IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 10 - 16 MARCH 1925
This week's many stories include the sentimental Irish star at the Hippodrome who was a bit of a phony, the battered wife who said her husband drove her to take poison, the new Catholic Mission at Sutton Manor, the fluffy chicken in an Easter egg that killed a little girl, the fine for not sounding a horn in Boundary Road and there are signs that the flush toilet could be coming to Rainford – but not steel houses!
We begin with a "what's on guide" – or, what was on guide, I suppose I should say. Throughout the week at the Hippodrome in Corporation Street, they had a real star in the "world-famous Irish entertainer" Talbot O’Farrell. That's a quote from the theatre's advert in the St Helens Reporter which went on to say that O’Farrell had "appeared so successfully before their Majesties the King and Queen, at the Command Performance, Alhambra Theatre, London, February 12th."
However, Talbot O'Farrell was not Irish. The sentimental singer had been born in Hull as William Parrott and on stage initially passed himself off as Scottish using the names Will or Jock McIver. Around 1912 he adopted the name Talbot O'Farrell and cultivated an Irish accent, singing mostly sentimental songs such as "That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine" and he became hugely successful.
Further up Corporation Street the Theatre Royal had a return visit from the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performing a number of Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas. These included The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, HMS Pinafore and Ruddigore.
I don't normally mention what was on at the cinemas, as the titles of the pictures are rarely remembered. Many, in fact, have been lost. But this week the Thatto Heath Empire had Lon Chaney in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', which they described in their advert as "A picture you will talk about for months. Aglow with love. Alive with action."
And also, of course, silent. But not entirely, as "appropriate songs" were going to be "rendered by Madame Eleanor Slater (contralto) and Theo. Pennington (light baritone)". Silent films were not usually presented silently, as the cinema often hired a few musicians and persons to perform simple sound effects to enhance the visuals.
Last month I described how in St Helens Police Court Elizabeth Peel had charged her husband James of Hall Street (pictured above) with persistent cruelty. The couple had only been married for eight months but the 22-year-old gave a long list of violent acts that she said her husband had perpetrated against her. James denied his wife's allegations and attempted to paint her as the difficult one in the marriage with an uncontrollable temper.
In reality the case was an application for a separation order with maintenance payments but the magistrates were highly reluctant to sanction the separation of newlyweds. And so they adjourned the case for a month and asked the court missionary / social worker to step in and try to resolve the couple's problems. Often that's the last we hear of such cases, as under pressure from the court officer, the wife would return to her husband after promises of better behaviour were made.
But not in this instance, as round 2 of Peel vs. Peel took place this week and once again received enormous publicity in the local press. Why it was in the public interest for such prurient details to be reported at such length I cannot say – but it certainly interested the public, although the publicity can't have done the couple at the centre of it all any good.
Much of what had been said last month was rehashed in the second hearing but a more concerted effort to paint Elizabeth as the violent one in the marriage was made. Of course, there might have been some truth in that – but such a tactic was a very common one for wife abusers to make in order to muddy the water. And it is hardly surprising that some women would fight back in a minor way against their violent spouse – but if they did so it would count against them in court.
James' solicitor accused Elizabeth of smashing a plate over her husband's head and attempting to cut his throat with a knife – both allegations she denied. But the wife did admit to taking some poison and having to go to hospital – but denied her husband had taken the bottle from her. One of the more curious claims implying misbehaviour that were made against Elizabeth was that she went to the pictures twice a week. How awful!
She had to admit that it was true but insisted that she paid for her cinema-going using her own money and not her husband's. James' solicitor even accused Elizabeth of inviting her husband to hit her. To that she replied: "No. He did that without being invited." Elizabeth did have her two aunts in court to provide some corroboration of her statements but much of what was claimed to have occurred had been in private without witnesses.
But the magistrates (very unusually for such a short marriage) decided that there was sufficient evidence of persistent cruelty to grant the separation order and James was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week maintenance.
On the 11th at a meeting of the council's Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer stated that during the past month there had been a large number of cases of whooping cough in the town. And he added that there was also lots of German measles about. Two days later the St Helens Reporter described how Father Ralph Holden had been formally installed as the first parish priest of the new Catholic Mission at Sutton Manor.
