IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 29 DEC 1925 - 4 JAN 1926
This week's many stories include the New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children, Little Bo-Peep's sheep that performed at the Theatre Royal, the Bowling Green's hopeful application for a late night, the 600 persons that attended the Sutton old folks treat, the miner that died five years after being injured down Ashtons Green Colliery and the Reporter issues a prophetic warning of the prospects of industrial action during 1926.
Some men after being badly hurt in a coal mine lingered in pain for months if not years before dying. At Frederick Watkins' inquest on the 29th, his daughter explained to the coroner how her father had suffered from a fractured spine for five years. Fred from Parr Stocks Road had been a long-serving miner at Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr until in 1920 he was buried under a fall of roof. He was taken to St Helens Hospital where he remained for three years but on Christmas Day when at home, Fred suffered what was described as an attack from which he died.
Not everybody, of course, had enjoyed a holiday on Christmas Day. The postmen would probably have been busy until the early afternoon and many of the large works in St Helens needed a skeleton staff to keep their furnaces running. And I doubt that those delegated with Christmas Day duties would have been paid any extra.
James Pennington from Bold Street in Greenbank had worked at Pilks' "Bottom Works" for 30 years and had been employed on the 25th from 10 in the morning until 8pm. Afterwards he went drinking and when his son returned home at 2am he found his father fully dressed asleep on the hearthrug in the kitchen. The pair then went to bed and an hour later the son found his dad dead in a crouching position at the side of his bed.
James was only 51 but his son told the inquest that was held on the 29th, that his father had been a heavy drinker, particularly since his mother's death. Dr Unsworth had carried out a post-mortem which revealed that one lung was in the first stage of pneumonia and so a verdict of natural causes was returned.
The St Helens Reporter's midweek edition that was published on the 29th contained a couple of unusual adverts. R. Pursell & Sons of Sorogold Street was selling "Gee-Gee Laxative Cooling Powder" which they said was "for baby's teeth". They were also retailing "Red X Flag Head Powder", which presumably was to treat headaches, as they wrote next to its name "Oh! My Poor Head".
And Moores at 9a, Covered Market said they had "1,000 Monster Parcels" for sale at 2/3 each. They failed to specify what the parcels contained but I think any child expecting to find a monster inside was likely to be disappointed!
New Year's Day was not a Bank Holiday as such – but the banks in St Helens and Prescot only remained open from 10am to 11am.
Joseph Bethell Leach had run the annual New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children in St Helens since 1877. When in 1917 the auctioneer and estate agent died, his son Wilfred and other family members took over the organisation of the event, which included entertainment as well as a meal. In some years as many as 7,000 poor kids – some in bare feet – were present, although for the 1926 breakfast those assembled totalled 3,000.
The children were accommodated in about a dozen different centres in the town and were visited by the Mayor and Mayoress. The Reporter wrote: "Substantial and appetising breakfasts were served at all the centres and the heartiness and brightness of the proceedings, and the manifest joy of the little ones was a very gratifying sight."
I recently wrote how the chances of magistrates granting applications for an extension of pub opening hours for special events were very remote. But the Bowling Green Inn's recent last-minute application had no chance whatsoever. There used to be two Sutton pubs called the Bowling Green, with one in Robins Lane that is still in existence and the other in Watery Lane (pictured above).
It was the latter that the St Helens Reporter on January 1st said had stunned magistrates with a confusing application for a one-off extension of their hours for later that same day. The Bowling Green said they wanted to be open from 4:30pm to 11pm in order to put on a Boxing Day concert and tea for pensioners. But after being questioned, the applicant admitted it was in connection with a football match between married and single men and their application was denied.
"Sutton Old Folks and Slanderous Rumours" was the headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on January 1st, which somewhat sensationalised what had been said at Sutton National School. There, 600 elderly persons had enjoyed their "old folks annual treat" in which Cllr Boscow had vehemently denied rumours resonating round Sutton that the organising committee were in it for what they could personally get out of the event. Cynicism over the activities of councillors and volunteers clearly has a long history!
