IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (26th DEC. 1922 - 1st JAN. 1923)
This week's stories include the Christmas shopping trip that turned into tragedy, the story of the raving madman and the Tontine Street teapot, the Sutton Manor Colliery embezzlement, the Christmas court cases, the stealing of two bob by mis-delivery and the many insanitary houses in St Helens that could not be demolished.
We begin on Boxing Day when what was described as a "comic Christmas pantomime" called 'Mother Hubbard' began a run at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. A Christmas dance was also held at the Engineer Hall in Croppers Hill (pictured above), which was so crowded that one sergeant dubbed the event a football match. Despite that the St Helens Reporter described the dance as having been very successful and said the dancers were kept "joyously busy" to the music. Also on the 26th the Primitive Methodist Sunday School held a Christmas party in their school in Chancery Lane in Parr. Father Christmas was kept busy distributing presents to 120 children.
It might be Boxing Day but the courts still opened to deal with all the Christmas cases that were usually caused by imbibing too heavily. A one-legged man called Michael Flynn was charged with assaulting a fellow lodger called Matthew Tulley at their Tontine Street house. The victim said his attacker had been like a "raving madman" and had bashed him over his head with a teapot. Flynn blamed an excess of whiskey for his actions and vowed not to take another drop. He had spent all Christmas in custody and was now bound over for six months.
Drinking over the holiday period was James Lyon's excuse for raiding Thatto Heath Labour Club. The miner from Cairn Street appeared in the Boxing Day court charged with breaking and entering the club and stealing 77 packets of cigarettes, a quantity of matches and the sum of 15s 10d. Not a huge haul, with their total value coming to less than £2. But there was also a broken window at the rear of the premises that needed replacing.
That was how Lyon had made his entry but the man said he could remember nothing of what had occurred, telling the police: "I cannot recollect being in, I was drunk". However, despite his alleged intoxication, Lyon had had the presence of mind to stash his ill-gotten gains in mattresses and up his chimney. Asked to account for them, he said: "What can I say? They are there." Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that the police believed that Lyon had not been alone on the night and requested a remand in order to investigate further.
Some Christmas charity was shown in court to Margaret Birkett who was charged in the Boxing Day court with being drunk and incapable in Bridge Street. Sgt. Latham gave evidence that he had found the woman in a helpless condition in a doorway. However, Mrs. Birkett denied the charge, claiming she had fallen after coming out of the cinema, which had stunned her for a while. Of course, the police had a lot of experience dealing with drunks and their excuses – and so had the magistrates. But it was Christmas and so the Bench dismissed the charge, preferring to give Mrs Birkett a warning instead. She left the court remarking that she had not yet lost her good name.
The police did then take minor crimes very seriously. At St Helens Juvenile Court on the 26th a youth called Thomas Glynn was charged with stealing 2 shillings by "mis-delivery", as it was curiously called. Glynn was selling penny football papers in the street and another unnamed lad bought one from him. However, instead of tendering 1d, he had somehow handed over 2s 1d.
It was a while before he realised that he had handed over two bob too much but Thomas Glynn strenuously denied having received the extra florin. The police were called in and Glynn continued with his denials. However, after what was probably a stringent interrogation, he eventually caved in and admitted keeping the two shillings. He should have said he'd assumed it was a tip! Thomas Glynn was fined ten shillings.
Just before the Christmas break, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Hauxwell, had released his annual report for 1921. Generally speaking the health of the residents was improving with death rates and child mortality rates at their lowest ever. St Helens had also been "remarkably free" from the main epidemic diseases. What was causing him concern was the living conditions of many people, such as in Raglan Street pictured above. The doctor wrote:
"Housing conditions are still very bad. Many houses at present occupied are in such a condition that under normal circumstances they should be closed as insanitary. During the present shortage of houses it is impossible to do so, and it is only by the exercise of much patience and persuasion that they are made at all habitable. Serious overcrowding is also very prevalent, but here again it has been deemed inadvisable to enforce statutory powers.
"The need for more houses in St. Helens is urgent. According to the housing survey of 1919 there were (excluding “unhealthy areas”) at that time 2,387 persons inhabiting 410 houses which were not and could not be made fit for human habitation. The number of such houses cannot be less today. The result has been (1) that overcrowding exists to a very serious extent, and (2) a very large number of people are living in houses which should be closed as insanitary. The evil effect on the health of these people is undoubted."
