IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th FEB. - 6th MARCH 1922)
This week's many stories include the furious riding of a bicycle in Thatto Heath, the muddy approaches to St Helens' schools, the half-finished Hardshaw playing fields, the Bridge Street window smasher who wanted a bed for the night and the motor bike revolution in St Helens.
We begin on March 1st with a St Helens Town Council meeting where more criticism was made of the state of St Helens' streets. The approaches to the town's schools were also attacked – with Cllr. Jackson claiming that many were "simply quagmires and the health of the children could not be improved by sitting in the school with wet and muddy boots on." Ald. Bishop of the Highways Committee explained that several St Helens schools were located in isolated positions and their pupils would take shortcuts across fields and consequently get their clogs muddy. The committee was £17,000 short on the expected cost of road maintenance work planned for this year – and so could not take on any other schemes.
Also financially embarrassed was the council's Parks Committee. Cllr. Rudd wanted to know when the new Hardshaw Playing Fields would be finished and suggested hiring unemployed men to complete the job. However, Ald. Peet explained: "It is a question of pounds, shillings and pence. We have a scheme for a pavilion and to lay out one bowling green and tennis courts, but we have no money and I do not know what we can do." The council agreed to do nothing – or as they put it, "leave it over for some time".
It was also revealed at the meeting that a new landing stage was going to be installed at Taylor Park lake. That would involve the building of a new boathouse. The council also approved a £158,700 scheme for new roads, which would create work for unemployed men. A feature would be a highway for heavy traffic between Liverpool and Wigan.
During the war many public allotments had been created in parks, schools and on Corporation land in St Helens to encourage the growing of food. Now the council wanted some of their land back for building purposes – but what was to be done with the allotment holders that were going to be displaced? The council meeting discussed the particular situation with the allotments in Knowsley Road, which their Gas and Lighting Committee wanted to reclaim. It was disclosed that the Allotments Committee planned to terminate all the tenancies but give them plenty of notice to find other plots.
The Reporter on the 3rd described a couple of unusual court cases. The first bore the long headline: "The Bobby And The Brickbat – Bad For the Shop Windows – How To Get a Night's Lodging":
"A tall, soldierly-looking labouring man, who maintained a callous demeanour during the hearing of the charge against him, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Saturday, charged with being drunk and disorderly, and doing malicious damage to two plate-glass windows. He was described as Alfred Arthur Butterworth, labourer, of no fixed abode, but it was stated that he was a St. Helens man.
"The first thing known about the matter was when P.C. White, at five minutes to eleven on Friday night, was amazed to hear the prisoner call out, “Look, Bobbie,” and looking, was just in time to see him hurl a brick at the window of Lipton's shop in Bridge-street, which he missed by inches only.
"The officer took him into custody, and he made a statement to the effect that he had thrown three other bricks at shop windows, two of which he had smashed. Subsequently it was found that Birchall's shop window had been smashed in East-street, also Armitstead's window, No. 10, Bridge-street. Prisoner told the constable that he could not get lodgings, so he thought he would get locked up.
"Supt. Dunn said that prisoner had been before the Court three times, including [for] theft. Replying to questions, prisoner said he had worked at Pilkington's, but had done nothing since he came out of the Army, excepting four weeks on Corporation relief work. The Chairman (Mr. Cook): Where did you get the money from to get drunk? Prisoner: Out of the dole. The Chairman: Then we are paying for you getting drunk. Prisoner: I think I paid for it for what I have received out of it.
"The damage done to Armistead's window was valued at £20 and that to Birchall's at £4. For breaking the window in East-street the man was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, for that in Bridge-street three months, and for being drunk and disorderly one month, the sentences to run concurrently. Prisoner: It will be warm weather when I come out."
