IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th JANUARY 1923)
This week's many stories include the ex-soldier's suicide in Eccleston Mill Dam, the man who claimed that workers pilfering from building sites was commonplace, the sweet shop raids by a gang of boys, the abusive Westfield Street tobacconist, the miners that stole each other's tools and the Crank man too poor to make his own fireguard whose child was burned to death.
James Bagley from Westfield Street (pictured above) in St Helens was not very popular with his neighbours. They'd frequently complained to the police about the man's conduct and use of foul language. That was according to Supt. Dunn when on the 9th Bagley appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace. PC Willcock gave evidence that at 11:20 pm on the previous night he had been in Westfield Street when he saw Bagley come out of a shop door in his shirtsleeves, walk up to his wife who was standing in the street and begin using foul language to her.
The constable said he told him to go away but the man who had been drinking refused, saying "it will take more than one f........ policeman to lock me up". After being arrested and charged with the offence, Bagley said to PC Willcock, "I'll remember you". The officer added that he was continually being called to the place to deal with the man. Supt. Dunn told the court that Bagley used the most filthy and disgusting language in his house and the young children and other people next door were always complaining that they could hear what he said.
Bagley was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months. A clue as to his behaviour is provided by the 1921 census, which lists the 47-year-old's occupation as "assisting wife in her business". Sarah Bagley was the manager of the tobacconist's shop in Westfield Street that the couple lived over and her husband worked as her assistant. Perhaps resentment at his junior status was what lay behind the man's abuse?
The 1921 census also lists John Green as a 39-year-old unemployed fitter living on Crank Hill in Crank, with five children aged between a few months and seven. On the 9th Green appeared in the St Helens County Police Court charged with not providing a fireguard for the protection of his children. Since the census had been taken in June 1921 a sixth child had been born, although only five were now alive.
On December 20th while their mother Sarah was out buying coal, the children had been left alone and 4-year-old Hannah had been drying her clothes in front of their fire. With no fireguard in place the little girl was set alight and she later died from her burns. Although it might be seen as cruel to add more troubles to the family's grief by taking out a prosecution, such deaths were so common within the St Helens district that coroner Samuel Brighouse used to call winter the "burning season" for kids. And so a prosecution needed to be brought to encourage others to get a fireguard.
It was revealed at the hearing that John Green was still out of work and before the tragedy had attempted to make his own fireguard, telling the Bench that poverty had prevented him obtaining the materials that he needed to complete the job. The magistrates gave the bereaved father a severe warning but also sympathised with him on the loss of little Hannah and dismissed the case upon payment of costs.
There was a sequel to the case of Thomas Dolan, the bankrupt haulage contractor from Lowe Street, who last week had been sent to prison for 3 months for hiding some of his assets. A man called Jack Broadley had turned up at Mrs Dolan's door claiming to be a warder at Walton Prison and had asked the woman for money so her husband would receive better food. It was a cruel con and the police seemed to think there was more to the man than met the eye. They successfully applied to the Bench for the prisoner to be remanded in custody for a week while further inquiries were made.
I reported last November how John Cruise of Elliot Street (off Knowsley Road) in St Helens had been charged with causing over £7 worth of damage inside the nearby Nags Head. The man had ordered a pint of mild and bitter at the Eccleston Street pub. The price was 8½d but Cruise only had 7d. In frustration at not getting his drink, Cruise threw a water jug across the bar and that happened to strike a keg, spilling its contents of 1½ gallons of gin onto the floor.
Cruise did not turn up to the hearing but instead sent his stroppy mother. The absent defendant was fined £1 and ordered to pay the full amount of the damage that he had caused, as well as other expenses.
Upon the Bench telling Cruise's mother: "Your son will have to pay all that for his temper", she replied: "Will he? We shall see." Then upon being warned that if the fine, damages and expenses were not paid, the alternative would be 28 days in prison, Mrs Cruise replied: "Only twenty-eight days, he can do that on his head."
