150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24 - 30 JULY 1873)
This week's many stories include the fear of cholera coming to St Helens, the dangers of appointing a dishonest Town Clerk, the violent storm that struck St Helens, the rotten pears that were sold in the market and the boy sent to prison for committing a penny's worth of damage to a sand-washing machine.
Last week the St Helens Town Clerk had resigned and on July 26th the St Helens Newspaper published an editorial on what they saw as the necessary qualities of his successor. The paper warned its readers of the dangers of appointing a dishonest man who saw the job simply as a means of making money or boosting his ego.
"If an unscrupulous or a needy man be elected to the office, the Corporation may find itself driven or drifting into all sorts of lawsuits and litigations, to swell the importance, or fill the pockets of their Town Clerk. It is well to have a clever man, but it is above all things necessary to have a thoroughly honest one. No greater mistake could be made than to select a needy pettifogging lawyer who is ever ready to take up any dirty case, so that it can bring grist to his hungry mill stones."
The paper also felt that in the "present emergency" with much chemical pollution in the Sankey Brook and in the town's atmosphere, the new Town Clerk needed to be a good businessman and a "sound lawyer, not a shilly-shally procrastinator attorney", a man who could "rise superior to the fear or the frown of the capitalist wrong-doer."
The Newspaper also reported that smallpox had broken out again in St Helens. They were also concerned that another even more feared disease might be heading for the town:
"We are, along with the rest of the country, threatened with a much more fatal and therefore an infinitely more-to-be-dreaded visitor – namely, the cholera – which is said to be advancing towards us with rapid strides. It is well-known that both these diseases fix themselves with unerring instinct upon the closely-packed, wretchedly-ventilated, and insufficiently drained, centres of population.
"We may therefore ask what is the Corporation of St. Helens doing to set the town in order, and prevent, as far as human foresight can, the ravages of cholera, should it visit us? Is it not a fact that the more sanitary officials the Corporation have – the more money they pay for securing cleanliness – the dirtier the town is, and the more unabashed the contributors of filth become? Just as now that the chemical works are under a well-paid inspector, the nuisance and damage are greater than before the appointment."
The paper had not been in favour of the recent appointment of Dr Robert McNicoll of Hardshaw Street as the town's first Medical Officer of Health and had been keeping a close watch on his activities – or lack of them. This week it was rotten pears that came under their scrutiny. The paper wrote:
"Now that we are giving £200 a year to Dr. McNicoll, as our medical officer, we would respectfully ask the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, whether it is his duty to see that unsound fruit is not, at this dangerous season of the year, supplied to the inhabitants. A few days ago a quantity of rotten pears were publicly sold in the market with the cognizance of the town officials. As might naturally be expected, the unwary purchasers were afterwards taken ill."
The Newspaper also commented how a "terrific storm" had "burst forth" earlier in the week, writing: "The thunder rolled in rapidly succeeding peals so terribly resonant that the ground seemed to shake as from an earthquake. The aerial conclusion was something dreadful in its violence, and created a perfect panic. At the same time the lightning, “the thunder's dread concomitant,” came in flashes following so fast upon each other as to form an almost unbroken illumination. Rain descended in torrents of unusual density.
"Although the storm lasted less than half an hour, the showers formed a volume of water too large for the ordinary conduits of escape. Consequently the low-lying areas were flooded in a few minutes. Duke-street presented the appearance of a miniature lake, from the rushing streams which poured into it from the higher levels. Bridge-street and a portion of Liverpool-road were almost as bad, and in still the elevated parts of the town the water accumulated with extraordinary rapidity."
Because of the length of time it took for the St Helens horse-driven brigade to get to fires, it was common – particularly in the outlying areas of St Helens – for them to be instead put out by a community effort. During the storm a bolt of lightning had hit a large stack of hay in the farmyard of Thomas Boardman at Windle Smithies. The resulting fire was in danger of spreading to two other stacks and nearby buildings and so a messenger was despatched on horseback to St Helens Town Hall.
Although the brigade pointed out that only 22 minutes elapsed from the messenger's arrival to their getting to the farm; that did not take into account the time taken by the rider in preparing his horse and riding it to the Town Hall. So 35 to 40 minutes could easily have elapsed from the outbreak of the fire – and then the brigade needed to source a water supply.
