IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th NOV. - 6th DEC. 1920)
This week's stories include the terrific storm that struck the town, the Parr toddler who died from a spilt cup of tea, a runaway horse in Haydock, why Sutton folk were in danger of being drowned out like rats and the unfortunate Harris Coonie at the Hippodrome.
We begin on the 30th when the inquest on the death of Thomas Lonegan was held at Rainhill Asylum. The man from Everton had been a sailor in the war and his family said his mind had been affected when his ship was torpedoed. Thomas subsequently became an inmate at Rainhill and had committed suicide by jumping off a roof while a member of a work party.
The flooding of Watery Lane (pictured above) was again under discussion at the St Helens Town Council meeting on December 1st. Councillor Mercer said the people in Sutton could be "drowned out again this winter like rats" unless something was done. He suggested cleaning out the Sutton Brook so it held more water and for obstructions to be removed. Various committees were supposed to be dealing with the issue and Alderman Forster told Cllr. Mercer that he would ask the council surveyor to report on the current position.
Talking of being drowned out by water, a dramatic storm struck the town on the 2nd, as described by the Reporter: "Thursday night was one on which prayers for the safety of those at sea would have been most appropriately offered up. On land the storm, which endured from Thursday evening until Friday, ravished the house tops and all structures with the least inclination to flimsiness. It drove the inhabitants from the streets, and when the rain came beating on the window with a terrific clatter, there was no little apprehension for as to one's safety indoors. They were unfortunate people who had to roam the streets on Thursday and Friday nights."
Also unfortunate were eight members of the Bostock family of Liverpool Road – and their lodger called Mr Parsons. They were sat in their kitchen just about to have their tea when a 15-ft tall chimneystack came crashing down. Actually they were very fortunate folk as the chimney missed them all and only one was slightly injured – although it took several hours to remove all the bricks and plaster from the room. Walter Marshall's new garage that was being built in Corporation Street to house his eight new charabancs also took a battering from the storm. Other damage was done to a wall in Windle Street and a large stretch of fencing round Sutton Conservative Club's bowling green was blown down.
On the 3rd Patrick Cloney from Haydock suffered severe injuries to his right hand while working at Southport Colliery in Parr. This was after his hand had been crushed by a coal tub that had come off the rails.
The home could also be a highly dangerous place particularly for inquisitive toddlers with open fires and pans of boiling hot water about the place. Their little bodies reacted badly to shock and burns that would be treatable today often led to death. On the 3rd the 13-month-old child of Alexander Blackley from Lascelles Street in Parr died reportedly from scalds received after simply knocking over a cup of tea. It's hard to imagine how such burns would lead to death. However I can provide no more details as such fatalities were so common that the Reporter only devoted seven lines to the circumstances of the accident and the subsequent inquest. The verdict on the unnamed child was the usual one of misadventure.
Lipton's is these days known as a brand of tea but it also used to have a large chain of shops. In fact their advert in the St Helens Reporter claimed that they were the "largest retailers of food products in the world". Lipton's opened a new branch in Bridge Street on the 3rd and claimed to be giving away £250 during its first week of trading, as part of a cashback scheme.
In the Police Court on that day Richard Owen from Chorley Street, off Duke Street, faced a charge of drunkenness. A constable had seen the 24-year-old repeatedly falling over in Ormskirk Street (shown above c. 1910) and said he had been completely incapable of looking after himself. When in the dock Richard said he suffered from shell shock and should not have taken the drink as it had a bad effect on him. He was fined 10 shillings.
There was another incident of a runaway horse during the evening of the 4th, this time in Haydock. The animal belonged to butcher Sam Platt of West End Road and it was returning home after being out on deliveries hauling a light lorry or van. The trigger for the horse to bolt was not stated in the newspaper account but an unexpected noise was the usual reason. Whatever the cause, the furious gallop ended when the horse missed a turning and hit a kerbstone – which brought the animal crashing down with the vehicle landing on top.
