IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (17th - 23rd MAY 1921)
This week's many stories include the seemingly insoluble problem of how to make Saints rugby team great again, the double mining tragedy of Glade Hall, the shrewd strategy of St Helens Ladies football team, the taking of Beecham's Pills to make men more virile and the Berrys Lane man who claimed he'd taken a wheelbarrow from Ashton's Green Colliery to stop it being stolen.
The national miners' strike, which had begun on April 1st, was continuing with no sign of agreement. In the 1921 census there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens employed at a dozen collieries and comprising 27% of all male jobs. The knock-on effects of a coal strike were huge, affecting so many other people from shopkeepers in the town to other industries that required coal.
However alternative fuels were available and in the Lancashire Evening Post on the 17th a Rainford firm called K. L. Allan and Co. had this advert: "FUEL OIL. Why stop your Works when we can supply you with unlimited quantities of the above? Experts' Advice given and Plants Fixed." The firm claimed to be "manufacturers and contractors to H.M. Admiralty, steamship companies, and the leading manufacturers." The telephone number of K. L. Allan and Co. was Rainford "8" – I wonder who was "1"?
Last week I reported that the miners in St Helens had voted to stop their working of the so-called "crop coal", that outcropped near the surface of old, disused mines. The colliery at Glade Hill at the bottom of Island's Brow had not been worked for some fifty years – apart from during coal strikes when men would operate their own "private", albeit illegal, mines. During the 5 or 6 weeks that crop coal getting had been taking place at Glade Hill, about 1,000 men had been employed digging 130 holes.
Some of them had been prosecuted but far worse was to happen to Henry Littler and Daniel Webster. On the 17th a few men decided to break the agreement to cease digging for crop coal and went to Glade Hill because they needed coal for their families. As a result of the collective decision to cease the illegal mining, the support props that held up the shallow tunnels were quickly removed by striking miners and were probably quickly burned in place of coal. When one of the men called Harry Turner from Holly Bank Street learned that the props had been taken away, he very sensibly left.
However 30-year-old Henry Littler from Waine Street (who was married with 5 children) and 17-year-old Daniel Webster from Holly Bank Street decided to remain and the largely unsupported tunnel collapsed on top of the pair and killed them both. A young man called Alfred Clarke was also struck down by the rubble but was rescued by means of having a rope tied to him – although it broke three times before he could be pulled to safety.
During long coal strikes crime rates rose as men became increasingly desperate. On the 18th five young and presumably hungry mineworkers living in Taylor Street in Sutton were remanded on bail in St Helens County Police Court after being charged with stealing hens and eggs from Bold Hall Farm.
I wonder how many men have taken Beecham's pills to improve their virility? Not many I should think – but the St Helens firm was continuing its advertising campaign attempting to persuade consumers to take their products on a regular basis. Doing that, they claimed, would ward off illness and have other health benefits too – including boosting virility in men. This was their advert published in the Irish paper The Northern Whig on the 19th under the headline "Be A Live Wire":
"If you would continue to be an efficient man – strong – healthy – virile – able to do your work well – you will require to look carefully to the condition of your digestion and keep it in perfect working order. Good digestive powers go with vigorous health. Never let the stomach lose tone if you can help it. …As a digestive medicine and for maintaining the general health there are few remedies so satisfactory as BEECHAM'S PILLS."
It was announced this week that St Helens Recs annual sports at Ruskin Drive that had been scheduled for June 4th had been cancelled because of the coal strike. However the Echo on the 21st wrote that the promoters of the St Helens Police Sports that was set to take place in a month's time were hoping the strike would be over and "pretty well forgotten by then" (which it wouldn't be) and then added: "There can be no question that sporting and holiday fixtures will suffer terribly from the drain of the strike".
The playing of summer rugby was 75 years away and so Saints were unlikely to be affected by the dispute. Although the Echo thought that at the club's forthcoming annual meeting its supporters would likely be asking some searching questions – particularly how training sessions had until recently been voluntary:
"Details of the balance sheet already published go to show that the new committee elected with so much confidence as the people who would show the world how a football club should be run, have nothing to shout about. The tremendous improvement brought about by compulsory attendance at training quarters proved that the players had been allowed to get thoroughly out of condition. There is sure to be a good deal of criticism but as the years roll on the problem of how to make a success of the St. Helens Rugby Club seems to more and more take rank with those great, insoluble problems that politician and pothouse philosophers find so useful in helping them through a wearisome world."
