IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (25th Feb. - 3rd March 1919)
This week's stories include the Park Road tram terror, teenage "pandemonium" in Church Street, a sad Parr suicide that could have been caused by post-natal depression, a father complains of his dead son's treatment in St Helens Hospital, Lennon's bold claim on food prices and the blue man from Chester Lane who was asked in court if he knew there had been a war on.
We begin on the 27th with the tragic details of what might well have been another case of undiagnosed post-natal depression. The coroner at an inquest held at the Town Hall was told that Rachael Hall and her husband Samuel had three children, aged eleven years, six years and four months.
Samuel from Johnson Street in Parr was a butcher but for four years had served in the army. When he returned home last December he said his wife had been recovering from an attack of pneumonia and since then had been depressed and at times strange in her manner.
The St Helens Reporter's lengthy account of the inquest made no reference to the couple's baby – apart from stating its age. The child must have been born in October – presumably conceived when Samuel was home on leave.
Two nights before the inquest, Rachael had been rambling and odd in her manner. At 3:30am she rose telling her husband that she intended to warm some milk. After a while Samuel went downstairs to see why his wife was taking so long and found her in their back-kitchen lying in a pool of blood.
Rachael was dying having used a table knife to cut her throat. Upon being asked by her husband why she had done it, she replied: "To save misery". The police stated that two years earlier while her husband had been serving in France, Rachael had been found in the St Helens Canal, having presumably attempted to drown herself. As a result she was detained for five weeks in the mental ward at Whiston.
So perhaps Rachael had a longstanding mental illness – although her husband appeared to believe that her problems began with the pneumonia. Or could the birth of her child have caused post-natal depression that led to her demise? This was barely understood a century ago and certainly no link between Rachael’s suicide and the birth of her baby was considered at the inquest. The usual verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned.
This week it was announced that Cowley Boys were joining the other schools in the town and closing their doors until the flu epidemic was over. The weekly series of health talks in the Town Hall were also being suspended, as the authorities tried to limit the spread of the disease.
The police campaign against the Church Street "obstructionists" continued. This concerned the long-standing tradition of young people walking along certain streets of the town on Sunday evenings. Complaints had been made of the pavement in Church Street being blocked, sometimes unintentionally but also through the rowdy behaviour of youths.
It was the latter that led to Ernest Litherland, Henry Foster and Thomas Purcill (all Albert Street, off North Road), Edward Phillips from Morley Street, Francis Anderson from York Place and a lad called Canington appearing in the Police Court on the 27th.
They were charged with "obstructing the free passage of the footpath" opposite the Meadow Dairy, having been under the observation of PCs Reynolds and O’Hare. From half-past seven until eight o’clock they had watched the lads "interfering" with passers-by, including pulling girls by their arms and clothing and bumping into people.
However the youths claimed mistaken identity, with one saying: "Some of the girls don't want any bumping into; they can do it themselves, and can whistle as well to anybody." Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that a lot of jostling did take place on Sunday nights and the girls were as bad as the boys. The youngsters flocked down to Church Street from as far away as Haydock and Thatto Heath.
The Chairman of the magistrates described the Church Street goings-on as "quite a pandemonium" and told the five lads that they would be fined ten shillings each, adding: "If you want a bit of fun you must get out of Church Street".
15-year-old James Dolan and 14-year-old Albert Kay from Williamson Street in Parr appeared in court on the 27th charged with jumping on the back of trams. Dolan from Park Road was described as having been a nuisance to the Tramways Company for a long time and was accused of throwing stones at conductresses.
Lillie Whittle had been hit in the eye by a stone thrown by Dolan and the lad was also accused of threatening a boy witness before the hearing. He was described as a "terror to the district" and fined a total of £3 1s 6d or fourteen days in prison.
Also on the 27th an inquest was held on Thomas Millington from Kitchener Street who had been fatally injured down Alexandra Colliery (pictured above). The 18-year-old haulage hand was yet another miner who had been struck by a large stone that fell down from the pit roof. Unusually there had been five wooden props supporting the stone but the roof still collapsed.
