150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th DEC. 1869 - 5th JAN. 1870)
This week's stories include a New Year's Eve dinner for the old folk of Eccleston, the angry butcher that attacked a policeman in St Helens Market, a savage assault on a horse in Prescot, the Town Council's fines for absentee councillors, the brutal assault in Whiston and the annual teas and balls held in St Helens and Prescot.
We begin on the 30th when the annual masonic ball took place in the Prescot Court Room. The Prescot Reporter described it as the "most select and fashionable ball" that had been held in the town. They also announced a long list of wealthy people that were on a committee formed to erect a statue to Lord Derby of Knowsley Hall. The recently deceased Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley had been the 14th Earl and served as prime minister on three occasions.
On the 31st there was an auction at Sherdley Hall in Sutton (pictured above) of horses, five carriages, harness, cows, pigs, poultry and other effects. Just why the sale was being made wasn't stated but the second Michael Hughes – who owned the Sherdley Estate – was now living in London. In the 1871 and 1881 censuses he and his family were resident in Belgravia.
On New Year's Eve the Rev. Crockett, the Vicar of Christ Church, and a Mr J. Penketh entertained fifty of the old people of Eccleston to dinner at Hill School. Being old was defined as over sixty and I don't think there would have been many more than fifty folk who had reached that age in Eccleston. The average life expectancy at birth in 1870 was forty – although if you managed to get to forty you could expect to live another thirty years. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that the dinner was of "the most substantial character, consisting of beef, mutton, and plum and rice pudding, with abundance of beer to wash it down."
At Rainhill Lunatic Asylum on New Year's Eve, a concert of sacred music was performed for the inmates. A choir connected with the institution sang the oratorio of 'The Messiah', although I expect the "lunatics" would have preferred some comedy to cheer them up.
The St Helens Newspaper on January 1st wrote this cheery editorial on the coming of the New Year: "Joy bells ring, and humanity makes merry, at the advent of the mysterious stranger [1870], forgetful for the moment, perhaps, that we have all just completed another step towards the grave to which we are hastening."
The paper also commented on a recent meeting of the Pilkington Workmen's Recreation Society. They said it had been well attended – or "crammed to suffocation", as they put it. The programme consisted of readings, recitations, songs and concertina solos, which had been warmly received by the audience. The only concession to the festive season was the wishing of "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" at the conclusion of the gathering.
A meeting of miners was held on New Year's Day on the fairground in Salisbury Street. Although the colliery "masters" were thanked for their recently announced increase in wages, other demands were asked for. These included compulsory education for the children that worked down coal mines, the paying of miners' wages weekly instead of their "reckoning" being every fortnight and better inspection of mines to improve safety.
They had good reason to complain, as over the last few days there had been numerous accidents in the Wigan area. These had caused five deaths and a number of serious injuries. The tally includes James Stone, who was severely injured when 18 cwt of coal fell on top of him at Pewfall Colliery, near Haydock.
Also on New Year's Day a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding was given to thirty of the oldest and poorest men and women in Billinge. This had been the eight annual gathering, with the dinner provided by Thomas Heald, the ex-Mayor of Wigan.
The St Helens Petty Sessions was held on the 3rd and solicitor Thomas Swift got yet another of his clients off a charge by challenging the wording in the court summons. Constable Dermody gave evidence that he had been buying some steak from a butcher's stall in the market when John Crosby approached him in a drunken state. He was also a butcher and was waving some paper at him that looked like a summons. The officer told the man that the paper had nothing to do with him, upon which Crosby struck him several times.
Swift told the Bench that his client had been charged with an assault on a police officer while in the execution of his duty. However when Constable Dermody was assaulted he was buying some meat from a stall and not performing any police duty. The magistrates once again accepted the argument from the clever lawyer who lived in Hardshaw Hall and dismissed the case.
If found guilty the butcher would only have received a small fine as violence was largely tolerated but the stealing of clothing was not. At the same hearing Margaret Hyam was sent to prison for two months after admitting stealing some boots and a pair of trousers from Burchall's pawnbroker's in the St Helens market place.
On the 3rd the Green Dragon Inn in Whiston held their annual tea party and ball. An odd combination but these events were very common. The tea was eaten at 7pm and the dancing started at 8 with tickets costing 1s 6d. The Prescot Working Men's Improvement and Recreation Society held their annual tea party and ball on the 3rd with 270 guests.
The event was held in the Court Room and the Prescot Reporter described the combination of the room's decorations and the "gay attire of the assembly" as having created a "very lively appearance". The Reporter wrote that during tea "several pianoforte pieces were performed" and "their efforts were manifestly approved by the audience".
At the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 4th Thomas Maxwell was charged with assaulting a lad called Joseph Ellwood. The Prescot Reporter described Maxwell as a "young gentleman residing in Snig-lane, who has business with the magistrates at nearly every sessions." The court was told that Maxwell and Ellwood had fallen in with a drunken man and they had taken him back to his home in Whiston. Upon leaving the house for Prescot, Maxwell commenced what was described as a "brutal attack" on Ellwood for no apparent reason.
