IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th JUNE - 4th JULY 1921)
This week's stories include the furious St Helens publicans, the man who said women degraded themselves by playing football, more criticism of pillion riding on motorbikes, the fires steam locos caused in the driest June for decades and St Helens miners meet in the Co-op Hall to denounce the settlement of the coal strike.
We begin on the 28th when the St Helens Newspaper reported on a meeting of St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association. The organisation was up in arms over the activities of the temperance movement and suggestions that a proposed licensing law would reduce the opening hours of pubs. The chairman of the meeting described how a great fight was before them and how they needed to show a "united front to our enemies". Another speaker said a "glorious victory" awaited them if they all pulled together.
In March St Helens Ladies football team (pictured above) had played Chorley Ladies at Shrewsbury in front of a crowd of over 8,000. The proceeds of £500 went to the Royal Salop Infirmary and on June 28th the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail reported that the hospital's annual meeting had taken place. The infirmary's treasurer, Lord Berwick, thanked the female footballers for the money raised but immediately afterwards Brigadier-General Arthur Lloyd made a savage attack on the game.
"I am not a kill-joy", he told the meeting, "But I do say for Heaven's sake do not let ladies degrade themselves by playing football, which is not a ladies game, and makes fools of them." St Helens Ladies had raised almost £1 million for charity (in today's money) by playing matches nationwide. However within a few months the Football Association would agree with the brigadier-general and ban the playing of women's football on member grounds claiming the sport was "quite unsuitable for females".
Although steam locos chugging along railway lines conjure up pleasant romantic images, their billowing smoke did not do much for the environment and during dry summers, sparks from their engines caused many a fire. In 1899 thousands descended upon Sutton Moss to watch what the Liverpool Mercury dubbed "the most extensive and most extraordinary fire which ever occurred at St. Helens". Smoke from burning turf billowed over Sutton and Parr and they said train passengers on the adjacent line had a perfect view of the "prairie fire" as it consumed sixty acres of land. A spark from the engine of another passing train was blamed for starting that blaze during a dry spell, setting alight one of many stacks of turf before quickly spreading.
The month of June in 1921 had also been very dry. Weather stats were not, of course, kept like they are today but it was reported that London had had its driest June since 1813. The fields and gardens of Lancashire were parched too, with the heat described as intense at times. Last weekend 250 pit ponies were enjoying the fresh air and daylight in a large field at Parbold Hall Farm, near a railway line. The hard working animals belonged to Pemberton Collieries and had been put out to pasture while the coal strike was on.
However the idyllic life of the ponies was shattered as what was thought to have been a spark from a passing loco triggered an inferno – as reported by the Liverpool Echo: "The flames spread like a prairie fire, burning the pasture land black and invading a neighbouring oat field. The terrified ponies stampeded over the neighbouring golf links of the Appley Bridge Golf Club, after jumping the hedges and the railed enclosures in their wild efforts to escape from the burning field."
And in the St Helens district there were three similar fires this week. At 11:30pm on June 30th, the fields and embankments near to Eccleston Park Station were found to be ablaze. Concern was raised that the fire could spread to the wooden station platform but the fire brigade managed to extinguish the outbreak without too much damage being done. Earlier in the day a field of hay close by the station belonging to a Mr Walsh had also been on fire and earlier in the week, a large quantity of hay in the Rainhill Asylum field was destroyed after being set alight. All three outbreaks were blamed on sparks from passing railway engines igniting the extremely dry fields.
The 3-month-long coal strike finally ended this week, although St Helens miners' were far from happy about the settlement their leaders had reached. The dispute had been triggered by the mine-owners cutting wages due to the worsening economic situation and the loss of export markets during the war. A deal had now been reached in which the government agreed to subsidise wages for the next three months. The mine-owners for their part guaranteed that the pay of their workers from September would be at least 20% more than what it had been in 1914. However the cost of living had more than doubled since then and so the miners would still be receiving a substantial pay cut.
