150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 17 - 23 MARCH 1875
This week's many stories include the police chase in Liverpool Road to capture a violent man, the proposed widening of Corporation Street, the great crowd watching a punch up in the backyard of the Volunteer Inn, the St Helens Newspaper criticises the organisers of a petition for lacking manliness and the elderly woman who was supposedly given a lenient prison sentence for stealing clothes.
We begin on the 17th when the council's Paving, Highway and Sewering Committee discussed Corporation Street. When in 1871 the decision had been taken to build a new Town Hall, the chosen site had then been part of Cotham Street. The building would not be opened until 1876 but while building work was underway that section of the road had been renamed Corporation Street.
The committee's discussion was centred on widening the street, which would likely become a busier road once the Town Hall was opened. The committee decided to widen Corporation Street from its present 36 feet to 42 feet by adding six feet to its northerly side. However, some doubts were raised as to whether such widening could be extended as far as College Street, as there were one or two properties that would be in their way. And so the order to undertake the work was suspended while property owners in the area were consulted.
It was generally much easier to widen St Helens streets in the 1870s than it was fifty years later, when motorised transport was causing major congestion in narrow streets. That was because many 19th century roads had few houses in them and there was lots of wasteland that could easily be incorporated into a wider road.
On the 19th Paul Pennington appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions accused of assaulting PC Thomas Robinson while in the execution of his duty. The officer explained that on the previous Monday afternoon at about 5 pm he had been on duty in the marketplace when his attention was drawn to a fight that was taking place in the backyard of the Volunteer Inn in Bridge Street.
Upon going to the place he found what he described as a great crowd standing in the yard watching two men fighting in their shirtsleeves. Once PC Robinson was spotted both combatants dashed into the pub, with one subsequently making his escape out of its front door. However, the other was collared in the kitchen putting on his coat and for some time the man refused to give his name.
During this period the constable said he had been a "good deal interfered with" by some of the other men present and Paul Pennington, who had kept pushing him, had been the worst offender. PC Robinson needed to send to the police station for help and Sergeant Wood came to his assistance and locked up Pennington.
The case had come to court three days earlier but Pennington had accused PC Robinson of striking him and the case was remanded so that further evidence could be presented. At the resumed hearing the usual conflicting statements were made but the evidence of Mr Sephton, the landlord of the Volunteer Inn, was given the most credence.
He insisted that the officer had never hit Pennington but the latter's conduct had been very bad. As a result the magistrates said they considered the case proved and told Pennington he had to pay a fine of 20 shillings and costs and warned him if he came up before them again for a similar offence, he would be sent to prison.
A few days later on the 22nd, Thomas Platt was summoned for creating a breach of the peace by fighting. He had been one of the two men involved in the punch-up and was ordered to find a surety to keep the peace.
I've often stated that violence was not treated very seriously in the 1870s, with offenders usually fined or bound over to keep the peace. But there were, of course, limits to the tolerance and cases of severe violence or repeat offences often resulted in a custodial sentence.
In another Petty Sessions case on the 22nd, John Glynn was charged with being drunk and assaulting PC Sheriff. The constable stated that he had seen Glynn in Liverpool Road knock another man down and then kick his victim severely three times. PC Sheriff added that when he attempted to take Glynn into custody, he had violently resisted him and eventually made his escape.
A chase took place over several walls and at one of them Glynn pulled out a brick and threw it at the officer. With the help of another constable, the police were eventually able to apprehend the man. But all the way to the station their prisoner had encouraged people to rescue him and he had kicked and resisted the officers very much. That behaviour and the fact that John Glynn had been eleven times previously convicted, led the magistrates to send him to prison for two months.
The St Helens Newspaper was highly opinionated and unafraid to criticise authority. But in their edition on the 20th they did not think much of a petition that had been submitted to the council claiming to come from "The Ratepayers of St Helens".
The so-called memorial objected to the payment of 100 guineas to the former mayor for his expenses in laying the foundation stone of the new Town Hall. The Newspaper claimed that two or three disaffected councillors had had a hand in the petition but they did not have "the manliness" to put their names to it and had instead used "dupes" to submit an "illogical" document.
