IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (22nd - 28th MARCH 1921)
This week's stories include a reprise for the wandering hens of St Helens, the boy robbers of Taylor Park who had signed a pact of friendship, the young St Helens woman in trouble in Southport, the St Helens Recs illegal lottery and why the Oxford Cinema in Duke Street wanted an organist.
We begin at the monthly Rainford Council meeting on the 22nd where a surprise was in store for those in attendance. Despite a severe housing crisis, no replies had been received to advertisements placed in local newspapers inviting applications for new council homes. One member said that the rent set at 12/6 per week was far too high for working people.
The St Helens Corporation Bill was continuing to be scrutinised by the Local Legislation Committee of the House of Commons. Although mainly concerned with granting the council powers to widen the town's streets and extend transport links (including running trolley buses), there were lots of other odd items in the Bill – including a desire to stop hens from popping into people's homes! Many people kept hens or other fowl in St Helens and many were what we would call free-range birds – that is, allowed to wander about at will.
Not that the welfare of the critters appears to have been uppermost in the minds of their keepers! Reasons for allowing hens to roam were more likely to be an inability to afford a pen; not having the space for one or simply not wanting to bother if you only kept one or two birds. With an increasing amount of road traffic in St Helens, creatures going walkies could cause accidents. There was also the health risk of hens, geese and ducks entering homes and passing on disease. As most people kept their doors open during the day, it was easy for unwelcome visitors to make an appearance inside.
So St Helens Corporation wanted a clause inserting in the new Bill that would empower them to require persons that kept fowls to keep them in a pen or enclosure. On the 22nd Alderman Dr Henry Bates – the former mayor of St Helens and longstanding chairman of the town's Health Committee – gave evidence that the clause was needed in the interests of health. He said there were too many cases of people in the town allowing their fowls to run in and out of dwelling houses.
In reply to the Chairman of the Commons committee, Dr Bates stated that he could not say that conditions in St Helens were any different to those in other Lancashire towns – apart from the fact that one-third of the population was Irish. The alderman also could not say that the fowls in St Helens were any more verminous than ones in other towns or that the conditions they carried could easily be passed onto humans. Not wanting to limit people's liberty too much, the committee refused to allow the clause and so St Helens' hens continued to be at liberty to pop in and out of people's homes.
Also on the 22nd, two 14-year-old boys appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with stealing another boy's watch in Taylor Park. 10-year-old Ernest Porter from Rigby Street gave evidence that he had been in the park with his sister on the previous Sunday afternoon. Peter Lyon had run up to him and said "Hello, Fatty", snatched his watch and then he ran off. John O'Brien then came along and said to Ernest "I will go after him for you", but also disappeared.
The prosecuting solicitor revealed in court that the two lads had made a form of pact with each other to commit crimes. A notebook was produced in which O'Brien of Halton Street had written: "We will be proper friends" and then signed his name. Peter Lyon of Devon Street had written about his friend stealing chocolates and a cloth mask with eyeholes cut in that the police had found was produced in court. The police said it appeared that the boys had been preparing for a life of crime and the magistrates said it was a very serious matter for both them and their parents.
Not long ago the lads would have been sent to prison but times were becoming more enlightened. It was decided to give John and Peter another chance and they were bound over for two years. However the Chairman of the Bench warned the boys that if they came before the court again, they would be sent away to an industrial school. Their parents were also told to pay the court costs.
Before the advent of talking pictures there were many opportunities for musicians to play in cinemas. The concept of silent films is largely a misnomer, as there was usually some sort of live soundtrack to the pictures. There was much demand for pianists and organists to play in the smaller picture houses and the larger ones had small orchestras. The Oxford Cinema in Duke Street (pictured above after becoming The Plaza) appears to have used musicians in both solo and orchestral capacities.
On the 23rd an advertisement in The Era newspaper said that the Oxford – which would later be known as the Plaza and then Cindy's nightclub – was looking for an experienced organist. The individual would be asked to play solo and at times with an orchestra – "comfortable berth for capable musician", they wrote.
