IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th APRIL 1923)
This week's many stories include the Dunriding Lane dust up over a daughter's boyfriend, two more mining deaths take place, the theft at a Parr pawnbroker's, the formation of St Helens Rotary, Satan's empire falls at the Scala and the men that rose at 2am to walk to St Helens to find work.
We begin with yet another court appearance by the Italian ice-cream sellers. The three main such families of the 20th century in St Helens were the Fredericks, the Randolphs and the Vincents. All three families anglicised their surnames (and Christian names), having come to the town originally with the names of Frederici, Randolfi and Vernazza.
Court appearances for breaching the rules were regular events, mainly through the language barrier. But there was now a new ice-cream kid in town! Giovanni Manfredi was summoned to St Helens Police Court for selling without a permit and there was the usual language difficulty. An interpreter had to be brought to the court to explain that he did not have the money to pay for a street-hawking permit. He was fined 7s 6d. Giovanni Manfredi seems to have soon started calling himself John Manfreds and was based in Duke Street.
On the 10th a new club was formed in St Helens with the Reporter writing: "The Rotary movement has now taken root in St. Helens. At a meeting held in the Town Hall on Tuesday, inspired by impressive speeches delivered by Manchester and Liverpool Rotarians, a resolution to form a Rotary Club in St. Helens was carried unanimously."
One of the Liverpool delegates was a chap called T. N. Phillip who described a Rotary club as one which consisted of a number of businessmen who were out to do "a little bit more". He advised the new St Helens club to find a "real live secretary", although I doubt they were planning to have a dead one!
Arthur Burrows from Lee Street in Sutton appeared in the Police Court on the 10th charged with "loitering at Peckers Hill Road for the purpose of making and receiving bets". Two police officers had been on stake out at the corner of Sutton Road and Peckers Hill Road and seen bets being taken. Burrows pleaded guilty but asked for leniency saying he took bets for the sake of his health and to support his wife and five children. But he had a previous conviction for the same offence and was fined the usual high amount of £10.
On the 12th the Pall Mall Gazette published this short piece: "A Canadian who has been staying at Rainford, Lancashire, and is about to return home, has written to Whiston Rural Council asking them to find him “a nice little English wife.” He adds:- “If you don't know of a lady like the one I have described, perhaps you will bring the matter before your Council, because I have been told they are a lot of jolly old sparks and lady killers, and know every marriageable lady within miles of them.”" It later transpired that the letter had been a joke with no Canadian involved, although numerous newspapers as well as the Pall Mall Gazette published it.
Also on the 12th Alfred Davies of Crawford Street died at Clock Face Colliery (pictured above). The 42-year-old head foreman was instantly killed after being struck down by an iron girder weighing 10 cwt. On the following day William Gee – an 18-year-old haulage hand at Sutton Manor Colliery – died in St Helens Hospital from severe injuries inflicted by runaway tubs of coal. The coroner at his inquest said the youth had probably been riding an empty coal box down a brow, a dangerous practice that was against the mine's rules.
I suppose fathers have always tended to disapprove of their daughter's boyfriends – although I expect such disdain was much more common in the past. Certainly Abraham Cropper did not think a lot of Samuel Hanks as a prospective son-in-law! On the 13th the St Helens Reporter described the antipathy between the pair in reporting on a court case in which Hanks was accused of beating up Cropper at his Dunriding Lane home.
The young man's address was stated in court as the British Soldier public house in St Helens Road, Prescot. Whether his abode made him feel that he had to behave like a soldier, I do not know. But turning up at his fiance's father's house after being banned from the premises was never likely to end well. It sounds like trouble had been brewing for some time but the spark that led to the court case had been an incident between the father and his daughter Rhoda.
She had told Samuel that her dad had used foul language to her over some minor matter – and so Hanks showed up at the house to sort the man out. The father's version of what occurred was that Hanks had entered his home saying, "Where's the madman?" and calling him a "rotten swine". Cropper then claimed he was attacked while eating his tea at the dining table – but Hanks said he had only pushed him. The young man's claim was supported by Rhoda, who added that her boyfriend had simply told her father that he was a "dirty hound" for using such bad language to his daughter.
