IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th JAN. - 5th FEB. 1923)
This week's many stories include the police raid on a Parr Street betting house, the Sutton Manor fake safe robbery, the capture of a wholesale shopbreaker, the bizarre police stake out at Sutton Post Office and the shocking story of the three children that were forced to sleep with their dead mother.
We begin on the 31st when Joseph Freeman of Forest Road in Sutton Manor appeared at Liverpool Assizes accused of stealing £126. The 36-year-old was treasurer of the local miners' union and had staged a fake break-in at his home claiming that burglars had emptied his safe. Freeman had reported the supposed robbery at 3:15am on New Year's Day – just hours before his books were going to be audited.
He'd told the police that thieves had entered his home while he was attending a watchnight service at church. However, the police found no sign of a forcible entry and the way that papers and books had been scattered about one room where the safe was kept made them suspicious. Freeman owned a drapery business and the police soon learnt that it was in financial difficulties.
Upon being questioned, the man eventually admitted making up the story, saying: "When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done."
Freeman's defence counsel told the judge that his client had been "a man at his wit's end" who could think of no other way of saving himself than robbing his own safe. The judge sentenced Freeman to serve 18 months in prison in the second division. That was a class of prisoner with certain privileges. These included being allowed to wear clothes of a different colour to the standard prison issue and being able to receive more frequent visits and letters than other prisoners.
The illegal receiving of betting slips could either be undertaken on the streets or inside someone's home. Both methods had advantages – and disadvantages. The police could monitor your activities better on the street, often while secreted in some hiding place. However, street betting offered flexibility as you could vary the location of your patch and run like hell when the police raided you! You had nowhere to go if the police came to your home but good security might give you some time to dispose of the evidence.
Robert Rogers of Parr Street in St Helens (pictured above) chose the latter option for his betting activities. On the 2nd in St Helens Police Court, Sgt. Lomas said the man's premises had been made so secure that the police had been forced to enter by knocking the back door off its hinges. When the sergeant went into the kitchen, Rogers was just straightening himself up after bending down to try and hide a parcel of 26 coupons under a sideboard.
The defence case was that Rogers had been driven to take betting slips because he was unemployed and exceedingly poor. Using your house for the purpose of betting was a more serious charge than street gambling. The police had to admit that they had only seen people going into the man's yard and did not have a good enough view to see them actually enter his house. That allowed the magistrates the opportunity to be generous and give Rogers the benefit of the doubt on that charge – although they convicted him on three lesser charges. In total he was fined £15.
A young coal miner called Joseph Townsend from Howards Lane in Eccleston was also in court on the 2nd accused of what the Liverpool Echo called "wholesale shopbreaking". Among the many victims had been the shop of the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Phythian, and those of a number of councillors. Townsend had also broken into Higher Grade School in North Road and a number of offices.
The man had been tracked down at a pawnbroker's shop in Liverpool after attempting to offer a watch in pledge. Detective Cust said that when Townsend had been charged, he replied: "That is right. I did break in. John Burke was with me. Some of the stuff is among that you got from my house, and some we have got rid of. We worked together, and, of course, shared the proceeds." Townsend was committed for trial at the next Manchester Assizes.
I find the huge resources that the police put into dealing with minor crimes a century ago quite amazing – particularly when compared to today, when they often won't turn up to investigate crimes like burglaries. The Reporter described on the 2nd how PC Shepherd had spent three whole days from 9 am until 7pm fruitlessly waiting outside Sutton Post Office to apprehend a suspect.
Was the man planning an armed robbery? Or perhaps cash a large batch of stolen postal orders? No, George Smith from Fairclough Street was wanted because he owed his wife £4 in maintenance money. The police at the time did not know Smith's address but had been tipped off that he would be calling in at the post office. Not receiving her family's maintenance cash from her estranged husband was a serious matter, of course, for Mrs Smith. But it was not until the fourth day that the fugitive from justice turned up at the post office, meaning a huge amount of police time went into apprehending the man.
When Smith appeared in the dock at St Helens Police Court this week, he promised to do his best to obtain work and pay off the outstanding amount owed to his wife. The man told the magistrates that an interfering mother-in-law had caused his marital problems. The Bench decided to adjourn the case for a month so that Smith might have a chance to pay off his arrears.
