IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1st - 8th July 1919)
This week's stories include a "mean and despicable" theft down a coal mine, the woman from Boundary Road who would not shut up, the man who perjured himself in a St Helens court, the honourable defendant in a child maintenance case, the traders holiday in St Helens and the Sutton Manor man accused of playing pitch and toss who got his mother to provide an alibi.
We begin on the 2nd at a St Helens Town Council meeting when it was confirmed that a small committee headed by the mayor would consider the form that a public war memorial should take. Prescot had unveiled their memorial in the centre of Church Street and West Street in September 1916 in the form of a soldier in the South Lancashire Regiment. However St Helens's tribute to the fallen would not be unveiled in Victoria Square until Easter Sunday 1926.
It was also stated that the Borough Engineer had been authorised to purchase two swans for the lake in Victoria Park (pictured above). I expect their wings would have been clipped so they wouldn't fly away. The councillors were also told that the conservatories in the park were being opened on Sundays between 7pm and 9pm as an experiment. The Parks Superintendent was instructed to submit a report on the number of visitors.
The water shortage in the town was also discussed at length. It had been caused by the breakdown of three water stations and Liverpool Corporation had been asked to supply St Helens with a million gallons of water a day. They were required to provide a supply under an Act of Parliament but six months notice had to be given and so the shortage could not be quickly addressed.
Many lies were clearly told in St Helens Police Court. That was obvious in court cases when different people told different tales. Some of them had to be lying! However proving a lie was a different matter but if it could be done the consequences could be severe. William Chambers learnt this on the 2nd when charged at Liverpool Assizes with committing perjury.
On May 30th the 26-year-old miner – who was married with three children – denied in St Helens Police Court that he'd paid money or written letters to a woman who claimed she'd given birth to his child. After the hearing it was proved that maintenance payments had in fact been made and several of the letters matched Chambers' handwriting. The judge said at the assizes that the man had committed the most "wilful, corrupt, and deliberate perjury, again and again, after being warned" and he was sent to prison for 8 months.
The first Thursday in July was the 'Traders Holiday', the day when virtually all shops in St Helens and district closed and staff and some customers would go on excursions. It fell this year on the 3rd and the Reporter wrote: "The day broke wet and continued unsettled for the greater part, but none the less there was a general exodus of traders from town.
"Whilst many risked the inconvenient railway service, large numbers chose to reach their objective by motor chars-a-banc, and in this connection, we believe, the County Carriers Ltd., [of Boundary Road] had no fewer than nine commodious cars on duty, conveying partiers to resorts near and far."
The St Helens Reporter also wrote in their edition on the 4th that the town's medical officer had announced the level of fee that the husbands of pregnant women had to pay in the event of a medical emergency. The charge would occur if a midwife requested the attendance of a doctor, although those earning 15 shillings or under after their rent had been deducted were exempt.
Those earning between 15 shillings and 20 shillings per week would pay half the fee and those earning over £1 (after a rent deduction) would pay the full doctor's fee. Even boys earned more than 20 shillings a week and so very few families would not be paying the full fee – the amount of which was not stated in the report.
Also on the 4th a miner called Peter Ratcliffe from Brunswick Road appeared in the Police Court charged with what was described as a "mean and despicable theft". Ratcliffe and James Ferris worked in the same part of the Parr No 3 pit of what appears to have been Ashtons Green Colliery. This was situated between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road.
All miners had numbered tallies allocated to them that identified their presence down the mine and the coal that they'd dug. Ratcliffe's tally number was 143 and Ferris's was 116. The miners were employed on piecework and would place a tally on each full box of coal so that when the box reached the surface the colliery weighman knew whose it was.
However Ferris complained that he hadn't been paid for several of his boxes. And so a plan was hatched in which the next two boxes that the man sent to the surface would bear secret chalk marks. These were discovered to have Peter Ratcliffe's tally attached to them. In court he was accused of switching the tallies, which he denied but he was found guilty and fined £3..
