IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd AUGUST 1921)
This week's stories include a violent family wrangle in Sutton, the Elephant Lane housing dispute, the motorbike death crash at Bold Bridge, the St Helens Charity Sports, Haydock races and why the cats of Thatto Heath had enjoyed a scrumptious weekend!
Lots of people living in the same house in St Helens a century ago led to lots of family fallouts. I suspect that was the root cause of Richard Williams appearing before St Helens magistrates on the 16th charged with assaulting his father. The young man lived with his Dad at Railway Street in Sutton and Mr Williams Snr told the Bench that his son had no proper suit of clothes of his own.
On Sundays Richard would borrow his Dad's duds – probably to impress the girls on the Sunday evening walks that took place in the town. Frank Bamber (b. 1910) wrote about these in his book 'Clog Clatters': "The parading of teenagers on a Sunday night was an age old custom, and was peculiar to Church Street and Duke Street in St. Helens, as well as the one along the 'Long Wall' at Sutton [on the perimeter of Sherdley Park]. These were also known as 'Monkey Walks'."
However unpleasantness about the clothes borrowing had set in the Williams household and last Sunday Richard had been told that he could no longer use the suit. His reaction was a violent one and in the struggle for the clothes, Richard took his father by the throat and after forcing him down onto the floor, threatened to "choke the life" out of him.
The son told the court that his father and his housekeeper and the other members of the family were all trying to drive him away. Richard denied that he had used undue violence and claimed that the housekeeper had threatened to "brain" him with a poker! The magistrates bound the young man over to be of good behaviour for twelve months.
It may not have been a good weekend for the Williams family of Sutton but it had been a cracking one for the cats of Thatto Heath! What were described as "three very small boys" were also in court, charged with breaking into Mrs Middlehurst's lock-up shop. The youngest lad – none were named – had been pushed through a broken window and he'd opened the shop door for the others. The boys had helped themselves to lots of sweets and cigarettes and when Mrs Middlehurst came into work on the Monday morning, she found the place in a right old mess.
There was tea, tobacco, jam and sweets strewn all over the place with evidence of a feline feast having been enjoyed. That was through the neighbourhood cats having had free run of the premises for many an hour, via the broken window! The magistrates decided to put the boys on probation for two years because of their extreme youth with their parents ordered to pay 7 shillings costs each.
The early 1920s was seeing a huge growth in the number of motor vehicles on the road. Although cars were out of most people's pockets, motorbikes – with or without a sidecar – were affordable for many on hire purchase. Describing the Whit holiday rush to the seaside last year, the St Helens Reporter had written: "The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen only as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT. It would not be until 1973 that helmets would be made compulsory for all road users. So the chances of surviving a high-speed crash on a motorbike were not high in 1921.
On the 17th an inquest heard that on August 1st a steam wagon was being driven along Warrington Road in Bold Heath when at Bold Bridge (pictured above in later years) a motorbike overtook it at speed. The driver of the wagon was Frank Bellis who told the hearing that the rider of the bike had travelled past him at a "terrible speed". That led Mr Bellis to remark to his mate in the cab: "My word, there's an aeroplane".
But instead of taking off into the sky, the bike dashed down the hill in front of the wagon and when about 70 yards away, swerved to the left and crashed. Abram Libbert from Manchester was the driver of the motorcycle and the 35-year-old fractured his skull and died in Whiston Hospital during the same evening.
Many applications in St Helens Police Court for house possessions were linked to the critical housing shortage in the town, as the tenants could not find another home to go to. There was often sympathy for their plight and this came to a head last March when a retired police officer and his wife and eight children were briefly evicted from their house in Brynn Street that came with the job. Bobbies were ordered to go into their former colleague's home and put the family's furniture into the street to the booing of neighbours. And then concerned councillors arrived on the scene and ordered them to stop and put their possessions back in place!
However the case that occupied the magistrates on the 19th was rather different with the housing shortage seemingly working against the defendant. The 1911 census has Thomas Ainscough of 202 Elephant Lane listed as a 58-year-old underground labourer in a coalmine and married to 33-year-old Amy.
The family had now hit hard times, possibly linked to the coal strike – although Thomas would by then have been pushing 70. He was in the workhouse at Whiston and his wife told the court that as a result she could not afford to pay her weekly rent of 5s 11d. However the landlord explained to the court that the Ainscoughs had been in arrears for a very long time and presently owed him £3 11s 3d.