Several men rushed to the spot to aid the driver who they assumed was lying underneath badly injured. However 29-year-old John Platt had been thrown out half-a-mile earlier and only received slight injuries. The horse was all right too! Children were known to often play at the site where the crash took place and it was considered fortunate that none had been there at the time. Checking the 1911 census, Sam Platt and his wife Elizabeth had a total of eleven children and unlike most large families had not lost any of their offspring to illness or accidents.
Inquests were rarely held on Sundays but Samuel Brighouse, the coroner for SW Lancashire, held one on the 5th at the Junction Hotel in Rainford (pictured above). Deaths on the railway could be as mysterious as canal fatalities in not being able to learn whether the demise was by accident or design. Miner Peter Gorman from Ormskirk Road had been found dead on a stretch of railway line between Glover's bridge and Old Lane bridge in Rainford.
The bodies of most people struck down by trains were badly cut up or "mangled", to quote a term commonly-used by the newspapers. However Gorman had only suffered a minor wound to his head and no trace of a collision had been found on any engine. His landlady also told the inquest that she had never heard Peter threaten to take his own life. So the theory was that the man had been caught by the lifeguard at the front of the train while taking a short cut along the line and subsequently thrown clear of the track. But nobody really knew. But nobody really knew.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens had been on strike since November 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise. These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town. The Journeymen Cloggers Union put out a statement this week saying the employers had refused to meet with them to discuss their claim. You could say they were digging in their heels! The union accused the master cloggers of taking the first step in breaking up their union, which was over 50 years old. They said employers in other towns had granted the 10% advance in wages but the St Helens bosses were stubbornly refusing to talk.
Appearing in the Police Court on the 6th were a glass hand called Herbert Evans and a young collier called Cunningham, who were both charged with being drunk and disorderly in Victoria Square. Both youths lived in Rigby Street and had attempted to force their way into the assembly room of the Town Hall when dancing was taking place. Inspector Shaw told the Bench that Evans had been "beastly drunk". The Chairman said it was a dreadful thing for two young fellows like the prisoners to be in such a state of intoxication on a Saturday night. "It was really shocking", he added, as he fined Evans 20 shillings and Cunningham (who had previous convictions) 40 shillings.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome from the 6th were The Ten Loonies ("The world-famous musical comedians"); Frank Dickinson ("The Yorkshire basso profundo"); Flora and Bijou ("The novel comedy girls"); Dorothy Ward ("Britain’s greatest principal boy") and Harris Coonie ("Comedian and whistler").
When I saw the name Harris Coonie listed in the Hippodrome's advert in the Reporter I feared the worst. After a bit of research I can confirm that he was a black man who took that stage name to reflect the colour of his skin. In adverts for appearances in other music halls, Harris is listed as "the coloured artiste in eccentricities of coonology", "the coloured king of the wooden shoes" and a "coloured dancer of exceptional skill".
A review of a Sheffield performance said: "Harry Coonie, real coloured man, provides a lively turn. He sings some typical coon songs, and in addition does some smart patter." It's a shame that someone with obvious talent had to play up the colour of their skin in order to get work but many black performers did, of course.
In their review of The Ten Loonies' performance at the Hippodrome, the Reporter wrote: "The madhouse instrumentalists, the eccentric musicians, brought down the house with a glorious medley of the choicest band music and the most preposterous foolery that man ever devised." I don't think I'd have wanted to watch Harris Coonie singing "coon songs" but The Ten Loonies most definitely!
Next week's stories will include the go-ahead at last for the Windlehurst Housing Estate, the sad story of Det. Insp. Percy Steer, the starving horse in Mill Lane, the Parr family at war and the newspaper mutilator in Sutton Library.
We begin on the 30th when the inquest on the death of Thomas Lonegan was held at Rainhill Asylum. The man from Everton had been a sailor in the war and his family said his mind had been affected when his ship was torpedoed. Thomas subsequently became an inmate at Rainhill and had committed suicide by jumping off a roof while a member of a work party.