However, when Cruise appeared in the Police Court on the 12th of this week to face a separate charge, another reason for his temper was suggested. He claimed that he had been wounded in the head during the war and did not always know what he was doing, particularly when in drink. On this occasion Cruise was charged with theft after taking a lady's coat from a shop in Church Street. It was also alleged that he had made eight thefts of scaffolding from a housing estate near Garston, where he had been working.
Cruise said it was common practice for builders to help themselves to stuff at work, adding: "If you pulled up everybody that had got a bit out of the building trade you would have to lock half Liverpool up." Interestingly, Cruise made reference to things "going about loose" on "the St Helens housing estate". Yes, there was only one then, the recently completely Windlehurst council estate. The magistrates tended to deal with wounded ex-soldiers leniently and they only fined Cruise a total of 20 shillings.
Another possible victim of the war was John Owen from Silkstone Street in St Helens who was reported to have been found floating in Eccleston Mill Dam on the 12th. The 40-year-old coal miner had left home on the previous day to go to his work as normal and had never talked of suicide – but had complained of pains in his head. The former soldier had served in the army between 1915 and 1917 and so may have been another victim of the hidden mental heath crisis that affected so many men during the 1920s.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 12th Burchall's butchers had a large ad. They are one of the very few shops from a century ago that are still in existence – and probably the only one trading from exactly the same premises. Today feted for their pies, Burchall's of 24 Westfield Street had only recently moved from Church Street and were promoting their pork and bacon products, which they called the "finest country-fed". They wrote that they were situated "near Sefton Arms tram terminus" and their telephone number was just "48".
The Reporter wrote: "Boys and sweetmeats are almost synonymous terms, but the latter have to be properly acquired, and not in the manner that was disclosed at the St. Helens Children’s Court, on Wednesday, when nine lads were arraigned on different charges of stealing sweets and other comestibles." Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that for five or six weeks, the police had been investigating a series of petty thefts of sweets and chocolates from shop counters in different parts of St Helens.
For example, a Cambridge Street shop had a box of chocolates taken. The little son of the shopkeeper saw the theft take place and chased the boys. They threatened him and so the lad returned to the shop to tell his parents what had occurred. Four pounds of toffee had also been taken from a Duke Street sweet shop and a 4lb bottle of sweets from retail premises kept by George Johnson. Not all of the boys had taken part in each theft but they all shared the proceeds and they were placed on probation for two years and ordered to pay the costs of the hearing. Not many years earlier they would likely have been birched and given a few weeks in prison.
Miners needed to provide their own tools to undertake their work and even pay the colliery to have them sharpened. There was a tendency for such implements to go missing and some of the victims of such thefts would help themselves to other miners' tools – on the basis that two wrongs made a right. In St Helens Police Court on the 15th, Aaron Hall from South Street in Thatto Heath pleaded guilty to stealing a pick blade belonging to a workmate at Alexandra Colliery (pictured above).
It was stated in court that a large amount of such pilfering went on in the mine. Aaron Hall in his defence said he had suffered greatly from this stealing and if he had not taken the blade in question, he would not have been able to work. The Bench chose to give the 53-year-old a warning and only fined him 5 shillings.
And finally on the 15th, the Theatre Royal in St Helens went into panto mode with the start of six nights of 'Dick Whittington', with Edna Latonne starring as the eponymous Dick.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the young man that fell into a vat of boiling water, the strange "good night" fracas in Arthur Street, the despicable Lowe Street conman, a tribute to Rainhill's referee and the electric wizard at the Hippodrome.
The constable said he told him to go away but the man who had been drinking refused, saying "it will take more than one f........ policeman to lock me up". After being arrested and charged with the offence, Bagley said to PC Willcock, "I'll remember you". The officer added that he was continually being called to the place to deal with the man. Supt. Dunn told the court that Bagley used the most filthy and disgusting language in his house and the young children and other people next door were always complaining that they could hear what he said.
Bagley was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months. A clue as to his behaviour is provided by the 1921 census, which lists the 47-year-old's occupation as "assisting wife in her business". Sarah Bagley was the manager of the tobacconist's shop in Westfield Street that the couple lived over and her husband worked as her assistant. Perhaps resentment at his junior status was what lay behind the man's abuse?
