IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th AUGUST 1920)
This week's stories include the crippled children's annual treat in Eccleston Park, the Hammond Street man who refused to make maintenance payments to his separated wife, the "Spanish Prisoner" swindle in St Helens and the young woman from Foundry Street who accused the police of swearing her life away.
There was another wandering cow story on the 11th – although this one went on quite a wander! The beast must have decided that life chewing the cud on James Birchall's Church Farm in Church Road, Rainford was getting rather tedious and so tramped eight miles to Aughton.
The valuable cow was discovered near Ormskirk during the afternoon in a very dusty condition and eventually returned to Rainford. This was, of course, well before the building of the Rainford by-pass and life would have been much quieter. But wouldn't you have thought that someone would have seen the beast going walkies through the countryside?
The so-called crippled children's annual treat was held on the 12th at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park, the beautiful home of Alderman James Crooks. A number of trams and motor lorries conveyed a total of 110 disabled boys and girls and what was described as ten special cases to the timber merchant's house. Punch and Judy men tended to call themselves professors in those days and Professor le Mere was at the Woodlands to entertain the children.
There was also folk and Morris dancing provided by the girls of Merton Bank Council School. The Reporter wrote: "An appetising tea was served on the lawn, followed by a renewal of the open-air revels until half-past six, when the happy little sufferers were re-organised, tired but reluctant to leave their joyous surroundings, and conveyed back to the town in motors and tramcars."
I've often written of maintenance orders made against husbands separated from their wives but have rarely been able to show the consequences of a refusal to pay. This usually occurred when a man objected to making payments on principle, rather than being unable to pay. Richard Dickinson of Hammond Street was one such individual. The colliery worker appeared in the Police Court on the 11th having missed nine weekly payments of 20 shillings.
His wife told the court that her husband had insisted that he would never pay her any maintenance – although he had graciously said that she could live with him. Dickinson was working four days a week and also received a pension, presumably from the army. He had previously been sent to Walton Prison for refusing to make maintenance payments to his wife and his principled stance led to the award of a further two months inside.
On the 12th the second annual garden fete was held at Rainford Hall in Crank (pictured above) organised by the St Helens Women's Unionist Association. The Reporter began its account of the event by refuting predictions made by some people (men, of course!) that women winning the right to vote would prove to be a short-lived novelty: "St. Helens women have certainly exploded the fallacy that enfranchisement was only a feminine whim, and that the vote, once achieved, would be locked away as a plaything whose day was spent."
On the following day Catherine Connolly appeared in the Police Court charged with using abusive and obscene language. When a piece of paper containing the obscene expressions was handed to her, the young woman from Foundry Street exclaimed: "Oh, dear me! Oh, dear me! You are swearing my life away." Evidence was given that the woman had been drunk and given the police a false name and address, telling them later: "I have done it to give you as much trouble as possible". Now sober, Catherine appeared horrified by her actions and was fined 30 shillings.
On the 13th John Donegan of Islands Brow in St Helens was killed down No. 2 pit of Bold Colliery after a roof fall. He left a widow and seven children.
The Reporter on the 13th described how the St Helens YMCA was organising visits to France and Belgium by relatives of those that had died in the war. The organisation was allowing family members to stay overnight in their hostels in London, giving them wreaths to take with them and escorting parties to the graves of their loved ones.
Do you remember the email fraud in which the perpetrator supposedly wants help in getting millions out of a frozen bank account in somewhere like Nigeria? The scam seems fairly rare these days but I expect quite a few people have coughed up thousands in the vain hope of reaping millions. The Reporter revealed that a similar con a century ago was known as the "Spanish Prisoner" swindle, which was conducted by letter and telegram.
The paper printed a letter that an anonymous St Helens resident had received in which it was stated that a trunk containing £36,000 had been deposited at an English railway station. The sender was supposedly in prison in Spain facing bankruptcy charges. The claim was that if the recipient of the letter would pay the cost of their trial fees, then they would receive a third of the money in the trunk. This was described as a popular scam and the people of St Helens were warned to be on their guard and not send off any cash.
The Reporter also described how "tar macadam" had recently been applied to Peckers Hill Road and Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton, adding: "Now it is the turn of Marshall's Cross-road, which is also being given a generous covering of tar-mac, and the motor and cycle traffic by which this main road is so frequented will find the passage very much more comfortable, with a good smooth surface, than it has been for a long time with its bumpy surface." The paper also described how the main road through Rainford had recently been repaired with a special preparation, which had filled up "holes innumerable".
