IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th JUNE 1921)
This week's stories include the Sutton doctor's infidelity, the 1921 census is taken in St Helens, another crop coal court case is heard, reckless driving by motorists and the man who foolishly boasted that he knocked policemen about like skittles.
There was increasing concern over the speed that motor vehicles were travelling in St Helens and the danger that they were posing to other road users. The motorists may not have been driving any faster than today but many of the streets were narrower and could easily get clogged up. The lack of motorways, bypasses and the like meant that most heavy traffic had to pass right through the town. So large motor lorries, trams, buses and charabancs were vying for space with motor cars, cyclists, motor bikes, handcarts, animals being driven to market, horses and carts and, of course, pedestrians.
Many of the latter had yet to get to grips with the new road reality and criss-crossed the streets with few cares. Some of the motorists also seemed oblivious to the dangers and last week in St Helens the coroner Samuel Brighouse had declared: "I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country."
Two such individuals appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 17th. Joseph Bridge was charged with riding a motorcycle to the danger of the public after knocking a woman pedestrian over in Parr Street. And William Molyneux, the driver of a butcher's van, was charged with speeding past a couple of horses that were pulling a lorry in Corporation Street. The evidence was that if the leading horse had not suddenly swerved, the motor would have struck it. Both men were fined 20 shillings and 10 shillings court costs.
For many years in between the wars, Dr Edward Campbell ran his medical surgery from Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road in Sutton. On the 17th his wife was granted a divorce after telling the court of her husband's infidelity. Eileen Campbell claimed that while the couple were living at Hove, a girlfriend had come to stay with them and on two occasions she had discovered her husband and the woman in a bedroom together. She stated that after remonstrating with Dr Campbell, he had on both occasions assaulted her and later admitted being the father of another woman's child. Although divorces were still not common, they were on the increase and generated much newspaper interest when they occurred.
Although the striking miners of St Helens were supposed to have agreed to their union's request to stop helping themselves to the "crop coal" that outcropped near the surface, the illegal practice was still continuing. And operating once again on an industrial scale! The nature of these rudimentary operations had already led to two deaths and dozens of men appearing in court charged with trespass.
This week an unnamed colliery manager claimed that as many as 7,500 miners were employed on 1,500 makeshift surface mines in the St Helens district. These were often little more than holes in the ground and by selling the coal, they were earning as much as £10 a week – twice what they made before the strike. On the 17th Thomas O'Brien appeared in St Helens Police Court facing a more unusual charge connected to crop coal.
John Martin had been one of the multitude digging for free coal and had stripped before going down a hole, leaving his clothes up at the top. When Martin went back up he discovered that his watch and chain were missing. It is another theft that I would categorise as brainless, as Thomas O'Brien had been working with John Martin. The man was immediately the number one suspect and found to have pledged the timepiece at a pawnbroker's and fined 20 shillings.
A national ballot of striking miners over an offer of improved pay and conditions took place this week but St Helens workers decisively rejected it. For example, only 30 men voted in favour at Clock Face Colliery with 900 rejecting it and only 40 were in favour at Bold Colliery, with 1,200 rejections. It was suggested that the men were presently making so much money selling crop coal that they wanted the strike to continue! Of course, not everyone was prospering, with many families suffering badly through the strike.
It won't be until January 2022 that the details of the near-38 million individuals who participated in the 1921 census will be released by Findmypast – who hold the exclusive rights. The document was supposed to have been completed by the residents of St Helens during the evening of Sunday 19th June, with enumerators knocking on doors on the following day to collect the forms. Above is a cartoon lampooning the process which was published in the London Daily News. The Echo accompanied one enumerator in a poor area of Liverpool who needed to collect 400 forms by the evening and had begun his round at 8:30am.
By 10:30am the reporter was surprised to find some people still in bed. "I have to call back as many as four times on occasion", explained the enumerator. "This is my third census collection, and I know what it is. The people have no idea of discipline, and many are quite indifferent as to whether the papers are filled in or not. Matters are not so bad this year as formerly. Army experience has made a great difference. The most striking fact is that foreigners are far more careful than our own people; they fill in the forms with the most scrupulous care and exactness." One woman ran across the street to hand the enumerator her form as she said she was on her way out to the "scabby clinic" – that, apparently, was the slang name for scabies!
