IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 25 - 31 DECEMBER 1923
This week's many stories include Christmas Day in the town's hospitals, the Christmas Circus at the Hippodrome, the issuing of the Sherdley dole, the Christmas Day tragedy at St Helens Junction station, the Brynn Street woman prosecuted for running a Christmas raffle, Father Christmas visits Rainford in a fairy-like sleigh and the man that bet £5 on a rugby game but refused to give his wife and children maintenance money.
The arrival of Christmas Day in St Helens was heralded, as usual, at midnight by carol singers and bands performing in the streets. In St Helens Hospital (pictured above) the festivities began at the unearthly hour of 6am when the nurses walked round the decorated wards singing carols. Just whether the patients wanted to be "serenaded" – as the St Helens Reporter put it – at 6 o’clock was not mentioned in their report!
At a more reasonable hour during the morning, the Salvation Army Band played selections in the hospital and the Sutton Concertina Band also paid a visit. Then at 11:30am the Mayor of St Helens, Ald. Peter Phythian, and the Mayoress walked round the wards with other dignitaries exchanging Christmas greetings with patients. At noon around eighty of them sat down to a Christmas dinner and all the adult patients were given a "Christmas box" in the form of a garment and the children received a toy. During the evening entertainment was provided by the nurses.
This was how the Reporter described Christmas Day at Providence Hospital (pictured above):
"For those happy mortals who enjoy the precious boon of good health, there is perhaps nothing better calculated to inspire them with thankfulness for their general immunity from pain than a visit to one of our large hospitals. There they will see patients with mangled limbs, or cases of severe scalds or burns, or the thousand and one things to which human flesh is heir.
"At the Providence Hospital the patients are decidedly fortunate in having such a noble band of workers as the Sisters and staff, who spare no effort to make the lot of their charges brighter and happier. Owing to the generosity of the doctors and the many friends of the hospital, and to the loyal co-operation of the staff, this Christmas has indeed been made a bright and happy one."
The patients at Providence enjoyed a full Christmas dinner with the Mayor and Mayoress helping to serve the pudding. One of the bizarre things about Christmastime in hospital in those days was how after their meal "smokes" were given to the male patients, with the pipes and tobacco considered a treat. During the evening a concert was performed, with the children's ward at Providence described by the Reporter as having been decorated on a lavish scale:
"On entering the children's ward was a huge rocking horse, a present from the British Insulated and Helsby Cables Ltd, and there was also a tall Christmas tree laden with all kinds of toys, to delight the hearts of the kiddies. In fact, it was rather a touching and pathetic sight to see the tiny patients, some of them with their heads and faces swathed in bandages, like mummies, peeping through their bonds, and calling out, “Father Christmas! Father Christmas!” The children's ward was a particularly bright one, and was decorated in ruby, white and green, with figures of Santa Claus here and there, and with friezes of Father Christmas around the walls."
The Mayor also visited the other hospitals in the town accompanied by his wife. However, at the Borough Sanatorium in Peasley Cross, the Mayoress crushed two of her fingers in the door of their car. Ouch!
It might be Christmas Day but the poor posties still had to work in St Helens, although they only had one delivery to make. But it was always a big one as some people only posted their cards and parcels on Christmas Eve in order that their recipients received them on the 25th. On some Christmas Days the postmen did not finish delivering until mid-afternoon, after starting their rounds at 7am. This year the Post Office had asked townsfolk to post their letters and parcels early – but I expect many didn't.
As to the weather, Christmas Day morning began bright but a heavy snowstorm set in during the afternoon that lasted over an hour. The Reporter wrote that the snowfall had been "maintaining the Yuletide tradition and skirting the town in its white mantle. Thaw and sleet followed, rendering the conditions underfoot very objectionable. Heavy rain supervened during the night, and all trace of the snow had been washed away with the dawn of Boxing Day."
In summing up the Reporter commented how it had been a "quiet, rather uneventful, Christmas time". But not at St Helens Junction Station, where a tragedy unfolded on the 25th in which John Case lost his life. The 24-year-old was a glasscutter employed by Pilkington's at their Kirk Sandall works in Doncaster. John was spending Christmas at his parent's house at Windle Grange Cottage in Rainford and had been returning home from Liverpool after visiting a friend.
William Falkingham was a porter at the Junction station. He told the young man's inquest that the 3:30pm train from Liverpool had been about to resume its journey after some passengers had disembarked. Case had put his head out of a compartment window and said to the porter: "Is this train going to St Helens?" Falkingham said he'd replied "No", but despite the fact that the train was by then gathering speed, John had opened the door of the carriage and got onto the footboard where he remained until the train had travelled a further 15 yards.
Despite the porter begging John not to jump, he eventually did so and dropped under the carriages onto the railway line. His skull was fractured and an arm was cut off above the shoulder and the young man died soon afterwards in hospital.
Saints had a Christmas to forget. On the 25th the St Helens Recs beat them 21 - 2 at their City Road ground. And then on Boxing Day Saints were trounced 44 - 2 away to Wigan, with the Recs losing 16 - 3 to Leigh.
