IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 15 - 21 JULY 1924
This week's many stories include the Parliamentary application to run trolley buses in St Helens, the delayed explosion at Sutton Heath Colliery that killed a man, the troubles of the alcoholic meths drinker, the huge popularity of Boundary Road baths and the shocking wife beating that a solicitor claimed was only a Saturday night tiff.
We begin on the 15th when another worker was killed at Sutton Heath Colliery and a second man was very seriously injured. Explosives known as shots were regularly used in mines to extend workings and occasionally they did not immediately go off. John Kinsey of Pocket Nook Street had been the fireman charged with firing two shots but one that he had placed at the foot of a rock face failed to explode. He and Thomas Tooey from Liverpool Street were in the process of drilling another hole to extract the shot when it exploded killing Kinsey and severely burning the eyes and face of Tooey.
At the St Helens Baths Committee meeting on the 16th Cllr Simm urged that the "ha’penny dip" should be reinstated at Boundary Road baths. That was, apparently, what the cost of admission had been for children to encourage them to use the Corporation baths rather than bathe in dangerous stretches of open water.
And Cllr Woodward called for bathing facilities to be provided on the outskirts of town in the Sutton and Parr district. Recently a child had died in an open pool at Parr and the coroner at the boy's inquest said if the baths had been open he probably would not have drowned.
Cllr Woodward was informed that the question of opening baths to serve the Sutton and Parr district had been discussed some years ago but their respective councillors could not agree on a site. And in any case there simply wasn't the money available to build new baths at the moment. Sutton was often discussed as a suitable location to build baths – but they never happened. And it took until the 1970s for those in Parr to be built.
It was revealed at the committee meeting that during the month of June over 22,000 people had used the baths in Boundary Road. That was virtually double the number for the same month in 1923. The increase in usage was explained by longer opening hours that the introduction of a new filtration plant had facilitated, as well as the recent good weather.
You have to feel sorry for alcoholics like James Sullivan. He was described as an electrician from Bootle who appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 16th charged with being drunk and incapable on wasteland off Rigby Street. Mr Sullivan also faced a charge of stealing 12 pairs of boys' trousers belonging to Bridget Hackett from Westfield Street. Why? Well, not even he knew.
It would be interesting to learn the age of the man and whether he had fought in the war. James was addicted to meths and had twenty convictions for assaulting the police and thefts. The former were, no doubt, when he was out of his head and if the latter were like the dozen nicked trousers, then he had no recollection of taking any of them. James Sullivan was sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour.
What became known as trolley buses were usually called "trackless trolleys" in the 1920s. On the 16th a Select Committee of the House of Commons considered the merits of a Bill that would allow St Helens Corporation to install such a trackless system of 3¼ miles in length between St Helens and Prescot, via Whiston. That would be in place of the existing tramway system.
A barrister explained to the committee that it would be very costly to relay the worn out tramlines and as the route was not particularly profitable, the Corporation wanted to substitute the tramways with the less costly trackless trolleys. Doing so, he said, would still allow them to utilise the existing overhead wiring system.
But Lancashire County Council and Whiston Rural District Council objected to the Bill. Their opposition was connected to a clause that might prevent the making good of the roads when the tramlines were removed. The Parliamentary committee subsequently decided to reserve their decision upon taking legal advice.
On the 17th the Archbishop of Liverpool laid the foundation stone for the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was set to open in 1925. Unusually for such an occasion, there was a pipers' band and dancers in attendance.
The St Helens Reporter on the 18th described a court case in which Mary Butler from Lingholme Road in St Helens charged her husband John with persistent cruelty. This was another case that in reality was an application for a separation order that, if granted, came with maintenance payments for the wife. The husband not wanting to have to fork out money for which he received no benefit – e.g. his meals not being cooked, house not cleaned or washing done etc. – would usually fight tooth and nail against the order.