The 1921 census also lists John Green as a 39-year-old unemployed fitter living on Crank Hill in Crank, with five children aged between a few months and seven. On the 9th Green appeared in the St Helens County Police Court charged with not providing a fireguard for the protection of his children. Since the census had been taken in June 1921 a sixth child had been born, although only five were now alive.
On December 20th while their mother Sarah was out buying coal, the children had been left alone and 4-year-old Hannah had been drying her clothes in front of their fire. With no fireguard in place the little girl was set alight and she later died from her burns. Although it might be seen as cruel to add more troubles to the family's grief by taking out a prosecution, such deaths were so common within the St Helens district that coroner Samuel Brighouse used to call winter the "burning season" for kids. And so a prosecution needed to be brought to encourage others to get a fireguard.
It was revealed at the hearing that John Green was still out of work and before the tragedy had attempted to make his own fireguard, telling the Bench that poverty had prevented him obtaining the materials that he needed to complete the job. The magistrates gave the bereaved father a severe warning but also sympathised with him on the loss of little Hannah and dismissed the case upon payment of costs.
There was a sequel to the case of Thomas Dolan, the bankrupt haulage contractor from Lowe Street, who last week had been sent to prison for 3 months for hiding some of his assets. A man called Jack Broadley had turned up at Mrs Dolan's door claiming to be a warder at Walton Prison and had asked the woman for money so her husband would receive better food. It was a cruel con and the police seemed to think there was more to the man than met the eye. They successfully applied to the Bench for the prisoner to be remanded in custody for a week while further inquiries were made.
I reported last November how John Cruise of Elliot Street (off Knowsley Road) in St Helens had been charged with causing over £7 worth of damage inside the nearby Nags Head. The man had ordered a pint of mild and bitter at the Eccleston Street pub. The price was 8½d but Cruise only had 7d. In frustration at not getting his drink, Cruise threw a water jug across the bar and that happened to strike a keg, spilling its contents of 1½ gallons of gin onto the floor.
Cruise did not turn up to the hearing but instead sent his stroppy mother. The absent defendant was fined £1 and ordered to pay the full amount of the damage that he had caused, as well as other expenses.
Upon the Bench telling Cruise's mother: "Your son will have to pay all that for his temper", she replied: "Will he? We shall see." Then upon being warned that if the fine, damages and expenses were not paid, the alternative would be 28 days in prison, Mrs Cruise replied: "Only twenty-eight days, he can do that on his head."
However, when Cruise appeared in the Police Court on the 12th of this week to face a separate charge, another reason for his temper was suggested. He claimed that he had been wounded in the head during the war and did not always know what he was doing, particularly when in drink. On this occasion Cruise was charged with theft after taking a lady's coat from a shop in Church Street. It was also alleged that he had made eight thefts of scaffolding from a housing estate near Garston, where he had been working.
Cruise said it was common practice for builders to help themselves to stuff at work, adding: "If you pulled up everybody that had got a bit out of the building trade you would have to lock half Liverpool up." Interestingly, Cruise made reference to things "going about loose" on "the St Helens housing estate". Yes, there was only one then, the recently completely Windlehurst council estate. The magistrates tended to deal with wounded ex-soldiers leniently and they only fined Cruise a total of 20 shillings.
Another possible victim of the war was John Owen from Silkstone Street in St Helens who was reported to have been found floating in Eccleston Mill Dam on the 12th. The 40-year-old coal miner had left home on the previous day to go to his work as normal and had never talked of suicide – but had complained of pains in his head. The former soldier had served in the army between 1915 and 1917 and so may have been another victim of the hidden mental heath crisis that affected so many men during the 1920s.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 12th Burchall's butchers had a large ad. They are one of the very few shops from a century ago that are still in existence – and probably the only one trading from exactly the same premises. Today feted for their pies, Burchall's of 24 Westfield Street had only recently moved from Church Street and were promoting their pork and bacon products, which they called the "finest country-fed". They wrote that they were situated "near Sefton Arms tram terminus" and their telephone number was just "48".
