150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 JANUARY 1874
This week's stories include the abominable water supply in Robins Lane, the man that died in Parr after his dog ran on to chemical waste, the mayoral gifts of blankets and quilts for the deserving poor, the plans to build a general post office in Church Street, a schoolteacher is wanted for Whiston Workhouse, the St Helens Newspaper's illustrated almanac, concern that the Haydock collieries dispute was causing misery and privation and criticism of the immoral attentions of a married man.
We begin on the 8th with the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Hatton. We begin on the 8th with the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Hatton. The 52-year-old had died after falling head first down the stairs of her home after she had climbed to the top. Few houses had bannisters or rails and it could be a risky business to go to bed when tired.
On the 9th John Glynn died at Sherdley Colliery in St Helens when struck down by a wall of coal and debris. The 34-year-old was buried in about 18 cwt of coal and a lad named Thomas Greenall was injured.
Every year the St Helens Newspaper produced an "Illustrated Almanack and Tradesman's Directory" and the 1874 edition was free with the paper on the 10th. A minor mine of information, the almanac contained rates of postage; details of the moon's changes, eclipses etc; a list of Her Majesty's ministers; lists of county magistrates and places of worship; "smart and pithy sayings of witty men" and a "more complete body of local information than is contained in any other almanack published in the district". Clearly witty women did not make smart and pithy sayings during the 19th century – well, if they did they were not considered worth writing down!
The Newspaper reported that the Mayor, James Radley, had decided to distribute amongst the "aged and deserving poor" fifty pairs of blankets and fifty quilts. However, religious sensitivity was so high that they were distributed by denomination. So the Wesleyan Methodists, Independents and Catholics would each receive ten pairs of blankets and quilts to distribute amongst their poor parishioners. And two of the C of E churches – the Parish Church and St Thomas's – would get the same.
The paper also expressed concern about the present dispute in the Haydock collieries. About 1,000 miners had been locked out of their pits as a result of a row over the weighing of coal. The Newspaper felt it was unfortunate that there was not some means of arbitrating such disputes, adding: "A great amount of misery and privation would be saved". As many of the men were tenants of the Evans Colliery Company, it was feared that they might soon receive notices to quit their homes because they could not pay their rent.
The two schoolteachers at Whiston Workhouse did not last long in their jobs. Their pay was not great, they had a large number of pauper pupils to teach (100 to 150 each) and their own accommodation was not up to much. The recently appointed master of the boys' school had quit for another job in London and so an advert appeared in the Newspaper seeking his replacement.
Pay was £40 per year but the successful unmarried candidate could look forward to "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse" which were free. And, you could earn an extra £5 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
A couple of weeks ago I described how Ellen Holland had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions accused of punching a pregnant Mary Atherton in her stomach. The St Helens Newspaper had called the blow a "trivial assault" and after the defendant claimed they had both "wrangled" equally, only a token fine was imposed. The row was because Ellen Holland had accused Mary Atherton's husband of being the father of her child.
She had previously taken Charles Atherton to court demanding maintenance payments but he had denied paternity. As Mrs Holland had no evidence that Atherton was the father of her child, her claim was dismissed. Evidence then was not, of course, scientific like today involving blood or DNA tests. Paternity was proven to the satisfaction of the court by means of association, such as witnesses stating that they had seen the couple walking out together – as the term then was.
This week Ellen Holland returned to court with a female witness called Brown to try and prove Charles Atherton's presence in her home. That, of course, did not necessarily mean that the couple had slept together, but it intimated a relationship. But the Newspaper was not impressed with what they called the admission of "gross immorality", despite the fact that Ellen Holland was separated from her husband.
The paper wrote that when the witness Brown was asked in court why she had allowed a married woman lodger to receive "immoral attentions" from another man, the paper said the landlady had "coolly" replied that she did not see why she should interfere when she knew Mrs Holland had no husband. The magistrates issued a maintenance order for 1s 6d per week. That was on the low side and probably reflected their disgust at the case.
