IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd MAY 1922)
This week's many stories include the St Helens tram romance that had an unhappy ending, the can-kicking crime in Boundary Road, the Nutgrove man's unorthodox means of cleaning his chimney, the dirt-throwing separation case and the pedlar photographer causing a nuisance by shouting his wares in Park Road.
We begin on the 17th when the St Helens Angling Association obtained permission from the council's Parks Committee to renew their fishing rights at the Leg of Mutton Dam, near Taylor Park. Last year the dam had dried up and nine-tenth of the fish had died. So the association planned to restock it and give the fish time to spawn. Asked about the likelihood of the dam drying up again, its secretary said: "I don't think it will happen once in twenty years. Last year was extraordinary."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, Clement Murray of Fleet Lane in Parr was charged with stealing coal worth 1s 6d. The man was employed at Havannah Colliery but had been caught by PC Trail taking coal from a waste heap at Ashtons Green. The 1921 coal strike had largely been caused by the bosses slashing wages in response to the market price of coal having dropped. Mr Murray told the Bench that he had four children "bad in the house" and no coal and the wages that he received would not keep his children in meat. The magistrates said that as a result of the man's circumstances, they would take a lenient view and only fined him 7s 6d.
Thomas Schofield created quite a stir when he appeared in the dock to face a charge of being drunk and disorderly. Not only did the young man from Parr Street have bare arms – something that was not done in the courtroom – but they were heavily tattooed. The St Helens Reporter commented how his "elaborate tattooed decorations" had created a "buzz of conversation" in the court.
PC Wilcox said that during the previous evening, he had seen the prisoner fighting with another man and his wife. After telling Schofield to go into his home, the constable said he'd replied: "This is what a man fought for", presumably referring to the wartime fight with the Germans and not his present scrap with his neighbours. Schofield had over twenty prior convictions and was fined 10 shillings.
Defendants regularly appeared in court charged with allowing their house chimney to get on fire. It was so common that in 1914 Inspector William Jackson reported himself for allowing the chimney at Sutton Police Station in Sutton Road to get ablaze. He was fined 3 shillings and his boss, Chief Constable Ellerington, jokingly asked the magistrates whether Jackson should be given a month in prison if he didn't pay up.
However, when Edward Naylor of Nutgrove Road appeared in the St Helens Police Court after his chimney had been on fire, his charge was slightly different. Instead of the offence being caused by accident or carelessness – the miner was accused of having committed the act wilfully. A constable told the court that on one Sunday morning he had seen Naylor's chimney alight. When he called at the house, Naylor said he was aware of the fire and invited the constable into his home to see for himself.
He then explained that he had put a piece of blazing paper up the chimney. Two buckets of soot lay on the hearth and it appeared that the man had decided to clean his chimney by setting it on fire. It would've been far cheaper and more effective to have employed a sweep, as Naylor's unorthodox method of soot removal cost him a 15-shilling fine – the usual penalty was 3 to 5 shillings.
A tram romance was also described in court – but one that cost conductor Clarence Burdekin a fine, his job and, probably, his girlfriend. The young man from Boundary Road had allowed Elizabeth Green to travel free on his vehicle by giving his lady friend fake tickets. No doubt Burdekin was trying to impress the young woman but hadn't bargained on Tramways Inspector Kenyon.
He boarded the tramcar outside the YMCA Buildings in Duke Street and carefully examined the ticket that Miss Green showed him and noticed it had been cancelled some hours earlier. Such matters were taken seriously then and another inspector later visited the woman at her home in Parr Stocks Road. Clearly embarrassed, Elizabeth made what was described as conflicting statements about the matter and the inspector eventually left.
Some days later and accompanied by her father, Elizabeth turned up at the tramways office in Cotham Street to make a clean breast of it all. As a result Clarence Burdekin was sacked from his job and in court on the 19th was fined £3, or, if in default of payment, serve 28 days in prison and Elizabeth was placed on probation. At the end of the hearing one of the magistrates needlessly asked Burdekin: "Don't you think you have been acting the fool?". The young man did not reply.
The St Helens Reporter on the 19th devoted 23 lines (including the headline) to a story of boys charged with playing football in their own street – that's more than some deaths merited. The miscreant kids caught kicking a ball about in Edward Street in St Helens were James Keenan and James Green. The police said they were among a group of youths that ran away when they arrived on the scene. The two bobbies chased them but could only catch the two James's who told the magistrates that they'd only kicked the ball once or twice. One of the lads was fined 5 shillings, the other half-a-crown.