The small chapel had been constructed in Gartons Lane in 1916 and it became Fr Holden's dream to build a basilica dedicated to the newly canonised Thérèse of Lisieux. Much fundraising took place, however, there were many setbacks and it was not until 1931 before the foundation stone could be laid and a further 28 years elapsed before the church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus could be opened. And financial cutbacks meant a somewhat less grandiose place of worship than had been originally intended was built, seven years after the death of its founding priest.
There was an expectation that motorists should sound their horn when approaching a street corner. On the 13th motorcycle rider James Jennion was fined 20 shillings with 10s costs for not sounding his horn while driving his bike in Boundary Road. The young man collided with James Holding, who was one of three men on bicycles crossing from Kirkland Street.
Although Jennion had sounded his horn when he was some distance away, the Chairman of the Bench said it had been too far away for people coming out of the street to hear and he ought to have continued to sound it.
On the 14th the inquest was held on Sarah Waring. The 11-month-old baby from Charles Street in St Helens had died from choking, after a fluffy chicken in an Easter egg had got stuck inside her mouth. Little Sarah was taken to hospital but died on the following day. Both the manager of the shop from which the egg was purchased and the police surgeon agreed that it was a dangerous toy to have sold to children.
The inquest on Joseph Heath was also held on that day. The 28-year-old from Allanson Street had died as a consequence of a roof fall at Southport Colliery in Parr. It took over seven hours to extricate Joseph from the rubble that covered him and he died later in hospital.
Rainford, like other rural districts, tended to be last in the queue when it came to innovations. I recently mentioned how electricity would finally be coming to the village and now it seemed that flush water closets might be on their way. It was revealed at a meeting on the 16th that a Lancashire County Council sanitary inspector had inspected Rainford's toileting arrangements and recommended the installation of a sewerage scheme within the more populous areas so that privies could be converted into water closets.
In the meantime the inspector thought the privy middens – the dumps containing human waste – needed emptying more regularly by the night soil men. But it could be a while before the sanitary improvements were made as Dr Frank Prosser – Rainford's Medical Officer – told the meeting that the provision of new houses was the most urgent need of the village.
It was also announced at the meeting that a building firm had invited a council deputation to travel to London to inspect some steel houses that the company had built with the ultimate aim, of course, of getting some orders. A couple of councillors pointed out that a number of steel homes were being built in St Helens. These were not completely built of steel, of course. A bit of research informs me that steel was used in house building in the 1920s in the form of columns, beams, plates, steel frames etc. and as exterior cladding. But in the end the Rainford councillors decided that the invitation be "allowed to lie on the table" – or, as we say today, kick it into the long grass and do nowt!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the new name for suicide corner, the motorbike on fire in Corporation Street, the Ten Loonies return to St Helens, the punch up in Thatto Heath and the 6-year-old boy severely injured by stone throwing.
However, Talbot O'Farrell was not Irish. The sentimental singer had been born in Hull as William Parrott and on stage initially passed himself off as Scottish using the names Will or Jock McIver. Around 1912 he adopted the name Talbot O'Farrell and cultivated an Irish accent, singing mostly sentimental songs such as "That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine" and he became hugely successful.
Further up Corporation Street the Theatre Royal had a return visit from the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performing a number of Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas. These included The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, HMS Pinafore and Ruddigore.
I don't normally mention what was on at the cinemas, as the titles of the pictures are rarely remembered. Many, in fact, have been lost. But this week the Thatto Heath Empire had Lon Chaney in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', which they described in their advert as "A picture you will talk about for months. Aglow with love. Alive with action."
And also, of course, silent. But not entirely, as "appropriate songs" were going to be "rendered by Madame Eleanor Slater (contralto) and Theo. Pennington (light baritone)". Silent films were not usually presented silently, as the cinema often hired a few musicians and persons to perform simple sound effects to enhance the visuals.
In reality the case was an application for a separation order with maintenance payments but the magistrates were highly reluctant to sanction the separation of newlyweds. And so they adjourned the case for a month and asked the court missionary / social worker to step in and try to resolve the couple's problems. Often that's the last we hear of such cases, as under pressure from the court officer, the wife would return to her husband after promises of better behaviour were made.
But not in this instance, as round 2 of Peel vs. Peel took place this week and once again received enormous publicity in the local press. Why it was in the public interest for such prurient details to be reported at such length I cannot say – but it certainly interested the public, although the publicity can't have done the couple at the centre of it all any good.
Much of what had been said last month was rehashed in the second hearing but a more concerted effort to paint Elizabeth as the violent one in the marriage was made. Of course, there might have been some truth in that – but such a tactic was a very common one for wife abusers to make in order to muddy the water. And it is hardly surprising that some women would fight back in a minor way against their violent spouse – but if they did so it would count against them in court.