I don't think it makes much difference whether you call your girlfriend's father a "madman", "rotten swine" or a "dirty hound". None of those are likely to endear him to you! It was claimed that it took an hour and the efforts of a policeman to get Samuel Hanks out of the house. The magistrates found the lad guilty of assaulting and beating Abraham Cropper and bound him over for six months.
Also on the 13th Peter Rogerson appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with cruelly neglecting a horse. The animal had been found in a field in a very bad state, covered with sores and suffering from mange. Rogerson was described as a caravan dweller and a widower – despite only being 18. That suggests that his wife had died in childbirth, or shortly afterwards. The magistrates ordered the young man to pay 25 shillings and costs.
On the 14th in St Helens Police Court an unnamed girl was charged with stealing 6s 8d from Corrin's pawnbroker's in Parr and her mother was accused of receiving the cash. PC Phillips said that the girl had admitted picking up the money, which another girl had placed on a form in the shop while packing a parcel.
Her mother claimed that she had intended to return the stolen money to the shop but the police had acted before she could do so. The magistrates did not appear entirely convinced by the mother's explanation but decided to just caution her and dismiss the receiving charge. But her daughter was put on probation for two years.
Since the end of the war members of the International Bible Students Association had given thousands of lectures worldwide called "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". The premise of the talk was that those still alive in 1925 would live forever. The free lecture had already been given several times in St Helens and one might have thought that sufficient mileage had been derived from what some might call a crackpot notion.
But it returned on the 15th and was presented again in Griffin's Picture House in St Helens. In 1924 the Ormskirk Street cinema would be renamed the Scala. Other speakers all over the world also gave the same lecture on the same day and their adverts began: "Satan's Empire Falling!!! – ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’."
The inquest on James Coburn was held on the 16th. The body of the 41-year-old had been found in Borough Road in St Helens at 5:15am on April 6th and medical evidence suggested he had been run over by a heavy vehicle. Thomas Cook had been a close friend of Coburn and told the inquest that they had both been unemployed but had found work at Ashtons Green Colliery. But in order to arrive in Parr for the early shift they had to leave Liverpool at around 2 or 2:30am.
They got to St Helens through a combination of walking and, if they were lucky, getting a lift off a lorry driver. That was achieved either with the driver's permission or by secretly climbing on the back of the trailers that many wagons then hauled. The Coroner, Samuel Brighouse, had this to say to Thomas Cook:
"I think the case of yourself and this poor fellow who came by his death ought to come to the notice of the gentleman who writes about the dole in the “Daily Mail.” It not only shows that you [the unemployed] are not all wrong, but that there are genuine, honest, working men who are very anxious to get work if there is only work for them to do. Men who will get up at the unearthly hour of half-past two and set out to walk to St. Helens, taking the chance of getting a lift from a motor, in order to go down a colliery and work there, and then walk back to Liverpool, I think are deserving of every praise."
The Coroner thought that the dead man had either been killed by the wagon he had been travelling on – or by a vehicle following behind after he'd fallen off. Impressed by Thomas Cook's testimony and hearing he was now out of work again, Mr Brighouse gave him £1 from his poor box.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Bentinck Street case of child cruelty by a bereaved husband, the reduction in tram fares, the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and an update on the fiendishly brutal stepmother from Elephant Lane.
We begin with yet another court appearance by the Italian ice-cream sellers. The three main such families of the 20th century in St Helens were the Fredericks, the Randolphs and the Vincents. All three families anglicised their surnames (and Christian names), having come to the town originally with the names of Frederici, Randolfi and Vernazza.
Court appearances for breaching the rules were regular events, mainly through the language barrier. But there was now a new ice-cream kid in town! Giovanni Manfredi was summoned to St Helens Police Court for selling without a permit and there was the usual language difficulty. An interpreter had to be brought to the court to explain that he did not have the money to pay for a street-hawking permit. He was fined 7s 6d. Giovanni Manfredi seems to have soon started calling himself John Manfreds and was based in Duke Street.