A century ago flooding after heavy rainfall used to be a big issue in parts of St Helens and still is, of course, today, albeit to a far lesser extent. But one hundred and fifty years ago there was a great want of water in parts of the borough, often through landlords refusing to install water pipes because of the cost. At this week's St Helens Town Council meeting Cllr. Allen reported that the Havannah district of Parr was in a "deplorable condition" through lack of water. The same applied to parts of Robins Lane in Sutton, which as a result had become a "little nest of fever".
Cllr. Allen said that although a water main had been laid in Robins Lane, some of the cottages were not supplied because landlords had not made the necessary connections. Instead, the tenants used a well from which they drank "abominable water". That led to Alderman Webster commenting that there were 30 or 40 houses on the other side of St Helens Junction that had no water supply.
The railway station itself was sourcing its water from the Sutton Brook, into which drainage from several homes in Marshalls Cross ended up. Ald. Webster added: "It is not a fit supply for a first class railway station, or for passengers to drink. I have seen in my daily walks past those cottages, water being carried from the open brook, which was sometimes filthy in the extreme. It is certainly not fit for use even for washing purposes."
A discussion also took place about the decision to pay £39 a year to the post office for a line of telegraph wire to be carried from their surveyor's office to the Corporation waterworks at Eccleston and Whiston, a distance of four miles. The intention was to better manage the engines used in both waterworks, with the rental payment needed to keep the line in order – but Cllr. Johnson thought the amount was excessive. However, Cllr. Pilkington said his glassworks had at one time one private telegraph wire that had so continually got out of order that they had to abandon it and so renting was sensible.
The council also discussed the proposal to build a new general post office on the site of the Kings Head Inn (pictured above), which had stood in Church Street for around 250 years from 1629. Currently, limited postal operations took place in Market Street in St Helens and at the meeting Cllr. Fidler declared that to be a "disgrace to the town". The opportunity would also be taken to set back the new building to widen Church Street at that point, which Cllr Fidler said was the most dangerous part of St Helens. "The only wonder is that more accidents have not happened there."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race ground and it seems to have been a good place to walk your dog – as long as you kept off the waste heaps. On the 12th a miner named William Cheetham died from the injuries he'd received on the previous day while exercising his dog.
The animal had run up a bank of chemical waste at the side of the field and his owner had gone after it but had slipped and fallen down. He only fell ten feet seemingly onto a field but was fatally injured. Injuries that might be seen as not life threatening today could often lead to death in the 1870s.
On the 13th two Rainford coal miners called George Webster and George Beck were charged with "brutally kicking and maltreating Peter Swift so as to incapacitate him from labour from the 1st instant to the present date". Beck was acquitted but Webster was ordered to pay £3 17s 6d. Paul Pennington also lived in Rainford and he had assaulted the landlord of the Crank Hotel, Joseph Friar, and was ordered to pay a 25-shilling fine.
And finally, the 47th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (St Helens' part-time reserve) held their annual ball this week in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street. An "efficient" quadrille band provided the music in which sets of four couples danced as a chain of 4-6 contredance couples, with a line of men on one side opposite their partners in the other line.
It was a late evening "do" with dancing only starting at 9pm. All members of the services who attended were instructed to dress in military uniform, with their horse-drawn carriages arriving from Duke Street and leaving by North Road.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the freed slaves at the Volunteer Hall, a call for an ambulance for St Helens, the suicidal French polisher that the magistrates passed onto Oldham and a comical row between neighbours over gossip.
We begin on the 8th with the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Hatton. We begin on the 8th with the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Hatton. The 52-year-old had died after falling head first down the stairs of her home after she had climbed to the top. Few houses had bannisters or rails and it could be a risky business to go to bed when tired.
On the 9th John Glynn died at Sherdley Colliery in St Helens when struck down by a wall of coal and debris. The 34-year-old was buried in about 18 cwt of coal and a lad named Thomas Greenall was injured.
