150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 31 MARCH - 6 APRIL 1875
This week's many stories include the shocking living conditions in poorer parts of St Helens, the outrage in Ashton, the Bold Hall gamekeeper's shotgun diplomacy, the brainless thefts from a pair of Church Street ironmongers and the powerful looking Sutton man who hit his wife on the head because she would not cut him some bread.
We begin on the 31st when the annual St Helens Catholic Charity Ball was held in the Volunteer Hall (pictured above). Tickets cost 5 shillings, which was quite expensive, with the proceeds from the event going to fund the Catholic schools in the district. Its advert in the St Helens Newspaper had said: "The room will be perfumed by Messrs. Sherlock Bros., by means of several Rimmel's evaporisers".
The Newspaper in its review wrote that the hall had been "very tastefully decorated for the occasion". The walls were hung in pink and white and there were large mirrors, artificial flowers, banners etc. and part of the room was partitioned off to form a "refreshment saloon".
The St Helens Newspaper on the 3rd hoped that proposed new government legislation would improve housing conditions in the poorer parts of the town – in particular the districts of Greenbank, Gerards Bridge, Pocket Nook, Smithy Brow and what they described as the remoter parts of Parr. The paper wrote:
"Let any individual walk down some of the streets and courts in the neighbourhoods named, and cast even a casual glance as he goes along at the internal arrangements of the domiciles occupied by our labouring classes, who for the most part, and as frequently as the weather will permit, prefer the outside to the inside of their miserable habitations."
The paper criticised rows of homes that looked like they had never been touched by a brush or soap and water for years. They said that even the police when ordered to keep watch on people in "these scenes of dirt and desolation" did so at a respectful distance. The Newspaper felt the living conditions of such people contributed to crime and "the fostering of habits which are condemnatory". Such dwellings were also considered by the paper to be a "hot-bed of disease – a festering sore in our very midst".
One of the most common excuses given by wife beaters for their violent behaviour, concerned their spouse having supposedly not prepared any food for them. Michael Rose from Sutton – who the Newspaper called a "powerful looking man" – said he had struck and kicked his wife Margaret and hit her on the head with a brush because she had refused to cut him some bread for his breakfast.
Chastisement of a wife was within the law but Rose had gone too far and when he appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week he was bound over in the sum of £10. He also had to find two sureties of £5 to keep the peace for three months or alternatively be sent to prison for a month.
John Fox was another woman beater who appeared in the Petty Sessions, only he had performed his brutality in public. PC John Wilding told the court that shortly after 7 pm last Sunday evening he had received information that a disturbance was taking place in Pocket Nook. Upon his arrival at the scene he said he found a great crowd collected around Fox who had a woman down on the ground and was giving her a severe kicking.
Upon the constable informing Fox that he would be summoned for his actions, the man picked up a number of bricks with the presumed intention of throwing them at the officer. However, PC Wilding grabbed hold of him and with some difficulty managed to get the bricks off him. But then Fox ran to an adjoining cinder heap and began pelting cinders and rubbish at the constable. At that point PC Wilding said he drew his staff in self-defence and the mob – instead of helping the policeman – started threatening and jostling him.
Inspector Whiteside told the court that Fox was undoubtedly a rough customer who associated with a lot of fellows like himself, adding: "They seem to think that whenever they get a policeman by himself, they can do what they liked with him." The magistrates sentenced him to prison for a month. Just who the woman had been that Fox had been beating and what her condition was after her kicking, were not revealed in the newspaper report.
Foundation stones, aka memorial stones, were often being laid for new buildings in St Helens and the ceremonial occasion always reported in great detail in the newspapers. But have you ever heard of a foundation stone for a whole town? Well, you have now as the St Helens Newspaper described how such a ceremony had taken place to mark the creation of St Anne's. The paper wrote:
"The foundation-stone was laid on Wednesday of a new town, on the Lancashire coast, named St. Anne's, situate about three miles from Lytham. A limited liability company, with a subscribed capital of £50,000, has purchased the estate from Colonel Clifton, lord of the manor. Mr. Talbot Henry Clifton, M.P., was present at the ceremony, which was performed by his son. In the evening a banquet took place at Lytham."
