IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (29th NOV. - 5th DEC. 1921)
This week's many stories include the Stanhope Street divorce case, the bookie heavily fined for running a church lottery, the Church Street stealing by finding of a gold medallion and the little Indian girls on a world tour who visited St Helens.
Although divorce was on the increase, it was still a bit of a novelty and so sordid court evidence was reported in great detail by the newspapers. Even those parties involved in uncontested divorce petitions that involved infidelity – as most did – were not spared any public embarrassment. On the 30th Charles Kenchington petitioned for divorce from his wife Martha.
The couple had married in St Helens and lived first in Windleshaw Road and then at Stanhope Street (near Victoria Park and pictured above) and had four children. Charles claimed that his wife took to drink and associated with James Hulme, who he named as co-respondent. The 43-year-old tailor told the court that one afternoon in 1916 after visiting a picture house, he went home and found Hulme coming down the stairs. Kenchington then went into his bedroom and discovered his wife dressing in a very agitated manner.
He said he'd accused her of misconduct and told her to leave the house and she departed crying. However, in the following July, Kenchington agreed to take Martha back to their home in Stanhope Street in order to make a fresh start. In 1917 Kenchington joined the army but, upon coming home on leave, chose not to cohabit with his wife after learning that her conduct during his absence had not improved and after demobilisation he initiated divorce proceedings.
Also giving evidence was William Kenchington, the eldest son of the couple, who was living in Peter Street in St Helens and had been dragged into the affair. The 20-year-old told the court that Hulme used to visit his mother in Stanhope Street during his father's absence. None of the salacious evidence was contested and so the judge granted a decree nisi.
On December 1st in St Helens Junior Court, a Mrs Knapper from Station Road in Sutton was fined 20 shillings for receiving some stolen wood from her son. The eleven-year-old and a friend had entered the yard and washhouse of a neighbour called Mr Davies at 7.30 in the morning. Having heard noises in his yard and seeing a boy running away, the man locked his washhouse not realising that the other lad was still inside. The boy had to smash a window to get out!
Also on the 1st, what was described as a "special all star matinee" was held in the Theatre Royal in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society. The two main annual events for disabled kids were the "Crippled Children's Outing" and the "Crippled Children's Annual Treat", which was held at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park. I may be a bit harsh but I can't help feel that the disabled children were brought out of the shadows every now and then for people to say "Aw, what a shame", pat them on the head and stick them out of sight again.
The young kids who certainly were getting about were the twenty Indian girls who visited St Helens on the 3rd as part of their 2½-year world tour. They belonged to the Salvation Army's industrial boarding school at Satara in India and were aged between eight and fifteen. Several of the girls were orphans in the care of the Army and one was found on a rubbish heap where she had apparently been left to die.
The purpose of the tour was to show audiences in Great Britain, Europe, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia something of the work that the Salvation Army was doing in India and to raise funds. While in St Helens the party gave an exhibition of dancing and singing and performed sketches illustrating Indian manners and customs.
Most of the illegal bookies in St Helens appear to have been a decent lot who paid out to their clients and gave the police no trouble when their collars were felt. Some would help out their local community, such as Samuel Kay of Creswell Street (off Eccleston Street) who on the 5th pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to running a lottery. Superintendent Dunn told the hearing that Kay was a bookmaker who had conducted the raffle for charitable purposes.
A total of 3,204 tickets had been sold which had brought in £160 4s and after the cost of prizes, a profit of nearly £100 was set to go to Sacred Heart Catholic Church (pictured above). That's around £5,000 in today's money. The bookie's solicitor said his client had been out of pocket through running the lottery, as he had paid all the incidental expenses. However, Kay would now be significantly more out of pocket as running a lottery was illegal and the 39-year-old was fined £20 or two months prison with hard labour. That was essentially because Kay had been convicted three times previously for betting and the Chairman of the Bench said the defendant knew lotteries were illegal. Whether the church felt able to accept the money, I can't say.
