IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 27 JULY - 2 AUGUST 1926
This week's many stories include the Ashtons Green Colliery raid, the crippled children's annual tea, the County Court dispute over a motorbike insurance claim, the woman who complained her son used language not fit for a Christian to hear and the illegal tree chopping in Bold by 18 men from Burtonwood so they could have a cup of tea.
We begin on the 27th when the Band of the Royal Air Force played in Victoria Park to a small but very appreciative audience. It was described as one of the best musical performances ever heard in St Helens, although the programme had to be curtailed as it was affected by rain.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 27th wrote: "The spectacle of the Black Maria making several journeys to St. Helens today with police officers on board gave rise to quite a crop of sensational rumours of tragedies and colliery riots." However, after making enquiries at the police station, the paper was told that the van had simply been used to bring coal from a Sutton colliery to the Town Hall.
Speaking in St Helens Police Court on the 27th, Superintendent Dunn said: "It is most regrettable that the miners should have smirched the good record of conduct which they have held during the time they have been out on strike." He was referring to a raid by a number of miners on the stores at Ashtons Green Colliery (pictured above) in which coal had been stolen.
This was so-called "safety coal" used to keep the pumps in the pit going, which prevented the mine from being flooded. Supt Dunn said 200 to 300 people had recently done £85 worth of damage in the same district during a similar raid and he asked the magistrates to treat the matter seriously. As a result, Mancell Palfrey and John Topping were both fined £1 and 15 shillings, respectively.
On the same day eighteen men from Burtonwood were charged in St Helens Police Court with raiding a plantation at Bold. They had been discovered armed with saws and hatchets felling timber for use as firewood, as a substitute for coal which was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive.
The men had chopped down over two tons of trees and were cutting them up ready to cart to their homes. Similar damage had been caused to another wood a short distance away. In their defence they said they lived in the country with no gas supply and only wanted bits of wood so they could boil a kettle on their fire. They were fined 12s 6d each.
In St Helens County Court on the 28th, George Rymer, who was described as an insurance superintendent from Dentons Green Lane, sued Arthur Molyneux of College Street for £5. Molyneux had met with a motorbike accident in 1924 and consulted Rymer about his claim. The day before the case was due in court it was settled for £65. But after paying Rymer a 10 shillings deposit he gave him nothing further, claiming that the man had done the consultancy work for him as a favour.
Molyneux said he had given Rymer the 10 bob to have a drink as a thank you for his friend's help. But Judge Dowdall said that although solicitors had been called in, he did not think Molyneux would have got one penny of his claim had it not been for the advice and encouragement of Rymer. Consequently he gave judgment for Molyneux to pay what was now probably his former mate the balance owed.
The overcrowding problem in St Helens was leading to more families ending up in the County Court. Widow Katherine Hurst was described as an old-age pensioner who, in the East Street court, told Judge Dowdall that she wanted her son and his six children out of her house.
She said she had let him have rooms for the past seven years but lately he had become very troublesome, had frequently got drunk and used language that was not fit for a Christian old woman like her to have to hear. "She is telling you a pack of lies," blurted out the son in a not very Christian way!
Judge Dowdall was becoming reluctant to throw families out onto the streets and told the son that if he wanted to remain with his mother he would have to behave himself. The judge said that if Mrs Hurst was still unhappy with her son's behaviour, she could make another application in a month or two.
I don't know how much razors cost 12 months ago but James Lackey of Silver Street in St Helens clearly thought stealing some was worth smashing a shop window. On the 29th he was fined £1 and ordered to pay for the damage he had caused after smashing the window of John Glover's chemist's shop and taking three Gillette safety razors.
It was James Sexton's 70th birthday on the 29th and in interview with the Liverpool Evening Express, the St Helens MP said: "I have had 45 years of experience in the industrial world. I am content to know that I have done my share in the Labour and trade union movement to lift the physical worker out of the land of bondage into the land of promise. Apart from one accident in 1882 in Liverpool docks I have never known a day's illness in my life."
Sexton was also the General Secretary of the Dockers Union and had done much to improve the safety of the dockers after his own experience. His shocking accident in 1882 while unloading a ship had put him off work for six months. Sexton's bosses not only refused to pay him compensation but also made him repay the cost of the horse-drawn taxi that took him to hospital!