Talking of being drowned out by water, a dramatic storm struck the town on the 2nd, as described by the Reporter: "Thursday night was one on which prayers for the safety of those at sea would have been most appropriately offered up. On land the storm, which endured from Thursday evening until Friday, ravished the house tops and all structures with the least inclination to flimsiness. It drove the inhabitants from the streets, and when the rain came beating on the window with a terrific clatter, there was no little apprehension for as to one's safety indoors. They were unfortunate people who had to roam the streets on Thursday and Friday nights."
Also unfortunate were eight members of the Bostock family of Liverpool Road – and their lodger called Mr Parsons. They were sat in their kitchen just about to have their tea when a 15-ft tall chimneystack came crashing down. Actually they were very fortunate folk as the chimney missed them all and only one was slightly injured – although it took several hours to remove all the bricks and plaster from the room. Walter Marshall's new garage that was being built in Corporation Street to house his eight new charabancs also took a battering from the storm. Other damage was done to a wall in Windle Street and a large stretch of fencing round Sutton Conservative Club's bowling green was blown down.
On the 3rd Patrick Cloney from Haydock suffered severe injuries to his right hand while working at Southport Colliery in Parr. This was after his hand had been crushed by a coal tub that had come off the rails.
The home could also be a highly dangerous place particularly for inquisitive toddlers with open fires and pans of boiling hot water about the place. Their little bodies reacted badly to shock and burns that would be treatable today often led to death. On the 3rd the 13-month-old child of Alexander Blackley from Lascelles Street in Parr died reportedly from scalds received after simply knocking over a cup of tea. It's hard to imagine how such burns would lead to death. However I can provide no more details as such fatalities were so common that the Reporter only devoted seven lines to the circumstances of the accident and the subsequent inquest. The verdict on the unnamed child was the usual one of misadventure.
Lipton's is these days known as a brand of tea but it also used to have a large chain of shops. In fact their advert in the St Helens Reporter claimed that they were the "largest retailers of food products in the world". Lipton's opened a new branch in Bridge Street on the 3rd and claimed to be giving away £250 during its first week of trading, as part of a cashback scheme.
There was another incident of a runaway horse during the evening of the 4th, this time in Haydock. The animal belonged to butcher Sam Platt of West End Road and it was returning home after being out on deliveries hauling a light lorry or van. The trigger for the horse to bolt was not stated in the newspaper account but an unexpected noise was the usual reason. Whatever the cause, the furious gallop ended when the horse missed a turning and hit a kerbstone – which brought the animal crashing down with the vehicle landing on top.
Several men rushed to the spot to aid the driver who they assumed was lying underneath badly injured. However 29-year-old John Platt had been thrown out half-a-mile earlier and only received slight injuries. The horse was all right too! Children were known to often play at the site where the crash took place and it was considered fortunate that none had been there at the time. Checking the 1911 census, Sam Platt and his wife Elizabeth had a total of eleven children and unlike most large families had not lost any of their offspring to illness or accidents.
The bodies of most people struck down by trains were badly cut up or "mangled", to quote a term commonly-used by the newspapers. However Gorman had only suffered a minor wound to his head and no trace of a collision had been found on any engine. His landlady also told the inquest that she had never heard Peter threaten to take his own life. So the theory was that the man had been caught by the lifeguard at the front of the train while taking a short cut along the line and subsequently thrown clear of the track. But nobody really knew. But nobody really knew.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens had been on strike since November 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise. These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town. The Journeymen Cloggers Union put out a statement this week saying the employers had refused to meet with them to discuss their claim. You could say they were digging in their heels! The union accused the master cloggers of taking the first step in breaking up their union, which was over 50 years old. They said employers in other towns had granted the 10% advance in wages but the St Helens bosses were stubbornly refusing to talk.
Appearing in the Police Court on the 6th were a glass hand called Herbert Evans and a young collier called Cunningham, who were both charged with being drunk and disorderly in Victoria Square. Both youths lived in Rigby Street and had attempted to force their way into the assembly room of the Town Hall when dancing was taking place. Inspector Shaw told the Bench that Evans had been "beastly drunk". The Chairman said it was a dreadful thing for two young fellows like the prisoners to be in such a state of intoxication on a Saturday night. "It was really shocking", he added, as he fined Evans 20 shillings and Cunningham (who had previous convictions) 40 shillings.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome from the 6th were The Ten Loonies ("The world-famous musical comedians"); Frank Dickinson ("The Yorkshire basso profundo"); Flora and Bijou ("The novel comedy girls"); Dorothy Ward ("Britain’s greatest principal boy") and Harris Coonie ("Comedian and whistler").
