IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 12 - 18 FEBRUARY 1924
This week's many stories include the drunken father from Rainford who said he refused to be chicken-pecked, another crash at St Helens' suicide corner, the troubles of two young men in trying to have a fight, the marbles stolen from Nuttalls bottleworks, the escapologist performing at the Hippodrome and the bizarre kidnapping claim by the collector for a Duke Street clothing firm.
We begin on the 12th in the House of Commons when there was what the St Helens Reporter described as a "wild rush" to secure seats. As a result the St Helens MP, James Sexton, was thrown down and trampled on. "They made a doormat of me and walked over me", Sexton told the Speaker of the House. Two female MPs were also described as having been "severely hustled" out of the way of the men but Sexton's complaint was not taken seriously.
Another crash at "suicide corner" was described in court this week. That was the junction of Westfield Street, Cotham Street and Baldwin Street in St Helens (pictured above). Over one 12-hour period in 1923, a traffic census had counted 4,143 vehicles passing that point. With the East Lancs Road still in its planning stages, many drivers journeying through Lancashire went through St Helens. Because of the congestion and danger that was caused, a policeman was on point duty on a small island near the Sefton Arms issuing hand signals to drivers.
When accidents occurred some drivers complained that they hadn't noticed the constable or seen him issuing a stop signal. They were not normally believed but George Horrocks from Birkdale successfully made his case. This week he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with negligently driving a motor vehicle and failing to obey a constable's signal to stop. Mr Horrocks' car had been going along Baldwin Street in the direction of Church Street when a motor wagon came down Cotham Street. The constable waved the driver of the wagon on and ordered the car to stop. But he said the car driver took no notice and his vehicle and the wagon collided at the junction of Cotham Street.
Mr Horrocks' solicitor explained to the court that his client did not know the town well. He had been driving exceedingly carefully at only 12mph and expected to find any point duty policeman in the middle of the street and not standing on the island refuge where he was located. It was also a wet morning and there was rain on his windscreen, which had obscured Mr Horrocks' view and consequently he had failed to see the constable. The Bench said they believed the defendant had been honest in saying he did not see the officer and discharged the case upon payment of costs.
A shocking story of the behaviour of a drunken father from Rainford was told at St Helens County Police Sessions on the 12th when John Harrison from Church Road was charged with wife desertion. The 52-year-old blamed his grown-up children and his wife Ada for all the trouble, saying: "I am not going to be chicken pecked if I am hen pecked".
His 28-year-old son, Thomas, said he had never had any peace from his father owing to his drunken habits: "At five years old I had to stand out in the street late at night for safety because my father was in the house with a poker in his hand." The case was in reality an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Harrison was ordered to pay his wife, Ada, 15 shillings a week and 2 guineas costs.
There were, of course, countless fights in St Helens that were usually spontaneous events that took place on a Saturday night after a drinking session. But the battle between two young men called McDermott and Burns was of a different calibre. They had met in North Road and decided to fight it out. They first went to the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street and asked if they could borrow two pairs of boxing gloves – but the sergeant on duty said no.
So they went to the house of a local boxer – but he too declined to lend them his gloves. And so they wandered about the streets for a while wondering what to do. Finally, McDermott whipped off his clogs and they decided to have it out there and then. But the police tended to be spoilsports in such matters and Sgt Stephenson quickly locked them up. On the 12th they both appeared in St Helens Police Court where they were ordered to find sureties to be of good behaviour.
Someone from Rainford using the pseudonym "A Poor Ratepayer" had a letter published in the Ormskirk Advertiser on the 14th calling for the local council to make economies to reduce the rates it levied on residents. The letter began: "Sir, Rates are very high in Rainford, and unlike most places, we get nothing for them – no street lamps, no parks, no baths, “no nothing” as the clown said."
Although an increasing number of businesses were paying their invoices to their suppliers by cheque, there was still a role for the man that went round them collecting cash. After all it was much easier to delay paying a bill that came in the post than fob off a collector in your shop or office. And the person might also be able to pick up some more orders at the same time. Collectors also went round the homes of people who had bought goods on credit to receive payments. However, there were many reports of such collectors taking off with the cash that they received, particularly if they had money problems.
