150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th FEBRUARY 1870)
This week's stories include the rioting railway navvies of Prescot, more on the brutal bare-knuckle fights in St Helens, the profitable ploughing competitions, the Rainford poacher with a cunningly disguised gun and the annual supper of St Helens' coachmen is held in the Sefton Arms.
We begin on the 3rd when a lecture on the Crusades was given in St Joseph's School in Peasley Cross. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that the large audience "manifested their pleasure by frequent and hearty plaudits."
Two weeks ago I wrote that St Helens Police had foiled a prize-fight and both prospective pugilists had been arrested. The two men had appeared in court within a couple of days of each other and were both bound over to keep the peace. However on the 5th the Prescot Reporter revealed that the fight between the pair had actually taken place on the day in between their court appearances.
One fighter had sustained a broken wrist and other injuries and the police had been nowhere to be seen. These bare-knuckle bouts were brutal and could last sixty rounds over two hours. The Reporter wrote: "Prize fighting enjoys a greater immunity than it ought in this locality". They also commented how one of the men had recently fought a "mill" at Thatto Heath and escaped all legal consequences.
Last year the St Helens Newspaper had written: "We may, perhaps, be favoured with a few more of these degrading and brutal exhibitions if the supine and effete management of our police force is permitted to continue."
On the 5th Dromgoole's stationers was advertising their Valentine cards in the St Helens Newspaper, offering: "Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the choicest and most comical kinds." Dromgoole's was also offering prizes to the value of 6d for the first 100 purchasers of Valentine cards at their premises in Hardshaw Street.
In St Helens Police Court on the 5th Thomas Withnall was charged with having unlawfully and wilfully done damage to the window of his father during the previous evening. The man was a coppersmith living in Rolling Mill Lane in Sutton and as a result of a quarrel with his Dad had smashed a window. Withnall was ordered to pay 29s for the damage, a 10s fine and 4s 6d costs or go to prison for a month. Not having any cash he was forced to choose the latter option and spend a month in Kirkdale Gaol.
The so-called navvies working on the new railway line from Huyton to St Helens, via Prescot, were a hard working, hard drinking lot. During the evening of the 5th a riot involving some of the navvies took place inside the Royal Oak Inn in New Road in Prescot. The men barricaded themselves into a room while they fought and the landlord sent one of his staff for the police. PC Ashton arrived on the scene at half-past nine and he was immediately threatened and sworn at by a navvy called James Meehan.
The officer saw Meehan smash a door in order to furnish himself with a stick. He also watched him put a poker in the fire and place some hot water on it, seemingly to use against the police when reinforcements turned up. Eventually Meehan and some other navvies went outside the pub and soon afterwards Sergeant Peters and Constable McLennan arrived. What was described as a "dense mass of people" was now in the street and a navvy called Daniel Millett struck the sergeant and took his stick. However the officer managed to recover it and take Millett into custody and P.C. McLennan did the same with James Meehan.
The St Helens Newspaper described how on the way to the station the two prisoners had turned on the policemen and "assaulted them in the most violent manner", with P.C. McLennan receiving several kicks. However the officers managed to get the two men to the station and two days later the pair appeared in court. Superintendent Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the Bench that there was at present "a number of strange policemen located in the town".
He meant, of course, that the officers were new to Prescot and he believed the navvies with others had been trying to take advantage of their lack of local knowledge. James Meehan was fined a total of £4 7s 6d plus costs for rioting and assaulting the police, with the alternative of four months in prison. Daniel Mellett was fined a total of £2 10s and costs with the alternative punishment of two months, two weeks in prison. With the labourers' wages only being around 20 shillings per week, neither man could afford such fines and so both were despatched to Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool to serve their sentences.
On the 7th the St Helens Petty Sessions were held in the Town Hall and James Riding was charged with begging in Liverpool Road (pictured above). The man insisted that he had been selling matches and not begging. However Constable Dermody gave evidence of hearing him ask a woman for bread. So Riding was sent to prison for a week where bread would be provided for him.