Every year the St Helens Newspaper produced an "Illustrated Almanack and Tradesman's Directory" and the 1874 edition was free with the paper on the 10th. A minor mine of information, the almanac contained rates of postage; details of the moon's changes, eclipses etc; a list of Her Majesty's ministers; lists of county magistrates and places of worship; "smart and pithy sayings of witty men" and a "more complete body of local information than is contained in any other almanack published in the district". Clearly witty women did not make smart and pithy sayings during the 19th century – well, if they did they were not considered worth writing down!
The Newspaper reported that the Mayor, James Radley, had decided to distribute amongst the "aged and deserving poor" fifty pairs of blankets and fifty quilts. However, religious sensitivity was so high that they were distributed by denomination. So the Wesleyan Methodists, Independents and Catholics would each receive ten pairs of blankets and quilts to distribute amongst their poor parishioners. And two of the C of E churches – the Parish Church and St Thomas's – would get the same.
The paper also expressed concern about the present dispute in the Haydock collieries. About 1,000 miners had been locked out of their pits as a result of a row over the weighing of coal. The Newspaper felt it was unfortunate that there was not some means of arbitrating such disputes, adding: "A great amount of misery and privation would be saved". As many of the men were tenants of the Evans Colliery Company, it was feared that they might soon receive notices to quit their homes because they could not pay their rent.
The two schoolteachers at Whiston Workhouse did not last long in their jobs. Their pay was not great, they had a large number of pauper pupils to teach (100 to 150 each) and their own accommodation was not up to much. The recently appointed master of the boys' school had quit for another job in London and so an advert appeared in the Newspaper seeking his replacement.
Pay was £40 per year but the successful unmarried candidate could look forward to "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse" which were free. And, you could earn an extra £5 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
A couple of weeks ago I described how Ellen Holland had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions accused of punching a pregnant Mary Atherton in her stomach. The St Helens Newspaper had called the blow a "trivial assault" and after the defendant claimed they had both "wrangled" equally, only a token fine was imposed. The row was because Ellen Holland had accused Mary Atherton's husband of being the father of her child.
She had previously taken Charles Atherton to court demanding maintenance payments but he had denied paternity. As Mrs Holland had no evidence that Atherton was the father of her child, her claim was dismissed. Evidence then was not, of course, scientific like today involving blood or DNA tests. Paternity was proven to the satisfaction of the court by means of association, such as witnesses stating that they had seen the couple walking out together – as the term then was.
This week Ellen Holland returned to court with a female witness called Brown to try and prove Charles Atherton's presence in her home. That, of course, did not necessarily mean that the couple had slept together, but it intimated a relationship. But the Newspaper was not impressed with what they called the admission of "gross immorality", despite the fact that Ellen Holland was separated from her husband.
The paper wrote that when the witness Brown was asked in court why she had allowed a married woman lodger to receive "immoral attentions" from another man, the paper said the landlady had "coolly" replied that she did not see why she should interfere when she knew Mrs Holland had no husband. The magistrates issued a maintenance order for 1s 6d per week. That was on the low side and probably reflected their disgust at the case.
A century ago flooding after heavy rainfall used to be a big issue in parts of St Helens and still is, of course, today, albeit to a far lesser extent. But one hundred and fifty years ago there was a great want of water in parts of the borough, often through landlords refusing to install water pipes because of the cost. At this week's St Helens Town Council meeting Cllr. Allen reported that the Havannah district of Parr was in a "deplorable condition" through lack of water. The same applied to parts of Robins Lane in Sutton, which as a result had become a "little nest of fever".
Cllr. Allen said that although a water main had been laid in Robins Lane, some of the cottages were not supplied because landlords had not made the necessary connections. Instead, the tenants used a well from which they drank "abominable water". That led to Alderman Webster commenting that there were 30 or 40 houses on the other side of St Helens Junction that had no water supply.
The railway station itself was sourcing its water from the Sutton Brook, into which drainage from several homes in Marshalls Cross ended up. Ald. Webster added: "It is not a fit supply for a first class railway station, or for passengers to drink. I have seen in my daily walks past those cottages, water being carried from the open brook, which was sometimes filthy in the extreme. It is certainly not fit for use even for washing purposes."
