IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2nd - 8th AUGUST 1921)
This week's stories include a coroner's damning criticism of Pilks after a worker falls down a lift shaft, the Bold Street woman who used a knife on an unwanted visitor, the man expostulating with a car driver in Shaw Street and questions are asked in the Commons whether men thrown out of work at Clock Face Colliery could claim the dole.
In the 1911 census Phoebe Miskell's husband, John, is listed as a blacksmith's striker. Well, clearly the 56-year-old woman from Bold Street in St Helens fancied herself as a bit of a striker too, as on August 3rd she was charged in the Police Court with common assault. The original charge had been one of wounding, as Phoebe had cut the face of an unwanted visitor to her home with a knife. However the wound turned out not to be so serious and so the charge was reduced.
The magistrates were told that a young man called Charles Roberts from Canal Street had rowed with his girlfriend. On the following day the young woman went to Phoebe Miskell's house and then Roberts turned up and resumed his quarrel. After ignoring repeated requests to leave, Mrs Miskell took the knife to Roberts, telling the Bench that she simply wanted rid of him. The Bench decided to bind Mrs Miskell over to keep the peace for six months.
By the way there were sixteen people living in the Miskell's house in Bold Street in 1911. With the housing shortage having worsened over the following ten years, it will be interesting to see how many were packed into what appeared to be just two bedrooms when the 1921 census is released.
It was now a month since the end of the national coal strike but many miners had yet to return to work. That was mainly because it was taking time to get the pits completely fit for purpose again. It was announced this week that throughout Britain there were 224 pits not working at all – or only employing 10% of their workforce to pump out water or undertake other preparations.
The St Helens pits were generally operating, although Clock Face Colliery (pictured above) had an additional problem after experiencing an accident with one of its shafts. As a result many miners were not able to work and were attempting instead to claim the dole – which was far from being straightforward at the best of times. Whether a claim was successful or not depended upon National Insurance having been paid, the men's family situation and why they were unemployed.
After the coal strike had ended, many miners who had yet to be given their jobs back were refused benefit – even though they were no longer striking. On the 3rd Robert Young, the Labour MP for Newton-le-Willows, asked the Minister of Labour in the House of Commons whether Clock Face miners would be allowed unemployment benefit.
The Minister replied that there had been approximately 150 claims for benefit made by workpeople employed at Clock Face Colliery, adding: "The circumstances under which they are unemployed are not quite clear, and the insurance officer has, I understand, withheld his decision on the claims pending a reply to inquiries which have been made." That meant no income at all for the 150 claimants while their applications were being considered.
Many readers will remember Oxley's Department Store. A century ago they had a stall in the covered market as well as premises in Barrow Street that they called 'Babyland'. In an ad in the Echo on the 4th they said they had just added a bargain basement to their store and goods on offer could also be ordered by post. Prams cost from four guineas but as well as stuff for baby, Oxley's were also selling garments for women, including all-leather shoes priced at 13/9.
During the war with St Helens being involved in munitions work, the town had been a prohibited area for non-British citizens or "aliens", unless they were registered with the police and followed strict rules. Some aliens got locked up after innocently calling at the police station or town hall to enquire about registering. It was a bit of a Catch 22 situation. They couldn’t register without entering the prohibited area but by doing so broke the law!
Although the town was no longer a prohibited area for foreigners, aliens still had to register with the police and notify them of any change of address. On the 4th Antonius Danilivitch appeared at Widnes Petty Session for not reporting his change of address to the registration officer after visiting Yorkshire and then returning to St Helens. The defendant who pleaded ignorance was only fined 10 shillings. During the war he would likely have been imprisoned for several months.
It wasn't until the 1930s that sliced bread was available in Britain. A century ago loaves were sold unwrapped and bakers were required to have scales at the point of sale, so that the bread could be weighed for the customer. On the 5th baker Henry Lea of Duke Street was fined £1 for "exposing loaves of bread for sale" that were under 1lb. His excuse was that one of the baking staff had been off ill.
