IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13 - 19 NOVEMBER 1923)
This week's many stories include the boy's death in the Kimmicks, the sale of Scholes Hall, the pickpocket commotion at the City Road ground, the unlicensed Park Road treacle sellers, the debate over evening council meetings and the policemen that went undercover at the Gamble Institute to nab a sweets thief.
We begin with a court case in which it was revealed that at a recent rugby league game between St Helens Recs and Oldham at City Road, considerable excitement had also taken place off the pitch. At half-time a commotion had been caused in the stand through claims that a gang of pickpockets were at work. But in fact it had been just one man called James Smith from Leeds who ended up in the dock accused of stealing a purse containing £3 10 shillings.
The victim was Holland Jones, a manager at the St Helens Colliery owned by Pilkingtons. The 44-year-old caused a rumpus after grabbing hold of Smith at the entrance to the stand and accusing him of stealing his money from his hip pocket. But the man swore that he had not taken the purse and the police did not find it on his person.
Although James Smith had a long history of convictions for stealing, he insisted he had been going straight for a year. Smith appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with the theft and also of being a "reputed thief frequenting with intent to commit a felony". In a written statement Smith strenuously denied taking the purse but admitted that at City Road he had been associating with some dodgy characters:
"I am absolutely innocent of the charge of stealing, but I must plead guilty to frequenting with intent. I admit I have been leading a very bad past, but I have been leading a honest life for the last twelve months, which my record will prove. After my discharge from prison I left all my old associates and calling amongst strangers, and was doing well.
"I was staying in Liverpool, and unfortunately for me it was race week last week, and I met some of my old companions and went drinking, and this is the result. I am a married man, and am subject to fits. I assure you I feel my position greatly; so I beg of you to deal as leniently as possible with me, and I will prove faithfully to do my very utmost to guard against all temptation again."
The police subsequently decided to drop the theft charge, seemingly believing that one of the men that Smith had been with had been responsible for the purse snatch. However, he still faced the other charge and on the 13th received a stiff sentence of three months prison with hard labour.
It may seem odd to us that matters of housing came under the remit of the council's Health Committee. But the many badly overcrowded, poorly ventilated and insanitary houses in St Helens had a direct bearing on their residents' health. However, the committee could not consider demolition of the old stock until more homes were built and progress was painfully slow, with builders not thinking it worth their while.
At the Health Committee meeting on the 14th it was stated that permission had been received from the Local Government Board for St Helens Corporation to borrow funds to build twenty more houses at Windlehurst. That had been the first council estate in St Helens which was completed last year. Sanction had also been received for Pilkington's proposed new housing estate in Dunriding Lane. A few dozen houses here and there was welcome but only scratched the surface of the problem, which had become particularly severe in St Helens.
On the 15th the auction of Scholes Hall (pictured above) took place at the Fleece Hotel in St Helens. This was not the same Fleece that many can still remember, as the old Church Street hotel was demolished in 1931 and a new one then built. The auctioneers W. A. Brooke wrote in their sales literature of Scholes Hall: "It has over six centuries of romantic history attaching to it. It may be described as a blue-blooded aristocrat of the “stately homes of England”."
Although mainly dating from 1681, the property in Scholes Lane still contained remnants of its days when it had been a refuge for Catholic priests. The house did not reach its reserved price at the auction but was sold privately soon afterwards to an anonymous buyer for £2,500.
I always find the trouble that St Helens police went in the past to solve minor crimes quite amazing – particularly when compared to today. On the 16th a girl called Octavia Galtry from Watery Lane was charged in St Helens Police Court with stealing a packet of Pontefract cake. The 16-year-old attended the Gamble Institute Technical School for lessons in dressmaking and had been caught by two undercover policemen taking the cake – valued at just 6d – from a raincoat belonging to Margaret Crow.
After complaints of minor thefts from clothing, the officers had kept watch on the cloakroom for several days before spotting the girl rifling through pockets. Octavia insisted it had been her first offence and she was bound over in the sum of £1. Her father and mother were also ordered to pay £1 each as sureties for their daughter's good behaviour and also told to pay 7s 6d costs.
