IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th FEBRUARY 1923)
This week's many stories include the 5-shilling cost of being a boy in St Helens, the beggar that asked for money at a policeman's house, St Helens miners protest over plans to make them work longer hours, the wireless set problem at Windlehust, Town Hall officials agree to take a pay cut and the woman who bashed her husband over the head with a mirror.
We begin on the 13th in St Helens Police Court when Margaret Trick admitted stealing from the Fleece Hotel. The woman had worked at the Church Street hotel for two years and had taken £3 5 shillings, although £1 15 shillings had been recovered. Margaret was ordered to refund the balance of the stolen cash, pay a 15-shilling fine and costs and was bound over for a year.
There was a surprise victory for the Labour members of St Helens Council on the 13th when it was announced that all senior officials at the Town Hall had agreed to take a pay cut – with one exception. That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any reduction in his salary. The dispute had begun in November 1922 when Labour councillors had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain amount had to agree to a pay cut – or be fired.
Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so should the bosses at the Town Hall. Last week it had been decided to accept another resolution that the notices given to the officials to sack them be withdrawn, as long as they agreed to immediately begin negotiations on a pay cut.
The agreement that had now been reached allowed for all salaries up to £500 per year to be reduced by 5%; for Town Hall staff earning between £500 and £750 the reduction would be 7½% and for those few officials being paid over £750 the cut would be 10%. The dilemma now was what to do about the Town Clerk, who had the most demanding job of all. Would he be sacked?
There were two St Helens divorce cases heard at Liverpool Assizes on the 13th. The first concerned James Cross from South John Street in St Helens who was granted a decree nisi against his wife Mary. The couple had married in 1909 but had only lived happily for a year before Mary "took to bad ways". That was according to James who accused his wife of staying out at night and getting drunk and she later admitted having a relationship with another man.
The second divorce case involved Ada Williamson of Argyll Street in St Helens who in July 1921 had been awarded the curiously named "decree for the restitution of conjugal rights". That was against her husband Charles who was living in Australia. Such a decree was the first stage of a type of divorce proceeding when a couple were living apart without good reason. Before 1884 if Charles had not obeyed the decree and returned home to restore his wife’s conjugal rights, he would have been subject to six months in prison.
Now a refusal to comply only served to establish desertion and could help to speed up a divorce. At the assizes a decree nisi was granted to Ada after Charles said he was living with another woman in Australia and would never return to St Helens. It was not until 1970 that decrees for the restitution of conjugal rights were abolished, although by then they were rarely used.
The war had created in its wake a new type of retailer – a government surplus store. Milletts claimed to be the largest such stores in the country and on the 14th opened a new St Helens branch in Ormskirk Street. Their advert in the Reporter offered a "gigantic selection of new English and colonial surplus goods at amazingly low prices."
The cost of being young and having some harmless fun in St Helens was usually five bob. That was the amount that Leonard McCawley from Dentons Green Lane had to pay this week after being caught playing football in a public passage. The lad had not been kicking a ball about on his own. But his mates had taken to their heels faster than him when a policeman arrived on the scene and so Len was the only one in the dock.
Thomas Miles and Patrick Nolan also received five bob fines this week. The lads were again from Dentons Green Lane and had been chucking orange peel at passers-by in Croppers Hill. They then went into the doorway of a shop in Westfield Street and threw a doormat into the street. A constable told the court that pedestrians had to get off the footpath because of the obstruction they were causing. As well as the five-shilling fines, the Bench gave the two boys what was described as "a word of advice to avoid such pranks in future."
At the St Helens Health Committee meeting on the 14th, a discussion took place over whether the council tenants on the Windlehurst housing estate should be allowed to have wireless sets. It was not the radios that were the problem – but the longwire aerials that were then a key factor in obtaining good reception. The borough surveyor reported that several of the residents had attached aerials to chimney stacks and, in some cases, damage had been done to slates.