The authorities also took the offence of stealing by finding quite seriously. In September the clerk to St Helens Police Court stated that if any person found an item and took no reasonable steps to discover who the owner was, it amounted to theft and a prosecution would follow. On December 5th Frederick Devine of Vincent Street was charged with stealing by finding a gold medallion belonging to William Webster.
The latter was a solicitor living at Abbotsfield House in Gorsey Lane in Bold and when advertising for domestic help would always insist that applicants were Protestant. Webster also once told the St Helens Bench that his client's lamp on his vehicle had gone out through an "act of God". Well, I expect he didn't consider that the gold medallion slipping off his watch chain in Church Street had been such an act.
Fred Devine had found the medallion near to the solicitor's office and proceeded to sell it to Forrester Rowe of Higher Parr Street for 4 shillings – although it was worth £2 10 shillings. He had second thoughts about his purchase and decided to take the medallion to Chief Inspector Roe for advice but probably regretted his decision. That was because the bobby booked him for receiving! However, the Bench decided to only give the receiver Rowe a warning and dismiss the charge against him – but Fred Devine was fined 20 shillings.
The new Licensing Act had created a framework for pub opening hours that would last for the rest of the 20th century. In September the eighteen licensing justices in St Helens (yes 18!) had chosen to set pub opening hours of 11am to 2:30pm and from 5:30pm to 10pm. The new law essentially prescribed those times but allowed local magistrates a bit of flexibility to suit local needs. So the St Helens Licensed Victuallers had appealed for an evening extension to 10:30pm for the benefit of those leaving St Helens' cinemas and theatres who wanted to call in a pub for a drink – but this had been firmly rejected.
On the 5th the Licensed Victuallers decided to have another crack at the magistrates and request another change. Instead of 11am to 2:30pm they wanted 11:30am to 3pm in order to serve thirsty miners coming off their morning shift in the early afternoon. The magistrates were always reluctant to grant any more drinking time but this adjustment made no difference to the overall number of hours and so was granted. And so the opening hours of pubs were now beginning to reflect the times that we recall from the 20th century – although for the time being they would still stop serving at ten o’clock.
The 5th was when the St Helens Co-op in Baldwin Street began their annual "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show". Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases. The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
And finally – and for the second week in a row – I conclude with an article in the Echo about Christmas toys and the problems caused by the collapse of the German currency:
"Pious resolutions are quite clearly a slave to the purse, as is being demonstrated with emphasis to traders this Christmastide. Only a few years ago Englishmen were declaring that never again would they buy German goods; but, far from adhering to this resolution, they are to-day actually buying German toys, for instance, to an extent which threatens to eclipse the English manufacturer, and bids fair to replace the German in that paramount position on the toy market which he occupied before the war. In such quantities, and at such low prices, are German toys being bought on the English market, that, according to the managing director of a London firm which is run by ex-servicemen, they have been obliged to depart from their avowed policy, not to handle German toys of any description.
"“British dolls purchased two years ago for 15s 6d each wholesale are to-day absolutely unsaleable,” he says. “We jobbed a number of them off in a recent sale at 3s 11d each. The public simply will not buy British dolls, and it is perfectly useless to try to sell them. We have put off the evil moment of buying German toys as long as possible, with the result that we have been able to buy at ridiculous prices. We are now selling small dressed dolls with sleeping eyes for 1s 3d each. The British toy industry which two years ago employed over 100,000 workpeople is to-day practically extinct.”
"An “Echo” representative was himself shown to-day in the store of one of Liverpool's biggest toy manufacturers a German sleeping doll, beautifully dressed, on sale for 9s, while beside it for a similar price was the English article, plain, relatively expressionless, and undressed. “For an English doll dressed such as the German one 18s would have to he paid,” remarked the manager, “and even then the doll itself would not nearly be so good.” Articles which cannot be made in England under 2d are lying side by side on the store counter with similar articles procurable from Germany for twelve a penny. The reason for it all, of course, is the low state of the mark."
