IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 11 - 17 MAY 1926
This week's many stories include the end of the General Strike, six Haydock miners appear in court for breaking the emergency regulations, the tram accident at the foot of Croppers Hill, the elderly woman who fell out of her bedroom window and the drunken Sutton Manor miners badly beaten by the police.
Last week the start of the General Strike had meant that the St Helens Reporter was unable to publish its usual Friday edition – but they did put out a couple of brief Crisis Bulletins, free from adverts. On the 11th the Reporter's mid-week edition came out as normal, not knowing that the strike would end on the following day.
Among its snippets of strike news, the paper mentioned that a couple of St Helens shops had displayed some humour in their window displays. An unnamed Church Street cycle dealer had a notice in his window saying, "Strike with a bike". And in a St Helens hairdresser's shop above a bureau there had been a notice that read: "These will strike the same as all the others". The bureau contained matches!
There were few details of those that had signed up as volunteers during the crisis. However, four females that were members of a company appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre had visited the Corporation Street recruitment office to sign up. The Reporter mentioned that many of the temporary unemployed had during the previous week crowded on to the Bridge Street vacant land to listen to "‘quack’ doctors and hawkers".
The paper also mentioned how six persons had been saved from a burning house in Kelly Street in Prescot through jumping from a bedroom window. However, a 78-year-old man called Isaac Atherton in attempting to throw himself out had fallen onto a windowsill and severely injured himself.
There was not much violence during the first week of the strike, although there had been an incident in Sutton Manor involving 40 miners and the police. At the subsequent court appearance of the mob's two ringleaders, the police asked the magistrates to deal with them severely in the light of the general strike.
But Thomas Larkin and Thomas Peyton – who both lived in Scott Avenue – had been very drunk and the incident seemed to have a minimal connection with the strike. The men had been arrested after coming out of the Green Dragon Hotel (pictured above). Anticipating trouble the police had initially tried to get the two men quietly to their homes but they and others turned on the officers, who used their truncheons to defend themselves. And they clearly gave the two Thomas's quite a beating.
The Reporter said that in court the pair presented a "…shocking appearance. With their heads swathed in blood stained bandages, blood stains over their shirts and clothes, and their faces and eyes cruelly damaged." Both prisoners were fined 10 shillings for being drunk and disorderly and 40 shillings for assaulting the police or 28 days in prison.
The General Strike ended on the 12th after 9 days upon the TUC backing down. However, the miners' campaign against planned wage reductions would continue for several months more. Also on the 12th, the Rainford Old Folks Treat was held. Also on the 12th the Rainford Old Folks Treat was held, with the Rainford Pottery Brass Band performing and 119 elderly residents consumed what was described as a "generous feast".
On the 13th an alarming tram accident occurred at the bottom of Croppers Hill in St Helens. A tramcar appears to have attempted to take the corner into Westfield Street at too fast a speed and it overtook and crashed into an unloaded steam wagon trailer that belonged to a Prescot man.
The trailer was knocked into a tramway standard, with the wagon hitting the front of a house. The tram driver was Martin Burbridge of Watery Lane in Sutton who required treatment at Providence Hospital. But there were no other reports of injuries, with a number of pedestrians able to smartly jump out of the way of the careering vehicles.
The first Friday edition of the St Helens Reporter for two weeks as a result of the General Strike was published on the 14th. However, they wrote that their printers had not yet returned to work and by some unexplained means were publishing a reduced edition of their paper for which they were only charging a penny.
In an editorial the Conservative-supporting Reporter was highly critical of what they called the "attempted revolution" which had "brought St. Helens nearer to disaster than ever it was even during the darkest days of the war." They were alluding in particular to the crisis during the previous weekend over power services.
In a separate article the paper praised the behaviour of the St Helens townsfolk during the nine-day strike, writing: "Throughout the days of the duration of the strike Church-st., and the environs presented a holiday aspect. Only odd men were to be seen in their ordinary workday clothes. Everybody appeared to be in his Sunday best, and anyone who had been dumped down suddenly in St. Helens, would never have imagined for a moment he was in the centre of a great industrial town."