The Manchester Evening News wrote on the 2nd about the shocking overcrowding in St Helens: "An example of the terrible conditions in which some of the poor live, and die, has just come to light at St. Helens, where in a house occupied by eight families a woman died yesterday. While her body lay on the table all night her three children slept, or tried to sleep, within a few feet of the corpse, with nothing but an oil lamp to lessen the horrors of the night. This single room was their only home, and the seven other apartments in the house are similarly occupied."
On the 5th the inquest on William Mulvanney from Raglan Street in St Helens (pictured above) was held after his wife had found his body with his throat cut. The 50-year-old had previously been employed at Sherdley Colliery but had not been able to work for 12 months through ill health. Very little money would have been coming into the house and it was not uncommon for men in such circumstances to become depressed and take their own lives. The usual verdict of "Suicide whilst of unsound mind" was returned.
There were now several retailers in St Helens offering wireless sets for sale, with Cholertons leading the pack. Since the launch of the British Broadcasting Company's Manchester station last November, radio was burgeoning amongst St Helens folk able to afford the new medium. But it was not just a case of buying a set, taking it home and switching it on.
Its set-up could be quite complicated depending on the type of wireless chosen, with a key factor for good reception being the aerial. That, preferably, would be a long-wire antenna high up in your backyard. The installation process could be a daunting one for non-technical folk and so that's why this advert was published this week in the Reporter:
"WIRELESS SIMPLIFIED – The easiest way of getting Wireless at home is to stroll round to Cholertons in Bridge Street and treat yourself to a Wireless Set. Mr. Cholerton and his assistants will quickly rig up your aerial. Call at 52, Bridge Street and hear the Wonderful “Cicopone” demonstrated."
Until the 1930s people with wireless sets were known as "listeners in”, as opposed to "listeners". On the 5th a new play at the Hippodrome in St Helens called "Listening In" began a week’s performances – and it had some novel features. As well as offering some glimpses of radio during each show, a Listening-In wireless car would each lunchtime be parked outside of the Corporation Street theatre, relaying broadcasts to the public.
"Altogether, St. Helens should be in for a very unusual and entertaining week," said the Reporter. What their article failed to mention was that the soon to be famous comedian Will Hay was part of the cast on stage at the Hippodrome, performing his famous schoolmaster sketch as Dr. Muffin. He was known as the "scholastic humourist" and had previously performed at the Hippodrome in November 1920.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the pay cuts for Town Hall officials, the St Helens contribution to the cost of the new Liverpool to Manchester main road, the inquiry into Boundary Road baths and the Sutton flood relief scheme is approved.
We begin on the 31st when Joseph Freeman of Forest Road in Sutton Manor appeared at Liverpool Assizes accused of stealing £126. The 36-year-old was treasurer of the local miners' union and had staged a fake break-in at his home claiming that burglars had emptied his safe. Freeman had reported the supposed robbery at 3:15am on New Year's Day – just hours before his books were going to be audited.
He'd told the police that thieves had entered his home while he was attending a watchnight service at church. However, the police found no sign of a forcible entry and the way that papers and books had been scattered about one room where the safe was kept made them suspicious. Freeman owned a drapery business and the police soon learnt that it was in financial difficulties.
Upon being questioned, the man eventually admitted making up the story, saying: "When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done."
Freeman's defence counsel told the judge that his client had been "a man at his wit's end" who could think of no other way of saving himself than robbing his own safe. The judge sentenced Freeman to serve 18 months in prison in the second division. That was a class of prisoner with certain privileges. These included being allowed to wear clothes of a different colour to the standard prison issue and being able to receive more frequent visits and letters than other prisoners.
The illegal receiving of betting slips could either be undertaken on the streets or inside someone's home. Both methods had advantages – and disadvantages. The police could monitor your activities better on the street, often while secreted in some hiding place. However, street betting offered flexibility as you could vary the location of your patch and run like hell when the police raided you! You had nowhere to go if the police came to your home but good security might give you some time to dispose of the evidence.
The defence case was that Rogers had been driven to take betting slips because he was unemployed and exceedingly poor. Using your house for the purpose of betting was a more serious charge than street gambling. The police had to admit that they had only seen people going into the man's yard and did not have a good enough view to see them actually enter his house. That allowed the magistrates the opportunity to be generous and give Rogers the benefit of the doubt on that charge – although they convicted him on three lesser charges. In total he was fined £15.
