IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1st - 7th AUGUST 1922)
This week's stories include the two families in Market Street that were at each other's throats, the singing RAF deserter in Oxford Street, the Bold farmer's gun pretence, the motorbike racers in Dentons Green and the strange Sutton Manor story of the piano removal coal man and the frisky horse.
Although the housing crisis in St Helens was easing slightly, there were still many families sharing overcrowded homes, including the Ryan and Hughes families of 33 Market Street. There were ten persons in total in occupation in what appeared to be a two-bedroomed house. It clearly didn't take much for tempers to rise and on August 1st Ellen Ryan appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with assault. Mrs Ryan and her husband and three children lodged with Leah Hughes, a widow with four children.
On the previous Sunday the two women had fallen out over something and Mrs Ryan ended up beating her landlady about the face. She then turned Mrs Hughes and her children out of their own house – although they appear to have soon returned. The children would, of course, imitate the actions of grown-ups and on the following day the two sets of kids began rowing. That led to Ellen Ryan inflicting two wounds on the head of the thirteen-year-old Hughes boy.
The woman clearly had quite a temper as it was revealed in court that she had two prior convictions for assault and unlawful wounding – having previously served a month in prison for assaulting policemen. Ellen was sentenced to a further 28 days in prison. In fact in 1920 Ellen Ryan had thrown two glasses into the face of Patrick Towey who had innocently been minding his own business in the Nelson Hotel in Bridge Street.
She claimed that the Lea Green Colliery miner had come out with "dirty talk" but three witnesses gave evidence that he had not said a word to the woman. Chief Inspector Roe said at the time that Ellen was addicted to drink and when drunk could be very violent. The magistrates then decided to give her a second chance by placing her on probation, although Ellen was also advised to give up drinking and lead "an industrious life", which she had clearly failed to do.
James Collier told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court on the 2nd how he'd fooled two men who he'd found lurking in his barn at Union Bank Farm in Bold. After spotting the pair going through his fields and then entering his barn, Mr Collier approached them holding one hand in his pocket as if he had a gun. The farmer shouted "Hands up!" and Walter Stubbs from Manchester and William Jennion of Ormskirk immediately surrendered and he handed them over to the police.
The farmer stated that he had previously had his house burgled and so wasn't taking any chances. However, the men may have been trying to find somewhere to sleep, as neither had an address in St Helens, not even a lodging-house, despite one having worked in the town for some time. Both men received stiff sentences for their trespassing, two months in prison with hard labour.
Earlier in the year the council had announced plans to extend the town market onto vacant land in Tontine Street. However, the scheme had received enormous opposition from market stallholders and other retailers. They were concerned that itinerant traders would pitch their stalls there on market days and provide unfair competition to the shopkeepers and permanent market traders who had to pay rates. Their pressure paid off as on the 2nd the Town Council announced that their proposal had been abandoned, although another scheme to use the land for market purposes would be introduced.
In this week's St Helens Reporter there was an advert for H. T. Sides of Knowsley Road who was advertising "Motor Pantechnicons. Any Distance. Reasonable Charges. Personal Supervision." Presumably the people of St Helens knew their Greek and realised that Harry Telford Sides was hiring out motorised removal vans.
There were a number of other such firms in St Helens that, I expect, provided a decent service. However, when Henry Morris of Sutton Manor needed to change houses he decided to get the job done on the cheap – something he lived to regret. A farmer called William Whitfield initially agreed to undertake the task of furniture removal for him but, finding himself too busy, he asked a coal merchant called Thomas Coulshead to deputise. I don’t think I’d be too keen for my possessions to be transported in a filthy coal wagon – especially if a restive horse drove it.
The wife of Henry Morris did not seem best pleased when her furniture and piano were loaded on to the wagon. She enquired from Thomas Coulshead whether her possessions would be safe with a frisky horse in the shafts. Mrs Morris was told that the animal was just hungry and she was asked to feed it. Strangely enough, Mrs Morris did not happen to be carrying any horse feed and reproached the removal men for not bringing some with them. Before the piano could be secured on to the wagon, the hungry horse dashed off and the piano fell into the road and was damaged.
So, at St Helens County Court on the 2nd, Henry Morris sued Thomas Coulshead (the coal man) and William Whitfield (the farmer) for damages. The two men argued over who was liable but in the end the judge decided that Whitfield should pay £8 5 shillings and costs. Mr Morris was told to pay his own court costs, possibly because the judge felt he was partly to blame for hiring a farmer and a coal man to undertake a job that a proper removals firm with a motor lorry should have done.
