IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (27th SEPT. - 3rd OCT. 1921)
This week's many stories include the St Helens rats resistant to poison, the unilluminated "sharry" driver in Thatto Heath, the illegal St Helens Junction market, the St Helens miner who wanted to pay a fine over 14 years, the stalemate in St Helens Corporation's work relief programme in Clock Face and the severe child poverty in Liverpool.
I begin with a report in the Guardian from September 27th that said the rats of St Helens were proving resistant to poison. The town's medical officer of health had described how a live rat in a cage had been fed poison over a period of eight days and was still alive and apparently in good health. By far the best results in getting rid of rats, he said, came through using dogs and ferrets. St Helens Corporation's war on rats had begun two years earlier after the rodents had overrun parts of the town, including Liverpool Road, Station Road and Parr.
There was more evidence in court on the 27th of the severe housing crisis and the consequent overcrowding of homes. And also the stupidity of some people in not paying their rent when fully able to do so. That meant after being evicted, they had the difficult dilemma of finding somewhere else to live. The case was an application for the ejectment of a Mrs McMahon from her home in Market Place in Prescot.
The landlord's solicitor told the hearing that the house consisted of two small rooms and was occupied by twelve or thirteen persons, including a female lodger and her child. The defendant was in receipt of a pension worth £3 4s a week and also received an extra 10s from one of her sons. Clearly the people lodging in Mrs McMahon's home would likely have been paying her money too – but from May until the end of August, she had paid just one week's rent to her landlord and was £10 in arrears. The woman was ordered to quit her home within two months – which was becoming the standard notice period during the housing crisis.
On the 28th at St Helens County Court in East Street (pictured above), William Hughes brought an action against a young miner called Patrick Gallagher for inflicting such injury to his eye that he was off work for five weeks. The trouble had begun late one Saturday evening in July when Gallagher in a drunken state had insulted a young woman. Hughes interfered and he and Gallagher came to blows. On the following day Gallagher went round to Hughes's house and started fighting with his son.
The father then came out of the house and was struck violently in an eye, seemingly by something in his assailant's hand. The judge described it as a "most brutal and violent assault" and awarded Hughes a total of £25 damages and costs. That was a lot of money and somewhat cheekily Hughes offered to pay it off at 3 shillings a month. That would have taken him nearly 14 years to pay off the amount! The judge was having none of that and said the payments needed to be at least £1 a month.
"Cinema For Lunatics" was the headline to a short piece in the Manchester Evening News on the 29th in which Rainhill Hospital was made to sound like a holiday camp: "Reporting on a visit to Rainhill Asylum at Ashton Board of Guardians meeting, to-day, Mr. Clarke said people had a wrong impression of asylums. At Rainhill they had tennis and croquet for the females and bowls for the males. In the asylum there was a theatre, which was now being converted into a cinema."
In October 1919 St Helens Corporation had taken over the running of the tramways from a private operator – but had got off to a difficult start. Passengers were not happy with the changes made to stops and schedules and the prices of fares had risen. Ticket evasion had also been on the increase with the prosecuting solicitor in one court case telling the Bench that there was a "prevalent idea in St. Helens to travel free on the tramways."
A grant of £19,000 from the rates had been required to get the system on its feet but on the 29th it was announced that the tramways were now a paying concern. The Finance Committee of St Helens Council stated that the trams required no more subsidies and they also announced that the rates were being frozen – at least for the next six months. That was because the council had introduced many economies and the rates would continue to be levied at 18s 6d in the pound. During the year 1913-14 the St Helens rates had been just 7s 9d in the pound but they had shot up rapidly during the war as inflation took hold.
It was quite understandable that shopkeepers did not appreciate fly-by-night traders turning up on their patch and competing against them without having to pay any overheads, such as rates. That led to a draper called Frank Taylor being summoned to St Helens Police Court on the 30th for selling without a market permit. Inspector Bowden complained that Taylor and three other men had some weeks ago turned up on some waste ground in St Helens Junction and started their own market.
They claimed to have permission from the landowner, which turned out to be untrue. Upon being told that they needed to pay the "usual toll to the Corporation" – i.e. purchase a market permit – they said they would defy the authorities. The inspector added that local tradespeople "complained very much about these men from Manchester coming to the district and flooding it with cheap goods without paying any rates or dues whatsoever." Taylor who did not show up for the hearing was fined 20 shillings or 14 days in prison.