The couple had married in 1915 and with their four children had lived in Corporation Street. John Butler was said to have become addicted to drink and as a result had been sacked from several jobs, including as a tram conductor and at Pilkingtons. On June 28th at 7pm he had returned home drunk and demanded to see his children but was told they had gone to bed. The Reporter then wrote:
"He grumbled at that and went upstairs presumably to see them. When he came downstairs he had a cane in his hand and he stuck his wife four times with it and asked her how she would like to go to bed at seven o’clock. When he struck her the fourth time he said, “That makes four blows.” He ordered her to bed and as she went through the door he struck her repeatedly with the cane.
"…Shortly after, defendant left the house and returned at a quarter past nine and struck complainant with his open hand in the face, and then struck her with his fist, giving her a black eye. Then he took hold of her by the throat and in order to release herself she had to bite him. She got up and complainant again got hold of her, threw her on the floor and kicked her on the left leg and told her she was in for it. She ran out carrying the baby with her and she had not been back since."
Numerous other dreadful acts of violence over the previous three years were also outlined to the court. John Butler's solicitor cross-examined Mary and attempted to make out what a good husband his client had been to her and accused her of often getting up late in the morning and leaving her husband to make his own breakfast. When Butler went into the witness box he denied that he ever got drunk and that he had struck his wife with a cane – but did admit that he might have done so with his open hand.
Despite the man's counsel claiming that what had occurred had been "only Saturday night tiffs" and asking the magistrates to give the couple an opportunity to come together again, the Bench signed the separation order. A total of 25 shillings maintenance was to be paid to Mary Butler and her four children. The magistrates also asked the court probation officer to try and get the defendant to "change his general behaviour" and make his conduct such that his wife could live with her husband again.
Under their headline of "A Rollicking Time At Albion Street – Rough And Tumble With The Police", the Reporter described how Thomas Ratchford of Fenton Street in St Helens had appeared in court on three charges of breach of the peace, assault on the police and wilfully damaging a constable's shirt to the value of 10 shillings.
One of the curious aspects of many newspaper reports of disturbances in St Helens' streets was how the arrested folk were said to have been waving their arms about. Why was never explained but PC Reid in telling the Bench about a disturbance in Albion Street, said Thomas Ratchford had been "waving his arms and using obscene language".
After rejecting the constable's advice to go home, Ratchford struck PC Reid twice and during the struggle the officer had his shirt "torn to ribbons" and his hat knocked off. When charged at the police station, the man had replied: "I have nowt to say against it". Ratchford told the Bench that he'd had a row with his brother inside his house and had gone outside to cool his temper. He was bound over for six months and fined 40 shillings, as well as told to pay the cost of the damage to PC Reid's shirt.
W. Clowes was advertising his new Baldwin Street chemist in the Reporter, writing that he "begs respectfully to announce that he has opened a pharmacy at the above address, and trusts, by courteous and personal attention, to merit a share of your patronage." That form of advertising in which the trader begged respectfully was very common during the 19th century but was becoming rare in the 1920s.
And finally, on the 20th the Parr St Peter's Prize Band gave a "sacred concert" in Victoria Park. A collection in aid of a new uniform for band members took place.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the passing through Prescot of King George V, the strange prosecution of a tram conductor outside the Sefton, Rainford Council discuss the meaning of pleasure and the man kicking, rolling and scratching in Hardshaw Street.
We begin on the 15th when another worker was killed at Sutton Heath Colliery and a second man was very seriously injured. Explosives known as shots were regularly used in mines to extend workings and occasionally they did not immediately go off. John Kinsey of Pocket Nook Street had been the fireman charged with firing two shots but one that he had placed at the foot of a rock face failed to explode. He and Thomas Tooey from Liverpool Street were in the process of drilling another hole to extract the shot when it exploded killing Kinsey and severely burning the eyes and face of Tooey.
At the St Helens Baths Committee meeting on the 16th Cllr Simm urged that the "ha’penny dip" should be reinstated at Boundary Road baths. That was, apparently, what the cost of admission had been for children to encourage them to use the Corporation baths rather than bathe in dangerous stretches of open water.