George Carney was appearing at the Hippodrome all this week. The music hall comic was performing his sketches "Almost Human", "The Hindu Scotsman", "Demobbed and Out" and "The Hokey Pokey Man". Something tells me that the Hindu Scotsman might not have been quite "PC" by our standards! George turned his hand to acting in films and in the 1930s and ‘40s appeared in about 70 productions, most notably "Love On The Dole", "In Which We Serve" and "Brighton Rock".
A 19-year-old St Helens woman collapsed in the dock in Southport Police Court on the 23rd as she faced charges of theft and told of her failed marriage. The court heard that Mary Harrison's father worked at a St Helens' glassworks and in 1919 she had married Joseph Harrison. The couple lived in lodgings in the town but soon separated after a short and unhappy marriage. Mary had a child and the Police Court in St Helens had awarded her 20 shillings per week maintenance.
Her husband then joined the army and was now stationed in Turkey and for some reason Mary's maintenance money had been reduced to 5s 3d. How she came to be living in Southport was a bit vague. However it seems that Mary had gone to the seaside town to work as a domestic servant for Edith Haslam and stole some of her jewellery and other articles worth over £4.
Upon collapsing in court Mary was carried out and upon her return told the Bench that she refused to go back to St Helens. "I do not care where I go as long as I don't go home", she said. It sounds as if Mary feared her father's reaction to her return – after he, perhaps, had not been very understanding of the marriage break-up. However Mary told the Bench that she thought that her mother would bring up her child and said she wanted the 5s 3d a week maintenance to be made over to her.
The 25th was Good Friday and at the City Road ground St Helens Recs played Salford. In the crowd was Frank Harper of Eccleston Street, who was shouting: "Come along; who will have a bob's worth?" The glassworker was running a football sweep in which spectators paid a shilling for a ticket bearing a number from 1 to 13. These equated to the players on the field and you would win 12 shillings if your man scored the next try.
However Harper was shouting a bit too loudly and attracted the attention of Sergeant Maddocks. He saw him sell twelve tickets at 1 shilling each and keep one for himself. And lo and behold that was the winner! In court it was stated that these football lotteries were not only illegal but also becoming a nuisance and Harper was fined 20 shillings.
And finally, the bonus item in the Echo that made me smile this week was a letter moaning about British Summertime. Putting the clocks forward every Spring had only been introduced in 1916, following a campaign led by William Willett, the great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin of Coldplay. But someone using the penname "C. Sense" wrote to the Echo how he was furious about the arrangement and appeared to think he had to get up earlier every morning:
"I understand that we are shortly to have inflicted on us that abomination called “summer time.” It is outrageous that in these enlightened times a handful of autocrats should seek to change the laws of Nature and impose their arbitrary will upon forty-five millions of people, most of whom are at least as intelligent as themselves, and far more concerned in the change.
"I contend that before flouting the wisdom of Providence and making this great change, which intimately affects the life of every individual member of the population, a referendum should be taken. That is only right and fair. Personally, I, a semi invalid, strongly object to being forced out of bed an hour earlier at the bidding of people who can get up when they like, and go gallivanting off to the Continent with their golf sticks at the nation's expense."
Next week's stories will include the gross act of indecency committed by two men in St Helens Market, extraordinary claims of third degree treatment of children at Sutton Police Station and an increase in telephone call charges.
We begin at the monthly Rainford Council meeting on the 22nd where a surprise was in store for those in attendance. Despite a severe housing crisis, no replies had been received to advertisements placed in local newspapers inviting applications for new council homes. One member said that the rent set at 12/6 per week was far too high for working people.
The St Helens Corporation Bill was continuing to be scrutinised by the Local Legislation Committee of the House of Commons. Although mainly concerned with granting the council powers to widen the town's streets and extend transport links (including running trolley buses), there were lots of other odd items in the Bill – including a desire to stop hens from popping into people's homes! Many people kept hens or other fowl in St Helens and many were what we would call free-range birds – that is, allowed to wander about at will.