And the other curious case concerned the "furious" riding of a bicycle, which was a term that was usually associated with the driving of horse-drawn or motorised vehicles. The Reporter wrote: "George Cheetham, 15, Elephant-lane, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Friday, to answer the unusual charge of “furiously riding a bicycle.” Chief Det. Insp. Roe said that at five minutes to six on Thursday, 16th inst. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, when he saw defendant riding a bicycle at a furious pace in the direction of St. Helens.
"When he first saw him he was coming over the railway bridge at Thatto Heath, down an incline. Defendant proceeded in the tram track as far as the Picturedrome, where there were some children trying to cross the road, and in doing so one of them, named Violet Seddon, was knocked down. Witness [Det. Insp. Roe] picked up the child and saw to the injuries, and sent her home in charge of a lady. As far as an outward examination showed the only injury was a lump on the back of the head.
"Defendant told witness he was not going so fast, and a man came out of the crowd and said he did not think this man was to blame, and was not going too fast but he did not agree with the witness's opinion. There was a tram following in the rear, and defendant appeared to be trying to keep in front of it. Defendant was going at 12 to 14 miles an hour. The tram driver, who was called, gave corroborative evidence, but defendant said the car was about forty yards in the rear of him. The child was quite well now. The Chairman (Mr. J. A. Collins) said defendant would be fined 7s. 6d. and 5s. costs and he was getting off very lightly."
Writing in May 1920 about the Whit Monday excursionists, the Reporter had said: "The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
Pictured above is a motorbike being ridden in Church Street in St Helens, at the corner of St Mary’s Street. No doubt profiting from the 1920s boom in such vehicles – with or without sidecars – was W. H. Dunwoody of 28 Duke Street in St Helens, which was advertising in the Reporter on the 3rd. William Henry Dunwoody of Morley Street owned the shop – having begun his business as a cycle shop. As well as new motorbikes, Dunwoody also sold second-hand models for between £20 and £30.
That made motoring even more affordable for those on low incomes, who were buying them chiefly on HP. Motorcars costing hundreds of pounds were, however, still well out of most people's pockets in St Helens. However, you could hire one from W. Anthony & Co. of Greenfield Road in Dentons Green. They were advertising in the Reporter "Cars for hire open or closed".
The Reporter also described a case in St Helens Police Court in which a man with two "wives" had been feeling the pinch – not from the women themselves but through the economic situation. John Ratcliffe had walked out on his wife and two children in St Helens in 1919 and gone to live in Walsall where he moved in with a young woman. For what was described as a "considerable time", Ratcliffe had sent his wife Rachael back in St Helens weekly sums of between 20 to 30 shillings.
However, the economic depression had led to him losing his job and over the past five months, Ratcliffe had only been able to send a total of 7 shillings back home. So his wife had to apply for outdoor "relief" from the Prescot Guardians, who did not appreciate having to make payments when claimants had able-bodied husbands. They had written to John Ratcliffe in Walsall but their letters were returned and marked "unknown". So the Guardians had the man arrested and brought to St Helens.
Just a few years earlier, such an offence would have meant an automatic prison sentence. But that didn't help anyone, as the husband while incarcerated could not earn any cash to support his family and pay off his debts. By the 1920s the magistrates were more pragmatic and they gave John Ratcliffe three months to find work and resume making payments. However, he needed to find £5 bail to be released from custody and had to return to court at the end of May.
Fare dodging was treated seriously. On the 3rd John Potter from Bootle was fined 20 shillings in St Helens Police Court for not paying his full fare on a tramcar. The man had paid to travel from Liverpool to Prescot but refused to pay the extra amount from Prescot to St Helens.
And finally on the 6th, blind musicians from the famous St Dunstan's home in London gave a concert in St Helens Town Hall. Blind persons prior to 1914 were not expected to lead useful lives and were often shut away from society. The large number of men that lost their sight in the war raised awareness of the visually impaired and led to newspaper magnate Sir Arthur Pearson founding the Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Care Committee. This later became known as St Dunstan's and it provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen.
