IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 9 - 15 MARCH 1926
This week's many stories include the speed trap in Greenfield Road, the College Street bridge collapse, Rotary's Wireless for Hospitals fund, the comical case of the motorbike that wouldn't start, the woman who said her dog was only an apology for a fox terrier, the two wife desertion cases and the Parr coal man's attack on a customer who wouldn't pay his bill.
The Rotary Club of St Helens had been founded in 1923 and since then they had been fundraising to provide patients in St Helens and Providence hospitals with a wired "wireless" service using headphones – if that is not a contradiction in terms! This week Rotary announced that they now had sufficient funds to begin installing all the necessary equipment.
The club had in fact exceeded their appeal target and been able to place an order for some loudspeakers, as well as over 200 pairs of headphones. The installation contract had gone to the Corporation's Electricity Department and work would begin shortly.
The St Helens Reporter on the 12th described how for the past fortnight, St Helens Corporation buses and other heavy traffic had been unable to travel along College Street. That was because at 6 o’clock on one morning, the archway that spanned the brook at the bridge in College Street had suddenly collapsed, revealing a large hole.
A Billinge fruiterer happened to notice what had happened before any heavy traffic could come along in the semi-darkness and drive straight into the yawning gap. He notified St Helens Corporation and diversions were quickly put in place. Workmen had spent the past two weeks carrying out repairs but the road was still not clear for heavy traffic to use.
A person not paying their bills was very common and unpaid debts led to many shops and other traders having to close. But Daniel Skeath's method of dealing with such a defaulter was not recommended and led to him appearing in court this week charged with assault. He was a coalman living in Broad Oak Road and upon entering a grocer's shop he found John Moulsdale inside making purchases.
Irritated that Moulsdale was spending money that he claimed was owed to him, Skeath said: "You owe me 3s 6d. Give it to me now." Moulsdale refused his request and Skeath attacked him. In court the man was asked if he had anything to say in his defence and Skeath replied:
"Oh, nothing, except that I think he is a bit of a liar myself. Moulsdale had got five bags of coal off me, and had only paid for two of them, still owing 3s 6d. Then he had the cheek to come for another bag on Thursday. I think I must be giving the coal away. I'll be in the workhouse if it goes on like this." Daniel Skeath was bound over for three months.
An unnamed woman and her unnamed dog provided a somewhat comical diversion to this week's court cases. The canine was not in court, which was probably a good thing, as it would not have liked hearing his mistress refer to it as "only an apology for a fox terrier"! The woman was in court for not having a licence for her pet and told the Bench that she did not think the dog was worth being licensed.
“I have intended having him destroyed but I hadn't the heart to do it. I thought ‘let him die a natural death with me’. If he had been a wolf hound or a bulldog I would not have minded. The constable tried to tease him, too. It's a wonder it didn't turn on him!" The woman was fined 15 shillings.
There were two cases in the court in which wives summoned their husbands for desertion. In reality the women were seeking separation orders with maintenance payments. Thomas Edwards of Boundary Road had left his wife on New Year's Eve and had not returned home since. Ada Edwards claimed her husband Thomas "followed football matches and got himself into such a hole he did not know which way to turn."
That, presumably, was a reference to his gambling on games, rather than simply being a spectator. Since leaving home he had only sent his wife a single payment of 15 shillings. However, Thomas said he had found rooms for him and his wife to stay but Ada would not live with him.
The man was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week and the hope was expressed in court that the couple would get together again. At the end of the hearing Thomas asked the magistrates: "If I cannot get her back, what am I to do?", but he received no answer. There was certainly more chance of Thomas and Ada having a reconciliation than in the second case.
That concerned Henry Hayden of Edge Street in Thatto Heath who had been summoned by his wife Lilian for wife desertion. The couple had only married in August 1925 and had one child. Henry since leaving home was accused of saying that he hated the sight of his wife and in court he accused Lilian's mother of interfering and blamed her for all the trouble. "She will not leave us alone and she calls me names which I am not allowed to use in court."
