IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd NOVEMBER 1920)
This week's stories include the striking St Helens cloggers, a plaque for the Queen's Park tank, more Pilkington hostel boys in trouble and the rapturous rhythms of a new waltz are demonstrated at the Town Hall.
We begin on the 16th with a lecture in the Co-op Hall in Baldwin Street. Such events were usually well attended and tonight's subject was simply "Russia", with the recent revolution and civil war in the country generating considerable interest in England.
The council's Parks and Cemetery Committee met at the town Hall on the 17th. Its members were shown the brass plaque that was going to be attached to the tank in what we now call Queen's Park (pictured above). The war souvenir from France had been installed at the beginning of the year and placed on a concrete base surrounded by railings. The wording on the plaque read: "Presented by the National War Savings Committee to the citizens of St. Helens in recognition of the readiness with which they lent their money to their country in the financial campaigns carried by the Local War Savings Committee in the Great War, 1914-1918. Coun. J. Heaton, J.P., chairman; Thomas Best, the hon. sec."
Whether the citizens of St Helens wanted a tank as a reminder of the brutal war I cannot say, as they were never asked. Rainford Council had been planning to install a couple of big German guns, which, according to their Chairman, "would look well on each side of the flagstaff in front of the Village Hall." However they'd had second thousands after considering what one councillor called the "mutilated condition" of many ex-soldiers on the streets of Rainford. Another council member said they had "sufficient sickening sights caused by those weapons without bringing them nearer to them." But St Helens Council went ahead and installed their war prize in Queen's Park and at the committee meeting the Borough Engineer asked for permission to paint the tank. However he was told to wait and see if they had sufficient cash left over at the end of the financial year.
During the evening of the 17th there was a demonstration of a new waltz at the Town Hall. This is how the Reporter previewed the event: "A public surfeited on tango and jazz will take kindly, one feels sure, to the “Eulalie Waltz,” which is said to combine all the most graceful evolutions known in dancing. The debut in St. Helens will be made on Wednesday evening next at the Town Hall, when Mr. J. R. Bickerstaffe, the famous M.C. of the Tower, Blackpool, who invented the waltz, and the Misses Bickerstaffe will demonstrate and initiate visitors into the rapturous rhythm of their masterly creation. Dancing in St. Helens will undoubtedly receive a stimulus from this unique demonstration of what, it is predicted, will prove the most delightful addition to modern dance programmes."
Riding on the pillion of a motorbike was labelled a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice by the coroner for SW Lancashire this week. Samuel Brighouse was officiating at an inquest into the death of Thomas Acton of Haydock. The 24-year-old had been riding pillion on a motorbike ridden by his pal William Mullineaux of Park Road, which crashed into a motor coach in Bolton while avoiding a tram. Mullineaux could remember nothing of the accident but agreed with the coroner that his friend might have grabbed his arm, which could have affecting his steering.
Thomas Acton had spent four years in the army during the war. If he had died while fighting his wife would have been awarded a reasonable widow's pension. However no pension was awarded for traffic accidents. The Reporter wrote: "Great sympathy is felt for his widow and three children, who are left practically destitute in consequence."
The Sutton Bond munitions works in Lancots Lane (pictured above) had been a busy place. This can be seen from the items offered in a two-day sale that was held on the old Sutton Glassworks site from the 17th. The auction was run by the Ministry of Munitions and included 495 chairs, 573 strong benches, 60 tables, 500 mugs, 226 towels, plus 2,400 plates and basins. A previous 3-day auction of workshop and canteen equipment, clothing and office furniture had taken place in April.
There were only three St Helens cinemas that showed Pathe News – or Pathe Gazette as it was known in 1920. These were the Sutton Empire, the Palladium in Boundary Road and the Oxford (later the Plaza) in Duke Street. It was at the latter for three days from the 18th that a special Cenotaph edition of Pathe Gazette was shown. The war memorial had only been unveiled in Whitehall a week earlier and the film showed the King performing the ceremony, as well as scenes of the Armistice celebrations and the arrival of the body of the Unknown Warrior.