Cllr. Thomas Hamblett was the chairman of the St Helens Education Elementary Committee and he appealed to parents in the Reporter not to automatically let their boys quit school upon reaching 14:
"Over nine hundred boys who have left St. Helens schools during the last two years are out of work. At the same time, other boys are leaving school and swelling the numbers of the unemployed. I appeal to all parents to allow their boys to remain at school as long as possible, and particularly to leave them at school until they have obtained regular and suitable employment."
On the 27th the inquest was held on Florence Thompson, whose body had been found lying in a small stream of water only 1½-inches deep. The 43-year-old widow's unusual death at Sherdley Glassworks was believed to have been the cause of a rumour that had spread through the town over Christmas that a woman had been murdered.
Margaret Almond of Waterdale Crescent was the mother of the deceased and told the inquest that her daughter was a widow with three children. "She was a delicate woman, suffering from general weakness and anaemia," she said. Florence's sister Alice McLarry told the coroner that the pair had spent last Friday evening in St Helens undertaking Christmas shopping. They had walked together into the town and stopped at the White Hart in Church Street to enjoy a gill of beer.
Alice and Florence then strolled about the town and market until 9:30pm when Alice boarded a tram home leaving her sister at the corner of Shaw Street and Church Street. Florence had said that she was not yet ready to go home but would have another walk around the town first. Alice told the hearing that had been the last time she'd seen her sister whose body was found in the stream on the following morning.
However, the woman had not drowned and Dr Unsworth told the inquest that after conducting a post-mortem, he had concluded that Mrs Thompson had died of heart failure, probably accelerated by exposure to cold. So the jury brought in a verdict of death from natural causes. Just what she had been doing roaming about Sherdley Glassworks, would, however, never be known.
On the 29th the St Helens Esperanto Society held a Christmas party at the Broadway Café in Church Street with over 40 people in attendance. What language they spoke in during the event was not stated but apparently "merry Christmas" in Esperanto is "feliĉan Kristnaskon", which does not exactly trip off the tongue.
On January 1st the Liverpool Echo described an attempted embezzlement at Sutton Manor Colliery by a trade union official. Joseph Freeman of Forest Road was treasurer of the local branch and had claimed that his house had been burgled and £126 stolen from his safe. Upon being questioned by the police he eventually admitted making up the story, saying:
"When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done." Joseph Freeman appeared before the magistrates on the 1st and was remanded in custody for a week in order that his books could be audited.
And finally, the New Year breakfasts for the newsboys and other poor children of St Helens were held on the 1st. The St Helens Reporter's review of the annual event will be published here next week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the cheating bankrupt from Lowe Street, the mass coal stealing from Sherdley Colliery and the Eccleston flying club official who was accused of embezzling members' money.
It might be Boxing Day but the courts still opened to deal with all the Christmas cases that were usually caused by imbibing too heavily. A one-legged man called Michael Flynn was charged with assaulting a fellow lodger called Matthew Tulley at their Tontine Street house. The victim said his attacker had been like a "raving madman" and had bashed him over his head with a teapot. Flynn blamed an excess of whiskey for his actions and vowed not to take another drop. He had spent all Christmas in custody and was now bound over for six months.
Drinking over the holiday period was James Lyon's excuse for raiding Thatto Heath Labour Club. The miner from Cairn Street appeared in the Boxing Day court charged with breaking and entering the club and stealing 77 packets of cigarettes, a quantity of matches and the sum of 15s 10d. Not a huge haul, with their total value coming to less than £2. But there was also a broken window at the rear of the premises that needed replacing.
That was how Lyon had made his entry but the man said he could remember nothing of what had occurred, telling the police: "I cannot recollect being in, I was drunk". However, despite his alleged intoxication, Lyon had had the presence of mind to stash his ill-gotten gains in mattresses and up his chimney. Asked to account for them, he said: "What can I say? They are there." Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that the police believed that Lyon had not been alone on the night and requested a remand in order to investigate further.
Some Christmas charity was shown in court to Margaret Birkett who was charged in the Boxing Day court with being drunk and incapable in Bridge Street. Sgt. Latham gave evidence that he had found the woman in a helpless condition in a doorway. However, Mrs. Birkett denied the charge, claiming she had fallen after coming out of the cinema, which had stunned her for a while. Of course, the police had a lot of experience dealing with drunks and their excuses – and so had the magistrates. But it was Christmas and so the Bench dismissed the charge, preferring to give Mrs Birkett a warning instead. She left the court remarking that she had not yet lost her good name.