An NSPCC inspector gave evidence in which he accused the husband of taking the couple's bed and leaving his wife and child to sleep on the downstairs sofa and added that the wife was afraid to live with her husband. The Bench expressed their desire for the parties to come together again after being married for such a short period and, until that happened, signed an order for maintenance payments of 17s 6d per week to be made.
Police speed traps in the 1920s did not, of course, employ radar. Speed was instead calculated by two police officers standing a known distance apart who timed passing vehicles using two stop watches. The bobbies had to be in line of sight of each other and so a long and busy road like Greenfield Road was ideal. More speeding motorists were booked there for exceeding the 20 mph limit than in any other place in St Helens.
In the days before the East Lancs and Rainford By-pass, an enormous amount of traffic journeying to places like Southport and Liverpool passed through St Helens town centre and departed (or entered) the town via Greenfield Road. And so most of those prosecuted for speeding were from out of town and they often complained that there were no road signs warning of the 20 mph limit.
On the 12th Thomas Withington of Patricroft was fined £2 in St Helens Police Court for driving his motorcycle in Greenfield Road at 33 mph. And fines of £1 each were imposed on Sydney Thompson of Macclesfield and Thomas Moulds who had been driving at 29 mph.
Another motorbike rider in trouble was Austin Moore of Grafton Street who was summoned for riding a motorcycle without a driving licence and without registering it. Compulsory driving tests were ten years away and Austin did not appear to know how to work his machine.
The police had found the young man in Knowsley Road on a Sunday morning trying out his motorbike, which he had only bought two days before. Austin told a comical tale to the court how he had only three pennies worth of petrol in his tank and he and his mate had spent over an hour attempting to start the motorbike.
The pair put so much effort into kicking the kick-starter that it eventually fell off! They then attempted to get the machine going by running it up and down a passage and then allowed it to run down a slope into Knowsley Road, until the constable intervened. Austin said:
"We had a very busy time trying to get the thing to go and then the police officers explained that the screw on the carburettor had been screwed too tight. We released it and the petrol flowed into the engine and the machine worked." Austin was fined ten shillings but at least now knew how to get his motorbike going!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blind colliery worker who sought compensation, the father's shock at seeing bobbed hair, the Rainford School annual concert and the Gerards Bridge tenant who threatened to kill Pilks' housing agent.
The Rotary Club of St Helens had been founded in 1923 and since then they had been fundraising to provide patients in St Helens and Providence hospitals with a wired "wireless" service using headphones – if that is not a contradiction in terms! This week Rotary announced that they now had sufficient funds to begin installing all the necessary equipment.
The club had in fact exceeded their appeal target and been able to place an order for some loudspeakers, as well as over 200 pairs of headphones. The installation contract had gone to the Corporation's Electricity Department and work would begin shortly.
The St Helens Reporter on the 12th described how for the past fortnight, St Helens Corporation buses and other heavy traffic had been unable to travel along College Street. That was because at 6 o’clock on one morning, the archway that spanned the brook at the bridge in College Street had suddenly collapsed, revealing a large hole.
A Billinge fruiterer happened to notice what had happened before any heavy traffic could come along in the semi-darkness and drive straight into the yawning gap. He notified St Helens Corporation and diversions were quickly put in place. Workmen had spent the past two weeks carrying out repairs but the road was still not clear for heavy traffic to use.
A person not paying their bills was very common and unpaid debts led to many shops and other traders having to close. But Daniel Skeath's method of dealing with such a defaulter was not recommended and led to him appearing in court this week charged with assault. He was a coalman living in Broad Oak Road and upon entering a grocer's shop he found John Moulsdale inside making purchases.
Irritated that Moulsdale was spending money that he claimed was owed to him, Skeath said: "You owe me 3s 6d. Give it to me now." Moulsdale refused his request and Skeath attacked him. In court the man was asked if he had anything to say in his defence and Skeath replied:
"Oh, nothing, except that I think he is a bit of a liar myself. Moulsdale had got five bags of coal off me, and had only paid for two of them, still owing 3s 6d. Then he had the cheek to come for another bag on Thursday. I think I must be giving the coal away. I'll be in the workhouse if it goes on like this." Daniel Skeath was bound over for three months.
