IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 7 - 13 SEPTEMBER 1926
This week's many stories include the shopbreaking trio of boy thieves, the strikebreaking stoned miners at Southport Colliery in Parr, the disgraceful condition of some council houses only weeks after being occupied, the Haydock drinking den and the Home Secretary criticises MP Joe Tinker's fiery speeches to miners in St Helens.
We begin on the 7th when the Liverpool Echo reported that St Helens had obtained power from the Home Secretary to grant complete protection to all wild birds in the borough. In 1922 Liverpool had become the first county borough in England to have such powers, which meant that those persons that killed birds could be fined.
A trio of shopbreaking boys, one as young as eight, were brought before St Helens magistrates on the 7th. The police had nabbed them while trying to enter Nevin's warehouse that was situated near the marketplace. The boys had been caught while acrobatically climbing up a wire that acted as a stay for a telephone pole. Supt Dunn told the court that the police had been receiving complaints of thefts from shops and market stalls for some time.
They had suspected that young boys were responsible, as lads had been seen in the passage behind the Arthur Street police station. When challenged, the boys had run off but they left behind some items that had been stolen from the marketplace. The 8-year-old had also taken a wallet containing £26 out of a market trader's coat. The boy's father had discovered what he had done and had taken his son to the police station to claim that the lad had found the wallet and money.
But the stallholder insisted that it had been removed from his coat pocket and £10 of the cash was missing. The boy subsequently admitted taking the wallet and showing it to a boy aged 6 and he said they had treated themselves to "fish and chips, a flashlight and trumpets". Just where the trumpets fitted in, I'm not quite sure! The 8-year-old's case was deferred while consideration was given to sending him to an industrial school. But, eventually, it was decided to give the lad another chance and he was bound over.
Fanny Price of Glover Street admitted to the magistrates that she had received a quantity of butter and sugar that her 14-year-old son had stolen from Nevin's. She also admitted receiving a large amount of cigarettes pinched from Stringfellow's shop in Ormskirk Street. The Chairman of the Bench said it was very difficult to decide what to do with children who were so young.
He said Fanny Price was very much at fault for accepting the things that her son had brought home. The Chairman added that if she did not have such a large family to look after, the Bench would have sent her to prison. Instead Mrs Price was fined £2 or must serve 28 days in prison, while the three boys were put on probation for three years.
In another case eight men and women appeared in court to face charges of intimidating mineworkers at local collieries. Joseph Yates and Joseph Birchall had been undertaking safety work at the Southport Colliery in Parr, such as preventing the pit from being flooded.
Although the unions had originally allowed important safety work to continue during the strike, a dispute had occurred in August and permission had been rescinded. However, some of the safety men had defied the unions and continued working. They were also now thought to be digging coal, as well as undertaking vital safety operations, which was increasing suspicion.
The court was told that Yates and Birchall had been returning home from their work when three men throwing granite stones had chased after them. The pair said they needed to take refuge in a farm and wait for a police escort. Then when they turned out into the road, the crowd that had formed had stoned them continually all the way to their homes.
Joseph O’Neill from Fry Street was the first case to be heard. But the four magistrates said they could not agree on the charge against the man, as identification was disputed. So his case, as well as a number of others, was adjourned for another Bench to hear.
Joe Tinker was the Labour MP for Leigh and he had also been a St Helens councillor and miners' agent for the town and, some would say, was a firebrand activist. On the 8th Tinker gave a speech to a large group of striking miners on the waste ground near St Helens Hospital. Mr Tinker referred to comments that the Home Secretary had made about him in Parliament during the previous week.
Sir William Joynson-Hicks had stated that Tinker's speeches in St Helens had brought him "near to the grip of the law". Tinker had blamed the St Helens Chief Constable, Arthur Ellerington, for reporting his fiery speeches to the Home Secretary. But Tinker told the crowd that the managers of Sutton Manor Colliery and Ashtons Green Colliery had since telephoned him to admit that they had been the ones who had reported him to the Home Secretary. That had been for the purpose, they had told him, "of getting hold of you".
