150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 8 - 14 APRIL 1874
This week's many stories include the wife beaten in a shameful manner who refused to give evidence against her violent spouse, the vast throng that watched a sham battle on a Rainhill field, more runaway apprentices face the music, the fatal hobbyhorse accident at St Helens railway station, the youngsters summoned to Prescot Sessions for chatting outside a shop and the two fighting women, one of whom claimed to have received a "smack in the face" and the other a "slap in the mug".
We begin with the second child to have died in an ashpit within just a few weeks. The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and which were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests. A 2-year-old girl called Ellen Briers from Graces Row in Sutton was believed to have stumbled into the wet ashpit at the rear of her home and drowned.
Mary Phillips appeared in court this week to answer a charge of assaulting Ann Holland. The latter said that Mrs Phillips had entered her house in a drunken state and used bad language to her. Mrs Holland claimed that as a result Mrs Phillips was turned out of her house but at the door had turned round and given her a "smack in the face".
Mrs Phillips, on the other hand, claimed Mrs Holland had given her a "slap in the mug" and a kick to help her out of her home. A Mrs Williams who was present in the house at the time of the incident gave evidence that the defendant had called the complainant "some brutal names" and Mary Phillips was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Thomas Waterworth was the agent for Singer sewing machines in St Helens with premises opposite the Raven Hotel. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 11th he was advertising his treadle-powered machines, which he said could be purchased on easy terms. No price was quoted but they were probably about £7 - £8, which was an awful lot of money for most people, even if paid by instalments.
The Newspaper also wrote that a movement was on foot to create a new Cowley Middle School or People's College. The intention was that the facility would focus more on higher education teaching than the existing school. Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's", after the longstanding headmaster, Newton Lacey. Central Modern would later be built on the same site.
It must have been a stirring sight when the St Helens volunteers (known as the 47th LRV) turned out for exercises. Many of the soldiers were on horseback and huge crowds could be attracted to the colourful scene. The St Helens Newspaper described how on Good Friday such an event had taken place on a field opposite Rainhill Hall.
However, the paper said the soldiers' journey through Marshalls Cross towards Rainhill had been difficult due to the "vast throng of people" that had been present: "The road was literally animate with people whom the fineness of the day had induced to leave home." And then there were similar issues upon their arrival at Rainhill: "Although the field was vast in extent the mob would group nowhere but on the flanks of the companies.
"Wherever the regiment moved the human wave simply gave way before it, closing in immediately behind, and not only impeding quick movements, but spoiling the appearance of the display. In vain did the Colonel, the Majors, the Adjutant, and a number of grooms, ride frantically round, clearing a space for the troops. The mob fell back from the galloping horses, only to close in when the danger had passed." A sham battle was the highlight of the event.
The Prescot Reporter on the 11th described some of the cases heard this week in the Prescot Petty Sessions. One of the worst concerned Henry Sephton who was charged with having beaten his wife "in a very bad and shameful manner". Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the court that Sephton's wife had come to him in a very bruised state and complained of the brutal conduct of her husband.
However, she no longer wished to prosecute and the magistrates ordered Sephton to only pay the costs incurred in the case. Such withdrawals from prosecutions were very common. Sephton had probably promised his wife that he would not hit her again and it was not in her financial interest to pursue the case. A fine would have affected Mrs Sephton as much as her husband and with married women's high dependency upon their spouse for income, separation would have left the poor woman in a perilous state.
This advert appeared in the Reporter: "John G. Ackary, St. Helens Undertaker, The Coffin Warehouse, 24, College-street. The Manufactory, Parr Stocks. All sizes of coffins kept ready made. N.B. – Orders by post or telegraph promptly attended to."
It was a rare week when so-called master and servant cases did not come to court. These usually involved absent apprentices who were contractually bound to their employer until the age of 21 when they received their indentures and became free citizens again. Many apprentices left their job through abuse or having to work extremely long hours. Those that lived-in with their masters often endured dreadful exploitation and there was little they could do about it.
