150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 11 - 17 AUGUST 1875
This week's many stories include the Parr purring threat, the paralysed beggar who was sent to prison after supping in a Liverpool Road pub, the clown cricketers that played in St Helens, the brutal kicking of a Cowley Street wife, the dramatic storm that struck St Helens and the row over ducks eating corn that led to an old woman in Parr getting knocked to the ground.
As welcome as a bull in a china shop was a drunk in a marketplace pottery stand! James Lawler was the drunk who William Houghton, the market pottery man, this week charged in St Helens Petty Sessions with maliciously damaging his earthenware dishes.
Houghton said Lawler had on the previous Saturday afternoon about 5:15pm come staggering along towards his stall and then had fallen among his dishes breaking fifteen and had also damaged a gas pipe. But he had to admit that the occurrence was accidental and not malicious and so the magistrates said they had no choice but to dismiss the case, telling the complainant that he should seek remedy for his losses in the County Court.
It does seem rather harsh to send a paralysed ex-soldier to prison – but that's what happened to James Fildes this week. Just whether his incapacity had been caused by his military service was not made clear in the newspaper report but the man had been arrested for begging in Liverpool Road. PC Doig told the court that he had seen Fildes go from shop to shop and eventually he walked into a beerhouse where he begged from all who were there and then ordered a glass of beer.
James Fildes denied begging in the beerhouse and claimed that he had only just gone in and ordered the beer when the constable came in. He complained to the magistrates that PC Doig had collared him without giving him a chance to drink his beer, which he said was "very hard". The constable, according to Fildes, had told him that he had been watching him "like a rat".
Supt Ludlam, the head of St Helens Police, told the court that the man had frequently been sent to the workhouse but would not stay there for more than a fortnight when he would leave and go about begging. Then, he said, Fildes would get himself "disgracefully drunk" on the proceeds.
The defendant replied that he did not stop in the workhouse because the master did not treat him properly. To that Supt Ludlam said to the magistrates that what Fildes meant was that the workhouse master did not allow him to have alcohol and the disabled man was subsequently sent to Kirkdale prison for two weeks.
There was another daft excuse given by a defendant in court. After being accused of knocking a 72-year-old woman to the ground in Parr, James Dunlop offered the explanation that he had accidentally caught Elizabeth Morris on her head with his elbow.
It was actually Elizabeth's son that Dunlop was angry with and he had been complaining that his ducks were getting into his field and eating his corn. But the Bench rejected Dunlop's claim that the woman had come to see what their row was about and had got accidentally thumped by a loose elbow and he was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Why kicking someone in the head with clogs became known in Lancashire as "purring" is a mystery to me. The vicious practice is as far removed from the sound of a contented cat as possible. Elizabeth Hart took Thomas Aspinall to court this week after telling her in a street in Parr that if he were her husband he would purr her and had then threatened the woman with his fist.
He was accused of using threatening language but his solicitor pointed out that the threat was conditional upon an event that could not possibly take place. There was not much chance of the warring pair getting wed and so the case was dismissed.
But Bryan Gormley did not just talk about purring; he did the terrible act to his own wife. The attack had taken place on July 12th but Bridget Gormley had been so ill that she had not been fit to attend court until this week and even then she had to remain seated while giving evidence.
The couple and their baby had been living in lodgings in Cowley Street in St Helens and Bridget told the court that at 10:45pm she had been feeding her daughter when her husband came home very drunk and demanded his supper. Some words took place between him and their landlady and Bridget said she had intervened to prevent her husband continuing the row. As a result she was struck on her forehead and twice knocked down.
Her husband then commenced severely kicking her about the head, neck and elsewhere on her body. And to demonstrate what the St Helens Newspaper called his "determined brutality" and his "determination to make the kicking effective", he took off his right boot and put on a heavy, iron-plated clog. As Bridget screamed loudly, her landlady went for the police.
The battered wife also told the court that during the day of the attack her husband had frequently threatened her, making use of such expressions in which he said he would "hang for her" and "do away" with Bridget and also "go to Kirkdale" for her. The latter was the Liverpool prison where the man would eventually end up. But not for long.
