150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (11th - 17th MAY 1870)
This week's many stories include the performing bears in St Helens, the runaway horse in Liverpool Road, a brutal assault on a wife in Whiston, the widening of Ormskirk Street, the St Helens train that hit a horse and decapitated a hen and the "idle, drunken and disorderly" woman charged with sleeping in the open air at Windle.
We begin on the 11th in Prescot Police Court when Mary Crayton was sent to prison for four months for committing a breach of the peace in Hillock Street. The woman was described as an old offender and had been told to pay a £10 surety and procure two people prepared to put up £5 sureties guaranteeing her good behaviour. The average wage was then around 25 shillings a week and so those sums were impossible for her and her friends to find. So being in default of payment, Mary Crayton was sent to gaol.
The last time we came across Cecily Hanningham was in October 1868 when the middle-aged woman was charged with being an "idle, drunken and disorderly person". Hanningham had then been before the magistrates on 27 occasions and Richard Pilkington on the Bench said he would give the woman a month in gaol to see if it did her any good. It clearly hadn't worked as Cecily returned to St Helens Police Court on the 11th having now racked up a total of 34 court appearances. On this occasion she was charged with sleeping in the open air at Windle and was returned to prison for 14 more days with hard labour.
John Lawrenson – described as a lad – was charged with throwing stones in Sandfield Crescent, off Liverpool Road (pictured above). One of the missiles had hit a man in the eye and John was fined 10 shillings or if in default of payment serve 14 days in prison.
Sophia Campbell – described as a "gipsy-looking woman" – was arrested by St Helens Police on the 11th and returned to Southport. It was there that she'd persuaded a naive servant girl to give her some of her clothes on the pretext of needing them to tell the girl's future. The woman had pawned most of the clothing but kept some for herself. Two days after being apprehended in St Helens, Sophia Campbell was sent to gaol for four months.
On the 12th a pair of performing bears was in St Helens. This is what the Newspaper wrote about them: "On Thursday two performing bears and their custodians visited the town, and the antics of the peripatetic bruins afforded, of course, considerable amusement to the juveniles. The quadrupeds, it is scarcely necessary to add, seemed better taught than fed."
In March many newspapers had described how the exhibition of performing bears and wolves inside a London shop had led to a court case. This was after a customer who had complained about the cost had been hit over the head with an iron bar.
Under the sarcastic headline "Miss Craymore Taking Her Holidays", the Prescot Reporter wrote on the 14th: "Mary Ann Craymore, a young woman of 20, who has appeared before the Prescot magistrates on almost every charge, was apprehended on warrant, having failed to appear to a summons, on the charge of being drunk in Hillock-street, on the 19th April, and also with committing a breach of the peace at the same time and place. Miss Craymore was fined in the one case, and required to find bail in the other, or “do” a constitutional in the salubrious neighbourhood of Kirkdale [Gaol], for the summer (four months), which alternative she rather unwillingly accepted."
Also on the 14th the building of a replacement chemist's shop at the corner of Ormskirk Street and Bridge Street began. Thomas McKenzie had run the old shop for fifteen years and had come to an agreement with the town council. They wanted to widen Ormskirk Street and the druggist agreed to set back his new shop and let the council have some of his frontage for a wider road.
This was a busy part of the town centre. The premises were adjacent to the popular Red Lion Inn and the horse-driven omnibus from Prescot stopped there. So last week the old shop was demolished and on the 14th McKenzie's wife Frances laid the first stone for the new premises in the presence of councillors. After the ceremony they all trooped off to the Globe Inn in Ormskirk Street where the Newspaper said: "The usual complimentary toasts were duly honoured". They were, no doubt, celebrating in Liverpool too, as Stanley Park was opened on the same day.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th Margaret McCabe was charged with assaulting Johana Hogan from Sandfield Crescent. This is how the Newspaper reported the case: "From the statement of the complainant it appears that the parties are neighbours, and that some ill feeling had arisen through those fruitful sources of quarrelling amongst the women – “the childer”. The complainant said on the day in question the defendant commenced to “bullyrag” her about her (complainant's) daughter having struck the defendant's son.