Not that the welfare of the critters appears to have been uppermost in the minds of their keepers! Reasons for allowing hens to roam were more likely to be an inability to afford a pen; not having the space for one or simply not wanting to bother if you only kept one or two birds. With an increasing amount of road traffic in St Helens, creatures going walkies could cause accidents. There was also the health risk of hens, geese and ducks entering homes and passing on disease. As most people kept their doors open during the day, it was easy for unwelcome visitors to make an appearance inside.
So St Helens Corporation wanted a clause inserting in the new Bill that would empower them to require persons that kept fowls to keep them in a pen or enclosure. On the 22nd Alderman Dr Henry Bates – the former mayor of St Helens and longstanding chairman of the town's Health Committee – gave evidence that the clause was needed in the interests of health. He said there were too many cases of people in the town allowing their fowls to run in and out of dwelling houses.
In reply to the Chairman of the Commons committee, Dr Bates stated that he could not say that conditions in St Helens were any different to those in other Lancashire towns – apart from the fact that one-third of the population was Irish. The alderman also could not say that the fowls in St Helens were any more verminous than ones in other towns or that the conditions they carried could easily be passed onto humans. Not wanting to limit people's liberty too much, the committee refused to allow the clause and so St Helens' hens continued to be at liberty to pop in and out of people's homes.
The prosecuting solicitor revealed in court that the two lads had made a form of pact with each other to commit crimes. A notebook was produced in which O'Brien of Halton Street had written: "We will be proper friends" and then signed his name. Peter Lyon of Devon Street had written about his friend stealing chocolates and a cloth mask with eyeholes cut in that the police had found was produced in court. The police said it appeared that the boys had been preparing for a life of crime and the magistrates said it was a very serious matter for both them and their parents.
Not long ago the lads would have been sent to prison but times were becoming more enlightened. It was decided to give John and Peter another chance and they were bound over for two years. However the Chairman of the Bench warned the boys that if they came before the court again, they would be sent away to an industrial school. Their parents were also told to pay the court costs.
On the 23rd an advertisement in The Era newspaper said that the Oxford – which would later be known as the Plaza and then Cindy's nightclub – was looking for an experienced organist. The individual would be asked to play solo and at times with an orchestra – "comfortable berth for capable musician", they wrote.
George Carney was appearing at the Hippodrome all this week. The music hall comic was performing his sketches "Almost Human", "The Hindu Scotsman", "Demobbed and Out" and "The Hokey Pokey Man". Something tells me that the Hindu Scotsman might not have been quite "PC" by our standards! George turned his hand to acting in films and in the 1930s and ‘40s appeared in about 70 productions, most notably "Love On The Dole", "In Which We Serve" and "Brighton Rock".
A 19-year-old St Helens woman collapsed in the dock in Southport Police Court on the 23rd as she faced charges of theft and told of her failed marriage. The court heard that Mary Harrison's father worked at a St Helens' glassworks and in 1919 she had married Joseph Harrison. The couple lived in lodgings in the town but soon separated after a short and unhappy marriage. Mary had a child and the Police Court in St Helens had awarded her 20 shillings per week maintenance.
Her husband then joined the army and was now stationed in Turkey and for some reason Mary's maintenance money had been reduced to 5s 3d. How she came to be living in Southport was a bit vague. However it seems that Mary had gone to the seaside town to work as a domestic servant for Edith Haslam and stole some of her jewellery and other articles worth over £4.
Upon collapsing in court Mary was carried out and upon her return told the Bench that she refused to go back to St Helens. "I do not care where I go as long as I don't go home", she said. It sounds as if Mary feared her father's reaction to her return – after he, perhaps, had not been very understanding of the marriage break-up. However Mary told the Bench that she thought that her mother would bring up her child and said she wanted the 5s 3d a week maintenance to be made over to her.
