IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 11 - 17 MARCH 1924
This week's many stories include the music licence dilemma for Carr Mill Dam, the chance nabbing of a Sutton shirt thief, the worker at St Helens Colliery that cheekily helped himself to coal, the two women fighting in Lyon Street and the West Park Catholic Grammar School's lottery prosecution.
I begin with the turns that this week were performing twice nightly at the Hippodrome Theatre: Dick Henderson ("The famous Yorkshire comedian – important and expensive engagement"); Gerard and Leslie ("The juvenile act that is different"); W. C. Barnes ("The limit in comedy juggling"); Carlier and Cuvelier ("Famous piano-accordionists") and Le Mounier ("An act humorous and sensational").
Some beggars in St Helens could get quite violent. PC Beresford had arrested John Cotter for asking people for money in Church Street and he began to escort his prisoner to the station. Upon walking up Hall Street Cotter turned on the officer, struck him twice in the face and knocked his helmet into the middle of the street. Two young men came to the constable's assistance and between them they managed to get the prisoner to the Town Hall.
However, in St Helens Police Court on the 11th, PC Beresford said that on the journey Cotter had used vile language, especially when any ladies were in the vicinity. The man had already spent three nights in a police cell and the magistrates decided that was sufficient punishment, although Cotter had to promise to leave St Helens immediately before being discharged from the court.
Also on the 11th two separate applications for music licences were considered in St Helens Police Court for the Carr Mill Dam Pleasure Grounds, as the venue was then known. Last year the magistrates had granted a licence for the playing of music in a field near the water during the summer months. However, two conditions had been imposed. The music had to stop at sunset and could not take place on Sundays. Of course, late evenings and the Sabbath would have been the most popular times for listening to music and dancing – but beggars can't be choosers…
And so this year the fussy licensing justices were told that the applicant Lawrence Silcock would happily accept similar restrictions if his licence was renewed for the summer. The St Helens Medical Officer of Health had already approved the sanitary arrangements, i.e. toileting etc., assuming permission would again be granted. A second application was also considered from Walter Fillingham of the Wellington Hotel in St Helens. He was seeking a music and dancing licence for the hall near to the entrance of the pleasure grounds.
Mr Fillingham had for some time provided catering services at Carr Mill and he said on busy days people had long waits to hire rowing boats. On many occasions he had been asked if he could provide a room for dancing and he promised the magistrates that his venue would be self-contained and there would be no access after dusk fell.
But both applications were rejected without any reasons being given. That was the usual practice when such requests were turned down. To my mind that approach always smacked of arrogance and it denied the applicants from addressing the Bench's concerns in any future revised application.
On the 11th a meeting of the St Helens Continental Club was held in the YMCA on the corner of North Road. The club had been newly-formed and had the purpose of sending racing pigeons across to France.
The so-called day-wage men that were employed in coalmines as labourers were not normally entitled to receive concessionary coal, as most other mineworkers were. Ben Shenton was employed as a day-wage man at Pilkington's St Helens Colliery and clearly thought he deserved some coal as an added benefit of his labours. Not only did he cheekily help himself to some that was stored in the colliery yard but also he had a girl waiting with a barrow so the coal could be wheeled home.
Shenton had got away with the act on several occasions but on the 12th in St Helens Police Court he was fined 7s 6d. At the same hearing Richard Leadbetter from Webb Street in Sutton was bound over to be of good behaviour for six months after taking 5½ cwt of coal from outside Sherdley Colliery. Leadbetter had gone one step further than Ben Shenton with his barrow, as he was using a horse and cart to nick the coal!
The Savoy and Oxford cinemas in Bridge Street and Duke Street, respectively, were under the same ownership and some films were shared between them. For three days from the 13th both screened what their advert claimed was the "world's wonder film". That was 'Chu Chin Chow' that had run for five years as a play in London and no doubt benefitted by being on a stage with colourful sets and speech, both of which were lost in the silent film version. However, it was still described in the Reporter advert as a "gorgeous Oriental spectacle with a romantic and thrilling story" and was remade as a talkie in 1934.
The St Helens Reporter on the 14th described a court case in which two women from Lyon Street had been having a right old scrap! A constable reported having found Lily Morrison and Mary Birkett "fighting, shouting and rolling on the floor". The officer separated the pair and escorted them back to their homes but he said five minutes later Mary was walking up and down the street again shouting and using filthy language. Unusually, the two women decided to keep the cause of their squabble to themselves and in court had nothing to say in their defence and were both bound over for three months.
