IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (15th - 21st April 1919)
This week's stories include the man from Thatto Heath who refused to work, Easter in St Helens, an allegation of rape of a married woman, why St Helens' councillors chose not to raise the school leaving age, a proposal to ban Sunday funerals and why there had been a big improvement in school attendance in the town.
We start on the 16th when a man called John Smith appeared in St Helens Police Court accused of child neglect through refusing to work and support his family. The 35-year-old from Parliament Street in Thatto Heath had been discharged from the army at the end of December 1918 after undertaking nine months' military service.
Since then Smith – a mine labourer by trade – had simply refused to do any work. Initially the family lived on his army demobilisation pay but by early March the family had to be kept by small allowances provided by the NSPCC. The Society had offices in Croppers Hill run by Inspector Cooper who told the Bench that he'd received numerous excuses from Smith for not working, included having a bad back.
The man had had an offer of work at a coal mine but never turned up and at one point Smith's wife had to pawn her shawl for food. Ten days earlier Inspector Cooper said he found the family to be destitute and so had to make arrangements to provide food himself.
He told the Bench that he had "talked to the defendant like a father, and begged of him to go to work". However it was to no avail – Smith simply would not budge. Two days before the court hearing, the inspector had called round again and found nothing in the house, apart from a quarter pound of dry bread that someone had given them.
Mary Smith gave evidence that her husband had told her that he had finished work for good and did not intend to do any more. John Smith blamed his wife, saying: "I have not worked because she brought Mr. Cooper [of the NSPCC] to me. She brought Mr. Cooper to me before she had any need to do."
To that the Chairman of the Bench, Cllr. William Collier, said: "She had a right to complain if you did not provide her and the children with food." He added that it was a "disgraceful thing for a man to leave his wife and children dependent on charity or doles. If you are going to take that stand there is nothing for it but to make you work. You will have to go to gaol for three months at hard labour."
However this wasn't Smith's first prison sentence as he had been given three months in December 1917 for "neglecting to provide the necessaries of life for his children". Evidence was then given that the man had not worked for six weeks and his neighbours had been forced to feed his kids.
Also on the 16th the council's Parks and Cemetery Committee considered a request from the Vicar of St Helens and from undertakers to ban Sunday funerals. Many workers did not want to lose pay by taking time off to go to funerals during the week and so Saturday afternoons and Sundays were more convenient times. The committee decided to find out how many funerals took place on the Sabbath and what the position was in other towns and adjourned the matter to a future meeting.
A councillor proposed a motion to have bands playing in the parks during the summer once again. However the cost had not been budgeted in the current financial year but would be included in 1920.
The residents of Moss Nook had long suffered from flooding but finally help appeared to be at hand. On the 16th at a meeting of the Highways Committee in the Town Hall, the Borough Surveyor said he had designed a scheme to alleviate the problem with details to be provided later.
The monthly meeting of the School Attendance Committee was also held this week at the Town Hall, in which members were told that 20,042 pupils were enrolled in the elementary schools. The level of attendance last month had been 90%, up from 82% in the corresponding month last year. A new initiative by Dr Joseph Cates was given the credit for the improvement.
He was the St Helens Medical Officer, who did much to improve the health of the town. Dr Cates had arranged for nurses to visit the town's schools every morning. If they found that a pupil had been absent for three days, they would then visit the child at home. Children thought to be at risk of coming into contact with infectious diseases were also being monitored rather than automatically excluded from school.
The committee also considered a resolution passed by a conference organised by the Workers Educational Association that called for the compulsory education of children in St Helens up to the age of 15. The committee had the power to pass a by-law that would increase the school leaving age. However the chairman, Cllr. William Collier, was not convinced:
"I don't think we ought to take it upon ourselves to be the first people in the country to extend the age. I think it quite long enough for a parent to have to keep a child at school until it is fourteen." Although school attendance until the age of 14 had been a legal requirement since 1900, there were exemptions available and parents could apply for a certificate that allowed their child to leave at 13.
The inquest on Audrey Talbot was held on the 17th at St Helens Hospital. The 15-year-old from West Street in Thatto Heath had died while in her employment with baker John Brown. The pair was making a bread delivery when in Elton Head Road in Sutton Heath their van toppled over into a field and both occupants were thrown out. John Brown had a lucky escape but young Audrey passed under the van and suffered internal injuries and died later in hospital.
The St Helens branch of the NSPCC reported this week that during March they had investigated 16 cases in the town involving 47 children.
It was Good Friday on the 18th – which meant all the cinemas and theatres had to close. However Saints were allowed to play Widnes in the Northern Union League, as it was then known. They won 16 - 10 at Knowsley Road but St Helens Recs were thrashed 47 - 11 by Wigan at Central Park.
The St Helens Reporter described the Easter weather as "delightful", with the town waking up to "brilliant sunshine" on Good Friday morning, which continued throughout the weekend.
Locals were reported as having discarded their overcoats for the first time since winter and some were putting on their straw hats. However Easter eggs – both the ordinary and chocolate varieties – were expensive and scarce and many children had to do without.