The census would reveal that there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens with 27% of the male workforce employed in mining. These worked at a dozen collieries: Alexandra, Ashtons Green, Bold, Clock Face, Collins Green, Havanah, Lea Green, Ravenhead, Sherdley, Southport, Sutton Heath and Sutton Manor. Those who worked in glassmaking comprised 13.6% and railway & transport workers made up 5% and 6.7% metal.
The horrible chemical industry never employed huge numbers of workers but its 1.4% figure in 1921 shows that it was finally on its way out of the town, leaving as one doctor put it: "… the terrible slag heaps of waste chemicals, the odour, and the bad chests in the male population."
As for women 25% of women at work in St Helens were in some form of personal service (mainly domestic service – 1,400 out of 2,200), 8.4% in glassmaking, 16% in commerce and 8% clerks. The number of employed women was 8,170 with 28,000 women without a job recognised by the census. Only 24% of women had jobs in St Helens in 1921. Barrow-in-Furness was the only place in Lancashire with more women without jobs. That was largely through the lack of textile mills in St Helens.
I expect William Burns will appear on the census as a "guest" of St Helens police after spending much of the weekend in a lock up. He appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 20th charged with assaulting the police. The incident had occurred on the previous Saturday night, which was always a perilous time for the bobbies to make arrests on the streets, as drunks would often intervene and try to free their prisoners. Constables Fairless and Surgeon had been arresting a woman for being drunk and disorderly in the town centre when Burns and another man decided to interfere.
The pair began kicking the policemen and although the other man was overpowered and locked up, Burns managed to get away. He later met PC Johnson in Bridge Street and foolishly boasted to him how he had been knocking the police about "like skittles". So as a result of his confession, he was arrested and in court was sent to prison for one month with hard labour. The magistrates told Burns that if it had not been but for the fact that it was his first appearance before the Bench, the sentence would have been six months.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week concerned the postal service, which was now under much scrutiny after the abolition of the Sunday delivery service and increase in some prices. People were then spoiled with regards to the post and expected letters bearing local addresses that had been mailed in the morning or early afternoon to be delivered on the same day. The Echo had sent out a number of test letters and was particularly miffed that one collected from a pillar-box at 2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon had not reached its destination on that same day. Shocking service! The critical piece was published under the headline "The Wobbly Post – Eccentricities Of Delivery Unexplained":
"Inquiries in official quarters to-day regarding the delay in the delivery of a test-letter posted in Seacombe at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon and delivered at the “Echo” office in Liverpool only at 11.30 on Monday morning, elicited the statement that there was no delay so far as Wallasey was concerned. The letter would have been collected at 2.30, and sent in due course to Liverpool, but it was seemingly too late (why was not explained) for delivery that [Saturday] afternoon.
"Asked why, even in these circumstances, the letter was not in the first delivery on Monday morning, the official said he could only suppose there had been a block in the Liverpool G.P.O. through the last-minute rush of commercial houses and others to get through their circulars while the halfpenny postage rate still held good.
"Our representative next produced a postcard and a letter which had been delivered together this morning [Tuesday] at his Liscard residence. Both were from the same Yorkshire town, one posted on Saturday night and the other last night [Monday] – forty-eight hours apart – and delivered together! No explanation for this could be given. The only information elicited was that there had been no delay in the Wallasey office."
Next week's stories will include Beecham's claim that taking their pills makes people cheerful, the St Helens coroner grumbles about the post being slow, a judge makes a vow in St Helens County Court and the inaugural St Helens Police Sports are held.
There was increasing concern over the speed that motor vehicles were travelling in St Helens and the danger that they were posing to other road users. The motorists may not have been driving any faster than today but many of the streets were narrower and could easily get clogged up. The lack of motorways, bypasses and the like meant that most heavy traffic had to pass right through the town. So large motor lorries, trams, buses and charabancs were vying for space with motor cars, cyclists, motor bikes, handcarts, animals being driven to market, horses and carts and, of course, pedestrians.
Many of the latter had yet to get to grips with the new road reality and criss-crossed the streets with few cares. Some of the motorists also seemed oblivious to the dangers and last week in St Helens the coroner Samuel Brighouse had declared: "I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country."
Two such individuals appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 17th. Joseph Bridge was charged with riding a motorcycle to the danger of the public after knocking a woman pedestrian over in Parr Street. And William Molyneux, the driver of a butcher's van, was charged with speeding past a couple of horses that were pulling a lorry in Corporation Street. The evidence was that if the leading horse had not suddenly swerved, the motor would have struck it. Both men were fined 20 shillings and 10 shillings court costs.