Occasionally the Newspaper would use the word rape in its reports. But they generally preferred euphemisms, with being "outraged" or "criminally assaulted" popular choices. The paper reported this week that four coal miners from Ashton-in-Makerfield had appeared in the Kirkdale Assizes charged with criminally assaulting Ann Williams. The latter had been doing some shopping in Ashton and had decided to call in a pub where she drank too much.
She met William Bullen and the 29-year-old promised to walk her safely to her home two miles away. Other men then joined them and at some point on the journey she was "outraged" by all of them except one. The defence case was a total denial that the outrage had occurred but they were all found guilty.
William Bullen received a 10-year prison sentence and all the others were given five years. That seemed a tad harsh on John Clarke. The 18-year-old received the same 5-year term for aiding and abetting the crime, as did two older men, who, along with Bullen, had participated in the rape.
This week the inquest on William Pennington was held at the Hawk and Buck Inn in Peasley Cross. The 27-year-old married man from Manor Street had been killed at Ravenhead Colliery. William had been clearing an underground roadway, when a large quantity of the roof collapsed, completely burying him.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th, Thomas Garland was charged with obtaining goods by false pretences. It was another brainless crime in which the 26-year-old joiner had obtained a brace and bits and a saw from Booth and Jordan's ironmongers. The Church Street shop knew Garland and when he said the tools were for a Bridge Street cabinet maker called Barlow they thought nothing of it, as Garland had previously worked for him.
But Mr Barlow hadn't employed the man for a while and when he received the bill had denied all knowledge of the tools. The police were informed and promptly arrested Garland. On his person they found pawn tickets, not only for the things he had obtained from Booth and Jordan's shop, but also for similar items from Harrison's.
They were another Church Street ironmongers and Garland had told them that the tools he got from them were for Borrows' locomotive makers of Sutton. The magistrates committed Garland for trial in the next Kirkdale Quarterly Sessions and in April he would be sent to prison for two years.
Having a row with the gamekeeper of an estate, who invariably carried a shotgun around with him, was not a great idea. When Thomas O’Neill and William Spruston appeared in court charged with assaulting gamekeeper Thomas Welding, it was stated that the latter had threatened to shoot the two men. The Newspaper wrote "…and so far proceeded to carry his threat into execution by bringing the gun to his shoulder, and putting the trigger on full-cock."
Welding was the gamekeeper for the Bold Hall estate and told the magistrates that the defendants with two other men had come to his house asking for a pipe of tobacco. Upon Welding saying that he had none, it was claimed that he had been knocked down and kicked several times. This case had all the hallmarks of a long-running dispute in which only the final chapter was related in court. However, the magistrates did not think the case had been sufficiently proved and dismissed the charges.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire at the St Helens post office, the blind Minstrels performing in the Volunteer Hall, a call for the St Helens Fair to end and two miners lose their lives in a shocking accident at Havannah Colliery in Parr.
The Newspaper in its review wrote that the hall had been "very tastefully decorated for the occasion". The walls were hung in pink and white and there were large mirrors, artificial flowers, banners etc. and part of the room was partitioned off to form a "refreshment saloon".
The St Helens Newspaper on the 3rd hoped that proposed new government legislation would improve housing conditions in the poorer parts of the town – in particular the districts of Greenbank, Gerards Bridge, Pocket Nook, Smithy Brow and what they described as the remoter parts of Parr. The paper wrote:
"Let any individual walk down some of the streets and courts in the neighbourhoods named, and cast even a casual glance as he goes along at the internal arrangements of the domiciles occupied by our labouring classes, who for the most part, and as frequently as the weather will permit, prefer the outside to the inside of their miserable habitations."
