IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th OCTOBER 1922)
This week's stories include the terrifying experience at Lea Green Colliery as new technology saves 32 lives, the illegal Sutton Manor suicide attempt, the serious overcrowding of homes in St Helens, the protests over Government curbs on feeding poor schoolchildren and there's good news for St Helens tram users as fares are set to come down.
We begin at St Helens Town Hall on October 3rd with the inquest on William Fowles of Vincent Street. The railway shunter's body had been discovered on the main line 75 yards from Pocket Nook Bridge two hours after failing to sign off from his evening shift. It was a dangerous job working on the railway, particularly at night. Even experienced men like William Fowles, with almost 30 years of service, could be caught out. And one slip or lapse in concentration could be their last.
As usual with such tragedies the precise events were unknown and the man's cause of death could only be speculated upon. On the evening in question it had been raining heavily and the night was described as very dark and murky. So head shunter John Woods from Edgeworth Street in Sutton told the hearing that he thought a train from Rainford had knocked Mr Fowles down after stepping out from behind a truck with the intention of crossing the line.
There was good news this week for the residents of Sutton Manor and those that drove through the village. The Government had approved St Helens Corporation's request to borrow £12,000 to widen and improve Chester Lane and Jubits Lane. It was expected that unemployed men would be hired to undertake the scheme. Sanction had also been given for the Corporation to borrow a further £64,000 to reconstruct and double certain sections of the tramway track in Prescot Road, Westfield Street, Liverpool Road, Bridge Street, Ormskirk Street, Church Street, Parr Street and Blackbrook Road.
Until 1961 attempting suicide was against the law and offenders could be sent to prison. However, in most cases the magistrates simply wanted reassuring that there would be no repetition of their behaviour. On the 3rd George Hawkins appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with attempting suicide. PC O’Hara gave evidence that the man's wife had gone to him for help, saying she was terrified of her husband who had been threatening her. The officer accompanied the woman back to her home in Milton Street in Sutton Manor and noticed a strong smell of gas.
He also found her husband lying on the kitchen floor with a jacket over his head and a gas ring connected to his mouth. The constable dragged the 65-year-old platelayer into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for ten minutes until he came round. Hawkins later told PC O’Hara that he still planned to do away with himself at the first opportunity.
But in court just twelve or so hours later, he said he had changed his mind and "would not be so silly again", adding: "I had taken drink and I think I went off my head for the time being. I am very sorry, and I won't do it again." However, the magistrates were not entirely convinced after hearing what George Hawkins had told PC O’Hara and they decided to remand him in custody for a week.
At the St Helens Education Committee meeting on the 4th, it was revealed that the Government's Board of Education had informed them of a cap on the feeding of schoolchildren. The State would now only provide £750 per year (about £40,000 in today's money) towards the provision of free or subsidised meals at school, with local authorities having to pay for any higher amount.
A report published in 1917 had revealed that nationally 1 in 8 schoolchildren were so unfit and underweight with stunted growth that they weren't able to benefit from education. As a result a greater effort had been made to feed kids from poor backgrounds at school – although such deprived children were often made to sit together in class so everybody knew who they were! This is shown in the above Sutton National School class photo from 1924 in which the children on the front row were the ones who received free breakfasts.
There were protests at the committee meeting over the £750 cap on spending, as the estimated cost of providing school meals for the underprivileged in St Helens for the present financial year was £2,500. Committee member Joe Tinker – a well-known miners' agent – said the Board's argument was that that councils were not spending the money "rightly".
Mr Tinker added that the Board of Education was only considering a normal year. In particularly difficult times – such as during industrial disputes – the cost would be far higher as strikers' children would need to be fed. Indeed, during 1921 when the miners were on strike, £11,000 had been spent in St Helens feeding schoolchildren. The committee decided to send a letter of protest to the Board.
At the St Helens Town Council monthly meeting on the 4th, it was announced that there would be a reduction in the cost of travelling by tram with penny fares making a comeback. When St Helens Corporation took over the running of the trams from a private operator in 1920, the first thing they did was increase the fares. Some of the rises were by as much as 50% but they now planned to bring some fares down.
There had also been complaints about the running of the trams. Commenting on the changes, the St Helens Reporter this week wrote: "The tramways undertaking is far from the satisfactory and successful estate we had been led to hope it would be under municipal control....The reduction in fares will do much to mollify the criticism to which the department is subjected, and it may, indeed, inspire the hope that this is but the beginning of a definite attempt to put the whole undertaking on a more satisfactory basis, making for public convenience as well as financial efficiency."