Next Week's stories will include the boy that found a baby's body in a Croppers Hill dustbin, St Helens Ladies reflect on the FA ban, the boy thieves in Hardshaw Street and the Russian Pole that moved to St Helens to avoid paying income tax.
The couple had married in St Helens and lived first in Windleshaw Road and then at Stanhope Street (near Victoria Park and pictured above) and had four children. Charles claimed that his wife took to drink and associated with James Hulme, who he named as co-respondent. The 43-year-old tailor told the court that one afternoon in 1916 after visiting a picture house, he went home and found Hulme coming down the stairs. Kenchington then went into his bedroom and discovered his wife dressing in a very agitated manner.
He said he'd accused her of misconduct and told her to leave the house and she departed crying. However, in the following July, Kenchington agreed to take Martha back to their home in Stanhope Street in order to make a fresh start. In 1917 Kenchington joined the army but, upon coming home on leave, chose not to cohabit with his wife after learning that her conduct during his absence had not improved and after demobilisation he initiated divorce proceedings.
Also giving evidence was William Kenchington, the eldest son of the couple, who was living in Peter Street in St Helens and had been dragged into the affair. The 20-year-old told the court that Hulme used to visit his mother in Stanhope Street during his father's absence. None of the salacious evidence was contested and so the judge granted a decree nisi.
On December 1st in St Helens Junior Court, a Mrs Knapper from Station Road in Sutton was fined 20 shillings for receiving some stolen wood from her son. The eleven-year-old and a friend had entered the yard and washhouse of a neighbour called Mr Davies at 7.30 in the morning. Having heard noises in his yard and seeing a boy running away, the man locked his washhouse not realising that the other lad was still inside. The boy had to smash a window to get out!
Also on the 1st, what was described as a "special all star matinee" was held in the Theatre Royal in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society. The two main annual events for disabled kids were the "Crippled Children's Outing" and the "Crippled Children's Annual Treat", which was held at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park. I may be a bit harsh but I can't help feel that the disabled children were brought out of the shadows every now and then for people to say "Aw, what a shame", pat them on the head and stick them out of sight again.
The young kids who certainly were getting about were the twenty Indian girls who visited St Helens on the 3rd as part of their 2½-year world tour. They belonged to the Salvation Army's industrial boarding school at Satara in India and were aged between eight and fifteen. Several of the girls were orphans in the care of the Army and one was found on a rubbish heap where she had apparently been left to die.
The purpose of the tour was to show audiences in Great Britain, Europe, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia something of the work that the Salvation Army was doing in India and to raise funds. While in St Helens the party gave an exhibition of dancing and singing and performed sketches illustrating Indian manners and customs.
Most of the illegal bookies in St Helens appear to have been a decent lot who paid out to their clients and gave the police no trouble when their collars were felt. Some would help out their local community, such as Samuel Kay of Creswell Street (off Eccleston Street) who on the 5th pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to running a lottery. Superintendent Dunn told the hearing that Kay was a bookmaker who had conducted the raffle for charitable purposes.
The authorities also took the offence of stealing by finding quite seriously. In September the clerk to St Helens Police Court stated that if any person found an item and took no reasonable steps to discover who the owner was, it amounted to theft and a prosecution would follow. On December 5th Frederick Devine of Vincent Street was charged with stealing by finding a gold medallion belonging to William Webster.
The latter was a solicitor living at Abbotsfield House in Gorsey Lane in Bold and when advertising for domestic help would always insist that applicants were Protestant. Webster also once told the St Helens Bench that his client's lamp on his vehicle had gone out through an "act of God". Well, I expect he didn't consider that the gold medallion slipping off his watch chain in Church Street had been such an act.