I recently reported that the St Helens Ladies football team had so far raised £20,000 for charity – that is almost £1 million in today's money. The side did not play their home town all that often but on the 21st they played a Preston team by the name of Horrocks Ladies at Knowsley Road. The match was in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and the home team won 5 - 0.
The Echo wrote: "The attendance was most gratifying, considering that the afternoon was as hot as an August day and quite unsuitable for football." Miss S. Chorley – "the diminutive live centre-forward" – scored four of the goals, exploiting the fact that the Preston goalkeeper had injured her knee. The Echo explained: "Miss Chorley lay in wait for the gentle goal-kicks, and immediately rushed the ball up to the goal and scored." Cunning!
Some of the excuses given by defendants in St Helens Police Court were corkers. These are some of my favourites from the previous five years:
Thomas Glover from Argyle Street near Victoria Park denied wilfully stabbing his son-in-law. He told the magistrates that he'd been cutting tobacco and his son-in-law must have accidentally brushed his hand against the knife. James Foster had been lent a raincoat belonging to Harry Knifton of Halefield Street near North Road. He claimed he'd subsequently taken it to the pawnshop in order for the coat to be kept in a safe place. And shopkeeper Mrs Turner from Cook Street in Whiston – who was prosecuted for selling a quarter pound of tongue unfit for human consumption – claimed she'd had a cold and so could not smell it had gone bad.
Back to this week and Thomas Pickersgill of Berry's Lane told the magistrates on the 23rd that he had taken a wheelbarrow from Ashton's Green Colliery in Parr (pictured above) to stop it being stolen. Of course it was just a coincidence that his own wheelbarrow had broken down and one was needed to take home the crop coal that he'd picked. The 58-year-old miner had the barrow in his possession for two weeks but insisted that he had planned to return it. "If I had not taken the barrow the other men would have had it", Pickersgill claimed, as if he expected the colliery to thank him for his prompt act of crime prevention! The police said they had searched high and low for the stolen barrow and the magistrates fined Pickersgill 20 shillings.
I end this week with a report published in the Runcorn Weekly News, which revealed the positives of the coal strike, which had led to reduced railway services and households and industry not burning much coal. The article reminds me of our first lock down when many people started going outside for exercise and the environment briefly benefitted from having industry shut down:
"Had it not been for the “cut” in the railway services many hundreds of Merseyside residents would still have been unaware of the charms of their own locality. Hitherto a Bank Holiday has been synonymous with a train excursion to some one or other of the advertised holiday resorts. This year the railway companies would offer no guarantee beyond a single ticket with the additional proviso that there must be ample accommodation. Thus it came about that those in pursuit of relaxation for its own sake without any desire to embark on a hazardous adventure resolved to explore nearer home.
"The riverside made an irresistible appeal, and pedestrians came across some of the less frequented beauty spots which have charmed visitors from other districts, but which have not been known or sufficiently appreciated by those at home. In the country there was endless delight. Trees and shrubbery have just blossomed forth into the exquisite green that is so very refreshing after the bleakness of winter, and the landscape was further enhanced by the cleansing rains of the Saturday. Were it not that it conjured up thoughts of Goldsmith's “Deserted Village,” the absence of smoke over Widnes and Runcorn would be gladly welcomed.
"Increasingly so the air has been going through a process of purification in the last few weeks and a couple of days ago, apart from the chimney stacks which are not now belching forth volumes of smoke of varied hues, there was nothing in the condition of the atmosphere, nor in the view that offered from the rising uplands of Widnes and Runcorn, that would warrant the slightest adverse comment.
"One who has travelled along Kingsway ever since it afforded a short cut from Farnworth and Appleton to the business part of the town was heard to remark that he had never before had so uninterrupted a view of the Cheshire side with the beacon hill to the west and Halton and Norton to the east, and the Overton Hills in the background. A similar remark would doubtless have escaped the lips of those on the Runcorn side looking across the river and beyond the immediate industries of the much despised Widnes.
"Will the difficulties of the coal situation so operate that there may be evolved a system of industrialism that will banish for ever from Widnes and Runcorn the gloomy-looking and gloom-creating pall of smoke that has hitherto been inseparable from Merseyside ever since brains decided that it was the ideal spot for the chemical industry."