The St Helens Reporter described on the 30th another court appearance from Claude Fillingham. We came across the young man twelve months ago when prosecuted for not illuminating his motorcycle and sidecar with a red rear light. Fillingham then told the Bench that his lady passenger "must have sat on the gas connecting tube" and he was fined 5 shillings. He had now graduated to charabanc driver but still had problems with rear lights, as described by the Reporter:
"Claude Charles Fillingham, 46, Crab-street, was summoned, for driving a motor car with an unilluminated rear identification plate. P.C. Cartlidge said that at 10:30 p.m. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, and saw the defendant Claude driving a motor coach without the rear identification plate being illuminated. The witness [constable] blew his whistle. Claude Fillingham was very impudent. Claude: I was? Witness: Yes, you were. Claude: Oh, no! You said you blew your whistle, but no one in the “sharry” heard it. There was no one there who would tell a lie because they are very religious.
"The constable again went into the witness box and said that when he was talking to Claude his brother Sydney came up, and said it was time witness had something else to do. He was very impudent and told witness, among other things, that the St. Helens Police Court wanted blowing up. It was nice to be reported for a thing like that. Claude Fillingham was fined 10s."
On October 1st the Guardian updated its readers on the stalemate in St Helens Council's programme of work relief for the unemployed. The 110 men engaged on an improvement scheme in Clock Face Road had stopped work because they were only being paid at the rate of 1 shilling an hour, whereas the usual St Helens Corporation labourer rate was 1s 2½d per hour. The work relief scheme was run by the council but funded by a Government grant. Separately, the Prescot Guardians from their office in St Mary's Street provided cash or food vouchers to the destitute – but single, unemployed men were normally excluded. The Guardian reported "lively scenes" inside the Town Hall as a deputation discussed the dispute with the Mayor. They added:
"Able bodied men stand in queues outside the Relief Office waiting their turns to apply for Poor Law relief, and the [Prescot] Guardians have now decided to refuse relief to those, who have declined to work [at Clock Face]. At the meeting of the Guardians an unemployed deputation appeared, and a motion to admit them was lost, but three of the deputation entered the Boardroom. They were at once acquainted with the decision of the Board and asked to retire. This they refused to do, upon which a number of the Guardians left the room, and as there was not a quorum of members left, the meeting was abandoned."
The war memorials continued to be unveiled. On the 2nd it was the turn of the Ormskirk Street Congregational Church (where NatWest Bank now stands). The Reporter described their large tablet – in memory of 51 worshippers who had lost their lives in the conflict – as a "very beautiful work of art".
This week's "and finally" bonus item from the Echo is a disturbing one about the unemployment crisis and resulting poverty which could be seen on the streets of Liverpool: "A pathetic indication of the acute poverty prevailing in Liverpool to-day as a concomitant of unemployment and under-employment is seen in the increased number of barefooted children attending school or at play in the streets of the poorer parts of the city. Social workers and others who have observed this index of distress declare that they have not known things so bad in the city for many years.
"At one of the largest boys' schools in the city where 560 scholars are on the roll, no fewer than 53 turned up last week without footwear of any description. “I suppose things will be worse this week,” said the headmaster to an “Echo” reporter to-day. “Previous to the war, if I had ten barefooted boys coming to this school it was remarkable. During the twenty-three years I have been headmaster of this school I have never known anything approaching the present state of affairs in this respect.”
"And this particular school used to be looked upon as on a higher plane than many others in the city with regard to the domestic comfort of the scholars. As the boys were leaving school in the dinner hour today it was noticed that the barefooted ones ranged in age from seven to fourteen. Many of them were otherwise tidily clad, but their clothing was suggestive of a hard struggle to make ends meet. Big demands are being made on charitable agencies in the city which provide footwear and clothing for necessitous children.
"Some of these are apparently finding the demand overtaxing their resources, for whereas the school referred to above used to receive annually about 50 pairs of clogs, the number received latterly has shown a falling off. There is also a big increase to-day in the number of children attending various schools who are provided with free mid-day meals. Child beggars, too, it is stated are appearing on the streets."
And finally, finally, my quote of the week has to go to the unnamed man who appeared this week at the Dale Street Police Court in Liverpool on a charge of assaulting his wife. The Echo said he had bitterly complained to a police officer that: "You can't hit your wife in the mouth nowadays without being locked up.”!
