IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th JULY 1920)
This week's stories include the biggest fight in Rainford for many years, the woman injured through stacking heavy shells in Sutton, the charabanc boss who would not quit his Boundary Road home and the Jewish marine store owner in Parr.
This is how the St Helens Reporter began its account of a court hearing on the 13th: "A rough-and-tumble between half a dozen lusty young colliers belonging to the village and a party who had alighted from a charabanc disturbed the evening peace of Rainford, threw the place into an uproar, and caused a hullabaloo of excitement which, whilst it lasted, defied the efforts of the police to quell the disturbance."
A dispute inside the Derby Arms (pictured above) between members of the charabanc party and local miners led to what the Reporter described as the "biggest fight at Rainford for a long time" taking place outside the Church Road pub. As a result William Green, Stanley Huyton, Albert Smith, Thomas Gaskell, Frederick Frodsham and Thomas Penketh were all charged with breach of peace. They were all local men and known to PC Foster who was the sole bobby on the scene dealing with the brawl.
He appears to have been overwhelmed by events as the 30-member charabanc party was allowed to leave Rainford without any of their names or the vehicle's registration number being taken. The miners said the dispute had begun when one of the party attempted to "ring the changes" on a barmaid – claiming that a ten shilling note that he had given her had been a pound. The constable said all the local men had been sober and upon the magistrates hearing of the defendants' good record, decided to dismiss the case, adding that both sides were probably equally to blame.
A verdict of suicide was returned at the inquest on Florence Oakes on the 13th. The body of the 37-year-old had been found in the canal near Double Locks Cottage where she lived. Florence left a letter for her mother, saying: "I have to go away from the old home. I am obliged to go."
Two drivers of charabancs from St Helens were among five men fined £10 by Frodsham magistrates on the 14th. Samuel French from Boundary Road and Arthur Prescot from Exeter Street were handed the maximum penalty for speeding at between 17 and 20 mph. With speed guns not yet available, it appears that Cheshire Police measured the time it took for the men's vehicles to travel exactly four miles on the Chester road and from that figure they calculated their average speed.
Charabancs were making the news in all sorts of ways and on the 14th County Carriers brought an action in St Helens County Court against their former Managing Director. Walter Marshall had been the boss of the Boundary Road business until last December when he quit to start his own charabanc firm called Marshalls Garages. This was based in Hardshaw Street and their telephone number, incidentally, was simply 73.
As part of his employment contract with County Carriers, Marshall had been given a house in Boundary Road to live in rent-free. However the severe housing crisis in St Helens meant that he had experienced great difficulty in finding somewhere else to live. The company, meanwhile, had hired a foreman from Coventry who had brought his family to St Helens and County Carriers wanted to house them in Marshall's home.
Recently Walter Marshall had been able to buy a house of his own in Corporation Street but could not move in because of a sitting tenant. He in turn had been unable to find another house to live in and that case would be before the courts soon. Chains like this were becoming common and would not be broken until the many plans for the building of new homes in St Helens came to fruition.
A number of these schemes were presently being stymied by the high cost of house building in the town. Homes that before the war could be built for a few hundred pounds were now costing £1,000. Walter Marshall was believed to have a second family living with him in the company's house and the judge at the County Court hearing gave him (and them) a month to get out.
'Inspection Bond 1,201' was the official name of the old Sutton Glassworks site in Lancots Lane, which during the war was a munitions plant and more commonly known as Sutton Bond (pictured above). In Charles Forman's book 'Industrial Town' a female munitions worker described how she'd organised a trade union at Sutton Bond as a consequence of the dire working conditions. These included women being forced to work outside in the rain and having to stack heavy 24" steel shells.
In St Helens County Court on the 14th Marie Roberts from Sutton claimed compensation from the Ministry of Munitions for injuries received while working at the plant. After the armistice signing she had been given a job unloading shell castings from railway wagons. Normally Marie was told to slide them out of the wagons but on one particular day at Sutton Bond she had had to lift them out herself. The shell castings each weighed one cwt and after lifting thirty of them, Marie collapsed.