And Cllr Woodward called for bathing facilities to be provided on the outskirts of town in the Sutton and Parr district. Recently a child had died in an open pool at Parr and the coroner at the boy's inquest said if the baths had been open he probably would not have drowned.
Cllr Woodward was informed that the question of opening baths to serve the Sutton and Parr district had been discussed some years ago but their respective councillors could not agree on a site. And in any case there simply wasn't the money available to build new baths at the moment. Sutton was often discussed as a suitable location to build baths – but they never happened. And it took until the 1970s for those in Parr to be built.
It was revealed at the committee meeting that during the month of June over 22,000 people had used the baths in Boundary Road. That was virtually double the number for the same month in 1923. The increase in usage was explained by longer opening hours that the introduction of a new filtration plant had facilitated, as well as the recent good weather.
You have to feel sorry for alcoholics like James Sullivan. He was described as an electrician from Bootle who appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 16th charged with being drunk and incapable on wasteland off Rigby Street. Mr Sullivan also faced a charge of stealing 12 pairs of boys' trousers belonging to Bridget Hackett from Westfield Street. Why? Well, not even he knew.
It would be interesting to learn the age of the man and whether he had fought in the war. James was addicted to meths and had twenty convictions for assaulting the police and thefts. The former were, no doubt, when he was out of his head and if the latter were like the dozen nicked trousers, then he had no recollection of taking any of them. James Sullivan was sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour.
A barrister explained to the committee that it would be very costly to relay the worn out tramlines and as the route was not particularly profitable, the Corporation wanted to substitute the tramways with the less costly trackless trolleys. Doing so, he said, would still allow them to utilise the existing overhead wiring system.
But Lancashire County Council and Whiston Rural District Council objected to the Bill. Their opposition was connected to a clause that might prevent the making good of the roads when the tramlines were removed. The Parliamentary committee subsequently decided to reserve their decision upon taking legal advice.
On the 17th the Archbishop of Liverpool laid the foundation stone for the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was set to open in 1925. Unusually for such an occasion, there was a pipers' band and dancers in attendance.
The St Helens Reporter on the 18th described a court case in which Mary Butler from Lingholme Road in St Helens charged her husband John with persistent cruelty. This was another case that in reality was an application for a separation order that, if granted, came with maintenance payments for the wife. The husband not wanting to have to fork out money for which he received no benefit – e.g. his meals not being cooked, house not cleaned or washing done etc. – would usually fight tooth and nail against the order.
The couple had married in 1915 and with their four children had lived in Corporation Street. John Butler was said to have become addicted to drink and as a result had been sacked from several jobs, including as a tram conductor and at Pilkingtons. On June 28th at 7pm he had returned home drunk and demanded to see his children but was told they had gone to bed. The Reporter then wrote:
"He grumbled at that and went upstairs presumably to see them. When he came downstairs he had a cane in his hand and he stuck his wife four times with it and asked her how she would like to go to bed at seven o’clock. When he struck her the fourth time he said, “That makes four blows.” He ordered her to bed and as she went through the door he struck her repeatedly with the cane.
"…Shortly after, defendant left the house and returned at a quarter past nine and struck complainant with his open hand in the face, and then struck her with his fist, giving her a black eye. Then he took hold of her by the throat and in order to release herself she had to bite him. She got up and complainant again got hold of her, threw her on the floor and kicked her on the left leg and told her she was in for it. She ran out carrying the baby with her and she had not been back since."
Numerous other dreadful acts of violence over the previous three years were also outlined to the court. John Butler's solicitor cross-examined Mary and attempted to make out what a good husband his client had been to her and accused her of often getting up late in the morning and leaving her husband to make his own breakfast. When Butler went into the witness box he denied that he ever got drunk and that he had struck his wife with a cane – but did admit that he might have done so with his open hand.
Despite the man's counsel claiming that what had occurred had been "only Saturday night tiffs" and asking the magistrates to give the couple an opportunity to come together again, the Bench signed the separation order. A total of 25 shillings maintenance was to be paid to Mary Butler and her four children. The magistrates also asked the court probation officer to try and get the defendant to "change his general behaviour" and make his conduct such that his wife could live with her husband again.
