IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 12 - 18 JANUARY 1926
This week's many stories include the impending closure of the Haydock maternity hospital, the woman who claimed an Eccleston builder had kissed her against her will, the revolting cruelty of children in Union Street and the St Helens Sanitary Department's campaign to stop butchers from inadvertently contaminating their meat.
We begin on the 12th when the inquest was held on colliery worker James Swift of Union Street and the usual verdict of misadventure was returned. The 65-year-old had been crushed and instantly killed down Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr (pictured above) by a huge stone falling on him from the underground pit roof.
In St Helens Police Court on the 12th an Eccleston builder called William Preston was charged with assaulting Margaret Rollison. Her solicitor told the court that the incident had taken place on New Year's Day when Mrs Rollison's husband was away watching a football match. William Preston was building a bungalow nearby and Mrs Rollison had gone to look at it. She was invited inside and after inspecting the house Mrs Rollison claimed she had been grabbed by her shoulders.
A struggle took place and the woman tried to escape via the back door, only to find it locked. During further struggles the builder supposedly offered Mrs Rollison a £1 note and later asked her to kiss him. She claimed that she refused to do so but he went ahead and kissed her against her will. Next morning she told her husband what had happened and he put a hammer in his pocket and went to look for Preston. However, he was persuaded by a friend not to take the law into his own hands and the police were informed instead.
Mrs Rollison claimed that she only knew the man by sight but the builder said he had known her for 20 years and had "knocked about with her at night". Preston stated that in the past he had lent Margaret and her husband money and on New Year's Day she had gone to the bungalow to borrow more cash. He claimed he had refused her, replying: "I shan't lend you anything at all. I am fed up lending you money." But a key witness was Thomas Twist of Havelock Street in St Helens.
He was employed by Preston and said he had been in the house on New Year's Day when the alleged incident occurred. Twist completely denied all of Mrs Rollison's claims and the magistrates said in view of his evidence they could not convict the defendant and the case was dismissed. And so was Thomas Twist lying to protect his employer and his job? Or had Margaret Rollison made up the story of an assault, angry at the builder's refusal to lend her money – not, perhaps, expecting that her outraged husband would report her claim to the police?
At a meeting of the council's Health Committee on the 13th, its chairman Alderman Henry Bates reported that the Corporation's Old Whint Maternity Home in Haydock was getting into a very dilapidated state. Ald. Bates said that after discussing the matter with their Medical Officer, they had agreed that the time had come to close Old Whint. The committee would now have to decide whether to build a new home in Haydock or make other arrangements for their patients, such as send them to the new maternity unit at St Helens Hospital.
On the 14th the Eccleston Old Folks Treat was given in St James Church Hall with 170 guests enjoying a tea and concert. Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, the bottlemaker and ex-mayor of St Helens, funded the annual event.
The days when butchers' shops in St Helens had large slabs of meat hanging in their shop windows were numbered. At Christmastime in the 1870s, the St Helens Newspaper would marvel at the abundant turkeys, geese and other meat that butchers displayed to tempt buyers. But the Reporter on the 15th stated that the town's Sanitary Department was demanding that butchers now take proper precautions to protect their meat from contamination.
A Sale of Food Order had come into force some weeks ago but checks had revealed that some retailers were still not paying sufficient attention to cleanliness. Meat was being left uncovered in shop windows and imported meat was not being properly marked. Warnings were currently being given but if breaches of the Order continued, then, they said, proceedings would be taken.
"Revolting Cruelty" was the headline to the Reporter's lengthy account of what was described as the worst case that the NSPCC in St Helens had prosecuted in many years. William Griffiths, his wife Mary and their four children, had been discovered living in a back kitchen of a house in Union Street in St Helens. The only furniture they possessed was a chair and a broken couch. William Griffiths slept on the couch, while his wife and their four children slept huddled together on a piece of sacking before an empty fire grate on a flagstone floor.