The ultimate penalty for continued absence in defiance of court orders was prison but in most cases the apprentice when summoned to court accepted the inevitable and agreed to return to their job. That was what happened when Thomas Hankey appeared in the Prescot Sessions this week. The 19-year-old was learning his trade as a broach and toolmaker with Thomas Naylor of Rainhill and the latter told the court that the lad had agreed to resume work and he asked for the case to be dismissed.
The same occurred when Henry Hesketh was charged with the same offence. He was learning the trade of blacksmith with his master Thomas Owen in Knowsley. But the charge was dropped when he agreed to return to his work and, as with Thomas Hankey, no reason was given for his absence.
I expect youngsters congregating at certain spots in streets to chat to each other goes back hundreds of years. It certainly took place in 1874 but then it could land the participants in court, as it did to Thomas Frodsham, Joseph Ball and John Evans. They were all charged in the Prescot Sessions with obstructing the footpath opposite the shop occupied by Mr Mather of Kendrick's Cross in Rainhill.
Mr Mather said he had been greatly annoyed by a number of boys and young men regularly congregating outside his shop window, leaning against a wall, kicking the bricks and obstructing the footpath. He had made complaints to the police about the nuisance but did not want to press his charge against the defendants, preferring a severe caution be given to them.
The Chairman of the Bench said that as it happened to be the first such court case in Rainhill, they would not be hard on the defendants. However, he advised them to tell their friends that if any of them were found guilty on a similar charge in future they would be punished severely. Two of the lads were still fined 2s 6d plus costs and John Evans, who did not appear in court, was fined 5 shillings in his absence.
The Liverpool Mercury on the 13th described the inquest on John Riley, who was an assistant to a hobby-horse proprietor and who had been fatally injured at St Helens Railway Station. The 35-year-old was said to have been "a little in drink" while standing on the platform of the station while a truck containing the hobby-horses was being shunted.
Riley was told to stand back while the operation was in progress but instead caught hold of the truck and got pulled down. He grabbed the coat of an engine driver named Horth but the latter was unable to prevent Riley from getting stuck between the platform and the truck and consequently being severely crushed.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the repulsive burglar of Raglan Street, the battered wife who retaliated against her husband, the creation of Bold Colliery and the court case in which a man admitting having beaten his wife was seen as a good thing.
We begin with the second child to have died in an ashpit within just a few weeks. The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and which were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests. A 2-year-old girl called Ellen Briers from Graces Row in Sutton was believed to have stumbled into the wet ashpit at the rear of her home and drowned.
Mary Phillips appeared in court this week to answer a charge of assaulting Ann Holland. The latter said that Mrs Phillips had entered her house in a drunken state and used bad language to her. Mrs Holland claimed that as a result Mrs Phillips was turned out of her house but at the door had turned round and given her a "smack in the face".
Mrs Phillips, on the other hand, claimed Mrs Holland had given her a "slap in the mug" and a kick to help her out of her home. A Mrs Williams who was present in the house at the time of the incident gave evidence that the defendant had called the complainant "some brutal names" and Mary Phillips was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Thomas Waterworth was the agent for Singer sewing machines in St Helens with premises opposite the Raven Hotel. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 11th he was advertising his treadle-powered machines, which he said could be purchased on easy terms. No price was quoted but they were probably about £7 - £8, which was an awful lot of money for most people, even if paid by instalments.
The Newspaper also wrote that a movement was on foot to create a new Cowley Middle School or People's College. The intention was that the facility would focus more on higher education teaching than the existing school. Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's", after the longstanding headmaster, Newton Lacey. Central Modern would later be built on the same site.
It must have been a stirring sight when the St Helens volunteers (known as the 47th LRV) turned out for exercises. Many of the soldiers were on horseback and huge crowds could be attracted to the colourful scene. The St Helens Newspaper described how on Good Friday such an event had taken place on a field opposite Rainhill Hall.