The St Helens Magistrates committed Bryan Gormley for trial at the next Liverpool Quarter Sessions. There, lengthy prison sentences were routinely handed out but the 27-year-old labourer only received two months in prison.
As I have often said, married women with young children were so dependent upon their husbands that often they felt compelled to continue living with them in spite of their brutality. And the 1881 Census shows that the couple were still together and living in Crab Street and now had two daughters.
The St Helens Newspaper had a very dramatic way of describing storms, which they did in their edition of the 14th: "On Monday afternoon, about three o’clock, a heavy storm of thunder, lightning, and rain burst over the town, which caused many persons to be apprehensive lest some accident should result from it. The electric fluid seemed to fairly wind round the very housetops in luridly vivid flashes, the heavy peals of thunder resembling the roaring of artillery, and also seemed to be painfully near.
"The rain by which they were accompanied was also exceedingly heavy, the streets being completely deluged, as were also many of the underground cellars and kitchens. The storm was fortunately of short duration, as it only lasted about a quarter of an hour, but the severest that has been witnessed in the district for many years; and we fear that considerable damage has been done to property in the district."
There were some strange games of cricket played in the 1870s and the Newspaper described how a team of clown cricketers had been in St Helens. Casey and Robson's Clown Cricketers had played a game against 14 members of the St Helens Cricket Club on their Dentons Green ground.
What exactly that entailed, I cannot say but the sporting side of the clowns' activities appeared to be a promotion for their entertainment that was separately being put on in the Volunteer Hall. But they certainly seemed to know how to play cricket. Low scoring games were then the norm but the clowns totalled 164 in their single innings with the St Helens side only totalling 94 in their two innings.
Drownings within the St Helens district were very common but that which took place in Bold this week was very unusual. Thomas Corbett and Patrick Mullaney were returning home to Burtonwood from Bold in company with two other men when they made a bet of half-a-gallon of beer to swim across what was known as the Rock Hole pond.
Mullaney successfully swam across it but Corbett after only swimming nine yards shouted to his pal to save him as he was sinking. Mullaney swam back but could not rescue his friend as Corbett's dog, which was also in the water, attacked him and refused to let him get near his master. Corbett was immediately drowned but as the pond had been a very deep, worked-out old quarry, his body could not be recovered for four hours.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the stringent cuts planned in poor relief, the butcher who bought sheep that had foot and mouth disease, the engineering apprentice who wanted to go to sea and the brutal attack on an old woman in Whiston.
As welcome as a bull in a china shop was a drunk in a marketplace pottery stand! James Lawler was the drunk who William Houghton, the market pottery man, this week charged in St Helens Petty Sessions with maliciously damaging his earthenware dishes.
Houghton said Lawler had on the previous Saturday afternoon about 5:15pm come staggering along towards his stall and then had fallen among his dishes breaking fifteen and had also damaged a gas pipe. But he had to admit that the occurrence was accidental and not malicious and so the magistrates said they had no choice but to dismiss the case, telling the complainant that he should seek remedy for his losses in the County Court.
It does seem rather harsh to send a paralysed ex-soldier to prison – but that's what happened to James Fildes this week. Just whether his incapacity had been caused by his military service was not made clear in the newspaper report but the man had been arrested for begging in Liverpool Road. PC Doig told the court that he had seen Fildes go from shop to shop and eventually he walked into a beerhouse where he begged from all who were there and then ordered a glass of beer.
James Fildes denied begging in the beerhouse and claimed that he had only just gone in and ordered the beer when the constable came in. He complained to the magistrates that PC Doig had collared him without giving him a chance to drink his beer, which he said was "very hard". The constable, according to Fildes, had told him that he had been watching him "like a rat".
Supt Ludlam, the head of St Helens Police, told the court that the man had frequently been sent to the workhouse but would not stay there for more than a fortnight when he would leave and go about begging. Then, he said, Fildes would get himself "disgracefully drunk" on the proceeds.
The defendant replied that he did not stop in the workhouse because the master did not treat him properly. To that Supt Ludlam said to the magistrates that what Fildes meant was that the workhouse master did not allow him to have alcohol and the disabled man was subsequently sent to Kirkdale prison for two weeks.