Many excuses were presented at court in an attempt to mitigate the offence – but none so strange as that offered to the Bench by Percy Stimpson of Prescot. On the 15th he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with embezzling money belonging to the Practical Clothing and Supply Company. They had premises in Duke Street and Stimpson was employed to collect payments from people and try and get new business. In court the firm alleged that he had misappropriated £100 from them.
However, the defendant claimed that amount was a gross exaggeration and what money he had lost had been stolen from him after he'd been drugged, kidnapped and taken to London. The defence case was that last November when he was very ill, Stimpson had gone into Prescot intending to call on customers in St Helens and later visit a doctor's surgery. When going along the street he claimed to have been accosted by a stranger who said: "My word, old man, you look very bad. You look as if you were chilled through. Come with me and have something to do you good."
It was then claimed that the stranger took Stimpson into a hotel and gave him some brandy, which had been doped. The mystery man had then offered to take him home in his motor car. Stimpson said he remembered nothing more until waking up and seeing pigeons while being driven past St Paul's Cathedral in London. The next thing he said he could recall was crossing the bridge at Runcorn. And then in some dark lane, he said he was lifted out of the vehicle and pushed through a hedge.
Stimpson claimed to remember nothing more until finding himself at his own door and when it was opened he had fallen through it in a dead faint. For three days Stimpson was delirious and his wife said during this time she had frequently heard her husband shout: "Let me go, you dirty dogs. I tell you I have got no more on me." Upon arriving home virtually all the firm's money that Stimpson had been carrying had disappeared.
Although Dr Wild of Prescot had treated him, the doctor had since died and so there was no independent evidence of Stimpson's condition. The question for the magistrates to consider was had the man been drugged and the money that he had been carrying stolen – or had he been delirious through his illness and imagined or invented the kidnapping escapade? They chose the latter explanation and Percy Stimpson was sent to prison for two months.
Large numbers of boys were employed in the various glass works in St Helens. In a court case in St Helens in January 1919 a manager of the Cannington Shaw bottleworks at United Glass claimed these lads stole "thousands of gross" of glass stoppers from his firm each year which they used to play marbles and smash street lamps. Nuttalls was also part of UGB and on the 15th a youth called Henry Johnson was charged with stealing 103 glass stoppers from the firm. His excuse was that he had taken them for his younger brother and he was bound over for 12 months.
The St Helens Reporter wrote on the 15th: "Many are the tales of woe that unhappy defendants tell to the magistrates. A striking example was told at the Police Court on Saturday, when Benjamin Jessop, 10, Harold-street, was charged with failing to pay wife maintenance which amounted to a sum of £62.
"He said he was working for a window cleaner named Wood, who gave him his keep and 2s. 6d. a week pocket money. Coun. Hewitt [on the Bench]: You can hardly expect us to believe that you are working for 2s. 6d. a week? Prisoner: I can substantiate that statement, and this man has not been putting the insurance stamps on my card, and there is going to be a bother about that. He was sent to gaol for 28 days."
What was claimed as Saints highest ever score since their formation 50 years before occurred on the 16th when the rugby league team thrashed Wardley of Manchester 73 - 0 at Swinton. A total of 15 tries were scored.
From the 18th the Hippodrome Theatre changed its line-up of turns with Val A. Walker the star act. This is how the magician and escapologist was described in the Reporter: "The only man who has challenged authorities and escaped from a British Prison Cell under Test Conditions, and who escaped from a sealed tank at the bottom of the Thames. Walker will present at each performance the Most Astounding Feat of Modern Times."
