IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (15 - 21 MAY 1923)
This week's many stories include the compensation award for losing fingers in a Cotham Street corn works, Sanger's Circus and wild animal menagerie comes to St Helens, the thorny question of bank holiday pay for Corporation workers and the horse carrying fruit and veg in Napier Street that trembled with pain.
We begin on the 16th when a girl named Alice Gething of Elliot Street in St Helens was charged with stealing purses from customers in a grocer's shop. The thirteen-year-old was placed on probation.
Compensation payments for injuries were not usually paid out as lump sums – but as weekly payments, which were reduced when the claimant was passed fit for work. Alice Losh of Pigot Street had lost three fingers while employed at Joseph Appleton's corn merchants in Cotham Street. On the 16th at St Helens County Court in East Street, an application was made to review Miss Losh's compensation now that she was returning to her job. The corn dealer would be paying the 26-year-old wages of 15 shillings a week and Judge Dowdall decided that a compensation payment of 7s 6d should be added.
Alice's solicitor asked for £800 as her total compensation award but she had to settle for £350. Perhaps the young woman was only working part-time, as a wage of 15 shillings a week would have been very low. But what tended to happen was that injured workers that went back to their jobs were given lower paid work than before they had their accident. And so with the compensation payments that they received while at home also being reduced, overall when they returned to work they tended to be not much better off financially.
Things were improving in the way of holiday pay for workers – but not by much and not in a uniform manner. Traditionally workers were only paid for the work that they actually did and bank holidays came with a penalty. It was a welcome day off from hard labours but a day's pay was lost. However, at the council's Highways Committee meeting on the 16th, a letter was read out from the flaggers and pavers that were employed by the Corporation. They were asking for payment for holidays – but not so that they could spend a week or two at the seaside. Those days were still some way off.
The men were requesting to be paid for the six bank holidays on which they could put their feet up. But the Borough Engineer told the meeting that they were paid by the hour and not entitled to holiday pay, unlike waged labourers. Hourly-paid workers in the private sector also received no holiday pay but within the different departments of St Helens Corporation different rules applied. So it was decided that the matter would be referred to the council's Parliamentary Committee for them to come up with a standard rule on holiday pay for all departments to observe.
Suicide might be illegal 100 years ago but it was still rampant – particularly in the post-war years. Also on the 16th an inquest was held on miner John Meadows of Herbert Street in Sutton. The 38-year-old had been employed as a hewer or coal digger at Collins Green Colliery but had been ill for eight weeks.
His wife Lydia had left the house for a while and upon returning was told by her children that they'd heard a noise upstairs. Mrs Meadows went to investigate and found that the front bedroom door could not be opened. Two men managed to get in and found the husband dead with a piece of a clothesline round his neck.
During the evening of the 16th the St Helens Referees Society held their annual meeting in which it was decided that sessions would be organised for them to discuss the "knotty points of the game". That game was association football and even with VAR today there are still plenty of knotty points!
"Come To The Greatest Show In The World", was the boastful invitation in adverts for Lord John Sanger's circus when it played St Helens on the 17th. These were some of the promised acts: "Pimpo as Tarzan of the Apes; Sanger's £10,000 herd of trained elephants; the acrobatic equestrians; the illuminated riding and dancing act; Sanger's world-famous sea-lions; Lone Face and his troupe of North American Indians; the football elephants; sensational flying act and giant snakes etc."
The location was not specified in the advert but Sanger's had previously housed their show on wasteland in Peasley Cross near the hospital. There were two performances on the day before the show moved on to Leigh. One of the lesser-known facts about WW1 was the use of elephants in agriculture and industry to replace horses requisitioned by the military. Sanger's elephants had spent four years engaged in such war work in England.
On the 19th Thomas Callaghan – a man with 39 convictions to his name – pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to stealing five cockerels and ducks valued at 34 shillings from West Park Nurseries in Prescot Road. The offences had occurred in December 1921 and the court had dealt with Callaghan’s accomplice some time ago – but he had absconded. Callaghan was sentenced to 28 days hard labour.
Men's clothiers Balshaw Brothers of Bridge Street – run by John and Joseph Balshaw – always seemed obsessed with the shapes of items that they sold. They regularly advertised the "newest shapes" of straw hats and in the Reporter on the 18th said they had "all the latest shapes in soft collars". I wonder how many shapes there were apart from round? "Golf hose in the newest shades" and the "latest London neckwear" were also available to buy.
