IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th APRIL 1921)
This week's stories include the stone throwing bus boys of Sutton Manor, the police eviction of a retired bobby with eight children, the young Irishman who walked round St Helens town centre punching people and more on the "all my darling" fruit merchant from the market.
A month ago I described how the critical housing shortage in St Helens was affecting a retired police officer's family. PC Joseph Heaton had left the force on December 6th 1920 after reaching the minimum 25 years of service that entitled officers to retire on a police pension. Heaton's home in Brynn Street came with the job and was situated close to the fire station – as the police then ran the fire service and he had been a member.
The constable had a wife and eight children and so needed a decent-sized house, which were particularly hard to find at a time when vacant property was scarce. At the beginning of March I described how the magistrates had given Heaton a further 28 days to find another house, writing, "the magistrates could not throw eight children out onto the streets". At the time I never thought that would be the course taken upon the expiry of the notice period. But I was wrong – it was!
Heaton's former colleagues (who would likely have been on this 1920 photo of the St Helens force shown above) were ordered to kick a man who had spent at least 25 years loyally serving the people of St Helens out of his own home – until a change of heart brought the indignity to an end. At the same time an ex-soldier with a grievance was making a separate pension protest. The Liverpool Echo described these events on the 6th under the headline "Evicted And Reinstated – Family And Furniture Turned In The Street – Remarkable St. Helens Case":
"The St. Helens Town Hall was quite a storm centre yesterday afternoon, the eviction of an ex-policeman being carried out at the rear of the hall, while an ex-soldier attacked the windows in front and did £2 10s worth of damage. The police evicted ex-constable Heaton from one of the fire brigade houses in Byrom Street [should be Brynn Street]. Heaton left the force on pension some time ago, but the man lived in the house that he occupied while in the corporation fire brigade. Application was made to the police court some time ago and he was ordered to vacate the premises.
"Four weeks ago the matter was again before the court, and he was given another month. Yesterday the police proceeded to turn his furniture out into the street, and a crowd of sympathisers assembled and booed the police. Councillors McCormick and Waring were communicated with and they succeeded in getting in touch with the chairman of the Watch Committee, Councillor Norman Pilkington, and after the whole of the furniture had been turned into the street, together with Mr. and Mrs. Heaton and their large family, an order came from the chairman of the Watch Committee giving Heaton another month in which to find a house.
"The police then had to put the furniture once more into the house, and when the re-settlement of the family was completed, they and the two councillors who had intervened were loudly cheered by the residents who had assembled. The window-breaking resulted in John Spark, a blacksmith, of 61, Emily-street being brought before the magistrates this morning.
"When he was arrested he said he was out of work, and was fed up with everything. It was stated that Sparks had fastened his 1914-1915 stars, together with a letter from the Ministry of Pensions, to a hoarding in Church-street, where a policeman found a crowd and someone reading the letter. The bench remanded prisoner for a week, in order that the state of his mind might be inquired into."
At a meeting of St Helens Town Council on the 6th there was criticism of the eviction. Cllr. Fawcett said if they preached Christianity they ought to practice it. Cllr. Ledwith remarked that there were quite sufficient evictions in Ireland without bringing that kind of thing to St. Helens. "It was a disgrace to the corporation", he added.
Also on the 6th Thomas Berry appeared at Liverpool Assizes charged with receiving 36 barrels of stolen apples and attempting to bribe two police officers. As I reported three weeks ago, the 38-year-old was a well-known fruit merchant in St Helens who kept a large stall in the Market Hall. It was alleged that a carter called Francis Healey had brazenly stolen the fruit from the King's Docks in Liverpool after the cargo had been unloaded off a ship.
The 41-year-old had been seen driving a lorry containing the barrels towards the dock gates. Security was clearly poor as upon being questioned he said a Liverpool firm had contracted him to drive the apples to London and he was allowed to leave. Later a shortage in the cargo was discovered but by then Healy had taken the apples to a railway station and they were consigned to Thomas Berry in St Helens.
However Berry appears to have developed cold feet as his brother had them re-directed to Fleetwood. Upon being questioned by the police, Healey admitted his part in the affair but claimed a man named Dutton had "bossed" the job and given him a fiver for doing it. Berry insisted he did not know the apples had been stolen but a week after being interviewed happened to see the two detectives assigned to the case in Liverpool.
