IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 28 OCT - 3 NOV 1924
This week's many stories include the cleanly fought general election in St Helens, a boy's harsh sentence for petty theft, the lively scene in Silkstone Street, the council's call to ban pillion riding on motor bikes, the expansion of cigarette smoking and the lorry that smashed into a Cambridge Road shop window.
The court system in the 1920s was getting more enlightened with youngsters far more likely to be placed on probation than being birched. However, the magistrates still liked to take kids away from their families and despatch them to homes of one sort or another for four or five years. That was after committing a series of quite minor offences. Industrial schools or reformatories were the two main destinations for troublesome boys, with the latter place supposedly for those that had committed more serious crimes.
However, in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 28th, a 14-year-old lad – who had stolen what was described as a linnet net and cage from a man in Baker Street – was sent to a reformatory for four years. The court's probation officer told the Bench that the boy had initially behaved satisfactory while under his supervision but had later given way to "bad impulses". The unnamed boy had been before the court on several previous occasions and when told he was being sent to a reformatory until he was nineteen collapsed. And it was with some difficulty that he was made to understand what was going to happen to him.
A General Election was held on the 29th. It had been called through the passing in the House Commons of a vote of no confidence in the Labour minority government of Ramsay MacDonald. Nationally, the election led to a Conservative landslide victory. That was attributed in part to a forged letter concerning a Bolshevik-style revolution in Britain that was linked to Labour, which the Daily Mail had published as genuine a few days before the vote.
Although in St Helens, Labour romped home with James Sexton (pictured above) increasing his majority over Evelyn Pilkington who was standing for the Conservatives. The total electorate was 45,980 (which included about 17,000 women) and there was a turnout of over 80%, with only 7,762 not casting their vote. The Reporter described the contest as having been "cleanly fought" but commented how there had been few humorous moments.
James Sexton was renowned for his politeness to his political opponents and in his late night victory speech on the Town Hall steps praised Miss Pilkington. "It has not only been a great fight, but a square fight. I have never participated in a fairer or squarer fight in my life…I have but one regret and that is I am very sorry to lose the company of Miss Pilkington."
The riding of motorcycles in St Helens exploded during the 1920s. But if motorbike riders wished to carry a passenger they were expected to house them in a sidecar and the police and magistrates strongly disapproved of pillion riding. It was not illegal but considered unsafe and in 1920 Samuel Brighouse, the Coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice.
This week St Helens Council's Parliamentary Committee passed this resolution: "In view of the great increase in road traffic, and the dangers constantly arising from the practice of pillion riding on motor bicycles, it is urgently necessary that H.M. Government should introduce legislation to render this practice illegal, also that a copy of the resolution be sent to the Home Secretary and to the Minister of Transport."
There was no mention of the wearing of motorbike crash helmets that few voluntarily wore. Although such 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 all motorcycle users.
At the meeting of the council's Education Committee on the 30th, Cllr Thomas Boscow complained how during the recent election he had noticed that photographs of a political candidate had been nailed up in one school. Just which party the candidate represented was not stated but it must have been the Conservatives.
That was because Councillor Boscow was a fervent supporter of the Labour Party and they and the Tories were the only parties that now stood in elections in St Helens. He maintained that teachers should not be allowed to promote political parties in that way. Their duty, he insisted, was to adhere to the curriculum and not try to "impress young minds in that way."
On the 31st the St Helens Reporter ran an article on the country's high dependency on smoking, which the piece said had "sedative and nerve soothing powers". The country's tobacco manufacturing capacity was reported to be expanding and the article mentioned how a firm called Carreras Ltd who made many brands of cigarettes had opened a new factory in Holborn:
"…where they will turn out a daily output whose size would stagger the average man in the street who buys his humble packet daily. But either he is smoking more, or still more people are smoking, to warrant this enterprise." Although the article said there was occasional criticism of people "over-smoking", there was no mention of health dangers.
And they were known – at least to an extent. The Liverpool Daily Post had in 1916 carried a brief report that said a study had revealed that those who were heavy smokers and drinkers were more than twice as likely to die from cancer than those who didn't imbibe.
This is how the Reporter described a chaotic and confusing row between several residents of a house that led to them all being charged with breaching the peace: "Attracted by the sound of screaming and obscene language, P.C. Bennett paid a visit the other evening to No. 7, Silkstone-street, where (according to the evidence given in the Police Court, on Friday), a lively scene confronted his gaze.