The 20th was Flower Day in St Helens with sales and collections in aid of local district nurses. During 1921 the women claimed to have made 34,326 visits to patients in the borough on their bicycles and had run up a deficit of £510. Flower or Rose Days used to be a regular means of fundraising in St Helens – especially by hospitals. In May 1919 the Reporter had written:
"Bathed in bright sunshine and with an abundance of beautiful flowers bedecking the buttonholes of pedestrians, St Helens looked gay last Saturday. It was the Providence Hospital rose day, and including natural and artificial flowers about forty-five thousand blooms were disposed of."
There was reported to have been a large and distinguished gathering on the 20th to observe the foundation stone laying of a new church at Eccleston Lane Ends. The construction of St James Church began almost immediately afterwards and it was hoped the building would be finished by the end of September.
The Reporter always devoted a huge amount of column inches to domestic squabbles. Readers lapped up the prurient details of other couple's rows, with both parties inevitably making all sorts of claims and counter claims. In the St Helens Police Court on the 22nd, Esther Pennington of Boundary Road (pictured above) summoned her husband James, charging him with persistent cruelty.
In reality the action was an application for a separation order, in which the husband would be forced to make maintenance payments to his wife. But in the process of obtaining the court order, a huge amount of lurid details were revealed. The man was accused of attacking his wife, as well as her father and disabled mother. Of course, James denied the claims and reckoned he was the victim of spousal abuse, claiming his wife threw cups at him and stayed out late at night.
Esther Pennington said she had been married fourteen years and for the first ten her husband had always been "a gentleman" to her. His behaviour changed after returning from wartime service – but, as always, that was a matter of detail and no connection between his time as a soldier and personality change upon returning home was suggested. Upon being asked in court what she thought had caused her husband's behavioural shift, Mrs Pennington replied "Love of pleasure". The magistrates predictably granted her application.
The cost of having your picture taken had clearly come down considerably by 1922. When a street photographer appeared in the St Helens Police Court on the 22nd it was revealed that he only charged 6p a picture – although I imagine the prints were very small. A constable told the court that Harry Smith from New Brighton had been "shouting his wares" in Park Road in St Helens without a pedlar's permit. More accurately "Photos while you wait", was what Harry had been yelling on that Sunday afternoon. He told the police that he had a stand on the shore at New Brighton but made more money through selling photos on the street for a tanner a time.
In court Smith complained to the Bench that he had been travelling for twenty years taking and selling photographs and had no idea a licence was needed. He added that he had journeyed all over the country and been coming to St. Helens for years without any problems. Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that a number of photographers were coming into the town to work the streets and they had been warned about requiring a licence. The unfortunate Harry Smith was fined 10 shillings.
It was quite a week for silly prosecutions – but I leave the daftest example to last. When I first read the Reporter's brief account of a 19-year-old lad's court appearance, I thought the offence had been kicking a cat – but it was actually kicking a can! Joseph Pennington from Eldon Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in court on the 22nd charged with can kicking in Boundary Road between six and seven o’clock in the morning.
The lad told the constable that he didn't know he was doing wrong but didn't help his case by giving the officer a false address. The police did not appreciate being messed about and so he was tracked down, brought to court and fined 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the runaway lorry on Crank Hill, the egg stealing from Eccleston Hall Sanatorium, the old soldier's fight in a Bold farmer's field, the come-uppance of ex-copper Samuel Cain and the benefit fraudster caught trying it on.
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, Clement Murray of Fleet Lane in Parr was charged with stealing coal worth 1s 6d. The man was employed at Havannah Colliery but had been caught by PC Trail taking coal from a waste heap at Ashtons Green. The 1921 coal strike had largely been caused by the bosses slashing wages in response to the market price of coal having dropped. Mr Murray told the Bench that he had four children "bad in the house" and no coal and the wages that he received would not keep his children in meat. The magistrates said that as a result of the man's circumstances, they would take a lenient view and only fined him 7s 6d.
Thomas Schofield created quite a stir when he appeared in the dock to face a charge of being drunk and disorderly. Not only did the young man from Parr Street have bare arms – something that was not done in the courtroom – but they were heavily tattooed. The St Helens Reporter commented how his "elaborate tattooed decorations" had created a "buzz of conversation" in the court.
