IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th OCTOBER 1922)
This week's stories include the controversial penny dip prosecution of Oxley's store, the alien shoplifter from Parr, a church minister's tribute to the preventive powers of Angier's Emulsion, the grudging compensation paid to a burnt chemical worker and the woman who sought damages after being knocked down by a motorbike after crossing Queens Road without looking.
We begin with the case of George Hawkins who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 10th after spending a week in custody on remand charged with attempting suicide. The 65-year-old platelayer from Milton Street in Sutton Manor had tried to gas himself – but was saved by PC O’Hara. The constable dragged Hawkins from his home into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for 10 minutes until the man came round. Alcohol was blamed for his action and after promising the magistrates that he would never touch drink again, Hawkins was discharged from the court.
Immigrant Mary Samusks also appeared in the Police Court and the St Helens Reporter was unimpressed with the fact that the woman had come to live in this country but not bothered to learn the language, saying: "The most long-drawn-out difficulty of making a foreigner who could not understand English grasp the evidence given was again experienced at the St. Helens Police Court on Tuesday." Mrs Samusks from Ashcroft Street appeared in the dock with a child in her arms and her husband by her side to act as interpreter – although he only spoke broken English.
She was charged with stealing a pair of ladies' shoes valued at 6s 6d from Hamer's shop in Park Road and redeeming them at a pawnshop in Higher Parr Street. Initially the woman denied any knowledge of the shoes but then afterwards said she was very sorry for stealing them but needed cash to pay the rent. Her husband was a labourer earning 35 shillings a week, a little less than the average for a working man and the couple had six children to support. As it was the woman's first appearance in court, the case was dismissed upon payment of costs but she was warned about her future conduct. The Reporter's headline to their article on the case was "Alien's Theft in St Helens".
The early 1920s was the era of the motorcycle in St Helens. Cars were too expensive for the vast majority of residents to buy and run – but those in work could afford to purchase motorbikes on HP. In May 1920 the St Helens Reporter had commented on a Bank Holiday getaway: "The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
But motorbikes were less visible to pedestrians than cars and could be ridden faster on the town's narrow streets and consequently become involved in more accidents. However, the riders did not always cause such accidents, as children and some adults were often uneducated about safe road crossing procedures.
On the 11th in St Helens County Court (pictured above) Agnes Black brought a claim for damages against motorbike owner Reginald Coleridge from Central Avenue in Prescot. The Corporation Street confectioner had got off a tram in Queens Road, off Prescot Road, in St Helens. In attempting to cross the street from behind the tramcar, Mrs Black was knocked down by Mr Coleridge's motorbike. Her injuries were quite serious and she required two operations and claimed the sight of her right eye had been permanently damaged.
However, the hearing in the East Street court heard there was no footpath at the tram's stopping place and in crossing the road, Mrs Black hadn't checked for oncoming vehicles. Asked by Coleridge's counsel if she had looked to see if any traffic was coming, Mrs Black replied: "There is so much traffic along that road that I generally make my way to the pavement [on the other side of the street] as quickly as I can."
A boy that had got off the tram with Mrs Black claimed that he'd said to the woman, "Mind, lady, there's a motor coming" and clutched her hand to try and stop her dashing across the road. Mrs Black said she had no recollection of the boy's warning and stated that she had not hesitated from getting off the tram to making her way across the road, adding: "The motor cycle was on me before I knew it was there".
I'm not aware of any 1920s road safety campaigns, the like of which we were taught as children – such as the basic "look right, look left and right again" slogan. Mrs Black's version of "dash across the road as fast as you can and hope for the best" was asking for trouble, as the judge commented in his summing up:
"On the plaintiff’s confession she is guilty of negligence, because she did what everybody knows to be dangerous. She went from behind a tramcar into some passing traffic. A large percentage of accidents happen in that way. She heard nothing and did not look, and did not remember the boy warning her." So the judge found for the defendant and also awarded Mr Coleridge costs.
George Woods was more successful with his claim in the County Court – but not by much. Although it was now mandatory for employers to pay compensation to their workers injured in accidents, it was nothing like the scale that we are used to. Woods from Broad Oak Road in Parr had been very badly hurt at a chemical works when a pot of boiling caustic liquor foamed over. He was working underneath the pot and it scalded his back, shoulders and legs and splashed in one eye.