You have to applaud Pilkingtons for what they did for troubled lads. There were around 150 boys working at the glass firm who came to St Helens from all over the country. Many were orphans who had arrived from reformatories or industrial schools and lived in what sounds like a really nice hostel in Ravenhead. The amenities that the firm provided for the boys included a gym, baths and recreational rooms with adults on hand to supervise and provide support. They even had their own brass band. However some bad boys could not be persuaded to change their ways and quite often hostel lads would appear in court.
On the 20th seven of them appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with theft. Although they had only taken fruit and biscuits, the lads had broken into premises in Tontine Street and repeatedly stolen from a railway goods wagon. The hostel would not take responsibility for most of the seven and so these lads were being kept in police custody. Magistrate John Willis said it seemed strange for the hostel officials to have brought the boys to Ravenhead and then wipe their hands of them.
Inspector Roe explained that they were on licence from the schools that had sent them to St Helens, adding: "If they behave they remain at liberty. If not they go back. Two of these boys were not so bad and would be kept; one would be sent home, the others would be sent back to the reformatory school." The police were still investigating the boys and a further remand was approved.
"All right, you have done me at last", was what PC Trail told the magistrates that Edward Hancock had declared. That was after the officer had turned up at the man's house in Back Fleet Lane with a warrant for his arrest. Hancock had deserted from the 2nd Machine Gun Corps a year earlier and the court ordered his remand while awaiting a military escort back to his unit.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens went on strike on the 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise. These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town and were members of the Journeymen Cloggers Union and they only numbered about thirty. The making and repairing of clogs was essentially a small cottage industry with many cloggers working on their own account – perhaps with an assistant and / or apprentice. It was the assistants that wanted the pay rise which their bosses refused to give. They said that would lead to the price of clogs having to go up which would affect sales.
There was a big headline act at the Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street from the 22nd. It was Will Hay who was performing in his famous sketch as a schoolmaster called Dr. Muffin. However it would not be until the mid-1930s that Hay would become a prolific film star. I will have a review of Hay's performance in next week's article.
Other turns at the Hippodrome included The Cycling Brunettes ("Presenting their latest novelty ‘Defying Gravity’"); Andrea and Theo ("The famous Continental dancers from Olympia, Paris") and George Eames ("St. Dunstan's blind magnet in descriptive songs and monologue"). Mr Eames had been blinded on the Somme in 1916 with St Dunstan's being the famed London centre that provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen. Meanwhile the more upmarket Theatre Royal had the Allington Charsley Grand Opera Company appearing once again, performing a different opera on each day of the week.
And finally St Helens Ladies continued their tour of the country playing charity games against Dick, Kerr's of Preston. On the 22nd the Nottingham Evening Post's front page bore a large photograph (shown above) featuring nine of the players with this caption: "The captain of the St. Helens ladies football team signing one of the two balls used in Saturday's match at Leicester against Dick, Kerr's (Preston), which was afterwards sold. The proceeds of the match, £650, went to the ex-Mayor's Unemployment Fund."
That was a huge amount – around £40,000 in today's money. Despite the good deeds of the "lady footballers" in raising large amounts for charity, it would not be long before the FA would ban women's football on member grounds (such as Leicester City's). That was because the men that ran the game considered women kicking a ball "unladylike".
Next week's stories will include a violent attack on a wife in Bold, a day of reckoning for the thieving Ravenhead hostel lads, the planned widening of the town's roads, how Will Hay fared at the Hippodrome and the Sinn Feiner fracas in Boundary Road.
We begin on the 16th with a lecture in the Co-op Hall in Baldwin Street. Such events were usually well attended and tonight's subject was simply "Russia", with the recent revolution and civil war in the country generating considerable interest in England.