The motor revolution largely bypassed the street trader. Such vehicles were too expensive for hawkers and so horses continued as their main means of transport. But just like motor transport, horses had running and maintenance costs and for nags these could include veterinary bills. However, the one-person operation would likely only have one horse and if that went lame or developed sores there was a strong temptation to use it as normal. Working the animal brought in money while resting it and bringing in the vet cost cash.
And so hawkers and carters were regularly in court charged with working their animal in an unfit state. The Reporter described how this week James Cross from Park Road had been in the St Helens Police Court charged with such an offence. He was actually a coal miner but like many others in St Helens was on part-time and so for the rest of the week sold fruit and veg on the streets.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA gave evidence that he had met Cross in Napier Street in St Helens and asked him about the condition of the mare that he was driving. "It has got a sore back", he replied. The inspector said he removed the rug from the horse's back, which caused the animal to tremble with pain and a sore the size of a two-shilling piece was found. Inspector Hallam told Cross he was detaining his horse and instructed him to remain where he was while he found a constable to arrange the removal of the cart.
But when the inspector returned shortly afterwards, he found the man and his animal had disappeared. However, Inspector Hallam knew where he lived and later that day accompanied by PC Phillips went to Cross's stable in Park Road and told him proceedings would be brought against him. He was fined 10 shillings.
On the 19th the St Anne's Athletic Sports and Field Day was held in the Sutton Monastery Grounds (pictured above). The Reporter wrote: "With a fine sports programme, various fascinating sideshows, and other pleasant features, including, of course, the fine weather, everything went off in fine style." The "delightful dancing" of St Anne's schoolchildren was a particular highlight. On the same day the Parish Church Festival took place on the new recreation ground in Rainford Road.
On the 21st Agnes Lawley of Bentinck Street in Sutton returned to court to face a charge of shoplifting. The forty-year-old had been convicted three times previously of stealing. On one of the occasions Agnes had been summoned to the Town Hall to discuss her child's school attendance. While there she'd cheekily stolen a shawl belonging to another mother who'd been similarly summoned.
The woman had been arrested on the previous Saturday night and it was revealed in court that her exacerbated husband had refused to bail her out. As a consequence she'd had to spend the rest of the weekend in a police cell. Agnes was fined 40 shillings and if her husband refused to pay up, she may well have had to spend 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the caravan dwellers in Thatto Heath, the new houses for Sutton Manor miners, the photographic pedlar without a licence and the Silkstone Street lovers' quarrel in which a woman is slashed with a razor.
We begin on the 16th when a girl named Alice Gething of Elliot Street in St Helens was charged with stealing purses from customers in a grocer's shop. The thirteen-year-old was placed on probation.
Compensation payments for injuries were not usually paid out as lump sums – but as weekly payments, which were reduced when the claimant was passed fit for work. Alice Losh of Pigot Street had lost three fingers while employed at Joseph Appleton's corn merchants in Cotham Street. On the 16th at St Helens County Court in East Street, an application was made to review Miss Losh's compensation now that she was returning to her job. The corn dealer would be paying the 26-year-old wages of 15 shillings a week and Judge Dowdall decided that a compensation payment of 7s 6d should be added.
Alice's solicitor asked for £800 as her total compensation award but she had to settle for £350. Perhaps the young woman was only working part-time, as a wage of 15 shillings a week would have been very low. But what tended to happen was that injured workers that went back to their jobs were given lower paid work than before they had their accident. And so with the compensation payments that they received while at home also being reduced, overall when they returned to work they tended to be not much better off financially.
Things were improving in the way of holiday pay for workers – but not by much and not in a uniform manner. Traditionally workers were only paid for the work that they actually did and bank holidays came with a penalty. It was a welcome day off from hard labours but a day's pay was lost. However, at the council's Highways Committee meeting on the 16th, a letter was read out from the flaggers and pavers that were employed by the Corporation. They were asking for payment for holidays – but not so that they could spend a week or two at the seaside. Those days were still some way off.
The men were requesting to be paid for the six bank holidays on which they could put their feet up. But the Borough Engineer told the meeting that they were paid by the hour and not entitled to holiday pay, unlike waged labourers. Hourly-paid workers in the private sector also received no holiday pay but within the different departments of St Helens Corporation different rules applied. So it was decided that the matter would be referred to the council's Parliamentary Committee for them to come up with a standard rule on holiday pay for all departments to observe.