The young man's father (who was a colliery fireman) complained at the inquest about his son's treatment at St Helens Hospital, saying his life could have been prolonged if he had been treated better. Thomas Millington Snr's strange complaint was that the nurses had made no attempt to wash his son. He had simply been stripped of his clothes and put into bed.
Mr Millington also complained that the hot-water bottles supplied were only tepid and felt Thomas Jnr would have lived longer if he had been taken home. The Coroner said he would ensure that his complaint was brought before the hospital's management committee but suggested that the lad might not have been washed because he was in great shock.
Alexandra Colliery, incidentally, was named after Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII. In 1865 when she was Princess of Wales, she visited the nearby Ravenhead Glass Works as the pit was being sunk.
It used to be commonplace for men to drink beer in factories in St Helens and boys were regularly sent to purchase the ale. This led to Michael Melsip appearing in court on the 28th charged with selling intoxicating liquor to a person under the age of fourteen.
Sergeant Ballantyne gave evidence that he had seen two boys leave Pilkington's Cowley Hill glassworks and enter the White Horse in College Street. They came out carrying two pints of beer and Stanley Heaton – who was only thirteen – told the policeman that the licensee had not asked his age.
The lad had a school exemption certificate that allowed him to work but the landlord Michael Melsip told the court that he had no knowledge of them. The licensee said he had assumed that if the boy was old enough to have a job, then he must be fourteen. The magistrates accepted this defence and the case was dismissed upon payment of court costs.
The Reporter on the 28th described how a fancy dress Victory Ball had been held in the Co-operative Hall in Baldwin Street and also how the present coal shortage in St Helens was getting worse. Although coal was being rationed, the townsfolk were having difficulty in receiving their allocated supplies. This, the Reporter said, was partly because the colliery owners were getting higher prices in other towns.
Lennon's were well-known grocers in St Helens well before Terence Lennon had his supermarket empire in the ‘60s (I don't think there was a family connection). In 1919 Frank Lennon kept a shop in Park Road and also had a very popular stall on the market. In fact he boasted in a court case that his market stall had 12,000 registered customers for rationed foodstuffs. It was the Government's rationing and their many food control orders that led Lennon to take out a large advert in the Reporter that read:
"Why isn't food control scrapped? Scrap the control and watch food prices tremble. When men who know their business are again permitted to import and distribute food, nothing can stop the prices of bacon, margarine, tea, lard, etc. falling to a rate undreamed of in this country."
As well as Lennon's and the Co-op, Stringfellow's was the other main grocer in St Helens. Owned by Gervaise Stringfellow from Eccleston Park, their main premises were at 1 - 3 Ormskirk Street and this week they were advertising Irish eggs for 4½d each and margarine for 10d per pound.
Some believed that the unprecedented levels of inflation during the war would be reversed in peacetime when stocks of goods became more plentiful. However wages had increased to keep up with price rises in the shops and no worker ever wants their pay reduced.
The coal shortage meant that more people were resorting to stealing coal from mines and industry. This practice had been much more common fifty years earlier when offenders – often children – were routinely sent to prison.
However in 1919 coal thieving only earned you a fine and on March 3rd the magistrates ordered Annie Hilton to pay ten shillings for her theft. The woman from Parr Stocks Road had been stopped by PC Phillips coming from Baxter's Chemical Works with just threepence worth of coal hidden under her shawl.
Also in court was Herbert Rawlins whose firm in Chester Lane / Micklehead Green made the blue that whitened washed clothes. The company at Brook Works (shown above in 1912) had been in business since 1821 and their product was called ultramarine blue and was similar to dolly blue that was made in Bolton.
The rationing of foodstuffs for horses had been introduced in the war, along with stringent requirements for record keeping. When the police went to make an inspection they found that Herbert Rawlins had not been keeping any records and he had also been allowing his horses to feed on long hay, which was illegal.
The man pleaded ignorance of the law and was asked in court if he would be surprised to learn that dozens of prosecutions had taken place in St Helens for these offences. Rawlins replied: "I did not know". Superintendent Dunn then said: "You knew there was a war on?" and received the reply "I did".
The wartime orders were slowly being rescinded and since the summons had been issued the Government had withdrawn the Horse Rationing Order. So the superintendent told the Bench that he would only proceed with charges under the Hay and Straw Order and Rawlins was fined 2 guineas.