Hengler's Circus, the "premier equestrian show of the British Empire" was performing at the Hippodrome during Christmas week, although not on the day itself. This is how it was advertised:
"The Greatest Christmas Attraction touring. Direct from the Manchester Hippodrome. No need to leave St. Helens to enjoy a Christmas treat. It will be found in your own town, at the St. Helens Hippodrome. A brilliant express programme, full of fun, executed by a fine stud of horses and ponies, together with skilled riders, gymnasts, acrobats and clowns. Shetland and terriers at play. The very wise mare “Peggy”."
Meanwhile, at the Theatre Royal during Christmas week, Robinson Crusoe was performed with Dolly Ross "St. Helens' favourite principal boy", playing the eponymous hero and Joe Lewis "Lancashire's premier comedian" as Billy Crusoe. There were five price bands for admission ranging from 4d to 1/8.
What was described as a "batch of defendants, chiefly juveniles" went before the Bench on the 27th charged with stealing coal from Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr. The Chairman told them that because of the time of the year, they had decided to let each defendant off with a warning, although they still had to pay court costs of four shillings each.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th described Christmas at Rainford: "Never has there been such a day in Rainford as last Monday [Christmas Eve]. Father Christmas came to the village in real flesh and blood, drawn in a fairy-like sleigh, loaded with presents, looking the very picture of the Father Christmas one sees on cards, but ever so much nicer, because he “spoke just like a real human,” as one little lad who saw him said." Santa had been in the village ostensibly to attend the Rainford Potteries Christmas party.
A Christmas event was also held each year for the so-called Crippled Children of St Helens with its cost coming from public donations. So tins had been rattled in the town's packed cinemas, as well as the Hippodrome theatre, that raised a total of £26 and other collections had been made in Labour and Conservative clubs.
The Reporter in an editorial about Christmas wrote: "The spirit of Christmas has been abroad in St. Helens this year as never before, and in a hundred different ways hearts have been gladdened and homes brightened, which, had it not been for the generosity of a public that is growing every year, would have known nothing of the spirit of the great festival." They were mainly referring to the public donations that had allowed Christmas parties and New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children to take place and food parcels to be handed out to the unemployed.
But the spirit of Christmas was not abroad everywhere in St Helens. In the Police Court William Almond from Friar Street, near Victoria Park, was this week summoned for deserting his wife Bertha. The case had been before the court in October and adjourned until January 14th, with the defendant told in the meantime to pay his separated wife 12 shillings 6d per week maintenance.
However, William Almond had made no payments but instead had written a letter saying he was willing to find his wife a home – but then later refused to live with her. At one point he had even passed Bertha and his two children in the street without speaking to them. Almond was said to be earning good money and had recently been living in a hotel and had bet £5 on a rugby game.
It had been four years since the couple had lived together and the man showed his contempt for the proceedings by not turning up. The court missionary/ social worker said Almond regularly made promises that he would make payments – but he never did. The magistrates could have issued an arrest warrant for Almond and then sent him to prison. But instead they increased the maintenance order from 12s 6d a week to £1, to take account of his missed payments. However, the magistrates' patience was not unlimited and if Almond continued to refuse to support his family, Walton Prison would be his inevitable destination.
At each Christmastime Colonel Michael Hughes, notionally of Sherdley Hall (he very rarely lived there), would provide some money, food and entertainment for the elderly folk of Sutton. It was known as the "Sherdley dole" and as a result of his largesse large numbers of senior citizens – mainly widows – had a more enjoyable Christmas. On the 28th the Reporter described this year's event:
"It was not a bit Christmassy out of doors last Saturday morning. A strong sou-wester was whistling over the housetops and through the trees, and with it came a fine driving rain known locally and colloquially as “Billinge rain”. There is little doubt, therefore, that those widows of Sutton who braved the unpropitious elements on their annual walk to Sherdley Hall found the journey a rather trying one. However, the temporary inconveniences occasioned by the caprices of the weather were more than counterbalanced by the warmth of the welcome and the hospitality extended to them on their arrival."
Two large entertaining rooms were decorated with holly and mistletoe, streamers and paper lanterns and the 70 guests enjoyed a meal and then each was presented with a large joint of beef, a number of cakes and a shilling.
There were not many crimes of any note reported during Christmas week, although something had clearly irked Joseph Lilley. The 30-year-old miner from Alice Street in Sutton had trashed pictures and ornaments in his home and when the police entered they found several persons restraining him. Lilley told an officer to lock him up or he would smash everything else up – and so he did! In court he was bound over to keep the peace for six months.
And Annie Gill of Brynn Street was hauled into court on the 28th for running a Christmas draw for a doll. She had sold 161 tickets at 6d each and insisted that she did not know it was illegal to run a raffle. Her husband had not worked for three years, and she promised to return the money to those who had bought tickets.
