IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th May 1919)
This week's stories include the lions at the Lowe House Carnival, the Whiston boys who played with fire, women's football in St Helens, the soldier that wore a filthy uniform in Church Street, St Helens Corporation's expensive use of horses and the Cooper Street parent who complained about the prosecution of boys.
Since the 1890s the railway authorities had been trying to stop miners at Bold Colliery (pictured above) crossing the line when walking to work. A bridge had been provided for them but it had nearly fifty steps and if miners were late for their shift they'd ignore the bridge and dash across the rails. This was a dangerous practice as it was a very busy line.
So on May 13th John Carrington, Harry Johnson, Thomas Houghton, Joseph Pepper and Edward Burrows – all from Sutton – were charged with trespassing on the London & North Western Railway. The company stressed that the prosecution in the St Helens County Police Court had been brought purely through concern for the men's safety.
Tom Houghton didn't appear as he was in hospital with a crushed foot having suffered the injury at the pit. He was only fined 5 shillings with the other men fined 10 shillings each.
The St Helens Reporter's Tuesday edition on the 13th described a recent Prescot Juvenile Court hearing in which three boys had been charged with wilful damage. David Heap (14), Harold Taylor (13) and Isaac Yates (11) were accused of removing bricks from a wall belonging to Thomas Ward of Chorley Farm in Whiston.
Mr Ward gave evidence that he had seen the boys "playing with fire", having removed bricks from his wall in order to create a fireplace. Superintendent Garvey told the magistrates that the defendants were "bad lads, and practically uncontrolled, and encouraged in their wicked ways by their relatives." The three boys were each fined ten shillings and as the farmer had estimated the damage caused to his wall at 10 bob, they were also ordered to pay 3/4 each as restitution.
This week workers at Cannington Shaw and Nuttalls began their threatened strike after their bosses had failed to respond to their pay demand. The employees at the two St Helens' bottlemakers were seeking a 25% increase in their rates of pay to compensate for the recently introduced 40-hour working week that had led to workers receiving reduced wages.
The St Helens Charity Cricket Sports Committee held a meeting for "lady collectors" on the 14th in the Town Hall. The group was holding a flag and flower day at the end of the month and were appealing for female volunteers. Why this was considered a job for women only I cannot say.
The committee had a long list of beneficiaries from their event, including St Helens Hospital, Providence Hospital, the Nurses Home, Fresh Air Fund, Police Fund for Destitute Children, St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and the Crippled Children's Outing Fund.
Motor transport was becoming increasingly popular now that the wartime petrol and travelling restrictions had been removed. Every week in the Reporter there were advertisements from car dealers and those offering charabanc trips.
This week "motor engineer and dealer" D. Caldwell at 44 Duke Street was promising "early delivery of any make of car or commercial wagon". County Carriers of Boundary Road was advertising an "open char-a-banc excursion" to Ingleton, via Kirkby Lonsdale. The fare was 30 shillings, including luncheon.
However horses were still the main source of transport and St Helens Council had its own Horses Committee, which met in the Town Hall on the 14th. It was an expensive business dealing with nags with the estimated average expenditure per month for the current financial year being £1,381 – that's about £75,000 in today's money or £9m per year. The Chairman of the committee reported that in April a visit had been made to Crewe to buy four more horses, which were now working in St Helens.
Harry Goodban of no fixed abode appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 14th charged with wearing His Majesty's uniform without having any right to do so. Sgt. Gleave had come across the man in Church Street shortly after midnight and was given a false story of where he was staying.
Goodban had been demobilised from the army and given the usual allowance to buy civilian clothes. However he had spent the cash on other things and was still wearing his uniform. This was now in a filthy condition and the Chairman of the Bench said to him: "Don't knock about in the King's uniform in that disreputable state. You have no right to use the uniform when demobilised."
For that offence he was fined ten shillings or 14 days in prison. Goodban had also been charged with wandering abroad without visible means of subsistence and for that was jailed for 28 days.
