IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (4th - 10th OCTOBER 1921)
This week's stories include the baby abandoned at the side of a Rainford road, there's a settlement of the Clock Face relief work dispute, more street betting takes place in Sutton and a coroner criticises St Helens' roads as unfit to cope with heavy motor wagons.
We begin with the films screened this week at the Oxford Picturedrome (shown above as the Plaza). I haven't mentioned the Duke Street cinema – that would later become the Plaza, Cindy's and now the Cinema Bar – for a while. Like other St Helens' picture houses, their programme would usually change twice a week and feature a silent serial.
This week it was episode 7 of 'The Phantom Foe', a 15-parter in which the villain is a giant seeking revenge – although he doesn't appear to tie any women to railway tracks! The star was Warner Oland who would later appear in 'The Jazz Singer' and the Charlie Chan detective series. The Oxford Picturedrome's ad in the Reporter claimed they had "the largest and most up-to-date cinema orchestra in the district".
At the Theatre Royal there was the "great laughter show" called 'Dinkie Darling', described as a "musical comedy revue". And further along Corporation Street at the Hippodrome, the music hall turns this week included Johnson Clark ("The famous ventriloquist"); The Empire Operatic Quintette ("In gems from popular operas"); Dainty Doris Emery ("Comedienne & dancer"); Boyd Wilson ("Comedian – the “chatterbox”"); Frank Pichel & Scale ("Great novelty comedy acrobats"); Lola Milton ("Dainty versatile comedienne") and Brown's Royal Bioscope ("Showing news in animation").
During the evening of the 4th, two Rainford miners made a surprise find. As they journeyed to their work, they heard a baby crying at the side of Mossborough Road. Upon going to investigate they discovered what was described as a "well-dressed and bonny infant" of about three months. As the road was regularly used at that time, it was thought the child could not have been left there for more than a few minutes. All the baby's clothing was clean and apparently new and listed in great detail in the newspapers in the hope that the police could trace the mother. However, if that occurred, she would be unlikely to receive a sympathetic hearing and so probably would not come forward.
The inquest into the death of grocer's assistant William Davies from Ashdown Terrace in Rainhill was held on the 5th. The 16-year-old had died in Providence Hospital from his injuries received after a lorry had knocked him off his bike in Prescot Road. William had fractured a leg and badly cut the other – injuries that I doubt would prove fatal today. The coroner at the inquest was Samuel Brighouse who was becoming an outspoken road safety campaigner.
Recently, after a death in Eccleston Park, the coroner had said: "I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country." Mr Brighouse might have added that these motorists had also not passed any driving test – and it would not be until the 1930s that tests would be introduced. The underlying problem was that the narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
This week St Helens Corporation requested permission from the Government to borrow £250,000 to extend their work relief programme. That was for the hiring of some of the many unemployed men in the town – and their work largely involved the widening of roads. That was easier said than done when property lay on both sides of the street. However, there were often stretches of wasteland that could be acquired from landowners allowing for the road to be widened. Ironically the Prescot Road district had already been earmarked for improvement. But in the meantime the coroner was dealing with many road deaths and attempting to encourage more responsible driving by motorists.
Mr Brighouse heard that when the accident had occurred, William Davies had been taking a message to St Helens from his employer at Whiston. After the lad had cycled up Lugsmore Lane – to the point where it meets Prescot Road – he was met by a heavy motor wagon carrying bricks. William kept to the left side of the road and thinking the wagon would drive down Lugsmore Lane, he cycled over the Prescot tram track only to find himself in the vehicle's path.
The driver took evasive action and turned his wagon to the right and managed to just miss William with his front wheel. However, the cyclist was thrown under the wagon's rear wheels, which ran over his legs. The coroner said he had inquired into the matter very carefully, not because he thought any blame should be attached to anyone but because of the large numbers of this kind of accident.
"The initial mischief", he said, "is that the highways are not adapted for the large volume of heavy motor traffic by which they are used at the present time. One could not but be impressed by the numerous fatal accidents which were taking place in consequence of collisions between motor-vehicles and cyclists or pedestrians." However, he ruled that what had happened on this occasion had been a pure accident with both parties having acted reasonably.