The police did then take minor crimes very seriously. At St Helens Juvenile Court on the 26th a youth called Thomas Glynn was charged with stealing 2 shillings by "mis-delivery", as it was curiously called. Glynn was selling penny football papers in the street and another unnamed lad bought one from him. However, instead of tendering 1d, he had somehow handed over 2s 1d.
It was a while before he realised that he had handed over two bob too much but Thomas Glynn strenuously denied having received the extra florin. The police were called in and Glynn continued with his denials. However, after what was probably a stringent interrogation, he eventually caved in and admitted keeping the two shillings. He should have said he'd assumed it was a tip! Thomas Glynn was fined ten shillings.
"Housing conditions are still very bad. Many houses at present occupied are in such a condition that under normal circumstances they should be closed as insanitary. During the present shortage of houses it is impossible to do so, and it is only by the exercise of much patience and persuasion that they are made at all habitable. Serious overcrowding is also very prevalent, but here again it has been deemed inadvisable to enforce statutory powers.
"The need for more houses in St. Helens is urgent. According to the housing survey of 1919 there were (excluding “unhealthy areas”) at that time 2,387 persons inhabiting 410 houses which were not and could not be made fit for human habitation. The number of such houses cannot be less today. The result has been (1) that overcrowding exists to a very serious extent, and (2) a very large number of people are living in houses which should be closed as insanitary. The evil effect on the health of these people is undoubted."
Cllr. Thomas Hamblett was the chairman of the St Helens Education Elementary Committee and he appealed to parents in the Reporter not to automatically let their boys quit school upon reaching 14:
"Over nine hundred boys who have left St. Helens schools during the last two years are out of work. At the same time, other boys are leaving school and swelling the numbers of the unemployed. I appeal to all parents to allow their boys to remain at school as long as possible, and particularly to leave them at school until they have obtained regular and suitable employment."
On the 27th the inquest was held on Florence Thompson, whose body had been found lying in a small stream of water only 1½-inches deep. The 43-year-old widow's unusual death at Sherdley Glassworks was believed to have been the cause of a rumour that had spread through the town over Christmas that a woman had been murdered.
Margaret Almond of Waterdale Crescent was the mother of the deceased and told the inquest that her daughter was a widow with three children. "She was a delicate woman, suffering from general weakness and anaemia," she said. Florence's sister Alice McLarry told the coroner that the pair had spent last Friday evening in St Helens undertaking Christmas shopping. They had walked together into the town and stopped at the White Hart in Church Street to enjoy a gill of beer.
Alice and Florence then strolled about the town and market until 9:30pm when Alice boarded a tram home leaving her sister at the corner of Shaw Street and Church Street. Florence had said that she was not yet ready to go home but would have another walk around the town first. Alice told the hearing that had been the last time she'd seen her sister whose body was found in the stream on the following morning.
However, the woman had not drowned and Dr Unsworth told the inquest that after conducting a post-mortem, he had concluded that Mrs Thompson had died of heart failure, probably accelerated by exposure to cold. So the jury brought in a verdict of death from natural causes. Just what she had been doing roaming about Sherdley Glassworks, would, however, never be known.
On the 29th the St Helens Esperanto Society held a Christmas party at the Broadway Café in Church Street with over 40 people in attendance. What language they spoke in during the event was not stated but apparently "merry Christmas" in Esperanto is "feliĉan Kristnaskon", which does not exactly trip off the tongue.
On January 1st the Liverpool Echo described an attempted embezzlement at Sutton Manor Colliery by a trade union official. Joseph Freeman of Forest Road was treasurer of the local branch and had claimed that his house had been burgled and £126 stolen from his safe. Upon being questioned by the police he eventually admitted making up the story, saying:
"When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done." Joseph Freeman appeared before the magistrates on the 1st and was remanded in custody for a week in order that his books could be audited.
And finally, the New Year breakfasts for the newsboys and other poor children of St Helens were held on the 1st. The St Helens Reporter's review of the annual event will be published here next week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the cheating bankrupt from Lowe Street, the mass coal stealing from Sherdley Colliery and the Eccleston flying club official who was accused of embezzling members' money.
This week's stories include the Christmas shopping trip that turned into tragedy, the story of the raving madman and the Tontine Street teapot, the Sutton Manor Colliery embezzlement, the Christmas court cases, the stealing of two bob by mis-delivery and the many insanitary houses in St Helens that could not be demolished.
We begin on Boxing Day when what was described as a "comic Christmas pantomime" called 'Mother Hubbard' began a run at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
A Christmas dance was also held at the Engineer Hall in Croppers Hill (pictured above), which was so crowded that one sergeant dubbed the event a football match.
