IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th MARCH 1922)
This week's stories include the appalling treatment of young females in St Helens' courts, the obstructive lorry drivers at Bold, the Sutton bigamy case after a hospital romance, the fatal hitching of a lift at the Ravenhead glassworks and the capture of an army deserter.
We begin on the 14th with the death of little Albert Roughsedge in Providence Hospital. The 18-month-old boy from Tullis Street (off Prescot Road) joined the lengthy list of kids who died after being scalded at home by a pan of boiling water that somehow got upset.
I find it quite shocking how girls and young women were treated a century ago in the St Helens courts. Attitudes in the 1920s were generally more progressive and caring than they had been fifty years earlier – but many a young female could still be treated shamefully. I expect many readers went through a rebellious phase during their teenage years and stayed out late at night. If you did that in the 1920s and were female you could be sent away to a strict girls home for two or three years. And if you were not perceived as being very bright, the new Mental Deficiency Act could lead to you being stuck away in a mental asylum for many years – if not life.
Consider the case of Annie Myler from Victoria Street in Widnes, which was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 14th. She had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with the crime of lodging out – what we would call sleeping rough, although no shuteye was involved in her case. PC Johnson gave evidence that at 1:30 am he had come across Annie standing near a watchman's fire in Peasley Cross Lane in St Helens.
The young woman told the officer that she had come from Widnes that afternoon and been out in the country with a young man – but was now too tired to walk home. As she had been found in St Helens in a similar situation in January, the constable decided to lock her up. Supt. Dunn told the court that the girl had been a "great source of trouble" to her parents through staying out late at night and the police were of the opinion that she should be sent to a home. Annie's father said he agreed to that course but the girl burst into loud sobs and declared that she did not want to go into a home.
The Reporter wrote: "She was removed from the dock in a hysterical condition. As she was being removed, the prisoner's mother fainted in the court, and was carried out moaning." Later, Annie was brought back into court to hear the Bench order that she be bound over for two years upon condition she went into a home. Census records suggest that Annie was not a young child but 19 or 20 years of age – and many other females of a similar age received similar treatment. And what would have happened if a man of that age had committed the same offence? He would probably have received a small fine.
On the 15th Harry Simpson from Central Street in St Helens appeared in the Police Court charged with being an army deserter. Three years had elapsed since Simpson had quit the military without a discharge and I expect with each passing day the labourer had thought he'd got away with it. But the authorities were still hunting down deserters – most of whom had not returned to their units after going on leave. Whether that was what happened with Harry, I can't say, as his case only received nine lines in the Reporter. It had the usual outcome for an army deserter of being remanded in custody to await a military escort back to his unit.
The council’s Highway's Committee considered a proposal to widen Elton Head Road on the 15th. The Borough Engineer said the Sutton Heath Colliery Company had suggested the improvement and offered to donate some of their land to enable the work to be carried out. The committee gave preliminary approval to the idea subject to further negotiation with the firm.
The acts performing at the Hippodrome Music Hall in St Helens this week included:
Lowdini ("Musical genius, brilliant pianist and violinist"); Dainty Doris Hunter ("Comedienne and mimic"); The Famous Enardo Brothers ("Italian gymnastic grotesques"); May Henderson ("The original dusky comedy queen"); Syd Moorhouse ("Singer – nature's gentleman"); Otorasan ("The little Japanese wonder child who might have been picked out of a toy shop – sings and dances and has command of 7 languages") and Robinson and Macken ("Famous comedy character artistes presenting their 'Irish Cobbler' sketch").
There has been talk in the wake of our leaving the EU that haulage companies need to do more to make the work of long-haul lorry drivers more attractive. The provision of facilities for such things as sleepovers and refreshments has been mentioned. A century ago two enterprising men called Woodward were doing just that in Bold for the new breed of motor lorry and van drivers. The pair had acquired two ex-army huts and erected them near the Griffin Hotel to provide refreshments and sleeping accommodation. Although police accepted that a much-needed want was being provided on what was then the main road between Liverpool and Manchester, they were also concerned of obstruction on a narrow, busy thoroughfare.
