IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 24 - 30 NOVEMBER 1925
This week's many stories include the Ashcroft Street woman who was going to become an alien, the Thatto Heath boys that smashed up a derelict house, the Windle farmer fined for not marking a moved cow, the sale of work in aid of St Helens Hospital's new maternity block and the gambling house in Parr.
We begin on the 24th when the Liverpool Echo reported that Saints ground at Knowsley Road was to have a covered stand installed. Building work had now begun and it was hoped that by the next home fixture in two weeks' time, the stand cover would be in position. Initially around 1,000 supporters would be accommodated but when the scheme was completed, as many as 10,000 people would be protected from the rain and wind.
One of the big problems of the St Helens re-development project of the 1960s and 1970s was that it could take time before empty, condemned property was able to be demolished. In the meantime, children and youths would enter the houses and have fun ripping them up. The improvements of the 1920s were on a far smaller scale and with bobbies on their beats possessing local knowledge, there was a much greater chance of the culprits being caught.
On the 26th three boys from Thatto Heath, aged ten, twelve and thirteen, appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court accused of doing wilful damage to a condemned dwelling house. Sgt Latham said he had spoken to the lads and they admitted pulling some of the bricks down and one confessed to knocking a chimney down.
It was stated that youngsters had been damaging the house for months and the three boys were told that if it had not been for the bad condition of the place, they would have been severely dealt with. Instead, the charge against them was dismissed upon their payment of court costs.
As well as being undertakers, W.G. Dixon of Bickerstaffe Street also hired out motor coaches. In their advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 27th they claimed to be the "oldest established business in town" – presumably, referring just to carriage hire. Dixon's must have had one of the oldest telephone numbers as well – being just "St Helens 7". I’ve never been able to find out who had "St Helens 1"!
On the 27th a memorial service to the late Queen Mother was held in St Helens Town Hall. It was timed to coincide with her funeral and the Reporter said there had been a good congregation and "the evidences of mourning were everywhere apparent." Alexandra, the wife of the late Edward VII, had as Princess of Wales visited St Helens in 1865 to inspect the Ravenhead Glassworks and over 20,000 people had turned out to see her.
Since the war all foreigners, aka aliens, resident in Britain needed to be registered. The vast majority would have been living in lodgings and their landlord / landlady was required by law to keep an aliens' register for police inspection. There used to be more Russians and so-called Russian Poles living in St Helens than any other foreign nationality, with most working down the pit.
I don't have any figures for 1925 but the St Helens Chief Constable's annual report for 1933 revealed 51 such individuals out of 103 aliens resident in the town. A further 17 were Lithuanian. A few of these would have become alien by marriage, i.e. a British woman having married a foreigner and Mary Woods from Ashcroft Street planned to become such an individual.
She appeared in court on the 27th charged with failing to keep an aliens' register under the Aliens Order after PC Kirk had called at her house and asked to see her book. Mary would not have needed much of one as she only had a solitary lodger – her future husband! She explained to the court that their plans to get wed had been delayed, as the priest had been unable to marry them before Christmas. And so her Russian husband-to-be had six days earlier moved into her home as her lodger.
Mary added that she was unable to read and write and knew nothing about any Aliens Order. In the unusual circumstances the magistrates dismissed the charge upon payment of court costs and the woman was advised that if she went ahead and married her Russian lodger, she would become an alien herself and need to register.
Despite the considerable amount of police activity to combat gambling in St Helens and the hefty fines inflicted in court, people appear to have been betting even more. The public gallery in St Helens Police Court was packed when Alfred Anders from Pitt Street was charged with using his house for betting purposes. It was the usual story of police after a tip-off going on surveillance for periods across three days and counting all those who went round the back into the house. Then, when sufficient evidence was gathered to obtain a warrant from the magistrates, the house was raided.
In court Superintendent Dunn said across the three days they had recorded a total of 95 persons entering Alfred Anders' home. When they raided and searched the house they discovered a huge number of betting coupons and slips, as well as football coupons. About £150 in cash was also found.
