IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th JANUARY 1922)
This week's stories include the road widening and improvement schemes planned for St Helens, the disgraceful Sutton flooding, the brute of a husband from Bank Street, the illegal Sutton Manor raffle for a doll's house and the boy who was birched instead of being sent to an industrial school.
During this week the Hippodrome abandoned its usual mix of music hall turns for what they described as a complete circus programme. The acts performing at the Corporation Street theatre included: Clown Barker ("Miniature animal circus, including midget ponies"); The Huntings ("A spectacular juggling and unsupported ladder act"); Cornalla & Eddie ("Two acrobats and a clown"); Mareski ("The crazy fiddler"); Kioto & Stanley ("Anglo-Japanese patter, comedy equilibriatic act"); The Two Meurs ("Sensational vaulting hand-balancers") and Madame Dalmere’s Table Circus ("Fifty rabbits, rodents, cats, dogs and monkeys").
In May 1921 the Era newspaper published this review of the table circus: "One of the prettiest and most entertaining shows is that of Madame Dalmere, in which a number of animals do all sorts of amazing tricks. We had an opportunity last week of seeing Madame Dalmere's Circus behind at the Euston. Our visit was entirely unexpected, but we found the monkeys, cats, dogs, rats, doves, and even a duck dwelling together in perfect amity.
"M. Dalmere was occupied in cutting up carrots for his pets and Madame Dalmere was playing with a parrot which would insist on perching on her shoulder. The cats in Madame Dalmere's show are all “strays” picked up in the street and provided with a home. She has also a duck which follows her about in the streets, and the other day at Ramsgate caused no little excitement by walking after her into the local bank!"
In my '150 Years Ago' articles describing life in St Helens in the 1870s, there are many examples of children being sent to prison for relatively minor offences, such as stealing small pieces of coal. Justice was rapidly dispensed with little consideration for the welfare and background of the child. Matters had improved greatly by 1922. This was exemplified on January 4th by the case of a boy whose situation was considered in St Helens Police Court for almost an hour.
The unnamed lad had been convicted a week earlier of being the ringleader of a gang of schoolboy thieves who for three months had been stealing cash. The magistrates had then sentenced him to be placed in an industrial school, away from his family. Such institutions had been created to deal with juvenile delinquency and to teach youngsters a trade – and were for those yet to commit a really serious crime. But an appeal had been lodged against the decision, on the basis that it would be better for the boy if he remained with his family.
His school attendance was considered exceptional and the lad had not previously been in trouble. These two factors along with a promise from the father to care for his son swayed the Bench. They substituted the original sentence for six strokes of the birch and placed him on probation for two years. The magistrates said: "We hope you will take it as a lesson and promise to do your best to be a good boy and never come before us again." The violent punishment demonstrated that juvenile justice still had some way to go – although a short, sharp shock might be seen as a much better outcome for the boy than 4 or 5 years in a harsh industrial school.
There was more evidence of a more enlightened society with the announcement this week that an educational centre was to be established in St Helens for unemployed juveniles under 18. However, the female employment emancipation seen during the war had pretty much fizzled out. A training course in what was described as "home arts and allied crafts" was to be set up for unemployed women and girls. And I doubt home arts meant painting and singing! Housework, cooking and sewing, sounds nearer the mark.
At the St Helens Council meeting on the 4th, Cllr. John O’Brien objected to plans to lay a double tram track in Blackbrook Road while Sutton Manor had no trams at all. The Corporation trams that headed south from St Helens town centre turned up Robins Lane to a terminus at the Junction station, completely bypassing the mining districts of Clock Face and Sutton Manor. Cllr. McCormick told Cllr. O’Brien that two wrongs don't make a right and he was referred to the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee.
The proposals to lay a new line in Blackbrook were one of the council projects to relieve unemployment in St Helens. Other schemes discussed at the meeting included widening and improving Chester Lane and Jubits Lane and also sections of Foundry Street and Robins Lane. The mainly narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the new mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
It was a difficult task to widen streets but aided somewhat by the large amount of wasteland and fields at the side of many roads. So small strips of such land could be purchased from their owners to improve safety. If landowners refused to sell, the Town Clerk was empowered to compulsorily purchase for the public good. Although few people owned cars, the number was increasing each year and the business sector were buying large motor vans and lorries with trailers that could be dangerously driven by unqualified drivers. Driving tests were over ten years away and as long as you were 17 and paid the required licence fee at St Helens Town Hall, you could legally drive.