So on the 14th three Manchester drivers appeared in the St Helens County Police Court accused of obstructing the highway. They were not happy about being charged with PC Barber telling the Bench that one driver had said he would fight the case if it cost him £100,000. That's around £5m in today's money and I very much doubt if he had that much cash he'd be working as a lorry driver! The haulier with supposedly deep pockets was Harold Donkin, who told the court that the new facility had been a great boon to the heavy motor drivers. He said there was room for a few vehicles to pull off the road but often there were more vehicles than space available – and so they had to park on the main road.
Sergeant Butler told the court that two of the defendants had left their wagons on the road for 25 minutes whilst they were getting refreshments and he'd had to personally direct the traffic – or there would have been a crash. The Chairman of the magistrates, Ald. Dixon-Nuttall, said the Bench did not want to prevent the drivers taking tea and enjoying other accommodation but they could not allow the main road to be obstructed. "That road had a tremendous amount of traffic on it," he added. "It was not very wide, and it must be kept clear." However, plans were afoot to create more parking spaces for lorries and the three drivers were told to simply pay 4 shillings costs each.
Every year the St Helens Camera Club held an exhibition at the YMCA and this year's began on the 16th. On the opening day the names of the award-winners were announced for the three available categories of photography. These were architecture, portrait & figure study and landscape. Additional awards for novices and lantern slides were also available. And one for colour slides, although I'm not sure whether they used actual colour film stock, which was very much in its infancy, or hand-coloured the image. Dr John Donnellan of Westfield Street won three awards in the lantern slides section.
Photography certainly seemed to be improving in popularity as a hobby in St Helens. In the Reporter this week Francis Cholerton of 52 Bridge Street was promoting a "genuine sale of shop soiled and second hand cameras and accessories".
Also on the 16th, a miner called William Measures was committed to take his trial at the assizes by magistrates in Nottingham after being accused of bigamy. Ellen Measures gave evidence that she had married William on Christmas Eve 1892 at St Nicholas Church in Sutton, St Helens (pictured above). The couple briefly resided at Haydock but then returned to live in Sutton, near to Watery Lane, where they stayed for 22 years but had frequent quarrels. In August 1915 her husband joined the army and was later wounded and hospitalised.
After being discharged from the army in January 1919, William left his wife and four children, with Ellen telling the court that she had not seen her husband since then. In fact Meadows had gone through a form of marriage with Emma Bilsden nine months before his discharge – after first meeting her in a military hospital. Upon being arrested, Measures had said: "Yes, I have been expecting you. I shall be pleased to get it over." That was something bigamists were often reported as telling the police.
At Nottingham Assizes on June 22nd, the 48-year-old would be sentenced to a month's imprisonment in the second division – meaning he could wear his own clothes and receive more visits than other prisoners. It was revealed at the hearing that Measures' legitimate wife Ellen was a forewoman at an unnamed St Helens glassworks and that the war had left her bigamist husband paralysed in one arm. It appears that Emma, the "second wife", would stand by William – telling the Bench that they were living happily together.
Many large motor wagons had trailers and it appears that people were in the habit of hitching a lift on them. This was revealed on the 20th at the inquest of Ada Dixon of Napier Street. The 17-year-old worked at Pilkington's Ravenhead glassworks and while returning to work after her dinner break had seen one of Pilks' wagons making its way to the works. So Ada decided to save her legs and jumped on to the drawbar coupling between the wagon and its trailer.
However, in getting off she was run over by the wheels of the trailer as the wagon picked up speed. Ada's father claimed at the inquest that Pilks' motor wagons routinely slowed up to allow workers to get on and off – but the driver denied it. However, he did say that when he drove to places like Liverpool, he regularly had to stop at the corner of streets to get policeman on point duty to force "stray passengers" off the drawbar of his trailer. The coroner exonerated him from blame.