The Guardian reported on the 6th that the dispute in St Helens that had led to men on a work relief scheme downing tools had now seemingly been resolved. As stated, the Town Council had created a work relief programme for unemployed men that mostly involved road widening in Clock Face and Prescot Road. However, the Government had made two stipulations as to the grant that the council had been given to pay for the scheme.
They insisted that St Helens Corporation source their workers from the Labour Exchange in Church Street and for a six-month probationary period pay them less than the usual going rate for unskilled men. That meant payments of 1 shilling an hour, instead of the usual Corporation labourer rate of 1s 2½d per hour. At a Town Council meeting this week the spokesman for the organisation supporting the unemployed men – a Mr Charnock – had denounced the reduced rate of pay, saying:
"We do not want to be used as tools to bring down the wages of the working classes. Men going on relief work in St. Helens were virtually convicts. The police were there to interfere with men who were exercising peaceful picketing. After fighting for their country they were offered 1s. an hour." He then sarcastically added: "That is making a land fit for heroes to live in." Although Labour had yet to take control of the council, the relatively new party now had sufficient members to be able to support an amendment to disregard the Government instruction and pay the men the full rate of 1s 2½d per hour.
Despite the unemployment situation in St Helens, there were still plenty in work with cash to spend on illegal gambling. In August I described the street betting in Sutton with the prosecution in one case saying: "This kind of thing had been going on for a long time, and as soon as the [works] buzzer went at noon, men could be seen hurrying from all directions to the place where these men were known to carry on their business."
Although fines for receiving betting slips and football coupons could be high, they were usually paid off by the boss of the gambling outfit and seen simply as an overhead. So it was a continuous cat and mouse game between the police and the bookies and with so much unemployment, there were plenty of willing volunteers to take bets. On the 6th William Fitzgerald of Peckers Hill Road was fined £7 6s in the Police Court for accepting bets in the street on three separate days. The 32-year-old was a miner and likely to have been out of work due to the economic crisis and so probably thought working for a bookie would be an easy way to make some cash.
The St Helens (Sankey) Canal was so deep that it could take weeks to surrender its dead. However, William Mulvanny from Baker Street (off Ashcroft Street) in Parr had only lain in the water for 48 hours before the police fished him out. The 28-year-old’s body was recovered on the 9th and the extraordinary circumstances of his drowning will be revealed at the man's inquest next week.
As we know, there are always some folk who profit out of a crisis. This week's "and finally" bonus article from the Echo bears the headline "New Poor Visit Uncle" and describes how pawnbrokers in Liverpool had never had it so good: "A Liverpool pawnbroker today said: “Clergymen, merchants, schoolmasters, indeed professional and business men of all descriptions who never before have been in a pawnshop, are to-day putting articles in pledge. We have had brought to us family jewels, costly furs, valuable antiques, expensive china, various pieces of furniture, and even pianos. And the pawnees are the new poor.”
"This state of things apparently is general, because a Chester pawnbroker's manager yesterday told the magistrates in the police court that he was in the habit now of accepting such things as a silver cup and toasters from strangers, and that he was getting used to articles being brought in that were never likely to be brought in before. That the financial pinch must be very severe in some of the families is clear from the fact that some of the customers are content with £5 on the articles. There are others, however, who have brought diamond rings and pendants, and received a loan of £100. The new class of customers began to make their appearance in large numbers about eighteen months ago, when taxation began to soar, and during the last two months the number has increased considerably.
"This pawnbrokers attribute to the drawing near of the time limit for the payment of rates and income tax. Bad trade and high taxation has caused straitened circumstances for professional and business people, but unemployment among the general workers has also driven them with greater frequency to the pawnshop. And stories are to be heard of families who have now practically denuded their homes of furniture in order to raise a little money. One pawnshop in a poor-class district has been taking for the last few months as many as 800 pledges a week, and at the present time has from £2,000 to £3,000 worth of pledged articles in the warehouse."