There was another daft excuse given by a defendant in court. After being accused of knocking a 72-year-old woman to the ground in Parr, James Dunlop offered the explanation that he had accidentally caught Elizabeth Morris on her head with his elbow.
It was actually Elizabeth's son that Dunlop was angry with and he had been complaining that his ducks were getting into his field and eating his corn. But the Bench rejected Dunlop's claim that the woman had come to see what their row was about and had got accidentally thumped by a loose elbow and he was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Why kicking someone in the head with clogs became known in Lancashire as "purring" is a mystery to me. The vicious practice is as far removed from the sound of a contented cat as possible. Elizabeth Hart took Thomas Aspinall to court this week after telling her in a street in Parr that if he were her husband he would purr her and had then threatened the woman with his fist.
He was accused of using threatening language but his solicitor pointed out that the threat was conditional upon an event that could not possibly take place. There was not much chance of the warring pair getting wed and so the case was dismissed.
But Bryan Gormley did not just talk about purring; he did the terrible act to his own wife. The attack had taken place on July 12th but Bridget Gormley had been so ill that she had not been fit to attend court until this week and even then she had to remain seated while giving evidence.
The couple and their baby had been living in lodgings in Cowley Street in St Helens and Bridget told the court that at 10:45pm she had been feeding her daughter when her husband came home very drunk and demanded his supper. Some words took place between him and their landlady and Bridget said she had intervened to prevent her husband continuing the row. As a result she was struck on her forehead and twice knocked down.
Her husband then commenced severely kicking her about the head, neck and elsewhere on her body. And to demonstrate what the St Helens Newspaper called his "determined brutality" and his "determination to make the kicking effective", he took off his right boot and put on a heavy, iron-plated clog. As Bridget screamed loudly, her landlady went for the police.
The battered wife also told the court that during the day of the attack her husband had frequently threatened her, making use of such expressions in which he said he would "hang for her" and "do away" with Bridget and also "go to Kirkdale" for her. The latter was the Liverpool prison where the man would eventually end up. But not for long.
The St Helens Magistrates committed Bryan Gormley for trial at the next Liverpool Quarter Sessions. There, lengthy prison sentences were routinely handed out but the 27-year-old labourer only received two months in prison.
As I have often said, married women with young children were so dependent upon their husbands that often they felt compelled to continue living with them in spite of their brutality. And the 1881 Census shows that the couple were still together and living in Crab Street and now had two daughters.
"The rain by which they were accompanied was also exceedingly heavy, the streets being completely deluged, as were also many of the underground cellars and kitchens. The storm was fortunately of short duration, as it only lasted about a quarter of an hour, but the severest that has been witnessed in the district for many years; and we fear that considerable damage has been done to property in the district."
There were some strange games of cricket played in the 1870s and the Newspaper described how a team of clown cricketers had been in St Helens. Casey and Robson's Clown Cricketers had played a game against 14 members of the St Helens Cricket Club on their Dentons Green ground.
What exactly that entailed, I cannot say but the sporting side of the clowns' activities appeared to be a promotion for their entertainment that was separately being put on in the Volunteer Hall. But they certainly seemed to know how to play cricket. Low scoring games were then the norm but the clowns totalled 164 in their single innings with the St Helens side only totalling 94 in their two innings.
Drownings within the St Helens district were very common but that which took place in Bold this week was very unusual. Thomas Corbett and Patrick Mullaney were returning home to Burtonwood from Bold in company with two other men when they made a bet of half-a-gallon of beer to swim across what was known as the Rock Hole pond.
Mullaney successfully swam across it but Corbett after only swimming nine yards shouted to his pal to save him as he was sinking. Mullaney swam back but could not rescue his friend as Corbett's dog, which was also in the water, attacked him and refused to let him get near his master. Corbett was immediately drowned but as the pond had been a very deep, worked-out old quarry, his body could not be recovered for four hours.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the stringent cuts planned in poor relief, the butcher who bought sheep that had foot and mouth disease, the engineering apprentice who wanted to go to sea and the brutal attack on an old woman in Whiston.
This week's many stories include the Parr purring threat, the paralysed beggar who was sent to prison after supping in a Liverpool Road pub, the clown cricketers that played in St Helens, the brutal kicking of a Cowley Street wife, the dramatic storm that struck St Helens and the row over ducks eating corn that led to an old woman in Parr getting knocked to the ground.
