IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2nd - 8th September 1919)
This week's stories include the distribution of the St Helens Heroes Fund, the little girls that damaged spuds on Leach Hall Farm, trouble on a tram in Boundary Road, the "simply scandalous" behaviour at Ravenhead Colliery and the arrest of the singing collier from Thatto Heath and the 300-strong mob that tried to free him.
We begin on the 3rd when a public reception was held in the Town Hall for 850 decorated soldiers, as well as the relatives of those that had died after being awarded military distinctions. The event involved the distribution of the St Helens Heroes Fund, which had raised over £2,500 for all soldiers that had been decorated in the war from the Victoria Cross down.
That was a huge sum of money but divided by 850 it meant there was only £3 for each person, equivalent to around a week's wages for many. However as they say it's the thought that counts and each recipient went forward to receive their cash from the Mayoress. There was then a concert performed by a number of artistes followed by refreshments.
The police's policy of putting little children through the harrowing experience of a court appearance after committing a minor offence continued on the 4th. That was when Jane Grice and Elisabeth Barrett were summoned to St Helens Police Court for doing "wilful damage to growing potatoes to the value of 2s. 6d., the property of Wm. Garton".
The 11-year-old next-door neighbours from Hills Moss Road had been playing in a field off Bold Road belonging to Leach Hall Farm. Sergeant Adams saw the girls with other small children pulling some potatoes and managed to catch Jane Grice who gave him the name of her friend Elisabeth.
The Chairman said the Bench considered the wilful damage to growing crops to be a very serious matter and called for parents to tell their children just how serious it was. Jane and Elisabeth were ordered to pay court costs of 5 shillings each and be bound over for 12 months. Of course it would have been their parents who would have had to find the cash and they probably made their girls pay for that with sore bottoms!
To be fair to the police and magistrates there was still a food shortage in the country but matters had improved since the war and one would have thought that a warning by the police would have sufficed. Interestingly the farmhouse for Leach Hall Farm also served as a beerhouse called the Engine and Tender (shown above), which was run for decades by father and son William and Edwin Garton until it closed in 1938.
The St Helens Police Court on the 5th heard about a Saturday night punch up in Bold Street in which Nathan and Frank White were battling it out with James Pinder. Nathan White told the Bench that the trouble had started after Pinder had come into his house with another man and knocked him into the fire. "It was like a football match", he claimed.
However the collier had 28 previous convictions to his name and his boy Frank had 31 and so the magistrates had little time for his explanation. All three were bound over for twelve months in the sum of £5 and each also had to find two sureties of £2 10 shillings. If the trio weren't able to find people prepared to risk their cash on their good behaviour, they would have to serve 28 days in prison.
Also in trouble was Edward Railton from Eccleston Road who appeared in court charged with assaulting an unnamed man on a tram and not paying his fare. Railton had boarded the Prescot tram while it was in motion in Bridge Street and a kind passenger helped him get into the vehicle. After sitting down next to the man's wife, Railton began to use bad language and so the woman swapped places with her husband.
Conductress Annie Cottrill asked Railton for his fare but he refused to give it. Eventually, as the tram reached Boundary Road, Railton stood up, violently struck the man that had helped him onto the tram and then dashed to the end of the car and jumped off. Edward Railton was fined £1 or 14 days in prison for not paying his fare and £3 or 28 days for the assault.
On the 6th Frederick Ashworth was struck by an engine while crossing the railway line by Pocket Nook bridge and died soon afterwards in Providence Hospital. The train's fireman told the inquest into the 53-year-old's death that the first he knew about the incident was when he saw a cap go "whizzing past" his engine. A witness said the deceased always walked with his head down – not a clever thing to do when crossing a railway line.
What was advertised as a "great spiritualist demonstration" took place at Griffins picture house in Ormskirk Street on the 7th in front of a crowded audience. Griffins was the first purpose-built cinema in St Helens, which became the Scala. It was named after the family who also kept a furnishers and photographer's studio on the corner of Westfield Street and Ormskirk Street.
Arresting offenders in St Helens town centre late on a Saturday night could be a risky business for the police with drunken mobs often attempting to free their prisoners. In St Helens Police Court on the 8th it was stated that a hostile crowd had given two bobbies a hard time as they struggled to take an arrested man to the police station at the Town Hall, via Barrow Street.
The trouble had begun at 11pm when John Lloyd, the manager of the Hippodrome, objected to James Cross singing on the Rainhill-bound tram and complained to the conductor. With police assistance the collier from Sunbury Street in Thatto Heath was ejected from the car and told he would be reported for causing a disturbance. Immediately after being released by the police, Cross bolted back to the tram as it stopped at the top of Bridge Street.