Next week's stories will include the mean uncle who supped away the contents of his nephew's money box, the complaint over the Hippodrome's cinema screenings, the Park Road Homing Club dispute and the curious domestic tangle in Windleshaw Road.
We begin on March 1st with a St Helens Town Council meeting where more criticism was made of the state of St Helens' streets. The approaches to the town's schools were also attacked – with Cllr. Jackson claiming that many were "simply quagmires and the health of the children could not be improved by sitting in the school with wet and muddy boots on." Ald. Bishop of the Highways Committee explained that several St Helens schools were located in isolated positions and their pupils would take shortcuts across fields and consequently get their clogs muddy. The committee was £17,000 short on the expected cost of road maintenance work planned for this year – and so could not take on any other schemes.
Also financially embarrassed was the council's Parks Committee. Cllr. Rudd wanted to know when the new Hardshaw Playing Fields would be finished and suggested hiring unemployed men to complete the job. However, Ald. Peet explained: "It is a question of pounds, shillings and pence. We have a scheme for a pavilion and to lay out one bowling green and tennis courts, but we have no money and I do not know what we can do." The council agreed to do nothing – or as they put it, "leave it over for some time".
It was also revealed at the meeting that a new landing stage was going to be installed at Taylor Park lake. That would involve the building of a new boathouse. The council also approved a £158,700 scheme for new roads, which would create work for unemployed men. A feature would be a highway for heavy traffic between Liverpool and Wigan.
During the war many public allotments had been created in parks, schools and on Corporation land in St Helens to encourage the growing of food. Now the council wanted some of their land back for building purposes – but what was to be done with the allotment holders that were going to be displaced? The council meeting discussed the particular situation with the allotments in Knowsley Road, which their Gas and Lighting Committee wanted to reclaim. It was disclosed that the Allotments Committee planned to terminate all the tenancies but give them plenty of notice to find other plots.
The Reporter on the 3rd described a couple of unusual court cases. The first bore the long headline: "The Bobby And The Brickbat – Bad For the Shop Windows – How To Get a Night's Lodging":
"A tall, soldierly-looking labouring man, who maintained a callous demeanour during the hearing of the charge against him, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Saturday, charged with being drunk and disorderly, and doing malicious damage to two plate-glass windows. He was described as Alfred Arthur Butterworth, labourer, of no fixed abode, but it was stated that he was a St. Helens man.
"The first thing known about the matter was when P.C. White, at five minutes to eleven on Friday night, was amazed to hear the prisoner call out, “Look, Bobbie,” and looking, was just in time to see him hurl a brick at the window of Lipton's shop in Bridge-street, which he missed by inches only.
"The officer took him into custody, and he made a statement to the effect that he had thrown three other bricks at shop windows, two of which he had smashed. Subsequently it was found that Birchall's shop window had been smashed in East-street, also Armitstead's window, No. 10, Bridge-street. Prisoner told the constable that he could not get lodgings, so he thought he would get locked up.
"Supt. Dunn said that prisoner had been before the Court three times, including [for] theft. Replying to questions, prisoner said he had worked at Pilkington's, but had done nothing since he came out of the Army, excepting four weeks on Corporation relief work. The Chairman (Mr. Cook): Where did you get the money from to get drunk? Prisoner: Out of the dole. The Chairman: Then we are paying for you getting drunk. Prisoner: I think I paid for it for what I have received out of it.
"The damage done to Armistead's window was valued at £20 and that to Birchall's at £4. For breaking the window in East-street the man was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, for that in Bridge-street three months, and for being drunk and disorderly one month, the sentences to run concurrently. Prisoner: It will be warm weather when I come out."
And the other curious case concerned the "furious" riding of a bicycle, which was a term that was usually associated with the driving of horse-drawn or motorised vehicles. The Reporter wrote: "George Cheetham, 15, Elephant-lane, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Friday, to answer the unusual charge of “furiously riding a bicycle.” Chief Det. Insp. Roe said that at five minutes to six on Thursday, 16th inst. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, when he saw defendant riding a bicycle at a furious pace in the direction of St. Helens.