Next week's stories will include motorbike road racing in Eccleston, Communists attack the car of the St Helens MP, an update on the abandoned Rainford baby and the tragedy of a desperate out of work miner who accidentally drowned in St Helens Canal.
This week it was episode 7 of 'The Phantom Foe', a 15-parter in which the villain is a giant seeking revenge – although he doesn't appear to tie any women to railway tracks! The star was Warner Oland who would later appear in 'The Jazz Singer' and the Charlie Chan detective series. The Oxford Picturedrome's ad in the Reporter claimed they had "the largest and most up-to-date cinema orchestra in the district".
At the Theatre Royal there was the "great laughter show" called 'Dinkie Darling', described as a "musical comedy revue". And further along Corporation Street at the Hippodrome, the music hall turns this week included Johnson Clark ("The famous ventriloquist"); The Empire Operatic Quintette ("In gems from popular operas"); Dainty Doris Emery ("Comedienne & dancer"); Boyd Wilson ("Comedian – the “chatterbox”"); Frank Pichel & Scale ("Great novelty comedy acrobats"); Lola Milton ("Dainty versatile comedienne") and Brown's Royal Bioscope ("Showing news in animation").
During the evening of the 4th, two Rainford miners made a surprise find. As they journeyed to their work, they heard a baby crying at the side of Mossborough Road. Upon going to investigate they discovered what was described as a "well-dressed and bonny infant" of about three months. As the road was regularly used at that time, it was thought the child could not have been left there for more than a few minutes. All the baby's clothing was clean and apparently new and listed in great detail in the newspapers in the hope that the police could trace the mother. However, if that occurred, she would be unlikely to receive a sympathetic hearing and so probably would not come forward.
The inquest into the death of grocer's assistant William Davies from Ashdown Terrace in Rainhill was held on the 5th. The 16-year-old had died in Providence Hospital from his injuries received after a lorry had knocked him off his bike in Prescot Road. William had fractured a leg and badly cut the other – injuries that I doubt would prove fatal today. The coroner at the inquest was Samuel Brighouse who was becoming an outspoken road safety campaigner.
Recently, after a death in Eccleston Park, the coroner had said: "I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country." Mr Brighouse might have added that these motorists had also not passed any driving test – and it would not be until the 1930s that tests would be introduced. The underlying problem was that the narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
This week St Helens Corporation requested permission from the Government to borrow £250,000 to extend their work relief programme. That was for the hiring of some of the many unemployed men in the town – and their work largely involved the widening of roads. That was easier said than done when property lay on both sides of the street. However, there were often stretches of wasteland that could be acquired from landowners allowing for the road to be widened. Ironically the Prescot Road district had already been earmarked for improvement. But in the meantime the coroner was dealing with many road deaths and attempting to encourage more responsible driving by motorists.
Mr Brighouse heard that when the accident had occurred, William Davies had been taking a message to St Helens from his employer at Whiston. After the lad had cycled up Lugsmore Lane – to the point where it meets Prescot Road – he was met by a heavy motor wagon carrying bricks. William kept to the left side of the road and thinking the wagon would drive down Lugsmore Lane, he cycled over the Prescot tram track only to find himself in the vehicle's path.
The driver took evasive action and turned his wagon to the right and managed to just miss William with his front wheel. However, the cyclist was thrown under the wagon's rear wheels, which ran over his legs. The coroner said he had inquired into the matter very carefully, not because he thought any blame should be attached to anyone but because of the large numbers of this kind of accident.
"The initial mischief", he said, "is that the highways are not adapted for the large volume of heavy motor traffic by which they are used at the present time. One could not but be impressed by the numerous fatal accidents which were taking place in consequence of collisions between motor-vehicles and cyclists or pedestrians." However, he ruled that what had happened on this occasion had been a pure accident with both parties having acted reasonably.
The Guardian reported on the 6th that the dispute in St Helens that had led to men on a work relief scheme downing tools had now seemingly been resolved. As stated, the Town Council had created a work relief programme for unemployed men that mostly involved road widening in Clock Face and Prescot Road. However, the Government had made two stipulations as to the grant that the council had been given to pay for the scheme.