The Reporter wrote: "Boys and sweetmeats are almost synonymous terms, but the latter have to be properly acquired, and not in the manner that was disclosed at the St. Helens Children’s Court, on Wednesday, when nine lads were arraigned on different charges of stealing sweets and other comestibles." Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that for five or six weeks, the police had been investigating a series of petty thefts of sweets and chocolates from shop counters in different parts of St Helens.
For example, a Cambridge Street shop had a box of chocolates taken. The little son of the shopkeeper saw the theft take place and chased the boys. They threatened him and so the lad returned to the shop to tell his parents what had occurred. Four pounds of toffee had also been taken from a Duke Street sweet shop and a 4lb bottle of sweets from retail premises kept by George Johnson. Not all of the boys had taken part in each theft but they all shared the proceeds and they were placed on probation for two years and ordered to pay the costs of the hearing. Not many years earlier they would likely have been birched and given a few weeks in prison.
It was stated in court that a large amount of such pilfering went on in the mine. Aaron Hall in his defence said he had suffered greatly from this stealing and if he had not taken the blade in question, he would not have been able to work. The Bench chose to give the 53-year-old a warning and only fined him 5 shillings.
And finally on the 15th, the Theatre Royal in St Helens went into panto mode with the start of six nights of 'Dick Whittington', with Edna Latonne starring as the eponymous Dick.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the young man that fell into a vat of boiling water, the strange "good night" fracas in Arthur Street, the despicable Lowe Street conman, a tribute to Rainhill's referee and the electric wizard at the Hippodrome.
This week's many stories include the ex-soldier's suicide in Eccleston Mill Dam, the man who claimed that workers pilfering from building sites was commonplace, the sweet shop raids by a gang of boys, the abusive Westfield Street tobacconist, the miners that stole each other's tools and the Crank man too poor to make his own fireguard whose child was burned to death.
James Bagley from Westfield Street was not very popular with his neighbours. They'd frequently complained to the police about the man's conduct and use of foul language.
That was according to Supt. Dunn when on the 9th Bagley appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace.
PC Willcock gave evidence that at 11:20 pm on the previous night he had been in Westfield Street (pictured above) when he saw Bagley come out of a shop door in his shirtsleeves, walk up to his wife who was standing in the street and begin using foul language to her.
The constable said he told him to go away but the man who had been drinking refused, saying "it will take more than one f........ policeman to lock me up".
After being arrested and charged with the offence, Bagley said to PC Willcock, "I'll remember you".
The officer added that he was continually being called to the place to deal with the man.
Supt. Dunn told the court that Bagley used the most filthy and disgusting language in his house and the young children and other people next door were always complaining that they could hear what he said.
Bagley was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months. A clue as to his behaviour is provided by the 1921 census, which lists the 47-year-old's occupation as "assisting wife in her business".
Sarah Bagley was the manager of the tobacconist's shop in Westfield Street that the couple lived over and her husband worked as her assistant. Perhaps resentment at his junior status was what lay behind the man's abuse?
The 1921 census also lists John Green as a 39-year-old unemployed fitter living on Crank Hill in Crank, with five children aged between a few months and seven.
On the 9th Green appeared in the St Helens County Police Court charged with not providing a fireguard for the protection of his children.
Since the census had been taken in June 1921 a sixth child had been born, although only five were now alive.
On December 20th while their mother Sarah was out buying coal, the children had been left alone and 4-year-old Hannah had been drying her clothes in front of their fire.
With no fireguard in place the little girl was set alight and she later died from her burns.
Although it might be seen as cruel to add more troubles to the family's grief by taking out a prosecution, such deaths were so common within the St Helens district that coroner Samuel Brighouse used to call winter the "burning season" for kids.
And so a prosecution needed to be brought to encourage others to get a fireguard.