There were an increasing number of prosecutions for driving offences with the motorist often accused of speeding. As a rule of thumb the driver would insist in court that he had been only travelling at half the speed claimed by the prosecutor. That individual was usually a solicitor acting on behalf of the police. However on the 5th in St Helens Police Court, Thomas Reynolds brought a private prosecution against William Shufflebottom on a charge of driving a motorcar in a manner dangerous to the public.
And he was the public – or at least the member of it – who had not appreciated Shufflebottom's car nearly knocking him down while he'd been walking in George Street. So Reynolds followed the driver to the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and "expostulated" with him about his driving. Unsurprisingly, Shufflebottom did not appreciate being expostulated, with Reynolds telling the Bench that the broker from Water Street had laughed at him in "a silly manner". I suspect that flippant reaction was the actual trigger for the man's private prosecution.
Shufflebottom denied in court that he had been drunk or driving fast, claiming a speed of 6 to 7 mph, compared to Reynolds' estimate of 15mph – which, as I said, is about the usual discrepancy between the two sides in court. The magistrates said it did not appear to them that Shufflebottom had been driving furiously but he had crossed the street and driven on the wrong side of the road in a dangerous manner and so must pay a fine of £2 and 4s costs.
St Helens mothers-in-law have been known to "expostulate" a bit too freely with their son-in-laws from time to time and the latter have sometimes responded badly to the criticism. In 1914 miner Michael Mitchell bashed his mother-in-law over the head with a poker at the door of her home at Sandon Street in Sutton Heath.
Albert Kelsall from Station Road in Sutton also had a problem with his wife's mother and on August 8th appeared in the Police Court facing a charge of wounding. Elizabeth Whalley had gone to the police station bleeding profusely from wounds to her head, which she claimed her son-in-law had inflicted. Upon being arrested, Kelsall told the police: "I did not hit her. I only pushed her and she fell". He was remanded on bail until later in the week.
Pilkington's a century ago had many simple hoists or small lifts at their works for transporting materials – and presumably men – up and down floors. I doubt modern-day health and safety inspectors would approve of such things and one saw off Thomas Friar on the 8th. The 50-year-old from Stanhope Street had been employed at the sheet glassworks all his life and died in the Pilkington Special Hospital in Borough Road after falling down a shaft.
Although the hoists were electrically powered, a handle needed to be obtained from the foreman's cabin to operate each hoist. Just before Thomas Friar went to use one of the hoists, another man had used the handle and taken the hoist to the floor above, after first hanging the handle up in its normal place. Thomas Friar then employed the handle to open the lift door and not realising the hoist was on the floor above, stepped into the void and dropped like a stone down the shaft.
The coroner Samuel Brighouse was highly critical of Pilkingtons and said he was surprised such a progressive firm would employ an old-fashioned method of working a hoist. Pilks said that over the last few months they had been in the process of altering their many hoists. To that the coroner replied: "You will have to go to Germany or Belgium if you want something done quickly and cheaply and efficiently." Although returning a verdict of "death from misadventure", Mr Brighouse advised Thomas Friar's widow to get all the compensation she could.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that attracted my interest this week was the bizarre controversy over the five-word picture postcard. The standard cost of mailing a postcard had risen to 1½d, although they could still be sent for a penny if these three conditions were met:
1) The message on the card – excluding the name and address of the recipient – had to be no more than five words (or five initials) long. 2) Senders had to cross out the word "postcard" and replace it with "printed paper". 3) The 5-word message needed to be a "formula of courtesy or greetings of a conventional character" and not convey any information.
So "Good luck from St Helens" or "Love to all at home" were examples of acceptable penny messages but "Just arrived at Bognor" or "Am having a good time" cost an extra halfpenny as they conveyed information – and that was not allowed! This week the Echo wrote that the MP William Ormsby-Gore would be challenging the Postmaster General over the 5-word postcard rule:
"Mr. Ormsby Gore is to ask the P.M.G. whether he has received from the Post Office officials a number of representations pointing out their difficulty in explaining to the public the principle upon which an additional half-penny is charged for a postcard bearing five words of an informative or interrogatory nature, while no such additional charge is made for five words of an amatory, provocative, or meaningless nature.
"And whether he will either withdraw a regulation which so adds to the work of the Post Office officials and is proving inexplicable to the ordinary citizen; or will he explain why it costs the Post Office more to carry and deliver five words on a card of one character and not the other."
