IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 23 - 29 SEPTEMBER 1924
This week's many stories include the attempted eviction of a bedridden man in Peckers Hill Road, the predictions of doom for the small shopkeeper, the opening of Providence Hospital's nurses home, a bravery award for a Parr miner who saved a boy from drowning and the worthless clothes stealer who was given a harsh prison sentence.
Many applications for house evictions were heard in St Helens County Court in East Street during the 1920s. Often they came from landlords that only owned one or two properties and who wanted to move their own family or even themselves into the house that they owned. But with the housing crisis in St Helens their tenants had considerable difficulty finding alternative accommodation and so would try to stay put.
On the 24th Helen Johnson of 43 Peckers Hill Road in Sutton (pictured above) returned to the County Court to again seek possession of 86 Peckers Hill. Mrs Johnson had bought the property in 1922 and at a previous hearing the judge had granted her possession in six months' time. That period had now lapsed but the people living in the house had not left.
However, it was stated that David Mawdesley, who was the tenant, was confined to bed after having suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. But Mrs Johnson did not accept that Mr Mawdesley was as bad as he was made out and said she did not consider him "bedfast". However, Dr Tom O’Keefe certified that the man did suffer from the condition and he said it was absolutely impossible for Mr Mawdesley to get out of bed. Having him removed from the house, he added, might prove fatal.
Mr Mawdesley's son said his father had lived in the house for 26 years and was over 70 and had been bedridden for over two years. After hearing this, the judge decided to rescind his previous order compelling Mr Mawdesley and his family to leave the house. However, the son gave an undertaking that if and when anything "happens to my father", the family would give up possession.
Also on the 24th the Liverpool Evening Express under the headlines "Doom Of The Small Shop – Vision Of Distress In St Helens", predicted huge difficulties for the owners of little shops when St Helens Corporation introduced new health regulations. These were designed to prevent food for sale from coming into contact with non-food products. The paper wrote:
"St. Helens is full of small general stores which serve the needs of the districts in which they are built. They are often the only means of support of widows and old people, who thus supplement a small pension."
Dr Frank Hauxwell, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, told the paper: "Many cottages in the poorer districts have food, sweets, hardware and drapery shown all together in the windows, and the family use the remainder of the room for domestic purposes. There is far too much use of the front parlours and back kitchens for dealing with foodstuffs, and, it should be stopped."
But Alderman Hamblett called the new regulation a "drastic measure" and the paper spoke to two unnamed shopkeepers both very worried about their futures. One was a war widow who was struggling to educate her son and she said the new regulations when implemented would be disastrous for her. And the other remarked: "If they take half my business away I don't know what will happen to me".
Whenever a father told a court that his child was out of his control then it was certain that the magistrates would send the boy or girl to an industrial school or a reformatory. Industrial schools were designed to instil discipline into wayward kids and teach them a trade, whereas reformatories were for those youngsters with more serious convictions.
Although the 1920s was getting more enlightened, the case of an 8-year-old unnamed St Helens girl shows that the justice system still had a long way to go. On the 24th of this week, after her father had said his daughter was beyond his control, the St Helens Juvenile Court decided to send the child away to an industrial school for the next eight years of her life.
And what had the little girl done? She had entered a house in Kiln Lane by breaking a window and stolen a few items and she'd also taken some flowers from a garden in Keswick Road. The girl was on probation for some previous petty pilfering but none of it appears to have been serious. But she was now being taken away from her family until she reached the age of sixteen and would be living with older girls, some of whom would have far worse records and might teach her their criminal ways.
At the beginning of the month I described how two miners working underground at Lea Green Colliery had been buried under a roof fall for three hours before they could be extricated. One died but the other survived. On the 25th a worker at Clock Face Colliery (pictured above) suffered a similar accident and although help quickly arrived, it was four hours before James Critchley could be dug out from under the large stones and debris that pinned his legs to the ground.
During this time the underground fitter from Garnet Street in Sutton chatted with his rescuers and when released was found not to have suffered any serious injuries. But James had endured severe shock and died while being taken on a stretcher to St Helens Hospital.