The lad managed to escape from his assailant and took refuge in a house where he remained for an hour. Thinking his attacker was long gone, Ellwood began walking to Prescot but had not gone far when Maxwell "pounced upon him, and used him very brutally." The Bench was told that the defendant had been before them on 22 previous occasions and they sentenced him to a fine of £5. The Reporter wrote that Maxwell's "exchequer" was low from the many court fines that he'd recently paid. So he took the alternative punishment of two months in prison.
James Briscoe and William Swift had also been causing trouble at Whiston and they appeared in court charged with a breach of the peace. P.C. Ewen said the pair was amongst a crowd of men who just after midnight had been shouting very loudly about their qualities as workmen and "preparing afterwards to enforce their arguments by a fight". The constable said he had been a mile away when he first heard the row and it had continued until he reached them. Both men were bound over to keep the peace.
William Webb from St Helens was charged in the Sessions with ill-using a horse in Fall Lane in Prescot. A man called Arthur Holme gave evidence that he had seen Webb "beating and kicking his horse very savagely, and swearing loudly". He said he remonstrated with the man but he continued his cruelty until a policeman arrived. Webb was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Holy Cross Church's Tea Party and Ball took place on the 4th in the Volunteer Hall with dancing to an "efficient" Quadrille Band. Advance tickets cost 2 shillings.
The monthly Town Council meeting was held on the 5th in which the councillors considered purchasing the building where they were sat. The Town Hall (illustrated above) was then situated in New Market Place and owned by the St Helens Town Hall Company. They had offered to sell the multi-purpose building to the Corporation for £2,400 and the council decided that a committee should negotiate with them.
The committee would manage to knock the price down a bit but it would ultimately prove not to have been a wise investment. That was because the Town Hall would be seriously damaged by fire in May 1871 and so an expensive new building had to be built in Corporation Street, which opened in June 1876.
The council meeting also approved a number of by-laws, including one in which the councillors would be fined 2/6 if they didn't turn up for meetings or arrived more than 15 minutes late. However this did not impress Councillor Hibbert, who said every member of the council was bound in honour to attend such meetings, adding: "If they were to be dragged there, simply because they had been threatened with a fine, it would look so low and degrading."
However Councillor Thomson said the irregular attendance of some of the members proved that honour did not always bind men and perhaps fines would have better effect. There would, though, be an opportunity for absent councillors to give a good excuse for their absence and if it was accepted they would not be fined.
And finally on the 5th at Yew Tree School in Prescot there was a presentation of amateur dramatics by an unnamed group who performed 'The Brigand' and 'Slasher and Crasher'. They would make another performance in a few days, which the Prescot Reporter said would "prove as varied as the tastes of any promiscuous audience could desire."
Next week's stories will include the gang of scoundrels in Croppers Hill, an indecent assault in Parr, the St Helens' bank that went out of business, the Laffak Colliery pitmen prosecuted for quitting their jobs and the many St Helens' men who deserted their families and left them penniless.
We begin on the 30th when the annual masonic ball took place in the Prescot Court Room. The Prescot Reporter described it as the "most select and fashionable ball" that had been held in the town. They also announced a long list of wealthy people that were on a committee formed to erect a statue to Lord Derby of Knowsley Hall. The recently deceased Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley had been the 14th Earl and served as prime minister on three occasions.
On New Year's Eve the Rev. Crockett, the Vicar of Christ Church, and a Mr J. Penketh entertained fifty of the old people of Eccleston to dinner at Hill School. Being old was defined as over sixty and I don't think there would have been many more than fifty folk who had reached that age in Eccleston. The average life expectancy at birth in 1870 was forty – although if you managed to get to forty you could expect to live another thirty years. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that the dinner was of "the most substantial character, consisting of beef, mutton, and plum and rice pudding, with abundance of beer to wash it down."
At Rainhill Lunatic Asylum on New Year's Eve, a concert of sacred music was performed for the inmates. A choir connected with the institution sang the oratorio of 'The Messiah', although I expect the "lunatics" would have preferred some comedy to cheer them up.
The St Helens Newspaper on January 1st wrote this cheery editorial on the coming of the New Year: "Joy bells ring, and humanity makes merry, at the advent of the mysterious stranger [1870], forgetful for the moment, perhaps, that we have all just completed another step towards the grave to which we are hastening."
The paper also commented on a recent meeting of the Pilkington Workmen's Recreation Society. They said it had been well attended – or "crammed to suffocation", as they put it. The programme consisted of readings, recitations, songs and concertina solos, which had been warmly received by the audience. The only concession to the festive season was the wishing of "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" at the conclusion of the gathering.
A meeting of miners was held on New Year's Day on the fairground in Salisbury Street. Although the colliery "masters" were thanked for their recently announced increase in wages, other demands were asked for. These included compulsory education for the children that worked down coal mines, the paying of miners' wages weekly instead of their "reckoning" being every fortnight and better inspection of mines to improve safety.