Robert Forber was also jailed for 7 days for sleeping in Shaw's bottleworks in Sutton. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described the case: "The defendant said he was a labourer, and complained of not being able to get work; but it appeared from the police books that he had been 17 times before the court, and was too idle and lazy to do anything but follow the brewers' carts."
A pit sinker and miner at Pemberton called William Wright appeared in the Sessions charged with trespassing in pursuit of game at Rainford. The main witness against him was Richard Fishwick from Billinge who was employed by Lord Derby as a game watcher. These were usually part-time positions in which the men kept an eye out for poachers and sometimes accompanied gamekeepers on night patrols.
Fishwick watched Lord Derby's land at Kings Moss and Holiday Moss and had caught William Wright with a loaded gun. This was produced in court and the Newspaper said it had been "cunningly disguised as a walking stick". This so impressed the prosecuting counsel that he told the Bench that in all his experience he had never come across another case so novel in its character. William Wright pleaded guilty and for that the magistrates knocked ten shillings off his fine but he still had to find £2 5 shillings, including costs.
Ploughing matches in front of large numbers of spectators were regularly held within the St Helens district during the 19th century and they still take place in some parts of the country. Not only did they encourage good practice (being a measure of quality rather than speed) but the ploughmen could also win a prize of up to £10, which was about six or seven weeks wages.
A ploughing match took place in Rainford on the 8th on land near to the Eagle and Child Inn in what was then known as Chapel Lane (now Church Road). There were twenty-nine entrants in three separate categories. These were first-class, second-class and a trench ploughing class. The second-class category was for those ploughmen who had never won a first prize in competition before. Dinners invariably followed the ploughing and one was held at the Eagle and Child. Two days later another ploughing match took place in Ashton-in-Makerfield where it was stated that one of the competitors had won £100 in prizes during the previous year.
There was sufficient number of men employed as coachmen within the district of St Helens for them to hold an annual supper. This year's do was held on the 8th in the clubroom of the Sefton Arms. Over eighty sat down for a good tuck in – although only around forty diners were actually coachmen. The Newspaper wrote: "The club-room was profusely and neatly decorated for the occasion with flags and evergreens, and the tables were very handsomely laid out.
"A most excellent and recherché [exquisite] repast [meal] was served up by the host, and enjoyed with the keenest relish by the guests generally." After the meal there were the loyal toasts – as they were called – with separate toasts made to the army, navy and volunteers, as well as to the town and trade of St Helens. These were standard at all these male-only events with the only women in attendance doing the serving up.
And finally on the 9th the Prescot Catholic Ball was held in the New Court Room. The event was in aid of the local Catholic schools in Yew Tree Place in Prescot with about 120 people in attendance. A lot of effort always went into decorating such venues for dances and the St Helens Newspaper wrote that the entrance to the room bore a "great star formed of gas jets".
Next week's stories will include the Prescot boys imprisoned and flogged for stealing a rabbit, a destitute woman is sent to prison for stealing coal, the ingenious puppet show at the Town Hall, Pilkington's annual workers' soiree, the dirty lights on the streets of St Helens and the severe weather in the town.
We begin on the 3rd when a lecture on the Crusades was given in St Joseph's School in Peasley Cross. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that the large audience "manifested their pleasure by frequent and hearty plaudits."
Two weeks ago I wrote that St Helens Police had foiled a prize-fight and both prospective pugilists had been arrested. The two men had appeared in court within a couple of days of each other and were both bound over to keep the peace. However on the 5th the Prescot Reporter revealed that the fight between the pair had actually taken place on the day in between their court appearances.
One fighter had sustained a broken wrist and other injuries and the police had been nowhere to be seen. These bare-knuckle bouts were brutal and could last sixty rounds over two hours. The Reporter wrote: "Prize fighting enjoys a greater immunity than it ought in this locality". They also commented how one of the men had recently fought a "mill" at Thatto Heath and escaped all legal consequences.