I have been musing whether the 5-word postcard might have led to the popularisation of the phrase "wish you were here". But would that be classed as information and attract another halfpenny stamp? Bizarre!
Next week's stories will include the crippled pedlar of Borough Road's knife attack on a fellow lodger, the death of an outspoken St Helens solicitor and the home alone Whiston boy who was run over by a train.
In the 1911 census Phoebe Miskell's husband, John, is listed as a blacksmith's striker. Well, clearly the 56-year-old woman from Bold Street in St Helens fancied herself as a bit of a striker too, as on August 3rd she was charged in the Police Court with common assault. The original charge had been one of wounding, as Phoebe had cut the face of an unwanted visitor to her home with a knife. However the wound turned out not to be so serious and so the charge was reduced.
The magistrates were told that a young man called Charles Roberts from Canal Street had rowed with his girlfriend. On the following day the young woman went to Phoebe Miskell's house and then Roberts turned up and resumed his quarrel. After ignoring repeated requests to leave, Mrs Miskell took the knife to Roberts, telling the Bench that she simply wanted rid of him. The Bench decided to bind Mrs Miskell over to keep the peace for six months.
By the way there were sixteen people living in the Miskell's house in Bold Street in 1911. With the housing shortage having worsened over the following ten years, it will be interesting to see how many were packed into what appeared to be just two bedrooms when the 1921 census is released.
It was now a month since the end of the national coal strike but many miners had yet to return to work. That was mainly because it was taking time to get the pits completely fit for purpose again. It was announced this week that throughout Britain there were 224 pits not working at all – or only employing 10% of their workforce to pump out water or undertake other preparations.
After the coal strike had ended, many miners who had yet to be given their jobs back were refused benefit – even though they were no longer striking. On the 3rd Robert Young, the Labour MP for Newton-le-Willows, asked the Minister of Labour in the House of Commons whether Clock Face miners would be allowed unemployment benefit.
The Minister replied that there had been approximately 150 claims for benefit made by workpeople employed at Clock Face Colliery, adding: "The circumstances under which they are unemployed are not quite clear, and the insurance officer has, I understand, withheld his decision on the claims pending a reply to inquiries which have been made." That meant no income at all for the 150 claimants while their applications were being considered.
Many readers will remember Oxley's Department Store. A century ago they had a stall in the covered market as well as premises in Barrow Street that they called 'Babyland'. In an ad in the Echo on the 4th they said they had just added a bargain basement to their store and goods on offer could also be ordered by post. Prams cost from four guineas but as well as stuff for baby, Oxley's were also selling garments for women, including all-leather shoes priced at 13/9.
During the war with St Helens being involved in munitions work, the town had been a prohibited area for non-British citizens or "aliens", unless they were registered with the police and followed strict rules. Some aliens got locked up after innocently calling at the police station or town hall to enquire about registering. It was a bit of a Catch 22 situation. They couldn’t register without entering the prohibited area but by doing so broke the law!
Although the town was no longer a prohibited area for foreigners, aliens still had to register with the police and notify them of any change of address. On the 4th Antonius Danilivitch appeared at Widnes Petty Session for not reporting his change of address to the registration officer after visiting Yorkshire and then returning to St Helens. The defendant who pleaded ignorance was only fined 10 shillings. During the war he would likely have been imprisoned for several months.
There were an increasing number of prosecutions for driving offences with the motorist often accused of speeding. As a rule of thumb the driver would insist in court that he had been only travelling at half the speed claimed by the prosecutor. That individual was usually a solicitor acting on behalf of the police. However on the 5th in St Helens Police Court, Thomas Reynolds brought a private prosecution against William Shufflebottom on a charge of driving a motorcar in a manner dangerous to the public.
And he was the public – or at least the member of it – who had not appreciated Shufflebottom's car nearly knocking him down while he'd been walking in George Street. So Reynolds followed the driver to the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and "expostulated" with him about his driving. Unsurprisingly, Shufflebottom did not appreciate being expostulated, with Reynolds telling the Bench that the broker from Water Street had laughed at him in "a silly manner". I suspect that flippant reaction was the actual trigger for the man's private prosecution.