It was revealed at the hearing that John Green was still out of work and before the tragedy had attempted to make his own fireguard, telling the Bench that poverty had prevented him obtaining the materials that he needed to complete the job.
The magistrates gave the bereaved father a severe warning but also sympathised with him on the loss of little Hannah and dismissed the case upon payment of costs.
There was a sequel to the case of Thomas Dolan, the bankrupt haulage contractor from Lowe Street, who last week had been sent to prison for 3 months for hiding some of his assets.
A man called Jack Broadley had turned up at Mrs Dolan's door claiming to be a warder at Walton Prison and had asked the woman for money so her husband would receive better food.
It was a cruel con and the police seemed to think there was more to the man than met the eye.
They successfully applied to the Bench for the prisoner to be remanded in custody for a week while further inquiries were made.
I reported last November how John Cruise of Elliot Street (off Knowsley Road) in St Helens had been charged with causing over £7 worth of damage inside the nearby Nags Head.
The man had ordered a pint of mild and bitter at the Eccleston Street pub. The price was 8½d but Cruise only had 7d.
In frustration at not getting his drink, Cruise threw a water jug across the bar and that happened to strike a keg, spilling its contents of 1½ gallons of gin onto the floor.
Cruise did not turn up to the hearing but instead sent his stroppy mother. The absent defendant was fined £1 and ordered to pay the full amount of the damage that he had caused, as well as other expenses.
Upon the Bench telling Cruise's mother: "Your son will have to pay all that for his temper", she replied: "Will he? We shall see."
Then upon being warned that if the fine, damages and expenses were not paid, the alternative would be 28 days in prison, Mrs Cruise replied: "Only twenty-eight days, he can do that on his head."
However, when Cruise appeared in the Police Court on the 12th of this week to face a separate charge, another reason for his temper was suggested.
He claimed that he had been wounded in the head during the war and did not always know what he was doing, particularly when in drink.
On this occasion Cruise was charged with theft after taking a lady's coat from a shop in Church Street.
It was also alleged that he had made eight thefts of scaffolding from a housing estate near Garston, where he had been working.
Cruise said it was common practice for builders to help themselves to stuff at work, adding: "If you pulled up everybody that had got a bit out of the building trade you would have to lock half Liverpool up."
Interestingly, Cruise made reference to things "going about loose" on "the St Helens housing estate". Yes, there was only one then, the recently completely Windlehurst council estate.
The magistrates tended to deal with wounded ex-soldiers leniently and they only fined Cruise a total of 20 shillings.
Another possible victim of the war was John Owen from Silkstone Street in St Helens who was reported to have been found floating in Eccleston Mill Dam on the 12th.
The 40-year-old coal miner had left home on the previous day to go to his work as normal and had never talked of suicide – but had complained of pains in his head.
The former soldier had served in the army between 1915 and 1917 and so may have been another victim of the hidden mental heath crisis that affected so many men during the 1920s.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 12th Burchall's butchers had a large ad. They are one of the very few shops from a century ago that are still in existence – and probably the only one trading from exactly the same premises.
Today feted for their pies, Burchall's of 24 Westfield Street had only recently moved from Church Street and were promoting their pork and bacon products, which they called the "finest country-fed".
They wrote that they were situated "near Sefton Arms tram terminus" and their telephone number was just "48".
The Reporter wrote: "Boys and sweetmeats are almost synonymous terms, but the latter have to be properly acquired, and not in the manner that was disclosed at the St. Helens Children’s Court, on Wednesday, when nine lads were arraigned on different charges of stealing sweets and other comestibles."
Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that for five or six weeks, the police had been investigating a series of petty thefts of sweets and chocolates from shop counters in different parts of St Helens.
For example, a Cambridge Street shop had a box of chocolates taken. The little son of the shopkeeper saw the theft take place and chased the boys. They threatened him and so the lad returned to the shop to tell his parents what had occurred.
Four pounds of toffee had also been taken from a Duke Street sweet shop and a 4lb bottle of sweets from retail premises kept by George Johnson.