Last year the St Helens Newspaper had written: "We may, perhaps, be favoured with a few more of these degrading and brutal exhibitions if the supine and effete management of our police force is permitted to continue."
On the 5th Dromgoole's stationers was advertising their Valentine cards in the St Helens Newspaper, offering: "Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the choicest and most comical kinds." Dromgoole's was also offering prizes to the value of 6d for the first 100 purchasers of Valentine cards at their premises in Hardshaw Street.
In St Helens Police Court on the 5th Thomas Withnall was charged with having unlawfully and wilfully done damage to the window of his father during the previous evening. The man was a coppersmith living in Rolling Mill Lane in Sutton and as a result of a quarrel with his Dad had smashed a window. Withnall was ordered to pay 29s for the damage, a 10s fine and 4s 6d costs or go to prison for a month. Not having any cash he was forced to choose the latter option and spend a month in Kirkdale Gaol.
The so-called navvies working on the new railway line from Huyton to St Helens, via Prescot, were a hard working, hard drinking lot. During the evening of the 5th a riot involving some of the navvies took place inside the Royal Oak Inn in New Road in Prescot. The men barricaded themselves into a room while they fought and the landlord sent one of his staff for the police. PC Ashton arrived on the scene at half-past nine and he was immediately threatened and sworn at by a navvy called James Meehan.
The officer saw Meehan smash a door in order to furnish himself with a stick. He also watched him put a poker in the fire and place some hot water on it, seemingly to use against the police when reinforcements turned up. Eventually Meehan and some other navvies went outside the pub and soon afterwards Sergeant Peters and Constable McLennan arrived. What was described as a "dense mass of people" was now in the street and a navvy called Daniel Millett struck the sergeant and took his stick. However the officer managed to recover it and take Millett into custody and P.C. McLennan did the same with James Meehan.
The St Helens Newspaper described how on the way to the station the two prisoners had turned on the policemen and "assaulted them in the most violent manner", with P.C. McLennan receiving several kicks. However the officers managed to get the two men to the station and two days later the pair appeared in court. Superintendent Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the Bench that there was at present "a number of strange policemen located in the town".
He meant, of course, that the officers were new to Prescot and he believed the navvies with others had been trying to take advantage of their lack of local knowledge. James Meehan was fined a total of £4 7s 6d plus costs for rioting and assaulting the police, with the alternative of four months in prison. Daniel Mellett was fined a total of £2 10s and costs with the alternative punishment of two months, two weeks in prison. With the labourers' wages only being around 20 shillings per week, neither man could afford such fines and so both were despatched to Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool to serve their sentences.
Robert Forber was also jailed for 7 days for sleeping in Shaw's bottleworks in Sutton. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described the case: "The defendant said he was a labourer, and complained of not being able to get work; but it appeared from the police books that he had been 17 times before the court, and was too idle and lazy to do anything but follow the brewers' carts."
A pit sinker and miner at Pemberton called William Wright appeared in the Sessions charged with trespassing in pursuit of game at Rainford. The main witness against him was Richard Fishwick from Billinge who was employed by Lord Derby as a game watcher. These were usually part-time positions in which the men kept an eye out for poachers and sometimes accompanied gamekeepers on night patrols.
Fishwick watched Lord Derby's land at Kings Moss and Holiday Moss and had caught William Wright with a loaded gun. This was produced in court and the Newspaper said it had been "cunningly disguised as a walking stick". This so impressed the prosecuting counsel that he told the Bench that in all his experience he had never come across another case so novel in its character. William Wright pleaded guilty and for that the magistrates knocked ten shillings off his fine but he still had to find £2 5 shillings, including costs.
Ploughing matches in front of large numbers of spectators were regularly held within the St Helens district during the 19th century and they still take place in some parts of the country. Not only did they encourage good practice (being a measure of quality rather than speed) but the ploughmen could also win a prize of up to £10, which was about six or seven weeks wages.