On the 10th a new club was formed in St Helens with the Reporter writing: "The Rotary movement has now taken root in St. Helens. At a meeting held in the Town Hall on Tuesday, inspired by impressive speeches delivered by Manchester and Liverpool Rotarians, a resolution to form a Rotary Club in St. Helens was carried unanimously."
One of the Liverpool delegates was a chap called T. N. Phillip who described a Rotary club as one which consisted of a number of businessmen who were out to do "a little bit more". He advised the new St Helens club to find a "real live secretary", although I doubt they were planning to have a dead one!
Arthur Burrows from Lee Street in Sutton appeared in the Police Court on the 10th charged with "loitering at Peckers Hill Road for the purpose of making and receiving bets". Two police officers had been on stake out at the corner of Sutton Road and Peckers Hill Road and seen bets being taken. Burrows pleaded guilty but asked for leniency saying he took bets for the sake of his health and to support his wife and five children. But he had a previous conviction for the same offence and was fined the usual high amount of £10.
On the 12th the Pall Mall Gazette published this short piece: "A Canadian who has been staying at Rainford, Lancashire, and is about to return home, has written to Whiston Rural Council asking them to find him “a nice little English wife.” He adds:- “If you don't know of a lady like the one I have described, perhaps you will bring the matter before your Council, because I have been told they are a lot of jolly old sparks and lady killers, and know every marriageable lady within miles of them.”" It later transpired that the letter had been a joke with no Canadian involved, although numerous newspapers as well as the Pall Mall Gazette published it.
I suppose fathers have always tended to disapprove of their daughter's boyfriends – although I expect such disdain was much more common in the past. Certainly Abraham Cropper did not think a lot of Samuel Hanks as a prospective son-in-law! On the 13th the St Helens Reporter described the antipathy between the pair in reporting on a court case in which Hanks was accused of beating up Cropper at his Dunriding Lane home.
The young man's address was stated in court as the British Soldier public house in St Helens Road, Prescot. Whether his abode made him feel that he had to behave like a soldier, I do not know. But turning up at his fiance's father's house after being banned from the premises was never likely to end well. It sounds like trouble had been brewing for some time but the spark that led to the court case had been an incident between the father and his daughter Rhoda.
She had told Samuel that her dad had used foul language to her over some minor matter – and so Hanks showed up at the house to sort the man out. The father's version of what occurred was that Hanks had entered his home saying, "Where's the madman?" and calling him a "rotten swine". Cropper then claimed he was attacked while eating his tea at the dining table – but Hanks said he had only pushed him. The young man's claim was supported by Rhoda, who added that her boyfriend had simply told her father that he was a "dirty hound" for using such bad language to his daughter.
I don't think it makes much difference whether you call your girlfriend's father a "madman", "rotten swine" or a "dirty hound". None of those are likely to endear him to you! It was claimed that it took an hour and the efforts of a policeman to get Samuel Hanks out of the house. The magistrates found the lad guilty of assaulting and beating Abraham Cropper and bound him over for six months.
Also on the 13th Peter Rogerson appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with cruelly neglecting a horse. The animal had been found in a field in a very bad state, covered with sores and suffering from mange. Rogerson was described as a caravan dweller and a widower – despite only being 18. That suggests that his wife had died in childbirth, or shortly afterwards. The magistrates ordered the young man to pay 25 shillings and costs.
On the 14th in St Helens Police Court an unnamed girl was charged with stealing 6s 8d from Corrin's pawnbroker's in Parr and her mother was accused of receiving the cash. PC Phillips said that the girl had admitted picking up the money, which another girl had placed on a form in the shop while packing a parcel.
Her mother claimed that she had intended to return the stolen money to the shop but the police had acted before she could do so. The magistrates did not appear entirely convinced by the mother's explanation but decided to just caution her and dismiss the receiving charge. But her daughter was put on probation for two years.
Since the end of the war members of the International Bible Students Association had given thousands of lectures worldwide called "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". The premise of the talk was that those still alive in 1925 would live forever. The free lecture had already been given several times in St Helens and one might have thought that sufficient mileage had been derived from what some might call a crackpot notion.
