IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7th - 13th DECEMBER 1920)
This week's stories include the go-ahead at last for the Windlehurst Housing Estate, the sad story of Det. Insp. Percy Steer, the starving horse in Mill Lane, the Parr family at war and the newspaper mutilator in Sutton Library.
We begin on the 8th when the town's Health Committee met and gave the green light to the building of the first batch of 202 houses at Windlehurst. The first council estate in the borough had been proposed two years ago but had been delayed by red tape and a row with builders over the cost of the homes. McAlpines said they'd start building next week but Councillor Forshaw suggested that they should begin on Saturday as Saints were not at home and they might get a big crowd watching them! New houses were also to be constructed in Sutton Manor and the colliery was granted permission to erect some temporary hut dwellings in Forest Road until the homes could be built.
In January the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Joseph Cates, had warned that shaving brushes infected with anthrax germs had been sent to St Helens. At this week's Health Committee meeting Dr Cates reported that another consignment of infected brushes had arrived in the town made out of imitation badger with yellow wooden handles. Anyone purchasing a brush that matched that description was asked to take them to his office for analysis.
It must have been a proud moment for Percy Steer on the 8th when the rising star of St Helens police was promoted to the rank of detective inspector. The Reporter described the 28-year-old as a "typical specimen of the modern police officer who has been trained on the lines that in the fight with present day crooks, keen wits and intelligence count for more than brawn and bluff." However DI Steer's promising career was cut short by an extraordinary accident suffered while on holiday in London.
In July 1927 the young man fell 15 to 20 feet from a boarding house window – seemingly while trying to take some air in the middle of the night – despite the heroic efforts of his wife Maud. She held onto him for as long as she could as she yelled for assistance but eventually was forced to release her grip and her husband fell onto a hard surface. Percy suffered a fractured skull and spinal injuries and for some time his condition in hospital was described as critical. The inspector appears never to have worked again and in the 1939 Register is shown living in Kiln Lane with Maud and listed as an "Incapacitated Police Pensioner".
William Garton Dixon Snr died on the 8th at his home in Moss Bank. The 66-year-old had served as veterinary surgeon to St Helens Corporation for many years. Although a very prominent figure in the town – having served in the Boer War and being a leading light among St Helens Conservatives – it was his son of the same name that we remember. W. G. Dixon Jnr began as a carriage proprietor in Bickerstaffe Street before specialising as a funeral director.
"Everything in Music for the Xmas Festival" was George Tebb's slogan in the Reporter on the 10th, with his Boundary Road shop selling mouth organs, melodians and gramophones. The gramophone advert of Mary Peters' Music Warehouse in Hall Street said: "Make This Xmas a Zonophone Xmas – The greatest singers, musicians and entertainers in the world enter your home with the coming of your Zonophone instrument."
"Useful Yuletide Gifts" was the headline to D. Davies's ad in which the Church Street store was offering a "huge stock" of glass and china suitable as presents. A 40-piece china service was on sale from 32/6 with wine glasses costing 7½d each. "Wallace's For Xmas Gifts" was the headline to an ad from the Church Street shoe shop who was selling house and bedroom slippers – was there a difference between the two? The bedroom is in the house! Their ad said: "Gifts of this nature are sure to please, and we can supply styles to suit every member of the family including our famous Picture Slippers for the Children."
The efforts that the police made to catch gamblers playing pitch and toss do seem quite extraordinary today. On the 10th the magistrates in the Police Court heard how two constables had "rushed" three men playing the game on land off Frederick Street in Sutton after keeping them under observation for a while. Philip Gavin of Orville Street and William Bickerstaffe from Robins Lane were quickly arrested.
However Albert Anders from Ellamsbridge Road did a runner and locked himself inside a shed. He refused to come out and the officer had to smash open the door to get his man! Anders told the court that he had been in a similar position 15 years earlier and then had stood his ground. So he thought this time he'd have a run for his money! Gavin was given the benefit of the doubt and found not guilty, with the other two fined 10 and 20 shillings each.
Three lads messing about in Bickerstaffe Street chose the wrong house to accidentally break a pane of glass. James Fildes of College Street, James Lane of Cooper Street and George Smith from Fenton Street inadvertently chucked a piece of wood through a window of Inspector Shaw's home. The boys – who were all haulage hands at Sutton Manor Colliery – appear to have scattered after the glass smashed but were tracked down by PC Shaw.