The burns must have been incredibly painful and Woods was consequently off work for some time and paid 25 shillings a week by the firm. That was the standard way that compensation was then paid; an amount in lieu of his weekly wage, although usually of a lesser amount. Last April it was decided that Woods was fit enough to work again – although he was given an unskilled job as a labourer and so paid less than before. But Woods said working was too painful and he had to stop.
The firm resumed paying him the weekly compensation but it was stopped on June 8th as they claimed he was fit for work. In the lengthy court hearing, much medical evidence was presented, both supporting and rebutting the man's fitness to do his job. In the end the judge decided that Woods was able to undertake some employment at the firm and should be paid at a rate half the difference between his old wage and his new one.
Newspapers a century ago contained many adverts for medicines of dubious benefit, which made wild cure-all claims. Getting testimonials was easy, as people would regularly confuse the effect of taking some mixture with the body's own natural powers of recovery. The makers of Angier's Emulsion went one step further by claiming their concoction prevented colds and Baptist minister William Holroyd was a great fan.
On 12th the 59-year-old – until recently living in Windle Street in St Helens and now at Whiston Lane in Prescot – had this glowing testimonial published in the Daily Mirror: "As a preventive against taking cold and as a sure pick-me-up when run down, I have found nothing to equal Angier's Emulsion. Many an illness would be avoided or shortened by its prompt use." Writing more recently, a chap called Chris Langton said he hated being given Angier's Emulsion as a child: "Emulsion was probably a good description because it had the consistency of paint and stuck to the roof of your mouth!"
The children's section of Oxley's Department Store in Claughton Street was known as 'Babyland' and on the 13th the Reporter described how it had been prosecuted for possessing an "unjust scale" – in other words they had inaccurate scales that were against the purchaser. It was being used for scaling up sweets for penny dips for Oxley's forthcoming Christmas grotto and the firm was fined 20 shillings.
However, the fine infuriated Charles Oxley, the owner of the firm. The 56-year-old "manufacturer of blouses, overalls, pinafores & underclothing" – as stated in the 1911 census – had a letter published in the Reporter. Oxley explained that his 15-year-old girl assistant had allowed a few bits of sweets to remain overnight on the scale and no customers would have been served from it until it was washed.
"There is absolutely no injustice to anyone in what we have done," Oxley stated. "The fine we regard as a great injustice. It practically amounts to our being fined for giving extra value to our customers." However, a critical missive from someone purporting to be a customer dwarfed the length of Oxley's letter. That anonymous person claimed to have "happened to stroll into the St. Helens Police Court" at the time of the prosecution and been shocked by the case against Oxley's. I can't help wonder if the person who sent the letter was someone close to the firm – which appeared to be doing a very good job of turning negative press into positive publicity.
The Reporter also described how the benefit of the doubt had been given to Edward Tipton when he appeared in St Helens Police Court. The man of no fixed abode had been found at 10:55pm lying in the gutter in Salisbury Street unconscious and bleeding from cuts to his face. Tipton was taken to Providence Hospital and when a doctor was examining him, he came round and became violent and needed restraining.
The doctor believed that the man had been drinking heavily and had nothing wrong with him, with the cuts the result of collapsing on the street through drink. But Tipton insisted he had been knocked down but could offer no reason why he was attacked. The Bench decided to dismiss the charge but warned him not to come before them again.
And finally, theatre impresario Fred Karno's troupe was back at the Hippodrome in St Helens this week with a comedy drama called "Mumming Birds". Karno is credited with kick-starting the careers of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel and the strapline in their adverts for the show said: "The fantasy that made Charlie Chaplin famous".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green desertion case, the mysterious death down Lea Green Colliery, George Formby plays the Hippodrome, a baby's body is found floating in the canal and the severe housing crisis in St Helens.
We begin with the case of George Hawkins who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 10th after spending a week in custody on remand charged with attempting suicide. The 65-year-old platelayer from Milton Street in Sutton Manor had tried to gas himself – but was saved by PC O’Hara. The constable dragged Hawkins from his home into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for 10 minutes until the man came round. Alcohol was blamed for his action and after promising the magistrates that he would never touch drink again, Hawkins was discharged from the court.
Immigrant Mary Samusks also appeared in the Police Court and the St Helens Reporter was unimpressed with the fact that the woman had come to live in this country but not bothered to learn the language, saying: "The most long-drawn-out difficulty of making a foreigner who could not understand English grasp the evidence given was again experienced at the St. Helens Police Court on Tuesday." Mrs Samusks from Ashcroft Street appeared in the dock with a child in her arms and her husband by her side to act as interpreter – although he only spoke broken English.