She was ill for a few weeks and then returned to work but soon had to give up her job. Marie had received some compensation payments from the Ministry of Munitions but these had stopped in February. The questions for the court to consider were whether the 22-year-old was still incapacitated and if so to what extent. Also whether she was capable of undertaking any light work. It was clear that Marie was still unwell and during the court hearing she collapsed and had to be carried out.
Dr. Donald Campbell – of Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road – gave evidence that Marie was suffering from progressive neurasthenia or chronic fatigue syndrome and was unfit for any work requiring physical effort. Compensation a century ago was usually made in the form of weekly payments and the judge made an award of 6s 3d.
Another new charabanc provider was advertising in the Reporter on the 16th. The Thatto Heath Motor Carrying Co. Ltd. of Hayes Street was spelling their open-top motor coaches "chars-a-banc" and had a 24 and a 28-seater vehicle available.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day a fight between two brothers in Thatto Heath was described. A constable told of visiting the house of Peter and George Travis in Cairne Street and finding the pair "fighting furiously". Smashed ornaments were strewn across the floor and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the officer managed to separate them. The Travis brothers were both charged with committing a breach of the peace and they were bound over to be of good behaviour for six months.
St Helens' schools broke up for their summer holidays on the 16th. The children did not have quite as long a break as they do today and would be back at their desks on Monday August 16th.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre from the 19th included: The Dormondes ("Trick cyclists scientific nonsense"); Coquelli ("The man who tickles the world"); El Ray ("The novelty and singing ventriloquist"); The Cornells ("The lady and her Dutch boy present their balancing, tumbling, singing pot-pourri"); Gloriana ("The lady exponent of a wonderful concertina"); Phil Kauffman ("The white man who works in black") and the Welcome Return Visit of Frank Kass ("The favourite versatile comedian and vocalist").
If someone making the news was Jewish, that fact was often made clear in the papers – despite it almost always being irrelevant. The Liverpool Echo reported on the 19th how a "Jewish ex-soldier" called Ellis Dribbon had been charged in St Helens Police Court with carrying on a marine store without a licence. Marine shops offered all kinds of odds and ends that were usually sea-related but they sold other items as well.
Mr Dribbon had hired a yard at the rear of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers Club in Park Street in Parr and then opened a marine store. He applied for a broker's licence to the Council but it was refused. Despite this Dribbon had continued trading and he received a fine of £5.
Rainford Council met on the 19th and again discussed "the charabanc nuisance", as the Reporter called it. With Rainford Bypass yet to be built, the large, open-top motor coaches journeying to Southport or Blackpool had to travel through the centre of the village and Cllr. Whalley said the speeds of charabancs on the previous day had been quicker than ever. "It was shameful the way they went through", he added.
However the councillors appeared more concerned with road damage than the safety aspect. Cllr. Allen said the roads were being "pulled up from one end of the village to the other" and Cllr. Hesketh was worried about the extra cost of repairs. It was remarked that the police should be asked to "enact the role of guardian angels" to the much-used streets of Rainford.
Next week's stories will include the woman who said she cut a man's face in the Nelson because he'd tried to molest her, the unveiling of a war memorial at Clock Face Colliery, the comical ice cream court case, the Thatto Heath man who conned money out of landlords and the fourth St Helens man to be awarded a knighthood.
This is how the St Helens Reporter began its account of a court hearing on the 13th: "A rough-and-tumble between half a dozen lusty young colliers belonging to the village and a party who had alighted from a charabanc disturbed the evening peace of Rainford, threw the place into an uproar, and caused a hullabaloo of excitement which, whilst it lasted, defied the efforts of the police to quell the disturbance."
He appears to have been overwhelmed by events as the 30-member charabanc party was allowed to leave Rainford without any of their names or the vehicle's registration number being taken. The miners said the dispute had begun when one of the party attempted to "ring the changes" on a barmaid – claiming that a ten shilling note that he had given her had been a pound. The constable said all the local men had been sober and upon the magistrates hearing of the defendants' good record, decided to dismiss the case, adding that both sides were probably equally to blame.