Next Week's stories will include the large-scale theft from an old Sutton munitions works, the Clock Face miner with an extraordinary international background, the benefit cheque for a longstanding Saints scrumhalf and a tragedy at Rainford that demonstrated the need for a bypass.
The national miners' strike, which had begun on April 1st, was continuing with no sign of agreement. In the 1921 census there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens employed at a dozen collieries and comprising 27% of all male jobs. The knock-on effects of a coal strike were huge, affecting so many other people from shopkeepers in the town to other industries that required coal.
However alternative fuels were available and in the Lancashire Evening Post on the 17th a Rainford firm called K. L. Allan and Co. had this advert: "FUEL OIL. Why stop your Works when we can supply you with unlimited quantities of the above? Experts' Advice given and Plants Fixed." The firm claimed to be "manufacturers and contractors to H.M. Admiralty, steamship companies, and the leading manufacturers." The telephone number of K. L. Allan and Co. was Rainford "8" – I wonder who was "1"?
Last week I reported that the miners in St Helens had voted to stop their working of the so-called "crop coal", that outcropped near the surface of old, disused mines. The colliery at Glade Hill at the bottom of Island's Brow had not been worked for some fifty years – apart from during coal strikes when men would operate their own "private", albeit illegal, mines. During the 5 or 6 weeks that crop coal getting had been taking place at Glade Hill, about 1,000 men had been employed digging 130 holes.
Some of them had been prosecuted but far worse was to happen to Henry Littler and Daniel Webster. On the 17th a few men decided to break the agreement to cease digging for crop coal and went to Glade Hill because they needed coal for their families. As a result of the collective decision to cease the illegal mining, the support props that held up the shallow tunnels were quickly removed by striking miners and were probably quickly burned in place of coal. When one of the men called Harry Turner from Holly Bank Street learned that the props had been taken away, he very sensibly left.
However 30-year-old Henry Littler from Waine Street (who was married with 5 children) and 17-year-old Daniel Webster from Holly Bank Street decided to remain and the largely unsupported tunnel collapsed on top of the pair and killed them both. A young man called Alfred Clarke was also struck down by the rubble but was rescued by means of having a rope tied to him – although it broke three times before he could be pulled to safety.
During long coal strikes crime rates rose as men became increasingly desperate. On the 18th five young and presumably hungry mineworkers living in Taylor Street in Sutton were remanded on bail in St Helens County Police Court after being charged with stealing hens and eggs from Bold Hall Farm.
I wonder how many men have taken Beecham's pills to improve their virility? Not many I should think – but the St Helens firm was continuing its advertising campaign attempting to persuade consumers to take their products on a regular basis. Doing that, they claimed, would ward off illness and have other health benefits too – including boosting virility in men. This was their advert published in the Irish paper The Northern Whig on the 19th under the headline "Be A Live Wire":
"If you would continue to be an efficient man – strong – healthy – virile – able to do your work well – you will require to look carefully to the condition of your digestion and keep it in perfect working order. Good digestive powers go with vigorous health. Never let the stomach lose tone if you can help it. …As a digestive medicine and for maintaining the general health there are few remedies so satisfactory as BEECHAM'S PILLS."
It was announced this week that St Helens Recs annual sports at Ruskin Drive that had been scheduled for June 4th had been cancelled because of the coal strike. However the Echo on the 21st wrote that the promoters of the St Helens Police Sports that was set to take place in a month's time were hoping the strike would be over and "pretty well forgotten by then" (which it wouldn't be) and then added: "There can be no question that sporting and holiday fixtures will suffer terribly from the drain of the strike".
The playing of summer rugby was 75 years away and so Saints were unlikely to be affected by the dispute. Although the Echo thought that at the club's forthcoming annual meeting its supporters would likely be asking some searching questions – particularly how training sessions had until recently been voluntary:
"Details of the balance sheet already published go to show that the new committee elected with so much confidence as the people who would show the world how a football club should be run, have nothing to shout about. The tremendous improvement brought about by compulsory attendance at training quarters proved that the players had been allowed to get thoroughly out of condition. There is sure to be a good deal of criticism but as the years roll on the problem of how to make a success of the St. Helens Rugby Club seems to more and more take rank with those great, insoluble problems that politician and pothouse philosophers find so useful in helping them through a wearisome world."