But focussing on the event itself, the Reporter wrote:
"Some of the old men and women had not been out of doors since the gathering twelve months ago, and the joy of reunion was emphasised as they hailed each other with cheery greetings couched in the Lancashire vernacular. Most of them were over seventy and many nearly eighty. Although “silver threads amongst the gold” presented in their locks, and footsteps were not quite so firm and strong as they used to be, the guests showed they had not forgotten how to laugh. They were quite a merry throng and they chaffed each other over the festive board like schoolboys let loose. After a hearty tea they re-assembled in the concert room."
"Tyrer & Sons, St. Helens and Prescot" was how the firm was styling itself in 1926 with its main premises then in Liverpool Road in St Helens. In the Reporter they were advertising a dark grey raincoat costing 30 shillings for men, 27/6 for youths and 24 shillings for boys. "Our raincoats have stood the test – so have we", was Tyrer's strapline.
The Reporter was a strong supporter of the Conservative Party, although their allegiance was only usually on show at election time when they came out all guns blazing against what they called the "socialists" and "so-called Labour Party". However, in their New Year's Day editorial, the Reporter warned against radical Trade Union leaders damaging the country’s prospects during 1926. That was after the "policy and action" of Stanley Baldwin and the Conservative Government had set the country on the right course for prosperity. The Reporter posed the question:
"Is 1926 to be a year of domestic peace and progress towards general prosperity; or will a sufficient section of the people be duped into committing industrial suicide and thereby doing the greatest and most wanton damage to the nation at large at the bidding of their so called leaders? This is the urgent question which we have all to answer for ourselves here and now as we stand with good wishes on our lips and, be it hoped, in our hearts on the threshold of the New Year."
The wartime restrictions on shop opening hours were still in place in order to conserve fuel and breaching them led to Edward Davies appearing in court this week. In fact the general dealer from Liverpool Road had been caught out on two fronts. Davies had been serving customers in his shop at 10 o’clock at night on a Thursday. That was at least a couple of hours past the usual weekday closing time but Thursday was also the shopkeepers' half-day holiday when they were not allowed to open at all after noon.
Sgt Cust and PC Pugh told the court that they had seen Mary Burns from Hardy Street leaving the shop with parcels containing apples and boiled ham. Upon taking her back to the shop, Davies was busy serving other customers in spite of the illegal hour. "This is a one-man business and I didn't think the law applied to shops where they don't keep assistants," replied Davies after Sgt Cust had asked for an explanation.
Upon being told by the police that he ought to take a half-day holiday each week, the man replied, "I never get one". Davies was fined £1, although he did not turn up in court, no doubt not wanting to have to close his shop. But customer Mary Burns did show up to face the charge of buying goods from Mr Davies after hours but was only ordered to pay the case's court costs.
On the 4th what was described as the "Old English Pantomime Little Bo-Peep and her flock of trained sheep" was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. "Bring the children to see the sheep", said their advert.
The Stage newspaper in its review said Little Bo Peep was proving a strong attraction in St Helens: "The story is being told in all its completeness, whilst the stage effects, including well-trained sheep, appeal strongly to both old and young. The show abounds with excellent songs, plenty of comedy, and smart dancing. The company are very talented."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the battered woman sent to prison for attempting suicide, the hush money pawnbroker case in Sutton, the fire engine that got stuck in a Haydock trench and the remarkable escape from death in Lea Green Colliery.
Some men after being badly hurt in a coal mine lingered in pain for months if not years before dying. At Frederick Watkins' inquest on the 29th, his daughter explained to the coroner how her father had suffered from a fractured spine for five years. Fred from Parr Stocks Road had been a long-serving miner at Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr until in 1920 he was buried under a fall of roof. He was taken to St Helens Hospital where he remained for three years but on Christmas Day when at home, Fred suffered what was described as an attack from which he died.
Not everybody, of course, had enjoyed a holiday on Christmas Day. The postmen would probably have been busy until the early afternoon and many of the large works in St Helens needed a skeleton staff to keep their furnaces running. And I doubt that those delegated with Christmas Day duties would have been paid any extra.
