IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2 - 8 OCTOBER 1923)
This week's many stories include the Woodbine-smoking 8-year-old who was told by a magistrate that he deserved to be beaten several times a week, the betting house in Thatto Heath, St Helens housewives are advised to keep their homes clean, the proposed new reservoir to relieve a severe water famine in St Helens and the ex-soldier found in Cooper Street drunk on meths.
If the father or mother of a child that had been brought before the magistrates said they could not control them, there was usually only one outcome. Their admission almost always led to their boy or girl being sent away to an industrial school or a reformatory for several years. That occurred even when the child's offence had been minor. On the 2nd an unidentified 11-year-old boy appeared in front of St Helens Juvenile Court accused of stealing a tape measure worth 6p from Marks and Spencer. His mother told the court: "I cannot manage him, he gets in all sorts of mischief". The boy had been before the court several times before for various thefts and he was sent to an industrial school until he turned 16.
Also on the 2nd George Day (aka Dean) appeared in St Helens Police Court accused of stealing almost £3 from officials employed at two St Helens firms. The conman claimed to be a telephone engineer working in the area that happened to possess a stock of pre-war whiskey. Day offered to sell bottles to officials at Sherdley Colliery and a lead works in St Helens but needed payment in advance. He was later arrested in Manchester and committed for trial.
From the 3rd to the 5th what was described as "Ye Olde English Village Bazaar" was held in St Helens Town Hall with proceeds in aid of the YMCA.
St Helens Council's monthly meeting also took place on the 3rd and a proposal to construct a new reservoir for the town was passed. The intention was to create a 14-day reserve of water and – as the Reporter put it – "relieve St. Helens of its existing danger of a grave water famine". The building of the reservoir at a cost of £100,000 would have the added advantage of being carried out as relief work for the unemployed. That meant the council should qualify for a government grant and create work for a considerable number of both skilled and unskilled men.
It does seem extraordinary to us for an 8-year-old child to be told by magistrates that he should be beaten several times a week – and for the man who said it to also be a medical doctor. But I don't imagine that a single eyebrow was raised at Dr O’Keefe's comments, as similar ones were often made in St Helens Police Court.
The case in question was heard on the 4th and involved an unidentified boy accused with his brother of stealing a bicycle pump from a machine left outside a St Helens hairdresser's shop. The father told the Bench that his Woodbine-smoking 8-year-old was "incorrigible" and that he could not keep him in order. This is part of the Liverpool Echo's report:
"The Chairman (Dr. O’Keefe) told the boy of eight that he was a very bad lot. He was a danger to himself and a trouble to his parents, and he ought to have a good hiding a few times every week, and ought to be put to bed without supper very often. If he came there [to court] again he would be sent to an industrial school. The father said they were in lodgings, and the people of the house said they would not have this eight-year-old boy back anymore. He did not know what to do. The Chairman. – You will have to be strict with him, and give him a good hiding very often. It will do him good and make him hardy. The boys were put on probation."
It was Health Week in St Helens next week and the Reporter on the 5th had an advertising feature that included ten hints for healthy homes. These, I'm sure, would be considered rather patronising these days, but there was a lot of ignorance over such matters a century ago.
So housewives were advised to keep the home and yourself clean as dirt spreads disease; let sunshine into your rooms as sunlight kills germs; open windows day and night as fresh air is necessary for health and clothe to suit the weather as chills lower vitality. Also eat plain, well-cooked food as bad feeding undermines health; keep food scrupulously clean as one particle of dirt means millions of germs; keep teeth clean and sound; take open-air exercise; don't neglect that early cough as it may lead to consumption (TB) and avoid excess in all things.
Although most wireless listeners – or "listeners-in" as the term then was – had a very limited choice of stations, some were turning the new mode of entertainment into a hobby and picking up radio stations from abroad. A high-location and a good receiver and outdoor aerial boosted your chances of receiving foreign broadcasts at night.
This week Thomas Hamblett of Hard Lane described his experiences in the Reporter having been picking up signals from across the Atlantic. Not only had the 24-year-old heard numerous stations from New York but he had also picked up a broadcast from the West Indies, "where the banana thrives," explained the Reporter. The paper added that Mr Hamblett had heard an orchestra play the song "Yes, we have no bananas" but commented dryly that he had not taken the words seriously.
Thomas Connolly appeared in St Helens Police Court on the morning of the 6th to face a charge of being drunk and incapable after boozing on methylated spirits. PC Kirk had found the veteran of "the great big war" – as Connolly put it – surrounded by a crowd in Cooper Street in St Helens at 10:15pm on the previous evening.