They insisted that St Helens Corporation source their workers from the Labour Exchange in Church Street and for a six-month probationary period pay them less than the usual going rate for unskilled men. That meant payments of 1 shilling an hour, instead of the usual Corporation labourer rate of 1s 2½d per hour. At a Town Council meeting this week the spokesman for the organisation supporting the unemployed men – a Mr Charnock – had denounced the reduced rate of pay, saying:
"We do not want to be used as tools to bring down the wages of the working classes. Men going on relief work in St. Helens were virtually convicts. The police were there to interfere with men who were exercising peaceful picketing. After fighting for their country they were offered 1s. an hour." He then sarcastically added: "That is making a land fit for heroes to live in." Although Labour had yet to take control of the council, the relatively new party now had sufficient members to be able to support an amendment to disregard the Government instruction and pay the men the full rate of 1s 2½d per hour.
Despite the unemployment situation in St Helens, there were still plenty in work with cash to spend on illegal gambling. In August I described the street betting in Sutton with the prosecution in one case saying: "This kind of thing had been going on for a long time, and as soon as the [works] buzzer went at noon, men could be seen hurrying from all directions to the place where these men were known to carry on their business."
Although fines for receiving betting slips and football coupons could be high, they were usually paid off by the boss of the gambling outfit and seen simply as an overhead. So it was a continuous cat and mouse game between the police and the bookies and with so much unemployment, there were plenty of willing volunteers to take bets. On the 6th William Fitzgerald of Peckers Hill Road was fined £7 6s in the Police Court for accepting bets in the street on three separate days. The 32-year-old was a miner and likely to have been out of work due to the economic crisis and so probably thought working for a bookie would be an easy way to make some cash.
The St Helens (Sankey) Canal was so deep that it could take weeks to surrender its dead. However, William Mulvanny from Baker Street (off Ashcroft Street) in Parr had only lain in the water for 48 hours before the police fished him out. The 28-year-old’s body was recovered on the 9th and the extraordinary circumstances of his drowning will be revealed at the man's inquest next week.
As we know, there are always some folk who profit out of a crisis. This week's "and finally" bonus article from the Echo bears the headline "New Poor Visit Uncle" and describes how pawnbrokers in Liverpool had never had it so good: "A Liverpool pawnbroker today said: “Clergymen, merchants, schoolmasters, indeed professional and business men of all descriptions who never before have been in a pawnshop, are to-day putting articles in pledge. We have had brought to us family jewels, costly furs, valuable antiques, expensive china, various pieces of furniture, and even pianos. And the pawnees are the new poor.”
"This state of things apparently is general, because a Chester pawnbroker's manager yesterday told the magistrates in the police court that he was in the habit now of accepting such things as a silver cup and toasters from strangers, and that he was getting used to articles being brought in that were never likely to be brought in before. That the financial pinch must be very severe in some of the families is clear from the fact that some of the customers are content with £5 on the articles. There are others, however, who have brought diamond rings and pendants, and received a loan of £100. The new class of customers began to make their appearance in large numbers about eighteen months ago, when taxation began to soar, and during the last two months the number has increased considerably.
"This pawnbrokers attribute to the drawing near of the time limit for the payment of rates and income tax. Bad trade and high taxation has caused straitened circumstances for professional and business people, but unemployment among the general workers has also driven them with greater frequency to the pawnshop. And stories are to be heard of families who have now practically denuded their homes of furniture in order to raise a little money. One pawnshop in a poor-class district has been taking for the last few months as many as 800 pledges a week, and at the present time has from £2,000 to £3,000 worth of pledged articles in the warehouse."
Next week's stories will include motorbike road racing in Eccleston, Communists attack the car of the St Helens MP, an update on the abandoned Rainford baby and the tragedy of a desperate out of work miner who accidentally drowned in St Helens Canal.
This week's stories include the baby abandoned at the side of a Rainford road, there's a settlement of the Clock Face relief work dispute, more street betting takes place in Sutton and a coroner criticises St Helens' roads as unfit to cope with heavy motor wagons.
We begin with the films screened this week at the Oxford Picturedrome (pictured above as the Plaza).