The Chairman of the Bench said that owing to the defendant's "restricted circumstances", they had decided to let Mrs Gill off on payments of costs, adding: "But we want the public to remember that it is an illegal thing to have these draws or raffles. In future, cases will be dealt with more severely."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the body of a new-born child found on wasteland in Sutton, the Park Road poker row, the young man killed in an electrical hoist at Pilks and the Sutton Manor stoker accused of being an habitual criminal.
At a more reasonable hour during the morning, the Salvation Army Band played selections in the hospital and the Sutton Concertina Band also paid a visit. Then at 11:30am the Mayor of St Helens, Ald. Peter Phythian, and the Mayoress walked round the wards with other dignitaries exchanging Christmas greetings with patients. At noon around eighty of them sat down to a Christmas dinner and all the adult patients were given a "Christmas box" in the form of a garment and the children received a toy. During the evening entertainment was provided by the nurses.
"For those happy mortals who enjoy the precious boon of good health, there is perhaps nothing better calculated to inspire them with thankfulness for their general immunity from pain than a visit to one of our large hospitals. There they will see patients with mangled limbs, or cases of severe scalds or burns, or the thousand and one things to which human flesh is heir.
"At the Providence Hospital the patients are decidedly fortunate in having such a noble band of workers as the Sisters and staff, who spare no effort to make the lot of their charges brighter and happier. Owing to the generosity of the doctors and the many friends of the hospital, and to the loyal co-operation of the staff, this Christmas has indeed been made a bright and happy one."
The patients at Providence enjoyed a full Christmas dinner with the Mayor and Mayoress helping to serve the pudding. One of the bizarre things about Christmastime in hospital in those days was how after their meal "smokes" were given to the male patients, with the pipes and tobacco considered a treat. During the evening a concert was performed, with the children's ward at Providence described by the Reporter as having been decorated on a lavish scale:
"On entering the children's ward was a huge rocking horse, a present from the British Insulated and Helsby Cables Ltd, and there was also a tall Christmas tree laden with all kinds of toys, to delight the hearts of the kiddies. In fact, it was rather a touching and pathetic sight to see the tiny patients, some of them with their heads and faces swathed in bandages, like mummies, peeping through their bonds, and calling out, “Father Christmas! Father Christmas!” The children's ward was a particularly bright one, and was decorated in ruby, white and green, with figures of Santa Claus here and there, and with friezes of Father Christmas around the walls."
The Mayor also visited the other hospitals in the town accompanied by his wife. However, at the Borough Sanatorium in Peasley Cross, the Mayoress crushed two of her fingers in the door of their car. Ouch!
It might be Christmas Day but the poor posties still had to work in St Helens, although they only had one delivery to make. But it was always a big one as some people only posted their cards and parcels on Christmas Eve in order that their recipients received them on the 25th. On some Christmas Days the postmen did not finish delivering until mid-afternoon, after starting their rounds at 7am. This year the Post Office had asked townsfolk to post their letters and parcels early – but I expect many didn't.
As to the weather, Christmas Day morning began bright but a heavy snowstorm set in during the afternoon that lasted over an hour. The Reporter wrote that the snowfall had been "maintaining the Yuletide tradition and skirting the town in its white mantle. Thaw and sleet followed, rendering the conditions underfoot very objectionable. Heavy rain supervened during the night, and all trace of the snow had been washed away with the dawn of Boxing Day."
In summing up the Reporter commented how it had been a "quiet, rather uneventful, Christmas time". But not at St Helens Junction Station, where a tragedy unfolded on the 25th in which John Case lost his life. The 24-year-old was a glasscutter employed by Pilkington's at their Kirk Sandall works in Doncaster. John was spending Christmas at his parent's house at Windle Grange Cottage in Rainford and had been returning home from Liverpool after visiting a friend.
William Falkingham was a porter at the Junction station. He told the young man's inquest that the 3:30pm train from Liverpool had been about to resume its journey after some passengers had disembarked. Case had put his head out of a compartment window and said to the porter: "Is this train going to St Helens?" Falkingham said he'd replied "No", but despite the fact that the train was by then gathering speed, John had opened the door of the carriage and got onto the footboard where he remained until the train had travelled a further 15 yards.
Despite the porter begging John not to jump, he eventually did so and dropped under the carriages onto the railway line. His skull was fractured and an arm was cut off above the shoulder and the young man died soon afterwards in hospital.
Saints had a Christmas to forget. On the 25th the St Helens Recs beat them 21 - 2 at their City Road ground. And then on Boxing Day Saints were trounced 44 - 2 away to Wigan, with the Recs losing 16 - 3 to Leigh.
Hengler's Circus, the "premier equestrian show of the British Empire" was performing at the Hippodrome during Christmas week, although not on the day itself. This is how it was advertised:
"The Greatest Christmas Attraction touring. Direct from the Manchester Hippodrome. No need to leave St. Helens to enjoy a Christmas treat. It will be found in your own town, at the St. Helens Hippodrome. A brilliant express programme, full of fun, executed by a fine stud of horses and ponies, together with skilled riders, gymnasts, acrobats and clowns. Shetland and terriers at play. The very wise mare “Peggy”."