Shufflebottom denied in court that he had been drunk or driving fast, claiming a speed of 6 to 7 mph, compared to Reynolds' estimate of 15mph – which, as I said, is about the usual discrepancy between the two sides in court. The magistrates said it did not appear to them that Shufflebottom had been driving furiously but he had crossed the street and driven on the wrong side of the road in a dangerous manner and so must pay a fine of £2 and 4s costs.
St Helens mothers-in-law have been known to "expostulate" a bit too freely with their son-in-laws from time to time and the latter have sometimes responded badly to the criticism. In 1914 miner Michael Mitchell bashed his mother-in-law over the head with a poker at the door of her home at Sandon Street in Sutton Heath.
Albert Kelsall from Station Road in Sutton also had a problem with his wife's mother and on August 8th appeared in the Police Court facing a charge of wounding. Elizabeth Whalley had gone to the police station bleeding profusely from wounds to her head, which she claimed her son-in-law had inflicted. Upon being arrested, Kelsall told the police: "I did not hit her. I only pushed her and she fell". He was remanded on bail until later in the week.
Pilkington's a century ago had many simple hoists or small lifts at their works for transporting materials – and presumably men – up and down floors. I doubt modern-day health and safety inspectors would approve of such things and one saw off Thomas Friar on the 8th. The 50-year-old from Stanhope Street had been employed at the sheet glassworks all his life and died in the Pilkington Special Hospital in Borough Road after falling down a shaft.
Although the hoists were electrically powered, a handle needed to be obtained from the foreman's cabin to operate each hoist. Just before Thomas Friar went to use one of the hoists, another man had used the handle and taken the hoist to the floor above, after first hanging the handle up in its normal place. Thomas Friar then employed the handle to open the lift door and not realising the hoist was on the floor above, stepped into the void and dropped like a stone down the shaft.
The coroner Samuel Brighouse was highly critical of Pilkingtons and said he was surprised such a progressive firm would employ an old-fashioned method of working a hoist. Pilks said that over the last few months they had been in the process of altering their many hoists. To that the coroner replied: "You will have to go to Germany or Belgium if you want something done quickly and cheaply and efficiently." Although returning a verdict of "death from misadventure", Mr Brighouse advised Thomas Friar's widow to get all the compensation she could.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that attracted my interest this week was the bizarre controversy over the five-word picture postcard. The standard cost of mailing a postcard had risen to 1½d, although they could still be sent for a penny if these three conditions were met:
1) The message on the card – excluding the name and address of the recipient – had to be no more than five words (or five initials) long. 2) Senders had to cross out the word "postcard" and replace it with "printed paper". 3) The 5-word message needed to be a "formula of courtesy or greetings of a conventional character" and not convey any information.
So "Good luck from St Helens" or "Love to all at home" were examples of acceptable penny messages but "Just arrived at Bognor" or "Am having a good time" cost an extra halfpenny as they conveyed information – and that was not allowed! This week the Echo wrote that the MP William Ormsby-Gore would be challenging the Postmaster General over the 5-word postcard rule:
"Mr. Ormsby Gore is to ask the P.M.G. whether he has received from the Post Office officials a number of representations pointing out their difficulty in explaining to the public the principle upon which an additional half-penny is charged for a postcard bearing five words of an informative or interrogatory nature, while no such additional charge is made for five words of an amatory, provocative, or meaningless nature.
"And whether he will either withdraw a regulation which so adds to the work of the Post Office officials and is proving inexplicable to the ordinary citizen; or will he explain why it costs the Post Office more to carry and deliver five words on a card of one character and not the other."
I have been musing whether the 5-word postcard might have led to the popularisation of the phrase "wish you were here". But would that be classed as information and attract another halfpenny stamp? Bizarre!
Next week's stories will include the crippled pedlar of Borough Road's knife attack on a fellow lodger, the death of an outspoken St Helens solicitor and the home alone Whiston boy who was run over by a train.
This week's stories include a coroner's damning criticism of Pilks after a worker falls down a lift shaft, the Bold Street woman who used a knife on an unwanted visitor, the man expostulating with a car driver in Shaw Street and questions are asked in the Commons whether men thrown out of work at Clock Face Colliery could claim the dole.