Fred Devine had found the medallion near to the solicitor's office and proceeded to sell it to Forrester Rowe of Higher Parr Street for 4 shillings – although it was worth £2 10 shillings. He had second thoughts about his purchase and decided to take the medallion to Chief Inspector Roe for advice but probably regretted his decision. That was because the bobby booked him for receiving! However, the Bench decided to only give the receiver Rowe a warning and dismiss the charge against him – but Fred Devine was fined 20 shillings.
The new Licensing Act had created a framework for pub opening hours that would last for the rest of the 20th century. In September the eighteen licensing justices in St Helens (yes 18!) had chosen to set pub opening hours of 11am to 2:30pm and from 5:30pm to 10pm. The new law essentially prescribed those times but allowed local magistrates a bit of flexibility to suit local needs. So the St Helens Licensed Victuallers had appealed for an evening extension to 10:30pm for the benefit of those leaving St Helens' cinemas and theatres who wanted to call in a pub for a drink – but this had been firmly rejected.
On the 5th the Licensed Victuallers decided to have another crack at the magistrates and request another change. Instead of 11am to 2:30pm they wanted 11:30am to 3pm in order to serve thirsty miners coming off their morning shift in the early afternoon. The magistrates were always reluctant to grant any more drinking time but this adjustment made no difference to the overall number of hours and so was granted. And so the opening hours of pubs were now beginning to reflect the times that we recall from the 20th century – although for the time being they would still stop serving at ten o’clock.
The 5th was when the St Helens Co-op in Baldwin Street began their annual "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show". Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases. The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
And finally – and for the second week in a row – I conclude with an article in the Echo about Christmas toys and the problems caused by the collapse of the German currency:
"Pious resolutions are quite clearly a slave to the purse, as is being demonstrated with emphasis to traders this Christmastide. Only a few years ago Englishmen were declaring that never again would they buy German goods; but, far from adhering to this resolution, they are to-day actually buying German toys, for instance, to an extent which threatens to eclipse the English manufacturer, and bids fair to replace the German in that paramount position on the toy market which he occupied before the war. In such quantities, and at such low prices, are German toys being bought on the English market, that, according to the managing director of a London firm which is run by ex-servicemen, they have been obliged to depart from their avowed policy, not to handle German toys of any description.
"“British dolls purchased two years ago for 15s 6d each wholesale are to-day absolutely unsaleable,” he says. “We jobbed a number of them off in a recent sale at 3s 11d each. The public simply will not buy British dolls, and it is perfectly useless to try to sell them. We have put off the evil moment of buying German toys as long as possible, with the result that we have been able to buy at ridiculous prices. We are now selling small dressed dolls with sleeping eyes for 1s 3d each. The British toy industry which two years ago employed over 100,000 workpeople is to-day practically extinct.”
"An “Echo” representative was himself shown to-day in the store of one of Liverpool's biggest toy manufacturers a German sleeping doll, beautifully dressed, on sale for 9s, while beside it for a similar price was the English article, plain, relatively expressionless, and undressed. “For an English doll dressed such as the German one 18s would have to he paid,” remarked the manager, “and even then the doll itself would not nearly be so good.” Articles which cannot be made in England under 2d are lying side by side on the store counter with similar articles procurable from Germany for twelve a penny. The reason for it all, of course, is the low state of the mark."
Next Week's stories will include the boy that found a baby's body in a Croppers Hill dustbin, St Helens Ladies reflect on the FA ban, the boy thieves in Hardshaw Street and the Russian Pole that moved to St Helens to avoid paying income tax.
This week's many stories include the Stanhope Street divorce case, the bookie heavily fined for running a church lottery, the Church Street stealing by finding of a gold medallion and the little Indian girls on a world tour who visited St Helens.
Although divorce was on the increase, it was still a bit of a novelty and so sordid court evidence was reported in great detail by the newspapers.
Even those parties involved in uncontested divorce petitions that involved infidelity – as most did – were not spared any public embarrassment.
On the 30th Charles Kenchington petitioned for divorce from his wife Martha.