Next week's stories will include the Sutton strike-breaker that borrowed a revolver in case of bother, two prolific St Helens burglars appear in court, Gentle Annie's window smashing in the Swan Hotel and the new state-of-the-art car without hand-crank.
We begin on the 14th with the death of little Albert Roughsedge in Providence Hospital. The 18-month-old boy from Tullis Street (off Prescot Road) joined the lengthy list of kids who died after being scalded at home by a pan of boiling water that somehow got upset.
I find it quite shocking how girls and young women were treated a century ago in the St Helens courts. Attitudes in the 1920s were generally more progressive and caring than they had been fifty years earlier – but many a young female could still be treated shamefully. I expect many readers went through a rebellious phase during their teenage years and stayed out late at night. If you did that in the 1920s and were female you could be sent away to a strict girls home for two or three years. And if you were not perceived as being very bright, the new Mental Deficiency Act could lead to you being stuck away in a mental asylum for many years – if not life.
Consider the case of Annie Myler from Victoria Street in Widnes, which was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 14th. She had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with the crime of lodging out – what we would call sleeping rough, although no shuteye was involved in her case. PC Johnson gave evidence that at 1:30 am he had come across Annie standing near a watchman's fire in Peasley Cross Lane in St Helens.
The young woman told the officer that she had come from Widnes that afternoon and been out in the country with a young man – but was now too tired to walk home. As she had been found in St Helens in a similar situation in January, the constable decided to lock her up. Supt. Dunn told the court that the girl had been a "great source of trouble" to her parents through staying out late at night and the police were of the opinion that she should be sent to a home. Annie's father said he agreed to that course but the girl burst into loud sobs and declared that she did not want to go into a home.
The Reporter wrote: "She was removed from the dock in a hysterical condition. As she was being removed, the prisoner's mother fainted in the court, and was carried out moaning." Later, Annie was brought back into court to hear the Bench order that she be bound over for two years upon condition she went into a home. Census records suggest that Annie was not a young child but 19 or 20 years of age – and many other females of a similar age received similar treatment. And what would have happened if a man of that age had committed the same offence? He would probably have received a small fine.
On the 15th Harry Simpson from Central Street in St Helens appeared in the Police Court charged with being an army deserter. Three years had elapsed since Simpson had quit the military without a discharge and I expect with each passing day the labourer had thought he'd got away with it. But the authorities were still hunting down deserters – most of whom had not returned to their units after going on leave. Whether that was what happened with Harry, I can't say, as his case only received nine lines in the Reporter. It had the usual outcome for an army deserter of being remanded in custody to await a military escort back to his unit.
The council’s Highway's Committee considered a proposal to widen Elton Head Road on the 15th. The Borough Engineer said the Sutton Heath Colliery Company had suggested the improvement and offered to donate some of their land to enable the work to be carried out. The committee gave preliminary approval to the idea subject to further negotiation with the firm.
The acts performing at the Hippodrome Music Hall in St Helens this week included:
Lowdini ("Musical genius, brilliant pianist and violinist"); Dainty Doris Hunter ("Comedienne and mimic"); The Famous Enardo Brothers ("Italian gymnastic grotesques"); May Henderson ("The original dusky comedy queen"); Syd Moorhouse ("Singer – nature's gentleman"); Otorasan ("The little Japanese wonder child who might have been picked out of a toy shop – sings and dances and has command of 7 languages") and Robinson and Macken ("Famous comedy character artistes presenting their 'Irish Cobbler' sketch").
There has been talk in the wake of our leaving the EU that haulage companies need to do more to make the work of long-haul lorry drivers more attractive. The provision of facilities for such things as sleepovers and refreshments has been mentioned. A century ago two enterprising men called Woodward were doing just that in Bold for the new breed of motor lorry and van drivers. The pair had acquired two ex-army huts and erected them near the Griffin Hotel to provide refreshments and sleeping accommodation. Although police accepted that a much-needed want was being provided on what was then the main road between Liverpool and Manchester, they were also concerned of obstruction on a narrow, busy thoroughfare.