Under their headline of "A Rollicking Time At Albion Street – Rough And Tumble With The Police", the Reporter described how Thomas Ratchford of Fenton Street in St Helens had appeared in court on three charges of breach of the peace, assault on the police and wilfully damaging a constable's shirt to the value of 10 shillings.
One of the curious aspects of many newspaper reports of disturbances in St Helens' streets was how the arrested folk were said to have been waving their arms about. Why was never explained but PC Reid in telling the Bench about a disturbance in Albion Street, said Thomas Ratchford had been "waving his arms and using obscene language".
After rejecting the constable's advice to go home, Ratchford struck PC Reid twice and during the struggle the officer had his shirt "torn to ribbons" and his hat knocked off. When charged at the police station, the man had replied: "I have nowt to say against it". Ratchford told the Bench that he'd had a row with his brother inside his house and had gone outside to cool his temper. He was bound over for six months and fined 40 shillings, as well as told to pay the cost of the damage to PC Reid's shirt.
W. Clowes was advertising his new Baldwin Street chemist in the Reporter, writing that he "begs respectfully to announce that he has opened a pharmacy at the above address, and trusts, by courteous and personal attention, to merit a share of your patronage." That form of advertising in which the trader begged respectfully was very common during the 19th century but was becoming rare in the 1920s.
And finally, on the 20th the Parr St Peter's Prize Band gave a "sacred concert" in Victoria Park. A collection in aid of a new uniform for band members took place.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the passing through Prescot of King George V, the strange prosecution of a tram conductor outside the Sefton, Rainford Council discuss the meaning of pleasure and the man kicking, rolling and scratching in Hardshaw Street.
This week's many stories include the Parliamentary application to run trolley buses in St Helens, the delayed explosion at Sutton Heath Colliery that killed a man, the troubles of the alcoholic meths drinker, the huge popularity of Boundary Road baths and the shocking wife beating that a solicitor claimed was only a Saturday night tiff.
We begin on the 15th when another worker was killed at Sutton Heath Colliery and a second man was very seriously injured.
Explosives known as shots were regularly used in mines to extend workings and occasionally they did not immediately go off.
John Kinsey of Pocket Nook Street had been the fireman charged with firing two shots but one that he had placed at the foot of a rock face failed to explode.
He and Thomas Tooey from Liverpool Street were in the process of drilling another hole to extract the shot when it exploded killing Kinsey and severely burning the eyes and face of Tooey.
At the St Helens Baths Committee meeting on the 16th Cllr Simm urged that the "ha’penny dip" should be reinstated at Boundary Road baths.
That was, apparently, what the cost of admission had been for children to encourage them to use the Corporation baths rather than bathe in dangerous stretches of open water.
And Cllr Woodward called for bathing facilities to be provided on the outskirts of town in the Sutton and Parr district.
Recently a child had died in an open pool at Parr and the coroner at the boy's inquest said if the baths had been open he probably would not have drowned.
Cllr Woodward was informed that the question of opening baths to serve the Sutton and Parr district had been discussed some years ago but their respective councillors could not agree on a site.
And in any case there simply wasn't the money available to build new baths at the moment.
Sutton was often discussed as a suitable location to build baths – but they never happened. And it took until the 1970s for those in Parr to be built.
It was revealed at the committee meeting that during the month of June over 22,000 people had used the baths in Boundary Road. That was virtually double the number for the same month in 1923.
The increase in usage was explained by longer opening hours that the introduction of a new filtration plant had facilitated, as well as the recent good weather.
You have to feel sorry for alcoholics like James Sullivan. He was described as an electrician from Bootle who appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 16th charged with being drunk and incapable on wasteland off Rigby Street.
Mr Sullivan also faced a charge of stealing 12 pairs of boys' trousers belonging to Bridget Hackett from Westfield Street. Why? Well, not even he knew.