Connolly was sat on a doorstep and upon being asked where he came from did not answer and was not able to stand up. The officer also noticed that he smelt strongly of meths and so he was taken into custody and locked up. Chief Inspector Roe told the court that as far as the police knew this had been the man's first offence. Connolly, he said, had just arrived from Manchester and was tramping the country. The Reporter in their account of the hearing then wrote:
"Prisoner, who did not seem to be completely recovered from his “drunk,” said that he met some friends who were wounded in the great big war, and he wished he hadn't. “I will wish you every happiness if you will look over it this time,” added the prisoner, who also said that he belonged to the Connaught Rangers, and was crippled for life. On the Bench intimating that prisoner could go if he would promise to leave the town, he saluted smartly with his left hand, and then, remembering his error, brought his right hand up to the forehead, and left the dock."
At an inquest at St Helens on the 8th, a 15-year-old youth was called to give evidence. But when the card on which he was to swear an oath to tell the truth was placed in his hands, he admitted that he could not read. Upon being questioned by the coroner, the youth claimed to have had five years of schooling but never properly learnt to read.
During 1923 there had been a big expansion in the number of betting cases heard in the St Helens courts. Those out of work or on short time found easy money through their involvement with gambling. An increasing number of defendants gave their poor circumstances – sometimes connected with disability through war service – as the reason why they were in the dock.
When the police had charged Ruth Ashton of Peter Street in St Helens with the offence, she had said: "I have been taking a few bets here with my sister. I have got to do something. My husband cannot work through the war." The "here" had been 37 Balmer Street in Thatto Heath where Ruth's sister Elizabeth lived. During their ten-hour period of observation, the police had witnessed 73 persons enter the property, some of them children. Chief Inspector Roe later led a raid on the house and seized betting slips relating to 1,200 bets.
When the sisters appeared in court on the 8th their solicitor appealed for leniency, saying it was the first time they'd appeared before the Bench and during the three months of their activities they had not taken many bets. Upon the Chairman of the Bench commenting that the principal – i.e. the bookie heading their operation – would pay the sisters' fine, the solicitor said: "The principal in this case is one who cannot work because of the service he gave in the Army." The Bench decided upon a fine of £10 in each case or 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cheeky Boundary Road Baths bike thief, Cholerton's wireless sale, the made-to-measure corsets, the sawing of a woman in half at the Hippodrome and the increase in evictions of tenants.
If the father or mother of a child that had been brought before the magistrates said they could not control them, there was usually only one outcome. Their admission almost always led to their boy or girl being sent away to an industrial school or a reformatory for several years. That occurred even when the child's offence had been minor. On the 2nd an unidentified 11-year-old boy appeared in front of St Helens Juvenile Court accused of stealing a tape measure worth 6p from Marks and Spencer. His mother told the court: "I cannot manage him, he gets in all sorts of mischief". The boy had been before the court several times before for various thefts and he was sent to an industrial school until he turned 16.
Also on the 2nd George Day (aka Dean) appeared in St Helens Police Court accused of stealing almost £3 from officials employed at two St Helens firms. The conman claimed to be a telephone engineer working in the area that happened to possess a stock of pre-war whiskey. Day offered to sell bottles to officials at Sherdley Colliery and a lead works in St Helens but needed payment in advance. He was later arrested in Manchester and committed for trial.
From the 3rd to the 5th what was described as "Ye Olde English Village Bazaar" was held in St Helens Town Hall with proceeds in aid of the YMCA.
St Helens Council's monthly meeting also took place on the 3rd and a proposal to construct a new reservoir for the town was passed. The intention was to create a 14-day reserve of water and – as the Reporter put it – "relieve St. Helens of its existing danger of a grave water famine". The building of the reservoir at a cost of £100,000 would have the added advantage of being carried out as relief work for the unemployed. That meant the council should qualify for a government grant and create work for a considerable number of both skilled and unskilled men.
It does seem extraordinary to us for an 8-year-old child to be told by magistrates that he should be beaten several times a week – and for the man who said it to also be a medical doctor. But I don't imagine that a single eyebrow was raised at Dr O’Keefe's comments, as similar ones were often made in St Helens Police Court.