James' solicitor accused Elizabeth of smashing a plate over her husband's head and attempting to cut his throat with a knife – both allegations she denied. But the wife did admit to taking some poison and having to go to hospital – but denied her husband had taken the bottle from her. One of the more curious claims implying misbehaviour that were made against Elizabeth was that she went to the pictures twice a week. How awful!
She had to admit that it was true but insisted that she paid for her cinema-going using her own money and not her husband's. James' solicitor even accused Elizabeth of inviting her husband to hit her. To that she replied: "No. He did that without being invited." Elizabeth did have her two aunts in court to provide some corroboration of her statements but much of what was claimed to have occurred had been in private without witnesses.
But the magistrates (very unusually for such a short marriage) decided that there was sufficient evidence of persistent cruelty to grant the separation order and James was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week maintenance.
On the 11th at a meeting of the council's Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer stated that during the past month there had been a large number of cases of whooping cough in the town. And he added that there was also lots of German measles about. Two days later the St Helens Reporter described how Father Ralph Holden had been formally installed as the first parish priest of the new Catholic Mission at Sutton Manor.
The small chapel had been constructed in Gartons Lane in 1916 and it became Fr Holden's dream to build a basilica dedicated to the newly canonised Thérèse of Lisieux. Much fundraising took place, however, there were many setbacks and it was not until 1931 before the foundation stone could be laid and a further 28 years elapsed before the church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus could be opened. And financial cutbacks meant a somewhat less grandiose place of worship than had been originally intended was built, seven years after the death of its founding priest.
There was an expectation that motorists should sound their horn when approaching a street corner. On the 13th motorcycle rider James Jennion was fined 20 shillings with 10s costs for not sounding his horn while driving his bike in Boundary Road. The young man collided with James Holding, who was one of three men on bicycles crossing from Kirkland Street.
Although Jennion had sounded his horn when he was some distance away, the Chairman of the Bench said it had been too far away for people coming out of the street to hear and he ought to have continued to sound it.
On the 14th the inquest was held on Sarah Waring. The 11-month-old baby from Charles Street in St Helens had died from choking, after a fluffy chicken in an Easter egg had got stuck inside her mouth. Little Sarah was taken to hospital but died on the following day. Both the manager of the shop from which the egg was purchased and the police surgeon agreed that it was a dangerous toy to have sold to children.
The inquest on Joseph Heath was also held on that day. The 28-year-old from Allanson Street had died as a consequence of a roof fall at Southport Colliery in Parr. It took over seven hours to extricate Joseph from the rubble that covered him and he died later in hospital.
Rainford, like other rural districts, tended to be last in the queue when it came to innovations. I recently mentioned how electricity would finally be coming to the village and now it seemed that flush water closets might be on their way. It was revealed at a meeting on the 16th that a Lancashire County Council sanitary inspector had inspected Rainford's toileting arrangements and recommended the installation of a sewerage scheme within the more populous areas so that privies could be converted into water closets.
In the meantime the inspector thought the privy middens – the dumps containing human waste – needed emptying more regularly by the night soil men. But it could be a while before the sanitary improvements were made as Dr Frank Prosser – Rainford's Medical Officer – told the meeting that the provision of new houses was the most urgent need of the village.
It was also announced at the meeting that a building firm had invited a council deputation to travel to London to inspect some steel houses that the company had built with the ultimate aim, of course, of getting some orders. A couple of councillors pointed out that a number of steel homes were being built in St Helens. These were not completely built of steel, of course. A bit of research informs me that steel was used in house building in the 1920s in the form of columns, beams, plates, steel frames etc. and as exterior cladding. But in the end the Rainford councillors decided that the invitation be "allowed to lie on the table" – or, as we say today, kick it into the long grass and do nowt!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the new name for suicide corner, the motorbike on fire in Corporation Street, the Ten Loonies return to St Helens, the punch up in Thatto Heath and the 6-year-old boy severely injured by stone throwing.
This week's many stories include the sentimental Irish star at the Hippodrome who was a bit of a phony, the battered wife who said her husband drove her to take poison, the new Catholic Mission at Sutton Manor, the fluffy chicken in an Easter egg that killed a little girl, the fine for not sounding a horn in Boundary Road and there are signs that the flush toilet could be coming to Rainford – but not steel houses!