"It was evident that betting on a very extensive scale had clearly been carried out", Supt Dunn informed the Bench and he called for them to impose a substantial fine on Anders. And the magistrates delivered too, with the man ordered to pay a whopping £50.
On the 27th nursing staff at St Helens Hospital held a two-day sale of work in their eye and ear department to help fund their new maternity block which was nearing completion. A target of £1,500 had been set to pay for the equipment that was needed for the maternity unit that would comprise a new wing.
The Reporter wrote: "The eye and ear department, where the sale of work was held, was gaily decorated for the occasion and assumed an exceptionally pleasing appearance. "Besides the numerous attractive stalls and the bright colours which were to be seen everywhere, a gorgeous array of flowers was placed in the centre of the room on a stand made of bicycle tubing, loaned by Mr. Topping [bicycle dealer], of Duke-street."
Some victims of mining accidents took a very long time to die from their injuries. The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 28th that Walter Jones from Raglan Street in St Helens had died on the previous day from a fractured spine and shoulder. The 30-year-old had suffered the accident while employed at Pilkingtons' St Helens Colliery in September 1922.
Farmers within the St Helens district were not very diligent in understanding and following regulations. That was shown during the war when many farmers were taken to court for not observing the strict wartime rules. In St Helens Police Court on the 30th, William Forster Jnr of Cabbage Hall Farm in Windle was prosecuted for not marking a moved cow.
During the previous month, to prevent the spread of disease, the Ministry of Agriculture had introduced controls on the movement of animals. A licence needed to be obtained from the police and when Forster obtained his, a constable told him that the conditions printed on the rear of the licence must be observed.
One was that before its removal, the animal had to be marked in a particular way. This, rather curiously, involved hair being plucked from its tail and a broad arrow marked on the flank of the cow with a pair of scissors. But Forster's cow was taken to the Corporation abattoir without being so marked, leading to the present prosecution for not marking a moved cow and Farmer Forster was fined £2.
And finally, on the 30th the woman who would become renowned as the highest-paid music hall star in the world, came to St Helens to perform at the Hippodrome. Hetty King (pictured above) was billed as "The World's Greatest Male Impersonator" and her success was said to be largely due to her painstaking observation of the mannerisms of soldiers and sailors.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the hooligans on Eccleston Mere, the barrel organ racket in Sutton, the miner who went berserk on Liverpool Road, complaints over open top trams in Parr and why the St Helens MP had to be put to bed.
We begin on the 24th when the Liverpool Echo reported that Saints ground at Knowsley Road was to have a covered stand installed. Building work had now begun and it was hoped that by the next home fixture in two weeks' time, the stand cover would be in position. Initially around 1,000 supporters would be accommodated but when the scheme was completed, as many as 10,000 people would be protected from the rain and wind.
One of the big problems of the St Helens re-development project of the 1960s and 1970s was that it could take time before empty, condemned property was able to be demolished. In the meantime, children and youths would enter the houses and have fun ripping them up. The improvements of the 1920s were on a far smaller scale and with bobbies on their beats possessing local knowledge, there was a much greater chance of the culprits being caught.
On the 26th three boys from Thatto Heath, aged ten, twelve and thirteen, appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court accused of doing wilful damage to a condemned dwelling house. Sgt Latham said he had spoken to the lads and they admitted pulling some of the bricks down and one confessed to knocking a chimney down.
It was stated that youngsters had been damaging the house for months and the three boys were told that if it had not been for the bad condition of the place, they would have been severely dealt with. Instead, the charge against them was dismissed upon their payment of court costs.
On the 27th a memorial service to the late Queen Mother was held in St Helens Town Hall. It was timed to coincide with her funeral and the Reporter said there had been a good congregation and "the evidences of mourning were everywhere apparent." Alexandra, the wife of the late Edward VII, had as Princess of Wales visited St Helens in 1865 to inspect the Ravenhead Glassworks and over 20,000 people had turned out to see her.
Since the war all foreigners, aka aliens, resident in Britain needed to be registered. The vast majority would have been living in lodgings and their landlord / landlady was required by law to keep an aliens' register for police inspection. There used to be more Russians and so-called Russian Poles living in St Helens than any other foreign nationality, with most working down the pit.