PC Wilcox said that during the previous evening, he had seen the prisoner fighting with another man and his wife. After telling Schofield to go into his home, the constable said he'd replied: "This is what a man fought for", presumably referring to the wartime fight with the Germans and not his present scrap with his neighbours. Schofield had over twenty prior convictions and was fined 10 shillings.
Defendants regularly appeared in court charged with allowing their house chimney to get on fire. It was so common that in 1914 Inspector William Jackson reported himself for allowing the chimney at Sutton Police Station in Sutton Road to get ablaze. He was fined 3 shillings and his boss, Chief Constable Ellerington, jokingly asked the magistrates whether Jackson should be given a month in prison if he didn't pay up.
However, when Edward Naylor of Nutgrove Road appeared in the St Helens Police Court after his chimney had been on fire, his charge was slightly different. Instead of the offence being caused by accident or carelessness – the miner was accused of having committed the act wilfully. A constable told the court that on one Sunday morning he had seen Naylor's chimney alight. When he called at the house, Naylor said he was aware of the fire and invited the constable into his home to see for himself.
He then explained that he had put a piece of blazing paper up the chimney. Two buckets of soot lay on the hearth and it appeared that the man had decided to clean his chimney by setting it on fire. It would've been far cheaper and more effective to have employed a sweep, as Naylor's unorthodox method of soot removal cost him a 15-shilling fine – the usual penalty was 3 to 5 shillings.
A tram romance was also described in court – but one that cost conductor Clarence Burdekin a fine, his job and, probably, his girlfriend. The young man from Boundary Road had allowed Elizabeth Green to travel free on his vehicle by giving his lady friend fake tickets. No doubt Burdekin was trying to impress the young woman but hadn't bargained on Tramways Inspector Kenyon.
He boarded the tramcar outside the YMCA Buildings in Duke Street and carefully examined the ticket that Miss Green showed him and noticed it had been cancelled some hours earlier. Such matters were taken seriously then and another inspector later visited the woman at her home in Parr Stocks Road. Clearly embarrassed, Elizabeth made what was described as conflicting statements about the matter and the inspector eventually left.
Some days later and accompanied by her father, Elizabeth turned up at the tramways office in Cotham Street to make a clean breast of it all. As a result Clarence Burdekin was sacked from his job and in court on the 19th was fined £3, or, if in default of payment, serve 28 days in prison and Elizabeth was placed on probation. At the end of the hearing one of the magistrates needlessly asked Burdekin: "Don't you think you have been acting the fool?". The young man did not reply.
The St Helens Reporter on the 19th devoted 23 lines (including the headline) to a story of boys charged with playing football in their own street – that's more than some deaths merited. The miscreant kids caught kicking a ball about in Edward Street in St Helens were James Keenan and James Green. The police said they were among a group of youths that ran away when they arrived on the scene. The two bobbies chased them but could only catch the two James's who told the magistrates that they'd only kicked the ball once or twice. One of the lads was fined 5 shillings, the other half-a-crown.
The 20th was Flower Day in St Helens with sales and collections in aid of local district nurses. During 1921 the women claimed to have made 34,326 visits to patients in the borough on their bicycles and had run up a deficit of £510. Flower or Rose Days used to be a regular means of fundraising in St Helens – especially by hospitals. In May 1919 the Reporter had written:
"Bathed in bright sunshine and with an abundance of beautiful flowers bedecking the buttonholes of pedestrians, St Helens looked gay last Saturday. It was the Providence Hospital rose day, and including natural and artificial flowers about forty-five thousand blooms were disposed of."
There was reported to have been a large and distinguished gathering on the 20th to observe the foundation stone laying of a new church at Eccleston Lane Ends. The construction of St James Church began almost immediately afterwards and it was hoped the building would be finished by the end of September.
In reality the action was an application for a separation order, in which the husband would be forced to make maintenance payments to his wife. But in the process of obtaining the court order, a huge amount of lurid details were revealed. The man was accused of attacking his wife, as well as her father and disabled mother. Of course, James denied the claims and reckoned he was the victim of spousal abuse, claiming his wife threw cups at him and stayed out late at night.