Ald. Hamblett told the meeting that it would not be right to ban their tenants from putting up aerials. It was agreed that in future residents would need to apply to their borough engineer for permission to install a wireless aerial and after its erection he would inspect the work. If any damage had been caused then the tenant would be instructed to make it good.
The Reporter on the 16th described the revival of a Rainford custom after a 30-year gap. It was the annual old folks treat that Richard Pennington of Muncaster Hall had provided for many years but which had ceased upon his death. Dinner and entertainment were provided and the paper wrote that: “Those who were privileged to view the scene will long remember it".
Vagrants would often knock on strangers' doors in St Helens begging for money but they never knew who might open the door. Terry Meehan must have wished he'd stayed well clear of a certain house in Alfred Street (off Standish Street) in St Helens. That was the home of PC Reginald Taylor and it was his wife Ada who Meehan asked for a copper. Well, he got his copper but not quite the one he wanted!
The constable had been at home at the time and after his wife had turned the man away, he watched the beggar go to a neighbouring house and then swooped to make his arrest. Meehan told him he was only seeking a copper for some bread. But at the police station he was found to already have 63 pennies and 16 halfpennies in his possession and so had been doing good business until he called at the constable's house. In court Meehan was fined 5 shillings with the Bench advising him to leave St Helens.
St Helens miners held a meeting on the 19th in the Parrvilion cinema in Jackson Street to protest against a proposal to extend their working day from 7 to 8 hours. A union leader claimed that miners' productivity had increased "by leaps and bounds", but their wages had gone down. William Forshaw added: "If more coal is needed then it must be obtained by adopting more up-to-date, efficient and effective methods of working and by the employment of the thousands of colliery workers who are tramping the roads and on the verge of starvation."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, miner Edward Appleton of Duncan Street (off Borough Road) was charged with persistent cruelty by his wife Margaret. Her solicitor described a long series of assaults and also claimed that on one occasion Appleton had refused to get any food in the house for his family. For three days he obtained food for himself from his mother's house and had sat down to eat it in the presence of his hungry wife and their two young children.
Appleton occasionally gave the children a small piece of bread after he had dipped it in gravy, and on the third day Margaret was so hungry that she had to accept one of the dipped pieces. The hearing was in reality simply an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Mrs Appleton was awarded 22 shillings a week.
Bridget Gregson also appeared in court charged with unlawfully wounding her husband John. Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that the couple had quarrelled one night while in bed at their home in Cooper Street. The 47-year-old woman then leapt out of the bed and smashed a large mirror "to atoms" over her husband's head, cutting him so severely that he had to be taken to hospital. The woman was remanded on bail for a week upon finding a £10 surety.
And finally, the Hippodrome theatre in St Helens had from the 19th what they called a "South American Creole Revue" called 'Down South'. "Coloured Society – 25 Coloured Performers 25 – Creole Beauty Chorus", said the advert in the Reporter. That all sounds a bit dubious to me. So I think I would have preferred the "grand panto" called 'Little Jack Horner' which was being performed for a week at the Theatre Royal. I wonder if the audience shouted "It's behind you" a century ago?
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the violent water polo player at Boundary Road Baths, the husband that deserted his family pays a heavy price, more on the Eccleston shopbreakers and the curious disappearance of the tobacconist's traveller from Sutton.
There was a surprise victory for the Labour members of St Helens Council on the 13th when it was announced that all senior officials at the Town Hall had agreed to take a pay cut – with one exception. That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any reduction in his salary. The dispute had begun in November 1922 when Labour councillors had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain amount had to agree to a pay cut – or be fired.
Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so should the bosses at the Town Hall. Last week it had been decided to accept another resolution that the notices given to the officials to sack them be withdrawn, as long as they agreed to immediately begin negotiations on a pay cut.
The agreement that had now been reached allowed for all salaries up to £500 per year to be reduced by 5%; for Town Hall staff earning between £500 and £750 the reduction would be 7½% and for those few officials being paid over £750 the cut would be 10%. The dilemma now was what to do about the Town Clerk, who had the most demanding job of all. Would he be sacked?