Commenting on the recent Remembrance Sunday in St Helens, the Reporter on the 16th wrote how the service led by Canon Baines, the Vicar of St Helens, had made a deep impression on the occasion. And in the two-minute silence that followed, memories of events from the war had "raced like a high-speed cinema, through the men's minds". The silence was described as "intense, poignant and impressive."
The Reporter also described how the increasingly powerful Labour party had won its battle over the timing of council meetings in St Helens. Traditionally they had taken place at 2pm but in 1919 Labour had called for meetings to be held at 6pm. A compromise was reached and 4pm became the new start time. But Labour was still unhappy. Conservative councillors and aldermen tended to be employers and so had little difficulty in taking time off.
But their Labour counterparts were more likely to be employees. They could not quite so easily leave their work early and as a result talented men and women were not putting themselves forward for office. The Reporter said the subject was again raised at a recent council meeting but Ald. Forster had called for the time to remain as it was: "I hope you will have a little consideration for the older man who could not attend the council meetings at a later hour." Six o’clock did not seem all that late and the Labour argument won through.
Prescot's Open Air Market was also being advertised in the Reporter. Now under new management, the market in Aspinall Street was open on Friday afternoons and sold food, clothing, toys at what was claimed to be rock-bottom prices. "Toys Given Free To Every Customer" was a large headline in Oxleys advert. And they also had "marvellous mystery parcels" available from a penny at their Barrow Street store.
The waste heaps of St Helens were marvellous playgrounds for children but they could prove very dangerous places. On the 20th an inquest was held on Norman Naylor, who had died on the previous day on the chemical waste heaps off Borough Road that were known locally as the "Kimmicks". The 15-year-old from Eldon Street in St Helens had been hacking away at a piece of rock, along with another boy. Suddenly the rock and some debris collapsed on top of Norman and killed him. The usual verdict of misadventure was returned.
The strictness in which St Helens police implemented minor laws was demonstrated in two cases in the Police Court this week. Commercial travellers were regularly booked for leaving their cars unattended on the streets of St Helens. William Towell from Guildford was accused of leaving his vehicle outside a chemist's shop in Ormskirk Street for 25 minutes one afternoon.
In court Mr Towell said he thought it had been quite in order for him to leave his car at that spot and he had not been warned he was obstructing the road. When he said he had been unaware of the town's by-law, the Magistrates Clerk informed him that St Helens did not have one, with the obstruction regulations applying throughout the whole country.
What the Clerk didn't say was that it was St Helens police's strict interpretation of them that appeared different to other forces. After all, the constable – instead of waiting outside for 20-odd minutes – could have gone into the chemist's shop and asked the man to shift his car.
It was quite a common thing for sales people and entertainers to say St Helens was the only place they'd been to where they'd been accused of law breaking in some minor way. Arthur Gibbs from Fazackerley had been selling treacle and syrup in St Helens from what was described as a tank on a motor car. The police nabbed him in Park Road for not having a hawkers' permit.
Mr Gibbs said his manager had been in touch with the government's Food Ministry, who had told him that no licence to sell on the street was needed. In court the manager said they had been all over Lancashire selling the treacle but had never been asked for a licence before. They were told that the requirement for a permit was a St Helens by-law and Arthur Gibbs was fined five shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the heartless character that left his family destitute while travelling the world, the betting in Sutton Library, the Russian Pole and the pawned watch and Father Xmas comes to St Helens to marry Old Mother Hubbard.
We begin with a court case in which it was revealed that at a recent rugby league game between St Helens Recs and Oldham at City Road, considerable excitement had also taken place off the pitch. At half-time a commotion had been caused in the stand through claims that a gang of pickpockets were at work. But in fact it had been just one man called James Smith from Leeds who ended up in the dock accused of stealing a purse containing £3 10 shillings.
The victim was Holland Jones, a manager at the St Helens Colliery owned by Pilkingtons. The 44-year-old caused a rumpus after grabbing hold of Smith at the entrance to the stand and accusing him of stealing his money from his hip pocket. But the man swore that he had not taken the purse and the police did not find it on his person.