The Reporter also described how the news that the strike was being called off had come through to St Helens by wireless just before 2 o’clock on the 12th. Soon afterwards an official notice was posted outside the Food Office in Hardshaw Street and the latter "became a busy and bustling place all the afternoon".
However, confusion was caused by a mysterious man carrying a large sheet of paper through the streets contradicting the news that the strike was off. The Reporter said the individual concentrated his publicity stunt in the vicinity of Church Street "where the most crowding and excitement prevailed, until late in the afternoon."
And as its introduction to descriptions of more cases of bobby bashing that had taken place recently but which were unconnected to the strike, the Reporter wrote: "Assaulting policemen seems to be the favoured pastime of a certain class of people and appears to be increasing in St. Helens."
Although the general strike had finished on the 12th, some works in St Helens said they would not automatically take back their employees that had been on strike. That was on the ground that they had broken their contracts of employment. On the 14th the Liverpool Evening Express reported that the tramway men in St Helens had resumed work – but the town's glass and bottle workers had been instructed to present themselves at their works to be considered for re-engagement.
Also on that day, six Haydock miners appeared in court as a result of their actions four days before during the General Strike. They were charged with breaching the Emergency Regulations Act of 1920 by holding up traffic at Redgate Bridge in Blackbrook. PC Dunleavey told the magistrates that a crowd of over 100 men had tied a rope across the narrow bridge in Haydock Road. As a result, two private cars and a motorcycle sidecar combination had been held up.
The constable said that he and Inspector Anders had argued with the men, taken possession of the rope and moved the crowd on. The traffic had been stopped in order that the men could search vehicles to ensure they were not carrying anything but food and breaking the strike. In court their solicitor said his clients had acted under the belief that they had a right to pull up motors and examine them but now expressed their regret for what had taken place.
The Chairman of the Bench said generally speaking, the conduct of the work people in St Helens during the General Strike had been "most exemplary" but added that others must see the case as a warning against their future behaviour. The charges against two of the men were dismissed but Thomas Kelly, Peter Boardman and Joseph Benyon were each fined £5 or 28 days in prison and James Tunstall was ordered to find sureties of £5 for his good behaviour in future.
On the 15th the Liverpool Echo said that during the past week, St Helens Corporation had given 7,000 children, mainly of striking miners' families, three meals a day and that many railwaymen were now reapplying for their jobs.
Many elderly people did not survive a fall in which they suffered a broken bone – although it could take a few weeks before they died. One hundred years ago there was limited treatment for body shock and although a fracture or wound might be healing satisfactorily, the shock to their body at an advanced age could still see them off.
Ann Halewood was a typical case. The 90-year-old lived alone in Garnet Street in Sutton, although a neighbour called Miss Ashton had kept an eye on her welfare. During the night of April 6th, Ann fell out of her bedroom window and told Miss Ashton who dashed to her rescue that she had thought her house was on fire. But later she told her daughter-in-law that she'd got lost in her home.
The result was a fracture of her right arm and a broken bone in her right leg. Ann was taken to Providence Hospital where she remained for 5 weeks until on May 13th after her bones had sufficiently healed, Ann was discharged. However, soon after being returned to her home, the elderly lady died. Ann's inquest was held on the 15th of this week and Dr Kyle told the coroner that there was no doubt the shock of her injuries had accelerated her death.
Two days later in a similar case, Thomas Houghton from Hoghton Road in Sutton died in hospital. A fortnight before, the 68-year-old had been undertaking some repairs to the porch of his cottage and had injured himself when he fell 8 feet.
I find it surprising that the number of people who died in church. During a service at Biliinge Parish Church on the 16th, William Ashall from Moss Bank suddenly fell backwards and died on the spot. He was only 53 and a quite well-known brass band official and was believed to have suffered a heart attack.
And finally, on the 17th Thomas Kelly of Fox Street and William Binder of Rivington Avenue appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with being drunk and disorderly. A police constable told the magistrates that he had been summoned from point duty to Hardshaw Street where he found Kelly struggling on the floor with Inspector Ballantyne and Binder lying on the ground nearby with a wound to his head.
