150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 30 JUNE - 6 JULY 1875
This week's many stories include the melee in Greenbank involving bricks and pokers, the Rainford poaching case, a gigantic strike at Pilkingtons over a wage reduction is averted, the crucifixion case near Golborne, the boy that drowned in a waterfilled pit in Rainford, the Prescot Reporter campaigns for insanitary dwellings to be demolished and the wretched house in which three children had nothing to lie on.
We begin on July 1st when the inquest on James Waterhouse was held. The 15-year-old was the son of a widow named Alice Waterhouse who lived in a small cottage near an old delf or waterfilled pit in Maggots Nook in Rainford. For the purpose of obtaining water supplies from the deep delf, a plank had been thrown across from Mrs Waterhouse's garden to the other side.
Earlier in the week James and another lad had been on the plank when it gave way and both boys fell in. The other boy was got out at once but James sank and his body could not be recovered for an hour.
"A Gigantic Strike Averted", was the headline to an article in the St Helens Newspaper on the 3rd. The paper stated that during the past month considerable apprehension had been felt in St Helens with much concern over a likely strike amongst the workers at Pilkington's Crown Glass Works (pictured above). Owing to a depression in the glass trade and competition from foreign markets, Pilkingtons had said they would be reducing the wages of glassblowers, makers and flatteners by 10%.
Similar reductions had been made in other parts of the country for the same type of work and a large strike was currently taking place in Sunderland. Representatives of the workforce in St Helens had held interviews with the heads of Pilks who had promised them that as soon as trade revived they would return to their present rates of pay. No doubt the 1870 strike was in the minds of the men. Then the glassblowers "turned out" because Pilks was planning to reduce their wages by at least 20% as a result of foreign competition.
It lasted months and there was considerable suffering with the company eventually winning. And so on this occasion they decided to submit to the reduction rather than strike. That was despite reports that delegates from Sunderland and other parts of the country had for the last fortnight been in St Helens trying to induce the Pilkington men to come out on strike.
On the 3rd the Prescot Reporter published an article describing how prisons had changed: "For upwards of a quarter of a century the model prison system has been in active operation. Previously the unfortunates who found their way to houses of correction were generally herded together like so many swine, contaminating each other by their vicious morals, and the whole establishment by their loathsome habits.
"Government, urged on by the Howards and Romillys of our country, saw fit to abolish the old ways, and institute a prison system which is now the admiration of foreigners. Our gaols are simply mansions, constructed on the healthiest principles, and their tenants are compelled, by rigid regulations, to conform to the cleanliness which everywhere prevails within the walls. To the wholesomeness of the air is superadded a carefully arranged dietary table, which, while sufficient to preserve strength is certain never to cause dispepsia, bile, congestion, or any of the stomachic ailments, which are so common outside."
The point of the piece was to say that if they could be "humane even with ruffians," something should be done for those who are not criminals who lived in insanitary dwellings "that might have been fashioned with the object of keeping out the pure air".
Under the headline "A Barbarous Recreation", the Prescot Reporter also published this curious piece: "Some men assembled in a public-house near Golborne the other day, including among them a [pit] sinker, named John Roscoe. During the evening the conversation turned upon what was called “crucifixion,” which consists in nailing a man's ears to the door for some such consideration as a quantity of beer.
"The process appeared so far reasonable to Roscoe that he consented to have his ears nailed to the door, with the additional provision that he drank a pint of ale while in that situation. He stated that the ordeal was nothing to him, but, he added, “Wasn't it hard to get all the beer out of the jug?”"
The Greenbank district of St Helens in between Canal Street and Liverpool Road was the most deprived part of the town. Mainly populated by poorly-paid Irish immigrants living in bad housing, trouble was always on the brew. And when families fought each other no prisoners were taken, with bricks and pokers used as weapons. When prosecutions took place it always appeared that both sides were as bad as each other.
