IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (19th - 25th August 1919)
This week's many stories include the midnight bullyragging in Allanson Street, the father from Silkstone Street who was addicted to meths, juvenile depravity at a Prescot picture house, the Oldfield Street man's double life with a Sutton girl and the Ravenhead boys' card playing mischief.
We tend to think that the decline in church attendances has been a fairly recent trend. But not only have smaller congregations been mentioned within this website’s 50 Years Ago articles but Rev. Harry Bolton raised it as far back as 1919. In this month's edition of St John's Church parish magazine, the Vicar of Ravenhead wondered why so many churches – including his own – were now "sparsely filled" on Sunday mornings. Rev. Bolton did not really offer an answer to his own question but perhaps many had lost their faith through the horrendous death toll in the war?
At Prescot Children's Court on the 19th a girl called Mary White pleaded guilty to stealing £4 13s from a local cinema. The 13-year-old from Highfield Place in Prescot had been playing by the pay box at the end of a passage while a cashier called Robinson fastened up copper and silver. When the woman turned round to put on her hat, Mary appears to have put her hand through a gap and picked up a bag of silver.
When Miss Robinson took the money to the secretary's office she realised that the bag was missing and a search took place. The St Helens Reporter said: "Very grave suspicion was cast upon Robinson's honesty". However on the following day the police decided to question Mary White who admitted playing at the pay box but denied the theft.
The girl eventually admitted her guilt and said she had hidden the bag in her family's ashpit toilet, where the silver was recovered in good condition – if, perhaps, a bit smelly! Superintendent Garvey told the court that Mary was very untruthful and had previously been in court for stealing from several shops. However the Bench said they would give the girl another chance and put her on probation for a year. The Reporter called it a "sad case of juvenile depravity".
On the 21st nine boys aged about fifteen and who all worked at Pilkington's, appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with gaming at cards. They all lived at Pilks' hostel in Ravenhead with around 150 other lads where there were excellent facilities, including recreational and billiards rooms, as well as a gymnasium. PC Gale told the court that on Sunday afternoon he and another officer had watched the group for some time dealing out cards and exchanging money, ultimately "raiding them and capturing the whole party". They also seized a pack of cards and 1½d in cash.
The superintendent of the boys' home Mr C. Roache told the court that they did all they could to stop this kind of thing. He said on Sunday afternoons the lads went out for walks and that was when "the mischief" occurred and they did not realise they were doing wrong. Many of the boys had played cards and gambled prior to coming to the home and it took some time to eradicate it.
The Chairman of the Bench remarked that it was a bad thing for lads to resort to gambling and it formed habits that later on might bring them into serious trouble. One of the boys was fined fifteen shillings while the other eight were fined ten shillings each.
Also prosecuted were 14-year-old Francis Dye from Railway Terrace in Sutton and 13-year-old Edward Jones from St Asaph, who was on a visit to his aunt in St Helens. The boys had been dragged into court for simply taking some clover from a field belonging to John Beeston in order to feed their rabbits. Replying to questions from the Bench, Mr Beeston admitted that there was a public footpath through his field but he had not put up any fences or notices warning against trespassing. The boys were both fined 7s 6d.
The St Helens Reporter on the 22nd described a recent court case involving yet another dispute between neighbours. This squabble had taken place in Allanson Street (pictured above) at about quarter to midnight. Nina Whittle claimed Alfred Jones had struck her husband and then punched her in the mouth, knocking her to the ground. Of course Mrs Whittle's version of events had her as the completely innocent party, having done nothing whatsoever to provoke the assault.
However Alfred Jones's story suggested otherwise. He said he had gone to bed at ten o’clock not feeling very well and later heard a "bother" in the street with his name being mentioned. The man was a well-known boxer and claimed to have seen his wife being abused by the Whittle family. Then Nathaniel Whittle made a nasty remark and he said this led to them having a brief "stand up".
Jones then told the Bench that Whittle's wife Nina began "bullyragging" him and he told her to go inside and admitted pushing the woman but denied striking her. Alfred Jones also claimed that when he was on active service, Nina Whittle had on two occasions bullied his wife and family and "beat them on their own doorstep".
A witness gave evidence that he had seen the two women pulling each other's hair and their husbands having a "square-up do". He said Jones had threatened to "clout" Nina Whittle if she did not go inside but did not do so. Surprisingly the magistrates felt the case was proved and decided to bind Jones over for six months, although he had to obtain sureties.
Before the days of blood and DNA testing it could be a humiliating experience for a woman to prove paternity of her child. On the 22nd in St Helens Police Court John Musgrove from Oldfield Street (off City Road) was summoned by Lilian Kenwright. The 20-year-old claimed that the ex-soldier was the father of her child and she wanted the court to order him to make maintenance payments.
However the married man with three children denied paternity and so all the details of his relationship with Lilian had to be revealed in court to prove her case – much to the prurient pleasure of newspaper readers. According to Lilian the couple had first met in Church Street on September 3rd 1918 and Musgrove had asked her to meet him in St Helens during the evening. She told the 38-year-old that he would have to visit her home in Sutton to meet her father, as she wanted his permission before agreeing to walk out with him.