Meanwhile, at the Theatre Royal during Christmas week, Robinson Crusoe was performed with Dolly Ross "St. Helens' favourite principal boy", playing the eponymous hero and Joe Lewis "Lancashire's premier comedian" as Billy Crusoe. There were five price bands for admission ranging from 4d to 1/8.
What was described as a "batch of defendants, chiefly juveniles" went before the Bench on the 27th charged with stealing coal from Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr. The Chairman told them that because of the time of the year, they had decided to let each defendant off with a warning, although they still had to pay court costs of four shillings each.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th described Christmas at Rainford: "Never has there been such a day in Rainford as last Monday [Christmas Eve]. Father Christmas came to the village in real flesh and blood, drawn in a fairy-like sleigh, loaded with presents, looking the very picture of the Father Christmas one sees on cards, but ever so much nicer, because he “spoke just like a real human,” as one little lad who saw him said." Santa had been in the village ostensibly to attend the Rainford Potteries Christmas party.
A Christmas event was also held each year for the so-called Crippled Children of St Helens with its cost coming from public donations. So tins had been rattled in the town's packed cinemas, as well as the Hippodrome theatre, that raised a total of £26 and other collections had been made in Labour and Conservative clubs.
The Reporter in an editorial about Christmas wrote: "The spirit of Christmas has been abroad in St. Helens this year as never before, and in a hundred different ways hearts have been gladdened and homes brightened, which, had it not been for the generosity of a public that is growing every year, would have known nothing of the spirit of the great festival." They were mainly referring to the public donations that had allowed Christmas parties and New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children to take place and food parcels to be handed out to the unemployed.
But the spirit of Christmas was not abroad everywhere in St Helens. In the Police Court William Almond from Friar Street, near Victoria Park, was this week summoned for deserting his wife Bertha. The case had been before the court in October and adjourned until January 14th, with the defendant told in the meantime to pay his separated wife 12 shillings 6d per week maintenance.
However, William Almond had made no payments but instead had written a letter saying he was willing to find his wife a home – but then later refused to live with her. At one point he had even passed Bertha and his two children in the street without speaking to them. Almond was said to be earning good money and had recently been living in a hotel and had bet £5 on a rugby game.
It had been four years since the couple had lived together and the man showed his contempt for the proceedings by not turning up. The court missionary/ social worker said Almond regularly made promises that he would make payments – but he never did. The magistrates could have issued an arrest warrant for Almond and then sent him to prison. But instead they increased the maintenance order from 12s 6d a week to £1, to take account of his missed payments. However, the magistrates' patience was not unlimited and if Almond continued to refuse to support his family, Walton Prison would be his inevitable destination.
At each Christmastime Colonel Michael Hughes, notionally of Sherdley Hall (he very rarely lived there), would provide some money, food and entertainment for the elderly folk of Sutton. It was known as the "Sherdley dole" and as a result of his largesse large numbers of senior citizens – mainly widows – had a more enjoyable Christmas. On the 28th the Reporter described this year's event:
"It was not a bit Christmassy out of doors last Saturday morning. A strong sou-wester was whistling over the housetops and through the trees, and with it came a fine driving rain known locally and colloquially as “Billinge rain”. There is little doubt, therefore, that those widows of Sutton who braved the unpropitious elements on their annual walk to Sherdley Hall found the journey a rather trying one. However, the temporary inconveniences occasioned by the caprices of the weather were more than counterbalanced by the warmth of the welcome and the hospitality extended to them on their arrival."
Two large entertaining rooms were decorated with holly and mistletoe, streamers and paper lanterns and the 70 guests enjoyed a meal and then each was presented with a large joint of beef, a number of cakes and a shilling.
There were not many crimes of any note reported during Christmas week, although something had clearly irked Joseph Lilley. The 30-year-old miner from Alice Street in Sutton had trashed pictures and ornaments in his home and when the police entered they found several persons restraining him. Lilley told an officer to lock him up or he would smash everything else up – and so he did! In court he was bound over to keep the peace for six months.
And Annie Gill of Brynn Street was hauled into court on the 28th for running a Christmas draw for a doll. She had sold 161 tickets at 6d each and insisted that she did not know it was illegal to run a raffle. Her husband had not worked for three years, and she promised to return the money to those who had bought tickets.
The Chairman of the Bench said that owing to the defendant's "restricted circumstances", they had decided to let Mrs Gill off on payments of costs, adding: "But we want the public to remember that it is an illegal thing to have these draws or raffles. In future, cases will be dealt with more severely."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the body of a new-born child found on wasteland in Sutton, the Park Road poker row, the young man killed in an electrical hoist at Pilks and the Sutton Manor stoker accused of being an habitual criminal.
This week's many stories include Christmas Day in the town's hospitals, the Christmas Circus at the Hippodrome, the issuing of the Sherdley dole, the Christmas Day tragedy at St Helens Junction station, the Brynn Street woman prosecuted for running a Christmas raffle, Father Christmas visits Rainford in a fairy-like sleigh and the man that bet £5 on a rugby game but refused to give his wife and children maintenance money.