Just what the feat was the Hippodrome's advert failed to say. The other turns included: Percy Val ("Comedy acrobat"); Dirk & Anton ("Daring dental athletes"); Alpho ("Novelty sleeping ventriloquist with Tinker"); Howe & Watt ("Just comedians"); Eileen Lake ("Exceptional soprano vocalist") and Angel Blancho ("The celebrated Spanish violin virtuoso").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the complications caused by the housing crisis, the Gerards Bridge burning tragedy, the marital troubles in Peter Street and it's last orders for the Red Lion but a new Nag's Head is in the works.
We begin on the 12th in the House of Commons when there was what the St Helens Reporter described as a "wild rush" to secure seats. As a result the St Helens MP, James Sexton, was thrown down and trampled on. "They made a doormat of me and walked over me", Sexton told the Speaker of the House. Two female MPs were also described as having been "severely hustled" out of the way of the men but Sexton's complaint was not taken seriously.
When accidents occurred some drivers complained that they hadn't noticed the constable or seen him issuing a stop signal. They were not normally believed but George Horrocks from Birkdale successfully made his case. This week he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with negligently driving a motor vehicle and failing to obey a constable's signal to stop. Mr Horrocks' car had been going along Baldwin Street in the direction of Church Street when a motor wagon came down Cotham Street. The constable waved the driver of the wagon on and ordered the car to stop. But he said the car driver took no notice and his vehicle and the wagon collided at the junction of Cotham Street.
Mr Horrocks' solicitor explained to the court that his client did not know the town well. He had been driving exceedingly carefully at only 12mph and expected to find any point duty policeman in the middle of the street and not standing on the island refuge where he was located. It was also a wet morning and there was rain on his windscreen, which had obscured Mr Horrocks' view and consequently he had failed to see the constable. The Bench said they believed the defendant had been honest in saying he did not see the officer and discharged the case upon payment of costs.
A shocking story of the behaviour of a drunken father from Rainford was told at St Helens County Police Sessions on the 12th when John Harrison from Church Road was charged with wife desertion. The 52-year-old blamed his grown-up children and his wife Ada for all the trouble, saying: "I am not going to be chicken pecked if I am hen pecked".
His 28-year-old son, Thomas, said he had never had any peace from his father owing to his drunken habits: "At five years old I had to stand out in the street late at night for safety because my father was in the house with a poker in his hand." The case was in reality an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Harrison was ordered to pay his wife, Ada, 15 shillings a week and 2 guineas costs.
There were, of course, countless fights in St Helens that were usually spontaneous events that took place on a Saturday night after a drinking session. But the battle between two young men called McDermott and Burns was of a different calibre. They had met in North Road and decided to fight it out. They first went to the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street and asked if they could borrow two pairs of boxing gloves – but the sergeant on duty said no.
So they went to the house of a local boxer – but he too declined to lend them his gloves. And so they wandered about the streets for a while wondering what to do. Finally, McDermott whipped off his clogs and they decided to have it out there and then. But the police tended to be spoilsports in such matters and Sgt Stephenson quickly locked them up. On the 12th they both appeared in St Helens Police Court where they were ordered to find sureties to be of good behaviour.
Someone from Rainford using the pseudonym "A Poor Ratepayer" had a letter published in the Ormskirk Advertiser on the 14th calling for the local council to make economies to reduce the rates it levied on residents. The letter began: "Sir, Rates are very high in Rainford, and unlike most places, we get nothing for them – no street lamps, no parks, no baths, “no nothing” as the clown said."
Although an increasing number of businesses were paying their invoices to their suppliers by cheque, there was still a role for the man that went round them collecting cash. After all it was much easier to delay paying a bill that came in the post than fob off a collector in your shop or office. And the person might also be able to pick up some more orders at the same time. Collectors also went round the homes of people who had bought goods on credit to receive payments. However, there were many reports of such collectors taking off with the cash that they received, particularly if they had money problems.
Many excuses were presented at court in an attempt to mitigate the offence – but none so strange as that offered to the Bench by Percy Stimpson of Prescot. On the 15th he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with embezzling money belonging to the Practical Clothing and Supply Company. They had premises in Duke Street and Stimpson was employed to collect payments from people and try and get new business. In court the firm alleged that he had misappropriated £100 from them.