That seemed to be the case on the 5th when two residents of Greenbank appeared in court charged with assault. This is how the Newspaper described the hearing: "Thomas Bagley and Michael Dolan were summoned for having violently assaulted Michael Ford, on the 26th of June. Mr. Paine appeared for the complainants, and Mr. Swift for the defendants. The case for the prosecution was that at about 6 o’clock on the evening of the 26th ult., the complainant had just returned home from work, and was told that his brother was being maltreated in High street, Greenbank.
"He went to the place and there found his brother on the ground, with a crowd round him, he having the appearance of being much illused. Dolan came up to him and asked him what he wanted, and before he could give him an answer Dolan struck him twice on the head with a poker. The other prisoner at this time was on the roof of the house, and from this elevated position he threw several half bricks amongst the crowd; and not satisfied with this he came down, picked up one of these half bricks, threw it at the complainant and struck him in the face with it.
"For the defence witnesses were called to show that the whole of the disturbance was caused by the Ford family, and Dolan's appearance on the scene was in defence of a man named Noon, who was being “murthered” by the Fords. Bricktippers, pokers, large and small, and other such-like useful but dangerous articles, were produced in the case as having played very prominent parts in the melee. The defendants were fined 10s and costs each."
But there was a sequel to the case as Catherine Ford was summoned for assaulting Patrick Bagley. He was the father of Thomas Bagley who was the chap that had been enjoying himself on a rooftop chucking bricks at people. Patrick Bagley said he had gone to the scene of the fracas and was persuading his son to come home with him when Catherine Ford threw a brick into his face.
The impact knocked Mr Bagley senior down and caused blood to flow. However, the defence case was that Miss Ford did not chuck the brick at all, arguing that the missile had been one of those that his son had thrown down from the roof. But the magistrates did not believe that tale and fined her 10 shillings and costs.
It was a common tactic for female defendants with young kids to appear in the dock holding their infant in their arms. After all there was bound to have been a family member or neighbour prepared to look after the child while the mother made her court appearance. But having her infant child with her worked for Mary Pinder this week. She was charged with being drunk and incapable in a yard off Liverpool Street on Saturday night.
PC Archer stated that on the following day he visited Mary's home and found her house in a "wretched state", with three children having nothing to lay on. Mrs Pinder's husband earned £2 per week, which, the constable added, he and his wife seemed to spend on drink. The magistrates in consideration of the young child decided to dismiss the charge giving Mary a caution.
Game watchers were routinely employed on land in the 19th century to keep an eye out for poachers. They reported to the gamekeepers and appear to have been mainly paid for each transgressor of the game laws that they spotted. That was something that did not make them very popular in their neighbourhoods.
On Monday John Pennington, Jonathan Case and John Bolton were summoned to St Helens Petty Sessions for taking game off land belonging to Lord Derby in Rainford – although none of them showed up. In such circumstances the magistrates had the option of issuing a warrant for the men's arrest or continuing the case in their absence. If the latter course was chosen, as it was in this case, then the magistrates only heard one side of the story.
They were told that game watcher William Powarth had spotted four men with three dogs standing near his house in Rainford. He then watched them go up the lane and part company, with two going into one of Joseph Whalley's fields where a dog killed a hare. All three defendants had been previously convicted of various offences and Bolton was fined £5, Case £2 10s and Pennington £2.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of the location for St Helens new post office, the vicious horse that jibbed at every street corner, the two tragic child drownings and the ex-St Helens grocer said to have spent £1,000 on booze.
We begin on July 1st when the inquest on James Waterhouse was held. The 15-year-old was the son of a widow named Alice Waterhouse who lived in a small cottage near an old delf or waterfilled pit in Maggots Nook in Rainford. For the purpose of obtaining water supplies from the deep delf, a plank had been thrown across from Mrs Waterhouse's garden to the other side.
Earlier in the week James and another lad had been on the plank when it gave way and both boys fell in. The other boy was got out at once but James sank and his body could not be recovered for an hour.
Similar reductions had been made in other parts of the country for the same type of work and a large strike was currently taking place in Sunderland. Representatives of the workforce in St Helens had held interviews with the heads of Pilks who had promised them that as soon as trade revived they would return to their present rates of pay. No doubt the 1870 strike was in the minds of the men. Then the glassblowers "turned out" because Pilks was planning to reduce their wages by at least 20% as a result of foreign competition.
