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.
Wheatsheaf, Rainford  summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th JANUARY 1873)

This week's stories include the drunk in the Wheatsheaf in Rainford that attacked a policeman, a lodger's brainless theft from his Eccleston home, the Lowe Street slag that hurt a horse, the Windle Park poacher that attacked a gamekeeper, the quick-fire theft from the Albion in Parr, the New Year's Day party in Rainford that turned into a family fight and the stubborn Parr pony boy who refused to give his parents his keep.
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Whiston Workhouse summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (2nd - 8th JANUARY 1873)

This week's many stories include the railwayman's robbery of boots and pickles, the young boy's attempted sneak cash theft from a Liverpool Road grocer's, the repeat prosecutions against smallpox vaccination defaulters, the gambling game in Parr, there are two cases of wife beating and a claim that Irishmen attacked police officers in St Helens on an almost daily basis in an attempt to rescue their prisoners.
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Red Lion summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (26th DEC. 1872 - 1st JAN. 1873)

This week's stories include the ruffianly assault on a pub landlord at St Helens railway station, the magistrate that pitied a wife-beating husband because his victim fought back, the railway man in intense agony for 6 hours after being knocked down by a train, Aladdin The Wonderful Scamp is performed at the Theatre Royal and there's praise for St Helens' new water supply and the decision to build a new town hall.
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Beechams summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (19th - 25th DECEMBER 1872)

This week's stories include a warning over the materialisation of Christmas, the skin diseases that were running through Whiston Workhouse like a train of gunpowder, why Beecham's Pills were worth a guinea a box, the two women in a pitiable condition, an angry attack on compulsory vaccination against smallpox and St Helens Council decides to proceed with the building of its new Town Hall – but at a reduced price.
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St Helens hospital summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th DECEMBER 1872)

This week's many stories include the new hospital that would soon be opening its doors in Peasley Cross, the fight between two workers at Doulton's pottery works, the violent son that attacked his dad and the police in Crab Street in St Helens, the brutal man that killed his partner in Widnes and why the St Helens Newspaper considered it dangerous for any man to offer his attentions to an unmarried woman.
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Wellington Hotel summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (5th - 11th DECEMBER 1872)

This week's stories include the anti-vaccinators that appeared in St Helens Police Court for refusing to have their child vaccinated against smallpox, the German man in Rainford that had a mania for stealing hay cutters, a storm of the most exceptional severity hits St Helens, the billiards match held at the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street and the lazy, worthless vagabond that bellowed like a baby in a St Helens court.
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Volunteer Hall summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (28th NOV. - 4th DEC. 1872)

This week's stories include the court proceedings that were described as a sham, a well-known ventriloquist performs in the Volunteer Hall, the parents of a two-year-old severely scalded Sutton boy who took two days to call in the doctor, the Church Street cobblers that hosted a dentist, the campaign against the cost of the proposed new Town Hall heats up and the Sutton Oak postmaster's Sunday evening burglary.
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Holy Cross church summary

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

This week's stories include the pitiful story of ill-usage by the wife-beating landlord of the Glassmakers Arms, the sibling violence in Peasley Cross in which a man was threatened with a rifle, a Rainhill bigamist is brought to book, the Women's Rights Movement comes to St Helens, the campaign against the expensive new town hall begins in Peasley Cross and the one-armed beggar that was made to pay his own fare to prison.
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Pilkington works St Helens summary

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

This week's stories include the extraordinary death of a patient at Haydock Lodge Lunatic Asylum, the man who was accused of being a knobstick at Pilkington's glassworks, the bleeding horse that was beaten by its owner because it couldn't haul bricks up Croppers Hill, the Pilks boys that were stealing lead off the glasshouse roof and the troublesome soldier at the bottleworks that punched a policeman on the nose.
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Ballot Act 1872 St Helens summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (7th - 13th NOVEMBER 1872)

This week's stories include the first St Helens election featuring the secret vote, the Lowe House Church tea party and ball, the reopening of St Helens Library, the dirty mains water at Greenbank, concern that the new Town Hall would be built by an outside firm, the man charged with leaving a wagon overnight in Brook Street and the domino playing in a Rainford beerhouse that led to a man being kicked in the jaw.
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Knowsley Hall summary

150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (31st OCT. - 6th NOV. 1872)

This week's stories include the novelty of voting in secret elections in St Helens, the casual attitude to explosive gas down a coal mine, the fireworks lit in a Newton court, tenders for the building of the new St Helens town hall are received, the most impudent robbery of jewellery takes place at Knowsley Hall, the assault on a policeman's whiskers in Market Street and the exceedingly long lives in Greenbank.
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