IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (27 NOV - 3 DEC 1923)
This week's many stories include the poachers terrifying farmers in Eccleston, the Merton Bank widow's life insurance theft, the plans to rebuild the Sefton Arms get the green light, the Men's Bible Class anniversary and the unlucky hawker who picked the house of a policeman to flog leftover lino without a licence.
We begin on the 27th in the St Helens County Police Court when James Mason pleaded not guilty to the charge of driving a motor to the public danger. A constable gave evidence of seeing the defendant driving a heavy vehicle towards Prescot. PC Durham said Mason had driven his wagon at a "very high speed" near St James Church in St Helens Road and that he had passed the school at Eccleston Lane Ends without giving any warning of his approach. The road, the constable added, was undergoing repair and children were returning from school, making that stretch particularly dangerous.
When told he would be reported, James Mason had replied: "This car is an old one and won't do any speed at all. You might as well be out of work instead of paying fines." Measuring the speed of a vehicle was then quite subjective and Mason denied to the court that he had been driving fast. He said he'd been carrying a five-ton load but insisted there had not been a soul about and was fined £1.
This is how the St Helens Reporter on the 30th described a case of poaching in Eccleston: "Apparently having read the prophecy that the meek shall inherit the earth, Henry Meek, of Havelock-street, set out to obtain his share by instalments, beginning by the modest seizure of a hare in the meadows of Eccleston. Curiously enough, he had Meadows with him as well as around him, and on Tuesday Henry Meek and Henry Meadows faced the County Bench on a charge of poaching."
The prosecutor in the case stated that a great deal of game had been taken recently in the Eccleston district, chiefly because of the open nature of the country and the tenant farmers were "terrified of these poachers". A gamekeeper called Smith gave evidence of watching the two men walking along Watery Lane.
They took the footpath leading to Bleak Hill Bridge and then went into the field where they drew out a net and caught a hare. When the gamekeeper and Police Inspector Curran visited Meek's house and told him he was going to be reported, the man replied: "If you saw me, you saw me". In court they both denied the offence claiming they had been walking across the field because the road had been flooded. Both men were convicted and each fined £2 or 14 days in prison.
I don't know what the chances were of randomly knocking on the door of a house in St Helens and finding a policeman on the other side – but it seemed to happen quite a lot to beggars and sales folk. It was Albert Homas's bad luck this week to pick on the home of PC Metcalfe to try and sell him some linoleum. It was the old story of supposedly having done some work nearby and having leftovers that had to be sold off at a cut price.
In this case Albert Homas claimed to have been laying some lino at a nearby pub and had "a nice piece left that you can have cheap". The constable asked to see the man's hawker's licence, which he said he did not know he needed. That was a common complaint as the requirement for such a licence was through a local byelaw and was not routine in other towns. Simon Goldsmith had also been with Homas knocking on doors with rolls of lino to spare and in court both men were fined £1.
"Let Music Enter Your Home" was the headline to an advert in the Reporter from Ryalls & Jones, the piano specialists, whose premises were in the YMCA Buildings in Duke Street (shown above). They were offering a "choice selection of pianos to suit all tastes and purses". Purchase could be made via a "series of easy instalments" and a "liberal allowance for the old instrument" was available, if you had one to part-exchange. His Masters Voice gramophones and records were also on sale.
There was another large ad in the paper that announced that the bank known as the London Joint City & Midland Bank had changed its name to . . . Midland Bank. Very sensible!
The Reporter was full of praise for St Helens Recs rugby league team which had won the Lancashire Cup last weekend. In front of a crowd of 25,000 at Wigan, the Recs had outclassed Swinton 17 – 0 and there had been "scenes of wild enthusiasm" as fans welcomed the team back to their City Road home.
In July 1923 a traffic census in St Helens had revealed that the narrow junction near the Sefton Arms – often called Sefton Place – was the most congested and dangerous place in St Helens. Between 9am and 9pm on the day in question, 4,143 vehicles of all kinds – from bicycles to heavy lorries – had passed that point. In October Greenall Whitley had offered to rebuild the Sefton Arms and set the new hotel back in order to create more road space. At the time the Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The large volume of heavy motor traffic which passes through St. Helens to Wigan, Bolton and other places passes the Sefton Arms corner, under difficulties, owing to the narrow and inconvenient streets, and the improvement when carried out will greatly reduce the danger and add to the general convenience."