It lasted months and there was considerable suffering with the company eventually winning. And so on this occasion they decided to submit to the reduction rather than strike. That was despite reports that delegates from Sunderland and other parts of the country had for the last fortnight been in St Helens trying to induce the Pilkington men to come out on strike.
On the 3rd the Prescot Reporter published an article describing how prisons had changed: "For upwards of a quarter of a century the model prison system has been in active operation. Previously the unfortunates who found their way to houses of correction were generally herded together like so many swine, contaminating each other by their vicious morals, and the whole establishment by their loathsome habits.
"Government, urged on by the Howards and Romillys of our country, saw fit to abolish the old ways, and institute a prison system which is now the admiration of foreigners. Our gaols are simply mansions, constructed on the healthiest principles, and their tenants are compelled, by rigid regulations, to conform to the cleanliness which everywhere prevails within the walls. To the wholesomeness of the air is superadded a carefully arranged dietary table, which, while sufficient to preserve strength is certain never to cause dispepsia, bile, congestion, or any of the stomachic ailments, which are so common outside."
The point of the piece was to say that if they could be "humane even with ruffians," something should be done for those who are not criminals who lived in insanitary dwellings "that might have been fashioned with the object of keeping out the pure air".
Under the headline "A Barbarous Recreation", the Prescot Reporter also published this curious piece: "Some men assembled in a public-house near Golborne the other day, including among them a [pit] sinker, named John Roscoe. During the evening the conversation turned upon what was called “crucifixion,” which consists in nailing a man's ears to the door for some such consideration as a quantity of beer.
"The process appeared so far reasonable to Roscoe that he consented to have his ears nailed to the door, with the additional provision that he drank a pint of ale while in that situation. He stated that the ordeal was nothing to him, but, he added, “Wasn't it hard to get all the beer out of the jug?”"
The Greenbank district of St Helens in between Canal Street and Liverpool Road was the most deprived part of the town. Mainly populated by poorly-paid Irish immigrants living in bad housing, trouble was always on the brew. And when families fought each other no prisoners were taken, with bricks and pokers used as weapons. When prosecutions took place it always appeared that both sides were as bad as each other.
That seemed to be the case on the 5th when two residents of Greenbank appeared in court charged with assault. This is how the Newspaper described the hearing: "Thomas Bagley and Michael Dolan were summoned for having violently assaulted Michael Ford, on the 26th of June. Mr. Paine appeared for the complainants, and Mr. Swift for the defendants. The case for the prosecution was that at about 6 o’clock on the evening of the 26th ult., the complainant had just returned home from work, and was told that his brother was being maltreated in High street, Greenbank.
"He went to the place and there found his brother on the ground, with a crowd round him, he having the appearance of being much illused. Dolan came up to him and asked him what he wanted, and before he could give him an answer Dolan struck him twice on the head with a poker. The other prisoner at this time was on the roof of the house, and from this elevated position he threw several half bricks amongst the crowd; and not satisfied with this he came down, picked up one of these half bricks, threw it at the complainant and struck him in the face with it.
"For the defence witnesses were called to show that the whole of the disturbance was caused by the Ford family, and Dolan's appearance on the scene was in defence of a man named Noon, who was being “murthered” by the Fords. Bricktippers, pokers, large and small, and other such-like useful but dangerous articles, were produced in the case as having played very prominent parts in the melee. The defendants were fined 10s and costs each."
But there was a sequel to the case as Catherine Ford was summoned for assaulting Patrick Bagley. He was the father of Thomas Bagley who was the chap that had been enjoying himself on a rooftop chucking bricks at people. Patrick Bagley said he had gone to the scene of the fracas and was persuading his son to come home with him when Catherine Ford threw a brick into his face.
The impact knocked Mr Bagley senior down and caused blood to flow. However, the defence case was that Miss Ford did not chuck the brick at all, arguing that the missile had been one of those that his son had thrown down from the roof. But the magistrates did not believe that tale and fined her 10 shillings and costs.