So on July 1st many St Helens' mineworkers met in the Co-op Hall in Baldwin Street (pictured above) to denounce the deal – but also to accept their defeat. The men's agent, Sam Tinker, said they had no choice but to accept the collective decision and resume work after miners nationwide had voted in favour. Their defeat was agreed in a vote, although a resolution was carried condemning the actions of their leaders in accepting the deal.
Many men in St Helens must have been ruing the loss of their private enterprise crop coal – with reports that some during the dispute had been illegally earning £10 a week working makeshift surface mines. Although the St Helens miners decided to begin their resumption of work on the following Monday, the pits were not in great shape as only limited safety work had been undertaken during the strike. So it would be a while before everyone could return and the miners decided that those going back to their jobs early would support the others by paying a levy on their wages.
The view by those in authority a century ago was that if you wanted to carry a passenger on your motorbike it should be in a sidecar – not on the back of the bike. Last November Samuel Brighouse, the coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a “dangerous and reprehensible” practice. Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users.
On the 4th a young Manchester couple appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with riding a motorcycle with its rear identification plate obscured. The chairman of the Bench was also critical of the practice of pillion riding, saying: "I hope it will be made a punishable offence before long. There will always be accidents from it". Not that any accident had been caused when a young man named Janssens and his lady friend called Jenny Powell had passed through St Helens.
But carrying a passenger did mean that the bike's number plate could not be seen clearly by a police officer – although Miss Powell said the offence had only been fleeting. "I was most careful to hold my coat so that it could not obscure the number", she said. "But I was wearing a big hat, and it nearly blew off, so I put my hand up to support it and it must have been at this time when the number was covered." Janssens was fined 10 shillings and his lady friend Jenny Powell 5 shillings. I wonder if couples riding on a motorbike still said they were "walking out", as they describing dating then?
And finally the non-St Helens item that attraction my attention this week continues the theme of road safety. The huge growth in motor traffic since WW1 was causing grave concern and this week Henry Beecham – the brother of conductor Sir Thomas Beecham of the St Helens pill-making family – was sent to prison for 12 months. That was after his car had killed a 6-year-old boy, with one witness describing the speed of his vehicle as "terrific" and another estimating it as 65mph.
Whether Beecham of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire – where the Knebworth Festival would later be held – really had been driving at that speed there was no way of knowing – with no CCTV, limited road forensics etc. etc. That was partly why The Times was reporting that the Government was considering abolishing speed limits, as estimates of speed, even by the police, were unreliable. Instead the authorities were thinking of beefing up the furiously driving laws, as what might be considered an acceptable speed depended a lot on the road conditions at the time.
For example you could drive faster on an open road late at night than say at midday, when there were many road users. Without radar the "police traps" to catch speeding drivers involved two constables standing with stopwatches a set distance apart. They measured the time taken for each vehicle to pass between the two points and from that figure the police calculated its mph. It was a controversial practice as shown in this report from the Echo this week under the headlines: "“Most Unenglish And Unfair” – Police, Motor Coaches And Road Trap":
"“What can't speak can't lie” was the explanation given by a police-constable at Southport, today, defending the accuracy of two stop watches, timed in recording motor charabancs for a measured distance of 220 yards, which constituted a police trap. Evidence was that three Southport defendants travelled through the trap at speeds varying from 15 to 17 miles an hour, the limit being 12. Mr. Battersby, for the defendants, submitted that the bench could not accept the word of the police officers against the sworn testimony of a defendant.
"He contended that it was not legal proof for one officer, who was alone, to start a watch at the beginning of the trap, and the second officer, also by himself, to start another at the end of the trap, the difference being the two representing the speed. It was a most un-English and unfair way of giving evidence. It would be a most pernicious custom to admit such uncorroborated evidence.
"The Chief Constable (Major Egan) said he must contradict most emphatically such wild statements. In no police district in England were four men put on a police trap. He hoped the bench would not allow others to be misled by such statements. The defendant Barton said the only way was for somebody to lead the charabancs out of the town. When they got outside the borough they could do as they liked. Each defendant was found £3."