A ploughing match took place in Rainford on the 8th on land near to the Eagle and Child Inn in what was then known as Chapel Lane (now Church Road). There were twenty-nine entrants in three separate categories. These were first-class, second-class and a trench ploughing class. The second-class category was for those ploughmen who had never won a first prize in competition before. Dinners invariably followed the ploughing and one was held at the Eagle and Child. Two days later another ploughing match took place in Ashton-in-Makerfield where it was stated that one of the competitors had won £100 in prizes during the previous year.
There was sufficient number of men employed as coachmen within the district of St Helens for them to hold an annual supper. This year's do was held on the 8th in the clubroom of the Sefton Arms. Over eighty sat down for a good tuck in – although only around forty diners were actually coachmen. The Newspaper wrote: "The club-room was profusely and neatly decorated for the occasion with flags and evergreens, and the tables were very handsomely laid out.
"A most excellent and recherché [exquisite] repast [meal] was served up by the host, and enjoyed with the keenest relish by the guests generally." After the meal there were the loyal toasts – as they were called – with separate toasts made to the army, navy and volunteers, as well as to the town and trade of St Helens. These were standard at all these male-only events with the only women in attendance doing the serving up.
And finally on the 9th the Prescot Catholic Ball was held in the New Court Room. The event was in aid of the local Catholic schools in Yew Tree Place in Prescot with about 120 people in attendance. A lot of effort always went into decorating such venues for dances and the St Helens Newspaper wrote that the entrance to the room bore a "great star formed of gas jets".
Next week's stories will include the Prescot boys imprisoned and flogged for stealing a rabbit, a destitute woman is sent to prison for stealing coal, the ingenious puppet show at the Town Hall, Pilkington's annual workers' soiree, the dirty lights on the streets of St Helens and the severe weather in the town.
This week's stories include the rioting railway navvies of Prescot, more on the brutal bare-knuckle fights in St Helens, the profitable ploughing competitions, the Rainford poacher with a cunningly disguised gun and the annual supper of St Helens' coachmen is held in the Sefton Arms.
We begin on the 3rd when a lecture on the Crusades was given in St Joseph's School in Peasley Cross.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote that the large audience "manifested their pleasure by frequent and hearty plaudits."
Two weeks ago I wrote that St Helens Police had foiled a prize-fight and both prospective pugilists had been arrested.
The two men had appeared in court within a couple of days of each other and were both bound over to keep the peace.
However on the 5th the Prescot Reporter revealed that the fight between the pair had actually taken place on the day in between their court appearances.
One fighter had sustained a broken wrist and other injuries and the police had been nowhere to be seen.
These bare-knuckle bouts were brutal and could last sixty rounds. The Reporter wrote: "Prize fighting enjoys a greater immunity than it ought in this locality".
They also commented how one of the men had recently fought a "mill" at Thatto Heath and escaped all legal consequences.
On the 5th Dromgoole's stationers was advertising their Valentine cards in the St Helens Newspaper.
They were offering: "Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the choicest and most comical kinds."
Dromgoole's was also offering prizes to the value of 6d for the first 100 purchasers of Valentine cards at their premises in Hardshaw Street.
In St Helens Police Court on the 5th Thomas Withnall was charged with having unlawfully and wilfully done damage to the window of his father during the previous evening.
The man was a coppersmith living in Rolling Mill Lane in Sutton and as a result of a quarrel with his father had smashed a window.
Withnall was ordered to pay 29s for the damage, a 10s fine and 4s 6d costs or go to prison for a month. Not having any cash, he was forced to choose the latter option.
The so-called navvies working on the new railway line from Huyton to St Helens, via Prescot, were a hard working, hard drinking lot.
During the evening of the 5th a riot involving some of the navvies took place inside the Royal Oak Inn in New Road in Prescot.