In June 1917 the announcement was made that Sir Joseph Bethell Leach was being knighted as part of the King's birthday honours. And then several days later the 76-year-old St Helens auctioneer and estate agent's death was reported and so he never felt the monarch's heavy sword touch his shoulders. I wonder if he ever imagined that the name of J. B. Leach would still be well known in St Helens a century after his death?
A champion of temperance – having signed the pledge in 1854 – Leach had been a councillor in the town for 13 years. And he had also been chairman of Providence Hospital for over 20 years. On the 25th the new Leach Nurses Home attached to Providence was formally opened by his daughter Emily. The Reporter wrote:
"The new annexe to the hospital, which now supplies a much-felt need, furnishes the nurses with commodious and beautiful quarters, which were greatly admired by the visitors, who were privileged to inspect them and were kindly regaled with afternoon tea by the Sisters. Externally, too, this new section of the main building has an imposing elevation and is a decidedly architectural improvement to the building as a whole."
The St Helens MP, James Sexton, attended the opening ceremony and in his speech recollected how when he was a boy, priests from Holy Cross Church had lived in what was then Hardshaw Hall. He commented that they were the "healers of souls" which he felt was not far removed from the building's present use as a hospital in which the nurses and doctors were healers of bodies.
The magistrates in St Helens Police Court had to deal with all sorts of unpleasant cases. But one of their few nicer tasks was the making of awards to brave rescuers who had saved the lives of children. In most cases that involved rescuing them from drowning in the areas of open water in St Helens – in particular, plucking them out of the deep and often dangerous canal.
During the summer many boys and youths bathed in its waters but often underestimated the dangers. On August 11th Thomas Kew had gone for a swim in the canal near to Southport Colliery in Parr. But the 13-year-old got into difficulties and began to sink in the water, which was estimated at that spot as being between 8 and 10 feet deep. Some youths raised the alarm and miner Samuel Smith ran to the spot and despite being fully dressed, jumped in and rescued the boy who was brought out unconscious although he soon rallied.
And so this week the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Peter Phythian, told Mr Smith from Newton Road that it gave him the greatest possible pleasure to present him with the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society's silver medal and certificate in recognition of his gallantry.
Last week I wrote how Thomas Brown of Milton Street in St Helens had complained to magistrates that the police's cells were too cold and the beds too hard for his liking. After 7 days remand in Walton Prison, Brown returned to St Helens Police Court this week to face a charge of clothes stealing. The 25-year-old was accused of taking a bag of clothing from Earlestown Railway Station that belonged to a Liverpool man who had been selling on Earlestown Market.
And Thomas Brown had sold it all to a miner claiming that his wife had sent it to him from America. After Brown's harsh words over the standard of accommodation at St Helens police station, Sgt Cust had some very harsh words for him. The sergeant told the magistrates that Brown was a "worthless fellow living in common lodging houses" who had a previous conviction for stealing a bag of clothes at Warrington for which he had been given three months in prison. Brown blamed his current theft on drinking a bottle of whiskey but after hearing of his previous conviction, the Bench sent him to prison for three months hard labour.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the poor state of North Road, the Lowe House Carnival, the telegraph poles set to spoil picturesque Bleak Hill and the boys prosecuted for tearing a poster off an advertising hoarding in Corporation Street.
Many applications for house evictions were heard in St Helens County Court in East Street during the 1920s. Often they came from landlords that only owned one or two properties and who wanted to move their own family or even themselves into the house that they owned. But with the housing crisis in St Helens their tenants had considerable difficulty finding alternative accommodation and so would try to stay put.
However, it was stated that David Mawdesley, who was the tenant, was confined to bed after having suffered a cerebral haemorrhage. But Mrs Johnson did not accept that Mr Mawdesley was as bad as he was made out and said she did not consider him "bedfast". However, Dr Tom O’Keefe certified that the man did suffer from the condition and he said it was absolutely impossible for Mr Mawdesley to get out of bed. Having him removed from the house, he added, might prove fatal.
