IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5 - 11 JUNE 1923)
This week's many stories include the Silkstone Street lovers' quarrel in which a woman is slashed in the face, an update on the man charged with attempting to murder his 5-year-old niece, the newsboys causing a nuisance on their brakeless bikes and the 15 people sharing two bedrooms in a house that had 22 panes of glass smashed.
We begin with John Dudley who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 5th charged with attempted murder and suicide. The 23-year-old glassmaker from Liverpool Road had slashed Mary Pilkington about the face with a razor after accusing his long-time girlfriend of seeing other men. The incident had taken place at Mary's home in Silkstone Street, near Boundary Road. The 21-year-old's face was cut from the temple down to her chin and another wound was made on the side of her neck. In total Mary needed 32 stitches at Providence Hospital. Dudley had also turned the razor on himself, cutting his throat – but not seriously.
When questioned by the police the man insisted that he had not attempted to murder Mary, saying: "I did it to mark her for fooling me". In court Mary gave evidence that their relationship had been a difficult one through Dudley's jealousies and threats. Five weeks ago when the couple had stopped seeing each other she had gone out with another man, which had infuriated Dudley. It was also stated that when Sgt. Valentine had bandaged the young man's self-inflicted wounds, Dudley had pointed to the razor and said: "That thing is no good, or I would have done it proper." John Dudley was committed for trial at the next Assizes.
On the 6th three young men named Thomas Glover, William Caldwell and Charles Brunt were each fined 10 shillings after being charged with committing a theft in Eccleston. The trio had stolen fifteen packets of cigarettes worth 7 shillings from a shop in Dunriding Lane.
In November 1922 the Labour members of St Helens Council had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain level had to take a pay cut – or be fired. Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so the well-paid bosses at the Town Hall should follow suit. Last month it was announced that all senior officials had agreed to accept a drop in their pay – with one exception. That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any cut at all.
William Andrew's salary was £1,500 per year and he was asked to accept a reduction to £1,368 – but stood his ground and was given three months' notice. That expired at the end of this month and during the evening of the 6th another effort was made to resolve the standoff. A committee meeting heard a compromise proposal in which the clerk's pension provision would be boosted to compensate for his reduced salary. In the end it was decided that legal advice would be taken before any decision was made.
On the 8th Ernest Thorley returned to court to face a charge of attempted murder. At 6.45pm ten days earlier he had walked into St Helens Police Station and bluntly said: "I have cut a child's throat at 36, Eldon Street. It will save a lot of trouble." Five-year-old Marion Rowe was the man's niece who he had been looking after while her parents visited the cinema.
The little girl was found to have a wound three inches long under her chin and a scarf had been tightly tied round her neck in an apparent attempt to suffocate her. In court Marion's father Harold Rowe explained that Thorley lived with him and his wife and on that evening had given them a ticket for the picture house, saying: "Go on, I will mind the girl; I am not going out." Lillian Rowe, Thorley's sister, said it was not an uncommon thing for Marion to be left alone with her uncle.
James Barber, who lived next door, said the child and several others had been playing in the backyard of his house when Thorley entered, placed his arm round the neck of his niece and took her out of the yard. The defendant declined to explain his action or say anything in his defence and was committed for trial at next week’s Liverpool Assizes.
The newsboys or paperboys of St Helens (shown above in Church Street) had traditionally come from very poor stock. Some were on the streets until late at night, badly attired and often without shoes, as they attempted to offload their stock of papers. But now they had bikes and were zipping along the streets after collecting their Echos from the railway station!
In August 1922 one of them had almost skittled a policeman on point duty at the junction of Hall Street and Church Street. The officer told the court that the boys raced to get their papers into circulation first without paying any heed to the public. This week Charles Featherstone was in court charged with the negligent riding of a bicycle. The 16-year-old from Liverpool Road had crashed into Bessie Burrows on her bike at the junction of Hall Street and George Street.
The young woman had injured her shoulder and PC White told the court that boys like the defendant were a "terrible nuisance at the corner and it was a serious matter now. These boys rode bicycles without either bells or brakes." Charles was ordered to pay one shilling towards the court costs and told it would be very much safer if he walked in future. Fat chance of that, I would have thought!