A verdict of suicide was returned at the inquest on Florence Oakes on the 13th. The body of the 37-year-old had been found in the canal near Double Locks Cottage where she lived. Florence left a letter for her mother, saying: "I have to go away from the old home. I am obliged to go."
Two drivers of charabancs from St Helens were among five men fined £10 by Frodsham magistrates on the 14th. Samuel French from Boundary Road and Arthur Prescot from Exeter Street were handed the maximum penalty for speeding at between 17 and 20 mph. With speed guns not yet available, it appears that Cheshire Police measured the time it took for the men's vehicles to travel exactly four miles on the Chester road and from that figure they calculated their average speed.
Charabancs were making the news in all sorts of ways and on the 14th County Carriers brought an action in St Helens County Court against their former Managing Director. Walter Marshall had been the boss of the Boundary Road business until last December when he quit to start his own charabanc firm called Marshalls Garages. This was based in Hardshaw Street and their telephone number, incidentally, was simply 73.
As part of his employment contract with County Carriers, Marshall had been given a house in Boundary Road to live in rent-free. However the severe housing crisis in St Helens meant that he had experienced great difficulty in finding somewhere else to live. The company, meanwhile, had hired a foreman from Coventry who had brought his family to St Helens and County Carriers wanted to house them in Marshall's home.
Recently Walter Marshall had been able to buy a house of his own in Corporation Street but could not move in because of a sitting tenant. He in turn had been unable to find another house to live in and that case would be before the courts soon. Chains like this were becoming common and would not be broken until the many plans for the building of new homes in St Helens came to fruition.
A number of these schemes were presently being stymied by the high cost of house building in the town. Homes that before the war could be built for a few hundred pounds were now costing £1,000. Walter Marshall was believed to have a second family living with him in the company's house and the judge at the County Court hearing gave him (and them) a month to get out.
In St Helens County Court on the 14th Marie Roberts from Sutton claimed compensation from the Ministry of Munitions for injuries received while working at the plant. After the armistice signing she had been given a job unloading shell castings from railway wagons. Normally Marie was told to slide them out of the wagons but on one particular day at Sutton Bond she had had to lift them out herself. The shell castings each weighed one cwt and after lifting thirty of them, Marie collapsed.
She was ill for a few weeks and then returned to work but soon had to give up her job. Marie had received some compensation payments from the Ministry of Munitions but these had stopped in February. The questions for the court to consider were whether the 22-year-old was still incapacitated and if so to what extent. Also whether she was capable of undertaking any light work. It was clear that Marie was still unwell and during the court hearing she collapsed and had to be carried out.
Dr. Donald Campbell – of Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road – gave evidence that Marie was suffering from progressive neurasthenia or chronic fatigue syndrome and was unfit for any work requiring physical effort. Compensation a century ago was usually made in the form of weekly payments and the judge made an award of 6s 3d.
Another new charabanc provider was advertising in the Reporter on the 16th. The Thatto Heath Motor Carrying Co. Ltd. of Hayes Street was spelling their open-top motor coaches "chars-a-banc" and had a 24 and a 28-seater vehicle available.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day a fight between two brothers in Thatto Heath was described. A constable told of visiting the house of Peter and George Travis in Cairne Street and finding the pair "fighting furiously". Smashed ornaments were strewn across the floor and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the officer managed to separate them. The Travis brothers were both charged with committing a breach of the peace and they were bound over to be of good behaviour for six months.
St Helens' schools broke up for their summer holidays on the 16th. The children did not have quite as long a break as they do today and would be back at their desks on Monday August 16th.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre from the 19th included: The Dormondes ("Trick cyclists scientific nonsense"); Coquelli ("The man who tickles the world"); El Ray ("The novelty and singing ventriloquist"); The Cornells ("The lady and her Dutch boy present their balancing, tumbling, singing pot-pourri"); Gloriana ("The lady exponent of a wonderful concertina"); Phil Kauffman ("The white man who works in black") and the Welcome Return Visit of Frank Kass ("The favourite versatile comedian and vocalist").