The 25th was Good Friday and at the City Road ground St Helens Recs played Salford. In the crowd was Frank Harper of Eccleston Street, who was shouting: "Come along; who will have a bob's worth?" The glassworker was running a football sweep in which spectators paid a shilling for a ticket bearing a number from 1 to 13. These equated to the players on the field and you would win 12 shillings if your man scored the next try.
However Harper was shouting a bit too loudly and attracted the attention of Sergeant Maddocks. He saw him sell twelve tickets at 1 shilling each and keep one for himself. And lo and behold that was the winner! In court it was stated that these football lotteries were not only illegal but also becoming a nuisance and Harper was fined 20 shillings.
And finally, the bonus item in the Echo that made me smile this week was a letter moaning about British Summertime. Putting the clocks forward every Spring had only been introduced in 1916, following a campaign led by William Willett, the great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin of Coldplay. But someone using the penname "C. Sense" wrote to the Echo how he was furious about the arrangement and appeared to think he had to get up earlier every morning:
"I understand that we are shortly to have inflicted on us that abomination called “summer time.” It is outrageous that in these enlightened times a handful of autocrats should seek to change the laws of Nature and impose their arbitrary will upon forty-five millions of people, most of whom are at least as intelligent as themselves, and far more concerned in the change.
"I contend that before flouting the wisdom of Providence and making this great change, which intimately affects the life of every individual member of the population, a referendum should be taken. That is only right and fair. Personally, I, a semi invalid, strongly object to being forced out of bed an hour earlier at the bidding of people who can get up when they like, and go gallivanting off to the Continent with their golf sticks at the nation's expense."
Next week's stories will include the gross act of indecency committed by two men in St Helens Market, extraordinary claims of third degree treatment of children at Sutton Police Station and an increase in telephone call charges.
This week's stories include a reprise for the wandering hens of St Helens, the boy robbers of Taylor Park who had signed a pact of friendship, the young St Helens woman in trouble in Southport, the St Helens Recs illegal lottery and why the Oxford Cinema in Duke Street wanted an organist.
We begin at the monthly Rainford Council meeting on the 22nd where a surprise was in store for those in attendance.
Despite a severe housing crisis, no replies had been received to advertisements placed in local newspapers inviting applications for new council homes.
One member said that the rent set at 12/6 per week was far too high for working people.
The St Helens Corporation Bill was continuing to be scrutinised by the Local Legislation Committee of the House of Commons.
Although mainly concerned with granting the council powers to widen the town's streets and extend transport links (including running trolley buses), there were lots of other odd items in the Bill – including a desire to stop hens from popping into people's homes!
Many people kept hens or other fowl in St Helens and many were what we would call free-range birds – that is, allowed to wander about at will.
Not that the welfare of the critters appears to have been uppermost in the minds of their keepers!
Reasons for allowing hens to roam were more likely to be an inability to afford a pen; not having the space for one or simply not wanting to bother if you only kept one or two birds.
With an increasing amount of road traffic in St Helens, creatures going walkies could cause accidents.
There was also the health risk of hens, geese and ducks entering homes and passing on disease.
As most people kept their doors open during the day, it was easy for unwelcome visitors to make an appearance inside.
So St Helens Corporation wanted a clause inserting in the new Bill that would empower them to require persons that kept fowls to keep them in a pen or enclosure.
On the 22nd Alderman Dr Henry Bates – the former mayor of St Helens and longstanding chairman of the town's Health Committee – gave evidence that the clause was needed in the interests of health.
He said there were too many cases of people in the town allowing their fowls to run in and out of dwelling houses.
In reply to the Chairman of the Commons committee, Dr Bates stated that he could not say that conditions in St Helens were any different to those in other Lancashire towns – apart from the fact that one-third of the population was Irish.
The alderman also could not say that the fowls in St Helens were any more verminous than ones in other towns or that the conditions they carried could easily be passed onto humans.
Not wanting to limit people's liberty too much, the committee refused to allow the clause and so St Helens' hens continued to be at liberty to pop in and out of people's homes.
Also on the 22nd, two 14-year-old boys appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with stealing another boy's watch in Taylor Park.