It was a common tactic for female defendants with young kids to appear in the dock holding their infant in their arms. After all there was bound to have been a family member or neighbour prepared to look after the child while the mother made her court appearance. But having her infant child with her worked for Mary Pinder this week. She was charged with being drunk and incapable in a yard off Liverpool Street on Saturday night.
PC Archer stated that on the following day he visited Mary's home and found her house in a "wretched state", with three children having nothing to lay on. Mrs Pinder's husband earned £2 per week, which, the constable added, he and his wife seemed to spend on drink. The magistrates in consideration of the young child decided to dismiss the charge giving Mary a caution.
Game watchers were routinely employed on land in the 19th century to keep an eye out for poachers. They reported to the gamekeepers and appear to have been mainly paid for each transgressor of the game laws that they spotted. That was something that did not make them very popular in their neighbourhoods.
On Monday John Pennington, Jonathan Case and John Bolton were summoned to St Helens Petty Sessions for taking game off land belonging to Lord Derby in Rainford – although none of them showed up. In such circumstances the magistrates had the option of issuing a warrant for the men's arrest or continuing the case in their absence. If the latter course was chosen, as it was in this case, then the magistrates only heard one side of the story.
They were told that game watcher William Powarth had spotted four men with three dogs standing near his house in Rainford. He then watched them go up the lane and part company, with two going into one of Joseph Whalley's fields where a dog killed a hare. All three defendants had been previously convicted of various offences and Bolton was fined £5, Case £2 10s and Pennington £2.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of the location for St Helens new post office, the vicious horse that jibbed at every street corner, the two tragic child drownings and the ex-St Helens grocer said to have spent £1,000 on booze.
This week's many stories include the melee in Greenbank involving bricks and pokers, the Rainford poaching case, a gigantic strike at Pilkingtons over a wage reduction is averted, the crucifixion case near Golborne, the boy that drowned in a waterfilled pit in Rainford, the Prescot Reporter campaigns for insanitary dwellings to be demolished and the wretched house in which three children had nothing to lie on.
We begin on July 1st when the inquest on James Waterhouse was held. The 15-year-old was the son of a widow named Alice Waterhouse who lived in a small cottage near an old delf or waterfilled pit in Maggots Nook in Rainford.
For the purpose of obtaining water supplies from the deep delf, a plank had been thrown across from Mrs Waterhouse's garden to the other side.
Earlier in the week James and another lad had been on the plank when it gave way and both boys fell in.
The other boy was got out at once but James sank and his body could not be recovered for an hour.
"A Gigantic Strike Averted", was the headline to an article in the St Helens Newspaper on the 3rd.
The paper stated that during the past month considerable apprehension had been felt in St Helens with much concern over a likely strike amongst the workers at Pilkington's Crown Glass Works (pictured above).
Owing to a depression in the glass trade and competition from foreign markets, Pilkingtons had said they would be reducing the wages of glassblowers, makers and flatteners by 10%.
Similar reductions had been made in other parts of the country for the same type of work and a large strike was currently taking place in Sunderland.
Representatives of the workforce in St Helens had held interviews with the heads of Pilks who had promised them that as soon as trade revived they would return to their present rates of pay.
No doubt the 1870 strike was in the minds of the men. Then the glassblowers "turned out" because Pilks was planning to reduce their wages by at least 20% as a result of foreign competition.
It lasted months and there was considerable suffering with the company eventually winning. And so on this occasion they decided to submit to the reduction rather than strike.
That was despite reports that delegates from Sunderland and other parts of the country had for the last fortnight been in St Helens trying to induce the Pilkington men to come out on strike.
On the 3rd the Prescot Reporter published an article describing how prisons had changed:
"For upwards of a quarter of a century the model prison system has been in active operation. Previously the unfortunates who found their way to houses of correction were generally herded together like so many swine, contaminating each other by their vicious morals, and the whole establishment by their loathsome habits.