For many years in between the wars, Dr Edward Campbell ran his medical surgery from Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road in Sutton. On the 17th his wife was granted a divorce after telling the court of her husband's infidelity. Eileen Campbell claimed that while the couple were living at Hove, a girlfriend had come to stay with them and on two occasions she had discovered her husband and the woman in a bedroom together. She stated that after remonstrating with Dr Campbell, he had on both occasions assaulted her and later admitted being the father of another woman's child. Although divorces were still not common, they were on the increase and generated much newspaper interest when they occurred.
Although the striking miners of St Helens were supposed to have agreed to their union's request to stop helping themselves to the "crop coal" that outcropped near the surface, the illegal practice was still continuing. And operating once again on an industrial scale! The nature of these rudimentary operations had already led to two deaths and dozens of men appearing in court charged with trespass.
This week an unnamed colliery manager claimed that as many as 7,500 miners were employed on 1,500 makeshift surface mines in the St Helens district. These were often little more than holes in the ground and by selling the coal, they were earning as much as £10 a week – twice what they made before the strike. On the 17th Thomas O'Brien appeared in St Helens Police Court facing a more unusual charge connected to crop coal.
John Martin had been one of the multitude digging for free coal and had stripped before going down a hole, leaving his clothes up at the top. When Martin went back up he discovered that his watch and chain were missing. It is another theft that I would categorise as brainless, as Thomas O'Brien had been working with John Martin. The man was immediately the number one suspect and found to have pledged the timepiece at a pawnbroker's and fined 20 shillings.
A national ballot of striking miners over an offer of improved pay and conditions took place this week but St Helens workers decisively rejected it. For example, only 30 men voted in favour at Clock Face Colliery with 900 rejecting it and only 40 were in favour at Bold Colliery, with 1,200 rejections. It was suggested that the men were presently making so much money selling crop coal that they wanted the strike to continue! Of course, not everyone was prospering, with many families suffering badly through the strike.
By 10:30am the reporter was surprised to find some people still in bed. "I have to call back as many as four times on occasion", explained the enumerator. "This is my third census collection, and I know what it is. The people have no idea of discipline, and many are quite indifferent as to whether the papers are filled in or not. Matters are not so bad this year as formerly. Army experience has made a great difference. The most striking fact is that foreigners are far more careful than our own people; they fill in the forms with the most scrupulous care and exactness." One woman ran across the street to hand the enumerator her form as she said she was on her way out to the "scabby clinic" – that, apparently, was the slang name for scabies!
The census would reveal that there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens with 27% of the male workforce employed in mining. These worked at a dozen collieries: Alexandra, Ashtons Green, Bold, Clock Face, Collins Green, Havanah, Lea Green, Ravenhead, Sherdley, Southport, Sutton Heath and Sutton Manor. Those who worked in glassmaking comprised 13.6% and railway & transport workers made up 5% and 6.7% metal.
The horrible chemical industry never employed huge numbers of workers but its 1.4% figure in 1921 shows that it was finally on its way out of the town, leaving as one doctor put it: "… the terrible slag heaps of waste chemicals, the odour, and the bad chests in the male population."
As for women 25% of women at work in St Helens were in some form of personal service (mainly domestic service – 1,400 out of 2,200), 8.4% in glassmaking, 16% in commerce and 8% clerks. The number of employed women was 8,170 with 28,000 women without a job recognised by the census. Only 24% of women had jobs in St Helens in 1921. Barrow-in-Furness was the only place in Lancashire with more women without jobs. That was largely through the lack of textile mills in St Helens.
I expect William Burns will appear on the census as a "guest" of St Helens police after spending much of the weekend in a lock up. He appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 20th charged with assaulting the police. The incident had occurred on the previous Saturday night, which was always a perilous time for the bobbies to make arrests on the streets, as drunks would often intervene and try to free their prisoners. Constables Fairless and Surgeon had been arresting a woman for being drunk and disorderly in the town centre when Burns and another man decided to interfere.