The meeting also approved plans to improve Four Acre Lane so that a through road from Chester Lane to Clock Face Road would be created, subject to approval from the Ministry of Transport. The Borough Engineer was also instructed to prepare a scheme for the widening and improvement of Knowsley Road.
I've covered the flooding in the Moss Nook area of Sutton on countless occasions – and finding a permanent solution seemed as far away as ever. The problem was preventing water from the Sutton Brook escaping into the adjacent Watery Lane (and Berry's Lane) during periods of heavy rainfall. Mining substance was the root cause but the Corporation had attempted to improve matters by removing silt and other rubbish from the waterway to increase its capacity. They had even talked of raising the road but at the council meeting Councillor Boscow revealed that the exasperated residents were at the end of their tether.
The bad weather meant Christmas dinner for many folk had to be served in their bedrooms as water poured under their front doors downstairs – something that they had much prior experience. Cllr. Boscow argued that fixing the problem could be another task for unemployed men, with Cllr. Waring claiming that the water had been a yard high in the streets. "It was a disgrace and a disgrace to the management of the town", he added. But re-routing the brook was the only practical long-term solution and that would be an expensive scheme.
Uncle Ben in the 'Children's Reporter' on the 6th was grumbling about people grumbling, telling his young readers: "A person who is always grumbling and thinking that the position of others is better than their own is most irritating and annoying."
The Reporter also described another case of benefit fraud in which Edward Mills of Grafton Street was fined £5 after claiming both sickness benefit as well as the dole. I do wonder how many of these cases were caused by confusion over entitlement – as opposed to deliberately attempting to cheat the system – with such benefits still being fairly new. Only £1 2s 6d had been fraudulently claimed by Mr Mills.
The New Year sales were well underway, although Roberts & Bromley oddly called theirs a stocktaking sale. Suits were available from fifty shillings at their two Church Street stores.
On the 6th the magistrates in the Police Court dealt with a case of domestic violence over Christmas. Elsie Lunn summoned her husband Henry, accusing him of cruelty at their Owen Street home in Thatto Heath. The man was accused of drunkenly attacking his wife on three separate occasions on Christmas and Boxing Day and giving her a black eye and other injuries. In reality such cases were about obtaining separation orders and legally enforceable maintenance payments, rather than punishing the man for his appalling behaviour. The Bench issued such an order to Elsie Lunn and ordered her husband to pay £1 maintenance a week for his wife and child.
Henry and Ellen Thomas from Milton Street in Sutton Manor were in trouble after running a lottery for a doll's house that had taken them three weeks to create. Shopkeeper Annie Hurst of Tennyson Street had agreed to put the doll's house in the window of her shop and take the names of those prepared to pay sixpence for a raffle ticket. However, such lotteries were illegal and there was a dispute over the winner. That led to the police taking an interest and the couple's subsequent appearance in court, where Henry was fined £1 but the case against his wife was dismissed. Their defence was that they did not know they were doing anything wrong and they needed to raise some cash to pay for an operation for their daughter.
Also before the magistrates on the 6th was Elizabeth White from Fenton Street (near Kirkland Street) who was charged with being drunk and incapable. Two years earlier after the 49-year-old had been in court charged with the same offence, I wrote: "While the magistrates were considering the case the woman dramatically collapsed and had to be carried out of court. The Bench decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and dismissed the charge."
Well, it had worked once and so the woman thought she would try fainting again! In fact Elizabeth's collapse as soon as her name was called was the fourth occasion she had pulled off the stunt. This time she was fined ten shillings and warned that she would be sent to gaol if she returned to court.
During the evening of the 6th, Rainford Cycle Club held their annual whist drive and ball in the Village Hall with 250 people in attendance. On the 7th Peter Mather from Bank Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with an aggravated assault on one of his daughters. In fact the miner had struck the young woman on the head with a 12lb dumbbell. As was often the case, the man blamed his wife for all his troubles and made the usual allegations over her drinking habits.