However, the paper said the soldiers' journey through Marshalls Cross towards Rainhill had been difficult due to the "vast throng of people" that had been present: "The road was literally animate with people whom the fineness of the day had induced to leave home." And then there were similar issues upon their arrival at Rainhill: "Although the field was vast in extent the mob would group nowhere but on the flanks of the companies.
"Wherever the regiment moved the human wave simply gave way before it, closing in immediately behind, and not only impeding quick movements, but spoiling the appearance of the display. In vain did the Colonel, the Majors, the Adjutant, and a number of grooms, ride frantically round, clearing a space for the troops. The mob fell back from the galloping horses, only to close in when the danger had passed." A sham battle was the highlight of the event.
The Prescot Reporter on the 11th described some of the cases heard this week in the Prescot Petty Sessions. One of the worst concerned Henry Sephton who was charged with having beaten his wife "in a very bad and shameful manner". Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the court that Sephton's wife had come to him in a very bruised state and complained of the brutal conduct of her husband.
However, she no longer wished to prosecute and the magistrates ordered Sephton to only pay the costs incurred in the case. Such withdrawals from prosecutions were very common. Sephton had probably promised his wife that he would not hit her again and it was not in her financial interest to pursue the case. A fine would have affected Mrs Sephton as much as her husband and with married women's high dependency upon their spouse for income, separation would have left the poor woman in a perilous state.
This advert appeared in the Reporter: "John G. Ackary, St. Helens Undertaker, The Coffin Warehouse, 24, College-street. The Manufactory, Parr Stocks. All sizes of coffins kept ready made. N.B. – Orders by post or telegraph promptly attended to."
It was a rare week when so-called master and servant cases did not come to court. These usually involved absent apprentices who were contractually bound to their employer until the age of 21 when they received their indentures and became free citizens again. Many apprentices left their job through abuse or having to work extremely long hours. Those that lived-in with their masters often endured dreadful exploitation and there was little they could do about it.
The ultimate penalty for continued absence in defiance of court orders was prison but in most cases the apprentice when summoned to court accepted the inevitable and agreed to return to their job. That was what happened when Thomas Hankey appeared in the Prescot Sessions this week. The 19-year-old was learning his trade as a broach and toolmaker with Thomas Naylor of Rainhill and the latter told the court that the lad had agreed to resume work and he asked for the case to be dismissed.
The same occurred when Henry Hesketh was charged with the same offence. He was learning the trade of blacksmith with his master Thomas Owen in Knowsley. But the charge was dropped when he agreed to return to his work and, as with Thomas Hankey, no reason was given for his absence.
I expect youngsters congregating at certain spots in streets to chat to each other goes back hundreds of years. It certainly took place in 1874 but then it could land the participants in court, as it did to Thomas Frodsham, Joseph Ball and John Evans. They were all charged in the Prescot Sessions with obstructing the footpath opposite the shop occupied by Mr Mather of Kendrick's Cross in Rainhill.
Mr Mather said he had been greatly annoyed by a number of boys and young men regularly congregating outside his shop window, leaning against a wall, kicking the bricks and obstructing the footpath. He had made complaints to the police about the nuisance but did not want to press his charge against the defendants, preferring a severe caution be given to them.
The Chairman of the Bench said that as it happened to be the first such court case in Rainhill, they would not be hard on the defendants. However, he advised them to tell their friends that if any of them were found guilty on a similar charge in future they would be punished severely. Two of the lads were still fined 2s 6d plus costs and John Evans, who did not appear in court, was fined 5 shillings in his absence.
Riley was told to stand back while the operation was in progress but instead caught hold of the truck and got pulled down. He grabbed the coat of an engine driver named Horth but the latter was unable to prevent Riley from getting stuck between the platform and the truck and consequently being severely crushed.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the repulsive burglar of Raglan Street, the battered wife who retaliated against her husband, the creation of Bold Colliery and the court case in which a man admitting having beaten his wife was seen as a good thing.