Next week's stories will include the Prince of Wales' visit to St Helens, a serious trailer accident takes place in Corporation Street, the sad case of the Herbert Street triplets and Billinge miners are stopped from working at Sutton Manor Colliery.
We begin on the 28th when the St Helens Newspaper reported on a meeting of St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association. The organisation was up in arms over the activities of the temperance movement and suggestions that a proposed licensing law would reduce the opening hours of pubs. The chairman of the meeting described how a great fight was before them and how they needed to show a "united front to our enemies". Another speaker said a "glorious victory" awaited them if they all pulled together.
"I am not a kill-joy", he told the meeting, "But I do say for Heaven's sake do not let ladies degrade themselves by playing football, which is not a ladies game, and makes fools of them." St Helens Ladies had raised almost £1 million for charity (in today's money) by playing matches nationwide. However within a few months the Football Association would agree with the brigadier-general and ban the playing of women's football on member grounds claiming the sport was "quite unsuitable for females".
Although steam locos chugging along railway lines conjure up pleasant romantic images, their billowing smoke did not do much for the environment and during dry summers, sparks from their engines caused many a fire. In 1899 thousands descended upon Sutton Moss to watch what the Liverpool Mercury dubbed "the most extensive and most extraordinary fire which ever occurred at St. Helens". Smoke from burning turf billowed over Sutton and Parr and they said train passengers on the adjacent line had a perfect view of the "prairie fire" as it consumed sixty acres of land. A spark from the engine of another passing train was blamed for starting that blaze during a dry spell, setting alight one of many stacks of turf before quickly spreading.
The month of June in 1921 had also been very dry. Weather stats were not, of course, kept like they are today but it was reported that London had had its driest June since 1813. The fields and gardens of Lancashire were parched too, with the heat described as intense at times. Last weekend 250 pit ponies were enjoying the fresh air and daylight in a large field at Parbold Hall Farm, near a railway line. The hard working animals belonged to Pemberton Collieries and had been put out to pasture while the coal strike was on.
However the idyllic life of the ponies was shattered as what was thought to have been a spark from a passing loco triggered an inferno – as reported by the Liverpool Echo: "The flames spread like a prairie fire, burning the pasture land black and invading a neighbouring oat field. The terrified ponies stampeded over the neighbouring golf links of the Appley Bridge Golf Club, after jumping the hedges and the railed enclosures in their wild efforts to escape from the burning field."
And in the St Helens district there were three similar fires this week. At 11:30pm on June 30th, the fields and embankments near to Eccleston Park Station were found to be ablaze. Concern was raised that the fire could spread to the wooden station platform but the fire brigade managed to extinguish the outbreak without too much damage being done. Earlier in the day a field of hay close by the station belonging to a Mr Walsh had also been on fire and earlier in the week, a large quantity of hay in the Rainhill Asylum field was destroyed after being set alight. All three outbreaks were blamed on sparks from passing railway engines igniting the extremely dry fields.
The 3-month-long coal strike finally ended this week, although St Helens miners' were far from happy about the settlement their leaders had reached. The dispute had been triggered by the mine-owners cutting wages due to the worsening economic situation and the loss of export markets during the war. A deal had now been reached in which the government agreed to subsidise wages for the next three months. The mine-owners for their part guaranteed that the pay of their workers from September would be at least 20% more than what it had been in 1914. However the cost of living had more than doubled since then and so the miners would still be receiving a substantial pay cut.
Many men in St Helens must have been ruing the loss of their private enterprise crop coal – with reports that some during the dispute had been illegally earning £10 a week working makeshift surface mines. Although the St Helens miners decided to begin their resumption of work on the following Monday, the pits were not in great shape as only limited safety work had been undertaken during the strike. So it would be a while before everyone could return and the miners decided that those going back to their jobs early would support the others by paying a levy on their wages.