Esther Pennington said she had been married fourteen years and for the first ten her husband had always been "a gentleman" to her. His behaviour changed after returning from wartime service – but, as always, that was a matter of detail and no connection between his time as a soldier and personality change upon returning home was suggested. Upon being asked in court what she thought had caused her husband's behavioural shift, Mrs Pennington replied "Love of pleasure". The magistrates predictably granted her application.
The cost of having your picture taken had clearly come down considerably by 1922. When a street photographer appeared in the St Helens Police Court on the 22nd it was revealed that he only charged 6p a picture – although I imagine the prints were very small. A constable told the court that Harry Smith from New Brighton had been "shouting his wares" in Park Road in St Helens without a pedlar's permit. More accurately "Photos while you wait", was what Harry had been yelling on that Sunday afternoon. He told the police that he had a stand on the shore at New Brighton but made more money through selling photos on the street for a tanner a time.
In court Smith complained to the Bench that he had been travelling for twenty years taking and selling photographs and had no idea a licence was needed. He added that he had journeyed all over the country and been coming to St. Helens for years without any problems. Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that a number of photographers were coming into the town to work the streets and they had been warned about requiring a licence. The unfortunate Harry Smith was fined 10 shillings.
It was quite a week for silly prosecutions – but I leave the daftest example to last. When I first read the Reporter's brief account of a 19-year-old lad's court appearance, I thought the offence had been kicking a cat – but it was actually kicking a can! Joseph Pennington from Eldon Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in court on the 22nd charged with can kicking in Boundary Road between six and seven o’clock in the morning.
The lad told the constable that he didn't know he was doing wrong but didn't help his case by giving the officer a false address. The police did not appreciate being messed about and so he was tracked down, brought to court and fined 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the runaway lorry on Crank Hill, the egg stealing from Eccleston Hall Sanatorium, the old soldier's fight in a Bold farmer's field, the come-uppance of ex-copper Samuel Cain and the benefit fraudster caught trying it on.
This week's many stories include the St Helens tram romance that had an unhappy ending, the can-kicking crime in Boundary Road, the Nutgrove man's unorthodox means of cleaning his chimney, the dirt-throwing separation case and the pedlar photographer causing a nuisance by shouting his wares in Park Road.
We begin on the 17th when the St Helens Angling Association obtained permission from the council's Parks Committee to renew their fishing rights at the Leg of Mutton Dam, near Taylor Park.
Last year the dam had dried up and nine-tenth of the fish had died. So the association planned to restock it and give the fish time to spawn.
Asked about the likelihood of the dam drying up again, its secretary said: "I don't think it will happen once in twenty years. Last year was extraordinary."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, Clement Murray of Fleet Lane in Parr was charged with stealing coal worth 1s 6d.
The man was employed at Havannah Colliery but had been caught by PC Trail taking coal from a waste heap at Ashtons Green.
The 1921 coal strike had largely been caused by the bosses slashing wages in response to the market price of coal having dropped.
Mr Murray told the Bench that he had four children "bad in the house" and no coal and the wages that he received would not keep his children in meat.
The magistrates said that as a result of the man's circumstances, they would take a lenient view and only fined him 7s 6d.
Thomas Schofield created quite a stir when he appeared in the dock to face a charge of being drunk and disorderly.
Not only did the young man from Parr Street have bare arms – something that was not done in the courtroom – but they were heavily tattooed.
The St Helens Reporter commented how his "elaborate tattooed decorations" had created a "buzz of conversation" in the court.
PC Wilcox said that during the previous evening, he had seen the prisoner fighting with another man and his wife.
After telling Schofield to go into his home, the constable said he'd replied:
"This is what a man fought for", presumably referring to the wartime fight with the Germans and not his present scrap with his neighbours.
Schofield had over twenty prior convictions and was fined 10 shillings.
Defendants regularly appeared in court charged with allowing their house chimney to get on fire.
It was so common that in 1914 Inspector William Jackson reported himself for allowing the chimney at Sutton Police Station in Sutton Road to get ablaze.
He was fined 3 shillings and his boss, Chief Constable Ellerington, jokingly asked the magistrates whether Jackson should be given a month in prison if he didn't pay up.
However, when Edward Naylor of Nutgrove Road appeared in the St Helens Police Court after his chimney had been on fire, his charge was slightly different.
Instead of the offence being caused by accident or carelessness – the miner was accused of having committed the act wilfully.
A constable told the court that on one Sunday morning he had seen Naylor's chimney alight.