We begin with a "what's on guide" – or, what was on guide, I suppose I should say. Throughout the week at the Hippodrome in Corporation Street, they had a real star in the "world-famous Irish entertainer" Talbot O’Farrell.
That's a quote from the theatre's advert in the St Helens Reporter which went on to say that O’Farrell had "appeared so successfully before their Majesties the King and Queen, at the Command Performance, Alhambra Theatre, London, February 12th."
However, Talbot O'Farrell was not Irish. The sentimental singer had been born in Hull as William Parrott and on stage initially passed himself off as Scottish using the names Will or Jock McIver.
Around 1912 he adopted the name Talbot O'Farrell and cultivated an Irish accent, singing mostly sentimental songs such as "That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine" and he became hugely successful.
Further up Corporation Street the Theatre Royal had a return visit from the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performing a number of Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas.
These included The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, HMS Pinafore and Ruddigore.
I don't normally mention what was on at the cinemas, as the titles of the pictures are rarely remembered. Many, in fact, have been lost.
But this week the Thatto Heath Empire had Lon Chaney in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', which they described in their advert as "A picture you will talk about for months. Aglow with love. Alive with action."
And also, of course, silent. But not entirely, as "appropriate songs" were going to be "rendered by Madame Eleanor Slater (contralto) and Theo. Pennington (light baritone)".
Silent films were not usually presented silently, as the cinema often hired a few musicians and persons to perform simple sound effects to enhance the visuals.
Last month I described how in St Helens Police Court Elizabeth Peel had charged her husband James of Hall Street (pictured above) with persistent cruelty.
The couple had only been married for eight months but the 22-year-old gave a long list of violent acts that she said her husband had perpetrated against her.
James denied his wife's allegations and attempted to paint her as the difficult one in the marriage with an uncontrollable temper.
In reality the case was an application for a separation order with maintenance payments but the magistrates were highly reluctant to sanction the separation of newlyweds.
And so they adjourned the case for a month and asked the court missionary / social worker to step in and try to resolve the couple's problems.
Often that's the last we hear of such cases, as under pressure from the court officer, the wife would return to her husband after promises of better behaviour were made.
But not in this instance, as round 2 of Peel vs. Peel took place this week and once again received enormous publicity in the local press.
Why it was in the public interest for such prurient details to be reported at such length I cannot say – but it certainly interested the public, although the publicity can't have done the couple at the centre of it all any good.
Much of what had been said last month was rehashed in the second hearing but a more concerted effort to paint Elizabeth as the violent one in the marriage was made.
Of course, there might have been some truth in that – but such a tactic was a very common one for wife abusers to make in order to muddy the water.
And it is hardly surprising that some women would fight back in a minor way against their violent spouse – but if they did so it would count against them in court.
James' solicitor accused Elizabeth of smashing a plate over her husband's head and attempting to cut his throat with a knife – both allegations she denied.
But the wife did admit to taking some poison and having to go to hospital – but denied her husband had taken the bottle from her.
One of the more curious claims implying misbehaviour that were made against Elizabeth was that she went to the pictures twice a week. How awful!
She had to admit that it was true but insisted that she paid for her cinema-going using her own money and not her husband's.
James' solicitor even accused Elizabeth of inviting her husband to hit her. To that she replied: "No. He did that without being invited."
Elizabeth did have her two aunts in court to provide some corroboration of her statements but much of what was claimed to have occurred had been in private without witnesses.
But the magistrates (very unusually for such a short marriage) decided that there was sufficient evidence of persistent cruelty to grant the separation order and James was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week maintenance.
On the 11th at a meeting of the council's Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer stated that during the past month there had been a large number of cases of whooping cough in the town. And he added that there was also lots of German measles about.
Two days later the St Helens Reporter described how Father Ralph Holden had been formally installed as the first parish priest of the new Catholic Mission at Sutton Manor.
The small chapel had been constructed in Gartons Lane in 1916 and it became Fr Holden's dream to build a basilica dedicated to the newly canonised Thérèse of Lisieux.
Much fundraising took place, however, there were many setbacks and it was not until 1931 before the foundation stone could be laid and a further 28 years elapsed before the church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus could be opened.
And financial cutbacks meant a somewhat less grandiose place of worship than had been originally intended was built, seven years after the death of its founding priest.
There was an expectation that motorists should sound their horn when approaching a street corner.