The meeting also discussed the housing crisis in St Helens with Cllr. Thomas Hamblett quoting several examples of serious overcrowding of homes. The councillor called for the Government to give the Corporation the authority to erect more houses. The first council estate in the town at Windlehurst had only slightly eased demand for homes and Ald. Henry Bates said he intended to travel to London shortly to discuss the matter with the Ministry. The former four-times mayor complained that some house owners in St Helens were, for some reason, deliberately keeping their properties empty and, in doing so, not acting in the best interests of the town.
The engine winder in a coalmine who took pit cages containing men or materials down the shafts and returned them to the surface had an important job. It wasn't the most labour intensive or complex task in the mines – but one loss of concentration could cause a disaster. Many men have endured an awful death in the past when the cages that they were riding were overwound by a distracted winder.
Cages were normally operated in pairs, with one ascending to the surface as the second descended down the shaft. Over-winding could lead to one cage ending high up in the colliery headgear above ground and the other plummeting down the shaft. However, at Lea Green Colliery (pictured above) a new system of catches had been installed and on the 6th the safety device saved many lives.
The incident occurred early in the morning when 16 men were being brought up to the surface in one cage and an equivalent number taken down in another. The engine winder seriously overwound the cages, which led to the "up cage" being pulled into the mine's headgear and the descending one dropping rapidly towards the bottom of the shaft. The Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The safety catches worked splendidly, rubbing the rope from the ascending cage, and catching and holding it as it fell back again. Failure of the catches would have meant that all the men would have been hurled instantly down the shaft to a depth of over a quarter of a mile. The men in the descending cage would have been crashed into the “dibhole,” where they would have been drowned." Unsurprisingly, the men in the down cage were badly shaken by their terrifying experience and the pit was stopped for the day.
I wouldn't have thought that many people in St Helens would have been able to afford a Rolls Royce car in 1922. But that didn't stop the company from placing a large advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 6th. "The Best Car In the World" could be bought for between £1,590 and £1,900 – or you could just buy the Rolls Royce chassis for £1,100. Why anyone would only want the chassis, I have no idea!
On the 7th a branch of the Fifty Shilling Tailors was opened in St Helens at 18 Ormskirk Street. The firm was a massive newspaper advertiser and grew to become one of the biggest clothing chain stores in the country with almost 400 branches and in 1958 was renamed John Collier.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Oxley penny dip prosecution, the alien shoplifter from Parr and the woman who sought damages after being knocked down by a motorbike in Queens Road after crossing without looking.
We begin at St Helens Town Hall on October 3rd with the inquest on William Fowles of Vincent Street. The railway shunter's body had been discovered on the main line 75 yards from Pocket Nook Bridge two hours after failing to sign off from his evening shift. It was a dangerous job working on the railway, particularly at night. Even experienced men like William Fowles, with almost 30 years of service, could be caught out. And one slip or lapse in concentration could be their last.
As usual with such tragedies the precise events were unknown and the man's cause of death could only be speculated upon. On the evening in question it had been raining heavily and the night was described as very dark and murky. So head shunter John Woods from Edgeworth Street in Sutton told the hearing that he thought a train from Rainford had knocked Mr Fowles down after stepping out from behind a truck with the intention of crossing the line.
There was good news this week for the residents of Sutton Manor and those that drove through the village. The Government had approved St Helens Corporation's request to borrow £12,000 to widen and improve Chester Lane and Jubits Lane. It was expected that unemployed men would be hired to undertake the scheme. Sanction had also been given for the Corporation to borrow a further £64,000 to reconstruct and double certain sections of the tramway track in Prescot Road, Westfield Street, Liverpool Road, Bridge Street, Ormskirk Street, Church Street, Parr Street and Blackbrook Road.
Until 1961 attempting suicide was against the law and offenders could be sent to prison. However, in most cases the magistrates simply wanted reassuring that there would be no repetition of their behaviour. On the 3rd George Hawkins appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with attempting suicide. PC O’Hara gave evidence that the man's wife had gone to him for help, saying she was terrified of her husband who had been threatening her. The officer accompanied the woman back to her home in Milton Street in Sutton Manor and noticed a strong smell of gas.