Kelly, when accused of fighting, said: "That is right. We were as bad as one another. That is socialism." But Binder did not agree saying: "I could not have been as bad as him, as I was not fighting." But they were both fined 10 shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the man that liked to steal ladders and dodge rail fares, an appraisal of the miners' strike in St Helens, the Penlake Lane disturbance and the injured colliery worker who was told to undertake heavy lifting.
Last week the start of the General Strike had meant that the St Helens Reporter was unable to publish its usual Friday edition – but they did put out a couple of brief Crisis Bulletins, free from adverts. On the 11th the Reporter's mid-week edition came out as normal, not knowing that the strike would end on the following day.
Among its snippets of strike news, the paper mentioned that a couple of St Helens shops had displayed some humour in their window displays. An unnamed Church Street cycle dealer had a notice in his window saying, "Strike with a bike". And in a St Helens hairdresser's shop above a bureau there had been a notice that read: "These will strike the same as all the others". The bureau contained matches!
There were few details of those that had signed up as volunteers during the crisis. However, four females that were members of a company appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre had visited the Corporation Street recruitment office to sign up. The Reporter mentioned that many of the temporary unemployed had during the previous week crowded on to the Bridge Street vacant land to listen to "‘quack’ doctors and hawkers".
The paper also mentioned how six persons had been saved from a burning house in Kelly Street in Prescot through jumping from a bedroom window. However, a 78-year-old man called Isaac Atherton in attempting to throw himself out had fallen onto a windowsill and severely injured himself.
There was not much violence during the first week of the strike, although there had been an incident in Sutton Manor involving 40 miners and the police. At the subsequent court appearance of the mob's two ringleaders, the police asked the magistrates to deal with them severely in the light of the general strike.
The Reporter said that in court the pair presented a "…shocking appearance. With their heads swathed in blood stained bandages, blood stains over their shirts and clothes, and their faces and eyes cruelly damaged." Both prisoners were fined 10 shillings for being drunk and disorderly and 40 shillings for assaulting the police or 28 days in prison.
The General Strike ended on the 12th after 9 days upon the TUC backing down. However, the miners' campaign against planned wage reductions would continue for several months more. Also on the 12th, the Rainford Old Folks Treat was held. Also on the 12th the Rainford Old Folks Treat was held, with the Rainford Pottery Brass Band performing and 119 elderly residents consumed what was described as a "generous feast".
On the 13th an alarming tram accident occurred at the bottom of Croppers Hill in St Helens. A tramcar appears to have attempted to take the corner into Westfield Street at too fast a speed and it overtook and crashed into an unloaded steam wagon trailer that belonged to a Prescot man.
The trailer was knocked into a tramway standard, with the wagon hitting the front of a house. The tram driver was Martin Burbridge of Watery Lane in Sutton who required treatment at Providence Hospital. But there were no other reports of injuries, with a number of pedestrians able to smartly jump out of the way of the careering vehicles.
The first Friday edition of the St Helens Reporter for two weeks as a result of the General Strike was published on the 14th. However, they wrote that their printers had not yet returned to work and by some unexplained means were publishing a reduced edition of their paper for which they were only charging a penny.
In an editorial the Conservative-supporting Reporter was highly critical of what they called the "attempted revolution" which had "brought St. Helens nearer to disaster than ever it was even during the darkest days of the war." They were alluding in particular to the crisis during the previous weekend over power services.
In a separate article the paper praised the behaviour of the St Helens townsfolk during the nine-day strike, writing: "Throughout the days of the duration of the strike Church-st., and the environs presented a holiday aspect. Only odd men were to be seen in their ordinary workday clothes. Everybody appeared to be in his Sunday best, and anyone who had been dumped down suddenly in St. Helens, would never have imagined for a moment he was in the centre of a great industrial town."
The Reporter also described how the news that the strike was being called off had come through to St Helens by wireless just before 2 o’clock on the 12th. Soon afterwards an official notice was posted outside the Food Office in Hardshaw Street and the latter "became a busy and bustling place all the afternoon".