Mr Sexton confessed that he did not taste alcohol until he was 60 but had smoked since he had left his Tontine Street home in St Helens at the age of 13 to run away to sea. "I have smoked ever since I was a lad. I was for years before the mast and sailed in windjammers the seven seas over. It was impossible to escape all the vices of the windjammer days, and their virtues were few and far between. Tobacco was my only vice."
On the 29th the annual crippled children's garden party took place at Woodlands in Eccleston Park. That was the home of Alderman James Crooks, who was a big timber merchant – hence the name of his house. During the thirteen years that the event had been held, the sun had always shone and the rain had held off. And so it was in 1926 with the children being transported to Woodlands, served tea and entertained.
The Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street liked to alternate its weekly programmes with revues, cinema screenings or music hall acts. It was the latter from August 2nd with impressionist Wilson Hallett topping the bill. He was described as "the only man who can give a perfect impression of a child". Also performing were Syd Moorhouse ("In song and philosophy"); Benson Gray ("Novelty ventriloquist"); Wyllie ("Gipsy musical act") and The Flying Flacoris ("A flying trapeze and two daring breakaways").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dramatic rescue of a drowning dog at Gillars Green, the turnip thief in St Helens Hospital's garden, the Russian Pole who stole coal to have some tea and St Helens' MP criticises Parliament's long holiday.
We begin on the 27th when the Band of the Royal Air Force played in Victoria Park to a small but very appreciative audience. It was described as one of the best musical performances ever heard in St Helens, although the programme had to be curtailed as it was affected by rain.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 27th wrote: "The spectacle of the Black Maria making several journeys to St. Helens today with police officers on board gave rise to quite a crop of sensational rumours of tragedies and colliery riots." However, after making enquiries at the police station, the paper was told that the van had simply been used to bring coal from a Sutton colliery to the Town Hall.
This was so-called "safety coal" used to keep the pumps in the pit going, which prevented the mine from being flooded. Supt Dunn said 200 to 300 people had recently done £85 worth of damage in the same district during a similar raid and he asked the magistrates to treat the matter seriously. As a result, Mancell Palfrey and John Topping were both fined £1 and 15 shillings, respectively.
On the same day eighteen men from Burtonwood were charged in St Helens Police Court with raiding a plantation at Bold. They had been discovered armed with saws and hatchets felling timber for use as firewood, as a substitute for coal which was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive.
The men had chopped down over two tons of trees and were cutting them up ready to cart to their homes. Similar damage had been caused to another wood a short distance away. In their defence they said they lived in the country with no gas supply and only wanted bits of wood so they could boil a kettle on their fire. They were fined 12s 6d each.
In St Helens County Court on the 28th, George Rymer, who was described as an insurance superintendent from Dentons Green Lane, sued Arthur Molyneux of College Street for £5. Molyneux had met with a motorbike accident in 1924 and consulted Rymer about his claim. The day before the case was due in court it was settled for £65. But after paying Rymer a 10 shillings deposit he gave him nothing further, claiming that the man had done the consultancy work for him as a favour.
Molyneux said he had given Rymer the 10 bob to have a drink as a thank you for his friend's help. But Judge Dowdall said that although solicitors had been called in, he did not think Molyneux would have got one penny of his claim had it not been for the advice and encouragement of Rymer. Consequently he gave judgment for Molyneux to pay what was now probably his former mate the balance owed.
The overcrowding problem in St Helens was leading to more families ending up in the County Court. Widow Katherine Hurst was described as an old-age pensioner who, in the East Street court, told Judge Dowdall that she wanted her son and his six children out of her house.
She said she had let him have rooms for the past seven years but lately he had become very troublesome, had frequently got drunk and used language that was not fit for a Christian old woman like her to have to hear. "She is telling you a pack of lies," blurted out the son in a not very Christian way!
Judge Dowdall was becoming reluctant to throw families out onto the streets and told the son that if he wanted to remain with his mother he would have to behave himself. The judge said that if Mrs Hurst was still unhappy with her son's behaviour, she could make another application in a month or two.
I don't know how much razors cost 12 months ago but James Lackey of Silver Street in St Helens clearly thought stealing some was worth smashing a shop window. On the 29th he was fined £1 and ordered to pay for the damage he had caused after smashing the window of John Glover's chemist's shop and taking three Gillette safety razors.