"When he first saw him he was coming over the railway bridge at Thatto Heath, down an incline. Defendant proceeded in the tram track as far as the Picturedrome, where there were some children trying to cross the road, and in doing so one of them, named Violet Seddon, was knocked down. Witness [Det. Insp. Roe] picked up the child and saw to the injuries, and sent her home in charge of a lady. As far as an outward examination showed the only injury was a lump on the back of the head.
"Defendant told witness he was not going so fast, and a man came out of the crowd and said he did not think this man was to blame, and was not going too fast but he did not agree with the witness's opinion. There was a tram following in the rear, and defendant appeared to be trying to keep in front of it. Defendant was going at 12 to 14 miles an hour. The tram driver, who was called, gave corroborative evidence, but defendant said the car was about forty yards in the rear of him. The child was quite well now. The Chairman (Mr. J. A. Collins) said defendant would be fined 7s. 6d. and 5s. costs and he was getting off very lightly."
Writing in May 1920 about the Whit Monday excursionists, the Reporter had said: "The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
That made motoring even more affordable for those on low incomes, who were buying them chiefly on HP. Motorcars costing hundreds of pounds were, however, still well out of most people's pockets in St Helens. However, you could hire one from W. Anthony & Co. of Greenfield Road in Dentons Green. They were advertising in the Reporter "Cars for hire open or closed".
The Reporter also described a case in St Helens Police Court in which a man with two "wives" had been feeling the pinch – not from the women themselves but through the economic situation. John Ratcliffe had walked out on his wife and two children in St Helens in 1919 and gone to live in Walsall where he moved in with a young woman. For what was described as a "considerable time", Ratcliffe had sent his wife Rachael back in St Helens weekly sums of between 20 to 30 shillings.
However, the economic depression had led to him losing his job and over the past five months, Ratcliffe had only been able to send a total of 7 shillings back home. So his wife had to apply for outdoor "relief" from the Prescot Guardians, who did not appreciate having to make payments when claimants had able-bodied husbands. They had written to John Ratcliffe in Walsall but their letters were returned and marked "unknown". So the Guardians had the man arrested and brought to St Helens.
Just a few years earlier, such an offence would have meant an automatic prison sentence. But that didn't help anyone, as the husband while incarcerated could not earn any cash to support his family and pay off his debts. By the 1920s the magistrates were more pragmatic and they gave John Ratcliffe three months to find work and resume making payments. However, he needed to find £5 bail to be released from custody and had to return to court at the end of May.
Fare dodging was treated seriously. On the 3rd John Potter from Bootle was fined 20 shillings in St Helens Police Court for not paying his full fare on a tramcar. The man had paid to travel from Liverpool to Prescot but refused to pay the extra amount from Prescot to St Helens.
And finally on the 6th, blind musicians from the famous St Dunstan's home in London gave a concert in St Helens Town Hall. Blind persons prior to 1914 were not expected to lead useful lives and were often shut away from society. The large number of men that lost their sight in the war raised awareness of the visually impaired and led to newspaper magnate Sir Arthur Pearson founding the Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Care Committee. This later became known as St Dunstan's and it provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen.
Next week's stories will include the mean uncle who supped away the contents of his nephew's money box, the complaint over the Hippodrome's cinema screenings, the Park Road Homing Club dispute and the curious domestic tangle in Windleshaw Road.
This week's many stories include the furious riding of a bicycle in Thatto Heath, the muddy approaches to St Helens' schools, the half-finished Hardshaw playing fields, the Bridge Street window smasher who wanted a bed for the night and the motor bike revolution in St Helens.
We begin on March 1st with a St Helens Town Council meeting where more criticism was made of the state of St Helens' streets.