I recently reported that the St Helens Ladies football team had so far raised £20,000 for charity – that is almost £1 million in today's money. The side did not play their home town all that often but on the 21st they played a Preston team by the name of Horrocks Ladies at Knowsley Road. The match was in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and the home team won 5 - 0.
The Echo wrote: "The attendance was most gratifying, considering that the afternoon was as hot as an August day and quite unsuitable for football." Miss S. Chorley – "the diminutive live centre-forward" – scored four of the goals, exploiting the fact that the Preston goalkeeper had injured her knee. The Echo explained: "Miss Chorley lay in wait for the gentle goal-kicks, and immediately rushed the ball up to the goal and scored." Cunning!
Some of the excuses given by defendants in St Helens Police Court were corkers. These are some of my favourites from the previous five years:
Thomas Glover from Argyle Street near Victoria Park denied wilfully stabbing his son-in-law. He told the magistrates that he'd been cutting tobacco and his son-in-law must have accidentally brushed his hand against the knife. James Foster had been lent a raincoat belonging to Harry Knifton of Halefield Street near North Road. He claimed he'd subsequently taken it to the pawnshop in order for the coat to be kept in a safe place. And shopkeeper Mrs Turner from Cook Street in Whiston – who was prosecuted for selling a quarter pound of tongue unfit for human consumption – claimed she'd had a cold and so could not smell it had gone bad.
I end this week with a report published in the Runcorn Weekly News, which revealed the positives of the coal strike, which had led to reduced railway services and households and industry not burning much coal. The article reminds me of our first lock down when many people started going outside for exercise and the environment briefly benefitted from having industry shut down:
"Had it not been for the “cut” in the railway services many hundreds of Merseyside residents would still have been unaware of the charms of their own locality. Hitherto a Bank Holiday has been synonymous with a train excursion to some one or other of the advertised holiday resorts. This year the railway companies would offer no guarantee beyond a single ticket with the additional proviso that there must be ample accommodation. Thus it came about that those in pursuit of relaxation for its own sake without any desire to embark on a hazardous adventure resolved to explore nearer home.
"The riverside made an irresistible appeal, and pedestrians came across some of the less frequented beauty spots which have charmed visitors from other districts, but which have not been known or sufficiently appreciated by those at home. In the country there was endless delight. Trees and shrubbery have just blossomed forth into the exquisite green that is so very refreshing after the bleakness of winter, and the landscape was further enhanced by the cleansing rains of the Saturday. Were it not that it conjured up thoughts of Goldsmith's “Deserted Village,” the absence of smoke over Widnes and Runcorn would be gladly welcomed.
"Increasingly so the air has been going through a process of purification in the last few weeks and a couple of days ago, apart from the chimney stacks which are not now belching forth volumes of smoke of varied hues, there was nothing in the condition of the atmosphere, nor in the view that offered from the rising uplands of Widnes and Runcorn, that would warrant the slightest adverse comment.
"One who has travelled along Kingsway ever since it afforded a short cut from Farnworth and Appleton to the business part of the town was heard to remark that he had never before had so uninterrupted a view of the Cheshire side with the beacon hill to the west and Halton and Norton to the east, and the Overton Hills in the background. A similar remark would doubtless have escaped the lips of those on the Runcorn side looking across the river and beyond the immediate industries of the much despised Widnes.
"Will the difficulties of the coal situation so operate that there may be evolved a system of industrialism that will banish for ever from Widnes and Runcorn the gloomy-looking and gloom-creating pall of smoke that has hitherto been inseparable from Merseyside ever since brains decided that it was the ideal spot for the chemical industry."
Next Week's stories will include the large-scale theft from an old Sutton munitions works, the Clock Face miner with an extraordinary international background, the benefit cheque for a longstanding Saints scrumhalf and a tragedy at Rainford that demonstrated the need for a bypass.
This week's many stories include the seemingly insoluble problem of how to make Saints rugby team great again, the double mining tragedy of Glade Hall, the shrewd strategy of St Helens Ladies football team, the taking of Beecham's Pills to make men more virile and the Berrys Lane man who claimed he'd taken a wheelbarrow from Ashton's Green Colliery to stop it being stolen.