James Pennington from Bold Street in Greenbank had worked at Pilks' "Bottom Works" for 30 years and had been employed on the 25th from 10 in the morning until 8pm. Afterwards he went drinking and when his son returned home at 2am he found his father fully dressed asleep on the hearthrug in the kitchen. The pair then went to bed and an hour later the son found his dad dead in a crouching position at the side of his bed.
James was only 51 but his son told the inquest that was held on the 29th, that his father had been a heavy drinker, particularly since his mother's death. Dr Unsworth had carried out a post-mortem which revealed that one lung was in the first stage of pneumonia and so a verdict of natural causes was returned.
The St Helens Reporter's midweek edition that was published on the 29th contained a couple of unusual adverts. R. Pursell & Sons of Sorogold Street was selling "Gee-Gee Laxative Cooling Powder" which they said was "for baby's teeth". They were also retailing "Red X Flag Head Powder", which presumably was to treat headaches, as they wrote next to its name "Oh! My Poor Head".
And Moores at 9a, Covered Market said they had "1,000 Monster Parcels" for sale at 2/3 each. They failed to specify what the parcels contained but I think any child expecting to find a monster inside was likely to be disappointed!
New Year's Day was not a Bank Holiday as such – but the banks in St Helens and Prescot only remained open from 10am to 11am.
Joseph Bethell Leach had run the annual New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children in St Helens since 1877. When in 1917 the auctioneer and estate agent died, his son Wilfred and other family members took over the organisation of the event, which included entertainment as well as a meal. In some years as many as 7,000 poor kids – some in bare feet – were present, although for the 1926 breakfast those assembled totalled 3,000.
The children were accommodated in about a dozen different centres in the town and were visited by the Mayor and Mayoress. The Reporter wrote: "Substantial and appetising breakfasts were served at all the centres and the heartiness and brightness of the proceedings, and the manifest joy of the little ones was a very gratifying sight."
It was the latter that the St Helens Reporter on January 1st said had stunned magistrates with a confusing application for a one-off extension of their hours for later that same day. The Bowling Green said they wanted to be open from 4:30pm to 11pm in order to put on a Boxing Day concert and tea for pensioners. But after being questioned, the applicant admitted it was in connection with a football match between married and single men and their application was denied.
"Sutton Old Folks and Slanderous Rumours" was the headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on January 1st, which somewhat sensationalised what had been said at Sutton National School. There, 600 elderly persons had enjoyed their "old folks annual treat" in which Cllr Boscow had vehemently denied rumours resonating round Sutton that the organising committee were in it for what they could personally get out of the event. Cynicism over the activities of councillors and volunteers clearly has a long history!
But focussing on the event itself, the Reporter wrote:
"Some of the old men and women had not been out of doors since the gathering twelve months ago, and the joy of reunion was emphasised as they hailed each other with cheery greetings couched in the Lancashire vernacular. Most of them were over seventy and many nearly eighty. Although “silver threads amongst the gold” presented in their locks, and footsteps were not quite so firm and strong as they used to be, the guests showed they had not forgotten how to laugh. They were quite a merry throng and they chaffed each other over the festive board like schoolboys let loose. After a hearty tea they re-assembled in the concert room."
"Tyrer & Sons, St. Helens and Prescot" was how the firm was styling itself in 1926 with its main premises then in Liverpool Road in St Helens. In the Reporter they were advertising a dark grey raincoat costing 30 shillings for men, 27/6 for youths and 24 shillings for boys. "Our raincoats have stood the test – so have we", was Tyrer's strapline.
"Is 1926 to be a year of domestic peace and progress towards general prosperity; or will a sufficient section of the people be duped into committing industrial suicide and thereby doing the greatest and most wanton damage to the nation at large at the bidding of their so called leaders? This is the urgent question which we have all to answer for ourselves here and now as we stand with good wishes on our lips and, be it hoped, in our hearts on the threshold of the New Year."