These claims were often exaggerated but one can hardly blame the woman if they were true, being married to a brute of a husband. Mather claimed the assault on his daughter had been an accident after she had got in between him and his wife. But his other children gave further accounts of violence by their father and he was remanded for a week for a medical examination.
Next week's stories will include the boy toy thieves of Liverpool Road, the downright lazy fellow from Rainford, Rainhill's FA Cup Final referee is honoured, the Rainford Junction railway robbery and the dumbbell brute from Bank Street returns to court.
During this week the Hippodrome abandoned its usual mix of music hall turns for what they described as a complete circus programme. The acts performing at the Corporation Street theatre included: Clown Barker ("Miniature animal circus, including midget ponies"); The Huntings ("A spectacular juggling and unsupported ladder act"); Cornalla & Eddie ("Two acrobats and a clown"); Mareski ("The crazy fiddler"); Kioto & Stanley ("Anglo-Japanese patter, comedy equilibriatic act"); The Two Meurs ("Sensational vaulting hand-balancers") and Madame Dalmere’s Table Circus ("Fifty rabbits, rodents, cats, dogs and monkeys").
In May 1921 the Era newspaper published this review of the table circus: "One of the prettiest and most entertaining shows is that of Madame Dalmere, in which a number of animals do all sorts of amazing tricks. We had an opportunity last week of seeing Madame Dalmere's Circus behind at the Euston. Our visit was entirely unexpected, but we found the monkeys, cats, dogs, rats, doves, and even a duck dwelling together in perfect amity.
"M. Dalmere was occupied in cutting up carrots for his pets and Madame Dalmere was playing with a parrot which would insist on perching on her shoulder. The cats in Madame Dalmere's show are all “strays” picked up in the street and provided with a home. She has also a duck which follows her about in the streets, and the other day at Ramsgate caused no little excitement by walking after her into the local bank!"
In my '150 Years Ago' articles describing life in St Helens in the 1870s, there are many examples of children being sent to prison for relatively minor offences, such as stealing small pieces of coal. Justice was rapidly dispensed with little consideration for the welfare and background of the child. Matters had improved greatly by 1922. This was exemplified on January 4th by the case of a boy whose situation was considered in St Helens Police Court for almost an hour.
The unnamed lad had been convicted a week earlier of being the ringleader of a gang of schoolboy thieves who for three months had been stealing cash. The magistrates had then sentenced him to be placed in an industrial school, away from his family. Such institutions had been created to deal with juvenile delinquency and to teach youngsters a trade – and were for those yet to commit a really serious crime. But an appeal had been lodged against the decision, on the basis that it would be better for the boy if he remained with his family.
His school attendance was considered exceptional and the lad had not previously been in trouble. These two factors along with a promise from the father to care for his son swayed the Bench. They substituted the original sentence for six strokes of the birch and placed him on probation for two years. The magistrates said: "We hope you will take it as a lesson and promise to do your best to be a good boy and never come before us again." The violent punishment demonstrated that juvenile justice still had some way to go – although a short, sharp shock might be seen as a much better outcome for the boy than 4 or 5 years in a harsh industrial school.
There was more evidence of a more enlightened society with the announcement this week that an educational centre was to be established in St Helens for unemployed juveniles under 18. However, the female employment emancipation seen during the war had pretty much fizzled out. A training course in what was described as "home arts and allied crafts" was to be set up for unemployed women and girls. And I doubt home arts meant painting and singing! Housework, cooking and sewing, sounds nearer the mark.
The proposals to lay a new line in Blackbrook were one of the council projects to relieve unemployment in St Helens. Other schemes discussed at the meeting included widening and improving Chester Lane and Jubits Lane and also sections of Foundry Street and Robins Lane. The mainly narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the new mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
It was a difficult task to widen streets but aided somewhat by the large amount of wasteland and fields at the side of many roads. So small strips of such land could be purchased from their owners to improve safety. If landowners refused to sell, the Town Clerk was empowered to compulsorily purchase for the public good. Although few people owned cars, the number was increasing each year and the business sector were buying large motor vans and lorries with trailers that could be dangerously driven by unqualified drivers. Driving tests were over ten years away and as long as you were 17 and paid the required licence fee at St Helens Town Hall, you could legally drive.