And as its introduction to descriptions of more cases of bobby bashing that had taken place recently but which were unconnected to the strike, the Reporter wrote: "Assaulting policemen seems to be the favoured pastime of a certain class of people and appears to be increasing in St. Helens."
Although the general strike had finished on the 12th, some works in St Helens said they would not automatically take back their employees that had been on strike. That was on the ground that they had broken their contracts of employment. On the 14th the Liverpool Evening Express reported that the tramway men in St Helens had resumed work – but the town's glass and bottle workers had been instructed to present themselves at their works to be considered for re-engagement.
Also on that day, six Haydock miners appeared in court as a result of their actions four days before during the General Strike. They were charged with breaching the Emergency Regulations Act of 1920 by holding up traffic at Redgate Bridge in Blackbrook. PC Dunleavey told the magistrates that a crowd of over 100 men had tied a rope across the narrow bridge in Haydock Road. As a result, two private cars and a motorcycle sidecar combination had been held up.
The constable said that he and Inspector Anders had argued with the men, taken possession of the rope and moved the crowd on. The traffic had been stopped in order that the men could search vehicles to ensure they were not carrying anything but food and breaking the strike. In court their solicitor said his clients had acted under the belief that they had a right to pull up motors and examine them but now expressed their regret for what had taken place.
The Chairman of the Bench said generally speaking, the conduct of the work people in St Helens during the General Strike had been "most exemplary" but added that others must see the case as a warning against their future behaviour. The charges against two of the men were dismissed but Thomas Kelly, Peter Boardman and Joseph Benyon were each fined £5 or 28 days in prison and James Tunstall was ordered to find sureties of £5 for his good behaviour in future.
On the 15th the Liverpool Echo said that during the past week, St Helens Corporation had given 7,000 children, mainly of striking miners' families, three meals a day and that many railwaymen were now reapplying for their jobs.
Many elderly people did not survive a fall in which they suffered a broken bone – although it could take a few weeks before they died. One hundred years ago there was limited treatment for body shock and although a fracture or wound might be healing satisfactorily, the shock to their body at an advanced age could still see them off.
Ann Halewood was a typical case. The 90-year-old lived alone in Garnet Street in Sutton, although a neighbour called Miss Ashton had kept an eye on her welfare. During the night of April 6th, Ann fell out of her bedroom window and told Miss Ashton who dashed to her rescue that she had thought her house was on fire. But later she told her daughter-in-law that she'd got lost in her home.
The result was a fracture of her right arm and a broken bone in her right leg. Ann was taken to Providence Hospital where she remained for 5 weeks until on May 13th after her bones had sufficiently healed, Ann was discharged. However, soon after being returned to her home, the elderly lady died. Ann's inquest was held on the 15th of this week and Dr Kyle told the coroner that there was no doubt the shock of her injuries had accelerated her death.
Two days later in a similar case, Thomas Houghton from Hoghton Road in Sutton died in hospital. A fortnight before, the 68-year-old had been undertaking some repairs to the porch of his cottage and had injured himself when he fell 8 feet.
I find it surprising that the number of people who died in church. During a service at Biliinge Parish Church on the 16th, William Ashall from Moss Bank suddenly fell backwards and died on the spot. He was only 53 and a quite well-known brass band official and was believed to have suffered a heart attack.
And finally, on the 17th Thomas Kelly of Fox Street and William Binder of Rivington Avenue appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with being drunk and disorderly. A police constable told the magistrates that he had been summoned from point duty to Hardshaw Street where he found Kelly struggling on the floor with Inspector Ballantyne and Binder lying on the ground nearby with a wound to his head.
Kelly, when accused of fighting, said: "That is right. We were as bad as one another. That is socialism." But Binder did not agree saying: "I could not have been as bad as him, as I was not fighting." But they were both fined 10 shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the man that liked to steal ladders and dodge rail fares, an appraisal of the miners' strike in St Helens, the Penlake Lane disturbance and the injured colliery worker who was told to undertake heavy lifting.