She was charged with stealing a pair of ladies' shoes valued at 6s 6d from Hamer's shop in Park Road and redeeming them at a pawnshop in Higher Parr Street. Initially the woman denied any knowledge of the shoes but then afterwards said she was very sorry for stealing them but needed cash to pay the rent. Her husband was a labourer earning 35 shillings a week, a little less than the average for a working man and the couple had six children to support. As it was the woman's first appearance in court, the case was dismissed upon payment of costs but she was warned about her future conduct. The Reporter's headline to their article on the case was "Alien's Theft in St Helens".
But motorbikes were less visible to pedestrians than cars and could be ridden faster on the town's narrow streets and consequently become involved in more accidents. However, the riders did not always cause such accidents, as children and some adults were often uneducated about safe road crossing procedures.
However, the hearing in the East Street court heard there was no footpath at the tram's stopping place and in crossing the road, Mrs Black hadn't checked for oncoming vehicles. Asked by Coleridge's counsel if she had looked to see if any traffic was coming, Mrs Black replied: "There is so much traffic along that road that I generally make my way to the pavement [on the other side of the street] as quickly as I can."
A boy that had got off the tram with Mrs Black claimed that he'd said to the woman, "Mind, lady, there's a motor coming" and clutched her hand to try and stop her dashing across the road. Mrs Black said she had no recollection of the boy's warning and stated that she had not hesitated from getting off the tram to making her way across the road, adding: "The motor cycle was on me before I knew it was there".
I'm not aware of any 1920s road safety campaigns, the like of which we were taught as children – such as the basic "look right, look left and right again" slogan. Mrs Black's version of "dash across the road as fast as you can and hope for the best" was asking for trouble, as the judge commented in his summing up:
"On the plaintiff’s confession she is guilty of negligence, because she did what everybody knows to be dangerous. She went from behind a tramcar into some passing traffic. A large percentage of accidents happen in that way. She heard nothing and did not look, and did not remember the boy warning her." So the judge found for the defendant and also awarded Mr Coleridge costs.
George Woods was more successful with his claim in the County Court – but not by much. Although it was now mandatory for employers to pay compensation to their workers injured in accidents, it was nothing like the scale that we are used to. Woods from Broad Oak Road in Parr had been very badly hurt at a chemical works when a pot of boiling caustic liquor foamed over. He was working underneath the pot and it scalded his back, shoulders and legs and splashed in one eye.
The burns must have been incredibly painful and Woods was consequently off work for some time and paid 25 shillings a week by the firm. That was the standard way that compensation was then paid; an amount in lieu of his weekly wage, although usually of a lesser amount. Last April it was decided that Woods was fit enough to work again – although he was given an unskilled job as a labourer and so paid less than before. But Woods said working was too painful and he had to stop.
The firm resumed paying him the weekly compensation but it was stopped on June 8th as they claimed he was fit for work. In the lengthy court hearing, much medical evidence was presented, both supporting and rebutting the man's fitness to do his job. In the end the judge decided that Woods was able to undertake some employment at the firm and should be paid at a rate half the difference between his old wage and his new one.
Newspapers a century ago contained many adverts for medicines of dubious benefit, which made wild cure-all claims. Getting testimonials was easy, as people would regularly confuse the effect of taking some mixture with the body's own natural powers of recovery. The makers of Angier's Emulsion went one step further by claiming their concoction prevented colds and Baptist minister William Holroyd was a great fan.
On 12th the 59-year-old – until recently living in Windle Street in St Helens and now at Whiston Lane in Prescot – had this glowing testimonial published in the Daily Mirror: "As a preventive against taking cold and as a sure pick-me-up when run down, I have found nothing to equal Angier's Emulsion. Many an illness would be avoided or shortened by its prompt use." Writing more recently, a chap called Chris Langton said he hated being given Angier's Emulsion as a child: "Emulsion was probably a good description because it had the consistency of paint and stuck to the roof of your mouth!"
The children's section of Oxley's Department Store in Claughton Street was known as 'Babyland' and on the 13th the Reporter described how it had been prosecuted for possessing an "unjust scale" – in other words they had inaccurate scales that were against the purchaser. It was being used for scaling up sweets for penny dips for Oxley's forthcoming Christmas grotto and the firm was fined 20 shillings.