10-year-old Ernest Porter from Rigby Street gave evidence that he had been in the park with his sister on the previous Sunday afternoon.
Peter Lyon had run up to him and said "Hello, Fatty", snatched his watch and then he ran off.
John O'Brien then came along and said to Ernest "I will go after him for you", but also disappeared.
The prosecuting solicitor revealed in court that the two lads had made a form of pact with each other to commit crimes.
A notebook was produced in which O'Brien of Halton Street had written: "We will be proper friends" and then signed his name.
Peter Lyon of Devon Street had written about his friend stealing chocolates and a cloth mask with eyeholes cut in that the police had found was produced in court.
The police said it appeared that the boys had been preparing for a life of crime and the magistrates said it was a very serious matter for both them and their parents.
Not long ago the lads would have been sent to prison but times were becoming more enlightened.
It was decided to give John and Peter another chance and they were bound over for two years.
However the Chairman of the Bench warned the boys that if they came before the court again, they would be sent away to an industrial school. Their parents were also told to pay the court costs.
Before the advent of talking pictures there were many opportunities for musicians to play in cinemas.
The concept of silent films is largely a misnomer, as there was usually some sort of live soundtrack to the pictures.
There was much demand for pianists and organists to play in the smaller picture houses and the larger ones had small orchestras.
The Oxford Cinema in Duke Street (pictured above after becoming The Plaza) appears to have used musicians in both solo and orchestral capacities.
On the 23rd an advertisement in The Era newspaper said that the Oxford – which would later be known as The Plaza and then Cindy's nightclub – was looking for an experienced organist.
The individual would be asked to play solo and at times with an orchestra – "comfortable berth for capable musician", they wrote.
George Carney was appearing at the Hippodrome all this week. The music hall comic was performing his sketches "Almost Human", "The Hindu Scotsman", "Demobbed and Out" and "The Hokey Pokey Man".
Something tells me that the Hindu Scotsman might not have been quite "PC" by our standards!
George turned his hand to acting in films and in the 1930s and ‘40s appeared in about 70 productions, most notably "Love On The Dole", "In Which We Serve" and "Brighton Rock".
A 19-year-old St Helens woman collapsed in the dock in Southport Police Court on the 23rd as she faced charges of theft and told of her failed marriage.
The court heard that Mary Harrison's father worked at a St Helens' glassworks and in 1919 she had married Joseph Harrison.
The couple lived in lodgings in the town but soon separated after a short and unhappy marriage.
Mary had a child and the Police Court in St Helens had awarded her 20 shillings per week maintenance.
Her husband then joined the army and was now stationed in Turkey and for some reason Mary's maintenance money had been reduced to 5s 3d.
How she came to be living in Southport was a bit vague. However it seems that Mary had gone to the seaside town to work as a domestic servant for Edith Haslam and stole some of her jewellery and other articles worth over £4.
Upon collapsing in court Mary was carried out and upon her return told the Bench that she refused to go back to St Helens.
"I do not care where I go as long as I don't go home", she said.
It sounds as if Mary feared her father's reaction to her return – after he, perhaps, had not been very understanding of the marriage break-up.
However Mary told the Bench that she thought that her mother would bring up her child and said she wanted the 5s 3d a week maintenance to be made over to her.
The 25th was Good Friday and at the City Road ground St Helens Recs played Salford. In the crowd was Frank Harper of Eccleston Street, who was shouting:
"Come along; who will have a bob's worth?"
The glassworker was running a football sweep in which spectators paid a shilling for a ticket bearing a number from 1 to 13.
These equated to the players on the field and you would win 12 shillings if your man scored the next try.
However Harper was shouting a bit too loudly and attracted the attention of Sergeant Maddocks.
He saw him sell twelve tickets at 1 shilling each and keep one for himself. And lo and behold that was the winner!
In court it was stated that these football lotteries were not only illegal but also becoming a nuisance and Harper was fined 20 shillings.
And finally, the bonus item in the Echo that made me smile this week was a letter moaning about British Summertime.
