IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (23rd - 29th DECEMBER 1919)
This week's article from a century ago is a Christmas week special with stories describing the Christmas post, the weather, the "useful" presents in the shops (including the childless wives that were given babies as Christmas presents), the entertainment at the town's theatres and cinemas and all the many sports fixtures with Saints, St Helens Recs (and even Liverpool and Everton) playing three games in three days.
The run up to Christmas 1919 in St Helens was badly affected by heavy rain, which caused flooding in some places. When the council's Health Committee met on the 23rd, Councillor Rudd complained that the bottom of Peasley Cross Lane was knee-deep in water (as pictured above). The Borough Surveyor said it was caused by mining subsidence, explaining that: "The place has gone down, and the brook and the sewer are so full that the water backs up." Councillor Forshaw complained of the flooding at Gerards Bridge – the district around College Street – but it was stated that little could be done to remedy it.
Of course you can keep out of the rain by visiting the theatre or cinema. On the three days up until Christmas Day, the pantomime 'Babes in the Wood' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The traditional children's tale is quite short and so to lengthen it and create additional interest, the panto combined characters from 'Robin Hood'. These were "Bold Robin Hood" himself (or herself, as he was played by a woman) and Maid Marian. In its preview the St Helens Reporter wrote: "In picturesqueness of dress and scenery and elaborateness of efforts there will be all the pleasing accompaniments of typical pantomime."
Further down Corporation Street the Hippodrome continued its focus on entertainment and comedy during the festive period, with its annual panto ('Little Bo Peep' this year) not beginning until mid-January. Unlike the Theatre Royal the music hall was open on Christmas night and also had a matinee performance on Boxing Day. Top of the bill was Ted Waite, who rather oddly called himself the "spasmodic comedian". The Reporter wrote in its preview that he "gets there" every time. Just where he got, they didn't say!
The Langley Brothers were blindfolded trapeze artists, comedy gymnasts and equilibrists, performing chair-balancing acts and the like. Marcus the Explorer was an unusual act. He was a comedy ventriloquist who created scenes in the desert. There was also concertina player Wilfred Clowes and the return appearance of Ragolio, the R. A. Tramp. He rapidly produced picture studies of famous Royal Academy masterpieces using bits of rag. There must have been an expectation that some St Helens' folk would travel to Liverpool to attend Christmas shows, as the Royal Court and Hippodrome advertised in the Reporter. 'Humpty Dumpty' was the panto performed at the Royal Court.
All the town's cinemas were open on Christmas Day, with their twice-nightly screenings supplemented by an afternoon matinee. At the Bridge Street Picturedrome there was a film called 'The Girl Dodger', coupled with The Fox Kiddies in 'The Babes in the Wood'. The Co-op Cinema in Baldwin Street (now renamed Glovers Pictures) screened 'The Little Orphan' on Christmas Day, which they described as a "pathetic photo play in five parts".
Griffins in Ormskirk Street (which would become the Scala) had a Christmas Day screening of 'My Little Boy', which the Reporter described as a "well-thought-out modern adaptation of the immortal story of Scrooge." In Duke Street the Oxford cinema (which would become the Plaza) screened a film called 'Woman in White', along with a Pathe Pictorial, which they described as "beautiful coloured pictures". That would not have been colour film but black and white stock that had been hand coloured.
During the war years the giving of useful gifts at a time of scarcity was very much encouraged. The theme still lingered this Christmas in a number of adverts in the Reporter, including those from Wallace's of Church Street: "What's more useful, acceptable and practical, than a pair of cosy house or bedroom slippers?", they asked. The "dainty and useful articles" from Lowe's of Duke Street (on the corner of Cowley Hill Lane) included handkerchiefs and fancy drapery and white and coloured silk underskirts.
The useful presents from Balshaw Bros of Bridge Street included umbrellas, walking sticks, fancy handkerchiefs, Dorothy bags, fancy knitted vests, silk mufflers and motor gloves. As presents for boys the L & C Rubber Company of Church Street was suggesting footballs, boxing gloves and punch balls. Their present ideas for girls were the much less exciting capes and hoods.
Also in Church Street next door to the fire ravaged Parish Church was the Universal Bazaar, who also kept a stall in the Covered Market. Their adverts featured an illustration of a rather scary-looking Father Christmas and they claimed to have the largest and cheapest variety of dolls, toys and novelties in St Helens. These included Meccano, mechanical toys, aeroplanes, soldiers, printing and painting outfits, tea sets and prams. They also stocked dolls, which were priced from 1 shilling to 42 shillings.