However, the fine infuriated Charles Oxley, the owner of the firm. The 56-year-old "manufacturer of blouses, overalls, pinafores & underclothing" – as stated in the 1911 census – had a letter published in the Reporter. Oxley explained that his 15-year-old girl assistant had allowed a few bits of sweets to remain overnight on the scale and no customers would have been served from it until it was washed.
"There is absolutely no injustice to anyone in what we have done," Oxley stated. "The fine we regard as a great injustice. It practically amounts to our being fined for giving extra value to our customers." However, a critical missive from someone purporting to be a customer dwarfed the length of Oxley's letter. That anonymous person claimed to have "happened to stroll into the St. Helens Police Court" at the time of the prosecution and been shocked by the case against Oxley's. I can't help wonder if the person who sent the letter was someone close to the firm – which appeared to be doing a very good job of turning negative press into positive publicity.
The Reporter also described how the benefit of the doubt had been given to Edward Tipton when he appeared in St Helens Police Court. The man of no fixed abode had been found at 10:55pm lying in the gutter in Salisbury Street unconscious and bleeding from cuts to his face. Tipton was taken to Providence Hospital and when a doctor was examining him, he came round and became violent and needed restraining.
The doctor believed that the man had been drinking heavily and had nothing wrong with him, with the cuts the result of collapsing on the street through drink. But Tipton insisted he had been knocked down but could offer no reason why he was attacked. The Bench decided to dismiss the charge but warned him not to come before them again.
And finally, theatre impresario Fred Karno's troupe was back at the Hippodrome in St Helens this week with a comedy drama called "Mumming Birds". Karno is credited with kick-starting the careers of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel and the strapline in their adverts for the show said: "The fantasy that made Charlie Chaplin famous".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green desertion case, the mysterious death down Lea Green Colliery, George Formby plays the Hippodrome, a baby's body is found floating in the canal and the severe housing crisis in St Helens.
This week's stories include the controversial penny dip prosecution of Oxley's store, the alien shoplifter from Parr, a church minister's tribute to the preventive powers of Angier's Emulsion, the grudging compensation paid to a burnt chemical worker and the woman who sought damages after being knocked down by a motorbike after crossing Queens Road without looking.
We begin with the case of George Hawkins who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 10th after spending a week in custody on remand charged with attempting suicide.
The 65-year-old platelayer from Milton Street in Sutton Manor had tried to gas himself – but was saved by PC O’Hara.
The constable dragged Hawkins from his home into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for 10 minutes until the man came round.
Alcohol was blamed for his action and after promising the magistrates that he would never touch drink again, Hawkins was discharged from the court.
Immigrant Mary Samusks also appeared in the Police Court and the St Helens Reporter was unimpressed with the fact that the woman had come to live in this country but not bothered to learn the language, saying:
"The most long-drawn-out difficulty of making a foreigner who could not understand English grasp the evidence given was again experienced at the St. Helens Police Court on Tuesday."
Mrs Samusks from Ashcroft Street appeared in the dock with a child in her arms and her husband by her side to act as interpreter – although he only spoke broken English.
She was charged with stealing a pair of ladies' shoes valued at 6s 6d from Hamer's shop in Park Road and redeeming them at a pawnshop in Higher Parr Street.
Initially the woman denied any knowledge of the shoes but then afterwards said she was very sorry for stealing them but needed cash to pay the rent.
Her husband was a labourer earning 35 shillings a week, a little less than the average for a working man and the couple had six children to support.
As it was the woman's first appearance in court, the case was dismissed upon payment of costs but she was warned about her future conduct.
The Reporter's headline to their article on the case was "Alien's Theft in St Helens".
The early 1920s was the era of the motorcycle in St Helens. Cars were too expensive for the vast majority of residents to buy and run – but those in work could afford to purchase motorbikes on HP.
In May 1920 the St Helens Reporter had commented on a Bank Holiday getaway:
"The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
But motorbikes were less visible to pedestrians than cars and could be ridden faster on the town's narrow streets and consequently become involved in more accidents.
However, the riders did not always cause such accidents, as children and some adults were often uneducated about safe road crossing procedures.
On the 11th in St Helens County Court (pictured above) Agnes Black brought a claim for damages against motorbike owner Reginald Coleridge from Central Avenue in Prescot.
The Corporation Street confectioner had got off a tram in Queens Road, off Prescot Road, in St Helens.