The view by those in authority a century ago was that if you wanted to carry a passenger on your motorbike it should be in a sidecar – not on the back of the bike. Last November Samuel Brighouse, the coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a “dangerous and reprehensible” practice. Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users.
On the 4th a young Manchester couple appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with riding a motorcycle with its rear identification plate obscured. The chairman of the Bench was also critical of the practice of pillion riding, saying: "I hope it will be made a punishable offence before long. There will always be accidents from it". Not that any accident had been caused when a young man named Janssens and his lady friend called Jenny Powell had passed through St Helens.
But carrying a passenger did mean that the bike's number plate could not be seen clearly by a police officer – although Miss Powell said the offence had only been fleeting. "I was most careful to hold my coat so that it could not obscure the number", she said. "But I was wearing a big hat, and it nearly blew off, so I put my hand up to support it and it must have been at this time when the number was covered." Janssens was fined 10 shillings and his lady friend Jenny Powell 5 shillings. I wonder if couples riding on a motorbike still said they were "walking out", as they describing dating then?
And finally the non-St Helens item that attraction my attention this week continues the theme of road safety. The huge growth in motor traffic since WW1 was causing grave concern and this week Henry Beecham – the brother of conductor Sir Thomas Beecham of the St Helens pill-making family – was sent to prison for 12 months. That was after his car had killed a 6-year-old boy, with one witness describing the speed of his vehicle as "terrific" and another estimating it as 65mph.
Whether Beecham of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire – where the Knebworth Festival would later be held – really had been driving at that speed there was no way of knowing – with no CCTV, limited road forensics etc. etc. That was partly why The Times was reporting that the Government was considering abolishing speed limits, as estimates of speed, even by the police, were unreliable. Instead the authorities were thinking of beefing up the furiously driving laws, as what might be considered an acceptable speed depended a lot on the road conditions at the time.
For example you could drive faster on an open road late at night than say at midday, when there were many road users. Without radar the "police traps" to catch speeding drivers involved two constables standing with stopwatches a set distance apart. They measured the time taken for each vehicle to pass between the two points and from that figure the police calculated its mph. It was a controversial practice as shown in this report from the Echo this week under the headlines: "“Most Unenglish And Unfair” – Police, Motor Coaches And Road Trap":
"“What can't speak can't lie” was the explanation given by a police-constable at Southport, today, defending the accuracy of two stop watches, timed in recording motor charabancs for a measured distance of 220 yards, which constituted a police trap. Evidence was that three Southport defendants travelled through the trap at speeds varying from 15 to 17 miles an hour, the limit being 12. Mr. Battersby, for the defendants, submitted that the bench could not accept the word of the police officers against the sworn testimony of a defendant.
"He contended that it was not legal proof for one officer, who was alone, to start a watch at the beginning of the trap, and the second officer, also by himself, to start another at the end of the trap, the difference being the two representing the speed. It was a most un-English and unfair way of giving evidence. It would be a most pernicious custom to admit such uncorroborated evidence.
"The Chief Constable (Major Egan) said he must contradict most emphatically such wild statements. In no police district in England were four men put on a police trap. He hoped the bench would not allow others to be misled by such statements. The defendant Barton said the only way was for somebody to lead the charabancs out of the town. When they got outside the borough they could do as they liked. Each defendant was found £3."
Next week's stories will include the Prince of Wales' visit to St Helens, a serious trailer accident takes place in Corporation Street, the sad case of the Herbert Street triplets and Billinge miners are stopped from working at Sutton Manor Colliery.
This week's stories include the furious St Helens publicans, the man who said women degraded themselves by playing football, more criticism of pillion riding on motorbikes, the fires steam locos caused in the driest June for decades and St Helens miners meet in the Co-op Hall to denounce the settlement of the coal strike.
We begin on the 28th when the St Helens Newspaper reported on a meeting of St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association.
The organisation was up in arms over the activities of the temperance movement and suggestions that a proposed licensing law would reduce the opening hours of pubs.