"John J. Burt was busily engaged, he alleged, seizing his wife by the throat, while Elizabeth Henry, who lived at the same address, was spending her spare time thumping the table. An unprintable expression – a copy of which was written on a slip of paper and handed to the Magistrates – was used. All the parties appeared to be talking at once. “You are the nicest bobby I have ever seen,” declared one of the women.
"Quoth John J. Burt, sturdily, “I am a man of the world, but nobody knows what I have to go through but myself. The way I get knocked about is terrible.” Mary Burt said “Get him out”. Elizabeth Henry chimed in “Don't worry. He is taking this on his own,” whereupon John J. Burt retorted “I am the boss and I will stand for it.”" All except one of those involved were bound over, with the case against the knocked about man of the world John J. Burt dismissed.
Although quite a few frightened horses have crashed into St Helens shop windows over the years, motor vehicles were quite capable of doing the same thing. During the early years of motoring it was not uncommon for hand brakes to not be securely applied while the driver was absent and that failure had the inevitable consequence if parked on an incline.
This week Arthur Johnson from New Cross Street was summoned to St Helens Police Court for leaving his "motor lurry without taking precautions against it being started in his absence". Johnson's vehicle was laden with several tons of flour and it had been parked outside Nevins store in Grafton Street when the lorry suddenly moved backwards and smashed into Albert Coope's shop window in Cambridge Road. The damage was estimated at £30 and the driver was fined £1.
On November 1st St Helens people went to the polls for the second time in three days as the town's annual municipal elections were held. One might have thought that they could have combined the two votes but for some reason they were conducted separately.
And finally, from the 3rd the Hippodrome in Corporation Street had an unusual show on stage. It was called 'There You Are Then' and was dubbed the "Sixty Miles An Hour Revue". That was because it was claimed to be a three-hour show performed in just 1 hour 45 minutes. As well as a star cast there was The Alabama Syncopated Band. Its eleven members played twenty instruments, although presumably not all at the same time! "The most wonderful exponents of syncopation in this country", said the advert. It sounds like the show might have been just as chaotic as those living unhappily together in Silkstone Street!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the church talk on converting Muslims to Christianity, the slam-door finger injury at St Helens Station, the Post Office thief, a review of the local elections in St Helens and the unfairness of the gambling laws.
The court system in the 1920s was getting more enlightened with youngsters far more likely to be placed on probation than being birched. However, the magistrates still liked to take kids away from their families and despatch them to homes of one sort or another for four or five years. That was after committing a series of quite minor offences. Industrial schools or reformatories were the two main destinations for troublesome boys, with the latter place supposedly for those that had committed more serious crimes.
However, in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 28th, a 14-year-old lad – who had stolen what was described as a linnet net and cage from a man in Baker Street – was sent to a reformatory for four years. The court's probation officer told the Bench that the boy had initially behaved satisfactory while under his supervision but had later given way to "bad impulses". The unnamed boy had been before the court on several previous occasions and when told he was being sent to a reformatory until he was nineteen collapsed. And it was with some difficulty that he was made to understand what was going to happen to him.
A General Election was held on the 29th. It had been called through the passing in the House Commons of a vote of no confidence in the Labour minority government of Ramsay MacDonald. Nationally, the election led to a Conservative landslide victory. That was attributed in part to a forged letter concerning a Bolshevik-style revolution in Britain that was linked to Labour, which the Daily Mail had published as genuine a few days before the vote.
James Sexton was renowned for his politeness to his political opponents and in his late night victory speech on the Town Hall steps praised Miss Pilkington. "It has not only been a great fight, but a square fight. I have never participated in a fairer or squarer fight in my life…I have but one regret and that is I am very sorry to lose the company of Miss Pilkington."
The riding of motorcycles in St Helens exploded during the 1920s. But if motorbike riders wished to carry a passenger they were expected to house them in a sidecar and the police and magistrates strongly disapproved of pillion riding. It was not illegal but considered unsafe and in 1920 Samuel Brighouse, the Coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice.