Mr Mawdesley's son said his father had lived in the house for 26 years and was over 70 and had been bedridden for over two years. After hearing this, the judge decided to rescind his previous order compelling Mr Mawdesley and his family to leave the house. However, the son gave an undertaking that if and when anything "happens to my father", the family would give up possession.
Also on the 24th the Liverpool Evening Express under the headlines "Doom Of The Small Shop – Vision Of Distress In St Helens", predicted huge difficulties for the owners of little shops when St Helens Corporation introduced new health regulations. These were designed to prevent food for sale from coming into contact with non-food products. The paper wrote:
"St. Helens is full of small general stores which serve the needs of the districts in which they are built. They are often the only means of support of widows and old people, who thus supplement a small pension."
Dr Frank Hauxwell, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, told the paper: "Many cottages in the poorer districts have food, sweets, hardware and drapery shown all together in the windows, and the family use the remainder of the room for domestic purposes. There is far too much use of the front parlours and back kitchens for dealing with foodstuffs, and, it should be stopped."
But Alderman Hamblett called the new regulation a "drastic measure" and the paper spoke to two unnamed shopkeepers both very worried about their futures. One was a war widow who was struggling to educate her son and she said the new regulations when implemented would be disastrous for her. And the other remarked: "If they take half my business away I don't know what will happen to me".
Whenever a father told a court that his child was out of his control then it was certain that the magistrates would send the boy or girl to an industrial school or a reformatory. Industrial schools were designed to instil discipline into wayward kids and teach them a trade, whereas reformatories were for those youngsters with more serious convictions.
Although the 1920s was getting more enlightened, the case of an 8-year-old unnamed St Helens girl shows that the justice system still had a long way to go. On the 24th of this week, after her father had said his daughter was beyond his control, the St Helens Juvenile Court decided to send the child away to an industrial school for the next eight years of her life.
And what had the little girl done? She had entered a house in Kiln Lane by breaking a window and stolen a few items and she'd also taken some flowers from a garden in Keswick Road. The girl was on probation for some previous petty pilfering but none of it appears to have been serious. But she was now being taken away from her family until she reached the age of sixteen and would be living with older girls, some of whom would have far worse records and might teach her their criminal ways.
During this time the underground fitter from Garnet Street in Sutton chatted with his rescuers and when released was found not to have suffered any serious injuries. But James had endured severe shock and died while being taken on a stretcher to St Helens Hospital.
In June 1917 the announcement was made that Sir Joseph Bethell Leach was being knighted as part of the King's birthday honours. And then several days later the 76-year-old St Helens auctioneer and estate agent's death was reported and so he never felt the monarch's heavy sword touch his shoulders. I wonder if he ever imagined that the name of J. B. Leach would still be well known in St Helens a century after his death?
A champion of temperance – having signed the pledge in 1854 – Leach had been a councillor in the town for 13 years. And he had also been chairman of Providence Hospital for over 20 years. On the 25th the new Leach Nurses Home attached to Providence was formally opened by his daughter Emily. The Reporter wrote:
"The new annexe to the hospital, which now supplies a much-felt need, furnishes the nurses with commodious and beautiful quarters, which were greatly admired by the visitors, who were privileged to inspect them and were kindly regaled with afternoon tea by the Sisters. Externally, too, this new section of the main building has an imposing elevation and is a decidedly architectural improvement to the building as a whole."
The St Helens MP, James Sexton, attended the opening ceremony and in his speech recollected how when he was a boy, priests from Holy Cross Church had lived in what was then Hardshaw Hall. He commented that they were the "healers of souls" which he felt was not far removed from the building's present use as a hospital in which the nurses and doctors were healers of bodies.
The magistrates in St Helens Police Court had to deal with all sorts of unpleasant cases. But one of their few nicer tasks was the making of awards to brave rescuers who had saved the lives of children. In most cases that involved rescuing them from drowning in the areas of open water in St Helens – in particular, plucking them out of the deep and often dangerous canal.