As welcome as a bull in a china shop was a drunk in a marketplace pottery stand!
James Lawler was the drunk who William Houghton, the market pottery man, this week charged in St Helens Petty Sessions with maliciously damaging his earthenware dishes.
Houghton said Lawler had on the previous Saturday afternoon about 5:15pm come staggering along towards his stall and then had fallen among his dishes breaking fifteen and had also damaged a gas pipe.
But he had to admit that the occurrence was accidental and not malicious and so the magistrates said they had no choice but to dismiss the case, telling the complainant that he should seek remedy for his losses in the County Court.
It does seem rather harsh to send a paralysed ex-soldier to prison – but that's what happened to James Fildes this week.
Just whether his incapacity had been caused by his military service was not made clear in the newspaper report but the man had been arrested for begging in Liverpool Road.
PC Doig told the court that he had seen Fildes go from shop to shop and eventually he walked into a beerhouse where he begged from all who were there and then ordered a glass of beer.
James Fildes denied begging in the beerhouse and claimed that he had only just gone in and ordered the beer when the constable came in.
He complained to the magistrates that PC Doig had collared him without giving him a chance to drink his beer, which he said was "very hard".
The constable, according to Fildes, had told him that he had been watching him "like a rat".
Supt Ludlam, the head of St Helens Police, told the court that the man had frequently been sent to the workhouse but would not stay there for more than a fortnight when he would leave and go about begging.
Then, he said, Fildes would get himself "disgracefully drunk" on the proceeds.
The defendant replied that he did not stop in the workhouse because the master did not treat him properly.
To that Supt Ludlam said to the magistrates that what Fildes meant was that the workhouse master did not allow him to have alcohol and the disabled man was subsequently sent to Kirkdale prison for two weeks.
There was another daft excuse given by a defendant in court. After being accused of knocking a 72-year-old woman to the ground in Parr, James Dunlop offered the explanation that he had accidentally caught Elizabeth Morris on her head with his elbow.
It was actually Elizabeth's son that Dunlop was angry with and he had been complaining that his ducks were getting into his field and eating his corn.
But the Bench rejected Dunlop's claim that the woman had come to see what their row was about and had got accidentally thumped by a loose elbow and he was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Why kicking someone in the head with clogs became known in Lancashire as "purring" is a mystery to me.
The vicious practice is as far removed from the sound of a contented cat as possible.
Elizabeth Hart took Thomas Aspinall to court this week after telling her in a street in Parr that if he were her husband he would purr her and had then threatened the woman with his fist.
He was accused of using threatening language but his solicitor pointed out that the threat was conditional upon an event that could not possibly take place.
There was not much chance of the warring pair getting wed and so the case was dismissed.
But Bryan Gormley did not just talk about purring; he did the terrible act to his own wife.
The attack had taken place on July 12th but Bridget Gormley had been so ill that she had not been fit to attend court until this week and even then she had to remain seated while giving evidence.
The couple and their baby had been living in lodgings in Cowley Street in St Helens and Bridget told the court that at 10:45pm she had been feeding her daughter when her husband came home very drunk and demanded his supper.
Some words took place between him and their landlady and Bridget said she had intervened to prevent her husband continuing the row.
As a result she was struck on her forehead and twice knocked down.
Her husband then commenced severely kicking her about the head, neck and elsewhere on her body.
And to demonstrate what the St Helens Newspaper called his "determined brutality" and his "determination to make the kicking effective", he took off his right boot and put on a heavy, iron-plated clog.
As Bridget screamed loudly, her landlady went for the police.
The battered wife also told the court that during the day of the attack her husband had frequently threatened her, making use of such expressions in which he said he would "hang for her" and "do away" with Bridget and also "go to Kirkdale" for her.
The latter was the Liverpool prison where the man would eventually end up. But not for long.
The St Helens Magistrates committed Bryan Gormley for trial at the next Liverpool Quarter Sessions. There, lengthy prison sentences were routinely handed out but the 27-year-old labourer only received two months in prison.
As I have often said, married women with young children were so dependent upon their husbands that often they felt compelled to continue living with them in spite of their brutality.
