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.
Prescot Parish Church summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (13th - 19th APRIL 1870)

This week's stories include the "obnoxious individual" mobbed by a crowd of angry women outside St Helens courthouse, the drunken row of the two Prescot carters, the opening of Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath, the start of a long strike at Pilkingtons over a cut in wages, the St Helens solicitor's clerk who did a runner with his boss's cash and the controversial issue of a Sunday offertory at Prescot Church.
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Citadel

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (6th - 12th APRIL 1870)

This week's many stories include the "contemptible set of adventurers" performing at the Theatre Royal, the woman who went back to live with her violent husband in Moss Bank, a poker assault in a lodging house in Tontine Street, two women battle it out in Greenbank, two more women battle it out in Parr, the girl who stole a child's sovereign in Pocket Nook and concern over the danger of drowning in St Helens Canal.
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Crown Glassworks Summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (30th MARCH - 5th APRIL 1870)

This week's stories include the Bridge Street butcher's wife who said her husband threatened to cut her heart out, the "shocking immorality and depraved habits" revealed in court, an inquest jury calls for human life at St Helens Canal to be protected, a savage assault on an "old man" of fifty at Peasley Cross, the man prosecuted for wasting water and why the copper workers in Sutton had presented a bible to their boss.
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Ell Bess Arms Summary

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

This week's stories include the Park Road woman who claimed a policeman made her return to her abusive husband, the Fingerpost baby that died after catching a cold, the noxious fumes from Sutton Copper Works that damaged the Bold Hall estate, the Rainhill love letter, the Free Town Hall Breakfast Table and the Waterloo Street cannon explosion when workmen celebrated the 21st birthday of their boss's son.
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St Annes Summary

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

This week's many stories include the madman inside St. Anne's monastery, why cannons were being fired in celebration in Rainhill, two women scrap like bulldogs in Pocket Nook, the depraved young girl from Napier Street, the scandalous slander charge against a couple from Rainhill, the Parr woman who forgave her husband for assaulting her and the bare-knuckle prize fighter that brutally attacked a Prescot woman.
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Prescot Penny Bank

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

This week's stories include the dirty, ragged children causing pandemonium outside the Prescot Penny Bank, the "undaycent" name-calling by a woman in Parr, trespassing in pursuit of game in Moss Bank, the brainless watch-stealing lodger in Rainford, the excitable woman in the St Helens County Court and concern that the Rivers Pollution Commissioners would ban St Helens factories from polluting streams.
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Whiston Workhouse

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

This week's stories include the Irish Fenians that would meet in a Parr Street beerhouse, a three-year-old Sutton boy is summoned to court for smashing a window, the St Helens' works that made candles for coal mines, the Parr man who walked out on his family leaving them penniless, the fees for lunatics in Rainhill Asylum, the infestation of burglars in St Helens, and a setback for plans to widen Church Street.
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Newton Races summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th FEB. - 1st MARCH 1870)

This week's stories include the Pocket Nook house that was full of rats, the Peasley Cross poker woman who smashed up her neighbour's door, the violent man in the Nelson Inn who was mad in drink, the thieving lodger from Parr, the filthy and disgusting language used in a Whiston maintenance case, the start of Newton Races and the boy who stole a pistol from a Liverpool Road shop in order to swap it for a pigeon.
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St Helens Newspaper summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (17th - 23rd FEBRUARY 1870)

This week's many stories include the Welsh woman from Moss Nook who was kicked unconscious, criticism of the Prescot Board of Guardians for slinking off to the Green Dragon, the "backwardation" of smoky gas lamps in St Helens, a fire in a shop in Eccleston Street in Prescot, the distinguished St Helens Catholic Charity Ball and the man who called a woman a witch in a Parr beerhouse and gave her a tremendous smack.
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Letter on vaccination in Wigan Observer

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (10th - 16th FEBRUARY 1870)

This week's stories include the Prescot boys imprisoned and flogged for stealing a rabbit, a destitute woman is sent to prison for stealing coal, the "extraordinary novelty" of a French marionette show at the Town Hall, a man from Windle Street challenges the need for vaccination, Pilkington's annual workers' soiree, the dirty lights on the streets, rumours about Dr Livingstone and the severe weather in the town.
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Liverpool Road summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th FEBRUARY 1870)

This week's stories include the rioting railway navvies in Prescot, the man jailed for begging for bread in Liverpool Road, the Rainford poacher caught carrying a gun disguised as a walking stick, the man jailed for sleeping in a bottleworks, the brutal prize fights in St Helens, the Sutton coppersmith sent to prison for smashing his father's window and St Helens' coachmen hold their annual supper at the Sefton.
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