On the 8th at a meeting of the St Helens Housing Committee, Cllr Ellen McCormick criticised the "disgraceful condition" of some council houses only weeks after they had been occupied. "When the committee did its best to give people good houses," she said, "the least they could do was to keep them clean."
Council houses were still a new concept in St Helens, having begun in the early 1920s. And St Helens Corporation was learning that being a landlord was far from being an easy business. But despite the many new builds, the lengthy housing waiting list was not, apparently, getting any shorter.
Cllr McCormick told the meeting that she had received many letters on the need for new homes and recently in her front garden there had been five perambulators. By that she appeared to mean that five lots of mothers had left their prams outside her house while they lobbied her inside for council accommodation.
John Platt from Nelson Street appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 9th to face a charge of neglecting to maintain his wife. Hilda Platt of Peckers Hill Road told the court that they had been married three years and had a child aged 18 months.
She said she could no longer live with her husband, explaining: "If I ask him what he is doing with his money, or where he has been, he asks me what it has to do with me." She alleged that he spent his money on drink and gambling. The case was adjourned for a month to see if the couple's relationship improved.
Also on the 9th, the magistrates at Newton-le-Willows struck off the register what was described as Haydock Working Men's Club No. 3. The club's registered premises was at 258 Millfield Lane in Haydock but police watching the house found the only people that ever went into it were members of Charles Hazeldine's own family.
He was officially the club steward and was fined 20 shillings for selling intoxicating liquors without having a licence. The prosecution case was that the house had been a blind and a nearby hut was being used as an illegal drinking den. When the police entered the house they found no evidence of it being used as a club – but the hut had contained casks of beer.
It wasn't until the 1920s that advertising features devoted to multiple retailers or service providers with some common connection really began in St Helens' newspapers. It could be their location (e.g. Church Street) or product (e.g. wireless sets) that were the common factor. But the feature that appeared in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th had a more tenuous connection between the advertisers.
It was called "On With The Dance" and brought together fashion retailers, shoe sellers and gramophone shops. Record retailer Mary Peters of Hall Street was saying in her advert: "Why not dance at home?" W.G. Dixon's Taxis of Bickerstaffe Street (who were also funeral directors) wrote: "Don't trust the weather trust me – the dance will be more enjoyable if you go and return in comfort."
The Broadway Café in Church Street was promoting its dance catering. Lockhart's hairdressers of Hardshaw Street and George Street were advertising their "dance coiffures", saying, "a woman's hair has rightly been sung as her crowning glory." Tyrers were then in Liverpool Road and said in their ad "all you require for the dance can be bought at Tyrers". They claimed to be the largest clothing and outfitting business in St Helens.
Of course, live music is also needed for a dance and there were plenty of jazz and dance bands in St Helens in the 1920s. But only Brough and Egan's Orchestra was advertising in the Reporter and they could be contacted at addresses in North Road or Nutgrove Road. They wrote: "Bands supplied for dances, parties, concerts, receptions etc. – any number of players."
M. A. Taylor of Cotham Street said: "Don't forget to pay a visit before the dance for your evening gown and day toilet." And finally in the advertorial, the Misses Chatterton of Westfield Street were offering ladies fancy goods "suitable for the dance and evening wear".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the outcropping coal thieves that were brought to book, the foundation stone is laid for the new church of St Teresa in Newtown and the Croppers Hill street that had 200 people involved in an uproar.
We begin on the 7th when the Liverpool Echo reported that St Helens had obtained power from the Home Secretary to grant complete protection to all wild birds in the borough. In 1922 Liverpool had become the first county borough in England to have such powers, which meant that those persons that killed birds could be fined.
A trio of shopbreaking boys, one as young as eight, were brought before St Helens magistrates on the 7th. The police had nabbed them while trying to enter Nevin's warehouse that was situated near the marketplace. The boys had been caught while acrobatically climbing up a wire that acted as a stay for a telephone pole. Supt Dunn told the court that the police had been receiving complaints of thefts from shops and market stalls for some time.