The approaches to the town's schools were also attacked – with Cllr. Jackson claiming that many were "simply quagmires and the health of the children could not be improved by sitting in the school with wet and muddy boots on."
Ald. Bishop of the Highways Committee explained that several St Helens schools were located in isolated positions and their pupils would take shortcuts across fields and consequently get their clogs muddy.
The committee was £17,000 short on the expected cost of road maintenance work planned for this year – and so could not take on any other schemes.
Also financially embarrassed was the council's Parks Committee. Cllr. Rudd wanted to know when the new Hardshaw Playing Fields would be finished and suggested hiring unemployed men to complete the job.
However, Ald. Peet explained: "It is a question of pounds, shillings and pence. We have a scheme for a pavilion and to lay out one bowling green and tennis courts, but we have no money and I do not know what we can do."
The council agreed to do nothing – or as they put it, "leave it over for some time".
It was also revealed at the meeting that a new landing stage was going to be installed at Taylor Park lake. That would involve the building of a new boathouse.
The council also approved a £158,700 scheme for new roads, which would create work for unemployed men. A feature would be a highway for heavy traffic between Liverpool and Wigan.
During the war many public allotments had been created in parks, schools and on Corporation land in St Helens to encourage the growing of food.
Now the council wanted some of their land back for building purposes – but what was to be done with the allotment holders that were going to be displaced?
The council meeting discussed the particular situation with the allotments in Knowsley Road, which their Gas and Lighting Committee wanted to reclaim.
It was disclosed that the Allotments Committee planned to terminate all the tenancies but give them plenty of notice to find other plots.
The Reporter on the 3rd described a couple of unusual court cases.
The first bore the long headline: "The Bobby And The Brickbat – Bad For the Shop Windows – How To Get a Night's Lodging":
"A tall, soldierly-looking labouring man, who maintained a callous demeanour during the hearing of the charge against him, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Saturday, charged with being drunk and disorderly, and doing malicious damage to two plate-glass windows.
"He was described as Alfred Arthur Butterworth, labourer, of no fixed abode, but it was stated that he was a St. Helens man.
"The first thing known about the matter was when P.C. White, at five minutes to eleven on Friday night, was amazed to hear the prisoner call out, “Look, Bobbie,” and looking, was just in time to see him hurl a brick at the window of Lipton's shop in Bridge-street, which he missed by inches only.
"The officer took him into custody, and he made a statement to the effect that he had thrown three other bricks at shop windows, two of which he had smashed.
"Subsequently it was found that Birchall's shop window had been smashed in East-street, also Armitstead's window, No. 10, Bridge-street.
"Prisoner told the constable that he could not get lodgings, so he thought he would get locked up.
"Supt. Dunn said that prisoner had been before the Court three times, including [for] theft.
"Replying to questions, prisoner said he had worked at Pilkington's, but had done nothing since he came out of the Army, excepting four weeks on Corporation relief work.
"The Chairman (Mr. Cook): Where did you get the money from to get drunk? Prisoner: Out of the dole.
"The Chairman: Then we are paying for you getting drunk. Prisoner: I think I paid for it for what I have received out of it.
"The damage done to Armistead's window was valued at £20 and that to Birchall's at £4.
"For breaking the window in East-street the man was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, for that in Bridge-street three months, and for being drunk and disorderly one month, the sentences to run concurrently. Prisoner: It will be warm weather when I come out."
And the other curious case concerned the "furious" riding of a bicycle, which was a term that was usually associated with the driving of horse-drawn or motorised vehicles. The Reporter wrote:
"George Cheetham, 15, Elephant-lane, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Friday, to answer the unusual charge of “furiously riding a bicycle.”
"Chief Det. Insp. Roe said that at five minutes to six on Thursday, 16th inst. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, when he saw defendant riding a bicycle at a furious pace in the direction of St. Helens.
"When he first saw him he was coming over the railway bridge at Thatto Heath, down an incline.