Suicide might be illegal 100 years ago but it was still rampant – particularly in the post-war years. Also on the 16th an inquest was held on miner John Meadows of Herbert Street in Sutton. The 38-year-old had been employed as a hewer or coal digger at Collins Green Colliery but had been ill for eight weeks.
His wife Lydia had left the house for a while and upon returning was told by her children that they'd heard a noise upstairs. Mrs Meadows went to investigate and found that the front bedroom door could not be opened. Two men managed to get in and found the husband dead with a piece of a clothesline round his neck.
During the evening of the 16th the St Helens Referees Society held their annual meeting in which it was decided that sessions would be organised for them to discuss the "knotty points of the game". That game was association football and even with VAR today there are still plenty of knotty points!
"Come To The Greatest Show In The World", was the boastful invitation in adverts for Lord John Sanger's circus when it played St Helens on the 17th. These were some of the promised acts: "Pimpo as Tarzan of the Apes; Sanger's £10,000 herd of trained elephants; the acrobatic equestrians; the illuminated riding and dancing act; Sanger's world-famous sea-lions; Lone Face and his troupe of North American Indians; the football elephants; sensational flying act and giant snakes etc."
The location was not specified in the advert but Sanger's had previously housed their show on wasteland in Peasley Cross near the hospital. There were two performances on the day before the show moved on to Leigh. One of the lesser-known facts about WW1 was the use of elephants in agriculture and industry to replace horses requisitioned by the military. Sanger's elephants had spent four years engaged in such war work in England.
On the 19th Thomas Callaghan – a man with 39 convictions to his name – pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to stealing five cockerels and ducks valued at 34 shillings from West Park Nurseries in Prescot Road. The offences had occurred in December 1921 and the court had dealt with Callaghan’s accomplice some time ago – but he had absconded. Callaghan was sentenced to 28 days hard labour.
Men's clothiers Balshaw Brothers of Bridge Street – run by John and Joseph Balshaw – always seemed obsessed with the shapes of items that they sold. They regularly advertised the "newest shapes" of straw hats and in the Reporter on the 18th said they had "all the latest shapes in soft collars". I wonder how many shapes there were apart from round? "Golf hose in the newest shades" and the "latest London neckwear" were also available to buy.
The motor revolution largely bypassed the street trader. Such vehicles were too expensive for hawkers and so horses continued as their main means of transport. But just like motor transport, horses had running and maintenance costs and for nags these could include veterinary bills. However, the one-person operation would likely only have one horse and if that went lame or developed sores there was a strong temptation to use it as normal. Working the animal brought in money while resting it and bringing in the vet cost cash.
And so hawkers and carters were regularly in court charged with working their animal in an unfit state. The Reporter described how this week James Cross from Park Road had been in the St Helens Police Court charged with such an offence. He was actually a coal miner but like many others in St Helens was on part-time and so for the rest of the week sold fruit and veg on the streets.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA gave evidence that he had met Cross in Napier Street in St Helens and asked him about the condition of the mare that he was driving. "It has got a sore back", he replied. The inspector said he removed the rug from the horse's back, which caused the animal to tremble with pain and a sore the size of a two-shilling piece was found. Inspector Hallam told Cross he was detaining his horse and instructed him to remain where he was while he found a constable to arrange the removal of the cart.
But when the inspector returned shortly afterwards, he found the man and his animal had disappeared. However, Inspector Hallam knew where he lived and later that day accompanied by PC Phillips went to Cross's stable in Park Road and told him proceedings would be brought against him. He was fined 10 shillings.
On the 21st Agnes Lawley of Bentinck Street in Sutton returned to court to face a charge of shoplifting. The forty-year-old had been convicted three times previously of stealing. On one of the occasions Agnes had been summoned to the Town Hall to discuss her child's school attendance. While there she'd cheekily stolen a shawl belonging to another mother who'd been similarly summoned.
The woman had been arrested on the previous Saturday night and it was revealed in court that her exacerbated husband had refused to bail her out. As a consequence she'd had to spend the rest of the weekend in a police cell. Agnes was fined 40 shillings and if her husband refused to pay up, she may well have had to spend 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the caravan dwellers in Thatto Heath, the new houses for Sutton Manor miners, the photographic pedlar without a licence and the Silkstone Street lovers' quarrel in which a woman is slashed with a razor.
This week's many stories include the compensation award for losing fingers in a Cotham Street corn works, Sanger's Circus and wild animal menagerie comes to St Helens, the thorny question of bank holiday pay for Corporation workers and the horse carrying fruit and veg in Napier Street that trembled with pain.