The paper criticised rows of homes that looked like they had never been touched by a brush or soap and water for years. They said that even the police when ordered to keep watch on people in "these scenes of dirt and desolation" did so at a respectful distance. The Newspaper felt the living conditions of such people contributed to crime and "the fostering of habits which are condemnatory". Such dwellings were also considered by the paper to be a "hot-bed of disease – a festering sore in our very midst".
One of the most common excuses given by wife beaters for their violent behaviour, concerned their spouse having supposedly not prepared any food for them. Michael Rose from Sutton – who the Newspaper called a "powerful looking man" – said he had struck and kicked his wife Margaret and hit her on the head with a brush because she had refused to cut him some bread for his breakfast.
Chastisement of a wife was within the law but Rose had gone too far and when he appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week he was bound over in the sum of £10. He also had to find two sureties of £5 to keep the peace for three months or alternatively be sent to prison for a month.
John Fox was another woman beater who appeared in the Petty Sessions, only he had performed his brutality in public. PC John Wilding told the court that shortly after 7 pm last Sunday evening he had received information that a disturbance was taking place in Pocket Nook. Upon his arrival at the scene he said he found a great crowd collected around Fox who had a woman down on the ground and was giving her a severe kicking.
Upon the constable informing Fox that he would be summoned for his actions, the man picked up a number of bricks with the presumed intention of throwing them at the officer. However, PC Wilding grabbed hold of him and with some difficulty managed to get the bricks off him. But then Fox ran to an adjoining cinder heap and began pelting cinders and rubbish at the constable. At that point PC Wilding said he drew his staff in self-defence and the mob – instead of helping the policeman – started threatening and jostling him.
Inspector Whiteside told the court that Fox was undoubtedly a rough customer who associated with a lot of fellows like himself, adding: "They seem to think that whenever they get a policeman by himself, they can do what they liked with him." The magistrates sentenced him to prison for a month. Just who the woman had been that Fox had been beating and what her condition was after her kicking, were not revealed in the newspaper report.
Foundation stones, aka memorial stones, were often being laid for new buildings in St Helens and the ceremonial occasion always reported in great detail in the newspapers. But have you ever heard of a foundation stone for a whole town? Well, you have now as the St Helens Newspaper described how such a ceremony had taken place to mark the creation of St Anne's. The paper wrote:
"The foundation-stone was laid on Wednesday of a new town, on the Lancashire coast, named St. Anne's, situate about three miles from Lytham. A limited liability company, with a subscribed capital of £50,000, has purchased the estate from Colonel Clifton, lord of the manor. Mr. Talbot Henry Clifton, M.P., was present at the ceremony, which was performed by his son. In the evening a banquet took place at Lytham."
Occasionally the Newspaper would use the word rape in its reports. But they generally preferred euphemisms, with being "outraged" or "criminally assaulted" popular choices. The paper reported this week that four coal miners from Ashton-in-Makerfield had appeared in the Kirkdale Assizes charged with criminally assaulting Ann Williams. The latter had been doing some shopping in Ashton and had decided to call in a pub where she drank too much.
She met William Bullen and the 29-year-old promised to walk her safely to her home two miles away. Other men then joined them and at some point on the journey she was "outraged" by all of them except one. The defence case was a total denial that the outrage had occurred but they were all found guilty.
William Bullen received a 10-year prison sentence and all the others were given five years. That seemed a tad harsh on John Clarke. The 18-year-old received the same 5-year term for aiding and abetting the crime, as did two older men, who, along with Bullen, had participated in the rape.
This week the inquest on William Pennington was held at the Hawk and Buck Inn in Peasley Cross. The 27-year-old married man from Manor Street had been killed at Ravenhead Colliery. William had been clearing an underground roadway, when a large quantity of the roof collapsed, completely burying him.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th, Thomas Garland was charged with obtaining goods by false pretences. It was another brainless crime in which the 26-year-old joiner had obtained a brace and bits and a saw from Booth and Jordan's ironmongers. The Church Street shop knew Garland and when he said the tools were for a Bridge Street cabinet maker called Barlow they thought nothing of it, as Garland had previously worked for him.
