IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd MARCH 1920)
This week's stories include the vanishing watch trick in a Shaw Street pub, the bookies that were taking bets in Central Library, the Prescot man severely fined for running a lottery, a concert in aid of the Clog and Stocking Fund and war memorials are planned for Sutton.
We begin with a public meeting held in Rainhill National School to discuss the creation of a Recreation Club and the purchase of a ground. It was explained that during the winter months a committee representing the village football, cricket and tennis clubs had enquired for land suitable for a recreational ground.
Their efforts had all been in vain until the previous week when a Mr P. Wright offered them five acres of land behind Market Street. This he would sell at the price he'd paid and Mr Wright also offered to lay down grass seed and allow a cricket pitch to be immediately sowed. The meeting unanimously agreed to accept his offer.
St Helens Council's Parks and Cemetery Committee met on the 17th and set the fee for having an allotment in one of the town's parks at 4 shillings a year. The Chairman, Alderman Henry Peet, said if the price of food remained as high as it was at the moment, the committee would never think of doing away with allotments in the parks.
At a meeting of parishioners this week it was decided that war memorials should be installed in the two Sutton churches to commemorate those that had lost their lives in the war. At St Nicholas the names of the fallen would be listed on an oak mural tablet and in All Saints a carved oak pulpit would serve as a memorial. A parochial hall would also be built. A church committee was established to carry out the scheme and a public appeal for donations was launched.
In St Helens Police Court on the 18th James Walker was fined the considerable sum of £10 for betting in Ashcroft Street. The prosecuting solicitor said such gambling was rife in the town, although Walker denied the charge. However Inspector Anders said they had reason to believe that the man was employed by a prominent bookmaker and at the police station had admitted taking bets on the Grand National.
In a separate case Peter Woods of Watery Lane in Sutton and Robert Burns of the Salisbury Street lodging house were charged with using Central Library for the purpose of making and receiving bets. It is worth pointing out that the layout of St Helens' libraries was then quite different to how they are today. Book browsing by the public was not permitted until 1925, with only library staff allowed to have access to books.
These were issued through windows to those that either wanted to take the books home or study them in a reading room (shown above). It was the latter place that served as the base for Woods and Burns' betting activities with gamblers handing them betting slips as they perused the racing papers. Unlike public houses the police had no reason to check up on libraries and so the men must have thought they were operating in a safe space.
However someone tipped off the police and so PCs Shepherd and Reynolds went on surveillance duty inside the Gamble Institute on three separate days. At one point Peter Woods went outside and handed something to a boy aged about 14 who immediately sped off on a bicycle. Both men were described as elderly and were given substantial fines of £9 each.
On the 19th a miner called William Molyneux from Park Road appeared in court charged with stealing a watch. The 22-year-old had been drinking in the smoke room of the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and asked for someone to lend him a watch to perform a conjuring trick. Edwin Chisham was daft enough to give him his watch and the amateur magician covered it with a black handkerchief and made it disappear.
However despite Edwin's repeated requests for the return of his timepiece, William Molyneux said it had been spirited away and he didn't have it. This, of course, did not satisfy him and as Molyneux was leaving the pub, a fight took place and the police were called.
The bobbies always waited until they were at the police station before conducting a search of their prisoners. And as Molyneux was being escorted from Shaw Street to the Town Hall, he was seen to drop the watch in Bickerstaffe Street. The man's solicitor blamed drink for what had happened and the magistrates fined him £2.
Also in court was Joseph Appleby from Parr Stocks Road and Thomas Fazakerley of Park Road who were charged with gaming with coins. PC Holland said that he had seen the two defendants gambling in Chancery Lane. Appleby ran away when he saw the officer but the constable overtook him after a 400-yard sprint. Appleby joked to the court that he couldn't run further than 400 yards and he and Fazakerley were both fined ten shillings each.
It is quite understandable that young children should lose their lives after being set alight by house fires but it is surprising when it happened to a girl as old as fifteen. That was the age of Bridget Jenkins from Taylor Street in Sutton whose inquest was held on the 19th. She was looking after a married friend called Elizabeth Hopkins in her Brook Street rooms as she was expecting a baby and confined to bed.