I haven't mentioned the Duke Street cinema – that would later become the Plaza, Cindy's and now the Cinema Bar – for a while.
Like other St Helens' picture houses, their programme would usually change twice a week and feature a silent serial.
This week it was episode 7 of 'The Phantom Foe', a 15-parter in which the villain is a giant seeking revenge – although he doesn't appear to tie any women to railway tracks!
The star was Warner Oland who would later appear in 'The Jazz Singer' and the Charlie Chan detective series.
The Oxford Picturedrome's ad in the Reporter claimed they had "the largest and most up-to-date cinema orchestra in the district".
At the Theatre Royal there was the "great laughter show" called 'Dinkie Darling', described as a "musical comedy revue".
And further along Corporation Street at the Hippodrome, the music hall turns this week included:
Johnson Clark ("The famous ventriloquist"); The Empire Operatic Quintette ("In gems from popular operas"); Dainty Doris Emery ("Comedienne & dancer"); Boyd Wilson ("Comedian – the “chatterbox”"); Frank Pichel & Scale ("Great novelty comedy acrobats"); Lola Milton ("Dainty versatile comedienne") and Brown's Royal Bioscope ("Showing news in animation").
During the evening of the 4th, two Rainford miners made a surprise find. As they journeyed to their work, they heard a baby crying at the side of Mossborough Road.
Upon going to investigate they discovered what was described as a "well-dressed and bonny infant" of about three months.
As the road was regularly used at that time, it was thought the child could not have been left there for more than a few minutes.
All the baby's clothing was clean and apparently new and listed in great detail in the newspapers in the hope that the police could trace the mother.
However, if that occurred, she would be unlikely to receive a sympathetic hearing and so probably would not come forward.
The inquest into the death of grocer's assistant William Davies from Ashdown Terrace in Rainhill was held on the 5th.
The 16-year-old had died in Providence Hospital from his injuries received after a lorry had knocked him off his bike in Prescot Road.
William had fractured a leg and badly cut the other – injuries that I doubt would prove fatal today.
The coroner at the inquest was Samuel Brighouse who was becoming an outspoken road safety campaigner.
Recently, after a death in Eccleston Park, the coroner had said:
"I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country."
Mr Brighouse might have added that these motorists had also not passed any driving test – and it would not be until the 1930s that tests would be introduced.
The underlying problem was that the narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
This week St Helens Corporation requested permission from the Government to borrow £250,000 to extend their work relief programme.
That was for the hiring of some of the many unemployed men in the town – and their work largely involved the widening of roads.
That was easier said than done when property lay on both sides of the street.
However, there were often stretches of wasteland that could be acquired from landowners allowing for the road to be widened.
Ironically the Prescot Road district had already been earmarked for improvement.
But in the meantime the coroner was dealing with many road deaths and attempting to encourage more responsible driving by motorists.
Mr Brighouse heard that when the accident had occurred, William Davies had been taking a message to St Helens from his employer at Whiston.
After the lad had cycled up Lugsmore Lane – to the point where it meets Prescot Road – he was met by a heavy motor wagon carrying bricks.
William kept to the left side of the road and thinking the wagon would drive down Lugsmore Lane, he cycled over the Prescot tram track only to find himself in the vehicle's path.
The driver took evasive action and turned his wagon to the right and managed to just miss William with his front wheel.
However, the cyclist was thrown under the wagon's rear wheels, which ran over his legs.
The coroner said he had inquired into the matter very carefully, not because he thought any blame should be attached to anyone but because of the large numbers of this kind of accident.
"The initial mischief", he said, "is that the highways are not adapted for the large volume of heavy motor traffic by which they are used at the present time.
"One could not but be impressed by the numerous fatal accidents which were taking place in consequence of collisions between motor-vehicles and cyclists or pedestrians."
However, he ruled that what had happened on this occasion had been a pure accident with both parties having acted reasonably.
The Guardian reported on the 6th that the dispute in St Helens that had led to men on a work relief scheme downing tools had now seemingly been resolved.