Next week's stories will include the baby abandoned at the side of a Rainford road, a settlement of the Clock Face work relief dispute, more street betting in Sutton and a coroner criticises St Helens roads as unfit to cope with heavy motor wagons.
I begin with a report in the Guardian from September 27th that said the rats of St Helens were proving resistant to poison. The town's medical officer of health had described how a live rat in a cage had been fed poison over a period of eight days and was still alive and apparently in good health. By far the best results in getting rid of rats, he said, came through using dogs and ferrets. St Helens Corporation's war on rats had begun two years earlier after the rodents had overrun parts of the town, including Liverpool Road, Station Road and Parr.
There was more evidence in court on the 27th of the severe housing crisis and the consequent overcrowding of homes. And also the stupidity of some people in not paying their rent when fully able to do so. That meant after being evicted, they had the difficult dilemma of finding somewhere else to live. The case was an application for the ejectment of a Mrs McMahon from her home in Market Place in Prescot.
The landlord's solicitor told the hearing that the house consisted of two small rooms and was occupied by twelve or thirteen persons, including a female lodger and her child. The defendant was in receipt of a pension worth £3 4s a week and also received an extra 10s from one of her sons. Clearly the people lodging in Mrs McMahon's home would likely have been paying her money too – but from May until the end of August, she had paid just one week's rent to her landlord and was £10 in arrears. The woman was ordered to quit her home within two months – which was becoming the standard notice period during the housing crisis.
The father then came out of the house and was struck violently in an eye, seemingly by something in his assailant's hand. The judge described it as a "most brutal and violent assault" and awarded Hughes a total of £25 damages and costs. That was a lot of money and somewhat cheekily Hughes offered to pay it off at 3 shillings a month. That would have taken him nearly 14 years to pay off the amount! The judge was having none of that and said the payments needed to be at least £1 a month.
"Cinema For Lunatics" was the headline to a short piece in the Manchester Evening News on the 29th in which Rainhill Hospital was made to sound like a holiday camp: "Reporting on a visit to Rainhill Asylum at Ashton Board of Guardians meeting, to-day, Mr. Clarke said people had a wrong impression of asylums. At Rainhill they had tennis and croquet for the females and bowls for the males. In the asylum there was a theatre, which was now being converted into a cinema."
In October 1919 St Helens Corporation had taken over the running of the tramways from a private operator – but had got off to a difficult start. Passengers were not happy with the changes made to stops and schedules and the prices of fares had risen. Ticket evasion had also been on the increase with the prosecuting solicitor in one court case telling the Bench that there was a "prevalent idea in St. Helens to travel free on the tramways."
A grant of £19,000 from the rates had been required to get the system on its feet but on the 29th it was announced that the tramways were now a paying concern. The Finance Committee of St Helens Council stated that the trams required no more subsidies and they also announced that the rates were being frozen – at least for the next six months. That was because the council had introduced many economies and the rates would continue to be levied at 18s 6d in the pound. During the year 1913-14 the St Helens rates had been just 7s 9d in the pound but they had shot up rapidly during the war as inflation took hold.
It was quite understandable that shopkeepers did not appreciate fly-by-night traders turning up on their patch and competing against them without having to pay any overheads, such as rates. That led to a draper called Frank Taylor being summoned to St Helens Police Court on the 30th for selling without a market permit. Inspector Bowden complained that Taylor and three other men had some weeks ago turned up on some waste ground in St Helens Junction and started their own market.
They claimed to have permission from the landowner, which turned out to be untrue. Upon being told that they needed to pay the "usual toll to the Corporation" – i.e. purchase a market permit – they said they would defy the authorities. The inspector added that local tradespeople "complained very much about these men from Manchester coming to the district and flooding it with cheap goods without paying any rates or dues whatsoever." Taylor who did not show up for the hearing was fined 20 shillings or 14 days in prison.