The pair began kicking the policemen and although the other man was overpowered and locked up, Burns managed to get away. He later met PC Johnson in Bridge Street and foolishly boasted to him how he had been knocking the police about "like skittles". So as a result of his confession, he was arrested and in court was sent to prison for one month with hard labour. The magistrates told Burns that if it had not been but for the fact that it was his first appearance before the Bench, the sentence would have been six months.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week concerned the postal service, which was now under much scrutiny after the abolition of the Sunday delivery service and increase in some prices. People were then spoiled with regards to the post and expected letters bearing local addresses that had been mailed in the morning or early afternoon to be delivered on the same day. The Echo had sent out a number of test letters and was particularly miffed that one collected from a pillar-box at 2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon had not reached its destination on that same day. Shocking service! The critical piece was published under the headline "The Wobbly Post – Eccentricities Of Delivery Unexplained":
"Inquiries in official quarters to-day regarding the delay in the delivery of a test-letter posted in Seacombe at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon and delivered at the “Echo” office in Liverpool only at 11.30 on Monday morning, elicited the statement that there was no delay so far as Wallasey was concerned. The letter would have been collected at 2.30, and sent in due course to Liverpool, but it was seemingly too late (why was not explained) for delivery that [Saturday] afternoon.
"Asked why, even in these circumstances, the letter was not in the first delivery on Monday morning, the official said he could only suppose there had been a block in the Liverpool G.P.O. through the last-minute rush of commercial houses and others to get through their circulars while the halfpenny postage rate still held good.
"Our representative next produced a postcard and a letter which had been delivered together this morning [Tuesday] at his Liscard residence. Both were from the same Yorkshire town, one posted on Saturday night and the other last night [Monday] – forty-eight hours apart – and delivered together! No explanation for this could be given. The only information elicited was that there had been no delay in the Wallasey office."
Next week's stories will include Beecham's claim that taking their pills makes people cheerful, the St Helens coroner grumbles about the post being slow, a judge makes a vow in St Helens County Court and the inaugural St Helens Police Sports are held.
This week's stories include the Sutton doctor's infidelity, the 1921 census is taken in St Helens, another crop coal court case is heard, reckless driving by motorists and the man who foolishly boasted that he knocked policemen about like skittles.
There was increasing concern over the speed that motor vehicles were travelling in St Helens and the danger that they were posing to other road users.
The motorists may not have been driving any faster than today but many of the streets were narrower and could easily get clogged up.
The lack of motorways, bypasses and the like meant that most heavy traffic had to pass right through the town.
So large motor lorries, trams, buses and charabancs were vying for space with motor cars, cyclists, motor bikes, handcarts, animals being driven to market, horses and carts and, of course, pedestrians.
Many of the latter had yet to get to grips with the new road reality and criss-crossed the streets with few cares.
Some of the motorists also seemed oblivious to the dangers and last week in St Helens the coroner Samuel Brighouse had declared:
"I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country."
Two such individuals appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 17th.
Joseph Bridge was charged with riding a motorcycle to the danger of the public after knocking a woman pedestrian over in Parr Street.
And William Molyneux, the driver of a butcher's van, was charged with speeding past a couple of horses that were pulling a lorry in Corporation Street.
The evidence was that if the leading horse had not suddenly swerved, the motor would have struck it. Both men were fined 20 shillings and 10 shillings court costs.
For many years in between the wars, Dr Edward Campbell ran his medical surgery from Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road in Sutton.
On the 17th his wife was granted a divorce after telling the court of her husband's infidelity.
Eileen Campbell claimed that while the couple were living at Hove, a girlfriend had come to stay with them and on two occasions she had discovered her husband and the woman in a bedroom together.
She stated that after remonstrating with Dr Campbell, he had on both occasions assaulted her and later admitted being the father of another woman's child.
Although divorces were still not common, they were on the increase and generated much newspaper interest when they occurred.
Although the striking miners of St Helens were supposed to have agreed to their union's request to stop helping themselves to the "crop coal" that outcropped near the surface, the illegal practice was still continuing. And operating once again on an industrial scale!
The nature of these rudimentary operations had already led to two deaths and dozens of men appearing in court charged with trespass.
This week an unnamed colliery manager claimed that as many as 7,500 miners were employed on 1,500 makeshift surface mines in the St Helens district.
These were often little more than holes in the ground and by selling the coal, they were earning as much as £10 a week – twice what they made before the strike.
On the 17th Thomas O'Brien appeared in St Helens Police Court facing a more unusual charge connected to crop coal.