He said to one: "This is a terrible thing for me. I would give a few hundred to be finished and all my darling again." The curious expression "all my darling" was explained as meaning to be "all square" again and Berry added: "I will see neither of you go short. Remember, there is no limit." Francis Healey was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. Unfortunately I've not been able to find out Berry's verdict, although he appears to have escaped a prison sentence.
On the 7th Michael Towey claimed in St Helens Police Court that alcohol had made him wander round the town smacking people for no reason. The young Irishmen had only come to St Helens two weeks ago to work in a coalmine and first struck James Fay on the side of his head near Holy Cross Church. Mr Fay said he had been simply walking along the street and had not provoked the man.
Being a disabled soldier he said he had been unable to retaliate and promptly complained to a police officer. A few minutes later William Dixon had the misfortune of meeting Towey in Hardshaw Street and without any reason he belted him in the stomach. The man offered no explanation to the magistrates for his behaviour apart from being "in drink" and was fined £2 and bound over to be of good behaviour.
Cowley Girls had this advert in the Guardian on the 7th: "Wanted, as soon as possible, experienced Mistress for Swedish Drill and Dancing." Swedish Drill was a series of gymnastic exercises, which a fencing instructor in southern Sweden had created. It had recently been introduced into many British schools and Cowley boys also held classes.
Since the expansion of motor traffic there had been an increase in stone throwing by boys who found large vehicles irresistible targets for their missiles. Most people could not afford motorised transport and so some of the vandalism could have been driven by jealousy – although I expect boys have always found some way of causing mischief! Motor buses made nice, big targets and on the 11th a youth called John Davies from Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor was prosecuted for attacking the Pilkington bus.
This picked up their workers in Widnes and passed through Sutton Manor, no doubt collecting more staff as they went. The prosecuting solicitor said boys had for some time been targeting the Pilks bus as it travelled through the Manor and John Davies had been seen breaking a window.
Recently somebody had discharged a pellet from a catapult that struck a boy passenger on the bus in between his eyes. The Chairman on the Bench fined the lad 30 shillings and gave him a strict warning. He said the throwing of stones at vehicles was all too common and could result in more serious charges being brought against those that seriously injure the occupants of vehicles.
And finally my now customary non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week was a report on a new biography of Queen Victoria – who was most definitely not in favour of any form of women's lib! The book was written by a chap called Lytton Strachey and the piece in the Echo began by wondering what the Queen would have made of life in 1921: "What would Queen Victoria think of us to-day with our short skirts, jazz, and cocktails? This is what Queen Victoria thought about suffragettes in 1870:-
"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety. Lady _____________ [name redacted] ought to get a good whipping. It is a subject that makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself."
The above was taken from Victoria's (or her aides) letters and the book also reported that the suite of rooms that her late husband Albert had occupied in Windsor Castle was sealed off from all but servants who had a macabre duty to perform:
"Within those precincts everything remained as it had been at the Prince's death; but the mysterious preocupation of Victoria had commanded that her husband's clothing should be laid afresh, each evening, upon his bed, and that, each evening, the water should be set ready in the basin, as if he were still alive; and this incredible rite was performed with scrupulous regularity for nearly forty years. Every bed in which Victoria slept also had attached to it at the back, on the right-hand side, above the pillow, a photograph of the head and shoulders of Albert as he lay dead, surmounted by a wreath of immortelles."
Next week's stories will include the harsh sentences for gross indecency by gay men, the approval theft of a blouse by a new St Helens bride and a charge of cruelly terrifying a performing monkey at the Hippodrome.
A month ago I described how the critical housing shortage in St Helens was affecting a retired police officer's family. PC Joseph Heaton had left the force on December 6th 1920 after reaching the minimum 25 years of service that entitled officers to retire on a police pension. Heaton's home in Brynn Street came with the job and was situated close to the fire station – as the police then ran the fire service and he had been a member.
The constable had a wife and eight children and so needed a decent-sized house, which were particularly hard to find at a time when vacant property was scarce. At the beginning of March I described how the magistrates had given Heaton a further 28 days to find another house, writing, "the magistrates could not throw eight children out onto the streets". At the time I never thought that would be the course taken upon the expiry of the notice period. But I was wrong – it was!