But it returned on the 15th and was presented again in Griffin's Picture House in St Helens. In 1924 the Ormskirk Street cinema would be renamed the Scala. Other speakers all over the world also gave the same lecture on the same day and their adverts began: "Satan's Empire Falling!!! – ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’."
The inquest on James Coburn was held on the 16th. The body of the 41-year-old had been found in Borough Road in St Helens at 5:15am on April 6th and medical evidence suggested he had been run over by a heavy vehicle. Thomas Cook had been a close friend of Coburn and told the inquest that they had both been unemployed but had found work at Ashtons Green Colliery. But in order to arrive in Parr for the early shift they had to leave Liverpool at around 2 or 2:30am.
They got to St Helens through a combination of walking and, if they were lucky, getting a lift off a lorry driver. That was achieved either with the driver's permission or by secretly climbing on the back of the trailers that many wagons then hauled. The Coroner, Samuel Brighouse, had this to say to Thomas Cook:
"I think the case of yourself and this poor fellow who came by his death ought to come to the notice of the gentleman who writes about the dole in the “Daily Mail.” It not only shows that you [the unemployed] are not all wrong, but that there are genuine, honest, working men who are very anxious to get work if there is only work for them to do. Men who will get up at the unearthly hour of half-past two and set out to walk to St. Helens, taking the chance of getting a lift from a motor, in order to go down a colliery and work there, and then walk back to Liverpool, I think are deserving of every praise."
The Coroner thought that the dead man had either been killed by the wagon he had been travelling on – or by a vehicle following behind after he'd fallen off. Impressed by Thomas Cook's testimony and hearing he was now out of work again, Mr Brighouse gave him £1 from his poor box.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Bentinck Street case of child cruelty by a bereaved husband, the reduction in tram fares, the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and an update on the fiendishly brutal stepmother from Elephant Lane.
This week's many stories include the Dunriding Lane dust up over a daughter's boyfriend, two more mining deaths take place, the theft at a Parr pawnbroker's, the formation of St Helens Rotary, Satan's empire falls at the Scala and the men that rose at 2am to walk to St Helens to find work.
We begin with yet another court appearance by the Italian ice-cream sellers. The three main such families of the 20th century in St Helens were the Fredericks, the Randolphs and the Vincents.
All three families anglicised their surnames (and Christian names), having come to the town originally with the names of Frederici, Randolfi and Vernazza.
Court appearances for breaching the rules were regular events, mainly through the language barrier.
But there was now a new ice-cream kid in town! Giovanni Manfredi was summoned to St Helens Police Court for selling without a permit and there was the usual language difficulty.
An interpreter had to be brought to the court to explain that he did not have the money to pay for a street-hawking permit. He was fined 7s 6d.
Giovanni Manfredi seems to have soon started calling himself John Manfreds and was based in Duke Street.
On the 10th a new club was formed in St Helens with the Reporter writing:
"The Rotary movement has now taken root in St. Helens. At a meeting held in the Town Hall on Tuesday, inspired by impressive speeches delivered by Manchester and Liverpool Rotarians, a resolution to form a Rotary Club in St. Helens was carried unanimously."
One of the Liverpool delegates was a chap called T. N. Phillip who described a Rotary club as one which consisted of a number of businessmen who were out to do "a little bit more".
He advised the new St Helens club to find a "real live secretary", although I doubt they were planning to have a dead one!
Arthur Burrows from Lee Street in Sutton appeared in the Police Court on the 10th charged with "loitering at Peckers Hill Road for the purpose of making and receiving bets".
Two police officers had been on stake out at the corner of Sutton Road and Peckers Hill Road and seen bets being taken.
Burrows pleaded guilty but asked for leniency saying he took bets for the sake of his health and to support his wife and five children. But he had a previous conviction for the same offence and was fined the usual high amount of £10.
On the 12th the Pall Mall Gazette published this short piece:
"A Canadian who has been staying at Rainford, Lancashire, and is about to return home, has written to Whiston Rural Council asking them to find him “a nice little English wife.” He adds:-
"“If you don't know of a lady like the one I have described, perhaps you will bring the matter before your Council, because I have been told they are a lot of jolly old sparks and lady killers, and know every marriageable lady within miles of them.”"