The wartime restrictions on shop opening hours were still in place in order to conserve fuel and breaching them led to Edward Davies appearing in court this week. In fact the general dealer from Liverpool Road had been caught out on two fronts. Davies had been serving customers in his shop at 10 o’clock at night on a Thursday. That was at least a couple of hours past the usual weekday closing time but Thursday was also the shopkeepers' half-day holiday when they were not allowed to open at all after noon.
Sgt Cust and PC Pugh told the court that they had seen Mary Burns from Hardy Street leaving the shop with parcels containing apples and boiled ham. Upon taking her back to the shop, Davies was busy serving other customers in spite of the illegal hour. "This is a one-man business and I didn't think the law applied to shops where they don't keep assistants," replied Davies after Sgt Cust had asked for an explanation.
Upon being told by the police that he ought to take a half-day holiday each week, the man replied, "I never get one". Davies was fined £1, although he did not turn up in court, no doubt not wanting to have to close his shop. But customer Mary Burns did show up to face the charge of buying goods from Mr Davies after hours but was only ordered to pay the case's court costs.
On the 4th what was described as the "Old English Pantomime Little Bo-Peep and her flock of trained sheep" was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. "Bring the children to see the sheep", said their advert.
The Stage newspaper in its review said Little Bo Peep was proving a strong attraction in St Helens: "The story is being told in all its completeness, whilst the stage effects, including well-trained sheep, appeal strongly to both old and young. The show abounds with excellent songs, plenty of comedy, and smart dancing. The company are very talented."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the battered woman sent to prison for attempting suicide, the hush money pawnbroker case in Sutton, the fire engine that got stuck in a Haydock trench and the remarkable escape from death in Lea Green Colliery.
This week's many stories include the New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children, Little Bo-Peep's sheep that performed at the Theatre Royal, the Bowling Green's hopeful application for a late night, the 600 persons that attended the Sutton old folks treat, the miner that died five years after being injured down Ashtons Green Colliery and the Reporter issues a prophetic warning of the prospects of industrial action during 1926.
Some men after being badly hurt in a coal mine lingered in pain for months if not years before dying.
At Frederick Watkins' inquest on the 29th, his daughter explained to the coroner how her father had suffered from a fractured spine for five years.
Fred from Parr Stocks Road had been a long-serving miner at Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr until in 1920 he was buried under a fall of roof.
He was taken to St Helens Hospital where he remained for three years but on Christmas Day when at home, Fred suffered what was described as an attack from which he died.
Not everybody, of course, had enjoyed a holiday on Christmas Day.
The postmen would probably have been busy until the early afternoon; many of the large works in St Helens required a skeleton staff to keep their furnaces running and mines needed some men to be on duty for safety work.
And I doubt that those delegated with Christmas Day duties would have been paid any extra.
James Pennington from Bold Street in Greenbank had worked at Pilks' "Bottom Works" for 30 years and had been employed on the 25th from 10 in the morning until 8pm.
Afterwards he went drinking and when his son returned home at 2am he found his father fully dressed asleep on the hearthrug in the kitchen.
The pair then went to bed and an hour later the son found his dad dead in a crouching position at the side of his bed.
James was only 51 but his son told the inquest that was held on the 29th, that his father had been a heavy drinker, particularly since his mother's death.
Dr Unsworth had carried out a post-mortem which revealed that one lung was in the first stage of pneumonia and so a verdict of natural causes was returned.
The St Helens Reporter's midweek edition that was published on the 29th contained a couple of unusual adverts.
R. Pursell & Sons of Sorogold Street was selling "Gee-Gee Laxative Cooling Powder" which they said was "for baby's teeth".
They were also retailing "Red X Flag Head Powder", which presumably was to treat headaches, as they wrote next to its name "Oh! My Poor Head".
And Moores at 9a, Covered Market said they had "1,000 Monster Parcels" for sale at 2/3 each.
They failed to specify what the parcels contained but I think any child expecting to find a monster inside was likely to be disappointed!
New Year's Day was not a Bank Holiday as such – but the banks in St Helens and Prescot only remained open from 10am to 11am.