An unnamed woman and her unnamed dog provided a somewhat comical diversion to this week's court cases. The canine was not in court, which was probably a good thing, as it would not have liked hearing his mistress refer to it as "only an apology for a fox terrier"! The woman was in court for not having a licence for her pet and told the Bench that she did not think the dog was worth being licensed.
“I have intended having him destroyed but I hadn't the heart to do it. I thought ‘let him die a natural death with me’. If he had been a wolf hound or a bulldog I would not have minded. The constable tried to tease him, too. It's a wonder it didn't turn on him!" The woman was fined 15 shillings.
There were two cases in the court in which wives summoned their husbands for desertion. In reality the women were seeking separation orders with maintenance payments. Thomas Edwards of Boundary Road had left his wife on New Year's Eve and had not returned home since. Ada Edwards claimed her husband Thomas "followed football matches and got himself into such a hole he did not know which way to turn."
That, presumably, was a reference to his gambling on games, rather than simply being a spectator. Since leaving home he had only sent his wife a single payment of 15 shillings. However, Thomas said he had found rooms for him and his wife to stay but Ada would not live with him.
The man was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week and the hope was expressed in court that the couple would get together again. At the end of the hearing Thomas asked the magistrates: "If I cannot get her back, what am I to do?", but he received no answer. There was certainly more chance of Thomas and Ada having a reconciliation than in the second case.
That concerned Henry Hayden of Edge Street in Thatto Heath who had been summoned by his wife Lilian for wife desertion. The couple had only married in August 1925 and had one child. Henry since leaving home was accused of saying that he hated the sight of his wife and in court he accused Lilian's mother of interfering and blamed her for all the trouble. "She will not leave us alone and she calls me names which I am not allowed to use in court."
An NSPCC inspector gave evidence in which he accused the husband of taking the couple's bed and leaving his wife and child to sleep on the downstairs sofa and added that the wife was afraid to live with her husband. The Bench expressed their desire for the parties to come together again after being married for such a short period and, until that happened, signed an order for maintenance payments of 17s 6d per week to be made.
Police speed traps in the 1920s did not, of course, employ radar. Speed was instead calculated by two police officers standing a known distance apart who timed passing vehicles using two stop watches. The bobbies had to be in line of sight of each other and so a long and busy road like Greenfield Road was ideal. More speeding motorists were booked there for exceeding the 20 mph limit than in any other place in St Helens.
On the 12th Thomas Withington of Patricroft was fined £2 in St Helens Police Court for driving his motorcycle in Greenfield Road at 33 mph. And fines of £1 each were imposed on Sydney Thompson of Macclesfield and Thomas Moulds who had been driving at 29 mph.
Another motorbike rider in trouble was Austin Moore of Grafton Street who was summoned for riding a motorcycle without a driving licence and without registering it. Compulsory driving tests were ten years away and Austin did not appear to know how to work his machine.
The police had found the young man in Knowsley Road on a Sunday morning trying out his motorbike, which he had only bought two days before. Austin told a comical tale to the court how he had only three pennies worth of petrol in his tank and he and his mate had spent over an hour attempting to start the motorbike.
The pair put so much effort into kicking the kick-starter that it eventually fell off! They then attempted to get the machine going by running it up and down a passage and then allowed it to run down a slope into Knowsley Road, until the constable intervened. Austin said:
"We had a very busy time trying to get the thing to go and then the police officers explained that the screw on the carburettor had been screwed too tight. We released it and the petrol flowed into the engine and the machine worked." Austin was fined ten shillings but at least now knew how to get his motorbike going!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blind colliery worker who sought compensation, the father's shock at seeing bobbed hair, the Rainford School annual concert and the Gerards Bridge tenant who threatened to kill Pilks' housing agent.