On the 3rd final approval of the change was given at a hearing of the St Helens Licensing Transfer Sessions. The Echo commented that the work was expected to start immediately with the front of the new hotel put back nearly thirty feet, to a point about four feet behind the line of buildings in Westfield Street.
Sensible folk took out life insurance cover. Even some of the poorest families in St Helens set aside the weekly payment, knowing the difficulties that the sudden death of their breadwinner would bring. Mary Allen from Holly Bank Street in Merton Bank had been one of the sensible ones – although not quite sensible enough.
When her husband died suddenly on November 15th she had drawn out the £62 10 shillings insurance money. But instead of putting the money straight into a savings account, her daughter had entrusted the cash to her boyfriend called Thomas Webster. Perhaps his intent was to put it in the bank for Mrs Allen but a lodger at Webster's home called Fred Gerard took off with the cash.
That must have been a double shock for the grieving widow but the police quickly traced Gerard to Axminster in Devon where some of his relatives lived. Det. Maddocks brought him back to St Helens and by Gerard's court hearing on the 3rd, all but £5 10 shillings of the missing money had been recovered. Fred Gerard was sent to prison for 28 days.
The Men's Bible Classes on Sunday afternoons were never something small. Those organised by St Helens Parish Church used to have as many as 2,000 men registered for them and an average weekly attendance of 500. Visitors would call on members if they missed two classes and financial help was available for those off sick or out of work.
On December 2nd of this week the 35th anniversary of the Parish Church's Bible Class was celebrated. The venue was the Town Hall and all of the seats in its large assembly room were taken. The Reporter wrote:
"The day was made memorable by one of the finest meetings recorded in the history of the class and by the first visit to the town of the new Bishop of Liverpool (Dr. David), who delivered the address. It was a notable gathering in several respects, not least, because of the presence of quite a number of foundation members, whose grey heads and honourable years contrasted with the youth and vigour of the major portion of the large assembly".
The Vicar of St Helens, Canon Baines, told those gathered that there was another anniversary to mark. It was seven years to the day since the parish church had burned down and he warned his congregation that it would be another year before its replacement building would be ready.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brutal Sutton attack on a mother and daughter, a woman stands for the first time in a St Helens General Election, the "raving madman" that smashed up his home and the woman car driver praised for her skill.
We begin on the 27th in the St Helens County Police Court when James Mason pleaded not guilty to the charge of driving a motor to the public danger. A constable gave evidence of seeing the defendant driving a heavy vehicle towards Prescot. PC Durham said Mason had driven his wagon at a "very high speed" near St James Church in St Helens Road and that he had passed the school at Eccleston Lane Ends without giving any warning of his approach. The road, the constable added, was undergoing repair and children were returning from school, making that stretch particularly dangerous.
When told he would be reported, James Mason had replied: "This car is an old one and won't do any speed at all. You might as well be out of work instead of paying fines." Measuring the speed of a vehicle was then quite subjective and Mason denied to the court that he had been driving fast. He said he'd been carrying a five-ton load but insisted there had not been a soul about and was fined £1.
This is how the St Helens Reporter on the 30th described a case of poaching in Eccleston: "Apparently having read the prophecy that the meek shall inherit the earth, Henry Meek, of Havelock-street, set out to obtain his share by instalments, beginning by the modest seizure of a hare in the meadows of Eccleston. Curiously enough, he had Meadows with him as well as around him, and on Tuesday Henry Meek and Henry Meadows faced the County Bench on a charge of poaching."
The prosecutor in the case stated that a great deal of game had been taken recently in the Eccleston district, chiefly because of the open nature of the country and the tenant farmers were "terrified of these poachers". A gamekeeper called Smith gave evidence of watching the two men walking along Watery Lane.
They took the footpath leading to Bleak Hill Bridge and then went into the field where they drew out a net and caught a hare. When the gamekeeper and Police Inspector Curran visited Meek's house and told him he was going to be reported, the man replied: "If you saw me, you saw me". In court they both denied the offence claiming they had been walking across the field because the road had been flooded. Both men were convicted and each fined £2 or 14 days in prison.