The couple had married in St Helens and lived first in Windleshaw Road and then at Stanhope Street (near Victoria Park and pictured above) and had four children.
Charles claimed that his wife took to drink and associated with James Hulme, who he named as co-respondent.
The 43-year-old tailor told the court that one afternoon in 1916 after visiting a picture house, he went home and found Hulme coming down the stairs.
Kenchington then went into his bedroom and discovered his wife dressing in a very agitated manner.
He said he'd accused her of misconduct and told her to leave the house and she departed crying.
However, in the following July, Kenchington agreed to take Martha back to their home in Stanhope Street in order to make a fresh start.
In 1917 Kenchington joined the army but, upon coming home on leave, chose not to cohabit with his wife after learning that her conduct during his absence had not improved and after demobilisation he initiated divorce proceedings.
Also giving evidence was William Kenchington, the eldest son of the couple, who was living in Peter Street in St Helens and had been dragged into the affair.
The 20-year-old told the court that Hulme used to visit his mother in Stanhope Street during his father's absence.
None of the salacious evidence was contested and so the judge granted a decree nisi.
On December 1st in St Helens Junior Court, a Mrs Knapper from Station Road in Sutton was fined 20 shillings for receiving some stolen wood from her son.
The eleven-year-old and a friend had entered the yard and washhouse of a neighbour called Mr Davies at 7.30 in the morning.
Having heard noises in his yard and seeing a boy running away, the man locked his washhouse not realising that the other lad was still inside. The boy had to smash a window to get out!
Also on the 1st, what was described as a "special all star matinee" was held in the Theatre Royal in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society.
The two main annual events for disabled kids were the "Crippled Children's Outing" and the "Crippled Children's Annual Treat", which was held at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park.
I may be a bit harsh but I can't help feel that the disabled children were brought out of the shadows every now and then for people to say "Aw, what a shame", pat them on the head and stick them out of sight again.
The young kids who certainly were getting about were the twenty Indian girls who visited St Helens on the 3rd as part of their 2½-year world tour.
They belonged to the Salvation Army's industrial boarding school at Satara in India and were aged between eight and fifteen.
Several of the girls were orphans in the care of the Army and one was found on a rubbish heap where she had apparently been left to die.
The purpose of the tour was to show audiences in Great Britain, Europe, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia something of the work that the Salvation Army was doing in India and to raise funds.
While in St Helens the party gave an exhibition of dancing and singing and performed sketches illustrating Indian manners and customs.
Most of the illegal bookies in St Helens appear to have been a decent lot who paid out to their clients and gave the police no trouble when their collars were felt.
Some would help out their local community, such as Samuel Kay of Creswell Street (off Eccleston Street) who on the 5th pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to running a lottery.
Superintendent Dunn told the hearing that Kay was a bookmaker who had conducted the raffle for charitable purposes.
A total of 3,204 tickets had been sold which had brought in £160 4s and after the cost of prizes, a profit of nearly £100 was set to go to Sacred Heart Catholic Church (pictured above). That's around £5,000 in today's money.
The bookie's solicitor said his client had been out of pocket through running the lottery, as he had paid all the incidental expenses.
However, Kay would now be significantly more out of pocket as running a lottery was illegal and the 39-year-old was fined £20 or two months prison with hard labour.
That was essentially because Kay had been convicted three times previously for betting and the Chairman of the Bench said the defendant knew lotteries were illegal.
Whether the church felt able to accept the money in the circumstances, I can't say.
The authorities also took the offence of stealing by finding quite seriously.
In September the clerk to St Helens Police Court stated that if any person found an item and took no reasonable steps to discover who the owner was, it amounted to theft and a prosecution would follow.
On December 5th Frederick Devine of Vincent Street was charged with stealing by finding a gold medallion belonging to William Webster.
The latter was a solicitor living at Abbotsfield House in Gorsey Lane in Bold and when advertising for domestic help would always insist that applicants were Protestant.