This week's many stories include the speed trap in Greenfield Road, the College Street bridge collapse, Rotary's Wireless for Hospitals fund, the comical case of the motorbike that wouldn't start, the woman who said her dog was only an apology for a fox terrier, the two wife desertion cases and the Parr coal man's attack on a customer who wouldn't pay his bill.
The Rotary Club of St Helens had been founded in 1923 and since then they had been fundraising to provide patients in St Helens and Providence hospitals with a wired "wireless" service using headphones – if that is not a contradiction in terms!
This week Rotary announced that they now had sufficient funds to begin installing all the necessary equipment.
The club had in fact exceeded their appeal target and been able to place an order for some loudspeakers, as well as over 200 pairs of headphones.
The installation contract had gone to the Corporation's Electricity Department and work would begin shortly.
The St Helens Reporter on the 12th described how for the past fortnight, St Helens Corporation buses and other heavy traffic had been unable to travel along College Street.
That was because at 6 o’clock on one morning, the archway that spanned the brook at the bridge in College Street had suddenly collapsed, revealing a large hole.
A Billinge fruiterer happened to notice what had happened before any heavy traffic could come along in the semi-darkness and drive straight into the yawning gap.
He notified St Helens Corporation and diversions were quickly put in place.
Workmen had spent the past two weeks carrying out repairs but the road was still not clear for heavy traffic to use.
A person not paying their bills was very common and unpaid debts led to many shops and other traders having to close.
But Daniel Skeath's method of dealing with such a defaulter was not recommended and led to him appearing in court this week charged with assault.
He was a coalman living in Broad Oak Road and upon entering a grocer's shop he found John Moulsdale inside making purchases.
Irritated that Moulsdale was spending money that he claimed was owed to him, Skeath said: "You owe me 3s 6d. Give it to me now." Moulsdale refused his request and Skeath attacked him.
In court the man was asked if he had anything to say in his defence and Skeath replied:
"Oh, nothing, except that I think he is a bit of a liar myself. Moulsdale had got five bags of coal off me, and had only paid for two of them, still owing 3s 6d.
"Then he had the cheek to come for another bag on Thursday. I think I must be giving the coal away. I'll be in the workhouse if it goes on like this." Daniel Skeath was bound over for three months.
An unnamed woman and her unnamed dog provided a somewhat comical diversion to this week's court cases.
The canine was not in court, which was probably a good thing, as it would not have liked hearing his mistress refer to it as "only an apology for a fox terrier"!
The woman was in court for not having a licence for her pet and told the Bench that she did not think the dog was worth being licensed.
“I have intended having him destroyed but I hadn't the heart to do it. I thought ‘let him die a natural death with me’.
"If he had been a wolf hound or a bulldog I would not have minded. The constable tried to tease him, too. It's a wonder it didn't turn on him!" The woman was fined 15 shillings.
There were two cases in the court in which wives summoned their husbands for desertion.
In reality the women were seeking separation orders with maintenance payments.
Thomas Edwards of Boundary Road had left his wife on New Year's Eve and had not returned home since.
Ada Edwards claimed her husband Thomas "followed football matches and got himself into such a hole he did not know which way to turn."
That, presumably, was a reference to his gambling on games, rather than simply being a spectator.
Since leaving home he had only sent his wife a single payment of 15 shillings.
However, Thomas said he had found rooms for him and his wife to stay but Ada would not live with him.
The man was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week and the hope was expressed in court that the couple would get together again.
At the end of the hearing Thomas asked the magistrates: "If I cannot get her back, what am I to do?", but he received no answer.
There was certainly more chance of Thomas and Ada having a reconciliation than in the second case.
That concerned Henry Hayden of Edge Street in Thatto Heath who had been summoned by his wife Lilian for wife desertion.
The couple had only married in August 1925 and had one child.
Henry since leaving home was accused of saying that he hated the sight of his wife and in court he accused Lilian's mother of interfering and blamed her for all the trouble.
"She will not leave us alone and she calls me names which I am not allowed to use in court."
An NSPCC inspector gave evidence in which he accused the husband of taking the couple's bed and leaving his wife and child to sleep on the downstairs sofa and added that the wife was afraid to live with her husband.