"Defendant proceeded in the tram track as far as the Picturedrome, where there were some children trying to cross the road, and in doing so one of them, named Violet Seddon, was knocked down.
"Witness [Det. Insp. Roe] picked up the child and saw to the injuries, and sent her home in charge of a lady.
"As far as an outward examination showed the only injury was a lump on the back of the head.
"Defendant told witness he was not going so fast, and a man came out of the crowd and said he did not think this man was to blame, and was not going too fast but he did not agree with the witness's opinion.
"There was a tram following in the rear, and defendant appeared to be trying to keep in front of it. Defendant was going at 12 to 14 miles an hour.
"The tram driver, who was called, gave corroborative evidence, but defendant said the car was about forty yards in the rear of him. The child was quite well now.
"The Chairman (Mr. J. A. Collins) said defendant would be fined 7s. 6d. and 5s. costs and he was getting off very lightly."
Writing in May 1920 about the Whit Monday excursionists, the Reporter had said:
"The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
Pictured above is a motorbike being ridden in Church Street in St Helens, at the corner of St Mary’s Street.
No doubt profiting from the 1920s boom in such vehicles – with or without sidecars – was W. H. Dunwoody of 28 Duke Street in St Helens, which was advertising in the Reporter on the 3rd.
William Henry Dunwoody of Morley Street owned the shop – having begun his business as a cycle shop.
As well as new motorbikes, Dunwoody also sold second-hand models for between £20 and £30.
That made motoring even more affordable for those on low incomes, who were buying them chiefly on HP.
Motorcars costing hundreds of pounds were, however, still well out of most people's pockets in St Helens.
However, you could hire one from W. Anthony & Co. of Greenfield Road in Dentons Green. They were advertising in the Reporter "Cars for hire open or closed".
The Reporter also described a case in St Helens Police Court in which a man with two "wives" had been feeling the pinch – not from the women themselves but through the economic situation.
John Ratcliffe had walked out on his wife and two children in St Helens in 1919 and gone to live in Walsall where he moved in with a young woman.
For what was described as a "considerable time", Ratcliffe had sent his wife Rachael back in St Helens weekly sums of between 20 to 30 shillings.
However, the economic depression had led to him losing his job and over the past five months, Ratcliffe had only been able to send a total of 7 shillings back home.
So his wife had to apply for outdoor "relief" from the Prescot Guardians, who did not appreciate having to make payments when claimants had able-bodied husbands.
They had written to John Ratcliffe in Walsall but their letters were returned and marked "unknown". So the Guardians had the man arrested and brought to St Helens.
Just a few years earlier, such an offence would have meant an automatic prison sentence.
But that didn't help anyone, as the husband while incarcerated could not earn any cash to support his family and pay off his debts.
By the 1920s the magistrates were more pragmatic and they gave John Ratcliffe three months to find work and resume making payments.
However, he needed to find £5 bail to be released from custody and had to return to court at the end of May.
Fare dodging was treated seriously. On the 3rd John Potter from Bootle was fined 20 shillings in St Helens Police Court for not paying his full fare on a tramcar.
The man had paid to travel from Liverpool to Prescot but refused to pay the extra amount from Prescot to St Helens.
And finally on the 6th, blind musicians from the famous St Dunstan's home in London gave a concert in St Helens Town Hall.
Blind persons prior to 1914 were not expected to lead useful lives and were often shut away from society.
The large number of men that lost their sight in the war raised awareness of the visually impaired and led to newspaper magnate Sir Arthur Pearson founding the Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Care Committee.
This later became known as St Dunstan's and it provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen.
Next week's stories will include the mean uncle who supped away the contents of his nephew's money box, the complaint over the Hippodrome's cinema screenings, the Park Road Homing Club dispute and the curious domestic tangle in Windleshaw Road.
We begin on March 1st with a St Helens Town Council meeting where more criticism was made of the state of St Helens' streets.