At about 10:40am on March 15th Bridget removed the fireguard in her friend's bedroom in order to tidy the hearth. She then turned round and standing with her back to the fireplace, suddenly declared: "My apron is on fire". Clothing a century ago was often highly flammable and despite the efforts of Mrs Hopkins to put out the fire, it rapidly took hold of Bridget. It took some time for the flames to be extinguished and despite the girl being quickly removed to Providence Hospital, Bridget died on the following day.
The NSPCC in Croppers Hill announced this week that during February they had investigated 19 cases of child neglect in St Helens affecting 55 children.
In Prescot Police Court on the 22nd an Irishman called Patrick Rafferty was charged with being drunk. The labourer at the Prescot Wire Works had been found intoxicated in High Street by a constable and had threatened to fight him. Rafferty told the Bench that it had been St Patrick's Day and he had never worked on that day in his life and it was far too late to mend his ways now. He was fined 5 shillings.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day Norman Mason from Scotch Barn Lane in Prescot was prosecuted for selling lottery tickets. This was illegal and Inspector Lee Bowden told the court that he had seen the man sell the tickets in the White Hart in Church Street in St Helens. Mason had had the tickets made by a printer in Prescot and was selling them for 3d each, with a pair of field glasses and a watch as prizes.
Most of the tickets had now been sold and Mason had told the inspector that he knew what he'd been doing was wrong. He said he was running the lottery because he had a sick child but when Inspector Bowden visited the house, the child was found to be well. Mason told the Bench that after learning that he was going to be prosecuted, he gave back all the money and burnt the tickets. The man's average weekly wage at his job in Prescot was £3 5s and the magistrates gave him a hefty fine of £15, or if in default, two months in prison.
What was described as a sacred concert took place at the Theatre Royal on the 21st in aid of the Police Aided Scheme for Clothing Destitute Children. This was more commonly known in St Helens as the Clog and Stocking Fund, which since its launch in 1912 had clothed more than 6,000 youngsters in the town through the issue of over 17,000 articles of clothing.
The concert comprised a number of vocalists and a performance by the St Helens Amateur Operatic Orchestral Society. Throughout the week collections in aid of the fund had been made at the Hippodrome, as well as at the Theatre Royal, raising a total of £47. On top of that there would be the proceeds from the well-attended concert.
And finally these were the music hall acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre who began a week of twice nightly performances from the 22nd: The 4 Elmores ("In a screaming comedy acrobatic skit"); Daphne Lorraine ("The wonderful child vocalist – age 11"); Billy Stephens, Bertie Some ("Musical comedians and burlesque artistes"); Fred Cooper & Co. ("The famous Australian bushman"); Florrie Cameron ("In song and dance") and the Fenton Bros. ("The phenomenal banjoists – in a clever and refined vocal, instrumental and dancing act").
Next week's stories will include the knife attack in a Salisbury Street lodging house, why Haydock had a happy council, the Rainhill house eviction, the man fined for leaving his car outside a café, more on the town's war on rats and the popularity of billiards in St Helens.
We begin with a public meeting held in Rainhill National School to discuss the creation of a Recreation Club and the purchase of a ground. It was explained that during the winter months a committee representing the village football, cricket and tennis clubs had enquired for land suitable for a recreational ground.
Their efforts had all been in vain until the previous week when a Mr P. Wright offered them five acres of land behind Market Street. This he would sell at the price he'd paid and Mr Wright also offered to lay down grass seed and allow a cricket pitch to be immediately sowed. The meeting unanimously agreed to accept his offer.
St Helens Council's Parks and Cemetery Committee met on the 17th and set the fee for having an allotment in one of the town's parks at 4 shillings a year. The Chairman, Alderman Henry Peet, said if the price of food remained as high as it was at the moment, the committee would never think of doing away with allotments in the parks.