The family had come under the observation of the NSPCC in a rather curious way. It began when one of their children called Helen had tried to obtain admission to one of the lectures given during the recent St Helens Health Week. The 9-year-old was carrying a little baby in her arms and the doorkeeper refused to admit them because he considered the girl was too small. However, the NSPCC inspector who happened to be standing nearby said the child would be better off inside the hall with the baby than out in the rain.
Inquiries subsequently were made, eventually leading to the whole family being removed to Whiston Workhouse. Dr John Donellan told the court that the children were filthy and nearly naked and when he was in the house examining them, those that had had no breakfast clamoured for food. And those who did get some breakfast only received bread and margarine. Last Saturday little Helen died from a cause that was not stated in the Reporter's account. But the same evening that the girl had been buried, both of her parents got drunk and returned home late at night after leaving their children alone in the house.
Inspector Lycett of the NSPCC told the court that Griffiths earned 42 shillings a week as a farm labourer but spent 22 shillings of it on drink. Mrs Griffiths told the Bench that everything that had been said in court against them had been true. But she insisted that her husband only allowing her 20 shillings each week had driven her and her children into the state they were in – and she said in order to get the pound, she'd had to hunt him in the pub or waylay him.
But the courts had little sympathy for mothers that did not do everything they could to protect their children, even if dominated by a drunken husband. And so Mary Griffiths received the same sentence as her husband, which was three months hard labour. But sympathy for the woman, I think, has to be limited, as checking my records I find that Mary had previously been sent to prison for 6 months with hard labour.
That had occurred eight years earlier when her husband was in the army and Mary had been convicted of the charge of neglecting her six young children. Dr Donnellan had then told the court that Mary had given way to drink and he'd been forced to send her children to the workhouse in order to "rescue them from their terrible condition".
During this week the Hippodrome Theatre was featuring the panto 'Robinson Crusoe' starring Dolly Ross, "everybody's favourite principal boy". But from the 18th the Hippodrome presented the "most wonderful super-pantomime" 'Jack & Jill' featuring Edna Latonne, "Lancashire's favourite principal boy".
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play. The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pail of water! So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood a popular choice.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bookie's runner prosecuted for cheating the dole, the Eccleston Street warehouse fire and updates on the new Sutton silk factory and the government's attempt to evict 104 persons from Abbotsfield Road.
In St Helens Police Court on the 12th an Eccleston builder called William Preston was charged with assaulting Margaret Rollison. Her solicitor told the court that the incident had taken place on New Year's Day when Mrs Rollison's husband was away watching a football match. William Preston was building a bungalow nearby and Mrs Rollison had gone to look at it. She was invited inside and after inspecting the house Mrs Rollison claimed she had been grabbed by her shoulders.
A struggle took place and the woman tried to escape via the back door, only to find it locked. During further struggles the builder supposedly offered Mrs Rollison a £1 note and later asked her to kiss him. She claimed that she refused to do so but he went ahead and kissed her against her will. Next morning she told her husband what had happened and he put a hammer in his pocket and went to look for Preston. However, he was persuaded by a friend not to take the law into his own hands and the police were informed instead.
Mrs Rollison claimed that she only knew the man by sight but the builder said he had known her for 20 years and had "knocked about with her at night". Preston stated that in the past he had lent Margaret and her husband money and on New Year's Day she had gone to the bungalow to borrow more cash. He claimed he had refused her, replying: "I shan't lend you anything at all. I am fed up lending you money." But a key witness was Thomas Twist of Havelock Street in St Helens.
He was employed by Preston and said he had been in the house on New Year's Day when the alleged incident occurred. Twist completely denied all of Mrs Rollison's claims and the magistrates said in view of his evidence they could not convict the defendant and the case was dismissed. And so was Thomas Twist lying to protect his employer and his job? Or had Margaret Rollison made up the story of an assault, angry at the builder's refusal to lend her money – not, perhaps, expecting that her outraged husband would report her claim to the police?