Despite that the St Helens Reporter described the dance as having been very successful and said the dancers were kept "joyously busy" to the music.
Also on the 26th the Primitive Methodist Sunday School held a Christmas party in their school in Chancery Lane in Parr. Father Christmas was kept busy distributing presents to 120 children.
It might be Boxing Day but the courts still opened to deal with all the Christmas cases that were usually caused by imbibing too heavily.
A one-legged man called Michael Flynn was charged with assaulting a fellow lodger called Matthew Tulley at their Tontine Street house.
The victim said his attacker had been like a "raving madman" and had bashed him over his head with a teapot.
Flynn blamed an excess of whiskey for his actions and vowed not to take another drop. He had spent all Christmas in custody and was now bound over for six months.
Drinking over the holiday period was James Lyon's excuse for raiding Thatto Heath Labour Club.
The miner from Cairn Street appeared in the Boxing Day court charged with breaking and entering the club and stealing 77 packets of cigarettes, a quantity of matches and the sum of 15s 10d.
Not a huge haul, with their total value coming to less than £2. But there was also a broken window at the rear of the premises that needed replacing.
That was how Lyon had made his entry but the man said he could remember nothing of what had occurred, telling the police: "I cannot recollect being in, I was drunk".
However, despite his alleged intoxication, Lyon had had the presence of mind to stash his ill-gotten gains in mattresses and up his chimney. Asked to account for them, he said: "What can I say? They are there."
Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that the police believed that Lyon had not been alone on the night and requested a remand in order to investigate further.
Some Christmas charity was shown in court to Margaret Birkett who was charged in the Boxing Day court with being drunk and incapable in Bridge Street.
Sgt. Latham gave evidence that he had found the woman in a helpless condition in a doorway.
However, Mrs. Birkett denied the charge, claiming she had fallen after coming out of the cinema, which had stunned her for a while.
Of course, the police had a lot of experience dealing with drunks and their excuses – and so had the magistrates.
But it was Christmas and so the Bench dismissed the charge, preferring to give Mrs Birkett a warning instead. She left the court remarking that she had not yet lost her good name.
The police did then take minor crimes very seriously. At St Helens Juvenile Court on the 26th a youth called Thomas Glynn was charged with stealing 2 shillings by "mis-delivery", as it was curiously called.
Glynn was selling penny football papers in the street and another unnamed lad bought one from him. However, instead of tendering 1d, he had somehow handed over 2s 1d.
It was a while before he realised that he had handed over two bob too much but Thomas Glynn strenuously denied having received the extra florin.
The police were called in and Glynn continued with his denials. However, after what was probably a stringent interrogation, he eventually caved in and admitted keeping the two shillings.
He should have said he'd assumed it was a tip! Thomas Glynn was fined ten shillings.
Just before the Christmas break, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Hauxwell, had released his annual report for 1921.
Generally speaking the health of the residents was improving with death rates and child mortality rates at their lowest ever. St Helens had also been "remarkably free" from the main epidemic diseases.
What was causing him concern was the living conditions of many people, such as in Raglan Street pictured above. The doctor wrote:
"Housing conditions are still very bad. Many houses at present occupied are in such a condition that under normal circumstances they should be closed as insanitary.
"During the present shortage of houses it is impossible to do so, and it is only by the exercise of much patience and persuasion that they are made at all habitable.
"Serious overcrowding is also very prevalent, but here again it has been deemed inadvisable to enforce statutory powers.
"The need for more houses in St. Helens is urgent. According to the housing survey of 1919 there were (excluding “unhealthy areas”) at that time 2,387 persons inhabiting 410 houses which were not and could not be made fit for human habitation. The number of such houses cannot be less today.
"The result has been (1) that overcrowding exists to a very serious extent, and (2) a very large number of people are living in houses which should be closed as insanitary. The evil effect on the health of these people is undoubted."
Cllr. Thomas Hamblett was the chairman of the St Helens Education Elementary Committee and he appealed to parents in the Reporter not to automatically let their boys quit school upon reaching 14:
"Over nine hundred boys who have left St. Helens schools during the last two years are out of work. At the same time, other boys are leaving school and swelling the numbers of the unemployed.
"I appeal to all parents to allow their boys to remain at school as long as possible, and particularly to leave them at school until they have obtained regular and suitable employment."
On the 27th the inquest was held on Florence Thompson, whose body had been found lying in a small stream of water only 1½-inches deep.