The St Helens schoolchildren went back to their desks on the 16th after their month-long summer break. There would be a week-long break at the end of October but it would be a long term, as the kids wouldn't break up for Christmas until December 22nd.
Despite the fact that St Helens had had a hospital for almost fifty years, accident victims were still often conveyed to their homes and then a doctor summoned to treat them. That is what happened to John Webster, the licensee of the Albion Hotel in Parr Street. The 39-year-old was in the habit of taking a Sunday morning ride on his motorbike and on the 15th he drove to Burtonwood with his two children riding in the sidecar. There was a collision with a pony and trap near the Fiddling Bag pub and Webster was taken to his home in an unconscious state. A doctor was called to the house but the publican was dead within 15 minutes.
There was another heroic act recognised on the 16th when Richard Taylor of Bickerstaffe Street was presented with the silver medal and certificate of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society. A month earlier a 7-year-old boy called Edwin Daniels from Water Street had fallen into the canal near Quirk, Barton & Co.'s leadworks. His 15-year-old brother Fred attempted a rescue but could not swim and soon Edwin had drifted out into the middle of the 18-yard-wide waterway. Richard Taylor dashed to the scene, removed his jacket and jumped into the water and was soon able to bring the drowning boy to the bank.
The presentation was made in St Helens Police Court and at the same hearing James Molyneux was charged with stealing a wallet by finding. The labourer of no fixed abode had been drinking in the Ship Inn in Church Street (pictured above) when he found on the floor a wallet belonging to Robert Benson containing six one-pound notes. It was another brainless theft, as the man put the wallet into his own pocket in front of a number of witnesses who knew who he was.
Molyneux dumped the wallet in the nearby canal and then went to his son's house in Cowley Street. He left some of the cash with him before going round a number of pubs in Parr buying people drinks. Later that evening the police arrested Molyneux and accounting for the cash left with the son, 28 shillings was found to be missing. That's a lot of free drinks!
After hearing the evidence given against him Molyneux said: "I give in. I picked the wallet up, but I didn't steal anything." The man was adamant that what he had done was not theft but was fined £1 and told to repay the missing 28 shillings or go to prison for a month.
Next week's stories will include the violent drunk from Central Street whose police battering police saved him from prison, the Parr woman who hit her husband over the head with a clog, the St Helens public's violent reaction to brown sugar and the dilemma of where to park your car in St Helens.
There was another wandering cow story on the 11th – although this one went on quite a wander! The beast must have decided that life chewing the cud on James Birchall's Church Farm in Church Road, Rainford was getting rather tedious and so tramped eight miles to Aughton.
The valuable cow was discovered near Ormskirk during the afternoon in a very dusty condition and eventually returned to Rainford. This was, of course, well before the building of the Rainford by-pass and life would have been much quieter. But wouldn't you have thought that someone would have seen the beast going walkies through the countryside?
The so-called crippled children's annual treat was held on the 12th at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park, the beautiful home of Alderman James Crooks. A number of trams and motor lorries conveyed a total of 110 disabled boys and girls and what was described as ten special cases to the timber merchant's house. Punch and Judy men tended to call themselves professors in those days and Professor le Mere was at the Woodlands to entertain the children.
There was also folk and Morris dancing provided by the girls of Merton Bank Council School. The Reporter wrote: "An appetising tea was served on the lawn, followed by a renewal of the open-air revels until half-past six, when the happy little sufferers were re-organised, tired but reluctant to leave their joyous surroundings, and conveyed back to the town in motors and tramcars."
I've often written of maintenance orders made against husbands separated from their wives but have rarely been able to show the consequences of a refusal to pay. This usually occurred when a man objected to making payments on principle, rather than being unable to pay. Richard Dickinson of Hammond Street was one such individual. The colliery worker appeared in the Police Court on the 11th having missed nine weekly payments of 20 shillings.
His wife told the court that her husband had insisted that he would never pay her any maintenance – although he had graciously said that she could live with him. Dickinson was working four days a week and also received a pension, presumably from the army. He had previously been sent to Walton Prison for refusing to make maintenance payments to his wife and his principled stance led to the award of a further two months inside.