Lads were regularly prosecuted for playing football on the streets but now it was the summer and so they were playing street cricket. William Ashley from Lowe Street was summoned to court for playing with his bat and ball in Raglan Street at 5:15pm on a Sunday afternoon. PC Williamson said there had been complaints about kids playing cricket and windows being smashed and the youth was fined 10 shillings.
John and Thomas Barrett from Jubits Lane and Thomas Morally from Walkers Lane in Sutton Manor were charged with gaming with coins. Unusually they had not been caught playing pitch and toss on a Sunday but late at night on a Friday.
PC Surgeon told the court that he had suspected that gambling was taking place and so had crept up to a hedge and for several minutes had watched the men tossing coins and exchanging money. Upon showing himself Thomas Barrett and an unknown man ran away.
However the 27-year-old denied having been there and brought his mother Elizabeth Barrett to court to say he had gone to bed at 9 o’clock and never left the house. So the magistrates dismissed the charge against him but his 22-year-old brother John and Thomas Morally were fined ten shillings each.
The 6th was Peace Sunday, a national commemoration of thanksgiving for the coming of peace and special services were held in all churches in St Helens. As the fire-ravaged Parish Church had yet to be rebuilt, the official civic service was held at St Thomas Church and the Mayor, magistrates and members of the Corporation, processed from the Town Hall.
The St Helens Reporter said all the church services had had a "befitting dignity and solemnity" about them. An open-air service of thanksgiving was also held in Victoria Square during the afternoon.
Elizabeth Kiernan sounds like one of those characters that could be both amusing and irritating and to say she was talkative would be quite an understatement! I certainly got that impression from reading the St Helens Reporter's write up of her appearance at the Police Court on the 7th charged with breach of the peace.
For two hours on the previous Wednesday night the woman had been making a terrible din at her home in Boundary Road (pictured above) and attracting a large crowd, as well as the police. Most of the shouting was through Elizabeth's bedroom window and eventually PC Tinsley threatened to turn a hosepipe onto the woman, which quietened her for a while!
However the constable told the Bench that some time later he found the woman "still at it" and told Elizabeth that she would be reported, to which she made a "most insolent reply". The Reporter wrote:
"The defendant gave a denial in the statement that she used obscene language or cursed. It was not her dirty habit. The woman went on to talk about being born in the town of St. Helens, and to give her life story, and she talked so much and so glibly that the Clerk had to caution her against talking in that strain. When she had ceased, apparently [it was] only for want of breath."
However the Reporter said Elizabeth's silence was only temporary as when another constable gave evidence she "burst forth in a torrent of words". Then while the magistrates were consulting – with the Mayor as Chairman – the woman: "...kept up a regular noise. So great did it eventually become that a couple of policemen had to go to her and compel her to sit down and remain silent.
"After a short consultation, the Mayor said “Now, Mrs. Kiernan,” but he could not get any further on account of the conduct of the defendant, who kept talking and wildly gesticulating. “You will have to be quiet, you know”, said the Mayor, and the defendant replied with a “Yes, I will” but she immediately re-commenced her talk, which she kept up for some time."
The Mayor warned Elizabeth that she would get herself into serious trouble if she did not shut up and in a rare moment of silence told her she would be bound over to keep the peace. Alderman Bates then added that she would have to pay a surety of £5 and find two other sureties of £2 10 shillings each from other people. The Reporter continued: "The woman again began to talk. She was removed from the Court by a couple of policemen, but she kept mumbling, until she was put outside the doors."
There was another unusual case in the Police Court on the 7th when the magistrates commended a defendant involved in a child maintenance case. Cecilia Rotheram had summoned George Worsley from Carlton Street after she had given birth to his child. Usually it was the man not willing to marry the woman but Worsley told the Bench that he had offered to wed Cecilia but she had refused because he was a Protestant.
