150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (6th - 12th APRIL 1870)
This week's stories include a poker assault in Tontine Street, two women battle it out in Greenbank, two more women fight it out in Parr, the girl who stole a child's sovereign in Pocket Nook and concern over the danger of drowning in St Helens Canal.
In 1870 the Theatre Royal was situated at the corner of Milk Street and Waterloo Street in the premises until recently known as The Citadel (shown above). The theatre rarely advertised its shows in local newspapers – probably because they felt their clientele didn't read them and instead relied on posters to promote their events. Exceptions were occasionally made and the "great international wrestlers" appearing for four days at the Theatre Royal from the 8th were promoted in the St Helens Newspaper under the headline "Extraordinary Excitement!"
However the Newspaper would later describe the wrestlers as a "contemptible set of adventurers" as they left town owing money to several tradesmen. One of the most well-known managers of the Theatre Royal during the 20th century was Slim Ingram. Interestingly the manager in 1870 was also called Ingram. I don't know if there was any family connection.
Violent acts rarely resulted in a prison sentence – unless the offender couldn't afford the fine. On the 9th William Atherton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with having violently assaulted his wife Alice. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The prisoner had greatly illused her without any reasonable provocation, and he was ordered to pay £2, or go to prison for a month. He was obliged to be content with the alternative, from want of money."
I wonder what provocation was considered reasonable to beat a woman up? It would have been highly unusual if Alice did not take her husband back after serving his prison term, with women then being so highly dependent on men. And the 1871 census reveals the couple living together in Pikes Brow, which became Moss Bank Road (shown above).
The St Helens Newspaper held a dim view of the women of Parr and described a court case in the Petty Sessions on the 11th. Ann Helsby from Johnson Street – "a stout, middleaged woman, whose appearance was in no way improved by a black eye" – was charged with assaulting Mary Ashton. The latter had had a row with her mother and Ann Helsby heard of the argument and decided to go into Mary Ashton's house and give the woman a piece of her mind. I'll let the Newspaper take up the rest of the story:
"Having got inside, she began a dissertation on the duties of children towards their parents, which was pretty forcible if not convincing; but she used no violence of a physical kind until the complainant made the apparently vague observation that she did not want any drunken women coming into her house. Somehow it went home very directly, for Mrs. Helsby retorted by a blow. As might be expected this was the signal for a fight, and having transferred operations to the street, the neighbours were delighted with the sight of a real female encounter.
"The complainant got worsted in a short time, and was enabled to escape through the indiscreet sympathy of a friend. One Mrs. Mannion, seeing Mrs. Ashton slow to come up to the scratch, requested a truce, and the next moment she was in full retreat, pursued by the victor, and encouraged by the sweet voices of the crowd. In their absence the complainant retired into her own house, and was repairing damages, when the defendant returned, puffing like a locomotive. This time she changed her tactics, and vented her ire on the domestic crockery, with the debris of which she overlaid the floor of the kitchen.
"Some neighbours put a stop to this new mode of mosaic tiling, and got her out of the house, to which, however, she subsequently returned, armed with a large basin, which she threw at her opponent's head. We should not omit to state that the language was of a character current amongst a very large class in Parr. The bench requested Mrs. Helsby to pay £2, and 6s. 6d. costs, or put up at Kirkdale [Gaol] for a month."
Also in the Sessions a navvy called Thomas Smith was charged with unlawfully wounding Joseph Rowlands in a lodging house in Tontine Street. The latter told the Bench that he had gone into the house at three o’clock in the afternoon and Smith had taken up a poker and given him six blows on the head. However as usual the man was selective in his description of the events and his landlady provided a fuller picture to the court.
Mary Clancey revealed that Joseph Rowlands had aggravated Smith by challenging him to a fight and had struck the first blow. She said Thomas Smith had used tongs (not a poker) against his assailant, hitting Rowlands so hard that he bent them. The defendant was bound over for two months and Joseph Rowlands was advised to keep sober in future.
Although alcohol sales were banned on Sunday mornings they regularly took place. So the bobbies on their beats kept their eyes peeled for people leaving beerhouses via the back door. Beerhouse keeper Ann Beetle of Smithy Brow appeared in the court charged with selling a pint of ale to William Lawton during an illegal hour. Sgt. Eastham explained to the court that he had seen a boy coming from the woman's back door on a Sunday morning carrying a jar of ale.