They had suspected that young boys were responsible, as lads had been seen in the passage behind the Arthur Street police station. When challenged, the boys had run off but they left behind some items that had been stolen from the marketplace. The 8-year-old had also taken a wallet containing £26 out of a market trader's coat. The boy's father had discovered what he had done and had taken his son to the police station to claim that the lad had found the wallet and money.
But the stallholder insisted that it had been removed from his coat pocket and £10 of the cash was missing. The boy subsequently admitted taking the wallet and showing it to a boy aged 6 and he said they had treated themselves to "fish and chips, a flashlight and trumpets". Just where the trumpets fitted in, I'm not quite sure! The 8-year-old's case was deferred while consideration was given to sending him to an industrial school. But, eventually, it was decided to give the lad another chance and he was bound over.
Fanny Price of Glover Street admitted to the magistrates that she had received a quantity of butter and sugar that her 14-year-old son had stolen from Nevin's. She also admitted receiving a large amount of cigarettes pinched from Stringfellow's shop in Ormskirk Street. The Chairman of the Bench said it was very difficult to decide what to do with children who were so young.
He said Fanny Price was very much at fault for accepting the things that her son had brought home. The Chairman added that if she did not have such a large family to look after, the Bench would have sent her to prison. Instead Mrs Price was fined £2 or must serve 28 days in prison, while the three boys were put on probation for three years.
In another case eight men and women appeared in court to face charges of intimidating mineworkers at local collieries. Joseph Yates and Joseph Birchall had been undertaking safety work at the Southport Colliery in Parr, such as preventing the pit from being flooded.
Although the unions had originally allowed important safety work to continue during the strike, a dispute had occurred in August and permission had been rescinded. However, some of the safety men had defied the unions and continued working. They were also now thought to be digging coal, as well as undertaking vital safety operations, which was increasing suspicion.
The court was told that Yates and Birchall had been returning home from their work when three men throwing granite stones had chased after them. The pair said they needed to take refuge in a farm and wait for a police escort. Then when they turned out into the road, the crowd that had formed had stoned them continually all the way to their homes.
Joseph O’Neill from Fry Street was the first case to be heard. But the four magistrates said they could not agree on the charge against the man, as identification was disputed. So his case, as well as a number of others, was adjourned for another Bench to hear.
Joe Tinker was the Labour MP for Leigh and he had also been a St Helens councillor and miners' agent for the town and, some would say, was a firebrand activist. On the 8th Tinker gave a speech to a large group of striking miners on the waste ground near St Helens Hospital. Mr Tinker referred to comments that the Home Secretary had made about him in Parliament during the previous week.
Sir William Joynson-Hicks had stated that Tinker's speeches in St Helens had brought him "near to the grip of the law". Tinker had blamed the St Helens Chief Constable, Arthur Ellerington, for reporting his fiery speeches to the Home Secretary. But Tinker told the crowd that the managers of Sutton Manor Colliery and Ashtons Green Colliery had since telephoned him to admit that they had been the ones who had reported him to the Home Secretary. That had been for the purpose, they had told him, "of getting hold of you".
On the 8th at a meeting of the St Helens Housing Committee, Cllr Ellen McCormick criticised the "disgraceful condition" of some council houses only weeks after they had been occupied. "When the committee did its best to give people good houses," she said, "the least they could do was to keep them clean."
Council houses were still a new concept in St Helens, having begun in the early 1920s. And St Helens Corporation was learning that being a landlord was far from being an easy business. But despite the many new builds, the lengthy housing waiting list was not, apparently, getting any shorter.
Cllr McCormick told the meeting that she had received many letters on the need for new homes and recently in her front garden there had been five perambulators. By that she appeared to mean that five lots of mothers had left their prams outside her house while they lobbied her inside for council accommodation.
John Platt from Nelson Street appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 9th to face a charge of neglecting to maintain his wife. Hilda Platt of Peckers Hill Road told the court that they had been married three years and had a child aged 18 months.
She said she could no longer live with her husband, explaining: "If I ask him what he is doing with his money, or where he has been, he asks me what it has to do with me." She alleged that he spent his money on drink and gambling. The case was adjourned for a month to see if the couple's relationship improved.