The chairman of the meeting described how a great fight was before them and how they needed to show a "united front to our enemies".
Another speaker said a "glorious victory" awaited them if they all pulled together.
In March St Helens Ladies football team (pictured above) had played Chorley Ladies at Shrewsbury in front of a crowd of over 8,000.
The proceeds of £500 went to the Royal Salop Infirmary and on June 28th the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail reported that the hospital's annual meeting had taken place.
The infirmary's treasurer, Lord Berwick, thanked the female footballers for the money raised but immediately afterwards Brigadier-General Arthur Lloyd made a savage attack on the game.
"I am not a kill-joy", he told the meeting, "But I do say for Heaven's sake do not let ladies degrade themselves by playing football, which is not a ladies game, and makes fools of them."
St Helens Ladies had raised almost £1 million for charity (in today's money) by playing matches nationwide.
However within a few months the Football Association would agree with the brigadier-general and ban the playing of women's football on member grounds claiming the sport was "quite unsuitable for females".
Although steam locos chugging along railway lines conjure up pleasant romantic images, their billowing smoke did not do much for the environment and during dry summers, sparks from their engines caused many a fire.
In 1899 thousands descended upon Sutton Moss to watch what the Liverpool Mercury dubbed "the most extensive and most extraordinary fire which ever occurred at St. Helens".
Smoke from burning turf billowed over Sutton and Parr and they said train passengers on the adjacent line had a perfect view of the "prairie fire" as it consumed sixty acres of land.
A spark from the engine of another passing train was blamed for starting that blaze during a dry spell, setting alight one of many stacks of turf before quickly spreading.
The month of June in 1921 had also been very dry. Weather stats were not, of course, kept like they are today but it was reported that London had had its driest June since 1813.
The fields and gardens of Lancashire were parched too, with the heat described as intense at times.
Last weekend 250 pit ponies were enjoying the fresh air and daylight in a large field at Parbold Hall Farm, near a railway line.
The hard working animals belonged to Pemberton Collieries and had been put out to pasture while the coal strike was on.
However the idyllic life of the ponies was shattered as what was thought to have been a spark from a passing loco triggered an inferno – as reported by the Liverpool Echo:
"The flames spread like a prairie fire, burning the pasture land black and invading a neighbouring oat field.
"The terrified ponies stampeded over the neighbouring golf links of the Appley Bridge Golf Club, after jumping the hedges and the railed enclosures in their wild efforts to escape from the burning field."
And in the St Helens district there were three similar fires this week.
At 11:30pm on June 30th, the fields and embankments near to Eccleston Park Station were found to be ablaze.
Concern was raised that the fire could spread to the wooden station platform but the fire brigade managed to extinguish the outbreak without too much damage being done.
Earlier in the day a field of hay close by the station belonging to a Mr Walsh had also been on fire and earlier in the week, a large quantity of hay in the Rainhill Asylum field was destroyed after being set alight.
All three outbreaks were blamed on sparks from passing railway engines igniting the extremely dry fields.
The 3-month-long coal strike finally ended this week, although St Helens miners' were far from happy about the settlement their leaders had reached.
The dispute had been triggered by the mine-owners cutting wages due to the worsening economic situation and the loss of export markets during the war.
A deal had now been reached in which the government agreed to subsidise wages for the next three months.
The mine-owners for their part guaranteed that the pay of their workers from September would be at least 20% more than what it had been in 1914.
However the cost of living had more than doubled since then and so the miners would still be receiving a substantial pay cut.
So on July 1st many St Helens' mineworkers met in the Co-op Hall in Baldwin Street (pictured above) to denounce the deal – but also to accept their defeat.
The men's agent, Sam Tinker, said they had no choice but to accept the collective decision and resume work after miners nationwide had voted in favour.
Their defeat was agreed in a vote, although a resolution was carried condemning the actions of their leaders in accepting the deal.
Many men in St Helens must have been ruing the loss of their private enterprise crop coal – with reports that some during the dispute had been illegally earning £10 a week working makeshift surface mines.