But Mr Barlow hadn't employed the man for a while and when he received the bill had denied all knowledge of the tools. The police were informed and promptly arrested Garland. On his person they found pawn tickets, not only for the things he had obtained from Booth and Jordan's shop, but also for similar items from Harrison's.
They were another Church Street ironmongers and Garland had told them that the tools he got from them were for Borrows' locomotive makers of Sutton. The magistrates committed Garland for trial in the next Kirkdale Quarterly Sessions and in April he would be sent to prison for two years.
Having a row with the gamekeeper of an estate, who invariably carried a shotgun around with him, was not a great idea. When Thomas O’Neill and William Spruston appeared in court charged with assaulting gamekeeper Thomas Welding, it was stated that the latter had threatened to shoot the two men. The Newspaper wrote "…and so far proceeded to carry his threat into execution by bringing the gun to his shoulder, and putting the trigger on full-cock."
Welding was the gamekeeper for the Bold Hall estate and told the magistrates that the defendants with two other men had come to his house asking for a pipe of tobacco. Upon Welding saying that he had none, it was claimed that he had been knocked down and kicked several times. This case had all the hallmarks of a long-running dispute in which only the final chapter was related in court. However, the magistrates did not think the case had been sufficiently proved and dismissed the charges.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire at the St Helens post office, the blind Minstrels performing in the Volunteer Hall, a call for the St Helens Fair to end and two miners lose their lives in a shocking accident at Havannah Colliery in Parr.
This week's many stories include the shocking living conditions in poorer parts of St Helens, the outrage in Ashton, the Bold Hall gamekeeper's shotgun diplomacy, the brainless thefts from a pair of Church Street ironmongers and the powerful looking Sutton man who hit his wife on the head because she would not cut him some bread.
We begin on the 31st when the annual St Helens Catholic Charity Ball was held in the Volunteer Hall (pictured above).
Tickets cost 5 shillings, which was quite expensive, with the proceeds from the event going to fund the Catholic schools in the district.
Its advert in the St Helens Newspaper had said: "The room will be perfumed by Messrs. Sherlock Bros., by means of several Rimmel's evaporisers".
The Newspaper in its review wrote that the hall had been "very tastefully decorated for the occasion".
The walls were hung in pink and white and there were large mirrors, artificial flowers, banners etc. and part of the room was partitioned off to form a "refreshment saloon".
The St Helens Newspaper on the 3rd hoped that proposed new government legislation would improve housing conditions in the poorer parts of the town – in particular the districts of Greenbank, Gerards Bridge, Pocket Nook, Smithy Brow and what they described as the remoter parts of Parr. The paper wrote:
"Let any individual walk down some of the streets and courts in the neighbourhoods named, and cast even a casual glance as he goes along at the internal arrangements of the domiciles occupied by our labouring classes, who for the most part, and as frequently as the weather will permit, prefer the outside to the inside of their miserable habitations."
The paper criticised rows of homes that looked like they had never been touched by a brush or soap and water for years.
They said that even the police when ordered to keep watch on people in "these scenes of dirt and desolation" did so at a respectful distance.
The Newspaper felt the living conditions of such people contributed to crime and "the fostering of habits which are condemnatory".
Such dwellings were also considered by the paper to be a "hot-bed of disease – a festering sore in our very midst".
One of the most common excuses given by wife beaters for their violent behaviour, concerned their spouse having supposedly not prepared any food for them.
Michael Rose from Sutton – who the Newspaper called a "powerful looking man" – said he had struck and kicked his wife Margaret and hit her on the head with a brush because she had refused to cut him some bread for his breakfast.