On the following day Catherine Connolly appeared in the Police Court charged with using abusive and obscene language. When a piece of paper containing the obscene expressions was handed to her, the young woman from Foundry Street exclaimed: "Oh, dear me! Oh, dear me! You are swearing my life away." Evidence was given that the woman had been drunk and given the police a false name and address, telling them later: "I have done it to give you as much trouble as possible". Now sober, Catherine appeared horrified by her actions and was fined 30 shillings.
On the 13th John Donegan of Islands Brow in St Helens was killed down No. 2 pit of Bold Colliery after a roof fall. He left a widow and seven children.
The Reporter on the 13th described how the St Helens YMCA was organising visits to France and Belgium by relatives of those that had died in the war. The organisation was allowing family members to stay overnight in their hostels in London, giving them wreaths to take with them and escorting parties to the graves of their loved ones.
Do you remember the email fraud in which the perpetrator supposedly wants help in getting millions out of a frozen bank account in somewhere like Nigeria? The scam seems fairly rare these days but I expect quite a few people have coughed up thousands in the vain hope of reaping millions. The Reporter revealed that a similar con a century ago was known as the "Spanish Prisoner" swindle, which was conducted by letter and telegram.
The paper printed a letter that an anonymous St Helens resident had received in which it was stated that a trunk containing £36,000 had been deposited at an English railway station. The sender was supposedly in prison in Spain facing bankruptcy charges. The claim was that if the recipient of the letter would pay the cost of their trial fees, then they would receive a third of the money in the trunk. This was described as a popular scam and the people of St Helens were warned to be on their guard and not send off any cash.
The Reporter also described how "tar macadam" had recently been applied to Peckers Hill Road and Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton, adding: "Now it is the turn of Marshall's Cross-road, which is also being given a generous covering of tar-mac, and the motor and cycle traffic by which this main road is so frequented will find the passage very much more comfortable, with a good smooth surface, than it has been for a long time with its bumpy surface." The paper also described how the main road through Rainford had recently been repaired with a special preparation, which had filled up "holes innumerable".
The St Helens schoolchildren went back to their desks on the 16th after their month-long summer break. There would be a week-long break at the end of October but it would be a long term, as the kids wouldn't break up for Christmas until December 22nd.
Despite the fact that St Helens had had a hospital for almost fifty years, accident victims were still often conveyed to their homes and then a doctor summoned to treat them. That is what happened to John Webster, the licensee of the Albion Hotel in Parr Street. The 39-year-old was in the habit of taking a Sunday morning ride on his motorbike and on the 15th he drove to Burtonwood with his two children riding in the sidecar. There was a collision with a pony and trap near the Fiddling Bag pub and Webster was taken to his home in an unconscious state. A doctor was called to the house but the publican was dead within 15 minutes.
There was another heroic act recognised on the 16th when Richard Taylor of Bickerstaffe Street was presented with the silver medal and certificate of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society. A month earlier a 7-year-old boy called Edwin Daniels from Water Street had fallen into the canal near Quirk, Barton & Co.'s leadworks. His 15-year-old brother Fred attempted a rescue but could not swim and soon Edwin had drifted out into the middle of the 18-yard-wide waterway. Richard Taylor dashed to the scene, removed his jacket and jumped into the water and was soon able to bring the drowning boy to the bank.
Molyneux dumped the wallet in the nearby canal and then went to his son's house in Cowley Street. He left some of the cash with him before going round a number of pubs in Parr buying people drinks. Later that evening the police arrested Molyneux and accounting for the cash left with the son, 28 shillings was found to be missing. That's a lot of free drinks!
After hearing the evidence given against him Molyneux said: "I give in. I picked the wallet up, but I didn't steal anything." The man was adamant that what he had done was not theft but was fined £1 and told to repay the missing 28 shillings or go to prison for a month.
Next week's stories will include the violent drunk from Central Street whose police battering police saved him from prison, the Parr woman who hit her husband over the head with a clog, the St Helens public's violent reaction to brown sugar and the dilemma of where to park your car in St Helens.
This week's stories include the crippled children's annual treat in Eccleston Park, the Hammond Street man who refused to make maintenance payments to his separated wife, the "Spanish Prisoner" swindle in St Helens and the young woman from Foundry Street who accused the police of swearing her life away.
There was another wandering cow story on the 11th – although this one went on quite a wander!
