IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (6th - 12th May 1919)
This week's stories include the St Helens Fresh Air Fund, Annie Murphy makes her 70th court appearance, plans for a three-day peace celebration in St Helens, the Lowe House Carnival, 'The Sunday Fairy' children's magazine, the gift of a silver mace to the Corporation and an ex-soldier from Gerards Bridge who'd been shot through the lungs is charged with wife neglect.
We begin on the 6th when the Tuesday Reporter commented on a huge increase in the issuing of vehicle registrations and driving licences since the wartime motoring restrictions had been removed: "The public are evidently fully alive to the opportunities that now present themselves for utilising motor-cars for pleasure or business purposes, and are keen to take advantage of them."
Poor old Annie Murphy has been regularly featured in these weekly articles over the past three years and on the 6th made her 70th court appearance. This time Annie was charged with "wandering abroad" and "lodging in the open air" in Corporation Street.
PC Turner gave evidence that he had found the old woman on one of the seats in Victoria Square around half past midnight. The officer asked her what she was doing there and Annie replied: "I had nowhere to go, and no money for lodgings; you can lock me up." So he did!
The magistrates gave her another 28 days in prison where at least she would be fed and have somewhere to sleep. Then she would be released and the vicious circle of sleeping rough and imprisonment would no doubt resume.
Annie had no need for troubling the St Helens Fresh Air Association. Apart from periods of incarceration, she already received plenty of "God's fresh air" – as she once called it in court – as the old woman tramped around the district.
However there were many children who had dire need of getting away from the smoke and grime of the town and so the Fresh Air Association had been founded in 1904 with several purposes.
One was to take poor children on summer outings into the country and during the winter months entertainment was provided for them in St Helens. Sickly children would also spend three weeks in a Southport sanatorium to help their recovery and during the war all but the latter work had been suspended.
On the 6th the annual meeting of the fund was held at the Town Hall in which it was stated that the committee's intention was to resume taking up to 1,500 children out on summer trips each year. Whether that happened would, however, depend on whether sufficient funds could be raised. The Association's Secretary also said the time spent recuperating in Southport had proven to be highly beneficial:
"Children who had been suffering from some infection or general debility had gone to the sanatorium for three and sometimes more weeks, and had come back quite renewed in health and strength." During 1918 forty-eight children had been taken from St Helens to Southport Sanatorium. It would have been more but the flu epidemic had prevented some from going.
On the 7th at a Town Council meeting the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Henry Bates, outlined plans to celebrate peace in the town. A committee was being formed to thrash out the details but the provisional plans were for a three-day festival.
The first day would be for the "old folk, the school children, and the inhabitants generally". The second day would feature a military pageant and procession and the final day would be devoted to sport in the parks. The organisations connected with discharged soldiers would be heavily involved with the organisation of the celebrations.
The Town Council also accepted a mace at their meeting that the Reporter described as a "beautiful example of artistic craftsmanship". The solid silver mace is shown above as pictured in The Graphic magazine of May 24th 1919. It had been donated to the town by Alderman James Crooks, who in 1900 was described as the largest dealer in round timber in the country.
His sawmill and timber yard were situated in Shaw Street and his home was in Eccleston Park, where every year he hosted a "cripples treat". The head of the mace features the arms of the borough and it is still used today by the largely ceremonial mayors of St Helens.
The Lowe House Carnival was advertised in the Reporter on the 9th in which patrons were invited to "come in your thousands and support a good cause". Just how people were expected to organise themselves into thousands wasn't, however, explained! The event held on the Volunteer Field in Lowe House Grounds was in aid of the proposed new church, with "Mitchell's array of round-abouts" being the top attraction.
The Reporter also featured an advert for a new magazine called 'The Sunday Fairy', which was described as a "grand new colouring picture & story paper". The cute magazine was actually published weekly on Thursdays – not Sundays as it was illegal in places like St Helens to sell papers on the Sabbath.
The intention was for parents to buy it in advance to amuse their children on Sundays when there was not much for little ones to do. The stories included adventure and fairy stories and free with the first edition was a "beautiful coloured model of the fairies' castle for children to cut out and make."