Buildings could be destroyed during that delay and so a "do-it-yourself" approach tended to be taken, with local people pitching in. And so when the Windle Smithies fire broke out, Police Sgt. Massey went round all the pubs in the vicinity and mustered twenty volunteers. An assortment of buckets and cans were also collected from locals. With plenty of willing hands helping out, the fire was extinguished by the time the town's fire engine arrived at Windle Smithies.
Incidentally, Merseytravel bus timetables still refer to Windle Smithy in Rainford Road, near to Windle Island, although the place name is no longer shown on modern maps. The lightning also did much damage to cottages and trees at St Ann's in Eccleston, Thatto Heath, Nutgrove and Crank.
There was a marital abuse case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week that had several points of interest. One underlined how women in court needed to be seen as passive individuals and getting emotional in the witness box or talking too much counted against them. There was also married women’s high level of dependency upon men. And so most battered wives chose to return to their husband in the hope that his violence might stop. You could also say that stubbornness was on show in the case brought by Elizabeth Clarke against her husband John.
She was accusing him of assault and wanted him to pay sureties into court to guarantee his good behaviour over a set period. But the husband had hired feisty lawyer Thomas Swift to prove that he was not guilty of the charge. The Newspaper wrote:
"The wife said she was a married woman three months, and during that period had been persecuted by her husband. On Sunday week he knocked her down, kicked her, and jumped upon her. He left her a black eye, and it was the first time he had ever touched her face, as he had always said that he would not leave public marks of his ill-usage.
"Mr. Swift cross-examined her with a view, as he intimated, of “drawing her out,” and he succeeded, as she gave way to a great deal of passion. Mr. Swift pointed out that whatever injuries the man did upon her, he had not shortened her long tongue, cooled her liveliness, or spoiled her temper. He suggested that the pair should do a little of their courting over again, in another room, with the aid of a policeman, and perhaps all would be right."
But it wasn't. Although the couple went to talk things over in an antechamber, the husband refused the generous offer made by his forgiving wife to withdraw her summons and start married life again with a clean slate. Upon learning of his client's attitude, Thomas Swift said he no longer wished to be the man's legal representative and the magistrates ordered the stubborn John Clarke to find sureties.
A boy was also seemingly sent to prison for doing a notional penny's worth of damage to some machinery. James McCabe was one of a number of lads in the habit of messing about with an expensive sand-washing machine at Pilkington's glassworks (illustrated above in 1879). Other boys had been warned by the firm and had subsequently kept away. But Pilks said James had taken no notice and so they felt they had no choice but to prosecute him. The boy's mother was in court and complained that her son was innocent of the charge.
However, a watchman said he had caught James on several occasions playing on the sand. The Chairman of the Bench said the lad would be fined 7s 6d, as well as costs, which was probably a further 6 or 7 shillings. The fine was in reality something his parents would have to pay. But perhaps realising that her boy had lied to her, James's mother declared that she wouldn't pay the fine and she said her son would have to go to prison instead. Mrs McCabe was reported as having then walked out of the courtroom leaving her boy behind in the custody of the police.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Bold engine drive who gave his mother-in-law two black eyes, a claim of dog poisoning in Sutton, the no-show magistrates that caused chaos and the domino playing in a Parr pub that led to a free fight.
Last week the St Helens Town Clerk had resigned and on July 26th the St Helens Newspaper published an editorial on what they saw as the necessary qualities of his successor. The paper warned its readers of the dangers of appointing a dishonest man who saw the job simply as a means of making money or boosting his ego.
"If an unscrupulous or a needy man be elected to the office, the Corporation may find itself driven or drifting into all sorts of lawsuits and litigations, to swell the importance, or fill the pockets of their Town Clerk. It is well to have a clever man, but it is above all things necessary to have a thoroughly honest one. No greater mistake could be made than to select a needy pettifogging lawyer who is ever ready to take up any dirty case, so that it can bring grist to his hungry mill stones."