Mrs Beetle told him that her 14-year-old daughter had been responsible for giving him the beer and at that point the girl ran out of the house crying. The beerhouse keeper's solicitor told the Bench that no offence had been committed, as the beer had been given, not sold, to a relative. She was a very respectable woman, he said, who had kept the house for fifteen years with only two convictions. The magistrates were unusually sympathetic and allowed the case to be withdrawn upon payment of costs.
Greenbank was the predominantly Irish district around Liverpool Road. In another case husband and wife Patrick and Elizabeth Malley of Greenbank were summoned by their neighbour Alice Cox on a charge of assault. Mrs Cox was a beerhouse keeper and she was cross-summoned by Mrs Malley for assaulting her. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described their case:
"On the 6th of April, Mrs. Cox feeling annoyed at something done by Mrs. Malley, went to close the door of the side passage, a proceeding Mrs. Malley resisted, for the good and sufficient reason that it led to her premises as well. The relations between the parties not being of a friendly character, a struggle was the consequence, first for possession of the door, and then for mastery of the ground. Mrs. Malley seized her antagonist by the head-dress, and very quickly decapidated [sic] her, and the other, being the stronger, seized Mrs. Malley by the hair, and using her tresses for a lever, dragged her the length of the passage.
"There she released her, and when at liberty, Mrs. Malley called her a very common though hardly proper name, and in turn had applied to her the term which scripture gives to a large proportion of the helpmates of Solomon. They had another tussle then, and Mrs. Cox overthrew Mrs. Malley by tripping her with great agility for a woman. At this time Patrick Malley returned from his work, carrying a hammer, and he was grieved at seeing the usage his better-half had sustained, but he was a man of honour, and before losing all control of himself he went into his house and laid by the hammer.
"While trying to get her away from the combat, Mrs. Cox secured a rolling-pin, and played such a reveille upon his head, that he was obliged, in self defence, to strike out vigorously. One blow settled the matter, for it destroyed her balance in an instant, and gave her such a shock that she cried out for quarter, which was honourably given. His wife's feelings were, however, so outraged, and her ringlets so cruelly disordered, that she posted off for a summons, an example Mrs. Cox was not slow in following. The bench bound the two women over, and acquitted the man."
A 14-year-old girl from Parr called Mary O’Neill appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing a sovereign from a child named Sybil Heaton. The 7-year-old's father had given her the money at the Pocket Nook Glassworks where he worked and on her way back to her home in Cooper Street the little girl met Mary O’Neill. The Newspaper said the girl enticed Sybil into a quiet corner and deprived the child of the sovereign, adding: "The prisoner, who had no relatives in court, seemed greatly distressed, and cried painfully all through the case. The magistrates did not wish to punish her severely, and on her giving a promise never to steal again, she was sent to prison for seven days."
And finally a letter in the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th complained of the danger of accidental drowning in St Helens Canal: "Sir, May I beg a corner in your paper to make known the dangerous and improper state the canal is from the Navigation Bridge to the east end of the canal. Scarcely a week passes over but there is some one found drowned, and I am not the least surprised at it, for there is nothing whatever but a loose chain hanging down, which is not protective whatever, but only a sham, to keep people from falling in. And near the Navigation Inn and the railway bridge there is nothing whatever for protection to keep strangers from falling in, if they are not acquainted with the road, and especially on a foggy night."
Next week's stories will include the man mobbed by a crowd of angry women outside St Helens courthouse, the drunken row of the two Prescot carters, a strike at Pilkingtons and the St Helens solicitor's clerk that did a runner with his cash.
However the Newspaper would later describe the wrestlers as a "contemptible set of adventurers" as they left town owing money to several tradesmen. One of the most well-known managers of the Theatre Royal during the 20th century was Slim Ingram. Interestingly the manager in 1870 was also called Ingram. I don't know if there was any family connection.
Violent acts rarely resulted in a prison sentence – unless the offender couldn't afford the fine. On the 9th William Atherton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with having violently assaulted his wife Alice. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The prisoner had greatly illused her without any reasonable provocation, and he was ordered to pay £2, or go to prison for a month. He was obliged to be content with the alternative, from want of money."