In the 1921 census Fred Tatlock and his wife Edith are listed as boarders at a house in Tamworth Street in Eccleston. Fred's occupation was given as a storekeeper but he was now playing the cornet in the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, possibly in addition to a day job. The Reporter described how Edith Tatlock had summoned her husband to the Police Court charging him with desertion, although in reality it was an application for maintenance.
Usually in these hearings the couples would throw lots of dirt at each other with the public accusations greatly reducing the chances of any reconciliation. But the two solicitors for the husband and wife had got together before the hearing and had decided to say nothing about the reasons for their clients' separation, as they felt there was a probability of them getting together again. That was a very sensible approach and the magistrates issued an order to Mrs Tatlock of 25 shillings a week, as well as the custody of the couple's child. The order could easily be cancelled in the event of reconciliation.
The police knew their beats well and could be eagle-eyed in solving crimes. When Sgt. Cust turned up at the door of Charles Yates to tell him that his son had been caught stealing coal, he noticed the miner from Taylor's Row in Sutton was wearing a distinctive shirt. It matched the description of one that had been stolen from a rail outside of Hunter's shop in Peckers Hill Road (pictured above left). Yates denied any connection but when the sergeant went back to the house to discuss the matter further, the man admitted the theft. In court he was fined twenty shillings or alternatively must serve seven days in prison.
In St Helens Police Court on the 14th butchers Joseph and George Goodall of Bridge Street in Earlestown were both fined for slaughtering pigs in an unlicensed place. That was after they had killed two pigs on their allotment. As a consequence of the present foot and mouth epidemic the pigs should have been slaughtered at a licensed abattoir where they would have been properly inspected.
The Catholic churches in St Helens had a long history of raising funds through holding lotteries. Many of the tickets were sold in Ireland but were of dubious legality, although often overlooked by the Irish authorities because of their charitable nature. But not so much in St Helens, where the holding of a lottery was treated as a serious offence.
On March 1st a wallet belonging to William Lucas of Boundary Road in St Helens had been handed in to police after it had been found lying in the street. Inside they found a book of tickets for a draw for the Grand National, which was in aid of the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was due to open in 1925. A measure of the seriousness with which St Helens police took lotteries was that the policeman that went to talk to the wallet holder held the rank of chief inspector.
Lucas gave him the name of Martin Wallace as the man who had sent him the tickets, although Wallace claimed to have simply received two books from Daniel O’Brien of Dublin. The police knew who had printed the tickets as the name of Thomas Kilburn from Scotland Road in Liverpool was shown on them. On the 14th Kilburn told St Helens Police Court that he had received orders to print a total of 60,000 tickets, with most of them being dispatched to Dublin, however, one package had been collected by a messenger from St Helens.
Kilburn was in court charged with aiding and abetting Martin Wallace through printing the tickets. But Wallace was faced with a more serious charge of publishing a lottery and selling tickets – although all he had done was attempt to sell two books. Wallace's solicitor argued that his client could in no sense be said to have published the lottery.
He said the promoters of the new school needed to raise the money to pay for it by their own efforts and a lottery was one of the means that they had chosen. The solicitor called for the case against Wallace to be dismissed upon the payment of court costs. The magistrates agreed to that course and ordered Wallace to only pay eight shillings, but they fined the Liverpool printer Thomas Kilburn £2.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the treatment for defective children, the three trains that bumped into each other at St Helens Station, the Parr caravan dwellers playing banker and the pressure placed on a young wife to return to her brutal husband.
I begin with the turns that this week were performing twice nightly at the Hippodrome Theatre: Dick Henderson ("The famous Yorkshire comedian – important and expensive engagement"); Gerard and Leslie ("The juvenile act that is different"); W. C. Barnes ("The limit in comedy juggling"); Carlier and Cuvelier ("Famous piano-accordionists") and Le Mounier ("An act humorous and sensational").
Some beggars in St Helens could get quite violent. PC Beresford had arrested John Cotter for asking people for money in Church Street and he began to escort his prisoner to the station. Upon walking up Hall Street Cotter turned on the officer, struck him twice in the face and knocked his helmet into the middle of the street. Two young men came to the constable's assistance and between them they managed to get the prisoner to the Town Hall.