"The St. Helens Town Hall was quite a storm centre yesterday afternoon, the eviction of an ex-policeman being carried out at the rear of the hall, while an ex-soldier attacked the windows in front and did £2 10s worth of damage. The police evicted ex-constable Heaton from one of the fire brigade houses in Byrom Street [should be Brynn Street]. Heaton left the force on pension some time ago, but the man lived in the house that he occupied while in the corporation fire brigade. Application was made to the police court some time ago and he was ordered to vacate the premises.
"Four weeks ago the matter was again before the court, and he was given another month. Yesterday the police proceeded to turn his furniture out into the street, and a crowd of sympathisers assembled and booed the police. Councillors McCormick and Waring were communicated with and they succeeded in getting in touch with the chairman of the Watch Committee, Councillor Norman Pilkington, and after the whole of the furniture had been turned into the street, together with Mr. and Mrs. Heaton and their large family, an order came from the chairman of the Watch Committee giving Heaton another month in which to find a house.
"The police then had to put the furniture once more into the house, and when the re-settlement of the family was completed, they and the two councillors who had intervened were loudly cheered by the residents who had assembled. The window-breaking resulted in John Spark, a blacksmith, of 61, Emily-street being brought before the magistrates this morning.
"When he was arrested he said he was out of work, and was fed up with everything. It was stated that Sparks had fastened his 1914-1915 stars, together with a letter from the Ministry of Pensions, to a hoarding in Church-street, where a policeman found a crowd and someone reading the letter. The bench remanded prisoner for a week, in order that the state of his mind might be inquired into."
At a meeting of St Helens Town Council on the 6th there was criticism of the eviction. Cllr. Fawcett said if they preached Christianity they ought to practice it. Cllr. Ledwith remarked that there were quite sufficient evictions in Ireland without bringing that kind of thing to St. Helens. "It was a disgrace to the corporation", he added.
Also on the 6th Thomas Berry appeared at Liverpool Assizes charged with receiving 36 barrels of stolen apples and attempting to bribe two police officers. As I reported three weeks ago, the 38-year-old was a well-known fruit merchant in St Helens who kept a large stall in the Market Hall. It was alleged that a carter called Francis Healey had brazenly stolen the fruit from the King's Docks in Liverpool after the cargo had been unloaded off a ship.
The 41-year-old had been seen driving a lorry containing the barrels towards the dock gates. Security was clearly poor as upon being questioned he said a Liverpool firm had contracted him to drive the apples to London and he was allowed to leave. Later a shortage in the cargo was discovered but by then Healy had taken the apples to a railway station and they were consigned to Thomas Berry in St Helens.
However Berry appears to have developed cold feet as his brother had them re-directed to Fleetwood. Upon being questioned by the police, Healey admitted his part in the affair but claimed a man named Dutton had "bossed" the job and given him a fiver for doing it. Berry insisted he did not know the apples had been stolen but a week after being interviewed happened to see the two detectives assigned to the case in Liverpool.
He said to one: "This is a terrible thing for me. I would give a few hundred to be finished and all my darling again." The curious expression "all my darling" was explained as meaning to be "all square" again and Berry added: "I will see neither of you go short. Remember, there is no limit." Francis Healey was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. Unfortunately I've not been able to find out Berry's verdict, although he appears to have escaped a prison sentence.
On the 7th Michael Towey claimed in St Helens Police Court that alcohol had made him wander round the town smacking people for no reason. The young Irishmen had only come to St Helens two weeks ago to work in a coalmine and first struck James Fay on the side of his head near Holy Cross Church. Mr Fay said he had been simply walking along the street and had not provoked the man.
Being a disabled soldier he said he had been unable to retaliate and promptly complained to a police officer. A few minutes later William Dixon had the misfortune of meeting Towey in Hardshaw Street and without any reason he belted him in the stomach. The man offered no explanation to the magistrates for his behaviour apart from being "in drink" and was fined £2 and bound over to be of good behaviour.
Cowley Girls had this advert in the Guardian on the 7th: "Wanted, as soon as possible, experienced Mistress for Swedish Drill and Dancing." Swedish Drill was a series of gymnastic exercises, which a fencing instructor in southern Sweden had created. It had recently been introduced into many British schools and Cowley boys also held classes.
Since the expansion of motor traffic there had been an increase in stone throwing by boys who found large vehicles irresistible targets for their missiles. Most people could not afford motorised transport and so some of the vandalism could have been driven by jealousy – although I expect boys have always found some way of causing mischief! Motor buses made nice, big targets and on the 11th a youth called John Davies from Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor was prosecuted for attacking the Pilkington bus.