Of the numerous charabanc firms in St Helens, Marshalls of Hardshaw Street was probably the biggest. Walter Marshall, the former managing director of County Carriers of Boundary Road, had founded the firm. Incidentally, one of his drivers at County Carriers had been a young man called Wilfred Ellison who went on to found Ellison's coaches. As well as hiring out his "charas" to organisations, Walter Marshall provided weekend day trips to the seaside for members of the general public. This week he was advertising these outings in the St Helens Reporter with fares costing 4/6 return to Southport and 8 shillings to Blackpool.
James Farrington appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 3rd for owing £9 4 shillings maintenance to his separated wife. This had been the fifth summons that had been taken out against him for non-payment and the magistrates were getting weary. Farrington was told that if he did not pay £1 off his arrears during the next week and continued to pay, he would be sent to prison. The man did not help his case by admitting that he had never seen his child.
There was more criticism this week of persons riding on the pillion of a motorbike. Eighteen months ago the coroner for SW Lancashire had labelled it a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice. In the Police Court on the 4th, Edwin Norbury of Hardshaw Street in St Helens and Joseph Bradley of Church Road in Rainford were each fined 10 shillings and severely cautioned for furiously riding their motorcycles at the top of Dentons Green.
The police stated they believed the young men were racing each other and one was carrying a passenger on the pillion, which they described as a "very dangerous proceeding". What was dangerous was motorbike riders not wearing crash helmets. Although invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users. If you wanted to carry a passenger on a motorcycle in the 1920s, you were expected to have a sidecar.
Thomas Harrison appeared in the Police Court on the 7th charged with placing himself in a position to receive alms – begging in other words. But this was not a case were a poor person asked some charitable individual to spare a few coppers to get food or lodgings. Since deserting from the RAF twelve months ago, the young man had been going round the country singing in the streets while pretending to be disabled.
Harrison had only been in St Helens for 90 minutes when a policeman nabbed him in Oxford Street. But by then the singer had already amassed 17s 7½d. And he had kept a diary in which he listed his earnings, which worked out at £12 to £13 per month. The man was fined 20 shillings, which would be deducted from his earnings, and he was committed to prison awaiting a military escort back to the air force.
Next week's stories will include the proposal to build a main road between Liverpool and Manchester, the desperate Gladstone Street embezzler, the young man from Tontine Street without any horse sense and the old man outside the Sefton who slipped into the path of a lorry.
Although the housing crisis in St Helens was easing slightly, there were still many families sharing overcrowded homes, including the Ryan and Hughes families of 33 Market Street. There were ten persons in total in occupation in what appeared to be a two-bedroomed house. It clearly didn't take much for tempers to rise and on August 1st Ellen Ryan appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with assault. Mrs Ryan and her husband and three children lodged with Leah Hughes, a widow with four children.
On the previous Sunday the two women had fallen out over something and Mrs Ryan ended up beating her landlady about the face. She then turned Mrs Hughes and her children out of their own house – although they appear to have soon returned. The children would, of course, imitate the actions of grown-ups and on the following day the two sets of kids began rowing. That led to Ellen Ryan inflicting two wounds on the head of the thirteen-year-old Hughes boy.
The woman clearly had quite a temper as it was revealed in court that she had two prior convictions for assault and unlawful wounding – having previously served a month in prison for assaulting policemen. Ellen was sentenced to a further 28 days in prison. In fact in 1920 Ellen Ryan had thrown two glasses into the face of Patrick Towey who had innocently been minding his own business in the Nelson Hotel in Bridge Street.
She claimed that the Lea Green Colliery miner had come out with "dirty talk" but three witnesses gave evidence that he had not said a word to the woman. Chief Inspector Roe said at the time that Ellen was addicted to drink and when drunk could be very violent. The magistrates then decided to give her a second chance by placing her on probation, although Ellen was also advised to give up drinking and lead "an industrious life", which she had clearly failed to do.
James Collier told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court on the 2nd how he'd fooled two men who he'd found lurking in his barn at Union Bank Farm in Bold. After spotting the pair going through his fields and then entering his barn, Mr Collier approached them holding one hand in his pocket as if he had a gun. The farmer shouted "Hands up!" and Walter Stubbs from Manchester and William Jennion of Ormskirk immediately surrendered and he handed them over to the police.