A select committee was currently at work looking at the possibility of introducing a betting tax. As much gambling was illegal that would be a controversial move. Predictably the Church was horrified at the prospect and on the 8th the St Helens Reporter described Canon Baines' comments on the subject from earlier in the week. The Vicar of St Helens had said:
"You cannot deny that gambling is one of our national disgraces, and it is wrong that the national revenue should be replenished from a national disgrace." However, Canon Baines accepted it was difficult to define the point when gambling became wrong as, he said, it was hard to know just when innocence ended and evil began. The betting tax would be introduced in 1926 but abolished four years later.
The Reporter summed up a family dispute in Parr that had played out in court this week by saying: "The father blamed the daughter and the daughter blamed the father." PC Shepherd explained to the magistrates that he lived in Fleet Lane and had heard a disturbance outside his house. He described finding Elsie Mavis with her father in the centre of a crowd, "shouting and screaming and making use of filthy language". They both refused to go home and eventually he decided to take the father into custody.
While walking to the police station, PC Shepherd said he could hear Mrs Mavis screaming at the top of her voice while several hundred yards away. The father had previously been dealt with by the court for his part in the disturbance and had blamed his daughter for the trouble. Now it was her turn to be in the dock and she blamed her dad! And Elsie had support from her mother who said her husband was responsible for the row but Mrs Mavis was still bound over for six months.
This is what the Reporter had to say about another court case this week: "To Edward Tipton, of no fixed residence, must be awarded the championship in local window smashing, for on the 25th ult. he smashed twenty-two windows in his sister's house besides doing other damage with the flying bottles."
Martha Daniels was the sister of Tipton and said her brother had come into her house late on Friday night and, as he had been drinking, she had ordered him to leave. The man appeared to want to find somewhere to stay the night but she said she already had fourteen other people sharing two bedrooms and there was no room. Mrs Daniels added that her brother returned later that night but she would not open the door to him. So Tipton took his revenge out on the house using bottles as weapons.
And as well as smashing nearly two-dozen panes of glass, his missiles also broke a window frame and damaged a rocking chair, amongst other articles. Mrs Daniels said the family had to lock themselves in a bedroom in order to protect themselves. Upon being asked by the Bench how the inhabitants of the house all slept, Mrs Daniels replied: "The best way we can."
She explained that living in the house as well as herself was her husband and their seven children, along with two married daughters. They had two children each – so 15 persons in total. In his defence Edward Tipton said he could not have been in his right mind to have done what he did. He said was out of work having spent many years in the army in France, Belgium and India but received no pension. Tipton was sent to prison for a month with hard labour.
This notice from the organisers of the weekly Haydock Open Market in Clipsley Lane was published in the Reporter: "The proprietors of the market desire to inform the public of Haydock that there is no truth in the statement which has been made that the market was closing down, and they wish the public to know that the market will be open every Wednesday as usual. So roll up in your thousands and see for yourself the wonderful bargains on offer every week."
The increasing amount of heavy motor traffic on the mainly narrow streets of St Helens was leading to many accidents. On the 11th Haresfinch farmer William Gibson died in Providence Hospital a few hours after bring knocked down by a 14-seater charabanc in Cotham Street. Mr Gibson was well known for his charity work and it was thought that when wanting to board a tram on a dangerous corner in the narrow street, he had stepped off the footpath to cross the road without looking.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the trial of Ernest Thorley for the attempted murder of his little niece, a Sutton miner is in court for violently chastising his daughter and the lodger-out at the Sefton who cadged his train fare from the Bench.
We begin with John Dudley who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 5th charged with attempted murder and suicide. The 23-year-old glassmaker from Liverpool Road had slashed Mary Pilkington about the face with a razor after accusing his long-time girlfriend of seeing other men. The incident had taken place at Mary's home in Silkstone Street, near Boundary Road. The 21-year-old's face was cut from the temple down to her chin and another wound was made on the side of her neck. In total Mary needed 32 stitches at Providence Hospital. Dudley had also turned the razor on himself, cutting his throat – but not seriously.
When questioned by the police the man insisted that he had not attempted to murder Mary, saying: "I did it to mark her for fooling me". In court Mary gave evidence that their relationship had been a difficult one through Dudley's jealousies and threats. Five weeks ago when the couple had stopped seeing each other she had gone out with another man, which had infuriated Dudley. It was also stated that when Sgt. Valentine had bandaged the young man's self-inflicted wounds, Dudley had pointed to the razor and said: "That thing is no good, or I would have done it proper." John Dudley was committed for trial at the next Assizes.