I don't know what the chances were of randomly knocking on the door of a house in St Helens and finding a policeman on the other side – but it seemed to happen quite a lot to beggars and sales folk. It was Albert Homas's bad luck this week to pick on the home of PC Metcalfe to try and sell him some linoleum. It was the old story of supposedly having done some work nearby and having leftovers that had to be sold off at a cut price.
In this case Albert Homas claimed to have been laying some lino at a nearby pub and had "a nice piece left that you can have cheap". The constable asked to see the man's hawker's licence, which he said he did not know he needed. That was a common complaint as the requirement for such a licence was through a local byelaw and was not routine in other towns. Simon Goldsmith had also been with Homas knocking on doors with rolls of lino to spare and in court both men were fined £1.
There was another large ad in the paper that announced that the bank known as the London Joint City & Midland Bank had changed its name to . . . Midland Bank. Very sensible!
The Reporter was full of praise for St Helens Recs rugby league team which had won the Lancashire Cup last weekend. In front of a crowd of 25,000 at Wigan, the Recs had outclassed Swinton 17 – 0 and there had been "scenes of wild enthusiasm" as fans welcomed the team back to their City Road home.
In July 1923 a traffic census in St Helens had revealed that the narrow junction near the Sefton Arms – often called Sefton Place – was the most congested and dangerous place in St Helens. Between 9am and 9pm on the day in question, 4,143 vehicles of all kinds – from bicycles to heavy lorries – had passed that point. In October Greenall Whitley had offered to rebuild the Sefton Arms and set the new hotel back in order to create more road space. At the time the Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The large volume of heavy motor traffic which passes through St. Helens to Wigan, Bolton and other places passes the Sefton Arms corner, under difficulties, owing to the narrow and inconvenient streets, and the improvement when carried out will greatly reduce the danger and add to the general convenience."
Sensible folk took out life insurance cover. Even some of the poorest families in St Helens set aside the weekly payment, knowing the difficulties that the sudden death of their breadwinner would bring. Mary Allen from Holly Bank Street in Merton Bank had been one of the sensible ones – although not quite sensible enough.
When her husband died suddenly on November 15th she had drawn out the £62 10 shillings insurance money. But instead of putting the money straight into a savings account, her daughter had entrusted the cash to her boyfriend called Thomas Webster. Perhaps his intent was to put it in the bank for Mrs Allen but a lodger at Webster's home called Fred Gerard took off with the cash.
That must have been a double shock for the grieving widow but the police quickly traced Gerard to Axminster in Devon where some of his relatives lived. Det. Maddocks brought him back to St Helens and by Gerard's court hearing on the 3rd, all but £5 10 shillings of the missing money had been recovered. Fred Gerard was sent to prison for 28 days.
The Men's Bible Classes on Sunday afternoons were never something small. Those organised by St Helens Parish Church used to have as many as 2,000 men registered for them and an average weekly attendance of 500. Visitors would call on members if they missed two classes and financial help was available for those off sick or out of work.
On December 2nd of this week the 35th anniversary of the Parish Church's Bible Class was celebrated. The venue was the Town Hall and all of the seats in its large assembly room were taken. The Reporter wrote:
"The day was made memorable by one of the finest meetings recorded in the history of the class and by the first visit to the town of the new Bishop of Liverpool (Dr. David), who delivered the address. It was a notable gathering in several respects, not least, because of the presence of quite a number of foundation members, whose grey heads and honourable years contrasted with the youth and vigour of the major portion of the large assembly".
The Vicar of St Helens, Canon Baines, told those gathered that there was another anniversary to mark. It was seven years to the day since the parish church had burned down and he warned his congregation that it would be another year before its replacement building would be ready.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brutal Sutton attack on a mother and daughter, a woman stands for the first time in a St Helens General Election, the "raving madman" that smashed up his home and the woman car driver praised for her skill.