However, in St Helens Police Court on the 11th, PC Beresford said that on the journey Cotter had used vile language, especially when any ladies were in the vicinity. The man had already spent three nights in a police cell and the magistrates decided that was sufficient punishment, although Cotter had to promise to leave St Helens immediately before being discharged from the court.
Also on the 11th two separate applications for music licences were considered in St Helens Police Court for the Carr Mill Dam Pleasure Grounds, as the venue was then known. Last year the magistrates had granted a licence for the playing of music in a field near the water during the summer months. However, two conditions had been imposed. The music had to stop at sunset and could not take place on Sundays. Of course, late evenings and the Sabbath would have been the most popular times for listening to music and dancing – but beggars can't be choosers…
And so this year the fussy licensing justices were told that the applicant Lawrence Silcock would happily accept similar restrictions if his licence was renewed for the summer. The St Helens Medical Officer of Health had already approved the sanitary arrangements, i.e. toileting etc., assuming permission would again be granted. A second application was also considered from Walter Fillingham of the Wellington Hotel in St Helens. He was seeking a music and dancing licence for the hall near to the entrance of the pleasure grounds.
Mr Fillingham had for some time provided catering services at Carr Mill and he said on busy days people had long waits to hire rowing boats. On many occasions he had been asked if he could provide a room for dancing and he promised the magistrates that his venue would be self-contained and there would be no access after dusk fell.
But both applications were rejected without any reasons being given. That was the usual practice when such requests were turned down. To my mind that approach always smacked of arrogance and it denied the applicants from addressing the Bench's concerns in any future revised application.
On the 11th a meeting of the St Helens Continental Club was held in the YMCA on the corner of North Road. The club had been newly-formed and had the purpose of sending racing pigeons across to France.
The so-called day-wage men that were employed in coalmines as labourers were not normally entitled to receive concessionary coal, as most other mineworkers were. Ben Shenton was employed as a day-wage man at Pilkington's St Helens Colliery and clearly thought he deserved some coal as an added benefit of his labours. Not only did he cheekily help himself to some that was stored in the colliery yard but also he had a girl waiting with a barrow so the coal could be wheeled home.
Shenton had got away with the act on several occasions but on the 12th in St Helens Police Court he was fined 7s 6d. At the same hearing Richard Leadbetter from Webb Street in Sutton was bound over to be of good behaviour for six months after taking 5½ cwt of coal from outside Sherdley Colliery. Leadbetter had gone one step further than Ben Shenton with his barrow, as he was using a horse and cart to nick the coal!
The Savoy and Oxford cinemas in Bridge Street and Duke Street, respectively, were under the same ownership and some films were shared between them. For three days from the 13th both screened what their advert claimed was the "world's wonder film". That was 'Chu Chin Chow' that had run for five years as a play in London and no doubt benefitted by being on a stage with colourful sets and speech, both of which were lost in the silent film version. However, it was still described in the Reporter advert as a "gorgeous Oriental spectacle with a romantic and thrilling story" and was remade as a talkie in 1934.
The St Helens Reporter on the 14th described a court case in which two women from Lyon Street had been having a right old scrap! A constable reported having found Lily Morrison and Mary Birkett "fighting, shouting and rolling on the floor". The officer separated the pair and escorted them back to their homes but he said five minutes later Mary was walking up and down the street again shouting and using filthy language. Unusually, the two women decided to keep the cause of their squabble to themselves and in court had nothing to say in their defence and were both bound over for three months.
In the 1921 census Fred Tatlock and his wife Edith are listed as boarders at a house in Tamworth Street in Eccleston. Fred's occupation was given as a storekeeper but he was now playing the cornet in the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, possibly in addition to a day job. The Reporter described how Edith Tatlock had summoned her husband to the Police Court charging him with desertion, although in reality it was an application for maintenance.
Usually in these hearings the couples would throw lots of dirt at each other with the public accusations greatly reducing the chances of any reconciliation. But the two solicitors for the husband and wife had got together before the hearing and had decided to say nothing about the reasons for their clients' separation, as they felt there was a probability of them getting together again. That was a very sensible approach and the magistrates issued an order to Mrs Tatlock of 25 shillings a week, as well as the custody of the couple's child. The order could easily be cancelled in the event of reconciliation.
In St Helens Police Court on the 14th butchers Joseph and George Goodall of Bridge Street in Earlestown were both fined for slaughtering pigs in an unlicensed place. That was after they had killed two pigs on their allotment. As a consequence of the present foot and mouth epidemic the pigs should have been slaughtered at a licensed abattoir where they would have been properly inspected.