Whether the citizens of St Helens wanted a tank as a reminder of the brutal war I cannot say, as they were never asked. Rainford Council had been planning to install a couple of big German guns, which, according to their Chairman, "would look well on each side of the flagstaff in front of the Village Hall." However they'd had second thousands after considering what one councillor called the "mutilated condition" of many ex-soldiers on the streets of Rainford. Another council member said they had "sufficient sickening sights caused by those weapons without bringing them nearer to them." But St Helens Council went ahead and installed their war prize in Queen's Park and at the committee meeting the Borough Engineer asked for permission to paint the tank. However he was told to wait and see if they had sufficient cash left over at the end of the financial year.
During the evening of the 17th there was a demonstration of a new waltz at the Town Hall. This is how the Reporter previewed the event: "A public surfeited on tango and jazz will take kindly, one feels sure, to the “Eulalie Waltz,” which is said to combine all the most graceful evolutions known in dancing. The debut in St. Helens will be made on Wednesday evening next at the Town Hall, when Mr. J. R. Bickerstaffe, the famous M.C. of the Tower, Blackpool, who invented the waltz, and the Misses Bickerstaffe will demonstrate and initiate visitors into the rapturous rhythm of their masterly creation. Dancing in St. Helens will undoubtedly receive a stimulus from this unique demonstration of what, it is predicted, will prove the most delightful addition to modern dance programmes."
Riding on the pillion of a motorbike was labelled a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice by the coroner for SW Lancashire this week. Samuel Brighouse was officiating at an inquest into the death of Thomas Acton of Haydock. The 24-year-old had been riding pillion on a motorbike ridden by his pal William Mullineaux of Park Road, which crashed into a motor coach in Bolton while avoiding a tram. Mullineaux could remember nothing of the accident but agreed with the coroner that his friend might have grabbed his arm, which could have affecting his steering.
Thomas Acton had spent four years in the army during the war. If he had died while fighting his wife would have been awarded a reasonable widow's pension. However no pension was awarded for traffic accidents. The Reporter wrote: "Great sympathy is felt for his widow and three children, who are left practically destitute in consequence."
There were only three St Helens cinemas that showed Pathe News – or Pathe Gazette as it was known in 1920. These were the Sutton Empire, the Palladium in Boundary Road and the Oxford (later the Plaza) in Duke Street. It was at the latter for three days from the 18th that a special Cenotaph edition of Pathe Gazette was shown. The war memorial had only been unveiled in Whitehall a week earlier and the film showed the King performing the ceremony, as well as scenes of the Armistice celebrations and the arrival of the body of the Unknown Warrior.
You have to applaud Pilkingtons for what they did for troubled lads. There were around 150 boys working at the glass firm who came to St Helens from all over the country. Many were orphans who had arrived from reformatories or industrial schools and lived in what sounds like a really nice hostel in Ravenhead. The amenities that the firm provided for the boys included a gym, baths and recreational rooms with adults on hand to supervise and provide support. They even had their own brass band. However some bad boys could not be persuaded to change their ways and quite often hostel lads would appear in court.
On the 20th seven of them appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with theft. Although they had only taken fruit and biscuits, the lads had broken into premises in Tontine Street and repeatedly stolen from a railway goods wagon. The hostel would not take responsibility for most of the seven and so these lads were being kept in police custody. Magistrate John Willis said it seemed strange for the hostel officials to have brought the boys to Ravenhead and then wipe their hands of them.
Inspector Roe explained that they were on licence from the schools that had sent them to St Helens, adding: "If they behave they remain at liberty. If not they go back. Two of these boys were not so bad and would be kept; one would be sent home, the others would be sent back to the reformatory school." The police were still investigating the boys and a further remand was approved.
"All right, you have done me at last", was what PC Trail told the magistrates that Edward Hancock had declared. That was after the officer had turned up at the man's house in Back Fleet Lane with a warrant for his arrest. Hancock had deserted from the 2nd Machine Gun Corps a year earlier and the court ordered his remand while awaiting a military escort back to his unit.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens went on strike on the 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise. These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town and were members of the Journeymen Cloggers Union and they only numbered about thirty. The making and repairing of clogs was essentially a small cottage industry with many cloggers working on their own account – perhaps with an assistant and / or apprentice. It was the assistants that wanted the pay rise which their bosses refused to give. They said that would lead to the price of clogs having to go up which would affect sales.