As stated, the Town Council had created a work relief programme for unemployed men that mostly involved road widening in Clock Face and Prescot Road.
However, the Government had made two stipulations as to the grant that the council had been given to pay for the scheme.
They insisted that St Helens Corporation source their workers from the Labour Exchange in Church Street and for a six-month probationary period pay them less than the usual going rate.
That meant payments of 1 shilling an hour, instead of the usual Corporation labourer rate of 1s 2½d per hour.
At a Town Council meeting this week the spokesman for the organisation supporting the unemployed men – a Mr Charnock – had denounced the reduced rate of pay, saying:
"We do not want to be used as tools to bring down the wages of the working classes. Men going on relief work in St. Helens were virtually convicts.
"The police were there to interfere with men who were exercising peaceful picketing. After fighting for their country they were offered 1s. an hour."
He then sarcastically added: "That is making a land fit for heroes to live in."
Although Labour had yet to take control of the council, the relatively new party now had sufficient members to be able to support an amendment to disregard the Government instruction and pay the men the full rate of 1s 2½d per hour.
Despite the unemployment situation in St Helens, there were still plenty in work with cash to spend on illegal gambling.
In August I described the street betting in Sutton with the prosecution in one case saying:
"This kind of thing had been going on for a long time, and as soon as the [works] buzzer went at noon, men could be seen hurrying from all directions to the place where these men were known to carry on their business."
Although fines for receiving betting slips and football coupons could be high, they were usually paid off by the boss of the gambling outfit and seen simply as an overhead.
So it was a continuous cat and mouse game between the police and the bookies and with so much unemployment, there were plenty of willing volunteers to take bets.
On the 6th William Fitzgerald of Peckers Hill Road was fined £7 6s in the Police Court for accepting bets in the street on three separate days.
The 32-year-old was a miner and likely to have been out of work due to the economic crisis and so probably thought working for a bookie would be an easy way to make some cash.
The St Helens (Sankey) Canal was so deep that it could take weeks to surrender its dead.
However, William Mulvanny from Baker Street (off Ashcroft Street) in Parr had only lain in the water for 48 hours before the police fished him out.
The 28-year-old’s body was recovered on the 9th and the extraordinary circumstances of his drowning will be revealed at the man's inquest next week.
As we know, there are always some folk who profit out of a crisis.
This week's "and finally" bonus article from the Echo bears the headline "New Poor Visit Uncle" and describes how pawnbrokers in Liverpool had never had it so good:
"A Liverpool pawnbroker today said: “Clergymen, merchants, schoolmasters, indeed professional and business men of all descriptions who never before have been in a pawnshop, are to-day putting articles in pledge.
"“We have had brought to us family jewels, costly furs, valuable antiques, expensive china, various pieces of furniture, and even pianos. And the pawnees are the new poor.”
"This state of things apparently is general, because a Chester pawnbroker's manager yesterday told the magistrates in the police court that he was in the habit now of accepting such things as a silver cup and toasters from strangers, and that he was getting used to articles being brought in that were never likely to be brought in before.
"That the financial pinch must be very severe in some of the families is clear from the fact that some of the customers are content with £5 on the articles.
"There are others, however, who have brought diamond rings and pendants, and received a loan of £100.
"The new class of customers began to make their appearance in large numbers about eighteen months ago, when taxation began to soar, and during the last two months the number has increased considerably.
"This pawnbrokers attribute to the drawing near of the time limit for the payment of rates and income tax.
"Bad trade and high taxation has caused straitened circumstances for professional and business people, but unemployment among the general workers has also driven them with greater frequency to the pawnshop.
"And stories are to be heard of families who have now practically denuded their homes of furniture in order to raise a little money.
"One pawnshop in a poor-class district has been taking for the last few months as many as 800 pledges a week, and at the present time has from £2,000 to £3,000 worth of pledged articles in the warehouse."
Next week's stories will include motorbike road racing in Eccleston, Communists attack the car of the St Helens MP, an update on the abandoned Rainford baby and the tragedy of a desperate out of work miner who accidentally drowned in St Helens Canal.