This week St Helens Council's Parliamentary Committee passed this resolution: "In view of the great increase in road traffic, and the dangers constantly arising from the practice of pillion riding on motor bicycles, it is urgently necessary that H.M. Government should introduce legislation to render this practice illegal, also that a copy of the resolution be sent to the Home Secretary and to the Minister of Transport."
At the meeting of the council's Education Committee on the 30th, Cllr Thomas Boscow complained how during the recent election he had noticed that photographs of a political candidate had been nailed up in one school. Just which party the candidate represented was not stated but it must have been the Conservatives.
That was because Councillor Boscow was a fervent supporter of the Labour Party and they and the Tories were the only parties that now stood in elections in St Helens. He maintained that teachers should not be allowed to promote political parties in that way. Their duty, he insisted, was to adhere to the curriculum and not try to "impress young minds in that way."
On the 31st the St Helens Reporter ran an article on the country's high dependency on smoking, which the piece said had "sedative and nerve soothing powers". The country's tobacco manufacturing capacity was reported to be expanding and the article mentioned how a firm called Carreras Ltd who made many brands of cigarettes had opened a new factory in Holborn:
"…where they will turn out a daily output whose size would stagger the average man in the street who buys his humble packet daily. But either he is smoking more, or still more people are smoking, to warrant this enterprise." Although the article said there was occasional criticism of people "over-smoking", there was no mention of health dangers.
And they were known – at least to an extent. The Liverpool Daily Post had in 1916 carried a brief report that said a study had revealed that those who were heavy smokers and drinkers were more than twice as likely to die from cancer than those who didn't imbibe.
This is how the Reporter described a chaotic and confusing row between several residents of a house that led to them all being charged with breaching the peace: "Attracted by the sound of screaming and obscene language, P.C. Bennett paid a visit the other evening to No. 7, Silkstone-street, where (according to the evidence given in the Police Court, on Friday), a lively scene confronted his gaze.
"John J. Burt was busily engaged, he alleged, seizing his wife by the throat, while Elizabeth Henry, who lived at the same address, was spending her spare time thumping the table. An unprintable expression – a copy of which was written on a slip of paper and handed to the Magistrates – was used. All the parties appeared to be talking at once. “You are the nicest bobby I have ever seen,” declared one of the women.
"Quoth John J. Burt, sturdily, “I am a man of the world, but nobody knows what I have to go through but myself. The way I get knocked about is terrible.” Mary Burt said “Get him out”. Elizabeth Henry chimed in “Don't worry. He is taking this on his own,” whereupon John J. Burt retorted “I am the boss and I will stand for it.”" All except one of those involved were bound over, with the case against the knocked about man of the world John J. Burt dismissed.
Although quite a few frightened horses have crashed into St Helens shop windows over the years, motor vehicles were quite capable of doing the same thing. During the early years of motoring it was not uncommon for hand brakes to not be securely applied while the driver was absent and that failure had the inevitable consequence if parked on an incline.
This week Arthur Johnson from New Cross Street was summoned to St Helens Police Court for leaving his "motor lurry without taking precautions against it being started in his absence". Johnson's vehicle was laden with several tons of flour and it had been parked outside Nevins store in Grafton Street when the lorry suddenly moved backwards and smashed into Albert Coope's shop window in Cambridge Road. The damage was estimated at £30 and the driver was fined £1.
On November 1st St Helens people went to the polls for the second time in three days as the town's annual municipal elections were held. One might have thought that they could have combined the two votes but for some reason they were conducted separately.
And finally, from the 3rd the Hippodrome in Corporation Street had an unusual show on stage. It was called 'There You Are Then' and was dubbed the "Sixty Miles An Hour Revue". That was because it was claimed to be a three-hour show performed in just 1 hour 45 minutes. As well as a star cast there was The Alabama Syncopated Band. Its eleven members played twenty instruments, although presumably not all at the same time! "The most wonderful exponents of syncopation in this country", said the advert. It sounds like the show might have been just as chaotic as those living unhappily together in Silkstone Street!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the church talk on converting Muslims to Christianity, the slam-door finger injury at St Helens Station, the Post Office thief, a review of the local elections in St Helens and the unfairness of the gambling laws.
This week's many stories include the cleanly fought general election in St Helens, a boy's harsh sentence for petty theft, the lively scene in Silkstone Street, the council's call to ban pillion riding on motor bikes, the expansion of cigarette smoking and the lorry that smashed into a Cambridge Road shop window.