There was a big headline act at the Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street from the 22nd. It was Will Hay who was performing in his famous sketch as a schoolmaster called Dr. Muffin. However it would not be until the mid-1930s that Hay would become a prolific film star. I will have a review of Hay's performance in next week's article.
Other turns at the Hippodrome included The Cycling Brunettes ("Presenting their latest novelty ‘Defying Gravity’"); Andrea and Theo ("The famous Continental dancers from Olympia, Paris") and George Eames ("St. Dunstan's blind magnet in descriptive songs and monologue"). Mr Eames had been blinded on the Somme in 1916 with St Dunstan's being the famed London centre that provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen. Meanwhile the more upmarket Theatre Royal had the Allington Charsley Grand Opera Company appearing once again, performing a different opera on each day of the week.
That was a huge amount – around £40,000 in today's money. Despite the good deeds of the "lady footballers" in raising large amounts for charity, it would not be long before the FA would ban women's football on member grounds (such as Leicester City's). That was because the men that ran the game considered women kicking a ball "unladylike".
Next week's stories will include a violent attack on a wife in Bold, a day of reckoning for the thieving Ravenhead hostel lads, the planned widening of the town's roads, how Will Hay fared at the Hippodrome and the Sinn Feiner fracas in Boundary Road.
This week's stories include the striking St Helens cloggers, a plaque for the Queen's Park tank, more Pilkington hostel boys in trouble and the rapturous rhythms of a new waltz are demonstrated at the Town Hall.
We begin on the 16th with a lecture in the Co-op Hall in Baldwin Street.
Such events were usually well attended and tonight's subject was simply "Russia", with the recent revolution and civil war in the country generating considerable interest in England.
The council's Parks and Cemetery Committee met at the town Hall on the 17th.
Its members were shown the brass plaque that was going to be attached to the tank in what we now call Queen's Park (pictured above).
The war souvenir from France had been installed at the beginning of the year and placed on a concrete base surrounded by railings. The wording on the plaque read:
"Presented by the National War Savings Committee to the citizens of St. Helens in recognition of the readiness with which they lent their money to their country in the financial campaigns carried by the Local War Savings Committee in the Great War, 1914-1918. Coun. J. Heaton, J.P., chairman; Thomas Best, the hon. sec."
Whether the citizens of St Helens wanted a tank as a reminder of the brutal war I cannot say, as they were never asked.
Rainford Council had been planning to install a couple of big German guns, which, according to their Chairman, "would look well on each side of the flagstaff in front of the Village Hall."
However they'd had second thousands after considering what one councillor called the "mutilated condition" of many ex-soldiers on the streets of Rainford.
Another council member said they had "sufficient sickening sights caused by those weapons without bringing them nearer to them."
But St Helens Council went ahead and installed their war prize in Queen's Park and at the committee meeting the Borough Engineer asked for permission to paint the tank.
However he was told to wait and see if they had sufficient cash left over at the end of the financial year.
During the evening of the 17th there was a demonstration of a new waltz at the Town Hall. This is how the Reporter previewed the event:
"A public surfeited on tango and jazz will take kindly, one feels sure, to the “Eulalie Waltz,” which is said to combine all the most graceful evolutions known in dancing.
"The debut in St. Helens will be made on Wednesday evening next at the Town Hall, when Mr. J. R. Bickerstaffe, the famous M.C. of the Tower, Blackpool, who invented the waltz, and the Misses Bickerstaffe will demonstrate and initiate visitors into the rapturous rhythm of their masterly creation.
"Dancing in St. Helens will undoubtedly receive a stimulus from this unique demonstration of what, it is predicted, will prove the most delightful addition to modern dance programmes."
Riding on the pillion of a motorbike was labelled a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice by the coroner for SW Lancashire this week.
Samuel Brighouse was officiating at an inquest into the death of Thomas Acton of Haydock.
The 24-year-old had been riding pillion on a motorbike ridden by his pal William Mullineaux of Park Road, which crashed into a motor coach in Bolton while avoiding a tram.