It would be interesting to learn the age of the man and whether he had fought in the war. James was addicted to meths and had twenty convictions for assaulting the police and thefts.
The former were, no doubt, when he was out of his head and if the latter were like the dozen nicked trousers, then he had no recollection of taking any of them.
James Sullivan was sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour.
What became known as trolley buses were usually called "trackless trolleys" in the 1920s.
On the 16th a Select Committee of the House of Commons considered the merits of a Bill that would allow St Helens Corporation to install such a trackless system of 3¼ miles in length between St Helens and Prescot, via Whiston.
That would be in place of the existing tramway system.
A barrister explained to the committee that it would be very costly to relay the worn out tramlines and as the route was not particularly profitable, the Corporation wanted to substitute the tramways with the less costly trackless trolleys.
Doing so, he said, would still allow them to utilise the existing overhead wiring system.
But Lancashire County Council and Whiston Rural District Council objected to the Bill.
Their opposition was connected to a clause that might prevent the making good of the roads when the tramlines were removed.
The Parliamentary committee subsequently decided to reserve their decision upon taking legal advice.
On the 17th the Archbishop of Liverpool laid the foundation stone for the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was set to open in 1925.
Unusually for such an occasion, there was a pipers' band and dancers in attendance.
The St Helens Reporter on the 18th described a court case in which Mary Butler from Lingholme Road in St Helens charged her husband John with persistent cruelty.
This was another case that in reality was an application for a separation order that, if granted, came with maintenance payments for the wife.
The husband not wanting to have to fork out money for which he received no benefit – e.g. his meals not being cooked, house not cleaned or washing done etc. – would usually fight tooth and nail against the order.
The couple had married in 1915 and with their four children had lived in Corporation Street.
John Butler was said to have become addicted to drink and as a result had been sacked from several jobs, including as a tram conductor and at Pilkingtons.
On June 28th at 7pm he had returned home drunk and demanded to see his children but was told they had gone to bed. The Reporter then wrote:
"He grumbled at that and went upstairs presumably to see them. When he came downstairs he had a cane in his hand and he stuck his wife four times with it and asked her how she would like to go to bed at seven o’clock.
"When he struck her the fourth time he said, “That makes four blows.” He ordered her to bed and as she went through the door he struck her repeatedly with the cane.
"…Shortly after, defendant left the house and returned at a quarter past nine and struck complainant with his open hand in the face, and then struck her with his fist, giving her a black eye.
"Then he took hold of her by the throat and in order to release herself she had to bite him.
"She got up and complainant again got hold of her, threw her on the floor and kicked her on the left leg and told her she was in for it. She ran out carrying the baby with her and she had not been back since."
Numerous other dreadful acts of violence over the previous three years were also outlined to the court.
John Butler's solicitor cross-examined Mary and attempted to make out what a good husband his client had been to her and accused her of often getting up late in the morning and leaving her husband to make his own breakfast.
When Butler went into the witness box he denied that he ever got drunk and that he had struck his wife with a cane – but did admit that he might have done so with his open hand.
Despite the man's counsel claiming that what had occurred had been "only Saturday night tiffs" and asking the magistrates to give the couple an opportunity to come together again, the Bench signed the separation order.
A total of 25 shillings maintenance was to be paid to Mary Butler and her four children.
The magistrates also asked the court probation officer to try and get the defendant to "change his general behaviour" and make his conduct such that his wife could live with her husband again.
Under their headline of "A Rollicking Time At Albion Street – Rough And Tumble With The Police", the Reporter described how Thomas Ratchford of Fenton Street in St Helens had appeared in court on three charges of breach of the peace, assault on the police and wilfully damaging a constable's shirt to the value of 10 shillings.
One of the curious aspects of many newspaper reports of disturbances in St Helens' streets was how the arrested folk were said to have been waving their arms about.
Why was never explained but PC Reid in telling the Bench about a disturbance in Albion Street, said Thomas Ratchford had been "waving his arms and using obscene language".