Some people benefitted from the housing crisis by taking in lots of lodgers at a high rent. Not only did Amy Ainscough have several boarders but she had her two brothers living with her too. So the lodgers should have been able to provide a decent income for the woman. The landlord was also not happy about the state of his house, complaining that they had broken all the windows and damaged the floors.
After enquiring into the means of Mrs Ainscough, the magistrates were satisfied that there was no reason for her not paying the rent and they made an order for possession in twenty-eight days. The woman (and her brothers and lodgers) now had the huge difficulty of finding somewhere else to live and she probably wished that she had kept up the rent.
During the evening of the 19th the St Helens Charity Sports were held on the St Helens Recs football ground in City Road in front of what was described as only a moderate attendance. This was the main fundraising event of the Charity Sports Committee, although they also held an annual cricket match.
The main beneficiaries were usually St Helens Hospital and Providence Hospital. Although the Fresh Air Fund – that paid for large numbers of poor children to be taken on outings away from the town's smoke and grime – and the Clog and Stocking Fund – that provided clothing for the poorest of kids – also usually benefitted. As well as the serious races (e.g. 100 yards, 1 mile etc.) there were also the fun ones – including ladies' sack and three-legged races and a football dribbling contest.
On the front page of the Sporting Chronicle on the 20th there was a large advert for a two-day race meeting at Haydock Park set to take place next weekend. Special trains were being run from eleven towns and cities – including Leeds, Birmingham and London. For those preferring to drive to the course there was this message:
"To avoid congestion and delay on the Private Road leading to the Haydock Park Entrance, Char-a-bancs and Waggonettes will be parked in Garswood Park ONLY which is 5 minutes' walk from the Racecourse. Charge 2s. 6d. per day." The waggonettes were the horse-driven version of the charabancs.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo this week of the greatest interest to me was an article about gipsies that, under the headline "A Vanishing Race", could almost have been written today: "The gipsies are obviously a dwindling race. Few are now to be met with on the roads and though some are to be found in the neighbourhood of popular seaside resorts who offer to tell fortunes, business does not appear very flourishing. Romance has always been associated with the gipsies, and this is not a romantic age. Probably much of this romance belongs to fiction rather than to fact, for much false sentiment has been woven round the nomadic life.
"The pride and pomp of the Romany race has departed, never to return in civilised communities. A couple of decades ago the gipsies were accustomed to induct their kings and queens with considerable pomp and ceremony. There was the noted Queen Esther Faa Blythe, who was famous for her oratorical powers, and could trace her descent in a direct line to John Faa Blythe. This gipsy was a particular friend of James V., who issued a writ in favour of “oure louit Johnne Faa, lord and erle of Little Egypt.”
"The gipsies in Scotland were famous for their minstrelsy, and were always welcome in the halls of the great. As the result of the kindly treatment they received from Royalty the gypsies were always steadfast Jacobites, and many were executed for their loyalty. But the genealogical tree of the modern gypsy is so confused that little pride of ancestry is left.
"Dukkering, or fortune-telling, is no longer the profitable occupation it once was, for the up-to-date palmist has eaten into this source of revenue. Gipsies are barely tolerated by local authorities, for in a stable society there is really no place for them. No doubt they will remain on the road until the last."
Next week's stories will include the St Helens survivor of the R38 airship disaster, the claim that Sutton men streamed daily out of work to bet with bookies, the high speed motorbike testing in North Road and the female musical pioneer at the Theatre Royal.
Lots of people living in the same house in St Helens a century ago led to lots of family fallouts. I suspect that was the root cause of Richard Williams appearing before St Helens magistrates on the 16th charged with assaulting his father. The young man lived with his Dad at Railway Street in Sutton and Mr Williams Snr told the Bench that his son had no proper suit of clothes of his own.
On Sundays Richard would borrow his Dad's duds – probably to impress the girls on the Sunday evening walks that took place in the town. Frank Bamber (b. 1910) wrote about these in his book 'Clog Clatters': "The parading of teenagers on a Sunday night was an age old custom, and was peculiar to Church Street and Duke Street in St. Helens, as well as the one along the 'Long Wall' at Sutton [on the perimeter of Sherdley Park]. These were also known as 'Monkey Walks'."