On the 13th motorcycle rider James Jennion was fined 20 shillings with 10s costs for not sounding his horn while driving his bike in Boundary Road.
The young man collided with James Holding, who was one of three men on bicycles crossing from Kirkland Street.
Although Jennion had sounded his horn when he was some distance away, the Chairman of the Bench said it had been too far away for people coming out of the street to hear and he ought to have continued to sound it.
On the 14th the inquest was held on Sarah Waring. The 11-month-old baby from Charles Street in St Helens had died from choking, after a fluffy chicken in an Easter egg had got stuck inside her mouth.
Little Sarah was taken to hospital but died on the following day. Both the manager of the shop from which the egg was purchased and the police surgeon agreed that it was a dangerous toy to have sold to children.
The inquest on Joseph Heath was also held on that day. The 28-year-old from Allanson Street had died as a consequence of a roof fall at Southport Colliery in Parr.
It took over seven hours to extricate Joseph from the rubble that covered him and he died later in hospital.
Rainford, like other rural districts, tended to be last in the queue when it came to innovations.
I recently mentioned how electricity would finally be coming to the village and now it seemed that flush water closets might be on their way.
It was revealed at a meeting on the 16th that a Lancashire County Council sanitary inspector had inspected Rainford's toileting arrangements and recommended the installation of a sewerage scheme within the more populous areas so that privies could be converted into water closets.
In the meantime the inspector thought the privy middens – the dumps containing human waste – needed emptying more regularly by the night soil men.
But it could be a while before the sanitary improvements were made as Dr Frank Prosser – Rainford's Medical Officer – told the meeting that the provision of new houses was the most urgent need of the village.
It was also announced at the meeting that a building firm had invited a council deputation to travel to London to inspect some steel houses that the company had built with the ultimate aim, of course, of getting some orders.
A couple of councillors pointed out that a number of steel homes were being built in St Helens. These were not completely built of steel, of course.
A bit of research informs me that steel was used in house building in the 1920s in the form of columns, beams, plates, steel frames etc. and as exterior cladding.
But in the end the Rainford councillors decided that the invitation be "allowed to lie on the table" – or, as we say today, kick it into the long grass and do nowt!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the new name for suicide corner, the motorbike on fire in Corporation Street, the Ten Loonies return to St Helens, the punch up in Thatto Heath and the 6-year-old boy severely injured by stone throwing.
That's a quote from the theatre's advert in the St Helens Reporter which went on to say that O’Farrell had "appeared so successfully before their Majesties the King and Queen, at the Command Performance, Alhambra Theatre, London, February 12th."
However, Talbot O'Farrell was not Irish. The sentimental singer had been born in Hull as William Parrott and on stage initially passed himself off as Scottish using the names Will or Jock McIver.
Around 1912 he adopted the name Talbot O'Farrell and cultivated an Irish accent, singing mostly sentimental songs such as "That Old Fashioned Mother of Mine" and he became hugely successful.
Further up Corporation Street the Theatre Royal had a return visit from the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performing a number of Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas.
These included The Mikado, The Yeomen of the Guard, HMS Pinafore and Ruddigore.
I don't normally mention what was on at the cinemas, as the titles of the pictures are rarely remembered. Many, in fact, have been lost.
But this week the Thatto Heath Empire had Lon Chaney in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', which they described in their advert as "A picture you will talk about for months. Aglow with love. Alive with action."
And also, of course, silent. But not entirely, as "appropriate songs" were going to be "rendered by Madame Eleanor Slater (contralto) and Theo. Pennington (light baritone)".
Silent films were not usually presented silently, as the cinema often hired a few musicians and persons to perform simple sound effects to enhance the visuals.
The couple had only been married for eight months but the 22-year-old gave a long list of violent acts that she said her husband had perpetrated against her.
James denied his wife's allegations and attempted to paint her as the difficult one in the marriage with an uncontrollable temper.
In reality the case was an application for a separation order with maintenance payments but the magistrates were highly reluctant to sanction the separation of newlyweds.
And so they adjourned the case for a month and asked the court missionary / social worker to step in and try to resolve the couple's problems.
Often that's the last we hear of such cases, as under pressure from the court officer, the wife would return to her husband after promises of better behaviour were made.
But not in this instance, as round 2 of Peel vs. Peel took place this week and once again received enormous publicity in the local press.
Why it was in the public interest for such prurient details to be reported at such length I cannot say – but it certainly interested the public, although the publicity can't have done the couple at the centre of it all any good.