Joseph Bethell Leach had run the annual New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children in St Helens since 1877.
When in 1917 the auctioneer and estate agent died, his son Wilfred and other family members took over the organisation of the event, which included entertainment as well as a meal.
In some years as many as 7,000 poor kids – some in bare feet – were present, although for the 1926 breakfast those assembled totalled 3,000.
The children were accommodated in about a dozen different centres in the town and were visited by the Mayor and Mayoress.
The Reporter wrote: "Substantial and appetising breakfasts were served at all the centres and the heartiness and brightness of the proceedings, and the manifest joy of the little ones was a very gratifying sight."
I recently wrote how the chances of magistrates granting applications for an extension of pub opening hours for special events were very remote.
But the Bowling Green Inn's recent last-minute application had no chance whatsoever.
There used to be two Sutton pubs called the Bowling Green, with one in Robins Lane that is still in existence and the other in Watery Lane (pictured above).
It was the latter that the St Helens Reporter on January 1st said had stunned magistrates with a confusing application for a one-off extension of their hours for later that same day.
The Bowling Green said they wanted to be open from 4:30pm to 11pm in order to put on a Boxing Day concert and tea for pensioners.
But after being questioned, the applicant admitted it was in connection with a football match between married and single men and their application was denied.
"Sutton Old Folks and Slanderous Rumours" was the headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on January 1st, which somewhat sensationalised what had been said at Sutton National School.
There, 600 elderly persons had enjoyed their "old folks annual treat" in which Cllr Boscow had vehemently denied rumours resonating round Sutton that the organising committee were in it for what they could personally get out of the event.
Cynicism over the activities of councillors and volunteers clearly has a long history!
But focussing on the event itself, the Reporter wrote:
"Some of the old men and women had not been out of doors since the gathering twelve months ago, and the joy of reunion was emphasised as they hailed each other with cheery greetings couched in the Lancashire vernacular.
"Most of them were over seventy and many nearly eighty. Although “silver threads amongst the gold” presented in their locks, and footsteps were not quite so firm and strong as they used to be, the guests showed they had not forgotten how to laugh.
"They were quite a merry throng and they chaffed each other over the festive board like schoolboys let loose. After a hearty tea they re-assembled in the concert room."
"Tyrer & Sons, St. Helens and Prescot" was how the firm was styling itself in 1926 with its main premises then in Liverpool Road in St Helens.
In the Reporter they were advertising a dark grey raincoat costing 30 shillings for men, 27/6 for youths and 24 shillings for boys.
"Our raincoats have stood the test – so have we", was Tyrer's strapline.
The Reporter was a strong supporter of the Conservative Party, although their allegiance was only usually on show at election time when they came out all guns blazing against what they called the "socialists" and "so-called Labour Party".
However, in their New Year's Day editorial, the Reporter warned against radical Trade Union leaders damaging the country’s prospects during 1926.
That was after the "policy and action" of Stanley Baldwin and the Conservative Government had set the country on the right course for prosperity. The Reporter posed the question:
"Is 1926 to be a year of domestic peace and progress towards general prosperity; or will a sufficient section of the people be duped into committing industrial suicide and thereby doing the greatest and most wanton damage to the nation at large at the bidding of their so called leaders?
"This is the urgent question which we have all to answer for ourselves here and now as we stand with good wishes on our lips and, be it hoped, in our hearts on the threshold of the New Year."
The wartime restrictions on shop opening hours were still in place in order to conserve fuel and breaching them led to Edward Davies appearing in court this week.
In fact the general dealer from Liverpool Road had been caught out on two fronts.
Davies had been serving customers in his shop at 10 o’clock at night on a Thursday.
That was at least a couple of hours past the usual weekday closing time but Thursday was also the shopkeepers' half-day holiday when they were not allowed to open at all after noon.
Sgt Cust and PC Pugh told the court that they had seen Mary Burns from Hardy Street leaving the shop with parcels containing apples and boiled ham.
Upon taking her back to the shop, Davies was busy serving other customers in spite of the illegal hour.