The St Helens Reporter described on the 30th another court appearance from Claude Fillingham. We came across the young man twelve months ago when prosecuted for not illuminating his motorcycle and sidecar with a red rear light. Fillingham then told the Bench that his lady passenger "must have sat on the gas connecting tube" and he was fined 5 shillings. He had now graduated to charabanc driver but still had problems with rear lights, as described by the Reporter:
"Claude Charles Fillingham, 46, Crab-street, was summoned, for driving a motor car with an unilluminated rear identification plate. P.C. Cartlidge said that at 10:30 p.m. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, and saw the defendant Claude driving a motor coach without the rear identification plate being illuminated. The witness [constable] blew his whistle. Claude Fillingham was very impudent. Claude: I was? Witness: Yes, you were. Claude: Oh, no! You said you blew your whistle, but no one in the “sharry” heard it. There was no one there who would tell a lie because they are very religious.
"The constable again went into the witness box and said that when he was talking to Claude his brother Sydney came up, and said it was time witness had something else to do. He was very impudent and told witness, among other things, that the St. Helens Police Court wanted blowing up. It was nice to be reported for a thing like that. Claude Fillingham was fined 10s."
On October 1st the Guardian updated its readers on the stalemate in St Helens Council's programme of work relief for the unemployed. The 110 men engaged on an improvement scheme in Clock Face Road had stopped work because they were only being paid at the rate of 1 shilling an hour, whereas the usual St Helens Corporation labourer rate was 1s 2½d per hour. The work relief scheme was run by the council but funded by a Government grant. Separately, the Prescot Guardians from their office in St Mary's Street provided cash or food vouchers to the destitute – but single, unemployed men were normally excluded. The Guardian reported "lively scenes" inside the Town Hall as a deputation discussed the dispute with the Mayor. They added:
"Able bodied men stand in queues outside the Relief Office waiting their turns to apply for Poor Law relief, and the [Prescot] Guardians have now decided to refuse relief to those, who have declined to work [at Clock Face]. At the meeting of the Guardians an unemployed deputation appeared, and a motion to admit them was lost, but three of the deputation entered the Boardroom. They were at once acquainted with the decision of the Board and asked to retire. This they refused to do, upon which a number of the Guardians left the room, and as there was not a quorum of members left, the meeting was abandoned."
The war memorials continued to be unveiled. On the 2nd it was the turn of the Ormskirk Street Congregational Church (where NatWest Bank now stands). The Reporter described their large tablet – in memory of 51 worshippers who had lost their lives in the conflict – as a "very beautiful work of art".
This week's "and finally" bonus item from the Echo is a disturbing one about the unemployment crisis and resulting poverty which could be seen on the streets of Liverpool: "A pathetic indication of the acute poverty prevailing in Liverpool to-day as a concomitant of unemployment and under-employment is seen in the increased number of barefooted children attending school or at play in the streets of the poorer parts of the city. Social workers and others who have observed this index of distress declare that they have not known things so bad in the city for many years.
"At one of the largest boys' schools in the city where 560 scholars are on the roll, no fewer than 53 turned up last week without footwear of any description. “I suppose things will be worse this week,” said the headmaster to an “Echo” reporter to-day. “Previous to the war, if I had ten barefooted boys coming to this school it was remarkable. During the twenty-three years I have been headmaster of this school I have never known anything approaching the present state of affairs in this respect.”
"And this particular school used to be looked upon as on a higher plane than many others in the city with regard to the domestic comfort of the scholars. As the boys were leaving school in the dinner hour today it was noticed that the barefooted ones ranged in age from seven to fourteen. Many of them were otherwise tidily clad, but their clothing was suggestive of a hard struggle to make ends meet. Big demands are being made on charitable agencies in the city which provide footwear and clothing for necessitous children.
"Some of these are apparently finding the demand overtaxing their resources, for whereas the school referred to above used to receive annually about 50 pairs of clogs, the number received latterly has shown a falling off. There is also a big increase to-day in the number of children attending various schools who are provided with free mid-day meals. Child beggars, too, it is stated are appearing on the streets."
And finally, finally, my quote of the week has to go to the unnamed man who appeared this week at the Dale Street Police Court in Liverpool on a charge of assaulting his wife. The Echo said he had bitterly complained to a police officer that: "You can't hit your wife in the mouth nowadays without being locked up.”!
Next week's stories will include the baby abandoned at the side of a Rainford road, a settlement of the Clock Face work relief dispute, more street betting in Sutton and a coroner criticises St Helens roads as unfit to cope with heavy motor wagons.
This week's many stories include the St Helens rats resistant to poison, the unilluminated "sharry" driver in Thatto Heath, the illegal St Helens Junction market, the St Helens miner who wanted to pay a fine over 14 years, the stalemate in St Helens Corporation's work relief programme in Clock Face and the severe child poverty in Liverpool.
