IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 22 - 28 DECEMBER 1925
This week's many stories include the Christmas service at the St Helens Cenotaph, the children's Christmas parties in Sutton and Clock Face, Uncle Ben's Christmas painting competition, the hawkers illegally selling mistletoe without a permit and Rainford Potteries Christmas Party.
Since 1874 it had been an annual tradition in St Helens for Handel's 'Messiah' to be performed at Christmas and this year's event was held in the Town Hall on the 22nd. The Co-op Choir led the singing and the St Helens Reporter said there had been some excellent performances. Five days later the Wesley Brotherhood gave their own version of Handel's 'Messiah' at the Methodist Church in Corporation Street.
Also on the 22nd, some of the last school Christmas parties took place in St Helens that had been organised by the mayor and funded by donations. In describing the "jollifications" in Sutton and Clock Face the Reporter wrote:
"The children know how to enjoy themselves with the care-freeness that is refreshing, and our representative who toured the district found teachers and scholars alike associating in a spirit of bonhomie. The stiff atmosphere so often found in school life was completely banished and in its place was an atmosphere laden with joy and high spirits."
If there was one consolation for all the deaths and suffering caused by what was then known as the Great War, it was that it had been the war to end all wars. How could people have thought otherwise after what many had been through? The Reporter described how that sentiment had been repeated at a special Christmas service that had taken place at the St Helens Cenotaph – as it was then known.
The war memorial in Victoria Square had been installed but was yet to be formally dedicated, as all the names of the fallen were still being inscribed. However, the monument had been the focal point for the recent Remembrance Day service and was where the St Helens and District Brotherhood Federation chose to gather for their Christmas event.
Despite the rain the Reporter said there had been a good attendance with the Mayor (Ald. Hamblett), Mayoress and the Vicar of St Helens in attendance. The Mayor told those present that they had gathered to honour the men in whose memory the Cenotaph had been erected:
"It was the happy and widespread custom for families to meet together to share in the festivities of Christmas, and this year, as in other years since the Great War, there would be in many homes vacant places of husbands, sons, brothers, who had made the supreme sacrifice. They went forth in the wartime days with the hope that this was a war to end war; a war that was to bring nearer an era of lasting peace."
St Helens Police Court was still open for business on Christmas Eve but some charity was on show. John Cooper from Bolton was charged with hawking artificial flowers in St Helens without a licence. "It's Christmas time!", declared the Magistrates' Chairman, Dr Patrick O’Keefe, adding, "If you will promise to leave the town immediately you can go."
Uncle Ben (who was really William Gentry, the Reporter's editor) began his Christmas column in the Children's Reporter with these words: "Seven hundred and thirty-seven entries! What do you think of those figures? That was the exact number of paintings received in the Christmas competition from my budding artists, and I can tell you I am very proud indeed of them.
"I have never seen better work at any time, although we have had very many painting competitions, but this time much greater pains had been taken, and the result the most gratifying. My desk for the last four hours has been like a Christmas card shop, and I myself am covered with “frost” which has fallen from some of the cards."
However, Uncle Ben did tick off some of his members who had sent in copies of existing paintings but rather charitably said, "Perhaps they did not understand what the word original meant."
Every week the St Helens County Court met in East Street with a judge adjudicating on civil cases from Widnes and Knowsley, as well as St Helens. Most cases heard were non-descript, with somebody simply suing somebody else for money that they owed them. Although that was the premise of a case heard in the County Court this week, the defendant's excuse for not turning up to the hearing was far from non-descript.
James Little wrote a letter to the judge saying that he couldn't appear to defend the claim that he owed £7 because he was 83, implying, of course, that he was too old and infirm. But the plaintiff – Joseph Strettle of Moss Croft Farm in Whiston – informed the judge that the man was in fact perfectly able-bodied and sprightly and during the previous week he had gone to church – to get married!