It was James Sexton's 70th birthday on the 29th and in interview with the Liverpool Evening Express, the St Helens MP said: "I have had 45 years of experience in the industrial world. I am content to know that I have done my share in the Labour and trade union movement to lift the physical worker out of the land of bondage into the land of promise. Apart from one accident in 1882 in Liverpool docks I have never known a day's illness in my life."
Sexton was also the General Secretary of the Dockers Union and had done much to improve the safety of the dockers after his own experience. His shocking accident in 1882 while unloading a ship had put him off work for six months. Sexton's bosses not only refused to pay him compensation but also made him repay the cost of the horse-drawn taxi that took him to hospital!
Mr Sexton confessed that he did not taste alcohol until he was 60 but had smoked since he had left his Tontine Street home in St Helens at the age of 13 to run away to sea. "I have smoked ever since I was a lad. I was for years before the mast and sailed in windjammers the seven seas over. It was impossible to escape all the vices of the windjammer days, and their virtues were few and far between. Tobacco was my only vice."
On the 29th the annual crippled children's garden party took place at Woodlands in Eccleston Park. That was the home of Alderman James Crooks, who was a big timber merchant – hence the name of his house. During the thirteen years that the event had been held, the sun had always shone and the rain had held off. And so it was in 1926 with the children being transported to Woodlands, served tea and entertained.
The Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street liked to alternate its weekly programmes with revues, cinema screenings or music hall acts. It was the latter from August 2nd with impressionist Wilson Hallett topping the bill. He was described as "the only man who can give a perfect impression of a child". Also performing were Syd Moorhouse ("In song and philosophy"); Benson Gray ("Novelty ventriloquist"); Wyllie ("Gipsy musical act") and The Flying Flacoris ("A flying trapeze and two daring breakaways").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dramatic rescue of a drowning dog at Gillars Green, the turnip thief in St Helens Hospital's garden, the Russian Pole who stole coal to have some tea and St Helens' MP criticises Parliament's long holiday.
This week's many stories include the Ashtons Green Colliery raid, the crippled children's annual tea, the County Court dispute over a motorbike insurance claim, the woman who complained her son used language not fit for a Christian to hear and the illegal tree chopping in Bold by 18 men from Burtonwood so they could have a cup of tea.
We begin on the 27th when the Band of the Royal Air Force played in Victoria Park to a small but very appreciative audience.
It was described as one of the best musical performances ever heard in St Helens, although the programme had to be curtailed as it was affected by rain.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 27th wrote: "The spectacle of the Black Maria making several journeys to St. Helens today with police officers on board gave rise to quite a crop of sensational rumours of tragedies and colliery riots."
However, after making enquiries at the police station, the paper was told that the van had simply been used to bring coal from a Sutton colliery to the Town Hall.
Speaking in St Helens Police Court on the 27th, Superintendent Dunn said: "It is most regrettable that the miners should have smirched the good record of conduct which they have held during the time they have been out on strike."
He was referring to a raid by a number of miners on the stores at Ashtons Green Colliery (pictured above) in which coal had been stolen.
This was so-called "safety coal" used to keep the pumps in the pit going, which prevented the mine from being flooded.
Supt Dunn said 200 to 300 people had recently done £85 worth of damage in the same district during a similar raid and he asked the magistrates to treat the matter seriously.
As a result, Mancell Palfrey and John Topping were both fined £1 and 15 shillings, respectively.
On the same day eighteen men from Burtonwood were charged in St Helens Police Court with raiding a plantation at Bold.
They had been discovered armed with saws and hatchets felling timber for use as firewood, as a substitute for coal which was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive.
The men had chopped down over two tons of trees and were cutting them up ready to cart to their homes.
Similar damage had been caused to another wood a short distance away.
In their defence they said they lived in the country with no gas supply and only wanted bits of wood so they could boil a kettle on their fire. They were fined 12s 6d each.
In St Helens County Court on the 28th, George Rymer, who was described as an insurance superintendent from Dentons Green Lane, sued Arthur Molyneux of College Street for £5.
Molyneux had met with a motorbike accident in 1924 and consulted Rymer about his claim. The day before the case was due in court it was settled for £65.
But after paying Rymer a 10 shillings deposit he gave him nothing further, claiming that the man had done the consultancy work for him as a favour.