On the 6th three young men named Thomas Glover, William Caldwell and Charles Brunt were each fined 10 shillings after being charged with committing a theft in Eccleston. The trio had stolen fifteen packets of cigarettes worth 7 shillings from a shop in Dunriding Lane.
In November 1922 the Labour members of St Helens Council had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain level had to take a pay cut – or be fired. Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so the well-paid bosses at the Town Hall should follow suit. Last month it was announced that all senior officials had agreed to accept a drop in their pay – with one exception. That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any cut at all.
William Andrew's salary was £1,500 per year and he was asked to accept a reduction to £1,368 – but stood his ground and was given three months' notice. That expired at the end of this month and during the evening of the 6th another effort was made to resolve the standoff. A committee meeting heard a compromise proposal in which the clerk's pension provision would be boosted to compensate for his reduced salary. In the end it was decided that legal advice would be taken before any decision was made.
On the 8th Ernest Thorley returned to court to face a charge of attempted murder. At 6.45pm ten days earlier he had walked into St Helens Police Station and bluntly said: "I have cut a child's throat at 36, Eldon Street. It will save a lot of trouble." Five-year-old Marion Rowe was the man's niece who he had been looking after while her parents visited the cinema.
The little girl was found to have a wound three inches long under her chin and a scarf had been tightly tied round her neck in an apparent attempt to suffocate her. In court Marion's father Harold Rowe explained that Thorley lived with him and his wife and on that evening had given them a ticket for the picture house, saying: "Go on, I will mind the girl; I am not going out." Lillian Rowe, Thorley's sister, said it was not an uncommon thing for Marion to be left alone with her uncle.
James Barber, who lived next door, said the child and several others had been playing in the backyard of his house when Thorley entered, placed his arm round the neck of his niece and took her out of the yard. The defendant declined to explain his action or say anything in his defence and was committed for trial at next week’s Liverpool Assizes.
In August 1922 one of them had almost skittled a policeman on point duty at the junction of Hall Street and Church Street. The officer told the court that the boys raced to get their papers into circulation first without paying any heed to the public. This week Charles Featherstone was in court charged with the negligent riding of a bicycle. The 16-year-old from Liverpool Road had crashed into Bessie Burrows on her bike at the junction of Hall Street and George Street.
The young woman had injured her shoulder and PC White told the court that boys like the defendant were a "terrible nuisance at the corner and it was a serious matter now. These boys rode bicycles without either bells or brakes." Charles was ordered to pay one shilling towards the court costs and told it would be very much safer if he walked in future. Fat chance of that, I would have thought!
A select committee was currently at work looking at the possibility of introducing a betting tax. As much gambling was illegal that would be a controversial move. Predictably the Church was horrified at the prospect and on the 8th the St Helens Reporter described Canon Baines' comments on the subject from earlier in the week. The Vicar of St Helens had said:
"You cannot deny that gambling is one of our national disgraces, and it is wrong that the national revenue should be replenished from a national disgrace." However, Canon Baines accepted it was difficult to define the point when gambling became wrong as, he said, it was hard to know just when innocence ended and evil began. The betting tax would be introduced in 1926 but abolished four years later.
The Reporter summed up a family dispute in Parr that had played out in court this week by saying: "The father blamed the daughter and the daughter blamed the father." PC Shepherd explained to the magistrates that he lived in Fleet Lane and had heard a disturbance outside his house. He described finding Elsie Mavis with her father in the centre of a crowd, "shouting and screaming and making use of filthy language". They both refused to go home and eventually he decided to take the father into custody.
While walking to the police station, PC Shepherd said he could hear Mrs Mavis screaming at the top of her voice while several hundred yards away. The father had previously been dealt with by the court for his part in the disturbance and had blamed his daughter for the trouble. Now it was her turn to be in the dock and she blamed her dad! And Elsie had support from her mother who said her husband was responsible for the row but Mrs Mavis was still bound over for six months.
This is what the Reporter had to say about another court case this week: "To Edward Tipton, of no fixed residence, must be awarded the championship in local window smashing, for on the 25th ult. he smashed twenty-two windows in his sister's house besides doing other damage with the flying bottles."