During the summer many boys and youths bathed in its waters but often underestimated the dangers. On August 11th Thomas Kew had gone for a swim in the canal near to Southport Colliery in Parr. But the 13-year-old got into difficulties and began to sink in the water, which was estimated at that spot as being between 8 and 10 feet deep. Some youths raised the alarm and miner Samuel Smith ran to the spot and despite being fully dressed, jumped in and rescued the boy who was brought out unconscious although he soon rallied.
And so this week the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Peter Phythian, told Mr Smith from Newton Road that it gave him the greatest possible pleasure to present him with the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society's silver medal and certificate in recognition of his gallantry.
Last week I wrote how Thomas Brown of Milton Street in St Helens had complained to magistrates that the police's cells were too cold and the beds too hard for his liking. After 7 days remand in Walton Prison, Brown returned to St Helens Police Court this week to face a charge of clothes stealing. The 25-year-old was accused of taking a bag of clothing from Earlestown Railway Station that belonged to a Liverpool man who had been selling on Earlestown Market.
And Thomas Brown had sold it all to a miner claiming that his wife had sent it to him from America. After Brown's harsh words over the standard of accommodation at St Helens police station, Sgt Cust had some very harsh words for him. The sergeant told the magistrates that Brown was a "worthless fellow living in common lodging houses" who had a previous conviction for stealing a bag of clothes at Warrington for which he had been given three months in prison. Brown blamed his current theft on drinking a bottle of whiskey but after hearing of his previous conviction, the Bench sent him to prison for three months hard labour.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the poor state of North Road, the Lowe House Carnival, the telegraph poles set to spoil picturesque Bleak Hill and the boys prosecuted for tearing a poster off an advertising hoarding in Corporation Street.
This week's many stories include the attempted eviction of a bedridden man in Peckers Hill Road, the predictions of doom for the small shopkeeper, the opening of Providence Hospital's nurses home, a bravery award for a Parr miner who saved a boy from drowning and the worthless clothes stealer who was given a harsh prison sentence.
Many applications for house evictions were heard in St Helens County Court in East Street during the 1920s.
Often they came from landlords that only owned one or two properties and who wanted to move their own family or even themselves into the house that they owned.
But with the housing crisis in St Helens their tenants had considerable difficulty finding alternative accommodation and so would try to stay put.
On the 24th Helen Johnson of 43 Peckers Hill Road in Sutton (pictured above) returned to the County Court to again seek possession of 86 Peckers Hill.
Mrs Johnson had bought the property in 1922 and at a previous hearing the judge had granted her possession in six months' time.
That period had now lapsed but the people living in the house had not left.
However, it was stated that David Mawdesley, who was the tenant, was confined to bed after having suffered a cerebral haemorrhage.
But Mrs Johnson did not accept that Mr Mawdesley was as bad as he was made out and said she did not consider him "bedfast".
However, Dr Tom O’Keefe certified that the man did suffer from the condition and he said it was absolutely impossible for Mr Mawdesley to get out of bed. Having him removed from the house, he added, might prove fatal.
Mr Mawdesley's son said his father had lived in the house for 26 years and was over 70 and had been bedridden for over two years.
After hearing this, the judge decided to rescind his previous order compelling Mr Mawdesley and his family to leave the house.
However, the son gave an undertaking that if and when anything "happens to my father", the family would give up possession.
Also on the 24th the Liverpool Evening Express under the headlines "Doom Of The Small Shop – Vision Of Distress In St Helens", predicted huge difficulties for the owners of little shops when St Helens Corporation introduced new health regulations.
These were designed to prevent food for sale from coming into contact with non-food products. The paper wrote:
"St. Helens is full of small general stores which serve the needs of the districts in which they are built. They are often the only means of support of widows and old people, who thus supplement a small pension."
Dr Frank Hauxwell, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, told the paper:
"Many cottages in the poorer districts have food, sweets, hardware and drapery shown all together in the windows, and the family use the remainder of the room for domestic purposes.
