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.
Newton Races summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (14th - 20th JUNE 1871)

This week's stories include the man accused of burning down St Helens Town Hall, the boys who were ordered to be soundly whipped for throwing stones, the end of tolls on the road between St Helens and Liverpool, a claim that the town of Prescot was dying, the Haydock Mission School treat, Newton Races takes place and the scary mask dispute in Ormskirk Street in St Helens between a doctor and a carriage maker.
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Engineer Hall summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7th - 13th JUNE 1871)

This week's many stories include the 13-year-old girl from College Street sent to prison for stealing from Pilkingtons, the unwanted kissing of women on the streets of Prescot, a double family tragedy underground at Pewfall Colliery, the outspoken solicitor Thomas Swift is sued for criminal slander, the new St Helens pubs that contained no beer and the campaign to introduce decimalisation and the metric system.
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Newton Races summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (31st MAY - 6th JUNE 1871)

This week's stories include reflections on the first bank holiday that had been held in St Helens, the wandering cows of Ashton-in-Makerfield, the illegal furniture remover from North Road, the posh villas that were for rent at St Ann's in Eccleston, Greenbank Tannery is put up for sale, the extraordinary suicide of a Rainford girl and the weak punishment on three circus lads after savagely assaulting a policeman.
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La Semaine Sanglante

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th MAY 1871)

This week's stories include the Thatto Heath pigeon flying match that caused an obstruction, the twin deaths at Bickershaw Colliery that underlined the need for a tally system, the policeman accused of committing an assault at an Earlestown theatre, the dispute between the Newton-le-Willows toll collector and the vegetable hawker and The Times provides a graphic description of the burning of Paris.
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Prize Fight summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (17th - 23rd MAY 1871)

This week's stories include an update on the severe fire that destroyed much of St Helens Town Hall, the College Street man who struck his father-in-law over the head with a poker, the Billinge child poisoning case, the story of Flash Harry the Newton-le-Willows horse thief, the Sutton woman who was mowed down by a train at Peasley Cross station and the dilemma of who should pay for the Prescot butcher's meat.
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Mary Girling summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th MAY 1871)

This week's stories include an update on the men who were accused of ravishing two middle-aged women in Parr, solicitor Thomas Swift causes more mayhem in court, Greenall's sumptuous rent day dinner for their landlords at the Fleece in Church Street, the comic music hall singer called The Great Vance performs in Newton-le-Willows and the curious kissing cult of Mrs Girling who wanted to rule the world!
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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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