The arrival of Christmas Day in St Helens was heralded, as usual, at midnight by carol singers and bands performing in the streets.
In St Helens Hospital (pictured above) the festivities began at the unearthly hour of 6am when the nurses walked round the decorated wards singing carols.
Just whether the patients wanted to be "serenaded" – as the St Helens Reporter put it – at 6 o’clock was not mentioned in their report!
At a more reasonable hour during the morning, the Salvation Army Band played selections in the hospital and the Sutton Concertina Band also paid a visit.
Then at 11:30am the Mayor of St Helens, Ald. Peter Phythian, and the Mayoress walked round the wards with other dignitaries exchanging Christmas greetings with patients.
At noon around eighty of them sat down to a Christmas dinner and all the adult patients were given a "Christmas box" in the form of a garment and the children received a toy. During the evening entertainment was provided by the nurses.
This was how the Reporter described Christmas Day at Providence Hospital (pictured above):
"For those happy mortals who enjoy the precious boon of good health, there is perhaps nothing better calculated to inspire them with thankfulness for their general immunity from pain than a visit to one of our large hospitals.
"There they will see patients with mangled limbs, or cases of severe scalds or burns, or the thousand and one things to which human flesh is heir.
"At the Providence Hospital the patients are decidedly fortunate in having such a noble band of workers as the Sisters and staff, who spare no effort to make the lot of their charges brighter and happier.
"Owing to the generosity of the doctors and the many friends of the hospital, and to the loyal co-operation of the staff, this Christmas has indeed been made a bright and happy one."
The patients at Providence enjoyed a full Christmas dinner with the Mayor and Mayoress helping to serve the pudding.
One of the bizarre things about Christmastime in hospital in those days was how after their meal "smokes" were given to the male patients, with the pipes and tobacco considered a treat.
During the evening a concert was performed, with the children's ward at Providence described by the Reporter as having been decorated on a lavish scale:
"On entering the children's ward was a huge rocking horse, a present from the British Insulated and Helsby Cables Ltd, and there was also a tall Christmas tree laden with all kinds of toys, to delight the hearts of the kiddies.
"In fact, it was rather a touching and pathetic sight to see the tiny patients, some of them with their heads and faces swathed in bandages, like mummies, peeping through their bonds, and calling out, “Father Christmas! Father Christmas!”
"The children's ward was a particularly bright one, and was decorated in ruby, white and green, with figures of Santa Claus here and there, and with friezes of Father Christmas around the walls."
The Mayor also visited the other hospitals in the town accompanied by his wife.
However, at the Borough Sanatorium in Peasley Cross, the Mayoress crushed two of her fingers in the door of their car. Ouch!
It might be Christmas Day but the poor posties still had to work in St Helens, although they only had one delivery to make.
But it was always a big one as some people only posted their cards and parcels on Christmas Eve in order that their recipients received them on the 25th.
On some Christmas Days the postmen did not finish delivering until mid-afternoon, after starting their rounds at 7am.
This year the Post Office had asked townsfolk to post their letters and parcels early – but I expect many didn't.
As to the weather, Christmas Day morning began bright but a heavy snowstorm set in during the afternoon that lasted over an hour.
The Reporter wrote that the snowfall had been "maintaining the Yuletide tradition and skirting the town in its white mantle. Thaw and sleet followed, rendering the conditions underfoot very objectionable. Heavy rain supervened during the night, and all trace of the snow had been washed away with the dawn of Boxing Day."
In summing up the Reporter commented how it had been a "quiet, rather uneventful, Christmas time".
But not at St Helens Junction Station, where a tragedy unfolded on the 25th in which John Case lost his life.
The 24-year-old was a glasscutter employed by Pilkington's at their Kirk Sandall works in Doncaster.
John was spending Christmas at his parent's house at Windle Grange Cottage in Rainford and had been returning home from Liverpool after visiting a friend.
William Falkingham was a porter at the Junction station. He told the young man's inquest that the 3:30pm train from Liverpool had been about to resume its journey after some passengers had disembarked.
Case had put his head out of a compartment window and said to the porter: "Is this train going to St Helens?"
Falkingham said he'd replied "No", but despite the fact that the train was by then gathering speed, John had opened the door of the carriage and got onto the footboard where he remained until the train had travelled a further 15 yards.
Despite the porter begging John not to jump, he eventually did so and dropped under the carriages onto the railway line.
His skull was fractured and an arm was cut off above the shoulder and the young man died soon afterwards in hospital.
Saints had a Christmas to forget. On the 25th the St Helens Recs beat them 21 - 2 at their City Road ground.
And then on Boxing Day Saints were trounced 44 - 2 away to Wigan, with the Recs losing 16 - 3 to Leigh.