The farmer stated that he had previously had his house burgled and so wasn't taking any chances. However, the men may have been trying to find somewhere to sleep, as neither had an address in St Helens, not even a lodging-house, despite one having worked in the town for some time. Both men received stiff sentences for their trespassing, two months in prison with hard labour.
Earlier in the year the council had announced plans to extend the town market onto vacant land in Tontine Street. However, the scheme had received enormous opposition from market stallholders and other retailers. They were concerned that itinerant traders would pitch their stalls there on market days and provide unfair competition to the shopkeepers and permanent market traders who had to pay rates. Their pressure paid off as on the 2nd the Town Council announced that their proposal had been abandoned, although another scheme to use the land for market purposes would be introduced.
In this week's St Helens Reporter there was an advert for H. T. Sides of Knowsley Road who was advertising "Motor Pantechnicons. Any Distance. Reasonable Charges. Personal Supervision." Presumably the people of St Helens knew their Greek and realised that Harry Telford Sides was hiring out motorised removal vans.
There were a number of other such firms in St Helens that, I expect, provided a decent service. However, when Henry Morris of Sutton Manor needed to change houses he decided to get the job done on the cheap – something he lived to regret. A farmer called William Whitfield initially agreed to undertake the task of furniture removal for him but, finding himself too busy, he asked a coal merchant called Thomas Coulshead to deputise. I don’t think I’d be too keen for my possessions to be transported in a filthy coal wagon – especially if a restive horse drove it.
The wife of Henry Morris did not seem best pleased when her furniture and piano were loaded on to the wagon. She enquired from Thomas Coulshead whether her possessions would be safe with a frisky horse in the shafts. Mrs Morris was told that the animal was just hungry and she was asked to feed it. Strangely enough, Mrs Morris did not happen to be carrying any horse feed and reproached the removal men for not bringing some with them. Before the piano could be secured on to the wagon, the hungry horse dashed off and the piano fell into the road and was damaged.
So, at St Helens County Court on the 2nd, Henry Morris sued Thomas Coulshead (the coal man) and William Whitfield (the farmer) for damages. The two men argued over who was liable but in the end the judge decided that Whitfield should pay £8 5 shillings and costs. Mr Morris was told to pay his own court costs, possibly because the judge felt he was partly to blame for hiring a farmer and a coal man to undertake a job that a proper removals firm with a motor lorry should have done.
James Farrington appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 3rd for owing £9 4 shillings maintenance to his separated wife. This had been the fifth summons that had been taken out against him for non-payment and the magistrates were getting weary. Farrington was told that if he did not pay £1 off his arrears during the next week and continued to pay, he would be sent to prison. The man did not help his case by admitting that he had never seen his child.
There was more criticism this week of persons riding on the pillion of a motorbike. Eighteen months ago the coroner for SW Lancashire had labelled it a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice. In the Police Court on the 4th, Edwin Norbury of Hardshaw Street in St Helens and Joseph Bradley of Church Road in Rainford were each fined 10 shillings and severely cautioned for furiously riding their motorcycles at the top of Dentons Green.
The police stated they believed the young men were racing each other and one was carrying a passenger on the pillion, which they described as a "very dangerous proceeding". What was dangerous was motorbike riders not wearing crash helmets. Although invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users. If you wanted to carry a passenger on a motorcycle in the 1920s, you were expected to have a sidecar.
Thomas Harrison appeared in the Police Court on the 7th charged with placing himself in a position to receive alms – begging in other words. But this was not a case were a poor person asked some charitable individual to spare a few coppers to get food or lodgings. Since deserting from the RAF twelve months ago, the young man had been going round the country singing in the streets while pretending to be disabled.
Harrison had only been in St Helens for 90 minutes when a policeman nabbed him in Oxford Street. But by then the singer had already amassed 17s 7½d. And he had kept a diary in which he listed his earnings, which worked out at £12 to £13 per month. The man was fined 20 shillings, which would be deducted from his earnings, and he was committed to prison awaiting a military escort back to the air force.
Next week's stories will include the proposal to build a main road between Liverpool and Manchester, the desperate Gladstone Street embezzler, the young man from Tontine Street without any horse sense and the old man outside the Sefton who slipped into the path of a lorry.
This week's stories include the two families in Market Street that were at each other's throats, the singing RAF deserter in Oxford Street, the Bold farmer's gun pretence, the motorbike racers in Dentons Green and the strange Sutton Manor story of the piano removal coal man and the frisky horse.