There were two St Helens divorce cases heard at Liverpool Assizes on the 13th. The first concerned James Cross from South John Street in St Helens who was granted a decree nisi against his wife Mary. The couple had married in 1909 but had only lived happily for a year before Mary "took to bad ways". That was according to James who accused his wife of staying out at night and getting drunk and she later admitted having a relationship with another man.
The second divorce case involved Ada Williamson of Argyll Street in St Helens who in July 1921 had been awarded the curiously named "decree for the restitution of conjugal rights". That was against her husband Charles who was living in Australia. Such a decree was the first stage of a type of divorce proceeding when a couple were living apart without good reason. Before 1884 if Charles had not obeyed the decree and returned home to restore his wife’s conjugal rights, he would have been subject to six months in prison.
Now a refusal to comply only served to establish desertion and could help to speed up a divorce. At the assizes a decree nisi was granted to Ada after Charles said he was living with another woman in Australia and would never return to St Helens. It was not until 1970 that decrees for the restitution of conjugal rights were abolished, although by then they were rarely used.
The war had created in its wake a new type of retailer – a government surplus store. Milletts claimed to be the largest such stores in the country and on the 14th opened a new St Helens branch in Ormskirk Street. Their advert in the Reporter offered a "gigantic selection of new English and colonial surplus goods at amazingly low prices."
The cost of being young and having some harmless fun in St Helens was usually five bob. That was the amount that Leonard McCawley from Dentons Green Lane had to pay this week after being caught playing football in a public passage. The lad had not been kicking a ball about on his own. But his mates had taken to their heels faster than him when a policeman arrived on the scene and so Len was the only one in the dock.
Thomas Miles and Patrick Nolan also received five bob fines this week. The lads were again from Dentons Green Lane and had been chucking orange peel at passers-by in Croppers Hill. They then went into the doorway of a shop in Westfield Street and threw a doormat into the street. A constable told the court that pedestrians had to get off the footpath because of the obstruction they were causing. As well as the five-shilling fines, the Bench gave the two boys what was described as "a word of advice to avoid such pranks in future."
At the St Helens Health Committee meeting on the 14th, a discussion took place over whether the council tenants on the Windlehurst housing estate should be allowed to have wireless sets. It was not the radios that were the problem – but the longwire aerials that were then a key factor in obtaining good reception. The borough surveyor reported that several of the residents had attached aerials to chimney stacks and, in some cases, damage had been done to slates.
Ald. Hamblett told the meeting that it would not be right to ban their tenants from putting up aerials. It was agreed that in future residents would need to apply to their borough engineer for permission to install a wireless aerial and after its erection he would inspect the work. If any damage had been caused then the tenant would be instructed to make it good.
The Reporter on the 16th described the revival of a Rainford custom after a 30-year gap. It was the annual old folks treat that Richard Pennington of Muncaster Hall had provided for many years but which had ceased upon his death. Dinner and entertainment were provided and the paper wrote that: “Those who were privileged to view the scene will long remember it".
Vagrants would often knock on strangers' doors in St Helens begging for money but they never knew who might open the door. Terry Meehan must have wished he'd stayed well clear of a certain house in Alfred Street (off Standish Street) in St Helens. That was the home of PC Reginald Taylor and it was his wife Ada who Meehan asked for a copper. Well, he got his copper but not quite the one he wanted!
The constable had been at home at the time and after his wife had turned the man away, he watched the beggar go to a neighbouring house and then swooped to make his arrest. Meehan told him he was only seeking a copper for some bread. But at the police station he was found to already have 63 pennies and 16 halfpennies in his possession and so had been doing good business until he called at the constable's house. In court Meehan was fined 5 shillings with the Bench advising him to leave St Helens.