If someone making the news was Jewish, that fact was often made clear in the papers – despite it almost always being irrelevant. The Liverpool Echo reported on the 19th how a "Jewish ex-soldier" called Ellis Dribbon had been charged in St Helens Police Court with carrying on a marine store without a licence. Marine shops offered all kinds of odds and ends that were usually sea-related but they sold other items as well.
Mr Dribbon had hired a yard at the rear of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers Club in Park Street in Parr and then opened a marine store. He applied for a broker's licence to the Council but it was refused. Despite this Dribbon had continued trading and he received a fine of £5.
Rainford Council met on the 19th and again discussed "the charabanc nuisance", as the Reporter called it. With Rainford Bypass yet to be built, the large, open-top motor coaches journeying to Southport or Blackpool had to travel through the centre of the village and Cllr. Whalley said the speeds of charabancs on the previous day had been quicker than ever. "It was shameful the way they went through", he added.
However the councillors appeared more concerned with road damage than the safety aspect. Cllr. Allen said the roads were being "pulled up from one end of the village to the other" and Cllr. Hesketh was worried about the extra cost of repairs. It was remarked that the police should be asked to "enact the role of guardian angels" to the much-used streets of Rainford.
Next week's stories will include the woman who said she cut a man's face in the Nelson because he'd tried to molest her, the unveiling of a war memorial at Clock Face Colliery, the comical ice cream court case, the Thatto Heath man who conned money out of landlords and the fourth St Helens man to be awarded a knighthood.
This week's stories include the biggest fight in Rainford for many years, the woman injured through stacking heavy shells in Sutton, the charabanc boss who would not quit his Boundary Road home and the Jewish marine store owner in Parr.
This is how the St Helens Reporter began its account of a court hearing on the 13th:
"A rough-and-tumble between half a dozen lusty young colliers belonging to the village and a party who had alighted from a charabanc disturbed the evening peace of Rainford, threw the place into an uproar, and caused a hullabaloo of excitement which, whilst it lasted, defied the efforts of the police to quell the disturbance."
A dispute inside the Derby Arms (pictured above) between members of the charabanc party and local miners led to what the Reporter described as the "biggest fight at Rainford for a long time" taking place outside the Church Road pub.
As a result William Green, Stanley Huyton, Albert Smith, Thomas Gaskell, Frederick Frodsham and Thomas Penketh were all charged with breach of peace.
They were all local men and known to PC Foster who was the sole bobby on the scene dealing with the brawl.
He appears to have been overwhelmed by events as the 30-member charabanc party was allowed to leave Rainford without any of their names or the vehicle's registration number being taken.
The miners said the dispute had begun when one of the party attempted to "ring the changes" on a barmaid – claiming that a ten shilling note that he had given her had been a pound.
The constable said all the local men had been sober and upon the magistrates hearing of the defendants' good record, decided to dismiss the case, adding that both sides were probably equally to blame.
A verdict of suicide was returned at the inquest on Florence Oakes on the 13th.
The body of the 37-year-old had been found in the canal near Double Locks Cottage where she lived.
Florence left a letter for her mother, saying: "I have to go away from the old home. I am obliged to go."
Two drivers of charabancs from St Helens were among five men fined £10 by Frodsham magistrates on the 14th.
Samuel French from Boundary Road and Arthur Prescot from Exeter Street were handed the maximum penalty for speeding at between 17 and 20 mph.
With speed guns not yet available, it appears that Cheshire Police measured the time it took for the men's vehicles to travel exactly four miles on the Chester road and from that figure they calculated their average speed.
Charabancs were making the news in all sorts of ways and on the 14th County Carriers brought an action in St Helens County Court against their former Managing Director.
Walter Marshall had been the boss of the Boundary Road business until last December when he quit to start his own charabanc firm called Marshalls Garages.