Although the housing crisis in St Helens was easing slightly, there were still many families sharing overcrowded homes, including the Ryan and Hughes families of 33 Market Street.
There were ten persons in total in occupation in what appeared to be a two-bedroomed house.
It clearly didn't take much for tempers to rise and on August 1st Ellen Ryan appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with assault.
Mrs Ryan and her husband and three children lodged with Leah Hughes, a widow with four children.
On the previous Sunday the two women had fallen out over something and Mrs Ryan ended up beating her landlady about the face.
She then turned Mrs Hughes and her children out of their own house – although they appear to have soon returned.
The children would, of course, imitate the actions of grown-ups and on the following day the two sets of kids began rowing.
That led to Ellen Ryan inflicting two wounds on the head of the thirteen-year-old Hughes boy.
The woman clearly had quite a temper as it was revealed in court that she had two prior convictions for assault and unlawful wounding – having previously served a month in prison for assaulting policemen. Ellen was sentenced to a further 28 days in prison.
In fact in 1920 Ellen Ryan had thrown two glasses into the face of Patrick Towey who had innocently been minding his own business in the Nelson Hotel in Bridge Street.
She claimed that the Lea Green Colliery miner had come out with "dirty talk" but three witnesses gave evidence that he had not said a word to the woman.
Chief Inspector Roe said at the time that Ellen was addicted to drink and when drunk could be very violent.
The magistrates then decided to give her a second chance by placing her on probation, although Ellen was also advised to give up drinking and lead "an industrious life", which she had clearly failed to do.
James Collier told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court on the 2nd how he'd fooled two men who he'd found lurking in his barn at Union Bank Farm in Bold.
After spotting the pair going through his fields and then entering his barn, Mr Collier approached them holding one hand in his pocket as if he had a gun.
The farmer shouted "Hands up!" and Walter Stubbs from Manchester and William Jennion of Ormskirk immediately surrendered and he handed them over to the police.
The farmer stated that he had previously had his house burgled and so wasn't taking any chances.
However, the men may have been trying to find somewhere to sleep, as neither had an address in St Helens, not even a lodging-house, despite one having worked in the town for some time.
Both men received stiff sentences for their trespassing, two months in prison with hard labour.
Earlier in the year the council had announced plans to extend the town market onto vacant land in Tontine Street.
However, the scheme had received enormous opposition from market stallholders and other retailers.
They were concerned that itinerant traders would pitch their stalls there on market days and provide unfair competition to the shopkeepers and permanent market traders who had to pay rates.
Their pressure paid off as on the 2nd the Town Council announced that their proposal had been abandoned, although another scheme to use the land for market purposes would be introduced.
In this week's St Helens Reporter there was an advert for H. T. Sides of Knowsley Road who was advertising "Motor Pantechnicons. Any Distance. Reasonable Charges. Personal Supervision."
Presumably the people of St Helens knew their Greek and realised that Harry Telford Sides was hiring out motorised removal vans.
There were a number of other such firms in St Helens that, I expect, provided a decent service.
However, when Henry Morris of Sutton Manor needed to change houses he decided to get the job done on the cheap – something he lived to regret.
A farmer called William Whitfield initially agreed to undertake the task of furniture removal for him but, finding himself too busy, he asked a coal merchant called Thomas Coulshead to deputise.
I don’t think I’d be too keen for my possessions to be transported in a filthy coal wagon – especially if a restive horse drove it.
The wife of Henry Morris did not seem best pleased when her furniture and piano were loaded on to the wagon.
She enquired from Thomas Coulshead whether her possessions would be safe with a frisky horse in the shafts.
Mrs Morris was told that the animal was just hungry and she was asked to feed it.
Strangely enough, Mrs Morris did not happen to be carrying any horse feed and reproached the removal men for not bringing some with them.
Before the piano could be secured on to the wagon, the hungry horse dashed off and the piano fell into the road and was damaged.
So, at St Helens County Court on the 2nd, Henry Morris sued Thomas Coulshead (the coal man) and William Whitfield (the farmer) for damages.
The two men argued over who was liable but in the end the judge decided that Whitfield should pay £8 5 shillings and costs.
Mr Morris was told to pay his own court costs, possibly because the judge felt he was partly to blame for hiring a farmer and a coal man to undertake a job that a proper removals firm with a motor lorry should have done.
Of the numerous charabanc firms in St Helens, Marshalls of Hardshaw Street was probably the biggest. Walter Marshall, the former managing director of County Carriers of Boundary Road, had founded the firm.