I don't have any figures for 1925 but the St Helens Chief Constable's annual report for 1933 revealed 51 such individuals out of 103 aliens resident in the town. A further 17 were Lithuanian. A few of these would have become alien by marriage, i.e. a British woman having married a foreigner and Mary Woods from Ashcroft Street planned to become such an individual.
She appeared in court on the 27th charged with failing to keep an aliens' register under the Aliens Order after PC Kirk had called at her house and asked to see her book. Mary would not have needed much of one as she only had a solitary lodger – her future husband! She explained to the court that their plans to get wed had been delayed, as the priest had been unable to marry them before Christmas. And so her Russian husband-to-be had six days earlier moved into her home as her lodger.
Mary added that she was unable to read and write and knew nothing about any Aliens Order. In the unusual circumstances the magistrates dismissed the charge upon payment of court costs and the woman was advised that if she went ahead and married her Russian lodger, she would become an alien herself and need to register.
Despite the considerable amount of police activity to combat gambling in St Helens and the hefty fines inflicted in court, people appear to have been betting even more. The public gallery in St Helens Police Court was packed when Alfred Anders from Pitt Street was charged with using his house for betting purposes. It was the usual story of police after a tip-off going on surveillance for periods across three days and counting all those who went round the back into the house. Then, when sufficient evidence was gathered to obtain a warrant from the magistrates, the house was raided.
In court Superintendent Dunn said across the three days they had recorded a total of 95 persons entering Alfred Anders' home. When they raided and searched the house they discovered a huge number of betting coupons and slips, as well as football coupons. About £150 in cash was also found.
"It was evident that betting on a very extensive scale had clearly been carried out", Supt Dunn informed the Bench and he called for them to impose a substantial fine on Anders. And the magistrates delivered too, with the man ordered to pay a whopping £50.
On the 27th nursing staff at St Helens Hospital held a two-day sale of work in their eye and ear department to help fund their new maternity block which was nearing completion. A target of £1,500 had been set to pay for the equipment that was needed for the maternity unit that would comprise a new wing.
The Reporter wrote: "The eye and ear department, where the sale of work was held, was gaily decorated for the occasion and assumed an exceptionally pleasing appearance. "Besides the numerous attractive stalls and the bright colours which were to be seen everywhere, a gorgeous array of flowers was placed in the centre of the room on a stand made of bicycle tubing, loaned by Mr. Topping [bicycle dealer], of Duke-street."
Some victims of mining accidents took a very long time to die from their injuries. The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 28th that Walter Jones from Raglan Street in St Helens had died on the previous day from a fractured spine and shoulder. The 30-year-old had suffered the accident while employed at Pilkingtons' St Helens Colliery in September 1922.
Farmers within the St Helens district were not very diligent in understanding and following regulations. That was shown during the war when many farmers were taken to court for not observing the strict wartime rules. In St Helens Police Court on the 30th, William Forster Jnr of Cabbage Hall Farm in Windle was prosecuted for not marking a moved cow.
During the previous month, to prevent the spread of disease, the Ministry of Agriculture had introduced controls on the movement of animals. A licence needed to be obtained from the police and when Forster obtained his, a constable told him that the conditions printed on the rear of the licence must be observed.
One was that before its removal, the animal had to be marked in a particular way. This, rather curiously, involved hair being plucked from its tail and a broad arrow marked on the flank of the cow with a pair of scissors. But Forster's cow was taken to the Corporation abattoir without being so marked, leading to the present prosecution for not marking a moved cow and Farmer Forster was fined £2.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the hooligans on Eccleston Mere, the barrel organ racket in Sutton, the miner who went berserk on Liverpool Road, complaints over open top trams in Parr and why the St Helens MP had to be put to bed.
This week's many stories include the Ashcroft Street woman who was going to become an alien, the Thatto Heath boys that smashed up a derelict house, the Windle farmer fined for not marking a moved cow, the sale of work in aid of St Helens Hospital's new maternity block and the gambling house in Parr.