He then jumped onto the footboard and punched a tram inspector in the eye. For that and for kicking PC White in his calf, James Cross was fined a total of £3. John Gill from Duke Street also appeared in court accused of breaching the peace and obstructing the police by inciting a mob to free James Cross, as described by Inspector Lee Bowden:
"At a quarter past eleven on Saturday night I came into Victoria-square, and saw a crowd of three hundred and the prisoner [John Gill] among them, shouting, running about and waving his arms and trying to incite the crowd to attack the police. He was like a madman, and seemed to have completely lost himself." Gill had a good record and so was fined just ten shillings, as was George Kitchen from Milk Street who was also considered to have been one of the ringleaders.
Also in court was Samuel Helsby from Graham Street in Fingerpost who was charged with assault and behaving in a violent manner in a mine. Helsby had turned up drunk for his nightshift at Ravenhead Colliery. When Henry Wright the night foreman told him to go home, Helsby punched him on the jaw. This knocked Wright onto a cart and led to him being unconscious for ten minutes. The Bench said this was a very bad case and Helsby’s behaviour had been "simply scandalous". He was fined a total of £4 15 shillings or if in default, 56 days in prison.
Another case of drunken violence concerned Peter Ashcroft who was found shouting and creating a disturbance in Church Street. PC Cain told him to go away but Ashcroft refused to leave, saying there was not a policeman in St Helens that could lock him up. The miner from Brunswick Street in Parr decided to try and prove his claim and was very violent to the constables as they took him to the police station.
Ashcroft told Inspector Anders that he had plenty of "Bradburys" at home and would have it out of policemens' ribs if he had to pay any. By that he meant he had lots of cash and if made to pay a fine would seek revenge on the police. Bradbury was the nickname for the £1 and 10 shilling notes (shown above) that had been introduced during the war to conserve bullion and silver stocks.
They were so-called because of the prominent signature on the notes of John Bradbury, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury. Ashcroft was very argumentative in court but didn't have to fork out too many Bradburys, as his fine was just £2 10 shillings.
And finally an entertainment guide. From the 8th Mary Pickford starred in the silent comedy-drama film 'Daddy Long Legs' at the Oxford Picturedrome in Duke Street, which would later be known as The Plaza and Cindy's nightclub. The Bridge Street Picturedrome was screening an early Cecil B. DeMille film called 'The Devil Stone' that was co-written by his mother and had colour artificially added to selected areas of the picture.
Meanwhile at the Hippodrome the acts were: Teddy Lotto ("The comedy man"); The Great Belgian Anserouls ("King of double-hand triple somersaults"); Glad and I ("Dainty musical offering"); Katy Keith ("Comedienne"); Jack Walsh ("The little bunch of comedy") and the Nine Dainty Dots ("In their lovely vocal, dancing and marching scene The Kilties on Parade").
Next week's stories will include the Corporation's war on rats, the furious driving of a motor car in Higher Parr Street, the Sutton landlord who stole a lodger's watch, the Gamble Institute's evening classes and the low Peasley Cross bridge that could decapitate passengers on open-top trams.
We begin on the 3rd when a public reception was held in the Town Hall for 850 decorated soldiers, as well as the relatives of those that had died after being awarded military distinctions. The event involved the distribution of the St Helens Heroes Fund, which had raised over £2,500 for all soldiers that had been decorated in the war from the Victoria Cross down.
That was a huge sum of money but divided by 850 it meant there was only £3 for each person, equivalent to around a week's wages for many. However as they say it's the thought that counts and each recipient went forward to receive their cash from the Mayoress. There was then a concert performed by a number of artistes followed by refreshments.
The police's policy of putting little children through the harrowing experience of a court appearance after committing a minor offence continued on the 4th. That was when Jane Grice and Elisabeth Barrett were summoned to St Helens Police Court for doing "wilful damage to growing potatoes to the value of 2s. 6d., the property of Wm. Garton".
The 11-year-old next-door neighbours from Hills Moss Road had been playing in a field off Bold Road belonging to Leach Hall Farm. Sergeant Adams saw the girls with other small children pulling some potatoes and managed to catch Jane Grice who gave him the name of her friend Elisabeth.
The Chairman said the Bench considered the wilful damage to growing crops to be a very serious matter and called for parents to tell their children just how serious it was. Jane and Elisabeth were ordered to pay court costs of 5 shillings each and be bound over for 12 months. Of course it would have been their parents who would have had to find the cash and they probably made their girls pay for that with sore bottoms!
The St Helens Police Court on the 5th heard about a Saturday night punch up in Bold Street in which Nathan and Frank White were battling it out with James Pinder. Nathan White told the Bench that the trouble had started after Pinder had come into his house with another man and knocked him into the fire. "It was like a football match", he claimed.
However the collier had 28 previous convictions to his name and his boy Frank had 31 and so the magistrates had little time for his explanation. All three were bound over for twelve months in the sum of £5 and each also had to find two sureties of £2 10 shillings. If the trio weren't able to find people prepared to risk their cash on their good behaviour, they would have to serve 28 days in prison.