St Nicholas Church in New Street in Sutton in St Helens and its memorial to those parishioners that lost their lives in the war
St Nicholas Church in New Street in Sutton and its war memorial
St Nicholas Church’s war memorial
In St Helens Police Court on the 18th James Walker was fined the considerable sum of £10 for betting in Ashcroft Street. The prosecuting solicitor said such gambling was rife in the town, although Walker denied the charge. However Inspector Anders said they had reason to believe that the man was employed by a prominent bookmaker and at the police station had admitted taking bets on the Grand National.
In a separate case Peter Woods of Watery Lane in Sutton and Robert Burns of the Salisbury Street lodging house were charged with using Central Library for the purpose of making and receiving bets. It is worth pointing out that the layout of St Helens' libraries was then quite different to how they are today. Book browsing by the public was not permitted until 1925, with only library staff allowed to have access to books.
However someone tipped off the police and so PCs Shepherd and Reynolds went on surveillance duty inside the Gamble Institute on three separate days. At one point Peter Woods went outside and handed something to a boy aged about 14 who immediately sped off on a bicycle. Both men were described as elderly and were given substantial fines of £9 each.
On the 19th a miner called William Molyneux from Park Road appeared in court charged with stealing a watch. The 22-year-old had been drinking in the smoke room of the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and asked for someone to lend him a watch to perform a conjuring trick. Edwin Chisham was daft enough to give him his watch and the amateur magician covered it with a black handkerchief and made it disappear.
However despite Edwin's repeated requests for the return of his timepiece, William Molyneux said it had been spirited away and he didn't have it. This, of course, did not satisfy him and as Molyneux was leaving the pub, a fight took place and the police were called.
The bobbies always waited until they were at the police station before conducting a search of their prisoners. And as Molyneux was being escorted from Shaw Street to the Town Hall, he was seen to drop the watch in Bickerstaffe Street. The man's solicitor blamed drink for what had happened and the magistrates fined him £2.
Also in court was Joseph Appleby from Parr Stocks Road and Thomas Fazakerley of Park Road who were charged with gaming with coins. PC Holland said that he had seen the two defendants gambling in Chancery Lane. Appleby ran away when he saw the officer but the constable overtook him after a 400-yard sprint. Appleby joked to the court that he couldn't run further than 400 yards and he and Fazakerley were both fined ten shillings each.
It is quite understandable that young children should lose their lives after being set alight by house fires but it is surprising when it happened to a girl as old as fifteen. That was the age of Bridget Jenkins from Taylor Street in Sutton whose inquest was held on the 19th. She was looking after a married friend called Elizabeth Hopkins in her Brook Street rooms as she was expecting a baby and confined to bed.
At about 10:40am on March 15th Bridget removed the fireguard in her friend's bedroom in order to tidy the hearth. She then turned round and standing with her back to the fireplace, suddenly declared: "My apron is on fire". Clothing a century ago was often highly flammable and despite the efforts of Mrs Hopkins to put out the fire, it rapidly took hold of Bridget. It took some time for the flames to be extinguished and despite the girl being quickly removed to Providence Hospital, Bridget died on the following day.
The NSPCC in Croppers Hill announced this week that during February they had investigated 19 cases of child neglect in St Helens affecting 55 children.
In Prescot Police Court on the 22nd an Irishman called Patrick Rafferty was charged with being drunk. The labourer at the Prescot Wire Works had been found intoxicated in High Street by a constable and had threatened to fight him. Rafferty told the Bench that it had been St Patrick's Day and he had never worked on that day in his life and it was far too late to mend his ways now. He was fined 5 shillings.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day Norman Mason from Scotch Barn Lane in Prescot was prosecuted for selling lottery tickets. This was illegal and Inspector Lee Bowden told the court that he had seen the man sell the tickets in the White Hart in Church Street in St Helens. Mason had had the tickets made by a printer in Prescot and was selling them for 3d each, with a pair of field glasses and a watch as prizes.