Webster also once told the St Helens Bench that his client's lamp on his vehicle had gone out through an "act of God".
Well, I expect he didn't consider that the gold medallion slipping off his watch chain in Church Street had been such an act.
Fred Devine had found the medallion near to the solicitor's office and proceeded to sell it to Forrester Rowe of Higher Parr Street for 4 shillings – although it was worth £2 10 shillings.
He had second thoughts about his purchase and decided to take the medallion to Chief Inspector Roe for advice but probably regretted his decision. That was because the bobby booked him for receiving!
However, the Bench decided to only give the receiver Rowe a warning and dismiss the charge against him – but Fred Devine was fined 20 shillings.
The new Licensing Act had created a framework for pub opening hours that would last for the rest of the 20th century.
In September the eighteen licensing justices in St Helens (yes 18!) had chosen to set pub opening hours of 11am to 2:30pm and from 5:30pm to 10pm.
The new law essentially prescribed those times but allowed local magistrates a bit of flexibility to suit local needs.
So the St Helens Licensed Victuallers had appealed for an evening extension to 10:30pm for the benefit of those leaving St Helens' cinemas and theatres who wanted to call in a pub for a drink – but this had been firmly rejected.
On the 5th the Licensed Victuallers decided to have another crack at the magistrates and request another change.
Instead of 11am to 2:30pm they wanted 11:30am to 3pm in order to serve thirsty miners coming off their morning shift in the early afternoon.
The magistrates were always reluctant to grant any more drinking time but this adjustment made no difference to the overall number of hours and so was granted.
And so the opening hours of pubs were now beginning to reflect the times that we recall from the 20th century – although for the time being they would still stop serving at ten o’clock.
The 5th was when the St Helens Co-op in Baldwin Street began their annual "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show".
Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases.
The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
And finally – and for the second week in a row – I conclude with an article in the Echo about Christmas toys and the problems caused by the collapse of the German currency:
"Pious resolutions are quite clearly a slave to the purse, as is being demonstrated with emphasis to traders this Christmastide.
"Only a few years ago Englishmen were declaring that never again would they buy German goods; but, far from adhering to this resolution, they are to-day actually buying German toys, for instance, to an extent which threatens to eclipse the English manufacturer, and bids fair to replace the German in that paramount position on the toy market which he occupied before the war.
"In such quantities, and at such low prices, are German toys being bought on the English market, that, according to the managing director of a London firm which is run by ex-servicemen, they have been obliged to depart from their avowed policy, not to handle German toys of any description.
"“British dolls purchased two years ago for 15s 6d each wholesale are to-day absolutely unsaleable,” he says.
"“We jobbed a number of them off in a recent sale at 3s 11d each. The public simply will not buy British dolls, and it is perfectly useless to try to sell them.
"“We have put off the evil moment of buying German toys as long as possible, with the result that we have been able to buy at ridiculous prices.
"“We are now selling small dressed dolls with sleeping eyes for 1s 3d each. The British toy industry which two years ago employed over 100,000 workpeople is to-day practically extinct.”
"An “Echo” representative was himself shown to-day in the store of one of Liverpool's biggest toy manufacturers a German sleeping doll, beautifully dressed, on sale for 9s, while beside it for a similar price was the English article, plain, relatively expressionless, and undressed.
"“For an English doll dressed such as the German one 18s would have to he paid,” remarked the manager, “and even then the doll itself would not nearly be so good.”
"Articles which cannot be made in England under 2d are lying side by side on the store counter with similar articles procurable from Germany for twelve a penny. The reason for it all, of course, is the low state of the mark."
Next Week's stories will include the boy that found a baby's body in a Croppers Hill dustbin, St Helens Ladies reflect on the FA ban, the boy thieves in Hardshaw Street and the Russian Pole that moved to St Helens to avoid paying income tax.
Although divorce was on the increase, it was still a bit of a novelty and so sordid court evidence was reported in great detail by the newspapers.