A young coal miner called Joseph Townsend from Howards Lane in Eccleston was also in court on the 2nd accused of what the Liverpool Echo called "wholesale shopbreaking". Among the many victims had been the shop of the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Phythian, and those of a number of councillors. Townsend had also broken into Higher Grade School in North Road and a number of offices.
The man had been tracked down at a pawnbroker's shop in Liverpool after attempting to offer a watch in pledge. Detective Cust said that when Townsend had been charged, he replied: "That is right. I did break in. John Burke was with me. Some of the stuff is among that you got from my house, and some we have got rid of. We worked together, and, of course, shared the proceeds." Townsend was committed for trial at the next Manchester Assizes.
I find the huge resources that the police put into dealing with minor crimes a century ago quite amazing – particularly when compared to today, when they often won't turn up to investigate crimes like burglaries. The Reporter described on the 2nd how PC Shepherd had spent three whole days from 9 am until 7pm fruitlessly waiting outside Sutton Post Office to apprehend a suspect.
Was the man planning an armed robbery? Or perhaps cash a large batch of stolen postal orders? No, George Smith from Fairclough Street was wanted because he owed his wife £4 in maintenance money. The police at the time did not know Smith's address but had been tipped off that he would be calling in at the post office. Not receiving her family's maintenance cash from her estranged husband was a serious matter, of course, for Mrs Smith. But it was not until the fourth day that the fugitive from justice turned up at the post office, meaning a huge amount of police time went into apprehending the man.
When Smith appeared in the dock at St Helens Police Court this week, he promised to do his best to obtain work and pay off the outstanding amount owed to his wife. The man told the magistrates that an interfering mother-in-law had caused his marital problems. The Bench decided to adjourn the case for a month so that Smith might have a chance to pay off his arrears.
The Manchester Evening News wrote on the 2nd about the shocking overcrowding in St Helens: "An example of the terrible conditions in which some of the poor live, and die, has just come to light at St. Helens, where in a house occupied by eight families a woman died yesterday. While her body lay on the table all night her three children slept, or tried to sleep, within a few feet of the corpse, with nothing but an oil lamp to lessen the horrors of the night. This single room was their only home, and the seven other apartments in the house are similarly occupied."
There were now several retailers in St Helens offering wireless sets for sale, with Cholertons leading the pack. Since the launch of the British Broadcasting Company's Manchester station last November, radio was burgeoning amongst St Helens folk able to afford the new medium. But it was not just a case of buying a set, taking it home and switching it on.
Its set-up could be quite complicated depending on the type of wireless chosen, with a key factor for good reception being the aerial. That, preferably, would be a long-wire antenna high up in your backyard. The installation process could be a daunting one for non-technical folk and so that's why this advert was published this week in the Reporter:
"WIRELESS SIMPLIFIED – The easiest way of getting Wireless at home is to stroll round to Cholertons in Bridge Street and treat yourself to a Wireless Set. Mr. Cholerton and his assistants will quickly rig up your aerial. Call at 52, Bridge Street and hear the Wonderful “Cicopone” demonstrated."
Until the 1930s people with wireless sets were known as "listeners in”, as opposed to "listeners". On the 5th a new play at the Hippodrome in St Helens called "Listening In" began a week’s performances – and it had some novel features. As well as offering some glimpses of radio during each show, a Listening-In wireless car would each lunchtime be parked outside of the Corporation Street theatre, relaying broadcasts to the public.
"Altogether, St. Helens should be in for a very unusual and entertaining week," said the Reporter. What their article failed to mention was that the soon to be famous comedian Will Hay was part of the cast on stage at the Hippodrome, performing his famous schoolmaster sketch as Dr. Muffin. He was known as the "scholastic humourist" and had previously performed at the Hippodrome in November 1920.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the pay cuts for Town Hall officials, the St Helens contribution to the cost of the new Liverpool to Manchester main road, the inquiry into Boundary Road baths and the Sutton flood relief scheme is approved.
This week's many stories include the police raid on a Parr Street betting house, the Sutton Manor fake safe robbery, the capture of a wholesale shopbreaker, the bizarre police stake out at Sutton Post Office and the shocking story of the three children that were forced to sleep with their dead mother.
We begin on the 31st when Joseph Freeman of Forest Road in Sutton Manor appeared at Liverpool Assizes accused of stealing £126.
The 36-year-old was treasurer of the local miners' union and had staged a fake break-in at his home claiming that burglars had emptied his safe.