This picked up their workers in Widnes and passed through Sutton Manor, no doubt collecting more staff as they went. The prosecuting solicitor said boys had for some time been targeting the Pilks bus as it travelled through the Manor and John Davies had been seen breaking a window.
Recently somebody had discharged a pellet from a catapult that struck a boy passenger on the bus in between his eyes. The Chairman on the Bench fined the lad 30 shillings and gave him a strict warning. He said the throwing of stones at vehicles was all too common and could result in more serious charges being brought against those that seriously injure the occupants of vehicles.
And finally my now customary non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week was a report on a new biography of Queen Victoria – who was most definitely not in favour of any form of women's lib! The book was written by a chap called Lytton Strachey and the piece in the Echo began by wondering what the Queen would have made of life in 1921: "What would Queen Victoria think of us to-day with our short skirts, jazz, and cocktails? This is what Queen Victoria thought about suffragettes in 1870:-
"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety. Lady _____________ [name redacted] ought to get a good whipping. It is a subject that makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself."
The above was taken from Victoria's (or her aides) letters and the book also reported that the suite of rooms that her late husband Albert had occupied in Windsor Castle was sealed off from all but servants who had a macabre duty to perform:
"Within those precincts everything remained as it had been at the Prince's death; but the mysterious preocupation of Victoria had commanded that her husband's clothing should be laid afresh, each evening, upon his bed, and that, each evening, the water should be set ready in the basin, as if he were still alive; and this incredible rite was performed with scrupulous regularity for nearly forty years. Every bed in which Victoria slept also had attached to it at the back, on the right-hand side, above the pillow, a photograph of the head and shoulders of Albert as he lay dead, surmounted by a wreath of immortelles."
Next week's stories will include the harsh sentences for gross indecency by gay men, the approval theft of a blouse by a new St Helens bride and a charge of cruelly terrifying a performing monkey at the Hippodrome.
This week's stories include the stone throwing bus boys of Sutton Manor, the police eviction of a retired bobby with eight children, the young Irishman who walked round St Helens town centre punching people and more on the "all my darling" fruit merchant from the market.
A month ago I described how the critical housing shortage in St Helens was affecting a retired police officer's family.
PC Joseph Heaton had left the force on December 6th 1920 after reaching the minimum 25 years of service that entitled officers to retire on a police pension.
Heaton's home in Brynn Street came with the job and was situated close to the fire station – as the police then ran the fire service and he had been a member.
The constable had a wife and eight children and so needed a decent-sized house, which were particularly hard to find at a time when vacant property was scarce.
At the beginning of March I described how the magistrates had given Heaton a further 28 days to find another house, writing, "the magistrates could not throw eight children out onto the streets".
At the time I never thought that would be the course taken upon the expiry of the notice period. But I was wrong – it was!
Heaton's former colleagues (who would likely have been on this 1920 photo of the St Helens force shown above) were ordered to kick a man who had spent at least 25 years loyally serving the people of St Helens out of his own home – until a change of heart brought the indignity to an end.
At the same time an ex-soldier with a grievance was making a separate pension protest.
The Liverpool Echo described these events on the 6th under the headline "Evicted And Reinstated – Family And Furniture Turned In The Street – Remarkable St. Helens Case":
"The St. Helens Town Hall was quite a storm centre yesterday afternoon, the eviction of an ex-policeman being carried out at the rear of the hall, while an ex-soldier attacked the windows in front and did £2 10s worth of damage.
"The police evicted ex-constable Heaton from one of the fire brigade houses in Byrom Street [should be Brynn Street].
"Heaton left the force on pension some time ago, but the man lived in the house that he occupied while in the corporation fire brigade.
"Application was made to the police court some time ago and he was ordered to vacate the premises.
"Four weeks ago the matter was again before the court, and he was given another month. Yesterday the police proceeded to turn his furniture out into the street, and a crowd of sympathisers assembled and booed the police.
"Councillors McCormick and Waring were communicated with and they succeeded in getting in touch with the chairman of the Watch Committee, Councillor Norman Pilkington, and after the whole of the furniture had been turned into the street, together with Mr. and Mrs. Heaton and their large family, an order came from the chairman of the Watch Committee giving Heaton another month in which to find a house.