Also on the 9th, the magistrates at Newton-le-Willows struck off the register what was described as Haydock Working Men's Club No. 3. The club's registered premises was at 258 Millfield Lane in Haydock but police watching the house found the only people that ever went into it were members of Charles Hazeldine's own family.
He was officially the club steward and was fined 20 shillings for selling intoxicating liquors without having a licence. The prosecution case was that the house had been a blind and a nearby hut was being used as an illegal drinking den. When the police entered the house they found no evidence of it being used as a club – but the hut had contained casks of beer.
It wasn't until the 1920s that advertising features devoted to multiple retailers or service providers with some common connection really began in St Helens' newspapers. It could be their location (e.g. Church Street) or product (e.g. wireless sets) that were the common factor. But the feature that appeared in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th had a more tenuous connection between the advertisers.
The Broadway Café in Church Street was promoting its dance catering. Lockhart's hairdressers of Hardshaw Street and George Street were advertising their "dance coiffures", saying, "a woman's hair has rightly been sung as her crowning glory." Tyrers were then in Liverpool Road and said in their ad "all you require for the dance can be bought at Tyrers". They claimed to be the largest clothing and outfitting business in St Helens.
Of course, live music is also needed for a dance and there were plenty of jazz and dance bands in St Helens in the 1920s. But only Brough and Egan's Orchestra was advertising in the Reporter and they could be contacted at addresses in North Road or Nutgrove Road. They wrote: "Bands supplied for dances, parties, concerts, receptions etc. – any number of players."
M. A. Taylor of Cotham Street said: "Don't forget to pay a visit before the dance for your evening gown and day toilet." And finally in the advertorial, the Misses Chatterton of Westfield Street were offering ladies fancy goods "suitable for the dance and evening wear".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the outcropping coal thieves that were brought to book, the foundation stone is laid for the new church of St Teresa in Newtown and the Croppers Hill street that had 200 people involved in an uproar.
This week's many stories include the shopbreaking trio of boy thieves, the strikebreaking stoned miners at Southport Colliery in Parr, the disgraceful condition of some council houses only weeks after being occupied, the Haydock drinking den and the Home Secretary criticises MP Joe Tinker's fiery speeches to miners in St Helens.
We begin on the 7th when the Liverpool Echo reported that St Helens had obtained power from the Home Secretary to grant complete protection to all wild birds in the borough.
In 1922 Liverpool had become the first county borough in England to have such powers, which meant that those persons that killed birds could be fined.
A trio of shopbreaking boys, one as young as eight, were brought before St Helens magistrates on the 7th.
The police had nabbed them while trying to enter Nevin's warehouse that was situated near the marketplace.
The boys had been caught while acrobatically climbing up a wire that acted as a stay for a telephone pole.
Supt Dunn told the court that the police had been receiving complaints of thefts from shops and market stalls for some time.
They had suspected that young boys were responsible, as lads had been seen in the passage behind the Arthur Street police station.
When challenged, the boys had run off but they left behind some items that had been stolen from the marketplace.
The 8-year-old had also taken a wallet containing £26 out of a market trader's coat.
The boy's father had discovered what he had done and had taken his son to the police station to claim that the lad had found the wallet and money.
But the stallholder insisted that it had been removed from his coat pocket and £10 of the cash was missing.
The boy subsequently admitted taking the wallet and showing it to a boy aged 6 and he said they had treated themselves to "fish and chips, a flashlight and trumpets".
Just where the trumpets fitted in, I'm not quite sure!
The 8-year-old's case was deferred while consideration was given to sending him to an industrial school.
But, eventually, it was decided to give the lad another chance and he was bound over.
Fanny Price of Glover Street admitted to the magistrates that she had received a quantity of butter and sugar that her 14-year-old son had stolen from Nevin's.
She also admitted receiving a large amount of cigarettes pinched from Stringfellow's shop in Ormskirk Street.
The Chairman of the Bench said it was very difficult to decide what to do with children who were so young.
He said Fanny Price was very much at fault for accepting the things that her son had brought home.
The Chairman added that if she did not have such a large family to look after, the Bench would have sent her to prison.