We begin on the 24th when the Liverpool Echo reported that Saints ground at Knowsley Road was to have a covered stand installed.
Building work had now begun and it was hoped that by the next home fixture in two weeks' time, the stand cover would be in position.
Initially around 1,000 supporters would be accommodated but when the scheme was completed, as many as 10,000 people would be protected from the rain and wind.
One of the big problems of the St Helens re-development project of the 1960s and 1970s was that it could take time before empty, condemned property was able to be demolished.
In the meantime, children and youths would enter the houses and have fun ripping them up.
The improvements of the 1920s were on a far smaller scale and with bobbies on their beats possessing local knowledge, there was a much greater chance of the culprits being caught.
On the 26th three boys from Thatto Heath, aged ten, twelve and thirteen, appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court accused of doing wilful damage to a condemned dwelling house.
Sgt Latham said he had spoken to the lads and they admitted pulling some of the bricks down and one confessed to knocking a chimney down.
It was stated that youngsters had been damaging the house for months and the three boys were told that if it had not been for the bad condition of the place, they would have been severely dealt with.
Instead, the charge against them was dismissed upon their payment of court costs.
As well as being undertakers, W.G. Dixon of Bickerstaffe Street also hired out motor coaches.
In their advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 27th they claimed to be the "oldest established business in town" – presumably, referring just to carriage hire.
Dixon's must have had one of the oldest telephone numbers as well – being just "St Helens 7". I’ve never been able to find out who had "St Helens 1"!
On the 27th a memorial service to the late Queen Mother was held in St Helens Town Hall.
It was timed to coincide with her funeral and the Reporter said there had been a good congregation and "the evidences of mourning were everywhere apparent."
Alexandra, the wife of the late Edward VII, had as Princess of Wales visited St Helens in 1865 to inspect the Ravenhead Glassworks and over 20,000 people had turned out to see her.
Since the war all foreigners, aka aliens, resident in Britain needed to be registered.
The vast majority would have been living in lodgings and their landlord / landlady was required by law to keep an aliens' register for police inspection.
There used to be more Russians and so-called Russian Poles living in St Helens than any other foreign nationality, with most working down the pit.
I don't have any figures for 1925 but the St Helens Chief Constable's annual report for 1933 revealed 51 such individuals out of 103 aliens resident in the town. A further 17 were Lithuanian.
A few of these would have become alien by marriage, i.e. a British woman having married a foreigner and Mary Woods from Ashcroft Street planned to become such an individual.
She appeared in court on the 27th charged with failing to keep an aliens' register under the Aliens Order after PC Kirk had called at her house and asked to see her book.
Mary would not have needed much of one as she only had a solitary lodger – her future husband!
She explained to the court that their plans to get wed had been delayed, as the priest had been unable to marry them before Christmas.
And so her Russian husband-to-be had six days earlier moved into her home as her lodger.
Mary added that she was unable to read and write and knew nothing about any Aliens Order.
In the unusual circumstances the magistrates dismissed the charge upon payment of court costs and the woman was advised that if she went ahead and married her Russian lodger, she would become an alien herself and need to register.
Despite the considerable amount of police activity to combat gambling in St Helens and the hefty fines inflicted in court, people appear to have been betting even more.
The public gallery in St Helens Police Court was packed when Alfred Anders from Pitt Street was charged with using his house for betting purposes.
It was the usual story of police after a tip-off going on surveillance for periods across three days and counting all those who went round the back into the house.
Then, when sufficient evidence was gathered to obtain a warrant from the magistrates, the house was raided.
In court Superintendent Dunn said across the three days they had recorded a total of 95 persons entering Alfred Anders' home.
When they raided and searched the house they discovered a huge number of betting coupons and slips, as well as football coupons. About £150 in cash was also found.
"It was evident that betting on a very extensive scale had clearly been carried out", Supt Dunn informed the Bench and he called for them to impose a substantial fine on Anders. And the magistrates delivered too, with the man ordered to pay a whopping £50.
On the 27th nursing staff at St Helens Hospital held a two-day sale of work in their eye and ear department to help fund their new maternity block which was nearing completion.