He also found her husband lying on the kitchen floor with a jacket over his head and a gas ring connected to his mouth. The constable dragged the 65-year-old platelayer into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for ten minutes until he came round. Hawkins later told PC O’Hara that he still planned to do away with himself at the first opportunity.
But in court just twelve or so hours later, he said he had changed his mind and "would not be so silly again", adding: "I had taken drink and I think I went off my head for the time being. I am very sorry, and I won't do it again." However, the magistrates were not entirely convinced after hearing what George Hawkins had told PC O’Hara and they decided to remand him in custody for a week.
At the St Helens Education Committee meeting on the 4th, it was revealed that the Government's Board of Education had informed them of a cap on the feeding of schoolchildren. The State would now only provide £750 per year (about £40,000 in today's money) towards the provision of free or subsidised meals at school, with local authorities having to pay for any higher amount.
There were protests at the committee meeting over the £750 cap on spending, as the estimated cost of providing school meals for the underprivileged in St Helens for the present financial year was £2,500. Committee member Joe Tinker – a well-known miners' agent – said the Board's argument was that that councils were not spending the money "rightly".
Mr Tinker added that the Board of Education was only considering a normal year. In particularly difficult times – such as during industrial disputes – the cost would be far higher as strikers' children would need to be fed. Indeed, during 1921 when the miners were on strike, £11,000 had been spent in St Helens feeding schoolchildren. The committee decided to send a letter of protest to the Board.
At the St Helens Town Council monthly meeting on the 4th, it was announced that there would be a reduction in the cost of travelling by tram with penny fares making a comeback. When St Helens Corporation took over the running of the trams from a private operator in 1920, the first thing they did was increase the fares. Some of the rises were by as much as 50% but they now planned to bring some fares down.
The meeting also discussed the housing crisis in St Helens with Cllr. Thomas Hamblett quoting several examples of serious overcrowding of homes. The councillor called for the Government to give the Corporation the authority to erect more houses. The first council estate in the town at Windlehurst had only slightly eased demand for homes and Ald. Henry Bates said he intended to travel to London shortly to discuss the matter with the Ministry. The former four-times mayor complained that some house owners in St Helens were, for some reason, deliberately keeping their properties empty and, in doing so, not acting in the best interests of the town.
The engine winder in a coalmine who took pit cages containing men or materials down the shafts and returned them to the surface had an important job. It wasn't the most labour intensive or complex task in the mines – but one loss of concentration could cause a disaster. Many men have endured an awful death in the past when the cages that they were riding were overwound by a distracted winder.
The incident occurred early in the morning when 16 men were being brought up to the surface in one cage and an equivalent number taken down in another. The engine winder seriously overwound the cages, which led to the "up cage" being pulled into the mine's headgear and the descending one dropping rapidly towards the bottom of the shaft. The Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The safety catches worked splendidly, rubbing the rope from the ascending cage, and catching and holding it as it fell back again. Failure of the catches would have meant that all the men would have been hurled instantly down the shaft to a depth of over a quarter of a mile. The men in the descending cage would have been crashed into the “dibhole,” where they would have been drowned." Unsurprisingly, the men in the down cage were badly shaken by their terrifying experience and the pit was stopped for the day.
I wouldn't have thought that many people in St Helens would have been able to afford a Rolls Royce car in 1922. But that didn't stop the company from placing a large advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 6th. "The Best Car In the World" could be bought for between £1,590 and £1,900 – or you could just buy the Rolls Royce chassis for £1,100. Why anyone would only want the chassis, I have no idea!
On the 7th a branch of the Fifty Shilling Tailors was opened in St Helens at 18 Ormskirk Street. The firm was a massive newspaper advertiser and grew to become one of the biggest clothing chain stores in the country with almost 400 branches and in 1958 was renamed John Collier.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Oxley penny dip prosecution, the alien shoplifter from Parr and the woman who sought damages after being knocked down by a motorbike in Queens Road after crossing without looking.
This week's stories include the terrifying experience at Lea Green Colliery as new technology saves 32 lives, the illegal Sutton Manor suicide attempt, the serious overcrowding of homes in St Helens, the protests over Government curbs on feeding poor schoolchildren and there's good news for St Helens tram users as fares are set to come down.
We begin at St Helens Town Hall on October 3rd with the inquest on William Fowles of Vincent Street.
The railway shunter's body had been discovered on the main line 75 yards from Pocket Nook Bridge two hours after failing to sign off from his evening shift.