This week's many stories include the end of the General Strike, six Haydock miners appear in court for breaking the emergency regulations, the tram accident at the foot of Croppers Hill, the elderly woman who fell out of her bedroom window and the drunken Sutton Manor miners badly beaten by the police.
Last week the start of the General Strike had meant that the St Helens Reporter was unable to publish its usual Friday edition – but they did put out a couple of brief Crisis Bulletins, free from adverts.
On the 11th the Reporter's mid-week edition came out as normal, not knowing that the strike would end on the following day.
Among its snippets of strike news, the paper mentioned that a couple of St Helens shops had displayed some humour in their window displays.
An unnamed Church Street cycle dealer had a notice in his window saying, "Strike with a bike".
And in a St Helens hairdresser's shop above a bureau there had been a notice that read: "These will strike the same as all the others". The bureau contained matches!
There were few details of those that had signed up as volunteers during the crisis.
However, four females that were members of a company appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre had visited the Corporation Street recruitment office to sign up.
The Reporter mentioned that many of the temporary unemployed had during the previous week crowded on to the Bridge Street vacant land to listen to "‘quack’ doctors and hawkers".
The paper also mentioned how six persons had been saved from a burning house in Kelly Street in Prescot through jumping from a bedroom window.
However, a 78-year-old man called Isaac Atherton in attempting to throw himself out had fallen onto a windowsill and severely injured himself.
There was not much violence during the first week of the strike, although there had been an incident in Sutton Manor involving 40 miners and the police.
At the subsequent court appearance of the mob's two ringleaders, the police asked the magistrates to deal with them severely in the light of the general strike.
But Thomas Larkin and Thomas Peyton – who both lived in Scott Avenue – had been very drunk and the incident seemed to have a minimal connection with the strike.
The men had been arrested after coming out of the Green Dragon Hotel (pictured above).
Anticipating trouble the police had initially tried to get the two men quietly to their homes but they and others turned on the officers, who used their truncheons to defend themselves. And they clearly gave the two Thomas's quite a beating.
The Reporter said that in court the pair presented a "…shocking appearance. With their heads swathed in blood stained bandages, blood stains over their shirts and clothes, and their faces and eyes cruelly damaged."
Both prisoners were fined 10 shillings for being drunk and disorderly and 40 shillings for assaulting the police or 28 days in prison.
The General Strike ended on the 12th after 9 days upon the TUC backing down. However, the miners' campaign against planned wage reductions would continue for several months more.
Also on the 12th the Rainford Old Folks Treat was held, with the Rainford Pottery Brass Band performing and 119 elderly residents consumed what was described as a "generous feast".
On the 13th an alarming tram accident occurred at the bottom of Croppers Hill in St Helens.
A tramcar appears to have attempted to take the corner into Westfield Street at too fast a speed and it overtook and crashed into an unloaded steam wagon trailer that belonged to a Prescot man.
The trailer was knocked into a tramway standard, with the wagon hitting the front of a house.
The tram driver was Martin Burbridge of Watery Lane in Sutton who required treatment at Providence Hospital.
But there were no other reports of injuries, with a number of pedestrians able to smartly jump out of the way of the careering vehicles.
The first Friday edition of the St Helens Reporter for two weeks as a result of the General Strike was published on the 14th.
However, they wrote that their printers had not yet returned to work and by some unexplained means were publishing a reduced edition of their paper for which they were only charging a penny.
In an editorial the Conservative-supporting Reporter was highly critical of what they called the "attempted revolution" which had "brought St. Helens nearer to disaster than ever it was even during the darkest days of the war."
They were alluding in particular to the crisis during the previous weekend over power services.
In a separate article the paper praised the behaviour of the St Helens townsfolk during the nine-day strike, writing:
"Throughout the days of the duration of the strike Church-st., and the environs presented a holiday aspect. Only odd men were to be seen in their ordinary workday clothes.
"Everybody appeared to be in his Sunday best, and anyone who had been dumped down suddenly in St. Helens, would never have imagined for a moment he was in the centre of a great industrial town."