The Catholic churches in St Helens had a long history of raising funds through holding lotteries. Many of the tickets were sold in Ireland but were of dubious legality, although often overlooked by the Irish authorities because of their charitable nature. But not so much in St Helens, where the holding of a lottery was treated as a serious offence.
On March 1st a wallet belonging to William Lucas of Boundary Road in St Helens had been handed in to police after it had been found lying in the street. Inside they found a book of tickets for a draw for the Grand National, which was in aid of the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was due to open in 1925. A measure of the seriousness with which St Helens police took lotteries was that the policeman that went to talk to the wallet holder held the rank of chief inspector.
Lucas gave him the name of Martin Wallace as the man who had sent him the tickets, although Wallace claimed to have simply received two books from Daniel O’Brien of Dublin. The police knew who had printed the tickets as the name of Thomas Kilburn from Scotland Road in Liverpool was shown on them. On the 14th Kilburn told St Helens Police Court that he had received orders to print a total of 60,000 tickets, with most of them being dispatched to Dublin, however, one package had been collected by a messenger from St Helens.
Kilburn was in court charged with aiding and abetting Martin Wallace through printing the tickets. But Wallace was faced with a more serious charge of publishing a lottery and selling tickets – although all he had done was attempt to sell two books. Wallace's solicitor argued that his client could in no sense be said to have published the lottery.
He said the promoters of the new school needed to raise the money to pay for it by their own efforts and a lottery was one of the means that they had chosen. The solicitor called for the case against Wallace to be dismissed upon the payment of court costs. The magistrates agreed to that course and ordered Wallace to only pay eight shillings, but they fined the Liverpool printer Thomas Kilburn £2.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the treatment for defective children, the three trains that bumped into each other at St Helens Station, the Parr caravan dwellers playing banker and the pressure placed on a young wife to return to her brutal husband.
This week's many stories include the music licence dilemma for Carr Mill Dam, the chance nabbing of a Sutton shirt thief, the worker at St Helens Colliery that cheekily helped himself to coal, the two women fighting in Lyon Street and the West Park Catholic Grammar School's lottery prosecution.
I begin with the turns that this week were performing twice nightly at the Hippodrome Theatre:
Dick Henderson ("The famous Yorkshire comedian – important and expensive engagement"); Gerard and Leslie ("The juvenile act that is different"); W. C. Barnes ("The limit in comedy juggling"); Carlier and Cuvelier ("Famous piano-accordionists") and Le Mounier ("An act humorous and sensational").
Some beggars in St Helens could get quite violent. PC Beresford had arrested John Cotter for asking people for money in Church Street and he began to escort his prisoner to the station.
Upon walking up Hall Street Cotter turned on the officer, struck him twice in the face and knocked his helmet into the middle of the street.
Two young men came to the constable's assistance and between them they managed to get the prisoner to the Town Hall.
However, in St Helens Police Court on the 11th, PC Beresford said that on the journey Cotter had used vile language, especially when any ladies were in the vicinity.
The man had already spent three nights in a police cell and the magistrates decided that was sufficient punishment, although Cotter had to promise to leave St Helens immediately before being discharged from the court.
Also on the 11th two separate applications for music licences were considered in St Helens Police Court for the Carr Mill Dam Pleasure Grounds, as the venue was then known.
Last year the magistrates had granted a licence for the playing of music in a field near the water during the summer months.
However, two conditions had been imposed. The music had to stop at sunset and could not take place on Sundays.
Of course, late evenings and the Sabbath would have been the most popular times for listening to music and dancing – but beggars can't be choosers…
And so this year the fussy licensing justices were told that the applicant Lawrence Silcock would happily accept similar restrictions if his licence was renewed for the summer.
The St Helens Medical Officer of Health had already approved the sanitary arrangements, i.e. toileting etc., assuming permission would again be granted.
A second application was also considered from Walter Fillingham of the Wellington Hotel in St Helens.
He was seeking a music and dancing licence for the hall near to the entrance of the pleasure grounds.
Mr Fillingham had for some time provided catering services at Carr Mill and he said on busy days people had long waits to hire rowing boats.
On many occasions he had been asked if he could provide a room for dancing and he promised the magistrates that his venue would be self-contained and there would be no access after dusk fell.
But both applications were rejected without any reasons being given. That was the usual practice when such requests were turned down.