It was a dangerous job working on the railway, particularly at night. Even experienced men like William Fowles, with almost 30 years of service, could be caught out. And one slip or lapse in concentration could be their last.
As usual with such tragedies the precise events were unknown and the man's cause of death could only be speculated upon.
On the evening in question it had been raining heavily and the night was described as very dark and murky.
So head shunter John Woods from Edgeworth Street in Sutton told the hearing that he thought a train from Rainford had knocked Mr Fowles down after stepping out from behind a truck with the intention of crossing the line.
That was after stepping out from behind a truck with the intention of crossing the line.
There was good news this week for the residents of Sutton Manor and those that drove through the village.
The Government had approved St Helens Corporation's request to borrow £12,000 to widen and improve Chester Lane and Jubits Lane.
It was expected that unemployed men would be hired to undertake the scheme.
Sanction had also been given for the Corporation to borrow a further £64,000 to reconstruct and double certain sections of the tramway track in Prescot Road, Westfield Street, Liverpool Road, Bridge Street, Ormskirk Street, Church Street, Parr Street and Blackbrook Road.
Until 1961 attempting suicide was against the law and offenders could be sent to prison.
However, in most cases the magistrates simply wanted reassuring that there would be no repetition of their behaviour.
On the 3rd George Hawkins appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with attempting suicide.
PC O’Hara gave evidence that the man's wife had gone to him for help, saying she was terrified of her husband who had been threatening her.
The officer accompanied the woman back to her home in Milton Street in Sutton Manor and noticed a strong smell of gas.
He also found her husband lying on the kitchen floor with a jacket over his head and a gas ring connected to his mouth.
The constable dragged the 65-year-old platelayer into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for ten minutes until he came round.
Hawkins later told PC O’Hara that he still planned to do away with himself at the first opportunity.
But in court just twelve or so hours later, he said he had changed his mind and "would not be so silly again", adding:
"I had taken drink and I think I went off my head for the time being. I am very sorry, and I won't do it again."
However, the magistrates were not entirely convinced after hearing what George Hawkins had told PC O’Hara and they decided to remand him in custody for a week.
At the St Helens Education Committee meeting on the 4th, it was revealed that the Government's Board of Education had informed them of a cap on the feeding of schoolchildren.
The State would now only provide £750 per year (about £40,000 in today's money) towards the provision of free or subsidised meals at school, with local authorities having to pay for any higher amount.
A report published in 1917 had revealed that nationally 1 in 8 schoolchildren were so unfit and underweight with stunted growth that they weren't able to benefit from education.
As a result a greater effort had been made to feed kids from poor backgrounds at school – although such deprived children were often made to sit together in class so everybody knew who they were!
This is shown in the above Sutton National School class photo from 1924 in which the children on the front row were the ones who received free breakfasts.
There were protests at the committee meeting over the £750 cap on spending, as the estimated cost of providing school meals for the underprivileged in St Helens for the present financial year was £2,500.
Committee member Joe Tinker – a well-known miners' agent – said the Board's argument was that that councils were not spending the money "rightly".
Mr Tinker added that the Board of Education was only considering a normal year.
In particularly difficult times – such as during industrial disputes – the cost would be far higher as strikers' children would need to be fed.
Indeed, during 1921 when the miners were on strike, £11,000 had been spent in St Helens feeding schoolchildren. The committee decided to send a letter of protest to the Board.
At the St Helens Town Council monthly meeting on the 4th, it was announced that there would be a reduction in the cost of travelling by tram with penny fares making a comeback.
When St Helens Corporation took over the running of the trams from a private operator in 1920, the first thing they did was increase the fares.
Some of the rises were by as much as 50% but they now planned to bring some fares down.
There had also been complaints about the running of the trams. Commenting on the changes, the St Helens Reporter this week wrote:
"The tramways undertaking is far from the satisfactory and successful estate we had been led to hope it would be under municipal control....The reduction in fares will do much to mollify the criticism to which the department is subjected, and it may, indeed, inspire the hope that this is but the beginning of a definite attempt to put the whole undertaking on a more satisfactory basis, making for public convenience as well as financial efficiency."
The meeting also discussed the housing crisis in St Helens with Cllr. Thomas Hamblett quoting several examples of serious overcrowding of homes.
The councillor called for the Government to give the Corporation the authority to erect more houses.
The first council estate in the town at Windlehurst had only slightly eased demand for homes and Ald. Henry Bates said he intended to travel to London shortly to discuss the matter with the Ministry.