John Martin had been one of the multitude digging for free coal and had stripped before going down a hole, leaving his clothes up at the top.
When Martin went back up he discovered that his watch and chain were missing.
It is another theft that I would categorise as brainless, as Thomas O'Brien had been working with John Martin.
The man was immediately the number one suspect and found to have pledged the timepiece at a pawnbroker's and fined 20 shillings.
A national ballot of striking miners over an offer of improved pay and conditions took place this week but St Helens workers decisively rejected it.
For example, only 30 men voted in favour at Clock Face Colliery with 900 rejecting it and only 40 were in favour at Bold Colliery, with 1,200 rejections.
It was suggested that the men were presently making so much money selling crop coal that they wanted the strike to continue!
Of course, not everyone was prospering, with many families suffering badly through the strike.
It won't be until January 2022 that the details of the near-38 million individuals who participated in the 1921 census will be released by Findmypast – who hold the exclusive rights.
The document was supposed to have been completed by the residents of St Helens during the evening of Sunday 19th June, with enumerators knocking on doors on the following day to collect the forms. Above is a cartoon lampooning the process which was published in the London Daily News.
The Echo accompanied one enumerator in a poor area of Liverpool who needed to collect 400 forms by the evening and had begun his round at 8:30am.
By 10:30am the reporter was surprised to find some people still in bed. "I have to call back as many as four times on occasion", explained the enumerator.
"This is my third census collection, and I know what it is. The people have no idea of discipline, and many are quite indifferent as to whether the papers are filled in or not.
"Matters are not so bad this year as formerly. Army experience has made a great difference.
"The most striking fact is that foreigners are far more careful than our own people; they fill in the forms with the most scrupulous care and exactness."
One woman ran across the street to hand the enumerator her form as she said she was on her way out to the "scabby clinic" – that, apparently, was the slang name for scabies!
The census would reveal that there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens with 27% of the male workforce employed in mining.
These worked at a dozen collieries: Alexandra, Ashtons Green, Bold, Clock Face, Collins Green, Havanah, Lea Green, Ravenhead, Sherdley, Southport, Sutton Heath and Sutton Manor.
Those who worked in glassmaking comprised 13.6% and railway & transport workers made up 5% and 6.7% metal.
The horrible chemical industry never employed huge numbers of workers but its 1.4% figure in 1921 shows that it was finally on its way out of the town, leaving as one doctor put it:
"… the terrible slag heaps of waste chemicals, the odour, and the bad chests in the male population."
As for women 25% of women at work in St Helens were in some form of personal service (mainly domestic service – 1,400 out of 2,200), 8.4% in glassmaking, 16% in commerce and 8% clerks.
The number of employed women was 8,170 with 28,000 women without a job recognised by the census.
Only 24% of women had jobs in St Helens in 1921. Barrow-in-Furness was the only place in Lancashire with more women without jobs. That was largely through the lack of textile mills in St Helens.
I expect William Burns will appear on the census as a "guest" of St Helens police after spending much of the weekend in a lock up.
He appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 20th charged with assaulting the police.
The incident had occurred on the previous Saturday night, which was always a perilous time for the bobbies to make arrests on the streets, as drunks would often intervene and try to free their prisoners.
Constables Fairless and Surgeon had been arresting a woman for being drunk and disorderly in the town centre when Burns and another man decided to interfere.
The pair began kicking the policemen and although the other man was overpowered and locked up, Burns managed to get away.
He later met PC Johnson in Bridge Street and foolishly boasted to him how he had been knocking the police about "like skittles".
So as a result of his confession, he was arrested and in court was sent to prison for one month with hard labour.
The magistrates told Burns that if it had not been but for the fact that it was his first appearance before the Bench, the sentence would have been six months.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week concerned the postal service, which was now under much scrutiny after the abolition of the Sunday delivery service and increase in some prices.
People were then spoiled with regards to the post and expected letters bearing local addresses that had been mailed in the morning or early afternoon to be delivered on the same day.
The Echo had sent out a number of test letters and was particularly miffed that one collected from a pillar-box at 2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon had not reached its destination on that same day. Shocking service!
The critical piece was published under the headline "The Wobbly Post – Eccentricities Of Delivery Unexplained":
"Inquiries in official quarters to-day regarding the delay in the delivery of a test-letter posted in Seacombe at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon and delivered at the “Echo” office in Liverpool only at 11.30 on Monday morning, elicited the statement that there was no delay so far as Wallasey was concerned.