Somebody once said that getting married for the second time was the triumph of hope over experience. The same could be said for pubs and hotels in St Helens that wanted an extension to their opening hours for a special occasion. Time and again the licensing magistrates rejected such requests but still undeterred they would go to court with more applications.
The Reporter described how the town's Licensed Victuallers Association had applied for a general extension of their licensed hours for both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. And the Fleece Hotel in Church Street wanted a one-hour extension for the sale of intoxicating liquors for one night only on the occasion of the St Helens Glee Club's annual dinner on Boxing Day. But, as expected, the magistrates denied both applications without any reasons being given.
Time and time again traders accused of committing minor infringement of the St Helens byelaws would tell the magistrates that when doing the same thing in other places, the police never stopped them. That was what Isabella Connolly told the St Helens Bench this week after being charged with hawking mistletoe without a market permit. And with her in the dock was James Connolly, who had been selling Christmas novelties without a permit.
The pair from Liverpool had been hawking in the vicinity of Naylor Street in St Helens. Connolly explained that he had been out of work for 13 months and this had been his first experience of hawking. But the woman said she had been selling on the streets of Liverpool for some years without any permit and had never once been interfered with by the police. The man was fined 5 shillings and the woman was discharged.
"Dressed in tattered clothes, with a blood soaked wound on the top of his bald head, an elderly man named John Foster, of 2, Leicester-street, admitted to the County Magistrates at St. Helens on Friday morning, that he had been a poacher since 1876 – for nearly 50 years", wrote the Reporter. Mr Foster then added: "I promise I will never go poaching any more. I think it is time I finished at sixty-seven years of age next April."
The Bench said as he was an old man and had promised not to go poaching again he would only be fined £2 or serve 14 days in prison. But the nets that he had been using to catch rabbits in Knowsley would be confiscated. Foster had a head wound as a result of two gamekeepers knocking him down and roughing him up.
Francis Wilson Grundy – who lived in the village’s Dial House on Higher Lane and was a Rainford councillor – ran Rainford Potteries of Mill Lane. Under his stewardship many leisure pursuits were made available for his workforce and last week I described their annual fancy-dress Christmas Ball. And on Christmas Eve the children of Rainford Potteries' employees attended a party in Rainford Village Hall. The Reporter said there had been "joyous celebrations" when the 150 kids "attired in their Sunday best" filled the hall:
"The room was lavishly decorated for the occasion. A huge Christmas tree, laden with toys, took up a central position, and on the platform stood an artistic reproduction of an old baronial fireplace with Christmas stockings hanging from the mantelpiece. The youngsters chattered in lively fashion during the serving of tea, and afterwards romped through games of musical chairs and other seasonable diversions.
"The descent of Father Christmas, attired in the robes of tradition, was hailed with delight, and he gladdened the hearts of each youngster with a toy. He was then conducted to his sleigh, a real life-size affair covered with snow and electric lights, and was swiftly whirled round the room to the accompaniment of tinkling sleigh bells." During the evening a dance for the adult employees took place to the music of the California State Band.
On Christmas Day, St Helens Recs hosted Saints' side at their City Road ground and the match ended 3-3 in what the Liverpool Evening Express described as "gruelling football" which like all derby games had "suffered from the super-abundance of excitement".
Arthur Lucan became famous in the 1930s when he began performing as 'Old Mother Riley', making 17 films as that character over a 15-year-period, mostly with his wife Kitty McShane. For a week from the 28th, Arthur and Kitty performed in a comedy revue at the St Helens Hippodrome called 'Some Show'. It was advertised as a "magnificent production of speed, spice and sparkle, mirth and melody – a full beauty chorus and splendid dancing."
The Lancashire Evening Post in its review of the same production in Preston wrote: "Arthur Lucan is a comedian with a real sense of character, and when he is working either with Jen Latona or Kitty McShane he has the house laughing all the time at his smart and witty sayings and his eccentric pranks. Indeed, his “Matchseller” scene has almost a touch of greatness …and Kitty McShane proves herself a lady of brains as well as charm."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Little Bo-Peep's sheep at the Theatre Royal, the 600 elderly persons attending the Sutton old folks treat and the miner that died five years after being injured at Ashtons Green Colliery.