We begin on the 16th when a girl named Alice Gething of Elliot Street in St Helens was charged with stealing purses from customers in a grocer's shop. The thirteen-year-old was placed on probation.
Compensation payments for injuries were not usually paid out as lump sums – but as weekly payments, which were reduced when the claimant was passed fit for work.
Alice Losh of Pigot Street had lost three fingers while employed at Joseph Appleton's corn merchants in Cotham Street.
On the 16th at St Helens County Court in East Street, an application was made to review Miss Losh's compensation now that she was returning to her job.
The corn dealer would be paying the 26-year-old wages of 15 shillings a week and Judge Dowdall decided that a compensation payment of 7s 6d should be added.
Alice's solicitor asked for £800 as her total compensation award but she had to settle for £350.
Perhaps the young woman was only working part-time, as a wage of 15 shillings a week would have been very low.
But what tended to happen was that injured workers that went back to their jobs were given lower paid work than before they had their accident.
And so with the compensation payments that they received while at home also being reduced, overall when they returned to work they tended to be not much better off financially.
Things were improving in the way of holiday pay for workers – but not by much and not in a uniform manner.
Traditionally workers were only paid for the work that they actually did and bank holidays came with a penalty. It was a welcome day off from hard labours but a day's pay was lost.
However, at the council's Highways Committee meeting on the 16th, a letter was read out from the flaggers and pavers that were employed by the Corporation.
They were asking for payment for holidays – but not so that they could spend a week or two at the seaside. Those days were still some way off.
The men were requesting to be paid for the six bank holidays on which they could put their feet up.
But the Borough Engineer told the meeting that they were paid by the hour and not entitled to holiday pay, unlike waged labourers.
Hourly-paid workers in the private sector also received no holiday pay but within the different departments of St Helens Corporation different rules applied.
So it was decided that the matter would be referred to the council's Parliamentary Committee for them to come up with a standard rule on holiday pay for all departments to observe.
Suicide might be illegal 100 years ago but it was still rampant – particularly in the post-war years.
Also on the 16th an inquest was held on miner John Meadows of Herbert Street in Sutton.
The 38-year-old had been employed as a hewer or coal digger at Collins Green Colliery but had been ill for eight weeks.
His wife Lydia had left the house for a while and upon returning was told by her children that they'd heard a noise upstairs.
Mrs Meadows went to investigate and found that the front bedroom door could not be opened.
Two men managed to get in and found the husband dead with a piece of a clothesline round his neck.
During the evening of the 16th the St Helens Referees Society held their annual meeting in which it was decided that sessions would be organised for them to discuss the "knotty points of the game".
That game was association football and even with VAR today there are still plenty of knotty points!
"Come To The Greatest Show In The World", was the boastful invitation in adverts for Lord John Sanger's circus when it played St Helens on the 17th. These were some of the promised acts:
"Pimpo as Tarzan of the Apes; Sanger's £10,000 herd of trained elephants; the acrobatic equestrians; the illuminated riding and dancing act; Sanger's world-famous sea-lions; Lone Face and his troupe of North American Indians; the football elephants; sensational flying act and giant snakes etc."
The location was not specified in the advert but Sanger's had previously housed their show on wasteland in Peasley Cross near the hospital. There were two performances on the day before the show moved on to Leigh.
One of the lesser-known facts about WW1 was the use of elephants in agriculture and industry to replace horses requisitioned by the military. Sanger's elephants had spent four years engaged in such war work in England.
On the 19th Thomas Callaghan – a man with 39 convictions to his name – pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to stealing five cockerels and ducks valued at 34 shillings from West Park Nurseries in Prescot Road.
The offences had occurred in December 1921 and the court had dealt with Callaghan’s accomplice some time ago – but he had absconded. Callaghan was sentenced to 28 days hard labour.
Men's clothiers Balshaw Brothers of Bridge Street – run by John and Joseph Balshaw – always seemed obsessed with the shapes of items that they sold.
They regularly advertised the "newest shapes" of straw hats and in the Reporter on the 18th said they had "all the latest shapes in soft collars". I wonder how many shapes there were apart from round?
"Golf hose in the newest shades" and the "latest London neckwear" were also available to buy.
The motor revolution largely bypassed the street trader. Such vehicles were too expensive for hawkers and so horses continued as their main means of transport.
But just like motor transport, horses had running and maintenance costs and for nags these could include veterinary bills.