At a meeting of the council's Health Committee on the 13th, its chairman Alderman Henry Bates reported that the Corporation's Old Whint Maternity Home in Haydock was getting into a very dilapidated state. Ald. Bates said that after discussing the matter with their Medical Officer, they had agreed that the time had come to close Old Whint. The committee would now have to decide whether to build a new home in Haydock or make other arrangements for their patients, such as send them to the new maternity unit at St Helens Hospital.
On the 14th the Eccleston Old Folks Treat was given in St James Church Hall with 170 guests enjoying a tea and concert. Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, the bottlemaker and ex-mayor of St Helens, funded the annual event.
The days when butchers' shops in St Helens had large slabs of meat hanging in their shop windows were numbered. At Christmastime in the 1870s, the St Helens Newspaper would marvel at the abundant turkeys, geese and other meat that butchers displayed to tempt buyers. But the Reporter on the 15th stated that the town's Sanitary Department was demanding that butchers now take proper precautions to protect their meat from contamination.
"Revolting Cruelty" was the headline to the Reporter's lengthy account of what was described as the worst case that the NSPCC in St Helens had prosecuted in many years. William Griffiths, his wife Mary and their four children, had been discovered living in a back kitchen of a house in Union Street in St Helens. The only furniture they possessed was a chair and a broken couch. William Griffiths slept on the couch, while his wife and their four children slept huddled together on a piece of sacking before an empty fire grate on a flagstone floor.
The family had come under the observation of the NSPCC in a rather curious way. It began when one of their children called Helen had tried to obtain admission to one of the lectures given during the recent St Helens Health Week. The 9-year-old was carrying a little baby in her arms and the doorkeeper refused to admit them because he considered the girl was too small. However, the NSPCC inspector who happened to be standing nearby said the child would be better off inside the hall with the baby than out in the rain.
Inquiries subsequently were made, eventually leading to the whole family being removed to Whiston Workhouse. Dr John Donellan told the court that the children were filthy and nearly naked and when he was in the house examining them, those that had had no breakfast clamoured for food. And those who did get some breakfast only received bread and margarine. Last Saturday little Helen died from a cause that was not stated in the Reporter's account. But the same evening that the girl had been buried, both of her parents got drunk and returned home late at night after leaving their children alone in the house.
Inspector Lycett of the NSPCC told the court that Griffiths earned 42 shillings a week as a farm labourer but spent 22 shillings of it on drink. Mrs Griffiths told the Bench that everything that had been said in court against them had been true. But she insisted that her husband only allowing her 20 shillings each week had driven her and her children into the state they were in – and she said in order to get the pound, she'd had to hunt him in the pub or waylay him.
But the courts had little sympathy for mothers that did not do everything they could to protect their children, even if dominated by a drunken husband. And so Mary Griffiths received the same sentence as her husband, which was three months hard labour. But sympathy for the woman, I think, has to be limited, as checking my records I find that Mary had previously been sent to prison for 6 months with hard labour.
That had occurred eight years earlier when her husband was in the army and Mary had been convicted of the charge of neglecting her six young children. Dr Donnellan had then told the court that Mary had given way to drink and he'd been forced to send her children to the workhouse in order to "rescue them from their terrible condition".
During this week the Hippodrome Theatre was featuring the panto 'Robinson Crusoe' starring Dolly Ross, "everybody's favourite principal boy". But from the 18th the Hippodrome presented the "most wonderful super-pantomime" 'Jack & Jill' featuring Edna Latonne, "Lancashire's favourite principal boy".
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play. The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pail of water! So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood a popular choice.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bookie's runner prosecuted for cheating the dole, the Eccleston Street warehouse fire and updates on the new Sutton silk factory and the government's attempt to evict 104 persons from Abbotsfield Road.
This week's many stories include the impending closure of the Haydock maternity hospital, the woman who claimed an Eccleston builder had kissed her against her will, the revolting cruelty of children in Union Street and the St Helens Sanitary Department's campaign to stop butchers from inadvertently contaminating their meat.