The court system in the 1920s was getting more enlightened with youngsters far more likely to be placed on probation than being birched.
However, the magistrates still liked to take kids away from their families and send them off to homes of one sort or another for four or five years. That was after committing a series of quite minor offences.
Industrial schools or reformatories were the two main destinations for troublesome boys, with the latter place supposedly for those that had committed more serious crimes.
However, in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 28th, a 14-year-old lad – who had stolen what was described as a linnet net and cage from a man in Baker Street – was sent to a reformatory for four years.
The court's probation officer told the Bench that the boy had initially behaved satisfactory while under his supervision but had later given way to "bad impulses".
The unnamed boy had been before the court on several previous occasions and when told he was being sent to a reformatory until he was nineteen collapsed.
And it was with some difficulty that he was made to understand what was going to happen to him.
A General Election was held on the 29th. It had been called through the passing in the House Commons of a vote of no confidence in the Labour minority government of Ramsay MacDonald.
Nationally, the election led to a Conservative landslide victory. That was attributed in part to a forged letter concerning a Bolshevik-style revolution in Britain that was linked to Labour, which the Daily Mail had published as genuine a few days before the vote.
Although in St Helens Labour romped home with James Sexton (pictured above) increasing his majority over Evelyn Pilkington who was standing for the Conservatives.
The total electorate was 45,980 (which included about 17,000 women) and there was a turnout of over 80%, with only 7,762 not casting their vote.
The Reporter described the contest as having been "cleanly fought" but commented how there had been few humorous moments.
James Sexton was renowned for his politeness to his political opponents and in his late night victory speech on the Town Hall steps praised Miss Pilkington.
"It has not only been a great fight, but a square fight. I have never participated in a fairer or squarer fight in my life…I have but one regret and that is I am very sorry to lose the company of Miss Pilkington.”
The riding of motorcycles in St Helens exploded during the 1920s. But if motorbike riders wished to carry a passenger they were expected to house them in a sidecar and the police and magistrates strongly disapproved of pillion riding.
It was not illegal but considered unsafe and in 1920 Samuel Brighouse, the Coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice.
This week St Helens Council's Parliamentary Committee passed this resolution:
"In view of the great increase in road traffic, and the dangers constantly arising from the practice of pillion riding on motor bicycles, it is urgently necessary that H.M. Government should introduce legislation to render this practice illegal, also that a copy of the resolution be sent to the Home Secretary and to the Minister of Transport."
There was no mention of the wearing of motorbike crash helmets that few voluntarily wore.
Although such 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 all motorcycle users.
At the meeting of the council's Education Committee on the 30th, Cllr Thomas Boscow complained how during the recent election he had noticed that photographs of a political candidate had been nailed up in one school.
Just which party the candidate represented was not stated but it must have been the Conservatives.
That was because Councillor Boscow was a fervent supporter of the Labour Party and they and the Tories were the only parties that now stood in elections in St Helens.
He maintained that teachers should not be allowed to promote political parties in that way. Their duty, he insisted, was to adhere to the curriculum and not try to "impress young minds in that way."
On the 31st the St Helens Reporter ran an article on the country's high dependency on smoking, which the piece said had "sedative and nerve soothing powers".
The country's tobacco manufacturing capacity was reported to be expanding and the article mentioned how a firm called Carreras Ltd who made many brands of cigarettes had opened a new factory in Holborn:
"…where they will turn out a daily output whose size would stagger the average man in the street who buys his humble packet daily.
"But either he is smoking more, or still more people are smoking, to warrant this enterprise."
Although the article said there was occasional criticism of people "over-smoking", there was no mention of health dangers.
And they were known – at least to an extent. The Liverpool Daily Post had in 1916 carried a brief report that said a study had revealed that those who were heavy smokers and drinkers were more than twice as likely to die from cancer than those who didn't imbibe.
This is how the Reporter described a chaotic and confusing row between several residents of a house that led to them all being charged with breaching the peace:
"Attracted by the sound of screaming and obscene language, P.C. Bennett paid a visit the other evening to No. 7, Silkstone-street, where (according to the evidence given in the Police Court, on Friday), a lively scene confronted his gaze.
"John J. Burt was busily engaged, he alleged, seizing his wife by the throat, while Elizabeth Henry, who lived at the same address, was spending her spare time thumping the table.
