150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th August 1869)
This week's stories include a case of furious driving in Peasley Cross Lane, the revenge of the Greenbank women, the scathing inquest verdict on the Haydock mining disaster, the boys who ransacked a Peasley Cross house, a Liverpool hoax with a Rainhill connection, how the Rainford district had been filled with swamps and a new church for Ravenhead.
We begin on the 7th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that one battalion of the town's volunteer army had gone to camp. However the 47th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers had not travelled very far to pitch their sixty, four-man tents with their chosen venue being a field at St Helens Junction.
Having only been formed eight years earlier the part-timers were experimenting with new ideas, one of which was to set up a camp for several weeks during the summer. The men would still go to work in the morning but spend the evenings with their fellow soldiers for what could be a period of several weeks. Just what their wives thought of this arrangement wasn't recorded!
There was grinding poverty for many but all sorts of male organisations and societies were able to enjoy slap up meals. During the evening of the 7th more than 100 members of the Joiners Society of St Helens held their 36th annual dinner at the White Lion in Church Street (on the corner of Hall Street). These events always had lots of "loyal and patriotic toasts" and glasses were invariably raised to "the town and trade of St. Helens".
Robert Duncan appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 9th charged with furious driving in Peasley Cross Lane (pictured above in flood). Constable Nolan had seen the 31-year-old grocer driving his horse at full speed and continually beating the animal while it was galloping.
Duncan expressed his sorrow at what had happened, telling the Bench that it was 9 o’clock at night and he had been anxious to get to his home in Liverpool Road. However he insisted he had only been travelling at eight miles an hour – although I wonder how he could possibly have known? I didn't think horses had speedometers! Duncan was fined 1 shilling.
Seven lads aged between eight and fifteen were charged with breaking into an unoccupied house in Peasley Cross Lane. The boys had stripped the house of gas piping, five bells and "everything else they could well carry off". A miner called James Greene said one of the boys called Edward Heeney – who appeared to only be nine – had sold him one of the bells for a penny.
An 8-year-old called John Bennett from Greenough Street was the main witness against the lads but he broke down while giving evidence, as the St Helens Newspaper described: "He gave a tolerably circumstantial account of the offence, and then let out that he was amongst them himself. As if the admission of participation was too much for his feelings, he dissolved into sobs at once, and could not proceed until Supt. Ludlam had poured an immense quantity of balmy encouragement into his ear."
The Chairman of the Bench said if the parents would undertake to give their children a flogging in the presence of a police officer they would be satisfied and so dismissed the case. The miner Greene was cautioned for buying a bell for a penny, the magistrates saying he should have known it had been stolen. The boys were then removed from the court to receive their lashings, the Newspaper writing: "The young delinquents, doubtless, had a keen sense of what was coming, and reflected it in their faces."
Also in court was Elizabeth Browne who was fined 6d for doing damage to Mr Grace's cornfield in Sutton. The woman had been seen going over a hedge and picking the ears of corn.
Jane Flynn summoned four women called Sarah and Eliza Maxwell, Mary Fitzgibbons and Ellen Weir, charging them all with assault. The woman kept a beerhouse in Greenbank – the poor district around Liverpool Road that was occupied mainly by Irish people – and she had recently given court evidence against a boy.
The foursome now wanted to exact their revenge and as the Newspaper put it, she was "wantonly attacked, first by tongue and then by force of arms." However the assault mainly caused damage to clothing, which the Newspaper described as "very disastrous to very many articles of wearing apparel and fashionable display". Mrs Flynn brought into court two large stones that she claimed the women had thrown at her, which the paper said "combined they would have filled a tolerable hat". The four women were bound over and ordered to pay a guinea damages to Mrs Flynn.
Mary Coffey from Pocket Nook Street was also in court charged with assaulting Hannah Carr in Parr. The quarrel began amongst their children and spread to the grown-ups with the Newspaper commenting how: "…a regular melee was the result. The most villainous language was repeated in court, as having been used on the occasion, and the whole case was anything but edifying." The magistrates appeared to think it was six of one and half a dozen of the other and dismissed the charge.
It was a serious crime to steal clothes and those convicted could expect a period of imprisonment. Philip Mason – described as an old man – had been seen "skulking" around Henry Rigby's house in Water Street and then a pair of trousers went missing from a pantry window. Michael Burke gave evidence that he had bought the trousers from Mason's wife for a shilling, which appears to have sealed his fate. The man was sent for trial at the next Quarter Sessions.
On the 10th the Cork Examiner described how a hoax had recently been staged in Liverpool that had a Rainhill connection. Placards had been posted all over the city describing how a new bridge at Hotham Street was being opened over Lime Street Station. The newspaper wrote: "Trains were to run from Rainhill (where there is a celebrated lunatic asylum)" and a host of dignitaries, along with the band of the 11th Fusiliers, were to be present.
