IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 24 - 30 AUGUST 1926
This week's many stories include the two outcrop mining deaths, the 13-year-old thief who spent his ill-gotten gains in New Brighton, the war hero in despair over his missing wife, the shooting through a woman stunt at the Hippodrome, the singing of The Red Flag outside St Helens Town Hall and the crowd of 200 that tried to intimidate the wife of a Sutton Manor Colliery engine winder.
During the miners' strike, free coal could be obtained by digging it out from where old mines outcropped at the surface. But it was a dangerous business and this week the inquest hearing on 26-year-old William Cunliffe and 17-year-old Thomas Abbott – both of West End Road in Haydock – were held.
They were both mineworkers who had been killed in an outcrop accident at Old Hall Farm at Garswood when the earth suddenly gave way. Two other men who had been with them were dug out with spades and conveyed to Haydock Cottage Hospital, where they were treated for their injuries. But over an hour elapsed before the two dead men could be reached.
Throughout this week there was another appearance in St Helens of a comic performer who would go on to national stardom in the ‘30s and ‘40s. A fortnight ago Sandy Powell had appeared at the Hippodrome and from the 23rd, Robb Wilton (pictured above) returned to St Helens after last performing his act in Corporation Street in 1921.
The Everton-born character actor with a dry comic wit has been described as portraying the human face of bureaucracy in his dozen or so film roles. Wilton also became renowned for his wireless monologues that he honed on the music hall circuit. 'The Day War Broke Out' is a particular favourite of mine.
Of those on the bill with Wilton at the Hippodrome, the marksmen Shogun and Ryder seem to have been the most interesting. Their turn included a stunt called "Shooting through a woman". That involved a lady being placed in the middle of the stage with a target in the centre of her body and glass sheets a little way behind her.
The rifle was discharged point blank at her – but although the target was pierced and the glass behind her was broken, the woman was unhurt. Well, that was the theory anyway! What was described as a committee would first check that the cartridge that was being fired at the woman was not blank.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 24th said that although needy children in St Helens were being fairly well provided for during the miners' strike with three free meals a day, those living in Billinge were only receiving one daily meal. And so a committee from St Helens and Rainford were intending to set up soup kitchens there immediately.
Woolworths had opened in Church Street in St Helens in the early 1920s. Their store was then only a fraction of the size of the Woolies that we remember, with its first expansion due to take place in the late ‘20s. The firm was then like a modern day pound shop and was selling nothing over 6d.
On the 24th Robert Hunter and Robert Kinder of Langtree Street were bound over for two years in St Helens Juvenile Court for stealing pens, stationery and sweets from Woolworths and for stealing seventeen sixpenny cigarettes from Guy's tobacconists.
On the same day an unnamed 13-year-old boy pleaded guilty in St Helens Juvenile Court to stealing two gold watches, a gold chain, a diamond ring, a pearl cross and 15 shillings belonging to Joseph Forber. The boy's father was the sub-tenant of a house in Greenfield Road and a widower with three children.
The articles belonged to another occupant of the house and the lad after stealing them had gone on a day trip to New Brighton. He had thrown the jewellery away but the police later recovered some of it. The father said he was very sorry for what happened but he had been handicapped since his wife had died in 1918.
Inspector Anders said the boy had also ridden on stolen bicycles several times, abandoning the machines afterwards. The Bench said the father must keep a keener eye on his son, who was bound over for three years.
Also on the 24th it was reported that 80 miners were back at work at Sutton Manor Colliery with an official predicting that the mine would soon return to normal.
The St Helens Reporter on the 27th described how Pilkingtons had decided to drain their dam off Lugsmore Lane, although just why was not stated. Last weekend when the pumps had got to work, a large crowd had watched 3,000 fish being caught over 12 hours, with the catch including eight huge carp.