Hengler's Circus, the "premier equestrian show of the British Empire" was performing at the Hippodrome during Christmas week, although not on the day itself. This is how it was advertised:
"The Greatest Christmas Attraction touring. Direct from the Manchester Hippodrome. No need to leave St. Helens to enjoy a Christmas treat. It will be found in your own town, at the St. Helens Hippodrome.
"A brilliant express programme, full of fun, executed by a fine stud of horses and ponies, together with skilled riders, gymnasts, acrobats and clowns. Shetland and terriers at play. The very wise mare “Peggy”."
Meanwhile, at the Theatre Royal during Christmas week, Robinson Crusoe was performed with Dolly Ross "St. Helens' favourite principal boy", playing the eponymous hero and Joe Lewis "Lancashire's premier comedian" as Billy Crusoe.
There were five price bands for admission ranging from 4d to 1/8.
What was described as a "batch of defendants, chiefly juveniles" went before the Bench on the 27th charged with stealing coal from Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr.
The Chairman told them that because of the time of the year, they had decided to let each defendant off with a warning, although they still had to pay court costs of four shillings each.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th described Christmas at Rainford:
"Never has there been such a day in Rainford as last Monday [Christmas Eve]. Father Christmas came to the village in real flesh and blood, drawn in a fairy-like sleigh, loaded with presents, looking the very picture of the Father Christmas one sees on cards, but ever so much nicer, because he “spoke just like a real human,” as one little lad who saw him said."
Santa had been in the village ostensibly to attend the Rainford Potteries Christmas party.
A Christmas event was also held each year for the so-called Crippled Children of St Helens with its cost coming from public donations.
So tins had been rattled in the town's packed cinemas, as well as the Hippodrome theatre, that raised a total of £26 and other collections had been made in Labour and Conservative clubs.
The Reporter in an editorial about Christmas wrote: "The spirit of Christmas has been abroad in St. Helens this year as never before, and in a hundred different ways hearts have been gladdened and homes brightened, which, had it not been for the generosity of a public that is growing every year, would have known nothing of the spirit of the great festival."
They were mainly referring to the public donations that had allowed Christmas parties and New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children to take place and food parcels to be handed out to the unemployed.
But the spirit of Christmas was not abroad everywhere in St Helens. In the Police Court William Almond from Friar Street, near Victoria Park, was this week summoned for deserting his wife Bertha.
The case had been before the court in October and adjourned until January 14th, with the defendant told in the meantime to pay his separated wife 12 shillings 6d per week maintenance.
However, William Almond had made no payments but instead had written a letter saying he was willing to find his wife a home – but then later refused to live with her.
At one point he had even passed Bertha and his two children in the street without speaking to them.
Almond was said to be earning good money and had recently been living in a hotel and had bet £5 on a rugby game.
It had been four years since the couple had lived together and the man showed his contempt for the proceedings by not turning up.
The court missionary/ social worker said Almond regularly made promises that he would make payments – but he never did.
The magistrates could have issued an arrest warrant for Almond and then sent him to prison.
But instead they increased the maintenance order from 12s 6d a week to £1, to take account of his missed payments.
However, the magistrates' patience was not unlimited and if Almond continued to refuse to support his family, Walton Prison would be his inevitable destination.
At each Christmastime Colonel Michael Hughes, notionally of Sherdley Hall (he very rarely lived there), would provide some money, food and entertainment for the elderly folk of Sutton.
It was known as the "Sherdley dole" and as a result of his largesse large numbers of senior citizens – mainly widows – had a more enjoyable Christmas. On the 28th the Reporter described this year's event:
"It was not a bit Christmassy out of doors last Saturday morning. A strong sou-wester was whistling over the housetops and through the trees, and with it came a fine driving rain known locally and colloquially as “Billinge rain”.
"There is little doubt, therefore, that those widows of Sutton who braved the unpropitious elements on their annual walk to Sherdley Hall found the journey a rather trying one.
"However, the temporary inconveniences occasioned by the caprices of the weather were more than counterbalanced by the warmth of the welcome and the hospitality extended to them on their arrival."
Two large entertaining rooms were decorated with holly and mistletoe, streamers and paper lanterns and the 70 guests enjoyed a meal and then each was presented with a large joint of beef, a number of cakes and a shilling.
There were not many crimes of any note reported during Christmas week, although something had clearly irked Joseph Lilley.
The 30-year-old miner from Alice Street in Sutton had trashed pictures and ornaments in his home and when the police entered they found several persons restraining him.
Lilley told an officer to lock him up or he would smash everything else up – and so he did! In court he was bound over to keep the peace for six months.
And Annie Gill of Brynn Street was hauled into court on the 28th for running a Christmas draw for a doll.
She had sold 161 tickets at 6d each and insisted that she did not know it was illegal to run a raffle.
Her husband had not worked for three years, and she promised to return the money to those who had bought tickets.
The Chairman of the Bench said that owing to the defendant's "restricted circumstances", they had decided to let Mrs Gill off on payments of costs, adding:
"But we want the public to remember that it is an illegal thing to have these draws or raffles. In future, cases will be dealt with more severely."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the body of a new-born child found on wasteland in Sutton, the Park Road poker row, the young man killed in an electrical hoist at Pilks and the Sutton Manor stoker accused of being an habitual criminal.