"The defendant, according to the complainant, digressed from bad language, and made a savage attack on her, tearing her hair out by handfuls, a “specimen” of which she exhibited to the bench. The defendant denied the assault, and said the hair had been got up for the occasion, and wound up by stating that the complainant had attempted to stab her several times with a knife, an assertion which was bitterly, and with much volubility, repudiated by the complainant. The defendant, who throughout considered herself, of course, the injured party, was bound over to keep the peace for three months, herself in £5, and one surety of £5."
Apart from about fifteen drunkards, there were not that many cases in the Sessions, which was a good thing as there was only one magistrate on the Bench. Some cases – presumably the more serious ones – required two magistrates to adjudicate and the Newspaper wrote: "A messenger was despatched in search of a stray justice, but he returned after an unsuccessful quest, and several cases had, therefore, to be remanded. One “lady,” who had, somehow or other, got into “trouble,” expressed her disgust at being remanded in terms more forcible than polite."
Also on the 16th the 8:45am train from St Helens to Widnes hit a horse and then decapitated a hen. Trains that travelled south from St Helens Railway Station had to pass over a canal bridge that was on a level with the canal towing path. A boat was being pulled along the path as the train was passing and the boatman's horse must have been frightened by the noise. The animal ran out at the advancing train and was knocked down and killed. The train continued its journey and upon nearing Widnes a stray hen ran onto the line and had its head severed from its body.
Frightened horses tended to be more dangerous on the roads than on the railway. Later that morning Dr Dorman and his brother were driving out of Glover Street into Liverpool Road. Something spooked their horse and it bolted, pitching the two men out of their gig into the street. The animal then hurtled up Bridge Street and into Ormskirk Street before galloping down Church Street until the horse was finally stopped in Peasley Cross Lane. The doctor and his brother were not seriously hurt but their gig after being hurtled round St Helens was reported as having been "smashed to pieces".
The Pilkington glass strike had begun on April 18th with the "turn-out" caused by the company wanting to cut the wages of glassblowers by over 20% because of foreign competition. The workers felt that they were already paid less than other glass firms and so had resisted the reduction. On the 16th the glassmakers' band "perambulated the town" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it. The paper reported that the strikers were being well supported by the local community and their committee felt they could hold out for an indefinite length of time.
In the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th John Barlow from Fazakerley Street in Prescot was charged with having committed a violent assault on his wife at Whiston. The hawker and rag gatherer had committed the brutal attack with a stick leaving the woman covered in blood.
PC Eland gave evidence that he had found Mrs Barlow in a field bleeding about the head and had pursued her husband to Huyton Quarry where he arrested him. PC Alsop described how the woman was so hurt that a donkey cart had to be hired to take her to Prescot Police Station. Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – said Mrs Barlow had been in such a deplorable state as to require immediate surgical attention.
However the woman had refused to prosecute her husband – probably fearing she would get another beating if she did – but an independent witness gave evidence instead. Barlow told the Bench that he had given his wages to his wife and then found that she had been spending his cash in public houses. He denied hitting her on the head saying her wounds had come about through her falling out of his cart. The Bench censured Barlow for his conduct saying he was a nuisance to his neighbourhood and a "terror to the woman unfortunate to be his wife". The man was then sent to prison for six months with hard labour.
There was also another extraordinary case of a publican being charged with harbouring a policeman. Sgt. Peters gave evidence that on April 21st PC Ewing had been missing from his beat for over half-an-hour. Upon going to the Red Lion Inn in Market Place, Prescot, at half-past midnight, he heard the constable's voice coming from inside. The sergeant said he remained outside for about half-an-hour when some men opened the door. Upon seeing Sgt. Peters, PC Ewing "made his escape" but the sergeant went after him and declared him unfit for duty.
As a result the Chief Constable of Lancashire had fined the officer 15 shillings for being drunk on duty and transferred him to a beat in Liverpool. In court there were hisses when Ewing entered the witness box. But he took the blame for what had happened saying the landlord James Fletcher and his wife had repeatedly asked him to leave. Other witnesses gave similar evidence and so the magistrates dismissed the case.