Much of what had been said last month was rehashed in the second hearing but a more concerted effort to paint Elizabeth as the violent one in the marriage was made.
Of course, there might have been some truth in that – but such a tactic was a very common one for wife abusers to make in order to muddy the water.
And it is hardly surprising that some women would fight back in a minor way against their violent spouse – but if they did so it would count against them in court.
James' solicitor accused Elizabeth of smashing a plate over her husband's head and attempting to cut his throat with a knife – both allegations she denied.
But the wife did admit to taking some poison and having to go to hospital – but denied her husband had taken the bottle from her.
One of the more curious claims implying misbehaviour that were made against Elizabeth was that she went to the pictures twice a week. How awful!
She had to admit that it was true but insisted that she paid for her cinema-going using her own money and not her husband's.
James' solicitor even accused Elizabeth of inviting her husband to hit her. To that she replied: "No. He did that without being invited."
Elizabeth did have her two aunts in court to provide some corroboration of her statements but much of what was claimed to have occurred had been in private without witnesses.
But the magistrates (very unusually for such a short marriage) decided that there was sufficient evidence of persistent cruelty to grant the separation order and James was ordered to pay his wife 10 shillings a week maintenance.
On the 11th at a meeting of the council's Health Committee, the town's Medical Officer stated that during the past month there had been a large number of cases of whooping cough in the town. And he added that there was also lots of German measles about.
Two days later the St Helens Reporter described how Father Ralph Holden had been formally installed as the first parish priest of the new Catholic Mission at Sutton Manor.
The small chapel had been constructed in Gartons Lane in 1916 and it became Fr Holden's dream to build a basilica dedicated to the newly canonised Thérèse of Lisieux.
Much fundraising took place, however, there were many setbacks and it was not until 1931 before the foundation stone could be laid and a further 28 years elapsed before the church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus could be opened.
And financial cutbacks meant a somewhat less grandiose place of worship than had been originally intended was built, seven years after the death of its founding priest.
There was an expectation that motorists should sound their horn when approaching a street corner.
On the 13th motorcycle rider James Jennion was fined 20 shillings with 10s costs for not sounding his horn while driving his bike in Boundary Road.
The young man collided with James Holding, who was one of three men on bicycles crossing from Kirkland Street.
Although Jennion had sounded his horn when he was some distance away, the Chairman of the Bench said it had been too far away for people coming out of the street to hear and he ought to have continued to sound it.
On the 14th the inquest was held on Sarah Waring. The 11-month-old baby from Charles Street in St Helens had died from choking, after a fluffy chicken in an Easter egg had got stuck inside her mouth.
Little Sarah was taken to hospital but died on the following day. Both the manager of the shop from which the egg was purchased and the police surgeon agreed that it was a dangerous toy to have sold to children.
The inquest on Joseph Heath was also held on that day. The 28-year-old from Allanson Street had died as a consequence of a roof fall at Southport Colliery in Parr.
It took over seven hours to extricate Joseph from the rubble that covered him and he died later in hospital.
Rainford, like other rural districts, tended to be last in the queue when it came to innovations.
I recently mentioned how electricity would finally be coming to the village and now it seemed that flush water closets might be on their way.
It was revealed at a meeting on the 16th that a Lancashire County Council sanitary inspector had inspected Rainford's toileting arrangements and recommended the installation of a sewerage scheme within the more populous areas so that privies could be converted into water closets.
In the meantime the inspector thought the privy middens – the dumps containing human waste – needed emptying more regularly by the night soil men.
But it could be a while before the sanitary improvements were made as Dr Frank Prosser – Rainford's Medical Officer – told the meeting that the provision of new houses was the most urgent need of the village.
It was also announced at the meeting that a building firm had invited a council deputation to travel to London to inspect some steel houses that the company had built with the ultimate aim, of course, of getting some orders.
A couple of councillors pointed out that a number of steel homes were being built in St Helens. These were not completely built of steel, of course.
A bit of research informs me that steel was used in house building in the 1920s in the form of columns, beams, plates, steel frames etc. and as exterior cladding.
But in the end the Rainford councillors decided that the invitation be "allowed to lie on the table" – or, as we say today, kick it into the long grass and do nowt!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the new name for suicide corner, the motorbike on fire in Corporation Street, the Ten Loonies return to St Helens, the punch up in Thatto Heath and the 6-year-old boy severely injured by stone throwing.