We begin on the 12th when the inquest was held on colliery worker James Swift of Union Street and the usual verdict of misadventure was returned.
The 65-year-old had been crushed and instantly killed down Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr (pictured above) by a huge stone falling on him from the underground pit roof.
In St Helens Police Court on the 12th an Eccleston builder called William Preston was charged with assaulting Margaret Rollison.
Her solicitor told the court that the incident had taken place on New Year's Day when Mrs Rollison's husband was away watching a football match.
William Preston was building a bungalow nearby and Mrs Rollison had gone to look at it.
She was invited inside and after inspecting the house Mrs Rollison claimed she had been grabbed by her shoulders.
A struggle took place and the woman tried to escape via the back door, only to find it locked.
During further struggles the builder supposedly offered Mrs Rollison a £1 note and later asked her to kiss him.
She claimed that she refused to do so but he went ahead and kissed her against her will.
Next morning she told her husband what had happened and he put a hammer in his pocket and went to look for Preston.
However, he was persuaded by a friend not to take the law into his own hands and the police were informed instead.
Mrs Rollison claimed that she only knew the man by sight but the builder said he had known her for 20 years and had "knocked about with her at night".
Preston stated that in the past he had lent Margaret and her husband money and on New Year's Day she had gone to the bungalow to borrow more cash.
He claimed he had refused her, replying: "I shan't lend you anything at all. I am fed up lending you money."
But a key witness was Thomas Twist of Havelock Street in St Helens.
He was employed by Preston and said he had been in the house on New Year's Day when the alleged incident occurred.
Twist completely denied all of Mrs Rollison's claims and the magistrates said in view of his evidence they could not convict the defendant and the case was dismissed.
And so was Thomas Twist lying to protect his employer and his job?
Or had Margaret Rollison made up the story of an assault, angry at the builder's refusal to lend her money – not, perhaps, expecting that her outraged husband would report her claim to the police?
At a meeting of the council's Health Committee on the 13th, its chairman Alderman Henry Bates reported that the Corporation's Old Whint Maternity Home in Haydock was getting into a very dilapidated state.
Ald. Bates said that after discussing the matter with their Medical Officer, they had agreed that the time had come to close Old Whint.
The committee would now have to decide whether to build a new home in Haydock or make other arrangements for their patients, such as send them to the new maternity unit at St Helens Hospital.
On the 14th the Eccleston Old Folks Treat was given in St James Church Hall with 170 guests enjoying a tea and concert.
Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, the bottlemaker and ex-mayor of St Helens, funded the annual event.
The days when butchers' shops in St Helens had large slabs of meat hanging in their shop windows were numbered.
At Christmastime in the 1870s, the St Helens Newspaper would marvel at the abundant turkeys, geese and other meat that butchers displayed to tempt buyers.
But the Reporter on the 15th stated that the town's Sanitary Department was demanding that butchers now take proper precautions to protect their meat from contamination.
A Sale of Food Order had come into force some weeks ago but checks had revealed that some retailers were still not paying sufficient attention to cleanliness.
Meat was being left uncovered in shop windows and imported meat was not being properly marked.
Warnings were currently being given but if breaches of the Order continued, then, they said, proceedings would be taken.
"Revolting Cruelty" was the headline to the Reporter's lengthy account of what was described as the worst case that the NSPCC in St Helens had prosecuted in many years.
William Griffiths, his wife Mary and their four children, had been discovered living in a back kitchen of a house in Union Street in St Helens.
The only furniture they possessed was a chair and a broken couch.
William Griffiths slept on the couch, while his wife and their four children slept huddled together on a piece of sacking before an empty fire grate on a flagstone floor.
The family had come under the observation of the NSPCC in a rather curious way.
It began when one of their children called Helen had tried to obtain admission to one of the lectures given during the recent St Helens Health Week.
The 9-year-old was carrying a little baby in her arms and the doorkeeper refused to admit them because he considered the girl was too small.
