IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (4th - 10th March 1919)
This week's stories include a "moral murder" in Watery Lane, the 50 children coal stealing in Ravenhead, the break up of a wartime wedding in Broad Oak, a lorry tragedy in Scholes Lane, objections to planned police stations in Clock Face and Derbyshire Hill, the Corporation's plans to take over the town's trams and the announcement of a new picture palace for Church Street.
These days if you fall and break a leg or fracture your hip you don't expect to die. However a century ago such fatalities from falls were common, especially if you were old. On the 4th the inquest on the death of Ellen Wallis was held. The 70-year-old had fallen at her home in Windleshaw Road and broken her leg. She died a few days after being admitted to Providence Hospital.
The St Helens Reporter's Tuesday edition published on the same day stated that Haydock Urban District Council had called for the closure of Sunday schools until the influenza epidemic had abated. Haydock's elementary schools had already closed and the council was also asking their local cinema (known as 'The Electraceum') not to admit children under fourteen. These measures were intended to curtail the spread of the disease.
The 21-year lease taken out in 1898 by the St. Helens & District Tramways Company Limited to run the town's trams was due to expire at the end of September 1919. St Helens Corporation had decided not to extend the lease but to run the trams themselves and the Reporter stated that their plans had stepped up a gear.
The Tramways Company had provided a list of 36 vehicles that it was prepared to sell the Corporation and negotiations were underway to buy them. The council would also be advertising for a general manager to run the tramways.
Disputes between married couples a century ago often ended up in court. The newspapers carried lengthy reports of the hearings, as readers loved the salacious details as both parties slung mud at each other. The Reporter described how Ellaline Steward had summoned her husband Harry to St Helens Police Court alleging wife desertion – although it was really a dispute over maintenance payments.
The couple had first met in London after Harry had called on Ellaline's parents to tell them that their son – who he had been serving with in France – had been killed. A romance began and the couple got married. After Harry's discharge from the army, the couple moved to St Helens to live with his parents in Broad Oak Road.
Living with her in-laws did nothing for the marriage and Ellaline said Harry's father had at one time slapped her face. Legal counsel represented both parties in court and all sorts of claims and counter-claims were made. Harry alleged that his wife had threatened to knock him down the stairs and Ellaline claimed that her husband had told her that she wasn't fit to live in a dogs home.
From other comments made it did not appear that their 12-month-old marriage had irretrievably broken down but this public "trial" was hardly helping. After a long hearing the magistrates adjourned the case for a month to see if the couple could resolve their problems and said the maintenance payments should be increased to 25 shillings a week. It wasn't until 1938 that the National Marriage Guidance Council was created which obviated the need for many of these hearings.
Many of the soldiers and sailors that had fought in the war were now back home in St Helens and the various churches were busy organising receptions and also planning memorials to those that had died. The Reporter stated that St Mark's in Haydock was planning to welcome back those connected to their church by holding a "knife and fork tea" followed by a concert.
The other St Mark's in North Road had recently held their reception in the Children's Hall in Windle Street. Their "welcome home" took the form of a smoking concert and there had been a large attendance. The church also announced their plans to commemorate the members of their congregation that had died in the war. They had decided to install a tablet with the names of the fallen engraved on oak panels, alongside a new stained glass window.
Two protest letters against plans to build police stations in Clock Face and Derbyshire Hill were read out at the Town Council meeting on the 5th. The St Helens Property Owners and Ratepayers Association objected to the £7,000 cost of building the two stations, as it was likely to lead to an increase in the rates.
The Conservative and Unionist Workingmen's Association also objected to the expenditure. So did Councillor Bell of Sutton who said if they had £7,000 to spend it should go on houses for workmen. Councillor Waring criticised the scheme as a waste of public money and said they were not giving people the opportunity of doing good on their own accord.
He added that they were as much as saying to the locals: "This [the police station] is for you if you don't behave yourselves". Faced with this opposition it was decided to defer the scheme for a year.
The St Helens Licensing Justices met on the 6th and considered an application to transfer the wine and spirit licence from the Queen's Head in Worsley Brow to the Green Dragon in Gartons Lane (shown above in the 1950s).