So on the 14th three Manchester drivers appeared in the St Helens County Police Court accused of obstructing the highway. They were not happy about being charged with PC Barber telling the Bench that one driver had said he would fight the case if it cost him £100,000. That's around £5m in today's money and I very much doubt if he had that much cash he'd be working as a lorry driver! The haulier with supposedly deep pockets was Harold Donkin, who told the court that the new facility had been a great boon to the heavy motor drivers. He said there was room for a few vehicles to pull off the road but often there were more vehicles than space available – and so they had to park on the main road.
Sergeant Butler told the court that two of the defendants had left their wagons on the road for 25 minutes whilst they were getting refreshments and he'd had to personally direct the traffic – or there would have been a crash. The Chairman of the magistrates, Ald. Dixon-Nuttall, said the Bench did not want to prevent the drivers taking tea and enjoying other accommodation but they could not allow the main road to be obstructed. "That road had a tremendous amount of traffic on it," he added. "It was not very wide, and it must be kept clear." However, plans were afoot to create more parking spaces for lorries and the three drivers were told to simply pay 4 shillings costs each.
Every year the St Helens Camera Club held an exhibition at the YMCA and this year's began on the 16th. On the opening day the names of the award-winners were announced for the three available categories of photography. These were architecture, portrait & figure study and landscape. Additional awards for novices and lantern slides were also available. And one for colour slides, although I'm not sure whether they used actual colour film stock, which was very much in its infancy, or hand-coloured the image. Dr John Donnellan of Westfield Street won three awards in the lantern slides section.
Photography certainly seemed to be improving in popularity as a hobby in St Helens. In the Reporter this week Francis Cholerton of 52 Bridge Street was promoting a "genuine sale of shop soiled and second hand cameras and accessories".
After being discharged from the army in January 1919, William left his wife and four children, with Ellen telling the court that she had not seen her husband since then. In fact Meadows had gone through a form of marriage with Emma Bilsden nine months before his discharge – after first meeting her in a military hospital. Upon being arrested, Measures had said: "Yes, I have been expecting you. I shall be pleased to get it over." That was something bigamists were often reported as telling the police.
At Nottingham Assizes on June 22nd, the 48-year-old would be sentenced to a month's imprisonment in the second division – meaning he could wear his own clothes and receive more visits than other prisoners. It was revealed at the hearing that Measures' legitimate wife Ellen was a forewoman at an unnamed St Helens glassworks and that the war had left her bigamist husband paralysed in one arm. It appears that Emma, the "second wife", would stand by William – telling the Bench that they were living happily together.
Many large motor wagons had trailers and it appears that people were in the habit of hitching a lift on them. This was revealed on the 20th at the inquest of Ada Dixon of Napier Street. The 17-year-old worked at Pilkington's Ravenhead glassworks and while returning to work after her dinner break had seen one of Pilks' wagons making its way to the works. So Ada decided to save her legs and jumped on to the drawbar coupling between the wagon and its trailer.
However, in getting off she was run over by the wheels of the trailer as the wagon picked up speed. Ada's father claimed at the inquest that Pilks' motor wagons routinely slowed up to allow workers to get on and off – but the driver denied it. However, he did say that when he drove to places like Liverpool, he regularly had to stop at the corner of streets to get policeman on point duty to force "stray passengers" off the drawbar of his trailer. The coroner exonerated him from blame.
Next week's stories will include the Sutton strike-breaker that borrowed a revolver in case of bother, two prolific St Helens burglars appear in court, Gentle Annie's window smashing in the Swan Hotel and the new state-of-the-art car without hand-crank.
This week's stories include the appalling treatment of young females in St Helens' courts, the obstructive lorry drivers at Bold, the Sutton bigamy case after a hospital romance, the fatal hitching of a lift at the Ravenhead glassworks and the capture of an army deserter.
We begin on the 14th with the death of little Albert Roughsedge in Providence Hospital.