Also on the 22nd, some of the last school Christmas parties took place in St Helens that had been organised by the mayor and funded by donations. In describing the "jollifications" in Sutton and Clock Face the Reporter wrote:
"The children know how to enjoy themselves with the care-freeness that is refreshing, and our representative who toured the district found teachers and scholars alike associating in a spirit of bonhomie. The stiff atmosphere so often found in school life was completely banished and in its place was an atmosphere laden with joy and high spirits."
If there was one consolation for all the deaths and suffering caused by what was then known as the Great War, it was that it had been the war to end all wars. How could people have thought otherwise after what many had been through? The Reporter described how that sentiment had been repeated at a special Christmas service that had taken place at the St Helens Cenotaph – as it was then known.
The war memorial in Victoria Square had been installed but was yet to be formally dedicated, as all the names of the fallen were still being inscribed. However, the monument had been the focal point for the recent Remembrance Day service and was where the St Helens and District Brotherhood Federation chose to gather for their Christmas event.
Despite the rain the Reporter said there had been a good attendance with the Mayor (Ald. Hamblett), Mayoress and the Vicar of St Helens in attendance. The Mayor told those present that they had gathered to honour the men in whose memory the Cenotaph had been erected:
"It was the happy and widespread custom for families to meet together to share in the festivities of Christmas, and this year, as in other years since the Great War, there would be in many homes vacant places of husbands, sons, brothers, who had made the supreme sacrifice. They went forth in the wartime days with the hope that this was a war to end war; a war that was to bring nearer an era of lasting peace."
St Helens Police Court was still open for business on Christmas Eve but some charity was on show. John Cooper from Bolton was charged with hawking artificial flowers in St Helens without a licence. "It's Christmas time!", declared the Magistrates' Chairman, Dr Patrick O’Keefe, adding, "If you will promise to leave the town immediately you can go."
Uncle Ben (who was really William Gentry, the Reporter's editor) began his Christmas column in the Children's Reporter with these words: "Seven hundred and thirty-seven entries! What do you think of those figures? That was the exact number of paintings received in the Christmas competition from my budding artists, and I can tell you I am very proud indeed of them.
"I have never seen better work at any time, although we have had very many painting competitions, but this time much greater pains had been taken, and the result the most gratifying. My desk for the last four hours has been like a Christmas card shop, and I myself am covered with “frost” which has fallen from some of the cards."
However, Uncle Ben did tick off some of his members who had sent in copies of existing paintings but rather charitably said, "Perhaps they did not understand what the word original meant."
Every week the St Helens County Court met in East Street with a judge adjudicating on civil cases from Widnes and Knowsley, as well as St Helens. Most cases heard were non-descript, with somebody simply suing somebody else for money that they owed them. Although that was the premise of a case heard in the County Court this week, the defendant's excuse for not turning up to the hearing was far from non-descript.
James Little wrote a letter to the judge saying that he couldn't appear to defend the claim that he owed £7 because he was 83, implying, of course, that he was too old and infirm. But the plaintiff – Joseph Strettle of Moss Croft Farm in Whiston – informed the judge that the man was in fact perfectly able-bodied and sprightly and during the previous week he had gone to church – to get married!
Somebody once said that getting married for the second time was the triumph of hope over experience. The same could be said for pubs and hotels in St Helens that wanted an extension to their opening hours for a special occasion. Time and again the licensing magistrates rejected such requests but still undeterred they would go to court with more applications.
The Reporter described how the town's Licensed Victuallers Association had applied for a general extension of their licensed hours for both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. And the Fleece Hotel in Church Street wanted a one-hour extension for the sale of intoxicating liquors for one night only on the occasion of the St Helens Glee Club's annual dinner on Boxing Day. But, as expected, the magistrates denied both applications without any reasons being given.