On the 28th thousands of striking miners demonstrated in a field adjoining Sutton Manor Colliery after taking part in a procession. In the Midlands many more miners were returning to work, with over 3,000 now employed at five pits near Nottingham. A miners' agent called Macdonald appealed to those at Sutton Manor not to be led astray by the figures coming out of the Midlands. He claimed they were not a true reflection of the position in regard to the strike, adding that the Lancashire men did not have the same temptations as those in the Midlands.
The miners union had ordered all of the men undertaking safety operations at local collieries to cease work, after accusing the mine's managers of breaking their agreement with them. But some were defying the instruction, which was leading to a lot of bad feeling and court cases.
On the 30th fifteen men and women appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with intimidation and a large crowd gathered outside the Town Hall to watch them enter the building. The prosecution said the case centred on 200 persons, who after attending a meeting at the Horseshoe Inn in Parr, had assembled outside the house of Martha Platt, whose husband was working at Ashtons Green Colliery.
Several cries had been made of "Let us put the windows in" and Catherine Parr of Newton Road in Parr had written a note and put it through the letterbox. It read: "We, as a body of men and women, ask you to withdraw your husband out of the pit as engine-winder or there will be further trouble. Signed Mrs. Parr."
A frightened Mrs Platt took the note to the police and told the court that the crowd had yelled "Snatch her out, mince her" and said she was terrified and had been under the doctor ever since. Catherine Parr had also gone to the colliery and told the manager she had come to stop the men or there would be further trouble.
In her defence Mrs Parr said she had no ill-feeling against Mrs Platt and was only trying to warn her. However, she was bound over for 12 months but needed to find sureties totalling £20 and pay costs of over £2.
William Henthorne of Milton Street and William Ashall of Forest Road were said to be prominent Communists at Sutton Manor who were charged in the same hearing with using violence against David Eden and Joseph Chisnall. They were two safety men who had been on their way to work when they were stopped by a dozen miners carrying sticks.
Ashall and Henthorne pulled Eden off his bicycle in Jubits Lane causing him injury and Ashall was further accused of driving his stick through the spokes of Eden's machine. But Inspector Ballantyne was on hand and came to the two men's rescue. However, the accused denied the charge and claimed that Eden and Chisnall had run them down on their bikes.
The magistrates convicted them both and told William Henthorne he must find sureties to guarantee his good behaviour for twelve months and pay the costs of the hearing. And William Ashall was fined £5 or twenty-eight days in prison for using violence to David Eden and £2 and costs for using violence towards Joseph Chisnall.
The hearing was prolonged and shortly before 4 pm, three Liverpool Communists joined the crowd in front of the Town Hall and they began singing 'The Red Flag'. Some police from Liverpool constabulary were on secondment to St Helens and they, along with some local bobbies, poured out of the police station at the Town Hall. They ordered the noisy crowd to relocate to the opposite side of Victoria Square and the singing stopped.
And finally, it was reported on the 28th that the husband of Maud Johnson was in despair. The 38-year-old from Church Street had been missing since July 29th but appeals through the BBC wireless and by police had had no result. Her worried husband was an unemployed ex-soldier who had been decorated five times in the war. As it could take weeks for the St Helens Canal to give up its dead, Mr Johnson must have feared the worst.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the children stealing from Thatto Heath Park, the death of a bareback horse-riding miner, Lennon's Xmas Savings Club and the high cost of removing tram rails in readiness for trolley buses.
During the miners' strike, free coal could be obtained by digging it out from where old mines outcropped at the surface. But it was a dangerous business and this week the inquest hearing on 26-year-old William Cunliffe and 17-year-old Thomas Abbott – both of West End Road in Haydock – were held.
They were both mineworkers who had been killed in an outcrop accident at Old Hall Farm at Garswood when the earth suddenly gave way. Two other men who had been with them were dug out with spades and conveyed to Haydock Cottage Hospital, where they were treated for their injuries. But over an hour elapsed before the two dead men could be reached.
The Everton-born character actor with a dry comic wit has been described as portraying the human face of bureaucracy in his dozen or so film roles. Wilton also became renowned for his wireless monologues that he honed on the music hall circuit. 'The Day War Broke Out' is a particular favourite of mine.