Next week's stories will include a claim of attempted rape in Bold Park, the ex-workhouse master who claimed persecution, there's short measure at the Lamb Inn in College Street and the poor woman arrested for sleeping rough in the grounds of a Prescot mansion.
We begin on the 11th in Prescot Police Court when Mary Crayton was sent to prison for four months for committing a breach of the peace in Hillock Street. The woman was described as an old offender and had been told to pay a £10 surety and procure two people prepared to put up £5 sureties guaranteeing her good behaviour. The average wage was then around 25 shillings a week and so those sums were impossible for her and her friends to find. So being in default of payment, Mary Crayton was sent to gaol.
The last time we came across Cecily Hanningham was in October 1868 when the middle-aged woman was charged with being an "idle, drunken and disorderly person". Hanningham had then been before the magistrates on 27 occasions and Richard Pilkington on the Bench said he would give the woman a month in gaol to see if it did her any good. It clearly hadn't worked as Cecily returned to St Helens Police Court on the 11th having now racked up a total of 34 court appearances. On this occasion she was charged with sleeping in the open air at Windle and was returned to prison for 14 more days with hard labour.
Sophia Campbell – described as a "gipsy-looking woman" – was arrested by St Helens Police on the 11th and returned to Southport. It was there that she'd persuaded a naive servant girl to give her some of her clothes on the pretext of needing them to tell the girl's future. The woman had pawned most of the clothing but kept some for herself. Two days after being apprehended in St Helens, Sophia Campbell was sent to gaol for four months.
On the 12th a pair of performing bears was in St Helens. This is what the Newspaper wrote about them: "On Thursday two performing bears and their custodians visited the town, and the antics of the peripatetic bruins afforded, of course, considerable amusement to the juveniles. The quadrupeds, it is scarcely necessary to add, seemed better taught than fed."
In March many newspapers had described how the exhibition of performing bears and wolves inside a London shop had led to a court case. This was after a customer who had complained about the cost had been hit over the head with an iron bar.
Under the sarcastic headline "Miss Craymore Taking Her Holidays", the Prescot Reporter wrote on the 14th: "Mary Ann Craymore, a young woman of 20, who has appeared before the Prescot magistrates on almost every charge, was apprehended on warrant, having failed to appear to a summons, on the charge of being drunk in Hillock-street, on the 19th April, and also with committing a breach of the peace at the same time and place. Miss Craymore was fined in the one case, and required to find bail in the other, or “do” a constitutional in the salubrious neighbourhood of Kirkdale [Gaol], for the summer (four months), which alternative she rather unwillingly accepted."
Also on the 14th the building of a replacement chemist's shop at the corner of Ormskirk Street and Bridge Street began. Thomas McKenzie had run the old shop for fifteen years and had come to an agreement with the town council. They wanted to widen Ormskirk Street and the druggist agreed to set back his new shop and let the council have some of his frontage for a wider road.
This was a busy part of the town centre. The premises were adjacent to the popular Red Lion Inn and the horse-driven omnibus from Prescot stopped there. So last week the old shop was demolished and on the 14th McKenzie's wife Frances laid the first stone for the new premises in the presence of councillors. After the ceremony they all trooped off to the Globe Inn in Ormskirk Street where the Newspaper said: "The usual complimentary toasts were duly honoured". They were, no doubt, celebrating in Liverpool too, as Stanley Park was opened on the same day.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th Margaret McCabe was charged with assaulting Johana Hogan from Sandfield Crescent. This is how the Newspaper reported the case: "From the statement of the complainant it appears that the parties are neighbours, and that some ill feeling had arisen through those fruitful sources of quarrelling amongst the women – “the childer”. The complainant said on the day in question the defendant commenced to “bullyrag” her about her (complainant's) daughter having struck the defendant's son.
"The defendant, according to the complainant, digressed from bad language, and made a savage attack on her, tearing her hair out by handfuls, a “specimen” of which she exhibited to the bench. The defendant denied the assault, and said the hair had been got up for the occasion, and wound up by stating that the complainant had attempted to stab her several times with a knife, an assertion which was bitterly, and with much volubility, repudiated by the complainant. The defendant, who throughout considered herself, of course, the injured party, was bound over to keep the peace for three months, herself in £5, and one surety of £5."