Time and time again traders accused of committing minor infringement of the St Helens byelaws would tell the magistrates that when doing the same thing in other places, the police never stopped them. That was what Isabella Connolly told the St Helens Bench this week after being charged with hawking mistletoe without a market permit. And with her in the dock was James Connolly, who had been selling Christmas novelties without a permit.
The pair from Liverpool had been hawking in the vicinity of Naylor Street in St Helens. Connolly explained that he had been out of work for 13 months and this had been his first experience of hawking. But the woman said she had been selling on the streets of Liverpool for some years without any permit and had never once been interfered with by the police. The man was fined 5 shillings and the woman was discharged.
"Dressed in tattered clothes, with a blood soaked wound on the top of his bald head, an elderly man named John Foster, of 2, Leicester-street, admitted to the County Magistrates at St. Helens on Friday morning, that he had been a poacher since 1876 – for nearly 50 years", wrote the Reporter. Mr Foster then added: "I promise I will never go poaching any more. I think it is time I finished at sixty-seven years of age next April."
The Bench said as he was an old man and had promised not to go poaching again he would only be fined £2 or serve 14 days in prison. But the nets that he had been using to catch rabbits in Knowsley would be confiscated. Foster had a head wound as a result of two gamekeepers knocking him down and roughing him up.
Francis Wilson Grundy – who lived in the village’s Dial House on Higher Lane and was a Rainford councillor – ran Rainford Potteries of Mill Lane. Under his stewardship many leisure pursuits were made available for his workforce and last week I described their annual fancy-dress Christmas Ball. And on Christmas Eve the children of Rainford Potteries' employees attended a party in Rainford Village Hall. The Reporter said there had been "joyous celebrations" when the 150 kids "attired in their Sunday best" filled the hall:
"The room was lavishly decorated for the occasion. A huge Christmas tree, laden with toys, took up a central position, and on the platform stood an artistic reproduction of an old baronial fireplace with Christmas stockings hanging from the mantelpiece. The youngsters chattered in lively fashion during the serving of tea, and afterwards romped through games of musical chairs and other seasonable diversions.
"The descent of Father Christmas, attired in the robes of tradition, was hailed with delight, and he gladdened the hearts of each youngster with a toy. He was then conducted to his sleigh, a real life-size affair covered with snow and electric lights, and was swiftly whirled round the room to the accompaniment of tinkling sleigh bells." During the evening a dance for the adult employees took place to the music of the California State Band.
On Christmas Day, St Helens Recs hosted Saints' side at their City Road ground and the match ended 3-3 in what the Liverpool Evening Express described as "gruelling football" which like all derby games had "suffered from the super-abundance of excitement".
Arthur Lucan became famous in the 1930s when he began performing as 'Old Mother Riley', making 17 films as that character over a 15-year-period, mostly with his wife Kitty McShane. For a week from the 28th, Arthur and Kitty performed in a comedy revue at the St Helens Hippodrome called 'Some Show'. It was advertised as a "magnificent production of speed, spice and sparkle, mirth and melody – a full beauty chorus and splendid dancing."
The Lancashire Evening Post in its review of the same production in Preston wrote: "Arthur Lucan is a comedian with a real sense of character, and when he is working either with Jen Latona or Kitty McShane he has the house laughing all the time at his smart and witty sayings and his eccentric pranks. Indeed, his “Matchseller” scene has almost a touch of greatness …and Kitty McShane proves herself a lady of brains as well as charm."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Little Bo-Peep's sheep at the Theatre Royal, the 600 elderly persons attending the Sutton old folks treat and the miner that died five years after being injured at Ashtons Green Colliery.
This week's many stories include the Christmas service at the St Helens Cenotaph, the children's Christmas parties in Sutton and Clock Face, Uncle Ben's Christmas painting competition, the hawkers illegally selling mistletoe without a permit and Rainford Potteries Christmas Party.