In the 1911 census Phoebe Miskell's husband, John, is listed as a blacksmith's striker.
Well, clearly the 56-year-old woman from Bold Street in St Helens fancied herself as a bit of a striker too, as on August 3rd she was charged in the Police Court with common assault.
The original charge had been one of wounding, as Phoebe had cut the face of an unwanted visitor to her home with a knife.
However the wound turned out not to be so serious and so the charge was reduced.
The magistrates were told that a young man called Charles Roberts from Canal Street had rowed with his girlfriend.
On the following day the young woman went to Phoebe Miskell's house and then Roberts turned up and resumed his quarrel.
After ignoring repeated requests to leave, Mrs Miskell took the knife to Roberts, telling the Bench that she simply wanted rid of him.
The Bench decided to bind Mrs Miskell over to keep the peace for six months. By the way there were 16 people living in the Miskell's house in Bold Street in 1911.
With the housing shortage having worsened over the following ten years, it will be interesting to see how many were packed into what appeared to be just two bedrooms when the 1921 census is released.
It was now a month since the end of the national coal strike but many miners had yet to return to work.
That was mainly because it was taking time to get the pits completely fit for purpose again.
It was announced this week that throughout Britain there were 224 pits not working at all – or only employing 10% of their workforce to pump out water or undertake other preparations.
The St Helens pits were generally operating, although Clock Face Colliery (pictured above) had an additional problem after experiencing an accident with one of its shafts.
As a result many miners were not able to work and were attempting instead to claim the dole – which was far from being straightforward at the best of times.
Whether a claim was successful or not depended upon National Insurance having been paid, the men's family situation and why they were unemployed.
After the coal strike had ended, many miners who had yet to be given their jobs back were refused benefit – even though they were no longer striking.
On the 3rd Robert Young, the Labour MP for Newton-le-Willows, asked the Minister of Labour in the House of Commons whether Clock Face miners would be allowed unemployment benefit.
The Minister replied that there had been approximately 150 claims for benefit made by workpeople employed at Clock Face Colliery, adding:
"The circumstances under which they are unemployed are not quite clear, and the insurance officer has, I understand, withheld his decision on the claims pending a reply to inquiries which have been made."
That meant no income at all for the 150 claimants while their applications were being considered.
Many readers will remember Oxley's Department Store. A century ago they had a stall in the covered market as well as premises in Barrow Street that they called 'Babyland'.
In an ad in the Echo on the 4th they said they had just added a bargain basement to their store and goods on offer could also be ordered by post.
Prams cost from four guineas but as well as stuff for baby, Oxley's were also selling garments for women, including all-leather shoes priced at 13/9.
During the war with St Helens being involved in munitions work, the town had been a prohibited area for non-British citizens or "aliens", unless they were registered with the police and followed strict rules.
Some aliens got locked up after innocently calling at the police station or town hall to enquire about registering.
It was a bit of a Catch 22 situation. They couldn’t register without entering the prohibited area but by doing so broke the law!
Although the town was no longer a prohibited area for foreigners, aliens still had to register with the police and notify them of any change of address.
On the 4th Antonius Danilivitch appeared at Widnes Petty Session for not reporting his change of address to the registration officer after visiting Yorkshire and then returning to St Helens.
The defendant who pleaded ignorance was only fined 10 shillings. During the war he would likely have been imprisoned for several months.
It wasn't until the 1930s that sliced bread was available in Britain. A century ago loaves were sold unwrapped and bakers were required to have scales at the point of sale, so that the bread could be weighed for the customer.
On the 5th baker Henry Lea of Duke Street was fined £1 for "exposing loaves of bread for sale" that were under 1lb. His excuse was that one of the baking staff had been off ill.
There were an increasing number of prosecutions for driving offences with the motorist often accused of speeding.
As a rule of thumb the driver would insist in court that he had been only travelling at half the speed claimed by the prosecutor. That individual was usually a solicitor acting on behalf of the police.
However on the 5th in St Helens Police Court, Thomas Reynolds brought a private prosecution against William Shufflebottom on a charge of driving a motorcar in a manner dangerous to the public.