However unpleasantness about the clothes borrowing had set in the Williams household and last Sunday Richard had been told that he could no longer use the suit. His reaction was a violent one and in the struggle for the clothes, Richard took his father by the throat and after forcing him down onto the floor, threatened to "choke the life" out of him.
The son told the court that his father and his housekeeper and the other members of the family were all trying to drive him away. Richard denied that he had used undue violence and claimed that the housekeeper had threatened to "brain" him with a poker! The magistrates bound the young man over to be of good behaviour for twelve months.
It may not have been a good weekend for the Williams family of Sutton but it had been a cracking one for the cats of Thatto Heath! What were described as "three very small boys" were also in court, charged with breaking into Mrs Middlehurst's lock-up shop. The youngest lad – none were named – had been pushed through a broken window and he'd opened the shop door for the others. The boys had helped themselves to lots of sweets and cigarettes and when Mrs Middlehurst came into work on the Monday morning, she found the place in a right old mess.
There was tea, tobacco, jam and sweets strewn all over the place with evidence of a feline feast having been enjoyed. That was through the neighbourhood cats having had free run of the premises for many an hour, via the broken window! The magistrates decided to put the boys on probation for two years because of their extreme youth with their parents ordered to pay 7 shillings costs each.
The early 1920s was seeing a huge growth in the number of motor vehicles on the road. Although cars were out of most people's pockets, motorbikes – with or without a sidecar – were affordable for many on hire purchase. Describing the Whit holiday rush to the seaside last year, the St Helens Reporter had written: "The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen only as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT. It would not be until 1973 that helmets would be made compulsory for all road users. So the chances of surviving a high-speed crash on a motorbike were not high in 1921.
But instead of taking off into the sky, the bike dashed down the hill in front of the wagon and when about 70 yards away, swerved to the left and crashed. Abram Libbert from Manchester was the driver of the motorcycle and the 35-year-old fractured his skull and died in Whiston Hospital during the same evening.
Many applications in St Helens Police Court for house possessions were linked to the critical housing shortage in the town, as the tenants could not find another home to go to. There was often sympathy for their plight and this came to a head last March when a retired police officer and his wife and eight children were briefly evicted from their house in Brynn Street that came with the job. Bobbies were ordered to go into their former colleague's home and put the family's furniture into the street to the booing of neighbours. And then concerned councillors arrived on the scene and ordered them to stop and put their possessions back in place!
However the case that occupied the magistrates on the 19th was rather different with the housing shortage seemingly working against the defendant. The 1911 census has Thomas Ainscough of 202 Elephant Lane listed as a 58-year-old underground labourer in a coalmine and married to 33-year-old Amy.
The family had now hit hard times, possibly linked to the coal strike – although Thomas would by then have been pushing 70. He was in the workhouse at Whiston and his wife told the court that as a result she could not afford to pay her weekly rent of 5s 11d. However the landlord explained to the court that the Ainscoughs had been in arrears for a very long time and presently owed him £3 11s 3d.
Some people benefitted from the housing crisis by taking in lots of lodgers at a high rent. Not only did Amy Ainscough have several boarders but she had her two brothers living with her too. So the lodgers should have been able to provide a decent income for the woman. The landlord was also not happy about the state of his house, complaining that they had broken all the windows and damaged the floors.
After enquiring into the means of Mrs Ainscough, the magistrates were satisfied that there was no reason for her not paying the rent and they made an order for possession in twenty-eight days. The woman (and her brothers and lodgers) now had the huge difficulty of finding somewhere else to live and she probably wished that she had kept up the rent.
During the evening of the 19th the St Helens Charity Sports were held on the St Helens Recs football ground in City Road in front of what was described as only a moderate attendance. This was the main fundraising event of the Charity Sports Committee, although they also held an annual cricket match.
The main beneficiaries were usually St Helens Hospital and Providence Hospital. Although the Fresh Air Fund – that paid for large numbers of poor children to be taken on outings away from the town's smoke and grime – and the Clog and Stocking Fund – that provided clothing for the poorest of kids – also usually benefitted. As well as the serious races (e.g. 100 yards, 1 mile etc.) there were also the fun ones – including ladies' sack and three-legged races and a football dribbling contest.