The Bench expressed their desire for the parties to come together again after being married for such a short period and, until that happened, signed an order for maintenance payments of 17s 6d per week to be made.
Police speed traps in the 1920s did not, of course, employ radar.
Speed was instead calculated by two police officers standing a known distance apart who timed passing vehicles using two stop watches.
The bobbies had to be in line of sight of each other and so a long and busy road like Greenfield Road was ideal.
More speeding motorists were booked there for exceeding the 20 mph limit than in any other place in St Helens.
In the days before the East Lancs and Rainford By-pass, an enormous amount of traffic journeying to places like Southport and Liverpool passed through St Helens town centre and departed (or entered) the town via Greenfield Road (pictured above).
And so most of those prosecuted for speeding were from out of town and they often complained that there were no road signs warning of the 20 mph limit.
On the 12th Thomas Withington of Patricroft was fined £2 in St Helens Police Court for driving his motorcycle in Greenfield Road at 33 mph.
And fines of £1 each were imposed on Sydney Thompson of Macclesfield and Thomas Moulds who had been driving at 29 mph.
Another motorbike rider in trouble was Austin Moore of Grafton Street who was summoned for riding a motorcycle without a driving licence and without registering it.
Compulsory driving tests were ten years away and Austin did not appear to know how to work his machine.
The police had found the young man in Knowsley Road on a Sunday morning trying out his motorbike, which he had only bought two days before.
Austin told a comical tale to the court how he had only three pennies worth of petrol in his tank and he and his mate had spent over an hour attempting to start the motorbike.
The pair put so much effort into kicking the kick-starter that it eventually fell off!
They then attempted to get the machine going by running it up and down a passage and then allowed it to run down a slope into Knowsley Road, until the constable intervened. Austin said:
"We had a very busy time trying to get the thing to go and then the police officers explained that the screw on the carburettor had been screwed too tight. We released it and the petrol flowed into the engine and the machine worked."
Austin was fined ten shillings but at least now knew how to get his motorbike going!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blind colliery worker who sought compensation, the father's shock at seeing bobbed hair, the Rainford School annual concert and the Gerards Bridge tenant who threatened to kill Pilks' housing agent.
The Rotary Club of St Helens had been founded in 1923 and since then they had been fundraising to provide patients in St Helens and Providence hospitals with a wired "wireless" service using headphones – if that is not a contradiction in terms!
This week Rotary announced that they now had sufficient funds to begin installing all the necessary equipment.
The club had in fact exceeded their appeal target and been able to place an order for some loudspeakers, as well as over 200 pairs of headphones.
The installation contract had gone to the Corporation's Electricity Department and work would begin shortly.
The St Helens Reporter on the 12th described how for the past fortnight, St Helens Corporation buses and other heavy traffic had been unable to travel along College Street.
That was because at 6 o’clock on one morning, the archway that spanned the brook at the bridge in College Street had suddenly collapsed, revealing a large hole.
A Billinge fruiterer happened to notice what had happened before any heavy traffic could come along in the semi-darkness and drive straight into the yawning gap.
He notified St Helens Corporation and diversions were quickly put in place.
Workmen had spent the past two weeks carrying out repairs but the road was still not clear for heavy traffic to use.
A person not paying their bills was very common and unpaid debts led to many shops and other traders having to close.
But Daniel Skeath's method of dealing with such a defaulter was not recommended and led to him appearing in court this week charged with assault.
He was a coalman living in Broad Oak Road and upon entering a grocer's shop he found John Moulsdale inside making purchases.
Irritated that Moulsdale was spending money that he claimed was owed to him, Skeath said: "You owe me 3s 6d. Give it to me now." Moulsdale refused his request and Skeath attacked him.
In court the man was asked if he had anything to say in his defence and Skeath replied:
"Oh, nothing, except that I think he is a bit of a liar myself. Moulsdale had got five bags of coal off me, and had only paid for two of them, still owing 3s 6d.