And he was the public – or at least the member of it – who had not appreciated Shufflebottom's car nearly knocking him down while he'd been walking in George Street.
So Reynolds followed the driver to the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and "expostulated" with him about his driving.
Unsurprisingly, Shufflebottom did not appreciate being expostulated, with Reynolds telling the Bench that the broker from Water Street had laughed at him in "a silly manner".
I suspect that flippant reaction was the actual trigger for the man's private prosecution.
Shufflebottom denied in court that he had been drunk or driving fast, claiming a speed of 6 to 7 mph, compared to Reynolds' estimate of 15mph – which, as I said, is about the usual discrepancy between the two sides in court.
The magistrates said it did not appear to them that Shufflebottom had been driving furiously but he had crossed the street and driven on the wrong side of the road in a dangerous manner and so must pay a fine of £2 and 4s costs.
St Helens mothers-in-law have been known to "expostulate" a bit too freely with their son-in-laws from time to time and the latter have sometimes responded badly to the criticism.
In 1914 miner Michael Mitchell bashed his mother-in-law over the head with a poker at the door of her home at Sandon Street in Sutton Heath.
Albert Kelsall from Station Road in Sutton also had a problem with his wife's mother and on August 8th appeared in the Police Court facing a charge of wounding.
Elizabeth Whalley had gone to the police station bleeding profusely from wounds to her head, which she claimed her son-in-law had inflicted.
Upon being arrested, Kelsall told the police: "I did not hit her. I only pushed her and she fell". He was remanded on bail until later in the week.
Pilkington's a century ago had many simple hoists or small lifts at their works for transporting materials – and presumably men – up and down floors.
I doubt modern-day health and safety inspectors would approve of such things and one saw off Thomas Friar on the 8th.
The 50-year-old from Stanhope Street had been employed at the sheet glassworks all his life and died in the Pilkington Special Hospital in Borough Road after falling down a shaft.
Although the hoists were electrically powered, a handle needed to be obtained from the foreman's cabin to operate each hoist.
Just before Thomas Friar went to use one of the hoists, another man had used the handle and taken the hoist to the floor above, after first hanging the handle up in its normal place.
Thomas Friar then employed the handle to open the lift door and not realising the hoist was on the floor above, stepped into the void and dropped like a stone down the shaft.
The coroner Samuel Brighouse was highly critical of Pilkingtons and said he was surprised such a progressive firm would employ an old-fashioned method of working a hoist.
Pilks said that over the last few months they had been in the process of altering their many hoists. To that the coroner replied:
"You will have to go to Germany or Belgium if you want something done quickly and cheaply and efficiently."
Although returning a verdict of "death from misadventure", Mr Brighouse advised Thomas Friar's widow to get all the compensation she could.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that attracted my interest this week was the bizarre controversy over the five-word picture postcard.
The standard cost of mailing a postcard had risen to 1½d, although they could still be sent for a penny if these three conditions were met:
1) The message on the card – excluding the name and address of the recipient – had to be no more than five words (or five initials) long.
2) Senders had to cross out the word "postcard" and replace it with "printed paper".
3) The 5-word message needed to be a "formula of courtesy or greetings of a conventional character" and not convey any information.
So "Good luck from St Helens" or "Love to all at home" were examples of acceptable penny messages but "Just arrived at Bognor" or "Am having a good time" cost an extra halfpenny as they conveyed information – and that was not allowed!
This week the Echo wrote that the MP William Ormsby-Gore would be challenging the Postmaster General over the 5-word postcard rule:
"Mr. Ormsby Gore is to ask the P.M.G. whether he has received from the Post Office officials a number of representations pointing out their difficulty in explaining to the public the principle upon which an additional half-penny is charged for a postcard bearing five words of an informative or interrogatory nature, while no such additional charge is made for five words of an amatory, provocative, or meaningless nature.
"And whether he will either withdraw a regulation which so adds to the work of the Post Office officials and is proving inexplicable to the ordinary citizen; or will he explain why it costs the Post Office more to carry and deliver five words on a card of one character and not the other."
I have been musing whether the 5-word postcard might have led to the popularisation of the phrase "wish you were here". But would that be classed as information and attract another halfpenny stamp? Bizarre!