The meeting also approved plans to improve Four Acre Lane so that a through road from Chester Lane to Clock Face Road would be created, subject to approval from the Ministry of Transport. The Borough Engineer was also instructed to prepare a scheme for the widening and improvement of Knowsley Road.
The bad weather meant Christmas dinner for many folk had to be served in their bedrooms as water poured under their front doors downstairs – something that they had much prior experience. Cllr. Boscow argued that fixing the problem could be another task for unemployed men, with Cllr. Waring claiming that the water had been a yard high in the streets. "It was a disgrace and a disgrace to the management of the town", he added. But re-routing the brook was the only practical long-term solution and that would be an expensive scheme.
Uncle Ben in the 'Children's Reporter' on the 6th was grumbling about people grumbling, telling his young readers: "A person who is always grumbling and thinking that the position of others is better than their own is most irritating and annoying."
The Reporter also described another case of benefit fraud in which Edward Mills of Grafton Street was fined £5 after claiming both sickness benefit as well as the dole. I do wonder how many of these cases were caused by confusion over entitlement – as opposed to deliberately attempting to cheat the system – with such benefits still being fairly new. Only £1 2s 6d had been fraudulently claimed by Mr Mills.
The New Year sales were well underway, although Roberts & Bromley oddly called theirs a stocktaking sale. Suits were available from fifty shillings at their two Church Street stores.
On the 6th the magistrates in the Police Court dealt with a case of domestic violence over Christmas. Elsie Lunn summoned her husband Henry, accusing him of cruelty at their Owen Street home in Thatto Heath. The man was accused of drunkenly attacking his wife on three separate occasions on Christmas and Boxing Day and giving her a black eye and other injuries. In reality such cases were about obtaining separation orders and legally enforceable maintenance payments, rather than punishing the man for his appalling behaviour. The Bench issued such an order to Elsie Lunn and ordered her husband to pay £1 maintenance a week for his wife and child.
Henry and Ellen Thomas from Milton Street in Sutton Manor were in trouble after running a lottery for a doll's house that had taken them three weeks to create. Shopkeeper Annie Hurst of Tennyson Street had agreed to put the doll's house in the window of her shop and take the names of those prepared to pay sixpence for a raffle ticket. However, such lotteries were illegal and there was a dispute over the winner. That led to the police taking an interest and the couple's subsequent appearance in court, where Henry was fined £1 but the case against his wife was dismissed. Their defence was that they did not know they were doing anything wrong and they needed to raise some cash to pay for an operation for their daughter.
Also before the magistrates on the 6th was Elizabeth White from Fenton Street (near Kirkland Street) who was charged with being drunk and incapable. Two years earlier after the 49-year-old had been in court charged with the same offence, I wrote: "While the magistrates were considering the case the woman dramatically collapsed and had to be carried out of court. The Bench decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and dismissed the charge."
Well, it had worked once and so the woman thought she would try fainting again! In fact Elizabeth's collapse as soon as her name was called was the fourth occasion she had pulled off the stunt. This time she was fined ten shillings and warned that she would be sent to gaol if she returned to court.
During the evening of the 6th, Rainford Cycle Club held their annual whist drive and ball in the Village Hall with 250 people in attendance. On the 7th Peter Mather from Bank Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with an aggravated assault on one of his daughters. In fact the miner had struck the young woman on the head with a 12lb dumbbell. As was often the case, the man blamed his wife for all his troubles and made the usual allegations over her drinking habits.
These claims were often exaggerated but one can hardly blame the woman if they were true, being married to a brute of a husband. Mather claimed the assault on his daughter had been an accident after she had got in between him and his wife. But his other children gave further accounts of violence by their father and he was remanded for a week for a medical examination.
Next week's stories will include the boy toy thieves of Liverpool Road, the downright lazy fellow from Rainford, Rainhill's FA Cup Final referee is honoured, the Rainford Junction railway robbery and the dumbbell brute from Bank Street returns to court.
This week's stories include the road widening and improvement schemes planned for St Helens, the disgraceful Sutton flooding, the brute of a husband from Bank Street, the illegal Sutton Manor raffle for a doll's house and the boy who was birched instead of being sent to an industrial school.
During this week the Hippodrome abandoned its usual mix of music hall turns for what they described as a complete circus programme.