"Government, urged on by the Howards and Romillys of our country, saw fit to abolish the old ways, and institute a prison system which is now the admiration of foreigners. Our gaols are simply mansions, constructed on the healthiest principles, and their tenants are compelled, by rigid regulations, to conform to the cleanliness which everywhere prevails within the walls.
"To the wholesomeness of the air is superadded a carefully arranged dietary table, which, while sufficient to preserve strength is certain never to cause dispepsia, bile, congestion, or any of the stomachic ailments, which are so common outside."
The point of the piece was to say that if they could be "humane even with ruffians," something should be done for those who are not criminals who lived in insanitary dwellings "that might have been fashioned with the object of keeping out the pure air".
Under the headline "A Barbarous Recreation", the Prescot Reporter also published this curious piece:
"Some men assembled in a public-house near Golborne the other day, including among them a [pit] sinker, named John Roscoe.
"During the evening the conversation turned upon what was called “crucifixion,” which consists in nailing a man's ears to the door for some such consideration as a quantity of beer.
"The process appeared so far reasonable to Roscoe that he consented to have his ears nailed to the door, with the additional provision that he drank a pint of ale while in that situation.
"He stated that the ordeal was nothing to him, but, he added, “Wasn't it hard to get all the beer out of the jug?”"
The Greenbank district of St Helens in between Canal Street and Liverpool Road was the most deprived part of the town.
Mainly populated by poorly-paid Irish immigrants living in bad housing, trouble was always on the brew.
And when families fought each other no prisoners were taken, with bricks and pokers used as weapons.
When prosecutions took place it always appeared that both sides were as bad as each other.
That seemed to be the case on the 5th when two residents of Greenbank appeared in court charged with assault. This is how the Newspaper described the hearing:
"Thomas Bagley and Michael Dolan were summoned for having violently assaulted Michael Ford, on the 26th of June.
"Mr. Paine appeared for the complainants, and Mr. Swift for the defendants. The case for the prosecution was that at about 6 o’clock on the evening of the 26th ult., the complainant had just returned home from work, and was told that his brother was being maltreated in High street, Greenbank.
"He went to the place and there found his brother on the ground, with a crowd round him, he having the appearance of being much illused.
"Dolan came up to him and asked him what he wanted, and before he could give him an answer Dolan struck him twice on the head with a poker.
"The other prisoner at this time was on the roof of the house, and from this elevated position he threw several half bricks amongst the crowd; and not satisfied with this he came down, picked up one of these half bricks, threw it at the complainant and struck him in the face with it.
"For the defence witnesses were called to show that the whole of the disturbance was caused by the Ford family, and Dolan's appearance on the scene was in defence of a man named Noon, who was being “murthered” by the Fords.
"Bricktippers, pokers, large and small, and other such-like useful but dangerous articles, were produced in the case as having played very prominent parts in the melee. The defendants were fined 10s and costs each."
But there was a sequel to the case as Catherine Ford was summoned for assaulting Patrick Bagley.
He was the father of Thomas Bagley who was the chap that had been enjoying himself on a rooftop chucking bricks at people.
Patrick Bagley said he had gone to the scene of the fracas and was persuading his son to come home with him when Catherine Ford threw a brick into his face.
The impact knocked Mr Bagley senior down and caused blood to flow. However, the defence case was that Miss Ford did not chuck the brick at all, arguing that the missile had been one of those that his son had thrown down from the roof.
But the magistrates did not believe that tale and fined her 10 shillings and costs.
It was a common tactic for female defendants with young kids to appear in the dock holding their infant in their arms.
After all there was bound to have been a family member or neighbour prepared to look after the child while the mother made her court appearance.
But having her infant child with her worked for Mary Pinder this week. She was charged with being drunk and incapable in a yard off Liverpool Street on Saturday night.
PC Archer stated that on the following day he visited Mary's home and found her house in a "wretched state", with three children having nothing to lay on.
Mrs Pinder's husband earned £2 per week, which, the constable added, he and his wife seemed to spend on drink.