"Christmas gifts that always give delight" – comprising rings, bracelets, brooches and silverware – were available from Hewitt's Jewellers of Church Street. And for all the family, Mary Peters of Hall Street was selling the latest wind-up gramophones for Xmas. These were the Apollo, the Dulcephone and the Commonwealth. These makes are still available online as antiques, with one seller of the Apollo including six free records "to get you going". Mary Peters did exactly the same a century ago with all her new gramophone sales. She also sold all the latest dance records "in strict time for dancing" with hundreds to choose from.
I wonder if any woman in St Helens received a baby for Christmas? I don't mean gave birth to a baby but was given one. The National Children's Association reported that over 100 husbands had applied to them to adopt a child. They would then hand the baby to their childless wife as a Christmas present, with girls more popular than boys.
The Reporter wrote that on Christmas Eve the "blazing shop windows, gay with their seasonable displays, and the busy streets, gave the town a holiday appearance." The Day itself fell on a Thursday and the Chamber of Trade had recommended that all shops in St Helens should close on the 25th and Boxing Day, as well as on January 1st and 2nd. Many shops also shut their doors on the Christmas Saturday. Most St Helens workers had a four-day (unpaid) break, with industry closing down until the Monday.
The Reporter had described Christmas as the "great visiting season of the year", although not by tram – at least not on the day itself. For the second year running tram crews preferred to spend the day with their families and refused to work on the 25th.
There was expected to be a lot of last minute posting of letters and parcels, leading to congestion at the main post office in Church Street (pictured above). In order to relieve the pressure during the three-day run up to Christmas, all parcels were posted at the Parish Church School. On those three days there were five postal collections from pillar-boxes across the town with a single collection on Christmas Day at 4:30pm. There was also a delivery of letters on the 25th at 7am.
There was no snow over the festive period and the heavy rain at the start of the week gave way to a dry spell on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. However the rain returned on Boxing Day.
Christmas would not be Christmas without people squabbling and some of the neighbours in New Cross Street had a right barney on the morning of the 25th. A window was smashed and Jonathan Johnson would later be fined ten shillings.
The attendance at the annual Christmas Day game between St Helens Recs and Saints at City Road was a record for any football or rugby match played in the town, with the home side winning 21 - 6. A full programme of Division 1 football also took place on the 25th with Liverpool beating Sunderland 3 - 2 at Anfield and Everton drawing 1 - 1 away at Manchester City.
As usual Saints played Wigan in the Boxing Day derby at home in which they beat their rivals 13 - 5, although the rain reduced the attendance. The Reporter wrote that the "fearfully bad luck which seems to pursue the Knowsley Road club in all things this season" had robbed them of at least £150 in gate money. St Helens Recs were away at Widnes and lost 10 - 0. Liverpool and Everton also played again on the 26th, with the former in a goalless draw with Man Utd and Everton beating Man City 2 - 0.
The season of goodwill did not extend to a church football match at Muncaster Hall in Rainford on Boxing Day, when Rainford Parish Church played Central Baptists. A dispute over a corner led to a young miner called Thomas Lowe running onto the pitch and arguing with one of the players. He ended up punching James Powers several times but was cleared in a subsequent court hearing after it was alleged that Powers had threatened Lowe.
The 27th was a Saturday and so a further series of Northern Union rugby league matches took place, as well as a full programme of Division 1 football – that's three games played by each club in three days! Tell that to Jürgen Klopp! Both Saints and St Helens Recs lost their matches (they were probably shattered!), with Liverpool beating Everton 3 - 1.
The St Helens Reporter had written that there would be "many worse places than the Whiston Institution this Christmas", as it listed all the food that would be eaten in the hospital. The long list included a thousand pounds of beef – which was often preferred to turkey – and they also mentioned tobacco and snuff to be given to adult patients, as well as sweets, apples and oranges. There was, of course, a Christmas tree containing decorations and toys for the kids.
There doesn't appear to have been many children's Christmas parties held, although a big one did take place on Boxing Day. That was in the Engineer Hall in Croppers Hill when 500 boys and girls were entertained. They were all children of members of the West Lancashire Division Royal Engineers and the Reporter wrote that the building "rang with the merry laughter of the young folk, who hailed Father Christmas (Major Haslam Fox) with wild delight."