The Reporter also described how the news that the strike was being called off had come through to St Helens by wireless just before 2 o’clock on the 12th.
Soon afterwards an official notice was posted outside the Food Office in Hardshaw Street and the latter "became a busy and bustling place all the afternoon".
However, confusion was caused by a mysterious man carrying a large sheet of paper through the streets contradicting the news that the strike was off.
The Reporter said the individual concentrated his publicity stunt in the vicinity of Church Street "where the most crowding and excitement prevailed, until late in the afternoon."
And as its introduction to descriptions of more cases of bobby bashing that had taken place recently but which were unconnected to the strike, the Reporter wrote:
"Assaulting policemen seems to be the favoured pastime of a certain class of people and appears to be increasing in St. Helens."
Although the general strike had finished on the 12th, some works in St Helens said they would not automatically take back their employees that had been on strike. That was on the ground that they had broken their contracts of employment.
On the 14th the Liverpool Evening Express reported that the tramway men in St Helens had resumed work – but the town's glass and bottle workers had been instructed to present themselves at their works to be considered for re-engagement.
Also on that day, six Haydock miners appeared in court as a result of their actions four days before during the General Strike.
They were charged with breaching the Emergency Regulations Act of 1920 by holding up traffic at Redgate Bridge in Blackbrook.
PC Dunleavey told the magistrates that a crowd of over 100 men had tied a rope across the narrow bridge in Haydock Road.
As a result, two private cars and a motorcycle sidecar combination had been held up.
The constable said that he and Inspector Anders had argued with the men, taken possession of the rope and moved the crowd on.
The traffic had been stopped in order that the men could search vehicles to ensure they were not carrying anything but food and breaking the strike.
In court their solicitor said his clients had acted under the belief that they had a right to pull up motors and examine them but now expressed their regret for what had taken place.
The Chairman of the Bench said generally speaking, the conduct of the work people in St Helens during the General Strike had been "most exemplary" but added that others must see the case as a warning against their future behaviour.
The charges against two of the men were dismissed but Thomas Kelly, Peter Boardman and Joseph Benyon were each fined £5 or 28 days in prison and James Tunstall was ordered to find sureties of £5 for his good behaviour in future.
On the 15th the Liverpool Echo said that during the past week, St Helens Corporation had given 7,000 children, mainly of striking miners' families, three meals a day and that many railwaymen were now reapplying for their jobs.
Many elderly people did not survive a fall in which they suffered a broken bone – although it could take a few weeks before they died.
One hundred years ago there was limited treatment for body shock and although a fracture or wound might be healing satisfactorily, the shock to their body at an advanced age could still see them off.
Ann Halewood was a typical case. The 90-year-old lived alone in Garnet Street in Sutton, although a neighbour called Miss Ashton had kept an eye on her welfare.
During the night of April 6th, Ann fell out of her bedroom window and told Miss Ashton who dashed to her rescue that she had thought her house was on fire. But later she told her daughter-in-law that she'd got lost in her home.
The result was a fracture of her right arm and a broken bone in her right leg.
Ann was taken to Providence Hospital where she remained for 5 weeks until on May 13th after her bones had sufficiently healed, Ann was discharged.
However, soon after being returned to her home, the elderly lady died. Ann's inquest was held on the 15th of this week and Dr Kyle told the coroner that there was no doubt the shock of her injuries had accelerated her death.
Two days later in a similar case, Thomas Houghton from Hoghton Road in Sutton died in hospital.
A fortnight before, the 68-year-old had been undertaking some repairs to the porch of his cottage and had injured himself when he fell 8 feet.
And finally, on the 17th Thomas Kelly of Fox Street and William Binder of Rivington Avenue appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with being drunk and disorderly.
A police constable told the magistrates that he had been summoned from point duty to Hardshaw Street where he found Kelly struggling on the floor with Inspector Ballantyne and Binder lying on the ground nearby with a wound to his head.
Kelly, when accused of fighting, said: "That is right. We were as bad as one another. That is socialism."
