150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (3rd - 9th MAY 1871)
This week's stories include the disastrous town hall fire, the inquiry into abuses in the Prescot watchmaking industry releases its report, two Parr men are accused of rape and the Bold race between a bicycle and pedestrian.
We begin with an announcement that in Rainford during the quarter ending March 31st there had been 38 births and 31 deaths registered with the authorities. Of the fatalities nine were from scarlet fever, one from whooping cough and another from smallpox. And in St Helens there had been an extremely rare event – a woman had died after reaching the age of 100.
The Warrington Examiner described on the 6th how a one-mile race had taken place in Liverpool Road in Bold between two walkers and a cyclist. Pedestrianism was then a popular sport and Bold Heath was often the venue for races between walkers. However this time the challenge had been that a man could walk as fast as a bike could be ridden. The St Helens Newspaper in 1869 had labelled the new bicycles "curious vehicles" and they were certainly far from being racing machines.
A Mr Cameron from Halton rode the bike and the pedestrians were Mr Whittaker of Warrington and a Mr Bolton from Penketh, who were both given 15-second starts. The weather was fine and a large crowd assembled at Bold Heath to witness Mr Cameron's cycle win the race by 21 seconds – or 36 if you include the 15-second start.
I've often commented on what I've labelled brainless crimes, when the police could easily trace the offender. The Examiner also described how a brainless crime had literally taken place in Earlestown this week involving a sheep's head – although I think the animal when alive probably had more intelligence than the people involved in the row over its brains! Instead of politely complaining about her purchase, a customer had gone into a butcher's shop in Market Street yelling her head off and the butcher had retaliated with force. This led to a court hearing at Newton Petty Sessions, as reported by the Examiner:
"John Clarke, butcher, Earlestown, was charged with making use of abusive language towards Ann Rinnaird, calculated to cause a breach of the peace. On the 12th of April the complainant bought a sheep's head from the defendant, and on opening it she found that it was full of water, and no brains in it. She complained to the defendant, and told him he deserved three months for selling a rotten sheep's head, when he threatened to kick her, and made use of abusive language. The defendant was bound over to keep the peace for six months."
Just after 3pm on the 6th a disastrous fire was discovered in St Helens Town Hall (illustrated above) and soon at least half of the building was reported as being "wrapped in flames". The town's first seat of municipal government had been built in 1839 in New Market Place (off Exchange Street). As well as the holding of council meetings, the utilitarian venue also hosted court hearings, a library, a police station, dances and public dinners.
The fire was first discovered at the rear of the hall adjoining a large room and (as usual) it was some time before the fire brigade arrived on the scene – despite the short distance from their HQ in St Mary's Street. The crew had to be summoned by the ringing of a bell and it could take time for them to assemble. The Bolton Evening News wrote that as a consequence of the delay, the flames travelled with "fearful rapidity along the woodwork of the roof", before adding:
"The efforts of the firemen did not avail much for a considerable time. The ceiling began to give way, and falling on the floor below set fire to the forms and to an organ worth from £400 to £500. The flooring was partially saved through constant drenching. The office and other parts of the wing [where the police station was located] suffered considerably, and the prisoners had to be removed to the police barracks.
"The other wing [where the library was], although nearest the source of the fire, escaped. The danger apparent at one time induced the clearing out of the library, which contained 3,000 volumes. The fire lasted several hours, and was not until eight o'clock that it was completely subdued."
The Corporation had recently bought their municipal building, after previously renting it off the private St Helens Town Hall Company. However they had only insured it for £2,000 and the cost of restoration was estimated at well over £2,500 – so the ratepayers of the town could expect an increase in their bills next year!
As a result of the destruction of the Town Hall, the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 8th had to be held in the County Court in East Street. There, miners David Waine and Job Neald, both 22, were remanded on a charge of committing rape in Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road).
Two middle-aged married women, Elizabeth Murphy and Mary Cullen, had accused them of committing the "felonious assault", as it was described in court. The word "ravish" was also used. Waine lived in Johnson Street in Parr and was a married man with two children and was virtually illiterate. Neald was a single man who lived with his parents in Atlas Street. There'll be more on this story next week.
During the evening of the 8th what was described as a very respectable audience watched a performance of 'Othello' at Newman's Theatre in Earlestown – which I believe was in Market Place.