"An unprintable expression – a copy of which was written on a slip of paper and handed to the Magistrates – was used. All the parties appeared to be talking at once. “You are the nicest bobby I have ever seen,” declared one of the women.
"Quoth John J. Burt, sturdily, “I am a man of the world, but nobody knows what I have to go through but myself. The way I get knocked about is terrible.”
"Mary Burt said “Get him out”. Elizabeth Henry chimed in “Don't worry. He is taking this on his own,” whereupon John J. Burt retorted “I am the boss and I will stand for it.”"
All except one of those involved were bound over, with the case against the knocked about man of the world John J. Burt dismissed.
Although quite a few frightened horses have crashed into St Helens shop windows over the years, motor vehicles were quite capable of doing the same thing.
During the early years of motoring it was not uncommon for hand brakes to not be securely applied while the driver was absent and that failure had the inevitable consequence if parked on an incline.
This week Arthur Johnson from New Cross Street was summoned to St Helens Police Court for leaving his "motor lurry without taking precautions against it being started in his absence".
Johnson's vehicle was laden with several tons of flour and it had been parked outside Nevin's store in Grafton Street when the lorry suddenly moved backwards and smashed into Albert Coope's shop window in Cambridge Road.
The damage was estimated at £30 and the driver was fined £1.
On November 1st St Helens people went to the polls for the second time in three days as the town's annual municipal elections were held.
One might have thought that they could have combined the two votes but for some reason they were conducted separately.
And finally, from the 3rd the Hippodrome in Corporation Street had an unusual show on stage.
It was called 'There You Are Then' and was dubbed the "Sixty Miles An Hour Revue".
That was because it was claimed to be a three-hour show performed in just 1 hour 45 minutes.
As well as a star cast there was The Alabama Syncopated Band. Its eleven members played twenty instruments, although presumably not all at the same time!
"The most wonderful exponents of syncopation in this country", said the advert. It sounds like the show might have been just as chaotic as those living unhappily together in Silkstone Street!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the church talk on converting Muslims to Christianity, the slam-door finger injury at St Helens Station, the Post Office thief, a review of the local elections in St Helens and the unfairness of the gambling laws.
The court system in the 1920s was getting more enlightened with youngsters far more likely to be placed on probation than being birched.
However, the magistrates still liked to take kids away from their families and send them off to homes of one sort or another for four or five years. That was after committing a series of quite minor offences.
Industrial schools or reformatories were the two main destinations for troublesome boys, with the latter place supposedly for those that had committed more serious crimes.
However, in St Helens Juvenile Court on the 28th, a 14-year-old lad – who had stolen what was described as a linnet net and cage from a man in Baker Street – was sent to a reformatory for four years.
The court's probation officer told the Bench that the boy had initially behaved satisfactory while under his supervision but had later given way to "bad impulses".
The unnamed boy had been before the court on several previous occasions and when told he was being sent to a reformatory until he was nineteen collapsed.
And it was with some difficulty that he was made to understand what was going to happen to him.
A General Election was held on the 29th. It had been called through the passing in the House Commons of a vote of no confidence in the Labour minority government of Ramsay MacDonald.
Nationally, the election led to a Conservative landslide victory. That was attributed in part to a forged letter concerning a Bolshevik-style revolution in Britain that was linked to Labour, which the Daily Mail had published as genuine a few days before the vote.
The total electorate was 45,980 (which included about 17,000 women) and there was a turnout of over 80%, with only 7,762 not casting their vote.
The Reporter described the contest as having been "cleanly fought" but commented how there had been few humorous moments.
James Sexton was renowned for his politeness to his political opponents and in his late night victory speech on the Town Hall steps praised Miss Pilkington.
"It has not only been a great fight, but a square fight. I have never participated in a fairer or squarer fight in my life…I have but one regret and that is I am very sorry to lose the company of Miss Pilkington.”
The riding of motorcycles in St Helens exploded during the 1920s. But if motorbike riders wished to carry a passenger they were expected to house them in a sidecar and the police and magistrates strongly disapproved of pillion riding.
It was not illegal but considered unsafe and in 1920 Samuel Brighouse, the Coroner for SW Lancashire, had called riding on the pillion of a motorcycle a "dangerous and reprehensible" practice.