Martha Daniels was the sister of Tipton and said her brother had come into her house late on Friday night and, as he had been drinking, she had ordered him to leave. The man appeared to want to find somewhere to stay the night but she said she already had fourteen other people sharing two bedrooms and there was no room. Mrs Daniels added that her brother returned later that night but she would not open the door to him. So Tipton took his revenge out on the house using bottles as weapons.
And as well as smashing nearly two-dozen panes of glass, his missiles also broke a window frame and damaged a rocking chair, amongst other articles. Mrs Daniels said the family had to lock themselves in a bedroom in order to protect themselves. Upon being asked by the Bench how the inhabitants of the house all slept, Mrs Daniels replied: "The best way we can."
She explained that living in the house as well as herself was her husband and their seven children, along with two married daughters. They had two children each – so 15 persons in total. In his defence Edward Tipton said he could not have been in his right mind to have done what he did. He said was out of work having spent many years in the army in France, Belgium and India but received no pension. Tipton was sent to prison for a month with hard labour.
This notice from the organisers of the weekly Haydock Open Market in Clipsley Lane was published in the Reporter: "The proprietors of the market desire to inform the public of Haydock that there is no truth in the statement which has been made that the market was closing down, and they wish the public to know that the market will be open every Wednesday as usual. So roll up in your thousands and see for yourself the wonderful bargains on offer every week."
The increasing amount of heavy motor traffic on the mainly narrow streets of St Helens was leading to many accidents. On the 11th Haresfinch farmer William Gibson died in Providence Hospital a few hours after bring knocked down by a 14-seater charabanc in Cotham Street. Mr Gibson was well known for his charity work and it was thought that when wanting to board a tram on a dangerous corner in the narrow street, he had stepped off the footpath to cross the road without looking.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the trial of Ernest Thorley for the attempted murder of his little niece, a Sutton miner is in court for violently chastising his daughter and the lodger-out at the Sefton who cadged his train fare from the Bench.
This week's many stories include the Silkstone Street lovers' quarrel in which a woman is slashed in the face, an update on the man charged with attempting to murder his 5-year-old niece, the newsboys causing a nuisance on their brakeless bikes and the 15 people sharing two bedrooms in a house that had 22 panes of glass smashed.
We begin with John Dudley who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 5th charged with attempted murder and suicide.
The 23-year-old glassmaker from Liverpool Road had slashed Mary Pilkington about the face with a razor after accusing his long-time girlfriend of seeing other men.
The incident had taken place at Mary's home in Silkstone Street, near Boundary Road.
The 21-year-old's face was cut from the temple down to her chin and another wound was made on the side of her neck. In total Mary needed 32 stitches at Providence Hospital.
Dudley had also turned the razor on himself, cutting his throat – but not seriously.
When questioned by the police the man insisted that he had not attempted to murder Mary, saying: "I did it to mark her for fooling me".
In court Mary gave evidence that their relationship had been a difficult one through Dudley's jealousies and threats.
Five weeks ago when the couple had stopped seeing each other she had gone out with another man, which had infuriated Dudley.
It was also stated that when Sgt. Valentine had bandaged the young man's self-inflicted wounds, Dudley had pointed to the razor and said: "That thing is no good, or I would have done it proper."
John Dudley was committed for trial at the next Assizes.
On the 6th three young men named Thomas Glover, William Caldwell and Charles Brunt were each fined 10 shillings after being charged with committing a theft in Eccleston.
The trio had stolen fifteen packets of cigarettes worth 7 shillings from a shop in Dunriding Lane.
In November 1922 the Labour members of St Helens Council had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain level had to take a pay cut – or be fired.
Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so the well-paid bosses at the Town Hall should follow suit.
Last month it was announced that all senior officials had agreed to accept a drop in their pay – with one exception. That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any cut at all.
William Andrew's salary was £1,500 per year and he was asked to accept a reduction to £1,368 – but stood his ground and was given three months' notice.
That expired at the end of this month and during the evening of the 6th another effort was made to resolve the standoff.
A committee meeting heard a compromise proposal in which the clerk's pension provision would be boosted to compensate for his reduced salary.
In the end it was decided that legal advice would be taken before any decision was made.