However, the one-person operation would likely only have one horse and if that went lame or developed sores there was a strong temptation to use it as normal.
Working the animal brought in money while resting it and bringing in the vet cost cash.
And so hawkers and carters were regularly in court charged with working their animal in an unfit state.
The Reporter described how this week James Cross from Park Road had been in the St Helens Police Court charged with such an offence.
He was actually a coal miner but like many others in St Helens was on part-time and so for the rest of the week sold fruit and veg on the streets.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA gave evidence that he had met Cross in Napier Street in St Helens and asked him about the condition of the mare that he was driving.
"It has got a sore back", he replied. The inspector said he removed the rug from the horse's back, which caused the animal to tremble with pain and a sore the size of a two-shilling piece was found.
Inspector Hallam told Cross he was detaining his horse and instructed him to remain where he was while he found a constable to arrange the removal of the cart.
But when the inspector returned shortly afterwards, he found the man and his animal had disappeared.
However, Inspector Hallam knew where he lived and later that day accompanied by PC Phillips went to Cross's stable in Park Road and told him proceedings would be brought against him. He was fined 10 shillings.
On the 19th the St Anne's Athletic Sports and Field Day was held in the Sutton Monastery Grounds (pictured above). The Reporter wrote:
"With a fine sports programme, various fascinating sideshows, and other pleasant features, including, of course, the fine weather, everything went off in fine style."
The "delightful dancing" of St Anne's schoolchildren was a particular highlight.
On the same day the Parish Church Festival took place on the new recreation ground in Rainford Road.
On the 21st Agnes Lawley of Bentinck Street in Sutton returned to court to face a charge of shoplifting.
The forty-year-old had been convicted three times previously of stealing.
On one of the occasions Agnes had been summoned to the Town Hall to discuss her child's school attendance. While there she'd cheekily stolen a shawl belonging to another mother who'd been similarly summoned.
The woman had been arrested on the previous Saturday night and it was revealed in court that her exacerbated husband had refused to bail her out. As a consequence she'd had to spend the rest of the weekend in a police cell.
Agnes was fined 40 shillings and if her husband refused to pay up, she may well have had to spend 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the caravan dwellers in Thatto Heath, the new houses for Sutton Manor miners, the photographic pedlar without a licence and the Silkstone Street lovers' quarrel in which a woman is slashed with a razor.
We begin on the 16th when a girl named Alice Gething of Elliot Street in St Helens was charged with stealing purses from customers in a grocer's shop. The thirteen-year-old was placed on probation.
Compensation payments for injuries were not usually paid out as lump sums – but as weekly payments, which were reduced when the claimant was passed fit for work.
Alice Losh of Pigot Street had lost three fingers while employed at Joseph Appleton's corn merchants in Cotham Street.
On the 16th at St Helens County Court in East Street, an application was made to review Miss Losh's compensation now that she was returning to her job.
The corn dealer would be paying the 26-year-old wages of 15 shillings a week and Judge Dowdall decided that a compensation payment of 7s 6d should be added.
Alice's solicitor asked for £800 as her total compensation award but she had to settle for £350.
Perhaps the young woman was only working part-time, as a wage of 15 shillings a week would have been very low.
But what tended to happen was that injured workers that went back to their jobs were given lower paid work than before they had their accident.
And so with the compensation payments that they received while at home also being reduced, overall when they returned to work they tended to be not much better off financially.
Things were improving in the way of holiday pay for workers – but not by much and not in a uniform manner.
Traditionally workers were only paid for the work that they actually did and bank holidays came with a penalty. It was a welcome day off from hard labours but a day's pay was lost.
However, at the council's Highways Committee meeting on the 16th, a letter was read out from the flaggers and pavers that were employed by the Corporation.
They were asking for payment for holidays – but not so that they could spend a week or two at the seaside. Those days were still some way off.
The men were requesting to be paid for the six bank holidays on which they could put their feet up.
But the Borough Engineer told the meeting that they were paid by the hour and not entitled to holiday pay, unlike waged labourers.
Hourly-paid workers in the private sector also received no holiday pay but within the different departments of St Helens Corporation different rules applied.
So it was decided that the matter would be referred to the council's Parliamentary Committee for them to come up with a standard rule on holiday pay for all departments to observe.
Suicide might be illegal 100 years ago but it was still rampant – particularly in the post-war years.
Also on the 16th an inquest was held on miner John Meadows of Herbert Street in Sutton.
The 38-year-old had been employed as a hewer or coal digger at Collins Green Colliery but had been ill for eight weeks.