Although the St Helens miners decided to begin their resumption of work on the following Monday, the pits were not in great shape as only limited safety work had been undertaken during the strike.
So it would be a while before everyone could return and the miners decided that those going back to their jobs early would support the others by paying a levy on their wages.
The view by those in authority a century ago was that if you wanted to carry a passenger on your motorbike it should be in a sidecar – not on the back of the bike.
Last November Samuel Brighouse, the coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a “dangerous and reprehensible” practice.
Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users.
On the 4th a young Manchester couple appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with riding a motorcycle with its rear identification plate obscured.
The chairman of the Bench was also critical of the practice of pillion riding, saying: "I hope it will be made a punishable offence before long. There will always be accidents from it".
Not that any accident had been caused when a young man named Janssens and his lady friend called Jenny Powell had passed through St Helens.
But carrying a passenger did mean that the bike's number plate could not be seen clearly by a police officer – although Miss Powell said the offence had only been fleeting.
"I was most careful to hold my coat so that it could not obscure the number", she said.
"But I was wearing a big hat, and it nearly blew off, so I put my hand up to support it and it must have been at this time when the number was covered."
Janssens was fined 10 shillings and his lady friend Jenny Powell 5 shillings.
I wonder if couples riding on a motorbike still said they were "walking out", as they describing dating then?
And finally the non-St Helens item that attraction my attention this week continues the theme of road safety.
The huge growth in motor traffic since WW1 was causing grave concern and this week Henry Beecham – the brother of conductor Sir Thomas Beecham of the St Helens pill-making family – was sent to prison for 12 months.
That was after his car had killed a 6-year-old boy, with one witness describing the speed of his vehicle as "terrific" and another estimating it as 65mph.
Whether Beecham of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire – where the Knebworth Festival would later be held – really had been driving at that speed there was no way of knowing – with no CCTV, limited road forensics etc. etc.
That was partly why The Times was reporting that the Government was considering abolishing speed limits, as estimates of speed, even by the police, were unreliable.
Instead the authorities were thinking of beefing up the furiously driving laws, as what might be considered an acceptable speed depended a lot on the road conditions at the time.
For example you could drive faster on an open road late at night than say at midday, when there were many road users.
Without radar the "police traps" to catch speeding drivers involved two constables standing with stopwatches a set distance apart.
They measured the time taken for each vehicle to pass between the two points and from that figure the police calculated its mph.
It was a controversial practice as shown in this report from the Echo this week under the headlines: "“Most Unenglish And Unfair” – Police, Motor Coaches And Road Trap":
"“What can't speak can't lie” was the explanation given by a police-constable at Southport, today, defending the accuracy of two stop watches, timed in recording motor charabancs for a measured distance of 220 yards, which constituted a police trap.
"Evidence was that three Southport defendants travelled through the trap at speeds varying from 15 to 17 miles an hour, the limit being 12.
"Mr. Battersby, for the defendants, submitted that the bench could not accept the word of the police officers against the sworn testimony of a defendant.
"He contended that it was not legal proof for one officer, who was alone, to start a watch at the beginning of the trap, and the second officer, also by himself, to start another at the end of the trap, the difference being the two representing the speed.
"It was a most un-English and unfair way of giving evidence. It would be a most pernicious custom to admit such uncorroborated evidence.
"The Chief Constable (Major Egan) said he must contradict most emphatically such wild statements.
"In no police district in England were four men put on a police trap. He hoped the bench would not allow others to be misled by such statements.
"The defendant Barton said the only way was for somebody to lead the charabancs out of the town.
"When they got outside the borough they could do as they liked. Each defendant was found £3."
Next week's stories will include the Prince of Wales' visit to St Helens, a serious trailer accident takes place in Corporation Street, the sad case of the Herbert Street triplets and Billinge miners are stopped from working at Sutton Manor Colliery.