Although James Smith had a long history of convictions for stealing, he insisted he had been going straight for a year. Smith appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with the theft and also of being a "reputed thief frequenting with intent to commit a felony". In a written statement Smith strenuously denied taking the purse but admitted that at City Road he had been associating with some dodgy characters:
"I am absolutely innocent of the charge of stealing, but I must plead guilty to frequenting with intent. I admit I have been leading a very bad past, but I have been leading a honest life for the last twelve months, which my record will prove. After my discharge from prison I left all my old associates and calling amongst strangers, and was doing well.
"I was staying in Liverpool, and unfortunately for me it was race week last week, and I met some of my old companions and went drinking, and this is the result. I am a married man, and am subject to fits. I assure you I feel my position greatly; so I beg of you to deal as leniently as possible with me, and I will prove faithfully to do my very utmost to guard against all temptation again."
The police subsequently decided to drop the theft charge, seemingly believing that one of the men that Smith had been with had been responsible for the purse snatch. However, he still faced the other charge and on the 13th received a stiff sentence of three months prison with hard labour.
It may seem odd to us that matters of housing came under the remit of the council's Health Committee. But the many badly overcrowded, poorly ventilated and insanitary houses in St Helens had a direct bearing on their residents' health. However, the committee could not consider demolition of the old stock until more homes were built and progress was painfully slow, with builders not thinking it worth their while.
At the Health Committee meeting on the 14th it was stated that permission had been received from the Local Government Board for St Helens Corporation to borrow funds to build twenty more houses at Windlehurst. That had been the first council estate in St Helens which was completed last year. Sanction had also been received for Pilkington's proposed new housing estate in Dunriding Lane. A few dozen houses here and there was welcome but only scratched the surface of the problem, which had become particularly severe in St Helens.
Although mainly dating from 1681, the property in Scholes Lane still contained remnants of its days when it had been a refuge for Catholic priests. The house did not reach its reserved price at the auction but was sold privately soon afterwards to an anonymous buyer for £2,500.
After complaints of minor thefts from clothing, the officers had kept watch on the cloakroom for several days before spotting the girl rifling through pockets. Octavia insisted it had been her first offence and she was bound over in the sum of £1. Her father and mother were also ordered to pay £1 each as sureties for their daughter's good behaviour and also told to pay 7s 6d costs.
Commenting on the recent Remembrance Sunday in St Helens, the Reporter on the 16th wrote how the service led by Canon Baines, the Vicar of St Helens, had made a deep impression on the occasion. And in the two-minute silence that followed, memories of events from the war had "raced like a high-speed cinema, through the men's minds". The silence was described as "intense, poignant and impressive."
The Reporter also described how the increasingly powerful Labour party had won its battle over the timing of council meetings in St Helens. Traditionally they had taken place at 2pm but in 1919 Labour had called for meetings to be held at 6pm. A compromise was reached and 4pm became the new start time. But Labour was still unhappy. Conservative councillors and aldermen tended to be employers and so had little difficulty in taking time off.
But their Labour counterparts were more likely to be employees. They could not quite so easily leave their work early and as a result talented men and women were not putting themselves forward for office. The Reporter said the subject was again raised at a recent council meeting but Ald. Forster had called for the time to remain as it was: "I hope you will have a little consideration for the older man who could not attend the council meetings at a later hour." Six o’clock did not seem all that late and the Labour argument won through.
Prescot's Open Air Market was also being advertised in the Reporter. Now under new management, the market in Aspinall Street was open on Friday afternoons and sold food, clothing, toys at what was claimed to be rock-bottom prices. "Toys Given Free To Every Customer" was a large headline in Oxleys advert. And they also had "marvellous mystery parcels" available from a penny at their Barrow Street store.
The waste heaps of St Helens were marvellous playgrounds for children but they could prove very dangerous places. On the 20th an inquest was held on Norman Naylor, who had died on the previous day on the chemical waste heaps off Borough Road that were known locally as the "Kimmicks". The 15-year-old from Eldon Street in St Helens had been hacking away at a piece of rock, along with another boy. Suddenly the rock and some debris collapsed on top of Norman and killed him. The usual verdict of misadventure was returned.