In attempting to cross the street from behind the tramcar, Mrs Black was knocked down by Mr Coleridge's motorbike.
Her injuries were quite serious and she required two operations and claimed the sight of her right eye had been permanently damaged.
However, the hearing in the East Street court heard there was no footpath at the tram's stopping place and in crossing the road, Mrs Black hadn't checked for oncoming vehicles.
Asked by Coleridge's counsel if she had looked to see if any traffic was coming, Mrs Black replied:
"There is so much traffic along that road that I generally make my way to the pavement [on the other side of the street] as quickly as I can."
A boy that had got off the tram with Mrs Black claimed that he'd said to the woman, "Mind, lady, there's a motor coming" and clutched her hand to try and stop her dashing across the road.
Mrs Black said she had no recollection of the boy's warning and stated that she had not hesitated from getting off the tram to making her way across the road, adding: "The motor cycle was on me before I knew it was there".
I'm not aware of any 1920s road safety campaigns, the like of which we were taught as children – such as the basic "look right, look left and right again" slogan.
Mrs Black's version of "dash across the road as fast as you can and hope for the best" was asking for trouble, as the judge commented in his summing up:
"On the plaintiff’s confession she is guilty of negligence, because she did what everybody knows to be dangerous. She went from behind a tramcar into some passing traffic. A large percentage of accidents happen in that way. She heard nothing and did not look, and did not remember the boy warning her."
So the judge found for the defendant and also awarded Mr Coleridge costs.
George Woods was more successful with his claim in the County Court – but not by much.
Although it was now mandatory for employers to pay compensation to their workers injured in accidents, it was nothing like the scale that we are used to.
Woods from Broad Oak Road in Parr had been very badly hurt at a chemical works when a pot of boiling caustic liquor foamed over.
He was working underneath the pot and it scalded his back, shoulders and legs and splashed in one eye.
The burns must have been incredibly painful and Woods was consequently off work for some time and paid 25 shillings a week by the firm.
That was the standard way that compensation was then paid; an amount in lieu of his weekly wage, although usually of a lesser amount.
Last April it was decided that Woods was fit enough to work again – although he was given an unskilled job as a labourer and so paid less than before. But Woods said working was too painful and he had to stop.
The firm resumed paying him the weekly compensation but it was stopped on June 8th as they claimed he was fit for work.
In the lengthy court hearing, much medical evidence was presented, both supporting and rebutting the man's fitness to do his job.
In the end the judge decided that Woods was able to undertake some employment at the firm and should be paid at a rate half the difference between his old wage and his new one.
Newspapers a century ago contained many adverts for medicines of dubious benefit, which made wild cure-all claims.
Getting testimonials was easy, as people would regularly confuse the effect of taking some mixture with the body's own natural powers of recovery.
The makers of Angier's Emulsion went one step further by claiming their concoction prevented colds and Baptist minister William Holroyd was a great fan.
On 12th the 59-year-old – until recently living in Windle Street in St Helens and now at Whiston Lane in Prescot – had this glowing testimonial published in the Daily Mirror:
"As a preventive against taking cold and as a sure pick-me-up when run down, I have found nothing to equal Angier's Emulsion. Many an illness would be avoided or shortened by its prompt use."
Writing more recently, a chap called Chris Langton said he hated being given Angier's Emulsion as a child:
"Emulsion was probably a good description because it had the consistency of paint and stuck to the roof of your mouth!"
The children's section of Oxley's Department Store in Claughton Street was known as 'Babyland' and on the 13th the Reporter described how it had been prosecuted for possessing an "unjust scale" – in other words they had inaccurate scales that were against the purchaser.
It was being used for scaling up sweets for penny dips for Oxley's forthcoming Christmas grotto and the firm was fined 20 shillings.
However, the fine infuriated Charles Oxley, the owner of the firm. The 56-year-old "manufacturer of blouses, overalls, pinafores & underclothing" – as stated in the 1911 census – had a letter published in the Reporter.
Oxley explained that his 15-year-old girl assistant had allowed a few bits of sweets to remain overnight on the scale and no customers would have been served from it until it was washed.
"There is absolutely no injustice to anyone in what we have done," Oxley stated. "The fine we regard as a great injustice. It practically amounts to our being fined for giving extra value to our customers."
However, a critical missive from someone purporting to be a customer dwarfed the length of Oxley's letter.
That anonymous person claimed to have "happened to stroll into the St. Helens Police Court" at the time of the prosecution and been shocked by the case against Oxley's.