The acts performing at the Corporation Street theatre included:
Clown Barker ("Miniature animal circus, including midget ponies"); The Huntings ("A spectacular juggling and unsupported ladder act"); Cornalla & Eddie ("Two acrobats and a clown"); Mareski ("The crazy fiddler"); Kioto & Stanley ("Anglo-Japanese patter, comedy equilibriatic act"); The Two Meurs ("Sensational vaulting hand-balancers") and Madame Dalmere’s Table Circus ("Fifty rabbits, rodents, cats, dogs and monkeys").
In May 1921 the Era newspaper published this review of the table circus:
"One of the prettiest and most entertaining shows is that of Madame Dalmere, in which a number of animals do all sorts of amazing tricks.
"We had an opportunity last week of seeing Madame Dalmere's Circus behind at the Euston. Our visit was entirely unexpected, but we found the monkeys, cats, dogs, rats, doves, and even a duck dwelling together in perfect amity.
"M. Dalmere was occupied in cutting up carrots for his pets and Madame Dalmere was playing with a parrot which would insist on perching on her shoulder.
"The cats in Madame Dalmere's show are all “strays” picked up in the street and provided with a home.
"She has also a duck which follows her about in the streets, and the other day at Ramsgate caused no little excitement by walking after her into the local bank!"
In my '150 Years Ago' articles describing life in St Helens in the 1870s, there are many examples of children being sent to prison for relatively minor offences, such as stealing small pieces of coal.
Justice was rapidly dispensed with little consideration for the welfare and background of the child.
Matters had improved greatly by 1922. This was exemplified on January 4th by the case of a boy whose situation was considered in St Helens Police Court for almost an hour.
The unnamed lad had been convicted a week earlier of being the ringleader of a gang of schoolboy thieves who for three months had been stealing cash.
The magistrates had then sentenced him to be placed in an industrial school, away from his family.
Such institutions had been created to deal with juvenile delinquency and to teach youngsters a trade – and were for those yet to commit a really serious crime.
But an appeal had been lodged against the decision, on the basis that it would be better for the boy if he remained with his family.
His school attendance was considered exceptional and the lad had not previously been in trouble.
These two factors along with a promise from the father to care for his son swayed the Bench.
They substituted the original sentence for six strokes of the birch and placed him on probation for two years. The magistrates said:
"We hope you will take it as a lesson and promise to do your best to be a good boy and never come before us again."
The violent punishment demonstrated that juvenile justice still had some way to go – although a short, sharp shock might be seen as a much better outcome for the boy than 4 or 5 years in a harsh industrial school.
There was more evidence of a more enlightened society with the announcement this week that an educational centre was to be established in St Helens for unemployed juveniles under 18.
However, the female employment emancipation seen during the war had pretty much fizzled out.
A training course in what was described as "home arts and allied crafts" was to be set up for unemployed women and girls.
And I doubt home arts meant painting and singing! Housework, cooking and sewing, sounds nearer the mark.
At the St Helens Council meeting on the 4th, Cllr. John O’Brien objected to plans to lay a double tram track in Blackbrook Road while Sutton Manor had no trams at all.
The Corporation trams that headed south from St Helens town centre turned up Robins Lane to a terminus at the Junction station, completely bypassing the mining districts of Clock Face and Sutton Manor.
Cllr. McCormick told Cllr. O’Brien that two wrongs don't make a right and he was referred to the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee.
The proposals to lay a new line in Blackbrook were one of the council projects to relieve unemployment in St Helens.
Other schemes discussed at the meeting included widening and improving Chester Lane and Jubits Lane and also sections of Foundry Street and Robins Lane.
The mainly narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the new mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
It was a difficult task to widen streets but aided somewhat by the large amount of wasteland and fields at the side of many roads.
So small strips of such land could be purchased from their owners to improve safety.
If landowners refused to sell, the Town Clerk was empowered to compulsorily purchase for the public good.
Although few people owned cars, the number was increasing each year and the business sector were buying large motor vans and lorries with trailers that could be dangerously driven by unqualified drivers.
Driving tests were over ten years away and as long as you were 17 and paid the required licence fee at St Helens Town Hall, you could legally drive.
The meeting also approved plans to improve Four Acre Lane so that a through road from Chester Lane to Clock Face Road would be created, subject to approval from the Ministry of Transport.