An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 20th advised that the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath would be opening for the new season on Good Friday. The ad said: "This delightful place of Amusement will be opened to the Public at One p.m. on the above day, when an excellent military band will be in attendance on this occasion. The Saloon will be beautifully illuminated with gas in the evening." The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle who owned the gardens.
The perils of trusting defendants' names in 19th century newspaper reports were underlined when a woman appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 22nd charged with stealing some clothing. The St Helens Newspaper reported that her name was Catherine Kelvin but the case was adjourned and in the paper's next report her surname became Pendleton.
The reporters in court wrote down the defendants' names as they heard them being spoken and sometimes they were expressed in difficult to understand dialects. And so their names would often be wrong when they appeared in print.
Catherine was described as an elderly woman who was accused of stealing two jackets and a pair of trousers from Henry Thomason's shop in Church Street. She was another female thief who used her shawl to conceal the goods that she had stolen. But Mr Thomason had seen Catherine take a jacket and place it under her shawl and upon her leaving his shop he had dashed after her and brought her back.
The police then searched the woman's house where they found another jacket and a pair of trousers that Catherine had seemingly stolen some days before. At the resumed hearing the police gave evidence of statements that Mrs Pendleton had made to them. In one she had said, "I never stole anything in my life, nor did I think Mr. Thomason would have done the like to me."
But she now pleaded guilty and her solicitor urged mitigation of her punishment on the grounds that she was not rational and had been inclined to fits of wandering for some time. The magistrates said it was a very serious case but they were inclined to deal leniently with Catherine on the understanding that her husband and friends would look after her better in future. The 1870s version of leniency for stealing clothes was 21 days imprisonment.
Also on the 22nd, Henry Hesketh, a 38-year-old coal miner, was sent to prison for two months for indecently exposing himself to a 12-year-old girl from Lowe Street.
A surprisingly large number of thieves would steal an item of clothing and then brazenly wear it near to where the victim of their crime lived. Ann Carsons appeared in court charged with stealing a shawl in Gerards Bridge. Mary Moore gave evidence of having washed her woollen scarf and then had hung it out to dry only to find it missing from her clothesline some hours later.
She reported the theft to the police but nothing was heard of the shawl until some weeks later when she saw Ann Carsons wearing it in the street. In court the young woman now claimed she had obtained the shawl from someone else and her case was remanded for a few days while the police made enquiries.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening for the season of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath, the Greenbank corner boys who liked to annoy young women and the prisoner who claimed he was punched in the police station.
We begin on the 17th when the council's Paving, Highway and Sewering Committee discussed Corporation Street. When in 1871 the decision had been taken to build a new Town Hall, the chosen site had then been part of Cotham Street. The building would not be opened until 1876 but while building work was underway that section of the road had been renamed Corporation Street.
The committee's discussion was centred on widening the street, which would likely become a busier road once the Town Hall was opened. The committee decided to widen Corporation Street from its present 36 feet to 42 feet by adding six feet to its northerly side. However, some doubts were raised as to whether such widening could be extended as far as College Street, as there were one or two properties that would be in their way. And so the order to undertake the work was suspended while property owners in the area were consulted.
It was generally much easier to widen St Helens streets in the 1870s than it was fifty years later, when motorised transport was causing major congestion in narrow streets. That was because many 19th century roads had few houses in them and there was lots of wasteland that could easily be incorporated into a wider road.
On the 19th Paul Pennington appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions accused of assaulting PC Thomas Robinson while in the execution of his duty. The officer explained that on the previous Monday afternoon at about 5 pm he had been on duty in the marketplace when his attention was drawn to a fight that was taking place in the backyard of the Volunteer Inn in Bridge Street.
Upon going to the place he found what he described as a great crowd standing in the yard watching two men fighting in their shirtsleeves. Once PC Robinson was spotted both combatants dashed into the pub, with one subsequently making his escape out of its front door. However, the other was collared in the kitchen putting on his coat and for some time the man refused to give his name.
During this period the constable said he had been a "good deal interfered with" by some of the other men present and Paul Pennington, who had kept pushing him, had been the worst offender. PC Robinson needed to send to the police station for help and Sergeant Wood came to his assistance and locked up Pennington.
The case had come to court three days earlier but Pennington had accused PC Robinson of striking him and the case was remanded so that further evidence could be presented. At the resumed hearing the usual conflicting statements were made but the evidence of Mr Sephton, the landlord of the Volunteer Inn, was given the most credence.