The strictness in which St Helens police implemented minor laws was demonstrated in two cases in the Police Court this week. Commercial travellers were regularly booked for leaving their cars unattended on the streets of St Helens. William Towell from Guildford was accused of leaving his vehicle outside a chemist's shop in Ormskirk Street for 25 minutes one afternoon.
In court Mr Towell said he thought it had been quite in order for him to leave his car at that spot and he had not been warned he was obstructing the road. When he said he had been unaware of the town's by-law, the Magistrates Clerk informed him that St Helens did not have one, with the obstruction regulations applying throughout the whole country.
What the Clerk didn't say was that it was St Helens police's strict interpretation of them that appeared different to other forces. After all, the constable – instead of waiting outside for 20-odd minutes – could have gone into the chemist's shop and asked the man to shift his car.
It was quite a common thing for sales people and entertainers to say St Helens was the only place they'd been to where they'd been accused of law breaking in some minor way. Arthur Gibbs from Fazackerley had been selling treacle and syrup in St Helens from what was described as a tank on a motor car. The police nabbed him in Park Road for not having a hawkers' permit.
Mr Gibbs said his manager had been in touch with the government's Food Ministry, who had told him that no licence to sell on the street was needed. In court the manager said they had been all over Lancashire selling the treacle but had never been asked for a licence before. They were told that the requirement for a permit was a St Helens by-law and Arthur Gibbs was fined five shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the heartless character that left his family destitute while travelling the world, the betting in Sutton Library, the Russian Pole and the pawned watch and Father Xmas comes to St Helens to marry Old Mother Hubbard.
This week's many stories include the boy's death in the Kimmicks, the sale of Scholes Hall, the pickpocket commotion at the City Road ground, the unlicensed Park Road treacle sellers, the debate over evening council meetings and the policemen that went undercover at the Gamble Institute to nab a sweets thief.
We begin with a court case in which it was revealed that at a recent rugby league game between St Helens Recs and Oldham at City Road, considerable excitement had also taken place off the pitch.
At half-time a commotion had been caused in the stand through claims that a gang of pickpockets were at work.
But in fact it had been just one man called James Smith from Leeds who ended up in the dock accused of stealing a purse containing £3 10 shillings.
The victim was Holland Jones, a manager at the St Helens Colliery owned by Pilkingtons.
The 44-year-old caused a rumpus after grabbing hold of Smith at the entrance to the stand and accusing him of stealing his money from his hip pocket.
But the man swore that he had not taken the purse and the police did not find it on his person.
Although James Smith had a long history of convictions for stealing, he insisted he had been going straight for a year.
Smith appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with the theft and also of being a "reputed thief frequenting with intent to commit a felony".
In a written statement Smith strenuously denied taking the purse but admitted that at City Road he had been associating with some dodgy characters:
"I am absolutely innocent of the charge of stealing, but I must plead guilty to frequenting with intent. I admit I have been leading a very bad past, but I have been leading a honest life for the last twelve months, which my record will prove.
"After my discharge from prison I left all my old associates and calling amongst strangers, and was doing well. I was staying in Liverpool, and unfortunately for me it was race week last week, and I met some of my old companions and went drinking, and this is the result.
"I am a married man, and am subject to fits. I assure you I feel my position greatly; so I beg of you to deal as leniently as possible with me, and I will prove faithfully to do my very utmost to guard against all temptation again."
The police subsequently decided to drop the theft charge, seemingly believing that one of the men that Smith had been with had been responsible for the purse snatch.
However, he still faced the other charge and on the 13th received a stiff sentence of three months prison with hard labour.
It may seem odd to us that matters of housing came under the remit of the council's Health Committee.
But the many badly overcrowded, poorly ventilated and insanitary houses in St Helens had a direct bearing on their residents' health.
However, the committee could not consider demolition of the old stock until more homes were built and progress was painfully slow, with builders not thinking it worth their while.
At the Health Committee meeting on the 14th it was stated that permission had been received from the Local Government Board for St Helens Corporation to borrow funds to build twenty more houses at Windlehurst.