Chastisement of a wife was within the law but Rose had gone too far and when he appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week he was bound over in the sum of £10.
He also had to find two sureties of £5 to keep the peace for three months or alternatively be sent to prison for a month.
John Fox was another woman beater who appeared in the Petty Sessions, only he had performed his brutality in public.
PC John Wilding told the court that shortly after 7 pm last Sunday evening he had received information that a disturbance was taking place in Pocket Nook.
Upon his arrival at the scene he said he found a great crowd collected around Fox who had a woman down on the ground and was giving her a severe kicking.
Upon the constable informing Fox that he would be summoned for his actions, the man picked up a number of bricks with the presumed intention of throwing them at the officer.
However, PC Wilding grabbed hold of him and with some difficulty managed to get the bricks off him.
But then Fox ran to an adjoining cinder heap and began pelting cinders and rubbish at the constable.
At that point PC Wilding said he drew his staff in self-defence and the mob – instead of helping the policeman – started threatening and jostling him.
Inspector Whiteside told the court that Fox was undoubtedly a rough customer who associated with a lot of fellows like himself, adding:
"They seem to think that whenever they get a policeman by himself, they can do what they liked with him." The magistrates sentenced him to prison for a month.
Just who the woman had been that Fox had been beating and what her condition was after her kicking, were not revealed in the newspaper report.
Foundation stones, aka memorial stones, were often being laid for new buildings in St Helens and the ceremonial occasion always reported in great detail in the newspapers.
But have you ever heard of a foundation stone for a whole town? Well, you have now as the St Helens Newspaper described how such a ceremony had taken place to mark the creation of St Anne's. The paper wrote:
"The foundation-stone was laid on Wednesday of a new town, on the Lancashire coast, named St. Anne's, situate about three miles from Lytham.
"A limited liability company, with a subscribed capital of £50,000, has purchased the estate from Colonel Clifton, lord of the manor.
"Mr. Talbot Henry Clifton, M.P., was present at the ceremony, which was performed by his son. In the evening a banquet took place at Lytham."
Occasionally the Newspaper would use the word rape in its reports. But they generally preferred euphemisms, with being "outraged" or "criminally assaulted" popular choices.
The paper reported this week that four coal miners from Ashton-in-Makerfield had appeared in the Kirkdale Assizes charged with criminally assaulting Ann Williams.
The latter had been doing some shopping in Ashton and had decided to call in a pub where she drank too much.
She met William Bullen and the 29-year-old promised to walk her safely to her home two miles away.
Other men then joined them and at some point on the journey she was "outraged" by all of them except one.
The defence case was a total denial that the outrage had occurred but they were all found guilty.
William Bullen received a 10-year prison sentence and all the others were given five years.
That seemed a tad harsh on John Clarke. The 18-year-old received the same 5-year term for aiding and abetting the crime, as did two older men, who, along with Bullen, had participated in the rape.
This week the inquest on William Pennington was held at the Hawk and Buck Inn in Peasley Cross.
The 27-year-old married man from Manor Street had been killed at Ravenhead Colliery.
William had been clearing an underground roadway, when a large quantity of the roof collapsed, completely burying him.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th, Thomas Garland was charged with obtaining goods by false pretences.
It was another brainless crime in which the 26-year-old joiner had obtained a brace and bits and a saw from Booth and Jordan's ironmongers.
The Church Street shop knew Garland and when he said the tools were for a Bridge Street cabinet maker called Barlow they thought nothing of it, as Garland had previously worked for him.
But Mr Barlow hadn't employed the man for a while and when he received the bill had denied all knowledge of the tools. The police were informed and promptly arrested Garland.
On his person they found pawn tickets, not only for the things he had obtained from Booth and Jordan's shop, but also for similar items from Harrison's.
They were another Church Street ironmongers and Garland had told them that the tools he got from them were for Borrows' locomotive makers of Sutton.