Molyneux said he had given Rymer the 10 bob to have a drink as a thank you for his friend's help.
But Judge Dowdall said that although solicitors had been called in, he did not think Molyneux would have got one penny of his claim had it not been for the advice and encouragement of Rymer.
Consequently he gave judgment for Molyneux to pay what was now probably his former mate the balance owed.
The overcrowding problem in St Helens was leading to more families ending up in the County Court.
Widow Katherine Hurst was described as an old-age pensioner who, in the East Street court, told Judge Dowdall that she wanted her son and his six children out of her house.
She said she had let him have rooms for the past seven years but lately he had become very troublesome, had frequently got drunk and used language that was not fit for a Christian old woman like her to have to hear.
"She is telling you a pack of lies," blurted out the son in a not very Christian way!
Judge Dowdall was becoming reluctant to throw families out onto the streets and told the son that if he wanted to remain with his mother he would have to behave himself.
The judge said that if Mrs Hurst was still unhappy with her son's behaviour, she could make another application in a month or two.
I don't know how much razors cost 12 months ago but James Lackey of Silver Street in St Helens clearly thought stealing some was worth smashing a shop window.
On the 29th he was fined £1 and ordered to pay for the damage he had caused after smashing the window of John Glover's chemist's shop and taking three Gillette safety razors.
It was James Sexton's 70th birthday on the 29th and in interview with the Liverpool Evening Express, the St Helens MP said:
"I have had 45 years of experience in the industrial world. I am content to know that I have done my share in the Labour and trade union movement to lift the physical worker out of the land of bondage into the land of promise. Apart from one accident in 1882 in Liverpool docks I have never known a day's illness in my life."
Sexton was also the General Secretary of the Dockers Union and had done much to improve the safety of the dockers after his own experience.
His shocking accident in 1882 while unloading a ship had put him off work for six months.
Sexton's bosses not only refused to pay him compensation but also made him repay the cost of the horse-drawn taxi that took him to hospital!
Mr Sexton confessed that he did not taste alcohol until he was 60 but had smoked since he had left his Tontine Street home in St Helens at the age of 13 to run away to sea.
"I have smoked ever since I was a lad. I was for years before the mast and sailed in windjammers the seven seas over. It was impossible to escape all the vices of the windjammer days, and their virtues were few and far between. Tobacco was my only vice."
On the 29th the annual crippled children's garden party took place at Woodlands in Eccleston Park.
That was the home of Alderman James Crooks, who was a big timber merchant – hence the name of his house.
During the thirteen years that the event had been held, the sun had always shone and the rain had held off.
And so it was in 1926 with the children being transported to Woodlands, served tea and entertained.
The Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street liked to alternate its weekly programmes with revues, cinema screenings or music hall acts.
It was the latter from August 2nd with impressionist Wilson Hallett topping the bill.
He was described as "the only man who can give a perfect impression of a child". Also performing were:
Syd Moorhouse ("In song and philosophy"); Benson Gray ("Novelty ventriloquist"); Wyllie ("Gipsy musical act") and The Flying Flacoris ("A flying trapeze and two daring breakaways").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dramatic rescue of a drowning dog at Gillars Green, the turnip thief in St Helens Hospital's garden, the Russian Pole who stole coal to have some tea and St Helens' MP criticises Parliament's long holiday.
We begin on the 27th when the Band of the Royal Air Force played in Victoria Park to a small but very appreciative audience.
It was described as one of the best musical performances ever heard in St Helens, although the programme had to be curtailed as it was affected by rain.
The Liverpool Evening Express on the 27th wrote: "The spectacle of the Black Maria making several journeys to St. Helens today with police officers on board gave rise to quite a crop of sensational rumours of tragedies and colliery riots."
However, after making enquiries at the police station, the paper was told that the van had simply been used to bring coal from a Sutton colliery to the Town Hall.
Speaking in St Helens Police Court on the 27th, Superintendent Dunn said: "It is most regrettable that the miners should have smirched the good record of conduct which they have held during the time they have been out on strike."
This was so-called "safety coal" used to keep the pumps in the pit going, which prevented the mine from being flooded.
Supt Dunn said 200 to 300 people had recently done £85 worth of damage in the same district during a similar raid and he asked the magistrates to treat the matter seriously.