The case in question was heard on the 4th and involved an unidentified boy accused with his brother of stealing a bicycle pump from a machine left outside a St Helens hairdresser's shop. The father told the Bench that his Woodbine-smoking 8-year-old was "incorrigible" and that he could not keep him in order. This is part of the Liverpool Echo's report:
"The Chairman (Dr. O’Keefe) told the boy of eight that he was a very bad lot. He was a danger to himself and a trouble to his parents, and he ought to have a good hiding a few times every week, and ought to be put to bed without supper very often. If he came there [to court] again he would be sent to an industrial school. The father said they were in lodgings, and the people of the house said they would not have this eight-year-old boy back anymore. He did not know what to do. The Chairman. – You will have to be strict with him, and give him a good hiding very often. It will do him good and make him hardy. The boys were put on probation."
So housewives were advised to keep the home and yourself clean as dirt spreads disease; let sunshine into your rooms as sunlight kills germs; open windows day and night as fresh air is necessary for health and clothe to suit the weather as chills lower vitality. Also eat plain, well-cooked food as bad feeding undermines health; keep food scrupulously clean as one particle of dirt means millions of germs; keep teeth clean and sound; take open-air exercise; don't neglect that early cough as it may lead to consumption (TB) and avoid excess in all things.
Although most wireless listeners – or "listeners-in" as the term then was – had a very limited choice of stations, some were turning the new mode of entertainment into a hobby and picking up radio stations from abroad. A high-location and a good receiver and outdoor aerial boosted your chances of receiving foreign broadcasts at night.
This week Thomas Hamblett of Hard Lane described his experiences in the Reporter having been picking up signals from across the Atlantic. Not only had the 24-year-old heard numerous stations from New York but he had also picked up a broadcast from the West Indies, "where the banana thrives," explained the Reporter. The paper added that Mr Hamblett had heard an orchestra play the song "Yes, we have no bananas" but commented dryly that he had not taken the words seriously.
Thomas Connolly appeared in St Helens Police Court on the morning of the 6th to face a charge of being drunk and incapable after boozing on methylated spirits. PC Kirk had found the veteran of "the great big war" – as Connolly put it – surrounded by a crowd in Cooper Street in St Helens at 10:15pm on the previous evening.
Connolly was sat on a doorstep and upon being asked where he came from did not answer and was not able to stand up. The officer also noticed that he smelt strongly of meths and so he was taken into custody and locked up. Chief Inspector Roe told the court that as far as the police knew this had been the man's first offence. Connolly, he said, had just arrived from Manchester and was tramping the country. The Reporter in their account of the hearing then wrote:
"Prisoner, who did not seem to be completely recovered from his “drunk,” said that he met some friends who were wounded in the great big war, and he wished he hadn't. “I will wish you every happiness if you will look over it this time,” added the prisoner, who also said that he belonged to the Connaught Rangers, and was crippled for life. On the Bench intimating that prisoner could go if he would promise to leave the town, he saluted smartly with his left hand, and then, remembering his error, brought his right hand up to the forehead, and left the dock."
At an inquest at St Helens on the 8th, a 15-year-old youth was called to give evidence. But when the card on which he was to swear an oath to tell the truth was placed in his hands, he admitted that he could not read. Upon being questioned by the coroner, the youth claimed to have had five years of schooling but never properly learnt to read.
During 1923 there had been a big expansion in the number of betting cases heard in the St Helens courts. Those out of work or on short time found easy money through their involvement with gambling. An increasing number of defendants gave their poor circumstances – sometimes connected with disability through war service – as the reason why they were in the dock.
When the police had charged Ruth Ashton of Peter Street in St Helens with the offence, she had said: "I have been taking a few bets here with my sister. I have got to do something. My husband cannot work through the war." The "here" had been 37 Balmer Street in Thatto Heath where Ruth's sister Elizabeth lived. During their ten-hour period of observation, the police had witnessed 73 persons enter the property, some of them children. Chief Inspector Roe later led a raid on the house and seized betting slips relating to 1,200 bets.
When the sisters appeared in court on the 8th their solicitor appealed for leniency, saying it was the first time they'd appeared before the Bench and during the three months of their activities they had not taken many bets. Upon the Chairman of the Bench commenting that the principal – i.e. the bookie heading their operation – would pay the sisters' fine, the solicitor said: "The principal in this case is one who cannot work because of the service he gave in the Army." The Bench decided upon a fine of £10 in each case or 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cheeky Boundary Road Baths bike thief, Cholerton's wireless sale, the made-to-measure corsets, the sawing of a woman in half at the Hippodrome and the increase in evictions of tenants.