George Smith admitted doing the damage but only accidentally as he said he'd thrown the wood at one of his mates but missed him and broke the pane instead. It must have been nice to have a friend like him! However George's honesty paid dividends as the charges against the three were dismissed upon payment of 7s 6d each – comprising the damage to the window and the court costs.
Lockhart's Famous Elephants (pictured above with Sam Lockhart) was the headline music hall act appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre from the 13th. They were called "The World's Animal Wonders" with the act created by an extraordinary animal trainer called Sam Lockhart. However he now appears to have retired and a Captain Taylor ran the troupe of comic elephants. They must have had big dressing rooms at the Hippodrome!
I suspect the other turns on the bill walked carefully round the theatre not wanting to tread in any elephant dung. They included: Rolf Slater ("Comedian"); Even Bramusas ("A British family of musicians in their brass band extravaganza"); The Three Morrellys ("Dutch gymnasts in their novel and sensational act"); Marion Vallance ("Soprano vocalist") and Miss Violet Barti ("In her delightful instrumental entertainment").
Meanwhile further up Corporation Street at the Theatre Royal, the St Helens Amateur Operatic Society presented the comic opera 'Rip Van Winkle'.
Also on the 13th John Barker was fined £5 for cruelty to a horse after leaving the animal in a stable in Mill Lane in Sutton for six days without food. Barker from Barrow Street claimed that Thomas Rigby – who lived next door to the stable – had agreed to look after his horse. However the 71-year-old retired coal merchant said he'd told Barker he was too feeble to feed his animal and he was also afraid of it. He said the hungry horse had been kicking at the stable door and eventually Rigby reported the matter to the police.
The story of a family row in Parr was also told in the Police Court when Mary Jaundrill and John Tunstall summoned their brother Robert for making threats and assault. Mary had lost her husband in the war and she and her child had moved in with her parents at their home in Park Road. Robert Tunstall objected to this arrangement, seemingly because he believed his sister was sponging off his mother and father – although Mary insisted that she paid for her keep.
One evening when Mary went out to buy some bread, Robert met her in the street and threatened to swing for her, saying where she was living was not her home. Mary told the court that her brother was a most violent man and had given the family much trouble. Robert had also attacked his younger brother, John Tunstall, knocking him down in the street and when their father came out of the house, he got struck as well.
A number of witnesses supported the evidence and Robert Tunstall was bound over for 12 months for the threats and for the assault was fined £2 or 28 days if in default. The 29-year-old defendant who lived at Parr Mill Cottages told the Bench that he would serve the 28 days in prison.
John Collins from Edgeworth Street was summoned to court for mutilating a periodical in the Sutton Free Library. The librarian had caught him cutting up a copy of the Illustrated London News and when questioned Collins said he did not think he was doing wrong as it was a free library. Well it wasn't that free! Such things were taken seriously then and within an hour Inspector Bowden was knocking on Collins's door demanding an explanation and was told he'd cut out a picture of a soldier to show a friend.
John Collins claimed it was the first time he had done such a thing but the librarian said four other copies of the Illustrated London News had previously been cut up in a similar way. In mitigation the inspector told the Bench that the young Irishman had been living in Sutton for a year and had a good character. The Chairman of the Bench told Collins that he would be treated very leniently on this occasion and only fined £1 but ordered to pay the librarian's witness fee of 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the man who called his wife a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing", Lipton's Bridge Street egg bust, St Helens councillors allow children to quit school at 13 and the Market Street woman prosecuted after her child burned to death.
We begin on the 8th when the town's Health Committee met and gave the green light to the building of the first batch of 202 houses at Windlehurst. The first council estate in the borough had been proposed two years ago but had been delayed by red tape and a row with builders over the cost of the homes. McAlpines said they'd start building next week but Councillor Forshaw suggested that they should begin on Saturday as Saints were not at home and they might get a big crowd watching them! New houses were also to be constructed in Sutton Manor and the colliery was granted permission to erect some temporary hut dwellings in Forest Road until the homes could be built.
In January the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Joseph Cates, had warned that shaving brushes infected with anthrax germs had been sent to St Helens. At this week's Health Committee meeting Dr Cates reported that another consignment of infected brushes had arrived in the town made out of imitation badger with yellow wooden handles. Anyone purchasing a brush that matched that description was asked to take them to his office for analysis.