Freeman had reported the supposed robbery at 3:15am on New Year's Day – just hours before his books were going to be audited.
He'd told the police that thieves had entered his home while he was attending a watchnight service at church.
However, the police found no sign of a forcible entry and the way that papers and books had been scattered about one room where the safe was kept made them suspicious.
Freeman owned a drapery business and the police soon learnt that it was in financial difficulties.
Upon being questioned, the man eventually admitted making up the story, saying:
"When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done."
Freeman's defence counsel told the judge that his client had been "a man at his wit's end" who could think of no other way of saving himself than robbing his own safe.
The judge sentenced Freeman to serve 18 months in prison in the second division.
That was a class of prisoner with certain privileges. These included being allowed to wear clothes of a different colour to the standard prison issue and being able to receive more frequent visits and letters than other prisoners.
The illegal receiving of betting slips could either be undertaken on the streets or inside someone's home. Both methods had advantages – and disadvantages.
The police could monitor your activities better on the street, often while secreted in some hiding place.
However, street betting offered flexibility as you could vary the location of your patch and run like hell when the police raided you!
You had nowhere to go if the police came to your home but good security might give you some time to dispose of the evidence.
Robert Rogers of Parr Street in St Helens (pictured above) chose the latter option for his betting activities.
On the 2nd in St Helens Police Court, Sgt. Lomas said the man's premises had been made so secure that the police had been forced to enter by knocking the back door off its hinges.
When the sergeant went into the kitchen, Rogers was just straightening himself up after bending down to try and hide a parcel of 26 coupons under a sideboard.
The defence case was that Rogers had been driven to take betting slips because he was unemployed and exceedingly poor.
Using your house for the purpose of betting was a more serious charge than street gambling.
The police had to admit that they had only seen people going into the man's yard and did not have a good enough view to see them actually enter his house.
That allowed the magistrates the opportunity to be generous and give Rogers the benefit of the doubt on that charge – although they convicted him on three lesser charges. In total he was fined £15.
A young coal miner called Joseph Townsend from Howards Lane in Eccleston was also in court on the 2nd accused of what the Liverpool Echo called "wholesale shopbreaking".
Among the many victims had been the shop of the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Phythian, and those of a number of councillors. Townsend had also broken into Higher Grade School in North Road and a number of offices.
The man had been tracked down at a pawnbroker's shop in Liverpool after attempting to offer a watch in pledge. Detective Cust said that when Townsend had been charged, he replied:
"That is right. I did break in. John Burke was with me. Some of the stuff is among that you got from my house, and some we have got rid of. We worked together, and, of course, shared the proceeds."
Townsend was committed for trial at the next Manchester Assizes.
I find the huge resources that the police put into dealing with minor crimes a century ago quite amazing – particularly when compared to today, when they often won't turn up to investigate crimes like burglaries.
The Reporter described on the 2nd how PC Shepherd had spent three whole days from 9 am until 7pm fruitlessly waiting outside Sutton Post Office to apprehend a suspect.
Was the man planning an armed robbery? Or perhaps cash a large batch of stolen postal orders?
No, George Smith from Fairclough Street was wanted because he owed his wife £4 in maintenance money.
The police at the time did not know Smith's address but had been tipped off that he would be calling in at the post office.
Not receiving her family's maintenance cash from her estranged husband was a serious matter, of course, for Mrs Smith.
But it was not until the fourth day that the fugitive from justice turned up at the post office, meaning a huge amount of police time went into apprehending the man.
When Smith appeared in the dock at St Helens Police Court this week he promised to do his best to obtain work and pay off the outstanding amount owed to his wife.
The man told the magistrates that an interfering mother-in-law had caused his marital problems.
The Bench decided to adjourn the case for a month so that Smith might have a chance to pay off his arrears.
The Manchester Evening News wrote on the 2nd about the shocking overcrowding in St Helens:
"An example of the terrible conditions in which some of the poor live, and die, has just come to light at St. Helens, where in a house occupied by eight families a woman died yesterday.
"While her body lay on the table all night her three children slept, or tried to sleep, within a few feet of the corpse, with nothing but an oil lamp to lessen the horrors of the night.
"This single room was their only home, and the seven other apartments in the house are similarly occupied."
On the 5th the inquest on William Mulvanney from Raglan Street in St Helens (pictured above) was held after his wife had found his body with his throat cut.