The former four-times mayor complained that some house owners in St Helens were, for some reason, deliberately keeping their properties empty and, in doing so, not acting in the best interests of the town.
The engine winder in a coalmine who took pit cages containing men or materials down the shafts and returned them to the surface had an important job.
It wasn't the most labour intensive or complex task in the mines – but one loss of concentration could cause a disaster.
Many men have endured an awful death in the past when the cages that they were riding were overwound by a distracted winder.
Cages were normally operated in pairs, with one ascending to the surface as the second descended down the shaft.
Over-winding could lead to one cage ending high up in the colliery headgear above ground and the other plummeting down the shaft.
However, at Lea Green Colliery (pictured above) a new system of catches had been installed and on the 6th the safety device saved many lives.
The incident occurred early in the morning when 16 men were being brought up to the surface in one cage and an equivalent number taken down in another.
The engine winder seriously overwound the cages, which led to the "up cage" being pulled into the mine's headgear and the descending one dropping rapidly towards the bottom of the shaft. The Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The safety catches worked splendidly, rubbing the rope from the ascending cage, and catching and holding it as it fell back again. Failure of the catches would have meant that all the men would have been hurled instantly down the shaft to a depth of over a quarter of a mile. The men in the descending cage would have been crashed into the “dibhole,” where they would have been drowned."
Unsurprisingly, the men in the down cage were badly shaken by their terrifying experience and the pit was stopped for the day.
I wouldn't have thought that many people in St Helens would have been able to afford a Rolls Royce car in 1922.
But that didn't stop the company from placing a large advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 6th.
"The Best Car In the World" could be bought for between £1,590 and £1,900 – or you could just buy the Rolls Royce chassis for £1,100. Why anyone would only want the chassis, I have no idea!
On the 7th a branch of the Fifty Shilling Tailors was opened in St Helens at 18 Ormskirk Street.
The firm was a massive newspaper advertiser and grew to become one of the biggest clothing chain stores in the country with almost 400 branches and in 1958 was renamed John Collier.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Oxley penny dip prosecution, the alien shoplifter from Parr and the woman who sought damages after being knocked down by a motorbike in Queens Road after crossing without looking.
We begin at St Helens Town Hall on October 3rd with the inquest on William Fowles of Vincent Street.
The railway shunter's body had been discovered on the main line 75 yards from Pocket Nook Bridge two hours after failing to sign off from his evening shift.
It was a dangerous job working on the railway, particularly at night. Even experienced men like William Fowles, with almost 30 years of service, could be caught out. And one slip or lapse in concentration could be their last.
As usual with such tragedies the precise events were unknown and the man's cause of death could only be speculated upon.
On the evening in question it had been raining heavily and the night was described as very dark and murky.
So head shunter John Woods from Edgeworth Street in Sutton told the hearing that he thought a train from Rainford had knocked Mr Fowles down after stepping out from behind a truck with the intention of crossing the line.
That was after stepping out from behind a truck with the intention of crossing the line.
There was good news this week for the residents of Sutton Manor and those that drove through the village.
The Government had approved St Helens Corporation's request to borrow £12,000 to widen and improve Chester Lane and Jubits Lane.
It was expected that unemployed men would be hired to undertake the scheme.
Sanction had also been given for the Corporation to borrow a further £64,000 to reconstruct and double certain sections of the tramway track in Prescot Road, Westfield Street, Liverpool Road, Bridge Street, Ormskirk Street, Church Street, Parr Street and Blackbrook Road.
Until 1961 attempting suicide was against the law and offenders could be sent to prison.
However, in most cases the magistrates simply wanted reassuring that there would be no repetition of their behaviour.
On the 3rd George Hawkins appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with attempting suicide.
PC O’Hara gave evidence that the man's wife had gone to him for help, saying she was terrified of her husband who had been threatening her.
The officer accompanied the woman back to her home in Milton Street in Sutton Manor and noticed a strong smell of gas.
He also found her husband lying on the kitchen floor with a jacket over his head and a gas ring connected to his mouth.
The constable dragged the 65-year-old platelayer into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for ten minutes until he came round.
Hawkins later told PC O’Hara that he still planned to do away with himself at the first opportunity.
But in court just twelve or so hours later, he said he had changed his mind and "would not be so silly again", adding:
"I had taken drink and I think I went off my head for the time being. I am very sorry, and I won't do it again."