Apart from about fifteen drunkards, there were not that many cases in the Sessions, which was a good thing as there was only one magistrate on the Bench. Some cases – presumably the more serious ones – required two magistrates to adjudicate and the Newspaper wrote: "A messenger was despatched in search of a stray justice, but he returned after an unsuccessful quest, and several cases had, therefore, to be remanded. One “lady,” who had, somehow or other, got into “trouble,” expressed her disgust at being remanded in terms more forcible than polite."
Also on the 16th the 8:45am train from St Helens to Widnes hit a horse and then decapitated a hen. Trains that travelled south from St Helens Railway Station had to pass over a canal bridge that was on a level with the canal towing path. A boat was being pulled along the path as the train was passing and the boatman's horse must have been frightened by the noise. The animal ran out at the advancing train and was knocked down and killed. The train continued its journey and upon nearing Widnes a stray hen ran onto the line and had its head severed from its body.
Frightened horses tended to be more dangerous on the roads than on the railway. Later that morning Dr Dorman and his brother were driving out of Glover Street into Liverpool Road. Something spooked their horse and it bolted, pitching the two men out of their gig into the street. The animal then hurtled up Bridge Street and into Ormskirk Street before galloping down Church Street until the horse was finally stopped in Peasley Cross Lane. The doctor and his brother were not seriously hurt but their gig after being hurtled round St Helens was reported as having been "smashed to pieces".
The Pilkington glass strike had begun on April 18th with the "turn-out" caused by the company wanting to cut the wages of glassblowers by over 20% because of foreign competition. The workers felt that they were already paid less than other glass firms and so had resisted the reduction. On the 16th the glassmakers' band "perambulated the town" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it. The paper reported that the strikers were being well supported by the local community and their committee felt they could hold out for an indefinite length of time.
In the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th John Barlow from Fazakerley Street in Prescot was charged with having committed a violent assault on his wife at Whiston. The hawker and rag gatherer had committed the brutal attack with a stick leaving the woman covered in blood.
PC Eland gave evidence that he had found Mrs Barlow in a field bleeding about the head and had pursued her husband to Huyton Quarry where he arrested him. PC Alsop described how the woman was so hurt that a donkey cart had to be hired to take her to Prescot Police Station. Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – said Mrs Barlow had been in such a deplorable state as to require immediate surgical attention.
However the woman had refused to prosecute her husband – probably fearing she would get another beating if she did – but an independent witness gave evidence instead. Barlow told the Bench that he had given his wages to his wife and then found that she had been spending his cash in public houses. He denied hitting her on the head saying her wounds had come about through her falling out of his cart. The Bench censured Barlow for his conduct saying he was a nuisance to his neighbourhood and a "terror to the woman unfortunate to be his wife". The man was then sent to prison for six months with hard labour.
There was also another extraordinary case of a publican being charged with harbouring a policeman. Sgt. Peters gave evidence that on April 21st PC Ewing had been missing from his beat for over half-an-hour. Upon going to the Red Lion Inn in Market Place, Prescot, at half-past midnight, he heard the constable's voice coming from inside. The sergeant said he remained outside for about half-an-hour when some men opened the door. Upon seeing Sgt. Peters, PC Ewing "made his escape" but the sergeant went after him and declared him unfit for duty.
As a result the Chief Constable of Lancashire had fined the officer 15 shillings for being drunk on duty and transferred him to a beat in Liverpool. In court there were hisses when Ewing entered the witness box. But he took the blame for what had happened saying the landlord James Fletcher and his wife had repeatedly asked him to leave. Other witnesses gave similar evidence and so the magistrates dismissed the case.
Next week's stories will include a claim of attempted rape in Bold Park, the ex-workhouse master who claimed persecution, there's short measure at the Lamb Inn in College Street and the poor woman arrested for sleeping rough in the grounds of a Prescot mansion.
This week's many stories include the performing bears in St Helens, the runaway horse in Liverpool Road, a brutal assault on a wife in Whiston, the widening of Ormskirk Street, the St Helens train that hit a horse and decapitated a hen and the "idle, drunken and disorderly" woman charged with sleeping in the open air at Windle.