This week's many stories include the poachers terrifying farmers in Eccleston, the Merton Bank widow's life insurance theft, the plans to rebuild the Sefton Arms get the green light, the Men's Bible Class anniversary and the unlucky hawker who picked the house of a policeman to flog leftover lino without a licence.
We begin on the 27th in the St Helens County Police Court when James Mason pleaded not guilty to the charge of driving a motor to the public danger.
A constable gave evidence of seeing the defendant driving a heavy vehicle towards Prescot.
PC Durham said Mason had driven his waggon at a "very high speed" near St James Church in St Helens Road and that he had passed the school at Eccleston Lane Ends without giving any warning of his approach.
The road, the constable added, was undergoing repair and children were returning from school, making that stretch particularly dangerous.
When told he would be reported, James Mason had replied: "This car is an old one and won't do any speed at all. You might as well be out of work instead of paying fines."
Measuring the speed of a vehicle was then quite subjective and Mason denied to the court that he had been driving fast.
He said he'd been carrying a five-ton load but insisted there had not been a soul about and was fined £1.
This is how the St Helens Reporter on the 30th described a case of poaching in Eccleston:
"Apparently having read the prophecy that the meek shall inherit the earth, Henry Meek, of Havelock-street, set out to obtain his share by instalments, beginning by the modest seizure of a hare in the meadows of Eccleston.
"Curiously enough, he had Meadows with him as well as around him, and on Tuesday Henry Meek and Henry Meadows faced the County Bench on a charge of poaching."
The prosecutor in the case stated that a great deal of game had been taken recently in the Eccleston district, chiefly because of the open nature of the country and the tenant farmers were "terrified of these poachers".
A gamekeeper called Smith gave evidence of watching the two men walking along Watery Lane.
They took the footpath leading to Bleak Hill Bridge and then went into the field where they drew out a net and caught a hare.
In court they both denied the offence claiming they had been walking across the field because the road had been flooded. Both men were convicted and each fined £2 or 14 days in prison.
I don't know what the chances were of randomly knocking on the door of a house in St Helens and finding a policeman on the other side – but it seemed to happen quite a lot to beggars and sales folk.
It was Albert Homas's bad luck this week to pick on the home of PC Metcalfe to try and sell him some linoleum.
It was the old story of supposedly having done some work nearby and having leftovers that had to be sold off at a cut price.
In this case Albert Homas claimed to have been laying some lino at a nearby pub and had "a nice piece left that you can have cheap".
The constable asked to see the man's hawker's licence, which he said he did not know he needed.
That was a common complaint as the requirement for such a licence was through a local byelaw and was not routine in other towns.
Simon Goldsmith had also been with Homas knocking on doors with rolls of lino to spare and in court both men were fined £1.
"Let Music Enter Your Home" was the headline to an advert in the Reporter from Ryalls & Jones, the piano specialists, whose premises were in the YMCA Buildings in Duke Street (shown above).
They were offering a "choice selection of pianos to suit all tastes and purses".
Purchase could be made via a "series of easy instalments" and a "liberal allowance for the old instrument" was available, if you had one to part-exchange. His Masters Voice gramophones and records were also on sale.
There was another large ad in the paper that announced that the bank known as the London Joint City & Midland Bank had changed its name to . . . Midland Bank. Very sensible!
The Reporter was full of praise for St Helens Recs rugby league team which had won the Lancashire Cup last weekend.
In front of a crowd of 25,000 at Wigan, the Recs had outclassed Swinton 17 – 0 and there had been "scenes of wild enthusiasm" as fans welcomed the team back to their City Road home.
In July 1923 a traffic census in St Helens had revealed that the narrow junction near the Sefton Arms – often called Sefton Place – was the most congested and dangerous place in St Helens.
Between 9am and 9pm on the day in question, 4,143 vehicles of all kinds – from bicycles to heavy lorries – had passed that point.
In October Greenall Whitley had offered to rebuild the Sefton Arms and set the new hotel back in order to create more road space. At the time the Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The large volume of heavy motor traffic which passes through St. Helens to Wigan, Bolton and other places passes the Sefton Arms corner, under difficulties, owing to the narrow and inconvenient streets, and the improvement when carried out will greatly reduce the danger and add to the general convenience."