The magistrates committed Garland for trial in the next Kirkdale Quarterly Sessions and in April he would be sent to prison for two years.
Having a row with the gamekeeper of an estate, who invariably carried a shotgun around with him, was not a great idea.
When Thomas O’Neill and William Spruston appeared in court charged with assaulting gamekeeper Thomas Welding, it was stated that the latter had threatened to shoot the two men.
The Newspaper wrote "…and so far proceeded to carry his threat into execution by bringing the gun to his shoulder, and putting the trigger on full-cock."
Welding was the gamekeeper for the Bold Hall estate and told the magistrates that the defendants with two other men had come to his house asking for a pipe of tobacco.
Upon Welding saying that he had none, it was claimed that he had been knocked down and kicked several times.
This case had all the hallmarks of a long-running dispute in which only the final chapter was related in court.
However, the magistrates did not think the case had been sufficiently proved and dismissed the charges.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire at the St Helens post office, the blind Minstrels performing in the Volunteer Hall, a call for the St Helens Fair to end and two miners lose their lives in a shocking accident at Havannah Colliery in Parr.
Tickets cost 5 shillings, which was quite expensive, with the proceeds from the event going to fund the Catholic schools in the district.
Its advert in the St Helens Newspaper had said: "The room will be perfumed by Messrs. Sherlock Bros., by means of several Rimmel's evaporisers".
The Newspaper in its review wrote that the hall had been "very tastefully decorated for the occasion".
The walls were hung in pink and white and there were large mirrors, artificial flowers, banners etc. and part of the room was partitioned off to form a "refreshment saloon".
The St Helens Newspaper on the 3rd hoped that proposed new government legislation would improve housing conditions in the poorer parts of the town – in particular the districts of Greenbank, Gerards Bridge, Pocket Nook, Smithy Brow and what they described as the remoter parts of Parr. The paper wrote:
"Let any individual walk down some of the streets and courts in the neighbourhoods named, and cast even a casual glance as he goes along at the internal arrangements of the domiciles occupied by our labouring classes, who for the most part, and as frequently as the weather will permit, prefer the outside to the inside of their miserable habitations."
The paper criticised rows of homes that looked like they had never been touched by a brush or soap and water for years.
They said that even the police when ordered to keep watch on people in "these scenes of dirt and desolation" did so at a respectful distance.
The Newspaper felt the living conditions of such people contributed to crime and "the fostering of habits which are condemnatory".
Such dwellings were also considered by the paper to be a "hot-bed of disease – a festering sore in our very midst".
One of the most common excuses given by wife beaters for their violent behaviour, concerned their spouse having supposedly not prepared any food for them.
Michael Rose from Sutton – who the Newspaper called a "powerful looking man" – said he had struck and kicked his wife Margaret and hit her on the head with a brush because she had refused to cut him some bread for his breakfast.
Chastisement of a wife was within the law but Rose had gone too far and when he appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions this week he was bound over in the sum of £10.
He also had to find two sureties of £5 to keep the peace for three months or alternatively be sent to prison for a month.
John Fox was another woman beater who appeared in the Petty Sessions, only he had performed his brutality in public.
PC John Wilding told the court that shortly after 7 pm last Sunday evening he had received information that a disturbance was taking place in Pocket Nook.
Upon his arrival at the scene he said he found a great crowd collected around Fox who had a woman down on the ground and was giving her a severe kicking.
Upon the constable informing Fox that he would be summoned for his actions, the man picked up a number of bricks with the presumed intention of throwing them at the officer.
However, PC Wilding grabbed hold of him and with some difficulty managed to get the bricks off him.
But then Fox ran to an adjoining cinder heap and began pelting cinders and rubbish at the constable.
At that point PC Wilding said he drew his staff in self-defence and the mob – instead of helping the policeman – started threatening and jostling him.