On the 15th in St Helens Police Court the father of Charles and Arthur Webb from Cooper Street protested against the prosecution of boys for minor offences. The pair along with Thomas Highcock from Morley Street and James Carbury from Stanhope Street had been summoned for trespassing on the railway.
The lads were all aged around thirteen and had been seen on the line at Washway Lane throwing stones at telegraph wires. The Chief Constable said young persons trespassing on the line in St Helens was a problem. They were exposing themselves to danger and causing damage.
However the father of the Webb brothers complained about lads so young being hauled before the magistrates. He said he deplored reading in the papers week after week of so many boys being summoned for one thing or another, with the railway company only ever putting up a railing after an accident. All four lads were fined ten shillings.
As if to underline Mr Webb's point seven boys were also in court charged with gaming with coins. They were mainly aged thirteen from the Springfield Road / Sunbury Street area of Thatto Heath, although a couple came from Haydock.
A twenty-year-old man from Springfield Road called Peter Wareing had also been prosecuted, having been caught playing pitch and toss with the boys. He was an out of work labourer who was receiving twenty shillings a week unemployment pay, although that would usually end after three months.
The Chief Constable accused Wareing of trying to double his money by winning cash from the boys. If that was the case and the lads were his victims why were they also being prosecuted? The youngsters were each fined twenty shillings and Wareing was fined £2, or, if in default of payment, 28 days in prison.
Taking down walls appears to have been a popular, if illegal, pastime for lads with another case before the Bench. On this occasion William Smith and Henry Greener were summoned to court accusing of causing £1 damage to a wall in Blackbrook Crescent.
PC Reynolds told the magistrates that the pair from Langtree Street had, over a 10-day period, pulled down nearly fifty yards of wall. The owner said many pounds worth of damage had been done and although he did not want to be vindictive, a stop needed putting to this "wanton damage". The two 15-year-olds were each fined £1 and ordered to contribute ten shillings towards the damage that they had caused.
The Friday edition of the St Helens Reporter on the 16th contained more details of the plans to build a new Bridge Street Picturedrome. The cinema would be constructed adjacent to the existing building and seat 1,100 persons on a sloping floor and be more luxurious than the present rather basic picture house. Shops would also be built as part of the development with most facing into Exchange Street and an architect from Hardshaw Street had been commissioned to draw up plans.
Fundraising for the new Lowe House Church had been put on hold during the war but had now been revived through events such as the Lowe House Carnival that began last week. This is what the Reporter had to say about the carnival's fair:
"The fair has proved so popular that the management have made arrangements to stay on until Monday, the 19th inst. Amongst recent arrivals has been Manders' American menagerie, where real lions ramp and rage, and where a real man goes into their cages and makes them go through most terrifying evolutions. Mr. Mitchell has won the hearts of the children by extending invitations to several schools in the town to come to the fair on certain afternoons “free, gratis and for nothing”. They came in droves with their teachers, and had the time of their lives." Mitchell was the organiser who may have won the hearts of the children but probably not the hearts of the lions!
During the war there were up to five women's football teams within the St Helens district representing munitions factories. As these closed down, so did most of the teams. However Sutton Bond of Lancots Lane had now joined forces with the Pilkington's team that had recently been renamed St Helens Ladies (pictured above).
The Lancashire Evening Post wrote on the 16th: "The Dick Kerr's team of lady footballers will fulfil a fixture at Springfield Park, Wigan, tomorrow, when they will be opposed by St. Helens. The Mayor of Wigan will start the game prior to which the band of the local Discharged Sailors' and Soldiers' Association will parade to the ground."
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out the result of the match that was played for charity. In two years time the FA would place a ban on such games that would last for fifty years.
And finally on the 19th the former foreman of Sir David Gamble was fined £5 or 28 days in prison for stealing £8 15s 3d. John Moss of Windleshaw Cottages in Hard Lane had been asked to collect the rent from Gamble's tenants but had been accused of keeping some of the money for himself.