The magistrates in consideration of the young child decided to dismiss the charge giving Mary a caution.
Game watchers were routinely employed on land in the 19th century to keep an eye out for poachers.
They reported to the gamekeepers and appear to have been mainly paid for each transgressor of the game laws that they spotted.
That was something that did not make them very popular in their neighbourhoods.
On Monday John Pennington, Jonathan Case and John Bolton were summoned to St Helens Petty Sessions for taking game off land belonging to Lord Derby in Rainford – although none of them showed up.
In such circumstances the magistrates had the option of issuing a warrant for the men's arrest or continuing the case in their absence.
If the latter course was chosen, as it was in this case, then the magistrates only heard one side of the story.
They were told that game watcher William Powarth had spotted four men with three dogs standing near his house in Rainford.
He then watched them go up the lane and part company, with two going into one of Joseph Whalley's fields where a dog killed a hare.
All three defendants had been previously convicted of various offences and Bolton was fined £5, Case £2 10s and Pennington £2.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of the location for St Helens new post office, the vicious horse that jibbed at every street corner, the two tragic child drownings and the ex-St Helens grocer said to have spent £1,000 on booze.
We begin on July 1st when the inquest on James Waterhouse was held. The 15-year-old was the son of a widow named Alice Waterhouse who lived in a small cottage near an old delf or waterfilled pit in Maggots Nook in Rainford.
For the purpose of obtaining water supplies from the deep delf, a plank had been thrown across from Mrs Waterhouse's garden to the other side.
Earlier in the week James and another lad had been on the plank when it gave way and both boys fell in.
The other boy was got out at once but James sank and his body could not be recovered for an hour.
The paper stated that during the past month considerable apprehension had been felt in St Helens with much concern over a likely strike amongst the workers at Pilkington's Crown Glass Works (pictured above).
Owing to a depression in the glass trade and competition from foreign markets, Pilkingtons had said they would be reducing the wages of glassblowers, makers and flatteners by 10%.
Similar reductions had been made in other parts of the country for the same type of work and a large strike was currently taking place in Sunderland.
Representatives of the workforce in St Helens had held interviews with the heads of Pilks who had promised them that as soon as trade revived they would return to their present rates of pay.
No doubt the 1870 strike was in the minds of the men. Then the glassblowers "turned out" because Pilks was planning to reduce their wages by at least 20% as a result of foreign competition.
It lasted months and there was considerable suffering with the company eventually winning. And so on this occasion they decided to submit to the reduction rather than strike.
That was despite reports that delegates from Sunderland and other parts of the country had for the last fortnight been in St Helens trying to induce the Pilkington men to come out on strike.
On the 3rd the Prescot Reporter published an article describing how prisons had changed:
"For upwards of a quarter of a century the model prison system has been in active operation. Previously the unfortunates who found their way to houses of correction were generally herded together like so many swine, contaminating each other by their vicious morals, and the whole establishment by their loathsome habits.
"Government, urged on by the Howards and Romillys of our country, saw fit to abolish the old ways, and institute a prison system which is now the admiration of foreigners. Our gaols are simply mansions, constructed on the healthiest principles, and their tenants are compelled, by rigid regulations, to conform to the cleanliness which everywhere prevails within the walls.
"To the wholesomeness of the air is superadded a carefully arranged dietary table, which, while sufficient to preserve strength is certain never to cause dispepsia, bile, congestion, or any of the stomachic ailments, which are so common outside."
The point of the piece was to say that if they could be "humane even with ruffians," something should be done for those who are not criminals who lived in insanitary dwellings "that might have been fashioned with the object of keeping out the pure air".
Under the headline "A Barbarous Recreation", the Prescot Reporter also published this curious piece:
"Some men assembled in a public-house near Golborne the other day, including among them a [pit] sinker, named John Roscoe.
"During the evening the conversation turned upon what was called “crucifixion,” which consists in nailing a man's ears to the door for some such consideration as a quantity of beer.
"The process appeared so far reasonable to Roscoe that he consented to have his ears nailed to the door, with the additional provision that he drank a pint of ale while in that situation.