The 18-month-old boy from Tullis Street (off Prescot Road) joined the lengthy list of kids who died after being scalded at home by a pan of boiling water that somehow got upset.
I find it quite shocking how girls and young women were treated a century ago in the St Helens courts.
Attitudes in the 1920s were generally more progressive and caring than they had been fifty years earlier – but many a young female could still be treated shamefully.
I expect many readers went through a rebellious phase during their teenage years and stayed out late at night.
If you did that in the 1920s and were female you could be sent away to a strict girls home for two or three years.
And if you were not perceived as being very bright, the new Mental Deficiency Act could lead to you being stuck away in a mental asylum for many years – if not life.
Consider the case of Annie Myler from Victoria Street in Widnes, which was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 14th.
She had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with the crime of lodging out – what we would call sleeping rough, although no shuteye was involved in her case.
PC Johnson gave evidence that at 1:30 am he had come across Annie standing near a watchman's fire in Peasley Cross Lane in St Helens.
The young woman told the officer that she had come from Widnes that afternoon and been out in the country with a young man – but was now too tired to walk home.
As she had been found in St Helens in a similar situation in January, the constable decided to lock her up.
Supt. Dunn told the court that the girl had been a "great source of trouble" to her parents through staying out late at night and the police were of the opinion that she should be sent to a home.
Annie's father said he agreed to that course but the girl burst into loud sobs and declared that she did not want to go into a home.
The Reporter wrote: "She was removed from the dock in a hysterical condition. As she was being removed, the prisoner's mother fainted in the court, and was carried out moaning."
Later, Annie was brought back into court to hear the Bench order that she be bound over for two years upon condition she went into a home.
Census records suggest that Annie was not a young child but 19 or 20 years of age – and many other females of a similar age received similar treatment.
And what would have happened if a man of that age had committed the same offence? He would probably have received a small fine.
On the 15th Harry Simpson from Central Street in St Helens appeared in the Police Court charged with being an army deserter.
Three years had elapsed since Simpson had quit the military without a discharge and I expect with each passing day the labourer had thought he'd got away with it.
But the authorities were still hunting down deserters – most of whom had not returned to their units after going on leave.
Whether that was what happened with Harry, I can't say, as his case only received nine lines in the Reporter.
It had the usual outcome for an army deserter of being remanded in custody to await a military escort back to his unit.
The council’s Highway's Committee considered a proposal to widen Elton Head Road on the 15th.
The Borough Engineer said the Sutton Heath Colliery Company had suggested the improvement and offered to donate some of their land to enable the work to be carried out.
The committee gave preliminary approval to the idea subject to further negotiation with the firm.
The acts performing at the Hippodrome Music Hall in St Helens this week included:
Lowdini ("Musical genius, brilliant pianist and violinist"); Dainty Doris Hunter ("Comedienne and mimic"); The Famous Enardo Brothers ("Italian gymnastic grotesques"); May Henderson ("The original dusky comedy queen"); Syd Moorhouse ("Singer – nature's gentleman"); Otorasan ("The little Japanese wonder child who might have been picked out of a toy shop – sings and dances and has command of 7 languages") and Robinson and Macken ("Famous comedy character artistes presenting their 'Irish Cobbler' sketch").
There has been talk in the wake of our leaving the EU that haulage companies need to do more to make the work of long-haul lorry drivers more attractive.
The provision of facilities for such things as sleepovers and refreshments has been mentioned.
A century ago two enterprising men called Woodward were doing just that in Bold for the new breed of motor lorry and van drivers.
The pair had acquired two ex-army huts and erected them near the Griffin Hotel to provide refreshments and sleeping accommodation.
Although police accepted that a much-needed want was being provided on what was then the main road between Liverpool and Manchester, they were also concerned of obstruction on a narrow, busy thoroughfare.
So on the 14th three Manchester drivers appeared in the St Helens County Police Court accused of obstructing the highway.