Joseph Leonard from Stanley Street in Gerards Bridge appeared in the Police Court on the 9th after being summoned for wife neglect. The man said he was unable to work after being shot through the lungs during the war and losing two ribs.
A probation officer applied for the case to be adjourned for a month. He said the couple had talked things over and Leonard had promised to give his wife half his 19/6 weekly pension and obtain a home for her. The officer said Mary Leonard had agreed to those terms but then her mother had got involved and persuaded her to reject them!
Many people were not well educated and not aware of their rights and entitlements. Joseph Leonard said he had not been receiving any treatment for his disability and 19/6 a week sounded low, with most disabled ex-soldiers receiving pensions of around 30 shillings.
So the Magistrates Clerk told Leonard to go to the War Pensions Office in St Helens and demand treatment and the full amount of allowance owed to him. The magistrates followed the recommendation of the probation officer and adjourned the case for a month.
The Times reported on the 10th that a cat and a dog in Haydock were suspected of having rabies. The outbreak had begun last month in the south of England and was now spreading rapidly throughout the country. A mare that had attacked some cows in Wales was now confirmed as having been rabid.
However three days later the St Helens Reporter said the Haydock story was untrue. The fear of rabies often led to false scares when animals behaved in excitable ways. The only known cases of rabid dogs in the St Helens district occurred in Sutton in 1876 and in Rainhill in 1895. John Campbell of Herbert Street died from rabies in 1892 but he was bitten while working on the railway in Preston.
Cinemas were not licensed for Sunday screenings but permission could be obtained for charity concerts. So the Bridge Street Picturedrome hosted a 'Grand Sacred Concert' on the 11th in aid of the Mayor's St Helens Heroes Fund.
In the Police Court on the following day Elizabeth Deane sought to recover maintenance arrears from her husband from whom she'd been separated for several years. William Deane – described as a contractor from Fleet Lane – had missed 18 weeks payments totalling £4 12 shillings. This is how the Reporter described the case:
"The prisoner when asked to plead, commenced to scratch his head strenuously, and cast a fierce look at his wife, who by that time had taken her position in the witness box. After a fairly long interval he managed to say, "I don't think I owe her anything….I don't know why I should pay this. She ran away from me, and she took money out of a drawer and got a black eye for it. There is not a man here, but who would have [not] done the same as I did. One Sunday afternoon I ran her out of the back yard."
At that point he was told to stop talking by the magistrates clerk. The Bench ordered Deane to pay the full amount and he was reported as having left the courtroom mumbling to himself.
Another woman unhappy with her husband was the wife of Edward Appleton of Duncan Street (off Borough Road). The pipemaker appeared at the same hearing along with labourer John Muldoon from Liverpool Street, with both men charged with gaming with coins. The pair had been the unlucky ones, arrested out of a group of forty men who had been playing pitch and toss under a railway bridge off Nuttall Street in Ravenhead.
PC William Murrant had been watching them all afternoon, initially playing football and then gambling under the bridge after it started to rain. Edward Appleton was adamant that he had been at home at four o’clock when the police raid took place and called his wife as his witness. That was his big mistake!
Mrs Appleton told the court that when she'd left the house at 2:30pm on that Sunday afternoon, her husband had been lying on the couch. Upon returning home at just after 4pm she found Edward had gone out and she'd not seen him again until the court hearing.
Mrs Appleton then added: "If your Worships find him guilty I hope you will punish him as much as you can."! Both men were fined 40 shillings or if in default 28 days in prison. No doubt there was also one heck of a row afterwards at the home of the Appletons!
For a week from the 12th the main attraction at the Hippodrome Theatre was Hickey's Comedy Circus. Their description said: "Introducing beautiful small performing ponies, the revolving table, and the wonderful unrideable mule Obe."