This week's many stories include the Woodbine-smoking 8-year-old who was told by a magistrate that he deserved to be beaten several times a week, the betting house in Thatto Heath, St Helens housewives are advised to keep their homes clean, the proposed new reservoir to relieve a severe water famine in St Helens and the ex-soldier found in Cooper Street drunk on meths.
If the father or mother of a child that had been brought before the magistrates said they could not control them, there was usually only one outcome.
Their admission almost always led to their boy or girl being sent away to an industrial school or a reformatory for several years. That occurred even when the child's offence had been minor.
On the 2nd an unidentified 11-year-old boy appeared in front of St Helens Juvenile Court accused of stealing a tape measure worth 6p from Marks and Spencer. His mother told the court: "I cannot manage him, he gets in all sorts of mischief".
The boy had been before the court several times before for various thefts and he was sent to an industrial school until he turned 16.
Also on the 2nd George Day (aka Dean) appeared in St Helens Police Court accused of stealing almost £3 from officials employed at two St Helens firms.
The conman claimed to be a telephone engineer working in the area that happened to possess a stock of pre-war whiskey.
Day offered to sell bottles to officials at Sherdley Colliery and a lead works in St Helens but needed payment in advance. He was later arrested in Manchester and committed for trial.
From the 3rd to the 5th what was described as "Ye Olde English Village Bazaar" was held in St Helens Town Hall with proceeds in aid of the YMCA.
St Helens Council's monthly meeting also took place on the 3rd and a proposal to construct a new reservoir for the town was passed.
The intention was to create a 14-day reserve of water and – as the Reporter put it – "relieve St. Helens of its existing danger of a grave water famine".
The building of the reservoir at a cost of £100,000 would have the added advantage of being carried out as relief work for the unemployed.
That meant the council should qualify for a government grant and create work for a considerable number of both skilled and unskilled men.
It does seem extraordinary to us for an 8-year-old child to be told by magistrates that he should be beaten several times a week – and for the man who said it to also be a medical doctor.
But I don't imagine that a single eyebrow was raised at Dr O’Keefe's comments, as similar ones were often made in St Helens Police Court.
The case in question was heard on the 4th and involved an unidentified boy accused with his brother of stealing a bicycle pump from a machine left outside a St Helens hairdresser's shop.
The father told the Bench that his Woodbine-smoking 8-year-old was "incorrigible" and that he could not keep him in order. This is part of the Liverpool Echo's report:
"The Chairman (Dr. O’Keefe) told the boy of eight that he was a very bad lot. He was a danger to himself and a trouble to his parents, and he ought to have a good hiding a few times every week, and ought to be put to bed without supper very often. If he came there [to court] again he would be sent to an industrial school.
"The father said they were in lodgings, and the people of the house said they would not have this eight-year-old boy back anymore. He did not know what to do. The Chairman. – You will have to be strict with him, and give him a good hiding very often. It will do him good and make him hardy. The boys were put on probation."
It was Health Week in St Helens next week and the Reporter on the 5th had an advertising feature that included ten hints for healthy homes.
These, I'm sure, would be considered rather patronising these days, but there was a lot of ignorance over such matters a century ago.
So housewives were advised to keep the home and yourself clean as dirt spreads disease; let sunshine into your rooms as sunlight kills germs; open windows day and night as fresh air is necessary for health and clothe to suit the weather as chills lower vitality.
Also eat plain, well-cooked food as bad feeding undermines health; keep food scrupulously clean as one particle of dirt means millions of germs; keep teeth clean and sound; take open-air exercise; don't neglect that early cough as it may lead to consumption (TB) and avoid excess in all things.
Although most wireless listeners – or "listeners-in" as the term then was – had a very limited choice of stations, some were turning the new mode of entertainment into a hobby and picking up radio stations from abroad.
A high-location and a good receiver and outdoor aerial boosted your chances of receiving foreign broadcasts at night.
This week Thomas Hamblett of Hard Lane described his experiences in the Reporter having been picking up signals from across the Atlantic.
Not only had the 24-year-old heard numerous stations from New York but he had also picked up a broadcast from the West Indies, "where the banana thrives," explained the Reporter.
The paper added that Mr Hamblett had heard an orchestra play the song "Yes, we have no bananas" but commented dryly that he had not taken the words seriously.
Thomas Connolly appeared in St Helens Police Court on the morning of the 6th to face a charge of being drunk and incapable after boozing on methylated spirits.
PC Kirk had found the veteran of "the great big war" – as Connolly put it – surrounded by a crowd in Cooper Street in St Helens at 10:15pm on the previous evening.