The arrival of Christmas Day in St Helens was heralded, as usual, at midnight by carol singers and bands performing in the streets.
Just whether the patients wanted to be "serenaded" – as the St Helens Reporter put it – at 6 o’clock was not mentioned in their report!
At a more reasonable hour during the morning, the Salvation Army Band played selections in the hospital and the Sutton Concertina Band also paid a visit.
Then at 11:30am the Mayor of St Helens, Ald. Peter Phythian, and the Mayoress walked round the wards with other dignitaries exchanging Christmas greetings with patients.
At noon around eighty of them sat down to a Christmas dinner and all the adult patients were given a "Christmas box" in the form of a garment and the children received a toy. During the evening entertainment was provided by the nurses.
"For those happy mortals who enjoy the precious boon of good health, there is perhaps nothing better calculated to inspire them with thankfulness for their general immunity from pain than a visit to one of our large hospitals.
"There they will see patients with mangled limbs, or cases of severe scalds or burns, or the thousand and one things to which human flesh is heir.
"At the Providence Hospital the patients are decidedly fortunate in having such a noble band of workers as the Sisters and staff, who spare no effort to make the lot of their charges brighter and happier.
"Owing to the generosity of the doctors and the many friends of the hospital, and to the loyal co-operation of the staff, this Christmas has indeed been made a bright and happy one."
The patients at Providence enjoyed a full Christmas dinner with the Mayor and Mayoress helping to serve the pudding.
One of the bizarre things about Christmastime in hospital in those days was how after their meal "smokes" were given to the male patients, with the pipes and tobacco considered a treat.
During the evening a concert was performed, with the children's ward at Providence described by the Reporter as having been decorated on a lavish scale:
"On entering the children's ward was a huge rocking horse, a present from the British Insulated and Helsby Cables Ltd, and there was also a tall Christmas tree laden with all kinds of toys, to delight the hearts of the kiddies.
"In fact, it was rather a touching and pathetic sight to see the tiny patients, some of them with their heads and faces swathed in bandages, like mummies, peeping through their bonds, and calling out, “Father Christmas! Father Christmas!”
"The children's ward was a particularly bright one, and was decorated in ruby, white and green, with figures of Santa Claus here and there, and with friezes of Father Christmas around the walls."
The Mayor also visited the other hospitals in the town accompanied by his wife.
However, at the Borough Sanatorium in Peasley Cross, the Mayoress crushed two of her fingers in the door of their car. Ouch!
It might be Christmas Day but the poor posties still had to work in St Helens, although they only had one delivery to make.
But it was always a big one as some people only posted their cards and parcels on Christmas Eve in order that their recipients received them on the 25th.
On some Christmas Days the postmen did not finish delivering until mid-afternoon, after starting their rounds at 7am.
This year the Post Office had asked townsfolk to post their letters and parcels early – but I expect many didn't.
As to the weather, Christmas Day morning began bright but a heavy snowstorm set in during the afternoon that lasted over an hour.
The Reporter wrote that the snowfall had been "maintaining the Yuletide tradition and skirting the town in its white mantle. Thaw and sleet followed, rendering the conditions underfoot very objectionable. Heavy rain supervened during the night, and all trace of the snow had been washed away with the dawn of Boxing Day."
In summing up the Reporter commented how it had been a "quiet, rather uneventful, Christmas time".
But not at St Helens Junction Station, where a tragedy unfolded on the 25th in which John Case lost his life.
The 24-year-old was a glasscutter employed by Pilkington's at their Kirk Sandall works in Doncaster.
John was spending Christmas at his parent's house at Windle Grange Cottage in Rainford and had been returning home from Liverpool after visiting a friend.
William Falkingham was a porter at the Junction station. He told the young man's inquest that the 3:30pm train from Liverpool had been about to resume its journey after some passengers had disembarked.
Case had put his head out of a compartment window and said to the porter: "Is this train going to St Helens?"
Falkingham said he'd replied "No", but despite the fact that the train was by then gathering speed, John had opened the door of the carriage and got onto the footboard where he remained until the train had travelled a further 15 yards.
Despite the porter begging John not to jump, he eventually did so and dropped under the carriages onto the railway line.
His skull was fractured and an arm was cut off above the shoulder and the young man died soon afterwards in hospital.
Saints had a Christmas to forget. On the 25th the St Helens Recs beat them 21 - 2 at their City Road ground.
And then on Boxing Day Saints were trounced 44 - 2 away to Wigan, with the Recs losing 16 - 3 to Leigh.
Hengler's Circus, the "premier equestrian show of the British Empire" was performing at the Hippodrome during Christmas week, although not on the day itself. This is how it was advertised:
"The Greatest Christmas Attraction touring. Direct from the Manchester Hippodrome. No need to leave St. Helens to enjoy a Christmas treat. It will be found in your own town, at the St. Helens Hippodrome.