This was based in Hardshaw Street and their telephone number, incidentally, was simply 73.
As part of his employment contract with County Carriers, Marshall had been given a house in Boundary Road to live in rent-free.
However the severe housing crisis in St Helens meant that he had experienced great difficulty in finding somewhere else to live.
The company, meanwhile, had hired a foreman from Coventry who had brought his family to St Helens and County Carriers wanted to house them in Marshall's home.
Recently Walter Marshall had been able to buy a house of his own in Corporation Street but could not move in because of a sitting tenant.
He in turn had been unable to find another house to live in and that case would be before the courts soon.
Chains like this were becoming common and would not be broken until the many plans for the building of new homes in St Helens came to fruition.
A number of these schemes were presently being stymied by the high cost of house building in the town.
Homes that before the war could be built for a few hundred pounds were now costing £1,000.
Walter Marshall was believed to have a second family living with him in the company's house and the judge at the County Court hearing gave him (and them) a month to get out.
'Inspection Bond 1,201' was the official name of the old Sutton Glassworks site in Lancots Lane, which during the war was a munitions plant and more commonly known as Sutton Bond (pictured above).
In Charles Forman's book 'Industrial Town' a female munitions worker described how she'd organised a trade union at Sutton Bond as a consequence of the dire working conditions.
These included women being forced to work outside in the rain and having to stack heavy 24" steel shells.
In St Helens County Court on the 14th Marie Roberts from Sutton claimed compensation from the Ministry of Munitions for injuries received while working at the plant.
After the armistice signing she had been given a job unloading shell castings from railway wagons.
Normally Marie was told to slide them out of the wagons but on one particular day at Sutton Bond she had had to lift them out herself.
The shell castings each weighed one cwt and after lifting thirty of them, Marie collapsed.
She was ill for a few weeks and then returned to work but soon had to give up her job.
Marie had received some compensation payments from the Ministry of Munitions but these had stopped in February.
The questions for the court to consider were whether the 22-year-old was still incapacitated and if so to what extent.
Also whether she was capable of undertaking any light work. It was clear that Marie was still unwell and during the court hearing she collapsed and had to be carried out.
Dr. Donald Campbell – of Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road – gave evidence that Marie was suffering from progressive neurasthenia or chronic fatigue syndrome and was unfit for any work requiring physical effort.
Compensation a century ago was usually made in the form of weekly payments and the judge made an award of 6s 3d.
Another new charabanc provider was advertising in the Reporter on the 16th.
The Thatto Heath Motor Carrying Co. Ltd. of Hayes Street was spelling their open-top motor coaches "chars-a-banc" and had a 24 and a 28-seater vehicle available.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day a fight between two brothers in Thatto Heath was described.
A constable told of visiting the house of Peter and George Travis in Cairne Street and finding the pair "fighting furiously".
Smashed ornaments were strewn across the floor and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the officer managed to separate them.
The Travis brothers were both charged with committing a breach of the peace and they were bound over to be of good behaviour for six months.
St Helens' schools broke up for their summer holidays on the 16th.
The children did not have quite as long a break as they do today and would be back at their desks on Monday August 16th.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre from the 19th included:
The Dormondes ("Trick cyclists scientific nonsense"); Coquelli ("The man who tickles the world"); El Ray ("The novelty and singing ventriloquist"); The Cornells ("The lady and her Dutch boy present their balancing, tumbling, singing pot-pourri"); Gloriana ("The lady exponent of a wonderful concertina"); Phil Kauffman ("The white man who works in black") and Frank Kass ("The favourite versatile comedian and vocalist").
If someone making the news was Jewish, that fact was often made clear in the papers – despite it almost always being irrelevant.
The Liverpool Echo reported on the 19th how a "Jewish ex-soldier" called Ellis Dribbon had been charged in St Helens Police Court with carrying on a marine store without a licence.
Marine shops offered all kinds of odds and ends that were usually sea-related but they sold other items as well.