Connolly was sat on a doorstep and upon being asked where he came from did not answer and was not able to stand up.
The officer also noticed that he smelt strongly of meths and so he was taken into custody and locked up.
Chief Inspector Roe told the court that as far as the police knew this had been the man's first offence.
Connolly, he said, had just arrived from Manchester and was tramping the country. The Reporter in their account of the hearing then wrote:
"Prisoner, who did not seem to be completely recovered from his “drunk,” said that he met some friends who were wounded in the great big war, and he wished he hadn't.
"“I will wish you every happiness if you will look over it this time,” added the prisoner, who also said that he belonged to the Connaught Rangers, and was crippled for life.
"On the Bench intimating that prisoner could go if he would promise to leave the town, he saluted smartly with his left hand, and then, remembering his error, brought his right hand up to the forehead, and left the dock."
At an inquest at St Helens on the 8th, a 15-year-old youth was called to give evidence. But when the card on which he was to swear an oath to tell the truth was placed in his hands, he admitted that he could not read.
Upon being questioned by the coroner, the youth claimed to have had five years of schooling but never properly learnt to read.
During 1923 there had been a big expansion in the number of betting cases heard in the St Helens courts.
Those out of work or on short time found easy money through their involvement with gambling.
An increasing number of defendants gave their poor circumstances – sometimes connected with disability through war service – as the reason why they were in the dock.
When the police had charged Ruth Ashton of Peter Street in St Helens with the offence, she had said: "I have been taking a few bets here with my sister. I have got to do something. My husband cannot work through the war."
The "here" had been 37 Balmer Street in Thatto Heath where Ruth's sister Elizabeth lived.
During their ten-hour period of observation, the police had witnessed 73 persons enter the property, some of them children.
Chief Inspector Roe later led a raid on the house and seized betting slips relating to 1,200 bets.
When the sisters appeared in court on the 8th their solicitor appealed for leniency, saying it was the first time they'd appeared before the Bench and during the three months of their activities they had not taken many bets.
Upon the Chairman of the Bench commenting that the principal – i.e. the bookie heading their operation – would pay the sisters' fine, the solicitor said:
"The principal in this case is one who cannot work because of the service he gave in the Army." The Bench decided upon a fine of £10 in each case or 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cheeky Boundary Road Baths bike thief, Cholerton's wireless sale, the made-to-measure corsets, the sawing of a woman in half at the Hippodrome and the increase in evictions of tenants.
If the father or mother of a child that had been brought before the magistrates said they could not control them, there was usually only one outcome.
Their admission almost always led to their boy or girl being sent away to an industrial school or a reformatory for several years. That occurred even when the child's offence had been minor.
On the 2nd an unidentified 11-year-old boy appeared in front of St Helens Juvenile Court accused of stealing a tape measure worth 6p from Marks and Spencer. His mother told the court: "I cannot manage him, he gets in all sorts of mischief".
The boy had been before the court several times before for various thefts and he was sent to an industrial school until he turned 16.
Also on the 2nd George Day (aka Dean) appeared in St Helens Police Court accused of stealing almost £3 from officials employed at two St Helens firms.
The conman claimed to be a telephone engineer working in the area that happened to possess a stock of pre-war whiskey.
Day offered to sell bottles to officials at Sherdley Colliery and a lead works in St Helens but needed payment in advance. He was later arrested in Manchester and committed for trial.
From the 3rd to the 5th what was described as "Ye Olde English Village Bazaar" was held in St Helens Town Hall with proceeds in aid of the YMCA.
St Helens Council's monthly meeting also took place on the 3rd and a proposal to construct a new reservoir for the town was passed.
The intention was to create a 14-day reserve of water and – as the Reporter put it – "relieve St. Helens of its existing danger of a grave water famine".
The building of the reservoir at a cost of £100,000 would have the added advantage of being carried out as relief work for the unemployed.
That meant the council should qualify for a government grant and create work for a considerable number of both skilled and unskilled men.
It does seem extraordinary to us for an 8-year-old child to be told by magistrates that he should be beaten several times a week – and for the man who said it to also be a medical doctor.
But I don't imagine that a single eyebrow was raised at Dr O’Keefe's comments, as similar ones were often made in St Helens Police Court.
The case in question was heard on the 4th and involved an unidentified boy accused with his brother of stealing a bicycle pump from a machine left outside a St Helens hairdresser's shop.