The paper also felt that in the "present emergency" with much chemical pollution in the Sankey Brook and in the town's atmosphere, the new Town Clerk needed to be a good businessman and a "sound lawyer, not a shilly-shally procrastinator attorney", a man who could "rise superior to the fear or the frown of the capitalist wrong-doer."
The Newspaper also reported that smallpox had broken out again in St Helens. They were also concerned that another even more feared disease might be heading for the town:
"We are, along with the rest of the country, threatened with a much more fatal and therefore an infinitely more-to-be-dreaded visitor – namely, the cholera – which is said to be advancing towards us with rapid strides. It is well-known that both these diseases fix themselves with unerring instinct upon the closely-packed, wretchedly-ventilated, and insufficiently drained, centres of population.
"We may therefore ask what is the Corporation of St. Helens doing to set the town in order, and prevent, as far as human foresight can, the ravages of cholera, should it visit us? Is it not a fact that the more sanitary officials the Corporation have – the more money they pay for securing cleanliness – the dirtier the town is, and the more unabashed the contributors of filth become? Just as now that the chemical works are under a well-paid inspector, the nuisance and damage are greater than before the appointment."
The paper had not been in favour of the recent appointment of Dr Robert McNicoll of Hardshaw Street as the town's first Medical Officer of Health and had been keeping a close watch on his activities – or lack of them. This week it was rotten pears that came under their scrutiny. The paper wrote:
"Now that we are giving £200 a year to Dr. McNicoll, as our medical officer, we would respectfully ask the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, whether it is his duty to see that unsound fruit is not, at this dangerous season of the year, supplied to the inhabitants. A few days ago a quantity of rotten pears were publicly sold in the market with the cognizance of the town officials. As might naturally be expected, the unwary purchasers were afterwards taken ill."
The Newspaper also commented how a "terrific storm" had "burst forth" earlier in the week, writing: "The thunder rolled in rapidly succeeding peals so terribly resonant that the ground seemed to shake as from an earthquake. The aerial conclusion was something dreadful in its violence, and created a perfect panic. At the same time the lightning, “the thunder's dread concomitant,” came in flashes following so fast upon each other as to form an almost unbroken illumination. Rain descended in torrents of unusual density.
"Although the storm lasted less than half an hour, the showers formed a volume of water too large for the ordinary conduits of escape. Consequently the low-lying areas were flooded in a few minutes. Duke-street presented the appearance of a miniature lake, from the rushing streams which poured into it from the higher levels. Bridge-street and a portion of Liverpool-road were almost as bad, and in still the elevated parts of the town the water accumulated with extraordinary rapidity."
Because of the length of time it took for the St Helens horse-driven brigade to get to fires, it was common – particularly in the outlying areas of St Helens – for them to be instead put out by a community effort. During the storm a bolt of lightning had hit a large stack of hay in the farmyard of Thomas Boardman at Windle Smithies. The resulting fire was in danger of spreading to two other stacks and nearby buildings and so a messenger was despatched on horseback to St Helens Town Hall.
Although the brigade pointed out that only 22 minutes elapsed from the messenger's arrival to their getting to the farm; that did not take into account the time taken by the rider in preparing his horse and riding it to the Town Hall. So 35 to 40 minutes could easily have elapsed from the outbreak of the fire – and then the brigade needed to source a water supply.
Buildings could be destroyed during that delay and so a "do-it-yourself" approach tended to be taken, with local people pitching in. And so when the Windle Smithies fire broke out, Police Sgt. Massey went round all the pubs in the vicinity and mustered twenty volunteers. An assortment of buckets and cans were also collected from locals. With plenty of willing hands helping out, the fire was extinguished by the time the town's fire engine arrived at Windle Smithies.
Incidentally, Merseytravel bus timetables still refer to Windle Smithy in Rainford Road, near to Windle Island, although the place name is no longer shown on modern maps. The lightning also did much damage to cottages and trees at St Ann's in Eccleston, Thatto Heath, Nutgrove and Crank.
There was a marital abuse case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week that had several points of interest. One underlined how women in court needed to be seen as passive individuals and getting emotional in the witness box or talking too much counted against them. There was also married women’s high level of dependency upon men. And so most battered wives chose to return to their husband in the hope that his violence might stop. You could also say that stubbornness was on show in the case brought by Elizabeth Clarke against her husband John.