Putting the clocks forward every Spring had only been introduced in 1916, following a campaign led by William Willett, the great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin of Coldplay.
But someone using the penname "C. Sense" wrote to the Echo how he was furious about the arrangement and appeared to think he had to get up earlier every morning:
"I understand that we are shortly to have inflicted on us that abomination called “summer time.”
"It is outrageous that in these enlightened times a handful of autocrats should seek to change the laws of Nature and impose their arbitrary will upon forty-five millions of people, most of whom are at least as intelligent as themselves, and far more concerned in the change.
"I contend that before flouting the wisdom of Providence and making this great change, which intimately affects the life of every individual member of the population, a referendum should be taken. That is only right and fair.
"Personally, I, a semi invalid, strongly object to being forced out of bed an hour earlier at the bidding of people who can get up when they like, and go gallivanting off to the Continent with their golf sticks at the nation's expense."
Next week's stories will include the gross act of indecency committed by two men in St Helens Market, extraordinary claims of third degree treatment of children at Sutton Police Station and an increase in telephone call charges.
We begin at the monthly Rainford Council meeting on the 22nd where a surprise was in store for those in attendance.
Despite a severe housing crisis, no replies had been received to advertisements placed in local newspapers inviting applications for new council homes.
One member said that the rent set at 12/6 per week was far too high for working people.
The St Helens Corporation Bill was continuing to be scrutinised by the Local Legislation Committee of the House of Commons.
Although mainly concerned with granting the council powers to widen the town's streets and extend transport links (including running trolley buses), there were lots of other odd items in the Bill – including a desire to stop hens from popping into people's homes!
Many people kept hens or other fowl in St Helens and many were what we would call free-range birds – that is, allowed to wander about at will.
Not that the welfare of the critters appears to have been uppermost in the minds of their keepers!
Reasons for allowing hens to roam were more likely to be an inability to afford a pen; not having the space for one or simply not wanting to bother if you only kept one or two birds.
With an increasing amount of road traffic in St Helens, creatures going walkies could cause accidents.
There was also the health risk of hens, geese and ducks entering homes and passing on disease.
As most people kept their doors open during the day, it was easy for unwelcome visitors to make an appearance inside.
So St Helens Corporation wanted a clause inserting in the new Bill that would empower them to require persons that kept fowls to keep them in a pen or enclosure.
On the 22nd Alderman Dr Henry Bates – the former mayor of St Helens and longstanding chairman of the town's Health Committee – gave evidence that the clause was needed in the interests of health.
He said there were too many cases of people in the town allowing their fowls to run in and out of dwelling houses.
In reply to the Chairman of the Commons committee, Dr Bates stated that he could not say that conditions in St Helens were any different to those in other Lancashire towns – apart from the fact that one-third of the population was Irish.
The alderman also could not say that the fowls in St Helens were any more verminous than ones in other towns or that the conditions they carried could easily be passed onto humans.
Not wanting to limit people's liberty too much, the committee refused to allow the clause and so St Helens' hens continued to be at liberty to pop in and out of people's homes.
10-year-old Ernest Porter from Rigby Street gave evidence that he had been in the park with his sister on the previous Sunday afternoon.
Peter Lyon had run up to him and said "Hello, Fatty", snatched his watch and then he ran off.
John O'Brien then came along and said to Ernest "I will go after him for you", but also disappeared.
The prosecuting solicitor revealed in court that the two lads had made a form of pact with each other to commit crimes.
A notebook was produced in which O'Brien of Halton Street had written: "We will be proper friends" and then signed his name.
Peter Lyon of Devon Street had written about his friend stealing chocolates and a cloth mask with eyeholes cut in that the police had found was produced in court.
The police said it appeared that the boys had been preparing for a life of crime and the magistrates said it was a very serious matter for both them and their parents.
Not long ago the lads would have been sent to prison but times were becoming more enlightened.
It was decided to give John and Peter another chance and they were bound over for two years.
However the Chairman of the Bench warned the boys that if they came before the court again, they would be sent away to an industrial school. Their parents were also told to pay the court costs.