"The police then had to put the furniture once more into the house, and when the re-settlement of the family was completed, they and the two councillors who had intervened were loudly cheered by the residents who had assembled.
"The window-breaking resulted in John Spark, a blacksmith, of 61, Emily-street being brought before the magistrates this morning.
"When he was arrested he said he was out of work, and was fed up with everything.
"It was stated that Sparks had fastened his 1914-1915 stars, together with a letter from the Ministry of Pensions, to a hoarding in Church-street, where a policeman found a crowd and someone reading the letter.
"The bench remanded prisoner for a week, in order that the state of his mind might be inquired into."
At a meeting of St Helens Town Council on the 6th there was criticism of the eviction. Cllr. Fawcett said if they preached Christianity they ought to practice it.
Cllr. Ledwith remarked that there were quite sufficient evictions in Ireland without bringing that kind of thing to St. Helens. "It was a disgrace to the corporation", he added.
Also on the 6th Thomas Berry appeared at Liverpool Assizes charged with receiving 36 barrels of stolen apples and attempting to bribe two police officers.
As I reported three weeks ago, the 38-year-old was a well-known fruit merchant in St Helens who kept a large stall in the Market Hall.
It was alleged that a carter called Francis Healey had brazenly stolen the fruit from the King's Docks in Liverpool after the cargo had been unloaded off a ship.
The 41-year-old had been seen driving a lorry containing the barrels towards the dock gates.
Security was clearly poor as upon being questioned he said a Liverpool firm had contracted him to drive the apples to London and he was allowed to leave.
Later a shortage in the cargo was discovered but by then Healy had taken the apples to a railway station and they were consigned to Thomas Berry in St Helens.
However Berry appears to have developed cold feet as his brother had them re-directed to Fleetwood.
Upon being questioned by the police, Healey admitted his part in the affair but claimed a man named Dutton had "bossed" the job and given him a fiver for doing it.
Berry insisted he did not know the apples had been stolen but a week after being interviewed happened to see the two detectives assigned to the case in Liverpool.
He said to one: "This is a terrible thing for me. I would give a few hundred to be finished and all my darling again."
The curious expression "all my darling" was explained as meaning to be "all square" again and Berry added: "I will see neither of you go short. Remember, there is no limit."
Francis Healey was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. Unfortunately I've not been able to find out Berry's verdict, although he appears to have escaped a prison sentence.
On the 7th Michael Towey claimed in St Helens Police Court that alcohol had made him wander round the town smacking people for no reason.
The young Irishmen had only come to St Helens two weeks ago to work in a coalmine and first struck James Fay on the side of his head near Holy Cross Church.
Mr Fay said he had been simply walking along the street and had not provoked the man.
Being a disabled soldier he said he had been unable to retaliate and promptly complained to a police officer.
A few minutes later William Dixon had the misfortune of meeting Towey in Hardshaw Street and without any reason he belted him in the stomach.
The man offered no explanation to the magistrates for his behaviour apart from being "in drink" and was fined £2 and bound over to be of good behaviour.
Cowley Girls had this advert in the Guardian on the 7th: "Wanted, as soon as possible, experienced Mistress for Swedish Drill and Dancing."
Swedish Drill was a series of gymnastic exercises, which a fencing instructor in southern Sweden had created.
It had recently been introduced into many British schools and Cowley boys also held classes.
Since the expansion of motor traffic there had been an increase in stone throwing by boys who found large vehicles irresistible targets for their missiles.
Most people could not afford motorised transport and so some of the vandalism could have been driven by jealousy – although I expect boys have always found some way of causing mischief!
Motor buses made nice, big targets and on the 11th a youth called John Davies from Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor was prosecuted for attacking the Pilkington bus.
This picked up their workers in Widnes and passed through Sutton Manor, no doubt collecting more staff as they went.
The prosecuting solicitor said boys had for some time been targeting the Pilks bus as it travelled through the Manor and John Davies had been seen breaking a window.
Recently somebody had discharged a pellet from a catapult that struck a boy passenger on the bus in between his eyes.
The Chairman on the Bench fined the lad 30 shillings and gave him a strict warning.
He said the throwing of stones at vehicles was all too common and could result in more serious charges being brought against those that seriously injure the occupants of vehicles.
And finally my now customary non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week was a report on a new biography of Queen Victoria – who was most definitely not in favour of any form of women's lib!