It must have been a proud moment for Percy Steer on the 8th when the rising star of St Helens police was promoted to the rank of detective inspector. The Reporter described the 28-year-old as a "typical specimen of the modern police officer who has been trained on the lines that in the fight with present day crooks, keen wits and intelligence count for more than brawn and bluff." However DI Steer's promising career was cut short by an extraordinary accident suffered while on holiday in London.
In July 1927 the young man fell 15 to 20 feet from a boarding house window – seemingly while trying to take some air in the middle of the night – despite the heroic efforts of his wife Maud. She held onto him for as long as she could as she yelled for assistance but eventually was forced to release her grip and her husband fell onto a hard surface. Percy suffered a fractured skull and spinal injuries and for some time his condition in hospital was described as critical. The inspector appears never to have worked again and in the 1939 Register is shown living in Kiln Lane with Maud and listed as an "Incapacitated Police Pensioner".
William Garton Dixon Snr died on the 8th at his home in Moss Bank. The 66-year-old had served as veterinary surgeon to St Helens Corporation for many years. Although a very prominent figure in the town – having served in the Boer War and being a leading light among St Helens Conservatives – it was his son of the same name that we remember. W. G. Dixon Jnr began as a carriage proprietor in Bickerstaffe Street before specialising as a funeral director.
"Everything in Music for the Xmas Festival" was George Tebb's slogan in the Reporter on the 10th, with his Boundary Road shop selling mouth organs, melodians and gramophones. The gramophone advert of Mary Peters' Music Warehouse in Hall Street said: "Make This Xmas a Zonophone Xmas – The greatest singers, musicians and entertainers in the world enter your home with the coming of your Zonophone instrument."
"Useful Yuletide Gifts" was the headline to D. Davies's ad in which the Church Street store was offering a "huge stock" of glass and china suitable as presents. A 40-piece china service was on sale from 32/6 with wine glasses costing 7½d each. "Wallace's For Xmas Gifts" was the headline to an ad from the Church Street shoe shop who was selling house and bedroom slippers – was there a difference between the two? The bedroom is in the house! Their ad said: "Gifts of this nature are sure to please, and we can supply styles to suit every member of the family including our famous Picture Slippers for the Children."
The efforts that the police made to catch gamblers playing pitch and toss do seem quite extraordinary today. On the 10th the magistrates in the Police Court heard how two constables had "rushed" three men playing the game on land off Frederick Street in Sutton after keeping them under observation for a while. Philip Gavin of Orville Street and William Bickerstaffe from Robins Lane were quickly arrested.
However Albert Anders from Ellamsbridge Road did a runner and locked himself inside a shed. He refused to come out and the officer had to smash open the door to get his man! Anders told the court that he had been in a similar position 15 years earlier and then had stood his ground. So he thought this time he'd have a run for his money! Gavin was given the benefit of the doubt and found not guilty, with the other two fined 10 and 20 shillings each.
Three lads messing about in Bickerstaffe Street chose the wrong house to accidentally break a pane of glass. James Fildes of College Street, James Lane of Cooper Street and George Smith from Fenton Street inadvertently chucked a piece of wood through a window of Inspector Shaw's home. The boys – who were all haulage hands at Sutton Manor Colliery – appear to have scattered after the glass smashed but were tracked down by PC Shaw.
George Smith admitted doing the damage but only accidentally as he said he'd thrown the wood at one of his mates but missed him and broke the pane instead. It must have been nice to have a friend like him! However George's honesty paid dividends as the charges against the three were dismissed upon payment of 7s 6d each – comprising the damage to the window and the court costs.
I suspect the other turns on the bill walked carefully round the theatre not wanting to tread in any elephant dung. They included: Rolf Slater ("Comedian"); Even Bramusas ("A British family of musicians in their brass band extravaganza"); The Three Morrellys ("Dutch gymnasts in their novel and sensational act"); Marion Vallance ("Soprano vocalist") and Miss Violet Barti ("In her delightful instrumental entertainment").
Meanwhile further up Corporation Street at the Theatre Royal, the St Helens Amateur Operatic Society presented the comic opera 'Rip Van Winkle'.