Since 1874 it had been an annual tradition in St Helens for Handel's 'Messiah' to be performed at Christmas and this year's event was held in the Town Hall on the 22nd.
The Co-op Choir led the singing and the St Helens Reporter said there had been some excellent performances. Five days later the Wesley Brotherhood gave their own version of Handel's 'Messiah' at the Methodist Church in Corporation Street.
Also on the 22nd, some of the last school Christmas parties took place in St Helens that had been organised by the mayor and funded by donations.
In describing the "jollifications" in Sutton and Clock Face the Reporter wrote:
"The children know how to enjoy themselves with the care-freeness that is refreshing, and our representative who toured the district found teachers and scholars alike associating in a spirit of bonhomie.
"The stiff atmosphere so often found in school life was completely banished and in its place was an atmosphere laden with joy and high spirits."
If there was one consolation for all the deaths and suffering caused by what was then known as the Great War, it was that it had been the war to end all wars.
How could people have thought otherwise after what many had been through?
The Reporter described how that sentiment had been repeated at a special Christmas service that had taken place at the St Helens Cenotaph – as it was then known.
The war memorial in Victoria Square had been installed but was yet to be formally dedicated, as all the names of the fallen were still being inscribed.
However, the monument had been the focal point for the recent Remembrance Day service and was where the St Helens and District Brotherhood Federation chose to gather for their Christmas event.
Despite the rain the Reporter said there had been a good attendance with the Mayor (Ald. Hamblett), Mayoress and the Vicar of St Helens in attendance.
The Mayor told those present that they had gathered to honour the men in whose memory the Cenotaph had been erected:
"It was the happy and widespread custom for families to meet together to share in the festivities of Christmas, and this year, as in other years since the Great War, there would be in many homes vacant places of husbands, sons, brothers, who had made the supreme sacrifice.
"They went forth in the wartime days with the hope that this was a war to end war; a war that was to bring nearer an era of lasting peace."
St Helens Police Court was still open for business on Christmas Eve but some charity was on show.
John Cooper from Bolton was charged with hawking artificial flowers in St Helens without a licence.
"It's Christmas time!", declared the Magistrates' Chairman, Dr Patrick O’Keefe, adding, "If you will promise to leave the town immediately you can go."
Uncle Ben (who was really William Gentry, the Reporter's editor) began his Christmas column in the Children's Reporter with these words:
"Seven hundred and thirty-seven entries! What do you think of those figures? That was the exact number of paintings received in the Christmas competition from my budding artists, and I can tell you I am very proud indeed of them.
"I have never seen better work at any time, although we have had very many painting competitions, but this time much greater pains had been taken, and the result the most gratifying.
"My desk for the last four hours has been like a Christmas card shop, and I myself am covered with “frost” which has fallen from some of the cards."
However, Uncle Ben did tick off some of his members who had sent in copies of existing paintings but rather charitably said, "Perhaps they did not understand what the word original meant."
Every week the St Helens County Court met in East Street with a judge adjudicating on civil cases from Widnes and Knowsley, as well as St Helens.
Most cases heard were non-descript, with somebody simply suing somebody else for money that they owed them.
Although that was the premise of a case heard in the County Court this week, the defendant's excuse for not turning up to the hearing was far from non-descript.
James Little wrote a letter to the judge saying that he couldn't appear to defend the claim that he owed £7 because he was 83, implying, of course, that he was too old and infirm.
But the plaintiff – Joseph Strettle of Moss Croft Farm in Whiston – informed the judge that the man was in fact perfectly able-bodied and sprightly and during the previous week he had gone to church – to get married!
Somebody once said that getting married for the second time was the triumph of hope over experience.
The same could be said for pubs and hotels in St Helens that wanted an extension to their opening hours for a special occasion.
Time and again the licensing magistrates rejected such requests but still undeterred they would go to court with more applications.