On the front page of the Sporting Chronicle on the 20th there was a large advert for a two-day race meeting at Haydock Park set to take place next weekend. Special trains were being run from eleven towns and cities – including Leeds, Birmingham and London. For those preferring to drive to the course there was this message:
"To avoid congestion and delay on the Private Road leading to the Haydock Park Entrance, Char-a-bancs and Waggonettes will be parked in Garswood Park ONLY which is 5 minutes' walk from the Racecourse. Charge 2s. 6d. per day." The waggonettes were the horse-driven version of the charabancs.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo this week of the greatest interest to me was an article about gipsies that, under the headline "A Vanishing Race", could almost have been written today: "The gipsies are obviously a dwindling race. Few are now to be met with on the roads and though some are to be found in the neighbourhood of popular seaside resorts who offer to tell fortunes, business does not appear very flourishing. Romance has always been associated with the gipsies, and this is not a romantic age. Probably much of this romance belongs to fiction rather than to fact, for much false sentiment has been woven round the nomadic life.
"The pride and pomp of the Romany race has departed, never to return in civilised communities. A couple of decades ago the gipsies were accustomed to induct their kings and queens with considerable pomp and ceremony. There was the noted Queen Esther Faa Blythe, who was famous for her oratorical powers, and could trace her descent in a direct line to John Faa Blythe. This gipsy was a particular friend of James V., who issued a writ in favour of “oure louit Johnne Faa, lord and erle of Little Egypt.”
"The gipsies in Scotland were famous for their minstrelsy, and were always welcome in the halls of the great. As the result of the kindly treatment they received from Royalty the gypsies were always steadfast Jacobites, and many were executed for their loyalty. But the genealogical tree of the modern gypsy is so confused that little pride of ancestry is left.
"Dukkering, or fortune-telling, is no longer the profitable occupation it once was, for the up-to-date palmist has eaten into this source of revenue. Gipsies are barely tolerated by local authorities, for in a stable society there is really no place for them. No doubt they will remain on the road until the last."
Next week's stories will include the St Helens survivor of the R38 airship disaster, the claim that Sutton men streamed daily out of work to bet with bookies, the high speed motorbike testing in North Road and the female musical pioneer at the Theatre Royal.
This week's stories include a violent family wrangle in Sutton, the Elephant Lane housing dispute, the motorbike death crash at Bold Bridge, the St Helens Charity Sports, Haydock races and why the cats of Thatto Heath had enjoyed a scrumptious weekend!
Lots of people living in the same house in St Helens a century ago led to lots of family fallouts.
I suspect that was the root cause of Richard Williams appearing before St Helens magistrates on the 16th charged with assaulting his father.
The young man lived with his Dad at Railway Street in Sutton and Mr Williams Snr told the Bench that his son had no proper suit of clothes of his own.
On Sundays Richard would borrow his Dad's duds – probably to impress the girls on the Sunday evening walks that took place in the town.
Frank Bamber (b. 1910) wrote about these in his book 'Clog Clatters':
"The parading of teenagers on a Sunday night was an age old custom, and was peculiar to Church Street and Duke Street in St. Helens, as well as the one along the 'Long Wall' at Sutton [on the perimeter of Sherdley Park]. These were also known as 'Monkey Walks'."
However unpleasantness about the clothes borrowing had set in the Williams household and last Sunday Richard had been told that he could no longer use the suit.
His reaction was a violent one and in the struggle for the clothes, Richard took his father by the throat and after forcing him down onto the floor, threatened to "choke the life" out of him.
The son told the court that his father and his housekeeper and the other members of the family were all trying to drive him away.
Richard denied that he had used undue violence and claimed that the housekeeper had threatened to "brain" him with a poker!
The magistrates bound the young man over to be of good behaviour for twelve months.
It may not have been a good weekend for the Williams family of Sutton but it had been a cracking one for the cats of Thatto Heath!
What were described as "three very small boys" were also in court, charged with breaking into Mrs Middlehurst's lock-up shop.
The youngest lad – none were named – had been pushed through a broken window and he'd opened the shop door for the others.
The boys had helped themselves to lots of sweets and cigarettes and when Mrs Middlehurst came into work on the Monday morning, she found the place in a right old mess.
There was tea, tobacco, jam and sweets strewn all over the place with evidence of a feline feast having been enjoyed.
That was through the neighbourhood cats having had free run of the premises for many an hour, via the broken window!
The magistrates decided to put the boys on probation for two years because of their extreme youth with their parents ordered to pay 7 shillings costs each.
The early 1920s was seeing a huge growth in the number of motor vehicles on the road.