This week's many stories include the wife beaten in a shameful manner who refused to give evidence against her violent spouse, the vast throng that watched a sham battle on a Rainhill field, more runaway apprentices face the music, the fatal hobbyhorse accident at St Helens railway station, the youngsters summoned to Prescot Sessions for chatting outside a shop and the two fighting women, one of whom claimed to have received a "smack in the face" and the other a "slap in the mug".
We begin with the second child to have died in an ashpit within just a few weeks.
The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and which were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests.
A 2-year-old girl called Ellen Briers from Graces Row in Sutton was believed to have stumbled into the wet ashpit at the rear of her home and drowned.
Mary Phillips appeared in court this week to answer a charge of assaulting Ann Holland.
The latter said that Mrs Phillips had entered her house in a drunken state and used bad language to her.
Mrs Holland claimed that as a result Mrs Phillips was turned out of her house but at the door had turned round and given her a "smack in the face".
Mrs Phillips, on the other hand, claimed Mrs Holland had given her a "slap in the mug" and a kick to help her out of her home.
A Mrs Williams who was present in the house at the time of the incident gave evidence that the defendant had called the complainant "some brutal names" and Mary Phillips was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Thomas Waterworth was the agent for Singer sewing machines in St Helens with premises opposite the Raven Hotel.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 11th he was advertising his treadle-powered machines, which he said could be purchased on easy terms.
No price was quoted but they were probably about £7 - £8, which was an awful lot of money for most people, even if paid by instalments.
The Newspaper also wrote that a movement was on foot to create a new Cowley Middle School or People's College.
The intention was that the facility would focus more on higher education teaching than the existing school.
Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's", after the longstanding headmaster, Newton Lacey. Central Modern would later be built on the same site.
It must have been a stirring sight when the St Helens volunteers (known as the 47th LRV) turned out for exercises.
Many of the soldiers were on horseback and huge crowds could be attracted to the colourful scene.
The St Helens Newspaper described how on Good Friday such an event had taken place on a field opposite Rainhill Hall.
However, the paper said the soldiers' journey through Marshalls Cross towards Rainhill had been difficult due to the "vast throng of people" that had been present:
"The road was literally animate with people whom the fineness of the day had induced to leave home." And then there were similar issues upon their arrival at Rainhill:
"Although the field was vast in extent the mob would group nowhere but on the flanks of the companies.
"Wherever the regiment moved the human wave simply gave way before it, closing in immediately behind, and not only impeding quick movements, but spoiling the appearance of the display.
"In vain did the Colonel, the Majors, the Adjutant, and a number of grooms, ride frantically round, clearing a space for the troops. The mob fell back from the galloping horses, only to close in when the danger had passed." A sham battle was the highlight of the event.
The Prescot Reporter on the 11th described some of the cases heard this week in the Prescot Petty Sessions.
One of the worst concerned Henry Sephton who was charged with having beaten his wife "in a very bad and shameful manner".
Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the court that Sephton's wife had come to him in a very bruised state and complained of the brutal conduct of her husband.
However, she no longer wished to prosecute and the magistrates ordered Sephton to only pay the costs incurred in the case.
Such withdrawals from prosecutions were very common. Sephton had probably promised his wife that he would not hit her again and it was not in her financial interest to pursue the case.
A fine would have affected Mrs Sephton as much as her husband and with married women's high dependency upon their spouse for income, separation would have left the poor woman in a perilous state.
This advert appeared in the Reporter: "John G. Ackary, St. Helens Undertaker, The Coffin Warehouse, 24, College-street. The Manufactory, Parr Stocks. All sizes of coffins kept ready made. N.B. – Orders by post or telegraph promptly attended to."
It was a rare week when so-called master and servant cases did not come to court. These usually involved absent apprentices who were contractually bound to their employer until the age of 21 when they received their indentures and became free citizens again.
Many apprentices left their job through abuse or having to work extremely long hours. Those that lived-in with their masters often endured dreadful exploitation and there was little they could do about it.
The ultimate penalty for continued absence in defiance of court orders was prison but in most cases the apprentice when summoned to court accepted the inevitable and agreed to return to their job.