Mr Dribbon had hired a yard at the rear of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers Club in Park Street in Parr and then opened a marine store.
He applied for a broker's licence to the Council but it was refused. Despite this Dribbon had continued trading and he received a fine of £5.
Rainford Council met on the 19th and again discussed "the charabanc nuisance", as the Reporter called it.
With Rainford Bypass yet to be built, the large, open-top motor coaches journeying to Southport or Blackpool had to travel through the centre of the village and Cllr. Whalley said the speeds of charabancs on the previous day had been quicker than ever.
"It was shameful the way they went through", he added.
However the councillors appeared more concerned with road damage than the safety aspect.
Cllr. Allen said the roads were being "pulled up from one end of the village to the other" and Cllr. Hesketh was worried about the extra cost of repairs.
It was remarked that the police should be asked to "enact the role of guardian angels" to the much-used streets of Rainford.
Next week's stories will include the woman who said she cut a man's face in the Nelson because he'd tried to molest her, the unveiling of a war memorial at Clock Face Colliery, the comical ice cream court case, the Thatto Heath man who conned money out of landlords and the fourth St Helens man to be awarded a knighthood.
This is how the St Helens Reporter began its account of a court hearing on the 13th:
"A rough-and-tumble between half a dozen lusty young colliers belonging to the village and a party who had alighted from a charabanc disturbed the evening peace of Rainford, threw the place into an uproar, and caused a hullabaloo of excitement which, whilst it lasted, defied the efforts of the police to quell the disturbance."
As a result William Green, Stanley Huyton, Albert Smith, Thomas Gaskell, Frederick Frodsham and Thomas Penketh were all charged with breach of peace.
They were all local men and known to PC Foster who was the sole bobby on the scene dealing with the brawl.
He appears to have been overwhelmed by events as the 30-member charabanc party was allowed to leave Rainford without any of their names or the vehicle's registration number being taken.
The miners said the dispute had begun when one of the party attempted to "ring the changes" on a barmaid – claiming that a ten shilling note that he had given her had been a pound.
The constable said all the local men had been sober and upon the magistrates hearing of the defendants' good record, decided to dismiss the case, adding that both sides were probably equally to blame.
A verdict of suicide was returned at the inquest on Florence Oakes on the 13th.
The body of the 37-year-old had been found in the canal near Double Locks Cottage where she lived.
Florence left a letter for her mother, saying: "I have to go away from the old home. I am obliged to go."
Two drivers of charabancs from St Helens were among five men fined £10 by Frodsham magistrates on the 14th.
Samuel French from Boundary Road and Arthur Prescot from Exeter Street were handed the maximum penalty for speeding at between 17 and 20 mph.
With speed guns not yet available, it appears that Cheshire Police measured the time it took for the men's vehicles to travel exactly four miles on the Chester road and from that figure they calculated their average speed.
Charabancs were making the news in all sorts of ways and on the 14th County Carriers brought an action in St Helens County Court against their former Managing Director.
Walter Marshall had been the boss of the Boundary Road business until last December when he quit to start his own charabanc firm called Marshalls Garages.
This was based in Hardshaw Street and their telephone number, incidentally, was simply 73.
As part of his employment contract with County Carriers, Marshall had been given a house in Boundary Road to live in rent-free.
However the severe housing crisis in St Helens meant that he had experienced great difficulty in finding somewhere else to live.
The company, meanwhile, had hired a foreman from Coventry who had brought his family to St Helens and County Carriers wanted to house them in Marshall's home.
Recently Walter Marshall had been able to buy a house of his own in Corporation Street but could not move in because of a sitting tenant.
He in turn had been unable to find another house to live in and that case would be before the courts soon.
Chains like this were becoming common and would not be broken until the many plans for the building of new homes in St Helens came to fruition.
A number of these schemes were presently being stymied by the high cost of house building in the town.
Homes that before the war could be built for a few hundred pounds were now costing £1,000.
Walter Marshall was believed to have a second family living with him in the company's house and the judge at the County Court hearing gave him (and them) a month to get out.