However, the defendant claimed that amount was a gross exaggeration and what money he had lost had been stolen from him after he'd been drugged, kidnapped and taken to London. The defence case was that last November when he was very ill, Stimpson had gone into Prescot intending to call on customers in St Helens and later visit a doctor's surgery. When going along the street he claimed to have been accosted by a stranger who said: "My word, old man, you look very bad. You look as if you were chilled through. Come with me and have something to do you good."
It was then claimed that the stranger took Stimpson into a hotel and gave him some brandy, which had been doped. The mystery man had then offered to take him home in his motor car. Stimpson said he remembered nothing more until waking up and seeing pigeons while being driven past St Paul's Cathedral in London. The next thing he said he could recall was crossing the bridge at Runcorn. And then in some dark lane, he said he was lifted out of the vehicle and pushed through a hedge.
Stimpson claimed to remember nothing more until finding himself at his own door and when it was opened he had fallen through it in a dead faint. For three days Stimpson was delirious and his wife said during this time she had frequently heard her husband shout: "Let me go, you dirty dogs. I tell you I have got no more on me." Upon arriving home virtually all the firm's money that Stimpson had been carrying had disappeared.
Although Dr Wild of Prescot had treated him, the doctor had since died and so there was no independent evidence of Stimpson's condition. The question for the magistrates to consider was had the man been drugged and the money that he had been carrying stolen – or had he been delirious through his illness and imagined or invented the kidnapping escapade? They chose the latter explanation and Percy Stimpson was sent to prison for two months.
Large numbers of boys were employed in the various glass works in St Helens. In a court case in St Helens in January 1919 a manager of the Cannington Shaw bottleworks at United Glass claimed these lads stole "thousands of gross" of glass stoppers from his firm each year which they used to play marbles and smash street lamps. Nuttalls was also part of UGB and on the 15th a youth called Henry Johnson was charged with stealing 103 glass stoppers from the firm. His excuse was that he had taken them for his younger brother and he was bound over for 12 months.
The St Helens Reporter wrote on the 15th: "Many are the tales of woe that unhappy defendants tell to the magistrates. A striking example was told at the Police Court on Saturday, when Benjamin Jessop, 10, Harold-street, was charged with failing to pay wife maintenance which amounted to a sum of £62.
"He said he was working for a window cleaner named Wood, who gave him his keep and 2s. 6d. a week pocket money. Coun. Hewitt [on the Bench]: You can hardly expect us to believe that you are working for 2s. 6d. a week? Prisoner: I can substantiate that statement, and this man has not been putting the insurance stamps on my card, and there is going to be a bother about that. He was sent to gaol for 28 days."
What was claimed as Saints highest ever score since their formation 50 years before occurred on the 16th when the rugby league team thrashed Wardley of Manchester 73 - 0 at Swinton. A total of 15 tries were scored.
From the 18th the Hippodrome Theatre changed its line-up of turns with Val A. Walker the star act. This is how the magician and escapologist was described in the Reporter: "The only man who has challenged authorities and escaped from a British Prison Cell under Test Conditions, and who escaped from a sealed tank at the bottom of the Thames. Walker will present at each performance the Most Astounding Feat of Modern Times."
Just what the feat was the Hippodrome's advert failed to say. The other turns included: Percy Val ("Comedy acrobat"); Dirk & Anton ("Daring dental athletes"); Alpho ("Novelty sleeping ventriloquist with Tinker"); Howe & Watt ("Just comedians"); Eileen Lake ("Exceptional soprano vocalist") and Angel Blancho ("The celebrated Spanish violin virtuoso").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the complications caused by the housing crisis, the Gerards Bridge burning tragedy, the marital troubles in Peter Street and it's last orders for the Red Lion but a new Nag's Head is in the works.
This week's many stories include the drunken father from Rainford who said he refused to be chicken-pecked, another crash at St Helens' suicide corner, the troubles of two young men in trying to have a fight, the marbles stolen from Nuttalls bottleworks, the escapologist performing at the Hippodrome and the bizarre kidnapping claim by the collector for a Duke Street clothing firm.