They were not happy about being charged with PC Barber telling the Bench that one driver had said he would fight the case if it cost him £100,000.
That's around £5m in today's money and I very much doubt if he had that much cash he'd be working as a lorry driver!
The haulier with supposedly deep pockets was Harold Donkin, who told the court that the new facility had been a great boon to the heavy motor drivers.
He said there was room for a few vehicles to pull off the road but often there were more vehicles than space available – and so they had to park on the main road.
Sergeant Butler told the court that two of the defendants had left their wagons on the road for 25 minutes whilst they were getting refreshments and he'd had to personally direct the traffic – or there would have been a crash.
The Chairman of the magistrates, Ald. Dixon-Nuttall, said the Bench did not want to prevent the drivers taking tea and enjoying other accommodation but they could not allow the main road to be obstructed.
"That road had a tremendous amount of traffic on it," he added. "It was not very wide, and it must be kept clear."
However, plans were afoot to create more parking spaces for lorries and the three drivers were told to simply pay 4 shillings costs each.
Every year the St Helens Camera Club held an exhibition at the YMCA and this year's began on the 16th.
On the opening day the names of the award-winners were announced for the three available categories of photography.
These were architecture, portrait & figure study and landscape. Additional awards for novices and lantern slides were also available.
And one for colour slides, although I'm not sure whether they used actual colour film stock, which was very much in its infancy, or hand-coloured the image.
Dr John Donnellan of Westfield Street won three awards in the lantern slides section.
Photography certainly seemed to be improving in popularity as a hobby in St Helens.
In the Reporter this week Francis Cholerton of 52 Bridge Street was promoting a "genuine sale of shop soiled and second hand cameras and accessories".
Also on the 16th, a miner called William Measures was committed to take his trial at the assizes by magistrates in Nottingham after being accused of bigamy.
Ellen Measures gave evidence that she had married William on Christmas Eve 1892 at St Nicholas Church in Sutton, St Helens (pictured above).
The couple briefly resided at Haydock but then returned to live in Sutton, near to Watery Lane, where they stayed for 22 years but had frequent quarrels.
In August 1915 her husband joined the army and was later wounded and hospitalised.
After being discharged from the army in January 1919, William left his wife and four children, with Ellen telling the court that she had not seen her husband since then.
In fact Meadows had gone through a form of marriage with Emma Bilsden nine months before his discharge – after first meeting her in a military hospital.
Upon being arrested, Measures had said: "Yes, I have been expecting you. I shall be pleased to get it over." That was something bigamists were often reported as telling the police.
At Nottingham Assizes on June 22nd, the 48-year-old would be sentenced to a month's imprisonment in the second division – meaning he could wear his own clothes and receive more visits than other prisoners.
It was revealed at the hearing that Measures' legitimate wife Ellen was a forewoman at an unnamed St Helens glassworks and that the war had left her bigamist husband paralysed in one arm.
It appears that Emma, the "second wife", would stand by William – telling the Bench that they were living happily together.
Many large motor wagons had trailers and it appears that people were in the habit of hitching a lift on them.
This was revealed on the 20th at the inquest of Ada Dixon of Napier Street.
The 17-year-old worked at Pilkington's Ravenhead glassworks and while returning to work after her dinner break had seen one of Pilks' wagons making its way to the works.
So Ada decided to save her legs and jumped on to the drawbar coupling between the wagon and its trailer.
However, in getting off she was run over by the wheels of the trailer as the wagon picked up speed.
Ada's father claimed at the inquest that Pilks' motor wagons routinely slowed up to allow workers to get on and off – but the driver denied it.
However, he did say that when he drove to places like Liverpool, he regularly had to stop at the corner of streets to get policeman on point duty to force "stray passengers" off the drawbar of his trailer.
The coroner exonerated him from blame.
Next week's stories will include the Sutton strike-breaker that borrowed a revolver in case of bother, two prolific St Helens burglars appear in court, Gentle Annie's window smashing in the Swan Hotel and the new state-of-the-art car without hand-crank.