Most of the tickets had now been sold and Mason had told the inspector that he knew what he'd been doing was wrong. He said he was running the lottery because he had a sick child but when Inspector Bowden visited the house, the child was found to be well. Mason told the Bench that after learning that he was going to be prosecuted, he gave back all the money and burnt the tickets. The man's average weekly wage at his job in Prescot was £3 5s and the magistrates gave him a hefty fine of £15, or if in default, two months in prison.
What was described as a sacred concert took place at the Theatre Royal on the 21st in aid of the Police Aided Scheme for Clothing Destitute Children. This was more commonly known in St Helens as the Clog and Stocking Fund, which since its launch in 1912 had clothed more than 6,000 youngsters in the town through the issue of over 17,000 articles of clothing.
The concert comprised a number of vocalists and a performance by the St Helens Amateur Operatic Orchestral Society. Throughout the week collections in aid of the fund had been made at the Hippodrome, as well as at the Theatre Royal, raising a total of £47. On top of that there would be the proceeds from the well-attended concert.
And finally these were the music hall acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre who began a week of twice nightly performances from the 22nd: The 4 Elmores ("In a screaming comedy acrobatic skit"); Daphne Lorraine ("The wonderful child vocalist – age 11"); Billy Stephens, Bertie Some ("Musical comedians and burlesque artistes"); Fred Cooper & Co. ("The famous Australian bushman"); Florrie Cameron ("In song and dance") and the Fenton Bros. ("The phenomenal banjoists – in a clever and refined vocal, instrumental and dancing act").
Next week's stories will include the knife attack in a Salisbury Street lodging house, why Haydock had a happy council, the Rainhill house eviction, the man fined for leaving his car outside a café, more on the town's war on rats and the popularity of billiards in St Helens.
This week's stories include the vanishing watch trick in a Shaw Street pub, the bookies that were taking bets in Central Library, the Prescot man severely fined for running a lottery, a concert in aid of the Clog and Stocking Fund and war memorials are planned for Sutton.
We begin with a public meeting held in Rainhill National School to discuss the creation of a Recreation Club and the purchase of a ground.
It was explained that during the winter months a committee representing the village football, cricket and tennis clubs had enquired for land suitable for a recreational ground.
Their efforts had all been in vain until the previous week when a Mr P. Wright offered them five acres of land behind Market Street.
This he would sell at the price he'd paid and Mr Wright also offered to lay down grass seed and allow a cricket pitch to be immediately sowed. The meeting unanimously agreed to accept his offer.
St Helens Council's Parks and Cemetery Committee met on the 17th and set the fee for having an allotment in one of the town's parks at 4 shillings a year.
The Chairman, Alderman Henry Peet, said if the price of food remained as high as it was at the moment, the committee would never think of doing away with allotments in the parks.
At a meeting of parishioners this week it was decided that war memorials should be installed in the two Sutton churches to commemorate those that had lost their lives in the war.
At St Nicholas the names of the fallen would be listed on an oak mural tablet and in All Saints a carved oak pulpit would serve as a memorial.
A parochial hall would also be built. A church committee was established to carry out the scheme and a public appeal for donations was launched.
In St Helens Police Court on the 18th James Walker was fined the considerable sum of £10 for betting in Ashcroft Street.
The prosecuting solicitor said such gambling was rife in the town, although Walker denied the charge.
However Inspector Anders said they had reason to believe that the man was employed by a prominent bookmaker and at the police station had admitted taking bets on the Grand National.
In a separate case Peter Woods of Watery Lane in Sutton and Robert Burns of the Salisbury Street lodging house were charged with using Central Library for the purpose of making and receiving bets.
It is worth pointing out that the layout of St Helens' libraries was then quite different to how they are today.
Book browsing by the public was not permitted until 1925, with only library staff allowed to have access to books.
These were issued through windows to those that either wanted to take the books home or study them in a reading room (shown above).
It was the latter place that served as the base for Woods and Burns' betting activities with gamblers handing them betting slips as they perused the racing papers.
Unlike public houses the police had no reason to check up on libraries and so the men must have thought they were operating in a safe space.