The Borough Engineer was also instructed to prepare a scheme for the widening and improvement of Knowsley Road.
I've covered the flooding in the Moss Nook area of Sutton on countless occasions – and finding a permanent solution seemed as far away as ever.
The problem was preventing water from the Sutton Brook escaping into the adjacent Watery Lane (and Berry's Lane) during periods of heavy rainfall.
Mining substance was the root cause but the Corporation had attempted to improve matters by removing silt and other rubbish from the waterway to increase its capacity.
They had even talked of raising the road but at the council meeting Councillor Boscow revealed that the exasperated residents were at the end of their tether.
The bad weather meant Christmas dinner for many folk had to be served in their bedrooms as water poured under their front doors downstairs – something that they had much prior experience.
Cllr. Boscow argued that fixing the problem could be another task for unemployed men, with Cllr. Waring claiming that the water had been a yard high in the streets.
"It was a disgrace and a disgrace to the management of the town", he added.
But re-routing the brook was the only practical long-term solution and that would be an expensive scheme.
Uncle Ben in the 'Children's Reporter' on the 6th was grumbling about people grumbling, telling his young readers:
"A person who is always grumbling and thinking that the position of others is better than their own is most irritating and annoying."
The Reporter also described another case of benefit fraud in which Edward Mills of Grafton Street was fined £5 after claiming both sickness benefit as well as the dole.
I do wonder how many of these cases were caused by confusion over entitlement – as opposed to deliberately attempting to cheat the system – with such benefits still being fairly new. Only £1 2s 6d had been fraudulently claimed by Mr Mills.
The New Year sales were well underway, although Roberts & Bromley oddly called theirs a stocktaking sale.
Suits were available from fifty shillings at their two Church Street stores.
On the 6th the magistrates in the Police Court dealt with a case of domestic violence over Christmas.
Elsie Lunn summoned her husband Henry, accusing him of cruelty at their Owen Street home in Thatto Heath.
The man was accused of drunkenly attacking his wife on three separate occasions on Christmas and Boxing Day and giving her a black eye and other injuries.
In reality such cases were about obtaining separation orders and legally enforceable maintenance payments, rather than punishing the man for his appalling behaviour.
The Bench issued such an order to Elsie Lunn and ordered her husband to pay £1 maintenance a week for his wife and child.
Henry and Ellen Thomas from Milton Street in Sutton Manor were in trouble after running a lottery for a doll's house that had taken them three weeks to create.
Shopkeeper Annie Hurst of Tennyson Street had agreed to put the doll's house in the window of her shop and take the names of those prepared to pay sixpence for a raffle ticket.
However, such lotteries were illegal and there was a dispute over the winner.
That led to the police taking an interest and the couple's subsequent appearance in court, where Henry was fined £1 but the case against his wife was dismissed.
Their defence was that they did not know they were doing anything wrong and they needed to raise some cash to pay for an operation for their daughter.
Also before the magistrates on the 6th was Elizabeth White from Fenton Street (near Kirkland Street) who was charged with being drunk and incapable.
Two years earlier after the 49-year-old had been in court charged with the same offence, I wrote:
"While the magistrates were considering the case the woman dramatically collapsed and had to be carried out of court. The Bench decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and dismissed the charge."
Well, it had worked once and so the woman thought she would try fainting again! In fact Elizabeth's collapse as soon as her name was called was the fourth occasion she had pulled off the stunt.
This time she was fined ten shillings and warned that she would be sent to gaol if she returned to court.
During the evening of the 6th, Rainford Cycle Club held their annual whist drive and ball in the Village Hall with 250 people in attendance.
On the 7th Peter Mather from Bank Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with an aggravated assault on one of his daughters.
In fact the miner had struck the young woman on the head with a 12lb dumbbell.
As was often the case, the man blamed his wife for all his troubles and made the usual allegations over her drinking habits.
These claims were often exaggerated but one can hardly blame the woman if they were true, being married to a brute of a husband.
Mather claimed the assault on his daughter had been an accident after she had got in between him and his wife.
But his other children gave further accounts of violence by their father and he was remanded for a week for a medical examination.
Next week's stories will include the boy toy thieves of Liverpool Road, the downright lazy fellow from Rainford, Rainhill's FA Cup Final referee is honoured, the Rainford Junction railway robbery and the dumbbell brute from Bank Street returns to court.