Of those on the bill with Wilton at the Hippodrome, the marksmen Shogun and Ryder seem to have been the most interesting. Their turn included a stunt called "Shooting through a woman". That involved a lady being placed in the middle of the stage with a target in the centre of her body and glass sheets a little way behind her.
The rifle was discharged point blank at her – but although the target was pierced and the glass behind her was broken, the woman was unhurt. Well, that was the theory anyway! What was described as a committee would first check that the cartridge that was being fired at the woman was not blank.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 24th said that although needy children in St Helens were being fairly well provided for during the miners' strike with three free meals a day, those living in Billinge were only receiving one daily meal. And so a committee from St Helens and Rainford were intending to set up soup kitchens there immediately.
Woolworths had opened in Church Street in St Helens in the early 1920s. Their store was then only a fraction of the size of the Woolies that we remember, with its first expansion due to take place in the late ‘20s. The firm was then like a modern day pound shop and was selling nothing over 6d.
On the 24th Robert Hunter and Robert Kinder of Langtree Street were bound over for two years in St Helens Juvenile Court for stealing pens, stationery and sweets from Woolworths and for stealing seventeen sixpenny cigarettes from Guy's tobacconists.
On the same day an unnamed 13-year-old boy pleaded guilty in St Helens Juvenile Court to stealing two gold watches, a gold chain, a diamond ring, a pearl cross and 15 shillings belonging to Joseph Forber. The boy's father was the sub-tenant of a house in Greenfield Road and a widower with three children.
The articles belonged to another occupant of the house and the lad after stealing them had gone on a day trip to New Brighton. He had thrown the jewellery away but the police later recovered some of it. The father said he was very sorry for what happened but he had been handicapped since his wife had died in 1918.
Inspector Anders said the boy had also ridden on stolen bicycles several times, abandoning the machines afterwards. The Bench said the father must keep a keener eye on his son, who was bound over for three years.
Also on the 24th it was reported that 80 miners were back at work at Sutton Manor Colliery with an official predicting that the mine would soon return to normal.
The St Helens Reporter on the 27th described how Pilkingtons had decided to drain their dam off Lugsmore Lane, although just why was not stated. Last weekend when the pumps had got to work, a large crowd had watched 3,000 fish being caught over 12 hours, with the catch including eight huge carp.
On the 28th thousands of striking miners demonstrated in a field adjoining Sutton Manor Colliery after taking part in a procession. In the Midlands many more miners were returning to work, with over 3,000 now employed at five pits near Nottingham. A miners' agent called Macdonald appealed to those at Sutton Manor not to be led astray by the figures coming out of the Midlands. He claimed they were not a true reflection of the position in regard to the strike, adding that the Lancashire men did not have the same temptations as those in the Midlands.
The miners union had ordered all of the men undertaking safety operations at local collieries to cease work, after accusing the mine's managers of breaking their agreement with them. But some were defying the instruction, which was leading to a lot of bad feeling and court cases.
On the 30th fifteen men and women appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with intimidation and a large crowd gathered outside the Town Hall to watch them enter the building. The prosecution said the case centred on 200 persons, who after attending a meeting at the Horseshoe Inn in Parr, had assembled outside the house of Martha Platt, whose husband was working at Ashtons Green Colliery.
Several cries had been made of "Let us put the windows in" and Catherine Parr of Newton Road in Parr had written a note and put it through the letterbox. It read: "We, as a body of men and women, ask you to withdraw your husband out of the pit as engine-winder or there will be further trouble. Signed Mrs. Parr."
A frightened Mrs Platt took the note to the police and told the court that the crowd had yelled "Snatch her out, mince her" and said she was terrified and had been under the doctor ever since. Catherine Parr had also gone to the colliery and told the manager she had come to stop the men or there would be further trouble.