Next week's stories will include the Scottish piper that gathered alms in Fenton Street, the disturbed ex-soldier from Merton Bank, criticism of plans for German guns in Rainford, Providence Hospital's 'Rose Day', Frederick's ice cream for a "little chick", two mining inquests and good news for music lovers in St Helens parks.
So on May 13th John Carrington, Harry Johnson, Thomas Houghton, Joseph Pepper and Edward Burrows – all from Sutton – were charged with trespassing on the London & North Western Railway. The company stressed that the prosecution in the St Helens County Police Court had been brought purely through concern for the men's safety.
Tom Houghton didn't appear as he was in hospital with a crushed foot having suffered the injury at the pit. He was only fined 5 shillings with the other men fined 10 shillings each.
The St Helens Reporter's Tuesday edition on the 13th described a recent Prescot Juvenile Court hearing in which three boys had been charged with wilful damage. David Heap (14), Harold Taylor (13) and Isaac Yates (11) were accused of removing bricks from a wall belonging to Thomas Ward of Chorley Farm in Whiston.
Mr Ward gave evidence that he had seen the boys "playing with fire", having removed bricks from his wall in order to create a fireplace. Superintendent Garvey told the magistrates that the defendants were "bad lads, and practically uncontrolled, and encouraged in their wicked ways by their relatives." The three boys were each fined ten shillings and as the farmer had estimated the damage caused to his wall at 10 bob, they were also ordered to pay 3/4 each as restitution.
This week workers at Cannington Shaw and Nuttalls began their threatened strike after their bosses had failed to respond to their pay demand. The employees at the two St Helens' bottlemakers were seeking a 25% increase in their rates of pay to compensate for the recently introduced 40-hour working week that had led to workers receiving reduced wages.
The St Helens Charity Cricket Sports Committee held a meeting for "lady collectors" on the 14th in the Town Hall. The group was holding a flag and flower day at the end of the month and were appealing for female volunteers. Why this was considered a job for women only I cannot say.
The committee had a long list of beneficiaries from their event, including St Helens Hospital, Providence Hospital, the Nurses Home, Fresh Air Fund, Police Fund for Destitute Children, St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and the Crippled Children's Outing Fund.
Motor transport was becoming increasingly popular now that the wartime petrol and travelling restrictions had been removed. Every week in the Reporter there were advertisements from car dealers and those offering charabanc trips.
This week "motor engineer and dealer" D. Caldwell at 44 Duke Street was promising "early delivery of any make of car or commercial wagon". County Carriers of Boundary Road was advertising an "open char-a-banc excursion" to Ingleton, via Kirkby Lonsdale. The fare was 30 shillings, including luncheon.
However horses were still the main source of transport and St Helens Council had its own Horses Committee, which met in the Town Hall on the 14th. It was an expensive business dealing with nags with the estimated average expenditure per month for the current financial year being £1,381 – that's about £75,000 in today's money or £9m per year. The Chairman of the committee reported that in April a visit had been made to Crewe to buy four more horses, which were now working in St Helens.
Harry Goodban of no fixed abode appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 14th charged with wearing His Majesty's uniform without having any right to do so. Sgt. Gleave had come across the man in Church Street shortly after midnight and was given a false story of where he was staying.
Goodban had been demobilised from the army and given the usual allowance to buy civilian clothes. However he had spent the cash on other things and was still wearing his uniform. This was now in a filthy condition and the Chairman of the Bench said to him: "Don't knock about in the King's uniform in that disreputable state. You have no right to use the uniform when demobilised."
For that offence he was fined ten shillings or 14 days in prison. Goodban had also been charged with wandering abroad without visible means of subsistence and for that was jailed for 28 days.