I can't help wonder if the person who sent the letter was someone close to the firm – which appeared to be doing a very good job of turning negative press into positive publicity.
The Reporter also described how the benefit of the doubt had been given to Edward Tipton when he appeared in St Helens Police Court.
The man of no fixed abode had been found at 10:55pm lying in the gutter in Salisbury Street unconscious and bleeding from cuts to his face.
Tipton was taken to Providence Hospital and when a doctor was examining him, he came round and became violent and needed restraining.
The doctor believed that the man had been drinking heavily and had nothing wrong with him, with the cuts the result of collapsing on the street through drink.
But Tipton insisted he had been knocked down but could offer no reason why he was attacked.
The Bench decided to dismiss the charge but warned him not to come before them again.
And finally, theatre impresario Fred Karno's troupe was back at the Hippodrome in St Helens this week with a comedy drama called "Mumming Birds".
Karno is credited with kick-starting the careers of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel and the strapline in their adverts for the show said: "The fantasy that made Charlie Chaplin famous".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green desertion case, the mysterious death down Lea Green Colliery, George Formby plays the Hippodrome, a baby's body is found floating in the canal and the severe housing crisis in St Helens.
We begin with the case of George Hawkins who returned to St Helens Police Court on the 10th after spending a week in custody on remand charged with attempting suicide.
The 65-year-old platelayer from Milton Street in Sutton Manor had tried to gas himself – but was saved by PC O’Hara.
The constable dragged Hawkins from his home into the fresh air and applied artificial respiration for 10 minutes until the man came round.
Alcohol was blamed for his action and after promising the magistrates that he would never touch drink again, Hawkins was discharged from the court.
Immigrant Mary Samusks also appeared in the Police Court and the St Helens Reporter was unimpressed with the fact that the woman had come to live in this country but not bothered to learn the language, saying:
"The most long-drawn-out difficulty of making a foreigner who could not understand English grasp the evidence given was again experienced at the St. Helens Police Court on Tuesday."
Mrs Samusks from Ashcroft Street appeared in the dock with a child in her arms and her husband by her side to act as interpreter – although he only spoke broken English.
She was charged with stealing a pair of ladies' shoes valued at 6s 6d from Hamer's shop in Park Road and redeeming them at a pawnshop in Higher Parr Street.
Initially the woman denied any knowledge of the shoes but then afterwards said she was very sorry for stealing them but needed cash to pay the rent.
Her husband was a labourer earning 35 shillings a week, a little less than the average for a working man and the couple had six children to support.
As it was the woman's first appearance in court, the case was dismissed upon payment of costs but she was warned about her future conduct.
The Reporter's headline to their article on the case was "Alien's Theft in St Helens".
In May 1920 the St Helens Reporter had commented on a Bank Holiday getaway:
"The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
But motorbikes were less visible to pedestrians than cars and could be ridden faster on the town's narrow streets and consequently become involved in more accidents.
However, the riders did not always cause such accidents, as children and some adults were often uneducated about safe road crossing procedures.
The Corporation Street confectioner had got off a tram in Queens Road, off Prescot Road, in St Helens.
In attempting to cross the street from behind the tramcar, Mrs Black was knocked down by Mr Coleridge's motorbike.
Her injuries were quite serious and she required two operations and claimed the sight of her right eye had been permanently damaged.
However, the hearing in the East Street court heard there was no footpath at the tram's stopping place and in crossing the road, Mrs Black hadn't checked for oncoming vehicles.
Asked by Coleridge's counsel if she had looked to see if any traffic was coming, Mrs Black replied:
"There is so much traffic along that road that I generally make my way to the pavement [on the other side of the street] as quickly as I can."
A boy that had got off the tram with Mrs Black claimed that he'd said to the woman, "Mind, lady, there's a motor coming" and clutched her hand to try and stop her dashing across the road.
Mrs Black said she had no recollection of the boy's warning and stated that she had not hesitated from getting off the tram to making her way across the road, adding: "The motor cycle was on me before I knew it was there".
I'm not aware of any 1920s road safety campaigns, the like of which we were taught as children – such as the basic "look right, look left and right again" slogan.
Mrs Black's version of "dash across the road as fast as you can and hope for the best" was asking for trouble, as the judge commented in his summing up:
"On the plaintiff’s confession she is guilty of negligence, because she did what everybody knows to be dangerous. She went from behind a tramcar into some passing traffic. A large percentage of accidents happen in that way. She heard nothing and did not look, and did not remember the boy warning her."