We begin on the 12th in the House of Commons when there was what the St Helens Reporter described as a "wild rush" to secure seats.
As a result the St Helens MP, James Sexton, was thrown down and trampled on. "They made a doormat of me and walked over me", Sexton told the Speaker of the House.
Two female MPs were also described as having been "severely hustled" out of the way of the men but Sexton's complaint was not taken seriously.
Another crash at "suicide corner" was described in court this week. That was the junction of Westfield Street, Cotham Street and Baldwin Street in St Helens (pictured above).
Over one 12-hour period in 1923, a traffic census had counted 4,143 vehicles passing that point.
With the East Lancs Road still in its planning stages, many drivers journeying through Lancashire went through St Helens.
Because of the congestion and danger that was caused, a policeman was on point duty on a small island near the Sefton Arms issuing hand signals to drivers.
When accidents occurred some drivers complained that they hadn't noticed the constable or seen him issuing a stop signal.
They were not normally believed but George Horrocks from Birkdale successfully made his case.
This week he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with negligently driving a motor vehicle and failing to obey a constable's signal to stop.
Mr Horrocks' car had been going along Baldwin Street in the direction of Church Street when a motor wagon came down Cotham Street.
The constable waved the driver of the wagon on and ordered the car to stop. But he said the car driver took no notice and his vehicle and the wagon collided at the junction of Cotham Street.
Mr Horrocks' solicitor explained to the court that his client did not know the town well.
He had been driving exceedingly carefully at only 12mph and expected to find any point duty policeman in the middle of the street and not standing on the island refuge where he was located.
It was also a wet morning and there was rain on his windscreen, which had obscured Mr Horrocks' view and consequently he had failed to see the constable.
The Bench said they believed the defendant had been honest in saying he did not see the officer and discharged the case upon payment of costs.
A shocking story of the behaviour of a drunken father from Rainford was told at St Helens County Police Sessions on the 12th when John Harrison from Church Road was charged with wife desertion.
The 52-year-old blamed his grown-up children and his wife Ada for all the trouble, saying: "I am not going to be chicken pecked if I am hen pecked".
His 28-year-old son, Thomas, said he had never had any peace from his father owing to his drunken habits:
"At five years old I had to stand out in the street late at night for safety because my father was in the house with a poker in his hand."
The case was in reality an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Harrison was ordered to pay his wife, Ada, 15 shillings a week and 2 guineas costs.
There were, of course, countless fights in St Helens that were usually spontaneous events that took place on a Saturday night after a drinking session.
But the battle between two young men called McDermott and Burns was of a different calibre. They had met in North Road and decided to fight it out.
They first went to the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street and asked if they could borrow two pairs of boxing gloves – but the sergeant on duty said no.
So they went to the house of a local boxer – but he too declined to lend them his gloves.
And so they wandered about the streets for a while wondering what to do. Finally, McDermott whipped off his clogs and they decided to have it out there and then.
But the police tended to be spoilsports in such matters and Sgt Stephenson quickly locked them up.
On the 12th they both appeared in St Helens Police Court where they were ordered to find sureties to be of good behaviour.
Someone from Rainford using the pseudonym "A Poor Ratepayer" had a letter published in the Ormskirk Advertiser on the 14th calling for the local council to make economies to reduce the rates it levied on residents. The letter began:
"Sir, Rates are very high in Rainford, and unlike most places, we get nothing for them – no street lamps, no parks, no baths, “no nothing” as the clown said."
Although an increasing number of businesses were paying their invoices to their suppliers by cheque, there was still a role for the man that went round them collecting cash.
After all it was much easier to delay paying a bill that came in the post than fob off a collector in your shop or office. And the person might also be able to pick up some more orders at the same time.
Collectors also went round the homes of people who had bought goods on credit to receive payments.
However, there were many reports of such collectors taking off with the cash that they received, particularly if they had money problems.
Many excuses were presented at court in an attempt to mitigate the offence – but none so strange as that offered to the Bench by Percy Stimpson of Prescot.