The men barricaded themselves into a room while they fought and the landlord sent one of his staff for the police.
PC Ashton arrived on the scene at half-past nine and he was immediately threatened and sworn at by a navvy called James Meehan.
The officer saw Meehan smash a door in order to furnish himself with a stick.
He also watched him put a poker in the fire and place some hot water on it, seemingly to use against the police when reinforcements turned up.
Eventually Meehan and some other navvies went outside the pub and soon afterwards Sergeant Peters and Constable McLennan arrived.
What was described as a "dense mass of people" was now in the street and a navvy called Daniel Millett struck the sergeant and took his stick.
However the officer managed to recover it and take Millett into custody and P.C. McLennan did the same with James Meehan.
The St Helens Newspaper described how on the way to the station the two prisoners had turned on the policemen and "assaulted them in the most violent manner", with P.C. McLennan receiving several kicks.
However the officers managed to get the two men to the station and two days later the pair appeared in court.
Superintendent Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the Bench that there was at present "a number of strange policemen located in the town".
He meant, of course, that the officers were new to Prescot and he believed the navvies with others had been trying to take advantage of their lack of local knowledge.
James Meehan was fined a total of £4 7s 6d plus costs for rioting and assaulting the police, with the alternative of four months in prison.
Daniel Mellett was fined a total of £2 10s and costs with the alternative punishment of two months, two weeks in prison.
With the labourers' wages only being around 20 shillings per week, neither man could afford such fines and so both were despatched to Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool to serve their sentences.
On the 7th the St Helens Petty Sessions were held in the Town Hall and James Riding was charged with begging in Liverpool Road (pictured above).
The man insisted he was selling matches and not begging. However Constable Dermody gave evidence that he had heard him ask a woman for bread.
So Riding was sent to prison for a week where bread would be provided for him.
Robert Forber was also jailed for 7 days for sleeping in Shaw's bottleworks in Sutton. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described the case:
"The defendant said he was a labourer, and complained of not being able to get work; but it appeared from the police books that he had been 17 times before the court, and was too idle and lazy to do anything but follow the brewers' carts."
A pit sinker and miner at Pemberton called William Wright appeared in the Sessions charged with trespassing in pursuit of game at Rainford.
The main witness against him was Richard Fishwick from Billinge who was employed by Lord Derby as a game watcher.
These were usually part-time positions in which the men kept an eye out for poachers and sometimes accompanied gamekeepers on night patrols.
Fishwick watched Lord Derby's land at Kings Moss and Holliday Moss and had caught William Wright with a loaded gun.
This was produced in court and the Newspaper said it had been "cunningly disguised as a walking stick".
This so impressed the prosecuting counsel that he told the Bench that in all his experience he had never come across another case so novel in its character.
William Wright pleaded guilty and for that the magistrates knocked ten shillings off his fine but he still had to find £2 5 shillings, including costs.
Ploughing matches in front of large numbers of spectators were regularly held within the St Helens district during the 19th century and they still take place in some parts of the country.
Not only did they encourage good practice (being a measure of quality rather than speed) but the ploughmen could also win a prize of up to £10, which was about six or seven weeks wages.
A ploughing match took place in Rainford on the 8th on land near to the Eagle and Child Inn in what was then known as Chapel Lane (now Church Road).
There were twenty-nine entrants in three separate categories. These were first-class, second-class and a trench ploughing class.
The second-class category was for those ploughmen who had never won a first prize in competition before.
Dinners invariably followed the ploughing and one was held at the Eagle and Child.
Two days later another ploughing match took place in Ashton-in-Makerfield where it was stated that one of the competitors had won £100 in prizes during the previous year.
There was sufficient number of men employed as coachmen within the district of St Helens for them to hold an annual supper.
This year's do was held on the 8th in the clubroom of the Sefton Arms. Over eighty sat down for a good tuck in – although only around forty diners were actually coachmen.