The St Helens Newspaper held a dim view of the women of Parr and described a court case in the Petty Sessions on the 11th. Ann Helsby from Johnson Street – "a stout, middleaged woman, whose appearance was in no way improved by a black eye" – was charged with assaulting Mary Ashton. The latter had had a row with her mother and Ann Helsby heard of the argument and decided to go into Mary Ashton's house and give the woman a piece of her mind. I'll let the Newspaper take up the rest of the story:
"Having got inside, she began a dissertation on the duties of children towards their parents, which was pretty forcible if not convincing; but she used no violence of a physical kind until the complainant made the apparently vague observation that she did not want any drunken women coming into her house. Somehow it went home very directly, for Mrs. Helsby retorted by a blow. As might be expected this was the signal for a fight, and having transferred operations to the street, the neighbours were delighted with the sight of a real female encounter.
"The complainant got worsted in a short time, and was enabled to escape through the indiscreet sympathy of a friend. One Mrs. Mannion, seeing Mrs. Ashton slow to come up to the scratch, requested a truce, and the next moment she was in full retreat, pursued by the victor, and encouraged by the sweet voices of the crowd. In their absence the complainant retired into her own house, and was repairing damages, when the defendant returned, puffing like a locomotive. This time she changed her tactics, and vented her ire on the domestic crockery, with the debris of which she overlaid the floor of the kitchen.
"Some neighbours put a stop to this new mode of mosaic tiling, and got her out of the house, to which, however, she subsequently returned, armed with a large basin, which she threw at her opponent's head. We should not omit to state that the language was of a character current amongst a very large class in Parr. The bench requested Mrs. Helsby to pay £2, and 6s. 6d. costs, or put up at Kirkdale [Gaol] for a month."
Also in the Sessions a navvy called Thomas Smith was charged with unlawfully wounding Joseph Rowlands in a lodging house in Tontine Street. The latter told the Bench that he had gone into the house at three o’clock in the afternoon and Smith had taken up a poker and given him six blows on the head. However as usual the man was selective in his description of the events and his landlady provided a fuller picture to the court.
Mary Clancey revealed that Joseph Rowlands had aggravated Smith by challenging him to a fight and had struck the first blow. She said Thomas Smith had used tongs (not a poker) against his assailant, hitting Rowlands so hard that he bent them. The defendant was bound over for two months and Joseph Rowlands was advised to keep sober in future.
Although alcohol sales were banned on Sunday mornings they regularly took place. So the bobbies on their beats kept their eyes peeled for people leaving beerhouses via the back door. Beerhouse keeper Ann Beetle of Smithy Brow appeared in the court charged with selling a pint of ale to William Lawton during an illegal hour. Sgt. Eastham explained to the court that he had seen a boy coming from the woman's back door on a Sunday morning carrying a jar of ale.
Mrs Beetle told him that her 14-year-old daughter had been responsible for giving him the beer and at that point the girl ran out of the house crying. The beerhouse keeper's solicitor told the Bench that no offence had been committed, as the beer had been given, not sold, to a relative. She was a very respectable woman, he said, who had kept the house for fifteen years with only two convictions. The magistrates were unusually sympathetic and allowed the case to be withdrawn upon payment of costs.
Greenbank was the predominantly Irish district around Liverpool Road. In another case husband and wife Patrick and Elizabeth Malley of Greenbank were summoned by their neighbour Alice Cox on a charge of assault. Mrs Cox was a beerhouse keeper and she was cross-summoned by Mrs Malley for assaulting her. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described their case:
"On the 6th of April, Mrs. Cox feeling annoyed at something done by Mrs. Malley, went to close the door of the side passage, a proceeding Mrs. Malley resisted, for the good and sufficient reason that it led to her premises as well. The relations between the parties not being of a friendly character, a struggle was the consequence, first for possession of the door, and then for mastery of the ground. Mrs. Malley seized her antagonist by the head-dress, and very quickly decapidated [sic] her, and the other, being the stronger, seized Mrs. Malley by the hair, and using her tresses for a lever, dragged her the length of the passage.
"There she released her, and when at liberty, Mrs. Malley called her a very common though hardly proper name, and in turn had applied to her the term which scripture gives to a large proportion of the helpmates of Solomon. They had another tussle then, and Mrs. Cox overthrew Mrs. Malley by tripping her with great agility for a woman. At this time Patrick Malley returned from his work, carrying a hammer, and he was grieved at seeing the usage his better-half had sustained, but he was a man of honour, and before losing all control of himself he went into his house and laid by the hammer.