"This is a one-man business and I didn't think the law applied to shops where they don't keep assistants," replied Davies after Sgt Cust had asked for an explanation.
Upon being told by the police that he ought to take a half-day holiday each week, the man replied, "I never get one".
Davies was fined £1, although he did not turn up in court, no doubt not wanting to have to close his shop.
But customer Mary Burns did show up to face the charge of buying goods from Mr Davies after hours but was only ordered to pay the case's court costs.
On the 4th what was described as the "Old English Pantomime Little Bo-Peep and her flock of trained sheep" was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
"Bring the children to see the sheep", said their advert.
The Stage newspaper in its review said Little Bo Peep was proving a strong attraction in St Helens:
"The story is being told in all its completeness, whilst the stage effects, including well-trained sheep, appeal strongly to both old and young. The show abounds with excellent songs, plenty of comedy, and smart dancing. The company are very talented."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the battered woman sent to prison for attempting suicide, the hush money pawnbroker case in Sutton, the fire engine that got stuck in a Haydock trench and the remarkable escape from death in Lea Green Colliery.
Some men after being badly hurt in a coal mine lingered in pain for months if not years before dying.
At Frederick Watkins' inquest on the 29th, his daughter explained to the coroner how her father had suffered from a fractured spine for five years.
Fred from Parr Stocks Road had been a long-serving miner at Ashtons Green Colliery in Parr until in 1920 he was buried under a fall of roof.
He was taken to St Helens Hospital where he remained for three years but on Christmas Day when at home, Fred suffered what was described as an attack from which he died.
Not everybody, of course, had enjoyed a holiday on Christmas Day.
The postmen would probably have been busy until the early afternoon; many of the large works in St Helens required a skeleton staff to keep their furnaces running and mines needed some men to be on duty for safety work.
And I doubt that those delegated with Christmas Day duties would have been paid any extra.
James Pennington from Bold Street in Greenbank had worked at Pilks' "Bottom Works" for 30 years and had been employed on the 25th from 10 in the morning until 8pm.
Afterwards he went drinking and when his son returned home at 2am he found his father fully dressed asleep on the hearthrug in the kitchen.
The pair then went to bed and an hour later the son found his dad dead in a crouching position at the side of his bed.
James was only 51 but his son told the inquest that was held on the 29th, that his father had been a heavy drinker, particularly since his mother's death.
Dr Unsworth had carried out a post-mortem which revealed that one lung was in the first stage of pneumonia and so a verdict of natural causes was returned.
The St Helens Reporter's midweek edition that was published on the 29th contained a couple of unusual adverts.
R. Pursell & Sons of Sorogold Street was selling "Gee-Gee Laxative Cooling Powder" which they said was "for baby's teeth".
They were also retailing "Red X Flag Head Powder", which presumably was to treat headaches, as they wrote next to its name "Oh! My Poor Head".
And Moores at 9a, Covered Market said they had "1,000 Monster Parcels" for sale at 2/3 each.
They failed to specify what the parcels contained but I think any child expecting to find a monster inside was likely to be disappointed!
New Year's Day was not a Bank Holiday as such – but the banks in St Helens and Prescot only remained open from 10am to 11am.
Joseph Bethell Leach had run the annual New Year's Day breakfasts for poor children in St Helens since 1877.
When in 1917 the auctioneer and estate agent died, his son Wilfred and other family members took over the organisation of the event, which included entertainment as well as a meal.
In some years as many as 7,000 poor kids – some in bare feet – were present, although for the 1926 breakfast those assembled totalled 3,000.
The children were accommodated in about a dozen different centres in the town and were visited by the Mayor and Mayoress.
The Reporter wrote: "Substantial and appetising breakfasts were served at all the centres and the heartiness and brightness of the proceedings, and the manifest joy of the little ones was a very gratifying sight."
I recently wrote how the chances of magistrates granting applications for an extension of pub opening hours for special events were very remote.
But the Bowling Green Inn's recent last-minute application had no chance whatsoever.