Not all of the boys had taken part in each theft but they all shared the proceeds and they were placed on probation for two years and ordered to pay the costs of the hearing.
Not many years earlier they would likely have been birched and given a few weeks in prison.
Miners needed to provide their own tools to undertake their work and even pay the colliery to have them sharpened.
There was a tendency for such implements to go missing and some of the victims of such thefts would help themselves to other miners' tools – on the basis that two wrongs made a right.
In St Helens Police Court on the 15th, Aaron Hall from South Street in Thatto Heath pleaded guilty to stealing a pick blade belonging to a workmate at Alexandra Colliery (pictured above).
It was stated in court that a large amount of such pilfering went on in the mine. Aaron Hall in his defence said he had suffered greatly from this stealing and if he had not taken the blade in question, he would not have been able to work.
The Bench chose to give the 53-year-old a warning and only fined him 5 shillings.
And finally on the 15th, the Theatre Royal in St Helens went into panto mode with the start of six nights of 'Dick Whittington', with Edna Latonne starring as the eponymous Dick.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the young man that fell into a vat of boiling water, the strange "good night" fracas in Arthur Street, the despicable Lowe Street conman, a tribute to Rainhill's referee and the electric wizard at the Hippodrome.
James Bagley from Westfield Street was not very popular with his neighbours. They'd frequently complained to the police about the man's conduct and use of foul language.
That was according to Supt. Dunn when on the 9th Bagley appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a breach of the peace.
The constable said he told him to go away but the man who had been drinking refused, saying "it will take more than one f........ policeman to lock me up".
After being arrested and charged with the offence, Bagley said to PC Willcock, "I'll remember you".
The officer added that he was continually being called to the place to deal with the man.
Supt. Dunn told the court that Bagley used the most filthy and disgusting language in his house and the young children and other people next door were always complaining that they could hear what he said.
Bagley was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months. A clue as to his behaviour is provided by the 1921 census, which lists the 47-year-old's occupation as "assisting wife in her business".
Sarah Bagley was the manager of the tobacconist's shop in Westfield Street that the couple lived over and her husband worked as her assistant. Perhaps resentment at his junior status was what lay behind the man's abuse?
The 1921 census also lists John Green as a 39-year-old unemployed fitter living on Crank Hill in Crank, with five children aged between a few months and seven.
On the 9th Green appeared in the St Helens County Police Court charged with not providing a fireguard for the protection of his children.
Since the census had been taken in June 1921 a sixth child had been born, although only five were now alive.
On December 20th while their mother Sarah was out buying coal, the children had been left alone and 4-year-old Hannah had been drying her clothes in front of their fire.
With no fireguard in place the little girl was set alight and she later died from her burns.
Although it might be seen as cruel to add more troubles to the family's grief by taking out a prosecution, such deaths were so common within the St Helens district that coroner Samuel Brighouse used to call winter the "burning season" for kids.
And so a prosecution needed to be brought to encourage others to get a fireguard.
It was revealed at the hearing that John Green was still out of work and before the tragedy had attempted to make his own fireguard, telling the Bench that poverty had prevented him obtaining the materials that he needed to complete the job.
The magistrates gave the bereaved father a severe warning but also sympathised with him on the loss of little Hannah and dismissed the case upon payment of costs.
There was a sequel to the case of Thomas Dolan, the bankrupt haulage contractor from Lowe Street, who last week had been sent to prison for 3 months for hiding some of his assets.
A man called Jack Broadley had turned up at Mrs Dolan's door claiming to be a warder at Walton Prison and had asked the woman for money so her husband would receive better food.
It was a cruel con and the police seemed to think there was more to the man than met the eye.
They successfully applied to the Bench for the prisoner to be remanded in custody for a week while further inquiries were made.
I reported last November how John Cruise of Elliot Street (off Knowsley Road) in St Helens had been charged with causing over £7 worth of damage inside the nearby Nags Head.
The man had ordered a pint of mild and bitter at the Eccleston Street pub. The price was 8½d but Cruise only had 7d.