"The letter would have been collected at 2.30, and sent in due course to Liverpool, but it was seemingly too late (why was not explained) for delivery that [Saturday] afternoon.
"Asked why, even in these circumstances, the letter was not in the first delivery on Monday morning, the official said he could only suppose there had been a block in the Liverpool G.P.O. through the last-minute rush of commercial houses and others to get through their circulars while the halfpenny postage rate still held good.
"Our representative next produced a postcard and a letter which had been delivered together this morning [Tuesday] at his Liscard residence.
"Both were from the same Yorkshire town, one posted on Saturday night and the other last night [Monday] – forty-eight hours apart – and delivered together!
"No explanation for this could be given. The only information elicited was that there had been no delay in the Wallasey office."
Next week's stories will include Beecham's claim that taking their pills makes people cheerful, the St Helens coroner grumbles about the post being slow, a judge makes a vow in St Helens County Court and the inaugural St Helens Police Sports are held.
There was increasing concern over the speed that motor vehicles were travelling in St Helens and the danger that they were posing to other road users.
The motorists may not have been driving any faster than today but many of the streets were narrower and could easily get clogged up.
The lack of motorways, bypasses and the like meant that most heavy traffic had to pass right through the town.
So large motor lorries, trams, buses and charabancs were vying for space with motor cars, cyclists, motor bikes, handcarts, animals being driven to market, horses and carts and, of course, pedestrians.
Many of the latter had yet to get to grips with the new road reality and criss-crossed the streets with few cares.
Some of the motorists also seemed oblivious to the dangers and last week in St Helens the coroner Samuel Brighouse had declared:
"I have felt for a long time that there was a great deal of reckless driving by motor-drivers throughout the country."
Two such individuals appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 17th.
Joseph Bridge was charged with riding a motorcycle to the danger of the public after knocking a woman pedestrian over in Parr Street.
And William Molyneux, the driver of a butcher's van, was charged with speeding past a couple of horses that were pulling a lorry in Corporation Street.
The evidence was that if the leading horse had not suddenly swerved, the motor would have struck it. Both men were fined 20 shillings and 10 shillings court costs.
For many years in between the wars, Dr Edward Campbell ran his medical surgery from Phoenix House in Peckers Hill Road in Sutton.
On the 17th his wife was granted a divorce after telling the court of her husband's infidelity.
Eileen Campbell claimed that while the couple were living at Hove, a girlfriend had come to stay with them and on two occasions she had discovered her husband and the woman in a bedroom together.
She stated that after remonstrating with Dr Campbell, he had on both occasions assaulted her and later admitted being the father of another woman's child.
Although divorces were still not common, they were on the increase and generated much newspaper interest when they occurred.
Although the striking miners of St Helens were supposed to have agreed to their union's request to stop helping themselves to the "crop coal" that outcropped near the surface, the illegal practice was still continuing. And operating once again on an industrial scale!
The nature of these rudimentary operations had already led to two deaths and dozens of men appearing in court charged with trespass.
This week an unnamed colliery manager claimed that as many as 7,500 miners were employed on 1,500 makeshift surface mines in the St Helens district.
These were often little more than holes in the ground and by selling the coal, they were earning as much as £10 a week – twice what they made before the strike.
On the 17th Thomas O'Brien appeared in St Helens Police Court facing a more unusual charge connected to crop coal.
John Martin had been one of the multitude digging for free coal and had stripped before going down a hole, leaving his clothes up at the top.
When Martin went back up he discovered that his watch and chain were missing.
It is another theft that I would categorise as brainless, as Thomas O'Brien had been working with John Martin.
The man was immediately the number one suspect and found to have pledged the timepiece at a pawnbroker's and fined 20 shillings.
A national ballot of striking miners over an offer of improved pay and conditions took place this week but St Helens workers decisively rejected it.
For example, only 30 men voted in favour at Clock Face Colliery with 900 rejecting it and only 40 were in favour at Bold Colliery, with 1,200 rejections.
It was suggested that the men were presently making so much money selling crop coal that they wanted the strike to continue!
Of course, not everyone was prospering, with many families suffering badly through the strike.
It won't be until January 2022 that the details of the near-38 million individuals who participated in the 1921 census will be released by Findmypast – who hold the exclusive rights.