However, the magistrates were not entirely convinced after hearing what George Hawkins had told PC O’Hara and they decided to remand him in custody for a week.
At the St Helens Education Committee meeting on the 4th, it was revealed that the Government's Board of Education had informed them of a cap on the feeding of schoolchildren.
The State would now only provide £750 per year (about £40,000 in today's money) towards the provision of free or subsidised meals at school, with local authorities having to pay for any higher amount.
A report published in 1917 had revealed that nationally 1 in 8 schoolchildren were so unfit and underweight with stunted growth that they weren't able to benefit from education.
As a result a greater effort had been made to feed kids from poor backgrounds at school – although such deprived children were often made to sit together in class so everybody knew who they were!
There were protests at the committee meeting over the £750 cap on spending, as the estimated cost of providing school meals for the underprivileged in St Helens for the present financial year was £2,500.
Committee member Joe Tinker – a well-known miners' agent – said the Board's argument was that that councils were not spending the money "rightly".
Mr Tinker added that the Board of Education was only considering a normal year.
In particularly difficult times – such as during industrial disputes – the cost would be far higher as strikers' children would need to be fed.
Indeed, during 1921 when the miners were on strike, £11,000 had been spent in St Helens feeding schoolchildren. The committee decided to send a letter of protest to the Board.
At the St Helens Town Council monthly meeting on the 4th, it was announced that there would be a reduction in the cost of travelling by tram with penny fares making a comeback.
When St Helens Corporation took over the running of the trams from a private operator in 1920, the first thing they did was increase the fares.
Some of the rises were by as much as 50% but they now planned to bring some fares down.
"The tramways undertaking is far from the satisfactory and successful estate we had been led to hope it would be under municipal control....The reduction in fares will do much to mollify the criticism to which the department is subjected, and it may, indeed, inspire the hope that this is but the beginning of a definite attempt to put the whole undertaking on a more satisfactory basis, making for public convenience as well as financial efficiency."
The meeting also discussed the housing crisis in St Helens with Cllr. Thomas Hamblett quoting several examples of serious overcrowding of homes.
The councillor called for the Government to give the Corporation the authority to erect more houses.
The first council estate in the town at Windlehurst had only slightly eased demand for homes and Ald. Henry Bates said he intended to travel to London shortly to discuss the matter with the Ministry.
The former four-times mayor complained that some house owners in St Helens were, for some reason, deliberately keeping their properties empty and, in doing so, not acting in the best interests of the town.
The engine winder in a coalmine who took pit cages containing men or materials down the shafts and returned them to the surface had an important job.
It wasn't the most labour intensive or complex task in the mines – but one loss of concentration could cause a disaster.
Many men have endured an awful death in the past when the cages that they were riding were overwound by a distracted winder.
Cages were normally operated in pairs, with one ascending to the surface as the second descended down the shaft.
Over-winding could lead to one cage ending high up in the colliery headgear above ground and the other plummeting down the shaft.
The incident occurred early in the morning when 16 men were being brought up to the surface in one cage and an equivalent number taken down in another.
The engine winder seriously overwound the cages, which led to the "up cage" being pulled into the mine's headgear and the descending one dropping rapidly towards the bottom of the shaft. The Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The safety catches worked splendidly, rubbing the rope from the ascending cage, and catching and holding it as it fell back again. Failure of the catches would have meant that all the men would have been hurled instantly down the shaft to a depth of over a quarter of a mile. The men in the descending cage would have been crashed into the “dibhole,” where they would have been drowned."
Unsurprisingly, the men in the down cage were badly shaken by their terrifying experience and the pit was stopped for the day.
I wouldn't have thought that many people in St Helens would have been able to afford a Rolls Royce car in 1922.
But that didn't stop the company from placing a large advert in the St Helens Reporter on the 6th.
"The Best Car In the World" could be bought for between £1,590 and £1,900 – or you could just buy the Rolls Royce chassis for £1,100. Why anyone would only want the chassis, I have no idea!
On the 7th a branch of the Fifty Shilling Tailors was opened in St Helens at 18 Ormskirk Street.
The firm was a massive newspaper advertiser and grew to become one of the biggest clothing chain stores in the country with almost 400 branches and in 1958 was renamed John Collier.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Oxley penny dip prosecution, the alien shoplifter from Parr and the woman who sought damages after being knocked down by a motorbike in Queens Road after crossing without looking.