When he called at the house, Naylor said he was aware of the fire and invited the constable into his home to see for himself.
He then explained that he had put a piece of blazing paper up the chimney.
Two buckets of soot lay on the hearth and it appeared that the man had decided to clean his chimney by setting it on fire.
It would've been far cheaper and more effective to have employed a sweep, as Naylor's unorthodox method of soot removal cost him a 15-shilling fine – the usual penalty was 3 to 5 shillings.
A tram romance was also described in court – but one that cost conductor Clarence Burdekin a fine, his job and, probably, his girlfriend.
The young man from Boundary Road had allowed Elizabeth Green to travel free on his vehicle by giving his lady friend fake tickets.
No doubt Burdekin was trying to impress the young woman but hadn't bargained on Tramways Inspector Kenyon.
He boarded the tramcar outside the YMCA Buildings in Duke Street and carefully examined the ticket that Miss Green showed him and noticed it had been cancelled some hours earlier.
Such matters were taken seriously then and another inspector later visited the woman at her home in Parr Stocks Road.
Clearly embarrassed, Elizabeth made what was described as conflicting statements about the matter and the inspector eventually left.
Some days later and accompanied by her father, Elizabeth turned up at the tramways office in Cotham Street to make a clean breast of it all.
As a result Clarence Burdekin was sacked from his job and in court on the 19th was fined £3, or, if in default of payment, serve 28 days in prison and Elizabeth was placed on probation.
At the end of the hearing one of the magistrates needlessly asked Burdekin: "Don't you think you have been acting the fool?". The young man did not reply.
The St Helens Reporter on the 19th devoted 23 lines (including the headline) to a story of boys charged with playing football in their own street – that's more than some deaths merited.
The miscreant kids caught kicking a ball about in Edward Street in St Helens were James Keenan and James Green.
The police said they were among a group of youths that ran away when they arrived on the scene.
The two bobbies chased them but could only catch the two James's who told the magistrates that they'd only kicked the ball once or twice. One of the lads was fined 5 shillings, the other half-a-crown.
The 20th was Flower Day in St Helens with sales and collections in aid of local district nurses.
During 1921 the women claimed to have made 34,326 visits to patients in the borough on their bicycles and had run up a deficit of £510.
Flower or Rose Days used to be a regular means of fundraising in St Helens – especially by hospitals. In May 1919 the Reporter had written:
"Bathed in bright sunshine and with an abundance of beautiful flowers bedecking the buttonholes of pedestrians, St Helens looked gay last Saturday. It was the Providence Hospital rose day, and including natural and artificial flowers about forty-five thousand blooms were disposed of."
There was reported to have been a large and distinguished gathering on the 20th to observe the foundation stone laying of a new church at Eccleston Lane Ends.
The construction of St James Church began almost immediately afterwards and it was hoped the building would be finished by the end of September.
The Reporter always devoted a huge amount of column inches to domestic squabbles. Readers lapped up the prurient details of other couple's rows, with both parties inevitably making all sorts of claims and counter claims.
In the St Helens Police Court on the 22nd, Esther Pennington of Boundary Road (pictured above) summoned her husband James, charging him with persistent cruelty.
In reality the action was an application for a separation order, in which the husband would be forced to make maintenance payments to his wife.
But in the process of obtaining the court order, a huge amount of lurid details were revealed. The man was accused of attacking his wife, as well as her father and disabled mother.
Of course, James denied the claims and reckoned he was the victim of spousal abuse, claiming his wife threw cups at him and stayed out late at night.
Esther Pennington said she had been married fourteen years and for the first ten her husband had always been "a gentleman" to her.
His behaviour changed after returning from wartime service – but, as always, that was a matter of detail and no connection between his time as a soldier and personality change upon returning home was suggested.
Upon being asked in court what she thought had caused her husband's behavioural shift, Mrs Pennington replied "Love of pleasure". The magistrates predictably granted her application.
The cost of having your picture taken had clearly come down considerably by 1922.
When a street photographer appeared in the St Helens Police Court on the 22nd it was revealed that he only charged 6p a picture – although I imagine the prints were very small.
A constable told the court that Harry Smith from New Brighton had been "shouting his wares" in Park Road in St Helens without a pedlar's permit.
More accurately "Photos while you wait", was what Harry had been yelling on that Sunday afternoon.