The book was written by a chap called Lytton Strachey and the piece in the Echo began by wondering what the Queen would have made of life in 1921:
"What would Queen Victoria think of us to-day with our short skirts, jazz, and cocktails? This is what Queen Victoria thought about suffragettes in 1870:-
"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.
"Lady _____________ [name redacted] ought to get a good whipping. It is a subject that makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself."
The above was taken from Victoria's (or her aides) letters and the book also reported that the suite of rooms that her late husband Albert had occupied in Windsor Castle was sealed off from all but servants who had a macabre duty to perform:
"Within those precincts everything remained as it had been at the Prince's death; but the mysterious preocupation of Victoria had commanded that her husband's clothing should be laid afresh, each evening, upon his bed, and that, each evening, the water should be set ready in the basin, as if he were still alive; and this incredible rite was performed with scrupulous regularity for nearly forty years.
"Every bed in which Victoria slept also had attached to it at the back, on the right-hand side, above the pillow, a photograph of the head and shoulders of Albert as he lay dead, surmounted by a wreath of immortelles."
Next week's stories will include the harsh sentences for gross indecency by gay men, the approval theft of a blouse by a new St Helens bride and a charge of cruelly terrifying a performing monkey at the Hippodrome.
A month ago I described how the critical housing shortage in St Helens was affecting a retired police officer's family.
PC Joseph Heaton had left the force on December 6th 1920 after reaching the minimum 25 years of service that entitled officers to retire on a police pension.
Heaton's home in Brynn Street came with the job and was situated close to the fire station – as the police then ran the fire service and he had been a member.
The constable had a wife and eight children and so needed a decent-sized house, which were particularly hard to find at a time when vacant property was scarce.
At the beginning of March I described how the magistrates had given Heaton a further 28 days to find another house, writing, "the magistrates could not throw eight children out onto the streets".
At the time I never thought that would be the course taken upon the expiry of the notice period. But I was wrong – it was!
At the same time an ex-soldier with a grievance was making a separate pension protest.
The Liverpool Echo described these events on the 6th under the headline "Evicted And Reinstated – Family And Furniture Turned In The Street – Remarkable St. Helens Case":
"The St. Helens Town Hall was quite a storm centre yesterday afternoon, the eviction of an ex-policeman being carried out at the rear of the hall, while an ex-soldier attacked the windows in front and did £2 10s worth of damage.
"The police evicted ex-constable Heaton from one of the fire brigade houses in Byrom Street [should be Brynn Street].
"Heaton left the force on pension some time ago, but the man lived in the house that he occupied while in the corporation fire brigade.
"Application was made to the police court some time ago and he was ordered to vacate the premises.
"Four weeks ago the matter was again before the court, and he was given another month. Yesterday the police proceeded to turn his furniture out into the street, and a crowd of sympathisers assembled and booed the police.
"Councillors McCormick and Waring were communicated with and they succeeded in getting in touch with the chairman of the Watch Committee, Councillor Norman Pilkington, and after the whole of the furniture had been turned into the street, together with Mr. and Mrs. Heaton and their large family, an order came from the chairman of the Watch Committee giving Heaton another month in which to find a house.
"The police then had to put the furniture once more into the house, and when the re-settlement of the family was completed, they and the two councillors who had intervened were loudly cheered by the residents who had assembled.
"The window-breaking resulted in John Spark, a blacksmith, of 61, Emily-street being brought before the magistrates this morning.
"When he was arrested he said he was out of work, and was fed up with everything.
"It was stated that Sparks had fastened his 1914-1915 stars, together with a letter from the Ministry of Pensions, to a hoarding in Church-street, where a policeman found a crowd and someone reading the letter.
"The bench remanded prisoner for a week, in order that the state of his mind might be inquired into."
At a meeting of St Helens Town Council on the 6th there was criticism of the eviction. Cllr. Fawcett said if they preached Christianity they ought to practice it.
Cllr. Ledwith remarked that there were quite sufficient evictions in Ireland without bringing that kind of thing to St. Helens. "It was a disgrace to the corporation", he added.
Also on the 6th Thomas Berry appeared at Liverpool Assizes charged with receiving 36 barrels of stolen apples and attempting to bribe two police officers.
As I reported three weeks ago, the 38-year-old was a well-known fruit merchant in St Helens who kept a large stall in the Market Hall.
It was alleged that a carter called Francis Healey had brazenly stolen the fruit from the King's Docks in Liverpool after the cargo had been unloaded off a ship.