When I saw the name Harris Coonie listed in the Hippodrome's advert in the Reporter I feared the worst. After a bit of research I can confirm that he was a black man who took that stage name to reflect the colour of his skin. In adverts for appearances in other music halls, Harris is listed as "the coloured artiste in eccentricities of coonology", "the coloured king of the wooden shoes" and a "coloured dancer of exceptional skill".
A review of a Sheffield performance said: "Harry Coonie, real coloured man, provides a lively turn. He sings some typical coon songs, and in addition does some smart patter." It's a shame that someone with obvious talent had to play up the colour of their skin in order to get work but many black performers did, of course.
In their review of The Ten Loonies' performance at the Hippodrome, the Reporter wrote: "The madhouse instrumentalists, the eccentric musicians, brought down the house with a glorious medley of the choicest band music and the most preposterous foolery that man ever devised." I don't think I'd have wanted to watch Harris Coonie singing "coon songs" but The Ten Loonies most definitely!
Next week's stories will include the go-ahead at last for the Windlehurst Housing Estate, the sad story of Det. Insp. Percy Steer, the starving horse in Mill Lane, the Parr family at war and the newspaper mutilator in Sutton Library.
This week's stories include the terrific storm that struck the town, the Parr toddler who died from a spilt cup of tea, a runaway horse in Haydock, why Sutton folk were in danger of being drowned out like rats and the unfortunate Harris Coonie at the Hippodrome.
We begin on the 30th when the inquest on the death of Thomas Lonegan was held at Rainhill Asylum.
The man from Everton had been a sailor in the war and his family said his mind had been affected when his ship was torpedoed.
Thomas subsequently became an inmate at Rainhill and had committed suicide by jumping off a roof while a member of a work party.
The flooding of Watery Lane (pictured above) was again under discussion at the St Helens Town Council meeting on December 1st.
Councillor Mercer said the people in Sutton could be "drowned out again this winter like rats" unless something was done.
He suggested cleaning out the Sutton Brook so it held more water and for obstructions to be removed.
Various committees were supposed to be dealing with the issue and Alderman Forster told Cllr. Mercer that he would ask the council surveyor to report on the current position.
Talking of being drowned out by water, a dramatic storm struck the town on the 2nd, as described by the Reporter:
"Thursday night was one on which prayers for the safety of those at sea would have been most appropriately offered up. On land the storm, which endured from Thursday evening until Friday, ravished the house tops and all structures with the least inclination to flimsiness.
"It drove the inhabitants from the streets, and when the rain came beating on the window with a terrific clatter, there was no little apprehension for as to one's safety indoors. They were unfortunate people who had to roam the streets on Thursday and Friday nights."
Also unfortunate were eight members of the Bostock family of Liverpool Road – and their lodger called Mr Parsons.
They were sat in their kitchen just about to have their tea when a 15-ft tall chimneystack came crashing down.
Actually they were very fortunate folk as the chimney missed them all and only one was slightly injured – although it took several hours to remove all the bricks and plaster from the room.
Walter Marshall's new garage that was being built in Corporation Street to house his eight new charabancs also took a battering from the storm.
Other damage was done to a wall in Windle Street and a large stretch of fencing round Sutton Conservative Club's bowling green was blown down.
On the 3rd Patrick Cloney from Haydock suffered severe injuries to his right hand while working at Southport Colliery in Parr.
This was after his hand had been crushed by a coal tub that had come off the rails.
The home could also be a highly dangerous place particularly for inquisitive toddlers with open fires and pans of boiling hot water about the place.
Their little bodies reacted badly to shock and burns that would be treatable today often led to death.
On the 3rd the 13-month-old child of Alexander Blackley from Lascelles Street in Parr died reportedly from scalds received after simply knocking over a cup of tea.