The approaches to the town's schools were also attacked – with Cllr. Jackson claiming that many were "simply quagmires and the health of the children could not be improved by sitting in the school with wet and muddy boots on."
Ald. Bishop of the Highways Committee explained that several St Helens schools were located in isolated positions and their pupils would take shortcuts across fields and consequently get their clogs muddy.
The committee was £17,000 short on the expected cost of road maintenance work planned for this year – and so could not take on any other schemes.
Also financially embarrassed was the council's Parks Committee. Cllr. Rudd wanted to know when the new Hardshaw Playing Fields would be finished and suggested hiring unemployed men to complete the job.
However, Ald. Peet explained: "It is a question of pounds, shillings and pence. We have a scheme for a pavilion and to lay out one bowling green and tennis courts, but we have no money and I do not know what we can do."
The council agreed to do nothing – or as they put it, "leave it over for some time".
It was also revealed at the meeting that a new landing stage was going to be installed at Taylor Park lake. That would involve the building of a new boathouse.
The council also approved a £158,700 scheme for new roads, which would create work for unemployed men. A feature would be a highway for heavy traffic between Liverpool and Wigan.
During the war many public allotments had been created in parks, schools and on Corporation land in St Helens to encourage the growing of food.
Now the council wanted some of their land back for building purposes – but what was to be done with the allotment holders that were going to be displaced?
The council meeting discussed the particular situation with the allotments in Knowsley Road, which their Gas and Lighting Committee wanted to reclaim.
It was disclosed that the Allotments Committee planned to terminate all the tenancies but give them plenty of notice to find other plots.
The Reporter on the 3rd described a couple of unusual court cases.
The first bore the long headline: "The Bobby And The Brickbat – Bad For the Shop Windows – How To Get a Night's Lodging":
"A tall, soldierly-looking labouring man, who maintained a callous demeanour during the hearing of the charge against him, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Saturday, charged with being drunk and disorderly, and doing malicious damage to two plate-glass windows.
"He was described as Alfred Arthur Butterworth, labourer, of no fixed abode, but it was stated that he was a St. Helens man.
"The first thing known about the matter was when P.C. White, at five minutes to eleven on Friday night, was amazed to hear the prisoner call out, “Look, Bobbie,” and looking, was just in time to see him hurl a brick at the window of Lipton's shop in Bridge-street, which he missed by inches only.
"The officer took him into custody, and he made a statement to the effect that he had thrown three other bricks at shop windows, two of which he had smashed.
"Subsequently it was found that Birchall's shop window had been smashed in East-street, also Armitstead's window, No. 10, Bridge-street.
"Prisoner told the constable that he could not get lodgings, so he thought he would get locked up.
"Supt. Dunn said that prisoner had been before the Court three times, including [for] theft.
"Replying to questions, prisoner said he had worked at Pilkington's, but had done nothing since he came out of the Army, excepting four weeks on Corporation relief work.
"The Chairman (Mr. Cook): Where did you get the money from to get drunk? Prisoner: Out of the dole.
"The Chairman: Then we are paying for you getting drunk. Prisoner: I think I paid for it for what I have received out of it.
"The damage done to Armistead's window was valued at £20 and that to Birchall's at £4.
"For breaking the window in East-street the man was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, for that in Bridge-street three months, and for being drunk and disorderly one month, the sentences to run concurrently. Prisoner: It will be warm weather when I come out."
And the other curious case concerned the "furious" riding of a bicycle, which was a term that was usually associated with the driving of horse-drawn or motorised vehicles. The Reporter wrote:
"George Cheetham, 15, Elephant-lane, appeared at the St. Helens Police Court on Friday, to answer the unusual charge of “furiously riding a bicycle.”
"Chief Det. Insp. Roe said that at five minutes to six on Thursday, 16th inst. he was on duty in Thatto Heath-road, when he saw defendant riding a bicycle at a furious pace in the direction of St. Helens.
"When he first saw him he was coming over the railway bridge at Thatto Heath, down an incline.