A discussion also took place about the decision to pay £39 a year to the post office for a line of telegraph wire to be carried from their surveyor's office to the Corporation waterworks at Eccleston and Whiston, a distance of four miles. The intention was to better manage the engines used in both waterworks, with the rental payment needed to keep the line in order – but Cllr. Johnson thought the amount was excessive. However, Cllr. Pilkington said his glassworks had at one time one private telegraph wire that had so continually got out of order that they had to abandon it and so renting was sensible.
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race ground and it seems to have been a good place to walk your dog – as long as you kept off the waste heaps. On the 12th a miner named William Cheetham died from the injuries he'd received on the previous day while exercising his dog.
The animal had run up a bank of chemical waste at the side of the field and his owner had gone after it but had slipped and fallen down. He only fell ten feet seemingly onto a field but was fatally injured. Injuries that might be seen as not life threatening today could often lead to death in the 1870s.
On the 13th two Rainford coal miners called George Webster and George Beck were charged with "brutally kicking and maltreating Peter Swift so as to incapacitate him from labour from the 1st instant to the present date". Beck was acquitted but Webster was ordered to pay £3 17s 6d. Paul Pennington also lived in Rainford and he had assaulted the landlord of the Crank Hotel, Joseph Friar, and was ordered to pay a 25-shilling fine.
And finally, the 47th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (St Helens' part-time reserve) held their annual ball this week in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street. An "efficient" quadrille band provided the music in which sets of four couples danced as a chain of 4-6 contredance couples, with a line of men on one side opposite their partners in the other line.
It was a late evening "do" with dancing only starting at 9pm. All members of the services who attended were instructed to dress in military uniform, with their horse-drawn carriages arriving from Duke Street and leaving by North Road.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the freed slaves at the Volunteer Hall, a call for an ambulance for St Helens, the suicidal French polisher that the magistrates passed onto Oldham and a comical row between neighbours over gossip.
This week's stories include the abominable water supply in Robins Lane, the man that died in Parr after his dog ran on to chemical waste, the mayoral gifts of blankets and quilts for the deserving poor, the plans to build a general post office in Church Street, a schoolteacher is wanted for Whiston Workhouse, the St Helens Newspaper's illustrated almanac, concern that the Haydock collieries dispute was causing misery and privation and criticism of the immoral attentions of a married man.
We begin on the 8th with the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Hatton. The 52-year-old had died after falling head first down the stairs of her home after she had climbed to the top.
Few houses had bannisters or rails and it could be a risky business to go to bed when tired.
On the 9th John Glynn died at Sherdley Colliery in St Helens when struck down by a wall of coal and debris.
The 34-year-old was buried in about 18 cwt of coal and a lad named Thomas Greenall was injured.
Every year the St Helens Newspaper produced an "Illustrated Almanack and Tradesman's Directory" and the 1874 edition was free with the paper on the 10th.
A minor mine of information, the almanac contained rates of postage; details of the moon's changes, eclipses etc; a list of Her Majesty's ministers; lists of county magistrates and places of worship; "smart and pithy sayings of witty men" and a "more complete body of local information than is contained in any other almanack published in the district".
Clearly witty women did not make smart and pithy sayings during the 19th century – well, if they did they were not considered worth writing down!
The Newspaper reported that the Mayor, James Radley, had decided to distribute amongst the "aged and deserving poor" fifty pairs of blankets and fifty quilts.
However, religious sensitivity was so high that they were distributed by denomination.
So the Wesleyan Methodists, Independents and Catholics would each receive ten pairs of blankets and quilts to distribute amongst their poor parishioners.
And two of the C of E churches – the Parish Church and St Thomas's – would get the same.
The paper also expressed concern about the present dispute in the Haydock collieries.
About 1,000 miners had been locked out of their pits as a result of a row over the weighing of coal.
The Newspaper felt it was unfortunate that there was not some means of arbitrating such disputes, adding: "A great amount of misery and privation would be saved".
As many of the men were tenants of the Evans Colliery Company, it was feared that they might soon receive notices to quit their homes because they could not pay their rent.