"There is far too much use of the front parlours and back kitchens for dealing with foodstuffs, and, it should be stopped."
But Alderman Hamblett called the new regulation a "drastic measure" and the paper spoke to two unnamed shopkeepers both very worried about their futures.
One was a war widow who was struggling to educate her son and she said the new regulations when implemented would be disastrous for her.
And the other remarked: "If they take half my business away I don't know what will happen to me".
Whenever a father told a court that his child was out of his control then it was certain that the magistrates would send the boy or girl to an industrial school or a reformatory.
Industrial schools were designed to instil discipline into wayward kids and teach them a trade, whereas reformatories were for those youngsters with more serious convictions.
Although the 1920s was getting more enlightened, the case of an 8-year-old unnamed St Helens girl shows that the justice system still had a long way to go.
On the 24th of this week, after her father had said his daughter was beyond his control, the St Helens Juvenile Court decided to send the child away to an industrial school for the next eight years of her life.
And what had the little girl done? She had entered a house in Kiln Lane by breaking a window and stolen a few items and she'd also taken some flowers from a garden in Keswick Road.
The girl was on probation for some previous petty pilfering but none of it appears to have been serious.
But she was now being taken away from her family until she reached the age of sixteen and would be living with older girls, some of whom would have far worse records and might teach her their criminal ways.
At the beginning of the month I described how two miners working underground at Lea Green Colliery had been buried under a roof fall for three hours before they could be extricated. One died but the other survived.
On the 25th a worker at Clock Face Colliery (pictured above) suffered a similar accident and although help quickly arrived, it was four hours before James Critchley could be dug out from under the large stones and debris that pinned his legs to the ground.
During this time the underground fitter from Garnet Street in Sutton chatted with his rescuers and when released was found not to have suffered any serious injuries.
But James had endured severe shock and died while being taken on a stretcher to St Helens Hospital.
In June 1917 the announcement was made that Sir Joseph Bethell Leach was being knighted as part of the King's birthday honours.
And then several days later the 76-year-old St Helens auctioneer and estate agent's death was reported and so he never felt the monarch's heavy sword touch his shoulders.
I wonder if he ever imagined that the name of J. B. Leach would still be well known in St Helens a century after his death?
A champion of temperance – having signed the pledge in 1854 – Leach had been a councillor in the town for 13 years. And he had also been chairman of Providence Hospital for over 20 years.
On the 25th the new Leach Nurses Home attached to Providence was formally opened by his daughter Emily. The Reporter wrote:
"The new annexe to the hospital, which now supplies a much-felt need, furnishes the nurses with commodious and beautiful quarters, which were greatly admired by the visitors, who were privileged to inspect them and were kindly regaled with afternoon tea by the Sisters.
"Externally, too, this new section of the main building has an imposing elevation and is a decidedly architectural improvement to the building as a whole."
The St Helens MP, James Sexton, attended the opening ceremony and in his speech recollected how when he was a boy, priests from Holy Cross Church had lived in what was then Hardshaw Hall.
He commented that they were the "healers of souls" which he felt was not far removed from the building's present use as a hospital in which the nurses and doctors were healers of bodies.
The magistrates in St Helens Police Court had to deal with all sorts of unpleasant cases.
But one of their few nicer tasks was the making of awards to brave rescuers who had saved the lives of children.
In most cases that involved rescuing them from drowning in the areas of open water in St Helens – in particular, plucking them out of the deep and often dangerous canal.
During the summer many boys and youths bathed in its waters but often underestimated the dangers.
On August 11th Thomas Kew had gone for a swim in the canal near to Southport Colliery in Parr.
But the 13-year-old got into difficulties and began to sink in the water, which was estimated at that spot as being between 8 and 10 feet deep.
Some youths raised the alarm and miner Samuel Smith ran to the spot and despite being fully dressed, jumped in and rescued the boy who was brought out unconscious although he soon rallied.