St Helens miners held a meeting on the 19th in the Parrvilion cinema in Jackson Street to protest against a proposal to extend their working day from 7 to 8 hours. A union leader claimed that miners' productivity had increased "by leaps and bounds", but their wages had gone down. William Forshaw added: "If more coal is needed then it must be obtained by adopting more up-to-date, efficient and effective methods of working and by the employment of the thousands of colliery workers who are tramping the roads and on the verge of starvation."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, miner Edward Appleton of Duncan Street (off Borough Road) was charged with persistent cruelty by his wife Margaret. Her solicitor described a long series of assaults and also claimed that on one occasion Appleton had refused to get any food in the house for his family. For three days he obtained food for himself from his mother's house and had sat down to eat it in the presence of his hungry wife and their two young children.
Appleton occasionally gave the children a small piece of bread after he had dipped it in gravy, and on the third day Margaret was so hungry that she had to accept one of the dipped pieces. The hearing was in reality simply an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Mrs Appleton was awarded 22 shillings a week.
Bridget Gregson also appeared in court charged with unlawfully wounding her husband John. Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that the couple had quarrelled one night while in bed at their home in Cooper Street. The 47-year-old woman then leapt out of the bed and smashed a large mirror "to atoms" over her husband's head, cutting him so severely that he had to be taken to hospital. The woman was remanded on bail for a week upon finding a £10 surety.
And finally, the Hippodrome theatre in St Helens had from the 19th what they called a "South American Creole Revue" called 'Down South'. "Coloured Society – 25 Coloured Performers 25 – Creole Beauty Chorus", said the advert in the Reporter. That all sounds a bit dubious to me. So I think I would have preferred the "grand panto" called 'Little Jack Horner' which was being performed for a week at the Theatre Royal. I wonder if the audience shouted "It's behind you" a century ago?
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the violent water polo player at Boundary Road Baths, the husband that deserted his family pays a heavy price, more on the Eccleston shopbreakers and the curious disappearance of the tobacconist's traveller from Sutton.
This week's many stories include the 5-shilling cost of being a boy in St Helens, the beggar that asked for money at a policeman's house, St Helens miners protest over plans to make them work longer hours, the wireless set problem at Windlehust, Town Hall officials agree to take a pay cut and the woman who bashed her husband over the head with a mirror.
We begin on the 13th in St Helens Police Court when Margaret Trick admitted stealing from the Fleece Hotel.
The woman had worked at the Church Street hotel for two years and had taken £3 5 shillings, although £1 15 shillings had been recovered.
Margaret was ordered to refund the balance of the stolen cash, pay a 15-shilling fine and costs and was bound over for a year.
There was a surprise victory for the Labour members of St Helens Council on the 13th when it was announced that all senior officials at the Town Hall had agreed to take a pay cut – with one exception.
That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any reduction in his salary.
The dispute had begun in November 1922 when Labour councillors had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain amount had to agree to a pay cut – or be fired.
Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so should the bosses at the Town Hall.
Last week it had been decided to accept another resolution that the notices given to the officials to sack them be withdrawn, as long as they agreed to immediately begin negotiations on a pay cut.
The agreement that had now been reached allowed for all salaries up to £500 per year to be reduced by 5%; for Town Hall staff earning between £500 and £750 the reduction would be 7½% and for those few officials being paid over £750 the cut would be 10%.
The dilemma now was what to do about the Town Clerk, who had the most demanding job of all. Would he be sacked?
There were two St Helens divorce cases heard at Liverpool Assizes on the 13th. The first concerned James Cross from South John Street in St Helens who was granted a decree nisi against his wife Mary.
The couple had married in 1909 but had only lived happily for a year before Mary "took to bad ways".
That was according to James who accused his wife of staying out at night and getting drunk and she later admitted having a relationship with another man.
The second divorce case involved Ada Williamson of Argyll Street in St Helens who in July 1921 had been awarded the curiously named "decree for the restitution of conjugal rights". That was against her husband Charles who was living in Australia.
Such a decree was the first stage of a type of divorce proceeding when a couple were living apart without good reason.
Before 1884 if Charles had not obeyed the decree and returned home to restore his wife’s conjugal rights, he would have been subject to six months in prison.
Now a refusal to comply only served to establish desertion and could help to speed up a divorce.