The 43-year-old widow's unusual death at Sherdley Glassworks was believed to have been the cause of a rumour that had spread through the town over Christmas that a woman had been murdered.
Margaret Almond of Waterdale Crescent was the mother of the deceased and told the inquest that her daughter was a widow with three children. "She was a delicate woman, suffering from general weakness and anaemia," she said.
Florence's sister Alice McLarry told the coroner that the pair had spent last Friday evening in St Helens undertaking Christmas shopping.
They had walked together into the town and stopped at the White Hart in Church Street to enjoy a gill of beer.
Alice and Florence then strolled about the town and market until 9:30pm when Alice boarded a tram home leaving her sister at the corner of Shaw Street and Church Street.
Florence had said that she was not yet ready to go home but would have another walk around the town first.
Alice told the hearing that had been the last time she'd seen her sister whose body was found in the stream on the following morning.
However, the woman had not drowned and Dr Unsworth told the inquest that after conducting a post-mortem, he had concluded that Mrs Thompson had died of heart failure, probably accelerated by exposure to cold. So the jury brought in a verdict of death from natural causes.
Just what she had been doing roaming about Sherdley Glassworks, would, however, never be known.
On the 29th the St Helens Esperanto Society held a Christmas party at the Broadway Café in Church Street with over 40 people in attendance.
What language they spoke in during the event was not stated but apparently "merry Christmas" in Esperanto is "feliĉan Kristnaskon", which does not exactly trip off the tongue.
On January 1st the Liverpool Echo described an attempted embezzlement at Sutton Manor Colliery by a trade union official.
Joseph Freeman of Forest Road was treasurer of the local branch and had claimed that his house had been burgled and £126 stolen from his safe.
Upon being questioned by the police he eventually admitted making up the story, saying:
"When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done."
Joseph Freeman appeared before the magistrates on the 1st and was remanded in custody for a week in order that his books could be audited.
And finally, the New Year breakfasts for the newsboys and other poor children of St Helens were held on the 1st.
The St Helens Reporter's review of the annual event will be posted here next week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will also include the cheating bankrupt from Lowe Street, the mass coal stealing from Sherdley Colliery and the Eccleston flying club official who was accused of embezzling members' money.
We begin on Boxing Day when what was described as a "comic Christmas pantomime" called 'Mother Hubbard' began a run at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
Despite that the St Helens Reporter described the dance as having been very successful and said the dancers were kept "joyously busy" to the music.
Also on the 26th the Primitive Methodist Sunday School held a Christmas party in their school in Chancery Lane in Parr. Father Christmas was kept busy distributing presents to 120 children.
It might be Boxing Day but the courts still opened to deal with all the Christmas cases that were usually caused by imbibing too heavily.
A one-legged man called Michael Flynn was charged with assaulting a fellow lodger called Matthew Tulley at their Tontine Street house.
The victim said his attacker had been like a "raving madman" and had bashed him over his head with a teapot.
Flynn blamed an excess of whiskey for his actions and vowed not to take another drop. He had spent all Christmas in custody and was now bound over for six months.
Drinking over the holiday period was James Lyon's excuse for raiding Thatto Heath Labour Club.
The miner from Cairn Street appeared in the Boxing Day court charged with breaking and entering the club and stealing 77 packets of cigarettes, a quantity of matches and the sum of 15s 10d.
Not a huge haul, with their total value coming to less than £2. But there was also a broken window at the rear of the premises that needed replacing.
That was how Lyon had made his entry but the man said he could remember nothing of what had occurred, telling the police: "I cannot recollect being in, I was drunk".
However, despite his alleged intoxication, Lyon had had the presence of mind to stash his ill-gotten gains in mattresses and up his chimney. Asked to account for them, he said: "What can I say? They are there."
Supt. Dunn told the magistrates that the police believed that Lyon had not been alone on the night and requested a remand in order to investigate further.
Some Christmas charity was shown in court to Margaret Birkett who was charged in the Boxing Day court with being drunk and incapable in Bridge Street.
Sgt. Latham gave evidence that he had found the woman in a helpless condition in a doorway.
However, Mrs. Birkett denied the charge, claiming she had fallen after coming out of the cinema, which had stunned her for a while.
Of course, the police had a lot of experience dealing with drunks and their excuses – and so had the magistrates.
But it was Christmas and so the Bench dismissed the charge, preferring to give Mrs Birkett a warning instead. She left the court remarking that she had not yet lost her good name.