Also on the 13th John Barker was fined £5 for cruelty to a horse after leaving the animal in a stable in Mill Lane in Sutton for six days without food. Barker from Barrow Street claimed that Thomas Rigby – who lived next door to the stable – had agreed to look after his horse. However the 71-year-old retired coal merchant said he'd told Barker he was too feeble to feed his animal and he was also afraid of it. He said the hungry horse had been kicking at the stable door and eventually Rigby reported the matter to the police.
The story of a family row in Parr was also told in the Police Court when Mary Jaundrill and John Tunstall summoned their brother Robert for making threats and assault. Mary had lost her husband in the war and she and her child had moved in with her parents at their home in Park Road. Robert Tunstall objected to this arrangement, seemingly because he believed his sister was sponging off his mother and father – although Mary insisted that she paid for her keep.
One evening when Mary went out to buy some bread, Robert met her in the street and threatened to swing for her, saying where she was living was not her home. Mary told the court that her brother was a most violent man and had given the family much trouble. Robert had also attacked his younger brother, John Tunstall, knocking him down in the street and when their father came out of the house, he got struck as well.
A number of witnesses supported the evidence and Robert Tunstall was bound over for 12 months for the threats and for the assault was fined £2 or 28 days if in default. The 29-year-old defendant who lived at Parr Mill Cottages told the Bench that he would serve the 28 days in prison.
John Collins claimed it was the first time he had done such a thing but the librarian said four other copies of the Illustrated London News had previously been cut up in a similar way. In mitigation the inspector told the Bench that the young Irishman had been living in Sutton for a year and had a good character. The Chairman of the Bench told Collins that he would be treated very leniently on this occasion and only fined £1 but ordered to pay the librarian's witness fee of 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the man who called his wife a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing", Lipton's Bridge Street egg bust, St Helens councillors allow children to quit school at 13 and the Market Street woman prosecuted after her child burned to death.
This week's stories include the go-ahead at last for the Windlehurst Housing Estate, the sad story of Det. Insp. Percy Steer, the starving horse in Mill Lane, the Parr family at war and the newspaper mutilator in Sutton Library.
We begin on the 8th when the town's Health Committee met and gave the green light to the building of the first batch of 202 houses at Windlehurst.
The first council estate in the borough had been proposed two years ago but had been delayed by red tape and a row with builders over the cost of the homes.
McAlpines said they'd start building next week but Councillor Forshaw suggested that they should begin on Saturday as Saints were not at home and they might get a big crowd watching them!
New houses were also to be constructed in Sutton Manor and the colliery was granted permission to erect some temporary hut dwellings in Forest Road until the homes could be built.
In January the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Joseph Cates, had warned that shaving brushes infected with anthrax germs had been sent to St Helens.
At this week's Health Committee meeting Dr Cates reported that another consignment of infected brushes had arrived in the town made out of imitation badger with yellow wooden handles.
Anyone purchasing a brush that matched that description was asked to take them to his office for analysis.
It must have been a proud moment for Percy Steer on the 8th when the rising star of St Helens police was promoted to the rank of detective inspector.
The Reporter described the 28-year-old as a "typical specimen of the modern police officer who has been trained on the lines that in the fight with present day crooks, keen wits and intelligence count for more than brawn and bluff."
However DI Steer's promising career was cut short by an extraordinary accident suffered while on holiday in London.
In July 1927 the young man fell 15 to 20 feet from a boarding house window – seemingly while trying to take some air in the middle of the night – despite the heroic efforts of his wife Maud.
She held onto him for as long as she could as she yelled for assistance but eventually was forced to release her grip and her husband fell onto a hard surface.
Percy suffered a fractured skull and spinal injuries and for some time his condition in hospital was described as critical.
The inspector appears never to have worked again and in the 1939 Register is shown living in Kiln Lane with Maud and listed as an "Incapacitated Police Pensioner".
William Garton Dixon Snr died on the 8th at his home in Moss Bank. The 66-year-old had served as veterinary surgeon to St Helens Corporation for many years.
Although a very prominent figure in the town – having served in the Boer War and being a leading light among St Helens Conservatives – it was his son of the same name that we remember.
W. G. Dixon Jnr began as a carriage proprietor in Bickerstaffe Street before specialising as a funeral director.
"Everything in Music for the Xmas Festival" was George Tebb's slogan in the Reporter on the 10th, with his Boundary Road shop selling mouth organs, melodians and gramophones.