An immense steamroller would cross the bridge followed by a procession and at the time appointed there were a thousand people patiently waiting for the event to start. The newspaper said that after a long time waiting "a hoax was scented, and the crowd dispersed, many of them vowing vengeance against the perpetrators."
The inquest jury into the Haydock mining disaster from July 21st met for the sixth and last time at the Rams Head Inn on the 10th. The explosion underground had taken the lives of 59 men and boys (one more would die later), with the youngest victims only eleven. What was particularly shocking was that an almost identical gas explosion had occurred in the same pit last December killing 26 men and boys.
So the jury was quite scathing in their verdict believing the cause had been the firing of a shot (gunpowder blast) that had ignited a build up of firedamp gas. However they stated that the underlying reason for the accident and loss of life had simply been a lack of care. The jury felt the explosion had been greatly aggravated by the large quantity of gunpowder that was stored in the mine and said insufficient efforts had been made to provide ventilation and remove gas.
They also recommended changes to mining practice and that all blasting operations should be carried out at night in the absence of workmen. Some of the recommendations had been made by an Inspector after last December's explosion at Queen Pit but had largely been ignored.
Nine years later there would be another explosion at a Haydock mine also owned by Richard Evans & Co. called Wood Pit, which caused the death of over 200 men and boys. There was great sympathy for the families of the deceased of the Queen Pit disaster and fundraising events – including a Grand Concert in St Helens Town Hall – were being planned.
On the 11th the Mayor of St Helens, Lieutenant-Colonel David Gamble, laid the foundation stone for a new church at Ravenhead. The building when completed would seat over 500 and cost about £2,000, almost all of which had already been raised. A church for Ravenhead had first been mooted 20 years earlier but had only been brought to fruition by the efforts of Rev. Dr. Carr, the Vicar of St Helens, and the largesse of the British Plate Glass Company.
The new church would be on the glassmaker's doorstep and they had contributed about £800 in money and land. Building had actually begun at Easter and the church in Gothic style would be completed by December and be known as St John's.
During the evening of the 11th at a dinner in Ormskirk, Lord Stanley described the improvement that had been made to the soil within the district of Rainford. The former Foreign Secretary recalled a time during the past 30 years when a "very large proportion" of the township and other nearby villages had been "occupied by those unsightly and uncomfortable swamps which people hereabouts called marshes."
Lord Stanley remembered how it had been impossible to carry a road across and unsafe to walk over after wet weather and useless for cultivation. Although some of the marshes remained, much had been reclaimed and many hundreds of acres were now able to be cultivated.
Next week's stories will include a Raglan Street man's violence against his wife, a Parr girl's ingratitude to a Good Samaritan, The Times critical report on the Haydock mining disaster, the lads who broke school windows, more wearing apparel thefts and the little boys who went onto the roof of a house to catch pigeons.
We begin on the 7th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that one battalion of the town's volunteer army had gone to camp. However the 47th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers had not travelled very far to pitch their sixty, four-man tents with their chosen venue being a field at St Helens Junction.
Having only been formed eight years earlier the part-timers were experimenting with new ideas, one of which was to set up a camp for several weeks during the summer. The men would still go to work in the morning but spend the evenings with their fellow soldiers for what could be a period of several weeks. Just what their wives thought of this arrangement wasn't recorded!
There was grinding poverty for many but all sorts of male organisations and societies were able to enjoy slap up meals. During the evening of the 7th more than 100 members of the Joiners Society of St Helens held their 36th annual dinner at the White Lion in Church Street (on the corner of Hall Street). These events always had lots of "loyal and patriotic toasts" and glasses were invariably raised to "the town and trade of St. Helens".
Duncan expressed his sorrow at what had happened, telling the Bench that it was 9 o’clock at night and he had been anxious to get to his home in Liverpool Road. However he insisted he had only been travelling at eight miles an hour – although I wonder how he could possibly have known? I didn't think horses had speedometers! Duncan was fined 1 shilling.
Seven lads aged between eight and fifteen were charged with breaking into an unoccupied house in Peasley Cross Lane. The boys had stripped the house of gas piping, five bells and "everything else they could well carry off". A miner called James Greene said one of the boys called Edward Heeney – who appeared to only be nine – had sold him one of the bells for a penny.
An 8-year-old called John Bennett from Greenough Street was the main witness against the lads but he broke down while giving evidence, as the St Helens Newspaper described: "He gave a tolerably circumstantial account of the offence, and then let out that he was amongst them himself. As if the admission of participation was too much for his feelings, he dissolved into sobs at once, and could not proceed until Supt. Ludlam had poured an immense quantity of balmy encouragement into his ear."
The Chairman of the Bench said if the parents would undertake to give their children a flogging in the presence of a police officer they would be satisfied and so dismissed the case. The miner Greene was cautioned for buying a bell for a penny, the magistrates saying he should have known it had been stolen. The boys were then removed from the court to receive their lashings, the Newspaper writing: "The young delinquents, doubtless, had a keen sense of what was coming, and reflected it in their faces."