Although cars were out of most people's pockets, motorbikes – with or without a sidecar – were affordable for many on hire purchase.
Describing the Whit holiday rush to the seaside last year, the St Helens Reporter had written:
"The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen only as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT.
It would not be until 1973 that helmets would be made compulsory for all road users.
So the chances of surviving a high-speed crash on a motorbike were not high in 1921.
On the 17th an inquest heard that on August 1st a steam wagon was being driven along Warrington Road in Bold Heath when at Bold Bridge (pictured above in later years) a motorbike overtook it at speed.
The driver of the wagon was Frank Bellis who told the hearing that the rider of the bike had travelled past him at a "terrible speed".
That led Mr Bellis to remark to his mate in the cab: "My word, there's an aeroplane".
But instead of taking off into the sky, the bike dashed down the hill in front of the wagon and when about 70 yards away, swerved to the left and crashed.
Abram Libbert from Manchester was the driver of the motorcycle and the 35-year-old fractured his skull and died in Whiston Hospital during the same evening.
Many applications in St Helens Police Court for house possessions were linked to the critical housing shortage in the town, as the tenants could not find another home to go to.
There was often sympathy for their plight and this came to a head last March when a retired police officer and his wife and eight children were briefly evicted from their house in Brynn Street that came with the job.
Bobbies were ordered to go into their former colleague's home and put the family's furniture into the street to the booing of neighbours.
And then concerned councillors arrived on the scene and ordered them to stop and put their possessions back in place!
However the case that occupied the magistrates on the 19th was rather different with the housing shortage seemingly working against the defendant.
The 1911 census has Thomas Ainscough of 202 Elephant Lane listed as a 58-year-old underground labourer in a coalmine and married to 33-year-old Amy.
The family had now hit hard times, possibly linked to the coal strike – although Thomas would by then have been pushing 70.
He was in the workhouse at Whiston and his wife told the court that as a result she could not afford to pay her weekly rent of 5s 11d.
However the landlord explained to the court that the Ainscoughs had been in arrears for a very long time and presently owed him £3 11s 3d.
Some people benefitted from the housing crisis by taking in lots of lodgers at a high rent.
Not only did Amy Ainscough have several boarders but she had her two brothers living with her too. So the lodgers should have been able to provide a decent income for the woman.
The landlord was also not happy about the state of his house, complaining that they had broken all the windows and damaged the floors.
After enquiring into the means of Mrs Ainscough, the magistrates were satisfied that there was no reason for her not paying the rent and they made an order for possession in twenty-eight days.
The woman (and her brothers and lodgers) now had the huge difficulty of finding somewhere else to live and she probably wished that she had kept up the rent.
During the evening of the 19th the St Helens Charity Sports were held on the St Helens Recs football ground in City Road in front of what was described as only a moderate attendance.
This was the main fundraising event of the Charity Sports Committee, although they also held an annual cricket match.
The main beneficiaries were usually St Helens Hospital and Providence Hospital.
Although the Fresh Air Fund – that paid for large numbers of poor children to be taken on outings away from the town's smoke and grime – and the Clog and Stocking Fund – that provided clothing for the poorest of kids – also usually benefitted.
As well as the serious races (e.g. 100 yards, 1 mile etc.) there were also the fun ones – including ladies' sack and three-legged races and a football dribbling contest.
On the front page of the Sporting Chronicle on the 20th there was a large advert for a two-day race meeting at Haydock Park set to take place next weekend.
Special trains were being run from eleven towns and cities – including Leeds, Birmingham and London.
For those preferring to drive to the course there was this message:
"To avoid congestion and delay on the Private Road leading to the Haydock Park Entrance, Char-a-bancs and Waggonettes will be parked in Garswood Park ONLY which is 5 minutes' walk from the Racecourse. Charge 2s. 6d. per day."
The waggonettes were the horse-driven version of the charabancs.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo this week of the greatest interest to me was an article about gipsies that, under the headline "A Vanishing Race", could almost have been written today:
"The gipsies are obviously a dwindling race. Few are now to be met with on the roads and though some are to be found in the neighbourhood of popular seaside resorts who offer to tell fortunes, business does not appear very flourishing.
"Romance has always been associated with the gipsies, and this is not a romantic age.
"Probably much of this romance belongs to fiction rather than to fact, for much false sentiment has been woven round the nomadic life.