He insisted that the officer had never hit Pennington but the latter's conduct had been very bad. As a result the magistrates said they considered the case proved and told Pennington he had to pay a fine of 20 shillings and costs and warned him if he came up before them again for a similar offence, he would be sent to prison.
A few days later on the 22nd, Thomas Platt was summoned for creating a breach of the peace by fighting. He had been one of the two men involved in the punch-up and was ordered to find a surety to keep the peace.
I've often stated that violence was not treated very seriously in the 1870s, with offenders usually fined or bound over to keep the peace. But there were, of course, limits to the tolerance and cases of severe violence or repeat offences often resulted in a custodial sentence.
A chase took place over several walls and at one of them Glynn pulled out a brick and threw it at the officer. With the help of another constable, the police were eventually able to apprehend the man. But all the way to the station their prisoner had encouraged people to rescue him and he had kicked and resisted the officers very much. That behaviour and the fact that John Glynn had been eleven times previously convicted, led the magistrates to send him to prison for two months.
The St Helens Newspaper was highly opinionated and unafraid to criticise authority. But in their edition on the 20th they did not think much of a petition that had been submitted to the council claiming to come from "The Ratepayers of St Helens".
The so-called memorial objected to the payment of 100 guineas to the former mayor for his expenses in laying the foundation stone of the new Town Hall. The Newspaper claimed that two or three disaffected councillors had had a hand in the petition but they did not have "the manliness" to put their names to it and had instead used "dupes" to submit an "illogical" document.
An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 20th advised that the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath would be opening for the new season on Good Friday. The ad said: "This delightful place of Amusement will be opened to the Public at One p.m. on the above day, when an excellent military band will be in attendance on this occasion. The Saloon will be beautifully illuminated with gas in the evening." The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle who owned the gardens.
The perils of trusting defendants' names in 19th century newspaper reports were underlined when a woman appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 22nd charged with stealing some clothing. The St Helens Newspaper reported that her name was Catherine Kelvin but the case was adjourned and in the paper's next report her surname became Pendleton.
The reporters in court wrote down the defendants' names as they heard them being spoken and sometimes they were expressed in difficult to understand dialects. And so their names would often be wrong when they appeared in print.
Catherine was described as an elderly woman who was accused of stealing two jackets and a pair of trousers from Henry Thomason's shop in Church Street. She was another female thief who used her shawl to conceal the goods that she had stolen. But Mr Thomason had seen Catherine take a jacket and place it under her shawl and upon her leaving his shop he had dashed after her and brought her back.
The police then searched the woman's house where they found another jacket and a pair of trousers that Catherine had seemingly stolen some days before. At the resumed hearing the police gave evidence of statements that Mrs Pendleton had made to them. In one she had said, "I never stole anything in my life, nor did I think Mr. Thomason would have done the like to me."
But she now pleaded guilty and her solicitor urged mitigation of her punishment on the grounds that she was not rational and had been inclined to fits of wandering for some time. The magistrates said it was a very serious case but they were inclined to deal leniently with Catherine on the understanding that her husband and friends would look after her better in future. The 1870s version of leniency for stealing clothes was 21 days imprisonment.
Also on the 22nd, Henry Hesketh, a 38-year-old coal miner, was sent to prison for two months for indecently exposing himself to a 12-year-old girl from Lowe Street.
A surprisingly large number of thieves would steal an item of clothing and then brazenly wear it near to where the victim of their crime lived. Ann Carsons appeared in court charged with stealing a shawl in Gerards Bridge. Mary Moore gave evidence of having washed her woollen scarf and then had hung it out to dry only to find it missing from her clothesline some hours later.
She reported the theft to the police but nothing was heard of the shawl until some weeks later when she saw Ann Carsons wearing it in the street. In court the young woman now claimed she had obtained the shawl from someone else and her case was remanded for a few days while the police made enquiries.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening for the season of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath, the Greenbank corner boys who liked to annoy young women and the prisoner who claimed he was punched in the police station.
This week's many stories include the police chase in Liverpool Road to capture a violent man, the proposed widening of Corporation Street, the great crowd watching a punch up in the backyard of the Volunteer Inn, the St Helens Newspaper criticises the organisers of a petition for lacking manliness and the elderly woman who was supposedly given a lenient prison sentence for stealing clothes.