Next week's stories will include the crippled pedlar of Borough Road's knife attack on a fellow lodger, the death of an outspoken St Helens solicitor and the home alone Whiston boy who was run over by a train.
In the 1911 census Phoebe Miskell's husband, John, is listed as a blacksmith's striker.
Well, clearly the 56-year-old woman from Bold Street in St Helens fancied herself as a bit of a striker too, as on August 3rd she was charged in the Police Court with common assault.
The original charge had been one of wounding, as Phoebe had cut the face of an unwanted visitor to her home with a knife.
However the wound turned out not to be so serious and so the charge was reduced.
The magistrates were told that a young man called Charles Roberts from Canal Street had rowed with his girlfriend.
On the following day the young woman went to Phoebe Miskell's house and then Roberts turned up and resumed his quarrel.
After ignoring repeated requests to leave, Mrs Miskell took the knife to Roberts, telling the Bench that she simply wanted rid of him.
The Bench decided to bind Mrs Miskell over to keep the peace for six months. By the way there were 16 people living in the Miskell's house in Bold Street in 1911.
With the housing shortage having worsened over the following ten years, it will be interesting to see how many were packed into what appeared to be just two bedrooms when the 1921 census is released.
It was now a month since the end of the national coal strike but many miners had yet to return to work.
That was mainly because it was taking time to get the pits completely fit for purpose again.
It was announced this week that throughout Britain there were 224 pits not working at all – or only employing 10% of their workforce to pump out water or undertake other preparations.
As a result many miners were not able to work and were attempting instead to claim the dole – which was far from being straightforward at the best of times.
Whether a claim was successful or not depended upon National Insurance having been paid, the men's family situation and why they were unemployed.
After the coal strike had ended, many miners who had yet to be given their jobs back were refused benefit – even though they were no longer striking.
On the 3rd Robert Young, the Labour MP for Newton-le-Willows, asked the Minister of Labour in the House of Commons whether Clock Face miners would be allowed unemployment benefit.
The Minister replied that there had been approximately 150 claims for benefit made by workpeople employed at Clock Face Colliery, adding:
"The circumstances under which they are unemployed are not quite clear, and the insurance officer has, I understand, withheld his decision on the claims pending a reply to inquiries which have been made."
That meant no income at all for the 150 claimants while their applications were being considered.
Many readers will remember Oxley's Department Store. A century ago they had a stall in the covered market as well as premises in Barrow Street that they called 'Babyland'.
In an ad in the Echo on the 4th they said they had just added a bargain basement to their store and goods on offer could also be ordered by post.
Prams cost from four guineas but as well as stuff for baby, Oxley's were also selling garments for women, including all-leather shoes priced at 13/9.
During the war with St Helens being involved in munitions work, the town had been a prohibited area for non-British citizens or "aliens", unless they were registered with the police and followed strict rules.
Some aliens got locked up after innocently calling at the police station or town hall to enquire about registering.
It was a bit of a Catch 22 situation. They couldn’t register without entering the prohibited area but by doing so broke the law!
Although the town was no longer a prohibited area for foreigners, aliens still had to register with the police and notify them of any change of address.
On the 4th Antonius Danilivitch appeared at Widnes Petty Session for not reporting his change of address to the registration officer after visiting Yorkshire and then returning to St Helens.
The defendant who pleaded ignorance was only fined 10 shillings. During the war he would likely have been imprisoned for several months.
It wasn't until the 1930s that sliced bread was available in Britain. A century ago loaves were sold unwrapped and bakers were required to have scales at the point of sale, so that the bread could be weighed for the customer.
There were an increasing number of prosecutions for driving offences with the motorist often accused of speeding.
As a rule of thumb the driver would insist in court that he had been only travelling at half the speed claimed by the prosecutor. That individual was usually a solicitor acting on behalf of the police.
However on the 5th in St Helens Police Court, Thomas Reynolds brought a private prosecution against William Shufflebottom on a charge of driving a motorcar in a manner dangerous to the public.
And he was the public – or at least the member of it – who had not appreciated Shufflebottom's car nearly knocking him down while he'd been walking in George Street.
So Reynolds followed the driver to the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and "expostulated" with him about his driving.