I begin with a report in the Guardian from September 27th that said the rats of St Helens were proving resistant to poison.
The town's medical officer of health had described how a live rat in a cage had been fed poison over a period of eight days and was still alive and apparently in good health.
By far the best results in getting rid of rats, he said, came through using dogs and ferrets.
St Helens Corporation's war on rats had begun two years earlier after the rodents had overrun parts of the town, including Liverpool Road, Station Road and Parr.
There was more evidence in court on the 27th of the severe housing crisis and the consequent overcrowding of homes.
And also the stupidity of some people in not paying their rent when fully able to do so. That meant after being evicted, they had the difficult dilemma of finding somewhere else to live.
The case was an application for the ejectment of a Mrs McMahon from her home in Market Place in Prescot.
The landlord's solicitor told the hearing that the house consisted of two small rooms and was occupied by twelve or thirteen persons, including a female lodger and her child.
The defendant was in receipt of a pension worth £3 4s a week and also received an extra 10s from one of her sons.
Clearly the people lodging in Mrs McMahon's home would likely have been paying her money too – but from May until the end of August, she had paid just one week's rent to her landlord and was £10 in arrears.
The woman was ordered to quit her home within two months – which was becoming the standard notice period during the housing crisis.
On the 28th at St Helens County Court in East Street (pictured above), William Hughes brought an action against a young miner called Patrick Gallagher for inflicting such injury to his eye that he was off work for five weeks.
The trouble had begun late one Saturday evening in July when Gallagher in a drunken state had insulted a young woman.
Hughes interfered and he and Gallagher came to blows. On the following day Gallagher went round to Hughes's house and started fighting with his son.
The father then came out of the house and was struck violently in an eye, seemingly by something in his assailant's hand.
The judge described it as a "most brutal and violent assault" and awarded Hughes a total of £25 damages and costs.
That was a lot of money and somewhat cheekily Hughes offered to pay it off at 3 shillings a month. That would have taken him nearly 14 years to pay off the amount!
The judge was having none of that and said the payments needed to be at least £1 a month.
"Cinema For Lunatics" was the headline to a short piece in the Manchester Evening News on the 29th in which Rainhill Hospital was made to sound like a holiday camp:
"Reporting on a visit to Rainhill Asylum at Ashton Board of Guardians meeting, to-day, Mr. Clarke said people had a wrong impression of asylums.
"At Rainhill they had tennis and croquet for the females and bowls for the males. In the asylum there was a theatre, which was now being converted into a cinema."
In October 1919 St Helens Corporation had taken over the running of the tramways from a private operator – but had got off to a difficult start.
Passengers were not happy with the changes made to stops and schedules and the prices of fares had risen.
Ticket evasion had also been on the increase with the prosecuting solicitor in one court case telling the Bench that there was a "prevalent idea in St. Helens to travel free on the tramways."
A grant of £19,000 from the rates had been required to get the system on its feet but on the 29th it was announced that the tramways were now a paying concern.
The Finance Committee of St Helens Council stated that the trams required no more subsidies and they also announced that the rates were being frozen – at least for the next six months.
That was because the council had introduced many economies and the rates would continue to be levied at 18s 6d in the pound.
During the year 1913-14 the St Helens rates had been just 7s 9d in the pound but they had shot up rapidly during the war as inflation took hold.
It was quite understandable that shopkeepers did not appreciate fly-by-night traders turning up on their patch and competing against them without having to pay any overheads, such as rates.
That led to a draper called Frank Taylor being summoned to St Helens Police Court on the 30th for selling without a market permit.
Inspector Bowden complained that Taylor and three other men had some weeks ago turned up on some waste ground in St Helens Junction and started their own market.
They claimed to have permission from the landowner, which turned out to be untrue.
Upon being told that they needed to pay the "usual toll to the Corporation" – i.e. purchase a market permit – they said they would defy the authorities.
The inspector added that local tradespeople "complained very much about these men from Manchester coming to the district and flooding it with cheap goods without paying any rates or dues whatsoever."
Taylor who did not show up for the hearing was fined 20 shillings or 14 days in prison.
The St Helens Reporter described on the 30th another court appearance from Claude Fillingham.
We came across the young man twelve months ago when prosecuted for not illuminating his motorcycle and sidecar with a red rear light.