"While trying to get her away from the combat, Mrs. Cox secured a rolling-pin, and played such a reveille upon his head, that he was obliged, in self defence, to strike out vigorously. One blow settled the matter, for it destroyed her balance in an instant, and gave her such a shock that she cried out for quarter, which was honourably given. His wife's feelings were, however, so outraged, and her ringlets so cruelly disordered, that she posted off for a summons, an example Mrs. Cox was not slow in following. The bench bound the two women over, and acquitted the man."
A 14-year-old girl from Parr called Mary O’Neill appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing a sovereign from a child named Sybil Heaton. The 7-year-old's father had given her the money at the Pocket Nook Glassworks where he worked and on her way back to her home in Cooper Street the little girl met Mary O’Neill. The Newspaper said the girl enticed Sybil into a quiet corner and deprived the child of the sovereign, adding: "The prisoner, who had no relatives in court, seemed greatly distressed, and cried painfully all through the case. The magistrates did not wish to punish her severely, and on her giving a promise never to steal again, she was sent to prison for seven days."
And finally a letter in the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th complained of the danger of accidental drowning in St Helens Canal: "Sir, May I beg a corner in your paper to make known the dangerous and improper state the canal is from the Navigation Bridge to the east end of the canal. Scarcely a week passes over but there is some one found drowned, and I am not the least surprised at it, for there is nothing whatever but a loose chain hanging down, which is not protective whatever, but only a sham, to keep people from falling in. And near the Navigation Inn and the railway bridge there is nothing whatever for protection to keep strangers from falling in, if they are not acquainted with the road, and especially on a foggy night."
Next week's stories will include the man mobbed by a crowd of angry women outside St Helens courthouse, the drunken row of the two Prescot carters, a strike at Pilkingtons and the St Helens solicitor's clerk that did a runner with his cash.
This week's stories include a poker assault in Tontine Street, two women battle it out in Greenbank, two more women fight it out in Parr, the girl who stole a child's sovereign in Pocket Nook and concern over the danger of drowning in St Helens Canal.
In 1870 the Theatre Royal was situated at the corner of Milk Street and Waterloo Street in the premises until recently known as The Citadel (shown above).
The theatre rarely advertised its shows in local newspapers – probably because they felt their clientele didn't read them and instead relied on posters to promote their events.
Exceptions were occasionally made and the "great international wrestlers" appearing for four days at the Theatre Royal from the 8th were promoted in the St Helens Newspaper under the headline "Extraordinary Excitement!"
However the Newspaper would later describe the wrestlers as a "contemptible set of adventurers" as they left town owing money to several tradesmen.
One of the most well-known managers of the Theatre Royal during the 20th century was Slim Ingram.
Interestingly the manager in 1870 was also called Ingram. I don't know if there was any family connection.
Violent acts rarely resulted in a prison sentence – unless the offender couldn't afford the fine.
On the 9th William Atherton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with having violently assaulted his wife Alice. The St Helens Newspaper wrote:
"The prisoner had greatly illused her without any reasonable provocation, and he was ordered to pay £2, or go to prison for a month. He was obliged to be content with the alternative, from want of money."
I wonder what provocation was considered reasonable to beat a woman up?
It would have been highly unusual if Alice did not take her husband back after serving his prison term, with women then being so highly dependent on men.
And the 1871 census reveals the couple living together in Pikes Brow, which became Moss Bank Road (pictured above).
The St Helens Newspaper held a dim view of the women of Parr and described a court case in the Petty Sessions on the 11th.
Ann Helsby from Johnson Street – "a stout, middleaged woman, whose appearance was in no way improved by a black eye" – was charged with assaulting Mary Ashton.
The latter had had a row with her mother and Ann Helsby heard of the argument and decided to go into Mary Ashton's house and give the woman a piece of her mind. I'll let the Newspaper take up the rest of the story:
"Having got inside, she began a dissertation on the duties of children towards their parents, which was pretty forcible if not convincing; but she used no violence of a physical kind until the complainant made the apparently vague observation that she did not want any drunken women coming into her house.
"Somehow it went home very directly, for Mrs. Helsby retorted by a blow. As might be expected this was the signal for a fight, and having transferred operations to the street, the neighbours were delighted with the sight of a real female encounter.