On the 3rd final approval of the change was given at a hearing of the St Helens Licensing Transfer Sessions.
The Echo commented that the work was expected to start immediately with the front of the new hotel put back nearly thirty feet, to a point about four feet behind the line of buildings in Westfield Street.
Sensible folk took out life insurance cover. Even some of the poorest families in St Helens set aside the weekly payment, knowing the difficulties that the sudden death of their breadwinner would bring.
Mary Allen from Holly Bank Street in Merton Bank had been one of the sensible ones – although not quite sensible enough.
When her husband died suddenly on November 15th she had drawn out the £62 10 shillings insurance money.
But instead of putting the money straight into a savings account, her daughter had entrusted the cash to her boyfriend called Thomas Webster.
Perhaps his intent was to put it in the bank for Mrs Allen but a lodger at Webster's home called Fred Gerard took off with the cash.
That must have been a double shock for the grieving widow but the police quickly traced Gerard to Axminster in Devon where some of his relatives lived.
Det. Maddocks brought him back to St Helens and by Gerard's court hearing on the 3rd, all but £5 10 shillings of the missing money had been recovered. Fred Gerard was sent to prison for 28 days.
The Men's Bible Classes on Sunday afternoons were never something small. Those organised by St Helens Parish Church used to have as many as 2,000 men registered for them and an average weekly attendance of 500.
Visitors would call on members if they missed two classes and financial help was available for those off sick or out of work.
On December 2nd of this week the 35th anniversary of the Parish Church's Bible Class was celebrated.
The venue was the Town Hall and all of the seats in its large assembly room were taken. The Reporter wrote:
"The day was made memorable by one of the finest meetings recorded in the history of the class and by the first visit to the town of the new Bishop of Liverpool (Dr. David), who delivered the address.
"It was a notable gathering in several respects, not least, because of the presence of quite a number of foundation members, whose grey heads and honourable years contrasted with the youth and vigour of the major portion of the large assembly".
The Vicar of St Helens, Canon Baines, told those gathered that there was another anniversary to mark.
It was seven years to the day since the parish church had burned down and he warned his congregation that it would be another year before its replacement building would be ready.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brutal Sutton attack on a mother and daughter, a woman stands for the first time in a St Helens General Election, the raving madman that smashed up his home and the woman car driver praised for her skill.
We begin on the 27th in the St Helens County Police Court when James Mason pleaded not guilty to the charge of driving a motor to the public danger.
A constable gave evidence of seeing the defendant driving a heavy vehicle towards Prescot.
PC Durham said Mason had driven his waggon at a "very high speed" near St James Church in St Helens Road and that he had passed the school at Eccleston Lane Ends without giving any warning of his approach.
The road, the constable added, was undergoing repair and children were returning from school, making that stretch particularly dangerous.
When told he would be reported, James Mason had replied: "This car is an old one and won't do any speed at all. You might as well be out of work instead of paying fines."
Measuring the speed of a vehicle was then quite subjective and Mason denied to the court that he had been driving fast.
He said he'd been carrying a five-ton load but insisted there had not been a soul about and was fined £1.
This is how the St Helens Reporter on the 30th described a case of poaching in Eccleston:
"Apparently having read the prophecy that the meek shall inherit the earth, Henry Meek, of Havelock-street, set out to obtain his share by instalments, beginning by the modest seizure of a hare in the meadows of Eccleston.
"Curiously enough, he had Meadows with him as well as around him, and on Tuesday Henry Meek and Henry Meadows faced the County Bench on a charge of poaching."
The prosecutor in the case stated that a great deal of game had been taken recently in the Eccleston district, chiefly because of the open nature of the country and the tenant farmers were "terrified of these poachers".
A gamekeeper called Smith gave evidence of watching the two men walking along Watery Lane.
They took the footpath leading to Bleak Hill Bridge and then went into the field where they drew out a net and caught a hare.
In court they both denied the offence claiming they had been walking across the field because the road had been flooded. Both men were convicted and each fined £2 or 14 days in prison.
I don't know what the chances were of randomly knocking on the door of a house in St Helens and finding a policeman on the other side – but it seemed to happen quite a lot to beggars and sales folk.