However, the NSPCC inspector who happened to be standing nearby said the child would be better off inside the hall with the baby than out in the rain.
Inquiries subsequently were made, eventually leading to the whole family being removed to Whiston Workhouse.
Dr John Donellan told the court that the children were filthy and nearly naked and when he was in the house examining them, those that had had no breakfast clamoured for food.
And those who did get some breakfast only received bread and margarine.
Last Saturday little Helen died from a cause that was not stated in the Reporter's account.
But the same evening that the girl had been buried, both of her parents got drunk and returned home late at night after leaving their children alone in the house.
Inspector Lycett of the NSPCC told the court that Griffiths earned 42 shillings a week as a farm labourer but spent 22 shillings of it on drink.
Mrs Griffiths told the Bench that everything that had been said in court against them had been true.
But she insisted that her husband only allowing her 20 shillings each week had driven her and her children into the state they were in – and she said in order to get the pound, she'd had to hunt him in the pub or waylay him.
But the courts had little sympathy for mothers that did not do everything they could to protect their children, even if dominated by a drunken husband.
And so Mary Griffiths received the same sentence as her husband, which was three months hard labour.
But sympathy for the woman, I think, has to be limited, as checking my records I find that Mary had previously been sent to prison for 6 months with hard labour.
That had occurred eight years earlier when her husband was in the army and Mary had been convicted of the charge of neglecting her six young children.
Dr Donnellan had then told the court that Mary had given way to drink and he'd been forced to send her children to the workhouse in order to "rescue them from their terrible condition".
During this week the Hippodrome Theatre was featuring the panto 'Robinson Crusoe' starring Dolly Ross, "everybody's favourite principal boy".
But from the 18th the Hippodrome presented the "most wonderful super-pantomime" 'Jack & Jill' featuring Edna Latonne, "Lancashire's favourite principal boy".
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play.
The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pail of water!
So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood a popular choice.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bookie's runner prosecuted for cheating the dole, the Eccleston Street warehouse fire and updates on the new Sutton silk factory and the government's attempt to evict 104 persons from Abbotsfield Road.
The 65-year-old had been crushed and instantly killed down Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr (pictured above) by a huge stone falling on him from the underground pit roof.
In St Helens Police Court on the 12th an Eccleston builder called William Preston was charged with assaulting Margaret Rollison.
Her solicitor told the court that the incident had taken place on New Year's Day when Mrs Rollison's husband was away watching a football match.
William Preston was building a bungalow nearby and Mrs Rollison had gone to look at it.
She was invited inside and after inspecting the house Mrs Rollison claimed she had been grabbed by her shoulders.
A struggle took place and the woman tried to escape via the back door, only to find it locked.
During further struggles the builder supposedly offered Mrs Rollison a £1 note and later asked her to kiss him.
She claimed that she refused to do so but he went ahead and kissed her against her will.
Next morning she told her husband what had happened and he put a hammer in his pocket and went to look for Preston.
However, he was persuaded by a friend not to take the law into his own hands and the police were informed instead.
Mrs Rollison claimed that she only knew the man by sight but the builder said he had known her for 20 years and had "knocked about with her at night".
Preston stated that in the past he had lent Margaret and her husband money and on New Year's Day she had gone to the bungalow to borrow more cash.
He claimed he had refused her, replying: "I shan't lend you anything at all. I am fed up lending you money."
But a key witness was Thomas Twist of Havelock Street in St Helens.
He was employed by Preston and said he had been in the house on New Year's Day when the alleged incident occurred.
Twist completely denied all of Mrs Rollison's claims and the magistrates said in view of his evidence they could not convict the defendant and the case was dismissed.
And so was Thomas Twist lying to protect his employer and his job?
Or had Margaret Rollison made up the story of an assault, angry at the builder's refusal to lend her money – not, perhaps, expecting that her outraged husband would report her claim to the police?