They had good reason to complain, as over the last few days there had been numerous accidents in the Wigan area. These had caused five deaths and a number of serious injuries. The tally includes James Stone, who was severely injured when 18 cwt of coal fell on top of him at Pewfall Colliery, near Haydock.
Also on New Year's Day a dinner of roast beef and plum pudding was given to thirty of the oldest and poorest men and women in Billinge. This had been the eight annual gathering, with the dinner provided by Thomas Heald, the ex-Mayor of Wigan.
The St Helens Petty Sessions was held on the 3rd and solicitor Thomas Swift got yet another of his clients off a charge by challenging the wording in the court summons. Constable Dermody gave evidence that he had been buying some steak from a butcher's stall in the market when John Crosby approached him in a drunken state. He was also a butcher and was waving some paper at him that looked like a summons. The officer told the man that the paper had nothing to do with him, upon which Crosby struck him several times.
Swift told the Bench that his client had been charged with an assault on a police officer while in the execution of his duty. However when Constable Dermody was assaulted he was buying some meat from a stall and not performing any police duty. The magistrates once again accepted the argument from the clever lawyer who lived in Hardshaw Hall and dismissed the case.
If found guilty the butcher would only have received a small fine as violence was largely tolerated but the stealing of clothing was not. At the same hearing Margaret Hyam was sent to prison for two months after admitting stealing some boots and a pair of trousers from Burchall's pawnbroker's in the St Helens market place.
On the 3rd the Green Dragon Inn in Whiston held their annual tea party and ball. An odd combination but these events were very common. The tea was eaten at 7pm and the dancing started at 8 with tickets costing 1s 6d. The Prescot Working Men's Improvement and Recreation Society held their annual tea party and ball on the 3rd with 270 guests.
The event was held in the Court Room and the Prescot Reporter described the combination of the room's decorations and the "gay attire of the assembly" as having created a "very lively appearance". The Reporter wrote that during tea "several pianoforte pieces were performed" and "their efforts were manifestly approved by the audience".
At the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 4th Thomas Maxwell was charged with assaulting a lad called Joseph Ellwood. The Prescot Reporter described Maxwell as a "young gentleman residing in Snig-lane, who has business with the magistrates at nearly every sessions." The court was told that Maxwell and Ellwood had fallen in with a drunken man and they had taken him back to his home in Whiston. Upon leaving the house for Prescot, Maxwell commenced what was described as a "brutal attack" on Ellwood for no apparent reason.
The lad managed to escape from his assailant and took refuge in a house where he remained for an hour. Thinking his attacker was long gone, Ellwood began walking to Prescot but had not gone far when Maxwell "pounced upon him, and used him very brutally." The Bench was told that the defendant had been before them on 22 previous occasions and they sentenced him to a fine of £5. The Reporter wrote that Maxwell's "exchequer" was low from the many court fines that he'd recently paid. So he took the alternative punishment of two months in prison.
James Briscoe and William Swift had also been causing trouble at Whiston and they appeared in court charged with a breach of the peace. P.C. Ewen said the pair was amongst a crowd of men who just after midnight had been shouting very loudly about their qualities as workmen and "preparing afterwards to enforce their arguments by a fight". The constable said he had been a mile away when he first heard the row and it had continued until he reached them. Both men were bound over to keep the peace.
William Webb from St Helens was charged in the Sessions with ill-using a horse in Fall Lane in Prescot. A man called Arthur Holme gave evidence that he had seen Webb "beating and kicking his horse very savagely, and swearing loudly". He said he remonstrated with the man but he continued his cruelty until a policeman arrived. Webb was fined 10 shillings and costs.
Holy Cross Church's Tea Party and Ball took place on the 4th in the Volunteer Hall with dancing to an "efficient" Quadrille Band. Advance tickets cost 2 shillings.
The committee would manage to knock the price down a bit but it would ultimately prove not to have been a wise investment. That was because the Town Hall would be seriously damaged by fire in May 1871 and so an expensive new building had to be built in Corporation Street, which opened in June 1876.
The council meeting also approved a number of by-laws, including one in which the councillors would be fined 2/6 if they didn't turn up for meetings or arrived more than 15 minutes late. However this did not impress Councillor Hibbert, who said every member of the council was bound in honour to attend such meetings, adding: "If they were to be dragged there, simply because they had been threatened with a fine, it would look so low and degrading."
However Councillor Thomson said the irregular attendance of some of the members proved that honour did not always bind men and perhaps fines would have better effect. There would, though, be an opportunity for absent councillors to give a good excuse for their absence and if it was accepted they would not be fined.
And finally on the 5th at Yew Tree School in Prescot there was a presentation of amateur dramatics by an unnamed group who performed 'The Brigand' and 'Slasher and Crasher'. They would make another performance in a few days, which the Prescot Reporter said would "prove as varied as the tastes of any promiscuous audience could desire."
Next week's stories will include the gang of scoundrels in Croppers Hill, an indecent assault in Parr, the St Helens' bank that went out of business, the Laffak Colliery pitmen prosecuted for quitting their jobs and the many St Helens' men who deserted their families and left them penniless.