And so this week the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Peter Phythian, told Mr Smith from Newton Road that it gave him the greatest possible pleasure to present him with the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society's silver medal and certificate in recognition of his gallantry.
Last week I wrote how Thomas Brown of Milton Street in St Helens had complained to magistrates that the police's cells were too cold and the beds too hard for his liking.
After 7 days remand in Walton Prison, Brown returned to St Helens Police Court this week to face a charge of clothes stealing.
The 25-year-old was accused of taking a bag of clothing from Earlestown Railway Station that belonged to a Liverpool man who had been selling on Earlestown Market.
And Thomas Brown had sold it all to a miner claiming that his wife had sent it to him from America.
After Brown's harsh words over the standard of accommodation at St Helens police station, Sgt Cust had some very harsh words for him.
The sergeant told the magistrates that Brown was a "worthless fellow living in common lodging houses" who had a previous conviction for stealing a bag of clothes at Warrington for which he had been given three months in prison.
Brown blamed his current theft on drinking a bottle of whiskey but after hearing of his previous conviction, the Bench sent him to prison for three months hard labour.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the poor state of North Road, the Lowe House Carnival, the telegraph poles set to spoil picturesque Bleak Hill and the boys prosecuted for tearing a poster off an advertising hoarding in Corporation Street.
Many applications for house evictions were heard in St Helens County Court in East Street during the 1920s.
Often they came from landlords that only owned one or two properties and who wanted to move their own family or even themselves into the house that they owned.
But with the housing crisis in St Helens their tenants had considerable difficulty finding alternative accommodation and so would try to stay put.
Mrs Johnson had bought the property in 1922 and at a previous hearing the judge had granted her possession in six months' time.
That period had now lapsed but the people living in the house had not left.
However, it was stated that David Mawdesley, who was the tenant, was confined to bed after having suffered a cerebral haemorrhage.
But Mrs Johnson did not accept that Mr Mawdesley was as bad as he was made out and said she did not consider him "bedfast".
However, Dr Tom O’Keefe certified that the man did suffer from the condition and he said it was absolutely impossible for Mr Mawdesley to get out of bed. Having him removed from the house, he added, might prove fatal.
Mr Mawdesley's son said his father had lived in the house for 26 years and was over 70 and had been bedridden for over two years.
After hearing this, the judge decided to rescind his previous order compelling Mr Mawdesley and his family to leave the house.
However, the son gave an undertaking that if and when anything "happens to my father", the family would give up possession.
Also on the 24th the Liverpool Evening Express under the headlines "Doom Of The Small Shop – Vision Of Distress In St Helens", predicted huge difficulties for the owners of little shops when St Helens Corporation introduced new health regulations.
These were designed to prevent food for sale from coming into contact with non-food products. The paper wrote:
"St. Helens is full of small general stores which serve the needs of the districts in which they are built. They are often the only means of support of widows and old people, who thus supplement a small pension."
Dr Frank Hauxwell, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, told the paper:
"Many cottages in the poorer districts have food, sweets, hardware and drapery shown all together in the windows, and the family use the remainder of the room for domestic purposes.
"There is far too much use of the front parlours and back kitchens for dealing with foodstuffs, and, it should be stopped."
But Alderman Hamblett called the new regulation a "drastic measure" and the paper spoke to two unnamed shopkeepers both very worried about their futures.
One was a war widow who was struggling to educate her son and she said the new regulations when implemented would be disastrous for her.
And the other remarked: "If they take half my business away I don't know what will happen to me".
Whenever a father told a court that his child was out of his control then it was certain that the magistrates would send the boy or girl to an industrial school or a reformatory.
Industrial schools were designed to instil discipline into wayward kids and teach them a trade, whereas reformatories were for those youngsters with more serious convictions.
Although the 1920s was getting more enlightened, the case of an 8-year-old unnamed St Helens girl shows that the justice system still had a long way to go.
On the 24th of this week, after her father had said his daughter was beyond his control, the St Helens Juvenile Court decided to send the child away to an industrial school for the next eight years of her life.