Instead Mrs Price was fined £2 or must serve 28 days in prison, while the three boys were put on probation for three years.
In another case eight men and women appeared in court to face charges of intimidating mineworkers at local collieries.
Joseph Yates and Joseph Birchall had been undertaking safety work at the Southport Colliery in Parr, such as preventing the pit from being flooded.
Although the unions had originally allowed important safety work to continue during the strike, a dispute had occurred in August and permission had been rescinded.
However, some of the safety men had defied the unions and continued working.
They were also now thought to be digging coal, as well as undertaking vital safety operations, which was increasing suspicion.
The court was told that Yates and Birchall had been returning home from their work when three men throwing granite stones had chased after them.
The pair said they needed to take refuge in a farm and wait for a police escort.
Then when they turned out into the road, the crowd that had formed had stoned them continually all the way to their homes.
Joseph O’Neill from Fry Street was the first case to be heard. But the four magistrates said they could not agree on the charge against the man, as identification was disputed.
So his case, as well as a number of others, was adjourned for another Bench to hear.
Joe Tinker was the Labour MP for Leigh and he had also been a St Helens councillor and miners' agent for the town and, some would say, was a firebrand activist.
On the 8th Tinker gave a speech to a large group of striking miners on the waste ground near St Helens Hospital.
Mr Tinker referred to comments that the Home Secretary had made about him in Parliament during the previous week.
Sir William Joynson-Hicks had stated that Tinker's speeches in St Helens had brought him "near to the grip of the law".
Tinker had blamed the St Helens Chief Constable, Arthur Ellerington, for reporting his fiery speeches to the Home Secretary.
But Tinker told the crowd that the managers of Sutton Manor Colliery and Ashtons Green Colliery had since telephoned him to admit that they had been the ones who had reported him to the Home Secretary. That had been for the purpose, they had told him, "of getting hold of you".
On the 8th at a meeting of the St Helens Housing Committee, Cllr Ellen McCormick criticised the "disgraceful condition" of some council houses only weeks after they had been occupied.
"When the committee did its best to give people good houses," she said, "the least they could do was to keep them clean."
Council houses were still a new concept in St Helens, having begun in the early 1920s.
And St Helens Corporation was learning that being a landlord was far from being an easy business.
But despite the many new builds, the lengthy housing waiting list was not, apparently, getting any shorter.
Cllr McCormick told the meeting that she had received many letters on the need for new homes and recently in her front garden there had been five perambulators.
By that she appeared to mean that five lots of mothers had left their prams outside her house while they lobbied her inside for council accommodation.
John Platt from Nelson Street appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 9th to face a charge of neglecting to maintain his wife.
Hilda Platt of Peckers Hill Road told the court that they had been married three years and had a child aged 18 months.
She said she could no longer live with her husband, explaining:
"If I ask him what he is doing with his money, or where he has been, he asks me what it has to do with me."
She alleged that he spent his money on drink and gambling.
The case was adjourned for a month to see if the couple's relationship improved.
Also on the 9th, the magistrates at Newton-le-Willows struck off the register what was described as Haydock Working Men's Club No. 3.
The club's registered premises was at 258 Millfield Lane in Haydock but police watching the house found the only people that ever went into it were members of Charles Hazeldine's own family.
He was officially the club steward and was fined 20 shillings for selling intoxicating liquors without having a licence.
The prosecution case was that the house had been a blind and a nearby hut was being used as an illegal drinking den.
When the police entered the house they found no evidence of it being used as a club – but the hut had contained casks of beer.
It wasn't until the 1920s that advertising features devoted to multiple retailers or service providers with some common connection really began in St Helens' newspapers.
It could be their location (e.g. Church Street) or product (e.g. wireless sets) that were the common factor.
But the feature that appeared in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th had a more tenuous connection between the advertisers.
It was called "On With The Dance" and brought together fashion retailers, shoe sellers and gramophone shops.
Record retailer Mary Peters of Hall Street was saying in her advert: "Why not dance at home?"
W.G. Dixon's Taxis of Bickerstaffe Street (who were also funeral directors) wrote: "Don't trust the weather trust me – the dance will be more enjoyable if you go and return in comfort."