We begin on the 11th in Prescot Police Court when Mary Crayton was sent to prison for four months for committing a breach of the peace in Hillock Street.
The woman was described as an old offender and had been told to pay a £10 surety and procure two people prepared to put up £5 sureties guaranteeing her good behaviour.
The average wage was then around 25 shillings a week and so those sums were impossible for her and her friends to find. So being in default of payment, Mary Crayton was sent to gaol.
The last time we came across Cecily Hanningham was in October 1868 when the middle-aged woman was charged with being an "idle, drunken and disorderly person".
Hanningham had then been before the magistrates on 27 occasions and Richard Pilkington on the Bench said he would give the woman a month in gaol to see if it did her any good.
It clearly hadn't worked as Cecily returned to St Helens Police Court on the 11th having now racked up a total of 34 court appearances.
On this occasion she was charged with sleeping in the open air at Windle and was returned to prison for 14 more days with hard labour.
John Lawrenson – described as a lad – was charged with throwing stones in Sandfield Crescent, off Liverpool Road (pictured above).
One of the missiles had hit a man in the eye and John was fined 10 shillings or if in default of payment serve 14 days in prison.
Sophia Campbell – described as a "gipsy-looking woman" – was arrested by St Helens Police on the 11th and returned to Southport.
It was there that she'd persuaded a naive servant girl to give her some of her clothes on the pretext of needing them to tell the girl's future.
The woman had pawned most of the clothing but kept some for herself. Two days after being apprehended in St Helens, Sophia Campbell was sent to gaol for four months.
On the 12th a pair of performing bears was in St Helens. This is what the Newspaper wrote about them:
"On Thursday two performing bears and their custodians visited the town, and the antics of the peripatetic bruins afforded, of course, considerable amusement to the juveniles. The quadrupeds, it is scarcely necessary to add, seemed better taught than fed."
In March many newspapers had described how the exhibition of performing bears and wolves inside a London shop had led to a court case.
This was after a customer who had complained about the cost had been hit over the head with an iron bar.
Under the sarcastic headline "Miss Craymore Taking Her Holidays", the Prescot Reporter wrote on the 14th:
"Mary Ann Craymore, a young woman of 20, who has appeared before the Prescot magistrates on almost every charge, was apprehended on warrant, having failed to appear to a summons, on the charge of being drunk in Hillock-street, on the 19th April, and also with committing a breach of the peace at the same time and place.
"Miss Craymore was fined in the one case, and required to find bail in the other, or “do” a constitutional in the salubrious neighbourhood of Kirkdale [Gaol], for the summer (four months), which alternative she rather unwillingly accepted."
Also on the 14th the building of a replacement chemist's shop at the corner of Ormskirk Street and Bridge Street began.
Thomas McKenzie had run the old shop for fifteen years and had come to an agreement with the town council.
They wanted to widen Ormskirk Street and the druggist agreed to set back his new shop and let the council have some of his frontage for a wider road.
This was a busy part of the town centre. The premises were adjacent to the popular Red Lion Inn and the horse-driven omnibus from Prescot stopped there.
So last week the old shop was demolished and on the 14th McKenzie's wife Frances laid the first stone for the new premises in the presence of councillors.
After the ceremony they all trooped off to the Globe Inn in Ormskirk Street where the Newspaper said: "The usual complimentary toasts were duly honoured".
They were, no doubt, celebrating in Liverpool too, as Stanley Park was opened on the same day.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th Margaret McCabe was charged with assaulting Johana Hogan from Sandfield Crescent. This is how the Newspaper reported the case:
"From the statement of the complainant it appears that the parties are neighbours, and that some ill feeling had arisen through those fruitful sources of quarrelling amongst the women – “the childer”.
"The complainant said on the day in question the defendant commenced to “bullyrag” her about her (complainant's) daughter having struck the defendant's son.
"The defendant, according to the complainant, digressed from bad language, and made a savage attack on her, tearing her hair out by handfuls, a “specimen” of which she exhibited to the bench.