Mullineaux could remember nothing of the accident but agreed with the coroner that his friend might have grabbed his arm, which could have affecting his steering.
Thomas Acton had spent four years in the army during the war. If he had died while fighting his wife would have been awarded a reasonable widow's pension.
However no pension was awarded for traffic accidents. The Reporter wrote: "Great sympathy is felt for his widow and three children, who are left practically destitute in consequence."
The Sutton Bond munitions works in Lancots Lane (pictured above) had been a busy place.
This can be seen from the items offered in a two-day sale that was held on the old Sutton Glassworks site from the 17th.
The auction was run by the Ministry of Munitions and included 495 chairs, 573 strong benches, 60 tables, 500 mugs, 226 towels, plus 2,400 plates and basins.
A previous 3-day auction of workshop and canteen equipment, clothing and office furniture had taken place in April.
There were only three St Helens cinemas that showed Pathe News – or Pathe Gazette as it was known in 1920.
These were the Sutton Empire, the Palladium in Boundary Road and the Oxford (later the Plaza) in Duke Street.
It was at the latter for three days from the 18th that a special Cenotaph edition of Pathe Gazette was shown.
The war memorial had only been unveiled in Whitehall a week earlier and the film showed the King performing the ceremony, as well as scenes of the Armistice celebrations and the arrival of the body of the Unknown Warrior.
You have to applaud Pilkingtons for what they did for troubled lads.
There were around 150 boys working at the glass firm who came to St Helens from all over the country.
Many were orphans who had arrived from reformatories or industrial schools and lived in what sounds like a really nice hostel in Ravenhead.
The amenities that the firm provided for the boys included a gym, baths and recreational rooms with adults on hand to supervise and provide support. They even had their own brass band.
However some bad boys could not be persuaded to change their ways and quite often hostel lads would appear in court.
On the 20th seven of them appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with theft.
Although they had only taken fruit and biscuits, the lads had broken into premises in Tontine Street and repeatedly stolen from a railway goods wagon.
The hostel would not take responsibility for most of the seven and so these lads were being kept in police custody.
Magistrate John Willis said it seemed strange for the hostel officials to have brought the boys to Ravenhead and then wipe their hands of them.
Inspector Roe explained that they were on licence from the schools that had sent them to St Helens, adding:
"If they behave they remain at liberty. If not they go back. Two of these boys were not so bad and would be kept; one would be sent home, the others would be sent back to the reformatory school."
The police were still investigating the boys and a further remand was approved.
"All right, you have done me at last", was what PC Trail told the magistrates that Edward Hancock had declared.
That was after the officer had turned up at the man's house in Back Fleet Lane with a warrant for his arrest.
Hancock had deserted from the 2nd Machine Gun Corps a year earlier and the court ordered his remand while awaiting a military escort back to his unit.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens went on strike on the 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise.
These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town and were members of the Journeymen Cloggers Union and they only numbered about thirty.
The making and repairing of clogs was essentially a small cottage industry with many cloggers working on their own account – perhaps with an assistant and / or apprentice.
It was the assistants that wanted the pay rise which their bosses refused to give.
They said that would lead to the price of clogs having to go up which would affect sales.
There was a big headline act at the Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street from the 22nd.
It was Will Hay who was performing in his famous sketch as a schoolmaster called Dr. Muffin.
However it would not be until the mid-1930s that Hay would become a prolific film star. I will have a review of Hay's performance in next week's article.
Other turns at the Hippodrome included The Cycling Brunettes ("Presenting their latest novelty ‘Defying Gravity’"); Andrea and Theo ("The famous Continental dancers from Olympia, Paris") and George Eames ("St. Dunstan's blind magnet in descriptive songs and monologue").
Mr Eames had been blinded on the Somme in 1916 with St Dunstan's being the famed London centre that provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen.
Meanwhile the more upmarket Theatre Royal had the Allington Charsley Grand Opera Company appearing once again, performing a different opera on each day of the week.
And finally St Helens Ladies continued their tour of the country playing charity games against Dick, Kerr's of Preston.