On the 8th Ernest Thorley returned to court to face a charge of attempted murder. At 6.45pm ten days earlier he had walked into St Helens Police Station and bluntly said: "I have cut a child's throat at 36, Eldon Street. It will save a lot of trouble."
Five-year-old Marion Rowe was the man's niece who he had been looking after while her parents visited the cinema.
The little girl was found to have a wound three inches long under her chin and a scarf had been tightly tied round her neck in an apparent attempt to suffocate her.
In court Marion's father Harold Rowe explained that Thorley lived with him and his wife and on that evening had given them a ticket for the picture house, saying: "Go on, I will mind the girl; I am not going out."
Lillian Rowe, Thorley's sister, said it was not an uncommon thing for Marion to be left alone with her uncle.
James Barber, who lived next door, said the child and several others had been playing in the backyard of his house when Thorley entered, placed his arm round the neck of his niece and took her out of the yard.
The defendant declined to explain his action or say anything in his defence and was committed for trial at next week’s Liverpool Assizes.
The newsboys or paperboys of St Helens (shown above in Church Street) had traditionally come from very poor stock. Some were on the streets until late at night, badly attired and often without shoes, as they attempted to offload their stock of papers.
But now they had bikes and were zipping along the streets after collecting their Echos from the railway station!
In August 1922 one of them had almost skittled a policeman on point duty at the junction of Hall Street and Church Street.
The officer told the court that the boys raced to get their papers into circulation first without paying any heed to the public.
This week Charles Featherstone was in court charged with the negligent riding of a bicycle.
The 16-year-old from Liverpool Road had crashed into Bessie Burrows on her bike at the junction of Hall Street and George Street.
The young woman had injured her shoulder and PC White told the court that boys like the defendant were a "terrible nuisance at the corner and it was a serious matter now. These boys rode bicycles without either bells or brakes."
Charles was ordered to pay one shilling towards the court costs and told it would be very much safer if he walked in future. Fat chance of that, I would have thought!
A select committee was currently at work looking at the possibility of introducing a betting tax. As much gambling was illegal that would be a controversial move.
Predictably the Church was horrified at the prospect and on the 8th the St Helens Reporter described Canon Baines' comments on the subject from earlier in the week. The Vicar of St Helens had said:
"You cannot deny that gambling is one of our national disgraces, and it is wrong that the national revenue should be replenished from a national disgrace."
However, Canon Baines accepted it was difficult to define the point when gambling became wrong as, he said, it was hard to know just when innocence ended and evil began.
The betting tax would be introduced in 1926 but abolished four years later.
The Reporter summed up a family dispute in Parr that had played out in court this week by saying: "The father blamed the daughter and the daughter blamed the father."
PC Shepherd explained to the magistrates that he lived in Fleet Lane and had heard a disturbance outside his house.
He described finding Elsie Mavis with her father in the centre of a crowd, "shouting and screaming and making use of filthy language".
They both refused to go home and eventually he decided to take the father into custody.
While walking to the police station, PC Shepherd said he could hear Mrs Mavis screaming at the top of her voice while several hundred yards away.
The father had previously been dealt with by the court for his part in the disturbance and had blamed his daughter for the trouble. Now it was her turn to be in the dock and she blamed her dad!
And Elsie had support from her mother who said her husband was responsible for the row but Mrs Mavis was still bound over for six months.
This is what the Reporter had to say about another court case this week:
"To Edward Tipton, of no fixed residence, must be awarded the championship in local window smashing, for on the 25th ult. he smashed twenty-two windows in his sister's house besides doing other damage with the flying bottles."
Martha Daniels was the sister of Tipton and said her brother had come into her house late on Friday night and, as he had been drinking, she had ordered him to leave.
The man appeared to want to find somewhere to stay the night but she said she already had fourteen other people sharing two bedrooms and there was no room.
Mrs Daniels added that her brother returned later that night but she would not open the door to him. So Tipton took his revenge out on the house using bottles as weapons.
And as well as smashing nearly two-dozen panes of glass, his missiles also broke a window frame and damaged a rocking chair, amongst other articles.
Mrs Daniels said the family had to lock themselves in a bedroom in order to protect themselves.
Upon being asked by the Bench how the inhabitants of the house all slept, Mrs Daniels replied: "The best way we can."