The 50-year-old had previously been employed at Sherdley Colliery but had not been able to work for 12 months through ill health.
Very little money would have been coming into the house and it was not uncommon for men in such circumstances to become depressed and take their own lives.
The usual verdict of "Suicide whilst of unsound mind" was returned.
There were now several retailers in St Helens offering wireless sets for sale, with Cholertons leading the pack.
Since the launch of the British Broadcasting Company's Manchester station last November, radio was burgeoning amongst St Helens folk able to afford the new medium.
But it was not just a case of buying a set, taking it home and switching it on.
Its set-up could be quite complicated depending on the type of wireless chosen, with a key factor for good reception being the aerial. That, preferably, would be a long-wire antenna high up in your backyard.
The installation process could be a daunting one for non-technical folk and so that's why this advert was published this week in the Reporter:
"WIRELESS SIMPLIFIED – The easiest way of getting Wireless at home is to stroll round to Cholertons in Bridge Street and treat yourself to a Wireless Set. Mr. Cholerton and his assistants will quickly rig up your aerial. Call at 52, Bridge Street and hear the Wonderful “Cicopone” demonstrated."
Until the 1930s people with wireless sets were known as "listeners in”, as opposed to "listeners".
On the 5th a new play at the Hippodrome in St Helens called "Listening In" began a week’s performances – and it had some novel features.
As well as offering some glimpses of radio during each show, a Listening-In wireless car would each lunchtime be parked outside of the Corporation Street theatre, relaying broadcasts to the public.
"Altogether, St. Helens should be in for a very unusual and entertaining week," said the Reporter.
What their article failed to mention was that the soon to be famous comedian Will Hay was part of the cast on stage at the Hippodrome, performing his famous schoolmaster sketch as Dr. Muffin.
He was known as the "scholastic humourist" and had previously performed at the Hippodrome in November 1920.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the pay cuts for Town Hall officials, the St Helens contribution to the cost of the new Liverpool to Manchester main road, the inquiry into Boundary Road baths and the Sutton flood relief scheme is approved.
We begin on the 31st when Joseph Freeman of Forest Road in Sutton Manor appeared at Liverpool Assizes accused of stealing £126.
The 36-year-old was treasurer of the local miners' union and had staged a fake break-in at his home claiming that burglars had emptied his safe.
Freeman had reported the supposed robbery at 3:15am on New Year's Day – just hours before his books were going to be audited.
He'd told the police that thieves had entered his home while he was attending a watchnight service at church.
However, the police found no sign of a forcible entry and the way that papers and books had been scattered about one room where the safe was kept made them suspicious.
Freeman owned a drapery business and the police soon learnt that it was in financial difficulties.
Upon being questioned, the man eventually admitted making up the story, saying:
"When I reckoned up my books I found so much deficient that I did not know what to do, so I decided to take the money from the safe, and report to the police that my house had been entered and the money stolen, for which I am very sorry. I was being pressed for money, and that is another reason for doing what I have done."
Freeman's defence counsel told the judge that his client had been "a man at his wit's end" who could think of no other way of saving himself than robbing his own safe.
The judge sentenced Freeman to serve 18 months in prison in the second division.
That was a class of prisoner with certain privileges. These included being allowed to wear clothes of a different colour to the standard prison issue and being able to receive more frequent visits and letters than other prisoners.
The illegal receiving of betting slips could either be undertaken on the streets or inside someone's home. Both methods had advantages – and disadvantages.
The police could monitor your activities better on the street, often while secreted in some hiding place.
However, street betting offered flexibility as you could vary the location of your patch and run like hell when the police raided you!
You had nowhere to go if the police came to your home but good security might give you some time to dispose of the evidence.
On the 2nd in St Helens Police Court, Sgt. Lomas said the man's premises had been made so secure that the police had been forced to enter by knocking the back door off its hinges.
When the sergeant went into the kitchen, Rogers was just straightening himself up after bending down to try and hide a parcel of 26 coupons under a sideboard.
The defence case was that Rogers had been driven to take betting slips because he was unemployed and exceedingly poor.
Using your house for the purpose of betting was a more serious charge than street gambling.
The police had to admit that they had only seen people going into the man's yard and did not have a good enough view to see them actually enter his house.
That allowed the magistrates the opportunity to be generous and give Rogers the benefit of the doubt on that charge – although they convicted him on three lesser charges. In total he was fined £15.