During this week the Hippodrome abandoned its usual mix of music hall turns for what they described as a complete circus programme.
The acts performing at the Corporation Street theatre included:
Clown Barker ("Miniature animal circus, including midget ponies"); The Huntings ("A spectacular juggling and unsupported ladder act"); Cornalla & Eddie ("Two acrobats and a clown"); Mareski ("The crazy fiddler"); Kioto & Stanley ("Anglo-Japanese patter, comedy equilibriatic act"); The Two Meurs ("Sensational vaulting hand-balancers") and Madame Dalmere’s Table Circus ("Fifty rabbits, rodents, cats, dogs and monkeys").
In May 1921 the Era newspaper published this review of the table circus:
"One of the prettiest and most entertaining shows is that of Madame Dalmere, in which a number of animals do all sorts of amazing tricks.
"We had an opportunity last week of seeing Madame Dalmere's Circus behind at the Euston. Our visit was entirely unexpected, but we found the monkeys, cats, dogs, rats, doves, and even a duck dwelling together in perfect amity.
"M. Dalmere was occupied in cutting up carrots for his pets and Madame Dalmere was playing with a parrot which would insist on perching on her shoulder.
"The cats in Madame Dalmere's show are all “strays” picked up in the street and provided with a home.
"She has also a duck which follows her about in the streets, and the other day at Ramsgate caused no little excitement by walking after her into the local bank!"
In my '150 Years Ago' articles describing life in St Helens in the 1870s, there are many examples of children being sent to prison for relatively minor offences, such as stealing small pieces of coal.
Justice was rapidly dispensed with little consideration for the welfare and background of the child.
Matters had improved greatly by 1922. This was exemplified on January 4th by the case of a boy whose situation was considered in St Helens Police Court for almost an hour.
The unnamed lad had been convicted a week earlier of being the ringleader of a gang of schoolboy thieves who for three months had been stealing cash.
The magistrates had then sentenced him to be placed in an industrial school, away from his family.
Such institutions had been created to deal with juvenile delinquency and to teach youngsters a trade – and were for those yet to commit a really serious crime.
But an appeal had been lodged against the decision, on the basis that it would be better for the boy if he remained with his family.
His school attendance was considered exceptional and the lad had not previously been in trouble.
These two factors along with a promise from the father to care for his son swayed the Bench.
They substituted the original sentence for six strokes of the birch and placed him on probation for two years. The magistrates said:
"We hope you will take it as a lesson and promise to do your best to be a good boy and never come before us again."
The violent punishment demonstrated that juvenile justice still had some way to go – although a short, sharp shock might be seen as a much better outcome for the boy than 4 or 5 years in a harsh industrial school.
There was more evidence of a more enlightened society with the announcement this week that an educational centre was to be established in St Helens for unemployed juveniles under 18.
However, the female employment emancipation seen during the war had pretty much fizzled out.
A training course in what was described as "home arts and allied crafts" was to be set up for unemployed women and girls.
And I doubt home arts meant painting and singing! Housework, cooking and sewing, sounds nearer the mark.
The Corporation trams that headed south from St Helens town centre turned up Robins Lane to a terminus at the Junction station, completely bypassing the mining districts of Clock Face and Sutton Manor.
Cllr. McCormick told Cllr. O’Brien that two wrongs don't make a right and he was referred to the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee.
The proposals to lay a new line in Blackbrook were one of the council projects to relieve unemployment in St Helens.
Other schemes discussed at the meeting included widening and improving Chester Lane and Jubits Lane and also sections of Foundry Street and Robins Lane.
The mainly narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the new mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
It was a difficult task to widen streets but aided somewhat by the large amount of wasteland and fields at the side of many roads.
So small strips of such land could be purchased from their owners to improve safety.
If landowners refused to sell, the Town Clerk was empowered to compulsorily purchase for the public good.
Although few people owned cars, the number was increasing each year and the business sector were buying large motor vans and lorries with trailers that could be dangerously driven by unqualified drivers.
Driving tests were over ten years away and as long as you were 17 and paid the required licence fee at St Helens Town Hall, you could legally drive.
The meeting also approved plans to improve Four Acre Lane so that a through road from Chester Lane to Clock Face Road would be created, subject to approval from the Ministry of Transport.