Also in trouble was Edward Railton from Eccleston Road who appeared in court charged with assaulting an unnamed man on a tram and not paying his fare. Railton had boarded the Prescot tram while it was in motion in Bridge Street and a kind passenger helped him get into the vehicle. After sitting down next to the man's wife, Railton began to use bad language and so the woman swapped places with her husband.
Conductress Annie Cottrill asked Railton for his fare but he refused to give it. Eventually, as the tram reached Boundary Road, Railton stood up, violently struck the man that had helped him onto the tram and then dashed to the end of the car and jumped off. Edward Railton was fined £1 or 14 days in prison for not paying his fare and £3 or 28 days for the assault.
On the 6th Frederick Ashworth was struck by an engine while crossing the railway line by Pocket Nook bridge and died soon afterwards in Providence Hospital. The train's fireman told the inquest into the 53-year-old's death that the first he knew about the incident was when he saw a cap go "whizzing past" his engine. A witness said the deceased always walked with his head down – not a clever thing to do when crossing a railway line.
What was advertised as a "great spiritualist demonstration" took place at Griffins picture house in Ormskirk Street on the 7th in front of a crowded audience. Griffins was the first purpose-built cinema in St Helens, which became the Scala. It was named after the family who also kept a furnishers and photographer's studio on the corner of Westfield Street and Ormskirk Street.
Arresting offenders in St Helens town centre late on a Saturday night could be a risky business for the police with drunken mobs often attempting to free their prisoners. In St Helens Police Court on the 8th it was stated that a hostile crowd had given two bobbies a hard time as they struggled to take an arrested man to the police station at the Town Hall, via Barrow Street.
The trouble had begun at 11pm when John Lloyd, the manager of the Hippodrome, objected to James Cross singing on the Rainhill-bound tram and complained to the conductor. With police assistance the collier from Sunbury Street in Thatto Heath was ejected from the car and told he would be reported for causing a disturbance. Immediately after being released by the police, Cross bolted back to the tram as it stopped at the top of Bridge Street.
He then jumped onto the footboard and punched a tram inspector in the eye. For that and for kicking PC White in his calf, James Cross was fined a total of £3. John Gill from Duke Street also appeared in court accused of breaching the peace and obstructing the police by inciting a mob to free James Cross, as described by Inspector Lee Bowden:
"At a quarter past eleven on Saturday night I came into Victoria-square, and saw a crowd of three hundred and the prisoner [John Gill] among them, shouting, running about and waving his arms and trying to incite the crowd to attack the police. He was like a madman, and seemed to have completely lost himself." Gill had a good record and so was fined just ten shillings, as was George Kitchen from Milk Street who was also considered to have been one of the ringleaders.
Also in court was Samuel Helsby from Graham Street in Fingerpost who was charged with assault and behaving in a violent manner in a mine. Helsby had turned up drunk for his nightshift at Ravenhead Colliery. When Henry Wright the night foreman told him to go home, Helsby punched him on the jaw. This knocked Wright onto a cart and led to him being unconscious for ten minutes. The Bench said this was a very bad case and Helsby’s behaviour had been "simply scandalous". He was fined a total of £4 15 shillings or if in default, 56 days in prison.
Another case of drunken violence concerned Peter Ashcroft who was found shouting and creating a disturbance in Church Street. PC Cain told him to go away but Ashcroft refused to leave, saying there was not a policeman in St Helens that could lock him up. The miner from Brunswick Street in Parr decided to try and prove his claim and was very violent to the constables as they took him to the police station.
They were so-called because of the prominent signature on the notes of John Bradbury, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury. Ashcroft was very argumentative in court but didn't have to fork out too many Bradburys, as his fine was just £2 10 shillings.
And finally an entertainment guide. From the 8th Mary Pickford starred in the silent comedy-drama film 'Daddy Long Legs' at the Oxford Picturedrome in Duke Street, which would later be known as The Plaza and Cindy's nightclub. The Bridge Street Picturedrome was screening an early Cecil B. DeMille film called 'The Devil Stone' that was co-written by his mother and had colour artificially added to selected areas of the picture.
Meanwhile at the Hippodrome the acts were: Teddy Lotto ("The comedy man"); The Great Belgian Anserouls ("King of double-hand triple somersaults"); Glad and I ("Dainty musical offering"); Katy Keith ("Comedienne"); Jack Walsh ("The little bunch of comedy") and the Nine Dainty Dots ("In their lovely vocal, dancing and marching scene The Kilties on Parade").
Next week's stories will include the Corporation's war on rats, the furious driving of a motor car in Higher Parr Street, the Sutton landlord who stole a lodger's watch, the Gamble Institute's evening classes and the low Peasley Cross bridge that could decapitate passengers on open-top trams.