And the 1881 Census shows that the couple were still together and living in Crab Street and now had two daughters.
The St Helens Newspaper had a very dramatic way of describing storms, which they did in their edition of the 14th:
"On Monday afternoon, about three o’clock, a heavy storm of thunder, lightning, and rain burst over the town, which caused many persons to be apprehensive lest some accident should result from it.
"The electric fluid seemed to fairly wind round the very housetops in luridly vivid flashes, the heavy peals of thunder resembling the roaring of artillery, and also seemed to be painfully near.
"The rain by which they were accompanied was also exceedingly heavy, the streets being completely deluged, as were also many of the underground cellars and kitchens.
"The storm was fortunately of short duration, as it only lasted about a quarter of an hour, but the severest that has been witnessed in the district for many years; and we fear that considerable damage has been done to property in the district."
There were some strange games of cricket played in the 1870s and the Newspaper described how a team of clown cricketers had been in St Helens.
Casey and Robson's Clown Cricketers had played a game against 14 members of the St Helens Cricket Club on their Dentons Green ground.
What exactly that entailed, I cannot say but the sporting side of the clowns' activities appeared to be a promotion for their entertainment that was separately being put on in the Volunteer Hall.
But they certainly seemed to know how to play cricket. Low scoring games were then the norm but the clowns totalled 164 in their single innings with the St Helens side only totalling 94 in their two innings.
Drownings within the St Helens district were very common but that which took place in Bold this week was very unusual.
Thomas Corbett and Patrick Mullaney were returning home to Burtonwood from Bold in company with two other men when they made a bet of half-a-gallon of beer to swim across what was known as the Rock Hole pond.
Mullaney successfully swam across it but Corbett after only swimming nine yards shouted to his pal to save him as he was sinking.
Mullaney swam back but could not rescue his friend as Corbett's dog, which was also in the water, attacked him and refused to let him get near his master.
Corbett was immediately drowned but as the pond had been a very deep, worked-out old quarry, his body could not be recovered for four hours.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the stringent cuts planned in poor relief, the butcher who bought sheep that had foot and mouth disease, the engineering apprentice who wanted to go to sea and the brutal attack on an old woman in Whiston.
As welcome as a bull in a china shop was a drunk in a marketplace pottery stand!
James Lawler was the drunk who William Houghton, the market pottery man, this week charged in St Helens Petty Sessions with maliciously damaging his earthenware dishes.
Houghton said Lawler had on the previous Saturday afternoon about 5:15pm come staggering along towards his stall and then had fallen among his dishes breaking fifteen and had also damaged a gas pipe.
But he had to admit that the occurrence was accidental and not malicious and so the magistrates said they had no choice but to dismiss the case, telling the complainant that he should seek remedy for his losses in the County Court.
It does seem rather harsh to send a paralysed ex-soldier to prison – but that's what happened to James Fildes this week.
Just whether his incapacity had been caused by his military service was not made clear in the newspaper report but the man had been arrested for begging in Liverpool Road.
PC Doig told the court that he had seen Fildes go from shop to shop and eventually he walked into a beerhouse where he begged from all who were there and then ordered a glass of beer.
James Fildes denied begging in the beerhouse and claimed that he had only just gone in and ordered the beer when the constable came in.
He complained to the magistrates that PC Doig had collared him without giving him a chance to drink his beer, which he said was "very hard".
The constable, according to Fildes, had told him that he had been watching him "like a rat".
Supt Ludlam, the head of St Helens Police, told the court that the man had frequently been sent to the workhouse but would not stay there for more than a fortnight when he would leave and go about begging.
Then, he said, Fildes would get himself "disgracefully drunk" on the proceeds.
The defendant replied that he did not stop in the workhouse because the master did not treat him properly.
To that Supt Ludlam said to the magistrates that what Fildes meant was that the workhouse master did not allow him to have alcohol and the disabled man was subsequently sent to Kirkdale prison for two weeks.
There was another daft excuse given by a defendant in court. After being accused of knocking a 72-year-old woman to the ground in Parr, James Dunlop offered the explanation that he had accidentally caught Elizabeth Morris on her head with his elbow.