In her defence Mrs Parr said she had no ill-feeling against Mrs Platt and was only trying to warn her. However, she was bound over for 12 months but needed to find sureties totalling £20 and pay costs of over £2.
William Henthorne of Milton Street and William Ashall of Forest Road were said to be prominent Communists at Sutton Manor who were charged in the same hearing with using violence against David Eden and Joseph Chisnall. They were two safety men who had been on their way to work when they were stopped by a dozen miners carrying sticks.
Ashall and Henthorne pulled Eden off his bicycle in Jubits Lane causing him injury and Ashall was further accused of driving his stick through the spokes of Eden's machine. But Inspector Ballantyne was on hand and came to the two men's rescue. However, the accused denied the charge and claimed that Eden and Chisnall had run them down on their bikes.
The magistrates convicted them both and told William Henthorne he must find sureties to guarantee his good behaviour for twelve months and pay the costs of the hearing. And William Ashall was fined £5 or twenty-eight days in prison for using violence to David Eden and £2 and costs for using violence towards Joseph Chisnall.
The hearing was prolonged and shortly before 4 pm, three Liverpool Communists joined the crowd in front of the Town Hall and they began singing 'The Red Flag'. Some police from Liverpool constabulary were on secondment to St Helens and they, along with some local bobbies, poured out of the police station at the Town Hall. They ordered the noisy crowd to relocate to the opposite side of Victoria Square and the singing stopped.
And finally, it was reported on the 28th that the husband of Maud Johnson was in despair. The 38-year-old from Church Street had been missing since July 29th but appeals through the BBC wireless and by police had had no result. Her worried husband was an unemployed ex-soldier who had been decorated five times in the war. As it could take weeks for the St Helens Canal to give up its dead, Mr Johnson must have feared the worst.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the children stealing from Thatto Heath Park, the death of a bareback horse-riding miner, Lennon's Xmas Savings Club and the high cost of removing tram rails in readiness for trolley buses.
This week's many stories include the two outcrop mining deaths, the 13-year-old thief who spent his ill-gotten gains in New Brighton, the war hero in despair over his missing wife, the shooting through a woman stunt at the Hippodrome, the singing of The Red Flag outside St Helens Town Hall and the crowd of 200 that tried to intimidate the wife of a Sutton Manor Colliery engine winder.
During the miners' strike, free coal could be obtained by digging it out from where old mines outcropped at the surface.
But it was a dangerous business and this week the inquest hearing on 26-year-old William Cunliffe and 17-year-old Thomas Abbott – both of West End Road in Haydock – were held.
They were both mineworkers who had been killed in an outcrop accident at Old Hall Farm at Garswood when the earth suddenly gave way.
Two other men who had been with them were dug out with spades and conveyed to Haydock Cottage Hospital, where they were treated for their injuries. But over an hour elapsed before the two dead men could be reached.
Throughout this week there was another appearance in St Helens of a comic performer who would go on to national stardom in the ‘30s and ‘40s.
A fortnight ago Sandy Powell had appeared at the Hippodrome and from the 23rd, Robb Wilton (pictured above) returned to St Helens after last performing his act in Corporation Street in 1921.
The Everton-born character actor with a dry comic wit has been described as portraying the human face of bureaucracy in his dozen or so film roles.
Wilton also became renowned for his wireless monologues that he honed on the music hall circuit. 'The Day War Broke Out' is a particular favourite of mine.
Of those on the bill with Wilton at the Hippodrome, the marksmen Shogun and Ryder seem to have been the most interesting.
Their turn included a stunt called "Shooting through a woman".
That involved a lady being placed in the middle of the stage with a target in the centre of her body and glass sheets a little way behind her.
The rifle was discharged point blank at her – but although the target was pierced and the glass behind her was broken, the woman was unhurt. Well, that was the theory anyway!
What was described as a committee would first check that the cartridge that was being fired at the woman was not blank.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 24th said that although needy children in St Helens were being fairly well provided for during the miners' strike with three free meals a day, those living in Billinge were only receiving one daily meal.