At the assizes a decree nisi was granted to Ada after Charles said he was living with another woman in Australia and would never return to St Helens.
It was not until 1970 that decrees for the restitution of conjugal rights were abolished, although by then they were rarely used.
The war had created in its wake a new type of retailer – a government surplus store.
Milletts claimed to be the largest such stores in the country and on the 14th opened a new St Helens branch in Ormskirk Street.
Their advert in the Reporter offered a "gigantic selection of new English and colonial surplus goods at amazingly low prices."
The cost of being young and having some harmless fun in St Helens was usually five bob.
That was the amount that Leonard McCawley from Dentons Green Lane had to pay this week after being caught playing football in a public passage.
The lad had not been kicking a ball about on his own. But his mates had taken to their heels faster than him when a policeman arrived on the scene and so Len was the only one in the dock.
Thomas Miles and Patrick Nolan also received five bob fines this week. The lads were again from Dentons Green Lane and had been chucking orange peel at passers-by in Croppers Hill.
They then went into the doorway of a shop in Westfield Street and threw a doormat into the street.
A constable told the court that pedestrians had to get off the footpath because of the obstruction they were causing.
As well as the five-shilling fines, the Bench gave the two boys what was described as "a word of advice to avoid such pranks in future."
At the St Helens Health Committee meeting on the 14th, a discussion took place over whether the council tenants on the Windlehurst housing estate should be allowed to have wireless sets.
It was not the radios that were the problem – but the longwire aerials that were then a key factor in obtaining good reception.
The borough surveyor reported that several of the residents had attached aerials to chimney stacks and, in some cases, damage had been done to slates.
Ald. Hamblett told the meeting that it would not be right to ban their tenants from putting up aerials.
It was agreed that in future residents would need to apply to their borough engineer for permission to install a wireless aerial and after its erection he would inspect the work.
If any damage had been caused then the tenant would be instructed to make it good.
The Reporter on the 16th described the revival of a Rainford custom after a 30-year gap.
It was the annual old folks treat that Richard Pennington of Muncaster Hall had provided for many years but which had ceased upon his death.
Dinner and entertainment were provided and the paper wrote that: “Those who were privileged to view the scene will long remember it".
Vagrants would often knock on strangers' doors in St Helens begging for money but they never knew who might open the door.
Terry Meehan must have wished he'd stayed well clear of a certain house in Alfred Street (off Standish Street) in St Helens.
That was the home of PC Reginald Taylor and it was his wife Ada who Meehan asked for a copper. Well, he got his copper but not quite the one he wanted!
The constable had been at home at the time and after his wife had turned the man away, he watched the beggar go to a neighbouring house and then swooped to make his arrest. Meehan told him he was only seeking a copper for some bread.
But at the police station he was found to already have 63 pennies and 16 halfpennies in his possession and so had been doing good business until he called at the constable's house.
In court Meehan was fined 5 shillings with the Bench advising him to leave St Helens.
St Helens miners held a meeting on the 19th in the Parrvilion cinema in Jackson Street to protest against a proposal to extend their working day from 7 to 8 hours.
A union leader claimed that miners' productivity had increased "by leaps and bounds", but their wages had gone down.
William Forshaw added: "If more coal is needed then it must be obtained by adopting more up-to-date, efficient and effective methods of working and by the employment of the thousands of colliery workers who are tramping the roads and on the verge of starvation."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, miner Edward Appleton of Duncan Street (off Borough Road) was charged with persistent cruelty by his wife Margaret.
Her solicitor described a long series of assaults and also claimed that on one occasion Appleton had refused to get any food in the house for his family.
For three days he obtained food for himself from his mother's house and had sat down to eat it in the presence of his hungry wife and their two young children.
Appleton occasionally gave the children a small piece of bread after he had dipped it in gravy, and on the third day Margaret was so hungry that she accepted one of the dipped pieces.
The hearing was in reality simply an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Mrs Appleton was awarded 22 shillings a week.
Bridget Gregson also appeared in court charged with unlawfully wounding her husband John.
Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that the couple had quarrelled one night while in bed at their home in Cooper Street.
The 47-year-old woman then leapt out of the bed and smashed a large mirror "to atoms" over her husband's head, cutting him so severely that he had to be taken to hospital.
The woman was remanded on bail for a week upon finding a £10 surety.
And finally, the Hippodrome theatre in St Helens had from the 19th what they called a "South American Creole Revue" called 'Down South'.
"Coloured Society – 25 Coloured Performers 25 – Creole Beauty Chorus", said the advert in the Reporter.
That all sounds a bit dubious to me. So I think I would have preferred the "grand panto" called 'Little Jack Horner' which was being performed for a week at the Theatre Royal. I wonder if the audience shouted "It's behind you" a century ago?
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the violent water polo player at Boundary Road Baths, the husband that deserted his family pays a heavy price, more on the Eccleston shopbreakers and the curious disappearance of the tobacconist's traveller from Sutton.
The woman had worked at the Church Street hotel for two years and had taken £3 5 shillings, although £1 15 shillings had been recovered.
Margaret was ordered to refund the balance of the stolen cash, pay a 15-shilling fine and costs and was bound over for a year.
There was a surprise victory for the Labour members of St Helens Council on the 13th when it was announced that all senior officials at the Town Hall had agreed to take a pay cut – with one exception.
That was the Town Clerk who refused to permit any reduction in his salary.
The dispute had begun in November 1922 when Labour councillors had got a resolution passed that Town Hall officials earning over a certain amount had to agree to a pay cut – or be fired.
Cllr. Thomas Boscow had moved the resolution on the ground that nearly everybody else in St Helens had suffered a reduction in their wages of late and so should the bosses at the Town Hall.
Last week it had been decided to accept another resolution that the notices given to the officials to sack them be withdrawn, as long as they agreed to immediately begin negotiations on a pay cut.
The agreement that had now been reached allowed for all salaries up to £500 per year to be reduced by 5%; for Town Hall staff earning between £500 and £750 the reduction would be 7½% and for those few officials being paid over £750 the cut would be 10%.
The dilemma now was what to do about the Town Clerk, who had the most demanding job of all. Would he be sacked?
There were two St Helens divorce cases heard at Liverpool Assizes on the 13th. The first concerned James Cross from South John Street in St Helens who was granted a decree nisi against his wife Mary.
The couple had married in 1909 but had only lived happily for a year before Mary "took to bad ways".
That was according to James who accused his wife of staying out at night and getting drunk and she later admitted having a relationship with another man.
The second divorce case involved Ada Williamson of Argyll Street in St Helens who in July 1921 had been awarded the curiously named "decree for the restitution of conjugal rights". That was against her husband Charles who was living in Australia.
Such a decree was the first stage of a type of divorce proceeding when a couple were living apart without good reason.
Before 1884 if Charles had not obeyed the decree and returned home to restore his wife’s conjugal rights, he would have been subject to six months in prison.
Now a refusal to comply only served to establish desertion and could help to speed up a divorce.
At the assizes a decree nisi was granted to Ada after Charles said he was living with another woman in Australia and would never return to St Helens.
It was not until 1970 that decrees for the restitution of conjugal rights were abolished, although by then they were rarely used.
The war had created in its wake a new type of retailer – a government surplus store.
Milletts claimed to be the largest such stores in the country and on the 14th opened a new St Helens branch in Ormskirk Street.
Their advert in the Reporter offered a "gigantic selection of new English and colonial surplus goods at amazingly low prices."
The cost of being young and having some harmless fun in St Helens was usually five bob.
That was the amount that Leonard McCawley from Dentons Green Lane had to pay this week after being caught playing football in a public passage.
The lad had not been kicking a ball about on his own. But his mates had taken to their heels faster than him when a policeman arrived on the scene and so Len was the only one in the dock.
Thomas Miles and Patrick Nolan also received five bob fines this week. The lads were again from Dentons Green Lane and had been chucking orange peel at passers-by in Croppers Hill.