We begin on the 17th when the council's Paving, Highway and Sewering Committee discussed Corporation Street.
When in 1871 the decision had been taken to build a new Town Hall, the chosen site had then been part of Cotham Street.
The building would not be opened until 1876 but while building work was underway that section of the road had been renamed Corporation Street.
The committee's discussion was centred on widening the street, which would likely become a busier road once the Town Hall was opened.
The committee decided to widen Corporation Street from its present 36 feet to 42 feet by adding six feet to its northerly side.
However, some doubts were raised as to whether such widening could be extended as far as College Street, as there were one or two properties that would be in their way.
And so the order to undertake the work was suspended while property owners in the area were consulted.
It was generally much easier to widen St Helens streets in the 1870s than it was fifty years later, when motorised transport was causing major congestion in narrow streets.
That was because many 19th century roads had few houses in them and there was lots of wasteland that could easily be incorporated into a wider road.
On the 19th Paul Pennington appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions accused of assaulting PC Thomas Robinson while in the execution of his duty.
The officer explained that on the previous Monday afternoon at about 5 pm he had been on duty in the marketplace when his attention was drawn to a fight that was taking place in the backyard of the Volunteer Inn in Bridge Street.
Upon going to the place he found what he described as a great crowd standing in the yard watching two men fighting in their shirtsleeves.
Once PC Robinson was spotted both combatants dashed into the pub, with one subsequently making his escape out of its front door.
However, the other was collared in the kitchen putting on his coat and for some time the man refused to give his name.
During this period the constable said he had been a "good deal interfered with" by some of the other men present and Paul Pennington, who had kept pushing him, had been the worst offender.
PC Robinson needed to send to the police station for help and Sergeant Wood came to his assistance and locked up Pennington.
The case had come to court three days earlier but Pennington had accused PC Robinson of striking him and the case was remanded so that further evidence could be presented.
At the resumed hearing the usual conflicting statements were made but the evidence of Mr Sephton, the landlord of the Volunteer Inn, was given the most credence.
He insisted that the officer had never hit Pennington but the latter's conduct had been very bad.
As a result the magistrates said they considered the case proved and told Pennington he had to pay a fine of 20 shillings and costs and warned him if he came up before them again for a similar offence, he would be sent to prison.
A few days later on the 22nd, Thomas Platt was summoned for creating a breach of the peace by fighting.
He had been one of the two men involved in the punch-up and was ordered to find a surety to keep the peace.
I've often stated that violence was not treated very seriously in the 1870s, with offenders usually fined or bound over to keep the peace.
But there were, of course, limits to the tolerance and cases of severe violence or repeat offences often resulted in a custodial sentence.
In another Petty Sessions case on the 22nd, John Glynn was charged with being drunk and assaulting PC Sheriff.
The constable stated that he had seen Glynn in Liverpool Road (pictured above) knock another man down and then kick his victim severely three times.
PC Sheriff added that when he attempted to take Glynn into custody, he had violently resisted him and eventually made his escape.
A chase took place over several walls and at one of them Glynn pulled out a brick and threw it at the officer.
With the help of another constable, the police were eventually able to apprehend the man.
But all the way to the station their prisoner had encouraged people to rescue him and he had kicked and resisted the officers very much.
That behaviour and the fact that John Glynn had been eleven times previously convicted, led the magistrates to send him to prison for two months.
The St Helens Newspaper was highly opinionated and unafraid to criticise authority.
But in their edition on the 20th they did not think much of a petition that had been submitted to the council claiming to come from "The Ratepayers of St Helens".
The so-called memorial objected to the payment of 100 guineas to the former mayor for his expenses in laying the foundation stone of the new Town Hall.
The Newspaper claimed that two or three disaffected councillors had had a hand in the petition but they did not have "the manliness" to put their names to it and had instead used "dupes" to submit an "illogical" document.
An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 20th advised that the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath would be opening for the new season on Good Friday. The ad said:
"This delightful place of Amusement will be opened to the Public at One p.m. on the above day, when an excellent military band will be in attendance on this occasion. The Saloon will be beautifully illuminated with gas in the evening."
The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle who owned the gardens.