This week St Helens Council's Parliamentary Committee passed this resolution:
"In view of the great increase in road traffic, and the dangers constantly arising from the practice of pillion riding on motor bicycles, it is urgently necessary that H.M. Government should introduce legislation to render this practice illegal, also that a copy of the resolution be sent to the Home Secretary and to the Minister of Transport."
Although such 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 all motorcycle users.
At the meeting of the council's Education Committee on the 30th, Cllr Thomas Boscow complained how during the recent election he had noticed that photographs of a political candidate had been nailed up in one school.
Just which party the candidate represented was not stated but it must have been the Conservatives.
That was because Councillor Boscow was a fervent supporter of the Labour Party and they and the Tories were the only parties that now stood in elections in St Helens.
He maintained that teachers should not be allowed to promote political parties in that way. Their duty, he insisted, was to adhere to the curriculum and not try to "impress young minds in that way."
On the 31st the St Helens Reporter ran an article on the country's high dependency on smoking, which the piece said had "sedative and nerve soothing powers".
The country's tobacco manufacturing capacity was reported to be expanding and the article mentioned how a firm called Carreras Ltd who made many brands of cigarettes had opened a new factory in Holborn:
"…where they will turn out a daily output whose size would stagger the average man in the street who buys his humble packet daily.
"But either he is smoking more, or still more people are smoking, to warrant this enterprise."
Although the article said there was occasional criticism of people "over-smoking", there was no mention of health dangers.
And they were known – at least to an extent. The Liverpool Daily Post had in 1916 carried a brief report that said a study had revealed that those who were heavy smokers and drinkers were more than twice as likely to die from cancer than those who didn't imbibe.
This is how the Reporter described a chaotic and confusing row between several residents of a house that led to them all being charged with breaching the peace:
"Attracted by the sound of screaming and obscene language, P.C. Bennett paid a visit the other evening to No. 7, Silkstone-street, where (according to the evidence given in the Police Court, on Friday), a lively scene confronted his gaze.
"John J. Burt was busily engaged, he alleged, seizing his wife by the throat, while Elizabeth Henry, who lived at the same address, was spending her spare time thumping the table.
"An unprintable expression – a copy of which was written on a slip of paper and handed to the Magistrates – was used. All the parties appeared to be talking at once. “You are the nicest bobby I have ever seen,” declared one of the women.
"Quoth John J. Burt, sturdily, “I am a man of the world, but nobody knows what I have to go through but myself. The way I get knocked about is terrible.”
"Mary Burt said “Get him out”. Elizabeth Henry chimed in “Don't worry. He is taking this on his own,” whereupon John J. Burt retorted “I am the boss and I will stand for it.”"
All except one of those involved were bound over, with the case against the knocked about man of the world John J. Burt dismissed.
Although quite a few frightened horses have crashed into St Helens shop windows over the years, motor vehicles were quite capable of doing the same thing.
During the early years of motoring it was not uncommon for hand brakes to not be securely applied while the driver was absent and that failure had the inevitable consequence if parked on an incline.
This week Arthur Johnson from New Cross Street was summoned to St Helens Police Court for leaving his "motor lurry without taking precautions against it being started in his absence".
Johnson's vehicle was laden with several tons of flour and it had been parked outside Nevin's store in Grafton Street when the lorry suddenly moved backwards and smashed into Albert Coope's shop window in Cambridge Road.
The damage was estimated at £30 and the driver was fined £1.
On November 1st St Helens people went to the polls for the second time in three days as the town's annual municipal elections were held.
One might have thought that they could have combined the two votes but for some reason they were conducted separately.
And finally, from the 3rd the Hippodrome in Corporation Street had an unusual show on stage.
It was called 'There You Are Then' and was dubbed the "Sixty Miles An Hour Revue".
That was because it was claimed to be a three-hour show performed in just 1 hour 45 minutes.
As well as a star cast there was The Alabama Syncopated Band. Its eleven members played twenty instruments, although presumably not all at the same time!
"The most wonderful exponents of syncopation in this country", said the advert. It sounds like the show might have been just as chaotic as those living unhappily together in Silkstone Street!
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the church talk on converting Muslims to Christianity, the slam-door finger injury at St Helens Station, the Post Office thief, a review of the local elections in St Helens and the unfairness of the gambling laws.