Fillingham then told the Bench that his lady passenger "must have sat on the gas connecting tube" and he was fined 5 shillings.
He had now graduated to charabanc driver but still had problems with rear lights, as described by the Reporter:
"Claude Charles Fillingham, 46, Crab-street, was summoned, for driving a motor car with an unilluminated rear identification plate.
"P.C. Cartlidge said that at 10:30 p.m. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, and saw the defendant Claude driving a motor coach without the rear identification plate being illuminated.
"The witness [constable] blew his whistle. Claude Fillingham was very impudent.
"Claude: I was? Witness: Yes, you were. Claude: Oh, no! You said you blew your whistle, but no one in the “sharry” heard it. There was no one there who would tell a lie because they are very religious.
"The constable again went into the witness box and said that when he was talking to Claude his brother Sydney came up, and said it was time witness had something else to do.
"He was very impudent and told witness, among other things, that the St. Helens Police Court wanted blowing up. It was nice to be reported for a thing like that. Claude Fillingham was fined 10s."
On October 1st the Guardian updated its readers on the stalemate in St Helens Council's programme of work relief for the unemployed.
The 110 men engaged on an improvement scheme in Clock Face Road had stopped work because they were only being paid at the rate of 1 shilling an hour, whereas the usual St Helens Corporation labourer rate was 1s 2½d per hour.
The work relief scheme was run by the council but funded by a Government grant. Separately, the Prescot Guardians from their office in St Mary's Street provided cash or food vouchers to the destitute – but single, unemployed men were normally excluded.
The Guardian reported "lively scenes" inside the Town Hall as a deputation discussed the dispute with the Mayor. They added:
"Able bodied men stand in queues outside the Relief Office waiting their turns to apply for Poor Law relief, and the [Prescot] Guardians have now decided to refuse relief to those, who have declined to work [at Clock Face].
"At the meeting of the Guardians an unemployed deputation appeared, and a motion to admit them was lost, but three of the deputation entered the Boardroom.
"They were at once acquainted with the decision of the Board and asked to retire. This they refused to do, upon which a number of the Guardians left the room, and as there was not a quorum of members left, the meeting was abandoned."
The war memorials continued to be unveiled. On the 2nd it was the turn of the Ormskirk Street Congregational Church (where NatWest Bank now stands).
The Reporter described their large tablet – in memory of 51 worshippers who had lost their lives in the conflict – as a "very beautiful work of art".
This week's "and finally" bonus item from the Echo is a disturbing one about the unemployment crisis and resulting poverty which could be seen on the streets of Liverpool:
"A pathetic indication of the acute poverty prevailing in Liverpool to-day as a concomitant of unemployment and under-employment is seen in the increased number of barefooted children attending school or at play in the streets of the poorer parts of the city.
"Social workers and others who have observed this index of distress declare that they have not known things so bad in the city for many years.
"At one of the largest boys' schools in the city where 560 scholars are on the roll, no fewer than 53 turned up last week without footwear of any description.
"“I suppose things will be worse this week,” said the headmaster to an “Echo” reporter to-day. “Previous to the war, if I had ten barefooted boys coming to this school it was remarkable.
"“During the twenty-three years I have been headmaster of this school I have never known anything approaching the present state of affairs in this respect.”
"And this particular school used to be looked upon as on a higher plane than many others in the city with regard to the domestic comfort of the scholars.
"As the boys were leaving school in the dinner hour today it was noticed that the barefooted ones ranged in age from seven to fourteen. Many of them were otherwise tidily clad, but their clothing was suggestive of a hard struggle to make ends meet.
"Big demands are being made on charitable agencies in the city which provide footwear and clothing for necessitous children.
"Some of these are apparently finding the demand overtaxing their resources, for whereas the school referred to above used to receive annually about 50 pairs of clogs, the number received latterly has shown a falling off.
"There is also a big increase to-day in the number of children attending various schools who are provided with free mid-day meals. Child beggars, too, it is stated are appearing on the streets."
And finally, finally, my quote of the week has to go to the unnamed man who appeared this week at the Dale Street Police Court in Liverpool on a charge of assaulting his wife. The Echo said he had bitterly complained to a police officer that:
"You can't hit your wife in the mouth nowadays without being locked up.”!