"The pride and pomp of the Romany race has departed, never to return in civilised communities.
"A couple of decades ago the gipsies were accustomed to induct their kings and queens with considerable pomp and ceremony.
"There was the noted Queen Esther Faa Blythe, who was famous for her oratorical powers, and could trace her descent in a direct line to John Faa Blythe.
"This gipsy was a particular friend of James V., who issued a writ in favour of “oure louit Johnne Faa, lord and erle of Little Egypt.”
"The gipsies in Scotland were famous for their minstrelsy, and were always welcome in the halls of the great.
"As the result of the kindly treatment they received from Royalty the gypsies were always steadfast Jacobites, and many were executed for their loyalty.
"But the genealogical tree of the modern gypsy is so confused that little pride of ancestry is left.
"Dukkering, or fortune-telling, is no longer the profitable occupation it once was, for the up-to-date palmist has eaten into this source of revenue.
"Gipsies are barely tolerated by local authorities, for in a stable society there is really no place for them. No doubt they will remain on the road until the last."
Next week's stories will include the St Helens survivor of the R38 airship disaster, the claim that Sutton men streamed daily out of work to bet with bookies, the high speed motorbike testing in North Road and the female musical pioneer at the Theatre Royal.
Lots of people living in the same house in St Helens a century ago led to lots of family fallouts.
I suspect that was the root cause of Richard Williams appearing before St Helens magistrates on the 16th charged with assaulting his father.
The young man lived with his Dad at Railway Street in Sutton and Mr Williams Snr told the Bench that his son had no proper suit of clothes of his own.
On Sundays Richard would borrow his Dad's duds – probably to impress the girls on the Sunday evening walks that took place in the town.
Frank Bamber (b. 1910) wrote about these in his book 'Clog Clatters':
"The parading of teenagers on a Sunday night was an age old custom, and was peculiar to Church Street and Duke Street in St. Helens, as well as the one along the 'Long Wall' at Sutton [on the perimeter of Sherdley Park]. These were also known as 'Monkey Walks'."
However unpleasantness about the clothes borrowing had set in the Williams household and last Sunday Richard had been told that he could no longer use the suit.
His reaction was a violent one and in the struggle for the clothes, Richard took his father by the throat and after forcing him down onto the floor, threatened to "choke the life" out of him.
The son told the court that his father and his housekeeper and the other members of the family were all trying to drive him away.
Richard denied that he had used undue violence and claimed that the housekeeper had threatened to "brain" him with a poker!
The magistrates bound the young man over to be of good behaviour for twelve months.
It may not have been a good weekend for the Williams family of Sutton but it had been a cracking one for the cats of Thatto Heath!
What were described as "three very small boys" were also in court, charged with breaking into Mrs Middlehurst's lock-up shop.
The youngest lad – none were named – had been pushed through a broken window and he'd opened the shop door for the others.
The boys had helped themselves to lots of sweets and cigarettes and when Mrs Middlehurst came into work on the Monday morning, she found the place in a right old mess.
There was tea, tobacco, jam and sweets strewn all over the place with evidence of a feline feast having been enjoyed.
That was through the neighbourhood cats having had free run of the premises for many an hour, via the broken window!
The magistrates decided to put the boys on probation for two years because of their extreme youth with their parents ordered to pay 7 shillings costs each.
The early 1920s was seeing a huge growth in the number of motor vehicles on the road.
Although cars were out of most people's pockets, motorbikes – with or without a sidecar – were affordable for many on hire purchase.
Describing the Whit holiday rush to the seaside last year, the St Helens Reporter had written:
"The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen only as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT.
It would not be until 1973 that helmets would be made compulsory for all road users.
So the chances of surviving a high-speed crash on a motorbike were not high in 1921.
The driver of the wagon was Frank Bellis who told the hearing that the rider of the bike had travelled past him at a "terrible speed".
That led Mr Bellis to remark to his mate in the cab: "My word, there's an aeroplane".
But instead of taking off into the sky, the bike dashed down the hill in front of the wagon and when about 70 yards away, swerved to the left and crashed.
Abram Libbert from Manchester was the driver of the motorcycle and the 35-year-old fractured his skull and died in Whiston Hospital during the same evening.
Many applications in St Helens Police Court for house possessions were linked to the critical housing shortage in the town, as the tenants could not find another home to go to.
There was often sympathy for their plight and this came to a head last March when a retired police officer and his wife and eight children were briefly evicted from their house in Brynn Street that came with the job.