The national miners' strike, which had begun on April 1st, was continuing with no sign of agreement.
In the 1921 census there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens employed at a dozen collieries and comprising 27% of all male jobs.
The knock-on effects of a coal strike were huge, affecting so many other people from shopkeepers in the town to other industries that required coal.
However alternative fuels were available and in the Lancashire Evening Post on the 17th a Rainford firm called K. L. Allan and Co. had this advert:
"FUEL OIL. Why stop your Works when we can supply you with unlimited quantities of the above? Experts' Advice given and Plants Fixed."
The firm claimed to be "manufacturers and contractors to H.M. Admiralty, steamship companies, and the leading manufacturers."
The telephone number of K. L. Allan and Co. was Rainford "8" – I wonder who was "1"?
Last week I reported that the miners in St Helens had voted to stop their working of the so-called "crop coal", that outcropped near the surface of old, disused mines.
The colliery at Glade Hill at the bottom of Island's Brow had not been worked for some fifty years – apart from during coal strikes when men would operate their own "private", albeit illegal, mines.
During the 5 or 6 weeks that crop coal getting had been taking place at Glade Hill, about 1,000 men had been employed digging 130 holes.
Some of them had been prosecuted but far worse was to happen to Henry Littler and Daniel Webster.
On the 17th a few men decided to break the agreement to cease digging for crop coal and went to Glade Hill because they needed coal for their families.
As a result of the collective decision to cease the illegal mining, the support props that held up the shallow tunnels were quickly removed by striking miners and were probably quickly burned in place of coal.
When one of the men called Harry Turner from Holly Bank Street learned that the props had been taken away, he very sensibly left.
However 30-year-old Henry Littler from Waine Street (who was married with 5 children) and 17-year-old Daniel Webster from Holly Bank Street decided to remain and the largely unsupported tunnel collapsed on top of the pair and killed them both.
A young man called Alfred Clarke was also struck down by the rubble but was rescued by means of having a rope tied to him – although it broke three times before he could be pulled to safety.
During long coal strikes crime rates rose as men became increasingly desperate.
On the 18th five young and presumably hungry mineworkers living in Taylor Street in Sutton were remanded on bail in St Helens County Police Court after being charged with stealing hens and eggs from Bold Hall Farm.
I wonder how many men have taken Beecham's pills to improve their virility?
Not many I should think – but the St Helens firm was continuing its advertising campaign attempting to persuade consumers to take their products on a regular basis.
Doing that, they claimed, would ward off illness and have other health benefits too – including boosting virility in men.
This was their advert published in the Irish paper The Northern Whig on the 19th under the headline "Be A Live Wire":
"If you would continue to be an efficient man – strong – healthy – virile – able to do your work well – you will require to look carefully to the condition of your digestion and keep it in perfect working order.
"Good digestive powers go with vigorous health. Never let the stomach lose tone if you can help it.
"…As a digestive medicine and for maintaining the general health there are few remedies so satisfactory as BEECHAM'S PILLS."
It was announced this week that St Helens Recs annual sports at Ruskin Drive that had been scheduled for June 4th had been cancelled because of the coal strike.
However the Echo on the 21st wrote that the promoters of the St Helens Police Sports that was set to take place in a month's time were hoping the strike would be over and "pretty well forgotten by then" (which it wouldn't be) and then added:
"There can be no question that sporting and holiday fixtures will suffer terribly from the drain of the strike".
The playing of summer rugby was 75 years away and so Saints were unlikely to be affected by the dispute.
Although the Echo thought that at the club's forthcoming annual meeting its supporters would likely be asking some searching questions – particularly how training sessions had until recently been voluntary:
"Details of the balance sheet already published go to show that the new committee elected with so much confidence as the people who would show the world how a football club should be run, have nothing to shout about.
"The tremendous improvement brought about by compulsory attendance at training quarters proved that the players had been allowed to get thoroughly out of condition.
"There is sure to be a good deal of criticism but as the years roll on the problem of how to make a success of the St. Helens Rugby Club seems to more and more take rank with those great, insoluble problems that politician and pothouse philosophers find so useful in helping them through a wearisome world."
I recently reported that the St Helens Ladies football team had so far raised £20,000 for charity – that is almost £1 million in today's money.