On the 15th he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with embezzling money belonging to the Practical Clothing and Supply Company.
They had premises in Duke Street and Stimpson was employed to collect payments from people and try and get new business. In court the firm alleged that he had misappropriated £100 from them.
However, the defendant claimed that amount was a gross exaggeration and what money he had lost had been stolen from him after he'd been drugged, kidnapped and taken to London.
The defence case was that last November when he was very ill, Stimpson had gone into Prescot intending to call on customers in St Helens and later visit a doctor's surgery.
When going along the street he claimed to have been accosted by a stranger who said: "My word, old man, you look very bad. You look as if you were chilled through. Come with me and have something to do you good."
It was then claimed that the stranger took Stimpson into a hotel and gave him some brandy, which had been doped. The mystery man had then offered to take him home in his motor car.
Stimpson said he remembered nothing more until waking up and seeing pigeons while being driven past St Paul's Cathedral in London.
The next thing he said he could recall was crossing the bridge at Runcorn. And then in some dark lane, he said he was lifted out of the vehicle and pushed through a hedge.
Stimpson claimed to remember nothing more until finding himself at his own door and when it was opened he had fallen through it in a dead faint.
For three days Stimpson was delirious and his wife said during this time she had frequently heard her husband shout: "Let me go, you dirty dogs. I tell you I have got no more on me."
Upon arriving home virtually all the firm's money that Stimpson had been carrying had disappeared.
Although Dr Wild of Prescot had treated him, the doctor had since died and so there was no independent evidence of Stimpson's condition.
The question for the magistrates to consider was had the man been drugged and the money that he had been carrying stolen – or had he been delirious through his illness and imagined or invented the kidnapping escapade?
They chose the latter explanation and Percy Stimpson was sent to prison for two months.
Large numbers of boys were employed in the various glass works in St Helens.
In a court case in St Helens in January 1919 a manager of the Cannington Shaw bottleworks at United Glass claimed these lads stole "thousands of gross" of glass stoppers from his firm each year which they used to play marbles and smash street lamps.
Nuttalls was also part of UGB and on the 15th a youth called Henry Johnson was charged with stealing 103 glass stoppers from the firm.
His excuse was that he had taken them for his younger brother and he was bound over for 12 months.
The St Helens Reporter wrote on the 15th: "Many are the tales of woe that unhappy defendants tell to the magistrates.
"A striking example was told at the Police Court on Saturday, when Benjamin Jessop, 10, Harold-street, was charged with failing to pay wife maintenance which amounted to a sum of £62.
"He said he was working for a window cleaner named Wood, who gave him his keep and 2s. 6d. a week pocket money.
"Coun. Hewitt [on the Bench]: You can hardly expect us to believe that you are working for 2s. 6d. a week?
"Prisoner: I can substantiate that statement, and this man has not been putting the insurance stamps on my card, and there is going to be a bother about that. He was sent to gaol for 28 days."
What was claimed as Saints highest ever score since their formation 50 years before occurred on the 16th when the rugby league team thrashed Wardley of Manchester 73 - 0 at Swinton. A total of 15 tries were scored.
From the 18th the Hippodrome Theatre changed its line-up of turns with Val A. Walker the star act. This is how the magician and escapologist was described in the Reporter:
"The only man who has challenged authorities and escaped from a British Prison Cell under Test Conditions, and who escaped from a sealed tank at the bottom of the Thames. Walker will present at each performance the Most Astounding Feat of Modern Times."
Just what the feat was the Hippodrome's advert failed to say. The other turns included:
Percy Val ("Comedy acrobat"); Dirk & Anton ("Daring dental athletes"); Alpho ("Novelty sleeping ventriloquist with Tinker"); Howe & Watt ("Just comedians"); Eileen Lake ("Exceptional soprano vocalist") and Angel Blancho ("The celebrated Spanish violin virtuoso").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the complications caused by the housing crisis, the Gerards Bridge burning tragedy, the marital troubles in Peter Street and it's last orders for the Red Lion but a new Nag's Head is in the works.