The two schoolteachers at Whiston Workhouse did not last long in their jobs. Their pay was not great, they had a large number of pauper pupils to teach (100 to 150 each) and their own accommodation was not up to much.
The recently appointed master of the boys' school had quit for another job in London and so an advert appeared in the Newspaper seeking his replacement.
Pay was £40 per year but the successful unmarried candidate could look forward to "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse" which were free.
And, you could earn an extra £5 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
A couple of weeks ago I described how Ellen Holland had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions accused of punching a pregnant Mary Atherton in her stomach.
The St Helens Newspaper had called the blow a "trivial assault" and after the defendant claimed they had both "wrangled" equally, only a token fine was imposed.
The row was because Ellen Holland had accused Mary Atherton's husband of being the father of her child.
She had previously taken Charles Atherton to court demanding maintenance payments but he had denied paternity.
As Mrs Holland had no evidence that Atherton was the father of her child, her claim was dismissed.
Evidence then was not, of course, scientific like today involving blood or DNA tests.
Paternity was proven to the satisfaction of the court by means of association, such as witnesses stating that they had seen the couple walking out together – as the term then was.
This week Ellen Holland returned to court with a female witness called Brown to try and prove Charles Atherton's presence in her home.
That, of course, did not necessarily mean that the couple had slept together, but it intimated a relationship.
But the Newspaper was not impressed with what they called the admission of "gross immorality", despite the fact that Ellen Holland was separated from her husband.
The paper wrote that when the witness Brown was asked in court why she had allowed a married woman lodger to receive "immoral attentions" from another man, the paper said the landlady had "coolly" replied that she did not see why she should interfere when she knew Mrs Holland had no husband.
The magistrates issued a maintenance order for 1s 6d per week. That was on the low side and probably reflected their disgust at the case.
A century ago flooding after heavy rainfall used to be a big issue in parts of St Helens and still is, of course, today, albeit to a far lesser extent.
But one hundred and fifty years ago there was a great want of water in parts of the borough, often through landlords refusing to install water pipes because of the cost.
At this week's St Helens Town Council meeting Cllr. Allen reported that the Havannah district of Parr was in a "deplorable condition" through lack of water.
The same applied to parts of Robins Lane in Sutton, which as a result had become a "little nest of fever".
Cllr. Allen said that although a water main had been laid in Robins Lane, some of the cottages were not supplied because landlords had not made the necessary connections.
Instead, the tenants used a well from which they drank "abominable water".
That led to Alderman Webster commenting that there were 30 or 40 houses on the other side of St Helens Junction that had no water supply.
The railway station itself was sourcing its water from the Sutton Brook, into which drainage from several homes in Marshalls Cross ended up. Ald. Webster added:
"It is not a fit supply for a first class railway station, or for passengers to drink. I have seen in my daily walks past those cottages, water being carried from the open brook, which was sometimes filthy in the extreme. It is certainly not fit for use even for washing purposes."
A discussion also took place about the decision to pay £39 a year to the post office for a line of telegraph wire to be carried from their surveyor's office to the Corporation waterworks at Eccleston and Whiston, a distance of four miles.
The intention was to better manage the engines used in both waterworks, with the rental payment needed to keep the line in order – but Cllr. Johnson thought the amount was excessive.
However, Cllr. Pilkington said his glassworks had at one time one private telegraph wire that had so continually got out of order that they had to abandon it and so renting was sensible.
The council also discussed the proposal to build a new general post office on the site of the Kings Head Inn (pictured above), which had stood in Church Street for around 250 years from 1629.
Currently, limited postal operations took place in Market Street in St Helens and at the meeting Cllr. Fidler declared that to be a "disgrace to the town".
The opportunity would also be taken to set back the new building to widen Church Street at that point, which Cllr Fidler said was the most dangerous part of St Helens. "The only wonder is that more accidents have not happened there."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race ground and it seems to have been a good place to walk your dog – as long as you kept off the waste heaps.
On the 12th a miner named William Cheetham died from the injuries he'd received on the previous day while exercising his dog.
The animal had run up a bank of chemical waste at the side of the field and his owner had gone after it but had slipped and fallen down.
