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.
Old St Helens Town Hall summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th MAY 1871)

This week's stories include the disastrous fire at St Helens Town Hall, the inquiry into abuses in the Prescot watchmaking industry releases a critical report, two men are accused of raping women in Parr, the Bold Heath race between a bicycle and two pedestrians, the attendants at Rainhill Asylum that had to play a musical instrument and the Earlestown row in a butcher's shop over a sheep's head with no brains.
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Fleece Hotel summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (26th APRIL - 2nd MAY 1871)

This week's stories include the May Day horse and cart parade that was held in St Helens, a dreadful dray accident takes place near Prescot, St Helens landlords campaign against a proposed new licensing law, the concertina stolen from the Bulls Head in Worsley Brow, memories of the Ashton-in-Makerfield anti-surplice riots are revived and the Red Bank sale of mill paraphernalia and household effects near Newton.
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Poor Law Gazette summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (19th - 25th APRIL 1871)

This week's stories include the pig drover in a Parr beerhouse who had his pocket pinched, a gardener's rape of a thirteen-year-old girl, the brutal assault on a wife at Edge Green in Haydock, the poor performing pupil teachers of St Helens who lost money for their schools, the tardy Newton Improvement Commissioners and the twenty shilling bounty that was placed on the heads of men who had deserted their wives.
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Kirkdale Gaol summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th APRIL 1871)

This week's stories include another court outburst from the outspoken solicitor Thomas Swift, why a Blackbrook grocer wanted a gunpowder licence for Haydock miners, the thieving postman Thomas Critchley returns to court, more harsh sentences at the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions, the suicide of a Sutton Oak butcher and the man of weak mind who dropped to his death down the Riding Lane Colliery.
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Stanhope Street summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th APRIL 1871)

This week's stories include the thieving St Helens postman from Stanhope Street, hopes rise that the town's serious water shortage might be ameliorated, there's a rum do on Sutton Mill Dam, a huge fire takes place at a printing works in Newton-le-Willows, a choral concert in Newton and the young man from Rigby Street involved in shunting a railway waggon at St Helens railway station who died after breaking a leg.
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Posters summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (29th MARCH - 4th APRIL 1871)

This week's stories include the high level of expenditure and drinking of porter in Rainhill Asylum, a most brutal assault on a Parr beerhouse keeper, the St Helens mayor sues the St Helens Standard newspaper for libel, the 1871 census is taken, the canine lockdown to prevent rabies, the Theatre Royal is in desperate need of some turns and the violent Haydock mother-in-law who used a poker on her daughter-in-law.
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Tontine Street summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (22nd - 28th MARCH 1871)

This week's stories include the notorious character's attempt to strangle a policeman in Sutton, the Eccleston woman who said she stole a shawl as a joke, the St Helens parliamentary petitions to ban Sunday drinking, the violent Parr assault by three lads, the revival of the deadly chemical works in St Helens and it’s the end of the road for Laffak Colliery with the planned auctioning off of all its buildings and equipment.
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Elephant Lane summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (15th - 21st MARCH 1871)

This week's stories include the carter who came to grief in Thatto Heath, the iron foundry's stay-away apprentice, the earthquake felt in St Helens that led to some residents fearing a burglary, the heartless husband from Peter Street who would not help his burning wife, the Grand Miscellaneous Concert at Sutton National School and the Ashton man who appeared to have killed his wife but could not be prosecuted.
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Whiston Workhouse women

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (8th - 14th MARCH 1871)

This week's stories include the retirement of the outspoken and controversial guardian of Whiston Workhouse, plans are announced to enlarge the workhouse, there's more news of the smallpox epidemic, the Cheap Jack salesman who was accused of working too late in Ormskirk Street, a distressing description of the ravages of rabies and a tough penalty is imposed on a man for ill-treating a horse in Rainford.
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Hardshaw Street summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (1st - 7th MARCH 1871)

This week's stories include the Parr mother of six who wanted a separation from her cruel husband, the violent row between neighbours in Glover Street, the dispute over the cost of a funeral, the wife of a Peasley Cross landlord who objected to being blackguarded in St Helens market, the man arrested at St Helens railway station for suspiciously wearing an army uniform and the man who had his ferrets confiscated.
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Liverpool Road summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (22nd - 28th FEBRUARY 1871)

This week's many stories include St Helens Fire Brigade's unstate-of-the art handcart and hose, the new urinals planned for the town, the vaccination defaulters threatened with prosecution, the Prescot ghost that could walk abroad along the roofs of houses, the gentleman that rode his horse on a Newton footpath and the Eccleston woman prosecuted after being chased from her home by her husband carrying a poker.
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