Next week's stories will include a "moral murder" in Watery Lane, the break up of a wartime wedding in Broad Oak, a lorry tragedy in Scholes Lane, objections to planned police stations in Clock Face and Derbyshire Hill, the 50 children coal stealing in Ravenhead, the Corporation's plans to take over the town's trams and the announcement of a new picture palace in Church Street.
We begin on the 27th with the tragic details of what might well have been another case of undiagnosed post-natal depression. The coroner at an inquest held at the Town Hall was told that Rachael Hall and her husband Samuel had three children, aged eleven years, six years and four months.
Samuel from Johnson Street in Parr was a butcher but for four years had served in the army. When he returned home last December he said his wife had been recovering from an attack of pneumonia and since then had been depressed and at times strange in her manner.
The St Helens Reporter's lengthy account of the inquest made no reference to the couple's baby – apart from stating its age. The child must have been born in October – presumably conceived when Samuel was home on leave.
Two nights before the inquest, Rachael had been rambling and odd in her manner. At 3:30am she rose telling her husband that she intended to warm some milk. After a while Samuel went downstairs to see why his wife was taking so long and found her in their back-kitchen lying in a pool of blood.
Rachael was dying having used a table knife to cut her throat. Upon being asked by her husband why she had done it, she replied: "To save misery". The police stated that two years earlier while her husband had been serving in France, Rachael had been found in the St Helens Canal, having presumably attempted to drown herself. As a result she was detained for five weeks in the mental ward at Whiston.
So perhaps Rachael had a longstanding mental illness – although her husband appeared to believe that her problems began with the pneumonia. Or could the birth of her child have caused post-natal depression that led to her demise? This was barely understood a century ago and certainly no link between Rachael’s suicide and the birth of her baby was considered at the inquest. The usual verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned.
This week it was announced that Cowley Boys were joining the other schools in the town and closing their doors until the flu epidemic was over. The weekly series of health talks in the Town Hall were also being suspended, as the authorities tried to limit the spread of the disease.
The police campaign against the Church Street "obstructionists" continued. This concerned the long-standing tradition of young people walking along certain streets of the town on Sunday evenings. Complaints had been made of the pavement in Church Street being blocked, sometimes unintentionally but also through the rowdy behaviour of youths.
It was the latter that led to Ernest Litherland, Henry Foster and Thomas Purcill (all Albert Street, off North Road), Edward Phillips from Morley Street, Francis Anderson from York Place and a lad called Canington appearing in the Police Court on the 27th.
They were charged with "obstructing the free passage of the footpath" opposite the Meadow Dairy, having been under the observation of PCs Reynolds and O’Hare. From half-past seven until eight o’clock they had watched the lads "interfering" with passers-by, including pulling girls by their arms and clothing and bumping into people.
However the youths claimed mistaken identity, with one saying: "Some of the girls don't want any bumping into; they can do it themselves, and can whistle as well to anybody." Superintendent Dunn told the Bench that a lot of jostling did take place on Sunday nights and the girls were as bad as the boys. The youngsters flocked down to Church Street from as far away as Haydock and Thatto Heath.
The Chairman of the magistrates described the Church Street goings-on as "quite a pandemonium" and told the five lads that they would be fined ten shillings each, adding: "If you want a bit of fun you must get out of Church Street".
15-year-old James Dolan and 14-year-old Albert Kay from Williamson Street in Parr appeared in court on the 27th charged with jumping on the back of trams. Dolan from Park Road was described as having been a nuisance to the Tramways Company for a long time and was accused of throwing stones at conductresses.
Lillie Whittle had been hit in the eye by a stone thrown by Dolan and the lad was also accused of threatening a boy witness before the hearing. He was described as a "terror to the district" and fined a total of £3 1s 6d or fourteen days in prison.
The young man's father (who was a colliery fireman) complained at the inquest about his son's treatment at St Helens Hospital, saying his life could have been prolonged if he had been treated better. Thomas Millington Snr's strange complaint was that the nurses had made no attempt to wash his son. He had simply been stripped of his clothes and put into bed.