Inspector Whiteside told the court that Fox was undoubtedly a rough customer who associated with a lot of fellows like himself, adding:
"They seem to think that whenever they get a policeman by himself, they can do what they liked with him." The magistrates sentenced him to prison for a month.
Just who the woman had been that Fox had been beating and what her condition was after her kicking, were not revealed in the newspaper report.
Foundation stones, aka memorial stones, were often being laid for new buildings in St Helens and the ceremonial occasion always reported in great detail in the newspapers.
But have you ever heard of a foundation stone for a whole town? Well, you have now as the St Helens Newspaper described how such a ceremony had taken place to mark the creation of St Anne's. The paper wrote:
"The foundation-stone was laid on Wednesday of a new town, on the Lancashire coast, named St. Anne's, situate about three miles from Lytham.
"A limited liability company, with a subscribed capital of £50,000, has purchased the estate from Colonel Clifton, lord of the manor.
"Mr. Talbot Henry Clifton, M.P., was present at the ceremony, which was performed by his son. In the evening a banquet took place at Lytham."
Occasionally the Newspaper would use the word rape in its reports. But they generally preferred euphemisms, with being "outraged" or "criminally assaulted" popular choices.
The paper reported this week that four coal miners from Ashton-in-Makerfield had appeared in the Kirkdale Assizes charged with criminally assaulting Ann Williams.
The latter had been doing some shopping in Ashton and had decided to call in a pub where she drank too much.
She met William Bullen and the 29-year-old promised to walk her safely to her home two miles away.
Other men then joined them and at some point on the journey she was "outraged" by all of them except one.
The defence case was a total denial that the outrage had occurred but they were all found guilty.
William Bullen received a 10-year prison sentence and all the others were given five years.
That seemed a tad harsh on John Clarke. The 18-year-old received the same 5-year term for aiding and abetting the crime, as did two older men, who, along with Bullen, had participated in the rape.
This week the inquest on William Pennington was held at the Hawk and Buck Inn in Peasley Cross.
The 27-year-old married man from Manor Street had been killed at Ravenhead Colliery.
William had been clearing an underground roadway, when a large quantity of the roof collapsed, completely burying him.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th, Thomas Garland was charged with obtaining goods by false pretences.
It was another brainless crime in which the 26-year-old joiner had obtained a brace and bits and a saw from Booth and Jordan's ironmongers.
The Church Street shop knew Garland and when he said the tools were for a Bridge Street cabinet maker called Barlow they thought nothing of it, as Garland had previously worked for him.
But Mr Barlow hadn't employed the man for a while and when he received the bill had denied all knowledge of the tools. The police were informed and promptly arrested Garland.
On his person they found pawn tickets, not only for the things he had obtained from Booth and Jordan's shop, but also for similar items from Harrison's.
They were another Church Street ironmongers and Garland had told them that the tools he got from them were for Borrows' locomotive makers of Sutton.
The magistrates committed Garland for trial in the next Kirkdale Quarterly Sessions and in April he would be sent to prison for two years.
Having a row with the gamekeeper of an estate, who invariably carried a shotgun around with him, was not a great idea.
When Thomas O’Neill and William Spruston appeared in court charged with assaulting gamekeeper Thomas Welding, it was stated that the latter had threatened to shoot the two men.
The Newspaper wrote "…and so far proceeded to carry his threat into execution by bringing the gun to his shoulder, and putting the trigger on full-cock."
Welding was the gamekeeper for the Bold Hall estate and told the magistrates that the defendants with two other men had come to his house asking for a pipe of tobacco.
Upon Welding saying that he had none, it was claimed that he had been knocked down and kicked several times.
This case had all the hallmarks of a long-running dispute in which only the final chapter was related in court.
However, the magistrates did not think the case had been sufficiently proved and dismissed the charges.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fire at the St Helens post office, the blind Minstrels performing in the Volunteer Hall, a call for the St Helens Fair to end and two miners lose their lives in a shocking accident at Havannah Colliery in Parr.