A target of £1,500 had been set to pay for the equipment that was needed for the maternity unit that would comprise a new wing.
The Reporter wrote: "The eye and ear department, where the sale of work was held, was gaily decorated for the occasion and assumed an exceptionally pleasing appearance.
"Besides the numerous attractive stalls and the bright colours which were to be seen everywhere, a gorgeous array of flowers was placed in the centre of the room on a stand made of bicycle tubing, loaned by Mr. Topping [bicycle dealer], of Duke-street."
Some victims of mining accidents took a very long time to die from their injuries. The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 28th that Walter Jones from Raglan Street in St Helens had died on the previous day from a fractured spine and shoulder.
The 30-year-old had suffered the accident while employed at Pilkingtons' St Helens Colliery in September 1922.
Farmers within the St Helens district were not very diligent in understanding and following regulations.
That was shown during the war when many farmers were taken to court for not observing the strict wartime rules.
In St Helens Police Court on the 30th, William Forster Jnr of Cabbage Hall Farm in Windle was prosecuted for not marking a moved cow.
During the previous month, to prevent the spread of disease, the Ministry of Agriculture had introduced controls on the movement of animals.
A licence needed to be obtained from the police and when Forster obtained his, a constable told him that the conditions printed on the rear of the licence must be observed.
One was that before its removal, the animal had to be marked in a particular way.
This, rather curiously, involved hair being plucked from its tail and a broad arrow marked on the flank of the cow with a pair of scissors.
But Forster's cow was taken to the Corporation abattoir without being so marked, leading to the present prosecution for not marking a moved cow and Farmer Forster was fined £2.
And finally, on the 30th the woman who would become renowned as the highest-paid music hall star in the world, came to St Helens to perform at the Hippodrome.
Hetty King (pictured above) was billed as "The World's Greatest Male Impersonator" and her success was said to be largely due to her painstaking observation of the mannerisms of soldiers and sailors.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the hooligans on Eccleston Mere, the barrel organ racket in Sutton, the miner who went berserk on Liverpool Road, complaints over open top trams in Parr and why the St Helens MP had to be put to bed.
We begin on the 24th when the Liverpool Echo reported that Saints ground at Knowsley Road was to have a covered stand installed.
Building work had now begun and it was hoped that by the next home fixture in two weeks' time, the stand cover would be in position.
Initially around 1,000 supporters would be accommodated but when the scheme was completed, as many as 10,000 people would be protected from the rain and wind.
One of the big problems of the St Helens re-development project of the 1960s and 1970s was that it could take time before empty, condemned property was able to be demolished.
In the meantime, children and youths would enter the houses and have fun ripping them up.
The improvements of the 1920s were on a far smaller scale and with bobbies on their beats possessing local knowledge, there was a much greater chance of the culprits being caught.
On the 26th three boys from Thatto Heath, aged ten, twelve and thirteen, appeared in St Helens Juvenile Court accused of doing wilful damage to a condemned dwelling house.
Sgt Latham said he had spoken to the lads and they admitted pulling some of the bricks down and one confessed to knocking a chimney down.
It was stated that youngsters had been damaging the house for months and the three boys were told that if it had not been for the bad condition of the place, they would have been severely dealt with.
Instead, the charge against them was dismissed upon their payment of court costs.
In their advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 27th they claimed to be the "oldest established business in town" – presumably, referring just to carriage hire.
Dixon's must have had one of the oldest telephone numbers as well – being just "St Helens 7". I’ve never been able to find out who had "St Helens 1"!
On the 27th a memorial service to the late Queen Mother was held in St Helens Town Hall.
It was timed to coincide with her funeral and the Reporter said there had been a good congregation and "the evidences of mourning were everywhere apparent."
Alexandra, the wife of the late Edward VII, had as Princess of Wales visited St Helens in 1865 to inspect the Ravenhead Glassworks and over 20,000 people had turned out to see her.
Since the war all foreigners, aka aliens, resident in Britain needed to be registered.
The vast majority would have been living in lodgings and their landlord / landlady was required by law to keep an aliens' register for police inspection.