"The complainant got worsted in a short time, and was enabled to escape through the indiscreet sympathy of a friend. One Mrs. Mannion, seeing Mrs. Ashton slow to come up to the scratch, requested a truce, and the next moment she was in full retreat, pursued by the victor, and encouraged by the sweet voices of the crowd.
"In their absence the complainant retired into her own house, and was repairing damages, when the defendant returned, puffing like a locomotive. This time she changed her tactics, and vented her ire on the domestic crockery, with the debris of which she overlaid the floor of the kitchen.
"Some neighbours put a stop to this new mode of mosaic tiling, and got her out of the house, to which, however, she subsequently returned, armed with a large basin, which she threw at her opponent's head.
"We should not omit to state that the language was of a character current amongst a very large class in Parr. The bench requested Mrs. Helsby to pay £2, and 6s. 6d. costs, or put up at Kirkdale [Gaol] for a month."
Also in the Sessions a navvy called Thomas Smith was charged with unlawfully wounding Joseph Rowlands in a lodging house in Tontine Street.
The latter told the Bench that he had gone into the house at three o’clock in the afternoon and Smith had taken up a poker and given him six blows on the head.
However as usual the man was selective in his description of the events and his landlady provided a fuller picture to the court.
Mary Clancey revealed that Joseph Rowlands had aggravated Smith by challenging him to a fight and had struck the first blow.
She said Thomas Smith had used tongs (not a poker) against his assailant, hitting Rowlands so hard that he bent them.
The defendant was bound over for two months and Joseph Rowlands was advised to keep sober in future.
Although alcohol sales were banned on Sunday mornings they regularly took place.
So the bobbies on their beats kept their eyes peeled for people leaving beerhouses via the back door.
Beerhouse keeper Ann Beetle of Smithy Brow appeared in the court charged with selling a pint of ale to William Lawton during an illegal hour.
Sgt. Eastham explained to the court that he had seen a boy coming from the woman's back door on a Sunday morning carrying a jar of ale.
Mrs Beetle told him that her 14-year-old daughter had been responsible for giving him the beer and at that point the girl ran out of the house crying.
The beerhouse keeper's solicitor told the Bench that no offence had been committed, as the beer had been given, not sold, to a relative.
She was a very respectable woman, he said, who had kept the house for fifteen years with only two convictions.
The magistrates were unusually sympathetic and allowed the case to be withdrawn upon payment of costs.
Greenbank was the predominantly Irish district around Liverpool Road.
In another case husband and wife Patrick and Elizabeth Malley of Greenbank were summoned by their neighbour Alice Cox on a charge of assault.
Mrs Cox was a beerhouse keeper and she was cross-summoned by Mrs Malley for assaulting her. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described their case:
"On the 6th of April, Mrs. Cox feeling annoyed at something done by Mrs. Malley, went to close the door of the side passage, a proceeding Mrs. Malley resisted, for the good and sufficient reason that it led to her premises as well.
"The relations between the parties not being of a friendly character, a struggle was the consequence, first for possession of the door, and then for mastery of the ground.
"Mrs. Malley seized her antagonist by the head-dress, and very quickly decapidated [sic] her, and the other, being the stronger, seized Mrs. Malley by the hair, and using her tresses for a lever, dragged her the length of the passage.
"There she released her, and when at liberty, Mrs. Malley called her a very common though hardly proper name, and in turn had applied to her the term which scripture gives to a large proportion of the helpmates of Solomon. They had another tussle then, and Mrs. Cox overthrew Mrs. Malley by tripping her with great agility for a woman.
"At this time Patrick Malley returned from his work, carrying a hammer, and he was grieved at seeing the usage his better-half had sustained, but he was a man of honour, and before losing all control of himself he went into his house and laid by the hammer.
"While trying to get her away from the combat, Mrs. Cox secured a rolling-pin, and played such a reveille upon his head, that he was obliged, in self defence, to strike out vigorously. One blow settled the matter, for it destroyed her balance in an instant, and gave her such a shock that she cried out for quarter, which was honourably given.
"His wife's feelings were, however, so outraged, and her ringlets so cruelly disordered, that she posted off for a summons, an example Mrs. Cox was not slow in following. The bench bound the two women over, and acquitted the man."
A 14-year-old girl from Parr called Mary O’Neill appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing a sovereign from a child named Sybil Heaton.
The 7-year-old's father had given her the money at the Pocket Nook Glassworks where he worked and on her way back to her home in Cooper Street the little girl met Mary O’Neill.