After rejecting the constable's advice to go home, Ratchford struck PC Reid twice and during the struggle the officer had his shirt "torn to ribbons" and his hat knocked off.
When charged at the police station, the man had replied: "I have nowt to say against it".
Ratchford told the Bench that he'd had a row with his brother inside his house and had gone outside to cool his temper.
He was bound over for six months and fined 40 shillings, as well as told to pay the cost of the damage to PC Reid's shirt.
W. Clowes was advertising his new Baldwin Street chemist in the Reporter, writing that he "begs respectfully to announce that he has opened a pharmacy at the above address, and trusts, by courteous and personal attention, to merit a share of your patronage."
That form of advertising in which the trader begged respectfully was very common during the 19th century but was becoming rare in the 1920s.
And finally, on the 20th the Parr St Peter's Prize Band gave a "sacred concert" in Victoria Park. A collection in aid of a new uniform for band members took place.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the passing through Prescot of King George V, the strange prosecution of a tram conductor outside the Sefton, Rainford Council discuss the meaning of pleasure and the man kicking, rolling and scratching in Hardshaw Street.
We begin on the 15th when another worker was killed at Sutton Heath Colliery and a second man was very seriously injured.
Explosives known as shots were regularly used in mines to extend workings and occasionally they did not immediately go off.
John Kinsey of Pocket Nook Street had been the fireman charged with firing two shots but one that he had placed at the foot of a rock face failed to explode.
He and Thomas Tooey from Liverpool Street were in the process of drilling another hole to extract the shot when it exploded killing Kinsey and severely burning the eyes and face of Tooey.
At the St Helens Baths Committee meeting on the 16th Cllr Simm urged that the "ha’penny dip" should be reinstated at Boundary Road baths.
That was, apparently, what the cost of admission had been for children to encourage them to use the Corporation baths rather than bathe in dangerous stretches of open water.
And Cllr Woodward called for bathing facilities to be provided on the outskirts of town in the Sutton and Parr district.
Recently a child had died in an open pool at Parr and the coroner at the boy's inquest said if the baths had been open he probably would not have drowned.
Cllr Woodward was informed that the question of opening baths to serve the Sutton and Parr district had been discussed some years ago but their respective councillors could not agree on a site.
And in any case there simply wasn't the money available to build new baths at the moment.
Sutton was often discussed as a suitable location to build baths – but they never happened. And it took until the 1970s for those in Parr to be built.
It was revealed at the committee meeting that during the month of June over 22,000 people had used the baths in Boundary Road. That was virtually double the number for the same month in 1923.
The increase in usage was explained by longer opening hours that the introduction of a new filtration plant had facilitated, as well as the recent good weather.
You have to feel sorry for alcoholics like James Sullivan. He was described as an electrician from Bootle who appeared in St Helens Police Court on the 16th charged with being drunk and incapable on wasteland off Rigby Street.
Mr Sullivan also faced a charge of stealing 12 pairs of boys' trousers belonging to Bridget Hackett from Westfield Street. Why? Well, not even he knew.
It would be interesting to learn the age of the man and whether he had fought in the war. James was addicted to meths and had twenty convictions for assaulting the police and thefts.
The former were, no doubt, when he was out of his head and if the latter were like the dozen nicked trousers, then he had no recollection of taking any of them.
James Sullivan was sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour.
On the 16th a Select Committee of the House of Commons considered the merits of a Bill that would allow St Helens Corporation to install such a trackless system of 3¼ miles in length between St Helens and Prescot, via Whiston.
That would be in place of the existing tramway system.
A barrister explained to the committee that it would be very costly to relay the worn out tramlines and as the route was not particularly profitable, the Corporation wanted to substitute the tramways with the less costly trackless trolleys.
Doing so, he said, would still allow them to utilise the existing overhead wiring system.
But Lancashire County Council and Whiston Rural District Council objected to the Bill.
Their opposition was connected to a clause that might prevent the making good of the roads when the tramlines were removed.
The Parliamentary committee subsequently decided to reserve their decision upon taking legal advice.