The police did then take minor crimes very seriously. At St Helens Juvenile Court on the 26th a youth called Thomas Glynn was charged with stealing 2 shillings by "mis-delivery", as it was curiously called.
Glynn was selling penny football papers in the street and another unnamed lad bought one from him. However, instead of tendering 1d, he had somehow handed over 2s 1d.
It was a while before he realised that he had handed over two bob too much but Thomas Glynn strenuously denied having received the extra florin.
The police were called in and Glynn continued with his denials. However, after what was probably a stringent interrogation, he eventually caved in and admitted keeping the two shillings.
He should have said he'd assumed it was a tip! Thomas Glynn was fined ten shillings.
Just before the Christmas break, the St Helens Medical Officer of Health, Dr Hauxwell, had released his annual report for 1921.
Generally speaking the health of the residents was improving with death rates and child mortality rates at their lowest ever. St Helens had also been "remarkably free" from the main epidemic diseases.
"Housing conditions are still very bad. Many houses at present occupied are in such a condition that under normal circumstances they should be closed as insanitary.
"During the present shortage of houses it is impossible to do so, and it is only by the exercise of much patience and persuasion that they are made at all habitable.
"Serious overcrowding is also very prevalent, but here again it has been deemed inadvisable to enforce statutory powers.
"The need for more houses in St. Helens is urgent. According to the housing survey of 1919 there were (excluding “unhealthy areas”) at that time 2,387 persons inhabiting 410 houses which were not and could not be made fit for human habitation. The number of such houses cannot be less today.
"The result has been (1) that overcrowding exists to a very serious extent, and (2) a very large number of people are living in houses which should be closed as insanitary. The evil effect on the health of these people is undoubted."
Cllr. Thomas Hamblett was the chairman of the St Helens Education Elementary Committee and he appealed to parents in the Reporter not to automatically let their boys quit school upon reaching 14:
"Over nine hundred boys who have left St. Helens schools during the last two years are out of work. At the same time, other boys are leaving school and swelling the numbers of the unemployed.
"I appeal to all parents to allow their boys to remain at school as long as possible, and particularly to leave them at school until they have obtained regular and suitable employment."
On the 27th the inquest was held on Florence Thompson, whose body had been found lying in a small stream of water only 1½-inches deep.
The 43-year-old widow's unusual death at Sherdley Glassworks was believed to have been the cause of a rumour that had spread through the town over Christmas that a woman had been murdered.
Margaret Almond of Waterdale Crescent was the mother of the deceased and told the inquest that her daughter was a widow with three children. "She was a delicate woman, suffering from general weakness and anaemia," she said.
Florence's sister Alice McLarry told the coroner that the pair had spent last Friday evening in St Helens undertaking Christmas shopping.
They had walked together into the town and stopped at the White Hart in Church Street to enjoy a gill of beer.
Alice and Florence then strolled about the town and market until 9:30pm when Alice boarded a tram home leaving her sister at the corner of Shaw Street and Church Street.
Florence had said that she was not yet ready to go home but would have another walk around the town first.
Alice told the hearing that had been the last time she'd seen her sister whose body was found in the stream on the following morning.
However, the woman had not drowned and Dr Unsworth told the inquest that after conducting a post-mortem, he had concluded that Mrs Thompson had died of heart failure, probably accelerated by exposure to cold. So the jury brought in a verdict of death from natural causes.
Just what she had been doing roaming about Sherdley Glassworks, would, however, never be known.
On the 29th the St Helens Esperanto Society held a Christmas party at the Broadway Café in Church Street with over 40 people in attendance.
What language they spoke in during the event was not stated but apparently "merry Christmas" in Esperanto is "feliĉan Kristnaskon", which does not exactly trip off the tongue.
On January 1st the Liverpool Echo described an attempted embezzlement at Sutton Manor Colliery by a trade union official.
Joseph Freeman of Forest Road was treasurer of the local branch and had claimed that his house had been burgled and £126 stolen from his safe.
Upon being questioned by the police he eventually admitted making up the story, saying:
"When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done."
Joseph Freeman appeared before the magistrates on the 1st and was remanded in custody for a week in order that his books could be audited.
And finally, the New Year breakfasts for the newsboys and other poor children of St Helens were held on the 1st.
The St Helens Reporter's review of the annual event will be posted here next week.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will also include the cheating bankrupt from Lowe Street, the mass coal stealing from Sherdley Colliery and the Eccleston flying club official who was accused of embezzling members' money.