A petition signed by 184 Sutton Manor residents had been submitted asking for the licence to be granted to the beerhouse that had opened four years earlier. The nearest fully licensed house was three-quarters of a mile away but the justices rejected the application with no apparent reason given.
The magistrates also adjourned an application for a billiards licence for premises in Church Street until sanitary improvements had been carried out. An application to extend the Turks Head in Cooper Street was similarly adjourned. The owners wanted to increase the ground floor by 500 feet and upstairs by 300 feet by taking over an adjacent cottage.
The Reporter on the 7th described plans to build a new picture palace in Church Street near the White Lion Hotel. Five shops were going to be demolished with new business premises erected in their place and a 1,000-seat cinema built behind. This if built would be the town's first luxury picture house with the Reporter describing the planned building as an "imposing piece of architecture".
A dozen children appeared in the Police Court on the 8th charged with stealing coal from a tip on Ravenhead Road. The youngsters were aged between nine and thirteen and came from the Lowe Street district of the town. The coal shortage meant that more people were resorting to stealing and Sergeant Ballantyne told the hearing that around fifty other children had been at the place.
The officer said they had been in great danger through having to cross railway sidings to get to the tip, which was used by Pilkington's for coal storage. The schools were closed through a resurgence of the flu epidemic and a spokesman for Ravenhead Colliery said large numbers of youngsters visited the tip at holiday times. Children were no longer sent to prison for coal stealing as had often happened in the past and they were instead fined five shillings each.
As if to illustrate the dangers of being off school the inquest on the death of Edward Tabern was held on the same day in the Thatto Heath police station. The eleven-year-old from Fir Street had been playing with other children in Scholes Lane when a motor lorry laden with coal came past. Pilkington's were the owners of the wagon and when it stopped to deliver some coal the children started to swing on it.
The driver John Cathcart cleared the youngsters away before re-starting his vehicle. However Edward Tabern jumped on the rear of the lorry but fell off and was crushed against the kerb by a back wheel. Injured people were still regularly taken home rather than to a hospital and the boy was conveyed to his house in Fir Street but was dead before a doctor could be summoned.
County Coroner Samuel Brighouse presided over inquests in St Helens for a remarkable fifty-five years and could be quite outspoken. On the 8th he accused James Ranson from Watery Lane of "moral murder" after his wife had committed suicide hours after being discharged from hospital.
Maria Ranson had given birth to seven children and was described as a rational and cheerful person. That was until the birth of her last child in February 1918 as the baby died after two days. The hearing was told that six weeks later Maria developed a serious illness and from then her mind became affected. Things got so bad that at the end of September she was admitted to the mental ward of the Whiston Institution.
In December Maria was allowed to return home but after making threats to drown herself was sent back to Whiston after eight days. However her miner husband made repeated requests to have his wife back home – probably because he needed her to look after his house and young children.
Finally Dr Green, the medical officer, relented and discharged Maria but made James Ranson sign that he would take full responsibility for his wife. That was on March 6th and on the following morning Maria went missing and her body was discovered by her husband in what was known as Nuttall's pit, off Watery Lane.
The Coroner was scathing about Ranson's actions, saying it had been a scandalous thing to remove his wife from Whiston. The tragedy could also have been another undiagnosed case of post-natal depression.
On the 10th the Co-op Cinema in Baldwin Street had a "grand re-opening" after being closed for improvements. The picture house was now being run by ex-Sergt. T. D. Glover MM and it would soon be known simply as "Glovers". Much play was made of the fact that the lessee and manager had been awarded the Military Medal in the war and at the cinema's reopening, the Mayor of St Helens presented Mr Glover with a Bar to his medal.
Meanwhile down Corporation Street the Hippodrome began six days of music hall performances, with the acts including:
The Mountfords ("The famous balancers on the forehead in their marvellous combination"); Le-Dair ("Conjuring Canadian"); Rossini ("The piano accordion girl"); Joe Archer ("The cheerful one"); Clo D’Arte ("Belgian prima-donna") and St Malo and Coombs ("Gipsy and sailor, comedy and harmonising singing concertinists").