She was accusing him of assault and wanted him to pay sureties into court to guarantee his good behaviour over a set period. But the husband had hired feisty lawyer Thomas Swift to prove that he was not guilty of the charge. The Newspaper wrote:
"The wife said she was a married woman three months, and during that period had been persecuted by her husband. On Sunday week he knocked her down, kicked her, and jumped upon her. He left her a black eye, and it was the first time he had ever touched her face, as he had always said that he would not leave public marks of his ill-usage.
"Mr. Swift cross-examined her with a view, as he intimated, of “drawing her out,” and he succeeded, as she gave way to a great deal of passion. Mr. Swift pointed out that whatever injuries the man did upon her, he had not shortened her long tongue, cooled her liveliness, or spoiled her temper. He suggested that the pair should do a little of their courting over again, in another room, with the aid of a policeman, and perhaps all would be right."
But it wasn't. Although the couple went to talk things over in an antechamber, the husband refused the generous offer made by his forgiving wife to withdraw her summons and start married life again with a clean slate. Upon learning of his client's attitude, Thomas Swift said he no longer wished to be the man's legal representative and the magistrates ordered the stubborn John Clarke to find sureties.
However, a watchman said he had caught James on several occasions playing on the sand. The Chairman of the Bench said the lad would be fined 7s 6d, as well as costs, which was probably a further 6 or 7 shillings. The fine was in reality something his parents would have to pay. But perhaps realising that her boy had lied to her, James's mother declared that she wouldn't pay the fine and she said her son would have to go to prison instead. Mrs McCabe was reported as having then walked out of the courtroom leaving her boy behind in the custody of the police.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Bold engine drive who gave his mother-in-law two black eyes, a claim of dog poisoning in Sutton, the no-show magistrates that caused chaos and the domino playing in a Parr pub that led to a free fight.
This week's many stories include the fear of cholera coming to St Helens, the dangers of appointing a dishonest Town Clerk, the violent storm that struck St Helens, the rotten pears that were sold in the market and the boy sent to prison for committing a penny's worth of damage to a sand-washing machine.
Last week the St Helens Town Clerk had resigned and on July 26th the St Helens Newspaper published an editorial on what they saw as the necessary qualities of his successor.
The paper warned its readers of the dangers of appointing a dishonest man who saw the job simply as a means of making money or boosting his ego.
"If an unscrupulous or a needy man be elected to the office, the Corporation may find itself driven or drifting into all sorts of lawsuits and litigations, to swell the importance, or fill the pockets of their Town Clerk.
"It is well to have a clever man, but it is above all things necessary to have a thoroughly honest one. No greater mistake could be made than to select a needy pettifogging lawyer who is ever ready to take up any dirty case, so that it can bring grist to his hungry mill stones."
The paper also felt that in the "present emergency" with much chemical pollution in the Sankey Brook and in the town's atmosphere, the new Town Clerk needed to be a good businessman and a "sound lawyer, not a shilly-shally procrastinator attorney", a man who could "rise superior to the fear or the frown of the capitalist wrong-doer."
The Newspaper also reported that smallpox had broken out again in St Helens. They were also concerned that another even more feared disease might be heading for the town:
"We are, along with the rest of the country, threatened with a much more fatal and therefore an infinitely more-to-be-dreaded visitor – namely, the cholera – which is said to be advancing towards us with rapid strides.
"It is well-known that both these diseases fix themselves with unerring instinct upon the closely-packed, wretchedly-ventilated, and insufficiently drained, centres of population.
"We may therefore ask what is the Corporation of St. Helens doing to set the town in order, and prevent, as far as human foresight can, the ravages of cholera, should it visit us?
"Is it not a fact that the more sanitary officials the Corporation have – the more money they pay for securing cleanliness – the dirtier the town is, and the more unabashed the contributors of filth become?
"Just as now that the chemical works are under a well-paid inspector, the nuisance and damage are greater than before the appointment."
The paper had not been in favour of the recent appointment of Dr Robert McNicoll of Hardshaw Street as the town's first Medical Officer of Health and had been keeping a close watch on his activities – or lack of them.