His wife Lydia had left the house for a while and upon returning was told by her children that they'd heard a noise upstairs.
Mrs Meadows went to investigate and found that the front bedroom door could not be opened.
Two men managed to get in and found the husband dead with a piece of a clothesline round his neck.
During the evening of the 16th the St Helens Referees Society held their annual meeting in which it was decided that sessions would be organised for them to discuss the "knotty points of the game".
That game was association football and even with VAR today there are still plenty of knotty points!
"Come To The Greatest Show In The World", was the boastful invitation in adverts for Lord John Sanger's circus when it played St Helens on the 17th. These were some of the promised acts:
"Pimpo as Tarzan of the Apes; Sanger's £10,000 herd of trained elephants; the acrobatic equestrians; the illuminated riding and dancing act; Sanger's world-famous sea-lions; Lone Face and his troupe of North American Indians; the football elephants; sensational flying act and giant snakes etc."
The location was not specified in the advert but Sanger's had previously housed their show on wasteland in Peasley Cross near the hospital. There were two performances on the day before the show moved on to Leigh.
One of the lesser-known facts about WW1 was the use of elephants in agriculture and industry to replace horses requisitioned by the military. Sanger's elephants had spent four years engaged in such war work in England.
On the 19th Thomas Callaghan – a man with 39 convictions to his name – pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to stealing five cockerels and ducks valued at 34 shillings from West Park Nurseries in Prescot Road.
The offences had occurred in December 1921 and the court had dealt with Callaghan’s accomplice some time ago – but he had absconded. Callaghan was sentenced to 28 days hard labour.
Men's clothiers Balshaw Brothers of Bridge Street – run by John and Joseph Balshaw – always seemed obsessed with the shapes of items that they sold.
They regularly advertised the "newest shapes" of straw hats and in the Reporter on the 18th said they had "all the latest shapes in soft collars". I wonder how many shapes there were apart from round?
"Golf hose in the newest shades" and the "latest London neckwear" were also available to buy.
The motor revolution largely bypassed the street trader. Such vehicles were too expensive for hawkers and so horses continued as their main means of transport.
But just like motor transport, horses had running and maintenance costs and for nags these could include veterinary bills.
However, the one-person operation would likely only have one horse and if that went lame or developed sores there was a strong temptation to use it as normal.
Working the animal brought in money while resting it and bringing in the vet cost cash.
And so hawkers and carters were regularly in court charged with working their animal in an unfit state.
The Reporter described how this week James Cross from Park Road had been in the St Helens Police Court charged with such an offence.
He was actually a coal miner but like many others in St Helens was on part-time and so for the rest of the week sold fruit and veg on the streets.
Inspector Hallam of the RSPCA gave evidence that he had met Cross in Napier Street in St Helens and asked him about the condition of the mare that he was driving.
"It has got a sore back", he replied. The inspector said he removed the rug from the horse's back, which caused the animal to tremble with pain and a sore the size of a two-shilling piece was found.
Inspector Hallam told Cross he was detaining his horse and instructed him to remain where he was while he found a constable to arrange the removal of the cart.
But when the inspector returned shortly afterwards, he found the man and his animal had disappeared.
However, Inspector Hallam knew where he lived and later that day accompanied by PC Phillips went to Cross's stable in Park Road and told him proceedings would be brought against him. He was fined 10 shillings.
"With a fine sports programme, various fascinating sideshows, and other pleasant features, including, of course, the fine weather, everything went off in fine style."
The "delightful dancing" of St Anne's schoolchildren was a particular highlight.
On the same day the Parish Church Festival took place on the new recreation ground in Rainford Road.
On the 21st Agnes Lawley of Bentinck Street in Sutton returned to court to face a charge of shoplifting.
The forty-year-old had been convicted three times previously of stealing.
On one of the occasions Agnes had been summoned to the Town Hall to discuss her child's school attendance. While there she'd cheekily stolen a shawl belonging to another mother who'd been similarly summoned.
The woman had been arrested on the previous Saturday night and it was revealed in court that her exacerbated husband had refused to bail her out. As a consequence she'd had to spend the rest of the weekend in a police cell.
Agnes was fined 40 shillings and if her husband refused to pay up, she may well have had to spend 28 days in prison.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the caravan dwellers in Thatto Heath, the new houses for Sutton Manor miners, the photographic pedlar without a licence and the Silkstone Street lovers' quarrel in which a woman is slashed with a razor.