And so a committee from St Helens and Rainford were intending to set up soup kitchens there immediately.
Woolworths had opened in Church Street in St Helens in the early 1920s. Their store was then only a fraction of the size of the Woolies that we remember, with its first expansion due to take place in the late ‘20s.
The firm was then like a modern day pound shop and was selling nothing over 6d.
On the 24th Robert Hunter and Robert Kinder of Langtree Street were bound over for two years in St Helens Juvenile Court for stealing pens, stationery and sweets from Woolworths and for stealing seventeen sixpenny cigarettes from Guy's tobacconists.
On the same day an unnamed 13-year-old boy pleaded guilty in St Helens Juvenile Court to stealing two gold watches, a gold chain, a diamond ring, a pearl cross and 15 shillings belonging to Joseph Forber.
The boy's father was the sub-tenant of a house in Greenfield Road and a widower with three children.
The articles belonged to another occupant of the house and the lad after stealing them had gone on a day trip to New Brighton.
He had thrown the jewellery away but the police later recovered some of it.
The father said he was very sorry for what happened but he had been handicapped since his wife had died in 1918.
Inspector Anders said the boy had also ridden on stolen bicycles several times, abandoning the machines afterwards.
The Bench said the father must keep a keener eye on his son, who was bound over for three years.
Also on the 24th it was reported that 80 miners were back at work at Sutton Manor Colliery with an official predicting that the mine would soon return to normal.
The St Helens Reporter on the 27th described how Pilkingtons had decided to drain their dam off Lugsmore Lane, although just why was not stated.
Last weekend when the pumps had got to work, a large crowd had watched 3,000 fish being caught over 12 hours, with the catch including eight huge carp.
On the 28th thousands of striking miners demonstrated in a field adjoining Sutton Manor Colliery after taking part in a procession.
In the Midlands many more miners were returning to work, with over 3,000 now employed at five pits near Nottingham.
A miners' agent called Macdonald appealed to those at Sutton Manor not to be led astray by the figures coming out of the Midlands.
He claimed they were not a true reflection of the position in regard to the strike, adding that the Lancashire men did not have the same temptations as those in the Midlands.
The miners union had ordered all of the men undertaking safety operations at local collieries to cease work, after accusing the mine's managers of breaking their agreement with them.
But some were defying the instruction, which was leading to a lot of bad feeling and court cases.
On the 30th fifteen men and women appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with intimidation and a large crowd gathered outside the Town Hall to watch them enter the building.
The prosecution said the case centred on 200 persons, who after attending a meeting at the Horseshoe Inn in Parr, had assembled outside the house of Martha Platt, whose husband was working at Ashtons Green Colliery.
Several cries had been made of "Let us put the windows in" and Catherine Parr of Newton Road in Parr had written a note and put it through the letterbox. It read:
"We, as a body of men and women, ask you to withdraw your husband out of the pit as engine-winder or there will be further trouble. Signed Mrs. Parr."
A frightened Mrs Platt took the note to the police and told the court that the crowd had yelled "Snatch her out, mince her" and said she was terrified and had been under the doctor ever since.
Catherine Parr had also gone to the colliery and told the manager she had come to stop the men or there would be further trouble.
In her defence Mrs Parr said she had no ill-feeling against Mrs Platt and was only trying to warn her.
However, she was bound over for 12 months but needed to find sureties totalling £20 and pay costs of over £2.
William Henthorne of Milton Street and William Ashall of Forest Road were said to be prominent Communists at Sutton Manor who were charged in the same hearing with using violence against David Eden and Joseph Chisnall.
They were two safety men who had been on their way to work when they were stopped by a dozen miners carrying sticks.
Ashall and Henthorne pulled Eden off his bicycle in Jubits Lane causing him injury and Ashall was further accused of driving his stick through the spokes of Eden's machine.
But Inspector Ballantyne was on hand and came to the two men's rescue.
However, the accused denied the charge and claimed that Eden and Chisnall had run them down on their bikes.