The beast must have decided that life chewing the cud on James Birchall's Church Farm in Church Road, Rainford was getting rather tedious and so tramped eight miles to Aughton.
The valuable cow was discovered near Ormskirk during the afternoon in a very dusty condition and eventually returned to Rainford.
This was, of course, well before the building of the Rainford by-pass and life would have been much quieter.
But wouldn't you have thought that someone would have seen the beast going walkies through the countryside?
The so-called crippled children's annual treat was held on the 12th at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park, the beautiful home of Alderman James Crooks.
A number of trams and motor lorries conveyed a total of 110 disabled boys and girls and what was described as ten special cases to the timber merchant's house.
Punch and Judy men tended to call themselves professors in those days and Professor le Mere was at the Woodlands to entertain the children.
There was also folk and Morris dancing provided by the girls of Merton Bank Council School. The Reporter wrote:
"An appetising tea was served on the lawn, followed by a renewal of the open-air revels until half-past six, when the happy little sufferers were re-organised, tired but reluctant to leave their joyous surroundings, and conveyed back to the town in motors and tramcars."
I've often written of maintenance orders made against husbands separated from their wives but have rarely been able to show the consequences of a refusal to pay.
This usually occurred when a man objected to making payments on principle, rather than being unable to pay.
Richard Dickinson of Hammond Street in St Helens was one such individual.
The colliery worker appeared in the Police Court on the 11th having missed nine weekly payments of 20 shillings.
His wife told the court that her husband had insisted that he would never pay her any maintenance – although he had graciously said that she could live with him.
Dickinson was working four days a week and also received a pension, presumably from the army.
He had previously been sent to Walton Prison for refusing to make maintenance payments to his wife and his principled stance led to the award of a further two months inside.
On the 12th the second annual garden fete was held at Rainford Hall in Crank (pictured above) organised by the St Helens Women's Unionist Association.
The Reporter began its account of the event by refuting predictions made by some people (men, of course!) that women winning the right to vote would prove to be a short-lived novelty:
"St. Helens women have certainly exploded the fallacy that enfranchisement was only a feminine whim, and that the vote, once achieved, would be locked away as a plaything whose day was spent."
On the following day Catherine Connolly appeared in the Police Court charged with using abusive and obscene language.
When a piece of paper containing the obscene expressions was handed to her, the young woman from Foundry Street exclaimed: "Oh, dear me! Oh, dear me! You are swearing my life away."
Evidence was given that the woman had been drunk and given the police a false name and address, telling them later: "I have done it to give you as much trouble as possible".
Now sober, Catherine appeared horrified by her actions and was fined 30 shillings.
On the 13th John Donegan of Islands Brow in St Helens was killed down No. 2 pit of Bold Colliery after a roof fall. He left a widow and seven children.
The Reporter on the 13th described how the St Helens YMCA was organising visits to France and Belgium by relatives of those that had died in the war.
The organisation was allowing family members to stay overnight in their hostels in London, giving them wreaths to take with them and escorting parties to the graves of their loved ones.
Do you remember the email fraud in which the perpetrator supposedly wants help in getting millions out of a frozen bank account in somewhere like Nigeria?
The scam seems fairly rare these days but I expect quite a few people have coughed up thousands in the vain hope of reaping millions.
The Reporter revealed that a similar con a century ago was known as the "Spanish Prisoner" swindle, which was conducted by letter and telegram.
The paper printed a letter that an anonymous St Helens resident had received in which it was stated that a trunk containing £36,000 had been deposited at an English railway station.
The sender was supposedly in prison in Spain facing bankruptcy charges.
The claim was that if the recipient of the letter would pay the cost of their trial fees, then they would receive a third of the money in the trunk.
This was described as a popular scam and the people of St Helens were warned to be on their guard and not send off any cash.
The Reporter also described how "tar macadam" had recently been applied to Peckers Hill Road and Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton, adding:
"Now it is the turn of Marshall's Cross-road, which is also being given a generous covering of tar-mac, and the motor and cycle traffic by which this main road is so frequented will find the passage very much more comfortable, with a good smooth surface, than it has been for a long time with its bumpy surface."
The paper also described how the main road through Rainford had recently been repaired with a special preparation, which had filled up "holes innumerable".
The St Helens schoolchildren went back to their desks on the 16th after their month-long summer break.
There would be a week-long break at the end of October but it would be a long term, as the kids wouldn't break up for Christmas until December 22nd.