In Charles Forman's book 'Industrial Town' a female munitions worker described how she'd organised a trade union at Sutton Bond as a consequence of the dire working conditions.
These included women being forced to work outside in the rain and having to stack heavy 24" steel shells.
In St Helens County Court on the 14th Marie Roberts from Sutton claimed compensation from the Ministry of Munitions for injuries received while working at the plant.
After the armistice signing she had been given a job unloading shell castings from railway wagons.
Normally Marie was told to slide them out of the wagons but on one particular day at Sutton Bond she had had to lift them out herself.
The shell castings each weighed one cwt and after lifting thirty of them, Marie collapsed.
She was ill for a few weeks and then returned to work but soon had to give up her job.
Marie had received some compensation payments from the Ministry of Munitions but these had stopped in February.
The questions for the court to consider were whether the 22-year-old was still incapacitated and if so to what extent.
Also whether she was capable of undertaking any light work. It was clear that Marie was still unwell and during the court hearing she collapsed and had to be carried out.
Dr. Donald Campbell – of Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road – gave evidence that Marie was suffering from progressive neurasthenia or chronic fatigue syndrome and was unfit for any work requiring physical effort.
Compensation a century ago was usually made in the form of weekly payments and the judge made an award of 6s 3d.
Another new charabanc provider was advertising in the Reporter on the 16th.
The Thatto Heath Motor Carrying Co. Ltd. of Hayes Street was spelling their open-top motor coaches "chars-a-banc" and had a 24 and a 28-seater vehicle available.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day a fight between two brothers in Thatto Heath was described.
A constable told of visiting the house of Peter and George Travis in Cairne Street and finding the pair "fighting furiously".
Smashed ornaments were strewn across the floor and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the officer managed to separate them.
The Travis brothers were both charged with committing a breach of the peace and they were bound over to be of good behaviour for six months.
St Helens' schools broke up for their summer holidays on the 16th.
The children did not have quite as long a break as they do today and would be back at their desks on Monday August 16th.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre from the 19th included:
The Dormondes ("Trick cyclists scientific nonsense"); Coquelli ("The man who tickles the world"); El Ray ("The novelty and singing ventriloquist"); The Cornells ("The lady and her Dutch boy present their balancing, tumbling, singing pot-pourri"); Gloriana ("The lady exponent of a wonderful concertina"); Phil Kauffman ("The white man who works in black") and Frank Kass ("The favourite versatile comedian and vocalist").
If someone making the news was Jewish, that fact was often made clear in the papers – despite it almost always being irrelevant.
The Liverpool Echo reported on the 19th how a "Jewish ex-soldier" called Ellis Dribbon had been charged in St Helens Police Court with carrying on a marine store without a licence.
Marine shops offered all kinds of odds and ends that were usually sea-related but they sold other items as well.
Mr Dribbon had hired a yard at the rear of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers Club in Park Street in Parr and then opened a marine store.
He applied for a broker's licence to the Council but it was refused. Despite this Dribbon had continued trading and he received a fine of £5.
Rainford Council met on the 19th and again discussed "the charabanc nuisance", as the Reporter called it.
With Rainford Bypass yet to be built, the large, open-top motor coaches journeying to Southport or Blackpool had to travel through the centre of the village and Cllr. Whalley said the speeds of charabancs on the previous day had been quicker than ever.
"It was shameful the way they went through", he added.
However the councillors appeared more concerned with road damage than the safety aspect.
Cllr. Allen said the roads were being "pulled up from one end of the village to the other" and Cllr. Hesketh was worried about the extra cost of repairs.
It was remarked that the police should be asked to "enact the role of guardian angels" to the much-used streets of Rainford.
Next week's stories will include the woman who said she cut a man's face in the Nelson because he'd tried to molest her, the unveiling of a war memorial at Clock Face Colliery, the comical ice cream court case, the Thatto Heath man who conned money out of landlords and the fourth St Helens man to be awarded a knighthood.