Even those parties involved in uncontested divorce petitions that involved infidelity – as most did – were not spared any public embarrassment.
On the 30th Charles Kenchington petitioned for divorce from his wife Martha.
Charles claimed that his wife took to drink and associated with James Hulme, who he named as co-respondent.
The 43-year-old tailor told the court that one afternoon in 1916 after visiting a picture house, he went home and found Hulme coming down the stairs.
Kenchington then went into his bedroom and discovered his wife dressing in a very agitated manner.
He said he'd accused her of misconduct and told her to leave the house and she departed crying.
However, in the following July, Kenchington agreed to take Martha back to their home in Stanhope Street in order to make a fresh start.
In 1917 Kenchington joined the army but, upon coming home on leave, chose not to cohabit with his wife after learning that her conduct during his absence had not improved and after demobilisation he initiated divorce proceedings.
Also giving evidence was William Kenchington, the eldest son of the couple, who was living in Peter Street in St Helens and had been dragged into the affair.
The 20-year-old told the court that Hulme used to visit his mother in Stanhope Street during his father's absence.
None of the salacious evidence was contested and so the judge granted a decree nisi.
On December 1st in St Helens Junior Court, a Mrs Knapper from Station Road in Sutton was fined 20 shillings for receiving some stolen wood from her son.
The eleven-year-old and a friend had entered the yard and washhouse of a neighbour called Mr Davies at 7.30 in the morning.
Having heard noises in his yard and seeing a boy running away, the man locked his washhouse not realising that the other lad was still inside. The boy had to smash a window to get out!
Also on the 1st, what was described as a "special all star matinee" was held in the Theatre Royal in aid of the St Helens Crippled Children's Aid Society.
The two main annual events for disabled kids were the "Crippled Children's Outing" and the "Crippled Children's Annual Treat", which was held at The Woodlands in Eccleston Park.
I may be a bit harsh but I can't help feel that the disabled children were brought out of the shadows every now and then for people to say "Aw, what a shame", pat them on the head and stick them out of sight again.
The young kids who certainly were getting about were the twenty Indian girls who visited St Helens on the 3rd as part of their 2½-year world tour.
They belonged to the Salvation Army's industrial boarding school at Satara in India and were aged between eight and fifteen.
Several of the girls were orphans in the care of the Army and one was found on a rubbish heap where she had apparently been left to die.
The purpose of the tour was to show audiences in Great Britain, Europe, America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia something of the work that the Salvation Army was doing in India and to raise funds.
While in St Helens the party gave an exhibition of dancing and singing and performed sketches illustrating Indian manners and customs.
Most of the illegal bookies in St Helens appear to have been a decent lot who paid out to their clients and gave the police no trouble when their collars were felt.
Some would help out their local community, such as Samuel Kay of Creswell Street (off Eccleston Street) who on the 5th pleaded guilty in St Helens Police Court to running a lottery.
Superintendent Dunn told the hearing that Kay was a bookmaker who had conducted the raffle for charitable purposes.
The bookie's solicitor said his client had been out of pocket through running the lottery, as he had paid all the incidental expenses.
However, Kay would now be significantly more out of pocket as running a lottery was illegal and the 39-year-old was fined £20 or two months prison with hard labour.
That was essentially because Kay had been convicted three times previously for betting and the Chairman of the Bench said the defendant knew lotteries were illegal.
Whether the church felt able to accept the money in the circumstances, I can't say.
The authorities also took the offence of stealing by finding quite seriously.
In September the clerk to St Helens Police Court stated that if any person found an item and took no reasonable steps to discover who the owner was, it amounted to theft and a prosecution would follow.
On December 5th Frederick Devine of Vincent Street was charged with stealing by finding a gold medallion belonging to William Webster.
The latter was a solicitor living at Abbotsfield House in Gorsey Lane in Bold and when advertising for domestic help would always insist that applicants were Protestant.
Webster also once told the St Helens Bench that his client's lamp on his vehicle had gone out through an "act of God".