Mr Millington also complained that the hot-water bottles supplied were only tepid and felt Thomas Jnr would have lived longer if he had been taken home. The Coroner said he would ensure that his complaint was brought before the hospital's management committee but suggested that the lad might not have been washed because he was in great shock.
Alexandra Colliery, incidentally, was named after Alexandra, the wife of Edward VII. In 1865 when she was Princess of Wales, she visited the nearby Ravenhead Glass Works as the pit was being sunk.
It used to be commonplace for men to drink beer in factories in St Helens and boys were regularly sent to purchase the ale. This led to Michael Melsip appearing in court on the 28th charged with selling intoxicating liquor to a person under the age of fourteen.
Sergeant Ballantyne gave evidence that he had seen two boys leave Pilkington's Cowley Hill glassworks and enter the White Horse in College Street. They came out carrying two pints of beer and Stanley Heaton – who was only thirteen – told the policeman that the licensee had not asked his age.
The lad had a school exemption certificate that allowed him to work but the landlord Michael Melsip told the court that he had no knowledge of them. The licensee said he had assumed that if the boy was old enough to have a job, then he must be fourteen. The magistrates accepted this defence and the case was dismissed upon payment of court costs.
The Reporter on the 28th described how a fancy dress Victory Ball had been held in the Co-operative Hall in Baldwin Street and also how the present coal shortage in St Helens was getting worse. Although coal was being rationed, the townsfolk were having difficulty in receiving their allocated supplies. This, the Reporter said, was partly because the colliery owners were getting higher prices in other towns.
Lennon's were well-known grocers in St Helens well before Terence Lennon had his supermarket empire in the ‘60s (I don't think there was a family connection). In 1919 Frank Lennon kept a shop in Park Road and also had a very popular stall on the market. In fact he boasted in a court case that his market stall had 12,000 registered customers for rationed foodstuffs. It was the Government's rationing and their many food control orders that led Lennon to take out a large advert in the Reporter that read:
"Why isn't food control scrapped? Scrap the control and watch food prices tremble. When men who know their business are again permitted to import and distribute food, nothing can stop the prices of bacon, margarine, tea, lard, etc. falling to a rate undreamed of in this country."
As well as Lennon's and the Co-op, Stringfellow's was the other main grocer in St Helens. Owned by Gervaise Stringfellow from Eccleston Park, their main premises were at 1 - 3 Ormskirk Street and this week they were advertising Irish eggs for 4½d each and margarine for 10d per pound.
Some believed that the unprecedented levels of inflation during the war would be reversed in peacetime when stocks of goods became more plentiful. However wages had increased to keep up with price rises in the shops and no worker ever wants their pay reduced.
The coal shortage meant that more people were resorting to stealing coal from mines and industry. This practice had been much more common fifty years earlier when offenders – often children – were routinely sent to prison.
However in 1919 coal thieving only earned you a fine and on March 3rd the magistrates ordered Annie Hilton to pay ten shillings for her theft. The woman from Parr Stocks Road had been stopped by PC Phillips coming from Baxter's Chemical Works with just threepence worth of coal hidden under her shawl.
The rationing of foodstuffs for horses had been introduced in the war, along with stringent requirements for record keeping. When the police went to make an inspection they found that Herbert Rawlins had not been keeping any records and he had also been allowing his horses to feed on long hay, which was illegal.
The man pleaded ignorance of the law and was asked in court if he would be surprised to learn that dozens of prosecutions had taken place in St Helens for these offences. Rawlins replied: "I did not know". Superintendent Dunn then said: "You knew there was a war on?" and received the reply "I did".
The wartime orders were slowly being rescinded and since the summons had been issued the Government had withdrawn the Horse Rationing Order. So the superintendent told the Bench that he would only proceed with charges under the Hay and Straw Order and Rawlins was fined 2 guineas.
Next week's stories will include a "moral murder" in Watery Lane, the break up of a wartime wedding in Broad Oak, a lorry tragedy in Scholes Lane, objections to planned police stations in Clock Face and Derbyshire Hill, the 50 children coal stealing in Ravenhead, the Corporation's plans to take over the town's trams and the announcement of a new picture palace in Church Street.