In summing up the festive season, the Reporter felt it had been the happiest Christmas in St Helens for quite a number of years. The war had separated families and although the armistice had been declared six weeks prior to last Christmas, most soldiers did not return home until some time afterwards.
Next week's stories will include New Years Eve / Day in St Helens, a man from Albion Street is charged with bigamy, the indecency in Charles Street that turned violent, the annual poor children's free breakfasts and the down on his luck actor who asked a Peasley Cross copper if he could spare a copper.
Of course you can keep out of the rain by visiting the theatre or cinema. On the three days up until Christmas Day, the pantomime 'Babes in the Wood' was performed at the Theatre Royal. The traditional children's tale is quite short and so to lengthen it and create additional interest, the panto combined characters from 'Robin Hood'. These were "Bold Robin Hood" himself (or herself, as he was played by a woman) and Maid Marian. In its preview the St Helens Reporter wrote: "In picturesqueness of dress and scenery and elaborateness of efforts there will be all the pleasing accompaniments of typical pantomime."
Further down Corporation Street the Hippodrome continued its focus on entertainment and comedy during the festive period, with its annual panto ('Little Bo Peep' this year) not beginning until mid-January. Unlike the Theatre Royal the music hall was open on Christmas night and also had a matinee performance on Boxing Day. Top of the bill was Ted Waite, who rather oddly called himself the "spasmodic comedian". The Reporter wrote in its preview that he "gets there" every time. Just where he got, they didn't say!
The Langley Brothers were blindfolded trapeze artists, comedy gymnasts and equilibrists, performing chair-balancing acts and the like. Marcus the Explorer was an unusual act. He was a comedy ventriloquist who created scenes in the desert. There was also concertina player Wilfred Clowes and the return appearance of Ragolio, the R. A. Tramp. He rapidly produced picture studies of famous Royal Academy masterpieces using bits of rag. There must have been an expectation that some St Helens' folk would travel to Liverpool to attend Christmas shows, as the Royal Court and Hippodrome advertised in the Reporter. 'Humpty Dumpty' was the panto performed at the Royal Court.
All the town's cinemas were open on Christmas Day, with their twice-nightly screenings supplemented by an afternoon matinee. At the Bridge Street Picturedrome there was a film called 'The Girl Dodger', coupled with The Fox Kiddies in 'The Babes in the Wood'. The Co-op Cinema in Baldwin Street (now renamed Glovers Pictures) screened 'The Little Orphan' on Christmas Day, which they described as a "pathetic photo play in five parts".
Griffins in Ormskirk Street (which would become the Scala) had a Christmas Day screening of 'My Little Boy', which the Reporter described as a "well-thought-out modern adaptation of the immortal story of Scrooge." In Duke Street the Oxford cinema (which would become the Plaza) screened a film called 'Woman in White', along with a Pathe Pictorial, which they described as "beautiful coloured pictures". That would not have been colour film but black and white stock that had been hand coloured.
During the war years the giving of useful gifts at a time of scarcity was very much encouraged. The theme still lingered this Christmas in a number of adverts in the Reporter, including those from Wallace's of Church Street: "What's more useful, acceptable and practical, than a pair of cosy house or bedroom slippers?", they asked. The "dainty and useful articles" from Lowe's of Duke Street (on the corner of Cowley Hill Lane) included handkerchiefs and fancy drapery and white and coloured silk underskirts.
The useful presents from Balshaw Bros of Bridge Street included umbrellas, walking sticks, fancy handkerchiefs, Dorothy bags, fancy knitted vests, silk mufflers and motor gloves. As presents for boys the L & C Rubber Company of Church Street was suggesting footballs, boxing gloves and punch balls. Their present ideas for girls were the much less exciting capes and hoods.
Also in Church Street next door to the fire ravaged Parish Church was the Universal Bazaar, who also kept a stall in the Covered Market. Their adverts featured an illustration of a rather scary-looking Father Christmas and they claimed to have the largest and cheapest variety of dolls, toys and novelties in St Helens. These included Meccano, mechanical toys, aeroplanes, soldiers, printing and painting outfits, tea sets and prams. They also stocked dolls, which were priced from 1 shilling to 42 shillings.