That was what happened when Thomas Hankey appeared in the Prescot Sessions this week.
The 19-year-old was learning his trade as a broach and toolmaker with Thomas Naylor of Rainhill and the latter told the court that the lad had agreed to resume work and he asked for the case to be dismissed.
The same occurred when Henry Hesketh was charged with the same offence. He was learning the trade of blacksmith with his master Thomas Owen in Knowsley.
But the charge was dropped when he agreed to return to his work and, as with Thomas Hankey, no reason was given for his absence.
I expect youngsters congregating at certain spots in streets to chat to each other goes back hundreds of years.
It certainly took place in 1874 but then it could land the participants in court, as it did to Thomas Frodsham, Joseph Ball and John Evans.
They were all charged in the Prescot Sessions with obstructing the footpath opposite the shop occupied by Mr Mather of Kendrick's Cross in Rainhill.
Mr Mather said he had been greatly annoyed by a number of boys and young men regularly congregating outside his shop window, leaning against a wall, kicking the bricks and obstructing the footpath.
He had made complaints to the police about the nuisance but did not want to press his charge against the defendants, preferring a severe caution be given to them.
The Chairman of the Bench said that as it happened to be the first such court case in Rainhill, they would not be hard on the defendants.
However, he advised them to tell their friends that if any of them were found guilty on a similar charge in future they would be punished severely.
Two of the lads were still fined 2s 6d plus costs and John Evans, who did not appear in court, was fined 5 shillings in his absence.
The Liverpool Mercury on the 13th described the inquest on John Riley, who was an assistant to a hobby-horse proprietor and who had been fatally injured at St Helens Railway Station.
The 35-year-old was said to have been "a little in drink" while standing on the platform of the station while a truck containing the hobby-horses was being shunted.
Riley was told to stand back while the operation was in progress but instead caught hold of the truck and got pulled down.
He grabbed the coat of an engine driver named Horth but the latter was unable to prevent Riley from getting stuck between the platform and the truck and consequently being severely crushed.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the repulsive burglar of Raglan Street, the battered wife who retaliated against her husband, the creation of Bold Colliery and the court case in which a man admitting having beaten his wife was seen as a good thing.
We begin with the second child to have died in an ashpit within just a few weeks.
The ashpits were the dumps that contained human waste and which were mixed with ashes to reduce the smell and keep away pests.
A 2-year-old girl called Ellen Briers from Graces Row in Sutton was believed to have stumbled into the wet ashpit at the rear of her home and drowned.
Mary Phillips appeared in court this week to answer a charge of assaulting Ann Holland.
The latter said that Mrs Phillips had entered her house in a drunken state and used bad language to her.
Mrs Holland claimed that as a result Mrs Phillips was turned out of her house but at the door had turned round and given her a "smack in the face".
Mrs Phillips, on the other hand, claimed Mrs Holland had given her a "slap in the mug" and a kick to help her out of her home.
A Mrs Williams who was present in the house at the time of the incident gave evidence that the defendant had called the complainant "some brutal names" and Mary Phillips was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Thomas Waterworth was the agent for Singer sewing machines in St Helens with premises opposite the Raven Hotel.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 11th he was advertising his treadle-powered machines, which he said could be purchased on easy terms.
No price was quoted but they were probably about £7 - £8, which was an awful lot of money for most people, even if paid by instalments.
The Newspaper also wrote that a movement was on foot to create a new Cowley Middle School or People's College.
The intention was that the facility would focus more on higher education teaching than the existing school.
Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's", after the longstanding headmaster, Newton Lacey. Central Modern would later be built on the same site.
It must have been a stirring sight when the St Helens volunteers (known as the 47th LRV) turned out for exercises.
Many of the soldiers were on horseback and huge crowds could be attracted to the colourful scene.
The St Helens Newspaper described how on Good Friday such an event had taken place on a field opposite Rainhill Hall.