She explained that living in the house as well as herself was her husband and their seven children, along with two married daughters. They had two children each – so 15 persons in total.
In his defence Edward Tipton said he could not have been in his right mind to have done what he did.
He said was out of work having spent many years in the army in France, Belgium and India but received no pension. Tipton was sent to prison for a month with hard labour.
This notice from the organisers of the weekly Haydock Open Market in Clipsley Lane was published in the Reporter:
"The proprietors of the market desire to inform the public of Haydock that there is no truth in the statement which has been made that the market was closing down, and they wish the public to know that the market will be open every Wednesday as usual. So roll up in your thousands and see for yourself the wonderful bargains on offer every week."
The increasing amount of heavy motor traffic on the mainly narrow streets of St Helens was leading to many accidents.
On the 11th Haresfinch farmer William Gibson died in Providence Hospital a few hours after bring knocked down by a 14-seater charabanc in Cotham Street.
Mr Gibson was well known for his charity work and it was thought that when wanting to board a tram on a dangerous corner in the narrow street, he had stepped off the footpath to cross the road without looking.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the trial of Ernest Thorley for the attempted murder of his little niece, a Sutton miner is in court for violently chastising his daughter and the lodger-out at the Sefton who cadged his train fare from the Bench.
We begin with John Dudley who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 5th charged with attempted murder and suicide.
The 23-year-old glassmaker from Liverpool Road had slashed Mary Pilkington about the face with a razor after accusing his long-time girlfriend of seeing other men.
The incident had taken place at Mary's home in Silkstone Street, near Boundary Road.
The 21-year-old's face was cut from the temple down to her chin and another wound was made on the side of her neck. In total Mary needed 32 stitches at Providence Hospital.
Dudley had also turned the razor on himself, cutting his throat – but not seriously.
When questioned by the police the man insisted that he had not attempted to murder Mary, saying: "I did it to mark her for fooling me".
In court Mary gave evidence that their relationship had been a difficult one through Dudley's jealousies and threats.
Five weeks ago when the couple had stopped seeing each other she had gone out with another man, which had infuriated Dudley.
It was also stated that when Sgt. Valentine had bandaged the young man's self-inflicted wounds, Dudley had pointed to the razor and said: "That thing is no good, or I would have done it proper."
John Dudley was committed for trial at the next Assizes.
On the 6th three young men named Thomas Glover, William Caldwell and Charles Brunt were each fined 10 shillings after being charged with committing a theft in Eccleston.
The trio had stolen fifteen packets of cigarettes worth 7 shillings from a shop in Dunriding Lane.
In November 1922 the Labour members of St Helens Council had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain level had to take a pay cut – or be fired.
Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so the well-paid bosses at the Town Hall should follow suit.
Last month it was announced that all senior officials had agreed to accept a drop in their pay – with one exception. That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any cut at all.
William Andrew's salary was £1,500 per year and he was asked to accept a reduction to £1,368 – but stood his ground and was given three months' notice.
That expired at the end of this month and during the evening of the 6th another effort was made to resolve the standoff.
A committee meeting heard a compromise proposal in which the clerk's pension provision would be boosted to compensate for his reduced salary.
In the end it was decided that legal advice would be taken before any decision was made.
On the 8th Ernest Thorley returned to court to face a charge of attempted murder. At 6.45pm ten days earlier he had walked into St Helens Police Station and bluntly said: "I have cut a child's throat at 36, Eldon Street. It will save a lot of trouble."
Five-year-old Marion Rowe was the man's niece who he had been looking after while her parents visited the cinema.
The little girl was found to have a wound three inches long under her chin and a scarf had been tightly tied round her neck in an apparent attempt to suffocate her.
In court Marion's father Harold Rowe explained that Thorley lived with him and his wife and on that evening had given them a ticket for the picture house, saying: "Go on, I will mind the girl; I am not going out."
Lillian Rowe, Thorley's sister, said it was not an uncommon thing for Marion to be left alone with her uncle.
James Barber, who lived next door, said the child and several others had been playing in the backyard of his house when Thorley entered, placed his arm round the neck of his niece and took her out of the yard.
The defendant declined to explain his action or say anything in his defence and was committed for trial at next week’s Liverpool Assizes.
But now they had bikes and were zipping along the streets after collecting their Echos from the railway station!