The magistrates convicted them both and told William Henthorne he must find sureties to guarantee his good behaviour for twelve months and pay the costs of the hearing.
And William Ashall was fined £5 or twenty-eight days in prison for using violence to David Eden and £2 and costs for using violence towards Joseph Chisnall.
The hearing was prolonged and shortly before 4 pm, three Liverpool Communists joined the crowd in front of the Town Hall and they began singing 'The Red Flag'.
Some police from Liverpool constabulary were on secondment to St Helens and they, along with some local bobbies, poured out of the police station at the Town Hall.
They ordered the noisy crowd to relocate to the opposite side of Victoria Square and the singing stopped.
And finally, it was reported on the 28th that the husband of Maud Johnson was in despair.
The 38-year-old from Church Street had been missing since July 29th but appeals through the BBC wireless and by police had had no result.
Her worried husband was an unemployed ex-soldier who had been decorated five times in the war.
As it could take weeks for the St Helens Canal to give up its dead, Mr Johnson must have feared the worst.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the children stealing from Thatto Heath Park, the death of a bareback horse-riding miner, Lennon's Xmas Savings Club and the high cost of removing tram rails in readiness for trolley buses.
During the miners' strike, free coal could be obtained by digging it out from where old mines outcropped at the surface.
But it was a dangerous business and this week the inquest hearing on 26-year-old William Cunliffe and 17-year-old Thomas Abbott – both of West End Road in Haydock – were held.
They were both mineworkers who had been killed in an outcrop accident at Old Hall Farm at Garswood when the earth suddenly gave way.
Two other men who had been with them were dug out with spades and conveyed to Haydock Cottage Hospital, where they were treated for their injuries. But over an hour elapsed before the two dead men could be reached.
Throughout this week there was another appearance in St Helens of a comic performer who would go on to national stardom in the ‘30s and ‘40s.
The Everton-born character actor with a dry comic wit has been described as portraying the human face of bureaucracy in his dozen or so film roles.
Wilton also became renowned for his wireless monologues that he honed on the music hall circuit. 'The Day War Broke Out' is a particular favourite of mine.
Of those on the bill with Wilton at the Hippodrome, the marksmen Shogun and Ryder seem to have been the most interesting.
Their turn included a stunt called "Shooting through a woman".
That involved a lady being placed in the middle of the stage with a target in the centre of her body and glass sheets a little way behind her.
The rifle was discharged point blank at her – but although the target was pierced and the glass behind her was broken, the woman was unhurt. Well, that was the theory anyway!
What was described as a committee would first check that the cartridge that was being fired at the woman was not blank.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 24th said that although needy children in St Helens were being fairly well provided for during the miners' strike with three free meals a day, those living in Billinge were only receiving one daily meal.
And so a committee from St Helens and Rainford were intending to set up soup kitchens there immediately.
Woolworths had opened in Church Street in St Helens in the early 1920s. Their store was then only a fraction of the size of the Woolies that we remember, with its first expansion due to take place in the late ‘20s.
The firm was then like a modern day pound shop and was selling nothing over 6d.
On the 24th Robert Hunter and Robert Kinder of Langtree Street were bound over for two years in St Helens Juvenile Court for stealing pens, stationery and sweets from Woolworths and for stealing seventeen sixpenny cigarettes from Guy's tobacconists.
On the same day an unnamed 13-year-old boy pleaded guilty in St Helens Juvenile Court to stealing two gold watches, a gold chain, a diamond ring, a pearl cross and 15 shillings belonging to Joseph Forber.
The boy's father was the sub-tenant of a house in Greenfield Road and a widower with three children.
The articles belonged to another occupant of the house and the lad after stealing them had gone on a day trip to New Brighton.
He had thrown the jewellery away but the police later recovered some of it.
The father said he was very sorry for what happened but he had been handicapped since his wife had died in 1918.
Inspector Anders said the boy had also ridden on stolen bicycles several times, abandoning the machines afterwards.
