St Helens History This Week

Bringing History to Life from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago!

Bringing History to Life from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago!

ST HELENS 150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
This page is a series of weekly articles that describe llfe in the Lancashire town in the 1870s and which are updated every Sunday morning.
150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
This page is a series of weekly articles that describe llfe in St Helens in Lancashire in the 1870s and which are updated every Sunday morning.
Elephant Lane summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (23rd - 29th MAY 1872)

This week's stories include the shocking account of the mentally-ill man who died through starvation, the warring neighbours of Warrington Road, a complaint by paupers over the food served at Whiston Workhouse, a proposal to make public a list of poverty-stricken people claiming poor relief, the smallpox raging in Elephant Lane and why the new Whiston waterworks was wiping the smile of some cynical folk's faces.
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Duke Street summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd MAY 1872)

This week's stories include the cruel Sutton carter who used a strap and buckle on his daughter, the runaway Rainford apprentices return to face the music, how Whit Monday was marked in St Helens, the Raven Hotel barmaid's fortunate escape, another accident takes place at St Helens railway station, the brutal assault in Rainford and the Kirkland Street pub in St Helens that had no beer but was proving successful.
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Whiston Workhouse summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th MAY 1872)

This week's stories include the giddy and peculiar girl coal thief, the violent imbecile at Whiston Workhouse, the peculiar humour and slandering of a miner at Victoria Colliery in Rainford, the woman pedlar with a portable knife and scissors grinding machine, the Rainhill landlord who couldn't be in two places at once but was still fined and why the merry month of May was proving not to be very merry in St Helens.
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St Helens Newspaper summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2nd - 8th MAY 1872)

This week's stories include a review of the annual May Day horse and cart parade, the joiners of St Helens go on strike after their employers denied them an extra halfpenny per hour, the incorrigible Dennis Feigh complains that the price of drunkenness had gone up, the coal miners nude road racing in St Helens, the brainless theft at St Helens railway station by a soft-hearted clerk and the warring women of Cowley Hill.
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Eagle and Child summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (25th APRIL - 1st MAY 1872)

This week's stories include the stormy public meeting that was held in Rainford when the village elected to take charge of its own affairs, the Sutton couple who starved their children are sentenced, the St Helens bigamist who was open about his past, the pragmatic solution to a Sutton marital dispute, the man imprisoned for deserting his wife and children and the appointment of the first deaconess in St Helens.
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St Helens glassworks collieries summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (18th - 24th APRIL 1872)

This week's stories include the riotous conduct in Blackbrook's Ship Inn, the disappearance of a St Helens rates collector, the Pilkington glass boss accused of twaddling in a lofty key, the burning down of the new Parr knacker's yard, the Good Fairy of St Helens is performed at the Theatre Royal and the St Helens chemical works are criticised for planning to unite to fight a new health bill that would limit their filthy discharges.
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St Helens Foundry summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (11th - 17th APRIL 1872)

This week's stories include the epileptic imbecile from Westfield Street who killed a boy with a stone, the Newton commissioners' views on the electoral disabilities of women, the man who almost died after drinking chloroform at the Raven, there's another drunken death in the St Helens Canal, a dazzling display in St Helens of the Northern Lights and more on the controversy over secular education in the town.
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St Bartholomew Church Rainhill summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (4th - 10th APRIL 1872)

This week's many stories include the lightning strike at St Bartholomew's Church in Rainhill, residents of Cotham Street express concern at the prospect of too much clippety-clop, the mammoth women on show at the St Helens Spring Fair, St Helens Corporation takes the job of night soil human waste collection in-house, the married couple's joint attack on a policeman and the miner that was purred to death at Wigan.
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Dromgooles summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th MARCH - 3rd APRIL 1872)

This week's stories include an update on the rape of a sixteen-year-old girl at Eccleston Lane Ends, the Spring snowfalls and Northern Lights in St Helens, the fatal fight between lodgers in Parr Street, the busted Water Street temperance hotel, the St Helens anti-vaccinator who accused the authorities of Herodian despotism and the drunken Frenchman who got his wish to meet a Pilks' boss in a most unusual way.
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Gas works summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (21st - 27th MARCH 1872)

This week's many stories include the charge of Sunday desecration and pandemonium in Greenbank, a new knacker's yard opens in Parr, the expensive drunken freak in the Globe Hotel, the smallpox mix-up at Whiston Workhouse, the St Patrick's Day row in Bold Street, a fatal accident occurs at St Helens Gas Works, Foottit's Circus comes to town and the old man who during his lifetime had charge of 21 kids.
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Kendricks Cross summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th MARCH 1872)

This week's stories include a savage clogs assault in Park Road, the Rainhill father who a magistrate called wicked, the window-breaking lodger of Parr, the 4-year-old girl performing at the Theatre Royal, the two neighbours that lived in a state of chronic war, the police swoop on a Water Street temperance hotel and the Rainford tobacco pipemakers strike comes to an end – but it’s a hollow victory for the men.
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