To my mind that approach always smacked of arrogance and it denied the applicants from addressing the Bench's concerns in any future revised application.
On the 11th a meeting of the St Helens Continental Club was held in the YMCA on the corner of North Road.
The club had been newly-formed and had the purpose of sending racing pigeons across to France.
The so-called day-wage men that were employed in coalmines as labourers were not normally entitled to receive concessionary coal, as most other mineworkers were.
Ben Shenton was employed as a day-wage man at Pilkington's St Helens Colliery and clearly thought he deserved some coal as an added benefit of his labours.
Not only did he cheekily help himself to some that was stored in the colliery yard but also he had a girl waiting with a barrow so the coal could be wheeled home.
Shenton had got away with the act on several occasions but on the 12th in St Helens Police Court he was fined 7s 6d.
At the same hearing Richard Leadbetter from Webb Street in Sutton was bound over to be of good behaviour for six months after taking 5½ cwt of coal from outside Sherdley Colliery.
Leadbetter had gone one step further than Ben Shenton with his barrow, as he was using a horse and cart to nick the coal!
The Savoy and Oxford cinemas in Bridge Street and Duke Street, respectively, were under the same ownership and some films were shared between them.
For three days from the 13th both screened what their advert claimed was the "world's wonder film".
That was 'Chu Chin Chow' that had run for five years as a play in London and no doubt benefitted by being on a stage with colourful sets and speech, both of which were lost in the silent film version.
However, it was still described in the Reporter advert as a "gorgeous Oriental spectacle with a romantic and thrilling story" and was remade as a talkie in 1934.
The St Helens Reporter on the 14th described a court case in which two women from Lyon Street had been having a right old scrap!
A constable reported having found Lily Morrison and Mary Birkett "fighting, shouting and rolling on the floor".
The officer separated the pair and escorted them back to their homes but he said five minutes later Mary was walking up and down the street again shouting and using filthy language.
Unusually, the two women decided to keep the cause of their squabble to themselves and in court had nothing to say in their defence and were both bound over for three months.
In the 1921 census Fred Tatlock and his wife Edith are listed as boarders at a house in Tamworth Street in Eccleston.
Fred's occupation was given as a storekeeper but he was now playing the cornet in the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, possibly in addition to a day job.
The Reporter described how Edith Tatlock had summoned her husband to the Police Court charging him with desertion, although in reality it was an application for maintenance.
Usually in these hearings the couples would throw lots of dirt at each other with the public accusations greatly reducing the chances of any reconciliation.
But the two solicitors for the husband and wife had got together before the hearing and had decided to say nothing about the reasons for their clients' separation, as they felt there was a probability of them getting together again.
That was a very sensible approach and the magistrates issued an order to Mrs Tatlock of 25 shillings a week, as well as the custody of the couple's child. The order could easily be cancelled in the event of reconciliation.
The police knew their beats well and could be eagle-eyed in solving crimes.
When Sgt. Cust turned up at the door of Charles Yates to tell him that his son had been caught stealing coal, he noticed the miner from Taylor's Row in Sutton was wearing a distinctive shirt.
It matched the description of one that had been stolen from a rail outside of Hunter's shop in Peckers Hill Road (pictured above left).
Yates denied any connection but when the sergeant went back to the house to discuss the matter further, the man admitted the theft.
In court he was fined twenty shillings or alternatively must serve seven days in prison.
In St Helens Police Court on the 14th butchers Joseph and George Goodall of Bridge Street in Earlestown were both fined for slaughtering pigs in an unlicensed place. That was after they had killed two pigs on their allotment.
As a consequence of the present foot and mouth epidemic the pigs should have been slaughtered at a licensed abattoir where they would have been properly inspected.
The Catholic churches in St Helens had a long history of raising funds through holding lotteries.
Many of the tickets were sold in Ireland but were of dubious legality, although often overlooked by the Irish authorities because of their charitable nature.
But not so much in St Helens, where the holding of a lottery was treated as a serious offence.
On March 1st a wallet belonging to William Lucas of Boundary Road in St Helens had been handed in to police after it had been found lying in the street.
Inside they found a book of tickets for a draw for the Grand National, which was in aid of the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was due to open in 1925.
A measure of the seriousness with which St Helens police took lotteries was that the policeman that went to talk to the wallet holder held the rank of chief inspector.
Lucas gave him the name of Martin Wallace as the man who had sent him the tickets, although Wallace claimed to have simply received two books from Daniel O’Brien of Dublin.