It was the latter that the St Helens Reporter on January 1st said had stunned magistrates with a confusing application for a one-off extension of their hours for later that same day.
The Bowling Green said they wanted to be open from 4:30pm to 11pm in order to put on a Boxing Day concert and tea for pensioners.
But after being questioned, the applicant admitted it was in connection with a football match between married and single men and their application was denied.
"Sutton Old Folks and Slanderous Rumours" was the headline to an article in the St Helens Reporter on January 1st, which somewhat sensationalised what had been said at Sutton National School.
There, 600 elderly persons had enjoyed their "old folks annual treat" in which Cllr Boscow had vehemently denied rumours resonating round Sutton that the organising committee were in it for what they could personally get out of the event.
Cynicism over the activities of councillors and volunteers clearly has a long history!
But focussing on the event itself, the Reporter wrote:
"Some of the old men and women had not been out of doors since the gathering twelve months ago, and the joy of reunion was emphasised as they hailed each other with cheery greetings couched in the Lancashire vernacular.
"Most of them were over seventy and many nearly eighty. Although “silver threads amongst the gold” presented in their locks, and footsteps were not quite so firm and strong as they used to be, the guests showed they had not forgotten how to laugh.
"They were quite a merry throng and they chaffed each other over the festive board like schoolboys let loose. After a hearty tea they re-assembled in the concert room."
"Tyrer & Sons, St. Helens and Prescot" was how the firm was styling itself in 1926 with its main premises then in Liverpool Road in St Helens.
In the Reporter they were advertising a dark grey raincoat costing 30 shillings for men, 27/6 for youths and 24 shillings for boys.
"Our raincoats have stood the test – so have we", was Tyrer's strapline.
However, in their New Year's Day editorial, the Reporter warned against radical Trade Union leaders damaging the country’s prospects during 1926.
That was after the "policy and action" of Stanley Baldwin and the Conservative Government had set the country on the right course for prosperity. The Reporter posed the question:
"Is 1926 to be a year of domestic peace and progress towards general prosperity; or will a sufficient section of the people be duped into committing industrial suicide and thereby doing the greatest and most wanton damage to the nation at large at the bidding of their so called leaders?
"This is the urgent question which we have all to answer for ourselves here and now as we stand with good wishes on our lips and, be it hoped, in our hearts on the threshold of the New Year."
The wartime restrictions on shop opening hours were still in place in order to conserve fuel and breaching them led to Edward Davies appearing in court this week.
In fact the general dealer from Liverpool Road had been caught out on two fronts.
Davies had been serving customers in his shop at 10 o’clock at night on a Thursday.
That was at least a couple of hours past the usual weekday closing time but Thursday was also the shopkeepers' half-day holiday when they were not allowed to open at all after noon.
Sgt Cust and PC Pugh told the court that they had seen Mary Burns from Hardy Street leaving the shop with parcels containing apples and boiled ham.
Upon taking her back to the shop, Davies was busy serving other customers in spite of the illegal hour.
"This is a one-man business and I didn't think the law applied to shops where they don't keep assistants," replied Davies after Sgt Cust had asked for an explanation.
Upon being told by the police that he ought to take a half-day holiday each week, the man replied, "I never get one".
Davies was fined £1, although he did not turn up in court, no doubt not wanting to have to close his shop.
But customer Mary Burns did show up to face the charge of buying goods from Mr Davies after hours but was only ordered to pay the case's court costs.
On the 4th what was described as the "Old English Pantomime Little Bo-Peep and her flock of trained sheep" was performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens.
"Bring the children to see the sheep", said their advert.
The Stage newspaper in its review said Little Bo Peep was proving a strong attraction in St Helens:
"The story is being told in all its completeness, whilst the stage effects, including well-trained sheep, appeal strongly to both old and young. The show abounds with excellent songs, plenty of comedy, and smart dancing. The company are very talented."
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the battered woman sent to prison for attempting suicide, the hush money pawnbroker case in Sutton, the fire engine that got stuck in a Haydock trench and the remarkable escape from death in Lea Green Colliery.