We begin on the 14th with the death of little Albert Roughsedge in Providence Hospital.
The 18-month-old boy from Tullis Street (off Prescot Road) joined the lengthy list of kids who died after being scalded at home by a pan of boiling water that somehow got upset.
I find it quite shocking how girls and young women were treated a century ago in the St Helens courts.
Attitudes in the 1920s were generally more progressive and caring than they had been fifty years earlier – but many a young female could still be treated shamefully.
I expect many readers went through a rebellious phase during their teenage years and stayed out late at night.
If you did that in the 1920s and were female you could be sent away to a strict girls home for two or three years.
And if you were not perceived as being very bright, the new Mental Deficiency Act could lead to you being stuck away in a mental asylum for many years – if not life.
Consider the case of Annie Myler from Victoria Street in Widnes, which was featured in the St Helens Reporter on the 14th.
She had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with the crime of lodging out – what we would call sleeping rough, although no shuteye was involved in her case.
PC Johnson gave evidence that at 1:30 am he had come across Annie standing near a watchman's fire in Peasley Cross Lane in St Helens.
The young woman told the officer that she had come from Widnes that afternoon and been out in the country with a young man – but was now too tired to walk home.
As she had been found in St Helens in a similar situation in January, the constable decided to lock her up.
Supt. Dunn told the court that the girl had been a "great source of trouble" to her parents through staying out late at night and the police were of the opinion that she should be sent to a home.
Annie's father said he agreed to that course but the girl burst into loud sobs and declared that she did not want to go into a home.
The Reporter wrote: "She was removed from the dock in a hysterical condition. As she was being removed, the prisoner's mother fainted in the court, and was carried out moaning."
Later, Annie was brought back into court to hear the Bench order that she be bound over for two years upon condition she went into a home.
Census records suggest that Annie was not a young child but 19 or 20 years of age – and many other females of a similar age received similar treatment.
And what would have happened if a man of that age had committed the same offence? He would probably have received a small fine.
On the 15th Harry Simpson from Central Street in St Helens appeared in the Police Court charged with being an army deserter.
Three years had elapsed since Simpson had quit the military without a discharge and I expect with each passing day the labourer had thought he'd got away with it.
But the authorities were still hunting down deserters – most of whom had not returned to their units after going on leave.
Whether that was what happened with Harry, I can't say, as his case only received nine lines in the Reporter.
It had the usual outcome for an army deserter of being remanded in custody to await a military escort back to his unit.
The council’s Highway's Committee considered a proposal to widen Elton Head Road on the 15th.
The Borough Engineer said the Sutton Heath Colliery Company had suggested the improvement and offered to donate some of their land to enable the work to be carried out.
The committee gave preliminary approval to the idea subject to further negotiation with the firm.
The acts performing at the Hippodrome Music Hall in St Helens this week included:
Lowdini ("Musical genius, brilliant pianist and violinist"); Dainty Doris Hunter ("Comedienne and mimic"); The Famous Enardo Brothers ("Italian gymnastic grotesques"); May Henderson ("The original dusky comedy queen"); Syd Moorhouse ("Singer – nature's gentleman"); Otorasan ("The little Japanese wonder child who might have been picked out of a toy shop – sings and dances and has command of 7 languages") and Robinson and Macken ("Famous comedy character artistes presenting their 'Irish Cobbler' sketch").
There has been talk in the wake of our leaving the EU that haulage companies need to do more to make the work of long-haul lorry drivers more attractive.
The provision of facilities for such things as sleepovers and refreshments has been mentioned.
A century ago two enterprising men called Woodward were doing just that in Bold for the new breed of motor lorry and van drivers.
The pair had acquired two ex-army huts and erected them near the Griffin Hotel to provide refreshments and sleeping accommodation.
Although police accepted that a much-needed want was being provided on what was then the main road between Liverpool and Manchester, they were also concerned of obstruction on a narrow, busy thoroughfare.