The Reporter wrote that the Easter Sunday services at the Parish Church: "were of an especially inspiring character, and there were unusually large congregations." The services were not actually held at the church as that had suffered a serious fire in December 1916 and instead the congregation met in the assembly room of the Town Hall.
Train services had been curtailed during the war and normal schedules had yet to be restored. Fares had also become expensive, with no excursion rates available on Easter Monday.
However the Reporter wrote: "a great many people travelled afield, not withstanding, and such was the crush of people by the 12.30 noon train on Monday for Liverpool that, although it was a long train, a fair number of people were left behind, unable to get even standing room."
Easter was also when the bowling greens in St Helens re-opened for the season and the Reporter wrote: "the members of the fraternity had a delightful time". Some businesses had shut their doors from Thursday evening to Tuesday morning. However on the Tuesday there was "still much of the holiday spirit in the air" and a number remained closed.
Playing at the Hippodrome for a week from the 21st were: Miss Alice Craven ("The Lancashire lass in character songs"); Tom Franks ("Ventriloquist"); Lily Denville ("Wooden shoe dancer"); Aston and Welsh ("Comedy acrobats"); Buson ("Wonderful boy musician"); The Amourgis Duo ("In their unique vocal and instrumental act") and The Orpheus Trio ("Quaint and humorous").
Rape appears to have been considered a more serious crime if the victim was married. On the 21st Elizabeth Taylor claimed that a man called Richard Sanders from Lyon Street had raped her. Two days later Sanders appeared in court charged with committing a rape on a married woman. The police requested a remand in custody to allow time for further investigations.
The accused's solicitor asked for bail, saying his client was a discharged soldier who attended Pilkington's Special Hospital for Wounded Soldiers in Borough Road as an outpatient.
He added that Sanders was a respectable man and his father and brother would stand as sureties for him. However the Chief Constable said: "I most strongly oppose bail in a case of rape" and the man was remanded in custody for a week.
And finally Rainford Council met on the 21st and discussed the housing situation. Councillor Joseph Allen said there was a shortage of houses everywhere, with two or three families living in some homes.
The councillors heard that Pilkingtons were planning to build some houses at Crank and the council was planning to build some of its own in Rainford. Councillor Hesketh called for workmen's houses to be erected in Bushey Lane, as most of the men in Rainford worked at the nearby colliery.
Next week's stories will include a complaint of Bolshevism in St Helens, more on the rape allegation in Lyon Street, the football nuisance in Taylor Park, a Milton Street miner is accused of GBH in the Green Dragon, a family fight in Park Road, the Frederick ice cream family are back in court, plans to rebuild St Helens Parish Church and playing pitch and toss in Bronte Street.
We start on the 16th when a man called John Smith appeared in St Helens Police Court accused of child neglect through refusing to work and support his family. The 35-year-old from Parliament Street in Thatto Heath had been discharged from the army at the end of December 1918 after undertaking nine months' military service.
Since then Smith – a mine labourer by trade – had simply refused to do any work. Initially the family lived on his army demobilisation pay but by early March the family had to be kept by small allowances provided by the NSPCC. The Society had offices in Croppers Hill run by Inspector Cooper who told the Bench that he'd received numerous excuses from Smith for not working, included having a bad back.
The man had had an offer of work at a coal mine but never turned up and at one point Smith's wife had to pawn her shawl for food. Ten days earlier Inspector Cooper said he found the family to be destitute and so had to make arrangements to provide food himself.
He told the Bench that he had "talked to the defendant like a father, and begged of him to go to work". However it was to no avail – Smith simply would not budge. Two days before the court hearing, the inspector had called round again and found nothing in the house, apart from a quarter pound of dry bread that someone had given them.
Mary Smith gave evidence that her husband had told her that he had finished work for good and did not intend to do any more. John Smith blamed his wife, saying: "I have not worked because she brought Mr. Cooper [of the NSPCC] to me. She brought Mr. Cooper to me before she had any need to do."
To that the Chairman of the Bench, Cllr. William Collier, said: "She had a right to complain if you did not provide her and the children with food." He added that it was a "disgraceful thing for a man to leave his wife and children dependent on charity or doles. If you are going to take that stand there is nothing for it but to make you work. You will have to go to gaol for three months at hard labour."
However this wasn't Smith's first prison sentence as he had been given three months in December 1917 for "neglecting to provide the necessaries of life for his children". Evidence was then given that the man had not worked for six weeks and his neighbours had been forced to feed his kids.
Also on the 16th the council's Parks and Cemetery Committee considered a request from the Vicar of St Helens and from undertakers to ban Sunday funerals. Many workers did not want to lose pay by taking time off to go to funerals during the week and so Saturday afternoons and Sundays were more convenient times. The committee decided to find out how many funerals took place on the Sabbath and what the position was in other towns and adjourned the matter to a future meeting.
A councillor proposed a motion to have bands playing in the parks during the summer once again. However the cost had not been budgeted in the current financial year but would be included in 1920.
The residents of Moss Nook had long suffered from flooding but finally help appeared to be at hand. On the 16th at a meeting of the Highways Committee in the Town Hall, the Borough Surveyor said he had designed a scheme to alleviate the problem with details to be provided later.