At a meeting of the council's Health Committee on the 13th, its chairman Alderman Henry Bates reported that the Corporation's Old Whint Maternity Home in Haydock was getting into a very dilapidated state.
Ald. Bates said that after discussing the matter with their Medical Officer, they had agreed that the time had come to close Old Whint.
The committee would now have to decide whether to build a new home in Haydock or make other arrangements for their patients, such as send them to the new maternity unit at St Helens Hospital.
On the 14th the Eccleston Old Folks Treat was given in St James Church Hall with 170 guests enjoying a tea and concert.
Frederick Dixon-Nuttall, the bottlemaker and ex-mayor of St Helens, funded the annual event.
The days when butchers' shops in St Helens had large slabs of meat hanging in their shop windows were numbered.
At Christmastime in the 1870s, the St Helens Newspaper would marvel at the abundant turkeys, geese and other meat that butchers displayed to tempt buyers.
But the Reporter on the 15th stated that the town's Sanitary Department was demanding that butchers now take proper precautions to protect their meat from contamination.
Meat was being left uncovered in shop windows and imported meat was not being properly marked.
Warnings were currently being given but if breaches of the Order continued, then, they said, proceedings would be taken.
"Revolting Cruelty" was the headline to the Reporter's lengthy account of what was described as the worst case that the NSPCC in St Helens had prosecuted in many years.
William Griffiths, his wife Mary and their four children, had been discovered living in a back kitchen of a house in Union Street in St Helens.
The only furniture they possessed was a chair and a broken couch.
William Griffiths slept on the couch, while his wife and their four children slept huddled together on a piece of sacking before an empty fire grate on a flagstone floor.
The family had come under the observation of the NSPCC in a rather curious way.
It began when one of their children called Helen had tried to obtain admission to one of the lectures given during the recent St Helens Health Week.
The 9-year-old was carrying a little baby in her arms and the doorkeeper refused to admit them because he considered the girl was too small.
However, the NSPCC inspector who happened to be standing nearby said the child would be better off inside the hall with the baby than out in the rain.
Inquiries subsequently were made, eventually leading to the whole family being removed to Whiston Workhouse.
Dr John Donellan told the court that the children were filthy and nearly naked and when he was in the house examining them, those that had had no breakfast clamoured for food.
And those who did get some breakfast only received bread and margarine.
Last Saturday little Helen died from a cause that was not stated in the Reporter's account.
But the same evening that the girl had been buried, both of her parents got drunk and returned home late at night after leaving their children alone in the house.
Inspector Lycett of the NSPCC told the court that Griffiths earned 42 shillings a week as a farm labourer but spent 22 shillings of it on drink.
Mrs Griffiths told the Bench that everything that had been said in court against them had been true.
But she insisted that her husband only allowing her 20 shillings each week had driven her and her children into the state they were in – and she said in order to get the pound, she'd had to hunt him in the pub or waylay him.
But the courts had little sympathy for mothers that did not do everything they could to protect their children, even if dominated by a drunken husband.
And so Mary Griffiths received the same sentence as her husband, which was three months hard labour.
But sympathy for the woman, I think, has to be limited, as checking my records I find that Mary had previously been sent to prison for 6 months with hard labour.
That had occurred eight years earlier when her husband was in the army and Mary had been convicted of the charge of neglecting her six young children.
Dr Donnellan had then told the court that Mary had given way to drink and he'd been forced to send her children to the workhouse in order to "rescue them from their terrible condition".
During this week the Hippodrome Theatre was featuring the panto 'Robinson Crusoe' starring Dolly Ross, "everybody's favourite principal boy".
But from the 18th the Hippodrome presented the "most wonderful super-pantomime" 'Jack & Jill' featuring Edna Latonne, "Lancashire's favourite principal boy".
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play.
The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pail of water!
So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood a popular choice.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the bookie's runner prosecuted for cheating the dole, the Eccleston Street warehouse fire and updates on the new Sutton silk factory and the government's attempt to evict 104 persons from Abbotsfield Road.