It later transpired that the letter had been a joke with no Canadian involved, although numerous newspapers as well as the Pall Mall Gazette published it.
Also on the 12th Alfred Davies of Crawford Street died at Clock Face Colliery (pictured above). The 42-year-old head foreman was instantly killed after being struck down by an iron girder weighing 10 cwt.
On the following day William Gee – an 18-year-old haulage hand at Sutton Manor Colliery – died in St Helens Hospital from severe injuries inflicted by runaway tubs of coal.
The coroner at his inquest said the youth had probably been riding an empty coal box down a brow, a dangerous practice that was against the mine's rules.
I suppose fathers have always tended to disapprove of their daughter's boyfriends – although I expect such disdain was much more common in the past.
Certainly Abraham Cropper did not think a lot of Samuel Hanks as a prospective son-in-law!
On the 13th the St Helens Reporter described the antipathy between the pair in reporting on a court case in which Hanks was accused of beating up Cropper at his Dunriding Lane home.
The young man's address was stated in court as the British Soldier public house in St Helens Road, Prescot.
Whether his abode made him feel that he had to behave like a soldier, I do not know. But turning up at his fiance's father's house after being banned from the premises was never likely to end well.
It sounds like trouble had been brewing for some time but the spark that led to the court case had been an incident between the father and his daughter Rhoda.
She had told Samuel that her dad had used foul language to her over some minor matter – and so Hanks showed up at the house to sort the man out.
The father's version of what occurred was that Hanks had entered his home saying, "Where's the madman?" and calling him a "rotten swine".
Cropper then claimed he was attacked while eating his tea at the dining table – but Hanks said he had only pushed him.
The young man's claim was supported by Rhoda, who added that her boyfriend had simply told her father that he was a "dirty hound" for using such bad language to his daughter.
I don't think it makes much difference whether you call your girlfriend's father a "madman", "rotten swine" or a "dirty hound". None of those are likely to endear him to you!
It was claimed that it took an hour and the efforts of a policeman to get Samuel Hanks out of the house.
The magistrates found the lad guilty of assaulting and beating Abraham Cropper and bound him over for six months.
Also on the 13th Peter Rogerson appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with cruelly neglecting a horse.
The animal had been found in a field in a very bad state, covered with sores and suffering from mange.
Rogerson was described as a caravan dweller and a widower – despite only being 18. That suggests that his wife had died in childbirth, or shortly afterwards. The magistrates ordered the young man to pay 25 shillings and costs.
On the 14th in St Helens Police Court an unnamed girl was charged with stealing 6s 8d from Corrin's pawnbroker's in Parr and her mother was accused of receiving the cash.
PC Phillips said that the girl had admitted picking up the money, which another girl had placed on a form in the shop while packing a parcel.
Her mother claimed that she had intended to return the stolen money to the shop but the police had acted before she could do so.
The magistrates did not appear entirely convinced by the mother's explanation but decided to just caution her and dismiss the receiving charge. But her daughter was put on probation for two years.
Since the end of the war members of the International Bible Students Association had given thousands of lectures worldwide called "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". The premise of the talk was that those still alive in 1925 would live forever.
The free lecture had already been given several times in St Helens and one might have thought that sufficient mileage had been derived from what some might call a crackpot notion.
But it returned on the 15th and was presented again in Griffin's Picture House in St Helens. In 1924 the Ormskirk Street cinema would be renamed the Scala.
Other speakers all over the world also gave the same lecture on the same day and their adverts began: "Satan's Empire Falling!!! – ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’."
The inquest on James Coburn was held on the 16th. The body of the 41-year-old had been found in Borough Road in St Helens at 5:15am on April 6th and medical evidence suggested he had been run over by a heavy vehicle.
Thomas Cook had been a close friend of Coburn and told the inquest that they had both been unemployed but had found work at Ashtons Green Colliery.
But in order to arrive in Parr for the early shift they had to leave Liverpool at around 2 or 2:30am.