"The defendant denied the assault, and said the hair had been got up for the occasion, and wound up by stating that the complainant had attempted to stab her several times with a knife, an assertion which was bitterly, and with much volubility, repudiated by the complainant.
"The defendant, who throughout considered herself, of course, the injured party, was bound over to keep the peace for three months, herself in £5, and one surety of £5."
Apart from about fifteen drunkards, there were not that many cases in the Sessions, which was a good thing as there was only one magistrate on the Bench.
Some cases – presumably the more serious ones – required two magistrates to adjudicate and the Newspaper wrote:
"A messenger was despatched in search of a stray justice, but he returned after an unsuccessful quest, and several cases had, therefore, to be remanded. One “lady,” who had, somehow or other, got into “trouble,” expressed her disgust at being remanded in terms more forcible than polite."
Also on the 16th the 8:45am train from St Helens to Widnes hit a horse and then decapitated a hen.
Trains that travelled south from St Helens Railway Station had to pass over a canal bridge that was on a level with the canal towing path.
A boat was being pulled along the path as the train was passing and the boatman's horse must have been frightened by the noise.
The animal ran out at the advancing train and was knocked down and killed.
The train continued its journey and upon nearing Widnes a stray hen ran onto the line and had its head severed from its body.
Frightened horses tended to be more dangerous on the roads than on the railway. Later that morning Dr Dorman and his brother were driving out of Glover Street into Liverpool Road.
Something spooked their horse and it bolted, pitching the two men out of their gig into the street.
The animal then hurtled up Bridge Street and into Ormskirk Street before galloping down Church Street until the horse was finally stopped in Peasley Cross Lane.
The doctor and his brother were not seriously hurt but their gig after being hurtled round St Helens was reported as having been "smashed to pieces".
The Pilkington glass strike had begun on April 18th with the "turn-out" caused by the company wanting to cut the wages of glassblowers by over 20% because of foreign competition.
The workers felt that they were already paid less than other glass firms and so had resisted the reduction.
On the 16th the glassmakers' band "perambulated the town" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it.
The paper reported that the strikers were being well supported by the local community and their committee felt they could hold out for an indefinite length of time.
In the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th John Barlow from Fazakerley Street in Prescot was charged with having committed a violent assault on his wife at Whiston.
The hawker and rag gatherer had committed the brutal attack with a stick leaving the woman covered in blood.
PC Eland gave evidence that he had found Mrs Barlow in a field bleeding about the head and had pursued her husband to Huyton Quarry where he arrested him.
PC Alsop described how the woman was so hurt that a donkey cart had to be hired to take her to Prescot Police Station.
Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – said Mrs Barlow had been in such a deplorable state as to require immediate surgical attention.
However the woman had refused to prosecute her husband – probably fearing she would get another beating if she did – but an independent witness gave evidence instead.
Barlow told the Bench that he had given his wages to his wife and then found that she had been spending his cash in public houses.
He denied hitting her on the head saying her wounds had come about through her falling out of his cart.
The Bench censured Barlow for his conduct saying he was a nuisance to his neighbourhood and a "terror to the woman unfortunate to be his wife".
The man was then sent to prison at Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool for six months with hard labour.
There was also another extraordinary case of a publican being charged with harbouring a policeman.
Sgt. Peters gave evidence that on April 21st PC Ewing had been missing from his beat for over half-an-hour.
Upon going to the Red Lion Inn in Market Place, Prescot, at half-past midnight, he heard the constable's voice coming from inside.
The sergeant said he remained outside for about half-an-hour when some men opened the door.
Upon seeing Sgt. Peters, PC Ewing "made his escape" but the sergeant went after him and declared him unfit for duty.
As a result the Chief Constable of Lancashire had fined the officer 15 shillings for being drunk on duty and transferred him to a beat in Liverpool.
In court there were hisses when Ewing entered the witness box. But he took the blame for what had happened saying the landlord James Fletcher and his wife had repeatedly asked him to leave.
Other witnesses gave similar evidence and so the magistrates dismissed the case.
Next week's stories will include a claim of attempted rape in Bold Park, the ex-workhouse master who claimed persecution, there's short measure at the Lamb Inn in College Street and the poor woman arrested for sleeping rough in the grounds of a Prescot mansion.