On the 15th in St Helens Police Court the father of Charles and Arthur Webb from Cooper Street protested against the prosecution of boys for minor offences. The pair along with Thomas Highcock from Morley Street and James Carbury from Stanhope Street had been summoned for trespassing on the railway.
The lads were all aged around thirteen and had been seen on the line at Washway Lane throwing stones at telegraph wires. The Chief Constable said young persons trespassing on the line in St Helens was a problem. They were exposing themselves to danger and causing damage.
However the father of the Webb brothers complained about lads so young being hauled before the magistrates. He said he deplored reading in the papers week after week of so many boys being summoned for one thing or another, with the railway company only ever putting up a railing after an accident. All four lads were fined ten shillings.
As if to underline Mr Webb's point seven boys were also in court charged with gaming with coins. They were mainly aged thirteen from the Springfield Road / Sunbury Street area of Thatto Heath, although a couple came from Haydock.
A twenty-year-old man from Springfield Road called Peter Wareing had also been prosecuted, having been caught playing pitch and toss with the boys. He was an out of work labourer who was receiving twenty shillings a week unemployment pay, although that would usually end after three months.
The Chief Constable accused Wareing of trying to double his money by winning cash from the boys. If that was the case and the lads were his victims why were they also being prosecuted? The youngsters were each fined twenty shillings and Wareing was fined £2, or, if in default of payment, 28 days in prison.
Taking down walls appears to have been a popular, if illegal, pastime for lads with another case before the Bench. On this occasion William Smith and Henry Greener were summoned to court accusing of causing £1 damage to a wall in Blackbrook Crescent.
PC Reynolds told the magistrates that the pair from Langtree Street had, over a 10-day period, pulled down nearly fifty yards of wall. The owner said many pounds worth of damage had been done and although he did not want to be vindictive, a stop needed putting to this "wanton damage". The two 15-year-olds were each fined £1 and ordered to contribute ten shillings towards the damage that they had caused.
The Friday edition of the St Helens Reporter on the 16th contained more details of the plans to build a new Bridge Street Picturedrome. The cinema would be constructed adjacent to the existing building and seat 1,100 persons on a sloping floor and be more luxurious than the present rather basic picture house. Shops would also be built as part of the development with most facing into Exchange Street and an architect from Hardshaw Street had been commissioned to draw up plans.
Fundraising for the new Lowe House Church had been put on hold during the war but had now been revived through events such as the Lowe House Carnival that began last week. This is what the Reporter had to say about the carnival's fair:
"The fair has proved so popular that the management have made arrangements to stay on until Monday, the 19th inst. Amongst recent arrivals has been Manders' American menagerie, where real lions ramp and rage, and where a real man goes into their cages and makes them go through most terrifying evolutions. Mr. Mitchell has won the hearts of the children by extending invitations to several schools in the town to come to the fair on certain afternoons “free, gratis and for nothing”. They came in droves with their teachers, and had the time of their lives." Mitchell was the organiser who may have won the hearts of the children but probably not the hearts of the lions!
The Lancashire Evening Post wrote on the 16th: "The Dick Kerr's team of lady footballers will fulfil a fixture at Springfield Park, Wigan, tomorrow, when they will be opposed by St. Helens. The Mayor of Wigan will start the game prior to which the band of the local Discharged Sailors' and Soldiers' Association will parade to the ground."
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out the result of the match that was played for charity. In two years time the FA would place a ban on such games that would last for fifty years.
And finally on the 19th the former foreman of Sir David Gamble was fined £5 or 28 days in prison for stealing £8 15s 3d. John Moss of Windleshaw Cottages in Hard Lane had been asked to collect the rent from Gamble's tenants but had been accused of keeping some of the money for himself.
Next week's stories will include the Scottish piper that gathered alms in Fenton Street, the disturbed ex-soldier from Merton Bank, criticism of plans for German guns in Rainford, Providence Hospital's 'Rose Day', Frederick's ice cream for a "little chick", two mining inquests and good news for music lovers in St Helens parks.