IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th September 1919)
This week's stories include the Corporation's war on rats, an ejectment order for the choosy Vincent Street tenant, the furious driving of a motor car in Higher Parr Street, the Sutton landlord who stole a lodger's watch, the Gamble Institute's evening classes and the low Peasley Cross bridge that could decapitate passengers on open-top trams.
We begin on the 10th at a meeting of the St Helens Health Committee when it was revealed that official permission had now been granted for the building of the Windlehurst housing estate. The land bought by St Helens Corporation from Sir David Gamble would become the town's first council estate, with the second built in Parr in 1926. The estate would be constructed on what we now call green belt land, which the Reporter had dubbed "one of the most picturesque settings in the district".
The Town Clerk also told the meeting that the Board of Agriculture was requesting that urgent action be taken by St Helens Corporation to destroy rats, which had overrun parts of the town. Liverpool Road was very badly infested, as was Station Road and part of Parr. The Mayor thought a professional rat catcher should be engaged and paid per head or tail of destroyed rats.
Alderman Peet said the farmers were doing their bit to kill rats. He described how he had recently been with one farmer who told him that he had destroyed 200 that day while threshing.
The St Helens Reporter described on the 12th how the Corporation's Tramway Committee had decided to obtain prices for six single decker trams to run on the St Helens Junction route. That was because of the low bridge in Peasley Cross Lane that could decapitate passengers on open-top double-deckers who stood up at the wrong moment. As a result huge 'Please Keep Your Seats' warning signs were installed on the bridge parapets, as can be seen from the photo above when a Leyland Titan bus passed under.
However when the minutes of the Tramway Committee were presented to the full Town Council, a request was made to withdraw the item on single decker trams. This suggests that they decided not to bother buying them (perhaps through cost) and continue running double-decker trams on the route, as well as their small existing stock of single-deckers.
This article on charabancs was also published in the Reporter: "Users of the road this summer-time cannot but notice the phenomenal increase in traffic by heavy passenger carrying motors. Of all makes and all types, these leviathans of the road dominate the scene at every turn.
"From the beautifully finished post-war productions of the best factories, with coach work resplendent in bright enamel, down to the obviously second-hand W. D. lurry [War Dept lorry] with seating composed of disused Sunday school forms, and coachwork reminiscent of old packing cases – the roads are full of them. This traffic may tend to cause slight discomfort to the more aristocratic road-users; but it is a means of enabling thousands to enjoy the pleasure of motoring, who would otherwise be unable to do so, and there is no doubt whatever that Motor Charabancs have come to stay."
Like today not all landlords had large numbers of properties on their books. The owner of 112 Vincent Street was a widow called Mrs Oakes who had Elizabeth Thomas as her sole tenant. Mrs Oakes had bought the house in July 1918 and had repeatedly asked Mrs Thomas to find somewhere else to live so she could reside in her own house. She was currently living with her sister in Lingholme Road and having to pay for her furniture to be in storage.
Despite finding her tenant other possible places to live, Mrs Thomas had always refused to leave, claiming the houses were unsuitable for one reason or another. She had resided in the house in Vincent Street since it had been built in 1908 and had her invalid daughter, two sons and her son-in-law living with her.
So on the 12th in St Helens Police Court, Mrs Oakes sought an ejectment order against Mrs Thomas in which the latter claimed she'd tried hard to find another house. She said the severe housing shortage in St Helens made it very difficult to find anywhere suitable to rent.
When asked in court if she had registered with a letting agent, Mrs Thomas said they had hundreds of people on their books all wanting to rent homes and they were not taking any more names, as otherwise they would have thousands apply. The Bench felt that Mrs Oakes had been very obliging to Mrs Thomas and gave her and her family 28 days to leave the house.
The housing shortage led to Agnes Hayes losing her husband's watch. She hadn't been able to find a house and so was lodging with a miner called James Pickett in Pye Street. This used to be in Sutton, near Hoghtons Road. Mrs Hayes had gone away on Whit Saturday and upon her return three days later had discovered her husband's watch and chain had gone missing from a drawer.
Watches were important possessions and its disappearance was hardly likely not to have been missed. So it was stupid of her landlord to have stolen it and then given Mrs Hayes a false story of having taken the watch to be mended. In reality the man had sold the watch to a lad who had broken it.
James Pickett explained to the magistrates on the 12th that he'd repeatedly told the police lies to give him time to try and return the watch. As it was Pickett's first offence he was only fined £1 and told to buy a watch for Mrs Hayes equal to the one he had stolen.
The last St Helens' military unit returned home from overseas late on the 12th, almost a year since the war had ended. On the following day the fifty men from the 5th South Lancashire Regiment marched from the Volunteer Hall to the Town Hall to receive a civic reception from the Mayor.
They walked through streets decorated with flags and bunting and were accompanied by former members of the 5th and a band. During the evening a troupe of military artistes with the curious name of Kostume Komedie Kompanie entertained the men in the Volunteer Hall.