We begin on the 11th in Prescot Police Court when Mary Crayton was sent to prison for four months for committing a breach of the peace in Hillock Street.
The woman was described as an old offender and had been told to pay a £10 surety and procure two people prepared to put up £5 sureties guaranteeing her good behaviour.
The average wage was then around 25 shillings a week and so those sums were impossible for her and her friends to find. So being in default of payment, Mary Crayton was sent to gaol.
The last time we came across Cecily Hanningham was in October 1868 when the middle-aged woman was charged with being an "idle, drunken and disorderly person".
Hanningham had then been before the magistrates on 27 occasions and Richard Pilkington on the Bench said he would give the woman a month in gaol to see if it did her any good.
It clearly hadn't worked as Cecily returned to St Helens Police Court on the 11th having now racked up a total of 34 court appearances.
On this occasion she was charged with sleeping in the open air at Windle and was returned to prison for 14 more days with hard labour.
One of the missiles had hit a man in the eye and John was fined 10 shillings or if in default of payment serve 14 days in prison.
Sophia Campbell – described as a "gipsy-looking woman" – was arrested by St Helens Police on the 11th and returned to Southport.
It was there that she'd persuaded a naive servant girl to give her some of her clothes on the pretext of needing them to tell the girl's future.
The woman had pawned most of the clothing but kept some for herself. Two days after being apprehended in St Helens, Sophia Campbell was sent to gaol for four months.
On the 12th a pair of performing bears was in St Helens. This is what the Newspaper wrote about them:
"On Thursday two performing bears and their custodians visited the town, and the antics of the peripatetic bruins afforded, of course, considerable amusement to the juveniles. The quadrupeds, it is scarcely necessary to add, seemed better taught than fed."
In March many newspapers had described how the exhibition of performing bears and wolves inside a London shop had led to a court case.
This was after a customer who had complained about the cost had been hit over the head with an iron bar.
Under the sarcastic headline "Miss Craymore Taking Her Holidays", the Prescot Reporter wrote on the 14th:
"Mary Ann Craymore, a young woman of 20, who has appeared before the Prescot magistrates on almost every charge, was apprehended on warrant, having failed to appear to a summons, on the charge of being drunk in Hillock-street, on the 19th April, and also with committing a breach of the peace at the same time and place.
"Miss Craymore was fined in the one case, and required to find bail in the other, or “do” a constitutional in the salubrious neighbourhood of Kirkdale [Gaol], for the summer (four months), which alternative she rather unwillingly accepted."
Also on the 14th the building of a replacement chemist's shop at the corner of Ormskirk Street and Bridge Street began.
Thomas McKenzie had run the old shop for fifteen years and had come to an agreement with the town council.
They wanted to widen Ormskirk Street and the druggist agreed to set back his new shop and let the council have some of his frontage for a wider road.
This was a busy part of the town centre. The premises were adjacent to the popular Red Lion Inn and the horse-driven omnibus from Prescot stopped there.
So last week the old shop was demolished and on the 14th McKenzie's wife Frances laid the first stone for the new premises in the presence of councillors.
After the ceremony they all trooped off to the Globe Inn in Ormskirk Street where the Newspaper said: "The usual complimentary toasts were duly honoured".
They were, no doubt, celebrating in Liverpool too, as Stanley Park was opened on the same day.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th Margaret McCabe was charged with assaulting Johana Hogan from Sandfield Crescent. This is how the Newspaper reported the case:
"From the statement of the complainant it appears that the parties are neighbours, and that some ill feeling had arisen through those fruitful sources of quarrelling amongst the women – “the childer”.
"The complainant said on the day in question the defendant commenced to “bullyrag” her about her (complainant's) daughter having struck the defendant's son.
"The defendant, according to the complainant, digressed from bad language, and made a savage attack on her, tearing her hair out by handfuls, a “specimen” of which she exhibited to the bench.
"The defendant denied the assault, and said the hair had been got up for the occasion, and wound up by stating that the complainant had attempted to stab her several times with a knife, an assertion which was bitterly, and with much volubility, repudiated by the complainant.