We begin on the 12th in the House of Commons when there was what the St Helens Reporter described as a "wild rush" to secure seats.
As a result the St Helens MP, James Sexton, was thrown down and trampled on. "They made a doormat of me and walked over me", Sexton told the Speaker of the House.
Two female MPs were also described as having been "severely hustled" out of the way of the men but Sexton's complaint was not taken seriously.
Over one 12-hour period in 1923, a traffic census had counted 4,143 vehicles passing that point.
With the East Lancs Road still in its planning stages, many drivers journeying through Lancashire went through St Helens.
Because of the congestion and danger that was caused, a policeman was on point duty on a small island near the Sefton Arms issuing hand signals to drivers.
When accidents occurred some drivers complained that they hadn't noticed the constable or seen him issuing a stop signal.
They were not normally believed but George Horrocks from Birkdale successfully made his case.
This week he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with negligently driving a motor vehicle and failing to obey a constable's signal to stop.
Mr Horrocks' car had been going along Baldwin Street in the direction of Church Street when a motor wagon came down Cotham Street.
The constable waved the driver of the wagon on and ordered the car to stop. But he said the car driver took no notice and his vehicle and the wagon collided at the junction of Cotham Street.
Mr Horrocks' solicitor explained to the court that his client did not know the town well.
He had been driving exceedingly carefully at only 12mph and expected to find any point duty policeman in the middle of the street and not standing on the island refuge where he was located.
It was also a wet morning and there was rain on his windscreen, which had obscured Mr Horrocks' view and consequently he had failed to see the constable.
The Bench said they believed the defendant had been honest in saying he did not see the officer and discharged the case upon payment of costs.
A shocking story of the behaviour of a drunken father from Rainford was told at St Helens County Police Sessions on the 12th when John Harrison from Church Road was charged with wife desertion.
The 52-year-old blamed his grown-up children and his wife Ada for all the trouble, saying: "I am not going to be chicken pecked if I am hen pecked".
His 28-year-old son, Thomas, said he had never had any peace from his father owing to his drunken habits:
"At five years old I had to stand out in the street late at night for safety because my father was in the house with a poker in his hand."
The case was in reality an application for a separation order with maintenance payments and Harrison was ordered to pay his wife, Ada, 15 shillings a week and 2 guineas costs.
There were, of course, countless fights in St Helens that were usually spontaneous events that took place on a Saturday night after a drinking session.
But the battle between two young men called McDermott and Burns was of a different calibre. They had met in North Road and decided to fight it out.
They first went to the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street and asked if they could borrow two pairs of boxing gloves – but the sergeant on duty said no.
So they went to the house of a local boxer – but he too declined to lend them his gloves.
And so they wandered about the streets for a while wondering what to do. Finally, McDermott whipped off his clogs and they decided to have it out there and then.
But the police tended to be spoilsports in such matters and Sgt Stephenson quickly locked them up.
On the 12th they both appeared in St Helens Police Court where they were ordered to find sureties to be of good behaviour.
Someone from Rainford using the pseudonym "A Poor Ratepayer" had a letter published in the Ormskirk Advertiser on the 14th calling for the local council to make economies to reduce the rates it levied on residents. The letter began:
"Sir, Rates are very high in Rainford, and unlike most places, we get nothing for them – no street lamps, no parks, no baths, “no nothing” as the clown said."
Although an increasing number of businesses were paying their invoices to their suppliers by cheque, there was still a role for the man that went round them collecting cash.
After all it was much easier to delay paying a bill that came in the post than fob off a collector in your shop or office. And the person might also be able to pick up some more orders at the same time.
Collectors also went round the homes of people who had bought goods on credit to receive payments.
However, there were many reports of such collectors taking off with the cash that they received, particularly if they had money problems.
Many excuses were presented at court in an attempt to mitigate the offence – but none so strange as that offered to the Bench by Percy Stimpson of Prescot.