The Reporter described how the town's Licensed Victuallers Association had applied for a general extension of their licensed hours for both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
And the Fleece Hotel in Church Street wanted a one-hour extension for the sale of intoxicating liquors for one night only on the occasion of the St Helens Glee Club's annual dinner on Boxing Day.
But, as expected, the magistrates denied both applications without any reasons being given.
Time and time again traders accused of committing minor infringement of the St Helens byelaws would tell the magistrates that when doing the same thing in other places, the police never stopped them.
That was what Isabella Connolly told the St Helens Bench this week after being charged with hawking mistletoe without a market permit.
And with her in the dock was James Connolly, who had been selling Christmas novelties without a permit.
The pair from Liverpool had been hawking in the vicinity of Naylor Street in St Helens.
Connolly explained that he had been out of work for 13 months and this had been his first experience of hawking.
But the woman said she had been selling on the streets of Liverpool for some years without any permit and had never once been interfered with by the police.
The man was fined 5 shillings and the woman was discharged.
"Dressed in tattered clothes, with a blood soaked wound on the top of his bald head, an elderly man named John Foster, of 2, Leicester-street, admitted to the County Magistrates at St. Helens on Friday morning, that he had been a poacher since 1876 – for nearly 50 years", wrote the Reporter.
Mr Foster then added: "I promise I will never go poaching any more. I think it is time I finished at sixty-seven years of age next April."
The Bench said as he was an old man and had promised not to go poaching again he would only be fined £2 or serve 14 days in prison. But the nets that he had been using to catch rabbits in Knowsley would be confiscated.
Foster had a head wound as a result of two gamekeepers knocking him down and roughing him up.
Francis Wilson Grundy – who lived in the village’s Dial House on Higher Lane and was a Rainford councillor – ran Rainford Potteries of Mill Lane.
Under his stewardship many leisure pursuits were made available for his workforce and last week I described their annual fancy-dress Christmas Ball.
And on Christmas Eve the children of Rainford Potteries' employees attended a party in Rainford Village Hall.
The Reporter said there had been "joyous celebrations" when the 150 kids "attired in their Sunday best" filled the hall:
"The room was lavishly decorated for the occasion. A huge Christmas tree, laden with toys, took up a central position, and on the platform stood an artistic reproduction of an old baronial fireplace with Christmas stockings hanging from the mantelpiece.
"The youngsters chattered in lively fashion during the serving of tea, and afterwards romped through games of musical chairs and other seasonable diversions.
"The descent of Father Christmas, attired in the robes of tradition, was hailed with delight, and he gladdened the hearts of each youngster with a toy.
"He was then conducted to his sleigh, a real life-size affair covered with snow and electric lights, and was swiftly whirled round the room to the accompaniment of tinkling sleigh bells."
During the evening a dance for the adult employees took place to the music of the California State Band.
On Christmas Day, St Helens Recs hosted Saints' side at their City Road ground and the match ended 3-3 in what the Liverpool Evening Express described as "gruelling football" which like all derby games had "suffered from the super-abundance of excitement".
Arthur Lucan became famous in the 1930s when he began performing as 'Old Mother Riley', making 17 films as that character over a 15-year-period, mostly with his wife Kitty McShane.
For a week from the 28th, Arthur and Kitty performed in a comedy revue at the St Helens Hippodrome called 'Some Show'.
It was advertised as a "magnificent production of speed, spice and sparkle, mirth and melody – a full beauty chorus and splendid dancing."
The Lancashire Evening Post in its review of the same production in Preston wrote:
"Arthur Lucan is a comedian with a real sense of character, and when he is working either with Jen Latona or Kitty McShane he has the house laughing all the time at his smart and witty sayings and his eccentric pranks.
"Indeed, his “Matchseller” scene has almost a touch of greatness …and Kitty McShane proves herself a lady of brains as well as charm."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Little Bo-Peep's sheep at the Theatre Royal, the 600 elderly persons attending the Sutton old folks treat and the miner that died five years after being injured at Ashtons Green Colliery.