Next week's stories will include the fatal fall of a telephone wireman at Cannington Shaw, the laughing boy burglars who committed a string of St Helens' break-ins, a determined suicide by a Rainhill Asylum inmate, the old woman who went to a police station to be a blackguard, Pilkington's grand plans for their new Eccleston estate and a Haydock divorce case.
These days if you fall and break a leg or fracture your hip you don't expect to die. However a century ago such fatalities from falls were common, especially if you were old. On the 4th the inquest on the death of Ellen Wallis was held. The 70-year-old had fallen at her home in Windleshaw Road and broken her leg. She died a few days after being admitted to Providence Hospital.
The St Helens Reporter's Tuesday edition published on the same day stated that Haydock Urban District Council had called for the closure of Sunday schools until the influenza epidemic had abated. Haydock's elementary schools had already closed and the council was also asking their local cinema (known as 'The Electraceum') not to admit children under fourteen. These measures were intended to curtail the spread of the disease.
The 21-year lease taken out in 1898 by the St. Helens & District Tramways Company Limited to run the town's trams was due to expire at the end of September 1919. St Helens Corporation had decided not to extend the lease but to run the trams themselves and the Reporter stated that their plans had stepped up a gear.
The Tramways Company had provided a list of 36 vehicles that it was prepared to sell the Corporation and negotiations were underway to buy them. The council would also be advertising for a general manager to run the tramways.
Disputes between married couples a century ago often ended up in court. The newspapers carried lengthy reports of the hearings, as readers loved the salacious details as both parties slung mud at each other. The Reporter described how Ellaline Steward had summoned her husband Harry to St Helens Police Court alleging wife desertion – although it was really a dispute over maintenance payments.
The couple had first met in London after Harry had called on Ellaline's parents to tell them that their son – who he had been serving with in France – had been killed. A romance began and the couple got married. After Harry's discharge from the army, the couple moved to St Helens to live with his parents in Broad Oak Road.
Living with her in-laws did nothing for the marriage and Ellaline said Harry's father had at one time slapped her face. Legal counsel represented both parties in court and all sorts of claims and counter-claims were made. Harry alleged that his wife had threatened to knock him down the stairs and Ellaline claimed that her husband had told her that she wasn't fit to live in a dogs home.
From other comments made it did not appear that their 12-month-old marriage had irretrievably broken down but this public "trial" was hardly helping. After a long hearing the magistrates adjourned the case for a month to see if the couple could resolve their problems and said the maintenance payments should be increased to 25 shillings a week. It wasn't until 1938 that the National Marriage Guidance Council was created which obviated the need for many of these hearings.
Many of the soldiers and sailors that had fought in the war were now back home in St Helens and the various churches were busy organising receptions and also planning memorials to those that had died. The Reporter stated that St Mark's in Haydock was planning to welcome back those connected to their church by holding a "knife and fork tea" followed by a concert.
The other St Mark's in North Road had recently held their reception in the Children's Hall in Windle Street. Their "welcome home" took the form of a smoking concert and there had been a large attendance. The church also announced their plans to commemorate the members of their congregation that had died in the war. They had decided to install a tablet with the names of the fallen engraved on oak panels, alongside a new stained glass window.
Two protest letters against plans to build police stations in Clock Face and Derbyshire Hill were read out at the Town Council meeting on the 5th. The St Helens Property Owners and Ratepayers Association objected to the £7,000 cost of building the two stations, as it was likely to lead to an increase in the rates.
The Conservative and Unionist Workingmen's Association also objected to the expenditure. So did Councillor Bell of Sutton who said if they had £7,000 to spend it should go on houses for workmen. Councillor Waring criticised the scheme as a waste of public money and said they were not giving people the opportunity of doing good on their own accord.
He added that they were as much as saying to the locals: "This [the police station] is for you if you don't behave yourselves". Faced with this opposition it was decided to defer the scheme for a year.
A petition signed by 184 Sutton Manor residents had been submitted asking for the licence to be granted to the beerhouse that had opened four years earlier. The nearest fully licensed house was three-quarters of a mile away but the justices rejected the application with no apparent reason given.