He only fell ten feet seemingly onto a field but was fatally injured. Injuries that might be seen as not life threatening today could often lead to death in the 1870s.
On the 13th two Rainford coal miners called George Webster and George Beck were charged with "brutally kicking and maltreating Peter Swift so as to incapacitate him from labour from the 1st instant to the present date".
Beck was acquitted but Webster was ordered to pay £3 17s 6d.
Paul Pennington also lived in Rainford and he had assaulted the landlord of the Crank Hotel, Joseph Friar, and was ordered to pay a 25-shilling fine.
And finally, the 47th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (St Helens' part-time reserve) held their annual ball this week in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street.
An "efficient" quadrille band provided the music in which sets of four couples danced as a chain of 4-6 contredance couples, with a line of men on one side opposite their partners in the other line.
It was a late evening "do" with dancing only starting at 9pm. All members of the services who attended were instructed to dress in military uniform, with their horse-drawn carriages arriving from Duke Street and leaving by North Road.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the freed slaves at the Volunteer Hall, a call for an ambulance for St Helens, the suicidal French polisher that the magistrates passed onto Oldham and a comical row between neighbours over gossip.
We begin on the 8th with the inquest into the death of Elizabeth Hatton. The 52-year-old had died after falling head first down the stairs of her home after she had climbed to the top.
Few houses had bannisters or rails and it could be a risky business to go to bed when tired.
On the 9th John Glynn died at Sherdley Colliery in St Helens when struck down by a wall of coal and debris.
The 34-year-old was buried in about 18 cwt of coal and a lad named Thomas Greenall was injured.
Every year the St Helens Newspaper produced an "Illustrated Almanack and Tradesman's Directory" and the 1874 edition was free with the paper on the 10th.
A minor mine of information, the almanac contained rates of postage; details of the moon's changes, eclipses etc; a list of Her Majesty's ministers; lists of county magistrates and places of worship; "smart and pithy sayings of witty men" and a "more complete body of local information than is contained in any other almanack published in the district".
Clearly witty women did not make smart and pithy sayings during the 19th century – well, if they did they were not considered worth writing down!
The Newspaper reported that the Mayor, James Radley, had decided to distribute amongst the "aged and deserving poor" fifty pairs of blankets and fifty quilts.
However, religious sensitivity was so high that they were distributed by denomination.
So the Wesleyan Methodists, Independents and Catholics would each receive ten pairs of blankets and quilts to distribute amongst their poor parishioners.
And two of the C of E churches – the Parish Church and St Thomas's – would get the same.
The paper also expressed concern about the present dispute in the Haydock collieries.
About 1,000 miners had been locked out of their pits as a result of a row over the weighing of coal.
The Newspaper felt it was unfortunate that there was not some means of arbitrating such disputes, adding: "A great amount of misery and privation would be saved".
As many of the men were tenants of the Evans Colliery Company, it was feared that they might soon receive notices to quit their homes because they could not pay their rent.
The two schoolteachers at Whiston Workhouse did not last long in their jobs. Their pay was not great, they had a large number of pauper pupils to teach (100 to 150 each) and their own accommodation was not up to much.
The recently appointed master of the boys' school had quit for another job in London and so an advert appeared in the Newspaper seeking his replacement.
Pay was £40 per year but the successful unmarried candidate could look forward to "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse" which were free.
And, you could earn an extra £5 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
A couple of weeks ago I described how Ellen Holland had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions accused of punching a pregnant Mary Atherton in her stomach.
The St Helens Newspaper had called the blow a "trivial assault" and after the defendant claimed they had both "wrangled" equally, only a token fine was imposed.
The row was because Ellen Holland had accused Mary Atherton's husband of being the father of her child.
She had previously taken Charles Atherton to court demanding maintenance payments but he had denied paternity.
As Mrs Holland had no evidence that Atherton was the father of her child, her claim was dismissed.
Evidence then was not, of course, scientific like today involving blood or DNA tests.
Paternity was proven to the satisfaction of the court by means of association, such as witnesses stating that they had seen the couple walking out together – as the term then was.