A young coal miner called Joseph Townsend from Howards Lane in Eccleston was also in court on the 2nd accused of what the Liverpool Echo called "wholesale shopbreaking".
Among the many victims had been the shop of the Mayor of St Helens, Alderman Phythian, and those of a number of councillors. Townsend had also broken into Higher Grade School in North Road and a number of offices.
The man had been tracked down at a pawnbroker's shop in Liverpool after attempting to offer a watch in pledge. Detective Cust said that when Townsend had been charged, he replied:
"That is right. I did break in. John Burke was with me. Some of the stuff is among that you got from my house, and some we have got rid of. We worked together, and, of course, shared the proceeds."
Townsend was committed for trial at the next Manchester Assizes.
I find the huge resources that the police put into dealing with minor crimes a century ago quite amazing – particularly when compared to today, when they often won't turn up to investigate crimes like burglaries.
The Reporter described on the 2nd how PC Shepherd had spent three whole days from 9 am until 7pm fruitlessly waiting outside Sutton Post Office to apprehend a suspect.
Was the man planning an armed robbery? Or perhaps cash a large batch of stolen postal orders?
No, George Smith from Fairclough Street was wanted because he owed his wife £4 in maintenance money.
The police at the time did not know Smith's address but had been tipped off that he would be calling in at the post office.
Not receiving her family's maintenance cash from her estranged husband was a serious matter, of course, for Mrs Smith.
But it was not until the fourth day that the fugitive from justice turned up at the post office, meaning a huge amount of police time went into apprehending the man.
When Smith appeared in the dock at St Helens Police Court this week he promised to do his best to obtain work and pay off the outstanding amount owed to his wife.
The man told the magistrates that an interfering mother-in-law had caused his marital problems.
The Bench decided to adjourn the case for a month so that Smith might have a chance to pay off his arrears.
The Manchester Evening News wrote on the 2nd about the shocking overcrowding in St Helens:
"An example of the terrible conditions in which some of the poor live, and die, has just come to light at St. Helens, where in a house occupied by eight families a woman died yesterday.
"While her body lay on the table all night her three children slept, or tried to sleep, within a few feet of the corpse, with nothing but an oil lamp to lessen the horrors of the night.
"This single room was their only home, and the seven other apartments in the house are similarly occupied."
The 50-year-old had previously been employed at Sherdley Colliery but had not been able to work for 12 months through ill health.
Very little money would have been coming into the house and it was not uncommon for men in such circumstances to become depressed and take their own lives.
The usual verdict of "Suicide whilst of unsound mind" was returned.
There were now several retailers in St Helens offering wireless sets for sale, with Cholertons leading the pack.
Since the launch of the British Broadcasting Company's Manchester station last November, radio was burgeoning amongst St Helens folk able to afford the new medium.
But it was not just a case of buying a set, taking it home and switching it on.
Its set-up could be quite complicated depending on the type of wireless chosen, with a key factor for good reception being the aerial. That, preferably, would be a long-wire antenna high up in your backyard.
The installation process could be a daunting one for non-technical folk and so that's why this advert was published this week in the Reporter:
"WIRELESS SIMPLIFIED – The easiest way of getting Wireless at home is to stroll round to Cholertons in Bridge Street and treat yourself to a Wireless Set. Mr. Cholerton and his assistants will quickly rig up your aerial. Call at 52, Bridge Street and hear the Wonderful “Cicopone” demonstrated."
Until the 1930s people with wireless sets were known as "listeners in”, as opposed to "listeners".
On the 5th a new play at the Hippodrome in St Helens called "Listening In" began a week’s performances – and it had some novel features.
As well as offering some glimpses of radio during each show, a Listening-In wireless car would each lunchtime be parked outside of the Corporation Street theatre, relaying broadcasts to the public.
"Altogether, St. Helens should be in for a very unusual and entertaining week," said the Reporter.
What their article failed to mention was that the soon to be famous comedian Will Hay was part of the cast on stage at the Hippodrome, performing his famous schoolmaster sketch as Dr. Muffin.
He was known as the "scholastic humourist" and had previously performed at the Hippodrome in November 1920.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the pay cuts for Town Hall officials, the St Helens contribution to the cost of the new Liverpool to Manchester main road, the inquiry into Boundary Road baths and the Sutton flood relief scheme is approved.