The Echo accompanied one enumerator in a poor area of Liverpool who needed to collect 400 forms by the evening and had begun his round at 8:30am.
By 10:30am the reporter was surprised to find some people still in bed. "I have to call back as many as four times on occasion", explained the enumerator.
"This is my third census collection, and I know what it is. The people have no idea of discipline, and many are quite indifferent as to whether the papers are filled in or not.
"Matters are not so bad this year as formerly. Army experience has made a great difference.
"The most striking fact is that foreigners are far more careful than our own people; they fill in the forms with the most scrupulous care and exactness."
One woman ran across the street to hand the enumerator her form as she said she was on her way out to the "scabby clinic" – that, apparently, was the slang name for scabies!
The census would reveal that there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens with 27% of the male workforce employed in mining.
These worked at a dozen collieries: Alexandra, Ashtons Green, Bold, Clock Face, Collins Green, Havanah, Lea Green, Ravenhead, Sherdley, Southport, Sutton Heath and Sutton Manor.
Those who worked in glassmaking comprised 13.6% and railway & transport workers made up 5% and 6.7% metal.
The horrible chemical industry never employed huge numbers of workers but its 1.4% figure in 1921 shows that it was finally on its way out of the town, leaving as one doctor put it:
"… the terrible slag heaps of waste chemicals, the odour, and the bad chests in the male population."
As for women 25% of women at work in St Helens were in some form of personal service (mainly domestic service – 1,400 out of 2,200), 8.4% in glassmaking, 16% in commerce and 8% clerks.
The number of employed women was 8,170 with 28,000 women without a job recognised by the census.
Only 24% of women had jobs in St Helens in 1921. Barrow-in-Furness was the only place in Lancashire with more women without jobs. That was largely through the lack of textile mills in St Helens.
I expect William Burns will appear on the census as a "guest" of St Helens police after spending much of the weekend in a lock up.
He appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 20th charged with assaulting the police.
The incident had occurred on the previous Saturday night, which was always a perilous time for the bobbies to make arrests on the streets, as drunks would often intervene and try to free their prisoners.
Constables Fairless and Surgeon had been arresting a woman for being drunk and disorderly in the town centre when Burns and another man decided to interfere.
The pair began kicking the policemen and although the other man was overpowered and locked up, Burns managed to get away.
He later met PC Johnson in Bridge Street and foolishly boasted to him how he had been knocking the police about "like skittles".
So as a result of his confession, he was arrested and in court was sent to prison for one month with hard labour.
The magistrates told Burns that if it had not been but for the fact that it was his first appearance before the Bench, the sentence would have been six months.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Liverpool Echo that caught my eye this week concerned the postal service, which was now under much scrutiny after the abolition of the Sunday delivery service and increase in some prices.
People were then spoiled with regards to the post and expected letters bearing local addresses that had been mailed in the morning or early afternoon to be delivered on the same day.
The Echo had sent out a number of test letters and was particularly miffed that one collected from a pillar-box at 2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon had not reached its destination on that same day. Shocking service!
The critical piece was published under the headline "The Wobbly Post – Eccentricities Of Delivery Unexplained":
"Inquiries in official quarters to-day regarding the delay in the delivery of a test-letter posted in Seacombe at 1.30 on Saturday afternoon and delivered at the “Echo” office in Liverpool only at 11.30 on Monday morning, elicited the statement that there was no delay so far as Wallasey was concerned.
"The letter would have been collected at 2.30, and sent in due course to Liverpool, but it was seemingly too late (why was not explained) for delivery that [Saturday] afternoon.
"Asked why, even in these circumstances, the letter was not in the first delivery on Monday morning, the official said he could only suppose there had been a block in the Liverpool G.P.O. through the last-minute rush of commercial houses and others to get through their circulars while the halfpenny postage rate still held good.
"Our representative next produced a postcard and a letter which had been delivered together this morning [Tuesday] at his Liscard residence.
"Both were from the same Yorkshire town, one posted on Saturday night and the other last night [Monday] – forty-eight hours apart – and delivered together!
"No explanation for this could be given. The only information elicited was that there had been no delay in the Wallasey office."
Next week's stories will include Beecham's claim that taking their pills makes people cheerful, the St Helens coroner grumbles about the post being slow, a judge makes a vow in St Helens County Court and the inaugural St Helens Police Sports are held.