That had been the first council estate in St Helens which was completed last year. Sanction had also been received for Pilkington's proposed new housing estate in Dunriding Lane.
A few dozen houses here and there was welcome but only scratched the surface of the problem, which had become particularly severe in St Helens.
On the 15th the auction of Scholes Hall (pictured above) took place at the Fleece Hotel in St Helens.
This was not the same Fleece that many can still remember, as the old Church Street hotel was demolished in 1931 and a new one then built.
The auctioneers W. A. Brooke wrote in their sales literature of Scholes Hall:
"It has over six centuries of romantic history attaching to it. It may be described as a blue-blooded aristocrat of the “stately homes of England”."
Although mainly dating from 1681, the property in Scholes Lane still contained remnants of its days when it had been a refuge for Catholic priests.
The house did not reach its reserved price at the auction but was sold privately soon afterwards to an anonymous buyer for £2,500.
I always find the trouble that St Helens police went in the past to solve minor crimes quite amazing – particularly when compared to today.
On the 16th a girl called Octavia Galtry from Watery Lane was charged in St Helens Police Court with stealing a packet of Pontefract cake.
The 16-year-old attended the Gamble Institute Technical School (pictured above) for lessons in dressmaking and had been caught by two undercover policemen taking the cake – valued at just 6d – from a raincoat belonging to Margaret Crow.
After complaints of minor thefts from clothing, the officers had kept watch on the cloakroom for several days before spotting the girl rifling through pockets.
Octavia insisted it had been her first offence and she was bound over in the sum of £1.
Her father and mother were also ordered to pay £1 each as sureties for their daughter's good behaviour and also told to pay 7s 6d costs.
Commenting on the recent Remembrance Sunday in St Helens, the Reporter on the 16th wrote how the service led by Canon Baines, the Vicar of St Helens, had made a deep impression on the occasion.
And in the two-minute silence that followed, memories of events from the war had "raced like a high-speed cinema, through the men's minds". The silence was described as "intense, poignant and impressive."
The Reporter also described how the increasingly powerful Labour party had won its battle over the timing of council meetings in St Helens.
Traditionally they had taken place at 2pm but in 1919 Labour had called for meetings to be held at 6pm. A compromise was reached and 4pm became the new start time.
But Labour was still unhappy. Conservative councillors and aldermen tended to be employers and so had little difficulty in taking time off.
But their Labour counterparts were more likely to be employees. They could not quite so easily leave their work early and as a result talented men and women were not putting themselves forward for office.
The Reporter said the subject was again raised at a recent council meeting but Ald. Forster had called for the time to remain as it was:
"I hope you will have a little consideration for the older man who could not attend the council meetings at a later hour."
Six o’clock did not seem all that late and the Labour argument won through.
Prescot's Open Air Market was also being advertised in the Reporter. Now under new management, the market in Aspinall Street was open on Friday afternoons and sold food, clothing, toys at what was claimed to be rock-bottom prices.
"Toys Given Free To Every Customer" was a large headline in Oxleys advert. And they also had "marvellous mystery parcels" available from a penny at their Barrow Street store.
The waste heaps of St Helens were marvellous playgrounds for children but they could prove very dangerous places.
On the 20th an inquest was held on Norman Naylor, who had died on the previous day on the chemical waste heaps off Borough Road that were known locally as the "Kimmicks".
The 15-year-old from Eldon Street in St Helens had been hacking away at a piece of rock, along with another boy.
Suddenly the rock and some debris collapsed on top of Norman and killed him. The usual verdict of misadventure was returned.
The strictness in which St Helens police implemented minor laws was demonstrated in two cases in the Police Court this week.
Commercial travellers were regularly booked for leaving their cars unattended on the streets of St Helens.
William Towell from Guildford was accused of leaving his vehicle outside a chemist's shop in Ormskirk Street for 25 minutes one afternoon.
In court Mr Towell said he thought it had been quite in order for him to leave his car at that spot and he had not been warned he was obstructing the road.