This week it was rotten pears that came under their scrutiny. The paper wrote:
"Now that we are giving £200 a year to Dr. McNicoll, as our medical officer, we would respectfully ask the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, whether it is his duty to see that unsound fruit is not, at this dangerous season of the year, supplied to the inhabitants.
"A few days ago a quantity of rotten pears were publicly sold in the market with the cognizance of the town officials. As might naturally be expected, the unwary purchasers were afterwards taken ill."
The Newspaper also commented how a "terrific storm" had "burst forth" earlier in the week, writing:
"The thunder rolled in rapidly succeeding peals so terribly resonant that the ground seemed to shake as from an earthquake. The aerial conclusion was something dreadful in its violence, and created a perfect panic.
"At the same time the lightning, “the thunder's dread concomitant,” came in flashes following so fast upon each other as to form an almost unbroken illumination. Rain descended in torrents of unusual density.
"Although the storm lasted less than half an hour, the showers formed a volume of water too large for the ordinary conduits of escape. Consequently the low-lying areas were flooded in a few minutes.
"Duke-street presented the appearance of a miniature lake, from the rushing streams which poured into it from the higher levels.
"Bridge-street and a portion of Liverpool-road were almost as bad, and in still the elevated parts of the town the water accumulated with extraordinary rapidity."
Because of the length of time it took for the St Helens horse-driven brigade to get to fires, it was common – particularly in the outlying areas of St Helens – for them to be instead put out by a community effort.
During the storm a bolt of lightning had hit a large stack of hay in the farmyard of Thomas Boardman at Windle Smithies.
The resulting fire was in danger of spreading to two other stacks and nearby buildings and so a messenger was despatched on horseback to St Helens Town Hall.
Although the brigade pointed out that only 22 minutes elapsed from the messenger's arrival to their getting to the farm; that did not take into account the time taken by the rider in preparing his horse and riding it to the Town Hall.
So 35 to 40 minutes could easily have elapsed from the outbreak of the fire – and then the brigade needed to source a water supply.
Buildings could be destroyed during that delay and so a "do-it-yourself" approach tended to be taken, with local people pitching in.
And so when the Windle Smithies fire broke out, Police Sgt. Massey went round all the pubs in the vicinity and mustered twenty volunteers. An assortment of buckets and cans were also collected from locals.
With plenty of willing hands helping out, the fire was extinguished by the time the town's fire engine arrived at Windle Smithies.
Incidentally, Merseytravel bus timetables still refer to Windle Smithy in Rainford Road, near to Windle Island, although the place name is no longer shown on modern maps.
The lightning also did much damage to cottages and trees at St Ann's in Eccleston, Thatto Heath, Nutgrove and Crank.
There was a marital abuse case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week that had several points of interest.
One underlined how women in court needed to be seen as passive individuals and getting emotional in the witness box or talking too much counted against them.
There was also married women's high level of dependency upon men. And so most battered wives chose to return to their husband in the hope that his violence might stop.
You could also say that stubbornness was on show in the case brought by Elizabeth Clarke against her husband John.
She was accusing him of assault and wanted him to pay sureties into court to guarantee his good behaviour over a set period.
But the husband had hired feisty lawyer Thomas Swift to prove that he was not guilty of the charge. The Newspaper wrote:
"The wife said she was a married woman three months, and during that period had been persecuted by her husband. On Sunday week he knocked her down, kicked her, and jumped upon her.
"He left her a black eye, and it was the first time he had ever touched her face, as he had always said that he would not leave public marks of his ill-usage.
"Mr. Swift cross-examined her with a view, as he intimated, of “drawing her out,” and he succeeded, as she gave way to a great deal of passion.
"Mr. Swift pointed out that whatever injuries the man did upon her, he had not shortened her long tongue, cooled her liveliness, or spoiled her temper.
"He suggested that the pair should do a little of their courting over again, in another room, with the aid of a policeman, and perhaps all would be right."
But it wasn't. Although the couple went to talk things over in an antechamber, the husband refused the generous offer made by his forgiving wife to withdraw her summons and start married life again with a clean slate.
Upon learning of his client's attitude, Thomas Swift said he no longer wished to be the man's legal representative and the magistrates ordered the stubborn John Clarke to find sureties.