So the judge found for the defendant and also awarded Mr Coleridge costs.
George Woods was more successful with his claim in the County Court – but not by much.
Although it was now mandatory for employers to pay compensation to their workers injured in accidents, it was nothing like the scale that we are used to.
Woods from Broad Oak Road in Parr had been very badly hurt at a chemical works when a pot of boiling caustic liquor foamed over.
He was working underneath the pot and it scalded his back, shoulders and legs and splashed in one eye.
The burns must have been incredibly painful and Woods was consequently off work for some time and paid 25 shillings a week by the firm.
That was the standard way that compensation was then paid; an amount in lieu of his weekly wage, although usually of a lesser amount.
Last April it was decided that Woods was fit enough to work again – although he was given an unskilled job as a labourer and so paid less than before. But Woods said working was too painful and he had to stop.
The firm resumed paying him the weekly compensation but it was stopped on June 8th as they claimed he was fit for work.
In the lengthy court hearing, much medical evidence was presented, both supporting and rebutting the man's fitness to do his job.
In the end the judge decided that Woods was able to undertake some employment at the firm and should be paid at a rate half the difference between his old wage and his new one.
Newspapers a century ago contained many adverts for medicines of dubious benefit, which made wild cure-all claims.
Getting testimonials was easy, as people would regularly confuse the effect of taking some mixture with the body's own natural powers of recovery.
The makers of Angier's Emulsion went one step further by claiming their concoction prevented colds and Baptist minister William Holroyd was a great fan.
On 12th the 59-year-old – until recently living in Windle Street in St Helens and now at Whiston Lane in Prescot – had this glowing testimonial published in the Daily Mirror:
"As a preventive against taking cold and as a sure pick-me-up when run down, I have found nothing to equal Angier's Emulsion. Many an illness would be avoided or shortened by its prompt use."
Writing more recently, a chap called Chris Langton said he hated being given Angier's Emulsion as a child:
"Emulsion was probably a good description because it had the consistency of paint and stuck to the roof of your mouth!"
The children's section of Oxley's Department Store in Claughton Street was known as 'Babyland' and on the 13th the Reporter described how it had been prosecuted for possessing an "unjust scale" – in other words they had inaccurate scales that were against the purchaser.
It was being used for scaling up sweets for penny dips for Oxley's forthcoming Christmas grotto and the firm was fined 20 shillings.
However, the fine infuriated Charles Oxley, the owner of the firm. The 56-year-old "manufacturer of blouses, overalls, pinafores & underclothing" – as stated in the 1911 census – had a letter published in the Reporter.
Oxley explained that his 15-year-old girl assistant had allowed a few bits of sweets to remain overnight on the scale and no customers would have been served from it until it was washed.
"There is absolutely no injustice to anyone in what we have done," Oxley stated. "The fine we regard as a great injustice. It practically amounts to our being fined for giving extra value to our customers."
However, a critical missive from someone purporting to be a customer dwarfed the length of Oxley's letter.
That anonymous person claimed to have "happened to stroll into the St. Helens Police Court" at the time of the prosecution and been shocked by the case against Oxley's.
I can't help wonder if the person who sent the letter was someone close to the firm – which appeared to be doing a very good job of turning negative press into positive publicity.
The Reporter also described how the benefit of the doubt had been given to Edward Tipton when he appeared in St Helens Police Court.
The man of no fixed abode had been found at 10:55pm lying in the gutter in Salisbury Street unconscious and bleeding from cuts to his face.
Tipton was taken to Providence Hospital and when a doctor was examining him, he came round and became violent and needed restraining.
The doctor believed that the man had been drinking heavily and had nothing wrong with him, with the cuts the result of collapsing on the street through drink.
But Tipton insisted he had been knocked down but could offer no reason why he was attacked.
The Bench decided to dismiss the charge but warned him not to come before them again.
And finally, theatre impresario Fred Karno's troupe was back at the Hippodrome in St Helens this week with a comedy drama called "Mumming Birds".
Karno is credited with kick-starting the careers of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel and the strapline in their adverts for the show said: "The fantasy that made Charlie Chaplin famous".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the Dentons Green desertion case, the mysterious death down Lea Green Colliery, George Formby plays the Hippodrome, a baby's body is found floating in the canal and the severe housing crisis in St Helens.