He told the police that he had a stand on the shore at New Brighton but made more money through selling photos on the street for a tanner a time.
In court Smith complained to the Bench that he had been travelling for twenty years taking and selling photographs and had no idea a licence was needed.
He added that he had journeyed all over the country and been coming to St. Helens for years without any problems.
Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that a number of photographers were coming into the town to work the streets and they had been warned about requiring a licence. The unfortunate Harry Smith was fined 10 shillings.
It was quite a week for silly prosecutions – but I leave the daftest example to last.
When I first read the Reporter's brief account of a 19-year-old lad's court appearance, I thought the offence had been kicking a cat – but it was actually kicking a can!
Joseph Pennington from Eldon Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in court on the 22nd charged with can kicking in Boundary Road between six and seven o’clock in the morning.
The lad told the constable that he didn't know he was doing wrong but didn't help his case by giving the officer a false address.
The police did not appreciate being messed about and so he was tracked down, brought to court and fined 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the runaway lorry on Crank Hill, the egg stealing from Eccleston Hall Sanatorium, the old soldier's fight in a Bold farmer's field, the come-uppance of ex-copper Samuel Cain and the benefit fraudster caught trying it on.
Last year the dam had dried up and nine-tenth of the fish had died. So the association planned to restock it and give the fish time to spawn.
Asked about the likelihood of the dam drying up again, its secretary said: "I don't think it will happen once in twenty years. Last year was extraordinary."
In St Helens Police Court on the 19th, Clement Murray of Fleet Lane in Parr was charged with stealing coal worth 1s 6d.
The man was employed at Havannah Colliery but had been caught by PC Trail taking coal from a waste heap at Ashtons Green.
The 1921 coal strike had largely been caused by the bosses slashing wages in response to the market price of coal having dropped.
Mr Murray told the Bench that he had four children "bad in the house" and no coal and the wages that he received would not keep his children in meat.
The magistrates said that as a result of the man's circumstances, they would take a lenient view and only fined him 7s 6d.
Thomas Schofield created quite a stir when he appeared in the dock to face a charge of being drunk and disorderly.
Not only did the young man from Parr Street have bare arms – something that was not done in the courtroom – but they were heavily tattooed.
The St Helens Reporter commented how his "elaborate tattooed decorations" had created a "buzz of conversation" in the court.
PC Wilcox said that during the previous evening, he had seen the prisoner fighting with another man and his wife.
After telling Schofield to go into his home, the constable said he'd replied:
"This is what a man fought for", presumably referring to the wartime fight with the Germans and not his present scrap with his neighbours.
Schofield had over twenty prior convictions and was fined 10 shillings.
Defendants regularly appeared in court charged with allowing their house chimney to get on fire.
It was so common that in 1914 Inspector William Jackson reported himself for allowing the chimney at Sutton Police Station in Sutton Road to get ablaze.
He was fined 3 shillings and his boss, Chief Constable Ellerington, jokingly asked the magistrates whether Jackson should be given a month in prison if he didn't pay up.
However, when Edward Naylor of Nutgrove Road appeared in the St Helens Police Court after his chimney had been on fire, his charge was slightly different.
Instead of the offence being caused by accident or carelessness – the miner was accused of having committed the act wilfully.
A constable told the court that on one Sunday morning he had seen Naylor's chimney alight.
When he called at the house, Naylor said he was aware of the fire and invited the constable into his home to see for himself.
He then explained that he had put a piece of blazing paper up the chimney.
Two buckets of soot lay on the hearth and it appeared that the man had decided to clean his chimney by setting it on fire.
It would've been far cheaper and more effective to have employed a sweep, as Naylor's unorthodox method of soot removal cost him a 15-shilling fine – the usual penalty was 3 to 5 shillings.
A tram romance was also described in court – but one that cost conductor Clarence Burdekin a fine, his job and, probably, his girlfriend.
The young man from Boundary Road had allowed Elizabeth Green to travel free on his vehicle by giving his lady friend fake tickets.
No doubt Burdekin was trying to impress the young woman but hadn't bargained on Tramways Inspector Kenyon.
He boarded the tramcar outside the YMCA Buildings in Duke Street and carefully examined the ticket that Miss Green showed him and noticed it had been cancelled some hours earlier.
Such matters were taken seriously then and another inspector later visited the woman at her home in Parr Stocks Road.