However someone tipped off the police and so PCs Shepherd and Reynolds went on surveillance duty inside the Gamble Institute on three separate days.
At one point Peter Woods went outside and handed something to a boy aged about 14 who immediately sped off on a bicycle.
Both men were described as elderly and were given substantial fines of £9 each.
On the 19th a miner called William Molyneux from Park Road appeared in court charged with stealing a watch.
The 22-year-old had been drinking in the smoke room of the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and asked for someone to lend him a watch to perform a conjuring trick.
Edwin Chisham was daft enough to give him his watch and the amateur magician covered it with a black handkerchief and made it disappear.
However despite Edwin's repeated requests for the return of his timepiece, William Molyneux said it had been spirited away and he didn't have it.
This, of course, did not satisfy him and as Molyneux was leaving the pub, a fight took place and the police were called.
The bobbies always waited until they were at the police station before conducting a search of their prisoners.
And as Molyneux was being escorted from Shaw Street to the Town Hall, he was seen to drop the watch in Bickerstaffe Street.
The man's solicitor blamed drink for what had happened and the magistrates fined him £2.
Also in court was Joseph Appleby from Parr Stocks Road and Thomas Fazakerley of Park Road who were charged with gaming with coins.
PC Holland said that he had seen the two defendants gambling in Chancery Lane.
Appleby ran away when he saw the officer but the constable overtook him after a 400-yard sprint.
The man joked to the court that he couldn't run further than 400 yards and he and Fazakerley were both fined ten shillings each.
It is quite understandable that young children should lose their lives after being set alight by house fires but it is surprising when it happened to a girl as old as fifteen.
That was the age of Bridget Jenkins from Taylor Street in Sutton whose inquest was held on the 19th.
She was looking after a married friend called Elizabeth Hopkins in her Brook Street rooms as she was expecting a baby and confined to bed.
At about 10:40am on March 15th Bridget removed the fireguard in her friend's bedroom in order to tidy the hearth.
She then turned round and standing with her back to the fireplace, suddenly declared: "My apron is on fire".
Clothing a century ago was often highly flammable and despite the efforts of Mrs Hopkins to put out the fire, it rapidly took hold of Bridget.
It took some time for the flames to be extinguished and despite the girl being quickly removed to Providence Hospital, Bridget died on the following day.
The NSPCC in Croppers Hill announced this week that during February they had investigated 19 cases of child neglect in St Helens affecting 55 children.
In Prescot Police Court on the 22nd an Irishman called Patrick Rafferty was charged with being drunk.
The labourer at the Prescot Wire Works had been found intoxicated in High Street by a constable and had threatened to fight him.
Rafferty told the Bench that it had been St Patrick's Day and he had never worked on that day in his life and it was far too late to mend his ways now. He was fined 5 shillings.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day Norman Mason from Scotch Barn Lane in Prescot was prosecuted for selling lottery tickets.
This was illegal and Inspector Lee Bowden told the court that he had seen the man sell the tickets in the White Hart in Church Street in St Helens.
Mason had had the tickets made by a printer in Prescot and was selling them for 3d each, with a pair of field glasses and a watch as prizes.
Most of the tickets had now been sold and Mason had told the inspector that he knew what he'd been doing was wrong.
He said he was running the lottery because he had a sick child but when Inspector Bowden visited the house, the child was found to be well.
Mason told the Bench that after learning that he was going to be prosecuted, he gave back all the money and burnt the tickets.
The man's average weekly wage at his job in Prescot was £3 5s and the magistrates gave him a hefty fine of £15, or if in default, two months in prison.
What was described as a sacred concert took place at the Theatre Royal on the 21st in aid of the Police Aided Scheme for Clothing Destitute Children.
This was more commonly known in St Helens as the Clog and Stocking Fund, which since its launch in 1912 had clothed more than 6,000 youngsters in the town through the issue of over 17,000 articles of clothing.
The concert comprised a number of vocalists and a performance by the St Helens Amateur Operatic Orchestral Society.