They got to St Helens through a combination of walking and, if they were lucky, getting a lift off a lorry driver.
That was achieved either with the driver's permission or by secretly climbing on the back of the trailers that many wagons then hauled. The Coroner, Samuel Brighouse, had this to say to Thomas Cook:
"I think the case of yourself and this poor fellow who came by his death ought to come to the notice of the gentleman who writes about the dole in the “Daily Mail.”
"It not only shows that you [the unemployed] are not all wrong, but that there are genuine, honest, working men who are very anxious to get work if there is only work for them to do.
"Men who will get up at the unearthly hour of half-past two and set out to walk to St. Helens, taking the chance of getting a lift from a motor, in order to go down a colliery and work there, and then walk back to Liverpool, I think are deserving of every praise."
The Coroner thought that the dead man had either been killed by the wagon he had been travelling on – or by a vehicle following behind after he'd fallen off.
Impressed by Thomas Cook's testimony and hearing he was now out of work again, Mr Brighouse gave him £1 from his poor box.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Bentinck Street case of child cruelty by a bereaved husband, the reduction in tram fares, the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and an update on the fiendishly brutal stepmother from Elephant Lane.
We begin with yet another court appearance by the Italian ice-cream sellers. The three main such families of the 20th century in St Helens were the Fredericks, the Randolphs and the Vincents.
All three families anglicised their surnames (and Christian names), having come to the town originally with the names of Frederici, Randolfi and Vernazza.
Court appearances for breaching the rules were regular events, mainly through the language barrier.
But there was now a new ice-cream kid in town! Giovanni Manfredi was summoned to St Helens Police Court for selling without a permit and there was the usual language difficulty.
An interpreter had to be brought to the court to explain that he did not have the money to pay for a street-hawking permit. He was fined 7s 6d.
Giovanni Manfredi seems to have soon started calling himself John Manfreds and was based in Duke Street.
On the 10th a new club was formed in St Helens with the Reporter writing:
"The Rotary movement has now taken root in St. Helens. At a meeting held in the Town Hall on Tuesday, inspired by impressive speeches delivered by Manchester and Liverpool Rotarians, a resolution to form a Rotary Club in St. Helens was carried unanimously."
One of the Liverpool delegates was a chap called T. N. Phillip who described a Rotary club as one which consisted of a number of businessmen who were out to do "a little bit more".
He advised the new St Helens club to find a "real live secretary", although I doubt they were planning to have a dead one!
Arthur Burrows from Lee Street in Sutton appeared in the Police Court on the 10th charged with "loitering at Peckers Hill Road for the purpose of making and receiving bets".
Two police officers had been on stake out at the corner of Sutton Road and Peckers Hill Road and seen bets being taken.
Burrows pleaded guilty but asked for leniency saying he took bets for the sake of his health and to support his wife and five children. But he had a previous conviction for the same offence and was fined the usual high amount of £10.
On the 12th the Pall Mall Gazette published this short piece:
"A Canadian who has been staying at Rainford, Lancashire, and is about to return home, has written to Whiston Rural Council asking them to find him “a nice little English wife.” He adds:-
"“If you don't know of a lady like the one I have described, perhaps you will bring the matter before your Council, because I have been told they are a lot of jolly old sparks and lady killers, and know every marriageable lady within miles of them.”"
It later transpired that the letter had been a joke with no Canadian involved, although numerous newspapers as well as the Pall Mall Gazette published it.
On the following day William Gee – an 18-year-old haulage hand at Sutton Manor Colliery – died in St Helens Hospital from severe injuries inflicted by runaway tubs of coal.
The coroner at his inquest said the youth had probably been riding an empty coal box down a brow, a dangerous practice that was against the mine's rules.
I suppose fathers have always tended to disapprove of their daughter's boyfriends – although I expect such disdain was much more common in the past.
Certainly Abraham Cropper did not think a lot of Samuel Hanks as a prospective son-in-law!
On the 13th the St Helens Reporter described the antipathy between the pair in reporting on a court case in which Hanks was accused of beating up Cropper at his Dunriding Lane home.
The young man's address was stated in court as the British Soldier public house in St Helens Road, Prescot.