On the 22nd the Nottingham Evening Post's front page bore a large photograph (shown above) featuring nine of the players with this caption:
"The captain of the St. Helens ladies football team signing one of the two balls used in Saturday's match at Leicester against Dick, Kerr's (Preston), which was afterwards sold. The proceeds of the match, £650, went to the ex-Mayor's Unemployment Fund."
That was a huge amount – around £40,000 in today's money.
Despite the good deeds of the "lady footballers" in raising large amounts for charity, it would not be long before the FA would ban women's football on member grounds (such as Leicester City's).
That was because the men that ran the game considered women kicking a ball "unladylike".
Next week's stories will include a violent attack on a wife in Bold, a day of reckoning for the thieving Ravenhead hostel lads, the planned widening of the town's roads, how Will Hay fared at the Hippodrome and the Sinn Feiner fracas in Boundary Road.
We begin on the 16th with a lecture in the Co-op Hall in Baldwin Street.
Such events were usually well attended and tonight's subject was simply "Russia", with the recent revolution and civil war in the country generating considerable interest in England.
Its members were shown the brass plaque that was going to be attached to the tank in what we now call Queen's Park (pictured above).
The war souvenir from France had been installed at the beginning of the year and placed on a concrete base surrounded by railings. The wording on the plaque read:
"Presented by the National War Savings Committee to the citizens of St. Helens in recognition of the readiness with which they lent their money to their country in the financial campaigns carried by the Local War Savings Committee in the Great War, 1914-1918. Coun. J. Heaton, J.P., chairman; Thomas Best, the hon. sec."
Whether the citizens of St Helens wanted a tank as a reminder of the brutal war I cannot say, as they were never asked.
Rainford Council had been planning to install a couple of big German guns, which, according to their Chairman, "would look well on each side of the flagstaff in front of the Village Hall."
However they'd had second thousands after considering what one councillor called the "mutilated condition" of many ex-soldiers on the streets of Rainford.
Another council member said they had "sufficient sickening sights caused by those weapons without bringing them nearer to them."
But St Helens Council went ahead and installed their war prize in Queen's Park and at the committee meeting the Borough Engineer asked for permission to paint the tank.
However he was told to wait and see if they had sufficient cash left over at the end of the financial year.
During the evening of the 17th there was a demonstration of a new waltz at the Town Hall. This is how the Reporter previewed the event:
"A public surfeited on tango and jazz will take kindly, one feels sure, to the “Eulalie Waltz,” which is said to combine all the most graceful evolutions known in dancing.
"The debut in St. Helens will be made on Wednesday evening next at the Town Hall, when Mr. J. R. Bickerstaffe, the famous M.C. of the Tower, Blackpool, who invented the waltz, and the Misses Bickerstaffe will demonstrate and initiate visitors into the rapturous rhythm of their masterly creation.
"Dancing in St. Helens will undoubtedly receive a stimulus from this unique demonstration of what, it is predicted, will prove the most delightful addition to modern dance programmes."
Riding on the pillion of a motorbike was labelled a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice by the coroner for SW Lancashire this week.
Samuel Brighouse was officiating at an inquest into the death of Thomas Acton of Haydock.
The 24-year-old had been riding pillion on a motorbike ridden by his pal William Mullineaux of Park Road, which crashed into a motor coach in Bolton while avoiding a tram.
Mullineaux could remember nothing of the accident but agreed with the coroner that his friend might have grabbed his arm, which could have affecting his steering.
Thomas Acton had spent four years in the army during the war. If he had died while fighting his wife would have been awarded a reasonable widow's pension.
However no pension was awarded for traffic accidents. The Reporter wrote: "Great sympathy is felt for his widow and three children, who are left practically destitute in consequence."
This can be seen from the items offered in a two-day sale that was held on the old Sutton Glassworks site from the 17th.
The auction was run by the Ministry of Munitions and included 495 chairs, 573 strong benches, 60 tables, 500 mugs, 226 towels, plus 2,400 plates and basins.