Next week's stories will include the baby abandoned at the side of a Rainford road, a settlement of the Clock Face work relief dispute, more street betting in Sutton and a coroner criticises St Helens roads as unfit to cope with heavy motor wagons.
I begin with a report in the Guardian from September 27th that said the rats of St Helens were proving resistant to poison.
The town's medical officer of health had described how a live rat in a cage had been fed poison over a period of eight days and was still alive and apparently in good health.
By far the best results in getting rid of rats, he said, came through using dogs and ferrets.
St Helens Corporation's war on rats had begun two years earlier after the rodents had overrun parts of the town, including Liverpool Road, Station Road and Parr.
There was more evidence in court on the 27th of the severe housing crisis and the consequent overcrowding of homes.
And also the stupidity of some people in not paying their rent when fully able to do so. That meant after being evicted, they had the difficult dilemma of finding somewhere else to live.
The case was an application for the ejectment of a Mrs McMahon from her home in Market Place in Prescot.
The landlord's solicitor told the hearing that the house consisted of two small rooms and was occupied by twelve or thirteen persons, including a female lodger and her child.
The defendant was in receipt of a pension worth £3 4s a week and also received an extra 10s from one of her sons.
Clearly the people lodging in Mrs McMahon's home would likely have been paying her money too – but from May until the end of August, she had paid just one week's rent to her landlord and was £10 in arrears.
The woman was ordered to quit her home within two months – which was becoming the standard notice period during the housing crisis.
The trouble had begun late one Saturday evening in July when Gallagher in a drunken state had insulted a young woman.
Hughes interfered and he and Gallagher came to blows. On the following day Gallagher went round to Hughes's house and started fighting with his son.
The father then came out of the house and was struck violently in an eye, seemingly by something in his assailant's hand.
The judge described it as a "most brutal and violent assault" and awarded Hughes a total of £25 damages and costs.
That was a lot of money and somewhat cheekily Hughes offered to pay it off at 3 shillings a month. That would have taken him nearly 14 years to pay off the amount!
The judge was having none of that and said the payments needed to be at least £1 a month.
"Cinema For Lunatics" was the headline to a short piece in the Manchester Evening News on the 29th in which Rainhill Hospital was made to sound like a holiday camp:
"Reporting on a visit to Rainhill Asylum at Ashton Board of Guardians meeting, to-day, Mr. Clarke said people had a wrong impression of asylums.
"At Rainhill they had tennis and croquet for the females and bowls for the males. In the asylum there was a theatre, which was now being converted into a cinema."
In October 1919 St Helens Corporation had taken over the running of the tramways from a private operator – but had got off to a difficult start.
Passengers were not happy with the changes made to stops and schedules and the prices of fares had risen.
Ticket evasion had also been on the increase with the prosecuting solicitor in one court case telling the Bench that there was a "prevalent idea in St. Helens to travel free on the tramways."
A grant of £19,000 from the rates had been required to get the system on its feet but on the 29th it was announced that the tramways were now a paying concern.
The Finance Committee of St Helens Council stated that the trams required no more subsidies and they also announced that the rates were being frozen – at least for the next six months.
That was because the council had introduced many economies and the rates would continue to be levied at 18s 6d in the pound.
During the year 1913-14 the St Helens rates had been just 7s 9d in the pound but they had shot up rapidly during the war as inflation took hold.
It was quite understandable that shopkeepers did not appreciate fly-by-night traders turning up on their patch and competing against them without having to pay any overheads, such as rates.
That led to a draper called Frank Taylor being summoned to St Helens Police Court on the 30th for selling without a market permit.
Inspector Bowden complained that Taylor and three other men had some weeks ago turned up on some waste ground in St Helens Junction and started their own market.
They claimed to have permission from the landowner, which turned out to be untrue.
Upon being told that they needed to pay the "usual toll to the Corporation" – i.e. purchase a market permit – they said they would defy the authorities.
The inspector added that local tradespeople "complained very much about these men from Manchester coming to the district and flooding it with cheap goods without paying any rates or dues whatsoever."
Taylor who did not show up for the hearing was fined 20 shillings or 14 days in prison.
The St Helens Reporter described on the 30th another court appearance from Claude Fillingham.
We came across the young man twelve months ago when prosecuted for not illuminating his motorcycle and sidecar with a red rear light.
Fillingham then told the Bench that his lady passenger "must have sat on the gas connecting tube" and he was fined 5 shillings.