It was actually Elizabeth's son that Dunlop was angry with and he had been complaining that his ducks were getting into his field and eating his corn.
But the Bench rejected Dunlop's claim that the woman had come to see what their row was about and had got accidentally thumped by a loose elbow and he was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Why kicking someone in the head with clogs became known in Lancashire as "purring" is a mystery to me.
The vicious practice is as far removed from the sound of a contented cat as possible.
Elizabeth Hart took Thomas Aspinall to court this week after telling her in a street in Parr that if he were her husband he would purr her and had then threatened the woman with his fist.
He was accused of using threatening language but his solicitor pointed out that the threat was conditional upon an event that could not possibly take place.
There was not much chance of the warring pair getting wed and so the case was dismissed.
But Bryan Gormley did not just talk about purring; he did the terrible act to his own wife.
The attack had taken place on July 12th but Bridget Gormley had been so ill that she had not been fit to attend court until this week and even then she had to remain seated while giving evidence.
The couple and their baby had been living in lodgings in Cowley Street in St Helens and Bridget told the court that at 10:45pm she had been feeding her daughter when her husband came home very drunk and demanded his supper.
Some words took place between him and their landlady and Bridget said she had intervened to prevent her husband continuing the row.
As a result she was struck on her forehead and twice knocked down.
Her husband then commenced severely kicking her about the head, neck and elsewhere on her body.
And to demonstrate what the St Helens Newspaper called his "determined brutality" and his "determination to make the kicking effective", he took off his right boot and put on a heavy, iron-plated clog.
As Bridget screamed loudly, her landlady went for the police.
The battered wife also told the court that during the day of the attack her husband had frequently threatened her, making use of such expressions in which he said he would "hang for her" and "do away" with Bridget and also "go to Kirkdale" for her.
The latter was the Liverpool prison where the man would eventually end up. But not for long.
The St Helens Magistrates committed Bryan Gormley for trial at the next Liverpool Quarter Sessions. There, lengthy prison sentences were routinely handed out but the 27-year-old labourer only received two months in prison.
As I have often said, married women with young children were so dependent upon their husbands that often they felt compelled to continue living with them in spite of their brutality.
And the 1881 Census shows that the couple were still together and living in Crab Street and now had two daughters.
"On Monday afternoon, about three o’clock, a heavy storm of thunder, lightning, and rain burst over the town, which caused many persons to be apprehensive lest some accident should result from it.
"The electric fluid seemed to fairly wind round the very housetops in luridly vivid flashes, the heavy peals of thunder resembling the roaring of artillery, and also seemed to be painfully near.
"The rain by which they were accompanied was also exceedingly heavy, the streets being completely deluged, as were also many of the underground cellars and kitchens.
"The storm was fortunately of short duration, as it only lasted about a quarter of an hour, but the severest that has been witnessed in the district for many years; and we fear that considerable damage has been done to property in the district."
There were some strange games of cricket played in the 1870s and the Newspaper described how a team of clown cricketers had been in St Helens.
Casey and Robson's Clown Cricketers had played a game against 14 members of the St Helens Cricket Club on their Dentons Green ground.
What exactly that entailed, I cannot say but the sporting side of the clowns' activities appeared to be a promotion for their entertainment that was separately being put on in the Volunteer Hall.
But they certainly seemed to know how to play cricket. Low scoring games were then the norm but the clowns totalled 164 in their single innings with the St Helens side only totalling 94 in their two innings.
Drownings within the St Helens district were very common but that which took place in Bold this week was very unusual.
Thomas Corbett and Patrick Mullaney were returning home to Burtonwood from Bold in company with two other men when they made a bet of half-a-gallon of beer to swim across what was known as the Rock Hole pond.
Mullaney successfully swam across it but Corbett after only swimming nine yards shouted to his pal to save him as he was sinking.
Mullaney swam back but could not rescue his friend as Corbett's dog, which was also in the water, attacked him and refused to let him get near his master.
Corbett was immediately drowned but as the pond had been a very deep, worked-out old quarry, his body could not be recovered for four hours.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the stringent cuts planned in poor relief, the butcher who bought sheep that had foot and mouth disease, the engineering apprentice who wanted to go to sea and the brutal attack on an old woman in Whiston.