"He stated that the ordeal was nothing to him, but, he added, “Wasn't it hard to get all the beer out of the jug?”"
The Greenbank district of St Helens in between Canal Street and Liverpool Road was the most deprived part of the town.
Mainly populated by poorly-paid Irish immigrants living in bad housing, trouble was always on the brew.
And when families fought each other no prisoners were taken, with bricks and pokers used as weapons.
When prosecutions took place it always appeared that both sides were as bad as each other.
That seemed to be the case on the 5th when two residents of Greenbank appeared in court charged with assault. This is how the Newspaper described the hearing:
"Thomas Bagley and Michael Dolan were summoned for having violently assaulted Michael Ford, on the 26th of June.
"Mr. Paine appeared for the complainants, and Mr. Swift for the defendants. The case for the prosecution was that at about 6 o’clock on the evening of the 26th ult., the complainant had just returned home from work, and was told that his brother was being maltreated in High street, Greenbank.
"He went to the place and there found his brother on the ground, with a crowd round him, he having the appearance of being much illused.
"Dolan came up to him and asked him what he wanted, and before he could give him an answer Dolan struck him twice on the head with a poker.
"The other prisoner at this time was on the roof of the house, and from this elevated position he threw several half bricks amongst the crowd; and not satisfied with this he came down, picked up one of these half bricks, threw it at the complainant and struck him in the face with it.
"For the defence witnesses were called to show that the whole of the disturbance was caused by the Ford family, and Dolan's appearance on the scene was in defence of a man named Noon, who was being “murthered” by the Fords.
"Bricktippers, pokers, large and small, and other such-like useful but dangerous articles, were produced in the case as having played very prominent parts in the melee. The defendants were fined 10s and costs each."
But there was a sequel to the case as Catherine Ford was summoned for assaulting Patrick Bagley.
He was the father of Thomas Bagley who was the chap that had been enjoying himself on a rooftop chucking bricks at people.
Patrick Bagley said he had gone to the scene of the fracas and was persuading his son to come home with him when Catherine Ford threw a brick into his face.
The impact knocked Mr Bagley senior down and caused blood to flow. However, the defence case was that Miss Ford did not chuck the brick at all, arguing that the missile had been one of those that his son had thrown down from the roof.
But the magistrates did not believe that tale and fined her 10 shillings and costs.
It was a common tactic for female defendants with young kids to appear in the dock holding their infant in their arms.
After all there was bound to have been a family member or neighbour prepared to look after the child while the mother made her court appearance.
But having her infant child with her worked for Mary Pinder this week. She was charged with being drunk and incapable in a yard off Liverpool Street on Saturday night.
PC Archer stated that on the following day he visited Mary's home and found her house in a "wretched state", with three children having nothing to lay on.
Mrs Pinder's husband earned £2 per week, which, the constable added, he and his wife seemed to spend on drink.
The magistrates in consideration of the young child decided to dismiss the charge giving Mary a caution.
Game watchers were routinely employed on land in the 19th century to keep an eye out for poachers.
They reported to the gamekeepers and appear to have been mainly paid for each transgressor of the game laws that they spotted.
That was something that did not make them very popular in their neighbourhoods.
On Monday John Pennington, Jonathan Case and John Bolton were summoned to St Helens Petty Sessions for taking game off land belonging to Lord Derby in Rainford – although none of them showed up.
In such circumstances the magistrates had the option of issuing a warrant for the men's arrest or continuing the case in their absence.
If the latter course was chosen, as it was in this case, then the magistrates only heard one side of the story.
They were told that game watcher William Powarth had spotted four men with three dogs standing near his house in Rainford.
He then watched them go up the lane and part company, with two going into one of Joseph Whalley's fields where a dog killed a hare.
All three defendants had been previously convicted of various offences and Bolton was fined £5, Case £2 10s and Pennington £2.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include criticism of the location for St Helens new post office, the vicious horse that jibbed at every street corner, the two tragic child drownings and the ex-St Helens grocer said to have spent £1,000 on booze.