However, the paper said the soldiers' journey through Marshalls Cross towards Rainhill had been difficult due to the "vast throng of people" that had been present:
"The road was literally animate with people whom the fineness of the day had induced to leave home." And then there were similar issues upon their arrival at Rainhill:
"Although the field was vast in extent the mob would group nowhere but on the flanks of the companies.
"Wherever the regiment moved the human wave simply gave way before it, closing in immediately behind, and not only impeding quick movements, but spoiling the appearance of the display.
"In vain did the Colonel, the Majors, the Adjutant, and a number of grooms, ride frantically round, clearing a space for the troops. The mob fell back from the galloping horses, only to close in when the danger had passed." A sham battle was the highlight of the event.
The Prescot Reporter on the 11th described some of the cases heard this week in the Prescot Petty Sessions.
One of the worst concerned Henry Sephton who was charged with having beaten his wife "in a very bad and shameful manner".
Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the court that Sephton's wife had come to him in a very bruised state and complained of the brutal conduct of her husband.
However, she no longer wished to prosecute and the magistrates ordered Sephton to only pay the costs incurred in the case.
Such withdrawals from prosecutions were very common. Sephton had probably promised his wife that he would not hit her again and it was not in her financial interest to pursue the case.
A fine would have affected Mrs Sephton as much as her husband and with married women's high dependency upon their spouse for income, separation would have left the poor woman in a perilous state.
This advert appeared in the Reporter: "John G. Ackary, St. Helens Undertaker, The Coffin Warehouse, 24, College-street. The Manufactory, Parr Stocks. All sizes of coffins kept ready made. N.B. – Orders by post or telegraph promptly attended to."
It was a rare week when so-called master and servant cases did not come to court. These usually involved absent apprentices who were contractually bound to their employer until the age of 21 when they received their indentures and became free citizens again.
Many apprentices left their job through abuse or having to work extremely long hours. Those that lived-in with their masters often endured dreadful exploitation and there was little they could do about it.
The ultimate penalty for continued absence in defiance of court orders was prison but in most cases the apprentice when summoned to court accepted the inevitable and agreed to return to their job.
That was what happened when Thomas Hankey appeared in the Prescot Sessions this week.
The 19-year-old was learning his trade as a broach and toolmaker with Thomas Naylor of Rainhill and the latter told the court that the lad had agreed to resume work and he asked for the case to be dismissed.
The same occurred when Henry Hesketh was charged with the same offence. He was learning the trade of blacksmith with his master Thomas Owen in Knowsley.
But the charge was dropped when he agreed to return to his work and, as with Thomas Hankey, no reason was given for his absence.
I expect youngsters congregating at certain spots in streets to chat to each other goes back hundreds of years.
It certainly took place in 1874 but then it could land the participants in court, as it did to Thomas Frodsham, Joseph Ball and John Evans.
They were all charged in the Prescot Sessions with obstructing the footpath opposite the shop occupied by Mr Mather of Kendrick's Cross in Rainhill.
Mr Mather said he had been greatly annoyed by a number of boys and young men regularly congregating outside his shop window, leaning against a wall, kicking the bricks and obstructing the footpath.
He had made complaints to the police about the nuisance but did not want to press his charge against the defendants, preferring a severe caution be given to them.
The Chairman of the Bench said that as it happened to be the first such court case in Rainhill, they would not be hard on the defendants.
However, he advised them to tell their friends that if any of them were found guilty on a similar charge in future they would be punished severely.
Two of the lads were still fined 2s 6d plus costs and John Evans, who did not appear in court, was fined 5 shillings in his absence.
The 35-year-old was said to have been "a little in drink" while standing on the platform of the station while a truck containing the hobby-horses was being shunted.
Riley was told to stand back while the operation was in progress but instead caught hold of the truck and got pulled down.
He grabbed the coat of an engine driver named Horth but the latter was unable to prevent Riley from getting stuck between the platform and the truck and consequently being severely crushed.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the repulsive burglar of Raglan Street, the battered wife who retaliated against her husband, the creation of Bold Colliery and the court case in which a man admitting having beaten his wife was seen as a good thing.