Whether his abode made him feel that he had to behave like a soldier, I do not know. But turning up at his fiance's father's house after being banned from the premises was never likely to end well.
It sounds like trouble had been brewing for some time but the spark that led to the court case had been an incident between the father and his daughter Rhoda.
She had told Samuel that her dad had used foul language to her over some minor matter – and so Hanks showed up at the house to sort the man out.
The father's version of what occurred was that Hanks had entered his home saying, "Where's the madman?" and calling him a "rotten swine".
Cropper then claimed he was attacked while eating his tea at the dining table – but Hanks said he had only pushed him.
The young man's claim was supported by Rhoda, who added that her boyfriend had simply told her father that he was a "dirty hound" for using such bad language to his daughter.
I don't think it makes much difference whether you call your girlfriend's father a "madman", "rotten swine" or a "dirty hound". None of those are likely to endear him to you!
It was claimed that it took an hour and the efforts of a policeman to get Samuel Hanks out of the house.
The magistrates found the lad guilty of assaulting and beating Abraham Cropper and bound him over for six months.
Also on the 13th Peter Rogerson appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with cruelly neglecting a horse.
The animal had been found in a field in a very bad state, covered with sores and suffering from mange.
Rogerson was described as a caravan dweller and a widower – despite only being 18. That suggests that his wife had died in childbirth, or shortly afterwards. The magistrates ordered the young man to pay 25 shillings and costs.
On the 14th in St Helens Police Court an unnamed girl was charged with stealing 6s 8d from Corrin's pawnbroker's in Parr and her mother was accused of receiving the cash.
PC Phillips said that the girl had admitted picking up the money, which another girl had placed on a form in the shop while packing a parcel.
Her mother claimed that she had intended to return the stolen money to the shop but the police had acted before she could do so.
The magistrates did not appear entirely convinced by the mother's explanation but decided to just caution her and dismiss the receiving charge. But her daughter was put on probation for two years.
Since the end of the war members of the International Bible Students Association had given thousands of lectures worldwide called "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". The premise of the talk was that those still alive in 1925 would live forever.
The free lecture had already been given several times in St Helens and one might have thought that sufficient mileage had been derived from what some might call a crackpot notion.
But it returned on the 15th and was presented again in Griffin's Picture House in St Helens. In 1924 the Ormskirk Street cinema would be renamed the Scala.
Other speakers all over the world also gave the same lecture on the same day and their adverts began: "Satan's Empire Falling!!! – ‘Millions Now Living Will Never Die’."
The inquest on James Coburn was held on the 16th. The body of the 41-year-old had been found in Borough Road in St Helens at 5:15am on April 6th and medical evidence suggested he had been run over by a heavy vehicle.
Thomas Cook had been a close friend of Coburn and told the inquest that they had both been unemployed but had found work at Ashtons Green Colliery.
But in order to arrive in Parr for the early shift they had to leave Liverpool at around 2 or 2:30am.
They got to St Helens through a combination of walking and, if they were lucky, getting a lift off a lorry driver.
That was achieved either with the driver's permission or by secretly climbing on the back of the trailers that many wagons then hauled. The Coroner, Samuel Brighouse, had this to say to Thomas Cook:
"I think the case of yourself and this poor fellow who came by his death ought to come to the notice of the gentleman who writes about the dole in the “Daily Mail.”
"It not only shows that you [the unemployed] are not all wrong, but that there are genuine, honest, working men who are very anxious to get work if there is only work for them to do.
"Men who will get up at the unearthly hour of half-past two and set out to walk to St. Helens, taking the chance of getting a lift from a motor, in order to go down a colliery and work there, and then walk back to Liverpool, I think are deserving of every praise."
The Coroner thought that the dead man had either been killed by the wagon he had been travelling on – or by a vehicle following behind after he'd fallen off.
Impressed by Thomas Cook's testimony and hearing he was now out of work again, Mr Brighouse gave him £1 from his poor box.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Bentinck Street case of child cruelty by a bereaved husband, the reduction in tram fares, the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and an update on the fiendishly brutal stepmother from Elephant Lane.