The police knew who had printed the tickets as the name of Thomas Kilburn from Scotland Road in Liverpool was shown on them.
On the 14th Kilburn told St Helens Police Court that he had received orders to print a total of 60,000 tickets, with most of them being dispatched to Dublin, however, one package had been collected by a messenger from St Helens.
Kilburn was in court charged with aiding and abetting Martin Wallace through printing the tickets.
But Wallace was faced with a more serious charge of publishing a lottery and selling tickets – although all he had done was attempt to sell two books.
Wallace's solicitor argued that his client could in no sense be said to have published the lottery.
He said the promoters of the new school needed to raise the money to pay for it by their own efforts and a lottery was one of the means that they had chosen.
The solicitor called for the case against Wallace to be dismissed upon the payment of court costs.
The magistrates agreed to that course and ordered Wallace to only pay eight shillings, but they fined the Liverpool printer Thomas Kilburn £2.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the treatment for defective children, the three trains that bumped into each other at St Helens Station, the Parr caravan dwellers playing banker and the pressure placed on a young wife to return to her brutal husband.
I begin with the turns that this week were performing twice nightly at the Hippodrome Theatre:
Dick Henderson ("The famous Yorkshire comedian – important and expensive engagement"); Gerard and Leslie ("The juvenile act that is different"); W. C. Barnes ("The limit in comedy juggling"); Carlier and Cuvelier ("Famous piano-accordionists") and Le Mounier ("An act humorous and sensational").
Some beggars in St Helens could get quite violent. PC Beresford had arrested John Cotter for asking people for money in Church Street and he began to escort his prisoner to the station.
Upon walking up Hall Street Cotter turned on the officer, struck him twice in the face and knocked his helmet into the middle of the street.
Two young men came to the constable's assistance and between them they managed to get the prisoner to the Town Hall.
However, in St Helens Police Court on the 11th, PC Beresford said that on the journey Cotter had used vile language, especially when any ladies were in the vicinity.
The man had already spent three nights in a police cell and the magistrates decided that was sufficient punishment, although Cotter had to promise to leave St Helens immediately before being discharged from the court.
Also on the 11th two separate applications for music licences were considered in St Helens Police Court for the Carr Mill Dam Pleasure Grounds, as the venue was then known.
Last year the magistrates had granted a licence for the playing of music in a field near the water during the summer months.
However, two conditions had been imposed. The music had to stop at sunset and could not take place on Sundays.
Of course, late evenings and the Sabbath would have been the most popular times for listening to music and dancing – but beggars can't be choosers…
And so this year the fussy licensing justices were told that the applicant Lawrence Silcock would happily accept similar restrictions if his licence was renewed for the summer.
The St Helens Medical Officer of Health had already approved the sanitary arrangements, i.e. toileting etc., assuming permission would again be granted.
A second application was also considered from Walter Fillingham of the Wellington Hotel in St Helens.
He was seeking a music and dancing licence for the hall near to the entrance of the pleasure grounds.
Mr Fillingham had for some time provided catering services at Carr Mill and he said on busy days people had long waits to hire rowing boats.
On many occasions he had been asked if he could provide a room for dancing and he promised the magistrates that his venue would be self-contained and there would be no access after dusk fell.
But both applications were rejected without any reasons being given. That was the usual practice when such requests were turned down.
To my mind that approach always smacked of arrogance and it denied the applicants from addressing the Bench's concerns in any future revised application.
On the 11th a meeting of the St Helens Continental Club was held in the YMCA on the corner of North Road.
The club had been newly-formed and had the purpose of sending racing pigeons across to France.
The so-called day-wage men that were employed in coalmines as labourers were not normally entitled to receive concessionary coal, as most other mineworkers were.
Ben Shenton was employed as a day-wage man at Pilkington's St Helens Colliery and clearly thought he deserved some coal as an added benefit of his labours.
Not only did he cheekily help himself to some that was stored in the colliery yard but also he had a girl waiting with a barrow so the coal could be wheeled home.
Shenton had got away with the act on several occasions but on the 12th in St Helens Police Court he was fined 7s 6d.
At the same hearing Richard Leadbetter from Webb Street in Sutton was bound over to be of good behaviour for six months after taking 5½ cwt of coal from outside Sherdley Colliery.
Leadbetter had gone one step further than Ben Shenton with his barrow, as he was using a horse and cart to nick the coal!