For many years the Gamble Institute by the Town Hall housed a Technical School and School of Art, as well as the main library. For a week from the 15th registration for the Gamble's evening classes took place in which the heads of chemistry, engineering, mining, building and commercial departments – along with the headmaster of the School of Art – would be on hand to discuss their courses.
We would call it an Open Evening or Open Day but those terms do not yet appear to have been in use. Students had five days to register for their chosen course/s or they would have to pay a booking fee. Alongside the registration sessions there was an exhibition of past work, which included drawings, designs, painting, modelling, craftwork, stained glass and embroidery.
At Chester Police Court on the 15th a man called James Bond was charged with attempting to steal a purse containing £12 from butcher Henry Parr from Sutton Road in St Helens. A railway detective had seen the man place his hand on Parr's hip pocket as he entered a train. The detective seized the prisoner who threatened to "bash his head in" if he did not let him go. Not words that 007 would probably use! James Bond was committed to the Chester quarter sessions for trial.
At a court in Warrington on the 15th, Gertrude Stevens from Penny Lane in Haydock was committed to the Liverpool Assizes on a charge of the manslaughter of her newly born son. The child's dead body had been found in a bundle on a chair behind some curtains in the 21-year-old woman's bedroom. Dr Jackson gave evidence at the hearing that the child would probably have lived if given proper care.
There were quite a few regular customers in St Helens Police Court who often drunk too much on Saturday nights and made a spectacle of themselves. Margaret Dillon from Liverpool Street made her nineteenth appearance in court on the 15th charged with breaching the peace in Stanley Street in Gerards Bridge.
PC Kenyon said she was shouting and using bad language and surrounded by a large crowd – all the usual hallmarks of a Saturday night drunk at large! The woman was bound over to keep the peace for six months but had to find two sureties of £1 and pay £2 herself.
Also in court was Sydney Robinson from Wellington Terrace, off Oldfield Street, whom PC Tinsley had reported for furious driving of a motor car in Higher Parr Street and Traverse Street. There was the usual difference in opinion between the driver and the policeman as to the speed that the vehicle had been travelling.
The bobby reckoned it had been 35 mph but Robinson indignantly claimed it had been no more than 15 mph. In court he asked PC Tinsley if he had been travelling at 35 mph why had he not stopped him. "Because I couldn't!", was the reply to the daft question. Sydney Robinson received a telling off from the bench and a fine of ten shillings.
The man was a mechanic who claimed to have been driving cars since 1903, which if true would make him one of the earliest motorists in St Helens. However the 1911 census shows Sydney as a 23-year-old chauffeur living in Brynn Street, which would mean that he was only 15 when he first got behind the wheel of a car, something that was quite possible.
The minimum age for driving in 1903 was 17 but no proof of age was needed and no test had to be sat. You simply paid 5 shillings at St Helens Town Hall and if you looked 17 you got your licence. It was that easy!
Next week's stories will include the man who died at Boundary Road baths, the Sherdley Colliery coal thief, a fire in St Helens market, the quarrelsome neighbours of Newton Road, Rainford Council wins its battle with the railway company and the Parr pit that a miner said had a "gasometer at your nose".
We begin on the 10th at a meeting of the St Helens Health Committee when it was revealed that official permission had now been granted for the building of the Windlehurst housing estate. The land bought by St Helens Corporation from Sir David Gamble would become the town's first council estate, with the second built in Parr in 1926. The estate would be constructed on what we now call green belt land, which the Reporter had dubbed "one of the most picturesque settings in the district".
The Town Clerk also told the meeting that the Board of Agriculture was requesting that urgent action be taken by St Helens Corporation to destroy rats, which had overrun parts of the town. Liverpool Road was very badly infested, as was Station Road and part of Parr. The Mayor thought a professional rat catcher should be engaged and paid per head or tail of destroyed rats.
Alderman Peet said the farmers were doing their bit to kill rats. He described how he had recently been with one farmer who told him that he had destroyed 200 that day while threshing.
However when the minutes of the Tramway Committee were presented to the full Town Council, a request was made to withdraw the item on single decker trams. This suggests that they decided not to bother buying them (perhaps through cost) and continue running double-decker trams on the route, as well as their small existing stock of single-deckers.
This article on charabancs was also published in the Reporter: "Users of the road this summer-time cannot but notice the phenomenal increase in traffic by heavy passenger carrying motors. Of all makes and all types, these leviathans of the road dominate the scene at every turn.
"From the beautifully finished post-war productions of the best factories, with coach work resplendent in bright enamel, down to the obviously second-hand W. D. lurry [War Dept lorry] with seating composed of disused Sunday school forms, and coachwork reminiscent of old packing cases – the roads are full of them. This traffic may tend to cause slight discomfort to the more aristocratic road-users; but it is a means of enabling thousands to enjoy the pleasure of motoring, who would otherwise be unable to do so, and there is no doubt whatever that Motor Charabancs have come to stay."
Like today not all landlords had large numbers of properties on their books. The owner of 112 Vincent Street was a widow called Mrs Oakes who had Elizabeth Thomas as her sole tenant. Mrs Oakes had bought the house in July 1918 and had repeatedly asked Mrs Thomas to find somewhere else to live so she could reside in her own house. She was currently living with her sister in Lingholme Road and having to pay for her furniture to be in storage.