It's hard to imagine how such burns would lead to death.
However I can provide no more details as such fatalities were so common that the Reporter only devoted seven lines to the circumstances of the accident and the subsequent inquest.
The verdict on the unnamed child was the usual one of misadventure.
Lipton's is these days known as a brand of tea but it also used to have a large chain of shops.
In fact their advert in the St Helens Reporter claimed that they were the "largest retailers of food products in the world".
Lipton's opened a new branch in Bridge Street on the 3rd and claimed to be giving away £250 during its first week of trading, as part of a cashback scheme.
In the Police Court on that day Richard Owen from Chorley Street, off Duke Street, faced a charge of drunkenness.
A constable had seen the 24-year-old repeatedly falling over in Ormskirk Street (shown above c. 1910) and said he had been completely incapable of looking after himself.
When in the dock Richard said he suffered from shell shock and should not have taken the drink as it had a bad effect on him. He was fined 10 shillings.
There was another incident of a runaway horse during the evening of the 4th, this time in Haydock.
The animal belonged to butcher Sam Platt of West End Road and it was returning home after being out on deliveries hauling a light lorry or van.
The trigger for the horse to bolt was not stated in the newspaper account but an unexpected noise was the usual reason.
Whatever the cause, the furious gallop ended when the horse missed a turning and hit a kerbstone – which brought the animal crashing down with the vehicle landing on top.
Several men rushed to the spot to aid the driver who they assumed was lying underneath badly injured.
However 29-year-old John Platt had been thrown out half-a-mile earlier and only received slight injuries. The horse was all right too!
Children were known to often play at the site where the crash took place and it was considered fortunate that none had been there at the time.
Checking the 1911 census, Sam Platt and his wife Elizabeth had a total of eleven children and unlike most large families had not lost any of their offspring to illness or accidents.
Inquests were rarely held on Sundays but Samuel Brighouse, the coroner for SW Lancashire, held one on the 5th at the Junction Hotel in Rainford (pictured above).
Deaths on the railway could be as mysterious as canal fatalities in not being able to learn whether the demise was by accident or design.
Miner Peter Gorman from Ormskirk Road had been found dead on a stretch of railway line between Glover's bridge and Old Lane bridge in Rainford.
The bodies of most people struck down by trains were badly cut up or "mangled", to quote a term commonly-used by the newspapers.
However Gorman had only suffered a minor wound to his head and no trace of a collision had been found on any engine.
His landlady also told the inquest that she had never heard Peter threaten to take his own life.
So the theory was that the man had been caught by the lifeguard at the front of the train while taking a short cut along the line and subsequently thrown clear of the track. But nobody really knew.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens had been on strike since November 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise. These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town.
The Journeymen Cloggers Union put out a statement this week saying the employers had refused to meet with them to discuss their claim. You could say they were digging in their heels!
The union accused the master cloggers of taking the first step in breaking up their union, which was over 50 years old.
They said employers in other towns had granted the 10% advance in wages but the St Helens bosses were stubbornly refusing to talk.
Appearing in the Police Court on the 6th were a glass hand called Herbert Evans and a young collier called Cunningham, who were both charged with being drunk and disorderly in Victoria Square.
Both youths lived in Rigby Street and had attempted to force their way into the assembly room of the Town Hall when dancing was taking place.
Inspector Shaw told the Bench that Evans had been "beastly drunk".
The Chairman said it was a dreadful thing for two young fellows like the prisoners to be in such a state of intoxication on a Saturday night.
"It was really shocking", he added, as he fined Evans 20 shillings and Cunningham (who had previous convictions) 40 shillings.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome from the 6th were The Ten Loonies ("The world-famous musical comedians"); Frank Dickinson ("The Yorkshire basso profundo"); Flora and Bijou ("The novel comedy girls"); Dorothy Ward ("Britain’s greatest principal boy") and Harris Coonie ("Comedian and whistler").
When I saw the name Harris Coonie listed in the Hippodrome's advert in the Reporter I feared the worst.
After a bit of research I can confirm that he was a black man who took that stage name to reflect the colour of his skin.