This week Ellen Holland returned to court with a female witness called Brown to try and prove Charles Atherton's presence in her home.
That, of course, did not necessarily mean that the couple had slept together, but it intimated a relationship.
But the Newspaper was not impressed with what they called the admission of "gross immorality", despite the fact that Ellen Holland was separated from her husband.
The paper wrote that when the witness Brown was asked in court why she had allowed a married woman lodger to receive "immoral attentions" from another man, the paper said the landlady had "coolly" replied that she did not see why she should interfere when she knew Mrs Holland had no husband.
The magistrates issued a maintenance order for 1s 6d per week. That was on the low side and probably reflected their disgust at the case.
A century ago flooding after heavy rainfall used to be a big issue in parts of St Helens and still is, of course, today, albeit to a far lesser extent.
But one hundred and fifty years ago there was a great want of water in parts of the borough, often through landlords refusing to install water pipes because of the cost.
At this week's St Helens Town Council meeting Cllr. Allen reported that the Havannah district of Parr was in a "deplorable condition" through lack of water.
The same applied to parts of Robins Lane in Sutton, which as a result had become a "little nest of fever".
Cllr. Allen said that although a water main had been laid in Robins Lane, some of the cottages were not supplied because landlords had not made the necessary connections.
Instead, the tenants used a well from which they drank "abominable water".
That led to Alderman Webster commenting that there were 30 or 40 houses on the other side of St Helens Junction that had no water supply.
The railway station itself was sourcing its water from the Sutton Brook, into which drainage from several homes in Marshalls Cross ended up. Ald. Webster added:
"It is not a fit supply for a first class railway station, or for passengers to drink. I have seen in my daily walks past those cottages, water being carried from the open brook, which was sometimes filthy in the extreme. It is certainly not fit for use even for washing purposes."
A discussion also took place about the decision to pay £39 a year to the post office for a line of telegraph wire to be carried from their surveyor's office to the Corporation waterworks at Eccleston and Whiston, a distance of four miles.
The intention was to better manage the engines used in both waterworks, with the rental payment needed to keep the line in order – but Cllr. Johnson thought the amount was excessive.
However, Cllr. Pilkington said his glassworks had at one time one private telegraph wire that had so continually got out of order that they had to abandon it and so renting was sensible.
Currently, limited postal operations took place in Market Street in St Helens and at the meeting Cllr. Fidler declared that to be a "disgrace to the town".
The opportunity would also be taken to set back the new building to widen Church Street at that point, which Cllr Fidler said was the most dangerous part of St Helens. "The only wonder is that more accidents have not happened there."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race ground and it seems to have been a good place to walk your dog – as long as you kept off the waste heaps.
On the 12th a miner named William Cheetham died from the injuries he'd received on the previous day while exercising his dog.
The animal had run up a bank of chemical waste at the side of the field and his owner had gone after it but had slipped and fallen down.
He only fell ten feet seemingly onto a field but was fatally injured. Injuries that might be seen as not life threatening today could often lead to death in the 1870s.
On the 13th two Rainford coal miners called George Webster and George Beck were charged with "brutally kicking and maltreating Peter Swift so as to incapacitate him from labour from the 1st instant to the present date".
Beck was acquitted but Webster was ordered to pay £3 17s 6d.
Paul Pennington also lived in Rainford and he had assaulted the landlord of the Crank Hotel, Joseph Friar, and was ordered to pay a 25-shilling fine.
And finally, the 47th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (St Helens' part-time reserve) held their annual ball this week in the Volunteer Hall in Mill Street.
An "efficient" quadrille band provided the music in which sets of four couples danced as a chain of 4-6 contredance couples, with a line of men on one side opposite their partners in the other line.
It was a late evening "do" with dancing only starting at 9pm. All members of the services who attended were instructed to dress in military uniform, with their horse-drawn carriages arriving from Duke Street and leaving by North Road.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the freed slaves at the Volunteer Hall, a call for an ambulance for St Helens, the suicidal French polisher that the magistrates passed onto Oldham and a comical row between neighbours over gossip.