The 41-year-old had been seen driving a lorry containing the barrels towards the dock gates.
Security was clearly poor as upon being questioned he said a Liverpool firm had contracted him to drive the apples to London and he was allowed to leave.
Later a shortage in the cargo was discovered but by then Healy had taken the apples to a railway station and they were consigned to Thomas Berry in St Helens.
However Berry appears to have developed cold feet as his brother had them re-directed to Fleetwood.
Upon being questioned by the police, Healey admitted his part in the affair but claimed a man named Dutton had "bossed" the job and given him a fiver for doing it.
Berry insisted he did not know the apples had been stolen but a week after being interviewed happened to see the two detectives assigned to the case in Liverpool.
He said to one: "This is a terrible thing for me. I would give a few hundred to be finished and all my darling again."
The curious expression "all my darling" was explained as meaning to be "all square" again and Berry added: "I will see neither of you go short. Remember, there is no limit."
Francis Healey was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. Unfortunately I've not been able to find out Berry's verdict, although he appears to have escaped a prison sentence.
On the 7th Michael Towey claimed in St Helens Police Court that alcohol had made him wander round the town smacking people for no reason.
The young Irishmen had only come to St Helens two weeks ago to work in a coalmine and first struck James Fay on the side of his head near Holy Cross Church.
Mr Fay said he had been simply walking along the street and had not provoked the man.
Being a disabled soldier he said he had been unable to retaliate and promptly complained to a police officer.
A few minutes later William Dixon had the misfortune of meeting Towey in Hardshaw Street and without any reason he belted him in the stomach.
The man offered no explanation to the magistrates for his behaviour apart from being "in drink" and was fined £2 and bound over to be of good behaviour.
Cowley Girls had this advert in the Guardian on the 7th: "Wanted, as soon as possible, experienced Mistress for Swedish Drill and Dancing."
Swedish Drill was a series of gymnastic exercises, which a fencing instructor in southern Sweden had created.
It had recently been introduced into many British schools and Cowley boys also held classes.
Since the expansion of motor traffic there had been an increase in stone throwing by boys who found large vehicles irresistible targets for their missiles.
Most people could not afford motorised transport and so some of the vandalism could have been driven by jealousy – although I expect boys have always found some way of causing mischief!
Motor buses made nice, big targets and on the 11th a youth called John Davies from Tennyson Street in Sutton Manor was prosecuted for attacking the Pilkington bus.
This picked up their workers in Widnes and passed through Sutton Manor, no doubt collecting more staff as they went.
The prosecuting solicitor said boys had for some time been targeting the Pilks bus as it travelled through the Manor and John Davies had been seen breaking a window.
Recently somebody had discharged a pellet from a catapult that struck a boy passenger on the bus in between his eyes.
The Chairman on the Bench fined the lad 30 shillings and gave him a strict warning.
He said the throwing of stones at vehicles was all too common and could result in more serious charges being brought against those that seriously injure the occupants of vehicles.
And finally my now customary non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week was a report on a new biography of Queen Victoria – who was most definitely not in favour of any form of women's lib!
The book was written by a chap called Lytton Strachey and the piece in the Echo began by wondering what the Queen would have made of life in 1921:
"What would Queen Victoria think of us to-day with our short skirts, jazz, and cocktails? This is what Queen Victoria thought about suffragettes in 1870:-
"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Woman’s Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.
"Lady _____________ [name redacted] ought to get a good whipping. It is a subject that makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself."
The above was taken from Victoria's (or her aides) letters and the book also reported that the suite of rooms that her late husband Albert had occupied in Windsor Castle was sealed off from all but servants who had a macabre duty to perform:
"Within those precincts everything remained as it had been at the Prince's death; but the mysterious preocupation of Victoria had commanded that her husband's clothing should be laid afresh, each evening, upon his bed, and that, each evening, the water should be set ready in the basin, as if he were still alive; and this incredible rite was performed with scrupulous regularity for nearly forty years.
"Every bed in which Victoria slept also had attached to it at the back, on the right-hand side, above the pillow, a photograph of the head and shoulders of Albert as he lay dead, surmounted by a wreath of immortelles."
Next week's stories will include the harsh sentences for gross indecency by gay men, the approval theft of a blouse by a new St Helens bride and a charge of cruelly terrifying a performing monkey at the Hippodrome.