The gramophone advert of Mary Peters' Music Warehouse in Hall Street said:
"Make This Xmas a Zonophone Xmas – The greatest singers, musicians and entertainers in the world enter your home with the coming of your Zonophone instrument."
"Useful Yuletide Gifts" was the headline to D. Davies's ad in which the Church Street store was offering a "huge stock" of glass and china suitable as presents.
A 40-piece china service was on sale from 32/6 with wine glasses costing 7½d each.
"Wallace's For Xmas Gifts" was the headline to an ad from the Church Street shoe shop who was selling house and bedroom slippers – was there a difference between the two? The bedroom is in the house!
Their ad said: "Gifts of this nature are sure to please, and we can supply styles to suit every member of the family including our famous Picture Slippers for the Children."
The efforts that the police made to catch gamblers playing pitch and toss do seem quite extraordinary today.
On the 10th the magistrates in the Police Court heard how two constables had "rushed" three men playing the game on land off Frederick Street in Sutton after keeping them under observation for a while.
Philip Gavin of Orville Street and William Bickerstaffe from Robins Lane were quickly arrested.
However Albert Anders from Ellamsbridge Road did a runner and locked himself inside a shed.
He refused to come out and the officer had to smash open the door to get his man! Anders told the court that he had been in a similar position 15 years earlier and then had stood his ground.
So he thought this time he'd have a run for his money! Gavin was given the benefit of the doubt and found not guilty, with the other two fined 10 and 20 shillings each.
Three lads messing about in Bickerstaffe Street chose the wrong house to accidentally break a pane of glass.
James Fildes of College Street, James Lane of Cooper Street and George Smith from Fenton Street inadvertently chucked a piece of wood through a window of Inspector Shaw's home.
The boys – who were all haulage hands at Sutton Manor Colliery – appear to have scattered after the glass smashed but were tracked down by PC Shaw.
George Smith admitted doing the damage but only accidentally as he said he'd thrown the wood at one of his mates but missed him and broke the pane instead.
It must have been nice to have a friend like him!
However George's honesty paid dividends as the charges against the three were dismissed upon payment of 7s 6d each – comprising the damage to the window and the court costs.
Lockhart's Famous Elephants (pictured above with Sam Lockhart) was the headline music hall act appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre from the 13th.
They were called "The World's Animal Wonders" with the act created by an extraordinary animal trainer called Sam Lockhart.
However he now appears to have retired and a Captain Taylor ran the troupe of comic elephants. They must have had big dressing rooms at the Hippodrome!
I suspect the other turns on the bill walked carefully round the theatre not wanting to tread in any elephant dung. They included:
Rolf Slater ("Comedian"); Even Bramusas ("A British family of musicians in their brass band extravaganza"); The Three Morrellys ("Dutch gymnasts in their novel and sensational act"); Marion Vallance ("Soprano vocalist") and Miss Violet Barti ("In her delightful instrumental entertainment").
Meanwhile further up Corporation Street at the Theatre Royal, the St Helens Amateur Operatic Society presented the comic opera 'Rip Van Winkle'.
Also on the 13th John Barker was fined £5 for cruelty to a horse after leaving the animal in a stable in Mill Lane in Sutton for six days without food.
Barker from Barrow Street claimed that Thomas Rigby – who lived next door to the stable – had agreed to look after his horse.
However the 71-year-old retired coal merchant said he'd told Barker he was too feeble to feed his animal and he was also afraid of it.
He said the hungry horse had been kicking at the stable door and eventually Rigby reported the matter to the police.
The story of a family row in Parr was also told in the Police Court when Mary Jaundrill and John Tunstall summoned their brother Robert for making threats and assault.
Mary had lost her husband in the war and she and her child had moved in with her parents at their home in Park Road.
Robert Tunstall objected to this arrangement, seemingly because he believed his sister was sponging off his mother and father – although Mary insisted that she paid for her keep.
One evening when Mary went out to buy some bread, Robert met her in the street and threatened to swing for her, saying where she was living was not her home.
Mary told the court that her brother was a most violent man and had given the family much trouble.
Robert had also attacked his younger brother, John Tunstall, knocking him down in the street and when their father came out of the house, he got struck as well.
A number of witnesses supported the evidence and Robert Tunstall was bound over for 12 months for the threats and for the assault was fined £2 or 28 days if in default.