Bobbies were ordered to go into their former colleague's home and put the family's furniture into the street to the booing of neighbours.
And then concerned councillors arrived on the scene and ordered them to stop and put their possessions back in place!
However the case that occupied the magistrates on the 19th was rather different with the housing shortage seemingly working against the defendant.
The 1911 census has Thomas Ainscough of 202 Elephant Lane listed as a 58-year-old underground labourer in a coalmine and married to 33-year-old Amy.
The family had now hit hard times, possibly linked to the coal strike – although Thomas would by then have been pushing 70.
He was in the workhouse at Whiston and his wife told the court that as a result she could not afford to pay her weekly rent of 5s 11d.
However the landlord explained to the court that the Ainscoughs had been in arrears for a very long time and presently owed him £3 11s 3d.
Some people benefitted from the housing crisis by taking in lots of lodgers at a high rent.
Not only did Amy Ainscough have several boarders but she had her two brothers living with her too. So the lodgers should have been able to provide a decent income for the woman.
The landlord was also not happy about the state of his house, complaining that they had broken all the windows and damaged the floors.
After enquiring into the means of Mrs Ainscough, the magistrates were satisfied that there was no reason for her not paying the rent and they made an order for possession in twenty-eight days.
The woman (and her brothers and lodgers) now had the huge difficulty of finding somewhere else to live and she probably wished that she had kept up the rent.
During the evening of the 19th the St Helens Charity Sports were held on the St Helens Recs football ground in City Road in front of what was described as only a moderate attendance.
This was the main fundraising event of the Charity Sports Committee, although they also held an annual cricket match.
The main beneficiaries were usually St Helens Hospital and Providence Hospital.
Although the Fresh Air Fund – that paid for large numbers of poor children to be taken on outings away from the town's smoke and grime – and the Clog and Stocking Fund – that provided clothing for the poorest of kids – also usually benefitted.
As well as the serious races (e.g. 100 yards, 1 mile etc.) there were also the fun ones – including ladies' sack and three-legged races and a football dribbling contest.
On the front page of the Sporting Chronicle on the 20th there was a large advert for a two-day race meeting at Haydock Park set to take place next weekend.
Special trains were being run from eleven towns and cities – including Leeds, Birmingham and London.
For those preferring to drive to the course there was this message:
"To avoid congestion and delay on the Private Road leading to the Haydock Park Entrance, Char-a-bancs and Waggonettes will be parked in Garswood Park ONLY which is 5 minutes' walk from the Racecourse. Charge 2s. 6d. per day."
The waggonettes were the horse-driven version of the charabancs.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo this week of the greatest interest to me was an article about gipsies that, under the headline "A Vanishing Race", could almost have been written today:
"The gipsies are obviously a dwindling race. Few are now to be met with on the roads and though some are to be found in the neighbourhood of popular seaside resorts who offer to tell fortunes, business does not appear very flourishing.
"Romance has always been associated with the gipsies, and this is not a romantic age.
"Probably much of this romance belongs to fiction rather than to fact, for much false sentiment has been woven round the nomadic life.
"The pride and pomp of the Romany race has departed, never to return in civilised communities.
"A couple of decades ago the gipsies were accustomed to induct their kings and queens with considerable pomp and ceremony.
"There was the noted Queen Esther Faa Blythe, who was famous for her oratorical powers, and could trace her descent in a direct line to John Faa Blythe.
"This gipsy was a particular friend of James V., who issued a writ in favour of “oure louit Johnne Faa, lord and erle of Little Egypt.”
"The gipsies in Scotland were famous for their minstrelsy, and were always welcome in the halls of the great.
"As the result of the kindly treatment they received from Royalty the gypsies were always steadfast Jacobites, and many were executed for their loyalty.
"But the genealogical tree of the modern gypsy is so confused that little pride of ancestry is left.
"Dukkering, or fortune-telling, is no longer the profitable occupation it once was, for the up-to-date palmist has eaten into this source of revenue.
"Gipsies are barely tolerated by local authorities, for in a stable society there is really no place for them. No doubt they will remain on the road until the last."
Next week's stories will include the St Helens survivor of the R38 airship disaster, the claim that Sutton men streamed daily out of work to bet with bookies, the high speed motorbike testing in North Road and the female musical pioneer at the Theatre Royal.