Clearly embarrassed, Elizabeth made what was described as conflicting statements about the matter and the inspector eventually left.
Some days later and accompanied by her father, Elizabeth turned up at the tramways office in Cotham Street to make a clean breast of it all.
As a result Clarence Burdekin was sacked from his job and in court on the 19th was fined £3, or, if in default of payment, serve 28 days in prison and Elizabeth was placed on probation.
At the end of the hearing one of the magistrates needlessly asked Burdekin: "Don't you think you have been acting the fool?". The young man did not reply.
The St Helens Reporter on the 19th devoted 23 lines (including the headline) to a story of boys charged with playing football in their own street – that's more than some deaths merited.
The miscreant kids caught kicking a ball about in Edward Street in St Helens were James Keenan and James Green.
The police said they were among a group of youths that ran away when they arrived on the scene.
The two bobbies chased them but could only catch the two James's who told the magistrates that they'd only kicked the ball once or twice. One of the lads was fined 5 shillings, the other half-a-crown.
The 20th was Flower Day in St Helens with sales and collections in aid of local district nurses.
During 1921 the women claimed to have made 34,326 visits to patients in the borough on their bicycles and had run up a deficit of £510.
Flower or Rose Days used to be a regular means of fundraising in St Helens – especially by hospitals. In May 1919 the Reporter had written:
"Bathed in bright sunshine and with an abundance of beautiful flowers bedecking the buttonholes of pedestrians, St Helens looked gay last Saturday. It was the Providence Hospital rose day, and including natural and artificial flowers about forty-five thousand blooms were disposed of."
There was reported to have been a large and distinguished gathering on the 20th to observe the foundation stone laying of a new church at Eccleston Lane Ends.
The construction of St James Church began almost immediately afterwards and it was hoped the building would be finished by the end of September.
The Reporter always devoted a huge amount of column inches to domestic squabbles. Readers lapped up the prurient details of other couple's rows, with both parties inevitably making all sorts of claims and counter claims.
In reality the action was an application for a separation order, in which the husband would be forced to make maintenance payments to his wife.
But in the process of obtaining the court order, a huge amount of lurid details were revealed. The man was accused of attacking his wife, as well as her father and disabled mother.
Of course, James denied the claims and reckoned he was the victim of spousal abuse, claiming his wife threw cups at him and stayed out late at night.
Esther Pennington said she had been married fourteen years and for the first ten her husband had always been "a gentleman" to her.
His behaviour changed after returning from wartime service – but, as always, that was a matter of detail and no connection between his time as a soldier and personality change upon returning home was suggested.
Upon being asked in court what she thought had caused her husband's behavioural shift, Mrs Pennington replied "Love of pleasure". The magistrates predictably granted her application.
The cost of having your picture taken had clearly come down considerably by 1922.
When a street photographer appeared in the St Helens Police Court on the 22nd it was revealed that he only charged 6p a picture – although I imagine the prints were very small.
A constable told the court that Harry Smith from New Brighton had been "shouting his wares" in Park Road in St Helens without a pedlar's permit.
More accurately "Photos while you wait", was what Harry had been yelling on that Sunday afternoon.
He told the police that he had a stand on the shore at New Brighton but made more money through selling photos on the street for a tanner a time.
In court Smith complained to the Bench that he had been travelling for twenty years taking and selling photographs and had no idea a licence was needed.
He added that he had journeyed all over the country and been coming to St. Helens for years without any problems.
Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that a number of photographers were coming into the town to work the streets and they had been warned about requiring a licence. The unfortunate Harry Smith was fined 10 shillings.
It was quite a week for silly prosecutions – but I leave the daftest example to last.
When I first read the Reporter's brief account of a 19-year-old lad's court appearance, I thought the offence had been kicking a cat – but it was actually kicking a can!
Joseph Pennington from Eldon Street, off Prescot Road, appeared in court on the 22nd charged with can kicking in Boundary Road between six and seven o’clock in the morning.
The lad told the constable that he didn't know he was doing wrong but didn't help his case by giving the officer a false address.
The police did not appreciate being messed about and so he was tracked down, brought to court and fined 5 shillings.
Next week's stories will include the runaway lorry on Crank Hill, the egg stealing from Eccleston Hall Sanatorium, the old soldier's fight in a Bold farmer's field, the come-uppance of ex-copper Samuel Cain and the benefit fraudster caught trying it on.