The 29-year-old defendant who lived at Parr Mill Cottages told the Bench that he would serve the 28 days in prison.
John Collins from Edgeworth Street was summoned to court for mutilating a periodical in the Sutton Free Library.
The librarian had caught him cutting up a copy of the Illustrated London News and when questioned Collins said he did not think he was doing wrong as it was a free library. Well it wasn't that free!
Such things were taken seriously then and within an hour Inspector Bowden was knocking on Collins's door demanding an explanation and was told he'd cut out a picture of a soldier to show a friend.
John Collins claimed it was the first time he had done such a thing but the librarian said four other copies of the Illustrated London News had previously been cut up in a similar way.
In mitigation the inspector told the Bench that the young Irishman had been living in Sutton for a year and had a good character.
The Chairman of the Bench told Collins that he would be treated very leniently on this occasion and only fined £1 but ordered to pay the librarian's witness fee of 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the man who called his wife a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing", Lipton's Bridge Street egg bust, St Helens councillors allow children to quit school at 13 and the Market Street woman prosecuted after her child burned to death.
We begin on the 8th when the town's Health Committee met and gave the green light to the building of the first batch of 202 houses at Windlehurst.
The first council estate in the borough had been proposed two years ago but had been delayed by red tape and a row with builders over the cost of the homes.
McAlpines said they'd start building next week but Councillor Forshaw suggested that they should begin on Saturday as Saints were not at home and they might get a big crowd watching them!
New houses were also to be constructed in Sutton Manor and the colliery was granted permission to erect some temporary hut dwellings in Forest Road until the homes could be built.
In January the town's Medical Officer of Health, Dr Joseph Cates, had warned that shaving brushes infected with anthrax germs had been sent to St Helens.
At this week's Health Committee meeting Dr Cates reported that another consignment of infected brushes had arrived in the town made out of imitation badger with yellow wooden handles.
Anyone purchasing a brush that matched that description was asked to take them to his office for analysis.
It must have been a proud moment for Percy Steer on the 8th when the rising star of St Helens police was promoted to the rank of detective inspector.
The Reporter described the 28-year-old as a "typical specimen of the modern police officer who has been trained on the lines that in the fight with present day crooks, keen wits and intelligence count for more than brawn and bluff."
However DI Steer's promising career was cut short by an extraordinary accident suffered while on holiday in London.
In July 1927 the young man fell 15 to 20 feet from a boarding house window – seemingly while trying to take some air in the middle of the night – despite the heroic efforts of his wife Maud.
She held onto him for as long as she could as she yelled for assistance but eventually was forced to release her grip and her husband fell onto a hard surface.
Percy suffered a fractured skull and spinal injuries and for some time his condition in hospital was described as critical.
The inspector appears never to have worked again and in the 1939 Register is shown living in Kiln Lane with Maud and listed as an "Incapacitated Police Pensioner".
William Garton Dixon Snr died on the 8th at his home in Moss Bank. The 66-year-old had served as veterinary surgeon to St Helens Corporation for many years.
Although a very prominent figure in the town – having served in the Boer War and being a leading light among St Helens Conservatives – it was his son of the same name that we remember.
W. G. Dixon Jnr began as a carriage proprietor in Bickerstaffe Street before specialising as a funeral director.
"Everything in Music for the Xmas Festival" was George Tebb's slogan in the Reporter on the 10th, with his Boundary Road shop selling mouth organs, melodians and gramophones.
The gramophone advert of Mary Peters' Music Warehouse in Hall Street said:
"Make This Xmas a Zonophone Xmas – The greatest singers, musicians and entertainers in the world enter your home with the coming of your Zonophone instrument."
"Useful Yuletide Gifts" was the headline to D. Davies's ad in which the Church Street store was offering a "huge stock" of glass and china suitable as presents.
A 40-piece china service was on sale from 32/6 with wine glasses costing 7½d each.
"Wallace's For Xmas Gifts" was the headline to an ad from the Church Street shoe shop who was selling house and bedroom slippers – was there a difference between the two? The bedroom is in the house!
Their ad said: "Gifts of this nature are sure to please, and we can supply styles to suit every member of the family including our famous Picture Slippers for the Children."
The efforts that the police made to catch gamblers playing pitch and toss do seem quite extraordinary today.