As a result, Mancell Palfrey and John Topping were both fined £1 and 15 shillings, respectively.
On the same day eighteen men from Burtonwood were charged in St Helens Police Court with raiding a plantation at Bold.
They had been discovered armed with saws and hatchets felling timber for use as firewood, as a substitute for coal which was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive.
The men had chopped down over two tons of trees and were cutting them up ready to cart to their homes.
Similar damage had been caused to another wood a short distance away.
In their defence they said they lived in the country with no gas supply and only wanted bits of wood so they could boil a kettle on their fire. They were fined 12s 6d each.
In St Helens County Court on the 28th, George Rymer, who was described as an insurance superintendent from Dentons Green Lane, sued Arthur Molyneux of College Street for £5.
Molyneux had met with a motorbike accident in 1924 and consulted Rymer about his claim. The day before the case was due in court it was settled for £65.
But after paying Rymer a 10 shillings deposit he gave him nothing further, claiming that the man had done the consultancy work for him as a favour.
Molyneux said he had given Rymer the 10 bob to have a drink as a thank you for his friend's help.
But Judge Dowdall said that although solicitors had been called in, he did not think Molyneux would have got one penny of his claim had it not been for the advice and encouragement of Rymer.
Consequently he gave judgment for Molyneux to pay what was now probably his former mate the balance owed.
The overcrowding problem in St Helens was leading to more families ending up in the County Court.
Widow Katherine Hurst was described as an old-age pensioner who, in the East Street court, told Judge Dowdall that she wanted her son and his six children out of her house.
She said she had let him have rooms for the past seven years but lately he had become very troublesome, had frequently got drunk and used language that was not fit for a Christian old woman like her to have to hear.
"She is telling you a pack of lies," blurted out the son in a not very Christian way!
Judge Dowdall was becoming reluctant to throw families out onto the streets and told the son that if he wanted to remain with his mother he would have to behave himself.
The judge said that if Mrs Hurst was still unhappy with her son's behaviour, she could make another application in a month or two.
I don't know how much razors cost 12 months ago but James Lackey of Silver Street in St Helens clearly thought stealing some was worth smashing a shop window.
On the 29th he was fined £1 and ordered to pay for the damage he had caused after smashing the window of John Glover's chemist's shop and taking three Gillette safety razors.
It was James Sexton's 70th birthday on the 29th and in interview with the Liverpool Evening Express, the St Helens MP said:
"I have had 45 years of experience in the industrial world. I am content to know that I have done my share in the Labour and trade union movement to lift the physical worker out of the land of bondage into the land of promise. Apart from one accident in 1882 in Liverpool docks I have never known a day's illness in my life."
Sexton was also the General Secretary of the Dockers Union and had done much to improve the safety of the dockers after his own experience.
His shocking accident in 1882 while unloading a ship had put him off work for six months.
Sexton's bosses not only refused to pay him compensation but also made him repay the cost of the horse-drawn taxi that took him to hospital!
Mr Sexton confessed that he did not taste alcohol until he was 60 but had smoked since he had left his Tontine Street home in St Helens at the age of 13 to run away to sea.
"I have smoked ever since I was a lad. I was for years before the mast and sailed in windjammers the seven seas over. It was impossible to escape all the vices of the windjammer days, and their virtues were few and far between. Tobacco was my only vice."
On the 29th the annual crippled children's garden party took place at Woodlands in Eccleston Park.
That was the home of Alderman James Crooks, who was a big timber merchant – hence the name of his house.
During the thirteen years that the event had been held, the sun had always shone and the rain had held off.
And so it was in 1926 with the children being transported to Woodlands, served tea and entertained.
The Hippodrome Theatre in Corporation Street liked to alternate its weekly programmes with revues, cinema screenings or music hall acts.
It was the latter from August 2nd with impressionist Wilson Hallett topping the bill.
He was described as "the only man who can give a perfect impression of a child". Also performing were:
Syd Moorhouse ("In song and philosophy"); Benson Gray ("Novelty ventriloquist"); Wyllie ("Gipsy musical act") and The Flying Flacoris ("A flying trapeze and two daring breakaways").
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the dramatic rescue of a drowning dog at Gillars Green, the turnip thief in St Helens Hospital's garden, the Russian Pole who stole coal to have some tea and St Helens' MP criticises Parliament's long holiday.