Unsurprisingly, Shufflebottom did not appreciate being expostulated, with Reynolds telling the Bench that the broker from Water Street had laughed at him in "a silly manner".
I suspect that flippant reaction was the actual trigger for the man's private prosecution.
Shufflebottom denied in court that he had been drunk or driving fast, claiming a speed of 6 to 7 mph, compared to Reynolds' estimate of 15mph – which, as I said, is about the usual discrepancy between the two sides in court.
The magistrates said it did not appear to them that Shufflebottom had been driving furiously but he had crossed the street and driven on the wrong side of the road in a dangerous manner and so must pay a fine of £2 and 4s costs.
St Helens mothers-in-law have been known to "expostulate" a bit too freely with their son-in-laws from time to time and the latter have sometimes responded badly to the criticism.
In 1914 miner Michael Mitchell bashed his mother-in-law over the head with a poker at the door of her home at Sandon Street in Sutton Heath.
Albert Kelsall from Station Road in Sutton also had a problem with his wife's mother and on August 8th appeared in the Police Court facing a charge of wounding.
Elizabeth Whalley had gone to the police station bleeding profusely from wounds to her head, which she claimed her son-in-law had inflicted.
Upon being arrested, Kelsall told the police: "I did not hit her. I only pushed her and she fell". He was remanded on bail until later in the week.
Pilkington's a century ago had many simple hoists or small lifts at their works for transporting materials – and presumably men – up and down floors.
I doubt modern-day health and safety inspectors would approve of such things and one saw off Thomas Friar on the 8th.
The 50-year-old from Stanhope Street had been employed at the sheet glassworks all his life and died in the Pilkington Special Hospital in Borough Road after falling down a shaft.
Although the hoists were electrically powered, a handle needed to be obtained from the foreman's cabin to operate each hoist.
Just before Thomas Friar went to use one of the hoists, another man had used the handle and taken the hoist to the floor above, after first hanging the handle up in its normal place.
Thomas Friar then employed the handle to open the lift door and not realising the hoist was on the floor above, stepped into the void and dropped like a stone down the shaft.
The coroner Samuel Brighouse was highly critical of Pilkingtons and said he was surprised such a progressive firm would employ an old-fashioned method of working a hoist.
Pilks said that over the last few months they had been in the process of altering their many hoists. To that the coroner replied:
"You will have to go to Germany or Belgium if you want something done quickly and cheaply and efficiently."
Although returning a verdict of "death from misadventure", Mr Brighouse advised Thomas Friar's widow to get all the compensation she could.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that attracted my interest this week was the bizarre controversy over the five-word picture postcard.
The standard cost of mailing a postcard had risen to 1½d, although they could still be sent for a penny if these three conditions were met:
1) The message on the card – excluding the name and address of the recipient – had to be no more than five words (or five initials) long.
2) Senders had to cross out the word "postcard" and replace it with "printed paper".
3) The 5-word message needed to be a "formula of courtesy or greetings of a conventional character" and not convey any information.
So "Good luck from St Helens" or "Love to all at home" were examples of acceptable penny messages but "Just arrived at Bognor" or "Am having a good time" cost an extra halfpenny as they conveyed information – and that was not allowed!
This week the Echo wrote that the MP William Ormsby-Gore would be challenging the Postmaster General over the 5-word postcard rule:
"Mr. Ormsby Gore is to ask the P.M.G. whether he has received from the Post Office officials a number of representations pointing out their difficulty in explaining to the public the principle upon which an additional half-penny is charged for a postcard bearing five words of an informative or interrogatory nature, while no such additional charge is made for five words of an amatory, provocative, or meaningless nature.
"And whether he will either withdraw a regulation which so adds to the work of the Post Office officials and is proving inexplicable to the ordinary citizen; or will he explain why it costs the Post Office more to carry and deliver five words on a card of one character and not the other."
I have been musing whether the 5-word postcard might have led to the popularisation of the phrase "wish you were here". But would that be classed as information and attract another halfpenny stamp? Bizarre!
Next week's stories will include the crippled pedlar of Borough Road's knife attack on a fellow lodger, the death of an outspoken St Helens solicitor and the home alone Whiston boy who was run over by a train.