Also on the bill were: Billy & Bert ("The Lancashire lad and the Johnny"); Daisy Dorraine ("Male impersonator"); Auber ("Musical monarch"); Victoria Campbell ("In old time songs") and Ex-Gunner Alfred Jepson ("The golden baritone in his refined entertainment at the piano").
Next week's stories will include the lions at the Lowe House Carnival, the Whiston boys who played with fire, women's football in St Helens, the ex-soldier wearing a filthy uniform in Church Street, St Helens Corporation's expensive use of horses and the Cooper Street parent who complained about the prosecution of boys.
We begin on the 6th when the Tuesday Reporter commented on a huge increase in the issuing of vehicle registrations and driving licences since the wartime motoring restrictions had been removed: "The public are evidently fully alive to the opportunities that now present themselves for utilising motor-cars for pleasure or business purposes, and are keen to take advantage of them."
Poor old Annie Murphy has been regularly featured in these weekly articles over the past three years and on the 6th made her 70th court appearance. This time Annie was charged with "wandering abroad" and "lodging in the open air" in Corporation Street.
PC Turner gave evidence that he had found the old woman on one of the seats in Victoria Square around half past midnight. The officer asked her what she was doing there and Annie replied: "I had nowhere to go, and no money for lodgings; you can lock me up." So he did!
The magistrates gave her another 28 days in prison where at least she would be fed and have somewhere to sleep. Then she would be released and the vicious circle of sleeping rough and imprisonment would no doubt resume.
Annie had no need for troubling the St Helens Fresh Air Association. Apart from periods of incarceration, she already received plenty of "God's fresh air" – as she once called it in court – as the old woman tramped around the district.
However there were many children who had dire need of getting away from the smoke and grime of the town and so the Fresh Air Association had been founded in 1904 with several purposes.
One was to take poor children on summer outings into the country and during the winter months entertainment was provided for them in St Helens. Sickly children would also spend three weeks in a Southport sanatorium to help their recovery and during the war all but the latter work had been suspended.
On the 6th the annual meeting of the fund was held at the Town Hall in which it was stated that the committee's intention was to resume taking up to 1,500 children out on summer trips each year. Whether that happened would, however, depend on whether sufficient funds could be raised. The Association's Secretary also said the time spent recuperating in Southport had proven to be highly beneficial:
"Children who had been suffering from some infection or general debility had gone to the sanatorium for three and sometimes more weeks, and had come back quite renewed in health and strength." During 1918 forty-eight children had been taken from St Helens to Southport Sanatorium. It would have been more but the flu epidemic had prevented some from going.
On the 7th at a Town Council meeting the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Henry Bates, outlined plans to celebrate peace in the town. A committee was being formed to thrash out the details but the provisional plans were for a three-day festival.
The first day would be for the "old folk, the school children, and the inhabitants generally". The second day would feature a military pageant and procession and the final day would be devoted to sport in the parks. The organisations connected with discharged soldiers would be heavily involved with the organisation of the celebrations.
His sawmill and timber yard were situated in Shaw Street and his home was in Eccleston Park, where every year he hosted a "cripples treat". The head of the mace features the arms of the borough and it is still used today by the largely ceremonial mayors of St Helens.
Alderman James Crooks is pictured on the far left with the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Henry Bates, third from left
Alderman James Crooks is pictured on the far left of this photograph
Alderman James Crooks is pictured far left
The Reporter also featured an advert for a new magazine called 'The Sunday Fairy', which was described as a "grand new colouring picture & story paper". The cute magazine was actually published weekly on Thursdays – not Sundays as it was illegal in places like St Helens to sell papers on the Sabbath.
The intention was for parents to buy it in advance to amuse their children on Sundays when there was not much for little ones to do. The stories included adventure and fairy stories and free with the first edition was a "beautiful coloured model of the fairies' castle for children to cut out and make."
Joseph Leonard from Stanley Street in Gerards Bridge appeared in the Police Court on the 9th after being summoned for wife neglect. The man said he was unable to work after being shot through the lungs during the war and losing two ribs.