In August 1922 one of them had almost skittled a policeman on point duty at the junction of Hall Street and Church Street.
The officer told the court that the boys raced to get their papers into circulation first without paying any heed to the public.
This week Charles Featherstone was in court charged with the negligent riding of a bicycle.
The 16-year-old from Liverpool Road had crashed into Bessie Burrows on her bike at the junction of Hall Street and George Street.
The young woman had injured her shoulder and PC White told the court that boys like the defendant were a "terrible nuisance at the corner and it was a serious matter now. These boys rode bicycles without either bells or brakes."
Charles was ordered to pay one shilling towards the court costs and told it would be very much safer if he walked in future. Fat chance of that, I would have thought!
A select committee was currently at work looking at the possibility of introducing a betting tax. As much gambling was illegal that would be a controversial move.
Predictably the Church was horrified at the prospect and on the 8th the St Helens Reporter described Canon Baines' comments on the subject from earlier in the week. The Vicar of St Helens had said:
"You cannot deny that gambling is one of our national disgraces, and it is wrong that the national revenue should be replenished from a national disgrace."
However, Canon Baines accepted it was difficult to define the point when gambling became wrong as, he said, it was hard to know just when innocence ended and evil began.
The betting tax would be introduced in 1926 but abolished four years later.
The Reporter summed up a family dispute in Parr that had played out in court this week by saying: "The father blamed the daughter and the daughter blamed the father."
PC Shepherd explained to the magistrates that he lived in Fleet Lane and had heard a disturbance outside his house.
He described finding Elsie Mavis with her father in the centre of a crowd, "shouting and screaming and making use of filthy language".
They both refused to go home and eventually he decided to take the father into custody.
While walking to the police station, PC Shepherd said he could hear Mrs Mavis screaming at the top of her voice while several hundred yards away.
The father had previously been dealt with by the court for his part in the disturbance and had blamed his daughter for the trouble. Now it was her turn to be in the dock and she blamed her dad!
And Elsie had support from her mother who said her husband was responsible for the row but Mrs Mavis was still bound over for six months.
This is what the Reporter had to say about another court case this week:
"To Edward Tipton, of no fixed residence, must be awarded the championship in local window smashing, for on the 25th ult. he smashed twenty-two windows in his sister's house besides doing other damage with the flying bottles."
Martha Daniels was the sister of Tipton and said her brother had come into her house late on Friday night and, as he had been drinking, she had ordered him to leave.
The man appeared to want to find somewhere to stay the night but she said she already had fourteen other people sharing two bedrooms and there was no room.
Mrs Daniels added that her brother returned later that night but she would not open the door to him. So Tipton took his revenge out on the house using bottles as weapons.
And as well as smashing nearly two-dozen panes of glass, his missiles also broke a window frame and damaged a rocking chair, amongst other articles.
Mrs Daniels said the family had to lock themselves in a bedroom in order to protect themselves.
Upon being asked by the Bench how the inhabitants of the house all slept, Mrs Daniels replied: "The best way we can."
She explained that living in the house as well as herself was her husband and their seven children, along with two married daughters. They had two children each – so 15 persons in total.
In his defence Edward Tipton said he could not have been in his right mind to have done what he did.
He said was out of work having spent many years in the army in France, Belgium and India but received no pension. Tipton was sent to prison for a month with hard labour.
This notice from the organisers of the weekly Haydock Open Market in Clipsley Lane was published in the Reporter:
"The proprietors of the market desire to inform the public of Haydock that there is no truth in the statement which has been made that the market was closing down, and they wish the public to know that the market will be open every Wednesday as usual. So roll up in your thousands and see for yourself the wonderful bargains on offer every week."
The increasing amount of heavy motor traffic on the mainly narrow streets of St Helens was leading to many accidents.
On the 11th Haresfinch farmer William Gibson died in Providence Hospital a few hours after bring knocked down by a 14-seater charabanc in Cotham Street.
Mr Gibson was well known for his charity work and it was thought that when wanting to board a tram on a dangerous corner in the narrow street, he had stepped off the footpath to cross the road without looking.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the trial of Ernest Thorley for the attempted murder of his little niece, a Sutton miner is in court for violently chastising his daughter and the lodger-out at the Sefton who cadged his train fare from the Bench.