When he said he had been unaware of the town's by-law, the Magistrates Clerk informed him that St Helens did not have one, with the obstruction regulations applying throughout the whole country.
What the Clerk didn't say was that it was St Helens police's strict interpretation of them that appeared different to other forces.
After all, the constable – instead of waiting outside for 20-odd minutes – could have gone into the chemist's shop and asked the man to shift his car.
It was quite a common thing for sales people and entertainers to say St Helens was the only place they'd been to where they'd been accused of law breaking in some minor way.
Arthur Gibbs from Fazackerley had been selling treacle and syrup in St Helens from what was described as a tank on a motor car. The police nabbed him in Park Road for not having a hawkers' permit.
Mr Gibbs said his manager had been in touch with the government's Food Ministry, who had told him that no licence to sell on the street was needed.
In court the manager said they had been all over Lancashire selling the treacle but had never been asked for a licence before.
They were told that the requirement for a permit was a St Helens by-law and Arthur Gibbs was fined five shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the heartless character that left his family destitute while travelling the world, the betting in Sutton Library, the Russian Pole and the pawned watch and Father Xmas comes to St Helens to marry Old Mother Hubbard.
We begin with a court case in which it was revealed that at a recent rugby league game between St Helens Recs and Oldham at City Road, considerable excitement had also taken place off the pitch.
At half-time a commotion had been caused in the stand through claims that a gang of pickpockets were at work.
But in fact it had been just one man called James Smith from Leeds who ended up in the dock accused of stealing a purse containing £3 10 shillings.
The victim was Holland Jones, a manager at the St Helens Colliery owned by Pilkingtons.
The 44-year-old caused a rumpus after grabbing hold of Smith at the entrance to the stand and accusing him of stealing his money from his hip pocket.
But the man swore that he had not taken the purse and the police did not find it on his person.
Although James Smith had a long history of convictions for stealing, he insisted he had been going straight for a year.
Smith appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with the theft and also of being a "reputed thief frequenting with intent to commit a felony".
In a written statement Smith strenuously denied taking the purse but admitted that at City Road he had been associating with some dodgy characters:
"I am absolutely innocent of the charge of stealing, but I must plead guilty to frequenting with intent. I admit I have been leading a very bad past, but I have been leading a honest life for the last twelve months, which my record will prove.
"After my discharge from prison I left all my old associates and calling amongst strangers, and was doing well. I was staying in Liverpool, and unfortunately for me it was race week last week, and I met some of my old companions and went drinking, and this is the result.
"I am a married man, and am subject to fits. I assure you I feel my position greatly; so I beg of you to deal as leniently as possible with me, and I will prove faithfully to do my very utmost to guard against all temptation again."
The police subsequently decided to drop the theft charge, seemingly believing that one of the men that Smith had been with had been responsible for the purse snatch.
However, he still faced the other charge and on the 13th received a stiff sentence of three months prison with hard labour.
It may seem odd to us that matters of housing came under the remit of the council's Health Committee.
But the many badly overcrowded, poorly ventilated and insanitary houses in St Helens had a direct bearing on their residents' health.
However, the committee could not consider demolition of the old stock until more homes were built and progress was painfully slow, with builders not thinking it worth their while.
At the Health Committee meeting on the 14th it was stated that permission had been received from the Local Government Board for St Helens Corporation to borrow funds to build twenty more houses at Windlehurst.
That had been the first council estate in St Helens which was completed last year. Sanction had also been received for Pilkington's proposed new housing estate in Dunriding Lane.
A few dozen houses here and there was welcome but only scratched the surface of the problem, which had become particularly severe in St Helens.
This was not the same Fleece that many can still remember, as the old Church Street hotel was demolished in 1931 and a new one then built.
The auctioneers W. A. Brooke wrote in their sales literature of Scholes Hall:
"It has over six centuries of romantic history attaching to it. It may be described as a blue-blooded aristocrat of the “stately homes of England”."
Although mainly dating from 1681, the property in Scholes Lane still contained remnants of its days when it had been a refuge for Catholic priests.
The house did not reach its reserved price at the auction but was sold privately soon afterwards to an anonymous buyer for £2,500.