The Newspaper said the girl enticed Sybil into a quiet corner and deprived the child of the sovereign, adding:
"The prisoner, who had no relatives in court, seemed greatly distressed, and cried painfully all through the case.
"The magistrates did not wish to punish her severely, and on her giving a promise never to steal again, she was sent to prison for seven days."
And finally a letter in the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th complained of the danger of accidental drowning in St Helens Canal:
"Sir, May I beg a corner in your paper to make known the dangerous and improper state the canal is from the Navigation Bridge to the east end of the canal.
"Scarcely a week passes over but there is some one found drowned, and I am not the least surprised at it, for there is nothing whatever but a loose chain hanging down, which is not protective whatever, but only a sham, to keep people from falling in.
"And near the Navigation Inn and the railway bridge there is nothing whatever for protection to keep strangers from falling in, if they are not acquainted with the road, and especially on a foggy night."
Next week's stories will include the man mobbed by a crowd of angry women outside St Helens courthouse, the drunken row of the two Prescot carters, a strike at Pilkingtons and the St Helens solicitor's clerk that did a runner with his cash.
The theatre rarely advertised its shows in local newspapers – probably because they felt their clientele didn't read them and instead relied on posters to promote their events.
Exceptions were occasionally made and the "great international wrestlers" appearing for four days at the Theatre Royal from the 8th were promoted in the St Helens Newspaper under the headline "Extraordinary Excitement!"
However the Newspaper would later describe the wrestlers as a "contemptible set of adventurers" as they left town owing money to several tradesmen.
One of the most well-known managers of the Theatre Royal during the 20th century was Slim Ingram.
Interestingly the manager in 1870 was also called Ingram. I don't know if there was any family connection.
Violent acts rarely resulted in a prison sentence – unless the offender couldn't afford the fine.
On the 9th William Atherton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with having violently assaulted his wife Alice. The St Helens Newspaper wrote:
"The prisoner had greatly illused her without any reasonable provocation, and he was ordered to pay £2, or go to prison for a month. He was obliged to be content with the alternative, from want of money."
I wonder what provocation was considered reasonable to beat a woman up?
It would have been highly unusual if Alice did not take her husband back after serving his prison term, with women then being so highly dependent on men.
The St Helens Newspaper held a dim view of the women of Parr and described a court case in the Petty Sessions on the 11th.
Ann Helsby from Johnson Street – "a stout, middleaged woman, whose appearance was in no way improved by a black eye" – was charged with assaulting Mary Ashton.
The latter had had a row with her mother and Ann Helsby heard of the argument and decided to go into Mary Ashton's house and give the woman a piece of her mind. I'll let the Newspaper take up the rest of the story:
"Having got inside, she began a dissertation on the duties of children towards their parents, which was pretty forcible if not convincing; but she used no violence of a physical kind until the complainant made the apparently vague observation that she did not want any drunken women coming into her house.
"Somehow it went home very directly, for Mrs. Helsby retorted by a blow. As might be expected this was the signal for a fight, and having transferred operations to the street, the neighbours were delighted with the sight of a real female encounter.
"The complainant got worsted in a short time, and was enabled to escape through the indiscreet sympathy of a friend. One Mrs. Mannion, seeing Mrs. Ashton slow to come up to the scratch, requested a truce, and the next moment she was in full retreat, pursued by the victor, and encouraged by the sweet voices of the crowd.
"In their absence the complainant retired into her own house, and was repairing damages, when the defendant returned, puffing like a locomotive. This time she changed her tactics, and vented her ire on the domestic crockery, with the debris of which she overlaid the floor of the kitchen.
"Some neighbours put a stop to this new mode of mosaic tiling, and got her out of the house, to which, however, she subsequently returned, armed with a large basin, which she threw at her opponent's head.
"We should not omit to state that the language was of a character current amongst a very large class in Parr. The bench requested Mrs. Helsby to pay £2, and 6s. 6d. costs, or put up at Kirkdale [Gaol] for a month."
Also in the Sessions a navvy called Thomas Smith was charged with unlawfully wounding Joseph Rowlands in a lodging house in Tontine Street.
The latter told the Bench that he had gone into the house at three o’clock in the afternoon and Smith had taken up a poker and given him six blows on the head.
However as usual the man was selective in his description of the events and his landlady provided a fuller picture to the court.