I haven't mentioned the Duke Street cinema – that would later become the Plaza, Cindy's and now the Cinema Bar – for a while.
Like other St Helens' picture houses, their programme would usually change twice a week and feature a silent serial.
This week it was episode 7 of 'The Phantom Foe', a 15-parter in which the villain is a giant seeking revenge – although he doesn't appear to tie any women to railway tracks!
The star was Warner Oland who would later appear in 'The Jazz Singer' and the Charlie Chan detective series.
The Oxford Picturedrome's ad in the Reporter claimed they had "the largest and most up-to-date cinema orchestra in the district".
At the Theatre Royal there was the "great laughter show" called 'Dinkie Darling', described as a "musical comedy revue".
And further along Corporation Street at the Hippodrome, the music hall turns this week included:
Johnson Clark ("The famous ventriloquist"); The Empire Operatic Quintette ("In gems from popular operas"); Dainty Doris Emery ("Comedienne & dancer"); Boyd Wilson ("Comedian – the “chatterbox”"); Frank Pichel & Scale ("Great novelty comedy acrobats"); Lola Milton ("Dainty versatile comedienne") and Brown's Royal Bioscope ("Showing news in animation").
During the evening of the 4th, two Rainford miners made a surprise find. As they journeyed to their work, they heard a baby crying at the side of Mossborough Road.
Upon going to investigate they discovered what was described as a "well-dressed and bonny infant" of about three months.
As the road was regularly used at that time, it was thought the child could not have been left there for more than a few minutes.
All the baby's clothing was clean and apparently new and listed in great detail in the newspapers in the hope that the police could trace the mother.
However, if that occurred, she would be unlikely to receive a sympathetic hearing and so probably would not come forward.
The inquest into the death of grocer's assistant William Davies from Ashdown Terrace in Rainhill was held on the 5th.
The 16-year-old had died in Providence Hospital from his injuries received after a lorry had knocked him off his bike in Prescot Road.
William had fractured a leg and badly cut the other – injuries that I doubt would prove fatal today.
The coroner at the inquest was Samuel Brighouse who was becoming an outspoken road safety campaigner.
Recently, after a death in Eccleston Park, the coroner had said:
"I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country."
Mr Brighouse might have added that these motorists had also not passed any driving test – and it would not be until the 1930s that tests would be introduced.
The underlying problem was that the narrow roads of St Helens were not designed for the mix of motor and horse-drawn vehicles that were competing for space with pedestrians and cyclists.
This week St Helens Corporation requested permission from the Government to borrow £250,000 to extend their work relief programme.
That was for the hiring of some of the many unemployed men in the town – and their work largely involved the widening of roads.
That was easier said than done when property lay on both sides of the street.
However, there were often stretches of wasteland that could be acquired from landowners allowing for the road to be widened.
Ironically the Prescot Road district had already been earmarked for improvement.
But in the meantime the coroner was dealing with many road deaths and attempting to encourage more responsible driving by motorists.
Mr Brighouse heard that when the accident had occurred, William Davies had been taking a message to St Helens from his employer at Whiston.
After the lad had cycled up Lugsmore Lane – to the point where it meets Prescot Road – he was met by a heavy motor wagon carrying bricks.
William kept to the left side of the road and thinking the wagon would drive down Lugsmore Lane, he cycled over the Prescot tram track only to find himself in the vehicle's path.
The driver took evasive action and turned his wagon to the right and managed to just miss William with his front wheel.
However, the cyclist was thrown under the wagon's rear wheels, which ran over his legs.
The coroner said he had inquired into the matter very carefully, not because he thought any blame should be attached to anyone but because of the large numbers of this kind of accident.
"The initial mischief", he said, "is that the highways are not adapted for the large volume of heavy motor traffic by which they are used at the present time.
"One could not but be impressed by the numerous fatal accidents which were taking place in consequence of collisions between motor-vehicles and cyclists or pedestrians."
However, he ruled that what had happened on this occasion had been a pure accident with both parties having acted reasonably.
The Guardian reported on the 6th that the dispute in St Helens that had led to men on a work relief scheme downing tools had now seemingly been resolved.