The perils of trusting defendants' names in 19th century newspaper reports were underlined when a woman appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 22nd charged with stealing some clothing.
The St Helens Newspaper reported that her name was Catherine Kelvin but the case was adjourned and in the paper's next report her surname became Pendleton.
The reporters in court wrote down the defendants' names as they heard them being spoken and sometimes they were expressed in difficult to understand dialects. And so their names would often be wrong when they appeared in print.
Catherine was described as an elderly woman who was accused of stealing two jackets and a pair of trousers from Henry Thomason's shop in Church Street.
She was another female thief who used her shawl to conceal the goods that she had stolen.
But Mr Thomason had seen Catherine take a jacket and place it under her shawl and upon her leaving his shop he had dashed after her and brought her back.
The police then searched the woman's house where they found another jacket and a pair of trousers that Catherine had seemingly stolen some days before.
At the resumed hearing the police gave evidence of statements that Mrs Pendleton had made to them.
In one she had said, "I never stole anything in my life, nor did I think Mr. Thomason would have done the like to me."
But she now pleaded guilty and her solicitor urged mitigation of her punishment on the grounds that she was not rational and had been inclined to fits of wandering for some time.
The magistrates said it was a very serious case but they were inclined to deal leniently with Catherine on the understanding that her husband and friends would look after her better in future.
The 1870s version of leniency for stealing clothes was 21 days imprisonment.
Also on the 22nd, Henry Hesketh, a 38-year-old coal miner, was sent to prison for two months for indecently exposing himself to a 12-year-old girl from Lowe Street.
A surprisingly large number of thieves would steal an item of clothing and then brazenly wear it near to where the victim of their crime lived.
Ann Carsons appeared in court charged with stealing a shawl in Gerards Bridge.
Mary Moore gave evidence of having washed her woollen scarf and then had hung it out to dry only to find it missing from her clothesline some hours later.
She reported the theft to the police but nothing was heard of the shawl until some weeks later when she saw Ann Carsons wearing it in the street.
In court the young woman now claimed she had obtained the shawl from someone else and her case was remanded for a few days while the police made enquiries.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening for the season of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath, the Greenbank corner boys who liked to annoy young women and the prisoner who claimed he was punched in the police station.
We begin on the 17th when the council's Paving, Highway and Sewering Committee discussed Corporation Street.
When in 1871 the decision had been taken to build a new Town Hall, the chosen site had then been part of Cotham Street.
The building would not be opened until 1876 but while building work was underway that section of the road had been renamed Corporation Street.
The committee's discussion was centred on widening the street, which would likely become a busier road once the Town Hall was opened.
The committee decided to widen Corporation Street from its present 36 feet to 42 feet by adding six feet to its northerly side.
However, some doubts were raised as to whether such widening could be extended as far as College Street, as there were one or two properties that would be in their way.
And so the order to undertake the work was suspended while property owners in the area were consulted.
It was generally much easier to widen St Helens streets in the 1870s than it was fifty years later, when motorised transport was causing major congestion in narrow streets.
That was because many 19th century roads had few houses in them and there was lots of wasteland that could easily be incorporated into a wider road.
On the 19th Paul Pennington appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions accused of assaulting PC Thomas Robinson while in the execution of his duty.
The officer explained that on the previous Monday afternoon at about 5 pm he had been on duty in the marketplace when his attention was drawn to a fight that was taking place in the backyard of the Volunteer Inn in Bridge Street.
Upon going to the place he found what he described as a great crowd standing in the yard watching two men fighting in their shirtsleeves.
Once PC Robinson was spotted both combatants dashed into the pub, with one subsequently making his escape out of its front door.
However, the other was collared in the kitchen putting on his coat and for some time the man refused to give his name.
During this period the constable said he had been a "good deal interfered with" by some of the other men present and Paul Pennington, who had kept pushing him, had been the worst offender.
PC Robinson needed to send to the police station for help and Sergeant Wood came to his assistance and locked up Pennington.
The case had come to court three days earlier but Pennington had accused PC Robinson of striking him and the case was remanded so that further evidence could be presented.
At the resumed hearing the usual conflicting statements were made but the evidence of Mr Sephton, the landlord of the Volunteer Inn, was given the most credence.