On the 10th the magistrates in the Police Court heard how two constables had "rushed" three men playing the game on land off Frederick Street in Sutton after keeping them under observation for a while.
Philip Gavin of Orville Street and William Bickerstaffe from Robins Lane were quickly arrested.
However Albert Anders from Ellamsbridge Road did a runner and locked himself inside a shed.
He refused to come out and the officer had to smash open the door to get his man! Anders told the court that he had been in a similar position 15 years earlier and then had stood his ground.
So he thought this time he'd have a run for his money! Gavin was given the benefit of the doubt and found not guilty, with the other two fined 10 and 20 shillings each.
Three lads messing about in Bickerstaffe Street chose the wrong house to accidentally break a pane of glass.
James Fildes of College Street, James Lane of Cooper Street and George Smith from Fenton Street inadvertently chucked a piece of wood through a window of Inspector Shaw's home.
The boys – who were all haulage hands at Sutton Manor Colliery – appear to have scattered after the glass smashed but were tracked down by PC Shaw.
George Smith admitted doing the damage but only accidentally as he said he'd thrown the wood at one of his mates but missed him and broke the pane instead.
It must have been nice to have a friend like him!
However George's honesty paid dividends as the charges against the three were dismissed upon payment of 7s 6d each – comprising the damage to the window and the court costs.
They were called "The World's Animal Wonders" with the act created by an extraordinary animal trainer called Sam Lockhart.
However he now appears to have retired and a Captain Taylor ran the troupe of comic elephants. They must have had big dressing rooms at the Hippodrome!
I suspect the other turns on the bill walked carefully round the theatre not wanting to tread in any elephant dung. They included:
Rolf Slater ("Comedian"); Even Bramusas ("A British family of musicians in their brass band extravaganza"); The Three Morrellys ("Dutch gymnasts in their novel and sensational act"); Marion Vallance ("Soprano vocalist") and Miss Violet Barti ("In her delightful instrumental entertainment").
Meanwhile further up Corporation Street at the Theatre Royal, the St Helens Amateur Operatic Society presented the comic opera 'Rip Van Winkle'.
Also on the 13th John Barker was fined £5 for cruelty to a horse after leaving the animal in a stable in Mill Lane in Sutton for six days without food.
Barker from Barrow Street claimed that Thomas Rigby – who lived next door to the stable – had agreed to look after his horse.
However the 71-year-old retired coal merchant said he'd told Barker he was too feeble to feed his animal and he was also afraid of it.
He said the hungry horse had been kicking at the stable door and eventually Rigby reported the matter to the police.
The story of a family row in Parr was also told in the Police Court when Mary Jaundrill and John Tunstall summoned their brother Robert for making threats and assault.
Mary had lost her husband in the war and she and her child had moved in with her parents at their home in Park Road.
Robert Tunstall objected to this arrangement, seemingly because he believed his sister was sponging off his mother and father – although Mary insisted that she paid for her keep.
One evening when Mary went out to buy some bread, Robert met her in the street and threatened to swing for her, saying where she was living was not her home.
Mary told the court that her brother was a most violent man and had given the family much trouble.
Robert had also attacked his younger brother, John Tunstall, knocking him down in the street and when their father came out of the house, he got struck as well.
A number of witnesses supported the evidence and Robert Tunstall was bound over for 12 months for the threats and for the assault was fined £2 or 28 days if in default.
The 29-year-old defendant who lived at Parr Mill Cottages told the Bench that he would serve the 28 days in prison.
The librarian had caught him cutting up a copy of the Illustrated London News and when questioned Collins said he did not think he was doing wrong as it was a free library. Well it wasn't that free!
Such things were taken seriously then and within an hour Inspector Bowden was knocking on Collins's door demanding an explanation and was told he'd cut out a picture of a soldier to show a friend.
John Collins claimed it was the first time he had done such a thing but the librarian said four other copies of the Illustrated London News had previously been cut up in a similar way.
In mitigation the inspector told the Bench that the young Irishman had been living in Sutton for a year and had a good character.
The Chairman of the Bench told Collins that he would be treated very leniently on this occasion and only fined £1 but ordered to pay the librarian's witness fee of 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the man who called his wife a "dirty, nasty, insulting thing", Lipton's Bridge Street egg bust, St Helens councillors allow children to quit school at 13 and the Market Street woman prosecuted after her child burned to death.