But Binder did not agree saying: "I could not have been as bad as him, as I was not fighting." But they were both fined 10 shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the man that liked to steal ladders and dodge rail fares, an appraisal of the miners' strike in St Helens, the Penlake Lane disturbance and the injured colliery worker who was told to undertake heavy lifting.
Last week the start of the General Strike had meant that the St Helens Reporter was unable to publish its usual Friday edition – but they did put out a couple of brief Crisis Bulletins, free from adverts.
On the 11th the Reporter's mid-week edition came out as normal, not knowing that the strike would end on the following day.
Among its snippets of strike news, the paper mentioned that a couple of St Helens shops had displayed some humour in their window displays.
An unnamed Church Street cycle dealer had a notice in his window saying, "Strike with a bike".
And in a St Helens hairdresser's shop above a bureau there had been a notice that read: "These will strike the same as all the others". The bureau contained matches!
There were few details of those that had signed up as volunteers during the crisis.
However, four females that were members of a company appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre had visited the Corporation Street recruitment office to sign up.
The Reporter mentioned that many of the temporary unemployed had during the previous week crowded on to the Bridge Street vacant land to listen to "‘quack’ doctors and hawkers".
The paper also mentioned how six persons had been saved from a burning house in Kelly Street in Prescot through jumping from a bedroom window.
However, a 78-year-old man called Isaac Atherton in attempting to throw himself out had fallen onto a windowsill and severely injured himself.
There was not much violence during the first week of the strike, although there had been an incident in Sutton Manor involving 40 miners and the police.
At the subsequent court appearance of the mob's two ringleaders, the police asked the magistrates to deal with them severely in the light of the general strike.
But Thomas Larkin and Thomas Peyton – who both lived in Scott Avenue – had been very drunk and the incident seemed to have a minimal connection with the strike.
Anticipating trouble the police had initially tried to get the two men quietly to their homes but they and others turned on the officers, who used their truncheons to defend themselves. And they clearly gave the two Thomas's quite a beating.
The Reporter said that in court the pair presented a "…shocking appearance. With their heads swathed in blood stained bandages, blood stains over their shirts and clothes, and their faces and eyes cruelly damaged."
Both prisoners were fined 10 shillings for being drunk and disorderly and 40 shillings for assaulting the police or 28 days in prison.
The General Strike ended on the 12th after 9 days upon the TUC backing down. However, the miners' campaign against planned wage reductions would continue for several months more.
Also on the 12th the Rainford Old Folks Treat was held, with the Rainford Pottery Brass Band performing and 119 elderly residents consumed what was described as a "generous feast".
On the 13th an alarming tram accident occurred at the bottom of Croppers Hill in St Helens.
A tramcar appears to have attempted to take the corner into Westfield Street at too fast a speed and it overtook and crashed into an unloaded steam wagon trailer that belonged to a Prescot man.
The trailer was knocked into a tramway standard, with the wagon hitting the front of a house.
The tram driver was Martin Burbridge of Watery Lane in Sutton who required treatment at Providence Hospital.
But there were no other reports of injuries, with a number of pedestrians able to smartly jump out of the way of the careering vehicles.
The first Friday edition of the St Helens Reporter for two weeks as a result of the General Strike was published on the 14th.
However, they wrote that their printers had not yet returned to work and by some unexplained means were publishing a reduced edition of their paper for which they were only charging a penny.
In an editorial the Conservative-supporting Reporter was highly critical of what they called the "attempted revolution" which had "brought St. Helens nearer to disaster than ever it was even during the darkest days of the war."
They were alluding in particular to the crisis during the previous weekend over power services.
In a separate article the paper praised the behaviour of the St Helens townsfolk during the nine-day strike, writing:
"Throughout the days of the duration of the strike Church-st., and the environs presented a holiday aspect. Only odd men were to be seen in their ordinary workday clothes.
"Everybody appeared to be in his Sunday best, and anyone who had been dumped down suddenly in St. Helens, would never have imagined for a moment he was in the centre of a great industrial town."
The Reporter also described how the news that the strike was being called off had come through to St Helens by wireless just before 2 o’clock on the 12th.