He insisted that the officer had never hit Pennington but the latter's conduct had been very bad.
As a result the magistrates said they considered the case proved and told Pennington he had to pay a fine of 20 shillings and costs and warned him if he came up before them again for a similar offence, he would be sent to prison.
A few days later on the 22nd, Thomas Platt was summoned for creating a breach of the peace by fighting.
He had been one of the two men involved in the punch-up and was ordered to find a surety to keep the peace.
I've often stated that violence was not treated very seriously in the 1870s, with offenders usually fined or bound over to keep the peace.
But there were, of course, limits to the tolerance and cases of severe violence or repeat offences often resulted in a custodial sentence.
The constable stated that he had seen Glynn in Liverpool Road (pictured above) knock another man down and then kick his victim severely three times.
PC Sheriff added that when he attempted to take Glynn into custody, he had violently resisted him and eventually made his escape.
A chase took place over several walls and at one of them Glynn pulled out a brick and threw it at the officer.
With the help of another constable, the police were eventually able to apprehend the man.
But all the way to the station their prisoner had encouraged people to rescue him and he had kicked and resisted the officers very much.
That behaviour and the fact that John Glynn had been eleven times previously convicted, led the magistrates to send him to prison for two months.
The St Helens Newspaper was highly opinionated and unafraid to criticise authority.
But in their edition on the 20th they did not think much of a petition that had been submitted to the council claiming to come from "The Ratepayers of St Helens".
The so-called memorial objected to the payment of 100 guineas to the former mayor for his expenses in laying the foundation stone of the new Town Hall.
The Newspaper claimed that two or three disaffected councillors had had a hand in the petition but they did not have "the manliness" to put their names to it and had instead used "dupes" to submit an "illogical" document.
An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 20th advised that the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath would be opening for the new season on Good Friday. The ad said:
"This delightful place of Amusement will be opened to the Public at One p.m. on the above day, when an excellent military band will be in attendance on this occasion. The Saloon will be beautifully illuminated with gas in the evening."
The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle who owned the gardens.
The perils of trusting defendants' names in 19th century newspaper reports were underlined when a woman appeared in the Petty Sessions on the 22nd charged with stealing some clothing.
The St Helens Newspaper reported that her name was Catherine Kelvin but the case was adjourned and in the paper's next report her surname became Pendleton.
The reporters in court wrote down the defendants' names as they heard them being spoken and sometimes they were expressed in difficult to understand dialects. And so their names would often be wrong when they appeared in print.
Catherine was described as an elderly woman who was accused of stealing two jackets and a pair of trousers from Henry Thomason's shop in Church Street.
She was another female thief who used her shawl to conceal the goods that she had stolen.
But Mr Thomason had seen Catherine take a jacket and place it under her shawl and upon her leaving his shop he had dashed after her and brought her back.
The police then searched the woman's house where they found another jacket and a pair of trousers that Catherine had seemingly stolen some days before.
At the resumed hearing the police gave evidence of statements that Mrs Pendleton had made to them.
In one she had said, "I never stole anything in my life, nor did I think Mr. Thomason would have done the like to me."
But she now pleaded guilty and her solicitor urged mitigation of her punishment on the grounds that she was not rational and had been inclined to fits of wandering for some time.
The magistrates said it was a very serious case but they were inclined to deal leniently with Catherine on the understanding that her husband and friends would look after her better in future.
The 1870s version of leniency for stealing clothes was 21 days imprisonment.
Also on the 22nd, Henry Hesketh, a 38-year-old coal miner, was sent to prison for two months for indecently exposing himself to a 12-year-old girl from Lowe Street.
A surprisingly large number of thieves would steal an item of clothing and then brazenly wear it near to where the victim of their crime lived.
Ann Carsons appeared in court charged with stealing a shawl in Gerards Bridge.
Mary Moore gave evidence of having washed her woollen scarf and then had hung it out to dry only to find it missing from her clothesline some hours later.
She reported the theft to the police but nothing was heard of the shawl until some weeks later when she saw Ann Carsons wearing it in the street.
In court the young woman now claimed she had obtained the shawl from someone else and her case was remanded for a few days while the police made enquiries.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the opening for the season of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath, the Greenbank corner boys who liked to annoy young women and the prisoner who claimed he was punched in the police station.