The Newspaper wrote: "The club-room was profusely and neatly decorated for the occasion with flags and evergreens, and the tables were very handsomely laid out.
"A most excellent and recherché [exquisite] repast [meal] was served up by the host, and enjoyed with the keenest relish by the guests generally."
After the meal there were the loyal toasts – as they were called – with separate toasts made to the army, navy and volunteers, as well as to the town and trade of St Helens.
These were standard at all these male-only events with the only women in attendance doing the serving up.
And finally on the 9th the Prescot Catholic Ball was held in the New Court Room.
The event was in aid of the local Catholic schools in Yew Tree Place in Prescot with about 120 people in attendance.
A lot of effort always went into decorating such venues for dances and the St Helens Newspaper wrote that the entrance to the room bore a "great star formed of gas jets".
Next week's stories will include the Prescot boys imprisoned and flogged for stealing a rabbit, a destitute woman is sent to prison for stealing coal, the ingenious puppet show at the Town Hall, Pilkington's annual workers' soiree, the dirty lights on the streets of St Helens and the severe weather in the town.
We begin on the 3rd when a lecture on the Crusades was given in St Joseph's School in Peasley Cross.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote that the large audience "manifested their pleasure by frequent and hearty plaudits."
Two weeks ago I wrote that St Helens Police had foiled a prize-fight and both prospective pugilists had been arrested.
The two men had appeared in court within a couple of days of each other and were both bound over to keep the peace.
However on the 5th the Prescot Reporter revealed that the fight between the pair had actually taken place on the day in between their court appearances.
One fighter had sustained a broken wrist and other injuries and the police had been nowhere to be seen.
These bare-knuckle bouts were brutal and could last sixty rounds. The Reporter wrote: "Prize fighting enjoys a greater immunity than it ought in this locality".
They also commented how one of the men had recently fought a "mill" at Thatto Heath and escaped all legal consequences.
On the 5th Dromgoole's stationers was advertising their Valentine cards in the St Helens Newspaper.
They were offering: "Valentines from ½d. to 10s. each, in the greatest variety, and of the choicest and most comical kinds."
Dromgoole's was also offering prizes to the value of 6d for the first 100 purchasers of Valentine cards at their premises in Hardshaw Street.
In St Helens Police Court on the 5th Thomas Withnall was charged with having unlawfully and wilfully done damage to the window of his father during the previous evening.
The man was a coppersmith living in Rolling Mill Lane in Sutton and as a result of a quarrel with his father had smashed a window.
Withnall was ordered to pay 29s for the damage, a 10s fine and 4s 6d costs or go to prison for a month. Not having any cash, he was forced to choose the latter option.
The so-called navvies working on the new railway line from Huyton to St Helens, via Prescot, were a hard working, hard drinking lot.
During the evening of the 5th a riot involving some of the navvies took place inside the Royal Oak Inn in New Road in Prescot.
The men barricaded themselves into a room while they fought and the landlord sent one of his staff for the police.
PC Ashton arrived on the scene at half-past nine and he was immediately threatened and sworn at by a navvy called James Meehan.
The officer saw Meehan smash a door in order to furnish himself with a stick.
He also watched him put a poker in the fire and place some hot water on it, seemingly to use against the police when reinforcements turned up.
Eventually Meehan and some other navvies went outside the pub and soon afterwards Sergeant Peters and Constable McLennan arrived.
What was described as a "dense mass of people" was now in the street and a navvy called Daniel Millett struck the sergeant and took his stick.
However the officer managed to recover it and take Millett into custody and P.C. McLennan did the same with James Meehan.
The St Helens Newspaper described how on the way to the station the two prisoners had turned on the policemen and "assaulted them in the most violent manner", with P.C. McLennan receiving several kicks.
However the officers managed to get the two men to the station and two days later the pair appeared in court.
Superintendent Fowler – who was in charge of Prescot Police – told the Bench that there was at present "a number of strange policemen located in the town".