In January I described how two Truck Commissioners had conducted an inquiry into the watchmaking industry at Prescot and its environs, including St Helens. The various Truck Acts were designed to stop employers abusing their workforce by paying them in goods (either wholly or in part) instead of in cash. That saved the bosses money, as they would buy the items at a cheaper price. The inquiry at Prescot heard many accounts of workers being paid in food or in watches that had to be sold at a loss. This week the Truck Commissioners released their stinging report and the Pall Mall Gazette published this article:
"If anyone wants “a really good watch,” let him read the report of the Truck Commission just issued. He will there find that at Prescot, a village ten miles from Liverpool, watches may be picked up on unusually reasonable terms. Prescot is the great centre of the watch-movement making trade. From it and the immediate neighbourhood the watches of the country are in a great measure supplied. Coventry is the chief market, and there the watches are finished; but London, Liverpool, and Birmingham, are also supplied with movements from Prescot.
"There are about 500 workmen in Prescot employed in the movement manufacture, distributed into different classes. Truck pervades the whole of the movement trade, and extends to other branches in connection with the watch manufacture in the neighbourhood. Many, and all the better masters, pay in cash, but others compel their men to purchase provisions; others, again, who do not keep provision shops, force their own watches and trinkets on the workmen, and thus truck them in another form.
"This truck in watches and jewellery is a sort of compensation or equivalent which the master allows himself who does not truck in provisions. In bad times, when work is slack, a workman goes to his employer, and is told that he can get no work unless he takes a watch at a given figure, the price of which is to be stopped by instalments from his wages. He takes the watch, is debited with the value put upon it by the employer, and sells or pawns it for whatever it will bring. Generally, he loses by the transaction.
"One workman is mentioned who had three or four watches from his employer, and had lost by them to the amount on each of about £1 or 30s. Another workman stated, “If a man did not take those watches he would not get any work.” Trinkets and jewellery are also often taken in place of wages.
"One witness complained that he had a gold chain by him, received instead of wages, amounting to “something like £4,” for which he could not find a buyer. Another stated that he had had three watches from his employer. “He charged £6 10s. for the first – a gold Geneva watch. I kept it for some time, and than pledged it for £1 10s., and I sold the pawn-ticket for 10s.”"
This unusual advert was published in the London Evening Standard on the 9th: "WANTED, at a County Asylum, TWO ATTENDANTS; age not to exceed 30 years. Salary to commence at £25, a year, and subject to an advance to £35, with board, lodging, and washing, and a suit of uniform annually. Previous employment in an asylum not desired. Applicants must play a musical instrument. Application to be made to the Medical Superintendent, Rainhill, Liverpool." I wonder if it mattered what instrument they played?
And finally, I spotted this rather snobbish ad in the classified section of a newspaper: "A lady residing in the country wishes to meet with superior person, about 25 years of age, to wait upon herself and assist in the light household duties. Must have waited on a lady before; must understand dressmaking and hair-dressing, and getting up fine linen. Address B.B., Post-office, Nunney, Frome, Selwood." Clearly riff-raff and hobbledehoys need not apply then!
Next week's stories will include the Tontine Street obstruction case, Greenall's sumptuous rent dinner is held at the Fleece, the Great Vance performs in Newton and solicitor Thomas Swift causes mayhem in court once again.
We begin with an announcement that in Rainford during the quarter ending March 31st there had been 38 births and 31 deaths registered with the authorities. Of the fatalities nine were from scarlet fever, one from whooping cough and another from smallpox. And in St Helens there had been an extremely rare event – a woman had died after reaching the age of 100.
The Warrington Examiner described on the 6th how a one-mile race had taken place in Liverpool Road in Bold between two walkers and a cyclist. Pedestrianism was then a popular sport and Bold Heath was often the venue for races between walkers. However this time the challenge had been that a man could walk as fast as a bike could be ridden. The St Helens Newspaper in 1869 had labelled the new bicycles "curious vehicles" and they were certainly far from being racing machines.
A Mr Cameron from Halton rode the bike and the pedestrians were Mr Whittaker of Warrington and a Mr Bolton from Penketh, who were both given 15-second starts. The weather was fine and a large crowd assembled at Bold Heath to witness Mr Cameron's cycle win the race by 21 seconds – or 36 if you include the 15-second start.
I've often commented on what I've labelled brainless crimes, when the police could easily trace the offender. The Examiner also described how a brainless crime had literally taken place in Earlestown this week involving a sheep's head – although I think the animal when alive probably had more intelligence than the people involved in the row over its brains! Instead of politely complaining about her purchase, a customer had gone into a butcher's shop in Market Street yelling her head off and the butcher had retaliated with force. This led to a court hearing at Newton Petty Sessions, as reported by the Examiner:
"John Clarke, butcher, Earlestown, was charged with making use of abusive language towards Ann Rinnaird, calculated to cause a breach of the peace. On the 12th of April the complainant bought a sheep's head from the defendant, and on opening it she found that it was full of water, and no brains in it. She complained to the defendant, and told him he deserved three months for selling a rotten sheep's head, when he threatened to kick her, and made use of abusive language. The defendant was bound over to keep the peace for six months."