On the 17th the Archbishop of Liverpool laid the foundation stone for the new Catholic Grammar School at West Park that was set to open in 1925.
Unusually for such an occasion, there was a pipers' band and dancers in attendance.
The St Helens Reporter on the 18th described a court case in which Mary Butler from Lingholme Road in St Helens charged her husband John with persistent cruelty.
This was another case that in reality was an application for a separation order that, if granted, came with maintenance payments for the wife.
The husband not wanting to have to fork out money for which he received no benefit – e.g. his meals not being cooked, house not cleaned or washing done etc. – would usually fight tooth and nail against the order.
The couple had married in 1915 and with their four children had lived in Corporation Street.
John Butler was said to have become addicted to drink and as a result had been sacked from several jobs, including as a tram conductor and at Pilkingtons.
On June 28th at 7pm he had returned home drunk and demanded to see his children but was told they had gone to bed. The Reporter then wrote:
"He grumbled at that and went upstairs presumably to see them. When he came downstairs he had a cane in his hand and he stuck his wife four times with it and asked her how she would like to go to bed at seven o’clock.
"When he struck her the fourth time he said, “That makes four blows.” He ordered her to bed and as she went through the door he struck her repeatedly with the cane.
"…Shortly after, defendant left the house and returned at a quarter past nine and struck complainant with his open hand in the face, and then struck her with his fist, giving her a black eye.
"Then he took hold of her by the throat and in order to release herself she had to bite him.
"She got up and complainant again got hold of her, threw her on the floor and kicked her on the left leg and told her she was in for it. She ran out carrying the baby with her and she had not been back since."
Numerous other dreadful acts of violence over the previous three years were also outlined to the court.
John Butler's solicitor cross-examined Mary and attempted to make out what a good husband his client had been to her and accused her of often getting up late in the morning and leaving her husband to make his own breakfast.
When Butler went into the witness box he denied that he ever got drunk and that he had struck his wife with a cane – but did admit that he might have done so with his open hand.
Despite the man's counsel claiming that what had occurred had been "only Saturday night tiffs" and asking the magistrates to give the couple an opportunity to come together again, the Bench signed the separation order.
A total of 25 shillings maintenance was to be paid to Mary Butler and her four children.
The magistrates also asked the court probation officer to try and get the defendant to "change his general behaviour" and make his conduct such that his wife could live with her husband again.
Under their headline of "A Rollicking Time At Albion Street – Rough And Tumble With The Police", the Reporter described how Thomas Ratchford of Fenton Street in St Helens had appeared in court on three charges of breach of the peace, assault on the police and wilfully damaging a constable's shirt to the value of 10 shillings.
One of the curious aspects of many newspaper reports of disturbances in St Helens' streets was how the arrested folk were said to have been waving their arms about.
Why was never explained but PC Reid in telling the Bench about a disturbance in Albion Street, said Thomas Ratchford had been "waving his arms and using obscene language".
After rejecting the constable's advice to go home, Ratchford struck PC Reid twice and during the struggle the officer had his shirt "torn to ribbons" and his hat knocked off.
When charged at the police station, the man had replied: "I have nowt to say against it".
Ratchford told the Bench that he'd had a row with his brother inside his house and had gone outside to cool his temper.
He was bound over for six months and fined 40 shillings, as well as told to pay the cost of the damage to PC Reid's shirt.
W. Clowes was advertising his new Baldwin Street chemist in the Reporter, writing that he "begs respectfully to announce that he has opened a pharmacy at the above address, and trusts, by courteous and personal attention, to merit a share of your patronage."
That form of advertising in which the trader begged respectfully was very common during the 19th century but was becoming rare in the 1920s.
And finally, on the 20th the Parr St Peter's Prize Band gave a "sacred concert" in Victoria Park. A collection in aid of a new uniform for band members took place.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the passing through Prescot of King George V, the strange prosecution of a tram conductor outside the Sefton, Rainford Council discuss the meaning of pleasure and the man kicking, rolling and scratching in Hardshaw Street.