Before the advent of talking pictures there were many opportunities for musicians to play in cinemas.
The concept of silent films is largely a misnomer, as there was usually some sort of live soundtrack to the pictures.
There was much demand for pianists and organists to play in the smaller picture houses and the larger ones had small orchestras.
On the 23rd an advertisement in The Era newspaper said that the Oxford – which would later be known as The Plaza and then Cindy's nightclub – was looking for an experienced organist.
The individual would be asked to play solo and at times with an orchestra – "comfortable berth for capable musician", they wrote.
George Carney was appearing at the Hippodrome all this week. The music hall comic was performing his sketches "Almost Human", "The Hindu Scotsman", "Demobbed and Out" and "The Hokey Pokey Man".
Something tells me that the Hindu Scotsman might not have been quite "PC" by our standards!
George turned his hand to acting in films and in the 1930s and ‘40s appeared in about 70 productions, most notably "Love On The Dole", "In Which We Serve" and "Brighton Rock".
A 19-year-old St Helens woman collapsed in the dock in Southport Police Court on the 23rd as she faced charges of theft and told of her failed marriage.
The court heard that Mary Harrison's father worked at a St Helens' glassworks and in 1919 she had married Joseph Harrison.
The couple lived in lodgings in the town but soon separated after a short and unhappy marriage.
Mary had a child and the Police Court in St Helens had awarded her 20 shillings per week maintenance.
Her husband then joined the army and was now stationed in Turkey and for some reason Mary's maintenance money had been reduced to 5s 3d.
How she came to be living in Southport was a bit vague. However it seems that Mary had gone to the seaside town to work as a domestic servant for Edith Haslam and stole some of her jewellery and other articles worth over £4.
Upon collapsing in court Mary was carried out and upon her return told the Bench that she refused to go back to St Helens.
"I do not care where I go as long as I don't go home", she said.
It sounds as if Mary feared her father's reaction to her return – after he, perhaps, had not been very understanding of the marriage break-up.
However Mary told the Bench that she thought that her mother would bring up her child and said she wanted the 5s 3d a week maintenance to be made over to her.
The 25th was Good Friday and at the City Road ground St Helens Recs played Salford. In the crowd was Frank Harper of Eccleston Street, who was shouting:
"Come along; who will have a bob's worth?"
The glassworker was running a football sweep in which spectators paid a shilling for a ticket bearing a number from 1 to 13.
These equated to the players on the field and you would win 12 shillings if your man scored the next try.
However Harper was shouting a bit too loudly and attracted the attention of Sergeant Maddocks.
He saw him sell twelve tickets at 1 shilling each and keep one for himself. And lo and behold that was the winner!
In court it was stated that these football lotteries were not only illegal but also becoming a nuisance and Harper was fined 20 shillings.
And finally, the bonus item in the Echo that made me smile this week was a letter moaning about British Summertime.
Putting the clocks forward every Spring had only been introduced in 1916, following a campaign led by William Willett, the great-great-grandfather of Chris Martin of Coldplay.
But someone using the penname "C. Sense" wrote to the Echo how he was furious about the arrangement and appeared to think he had to get up earlier every morning:
"I understand that we are shortly to have inflicted on us that abomination called “summer time.”
"It is outrageous that in these enlightened times a handful of autocrats should seek to change the laws of Nature and impose their arbitrary will upon forty-five millions of people, most of whom are at least as intelligent as themselves, and far more concerned in the change.
"I contend that before flouting the wisdom of Providence and making this great change, which intimately affects the life of every individual member of the population, a referendum should be taken. That is only right and fair.
"Personally, I, a semi invalid, strongly object to being forced out of bed an hour earlier at the bidding of people who can get up when they like, and go gallivanting off to the Continent with their golf sticks at the nation's expense."
Next week's stories will include the gross act of indecency committed by two men in St Helens Market, extraordinary claims of third degree treatment of children at Sutton Police Station and an increase in telephone call charges.