A boy was also seemingly sent to prison for doing a notional penny's worth of damage to some machinery.
James McCabe was one of a number of lads in the habit of messing about with an expensive sand-washing machine at Pilkington's glassworks (illustrated above in 1879).
Other boys had been warned by the firm and had subsequently kept away. But Pilks said James had taken no notice and so they felt they had no choice but to prosecute him.
The boy's mother was in court and complained that her son was innocent of the charge.
However, a watchman said he had caught James on several occasions playing on the sand.
The Chairman of the Bench said the lad would be fined 7s 6d, as well as costs, which was probably a further 6 or 7 shillings. The fine was in reality something his parents would have to pay.
But perhaps realising that her boy had lied to her, James's mother declared that she wouldn't pay the fine and she said her son would have to go to prison instead.
Mrs McCabe was reported as having then walked out of the courtroom leaving her boy behind in the custody of the police.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Bold engine drive who gave his mother-in-law two black eyes, a claim of dog poisoning in Sutton, the no-show magistrates that caused chaos and the domino playing in a Parr pub that led to a free fight.
Last week the St Helens Town Clerk had resigned and on July 26th the St Helens Newspaper published an editorial on what they saw as the necessary qualities of his successor.
The paper warned its readers of the dangers of appointing a dishonest man who saw the job simply as a means of making money or boosting his ego.
"If an unscrupulous or a needy man be elected to the office, the Corporation may find itself driven or drifting into all sorts of lawsuits and litigations, to swell the importance, or fill the pockets of their Town Clerk.
"It is well to have a clever man, but it is above all things necessary to have a thoroughly honest one. No greater mistake could be made than to select a needy pettifogging lawyer who is ever ready to take up any dirty case, so that it can bring grist to his hungry mill stones."
The paper also felt that in the "present emergency" with much chemical pollution in the Sankey Brook and in the town's atmosphere, the new Town Clerk needed to be a good businessman and a "sound lawyer, not a shilly-shally procrastinator attorney", a man who could "rise superior to the fear or the frown of the capitalist wrong-doer."
The Newspaper also reported that smallpox had broken out again in St Helens. They were also concerned that another even more feared disease might be heading for the town:
"We are, along with the rest of the country, threatened with a much more fatal and therefore an infinitely more-to-be-dreaded visitor – namely, the cholera – which is said to be advancing towards us with rapid strides.
"It is well-known that both these diseases fix themselves with unerring instinct upon the closely-packed, wretchedly-ventilated, and insufficiently drained, centres of population.
"We may therefore ask what is the Corporation of St. Helens doing to set the town in order, and prevent, as far as human foresight can, the ravages of cholera, should it visit us?
"Is it not a fact that the more sanitary officials the Corporation have – the more money they pay for securing cleanliness – the dirtier the town is, and the more unabashed the contributors of filth become?
"Just as now that the chemical works are under a well-paid inspector, the nuisance and damage are greater than before the appointment."
The paper had not been in favour of the recent appointment of Dr Robert McNicoll of Hardshaw Street as the town's first Medical Officer of Health and had been keeping a close watch on his activities – or lack of them.
This week it was rotten pears that came under their scrutiny. The paper wrote:
"Now that we are giving £200 a year to Dr. McNicoll, as our medical officer, we would respectfully ask the Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors, whether it is his duty to see that unsound fruit is not, at this dangerous season of the year, supplied to the inhabitants.
"A few days ago a quantity of rotten pears were publicly sold in the market with the cognizance of the town officials. As might naturally be expected, the unwary purchasers were afterwards taken ill."
The Newspaper also commented how a "terrific storm" had "burst forth" earlier in the week, writing:
"The thunder rolled in rapidly succeeding peals so terribly resonant that the ground seemed to shake as from an earthquake. The aerial conclusion was something dreadful in its violence, and created a perfect panic.
"At the same time the lightning, “the thunder's dread concomitant,” came in flashes following so fast upon each other as to form an almost unbroken illumination. Rain descended in torrents of unusual density.
"Although the storm lasted less than half an hour, the showers formed a volume of water too large for the ordinary conduits of escape. Consequently the low-lying areas were flooded in a few minutes.