Throughout the week collections in aid of the fund had been made at the Hippodrome, as well as at the Theatre Royal, raising a total of £47.
On top of that there would be the proceeds from the well-attended concert.
And finally these were the music hall acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre who began a week of twice nightly performances from the 22nd:
The 4 Elmores ("In a screaming comedy acrobatic skit"); Daphne Lorraine ("The wonderful child vocalist – age 11"); Billy Stephens, Bertie Some ("Musical comedians and burlesque artistes"); Fred Cooper & Co. ("The famous Australian bushman"); Florrie Cameron ("In song and dance") and the Fenton Bros. ("The phenomenal banjoists – in a clever and refined vocal, instrumental and dancing act").
Next week's stories will include the knife attack in a Salisbury Street lodging house, why Haydock had a happy council, the Rainhill house eviction, the man fined for leaving his car outside a café, more on the town's war on rats and the popularity of billiards in St Helens.
We begin with a public meeting held in Rainhill National School to discuss the creation of a Recreation Club and the purchase of a ground.
It was explained that during the winter months a committee representing the village football, cricket and tennis clubs had enquired for land suitable for a recreational ground.
Their efforts had all been in vain until the previous week when a Mr P. Wright offered them five acres of land behind Market Street.
This he would sell at the price he'd paid and Mr Wright also offered to lay down grass seed and allow a cricket pitch to be immediately sowed. The meeting unanimously agreed to accept his offer.
St Helens Council's Parks and Cemetery Committee met on the 17th and set the fee for having an allotment in one of the town's parks at 4 shillings a year.
The Chairman, Alderman Henry Peet, said if the price of food remained as high as it was at the moment, the committee would never think of doing away with allotments in the parks.
St Nicholas Church in New Street in Sutton in St Helens and its memorial to those parishioners that lost their lives in the war
St Nicholas Church in New Street in Sutton and its war memorial
St Nicholas Church’s war memorial
At St Nicholas the names of the fallen would be listed on an oak mural tablet and in All Saints a carved oak pulpit would serve as a memorial.
A parochial hall would also be built. A church committee was established to carry out the scheme and a public appeal for donations was launched.
In St Helens Police Court on the 18th James Walker was fined the considerable sum of £10 for betting in Ashcroft Street.
The prosecuting solicitor said such gambling was rife in the town, although Walker denied the charge.
However Inspector Anders said they had reason to believe that the man was employed by a prominent bookmaker and at the police station had admitted taking bets on the Grand National.
In a separate case Peter Woods of Watery Lane in Sutton and Robert Burns of the Salisbury Street lodging house were charged with using Central Library for the purpose of making and receiving bets.
It is worth pointing out that the layout of St Helens' libraries was then quite different to how they are today.
Book browsing by the public was not permitted until 1925, with only library staff allowed to have access to books.
It was the latter place that served as the base for Woods and Burns' betting activities with gamblers handing them betting slips as they perused the racing papers.
Unlike public houses the police had no reason to check up on libraries and so the men must have thought they were operating in a safe space.
However someone tipped off the police and so PCs Shepherd and Reynolds went on surveillance duty inside the Gamble Institute on three separate days.
At one point Peter Woods went outside and handed something to a boy aged about 14 who immediately sped off on a bicycle.
Both men were described as elderly and were given substantial fines of £9 each.
On the 19th a miner called William Molyneux from Park Road appeared in court charged with stealing a watch.
The 22-year-old had been drinking in the smoke room of the Railway Hotel in Shaw Street and asked for someone to lend him a watch to perform a conjuring trick.
Edwin Chisham was daft enough to give him his watch and the amateur magician covered it with a black handkerchief and made it disappear.
However despite Edwin's repeated requests for the return of his timepiece, William Molyneux said it had been spirited away and he didn't have it.
This, of course, did not satisfy him and as Molyneux was leaving the pub, a fight took place and the police were called.
The bobbies always waited until they were at the police station before conducting a search of their prisoners.