He had now graduated to charabanc driver but still had problems with rear lights, as described by the Reporter:
"Claude Charles Fillingham, 46, Crab-street, was summoned, for driving a motor car with an unilluminated rear identification plate.
"P.C. Cartlidge said that at 10:30 p.m. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, and saw the defendant Claude driving a motor coach without the rear identification plate being illuminated.
"The witness [constable] blew his whistle. Claude Fillingham was very impudent.
"Claude: I was? Witness: Yes, you were. Claude: Oh, no! You said you blew your whistle, but no one in the “sharry” heard it. There was no one there who would tell a lie because they are very religious.
"The constable again went into the witness box and said that when he was talking to Claude his brother Sydney came up, and said it was time witness had something else to do.
"He was very impudent and told witness, among other things, that the St. Helens Police Court wanted blowing up. It was nice to be reported for a thing like that. Claude Fillingham was fined 10s."
On October 1st the Guardian updated its readers on the stalemate in St Helens Council's programme of work relief for the unemployed.
The 110 men engaged on an improvement scheme in Clock Face Road had stopped work because they were only being paid at the rate of 1 shilling an hour, whereas the usual St Helens Corporation labourer rate was 1s 2½d per hour.
The work relief scheme was run by the council but funded by a Government grant. Separately, the Prescot Guardians from their office in St Mary's Street provided cash or food vouchers to the destitute – but single, unemployed men were normally excluded.
The Guardian reported "lively scenes" inside the Town Hall as a deputation discussed the dispute with the Mayor. They added:
"Able bodied men stand in queues outside the Relief Office waiting their turns to apply for Poor Law relief, and the [Prescot] Guardians have now decided to refuse relief to those, who have declined to work [at Clock Face].
"At the meeting of the Guardians an unemployed deputation appeared, and a motion to admit them was lost, but three of the deputation entered the Boardroom.
"They were at once acquainted with the decision of the Board and asked to retire. This they refused to do, upon which a number of the Guardians left the room, and as there was not a quorum of members left, the meeting was abandoned."
The war memorials continued to be unveiled. On the 2nd it was the turn of the Ormskirk Street Congregational Church (where NatWest Bank now stands).
The Reporter described their large tablet – in memory of 51 worshippers who had lost their lives in the conflict – as a "very beautiful work of art".
This week's "and finally" bonus item from the Echo is a disturbing one about the unemployment crisis and resulting poverty which could be seen on the streets of Liverpool:
"A pathetic indication of the acute poverty prevailing in Liverpool to-day as a concomitant of unemployment and under-employment is seen in the increased number of barefooted children attending school or at play in the streets of the poorer parts of the city.
"Social workers and others who have observed this index of distress declare that they have not known things so bad in the city for many years.
"At one of the largest boys' schools in the city where 560 scholars are on the roll, no fewer than 53 turned up last week without footwear of any description.
"“I suppose things will be worse this week,” said the headmaster to an “Echo” reporter to-day. “Previous to the war, if I had ten barefooted boys coming to this school it was remarkable.
"“During the twenty-three years I have been headmaster of this school I have never known anything approaching the present state of affairs in this respect.”
"And this particular school used to be looked upon as on a higher plane than many others in the city with regard to the domestic comfort of the scholars.
"As the boys were leaving school in the dinner hour today it was noticed that the barefooted ones ranged in age from seven to fourteen. Many of them were otherwise tidily clad, but their clothing was suggestive of a hard struggle to make ends meet.
"Big demands are being made on charitable agencies in the city which provide footwear and clothing for necessitous children.
"Some of these are apparently finding the demand overtaxing their resources, for whereas the school referred to above used to receive annually about 50 pairs of clogs, the number received latterly has shown a falling off.
"There is also a big increase to-day in the number of children attending various schools who are provided with free mid-day meals. Child beggars, too, it is stated are appearing on the streets."
And finally, finally, my quote of the week has to go to the unnamed man who appeared this week at the Dale Street Police Court in Liverpool on a charge of assaulting his wife. The Echo said he had bitterly complained to a police officer that:
"You can't hit your wife in the mouth nowadays without being locked up.”!
Next week's stories will include the baby abandoned at the side of a Rainford road, a settlement of the Clock Face work relief dispute, more street betting in Sutton and a coroner criticises St Helens roads as unfit to cope with heavy motor wagons.