He meant, of course, that the officers were new to Prescot and he believed the navvies with others had been trying to take advantage of their lack of local knowledge.
James Meehan was fined a total of £4 7s 6d plus costs for rioting and assaulting the police, with the alternative of four months in prison.
Daniel Mellett was fined a total of £2 10s and costs with the alternative punishment of two months, two weeks in prison.
With the labourers' wages only being around 20 shillings per week, neither man could afford such fines and so both were despatched to Kirkdale Gaol in Liverpool to serve their sentences.
The man insisted he was selling matches and not begging. However Constable Dermody gave evidence that he had heard him ask a woman for bread.
So Riding was sent to prison for a week where bread would be provided for him.
Robert Forber was also jailed for 7 days for sleeping in Shaw's bottleworks in Sutton. This is how the St Helens Newspaper described the case:
"The defendant said he was a labourer, and complained of not being able to get work; but it appeared from the police books that he had been 17 times before the court, and was too idle and lazy to do anything but follow the brewers' carts."
A pit sinker and miner at Pemberton called William Wright appeared in the Sessions charged with trespassing in pursuit of game at Rainford.
The main witness against him was Richard Fishwick from Billinge who was employed by Lord Derby as a game watcher.
These were usually part-time positions in which the men kept an eye out for poachers and sometimes accompanied gamekeepers on night patrols.
Fishwick watched Lord Derby's land at Kings Moss and Holliday Moss and had caught William Wright with a loaded gun.
This was produced in court and the Newspaper said it had been "cunningly disguised as a walking stick".
This so impressed the prosecuting counsel that he told the Bench that in all his experience he had never come across another case so novel in its character.
William Wright pleaded guilty and for that the magistrates knocked ten shillings off his fine but he still had to find £2 5 shillings, including costs.
Ploughing matches in front of large numbers of spectators were regularly held within the St Helens district during the 19th century and they still take place in some parts of the country.
Not only did they encourage good practice (being a measure of quality rather than speed) but the ploughmen could also win a prize of up to £10, which was about six or seven weeks wages.
A ploughing match took place in Rainford on the 8th on land near to the Eagle and Child Inn in what was then known as Chapel Lane (now Church Road).
There were twenty-nine entrants in three separate categories. These were first-class, second-class and a trench ploughing class.
The second-class category was for those ploughmen who had never won a first prize in competition before.
Dinners invariably followed the ploughing and one was held at the Eagle and Child.
Two days later another ploughing match took place in Ashton-in-Makerfield where it was stated that one of the competitors had won £100 in prizes during the previous year.
There was sufficient number of men employed as coachmen within the district of St Helens for them to hold an annual supper.
This year's do was held on the 8th in the clubroom of the Sefton Arms. Over eighty sat down for a good tuck in – although only around forty diners were actually coachmen.
The Newspaper wrote: "The club-room was profusely and neatly decorated for the occasion with flags and evergreens, and the tables were very handsomely laid out.
"A most excellent and recherché [exquisite] repast [meal] was served up by the host, and enjoyed with the keenest relish by the guests generally."
After the meal there were the loyal toasts – as they were called – with separate toasts made to the army, navy and volunteers, as well as to the town and trade of St Helens.
These were standard at all these male-only events with the only women in attendance doing the serving up.
And finally on the 9th the Prescot Catholic Ball was held in the New Court Room.
The event was in aid of the local Catholic schools in Yew Tree Place in Prescot with about 120 people in attendance.
A lot of effort always went into decorating such venues for dances and the St Helens Newspaper wrote that the entrance to the room bore a "great star formed of gas jets".
Next week's stories will include the Prescot boys imprisoned and flogged for stealing a rabbit, a destitute woman is sent to prison for stealing coal, the ingenious puppet show at the Town Hall, Pilkington's annual workers' soiree, the dirty lights on the streets of St Helens and the severe weather in the town.