I always find the trouble that St Helens police went in the past to solve minor crimes quite amazing – particularly when compared to today.
On the 16th a girl called Octavia Galtry from Watery Lane was charged in St Helens Police Court with stealing a packet of Pontefract cake.
After complaints of minor thefts from clothing, the officers had kept watch on the cloakroom for several days before spotting the girl rifling through pockets.
Octavia insisted it had been her first offence and she was bound over in the sum of £1.
Her father and mother were also ordered to pay £1 each as sureties for their daughter's good behaviour and also told to pay 7s 6d costs.
Commenting on the recent Remembrance Sunday in St Helens, the Reporter on the 16th wrote how the service led by Canon Baines, the Vicar of St Helens, had made a deep impression on the occasion.
And in the two-minute silence that followed, memories of events from the war had "raced like a high-speed cinema, through the men's minds". The silence was described as "intense, poignant and impressive."
The Reporter also described how the increasingly powerful Labour party had won its battle over the timing of council meetings in St Helens.
Traditionally they had taken place at 2pm but in 1919 Labour had called for meetings to be held at 6pm. A compromise was reached and 4pm became the new start time.
But Labour was still unhappy. Conservative councillors and aldermen tended to be employers and so had little difficulty in taking time off.
But their Labour counterparts were more likely to be employees. They could not quite so easily leave their work early and as a result talented men and women were not putting themselves forward for office.
The Reporter said the subject was again raised at a recent council meeting but Ald. Forster had called for the time to remain as it was:
"I hope you will have a little consideration for the older man who could not attend the council meetings at a later hour."
Six o’clock did not seem all that late and the Labour argument won through.
Prescot's Open Air Market was also being advertised in the Reporter. Now under new management, the market in Aspinall Street was open on Friday afternoons and sold food, clothing, toys at what was claimed to be rock-bottom prices.
"Toys Given Free To Every Customer" was a large headline in Oxleys advert. And they also had "marvellous mystery parcels" available from a penny at their Barrow Street store.
The waste heaps of St Helens were marvellous playgrounds for children but they could prove very dangerous places.
On the 20th an inquest was held on Norman Naylor, who had died on the previous day on the chemical waste heaps off Borough Road that were known locally as the "Kimmicks".
The 15-year-old from Eldon Street in St Helens had been hacking away at a piece of rock, along with another boy.
Suddenly the rock and some debris collapsed on top of Norman and killed him. The usual verdict of misadventure was returned.
The strictness in which St Helens police implemented minor laws was demonstrated in two cases in the Police Court this week.
Commercial travellers were regularly booked for leaving their cars unattended on the streets of St Helens.
William Towell from Guildford was accused of leaving his vehicle outside a chemist's shop in Ormskirk Street for 25 minutes one afternoon.
In court Mr Towell said he thought it had been quite in order for him to leave his car at that spot and he had not been warned he was obstructing the road.
When he said he had been unaware of the town's by-law, the Magistrates Clerk informed him that St Helens did not have one, with the obstruction regulations applying throughout the whole country.
What the Clerk didn't say was that it was St Helens police's strict interpretation of them that appeared different to other forces.
After all, the constable – instead of waiting outside for 20-odd minutes – could have gone into the chemist's shop and asked the man to shift his car.
It was quite a common thing for sales people and entertainers to say St Helens was the only place they'd been to where they'd been accused of law breaking in some minor way.
Arthur Gibbs from Fazackerley had been selling treacle and syrup in St Helens from what was described as a tank on a motor car. The police nabbed him in Park Road for not having a hawkers' permit.
Mr Gibbs said his manager had been in touch with the government's Food Ministry, who had told him that no licence to sell on the street was needed.
In court the manager said they had been all over Lancashire selling the treacle but had never been asked for a licence before.
They were told that the requirement for a permit was a St Helens by-law and Arthur Gibbs was fined five shillings.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the heartless character that left his family destitute while travelling the world, the betting in Sutton Library, the Russian Pole and the pawned watch and Father Xmas comes to St Helens to marry Old Mother Hubbard.