In adverts for appearances in other music halls, Harris is listed as "the coloured artiste in eccentricities of coonology", "the coloured king of the wooden shoes" and a "coloured dancer of exceptional skill".
A review of a Sheffield performance said: "Harry Coonie, real coloured man, provides a lively turn. He sings some typical coon songs, and in addition does some smart patter."
It's a shame that someone with obvious talent had to play up the colour of their skin in order to get work but many black performers did, of course.
In their review of The Ten Loonies' performance at the Hippodrome, the Reporter wrote:
"The madhouse instrumentalists, the eccentric musicians, brought down the house with a glorious medley of the choicest band music and the most preposterous foolery that man ever devised."
I don't think I'd have wanted to watch Harris Coonie singing "coon songs" but The Ten Loonies most definitely!
Next week's stories will include the go-ahead at last for the Windlehurst Housing Estate, the sad story of Det. Insp. Percy Steer, the starving horse in Mill Lane, the Parr family at war and the newspaper mutilator in Sutton Library.
We begin on the 30th when the inquest on the death of Thomas Lonegan was held at Rainhill Asylum.
The man from Everton had been a sailor in the war and his family said his mind had been affected when his ship was torpedoed.
Thomas subsequently became an inmate at Rainhill and had committed suicide by jumping off a roof while a member of a work party.
Councillor Mercer said the people in Sutton could be "drowned out again this winter like rats" unless something was done.
He suggested cleaning out the Sutton Brook so it held more water and for obstructions to be removed.
Various committees were supposed to be dealing with the issue and Alderman Forster told Cllr. Mercer that he would ask the council surveyor to report on the current position.
Talking of being drowned out by water, a dramatic storm struck the town on the 2nd, as described by the Reporter:
"Thursday night was one on which prayers for the safety of those at sea would have been most appropriately offered up. On land the storm, which endured from Thursday evening until Friday, ravished the house tops and all structures with the least inclination to flimsiness.
"It drove the inhabitants from the streets, and when the rain came beating on the window with a terrific clatter, there was no little apprehension for as to one's safety indoors. They were unfortunate people who had to roam the streets on Thursday and Friday nights."
Also unfortunate were eight members of the Bostock family of Liverpool Road – and their lodger called Mr Parsons.
They were sat in their kitchen just about to have their tea when a 15-ft tall chimneystack came crashing down.
Actually they were very fortunate folk as the chimney missed them all and only one was slightly injured – although it took several hours to remove all the bricks and plaster from the room.
Walter Marshall's new garage that was being built in Corporation Street to house his eight new charabancs also took a battering from the storm.
Other damage was done to a wall in Windle Street and a large stretch of fencing round Sutton Conservative Club's bowling green was blown down.
On the 3rd Patrick Cloney from Haydock suffered severe injuries to his right hand while working at Southport Colliery in Parr.
This was after his hand had been crushed by a coal tub that had come off the rails.
The home could also be a highly dangerous place particularly for inquisitive toddlers with open fires and pans of boiling hot water about the place.
Their little bodies reacted badly to shock and burns that would be treatable today often led to death.
On the 3rd the 13-month-old child of Alexander Blackley from Lascelles Street in Parr died reportedly from scalds received after simply knocking over a cup of tea.
It's hard to imagine how such burns would lead to death.
However I can provide no more details as such fatalities were so common that the Reporter only devoted seven lines to the circumstances of the accident and the subsequent inquest.
The verdict on the unnamed child was the usual one of misadventure.
Lipton's is these days known as a brand of tea but it also used to have a large chain of shops.
In fact their advert in the St Helens Reporter claimed that they were the "largest retailers of food products in the world".
Lipton's opened a new branch in Bridge Street on the 3rd and claimed to be giving away £250 during its first week of trading, as part of a cashback scheme.
In the Police Court on that day Richard Owen from Chorley Street, off Duke Street, faced a charge of drunkenness.
When in the dock Richard said he suffered from shell shock and should not have taken the drink as it had a bad effect on him. He was fined 10 shillings.
There was another incident of a runaway horse during the evening of the 4th, this time in Haydock.