Incidentally, one of his drivers at County Carriers had been a young man called Wilfred Ellison who went on to found Ellison's coaches.
As well as hiring out his "charas" to organisations, Walter Marshall provided weekend day trips to the seaside for members of the general public.
This week he was advertising these outings in the St Helens Reporter with fares costing 4/6 return to Southport and 8 shillings to Blackpool.
James Farrington appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 3rd for owing £9 4 shillings maintenance to his separated wife.
This had been the fifth summons that had been taken out against him for non-payment and the magistrates were getting weary.
Farrington was told that if he did not pay £1 off his arrears during the next week and continued to pay, he would be sent to prison.
The man did not help his case by admitting that he had never seen his child.
There was more criticism this week of persons riding on the pillion of a motorbike.
Eighteen months ago the coroner for SW Lancashire had labelled it a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice.
In the Police Court on the 4th, Edwin Norbury of Hardshaw Street in St Helens and Joseph Bradley of Church Road in Rainford were each fined 10 shillings and severely cautioned for furiously riding their motorcycles at the top of Dentons Green.
The police stated they believed the young men were racing each other and one was carrying a passenger on the pillion, which they described as a "very dangerous proceeding".
What was dangerous was motorbike riders not wearing crash helmets. Although invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users.
If you wanted to carry a passenger on a motorcycle in the 1920s, you were expected to have a sidecar.
Thomas Harrison appeared in the Police Court on the 7th charged with placing himself in a position to receive alms – begging in other words.
But this was not a case were a poor person asked some charitable individual to spare a few coppers to get food or lodgings.
Since deserting from the RAF twelve months ago, the young man had been going round the country singing in the streets while pretending to be disabled.
Harrison had only been in St Helens for 90 minutes when a policeman nabbed him in Oxford Street.
But by then the singer had already amassed 17s 7½d. And he had kept a diary in which he listed his earnings, which worked out at £12 to £13 per month.
The man was fined 20 shillings, which would be deducted from his earnings, and he was committed to prison awaiting a military escort back to the air force.
Next week's stories will include the proposal to build a main road between Liverpool and Manchester, the desperate Gladstone Street embezzler, the young man from Tontine Street without any horse sense and the old man outside the Sefton who slipped into the path of a lorry.
Although the housing crisis in St Helens was easing slightly, there were still many families sharing overcrowded homes, including the Ryan and Hughes families of 33 Market Street.
There were ten persons in total in occupation in what appeared to be a two-bedroomed house.
It clearly didn't take much for tempers to rise and on August 1st Ellen Ryan appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with assault.
Mrs Ryan and her husband and three children lodged with Leah Hughes, a widow with four children.
On the previous Sunday the two women had fallen out over something and Mrs Ryan ended up beating her landlady about the face.
She then turned Mrs Hughes and her children out of their own house – although they appear to have soon returned.
The children would, of course, imitate the actions of grown-ups and on the following day the two sets of kids began rowing.
That led to Ellen Ryan inflicting two wounds on the head of the thirteen-year-old Hughes boy.
The woman clearly had quite a temper as it was revealed in court that she had two prior convictions for assault and unlawful wounding – having previously served a month in prison for assaulting policemen. Ellen was sentenced to a further 28 days in prison.
In fact in 1920 Ellen Ryan had thrown two glasses into the face of Patrick Towey who had innocently been minding his own business in the Nelson Hotel in Bridge Street.
She claimed that the Lea Green Colliery miner had come out with "dirty talk" but three witnesses gave evidence that he had not said a word to the woman.
Chief Inspector Roe said at the time that Ellen was addicted to drink and when drunk could be very violent.
The magistrates then decided to give her a second chance by placing her on probation, although Ellen was also advised to give up drinking and lead "an industrious life", which she had clearly failed to do.
James Collier told the magistrates in St Helens Police Court on the 2nd how he'd fooled two men who he'd found lurking in his barn at Union Bank Farm in Bold.
After spotting the pair going through his fields and then entering his barn, Mr Collier approached them holding one hand in his pocket as if he had a gun.
The farmer shouted "Hands up!" and Walter Stubbs from Manchester and William Jennion of Ormskirk immediately surrendered and he handed them over to the police.
The farmer stated that he had previously had his house burgled and so wasn't taking any chances.
However, the men may have been trying to find somewhere to sleep, as neither had an address in St Helens, not even a lodging-house, despite one having worked in the town for some time.