The Co-op Choir led the singing and the St Helens Reporter said there had been some excellent performances. Five days later the Wesley Brotherhood gave their own version of Handel's 'Messiah' at the Methodist Church in Corporation Street.
Also on the 22nd, some of the last school Christmas parties took place in St Helens that had been organised by the mayor and funded by donations.
In describing the "jollifications" in Sutton and Clock Face the Reporter wrote:
"The children know how to enjoy themselves with the care-freeness that is refreshing, and our representative who toured the district found teachers and scholars alike associating in a spirit of bonhomie.
"The stiff atmosphere so often found in school life was completely banished and in its place was an atmosphere laden with joy and high spirits."
If there was one consolation for all the deaths and suffering caused by what was then known as the Great War, it was that it had been the war to end all wars.
How could people have thought otherwise after what many had been through?
The Reporter described how that sentiment had been repeated at a special Christmas service that had taken place at the St Helens Cenotaph – as it was then known.
The war memorial in Victoria Square had been installed but was yet to be formally dedicated, as all the names of the fallen were still being inscribed.
However, the monument had been the focal point for the recent Remembrance Day service and was where the St Helens and District Brotherhood Federation chose to gather for their Christmas event.
Despite the rain the Reporter said there had been a good attendance with the Mayor (Ald. Hamblett), Mayoress and the Vicar of St Helens in attendance.
The Mayor told those present that they had gathered to honour the men in whose memory the Cenotaph had been erected:
"It was the happy and widespread custom for families to meet together to share in the festivities of Christmas, and this year, as in other years since the Great War, there would be in many homes vacant places of husbands, sons, brothers, who had made the supreme sacrifice.
"They went forth in the wartime days with the hope that this was a war to end war; a war that was to bring nearer an era of lasting peace."
St Helens Police Court was still open for business on Christmas Eve but some charity was on show.
John Cooper from Bolton was charged with hawking artificial flowers in St Helens without a licence.
"It's Christmas time!", declared the Magistrates' Chairman, Dr Patrick O’Keefe, adding, "If you will promise to leave the town immediately you can go."
Uncle Ben (who was really William Gentry, the Reporter's editor) began his Christmas column in the Children's Reporter with these words:
"Seven hundred and thirty-seven entries! What do you think of those figures? That was the exact number of paintings received in the Christmas competition from my budding artists, and I can tell you I am very proud indeed of them.
"I have never seen better work at any time, although we have had very many painting competitions, but this time much greater pains had been taken, and the result the most gratifying.
"My desk for the last four hours has been like a Christmas card shop, and I myself am covered with “frost” which has fallen from some of the cards."
However, Uncle Ben did tick off some of his members who had sent in copies of existing paintings but rather charitably said, "Perhaps they did not understand what the word original meant."
Every week the St Helens County Court met in East Street with a judge adjudicating on civil cases from Widnes and Knowsley, as well as St Helens.
Most cases heard were non-descript, with somebody simply suing somebody else for money that they owed them.
Although that was the premise of a case heard in the County Court this week, the defendant's excuse for not turning up to the hearing was far from non-descript.
James Little wrote a letter to the judge saying that he couldn't appear to defend the claim that he owed £7 because he was 83, implying, of course, that he was too old and infirm.
But the plaintiff – Joseph Strettle of Moss Croft Farm in Whiston – informed the judge that the man was in fact perfectly able-bodied and sprightly and during the previous week he had gone to church – to get married!
Somebody once said that getting married for the second time was the triumph of hope over experience.
The same could be said for pubs and hotels in St Helens that wanted an extension to their opening hours for a special occasion.
Time and again the licensing magistrates rejected such requests but still undeterred they would go to court with more applications.