"Defendant proceeded in the tram track as far as the Picturedrome, where there were some children trying to cross the road, and in doing so one of them, named Violet Seddon, was knocked down.
"Witness [Det. Insp. Roe] picked up the child and saw to the injuries, and sent her home in charge of a lady.
"As far as an outward examination showed the only injury was a lump on the back of the head.
"Defendant told witness he was not going so fast, and a man came out of the crowd and said he did not think this man was to blame, and was not going too fast but he did not agree with the witness's opinion.
"There was a tram following in the rear, and defendant appeared to be trying to keep in front of it. Defendant was going at 12 to 14 miles an hour.
"The tram driver, who was called, gave corroborative evidence, but defendant said the car was about forty yards in the rear of him. The child was quite well now.
"The Chairman (Mr. J. A. Collins) said defendant would be fined 7s. 6d. and 5s. costs and he was getting off very lightly."
Writing in May 1920 about the Whit Monday excursionists, the Reporter had said:
"The road was first favourite in the great holiday exodus which is no doubt accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of small motor vehicles in the town. It would be interesting to have a census of motor-cycles and their ratio to the total population."
No doubt profiting from the 1920s boom in such vehicles – with or without sidecars – was W. H. Dunwoody of 28 Duke Street in St Helens, which was advertising in the Reporter on the 3rd.
William Henry Dunwoody of Morley Street owned the shop – having begun his business as a cycle shop.
As well as new motorbikes, Dunwoody also sold second-hand models for between £20 and £30.
That made motoring even more affordable for those on low incomes, who were buying them chiefly on HP.
Motorcars costing hundreds of pounds were, however, still well out of most people's pockets in St Helens.
However, you could hire one from W. Anthony & Co. of Greenfield Road in Dentons Green. They were advertising in the Reporter "Cars for hire open or closed".
The Reporter also described a case in St Helens Police Court in which a man with two "wives" had been feeling the pinch – not from the women themselves but through the economic situation.
John Ratcliffe had walked out on his wife and two children in St Helens in 1919 and gone to live in Walsall where he moved in with a young woman.
For what was described as a "considerable time", Ratcliffe had sent his wife Rachael back in St Helens weekly sums of between 20 to 30 shillings.
However, the economic depression had led to him losing his job and over the past five months, Ratcliffe had only been able to send a total of 7 shillings back home.
So his wife had to apply for outdoor "relief" from the Prescot Guardians, who did not appreciate having to make payments when claimants had able-bodied husbands.
They had written to John Ratcliffe in Walsall but their letters were returned and marked "unknown". So the Guardians had the man arrested and brought to St Helens.
Just a few years earlier, such an offence would have meant an automatic prison sentence.
But that didn't help anyone, as the husband while incarcerated could not earn any cash to support his family and pay off his debts.
By the 1920s the magistrates were more pragmatic and they gave John Ratcliffe three months to find work and resume making payments.
However, he needed to find £5 bail to be released from custody and had to return to court at the end of May.
Fare dodging was treated seriously. On the 3rd John Potter from Bootle was fined 20 shillings in St Helens Police Court for not paying his full fare on a tramcar.
The man had paid to travel from Liverpool to Prescot but refused to pay the extra amount from Prescot to St Helens.
And finally on the 6th, blind musicians from the famous St Dunstan's home in London gave a concert in St Helens Town Hall.
Blind persons prior to 1914 were not expected to lead useful lives and were often shut away from society.
The large number of men that lost their sight in the war raised awareness of the visually impaired and led to newspaper magnate Sir Arthur Pearson founding the Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Care Committee.
This later became known as St Dunstan's and it provided health care and vocational training for hundreds of blind ex-servicemen.
Next week's stories will include the mean uncle who supped away the contents of his nephew's money box, the complaint over the Hippodrome's cinema screenings, the Park Road Homing Club dispute and the curious domestic tangle in Windleshaw Road.