There used to be more Russians and so-called Russian Poles living in St Helens than any other foreign nationality, with most working down the pit.
I don't have any figures for 1925 but the St Helens Chief Constable's annual report for 1933 revealed 51 such individuals out of 103 aliens resident in the town. A further 17 were Lithuanian.
A few of these would have become alien by marriage, i.e. a British woman having married a foreigner and Mary Woods from Ashcroft Street planned to become such an individual.
She appeared in court on the 27th charged with failing to keep an aliens' register under the Aliens Order after PC Kirk had called at her house and asked to see her book.
Mary would not have needed much of one as she only had a solitary lodger – her future husband!
She explained to the court that their plans to get wed had been delayed, as the priest had been unable to marry them before Christmas.
And so her Russian husband-to-be had six days earlier moved into her home as her lodger.
Mary added that she was unable to read and write and knew nothing about any Aliens Order.
In the unusual circumstances the magistrates dismissed the charge upon payment of court costs and the woman was advised that if she went ahead and married her Russian lodger, she would become an alien herself and need to register.
Despite the considerable amount of police activity to combat gambling in St Helens and the hefty fines inflicted in court, people appear to have been betting even more.
The public gallery in St Helens Police Court was packed when Alfred Anders from Pitt Street was charged with using his house for betting purposes.
It was the usual story of police after a tip-off going on surveillance for periods across three days and counting all those who went round the back into the house.
Then, when sufficient evidence was gathered to obtain a warrant from the magistrates, the house was raided.
In court Superintendent Dunn said across the three days they had recorded a total of 95 persons entering Alfred Anders' home.
When they raided and searched the house they discovered a huge number of betting coupons and slips, as well as football coupons. About £150 in cash was also found.
"It was evident that betting on a very extensive scale had clearly been carried out", Supt Dunn informed the Bench and he called for them to impose a substantial fine on Anders. And the magistrates delivered too, with the man ordered to pay a whopping £50.
On the 27th nursing staff at St Helens Hospital held a two-day sale of work in their eye and ear department to help fund their new maternity block which was nearing completion.
A target of £1,500 had been set to pay for the equipment that was needed for the maternity unit that would comprise a new wing.
The Reporter wrote: "The eye and ear department, where the sale of work was held, was gaily decorated for the occasion and assumed an exceptionally pleasing appearance.
"Besides the numerous attractive stalls and the bright colours which were to be seen everywhere, a gorgeous array of flowers was placed in the centre of the room on a stand made of bicycle tubing, loaned by Mr. Topping [bicycle dealer], of Duke-street."
Some victims of mining accidents took a very long time to die from their injuries. The Liverpool Echo wrote on the 28th that Walter Jones from Raglan Street in St Helens had died on the previous day from a fractured spine and shoulder.
The 30-year-old had suffered the accident while employed at Pilkingtons' St Helens Colliery in September 1922.
Farmers within the St Helens district were not very diligent in understanding and following regulations.
That was shown during the war when many farmers were taken to court for not observing the strict wartime rules.
In St Helens Police Court on the 30th, William Forster Jnr of Cabbage Hall Farm in Windle was prosecuted for not marking a moved cow.
During the previous month, to prevent the spread of disease, the Ministry of Agriculture had introduced controls on the movement of animals.
A licence needed to be obtained from the police and when Forster obtained his, a constable told him that the conditions printed on the rear of the licence must be observed.
One was that before its removal, the animal had to be marked in a particular way.
This, rather curiously, involved hair being plucked from its tail and a broad arrow marked on the flank of the cow with a pair of scissors.
But Forster's cow was taken to the Corporation abattoir without being so marked, leading to the present prosecution for not marking a moved cow and Farmer Forster was fined £2.
And finally, on the 30th the woman who would become renowned as the highest-paid music hall star in the world, came to St Helens to perform at the Hippodrome.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the hooligans on Eccleston Mere, the barrel organ racket in Sutton, the miner who went berserk on Liverpool Road, complaints over open top trams in Parr and why the St Helens MP had to be put to bed.