As stated, the Town Council had created a work relief programme for unemployed men that mostly involved road widening in Clock Face and Prescot Road.
However, the Government had made two stipulations as to the grant that the council had been given to pay for the scheme.
They insisted that St Helens Corporation source their workers from the Labour Exchange in Church Street and for a six-month probationary period pay them less than the usual going rate.
That meant payments of 1 shilling an hour, instead of the usual Corporation labourer rate of 1s 2½d per hour.
At a Town Council meeting this week the spokesman for the organisation supporting the unemployed men – a Mr Charnock – had denounced the reduced rate of pay, saying:
"We do not want to be used as tools to bring down the wages of the working classes. Men going on relief work in St. Helens were virtually convicts.
"The police were there to interfere with men who were exercising peaceful picketing. After fighting for their country they were offered 1s. an hour."
He then sarcastically added: "That is making a land fit for heroes to live in."
Although Labour had yet to take control of the council, the relatively new party now had sufficient members to be able to support an amendment to disregard the Government instruction and pay the men the full rate of 1s 2½d per hour.
Despite the unemployment situation in St Helens, there were still plenty in work with cash to spend on illegal gambling.
In August I described the street betting in Sutton with the prosecution in one case saying:
"This kind of thing had been going on for a long time, and as soon as the [works] buzzer went at noon, men could be seen hurrying from all directions to the place where these men were known to carry on their business."
Although fines for receiving betting slips and football coupons could be high, they were usually paid off by the boss of the gambling outfit and seen simply as an overhead.
So it was a continuous cat and mouse game between the police and the bookies and with so much unemployment, there were plenty of willing volunteers to take bets.
On the 6th William Fitzgerald of Peckers Hill Road was fined £7 6s in the Police Court for accepting bets in the street on three separate days.
The 32-year-old was a miner and likely to have been out of work due to the economic crisis and so probably thought working for a bookie would be an easy way to make some cash.
The St Helens (Sankey) Canal was so deep that it could take weeks to surrender its dead.
However, William Mulvanny from Baker Street (off Ashcroft Street) in Parr had only lain in the water for 48 hours before the police fished him out.
The 28-year-old’s body was recovered on the 9th and the extraordinary circumstances of his drowning will be revealed at the man's inquest next week.
As we know, there are always some folk who profit out of a crisis.
This week's "and finally" bonus article from the Echo bears the headline "New Poor Visit Uncle" and describes how pawnbrokers in Liverpool had never had it so good:
"A Liverpool pawnbroker today said: “Clergymen, merchants, schoolmasters, indeed professional and business men of all descriptions who never before have been in a pawnshop, are to-day putting articles in pledge.
"“We have had brought to us family jewels, costly furs, valuable antiques, expensive china, various pieces of furniture, and even pianos. And the pawnees are the new poor.”
"This state of things apparently is general, because a Chester pawnbroker's manager yesterday told the magistrates in the police court that he was in the habit now of accepting such things as a silver cup and toasters from strangers, and that he was getting used to articles being brought in that were never likely to be brought in before.
"That the financial pinch must be very severe in some of the families is clear from the fact that some of the customers are content with £5 on the articles.
"There are others, however, who have brought diamond rings and pendants, and received a loan of £100.
"The new class of customers began to make their appearance in large numbers about eighteen months ago, when taxation began to soar, and during the last two months the number has increased considerably.
"This pawnbrokers attribute to the drawing near of the time limit for the payment of rates and income tax.
"Bad trade and high taxation has caused straitened circumstances for professional and business people, but unemployment among the general workers has also driven them with greater frequency to the pawnshop.
"And stories are to be heard of families who have now practically denuded their homes of furniture in order to raise a little money.
"One pawnshop in a poor-class district has been taking for the last few months as many as 800 pledges a week, and at the present time has from £2,000 to £3,000 worth of pledged articles in the warehouse."
Next week's stories will include motorbike road racing in Eccleston, Communists attack the car of the St Helens MP, an update on the abandoned Rainford baby and the tragedy of a desperate out of work miner who accidentally drowned in St Helens Canal.