The Broadway Café in Church Street was promoting its dance catering.
Lockhart's hairdressers of Hardshaw Street and George Street were advertising their "dance coiffures", saying, "a woman's hair has rightly been sung as her crowning glory."
Tyrers were then in Liverpool Road and said in their ad "all you require for the dance can be bought at Tyrers".
They claimed to be the largest clothing and outfitting business in St Helens.
Of course, live music is also needed for a dance and there were plenty of jazz and dance bands in St Helens in the 1920s.
But only Brough and Egan's Orchestra was advertising in the Reporter and they could be contacted at addresses in North Road or Nutgrove Road. They wrote:
"Bands supplied for dances, parties, concerts, receptions etc. – any number of players."
M. A. Taylor of Cotham Street said: "Don't forget to pay a visit before the dance for your evening gown and day toilet."
And finally in the advertorial, the Misses Chatterton of Westfield Street were offering ladies fancy goods "suitable for the dance and evening wear".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the outcropping coal thieves that were brought to book, the foundation stone is laid for the new church of St Teresa in Newtown and the Croppers Hill street that had 200 people involved in an uproar.
We begin on the 7th when the Liverpool Echo reported that St Helens had obtained power from the Home Secretary to grant complete protection to all wild birds in the borough.
In 1922 Liverpool had become the first county borough in England to have such powers, which meant that those persons that killed birds could be fined.
A trio of shopbreaking boys, one as young as eight, were brought before St Helens magistrates on the 7th.
The police had nabbed them while trying to enter Nevin's warehouse that was situated near the marketplace.
The boys had been caught while acrobatically climbing up a wire that acted as a stay for a telephone pole.
Supt Dunn told the court that the police had been receiving complaints of thefts from shops and market stalls for some time.
They had suspected that young boys were responsible, as lads had been seen in the passage behind the Arthur Street police station.
When challenged, the boys had run off but they left behind some items that had been stolen from the marketplace.
The 8-year-old had also taken a wallet containing £26 out of a market trader's coat.
The boy's father had discovered what he had done and had taken his son to the police station to claim that the lad had found the wallet and money.
But the stallholder insisted that it had been removed from his coat pocket and £10 of the cash was missing.
The boy subsequently admitted taking the wallet and showing it to a boy aged 6 and he said they had treated themselves to "fish and chips, a flashlight and trumpets".
Just where the trumpets fitted in, I'm not quite sure!
The 8-year-old's case was deferred while consideration was given to sending him to an industrial school.
But, eventually, it was decided to give the lad another chance and he was bound over.
Fanny Price of Glover Street admitted to the magistrates that she had received a quantity of butter and sugar that her 14-year-old son had stolen from Nevin's.
She also admitted receiving a large amount of cigarettes pinched from Stringfellow's shop in Ormskirk Street.
The Chairman of the Bench said it was very difficult to decide what to do with children who were so young.
He said Fanny Price was very much at fault for accepting the things that her son had brought home.
The Chairman added that if she did not have such a large family to look after, the Bench would have sent her to prison.
Instead Mrs Price was fined £2 or must serve 28 days in prison, while the three boys were put on probation for three years.
In another case eight men and women appeared in court to face charges of intimidating mineworkers at local collieries.
Joseph Yates and Joseph Birchall had been undertaking safety work at the Southport Colliery in Parr, such as preventing the pit from being flooded.
Although the unions had originally allowed important safety work to continue during the strike, a dispute had occurred in August and permission had been rescinded.
However, some of the safety men had defied the unions and continued working.
They were also now thought to be digging coal, as well as undertaking vital safety operations, which was increasing suspicion.
The court was told that Yates and Birchall had been returning home from their work when three men throwing granite stones had chased after them.
The pair said they needed to take refuge in a farm and wait for a police escort.
Then when they turned out into the road, the crowd that had formed had stoned them continually all the way to their homes.
Joseph O’Neill from Fry Street was the first case to be heard. But the four magistrates said they could not agree on the charge against the man, as identification was disputed.
So his case, as well as a number of others, was adjourned for another Bench to hear.