"Then he had the cheek to come for another bag on Thursday. I think I must be giving the coal away. I'll be in the workhouse if it goes on like this." Daniel Skeath was bound over for three months.
An unnamed woman and her unnamed dog provided a somewhat comical diversion to this week's court cases.
The canine was not in court, which was probably a good thing, as it would not have liked hearing his mistress refer to it as "only an apology for a fox terrier"!
The woman was in court for not having a licence for her pet and told the Bench that she did not think the dog was worth being licensed.
“I have intended having him destroyed but I hadn't the heart to do it. I thought ‘let him die a natural death with me’.
"If he had been a wolf hound or a bulldog I would not have minded. The constable tried to tease him, too. It's a wonder it didn't turn on him!" The woman was fined 15 shillings.
There were two cases in the court in which wives summoned their husbands for desertion.
In reality the women were seeking separation orders with maintenance payments.
Thomas Edwards of Boundary Road had left his wife on New Year's Eve and had not returned home since.
Ada Edwards claimed her husband Thomas "followed football matches and got himself into such a hole he did not know which way to turn."
That, presumably, was a reference to his gambling on games, rather than simply being a spectator.
Since leaving home he had only sent his wife a single payment of 15 shillings.
However, Thomas said he had found rooms for him and his wife to stay but Ada would not live with him.
The man was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week and the hope was expressed in court that the couple would get together again.
At the end of the hearing Thomas asked the magistrates: "If I cannot get her back, what am I to do?", but he received no answer.
There was certainly more chance of Thomas and Ada having a reconciliation than in the second case.
That concerned Henry Hayden of Edge Street in Thatto Heath who had been summoned by his wife Lilian for wife desertion.
The couple had only married in August 1925 and had one child.
Henry since leaving home was accused of saying that he hated the sight of his wife and in court he accused Lilian's mother of interfering and blamed her for all the trouble.
"She will not leave us alone and she calls me names which I am not allowed to use in court."
An NSPCC inspector gave evidence in which he accused the husband of taking the couple's bed and leaving his wife and child to sleep on the downstairs sofa and added that the wife was afraid to live with her husband.
The Bench expressed their desire for the parties to come together again after being married for such a short period and, until that happened, signed an order for maintenance payments of 17s 6d per week to be made.
Police speed traps in the 1920s did not, of course, employ radar.
Speed was instead calculated by two police officers standing a known distance apart who timed passing vehicles using two stop watches.
The bobbies had to be in line of sight of each other and so a long and busy road like Greenfield Road was ideal.
More speeding motorists were booked there for exceeding the 20 mph limit than in any other place in St Helens.
And so most of those prosecuted for speeding were from out of town and they often complained that there were no road signs warning of the 20 mph limit.
On the 12th Thomas Withington of Patricroft was fined £2 in St Helens Police Court for driving his motorcycle in Greenfield Road at 33 mph.
And fines of £1 each were imposed on Sydney Thompson of Macclesfield and Thomas Moulds who had been driving at 29 mph.
Another motorbike rider in trouble was Austin Moore of Grafton Street who was summoned for riding a motorcycle without a driving licence and without registering it.
Compulsory driving tests were ten years away and Austin did not appear to know how to work his machine.
The police had found the young man in Knowsley Road on a Sunday morning trying out his motorbike, which he had only bought two days before.
Austin told a comical tale to the court how he had only three pennies worth of petrol in his tank and he and his mate had spent over an hour attempting to start the motorbike.
The pair put so much effort into kicking the kick-starter that it eventually fell off!
They then attempted to get the machine going by running it up and down a passage and then allowed it to run down a slope into Knowsley Road, until the constable intervened. Austin said:
"We had a very busy time trying to get the thing to go and then the police officers explained that the screw on the carburettor had been screwed too tight. We released it and the petrol flowed into the engine and the machine worked."
Austin was fined ten shillings but at least now knew how to get his motorbike going!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the blind colliery worker who sought compensation, the father's shock at seeing bobbed hair, the Rainford School annual concert and the Gerards Bridge tenant who threatened to kill Pilks' housing agent.