A probation officer applied for the case to be adjourned for a month. He said the couple had talked things over and Leonard had promised to give his wife half his 19/6 weekly pension and obtain a home for her. The officer said Mary Leonard had agreed to those terms but then her mother had got involved and persuaded her to reject them!
Many people were not well educated and not aware of their rights and entitlements. Joseph Leonard said he had not been receiving any treatment for his disability and 19/6 a week sounded low, with most disabled ex-soldiers receiving pensions of around 30 shillings.
So the Magistrates Clerk told Leonard to go to the War Pensions Office in St Helens and demand treatment and the full amount of allowance owed to him. The magistrates followed the recommendation of the probation officer and adjourned the case for a month.
The Times reported on the 10th that a cat and a dog in Haydock were suspected of having rabies. The outbreak had begun last month in the south of England and was now spreading rapidly throughout the country. A mare that had attacked some cows in Wales was now confirmed as having been rabid.
However three days later the St Helens Reporter said the Haydock story was untrue. The fear of rabies often led to false scares when animals behaved in excitable ways. The only known cases of rabid dogs in the St Helens district occurred in Sutton in 1876 and in Rainhill in 1895. John Campbell of Herbert Street died from rabies in 1892 but he was bitten while working on the railway in Preston.
Cinemas were not licensed for Sunday screenings but permission could be obtained for charity concerts. So the Bridge Street Picturedrome hosted a 'Grand Sacred Concert' on the 11th in aid of the Mayor's St Helens Heroes Fund.
In the Police Court on the following day Elizabeth Deane sought to recover maintenance arrears from her husband from whom she'd been separated for several years. William Deane – described as a contractor from Fleet Lane – had missed 18 weeks payments totalling £4 12 shillings. This is how the Reporter described the case:
"The prisoner when asked to plead, commenced to scratch his head strenuously, and cast a fierce look at his wife, who by that time had taken her position in the witness box. After a fairly long interval he managed to say, "I don't think I owe her anything….I don't know why I should pay this. She ran away from me, and she took money out of a drawer and got a black eye for it. There is not a man here, but who would have [not] done the same as I did. One Sunday afternoon I ran her out of the back yard."
At that point he was told to stop talking by the magistrates clerk. The Bench ordered Deane to pay the full amount and he was reported as having left the courtroom mumbling to himself.
Another woman unhappy with her husband was the wife of Edward Appleton of Duncan Street (off Borough Road). The pipemaker appeared at the same hearing along with labourer John Muldoon from Liverpool Street, with both men charged with gaming with coins. The pair had been the unlucky ones, arrested out of a group of forty men who had been playing pitch and toss under a railway bridge off Nuttall Street in Ravenhead.
PC William Murrant had been watching them all afternoon, initially playing football and then gambling under the bridge after it started to rain. Edward Appleton was adamant that he had been at home at four o’clock when the police raid took place and called his wife as his witness. That was his big mistake!
Mrs Appleton told the court that when she'd left the house at 2:30pm on that Sunday afternoon, her husband had been lying on the couch. Upon returning home at just after 4pm she found Edward had gone out and she'd not seen him again until the court hearing.
Mrs Appleton then added: "If your Worships find him guilty I hope you will punish him as much as you can."! Both men were fined 40 shillings or if in default 28 days in prison. No doubt there was also one heck of a row afterwards at the home of the Appletons!
For a week from the 12th the main attraction at the Hippodrome Theatre was Hickey's Comedy Circus. Their description said: "Introducing beautiful small performing ponies, the revolving table, and the wonderful unrideable mule Obe."
Also on the bill were: Billy & Bert ("The Lancashire lad and the Johnny"); Daisy Dorraine ("Male impersonator"); Auber ("Musical monarch"); Victoria Campbell ("In old time songs") and Ex-Gunner Alfred Jepson ("The golden baritone in his refined entertainment at the piano").
Next week's stories will include the lions at the Lowe House Carnival, the Whiston boys who played with fire, women's football in St Helens, the ex-soldier wearing a filthy uniform in Church Street, St Helens Corporation's expensive use of horses and the Cooper Street parent who complained about the prosecution of boys.