The side did not play their home town all that often but on the 21st they played a Preston team by the name of Horrocks Ladies at Knowsley Road.
The match was in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and the home team won 5 - 0.
The Echo wrote: "The attendance was most gratifying, considering that the afternoon was as hot as an August day and quite unsuitable for football."
Miss S. Chorley – "the diminutive live centre-forward" – scored four of the goals, exploiting the fact that the Preston goalkeeper had injured her knee.
The Echo explained: "Miss Chorley lay in wait for the gentle goal-kicks, and immediately rushed the ball up to the goal and scored." Cunning!
Some of the excuses given by defendants in St Helens Police Court were corkers. These are some of my favourites from the previous five years:
Thomas Glover from Argyle Street near Victoria Park denied wilfully stabbing his son-in-law. He told the magistrates that he'd been cutting tobacco and his son-in-law must have accidentally brushed his hand against the knife.
James Foster had been lent a raincoat belonging to Harry Knifton of Halefield Street near North Road. He claimed he'd subsequently taken it to the pawnshop in order for the coat to be kept in a safe place.
And shopkeeper Mrs Turner from Cook Street in Whiston – who was prosecuted for selling a quarter pound of tongue unfit for human consumption – claimed she'd had a cold and so could not smell it had gone bad.
Back to this week and Thomas Pickersgill of Berry's Lane told the magistrates on the 23rd that he had taken a wheelbarrow from Ashton's Green Colliery in Parr (pictured above) to stop it being stolen.
Of course it was just a coincidence that his own wheelbarrow had broken down and one was needed to take home the crop coal that he'd picked.
The 58-year-old miner had the barrow in his possession for two weeks but insisted that he had planned to return it.
"If I had not taken the barrow the other men would have had it", Pickersgill claimed, as if he expected the colliery to thank him for his prompt act of crime prevention!
The police said they had searched high and low for the stolen barrow and the magistrates fined Pickersgill 20 shillings.
I end this week with a report published in the Runcorn Weekly News, which revealed the positives of the coal strike, which had led to reduced railway services and households and industry not burning much coal.
The article reminds me of our first lock down when many people started going outside for exercise and the environment briefly benefitted from having industry shut down:
"Had it not been for the “cut” in the railway services many hundreds of Merseyside residents would still have been unaware of the charms of their own locality.
"Hitherto a Bank Holiday has been synonymous with a train excursion to some one or other of the advertised holiday resorts.
"This year the railway companies would offer no guarantee beyond a single ticket with the additional proviso that there must be ample accommodation.
"Thus it came about that those in pursuit of relaxation for its own sake without any desire to embark on a hazardous adventure resolved to explore nearer home.
"The riverside made an irresistible appeal, and pedestrians came across some of the less frequented beauty spots which have charmed visitors from other districts, but which have not been known or sufficiently appreciated by those at home.
"In the country there was endless delight. Trees and shrubbery have just blossomed forth into the exquisite green that is so very refreshing after the bleakness of winter, and the landscape was further enhanced by the cleansing rains of the Saturday.
"Were it not that it conjured up thoughts of Goldsmith's “Deserted Village,” the absence of smoke over Widnes and Runcorn would be gladly welcomed.
"Increasingly so the air has been going through a process of purification in the last few weeks and a couple of days ago, apart from the chimney stacks which are not now belching forth volumes of smoke of varied hues, there was nothing in the condition of the atmosphere, nor in the view that offered from the rising uplands of Widnes and Runcorn, that would warrant the slightest adverse comment.
"One who has travelled along Kingsway ever since it afforded a short cut from Farnworth and Appleton to the business part of the town was heard to remark that he had never before had so uninterrupted a view of the Cheshire side with the beacon hill to the west and Halton and Norton to the east, and the Overton Hills in the background.
"A similar remark would doubtless have escaped the lips of those on the Runcorn side looking across the river and beyond the immediate industries of the much despised Widnes.
"Will the difficulties of the coal situation so operate that there may be evolved a system of industrialism that will banish for ever from Widnes and Runcorn the gloomy-looking and gloom-creating pall of smoke that has hitherto been inseparable from Merseyside ever since brains decided that it was the ideal spot for the chemical industry."