Despite the fact that St Helens had had a hospital for almost fifty years, accident victims were still often conveyed to their homes and then a doctor summoned to treat them.
That is what happened to John Webster, the licensee of the Albion Hotel in Parr Street.
The 39-year-old was in the habit of taking a Sunday morning ride on his motorbike and on the 15th he drove to Burtonwood with his two children riding in the sidecar.
There was a collision with a pony and trap near the Fiddling Bag pub and Webster was taken to his home in an unconscious state.
A doctor was called to the house but the publican was dead within 15 minutes.
There was another heroic act recognised on the 16th when Richard Taylor of Bickerstaffe Street was presented with the silver medal and certificate of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society.
A month earlier a 7-year-old boy called Edwin Daniels from Water Street had fallen into the canal near Quirk, Barton & Co.'s leadworks.
His 15-year-old brother Fred attempted a rescue but could not swim and soon Edwin had drifted out into the middle of the 18-yard-wide waterway.
Richard Taylor dashed to the scene, removed his jacket and jumped into the water and was soon able to bring the drowning boy to the bank.
The presentation was made in St Helens Police Court and at the same hearing James Molyneux was charged with stealing a wallet by finding.
The labourer of no fixed abode had been drinking in the Ship Inn in Church Street (pictured above) when he found on the floor a wallet belonging to Robert Benson containing six one-pound notes.
It was another brainless theft, as the man put the wallet into his own pocket in front of a number of witnesses who knew who he was.
Molyneux dumped the wallet in the nearby canal and then went to his son's house in Cowley Street.
He left some of the cash with him before going round a number of pubs in Parr buying people drinks.
Later that evening the police arrested Molyneux and accounting for the cash left with the son, 28 shillings was found to be missing. That's a lot of free drinks!
After hearing the evidence given against him Molyneux said: "I give in. I picked the wallet up, but I didn't steal anything."
The man was adamant that what he had done was not theft but was fined £1 and told to repay the missing 28 shillings or go to prison for a month.
Next week's stories will include the violent drunk from Central Street whose police battering police saved him from prison, the Parr woman who hit her husband over the head with a clog, the St Helens public's violent reaction to brown sugar and the dilemma of where to park your car in St Helens.
There was another wandering cow story on the 11th – although this one went on quite a wander!
The beast must have decided that life chewing the cud on James Birchall's Church Farm in Church Road, Rainford was getting rather tedious and so tramped eight miles to Aughton.
The valuable cow was discovered near Ormskirk during the afternoon in a very dusty condition and eventually returned to Rainford.
This was, of course, well before the building of the Rainford by-pass and life would have been much quieter.
But wouldn't you have thought that someone would have seen the beast going walkies through the countryside?
The so-called crippled children's annual treat was held on the 12th at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park, the beautiful home of Alderman James Crooks.
A number of trams and motor lorries conveyed a total of 110 disabled boys and girls and what was described as ten special cases to the timber merchant's house.
Punch and Judy men tended to call themselves professors in those days and Professor le Mere was at the Woodlands to entertain the children.
There was also folk and Morris dancing provided by the girls of Merton Bank Council School. The Reporter wrote:
"An appetising tea was served on the lawn, followed by a renewal of the open-air revels until half-past six, when the happy little sufferers were re-organised, tired but reluctant to leave their joyous surroundings, and conveyed back to the town in motors and tramcars."
I've often written of maintenance orders made against husbands separated from their wives but have rarely been able to show the consequences of a refusal to pay.
This usually occurred when a man objected to making payments on principle, rather than being unable to pay.
Richard Dickinson of Hammond Street in St Helens was one such individual.
The colliery worker appeared in the Police Court on the 11th having missed nine weekly payments of 20 shillings.
His wife told the court that her husband had insisted that he would never pay her any maintenance – although he had graciously said that she could live with him.
Dickinson was working four days a week and also received a pension, presumably from the army.
He had previously been sent to Walton Prison for refusing to make maintenance payments to his wife and his principled stance led to the award of a further two months inside.
The Reporter began its account of the event by refuting predictions made by some people (men, of course!) that women winning the right to vote would prove to be a short-lived novelty:
"St. Helens women have certainly exploded the fallacy that enfranchisement was only a feminine whim, and that the vote, once achieved, would be locked away as a plaything whose day was spent."