"A brilliant express programme, full of fun, executed by a fine stud of horses and ponies, together with skilled riders, gymnasts, acrobats and clowns. Shetland and terriers at play. The very wise mare “Peggy”."
Meanwhile, at the Theatre Royal during Christmas week, Robinson Crusoe was performed with Dolly Ross "St. Helens' favourite principal boy", playing the eponymous hero and Joe Lewis "Lancashire's premier comedian" as Billy Crusoe.
There were five price bands for admission ranging from 4d to 1/8.
What was described as a "batch of defendants, chiefly juveniles" went before the Bench on the 27th charged with stealing coal from Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr.
The Chairman told them that because of the time of the year, they had decided to let each defendant off with a warning, although they still had to pay court costs of four shillings each.
The St Helens Reporter on the 28th described Christmas at Rainford:
"Never has there been such a day in Rainford as last Monday [Christmas Eve]. Father Christmas came to the village in real flesh and blood, drawn in a fairy-like sleigh, loaded with presents, looking the very picture of the Father Christmas one sees on cards, but ever so much nicer, because he “spoke just like a real human,” as one little lad who saw him said."
Santa had been in the village ostensibly to attend the Rainford Potteries Christmas party.
A Christmas event was also held each year for the so-called Crippled Children of St Helens with its cost coming from public donations.
So tins had been rattled in the town's packed cinemas, as well as the Hippodrome theatre, that raised a total of £26 and other collections had been made in Labour and Conservative clubs.
The Reporter in an editorial about Christmas wrote: "The spirit of Christmas has been abroad in St. Helens this year as never before, and in a hundred different ways hearts have been gladdened and homes brightened, which, had it not been for the generosity of a public that is growing every year, would have known nothing of the spirit of the great festival."
They were mainly referring to the public donations that had allowed Christmas parties and New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children to take place and food parcels to be handed out to the unemployed.
But the spirit of Christmas was not abroad everywhere in St Helens. In the Police Court William Almond from Friar Street, near Victoria Park, was this week summoned for deserting his wife Bertha.
The case had been before the court in October and adjourned until January 14th, with the defendant told in the meantime to pay his separated wife 12 shillings 6d per week maintenance.
However, William Almond had made no payments but instead had written a letter saying he was willing to find his wife a home – but then later refused to live with her.
At one point he had even passed Bertha and his two children in the street without speaking to them.
Almond was said to be earning good money and had recently been living in a hotel and had bet £5 on a rugby game.
It had been four years since the couple had lived together and the man showed his contempt for the proceedings by not turning up.
The court missionary/ social worker said Almond regularly made promises that he would make payments – but he never did.
The magistrates could have issued an arrest warrant for Almond and then sent him to prison.
But instead they increased the maintenance order from 12s 6d a week to £1, to take account of his missed payments.
However, the magistrates' patience was not unlimited and if Almond continued to refuse to support his family, Walton Prison would be his inevitable destination.
At each Christmastime Colonel Michael Hughes, notionally of Sherdley Hall (he very rarely lived there), would provide some money, food and entertainment for the elderly folk of Sutton.
It was known as the "Sherdley dole" and as a result of his largesse large numbers of senior citizens – mainly widows – had a more enjoyable Christmas. On the 28th the Reporter described this year's event:
"It was not a bit Christmassy out of doors last Saturday morning. A strong sou-wester was whistling over the housetops and through the trees, and with it came a fine driving rain known locally and colloquially as “Billinge rain”.
"There is little doubt, therefore, that those widows of Sutton who braved the unpropitious elements on their annual walk to Sherdley Hall found the journey a rather trying one.
"However, the temporary inconveniences occasioned by the caprices of the weather were more than counterbalanced by the warmth of the welcome and the hospitality extended to them on their arrival."
Two large entertaining rooms were decorated with holly and mistletoe, streamers and paper lanterns and the 70 guests enjoyed a meal and then each was presented with a large joint of beef, a number of cakes and a shilling.
There were not many crimes of any note reported during Christmas week, although something had clearly irked Joseph Lilley.
The 30-year-old miner from Alice Street in Sutton had trashed pictures and ornaments in his home and when the police entered they found several persons restraining him.
Lilley told an officer to lock him up or he would smash everything else up – and so he did! In court he was bound over to keep the peace for six months.
And Annie Gill of Brynn Street was hauled into court on the 28th for running a Christmas draw for a doll.
She had sold 161 tickets at 6d each and insisted that she did not know it was illegal to run a raffle.
Her husband had not worked for three years, and she promised to return the money to those who had bought tickets.
The Chairman of the Bench said that owing to the defendant's "restricted circumstances", they had decided to let Mrs Gill off on payments of costs, adding:
"But we want the public to remember that it is an illegal thing to have these draws or raffles. In future, cases will be dealt with more severely."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the body of a new-born child found on wasteland in Sutton, the Park Road poker row, the young man killed in an electrical hoist at Pilks and the Sutton Manor stoker accused of being an habitual criminal.