He did exactly that and asked Thomas Kenwright for permission to court his daughter and his reply was that he would leave the decision up to Lilian. That evening the couple went to the theatre and on the following day Musgrove went to the house again and had a drink with her father. He told Thomas that he intended to keep company with Lilian and wanted no other man to have her and that evening the couple walked round Carr Mill.
Musgrove was in the Military Police and when he met Lilian on the following Wednesday he told her that he had to return to France. While he was away the couple exchanged letters and in one letter Musgrove was informed that Lilian was pregnant. After being demobilised the man went to Sutton and told Lilian that he would do the right thing and marry her before the child was born.
However an anonymous letter was sent to the house warning the Kenwrights that Musgrove was already a married man and so Lilian's father went to Oldfield Street and saw John Musgrove with his wife. Foolishly Thomas Kenwright destroyed all the letters that Musgrove had sent to his daughter but the Bench felt her case was proved and made an order for the payment of 5 shillings maintenance per week.
However this is not the first occasion that Lilian has featured in these articles. Just a few weeks before meeting Musgrove, she had appeared in the Police Court accused of stealing £7 from her father. Thomas Kenwright was heavily censured in the courtroom as it was revealed that his daughter had spent most of her young life in the Fazakerley Children's Home. The magistrates accused Kenwright of having "got rid" of Lilian after the death of his wife and the Chief Constable added: "You look like a man who would turn her adrift like a lost dog".
Her life since leaving Fazakerley appears to have been an indictment of the harsh care system as it was then. Lilian had been placed in service in Southport but had run away and after returning to St Helens had been convicted of prostitution. After meeting Musgrove in Church Street she must have thought that her life was going to change for the better but sadly she was deceived and it was not to be.
On the 23rd Thomas Moore appeared in court charged with neglecting his three children having not worked since April through his addiction to methylated spirit. When the NSPCC had visited his home in Silkstone Street they found it very poorly furnished with the bedding "very scanty" and not a particle of food in the house. Moore had sold many of the items – including his children's slippers – in order to buy meths and to survive his family had become reliant on food donations.
NSPCC Inspector Charles Cooper told the hearing that the man's wife had said her husband had been sacked from his job for drinking and was "wandering about day after day" looking for meths. In his defence Thomas Moore told the Bench that he had been "proper bad" with his nerves and could not get work. The man had spent several short periods in Whiston Workhouse but, of course, they were not geared up to help people with addictions. Neither were the prison authorities but the magistrates felt a three-month-long custodial sentence was the solution to Moore's drinking and neglect of his family.
Next week's stories will include late night violence in Crook Street, an extraordinary Haydock childbirth case, the Thatto Heath miner who shot his dog because his wife aggravated him, night poaching and peace celebrations in Rainford and the disabled ex-soldier from Borough Road accused of benefit fraud.
We tend to think that the decline in church attendances has been a fairly recent trend. But not only have smaller congregations been mentioned within this website’s 50 Years Ago articles but Rev. Harry Bolton raised it as far back as 1919. In this month's edition of St John's Church parish magazine, the Vicar of Ravenhead wondered why so many churches – including his own – were now "sparsely filled" on Sunday mornings. Rev. Bolton did not really offer an answer to his own question but perhaps many had lost their faith through the horrendous death toll in the war?
At Prescot Children's Court on the 19th a girl called Mary White pleaded guilty to stealing £4 13s from a local cinema. The 13-year-old from Highfield Place in Prescot had been playing by the pay box at the end of a passage while a cashier called Robinson fastened up copper and silver. When the woman turned round to put on her hat, Mary appears to have put her hand through a gap and picked up a bag of silver.
When Miss Robinson took the money to the secretary's office she realised that the bag was missing and a search took place. The St Helens Reporter said: "Very grave suspicion was cast upon Robinson's honesty". However on the following day the police decided to question Mary White who admitted playing at the pay box but denied the theft.
The girl eventually admitted her guilt and said she had hidden the bag in her family's ashpit toilet, where the silver was recovered in good condition – if, perhaps, a bit smelly! Superintendent Garvey told the court that Mary was very untruthful and had previously been in court for stealing from several shops. However the Bench said they would give the girl another chance and put her on probation for a year. The Reporter called it a "sad case of juvenile depravity".
On the 21st nine boys aged about fifteen and who all worked at Pilkington's, appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with gaming at cards. They all lived at Pilks' hostel in Ravenhead with around 150 other lads where there were excellent facilities, including recreational and billiards rooms, as well as a gymnasium. PC Gale told the court that on Sunday afternoon he and another officer had watched the group for some time dealing out cards and exchanging money, ultimately "raiding them and capturing the whole party". They also seized a pack of cards and 1½d in cash.
The superintendent of the boys' home Mr C. Roache told the court that they did all they could to stop this kind of thing. He said on Sunday afternoons the lads went out for walks and that was when "the mischief" occurred and they did not realise they were doing wrong. Many of the boys had played cards and gambled prior to coming to the home and it took some time to eradicate it.