The Bench said the father must keep a keener eye on his son, who was bound over for three years.
Also on the 24th it was reported that 80 miners were back at work at Sutton Manor Colliery with an official predicting that the mine would soon return to normal.
The St Helens Reporter on the 27th described how Pilkingtons had decided to drain their dam off Lugsmore Lane, although just why was not stated.
Last weekend when the pumps had got to work, a large crowd had watched 3,000 fish being caught over 12 hours, with the catch including eight huge carp.
On the 28th thousands of striking miners demonstrated in a field adjoining Sutton Manor Colliery after taking part in a procession.
In the Midlands many more miners were returning to work, with over 3,000 now employed at five pits near Nottingham.
A miners' agent called Macdonald appealed to those at Sutton Manor not to be led astray by the figures coming out of the Midlands.
He claimed they were not a true reflection of the position in regard to the strike, adding that the Lancashire men did not have the same temptations as those in the Midlands.
The miners union had ordered all of the men undertaking safety operations at local collieries to cease work, after accusing the mine's managers of breaking their agreement with them.
But some were defying the instruction, which was leading to a lot of bad feeling and court cases.
On the 30th fifteen men and women appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with intimidation and a large crowd gathered outside the Town Hall to watch them enter the building.
The prosecution said the case centred on 200 persons, who after attending a meeting at the Horseshoe Inn in Parr, had assembled outside the house of Martha Platt, whose husband was working at Ashtons Green Colliery.
Several cries had been made of "Let us put the windows in" and Catherine Parr of Newton Road in Parr had written a note and put it through the letterbox. It read:
"We, as a body of men and women, ask you to withdraw your husband out of the pit as engine-winder or there will be further trouble. Signed Mrs. Parr."
A frightened Mrs Platt took the note to the police and told the court that the crowd had yelled "Snatch her out, mince her" and said she was terrified and had been under the doctor ever since.
Catherine Parr had also gone to the colliery and told the manager she had come to stop the men or there would be further trouble.
In her defence Mrs Parr said she had no ill-feeling against Mrs Platt and was only trying to warn her.
However, she was bound over for 12 months but needed to find sureties totalling £20 and pay costs of over £2.
William Henthorne of Milton Street and William Ashall of Forest Road were said to be prominent Communists at Sutton Manor who were charged in the same hearing with using violence against David Eden and Joseph Chisnall.
They were two safety men who had been on their way to work when they were stopped by a dozen miners carrying sticks.
Ashall and Henthorne pulled Eden off his bicycle in Jubits Lane causing him injury and Ashall was further accused of driving his stick through the spokes of Eden's machine.
But Inspector Ballantyne was on hand and came to the two men's rescue.
However, the accused denied the charge and claimed that Eden and Chisnall had run them down on their bikes.
The magistrates convicted them both and told William Henthorne he must find sureties to guarantee his good behaviour for twelve months and pay the costs of the hearing.
And William Ashall was fined £5 or twenty-eight days in prison for using violence to David Eden and £2 and costs for using violence towards Joseph Chisnall.
The hearing was prolonged and shortly before 4 pm, three Liverpool Communists joined the crowd in front of the Town Hall and they began singing 'The Red Flag'.
Some police from Liverpool constabulary were on secondment to St Helens and they, along with some local bobbies, poured out of the police station at the Town Hall.
They ordered the noisy crowd to relocate to the opposite side of Victoria Square and the singing stopped.
And finally, it was reported on the 28th that the husband of Maud Johnson was in despair.
The 38-year-old from Church Street had been missing since July 29th but appeals through the BBC wireless and by police had had no result.
Her worried husband was an unemployed ex-soldier who had been decorated five times in the war.
As it could take weeks for the St Helens Canal to give up its dead, Mr Johnson must have feared the worst.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the children stealing from Thatto Heath Park, the death of a bareback horse-riding miner, Lennon's Xmas Savings Club and the high cost of removing tram rails in readiness for trolley buses.