The Reporter described how the town's Licensed Victuallers Association had applied for a general extension of their licensed hours for both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
And the Fleece Hotel in Church Street wanted a one-hour extension for the sale of intoxicating liquors for one night only on the occasion of the St Helens Glee Club's annual dinner on Boxing Day.
But, as expected, the magistrates denied both applications without any reasons being given.
Time and time again traders accused of committing minor infringement of the St Helens byelaws would tell the magistrates that when doing the same thing in other places, the police never stopped them.
That was what Isabella Connolly told the St Helens Bench this week after being charged with hawking mistletoe without a market permit.
And with her in the dock was James Connolly, who had been selling Christmas novelties without a permit.
The pair from Liverpool had been hawking in the vicinity of Naylor Street in St Helens.
Connolly explained that he had been out of work for 13 months and this had been his first experience of hawking.
But the woman said she had been selling on the streets of Liverpool for some years without any permit and had never once been interfered with by the police.
The man was fined 5 shillings and the woman was discharged.
"Dressed in tattered clothes, with a blood soaked wound on the top of his bald head, an elderly man named John Foster, of 2, Leicester-street, admitted to the County Magistrates at St. Helens on Friday morning, that he had been a poacher since 1876 – for nearly 50 years", wrote the Reporter.
Mr Foster then added: "I promise I will never go poaching any more. I think it is time I finished at sixty-seven years of age next April."
The Bench said as he was an old man and had promised not to go poaching again he would only be fined £2 or serve 14 days in prison. But the nets that he had been using to catch rabbits in Knowsley would be confiscated.
Foster had a head wound as a result of two gamekeepers knocking him down and roughing him up.
Francis Wilson Grundy – who lived in the village’s Dial House on Higher Lane and was a Rainford councillor – ran Rainford Potteries of Mill Lane.
Under his stewardship many leisure pursuits were made available for his workforce and last week I described their annual fancy-dress Christmas Ball.
And on Christmas Eve the children of Rainford Potteries' employees attended a party in Rainford Village Hall.
The Reporter said there had been "joyous celebrations" when the 150 kids "attired in their Sunday best" filled the hall:
"The room was lavishly decorated for the occasion. A huge Christmas tree, laden with toys, took up a central position, and on the platform stood an artistic reproduction of an old baronial fireplace with Christmas stockings hanging from the mantelpiece.
"The youngsters chattered in lively fashion during the serving of tea, and afterwards romped through games of musical chairs and other seasonable diversions.
"The descent of Father Christmas, attired in the robes of tradition, was hailed with delight, and he gladdened the hearts of each youngster with a toy.
"He was then conducted to his sleigh, a real life-size affair covered with snow and electric lights, and was swiftly whirled round the room to the accompaniment of tinkling sleigh bells."
During the evening a dance for the adult employees took place to the music of the California State Band.
On Christmas Day, St Helens Recs hosted Saints' side at their City Road ground and the match ended 3-3 in what the Liverpool Evening Express described as "gruelling football" which like all derby games had "suffered from the super-abundance of excitement".
Arthur Lucan became famous in the 1930s when he began performing as 'Old Mother Riley', making 17 films as that character over a 15-year-period, mostly with his wife Kitty McShane.
For a week from the 28th, Arthur and Kitty performed in a comedy revue at the St Helens Hippodrome called 'Some Show'.
It was advertised as a "magnificent production of speed, spice and sparkle, mirth and melody – a full beauty chorus and splendid dancing."
The Lancashire Evening Post in its review of the same production in Preston wrote:
"Arthur Lucan is a comedian with a real sense of character, and when he is working either with Jen Latona or Kitty McShane he has the house laughing all the time at his smart and witty sayings and his eccentric pranks.
"Indeed, his “Matchseller” scene has almost a touch of greatness …and Kitty McShane proves herself a lady of brains as well as charm."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include Little Bo-Peep's sheep at the Theatre Royal, the 600 elderly persons attending the Sutton old folks treat and the miner that died five years after being injured at Ashtons Green Colliery.