And what had the little girl done? She had entered a house in Kiln Lane by breaking a window and stolen a few items and she'd also taken some flowers from a garden in Keswick Road.
The girl was on probation for some previous petty pilfering but none of it appears to have been serious.
But she was now being taken away from her family until she reached the age of sixteen and would be living with older girls, some of whom would have far worse records and might teach her their criminal ways.
At the beginning of the month I described how two miners working underground at Lea Green Colliery had been buried under a roof fall for three hours before they could be extricated. One died but the other survived.
During this time the underground fitter from Garnet Street in Sutton chatted with his rescuers and when released was found not to have suffered any serious injuries.
But James had endured severe shock and died while being taken on a stretcher to St Helens Hospital.
In June 1917 the announcement was made that Sir Joseph Bethell Leach was being knighted as part of the King's birthday honours.
And then several days later the 76-year-old St Helens auctioneer and estate agent's death was reported and so he never felt the monarch's heavy sword touch his shoulders.
I wonder if he ever imagined that the name of J. B. Leach would still be well known in St Helens a century after his death?
A champion of temperance – having signed the pledge in 1854 – Leach had been a councillor in the town for 13 years. And he had also been chairman of Providence Hospital for over 20 years.
On the 25th the new Leach Nurses Home attached to Providence was formally opened by his daughter Emily. The Reporter wrote:
"The new annexe to the hospital, which now supplies a much-felt need, furnishes the nurses with commodious and beautiful quarters, which were greatly admired by the visitors, who were privileged to inspect them and were kindly regaled with afternoon tea by the Sisters.
"Externally, too, this new section of the main building has an imposing elevation and is a decidedly architectural improvement to the building as a whole."
The St Helens MP, James Sexton, attended the opening ceremony and in his speech recollected how when he was a boy, priests from Holy Cross Church had lived in what was then Hardshaw Hall.
He commented that they were the "healers of souls" which he felt was not far removed from the building's present use as a hospital in which the nurses and doctors were healers of bodies.
The magistrates in St Helens Police Court had to deal with all sorts of unpleasant cases.
But one of their few nicer tasks was the making of awards to brave rescuers who had saved the lives of children.
In most cases that involved rescuing them from drowning in the areas of open water in St Helens – in particular, plucking them out of the deep and often dangerous canal.
During the summer many boys and youths bathed in its waters but often underestimated the dangers.
On August 11th Thomas Kew had gone for a swim in the canal near to Southport Colliery in Parr.
But the 13-year-old got into difficulties and began to sink in the water, which was estimated at that spot as being between 8 and 10 feet deep.
Some youths raised the alarm and miner Samuel Smith ran to the spot and despite being fully dressed, jumped in and rescued the boy who was brought out unconscious although he soon rallied.
And so this week the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Peter Phythian, told Mr Smith from Newton Road that it gave him the greatest possible pleasure to present him with the Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society's silver medal and certificate in recognition of his gallantry.
Last week I wrote how Thomas Brown of Milton Street in St Helens had complained to magistrates that the police's cells were too cold and the beds too hard for his liking.
After 7 days remand in Walton Prison, Brown returned to St Helens Police Court this week to face a charge of clothes stealing.
The 25-year-old was accused of taking a bag of clothing from Earlestown Railway Station that belonged to a Liverpool man who had been selling on Earlestown Market.
And Thomas Brown had sold it all to a miner claiming that his wife had sent it to him from America.
After Brown's harsh words over the standard of accommodation at St Helens police station, Sgt Cust had some very harsh words for him.
The sergeant told the magistrates that Brown was a "worthless fellow living in common lodging houses" who had a previous conviction for stealing a bag of clothes at Warrington for which he had been given three months in prison.
Brown blamed his current theft on drinking a bottle of whiskey but after hearing of his previous conviction, the Bench sent him to prison for three months hard labour.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the poor state of North Road, the Lowe House Carnival, the telegraph poles set to spoil picturesque Bleak Hill and the boys prosecuted for tearing a poster off an advertising hoarding in Corporation Street.