The Savoy and Oxford cinemas in Bridge Street and Duke Street, respectively, were under the same ownership and some films were shared between them.
For three days from the 13th both screened what their advert claimed was the "world's wonder film".
That was 'Chu Chin Chow' that had run for five years as a play in London and no doubt benefitted by being on a stage with colourful sets and speech, both of which were lost in the silent film version.
However, it was still described in the Reporter advert as a "gorgeous Oriental spectacle with a romantic and thrilling story" and was remade as a talkie in 1934.
The St Helens Reporter on the 14th described a court case in which two women from Lyon Street had been having a right old scrap!
A constable reported having found Lily Morrison and Mary Birkett "fighting, shouting and rolling on the floor".
The officer separated the pair and escorted them back to their homes but he said five minutes later Mary was walking up and down the street again shouting and using filthy language.
Unusually, the two women decided to keep the cause of their squabble to themselves and in court had nothing to say in their defence and were both bound over for three months.
In the 1921 census Fred Tatlock and his wife Edith are listed as boarders at a house in Tamworth Street in Eccleston.
Fred's occupation was given as a storekeeper but he was now playing the cornet in the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, possibly in addition to a day job.
The Reporter described how Edith Tatlock had summoned her husband to the Police Court charging him with desertion, although in reality it was an application for maintenance.
Usually in these hearings the couples would throw lots of dirt at each other with the public accusations greatly reducing the chances of any reconciliation.
But the two solicitors for the husband and wife had got together before the hearing and had decided to say nothing about the reasons for their clients' separation, as they felt there was a probability of them getting together again.
That was a very sensible approach and the magistrates issued an order to Mrs Tatlock of 25 shillings a week, as well as the custody of the couple's child. The order could easily be cancelled in the event of reconciliation.
The police knew their beats well and could be eagle-eyed in solving crimes.
When Sgt. Cust turned up at the door of Charles Yates to tell him that his son had been caught stealing coal, he noticed the miner from Taylor's Row in Sutton was wearing a distinctive shirt.
Yates denied any connection but when the sergeant went back to the house to discuss the matter further, the man admitted the theft.
In court he was fined twenty shillings or alternatively must serve seven days in prison.
In St Helens Police Court on the 14th butchers Joseph and George Goodall of Bridge Street in Earlestown were both fined for slaughtering pigs in an unlicensed place. That was after they had killed two pigs on their allotment.
As a consequence of the present foot and mouth epidemic the pigs should have been slaughtered at a licensed abattoir where they would have been properly inspected.
The Catholic churches in St Helens had a long history of raising funds through holding lotteries.
Many of the tickets were sold in Ireland but were of dubious legality, although often overlooked by the Irish authorities because of their charitable nature.
But not so much in St Helens, where the holding of a lottery was treated as a serious offence.
On March 1st a wallet belonging to William Lucas of Boundary Road in St Helens had been handed in to police after it had been found lying in the street.
Inside they found a book of tickets for a draw for the Grand National, which was in aid of the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was due to open in 1925.
A measure of the seriousness with which St Helens police took lotteries was that the policeman that went to talk to the wallet holder held the rank of chief inspector.
Lucas gave him the name of Martin Wallace as the man who had sent him the tickets, although Wallace claimed to have simply received two books from Daniel O’Brien of Dublin.
The police knew who had printed the tickets as the name of Thomas Kilburn from Scotland Road in Liverpool was shown on them.
On the 14th Kilburn told St Helens Police Court that he had received orders to print a total of 60,000 tickets, with most of them being dispatched to Dublin, however, one package had been collected by a messenger from St Helens.
Kilburn was in court charged with aiding and abetting Martin Wallace through printing the tickets.
But Wallace was faced with a more serious charge of publishing a lottery and selling tickets – although all he had done was attempt to sell two books.
Wallace's solicitor argued that his client could in no sense be said to have published the lottery.
He said the promoters of the new school needed to raise the money to pay for it by their own efforts and a lottery was one of the means that they had chosen.
The solicitor called for the case against Wallace to be dismissed upon the payment of court costs.
The magistrates agreed to that course and ordered Wallace to only pay eight shillings, but they fined the Liverpool printer Thomas Kilburn £2.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the treatment for defective children, the three trains that bumped into each other at St Helens Station, the Parr caravan dwellers playing banker and the pressure placed on a young wife to return to her brutal husband.