A previous 3-day auction of workshop and canteen equipment, clothing and office furniture had taken place in April.
There were only three St Helens cinemas that showed Pathe News – or Pathe Gazette as it was known in 1920.
These were the Sutton Empire, the Palladium in Boundary Road and the Oxford (later the Plaza) in Duke Street.
It was at the latter for three days from the 18th that a special Cenotaph edition of Pathe Gazette was shown.
The war memorial had only been unveiled in Whitehall a week earlier and the film showed the King performing the ceremony, as well as scenes of the Armistice celebrations and the arrival of the body of the Unknown Warrior.
You have to applaud Pilkingtons for what they did for troubled lads.
There were around 150 boys working at the glass firm who came to St Helens from all over the country.
Many were orphans who had arrived from reformatories or industrial schools and lived in what sounds like a really nice hostel in Ravenhead.
The amenities that the firm provided for the boys included a gym, baths and recreational rooms with adults on hand to supervise and provide support. They even had their own brass band.
However some bad boys could not be persuaded to change their ways and quite often hostel lads would appear in court.
On the 20th seven of them appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with theft.
Although they had only taken fruit and biscuits, the lads had broken into premises in Tontine Street and repeatedly stolen from a railway goods wagon.
The hostel would not take responsibility for most of the seven and so these lads were being kept in police custody.
Magistrate John Willis said it seemed strange for the hostel officials to have brought the boys to Ravenhead and then wipe their hands of them.
Inspector Roe explained that they were on licence from the schools that had sent them to St Helens, adding:
"If they behave they remain at liberty. If not they go back. Two of these boys were not so bad and would be kept; one would be sent home, the others would be sent back to the reformatory school."
The police were still investigating the boys and a further remand was approved.
"All right, you have done me at last", was what PC Trail told the magistrates that Edward Hancock had declared.
That was after the officer had turned up at the man's house in Back Fleet Lane with a warrant for his arrest.
Hancock had deserted from the 2nd Machine Gun Corps a year earlier and the court ordered his remand while awaiting a military escort back to his unit.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens went on strike on the 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise.
These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town and were members of the Journeymen Cloggers Union and they only numbered about thirty.
The making and repairing of clogs was essentially a small cottage industry with many cloggers working on their own account – perhaps with an assistant and / or apprentice.
It was the assistants that wanted the pay rise which their bosses refused to give.
They said that would lead to the price of clogs having to go up which would affect sales.
There was a big headline act at the Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street from the 22nd.
It was Will Hay who was performing in his famous sketch as a schoolmaster called Dr. Muffin.
However it would not be until the mid-1930s that Hay would become a prolific film star. I will have a review of Hay's performance in next week's article.
Other turns at the Hippodrome included The Cycling Brunettes ("Presenting their latest novelty ‘Defying Gravity’"); Andrea and Theo ("The famous Continental dancers from Olympia, Paris") and George Eames ("St. Dunstan's blind magnet in descriptive songs and monologue").
Mr Eames had been blinded on the Somme in 1916 with St Dunstan's being the famed London centre that provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen.
Meanwhile the more upmarket Theatre Royal had the Allington Charsley Grand Opera Company appearing once again, performing a different opera on each day of the week.
And finally St Helens Ladies continued their tour of the country playing charity games against Dick, Kerr's of Preston.
"The captain of the St. Helens ladies football team signing one of the two balls used in Saturday's match at Leicester against Dick, Kerr's (Preston), which was afterwards sold. The proceeds of the match, £650, went to the ex-Mayor's Unemployment Fund."
That was a huge amount – around £40,000 in today's money.
Despite the good deeds of the "lady footballers" in raising large amounts for charity, it would not be long before the FA would ban women's football on member grounds (such as Leicester City's).
That was because the men that ran the game considered women kicking a ball "unladylike".
Next week's stories will include a violent attack on a wife in Bold, a day of reckoning for the thieving Ravenhead hostel lads, the planned widening of the town's roads, how Will Hay fared at the Hippodrome and the Sinn Feiner fracas in Boundary Road.