We begin on the 28th when the St Helens Newspaper reported on a meeting of St Helens and Widnes Licensed Victuallers Association.
The organisation was up in arms over the activities of the temperance movement and suggestions that a proposed licensing law would reduce the opening hours of pubs.
The chairman of the meeting described how a great fight was before them and how they needed to show a "united front to our enemies".
Another speaker said a "glorious victory" awaited them if they all pulled together.
The proceeds of £500 went to the Royal Salop Infirmary and on June 28th the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail reported that the hospital's annual meeting had taken place.
The infirmary's treasurer, Lord Berwick, thanked the female footballers for the money raised but immediately afterwards Brigadier-General Arthur Lloyd made a savage attack on the game.
"I am not a kill-joy", he told the meeting, "But I do say for Heaven's sake do not let ladies degrade themselves by playing football, which is not a ladies game, and makes fools of them."
St Helens Ladies had raised almost £1 million for charity (in today's money) by playing matches nationwide.
However within a few months the Football Association would agree with the brigadier-general and ban the playing of women's football on member grounds claiming the sport was "quite unsuitable for females".
Although steam locos chugging along railway lines conjure up pleasant romantic images, their billowing smoke did not do much for the environment and during dry summers, sparks from their engines caused many a fire.
In 1899 thousands descended upon Sutton Moss to watch what the Liverpool Mercury dubbed "the most extensive and most extraordinary fire which ever occurred at St. Helens".
Smoke from burning turf billowed over Sutton and Parr and they said train passengers on the adjacent line had a perfect view of the "prairie fire" as it consumed sixty acres of land.
A spark from the engine of another passing train was blamed for starting that blaze during a dry spell, setting alight one of many stacks of turf before quickly spreading.
The month of June in 1921 had also been very dry. Weather stats were not, of course, kept like they are today but it was reported that London had had its driest June since 1813.
The fields and gardens of Lancashire were parched too, with the heat described as intense at times.
Last weekend 250 pit ponies were enjoying the fresh air and daylight in a large field at Parbold Hall Farm, near a railway line.
The hard working animals belonged to Pemberton Collieries and had been put out to pasture while the coal strike was on.
However the idyllic life of the ponies was shattered as what was thought to have been a spark from a passing loco triggered an inferno – as reported by the Liverpool Echo:
"The flames spread like a prairie fire, burning the pasture land black and invading a neighbouring oat field.
"The terrified ponies stampeded over the neighbouring golf links of the Appley Bridge Golf Club, after jumping the hedges and the railed enclosures in their wild efforts to escape from the burning field."
And in the St Helens district there were three similar fires this week.
At 11:30pm on June 30th, the fields and embankments near to Eccleston Park Station were found to be ablaze.
Concern was raised that the fire could spread to the wooden station platform but the fire brigade managed to extinguish the outbreak without too much damage being done.
Earlier in the day a field of hay close by the station belonging to a Mr Walsh had also been on fire and earlier in the week, a large quantity of hay in the Rainhill Asylum field was destroyed after being set alight.
All three outbreaks were blamed on sparks from passing railway engines igniting the extremely dry fields.
The 3-month-long coal strike finally ended this week, although St Helens miners' were far from happy about the settlement their leaders had reached.
The dispute had been triggered by the mine-owners cutting wages due to the worsening economic situation and the loss of export markets during the war.
A deal had now been reached in which the government agreed to subsidise wages for the next three months.
The mine-owners for their part guaranteed that the pay of their workers from September would be at least 20% more than what it had been in 1914.
However the cost of living had more than doubled since then and so the miners would still be receiving a substantial pay cut.
The men's agent, Sam Tinker, said they had no choice but to accept the collective decision and resume work after miners nationwide had voted in favour.
Their defeat was agreed in a vote, although a resolution was carried condemning the actions of their leaders in accepting the deal.
Many men in St Helens must have been ruing the loss of their private enterprise crop coal – with reports that some during the dispute had been illegally earning £10 a week working makeshift surface mines.