On the following day Catherine Connolly appeared in the Police Court charged with using abusive and obscene language.
When a piece of paper containing the obscene expressions was handed to her, the young woman from Foundry Street exclaimed: "Oh, dear me! Oh, dear me! You are swearing my life away."
Evidence was given that the woman had been drunk and given the police a false name and address, telling them later: "I have done it to give you as much trouble as possible".
Now sober, Catherine appeared horrified by her actions and was fined 30 shillings.
On the 13th John Donegan of Islands Brow in St Helens was killed down No. 2 pit of Bold Colliery after a roof fall. He left a widow and seven children.
The Reporter on the 13th described how the St Helens YMCA was organising visits to France and Belgium by relatives of those that had died in the war.
The organisation was allowing family members to stay overnight in their hostels in London, giving them wreaths to take with them and escorting parties to the graves of their loved ones.
Do you remember the email fraud in which the perpetrator supposedly wants help in getting millions out of a frozen bank account in somewhere like Nigeria?
The scam seems fairly rare these days but I expect quite a few people have coughed up thousands in the vain hope of reaping millions.
The Reporter revealed that a similar con a century ago was known as the "Spanish Prisoner" swindle, which was conducted by letter and telegram.
The paper printed a letter that an anonymous St Helens resident had received in which it was stated that a trunk containing £36,000 had been deposited at an English railway station.
The sender was supposedly in prison in Spain facing bankruptcy charges.
The claim was that if the recipient of the letter would pay the cost of their trial fees, then they would receive a third of the money in the trunk.
This was described as a popular scam and the people of St Helens were warned to be on their guard and not send off any cash.
The Reporter also described how "tar macadam" had recently been applied to Peckers Hill Road and Ellamsbridge Road in Sutton, adding:
"Now it is the turn of Marshall's Cross-road, which is also being given a generous covering of tar-mac, and the motor and cycle traffic by which this main road is so frequented will find the passage very much more comfortable, with a good smooth surface, than it has been for a long time with its bumpy surface."
The paper also described how the main road through Rainford had recently been repaired with a special preparation, which had filled up "holes innumerable".
The St Helens schoolchildren went back to their desks on the 16th after their month-long summer break.
There would be a week-long break at the end of October but it would be a long term, as the kids wouldn't break up for Christmas until December 22nd.
Despite the fact that St Helens had had a hospital for almost fifty years, accident victims were still often conveyed to their homes and then a doctor summoned to treat them.
That is what happened to John Webster, the licensee of the Albion Hotel in Parr Street.
The 39-year-old was in the habit of taking a Sunday morning ride on his motorbike and on the 15th he drove to Burtonwood with his two children riding in the sidecar.
There was a collision with a pony and trap near the Fiddling Bag pub and Webster was taken to his home in an unconscious state.
A doctor was called to the house but the publican was dead within 15 minutes.
There was another heroic act recognised on the 16th when Richard Taylor of Bickerstaffe Street was presented with the silver medal and certificate of the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society.
A month earlier a 7-year-old boy called Edwin Daniels from Water Street had fallen into the canal near Quirk, Barton & Co.'s leadworks.
His 15-year-old brother Fred attempted a rescue but could not swim and soon Edwin had drifted out into the middle of the 18-yard-wide waterway.
Richard Taylor dashed to the scene, removed his jacket and jumped into the water and was soon able to bring the drowning boy to the bank.
The presentation was made in St Helens Police Court and at the same hearing James Molyneux was charged with stealing a wallet by finding.
It was another brainless theft, as the man put the wallet into his own pocket in front of a number of witnesses who knew who he was.
Molyneux dumped the wallet in the nearby canal and then went to his son's house in Cowley Street.
He left some of the cash with him before going round a number of pubs in Parr buying people drinks.
Later that evening the police arrested Molyneux and accounting for the cash left with the son, 28 shillings was found to be missing. That's a lot of free drinks!
After hearing the evidence given against him Molyneux said: "I give in. I picked the wallet up, but I didn't steal anything."
The man was adamant that what he had done was not theft but was fined £1 and told to repay the missing 28 shillings or go to prison for a month.
Next week's stories will include the violent drunk from Central Street whose police battering police saved him from prison, the Parr woman who hit her husband over the head with a clog, the St Helens public's violent reaction to brown sugar and the dilemma of where to park your car in St Helens.