On the 15th he appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with embezzling money belonging to the Practical Clothing and Supply Company.
They had premises in Duke Street and Stimpson was employed to collect payments from people and try and get new business. In court the firm alleged that he had misappropriated £100 from them.
However, the defendant claimed that amount was a gross exaggeration and what money he had lost had been stolen from him after he'd been drugged, kidnapped and taken to London.
The defence case was that last November when he was very ill, Stimpson had gone into Prescot intending to call on customers in St Helens and later visit a doctor's surgery.
When going along the street he claimed to have been accosted by a stranger who said: "My word, old man, you look very bad. You look as if you were chilled through. Come with me and have something to do you good."
It was then claimed that the stranger took Stimpson into a hotel and gave him some brandy, which had been doped. The mystery man had then offered to take him home in his motor car.
Stimpson said he remembered nothing more until waking up and seeing pigeons while being driven past St Paul's Cathedral in London.
The next thing he said he could recall was crossing the bridge at Runcorn. And then in some dark lane, he said he was lifted out of the vehicle and pushed through a hedge.
Stimpson claimed to remember nothing more until finding himself at his own door and when it was opened he had fallen through it in a dead faint.
For three days Stimpson was delirious and his wife said during this time she had frequently heard her husband shout: "Let me go, you dirty dogs. I tell you I have got no more on me."
Upon arriving home virtually all the firm's money that Stimpson had been carrying had disappeared.
Although Dr Wild of Prescot had treated him, the doctor had since died and so there was no independent evidence of Stimpson's condition.
The question for the magistrates to consider was had the man been drugged and the money that he had been carrying stolen – or had he been delirious through his illness and imagined or invented the kidnapping escapade?
They chose the latter explanation and Percy Stimpson was sent to prison for two months.
Large numbers of boys were employed in the various glass works in St Helens.
In a court case in St Helens in January 1919 a manager of the Cannington Shaw bottleworks at United Glass claimed these lads stole "thousands of gross" of glass stoppers from his firm each year which they used to play marbles and smash street lamps.
Nuttalls was also part of UGB and on the 15th a youth called Henry Johnson was charged with stealing 103 glass stoppers from the firm.
His excuse was that he had taken them for his younger brother and he was bound over for 12 months.
The St Helens Reporter wrote on the 15th: "Many are the tales of woe that unhappy defendants tell to the magistrates.
"A striking example was told at the Police Court on Saturday, when Benjamin Jessop, 10, Harold-street, was charged with failing to pay wife maintenance which amounted to a sum of £62.
"He said he was working for a window cleaner named Wood, who gave him his keep and 2s. 6d. a week pocket money.
"Coun. Hewitt [on the Bench]: You can hardly expect us to believe that you are working for 2s. 6d. a week?
"Prisoner: I can substantiate that statement, and this man has not been putting the insurance stamps on my card, and there is going to be a bother about that. He was sent to gaol for 28 days."
What was claimed as Saints highest ever score since their formation 50 years before occurred on the 16th when the rugby league team thrashed Wardley of Manchester 73 - 0 at Swinton. A total of 15 tries were scored.
From the 18th the Hippodrome Theatre changed its line-up of turns with Val A. Walker the star act. This is how the magician and escapologist was described in the Reporter:
"The only man who has challenged authorities and escaped from a British Prison Cell under Test Conditions, and who escaped from a sealed tank at the bottom of the Thames. Walker will present at each performance the Most Astounding Feat of Modern Times."
Just what the feat was the Hippodrome's advert failed to say. The other turns included:
Percy Val ("Comedy acrobat"); Dirk & Anton ("Daring dental athletes"); Alpho ("Novelty sleeping ventriloquist with Tinker"); Howe & Watt ("Just comedians"); Eileen Lake ("Exceptional soprano vocalist") and Angel Blancho ("The celebrated Spanish violin virtuoso").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the complications caused by the housing crisis, the Gerards Bridge burning tragedy, the marital troubles in Peter Street and it's last orders for the Red Lion but a new Nag's Head is in the works.