So on the 14th three Manchester drivers appeared in the St Helens County Police Court accused of obstructing the highway.
They were not happy about being charged with PC Barber telling the Bench that one driver had said he would fight the case if it cost him £100,000.
That's around £5m in today's money and I very much doubt if he had that much cash he'd be working as a lorry driver!
The haulier with supposedly deep pockets was Harold Donkin, who told the court that the new facility had been a great boon to the heavy motor drivers.
He said there was room for a few vehicles to pull off the road but often there were more vehicles than space available – and so they had to park on the main road.
Sergeant Butler told the court that two of the defendants had left their wagons on the road for 25 minutes whilst they were getting refreshments and he'd had to personally direct the traffic – or there would have been a crash.
The Chairman of the magistrates, Ald. Dixon-Nuttall, said the Bench did not want to prevent the drivers taking tea and enjoying other accommodation but they could not allow the main road to be obstructed.
"That road had a tremendous amount of traffic on it," he added. "It was not very wide, and it must be kept clear."
However, plans were afoot to create more parking spaces for lorries and the three drivers were told to simply pay 4 shillings costs each.
Every year the St Helens Camera Club held an exhibition at the YMCA and this year's began on the 16th.
On the opening day the names of the award-winners were announced for the three available categories of photography.
These were architecture, portrait & figure study and landscape. Additional awards for novices and lantern slides were also available.
And one for colour slides, although I'm not sure whether they used actual colour film stock, which was very much in its infancy, or hand-coloured the image.
Dr John Donnellan of Westfield Street won three awards in the lantern slides section.
Photography certainly seemed to be improving in popularity as a hobby in St Helens.
In the Reporter this week Francis Cholerton of 52 Bridge Street was promoting a "genuine sale of shop soiled and second hand cameras and accessories".
Ellen Measures gave evidence that she had married William on Christmas Eve 1892 at St Nicholas Church in Sutton, St Helens (pictured above).
The couple briefly resided at Haydock but then returned to live in Sutton, near to Watery Lane, where they stayed for 22 years but had frequent quarrels.
In August 1915 her husband joined the army and was later wounded and hospitalised.
After being discharged from the army in January 1919, William left his wife and four children, with Ellen telling the court that she had not seen her husband since then.
In fact Meadows had gone through a form of marriage with Emma Bilsden nine months before his discharge – after first meeting her in a military hospital.
Upon being arrested, Measures had said: "Yes, I have been expecting you. I shall be pleased to get it over." That was something bigamists were often reported as telling the police.
At Nottingham Assizes on June 22nd, the 48-year-old would be sentenced to a month's imprisonment in the second division – meaning he could wear his own clothes and receive more visits than other prisoners.
It was revealed at the hearing that Measures' legitimate wife Ellen was a forewoman at an unnamed St Helens glassworks and that the war had left her bigamist husband paralysed in one arm.
It appears that Emma, the "second wife", would stand by William – telling the Bench that they were living happily together.
Many large motor wagons had trailers and it appears that people were in the habit of hitching a lift on them.
This was revealed on the 20th at the inquest of Ada Dixon of Napier Street.
The 17-year-old worked at Pilkington's Ravenhead glassworks and while returning to work after her dinner break had seen one of Pilks' wagons making its way to the works.
So Ada decided to save her legs and jumped on to the drawbar coupling between the wagon and its trailer.
However, in getting off she was run over by the wheels of the trailer as the wagon picked up speed.
Ada's father claimed at the inquest that Pilks' motor wagons routinely slowed up to allow workers to get on and off – but the driver denied it.
However, he did say that when he drove to places like Liverpool, he regularly had to stop at the corner of streets to get policeman on point duty to force "stray passengers" off the drawbar of his trailer.
The coroner exonerated him from blame.
Next week's stories will include the Sutton strike-breaker that borrowed a revolver in case of bother, two prolific St Helens burglars appear in court, Gentle Annie's window smashing in the Swan Hotel and the new state-of-the-art car without hand-crank.