Both men received stiff sentences for their trespassing, two months in prison with hard labour.
Earlier in the year the council had announced plans to extend the town market onto vacant land in Tontine Street.
However, the scheme had received enormous opposition from market stallholders and other retailers.
They were concerned that itinerant traders would pitch their stalls there on market days and provide unfair competition to the shopkeepers and permanent market traders who had to pay rates.
Their pressure paid off as on the 2nd the Town Council announced that their proposal had been abandoned, although another scheme to use the land for market purposes would be introduced.
In this week's St Helens Reporter there was an advert for H. T. Sides of Knowsley Road who was advertising "Motor Pantechnicons. Any Distance. Reasonable Charges. Personal Supervision."
Presumably the people of St Helens knew their Greek and realised that Harry Telford Sides was hiring out motorised removal vans.
There were a number of other such firms in St Helens that, I expect, provided a decent service.
However, when Henry Morris of Sutton Manor needed to change houses he decided to get the job done on the cheap – something he lived to regret.
A farmer called William Whitfield initially agreed to undertake the task of furniture removal for him but, finding himself too busy, he asked a coal merchant called Thomas Coulshead to deputise.
I don’t think I’d be too keen for my possessions to be transported in a filthy coal wagon – especially if a restive horse drove it.
The wife of Henry Morris did not seem best pleased when her furniture and piano were loaded on to the wagon.
She enquired from Thomas Coulshead whether her possessions would be safe with a frisky horse in the shafts.
Mrs Morris was told that the animal was just hungry and she was asked to feed it.
Strangely enough, Mrs Morris did not happen to be carrying any horse feed and reproached the removal men for not bringing some with them.
Before the piano could be secured on to the wagon, the hungry horse dashed off and the piano fell into the road and was damaged.
So, at St Helens County Court on the 2nd, Henry Morris sued Thomas Coulshead (the coal man) and William Whitfield (the farmer) for damages.
The two men argued over who was liable but in the end the judge decided that Whitfield should pay £8 5 shillings and costs.
Mr Morris was told to pay his own court costs, possibly because the judge felt he was partly to blame for hiring a farmer and a coal man to undertake a job that a proper removals firm with a motor lorry should have done.
Incidentally, one of his drivers at County Carriers had been a young man called Wilfred Ellison who went on to found Ellison's coaches.
As well as hiring out his "charas" to organisations, Walter Marshall provided weekend day trips to the seaside for members of the general public.
This week he was advertising these outings in the St Helens Reporter with fares costing 4/6 return to Southport and 8 shillings to Blackpool.
James Farrington appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 3rd for owing £9 4 shillings maintenance to his separated wife.
This had been the fifth summons that had been taken out against him for non-payment and the magistrates were getting weary.
Farrington was told that if he did not pay £1 off his arrears during the next week and continued to pay, he would be sent to prison.
The man did not help his case by admitting that he had never seen his child.
There was more criticism this week of persons riding on the pillion of a motorbike.
Eighteen months ago the coroner for SW Lancashire had labelled it a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice.
In the Police Court on the 4th, Edwin Norbury of Hardshaw Street in St Helens and Joseph Bradley of Church Road in Rainford were each fined 10 shillings and severely cautioned for furiously riding their motorcycles at the top of Dentons Green.
The police stated they believed the young men were racing each other and one was carrying a passenger on the pillion, which they described as a "very dangerous proceeding".
What was dangerous was motorbike riders not wearing crash helmets. Although invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users.
If you wanted to carry a passenger on a motorcycle in the 1920s, you were expected to have a sidecar.
Thomas Harrison appeared in the Police Court on the 7th charged with placing himself in a position to receive alms – begging in other words.
But this was not a case were a poor person asked some charitable individual to spare a few coppers to get food or lodgings.
Since deserting from the RAF twelve months ago, the young man had been going round the country singing in the streets while pretending to be disabled.
Harrison had only been in St Helens for 90 minutes when a policeman nabbed him in Oxford Street.
But by then the singer had already amassed 17s 7½d. And he had kept a diary in which he listed his earnings, which worked out at £12 to £13 per month.
The man was fined 20 shillings, which would be deducted from his earnings, and he was committed to prison awaiting a military escort back to the air force.
Next week's stories will include the proposal to build a main road between Liverpool and Manchester, the desperate Gladstone Street embezzler, the young man from Tontine Street without any horse sense and the old man outside the Sefton who slipped into the path of a lorry.