The monthly meeting of the School Attendance Committee was also held this week at the Town Hall, in which members were told that 20,042 pupils were enrolled in the elementary schools. The level of attendance last month had been 90%, up from 82% in the corresponding month last year. A new initiative by Dr Joseph Cates was given the credit for the improvement.
He was the St Helens Medical Officer, who did much to improve the health of the town. Dr Cates had arranged for nurses to visit the town's schools every morning. If they found that a pupil had been absent for three days, they would then visit the child at home. Children thought to be at risk of coming into contact with infectious diseases were also being monitored rather than automatically excluded from school.
The committee also considered a resolution passed by a conference organised by the Workers Educational Association that called for the compulsory education of children in St Helens up to the age of 15. The committee had the power to pass a by-law that would increase the school leaving age. However the chairman, Cllr. William Collier, was not convinced:
"I don't think we ought to take it upon ourselves to be the first people in the country to extend the age. I think it quite long enough for a parent to have to keep a child at school until it is fourteen." Although school attendance until the age of 14 had been a legal requirement since 1900, there were exemptions available and parents could apply for a certificate that allowed their child to leave at 13.
The inquest on Audrey Talbot was held on the 17th at St Helens Hospital. The 15-year-old from West Street in Thatto Heath had died while in her employment with baker John Brown. The pair was making a bread delivery when in Elton Head Road in Sutton Heath their van toppled over into a field and both occupants were thrown out. John Brown had a lucky escape but young Audrey passed under the van and suffered internal injuries and died later in hospital.
The St Helens branch of the NSPCC reported this week that during March they had investigated 16 cases in the town involving 47 children.
It was Good Friday on the 18th – which meant all the cinemas and theatres had to close. However Saints were allowed to play Widnes in the Northern Union League, as it was then known. They won 16 - 10 at Knowsley Road but St Helens Recs were thrashed 47 - 11 by Wigan at Central Park.
The St Helens Reporter described the Easter weather as "delightful", with the town waking up to "brilliant sunshine" on Good Friday morning, which continued throughout the weekend.
Locals were reported as having discarded their overcoats for the first time since winter and some were putting on their straw hats. However Easter eggs – both the ordinary and chocolate varieties – were expensive and scarce and many children had to do without.
The Reporter wrote that the Easter Sunday services at the Parish Church: "were of an especially inspiring character, and there were unusually large congregations." The services were not actually held at the church as that had suffered a serious fire in December 1916 and instead the congregation met in the assembly room of the Town Hall.
Train services had been curtailed during the war and normal schedules had yet to be restored. Fares had also become expensive, with no excursion rates available on Easter Monday.
However the Reporter wrote: "a great many people travelled afield, not withstanding, and such was the crush of people by the 12.30 noon train on Monday for Liverpool that, although it was a long train, a fair number of people were left behind, unable to get even standing room."
Easter was also when the bowling greens in St Helens re-opened for the season and the Reporter wrote: "the members of the fraternity had a delightful time". Some businesses had shut their doors from Thursday evening to Tuesday morning. However on the Tuesday there was "still much of the holiday spirit in the air" and a number remained closed.
Playing at the Hippodrome for a week from the 21st were: Miss Alice Craven ("The Lancashire lass in character songs"); Tom Franks ("Ventriloquist"); Lily Denville ("Wooden shoe dancer"); Aston and Welsh ("Comedy acrobats"); Buson ("Wonderful boy musician"); The Amourgis Duo ("In their unique vocal and instrumental act") and The Orpheus Trio ("Quaint and humorous").
Rape appears to have been considered a more serious crime if the victim was married. On the 21st Elizabeth Taylor claimed that a man called Richard Sanders from Lyon Street had raped her. Two days later Sanders appeared in court charged with committing a rape on a married woman. The police requested a remand in custody to allow time for further investigations.
The accused's solicitor asked for bail, saying his client was a discharged soldier who attended Pilkington's Special Hospital for Wounded Soldiers in Borough Road as an outpatient.
He added that Sanders was a respectable man and his father and brother would stand as sureties for him. However the Chief Constable said: "I most strongly oppose bail in a case of rape" and the man was remanded in custody for a week.
Left: Watery Lane in Sutton / Moss Nook which was regularly flooded; Right: Old Lane in Rainford where there was a housing shortage
A flooded Watery Lane in Sutton / Moss Nook and Old Lane in Rainford
Watery Lane, Moss Nook and Old Lane, Rainford
The councillors heard that Pilkingtons were planning to build some houses at Crank and the council was planning to build some of its own in Rainford. Councillor Hesketh called for workmen's houses to be erected in Bushey Lane, as most of the men in Rainford worked at the nearby colliery.
Next week's stories will include a complaint of Bolshevism in St Helens, more on the rape allegation in Lyon Street, the football nuisance in Taylor Park, a Milton Street miner is accused of GBH in the Green Dragon, a family fight in Park Road, the Frederick ice cream family are back in court, plans to rebuild St Helens Parish Church and playing pitch and toss in Bronte Street.