He repeated his offer and said his father would pay for the wedding and provide a house for them and their child. The magistrates said he had behaved very honourably but the Bench had no option but to make an order for five shillings per week child maintenance.
Next week's stories will include the Liverpool Road brute that savagely attacked his wife, the Blackbrook woman who was prosecuted after her little boy burned to death, the Glover Street benefit fraud, a tragic suicide linked to the housing crisis, a violent scene in the Police Court, and why the Bold pitch and toss man should be ashamed of himself.
We begin on the 2nd at a St Helens Town Council meeting when it was confirmed that a small committee headed by the mayor would consider the form that a public war memorial should take. Prescot had unveiled their memorial in the centre of Church Street and West Street in September 1916 in the form of a soldier in the South Lancashire Regiment. However St Helens's tribute to the fallen would not be unveiled in Victoria Square until Easter Sunday 1926.
The water shortage in the town was also discussed at length. It had been caused by the breakdown of three water stations and Liverpool Corporation had been asked to supply St Helens with a million gallons of water a day. They were required to provide a supply under an Act of Parliament but six months notice had to be given and so the shortage could not be quickly addressed.
Many lies were clearly told in St Helens Police Court. That was obvious in court cases when different people told different tales. Some of them had to be lying! However proving a lie was a different matter but if it could be done the consequences could be severe. William Chambers learnt this on the 2nd when charged at Liverpool Assizes with committing perjury.
On May 30th the 26-year-old miner – who was married with three children – denied in St Helens Police Court that he'd paid money or written letters to a woman who claimed she'd given birth to his child. After the hearing it was proved that maintenance payments had in fact been made and several of the letters matched Chambers' handwriting. The judge said at the assizes that the man had committed the most "wilful, corrupt, and deliberate perjury, again and again, after being warned" and he was sent to prison for 8 months.
The first Thursday in July was the 'Traders Holiday', the day when virtually all shops in St Helens and district closed and staff and some customers would go on excursions. It fell this year on the 3rd and the Reporter wrote: "The day broke wet and continued unsettled for the greater part, but none the less there was a general exodus of traders from town.
"Whilst many risked the inconvenient railway service, large numbers chose to reach their objective by motor chars-a-banc, and in this connection, we believe, the County Carriers Ltd., [of Boundary Road] had no fewer than nine commodious cars on duty, conveying partiers to resorts near and far."
The St Helens Reporter also wrote in their edition on the 4th that the town's medical officer had announced the level of fee that the husbands of pregnant women had to pay in the event of a medical emergency. The charge would occur if a midwife requested the attendance of a doctor, although those earning 15 shillings or under after their rent had been deducted were exempt.
Those earning between 15 shillings and 20 shillings per week would pay half the fee and those earning over £1 (after a rent deduction) would pay the full doctor's fee. Even boys earned more than 20 shillings a week and so very few families would not be paying the full fee – the amount of which was not stated in the report.
Also on the 4th a miner called Peter Ratcliffe from Brunswick Road appeared in the Police Court charged with what was described as a "mean and despicable theft". Ratcliffe and James Ferris worked in the same part of the Parr No 3 pit of what appears to have been Ashtons Green Colliery. This was situated between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road.
All miners had numbered tallies allocated to them that identified their presence down the mine and the coal that they'd dug. Ratcliffe's tally number was 143 and Ferris's was 116. The miners were employed on piecework and would place a tally on each full box of coal so that when the box reached the surface the colliery weighman knew whose it was.
However Ferris complained that he hadn't been paid for several of his boxes. And so a plan was hatched in which the next two boxes that the man sent to the surface would bear secret chalk marks. These were discovered to have Peter Ratcliffe's tally attached to them. In court he was accused of switching the tallies, which he denied but he was found guilty and fined £3..
