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.
Volunteer Hall summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th NOV. - 6th DEC. 1870)

This week's many stories include the juicy Parr scandal of a married woman and a sixteen-year-old boy, the man given three months in prison for sleeping in the open air, the new Whiston Workhouse cook resigns, the fat Christmas geese and turkeys in Market Street, a benefit concert in the Volunteer Hall for a blind member of a band and the prosecution of the Prescot apprentice watchmaker for not turning up to work.
READ FULL ARTICLE
St Helens police summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (23rd - 29th NOVEMBER 1870)

This week's stories include the pitiable tale of the Irish beggar in Tontine Street, the bobby who almost lost his whiskers in Church Street, the St Helens volunteer soldiers prepare for war with their new single shot Snider rifles, the man in Parr Street who asked a policeman to have a glass of summut and the wild woman with bare arms accused of cursing, swearing and creating a noise in Eccleston at midnight.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (16th - 22nd NOVEMBER 1870)

This week's stories include a claim that St Helens had the dirtiest streets in Lancashire, how the courts treated the poor for taking bits of coal, the foundation stone laying for the Sutton Road Methodist Church, criticism of the police after a Raglan Street burglary, the strange struggle between a Sutton landlady and her lodger and the woman of loose character who was charged with behaving indecently in Liverpool Road.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Lowe House summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th NOVEMBER 1870)

This week's many stories include a mysterious drowning in St Helens Canal, the man who broke down the door of his sister's house in Duke Street, the cannon firing in Pocket Nook, a cheeky court appeal by the landlord of the Railway Hotel in Rainhill, an old lady's dramatic leap from a train, the Lowe House Tea Party and Ball and a train crash at Sutton in which a train drivers and stoker jumped for their lives.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Parr Street summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2nd - 8th NOVEMBER 1870)

This week's many stories include a case of severe poverty and wife beating in Rainford, Whiston Workhouse receives a bad inspector's report, the end of the six-month-long Pilkington glass strike, harsh prison terms as a result of a Parr Street burglary, the man accused of abominable conduct against his wife and the drunken woman in Smithy Brow who said she declared to goodness that she never drank more than pop.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Kirkdale gaol summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (26th OCT. - 1st NOV. 1870)

This week's stories include the Parr grocer who was accused of making a very grave imputation on a woman's chastity, one of the last corrupt council elections takes place in St Helens, why the Eccleston Ward was known as the "Kilkenny Ward", two boy thieves at Whiston are given harsh sentences, a drowning at Pocket Nook and the mother of a future St Helens MP calls another son a "good-for-nothing lazy fellow".
READ FULL ARTICLE
Pilkington glassworks summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (19th - 25th OCTOBER 1870)

This week's stories include the fifteen-year-old Thatto Heath girl who claimed a Manchester publican made her pregnant, Pilkingtons adopt a hard-line attitude to their workers who had been on strike for seven months, a woman claims sexual assault by a Prescot policeman in the early hours, the simple looking fellow who denied the impeachment of his morality and the old offenders who were given harsh prison terms.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Laceys School St Helens

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th OCTOBER 1870)

This week's many stories include an act of bravery at a Greenbank chemical works, the thumbless Sutton glass polisher, the Cowley school collection for victims of the Franco-Prussian war, the drunken cart drivers of Knowsley, the Bible liars infesting St Helens, the struggle for a hat in College Street that led to threats being made and the man dubbed one of the laziest fellows in Lancashire gets his comeuppance.
READ FULL ARTICLE
St Helens Borough Police

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th OCTOBER 1870)

This week's many stories include a train crash at St Helens railway station, the rogues and vagabonds wanted for deserting their families, the Whiston Workhouse cook gets drunk (again!), why more darkness was visible on the streets of St Helens, the unfair sacking of the workhouse barber, why there had been a "pretty tulip exhibition" in Gerrard's Bridge and a borough police force for St Helens is re-considered.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Auction summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th SEPT. - 4th OCT. 1870)

This week's stories include the Dentons Green hen stealers, a company of volunteer soldiers enjoy a treat in Rainford, the man sent to prison after attempting suicide, a Peasley Cross tea party, the apprentice described as an "inveterate smoker and drunkard", a man receives a stiff fine for not licensing his horse and an unusual St Helens auction of horses, picks and paraphernalia used in building a railway line.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Victoria Passage summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (21st - 27th SEPTEMBER 1870)

This week's many stories include the man who claimed a policeman robbed him near Bridge Street, a street attack outside the Nag's Head, a big athletics contest is held in Dentons Green, the St Helens Flower Show is held in Thatto Heath, the Pocket Nook man in the Lancaster debtor's prison, clothes stealing in Eccleston and the Vicar of St Helens laments how the people of the town are losing interest in religion.
READ FULL ARTICLE