"Christmas gifts that always give delight" – comprising rings, bracelets, brooches and silverware – were available from Hewitt's Jewellers of Church Street. And for all the family, Mary Peters of Hall Street was selling the latest wind-up gramophones for Xmas. These were the Apollo, the Dulcephone and the Commonwealth. These makes are still available online as antiques, with one seller of the Apollo including six free records "to get you going". Mary Peters did exactly the same a century ago with all her new gramophone sales. She also sold all the latest dance records "in strict time for dancing" with hundreds to choose from.
I wonder if any woman in St Helens received a baby for Christmas? I don't mean gave birth to a baby but was given one. The National Children's Association reported that over 100 husbands had applied to them to adopt a child. They would then hand the baby to their childless wife as a Christmas present, with girls more popular than boys.
The Reporter wrote that on Christmas Eve the "blazing shop windows, gay with their seasonable displays, and the busy streets, gave the town a holiday appearance." The Day itself fell on a Thursday and the Chamber of Trade had recommended that all shops in St Helens should close on the 25th and Boxing Day, as well as on January 1st and 2nd. Many shops also shut their doors on the Christmas Saturday. Most St Helens workers had a four-day (unpaid) break, with industry closing down until the Monday.
The Reporter had described Christmas as the "great visiting season of the year", although not by tram – at least not on the day itself. For the second year running tram crews preferred to spend the day with their families and refused to work on the 25th.
There was no snow over the festive period and the heavy rain at the start of the week gave way to a dry spell on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. However the rain returned on Boxing Day.
Christmas would not be Christmas without people squabbling and some of the neighbours in New Cross Street had a right barney on the morning of the 25th. A window was smashed and Jonathan Johnson would later be fined ten shillings.
The attendance at the annual Christmas Day game between St Helens Recs and Saints at City Road was a record for any football or rugby match played in the town, with the home side winning 21 - 6. A full programme of Division 1 football also took place on the 25th with Liverpool beating Sunderland 3 - 2 at Anfield and Everton drawing 1 - 1 away at Manchester City.
As usual Saints played Wigan in the Boxing Day derby at home in which they beat their rivals 13 - 5, although the rain reduced the attendance. The Reporter wrote that the "fearfully bad luck which seems to pursue the Knowsley Road club in all things this season" had robbed them of at least £150 in gate money. St Helens Recs were away at Widnes and lost 10 - 0. Liverpool and Everton also played again on the 26th, with the former in a goalless draw with Man Utd and Everton beating Man City 2 - 0.
The season of goodwill did not extend to a church football match at Muncaster Hall in Rainford on Boxing Day, when Rainford Parish Church played Central Baptists. A dispute over a corner led to a young miner called Thomas Lowe running onto the pitch and arguing with one of the players. He ended up punching James Powers several times but was cleared in a subsequent court hearing after it was alleged that Powers had threatened Lowe.
The 27th was a Saturday and so a further series of Northern Union rugby league matches took place, as well as a full programme of Division 1 football – that's three games played by each club in three days! Tell that to Jürgen Klopp! Both Saints and St Helens Recs lost their matches (they were probably shattered!), with Liverpool beating Everton 3 - 1.
The St Helens Reporter had written that there would be "many worse places than the Whiston Institution this Christmas", as it listed all the food that would be eaten in the hospital. The long list included a thousand pounds of beef – which was often preferred to turkey – and they also mentioned tobacco and snuff to be given to adult patients, as well as sweets, apples and oranges. There was, of course, a Christmas tree containing decorations and toys for the kids.
There doesn't appear to have been many children's Christmas parties held, although a big one did take place on Boxing Day. That was in the Engineer Hall in Croppers Hill when 500 boys and girls were entertained. They were all children of members of the West Lancashire Division Royal Engineers and the Reporter wrote that the building "rang with the merry laughter of the young folk, who hailed Father Christmas (Major Haslam Fox) with wild delight."
In summing up the festive season, the Reporter felt it had been the happiest Christmas in St Helens for quite a number of years. The war had separated families and although the armistice had been declared six weeks prior to last Christmas, most soldiers did not return home until some time afterwards.
Next week's stories will include New Years Eve / Day in St Helens, a man from Albion Street is charged with bigamy, the indecency in Charles Street that turned violent, the annual poor children's free breakfasts and the down on his luck actor who asked a Peasley Cross copper if he could spare a copper.