St Helens History This Week

Bringing History to Life from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago!

Bringing History to Life from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago!

ST HELENS 150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
This page is a series of weekly articles that describe llfe in the Lancashire town in the 1870s and which are updated every Sunday morning.
150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
This page is a series of weekly articles that describe llfe in St Helens in Lancashire in the 1870s and which are updated every Sunday morning.
Glassworks summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (21st- 27th FEBRUARY 1872)

This week's stories include the deadly boiler explosion in a St Helens chemical works, the fire that raged all night on a Sutton Heath farm, a condemnation of the St Helens Borough Fire Brigade, the black artists and serio-comics that were performing at the Theatre Royal, the 10-year-old Prescot girl who was sent to prison for stealing and the Pilkington apprentice who prosecuted his foreman for boxing his ears.
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Griffin Inn summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th FEBRUARY 1872)

This week's many stories include the Valentine's Day cards on sale in St Helens, the Warrington Road beerhouse scandal, the eleven-year-old boy that was sent to prison, the pipe-smoking boys of College Street, the meeting of the new St Helens Hare & Hounds Club, the Pilkington apprentice from Kirkland Street accused of deliberately damaging glass and the stubborn cow that refused to leave a Prescot pub.
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Citadel summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7th - 13th FEBRUARY 1872)

This week's stories include an update on the shocking case of near-starvation of two children, the explosion at Peasley Cross Colliery, the zig-zagging drunk who walked into the St Helens Canal, the shindy in a St Helens chemical works, the leading citizens of St Ann's who petitioned against a chemical works, the mayor's lack of robes for official events and the grotesque black entertainers at the Theatre Royal.
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Parr Street summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (31st JAN. - 6th FEB. 1872)

This week's many stories include the Atlas Street man who was sent to prison for neglecting his family, the unbreakable qualities of a St Helens-made watch that was run over by a train, a comic squabble between women over smashed glass, the St Helens Catholic Charity Ball, the brainless trick that was played on the landlord of the Lamb Hotel and the shocking case of near-starvation of two young Sutton children.
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Wellington summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th JANUARY 1872)

This week's stories include the near-mauling by a leopard at Manders' menagerie in St Helens, the shocking boiling death at a Pocket Nook chemical works, the high priced railway fares to Liverpool, the girl who frightened a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road, the Lowe House tea party for old women and the most inhuman barbarity utterly disgraceful to a civilized people committed by the British in India.
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Dromgooles summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (17th - 23rd JANUARY 1872)

This week's stories include the scandalous Parr defamation case, the roughs that smashed the windows of the Public Hall in Hardshaw Street, the attempted rape of a sixteen-year-old girl at Eccleston Lane Ends, the extraordinary funeral of a St Helens railway guard, the turns that were performing at the Theatre Royal's New Concert Hall and the ten-year-old nuisance girl from Broad Oak who had water thrown over her.
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Bird in the hand summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th JANUARY 1872)

This week's stories include the 10-year-old and 12-year-old children who had never been to school, the smallpox epidemic worsens in St Helens, the strange Rainford pheasant theft, a Prescot wife-beater gets his come-uppance, the artists performing at the Theatre Royal, the violent storm that struck the St Helens district and the St Ann's property owners' campaign against a proposed chemical works in Boundary Road.
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School Brow summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th JANUARY 1872)

This week's stories include the Rainford scandal caused by a young lodger taking off with his married landlady, the smallpox and measles epidemics that were raging in St Helens, a miner's curious drunken death in Cross Street, Lord Derby's memorial chapel at Knowsley Church, the punch up at a working men's ball in Prescot and the police sergeant found drunk in Liverpool Road who blamed his condition on diarrhoea.
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Prince of Wales summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (27th DEC. 1871 - 2nd JAN. 1872)

This week's stories include the late-night scramble for cash in St Helens Market, the Sutton glassworker dreadfully gashed after walking into a sheet of plate glass, the Newton man who threatened to stab his own wife and child, the opening of the St Helens to Huyton railway line, the Greenall's carter who was run over by his own cart and the celebrations caused by the recovery from typhoid of the Prince of Wales.
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St Helens market 1880s summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (20th - 26th DECEMBER 1871)

This week's stories include the seasonal snogging in a St Helens beerhouse that led to an assault, the Christmas raffle in Golborne that almost caused a riot, the St Helens rifle volunteers' Christmas shoot, the expensive tea urn trip at Rainford Junction station, the Bridge Street butcher's fat pigs, Christmas boxes for postmen, the lack of sewers in St Helens and the Parr boy falsely accused of purse stealing.
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Junction Hotel summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th DECEMBER 1871)

This week's stories include more criticism of the drinking and fighting culture in Rainford, concern over a smallpox epidemic at Haydock, the terrible trauma endured by elephants while being transported at sea, another severe sentence is imposed for stealing wearing apparel and why the stealing of beer glasses and a cup from a Higher Parr Street beerhouse was considered more serious than an attempted rape in Bold.
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