Joe Tinker was the Labour MP for Leigh and he had also been a St Helens councillor and miners' agent for the town and, some would say, was a firebrand activist.
On the 8th Tinker gave a speech to a large group of striking miners on the waste ground near St Helens Hospital.
Mr Tinker referred to comments that the Home Secretary had made about him in Parliament during the previous week.
Sir William Joynson-Hicks had stated that Tinker's speeches in St Helens had brought him "near to the grip of the law".
Tinker had blamed the St Helens Chief Constable, Arthur Ellerington, for reporting his fiery speeches to the Home Secretary.
But Tinker told the crowd that the managers of Sutton Manor Colliery and Ashtons Green Colliery had since telephoned him to admit that they had been the ones who had reported him to the Home Secretary. That had been for the purpose, they had told him, "of getting hold of you".
On the 8th at a meeting of the St Helens Housing Committee, Cllr Ellen McCormick criticised the "disgraceful condition" of some council houses only weeks after they had been occupied.
"When the committee did its best to give people good houses," she said, "the least they could do was to keep them clean."
Council houses were still a new concept in St Helens, having begun in the early 1920s.
And St Helens Corporation was learning that being a landlord was far from being an easy business.
But despite the many new builds, the lengthy housing waiting list was not, apparently, getting any shorter.
Cllr McCormick told the meeting that she had received many letters on the need for new homes and recently in her front garden there had been five perambulators.
By that she appeared to mean that five lots of mothers had left their prams outside her house while they lobbied her inside for council accommodation.
John Platt from Nelson Street appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 9th to face a charge of neglecting to maintain his wife.
Hilda Platt of Peckers Hill Road told the court that they had been married three years and had a child aged 18 months.
She said she could no longer live with her husband, explaining:
"If I ask him what he is doing with his money, or where he has been, he asks me what it has to do with me."
She alleged that he spent his money on drink and gambling.
The case was adjourned for a month to see if the couple's relationship improved.
Also on the 9th, the magistrates at Newton-le-Willows struck off the register what was described as Haydock Working Men's Club No. 3.
The club's registered premises was at 258 Millfield Lane in Haydock but police watching the house found the only people that ever went into it were members of Charles Hazeldine's own family.
He was officially the club steward and was fined 20 shillings for selling intoxicating liquors without having a licence.
The prosecution case was that the house had been a blind and a nearby hut was being used as an illegal drinking den.
When the police entered the house they found no evidence of it being used as a club – but the hut had contained casks of beer.
It wasn't until the 1920s that advertising features devoted to multiple retailers or service providers with some common connection really began in St Helens' newspapers.
It could be their location (e.g. Church Street) or product (e.g. wireless sets) that were the common factor.
But the feature that appeared in the St Helens Reporter on the 10th had a more tenuous connection between the advertisers.
It was called "On With The Dance" and brought together fashion retailers, shoe sellers and gramophone shops.
Record retailer Mary Peters of Hall Street was saying in her advert: "Why not dance at home?"
The Broadway Café in Church Street was promoting its dance catering.
Lockhart's hairdressers of Hardshaw Street and George Street were advertising their "dance coiffures", saying, "a woman's hair has rightly been sung as her crowning glory."
Tyrers were then in Liverpool Road and said in their ad "all you require for the dance can be bought at Tyrers".
They claimed to be the largest clothing and outfitting business in St Helens.
Of course, live music is also needed for a dance and there were plenty of jazz and dance bands in St Helens in the 1920s.
But only Brough and Egan's Orchestra was advertising in the Reporter and they could be contacted at addresses in North Road or Nutgrove Road. They wrote:
"Bands supplied for dances, parties, concerts, receptions etc. – any number of players."
M. A. Taylor of Cotham Street said: "Don't forget to pay a visit before the dance for your evening gown and day toilet."
And finally in the advertorial, the Misses Chatterton of Westfield Street were offering ladies fancy goods "suitable for the dance and evening wear".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the outcropping coal thieves that were brought to book, the foundation stone is laid for the new church of St Teresa in Newtown and the Croppers Hill street that had 200 people involved in an uproar.