And as Molyneux was being escorted from Shaw Street to the Town Hall, he was seen to drop the watch in Bickerstaffe Street.
The man's solicitor blamed drink for what had happened and the magistrates fined him £2.
Also in court was Joseph Appleby from Parr Stocks Road and Thomas Fazakerley of Park Road who were charged with gaming with coins.
PC Holland said that he had seen the two defendants gambling in Chancery Lane.
Appleby ran away when he saw the officer but the constable overtook him after a 400-yard sprint.
The man joked to the court that he couldn't run further than 400 yards and he and Fazakerley were both fined ten shillings each.
It is quite understandable that young children should lose their lives after being set alight by house fires but it is surprising when it happened to a girl as old as fifteen.
That was the age of Bridget Jenkins from Taylor Street in Sutton whose inquest was held on the 19th.
She was looking after a married friend called Elizabeth Hopkins in her Brook Street rooms as she was expecting a baby and confined to bed.
At about 10:40am on March 15th Bridget removed the fireguard in her friend's bedroom in order to tidy the hearth.
She then turned round and standing with her back to the fireplace, suddenly declared: "My apron is on fire".
Clothing a century ago was often highly flammable and despite the efforts of Mrs Hopkins to put out the fire, it rapidly took hold of Bridget.
It took some time for the flames to be extinguished and despite the girl being quickly removed to Providence Hospital, Bridget died on the following day.
The NSPCC in Croppers Hill announced this week that during February they had investigated 19 cases of child neglect in St Helens affecting 55 children.
In Prescot Police Court on the 22nd an Irishman called Patrick Rafferty was charged with being drunk.
The labourer at the Prescot Wire Works had been found intoxicated in High Street by a constable and had threatened to fight him.
Rafferty told the Bench that it had been St Patrick's Day and he had never worked on that day in his life and it was far too late to mend his ways now. He was fined 5 shillings.
In St Helens Police Court on the same day Norman Mason from Scotch Barn Lane in Prescot was prosecuted for selling lottery tickets.
This was illegal and Inspector Lee Bowden told the court that he had seen the man sell the tickets in the White Hart in Church Street in St Helens.
Mason had had the tickets made by a printer in Prescot and was selling them for 3d each, with a pair of field glasses and a watch as prizes.
Most of the tickets had now been sold and Mason had told the inspector that he knew what he'd been doing was wrong.
He said he was running the lottery because he had a sick child but when Inspector Bowden visited the house, the child was found to be well.
Mason told the Bench that after learning that he was going to be prosecuted, he gave back all the money and burnt the tickets.
The man's average weekly wage at his job in Prescot was £3 5s and the magistrates gave him a hefty fine of £15, or if in default, two months in prison.
What was described as a sacred concert took place at the Theatre Royal on the 21st in aid of the Police Aided Scheme for Clothing Destitute Children.
This was more commonly known in St Helens as the Clog and Stocking Fund, which since its launch in 1912 had clothed more than 6,000 youngsters in the town through the issue of over 17,000 articles of clothing.
The concert comprised a number of vocalists and a performance by the St Helens Amateur Operatic Orchestral Society.
Throughout the week collections in aid of the fund had been made at the Hippodrome, as well as at the Theatre Royal, raising a total of £47.
On top of that there would be the proceeds from the well-attended concert.
And finally these were the music hall acts appearing at the Hippodrome Theatre who began a week of twice nightly performances from the 22nd:
The 4 Elmores ("In a screaming comedy acrobatic skit"); Daphne Lorraine ("The wonderful child vocalist – age 11"); Billy Stephens, Bertie Some ("Musical comedians and burlesque artistes"); Fred Cooper & Co. ("The famous Australian bushman"); Florrie Cameron ("In song and dance") and the Fenton Bros. ("The phenomenal banjoists – in a clever and refined vocal, instrumental and dancing act").
Next week's stories will include the knife attack in a Salisbury Street lodging house, why Haydock had a happy council, the Rainhill house eviction, the man fined for leaving his car outside a café, more on the town's war on rats and the popularity of billiards in St Helens.