Lads were regularly prosecuted for playing football on the streets but now it was the summer and so they were playing street cricket. William Ashley from Lowe Street was summoned to court for playing with his bat and ball in Raglan Street at 5:15pm on a Sunday afternoon. PC Williamson said there had been complaints about kids playing cricket and windows being smashed and the youth was fined 10 shillings.
John and Thomas Barrett from Jubits Lane and Thomas Morally from Walkers Lane in Sutton Manor were charged with gaming with coins. Unusually they had not been caught playing pitch and toss on a Sunday but late at night on a Friday.
PC Surgeon told the court that he had suspected that gambling was taking place and so had crept up to a hedge and for several minutes had watched the men tossing coins and exchanging money. Upon showing himself Thomas Barrett and an unknown man ran away.
However the 27-year-old denied having been there and brought his mother Elizabeth Barrett to court to say he had gone to bed at 9 o’clock and never left the house. So the magistrates dismissed the charge against him but his 22-year-old brother John and Thomas Morally were fined ten shillings each.
The 6th was Peace Sunday, a national commemoration of thanksgiving for the coming of peace and special services were held in all churches in St Helens. As the fire-ravaged Parish Church had yet to be rebuilt, the official civic service was held at St Thomas Church and the Mayor, magistrates and members of the Corporation, processed from the Town Hall.
The St Helens Reporter said all the church services had had a "befitting dignity and solemnity" about them. An open-air service of thanksgiving was also held in Victoria Square during the afternoon.
Elizabeth Kiernan sounds like one of those characters that could be both amusing and irritating and to say she was talkative would be quite an understatement! I certainly got that impression from reading the St Helens Reporter's write up of her appearance at the Police Court on the 7th charged with breach of the peace.
However the constable told the Bench that some time later he found the woman "still at it" and told Elizabeth that she would be reported, to which she made a "most insolent reply". The Reporter wrote:
"The defendant gave a denial in the statement that she used obscene language or cursed. It was not her dirty habit. The woman went on to talk about being born in the town of St. Helens, and to give her life story, and she talked so much and so glibly that the Clerk had to caution her against talking in that strain. When she had ceased, apparently [it was] only for want of breath."
However the Reporter said Elizabeth's silence was only temporary as when another constable gave evidence she "burst forth in a torrent of words". Then while the magistrates were consulting – with the Mayor as Chairman – the woman: "...kept up a regular noise. So great did it eventually become that a couple of policemen had to go to her and compel her to sit down and remain silent.
"After a short consultation, the Mayor said “Now, Mrs. Kiernan,” but he could not get any further on account of the conduct of the defendant, who kept talking and wildly gesticulating. “You will have to be quiet, you know”, said the Mayor, and the defendant replied with a “Yes, I will” but she immediately re-commenced her talk, which she kept up for some time."
The Mayor warned Elizabeth that she would get herself into serious trouble if she did not shut up and in a rare moment of silence told her she would be bound over to keep the peace. Alderman Bates then added that she would have to pay a surety of £5 and find two other sureties of £2 10 shillings each from other people. The Reporter continued: "The woman again began to talk. She was removed from the Court by a couple of policemen, but she kept mumbling, until she was put outside the doors."
There was another unusual case in the Police Court on the 7th when the magistrates commended a defendant involved in a child maintenance case. Cecilia Rotheram had summoned George Worsley from Carlton Street after she had given birth to his child. Usually it was the man not willing to marry the woman but Worsley told the Bench that he had offered to wed Cecilia but she had refused because he was a Protestant.
He repeated his offer and said his father would pay for the wedding and provide a house for them and their child. The magistrates said he had behaved very honourably but the Bench had no option but to make an order for five shillings per week child maintenance.
Next week's stories will include the Liverpool Road brute that savagely attacked his wife, the Blackbrook woman who was prosecuted after her little boy burned to death, the Glover Street benefit fraud, a tragic suicide linked to the housing crisis, a violent scene in the Police Court, and why the Bold pitch and toss man should be ashamed of himself.