market day but the town is quiet, with just a handful of locals making their way between the offerings of clothes, phone cases, flowers and fresh produce. Among them is Janet Wylde, who has always called this corner of Merseyside home, but doesn’t mince her words when asked about how it has changed. “It's awful”, Janet tells The Independent in no uncertain terms. She and her sister Sandra Hilton, 75, meet up in the town centre every week but they don’t claim to enjoy it. “There's no joy coming here – we look at the markets because there's no shops”, she adds. Now retired, the 79-year-old used to work in the head office of glass company Pilkington. Founded in 1826, it revolutionised production and, alongside coal mining and pharmaceuticals, powered St Helens’ growth as a thriving industrial town. Pilkington is the only remaining large employer – itself now stripped back and a subsidiary of a Japanese firm.…