Next Week's stories will include the large-scale thefts from an old Sutton munitions works, the Clock Face miner with an extraordinary international background, the benefit cheque for a longstanding Saints scrumhalf and a tragedy at Rainford that demonstrated the need for a bypass.
The national miners' strike, which had begun on April 1st, was continuing with no sign of agreement.
In the 1921 census there were 10,500 mineworkers in St Helens employed at a dozen collieries and comprising 27% of all male jobs.
The knock-on effects of a coal strike were huge, affecting so many other people from shopkeepers in the town to other industries that required coal.
However alternative fuels were available and in the Lancashire Evening Post on the 17th a Rainford firm called K. L. Allan and Co. had this advert:
"FUEL OIL. Why stop your Works when we can supply you with unlimited quantities of the above? Experts' Advice given and Plants Fixed."
The firm claimed to be "manufacturers and contractors to H.M. Admiralty, steamship companies, and the leading manufacturers."
The telephone number of K. L. Allan and Co. was Rainford "8" – I wonder who was "1"?
Last week I reported that the miners in St Helens had voted to stop their working of the so-called "crop coal", that outcropped near the surface of old, disused mines.
The colliery at Glade Hill at the bottom of Island's Brow had not been worked for some fifty years – apart from during coal strikes when men would operate their own "private", albeit illegal, mines.
During the 5 or 6 weeks that crop coal getting had been taking place at Glade Hill, about 1,000 men had been employed digging 130 holes.
Some of them had been prosecuted but far worse was to happen to Henry Littler and Daniel Webster.
On the 17th a few men decided to break the agreement to cease digging for crop coal and went to Glade Hill because they needed coal for their families.
As a result of the collective decision to cease the illegal mining, the support props that held up the shallow tunnels were quickly removed by striking miners and were probably quickly burned in place of coal.
When one of the men called Harry Turner from Holly Bank Street learned that the props had been taken away, he very sensibly left.
However 30-year-old Henry Littler from Waine Street (who was married with 5 children) and 17-year-old Daniel Webster from Holly Bank Street decided to remain and the largely unsupported tunnel collapsed on top of the pair and killed them both.
A young man called Alfred Clarke was also struck down by the rubble but was rescued by means of having a rope tied to him – although it broke three times before he could be pulled to safety.
During long coal strikes crime rates rose as men became increasingly desperate.
On the 18th five young and presumably hungry mineworkers living in Taylor Street in Sutton were remanded on bail in St Helens County Police Court after being charged with stealing hens and eggs from Bold Hall Farm.
I wonder how many men have taken Beecham's pills to improve their virility?
Not many I should think – but the St Helens firm was continuing its advertising campaign attempting to persuade consumers to take their products on a regular basis.
Doing that, they claimed, would ward off illness and have other health benefits too – including boosting virility in men.
This was their advert published in the Irish paper The Northern Whig on the 19th under the headline "Be A Live Wire":
"If you would continue to be an efficient man – strong – healthy – virile – able to do your work well – you will require to look carefully to the condition of your digestion and keep it in perfect working order.
"Good digestive powers go with vigorous health. Never let the stomach lose tone if you can help it.
"…As a digestive medicine and for maintaining the general health there are few remedies so satisfactory as BEECHAM'S PILLS."
It was announced this week that St Helens Recs annual sports at Ruskin Drive that had been scheduled for June 4th had been cancelled because of the coal strike.
However the Echo on the 21st wrote that the promoters of the St Helens Police Sports that was set to take place in a month's time were hoping the strike would be over and "pretty well forgotten by then" (which it wouldn't be) and then added:
"There can be no question that sporting and holiday fixtures will suffer terribly from the drain of the strike".
The playing of summer rugby was 75 years away and so Saints were unlikely to be affected by the dispute.
Although the Echo thought that at the club's forthcoming annual meeting its supporters would likely be asking some searching questions – particularly how training sessions had until recently been voluntary:
"Details of the balance sheet already published go to show that the new committee elected with so much confidence as the people who would show the world how a football club should be run, have nothing to shout about.
"The tremendous improvement brought about by compulsory attendance at training quarters proved that the players had been allowed to get thoroughly out of condition.
"There is sure to be a good deal of criticism but as the years roll on the problem of how to make a success of the St. Helens Rugby Club seems to more and more take rank with those great, insoluble problems that politician and pothouse philosophers find so useful in helping them through a wearisome world."