Well, I expect he didn't consider that the gold medallion slipping off his watch chain in Church Street had been such an act.
Fred Devine had found the medallion near to the solicitor's office and proceeded to sell it to Forrester Rowe of Higher Parr Street for 4 shillings – although it was worth £2 10 shillings.
He had second thoughts about his purchase and decided to take the medallion to Chief Inspector Roe for advice but probably regretted his decision. That was because the bobby booked him for receiving!
However, the Bench decided to only give the receiver Rowe a warning and dismiss the charge against him – but Fred Devine was fined 20 shillings.
The new Licensing Act had created a framework for pub opening hours that would last for the rest of the 20th century.
In September the eighteen licensing justices in St Helens (yes 18!) had chosen to set pub opening hours of 11am to 2:30pm and from 5:30pm to 10pm.
The new law essentially prescribed those times but allowed local magistrates a bit of flexibility to suit local needs.
So the St Helens Licensed Victuallers had appealed for an evening extension to 10:30pm for the benefit of those leaving St Helens' cinemas and theatres who wanted to call in a pub for a drink – but this had been firmly rejected.
On the 5th the Licensed Victuallers decided to have another crack at the magistrates and request another change.
Instead of 11am to 2:30pm they wanted 11:30am to 3pm in order to serve thirsty miners coming off their morning shift in the early afternoon.
The magistrates were always reluctant to grant any more drinking time but this adjustment made no difference to the overall number of hours and so was granted.
And so the opening hours of pubs were now beginning to reflect the times that we recall from the 20th century – although for the time being they would still stop serving at ten o’clock.
The 5th was when the St Helens Co-op in Baldwin Street began their annual "Dividend Sale and Christmas Show".
Not that they were discounting the divis but reminding customers that dividends were available on all purchases.
The Christmas "show" simply referred to festive food and gifts on display, including dolls "dressed and undressed".
And finally – and for the second week in a row – I conclude with an article in the Echo about Christmas toys and the problems caused by the collapse of the German currency:
"Pious resolutions are quite clearly a slave to the purse, as is being demonstrated with emphasis to traders this Christmastide.
"Only a few years ago Englishmen were declaring that never again would they buy German goods; but, far from adhering to this resolution, they are to-day actually buying German toys, for instance, to an extent which threatens to eclipse the English manufacturer, and bids fair to replace the German in that paramount position on the toy market which he occupied before the war.
"In such quantities, and at such low prices, are German toys being bought on the English market, that, according to the managing director of a London firm which is run by ex-servicemen, they have been obliged to depart from their avowed policy, not to handle German toys of any description.
"“British dolls purchased two years ago for 15s 6d each wholesale are to-day absolutely unsaleable,” he says.
"“We jobbed a number of them off in a recent sale at 3s 11d each. The public simply will not buy British dolls, and it is perfectly useless to try to sell them.
"“We have put off the evil moment of buying German toys as long as possible, with the result that we have been able to buy at ridiculous prices.
"“We are now selling small dressed dolls with sleeping eyes for 1s 3d each. The British toy industry which two years ago employed over 100,000 workpeople is to-day practically extinct.”
"An “Echo” representative was himself shown to-day in the store of one of Liverpool's biggest toy manufacturers a German sleeping doll, beautifully dressed, on sale for 9s, while beside it for a similar price was the English article, plain, relatively expressionless, and undressed.
"“For an English doll dressed such as the German one 18s would have to he paid,” remarked the manager, “and even then the doll itself would not nearly be so good.”
"Articles which cannot be made in England under 2d are lying side by side on the store counter with similar articles procurable from Germany for twelve a penny. The reason for it all, of course, is the low state of the mark."
Next Week's stories will include the boy that found a baby's body in a Croppers Hill dustbin, St Helens Ladies reflect on the FA ban, the boy thieves in Hardshaw Street and the Russian Pole that moved to St Helens to avoid paying income tax.