Also in court was Elizabeth Browne who was fined 6d for doing damage to Mr Grace's cornfield in Sutton. The woman had been seen going over a hedge and picking the ears of corn.
Jane Flynn summoned four women called Sarah and Eliza Maxwell, Mary Fitzgibbons and Ellen Weir, charging them all with assault. The woman kept a beerhouse in Greenbank – the poor district around Liverpool Road that was occupied mainly by Irish people – and she had recently given court evidence against a boy.
The foursome now wanted to exact their revenge and as the Newspaper put it, she was "wantonly attacked, first by tongue and then by force of arms." However the assault mainly caused damage to clothing, which the Newspaper described as "very disastrous to very many articles of wearing apparel and fashionable display". Mrs Flynn brought into court two large stones that she claimed the women had thrown at her, which the paper said "combined they would have filled a tolerable hat". The four women were bound over and ordered to pay a guinea damages to Mrs Flynn.
Mary Coffey from Pocket Nook Street was also in court charged with assaulting Hannah Carr in Parr. The quarrel began amongst their children and spread to the grown-ups with the Newspaper commenting how: "…a regular melee was the result. The most villainous language was repeated in court, as having been used on the occasion, and the whole case was anything but edifying." The magistrates appeared to think it was six of one and half a dozen of the other and dismissed the charge.
It was a serious crime to steal clothes and those convicted could expect a period of imprisonment. Philip Mason – described as an old man – had been seen "skulking" around Henry Rigby's house in Water Street and then a pair of trousers went missing from a pantry window. Michael Burke gave evidence that he had bought the trousers from Mason's wife for a shilling, which appears to have sealed his fate. The man was sent for trial at the next Quarter Sessions.
On the 10th the Cork Examiner described how a hoax had recently been staged in Liverpool that had a Rainhill connection. Placards had been posted all over the city describing how a new bridge at Hotham Street was being opened over Lime Street Station. The newspaper wrote: "Trains were to run from Rainhill (where there is a celebrated lunatic asylum)" and a host of dignitaries, along with the band of the 11th Fusiliers, were to be present.
An immense steamroller would cross the bridge followed by a procession and at the time appointed there were a thousand people patiently waiting for the event to start. The newspaper said that after a long time waiting "a hoax was scented, and the crowd dispersed, many of them vowing vengeance against the perpetrators."
The inquest jury into the Haydock mining disaster from July 21st met for the sixth and last time at the Rams Head Inn on the 10th. The explosion underground had taken the lives of 59 men and boys (one more would die later), with the youngest victims only eleven. What was particularly shocking was that an almost identical gas explosion had occurred in the same pit last December killing 26 men and boys.
So the jury was quite scathing in their verdict believing the cause had been the firing of a shot (gunpowder blast) that had ignited a build up of firedamp gas. However they stated that the underlying reason for the accident and loss of life had simply been a lack of care. The jury felt the explosion had been greatly aggravated by the large quantity of gunpowder that was stored in the mine and said insufficient efforts had been made to provide ventilation and remove gas.
They also recommended changes to mining practice and that all blasting operations should be carried out at night in the absence of workmen. Some of the recommendations had been made by an Inspector after last December's explosion at Queen Pit but had largely been ignored.
Nine years later there would be another explosion at a Haydock mine also owned by Richard Evans & Co. called Wood Pit, which caused the death of over 200 men and boys. There was great sympathy for the families of the deceased of the Queen Pit disaster and fundraising events – including a Grand Concert in St Helens Town Hall – were being planned.
Two images of Lieutenant-Colonel David Gamble - On the right being granted the Freedom of the Borough
Lieut.-Col. David Gamble - On the right being granted Freedom of the Borough
Lieutenant-Colonel David Gamble
The new church would be on the glassmaker's doorstep and they had contributed about £800 in money and land. Building had actually begun at Easter and the church in Gothic style would be completed by December and be known as St John's.
During the evening of the 11th at a dinner in Ormskirk, Lord Stanley described the improvement that had been made to the soil within the district of Rainford. The former Foreign Secretary recalled a time during the past 30 years when a "very large proportion" of the township and other nearby villages had been "occupied by those unsightly and uncomfortable swamps which people hereabouts called marshes."
Lord Stanley remembered how it had been impossible to carry a road across and unsafe to walk over after wet weather and useless for cultivation. Although some of the marshes remained, much had been reclaimed and many hundreds of acres were now able to be cultivated.
Next week's stories will include a Raglan Street man's violence against his wife, a Parr girl's ingratitude to a Good Samaritan, The Times critical report on the Haydock mining disaster, the lads who broke school windows, more wearing apparel thefts and the little boys who went onto the roof of a house to catch pigeons.