The magistrates also adjourned an application for a billiards licence for premises in Church Street until sanitary improvements had been carried out. An application to extend the Turks Head in Cooper Street was similarly adjourned. The owners wanted to increase the ground floor by 500 feet and upstairs by 300 feet by taking over an adjacent cottage.
The Reporter on the 7th described plans to build a new picture palace in Church Street near the White Lion Hotel. Five shops were going to be demolished with new business premises erected in their place and a 1,000-seat cinema built behind. This if built would be the town's first luxury picture house with the Reporter describing the planned building as an "imposing piece of architecture".
A dozen children appeared in the Police Court on the 8th charged with stealing coal from a tip on Ravenhead Road. The youngsters were aged between nine and thirteen and came from the Lowe Street district of the town. The coal shortage meant that more people were resorting to stealing and Sergeant Ballantyne told the hearing that around fifty other children had been at the place.
The officer said they had been in great danger through having to cross railway sidings to get to the tip, which was used by Pilkington's for coal storage. The schools were closed through a resurgence of the flu epidemic and a spokesman for Ravenhead Colliery said large numbers of youngsters visited the tip at holiday times. Children were no longer sent to prison for coal stealing as had often happened in the past and they were instead fined five shillings each.
As if to illustrate the dangers of being off school the inquest on the death of Edward Tabern was held on the same day in the Thatto Heath police station. The eleven-year-old from Fir Street had been playing with other children in Scholes Lane when a motor lorry laden with coal came past. Pilkington's were the owners of the wagon and when it stopped to deliver some coal the children started to swing on it.
The driver John Cathcart cleared the youngsters away before re-starting his vehicle. However Edward Tabern jumped on the rear of the lorry but fell off and was crushed against the kerb by a back wheel. Injured people were still regularly taken home rather than to a hospital and the boy was conveyed to his house in Fir Street but was dead before a doctor could be summoned.
Left: Watery Lane in Sutton, St Helens; Right: County Coroner Samuel Brighouse (1849 - 1940) who held inquests for 55 years
Left: Watery Lane in St Helens; Right: Coroner Samuel Brighouse (1849 - 1940)
Watery Lane and Samuel Brighouse
Maria Ranson had given birth to seven children and was described as a rational and cheerful person. That was until the birth of her last child in February 1918 as the baby died after two days. The hearing was told that six weeks later Maria developed a serious illness and from then her mind became affected. Things got so bad that at the end of September she was admitted to the mental ward of the Whiston Institution.
In December Maria was allowed to return home but after making threats to drown herself was sent back to Whiston after eight days. However her miner husband made repeated requests to have his wife back home – probably because he needed her to look after his house and young children.
Finally Dr Green, the medical officer, relented and discharged Maria but made James Ranson sign that he would take full responsibility for his wife. That was on March 6th and on the following morning Maria went missing and her body was discovered by her husband in what was known as Nuttall's pit, off Watery Lane.
The Coroner was scathing about Ranson's actions, saying it had been a scandalous thing to remove his wife from Whiston. The tragedy could also have been another undiagnosed case of post-natal depression.
On the 10th the Co-op Cinema in Baldwin Street had a "grand re-opening" after being closed for improvements. The picture house was now being run by ex-Sergt. T. D. Glover MM and it would soon be known simply as "Glovers". Much play was made of the fact that the lessee and manager had been awarded the Military Medal in the war and at the cinema's reopening, the Mayor of St Helens presented Mr Glover with a Bar to his medal.
Meanwhile down Corporation Street the Hippodrome began six days of music hall performances, with the acts including:
The Mountfords ("The famous balancers on the forehead in their marvellous combination"); Le-Dair ("Conjuring Canadian"); Rossini ("The piano accordion girl"); Joe Archer ("The cheerful one"); Clo D’Arte ("Belgian prima-donna") and St Malo and Coombs ("Gipsy and sailor, comedy and harmonising singing concertinists").
Next week's stories will include the fatal fall of a telephone wireman at Cannington Shaw, the laughing boy burglars who committed a string of St Helens' break-ins, a determined suicide by a Rainhill Asylum inmate, the old woman who went to a police station to be a blackguard, Pilkington's grand plans for their new Eccleston estate and a Haydock divorce case.