They then went into the doorway of a shop in Westfield Street and threw a doormat into the street.
A constable told the court that pedestrians had to get off the footpath because of the obstruction they were causing.
As well as the five-shilling fines, the Bench gave the two boys what was described as "a word of advice to avoid such pranks in future."
At the St Helens Health Committee meeting on the 14th, a discussion took place over whether the council tenants on the Windlehurst housing estate should be allowed to have wireless sets.
It was not the radios that were the problem – but the longwire aerials that were then a key factor in obtaining good reception.
The borough surveyor reported that several of the residents had attached aerials to chimney stacks and, in some cases, damage had been done to slates.
Ald. Hamblett told the meeting that it would not be right to ban their tenants from putting up aerials.
It was agreed that in future residents would need to apply to their borough engineer for permission to install a wireless aerial and after its erection he would inspect the work.
If any damage had been caused then the tenant would be instructed to make it good.
The Reporter on the 16th described the revival of a Rainford custom after a 30-year gap.
It was the annual old folks treat that Richard Pennington of Muncaster Hall had provided for many years but which had ceased upon his death.
Dinner and entertainment were provided and the paper wrote that: “Those who were privileged to view the scene will long remember it".
Vagrants would often knock on strangers' doors in St Helens begging for money but they never knew who might open the door.
Terry Meehan must have wished he'd stayed well clear of a certain house in Alfred Street (off Standish Street) in St Helens.
That was the home of PC Reginald Taylor and it was his wife Ada who Meehan asked for a copper. Well, he got his copper but not quite the one he wanted!
The constable had been at home at the time and after his wife had turned the man away, he watched the beggar go to a neighbouring house and then swooped to make his arrest. Meehan told him he was only seeking a copper for some bread.
But at the police station he was found to already have 63 pennies and 16 halfpennies in his possession and so had been doing good business until he called at the constable's house.
In court Meehan was fined 5 shillings with the Bench advising him to leave St Helens.
St Helens miners held a meeting on the 19th in the Parrvilion cinema in Jackson Street to protest against a proposal to extend their working day from 7 to 8 hours.
A union leader claimed that miners' productivity had increased "by leaps and bounds", but their wages had gone down.
William Forshaw added: "If more coal is needed then it must be obtained by adopting more up-to-date, efficient and effective methods of working and by the employment of the thousands of colliery workers who are tramping the roads and on the verge of starvation."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, miner Edward Appleton of Duncan Street (off Borough Road) was charged with persistent cruelty by his wife Margaret.
Her solicitor described a long series of assaults and also claimed that on one occasion Appleton had refused to get any food in the house for his family.
For three days he obtained food for himself from his mother's house and had sat down to eat it in the presence of his hungry wife and their two young children.
Appleton occasionally gave the children a small piece of bread after he had dipped it in gravy, and on the third day Margaret was so hungry that she accepted one of the dipped pieces.
The hearing was in reality simply an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Mrs Appleton was awarded 22 shillings a week.
Bridget Gregson also appeared in court charged with unlawfully wounding her husband John.
Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that the couple had quarrelled one night while in bed at their home in Cooper Street.
The 47-year-old woman then leapt out of the bed and smashed a large mirror "to atoms" over her husband's head, cutting him so severely that he had to be taken to hospital.
The woman was remanded on bail for a week upon finding a £10 surety.
And finally, the Hippodrome theatre in St Helens had from the 19th what they called a "South American Creole Revue" called 'Down South'.
"Coloured Society – 25 Coloured Performers 25 – Creole Beauty Chorus", said the advert in the Reporter.
That all sounds a bit dubious to me. So I think I would have preferred the "grand panto" called 'Little Jack Horner' which was being performed for a week at the Theatre Royal. I wonder if the audience shouted "It's behind you" a century ago?
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the violent water polo player at Boundary Road Baths, the husband that deserted his family pays a heavy price, more on the Eccleston shopbreakers and the curious disappearance of the tobacconist's traveller from Sutton.