Soon afterwards an official notice was posted outside the Food Office in Hardshaw Street and the latter "became a busy and bustling place all the afternoon".
However, confusion was caused by a mysterious man carrying a large sheet of paper through the streets contradicting the news that the strike was off.
And as its introduction to descriptions of more cases of bobby bashing that had taken place recently but which were unconnected to the strike, the Reporter wrote:
"Assaulting policemen seems to be the favoured pastime of a certain class of people and appears to be increasing in St. Helens."
Although the general strike had finished on the 12th, some works in St Helens said they would not automatically take back their employees that had been on strike. That was on the ground that they had broken their contracts of employment.
On the 14th the Liverpool Evening Express reported that the tramway men in St Helens had resumed work – but the town's glass and bottle workers had been instructed to present themselves at their works to be considered for re-engagement.
Also on that day, six Haydock miners appeared in court as a result of their actions four days before during the General Strike.
They were charged with breaching the Emergency Regulations Act of 1920 by holding up traffic at Redgate Bridge in Blackbrook.
PC Dunleavey told the magistrates that a crowd of over 100 men had tied a rope across the narrow bridge in Haydock Road.
As a result, two private cars and a motorcycle sidecar combination had been held up.
The constable said that he and Inspector Anders had argued with the men, taken possession of the rope and moved the crowd on.
The traffic had been stopped in order that the men could search vehicles to ensure they were not carrying anything but food and breaking the strike.
In court their solicitor said his clients had acted under the belief that they had a right to pull up motors and examine them but now expressed their regret for what had taken place.
The Chairman of the Bench said generally speaking, the conduct of the work people in St Helens during the General Strike had been "most exemplary" but added that others must see the case as a warning against their future behaviour.
The charges against two of the men were dismissed but Thomas Kelly, Peter Boardman and Joseph Benyon were each fined £5 or 28 days in prison and James Tunstall was ordered to find sureties of £5 for his good behaviour in future.
On the 15th the Liverpool Echo said that during the past week, St Helens Corporation had given 7,000 children, mainly of striking miners' families, three meals a day and that many railwaymen were now reapplying for their jobs.
Many elderly people did not survive a fall in which they suffered a broken bone – although it could take a few weeks before they died.
One hundred years ago there was limited treatment for body shock and although a fracture or wound might be healing satisfactorily, the shock to their body at an advanced age could still see them off.
Ann Halewood was a typical case. The 90-year-old lived alone in Garnet Street in Sutton, although a neighbour called Miss Ashton had kept an eye on her welfare.
During the night of April 6th, Ann fell out of her bedroom window and told Miss Ashton who dashed to her rescue that she had thought her house was on fire. But later she told her daughter-in-law that she'd got lost in her home.
The result was a fracture of her right arm and a broken bone in her right leg.
Ann was taken to Providence Hospital where she remained for 5 weeks until on May 13th after her bones had sufficiently healed, Ann was discharged.
However, soon after being returned to her home, the elderly lady died. Ann's inquest was held on the 15th of this week and Dr Kyle told the coroner that there was no doubt the shock of her injuries had accelerated her death.
Two days later in a similar case, Thomas Houghton from Hoghton Road in Sutton died in hospital.
A fortnight before, the 68-year-old had been undertaking some repairs to the porch of his cottage and had injured himself when he fell 8 feet.
And finally, on the 17th Thomas Kelly of Fox Street and William Binder of Rivington Avenue appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with being drunk and disorderly.
A police constable told the magistrates that he had been summoned from point duty to Hardshaw Street where he found Kelly struggling on the floor with Inspector Ballantyne and Binder lying on the ground nearby with a wound to his head.
Kelly, when accused of fighting, said: "That is right. We were as bad as one another. That is socialism."
But Binder did not agree saying: "I could not have been as bad as him, as I was not fighting." But they were both fined 10 shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the man that liked to steal ladders and dodge rail fares, an appraisal of the miners' strike in St Helens, the Penlake Lane disturbance and the injured colliery worker who was told to undertake heavy lifting.