It was Albert Homas's bad luck this week to pick on the home of PC Metcalfe to try and sell him some linoleum.
It was the old story of supposedly having done some work nearby and having leftovers that had to be sold off at a cut price.
In this case Albert Homas claimed to have been laying some lino at a nearby pub and had "a nice piece left that you can have cheap".
The constable asked to see the man's hawker's licence, which he said he did not know he needed.
That was a common complaint as the requirement for such a licence was through a local byelaw and was not routine in other towns.
Simon Goldsmith had also been with Homas knocking on doors with rolls of lino to spare and in court both men were fined £1.
They were offering a "choice selection of pianos to suit all tastes and purses".
Purchase could be made via a "series of easy instalments" and a "liberal allowance for the old instrument" was available, if you had one to part-exchange. His Masters Voice gramophones and records were also on sale.
There was another large ad in the paper that announced that the bank known as the London Joint City & Midland Bank had changed its name to . . . Midland Bank. Very sensible!
The Reporter was full of praise for St Helens Recs rugby league team which had won the Lancashire Cup last weekend.
In front of a crowd of 25,000 at Wigan, the Recs had outclassed Swinton 17 – 0 and there had been "scenes of wild enthusiasm" as fans welcomed the team back to their City Road home.
In July 1923 a traffic census in St Helens had revealed that the narrow junction near the Sefton Arms – often called Sefton Place – was the most congested and dangerous place in St Helens.
Between 9am and 9pm on the day in question, 4,143 vehicles of all kinds – from bicycles to heavy lorries – had passed that point.
In October Greenall Whitley had offered to rebuild the Sefton Arms and set the new hotel back in order to create more road space. At the time the Liverpool Echo wrote:
"The large volume of heavy motor traffic which passes through St. Helens to Wigan, Bolton and other places passes the Sefton Arms corner, under difficulties, owing to the narrow and inconvenient streets, and the improvement when carried out will greatly reduce the danger and add to the general convenience."
The Echo commented that the work was expected to start immediately with the front of the new hotel put back nearly thirty feet, to a point about four feet behind the line of buildings in Westfield Street.
Sensible folk took out life insurance cover. Even some of the poorest families in St Helens set aside the weekly payment, knowing the difficulties that the sudden death of their breadwinner would bring.
Mary Allen from Holly Bank Street in Merton Bank had been one of the sensible ones – although not quite sensible enough.
When her husband died suddenly on November 15th she had drawn out the £62 10 shillings insurance money.
But instead of putting the money straight into a savings account, her daughter had entrusted the cash to her boyfriend called Thomas Webster.
Perhaps his intent was to put it in the bank for Mrs Allen but a lodger at Webster's home called Fred Gerard took off with the cash.
That must have been a double shock for the grieving widow but the police quickly traced Gerard to Axminster in Devon where some of his relatives lived.
Det. Maddocks brought him back to St Helens and by Gerard's court hearing on the 3rd, all but £5 10 shillings of the missing money had been recovered. Fred Gerard was sent to prison for 28 days.
The Men's Bible Classes on Sunday afternoons were never something small. Those organised by St Helens Parish Church used to have as many as 2,000 men registered for them and an average weekly attendance of 500.
Visitors would call on members if they missed two classes and financial help was available for those off sick or out of work.
On December 2nd of this week the 35th anniversary of the Parish Church's Bible Class was celebrated.
The venue was the Town Hall and all of the seats in its large assembly room were taken. The Reporter wrote:
"The day was made memorable by one of the finest meetings recorded in the history of the class and by the first visit to the town of the new Bishop of Liverpool (Dr. David), who delivered the address.
"It was a notable gathering in several respects, not least, because of the presence of quite a number of foundation members, whose grey heads and honourable years contrasted with the youth and vigour of the major portion of the large assembly".
The Vicar of St Helens, Canon Baines, told those gathered that there was another anniversary to mark.
It was seven years to the day since the parish church had burned down and he warned his congregation that it would be another year before its replacement building would be ready.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brutal Sutton attack on a mother and daughter, a woman stands for the first time in a St Helens General Election, the raving madman that smashed up his home and the woman car driver praised for her skill.