Despite finding her tenant other possible places to live, Mrs Thomas had always refused to leave, claiming the houses were unsuitable for one reason or another. She had resided in the house in Vincent Street since it had been built in 1908 and had her invalid daughter, two sons and her son-in-law living with her.
So on the 12th in St Helens Police Court, Mrs Oakes sought an ejectment order against Mrs Thomas in which the latter claimed she'd tried hard to find another house. She said the severe housing shortage in St Helens made it very difficult to find anywhere suitable to rent.
When asked in court if she had registered with a letting agent, Mrs Thomas said they had hundreds of people on their books all wanting to rent homes and they were not taking any more names, as otherwise they would have thousands apply. The Bench felt that Mrs Oakes had been very obliging to Mrs Thomas and gave her and her family 28 days to leave the house.
The housing shortage led to Agnes Hayes losing her husband's watch. She hadn't been able to find a house and so was lodging with a miner called James Pickett in Pye Street. This used to be in Sutton, near Hoghtons Road. Mrs Hayes had gone away on Whit Saturday and upon her return three days later had discovered her husband's watch and chain had gone missing from a drawer.
Watches were important possessions and its disappearance was hardly likely not to have been missed. So it was stupid of her landlord to have stolen it and then given Mrs Hayes a false story of having taken the watch to be mended. In reality the man had sold the watch to a lad who had broken it.
James Pickett explained to the magistrates on the 12th that he'd repeatedly told the police lies to give him time to try and return the watch. As it was Pickett's first offence he was only fined £1 and told to buy a watch for Mrs Hayes equal to the one he had stolen.
The last St Helens' military unit returned home from overseas late on the 12th, almost a year since the war had ended. On the following day the fifty men from the 5th South Lancashire Regiment marched from the Volunteer Hall to the Town Hall to receive a civic reception from the Mayor.
They walked through streets decorated with flags and bunting and were accompanied by former members of the 5th and a band. During the evening a troupe of military artistes with the curious name of Kostume Komedie Kompanie entertained the men in the Volunteer Hall.
We would call it an Open Evening or Open Day but those terms do not yet appear to have been in use. Students had five days to register for their chosen course/s or they would have to pay a booking fee. Alongside the registration sessions there was an exhibition of past work, which included drawings, designs, painting, modelling, craftwork, stained glass and embroidery.
At Chester Police Court on the 15th a man called James Bond was charged with attempting to steal a purse containing £12 from butcher Henry Parr from Sutton Road in St Helens. A railway detective had seen the man place his hand on Parr's hip pocket as he entered a train. The detective seized the prisoner who threatened to "bash his head in" if he did not let him go. Not words that 007 would probably use! James Bond was committed to the Chester quarter sessions for trial.
At a court in Warrington on the 15th, Gertrude Stevens from Penny Lane in Haydock was committed to the Liverpool Assizes on a charge of the manslaughter of her newly born son. The child's dead body had been found in a bundle on a chair behind some curtains in the 21-year-old woman's bedroom. Dr Jackson gave evidence at the hearing that the child would probably have lived if given proper care.
There were quite a few regular customers in St Helens Police Court who often drunk too much on Saturday nights and made a spectacle of themselves. Margaret Dillon from Liverpool Street made her nineteenth appearance in court on the 15th charged with breaching the peace in Stanley Street in Gerards Bridge.
PC Kenyon said she was shouting and using bad language and surrounded by a large crowd – all the usual hallmarks of a Saturday night drunk at large! The woman was bound over to keep the peace for six months but had to find two sureties of £1 and pay £2 herself.
Also in court was Sydney Robinson from Wellington Terrace, off Oldfield Street, whom PC Tinsley had reported for furious driving of a motor car in Higher Parr Street and Traverse Street. There was the usual difference in opinion between the driver and the policeman as to the speed that the vehicle had been travelling.
The bobby reckoned it had been 35 mph but Robinson indignantly claimed it had been no more than 15 mph. In court he asked PC Tinsley if he had been travelling at 35 mph why had he not stopped him. "Because I couldn't!", was the reply to the daft question. Sydney Robinson received a telling off from the bench and a fine of ten shillings.
The man was a mechanic who claimed to have been driving cars since 1903, which if true would make him one of the earliest motorists in St Helens. However the 1911 census shows Sydney as a 23-year-old chauffeur living in Brynn Street, which would mean that he was only 15 when he first got behind the wheel of a car, something that was quite possible.
The minimum age for driving in 1903 was 17 but no proof of age was needed and no test had to be sat. You simply paid 5 shillings at St Helens Town Hall and if you looked 17 you got your licence. It was that easy!
Next week's stories will include the man who died at Boundary Road baths, the Sherdley Colliery coal thief, a fire in St Helens market, the quarrelsome neighbours of Newton Road, Rainford Council wins its battle with the railway company and the Parr pit that a miner said had a "gasometer at your nose".