Although the St Helens miners decided to begin their resumption of work on the following Monday, the pits were not in great shape as only limited safety work had been undertaken during the strike.
So it would be a while before everyone could return and the miners decided that those going back to their jobs early would support the others by paying a levy on their wages.
The view by those in authority a century ago was that if you wanted to carry a passenger on your motorbike it should be in a sidecar – not on the back of the bike.
Last November Samuel Brighouse, the coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a “dangerous and reprehensible” practice.
Although motorbike crash helmets had been invented, they were seen as the headgear of racers in events such as the TT and it was not until 1973 that helmets were made compulsory for road users.
On the 4th a young Manchester couple appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with riding a motorcycle with its rear identification plate obscured.
The chairman of the Bench was also critical of the practice of pillion riding, saying: "I hope it will be made a punishable offence before long. There will always be accidents from it".
Not that any accident had been caused when a young man named Janssens and his lady friend called Jenny Powell had passed through St Helens.
But carrying a passenger did mean that the bike's number plate could not be seen clearly by a police officer – although Miss Powell said the offence had only been fleeting.
"I was most careful to hold my coat so that it could not obscure the number", she said.
"But I was wearing a big hat, and it nearly blew off, so I put my hand up to support it and it must have been at this time when the number was covered."
Janssens was fined 10 shillings and his lady friend Jenny Powell 5 shillings.
I wonder if couples riding on a motorbike still said they were "walking out", as they describing dating then?
And finally the non-St Helens item that attraction my attention this week continues the theme of road safety.
The huge growth in motor traffic since WW1 was causing grave concern and this week Henry Beecham – the brother of conductor Sir Thomas Beecham of the St Helens pill-making family – was sent to prison for 12 months.
That was after his car had killed a 6-year-old boy, with one witness describing the speed of his vehicle as "terrific" and another estimating it as 65mph.
Whether Beecham of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire – where the Knebworth Festival would later be held – really had been driving at that speed there was no way of knowing – with no CCTV, limited road forensics etc. etc.
That was partly why The Times was reporting that the Government was considering abolishing speed limits, as estimates of speed, even by the police, were unreliable.
Instead the authorities were thinking of beefing up the furiously driving laws, as what might be considered an acceptable speed depended a lot on the road conditions at the time.
For example you could drive faster on an open road late at night than say at midday, when there were many road users.
Without radar the "police traps" to catch speeding drivers involved two constables standing with stopwatches a set distance apart.
They measured the time taken for each vehicle to pass between the two points and from that figure the police calculated its mph.
It was a controversial practice as shown in this report from the Echo this week under the headlines: "“Most Unenglish And Unfair” – Police, Motor Coaches And Road Trap":
"“What can't speak can't lie” was the explanation given by a police-constable at Southport, today, defending the accuracy of two stop watches, timed in recording motor charabancs for a measured distance of 220 yards, which constituted a police trap.
"Evidence was that three Southport defendants travelled through the trap at speeds varying from 15 to 17 miles an hour, the limit being 12.
"Mr. Battersby, for the defendants, submitted that the bench could not accept the word of the police officers against the sworn testimony of a defendant.
"He contended that it was not legal proof for one officer, who was alone, to start a watch at the beginning of the trap, and the second officer, also by himself, to start another at the end of the trap, the difference being the two representing the speed.
"It was a most un-English and unfair way of giving evidence. It would be a most pernicious custom to admit such uncorroborated evidence.
"The Chief Constable (Major Egan) said he must contradict most emphatically such wild statements.
"In no police district in England were four men put on a police trap. He hoped the bench would not allow others to be misled by such statements.
"The defendant Barton said the only way was for somebody to lead the charabancs out of the town.
"When they got outside the borough they could do as they liked. Each defendant was found £3."
Next week's stories will include the Prince of Wales' visit to St Helens, a serious trailer accident takes place in Corporation Street, the sad case of the Herbert Street triplets and Billinge miners are stopped from working at Sutton Manor Colliery.