The Chairman of the Bench remarked that it was a bad thing for lads to resort to gambling and it formed habits that later on might bring them into serious trouble. One of the boys was fined fifteen shillings while the other eight were fined ten shillings each.
Also prosecuted were 14-year-old Francis Dye from Railway Terrace in Sutton and 13-year-old Edward Jones from St Asaph, who was on a visit to his aunt in St Helens. The boys had been dragged into court for simply taking some clover from a field belonging to John Beeston in order to feed their rabbits. Replying to questions from the Bench, Mr Beeston admitted that there was a public footpath through his field but he had not put up any fences or notices warning against trespassing. The boys were both fined 7s 6d.
However Alfred Jones's story suggested otherwise. He said he had gone to bed at ten o’clock not feeling very well and later heard a "bother" in the street with his name being mentioned. The man was a well-known boxer and claimed to have seen his wife being abused by the Whittle family. Then Nathaniel Whittle made a nasty remark and he said this led to them having a brief "stand up".
Jones then told the Bench that Whittle's wife Nina began "bullyragging" him and he told her to go inside and admitted pushing the woman but denied striking her. Alfred Jones also claimed that when he was on active service, Nina Whittle had on two occasions bullied his wife and family and "beat them on their own doorstep".
A witness gave evidence that he had seen the two women pulling each other's hair and their husbands having a "square-up do". He said Jones had threatened to "clout" Nina Whittle if she did not go inside but did not do so. Surprisingly the magistrates felt the case was proved and decided to bind Jones over for six months, although he had to obtain sureties.
Before the days of blood and DNA testing it could be a humiliating experience for a woman to prove paternity of her child. On the 22nd in St Helens Police Court John Musgrove from Oldfield Street (off City Road) was summoned by Lilian Kenwright. The 20-year-old claimed that the ex-soldier was the father of her child and she wanted the court to order him to make maintenance payments.
However the married man with three children denied paternity and so all the details of his relationship with Lilian had to be revealed in court to prove her case – much to the prurient pleasure of newspaper readers. According to Lilian the couple had first met in Church Street on September 3rd 1918 and Musgrove had asked her to meet him in St Helens during the evening. She told the 38-year-old that he would have to visit her home in Sutton to meet her father, as she wanted his permission before agreeing to walk out with him.
He did exactly that and asked Thomas Kenwright for permission to court his daughter and his reply was that he would leave the decision up to Lilian. That evening the couple went to the theatre and on the following day Musgrove went to the house again and had a drink with her father. He told Thomas that he intended to keep company with Lilian and wanted no other man to have her and that evening the couple walked round Carr Mill.
Musgrove was in the Military Police and when he met Lilian on the following Wednesday he told her that he had to return to France. While he was away the couple exchanged letters and in one letter Musgrove was informed that Lilian was pregnant. After being demobilised the man went to Sutton and told Lilian that he would do the right thing and marry her before the child was born.
However an anonymous letter was sent to the house warning the Kenwrights that Musgrove was already a married man and so Lilian's father went to Oldfield Street and saw John Musgrove with his wife. Foolishly Thomas Kenwright destroyed all the letters that Musgrove had sent to his daughter but the Bench felt her case was proved and made an order for the payment of 5 shillings maintenance per week.
However this is not the first occasion that Lilian has featured in these articles. Just a few weeks before meeting Musgrove, she had appeared in the Police Court accused of stealing £7 from her father. Thomas Kenwright was heavily censured in the courtroom as it was revealed that his daughter had spent most of her young life in the Fazakerley Children's Home. The magistrates accused Kenwright of having "got rid" of Lilian after the death of his wife and the Chief Constable added: "You look like a man who would turn her adrift like a lost dog".
Her life since leaving Fazakerley appears to have been an indictment of the harsh care system as it was then. Lilian had been placed in service in Southport but had run away and after returning to St Helens had been convicted of prostitution. After meeting Musgrove in Church Street she must have thought that her life was going to change for the better but sadly she was deceived and it was not to be.
On the 23rd Thomas Moore appeared in court charged with neglecting his three children having not worked since April through his addiction to methylated spirit. When the NSPCC had visited his home in Silkstone Street they found it very poorly furnished with the bedding "very scanty" and not a particle of food in the house. Moore had sold many of the items – including his children's slippers – in order to buy meths and to survive his family had become reliant on food donations.
NSPCC Inspector Charles Cooper told the hearing that the man's wife had said her husband had been sacked from his job for drinking and was "wandering about day after day" looking for meths. In his defence Thomas Moore told the Bench that he had been "proper bad" with his nerves and could not get work. The man had spent several short periods in Whiston Workhouse but, of course, they were not geared up to help people with addictions. Neither were the prison authorities but the magistrates felt a three-month-long custodial sentence was the solution to Moore's drinking and neglect of his family.
Next week's stories will include late night violence in Crook Street, an extraordinary Haydock childbirth case, the Thatto Heath miner who shot his dog because his wife aggravated him, night poaching and peace celebrations in Rainford and the disabled ex-soldier from Borough Road accused of benefit fraud.