The Borough Engineer was also instructed to prepare a scheme for the widening and improvement of Knowsley Road.
The problem was preventing water from the Sutton Brook escaping into the adjacent Watery Lane (and Berry's Lane) during periods of heavy rainfall.
Mining substance was the root cause but the Corporation had attempted to improve matters by removing silt and other rubbish from the waterway to increase its capacity.
They had even talked of raising the road but at the council meeting Councillor Boscow revealed that the exasperated residents were at the end of their tether.
The bad weather meant Christmas dinner for many folk had to be served in their bedrooms as water poured under their front doors downstairs – something that they had much prior experience.
Cllr. Boscow argued that fixing the problem could be another task for unemployed men, with Cllr. Waring claiming that the water had been a yard high in the streets.
"It was a disgrace and a disgrace to the management of the town", he added.
But re-routing the brook was the only practical long-term solution and that would be an expensive scheme.
Uncle Ben in the 'Children's Reporter' on the 6th was grumbling about people grumbling, telling his young readers:
"A person who is always grumbling and thinking that the position of others is better than their own is most irritating and annoying."
The Reporter also described another case of benefit fraud in which Edward Mills of Grafton Street was fined £5 after claiming both sickness benefit as well as the dole.
I do wonder how many of these cases were caused by confusion over entitlement – as opposed to deliberately attempting to cheat the system – with such benefits still being fairly new. Only £1 2s 6d had been fraudulently claimed by Mr Mills.
The New Year sales were well underway, although Roberts & Bromley oddly called theirs a stocktaking sale.
Suits were available from fifty shillings at their two Church Street stores.
On the 6th the magistrates in the Police Court dealt with a case of domestic violence over Christmas.
Elsie Lunn summoned her husband Henry, accusing him of cruelty at their Owen Street home in Thatto Heath.
The man was accused of drunkenly attacking his wife on three separate occasions on Christmas and Boxing Day and giving her a black eye and other injuries.
In reality such cases were about obtaining separation orders and legally enforceable maintenance payments, rather than punishing the man for his appalling behaviour.
The Bench issued such an order to Elsie Lunn and ordered her husband to pay £1 maintenance a week for his wife and child.
Henry and Ellen Thomas from Milton Street in Sutton Manor were in trouble after running a lottery for a doll's house that had taken them three weeks to create.
Shopkeeper Annie Hurst of Tennyson Street had agreed to put the doll's house in the window of her shop and take the names of those prepared to pay sixpence for a raffle ticket.
However, such lotteries were illegal and there was a dispute over the winner.
That led to the police taking an interest and the couple's subsequent appearance in court, where Henry was fined £1 but the case against his wife was dismissed.
Their defence was that they did not know they were doing anything wrong and they needed to raise some cash to pay for an operation for their daughter.
Also before the magistrates on the 6th was Elizabeth White from Fenton Street (near Kirkland Street) who was charged with being drunk and incapable.
Two years earlier after the 49-year-old had been in court charged with the same offence, I wrote:
"While the magistrates were considering the case the woman dramatically collapsed and had to be carried out of court. The Bench decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and dismissed the charge."
Well, it had worked once and so the woman thought she would try fainting again! In fact Elizabeth's collapse as soon as her name was called was the fourth occasion she had pulled off the stunt.
This time she was fined ten shillings and warned that she would be sent to gaol if she returned to court.
During the evening of the 6th, Rainford Cycle Club held their annual whist drive and ball in the Village Hall with 250 people in attendance.
On the 7th Peter Mather from Bank Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with an aggravated assault on one of his daughters.
In fact the miner had struck the young woman on the head with a 12lb dumbbell.
As was often the case, the man blamed his wife for all his troubles and made the usual allegations over her drinking habits.
These claims were often exaggerated but one can hardly blame the woman if they were true, being married to a brute of a husband.
Mather claimed the assault on his daughter had been an accident after she had got in between him and his wife.
But his other children gave further accounts of violence by their father and he was remanded for a week for a medical examination.
Next week's stories will include the boy toy thieves of Liverpool Road, the downright lazy fellow from Rainford, Rainhill's FA Cup Final referee is honoured, the Rainford Junction railway robbery and the dumbbell brute from Bank Street returns to court.