The father told the Bench that his Woodbine-smoking 8-year-old was "incorrigible" and that he could not keep him in order. This is part of the Liverpool Echo's report:
"The Chairman (Dr. O’Keefe) told the boy of eight that he was a very bad lot. He was a danger to himself and a trouble to his parents, and he ought to have a good hiding a few times every week, and ought to be put to bed without supper very often. If he came there [to court] again he would be sent to an industrial school.
"The father said they were in lodgings, and the people of the house said they would not have this eight-year-old boy back anymore. He did not know what to do. The Chairman. – You will have to be strict with him, and give him a good hiding very often. It will do him good and make him hardy. The boys were put on probation."
These, I'm sure, would be considered rather patronising these days, but there was a lot of ignorance over such matters a century ago.
So housewives were advised to keep the home and yourself clean as dirt spreads disease; let sunshine into your rooms as sunlight kills germs; open windows day and night as fresh air is necessary for health and clothe to suit the weather as chills lower vitality.
Also eat plain, well-cooked food as bad feeding undermines health; keep food scrupulously clean as one particle of dirt means millions of germs; keep teeth clean and sound; take open-air exercise; don't neglect that early cough as it may lead to consumption (TB) and avoid excess in all things.
Although most wireless listeners – or "listeners-in" as the term then was – had a very limited choice of stations, some were turning the new mode of entertainment into a hobby and picking up radio stations from abroad.
A high-location and a good receiver and outdoor aerial boosted your chances of receiving foreign broadcasts at night.
This week Thomas Hamblett of Hard Lane described his experiences in the Reporter having been picking up signals from across the Atlantic.
Not only had the 24-year-old heard numerous stations from New York but he had also picked up a broadcast from the West Indies, "where the banana thrives," explained the Reporter.
The paper added that Mr Hamblett had heard an orchestra play the song "Yes, we have no bananas" but commented dryly that he had not taken the words seriously.
Thomas Connolly appeared in St Helens Police Court on the morning of the 6th to face a charge of being drunk and incapable after boozing on methylated spirits.
PC Kirk had found the veteran of "the great big war" – as Connolly put it – surrounded by a crowd in Cooper Street in St Helens at 10:15pm on the previous evening.
Connolly was sat on a doorstep and upon being asked where he came from did not answer and was not able to stand up.
The officer also noticed that he smelt strongly of meths and so he was taken into custody and locked up.
Chief Inspector Roe told the court that as far as the police knew this had been the man's first offence.
Connolly, he said, had just arrived from Manchester and was tramping the country. The Reporter in their account of the hearing then wrote:
"Prisoner, who did not seem to be completely recovered from his “drunk,” said that he met some friends who were wounded in the great big war, and he wished he hadn't.
"“I will wish you every happiness if you will look over it this time,” added the prisoner, who also said that he belonged to the Connaught Rangers, and was crippled for life.
"On the Bench intimating that prisoner could go if he would promise to leave the town, he saluted smartly with his left hand, and then, remembering his error, brought his right hand up to the forehead, and left the dock."
At an inquest at St Helens on the 8th, a 15-year-old youth was called to give evidence. But when the card on which he was to swear an oath to tell the truth was placed in his hands, he admitted that he could not read.
Upon being questioned by the coroner, the youth claimed to have had five years of schooling but never properly learnt to read.
During 1923 there had been a big expansion in the number of betting cases heard in the St Helens courts.
Those out of work or on short time found easy money through their involvement with gambling.
An increasing number of defendants gave their poor circumstances – sometimes connected with disability through war service – as the reason why they were in the dock.
When the police had charged Ruth Ashton of Peter Street in St Helens with the offence, she had said: "I have been taking a few bets here with my sister. I have got to do something. My husband cannot work through the war."
The "here" had been 37 Balmer Street in Thatto Heath where Ruth's sister Elizabeth lived.
During their ten-hour period of observation, the police had witnessed 73 persons enter the property, some of them children.
Chief Inspector Roe later led a raid on the house and seized betting slips relating to 1,200 bets.
When the sisters appeared in court on the 8th their solicitor appealed for leniency, saying it was the first time they'd appeared before the Bench and during the three months of their activities they had not taken many bets.
Upon the Chairman of the Bench commenting that the principal – i.e. the bookie heading their operation – would pay the sisters' fine, the solicitor said:
"The principal in this case is one who cannot work because of the service he gave in the Army." The Bench decided upon a fine of £10 in each case or 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the cheeky Boundary Road Baths bike thief, Cholerton's wireless sale, the made-to-measure corsets, the sawing of a woman in half at the Hippodrome and the increase in evictions of tenants.