The animal belonged to butcher Sam Platt of West End Road and it was returning home after being out on deliveries hauling a light lorry or van.
The trigger for the horse to bolt was not stated in the newspaper account but an unexpected noise was the usual reason.
Whatever the cause, the furious gallop ended when the horse missed a turning and hit a kerbstone – which brought the animal crashing down with the vehicle landing on top.
Several men rushed to the spot to aid the driver who they assumed was lying underneath badly injured.
However 29-year-old John Platt had been thrown out half-a-mile earlier and only received slight injuries. The horse was all right too!
Children were known to often play at the site where the crash took place and it was considered fortunate that none had been there at the time.
Checking the 1911 census, Sam Platt and his wife Elizabeth had a total of eleven children and unlike most large families had not lost any of their offspring to illness or accidents.
Deaths on the railway could be as mysterious as canal fatalities in not being able to learn whether the demise was by accident or design.
Miner Peter Gorman from Ormskirk Road had been found dead on a stretch of railway line between Glover's bridge and Old Lane bridge in Rainford.
The bodies of most people struck down by trains were badly cut up or "mangled", to quote a term commonly-used by the newspapers.
However Gorman had only suffered a minor wound to his head and no trace of a collision had been found on any engine.
His landlady also told the inquest that she had never heard Peter threaten to take his own life.
So the theory was that the man had been caught by the lifeguard at the front of the train while taking a short cut along the line and subsequently thrown clear of the track. But nobody really knew.
The so-called "journeymen cloggers" of St Helens had been on strike since November 22nd, demanding a 10% pay rise. These were men employed by the "master cloggers" of the town.
The Journeymen Cloggers Union put out a statement this week saying the employers had refused to meet with them to discuss their claim. You could say they were digging in their heels!
The union accused the master cloggers of taking the first step in breaking up their union, which was over 50 years old.
They said employers in other towns had granted the 10% advance in wages but the St Helens bosses were stubbornly refusing to talk.
Appearing in the Police Court on the 6th were a glass hand called Herbert Evans and a young collier called Cunningham, who were both charged with being drunk and disorderly in Victoria Square.
Both youths lived in Rigby Street and had attempted to force their way into the assembly room of the Town Hall when dancing was taking place.
Inspector Shaw told the Bench that Evans had been "beastly drunk".
The Chairman said it was a dreadful thing for two young fellows like the prisoners to be in such a state of intoxication on a Saturday night.
"It was really shocking", he added, as he fined Evans 20 shillings and Cunningham (who had previous convictions) 40 shillings.
The acts appearing at the Hippodrome from the 6th were The Ten Loonies ("The world-famous musical comedians"); Frank Dickinson ("The Yorkshire basso profundo"); Flora and Bijou ("The novel comedy girls"); Dorothy Ward ("Britain’s greatest principal boy") and Harris Coonie ("Comedian and whistler").
When I saw the name Harris Coonie listed in the Hippodrome's advert in the Reporter I feared the worst.
After a bit of research I can confirm that he was a black man who took that stage name to reflect the colour of his skin.
In adverts for appearances in other music halls, Harris is listed as "the coloured artiste in eccentricities of coonology", "the coloured king of the wooden shoes" and a "coloured dancer of exceptional skill".
A review of a Sheffield performance said: "Harry Coonie, real coloured man, provides a lively turn. He sings some typical coon songs, and in addition does some smart patter."
It's a shame that someone with obvious talent had to play up the colour of their skin in order to get work but many black performers did, of course.
In their review of The Ten Loonies' performance at the Hippodrome, the Reporter wrote:
"The madhouse instrumentalists, the eccentric musicians, brought down the house with a glorious medley of the choicest band music and the most preposterous foolery that man ever devised."
I don't think I'd have wanted to watch Harris Coonie singing "coon songs" but The Ten Loonies most definitely!
Next week's stories will include the go-ahead at last for the Windlehurst Housing Estate, the sad story of Det. Insp. Percy Steer, the starving horse in Mill Lane, the Parr family at war and the newspaper mutilator in Sutton Library.