The side did not play their home town all that often but on the 21st they played a Preston team by the name of Horrocks Ladies at Knowsley Road.
The match was in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society and the home team won 5 - 0.
The Echo wrote: "The attendance was most gratifying, considering that the afternoon was as hot as an August day and quite unsuitable for football."
Miss S. Chorley – "the diminutive live centre-forward" – scored four of the goals, exploiting the fact that the Preston goalkeeper had injured her knee.
The Echo explained: "Miss Chorley lay in wait for the gentle goal-kicks, and immediately rushed the ball up to the goal and scored." Cunning!
Some of the excuses given by defendants in St Helens Police Court were corkers. These are some of my favourites from the previous five years:
Thomas Glover from Argyle Street near Victoria Park denied wilfully stabbing his son-in-law. He told the magistrates that he'd been cutting tobacco and his son-in-law must have accidentally brushed his hand against the knife.
James Foster had been lent a raincoat belonging to Harry Knifton of Halefield Street near North Road. He claimed he'd subsequently taken it to the pawnshop in order for the coat to be kept in a safe place.
And shopkeeper Mrs Turner from Cook Street in Whiston – who was prosecuted for selling a quarter pound of tongue unfit for human consumption – claimed she'd had a cold and so could not smell it had gone bad.
Of course it was just a coincidence that his own wheelbarrow had broken down and one was needed to take home the crop coal that he'd picked.
The 58-year-old miner had the barrow in his possession for two weeks but insisted that he had planned to return it.
"If I had not taken the barrow the other men would have had it", Pickersgill claimed, as if he expected the colliery to thank him for his prompt act of crime prevention!
The police said they had searched high and low for the stolen barrow and the magistrates fined Pickersgill 20 shillings.
I end this week with a report published in the Runcorn Weekly News, which revealed the positives of the coal strike, which had led to reduced railway services and households and industry not burning much coal.
The article reminds me of our first lock down when many people started going outside for exercise and the environment briefly benefitted from having industry shut down:
"Had it not been for the “cut” in the railway services many hundreds of Merseyside residents would still have been unaware of the charms of their own locality.
"Hitherto a Bank Holiday has been synonymous with a train excursion to some one or other of the advertised holiday resorts.
"This year the railway companies would offer no guarantee beyond a single ticket with the additional proviso that there must be ample accommodation.
"Thus it came about that those in pursuit of relaxation for its own sake without any desire to embark on a hazardous adventure resolved to explore nearer home.
"The riverside made an irresistible appeal, and pedestrians came across some of the less frequented beauty spots which have charmed visitors from other districts, but which have not been known or sufficiently appreciated by those at home.
"In the country there was endless delight. Trees and shrubbery have just blossomed forth into the exquisite green that is so very refreshing after the bleakness of winter, and the landscape was further enhanced by the cleansing rains of the Saturday.
"Were it not that it conjured up thoughts of Goldsmith's “Deserted Village,” the absence of smoke over Widnes and Runcorn would be gladly welcomed.
"Increasingly so the air has been going through a process of purification in the last few weeks and a couple of days ago, apart from the chimney stacks which are not now belching forth volumes of smoke of varied hues, there was nothing in the condition of the atmosphere, nor in the view that offered from the rising uplands of Widnes and Runcorn, that would warrant the slightest adverse comment.
"One who has travelled along Kingsway ever since it afforded a short cut from Farnworth and Appleton to the business part of the town was heard to remark that he had never before had so uninterrupted a view of the Cheshire side with the beacon hill to the west and Halton and Norton to the east, and the Overton Hills in the background.
"A similar remark would doubtless have escaped the lips of those on the Runcorn side looking across the river and beyond the immediate industries of the much despised Widnes.
"Will the difficulties of the coal situation so operate that there may be evolved a system of industrialism that will banish for ever from Widnes and Runcorn the gloomy-looking and gloom-creating pall of smoke that has hitherto been inseparable from Merseyside ever since brains decided that it was the ideal spot for the chemical industry."
Next Week's stories will include the large-scale thefts from an old Sutton munitions works, the Clock Face miner with an extraordinary international background, the benefit cheque for a longstanding Saints scrumhalf and a tragedy at Rainford that demonstrated the need for a bypass.