"The defendant, who throughout considered herself, of course, the injured party, was bound over to keep the peace for three months, herself in £5, and one surety of £5."
Apart from about fifteen drunkards, there were not that many cases in the Sessions, which was a good thing as there was only one magistrate on the Bench.
Some cases – presumably the more serious ones – required two magistrates to adjudicate and the Newspaper wrote:
"A messenger was despatched in search of a stray justice, but he returned after an unsuccessful quest, and several cases had, therefore, to be remanded. One “lady,” who had, somehow or other, got into “trouble,” expressed her disgust at being remanded in terms more forcible than polite."
Also on the 16th the 8:45am train from St Helens to Widnes hit a horse and then decapitated a hen.
Trains that travelled south from St Helens Railway Station had to pass over a canal bridge that was on a level with the canal towing path.
A boat was being pulled along the path as the train was passing and the boatman's horse must have been frightened by the noise.
The animal ran out at the advancing train and was knocked down and killed.
The train continued its journey and upon nearing Widnes a stray hen ran onto the line and had its head severed from its body.
Frightened horses tended to be more dangerous on the roads than on the railway. Later that morning Dr Dorman and his brother were driving out of Glover Street into Liverpool Road.
Something spooked their horse and it bolted, pitching the two men out of their gig into the street.
The animal then hurtled up Bridge Street and into Ormskirk Street before galloping down Church Street until the horse was finally stopped in Peasley Cross Lane.
The doctor and his brother were not seriously hurt but their gig after being hurtled round St Helens was reported as having been "smashed to pieces".
The Pilkington glass strike had begun on April 18th with the "turn-out" caused by the company wanting to cut the wages of glassblowers by over 20% because of foreign competition.
The workers felt that they were already paid less than other glass firms and so had resisted the reduction.
On the 16th the glassmakers' band "perambulated the town" – as the St Helens Newspaper put it.
The paper reported that the strikers were being well supported by the local community and their committee felt they could hold out for an indefinite length of time.
In the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th John Barlow from Fazakerley Street in Prescot was charged with having committed a violent assault on his wife at Whiston.
The hawker and rag gatherer had committed the brutal attack with a stick leaving the woman covered in blood.
PC Eland gave evidence that he had found Mrs Barlow in a field bleeding about the head and had pursued her husband to Huyton Quarry where he arrested him.
PC Alsop described how the woman was so hurt that a donkey cart had to be hired to take her to Prescot Police Station.
Superintendent James Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – said Mrs Barlow had been in such a deplorable state as to require immediate surgical attention.
However the woman had refused to prosecute her husband – probably fearing she would get another beating if she did – but an independent witness gave evidence instead.
Barlow told the Bench that he had given his wages to his wife and then found that she had been spending his cash in public houses.
He denied hitting her on the head saying her wounds had come about through her falling out of his cart.
The Bench censured Barlow for his conduct saying he was a nuisance to his neighbourhood and a "terror to the woman unfortunate to be his wife".
The man was then sent to prison at Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool for six months with hard labour.
There was also another extraordinary case of a publican being charged with harbouring a policeman.
Sgt. Peters gave evidence that on April 21st PC Ewing had been missing from his beat for over half-an-hour.
Upon going to the Red Lion Inn in Market Place, Prescot, at half-past midnight, he heard the constable's voice coming from inside.
The sergeant said he remained outside for about half-an-hour when some men opened the door.
Upon seeing Sgt. Peters, PC Ewing "made his escape" but the sergeant went after him and declared him unfit for duty.
As a result the Chief Constable of Lancashire had fined the officer 15 shillings for being drunk on duty and transferred him to a beat in Liverpool.
In court there were hisses when Ewing entered the witness box. But he took the blame for what had happened saying the landlord James Fletcher and his wife had repeatedly asked him to leave.
Other witnesses gave similar evidence and so the magistrates dismissed the case.
Next week's stories will include a claim of attempted rape in Bold Park, the ex-workhouse master who claimed persecution, there's short measure at the Lamb Inn in College Street and the poor woman arrested for sleeping rough in the grounds of a Prescot mansion.