In frustration at not getting his drink, Cruise threw a water jug across the bar and that happened to strike a keg, spilling its contents of 1½ gallons of gin onto the floor.
Cruise did not turn up to the hearing but instead sent his stroppy mother. The absent defendant was fined £1 and ordered to pay the full amount of the damage that he had caused, as well as other expenses.
Upon the Bench telling Cruise's mother: "Your son will have to pay all that for his temper", she replied: "Will he? We shall see."
Then upon being warned that if the fine, damages and expenses were not paid, the alternative would be 28 days in prison, Mrs Cruise replied: "Only twenty-eight days, he can do that on his head."
However, when Cruise appeared in the Police Court on the 12th of this week to face a separate charge, another reason for his temper was suggested.
He claimed that he had been wounded in the head during the war and did not always know what he was doing, particularly when in drink.
On this occasion Cruise was charged with theft after taking a lady's coat from a shop in Church Street.
It was also alleged that he had made eight thefts of scaffolding from a housing estate near Garston, where he had been working.
Cruise said it was common practice for builders to help themselves to stuff at work, adding: "If you pulled up everybody that had got a bit out of the building trade you would have to lock half Liverpool up."
Interestingly, Cruise made reference to things "going about loose" on "the St Helens housing estate". Yes, there was only one then, the recently completely Windlehurst council estate.
The magistrates tended to deal with wounded ex-soldiers leniently and they only fined Cruise a total of 20 shillings.
Another possible victim of the war was John Owen from Silkstone Street in St Helens who was reported to have been found floating in Eccleston Mill Dam on the 12th.
The 40-year-old coal miner had left home on the previous day to go to his work as normal and had never talked of suicide – but had complained of pains in his head.
The former soldier had served in the army between 1915 and 1917 and so may have been another victim of the hidden mental heath crisis that affected so many men during the 1920s.
In the St Helens Reporter on the 12th Burchall's butchers had a large ad. They are one of the very few shops from a century ago that are still in existence – and probably the only one trading from exactly the same premises.
Today feted for their pies, Burchall's of 24 Westfield Street had only recently moved from Church Street and were promoting their pork and bacon products, which they called the "finest country-fed".
They wrote that they were situated "near Sefton Arms tram terminus" and their telephone number was just "48".
The Reporter wrote: "Boys and sweetmeats are almost synonymous terms, but the latter have to be properly acquired, and not in the manner that was disclosed at the St. Helens Children’s Court, on Wednesday, when nine lads were arraigned on different charges of stealing sweets and other comestibles."
Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that for five or six weeks, the police had been investigating a series of petty thefts of sweets and chocolates from shop counters in different parts of St Helens.
For example, a Cambridge Street shop had a box of chocolates taken. The little son of the shopkeeper saw the theft take place and chased the boys. They threatened him and so the lad returned to the shop to tell his parents what had occurred.
Four pounds of toffee had also been taken from a Duke Street sweet shop and a 4lb bottle of sweets from retail premises kept by George Johnson.
Not all of the boys had taken part in each theft but they all shared the proceeds and they were placed on probation for two years and ordered to pay the costs of the hearing.
Not many years earlier they would likely have been birched and given a few weeks in prison.
Miners needed to provide their own tools to undertake their work and even pay the colliery to have them sharpened.
There was a tendency for such implements to go missing and some of the victims of such thefts would help themselves to other miners' tools – on the basis that two wrongs made a right.
It was stated in court that a large amount of such pilfering went on in the mine. Aaron Hall in his defence said he had suffered greatly from this stealing and if he had not taken the blade in question, he would not have been able to work.
The Bench chose to give the 53-year-old a warning and only fined him 5 shillings.
And finally on the 15th, the Theatre Royal in St Helens went into panto mode with the start of six nights of 'Dick Whittington', with Edna Latonne starring as the eponymous Dick.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the young man that fell into a vat of boiling water, the strange "good night" fracas in Arthur Street, the despicable Lowe Street conman, a tribute to Rainhill's referee and the electric wizard at the Hippodrome.