Mary Clancey revealed that Joseph Rowlands had aggravated Smith by challenging him to a fight and had struck the first blow.
She said Thomas Smith had used tongs (not a poker) against his assailant, hitting Rowlands so hard that he bent them.
The defendant was bound over for two months and Joseph Rowlands was advised to keep sober in future.
Although alcohol sales were banned on Sunday mornings they regularly took place.
So the bobbies on their beats kept their eyes peeled for people leaving beerhouses via the back door.
Beerhouse keeper Ann Beetle of Smithy Brow appeared in the court charged with selling a pint of ale to William Lawton during an illegal hour.
Sgt. Eastham explained to the court that he had seen a boy coming from the woman's back door on a Sunday morning carrying a jar of ale.
Mrs Beetle told him that her 14-year-old daughter had been responsible for giving him the beer and at that point the girl ran out of the house crying.
The beerhouse keeper's solicitor told the Bench that no offence had been committed, as the beer had been given, not sold, to a relative.
She was a very respectable woman, he said, who had kept the house for fifteen years with only two convictions.
The magistrates were unusually sympathetic and allowed the case to be withdrawn upon payment of costs.
Greenbank was the predominantly Irish district around Liverpool Road.
In another case husband and wife Patrick and Elizabeth Malley of Greenbank were summoned by their neighbour Alice Cox on a charge of assault.
Mrs Cox was a beerhouse keeper and she was cross-summoned by Mrs Malley for assaulting her. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described their case:
"On the 6th of April, Mrs. Cox feeling annoyed at something done by Mrs. Malley, went to close the door of the side passage, a proceeding Mrs. Malley resisted, for the good and sufficient reason that it led to her premises as well.
"The relations between the parties not being of a friendly character, a struggle was the consequence, first for possession of the door, and then for mastery of the ground.
"Mrs. Malley seized her antagonist by the head-dress, and very quickly decapidated [sic] her, and the other, being the stronger, seized Mrs. Malley by the hair, and using her tresses for a lever, dragged her the length of the passage.
"There she released her, and when at liberty, Mrs. Malley called her a very common though hardly proper name, and in turn had applied to her the term which scripture gives to a large proportion of the helpmates of Solomon. They had another tussle then, and Mrs. Cox overthrew Mrs. Malley by tripping her with great agility for a woman.
"At this time Patrick Malley returned from his work, carrying a hammer, and he was grieved at seeing the usage his better-half had sustained, but he was a man of honour, and before losing all control of himself he went into his house and laid by the hammer.
"While trying to get her away from the combat, Mrs. Cox secured a rolling-pin, and played such a reveille upon his head, that he was obliged, in self defence, to strike out vigorously. One blow settled the matter, for it destroyed her balance in an instant, and gave her such a shock that she cried out for quarter, which was honourably given.
"His wife's feelings were, however, so outraged, and her ringlets so cruelly disordered, that she posted off for a summons, an example Mrs. Cox was not slow in following. The bench bound the two women over, and acquitted the man."
A 14-year-old girl from Parr called Mary O’Neill appeared in the Sessions charged with stealing a sovereign from a child named Sybil Heaton.
The 7-year-old's father had given her the money at the Pocket Nook Glassworks where he worked and on her way back to her home in Cooper Street the little girl met Mary O’Neill.
The Newspaper said the girl enticed Sybil into a quiet corner and deprived the child of the sovereign, adding:
"The prisoner, who had no relatives in court, seemed greatly distressed, and cried painfully all through the case.
"The magistrates did not wish to punish her severely, and on her giving a promise never to steal again, she was sent to prison for seven days."
And finally a letter in the St Helens Newspaper on the 12th complained of the danger of accidental drowning in St Helens Canal:
"Sir, May I beg a corner in your paper to make known the dangerous and improper state the canal is from the Navigation Bridge to the east end of the canal.
"Scarcely a week passes over but there is some one found drowned, and I am not the least surprised at it, for there is nothing whatever but a loose chain hanging down, which is not protective whatever, but only a sham, to keep people from falling in.
"And near the Navigation Inn and the railway bridge there is nothing whatever for protection to keep strangers from falling in, if they are not acquainted with the road, and especially on a foggy night."
Next week's stories will include the man mobbed by a crowd of angry women outside St Helens courthouse, the drunken row of the two Prescot carters, a strike at Pilkingtons and the St Helens solicitor's clerk that did a runner with his cash.