"Duke-street presented the appearance of a miniature lake, from the rushing streams which poured into it from the higher levels.
"Bridge-street and a portion of Liverpool-road were almost as bad, and in still the elevated parts of the town the water accumulated with extraordinary rapidity."
Because of the length of time it took for the St Helens horse-driven brigade to get to fires, it was common – particularly in the outlying areas of St Helens – for them to be instead put out by a community effort.
During the storm a bolt of lightning had hit a large stack of hay in the farmyard of Thomas Boardman at Windle Smithies.
The resulting fire was in danger of spreading to two other stacks and nearby buildings and so a messenger was despatched on horseback to St Helens Town Hall.
Although the brigade pointed out that only 22 minutes elapsed from the messenger's arrival to their getting to the farm; that did not take into account the time taken by the rider in preparing his horse and riding it to the Town Hall.
So 35 to 40 minutes could easily have elapsed from the outbreak of the fire – and then the brigade needed to source a water supply.
Buildings could be destroyed during that delay and so a "do-it-yourself" approach tended to be taken, with local people pitching in.
And so when the Windle Smithies fire broke out, Police Sgt. Massey went round all the pubs in the vicinity and mustered twenty volunteers. An assortment of buckets and cans were also collected from locals.
With plenty of willing hands helping out, the fire was extinguished by the time the town's fire engine arrived at Windle Smithies.
Incidentally, Merseytravel bus timetables still refer to Windle Smithy in Rainford Road, near to Windle Island, although the place name is no longer shown on modern maps.
The lightning also did much damage to cottages and trees at St Ann's in Eccleston, Thatto Heath, Nutgrove and Crank.
There was a marital abuse case in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week that had several points of interest.
One underlined how women in court needed to be seen as passive individuals and getting emotional in the witness box or talking too much counted against them.
There was also married women's high level of dependency upon men. And so most battered wives chose to return to their husband in the hope that his violence might stop.
You could also say that stubbornness was on show in the case brought by Elizabeth Clarke against her husband John.
She was accusing him of assault and wanted him to pay sureties into court to guarantee his good behaviour over a set period.
But the husband had hired feisty lawyer Thomas Swift to prove that he was not guilty of the charge. The Newspaper wrote:
"The wife said she was a married woman three months, and during that period had been persecuted by her husband. On Sunday week he knocked her down, kicked her, and jumped upon her.
"He left her a black eye, and it was the first time he had ever touched her face, as he had always said that he would not leave public marks of his ill-usage.
"Mr. Swift cross-examined her with a view, as he intimated, of “drawing her out,” and he succeeded, as she gave way to a great deal of passion.
"Mr. Swift pointed out that whatever injuries the man did upon her, he had not shortened her long tongue, cooled her liveliness, or spoiled her temper.
"He suggested that the pair should do a little of their courting over again, in another room, with the aid of a policeman, and perhaps all would be right."
But it wasn't. Although the couple went to talk things over in an antechamber, the husband refused the generous offer made by his forgiving wife to withdraw her summons and start married life again with a clean slate.
Upon learning of his client's attitude, Thomas Swift said he no longer wished to be the man's legal representative and the magistrates ordered the stubborn John Clarke to find sureties.
A boy was also seemingly sent to prison for doing a notional penny's worth of damage to some machinery.
Other boys had been warned by the firm and had subsequently kept away. But Pilks said James had taken no notice and so they felt they had no choice but to prosecute him.
The boy's mother was in court and complained that her son was innocent of the charge.
However, a watchman said he had caught James on several occasions playing on the sand.
The Chairman of the Bench said the lad would be fined 7s 6d, as well as costs, which was probably a further 6 or 7 shillings. The fine was in reality something his parents would have to pay.
But perhaps realising that her boy had lied to her, James's mother declared that she wouldn't pay the fine and she said her son would have to go to prison instead.
Mrs McCabe was reported as having then walked out of the courtroom leaving her boy behind in the custody of the police.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the Bold engine drive who gave his mother-in-law two black eyes, a claim of dog poisoning in Sutton, the no-show magistrates that caused chaos and the domino playing in a Parr pub that led to a free fight.