The fire was first discovered at the rear of the hall adjoining a large room and (as usual) it was some time before the fire brigade arrived on the scene – despite the short distance from their HQ in St Mary's Street. The crew had to be summoned by the ringing of a bell and it could take time for them to assemble. The Bolton Evening News wrote that as a consequence of the delay, the flames travelled with "fearful rapidity along the woodwork of the roof", before adding:
"The efforts of the firemen did not avail much for a considerable time. The ceiling began to give way, and falling on the floor below set fire to the forms and to an organ worth from £400 to £500. The flooring was partially saved through constant drenching. The office and other parts of the wing [where the police station was located] suffered considerably, and the prisoners had to be removed to the police barracks.
"The other wing [where the library was], although nearest the source of the fire, escaped. The danger apparent at one time induced the clearing out of the library, which contained 3,000 volumes. The fire lasted several hours, and was not until eight o'clock that it was completely subdued."
The Corporation had recently bought their municipal building, after previously renting it off the private St Helens Town Hall Company. However they had only insured it for £2,000 and the cost of restoration was estimated at well over £2,500 – so the ratepayers of the town could expect an increase in their bills next year!
As a result of the destruction of the Town Hall, the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 8th had to be held in the County Court in East Street. There, miners David Waine and Job Neald, both 22, were remanded on a charge of committing rape in Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road).
Two middle-aged married women, Elizabeth Murphy and Mary Cullen, had accused them of committing the "felonious assault", as it was described in court. The word "ravish" was also used. Waine lived in Johnson Street in Parr and was a married man with two children and was virtually illiterate. Neald was a single man who lived with his parents in Atlas Street. There'll be more on this story next week.
During the evening of the 8th what was described as a very respectable audience watched a performance of 'Othello' at Newman's Theatre in Earlestown – which I believe was in Market Place.
In January I described how two Truck Commissioners had conducted an inquiry into the watchmaking industry at Prescot and its environs, including St Helens. The various Truck Acts were designed to stop employers abusing their workforce by paying them in goods (either wholly or in part) instead of in cash. That saved the bosses money, as they would buy the items at a cheaper price. The inquiry at Prescot heard many accounts of workers being paid in food or in watches that had to be sold at a loss. This week the Truck Commissioners released their stinging report and the Pall Mall Gazette published this article:
"If anyone wants “a really good watch,” let him read the report of the Truck Commission just issued. He will there find that at Prescot, a village ten miles from Liverpool, watches may be picked up on unusually reasonable terms. Prescot is the great centre of the watch-movement making trade. From it and the immediate neighbourhood the watches of the country are in a great measure supplied. Coventry is the chief market, and there the watches are finished; but London, Liverpool, and Birmingham, are also supplied with movements from Prescot.
"There are about 500 workmen in Prescot employed in the movement manufacture, distributed into different classes. Truck pervades the whole of the movement trade, and extends to other branches in connection with the watch manufacture in the neighbourhood. Many, and all the better masters, pay in cash, but others compel their men to purchase provisions; others, again, who do not keep provision shops, force their own watches and trinkets on the workmen, and thus truck them in another form.
"This truck in watches and jewellery is a sort of compensation or equivalent which the master allows himself who does not truck in provisions. In bad times, when work is slack, a workman goes to his employer, and is told that he can get no work unless he takes a watch at a given figure, the price of which is to be stopped by instalments from his wages. He takes the watch, is debited with the value put upon it by the employer, and sells or pawns it for whatever it will bring. Generally, he loses by the transaction.
"One workman is mentioned who had three or four watches from his employer, and had lost by them to the amount on each of about £1 or 30s. Another workman stated, “If a man did not take those watches he would not get any work.” Trinkets and jewellery are also often taken in place of wages.
"One witness complained that he had a gold chain by him, received instead of wages, amounting to “something like £4,” for which he could not find a buyer. Another stated that he had had three watches from his employer. “He charged £6 10s. for the first – a gold Geneva watch. I kept it for some time, and than pledged it for £1 10s., and I sold the pawn-ticket for 10s.”"
This unusual advert was published in the London Evening Standard on the 9th: "WANTED, at a County Asylum, TWO ATTENDANTS; age not to exceed 30 years. Salary to commence at £25, a year, and subject to an advance to £35, with board, lodging, and washing, and a suit of uniform annually. Previous employment in an asylum not desired. Applicants must play a musical instrument. Application to be made to the Medical Superintendent, Rainhill, Liverpool." I wonder if it mattered what instrument they played?
And finally, I spotted this rather snobbish ad in the classified section of a newspaper: "A lady residing in the country wishes to meet with superior person, about 25 years of age, to wait upon herself and assist in the light household duties. Must have waited on a lady before; must understand dressmaking and hair-dressing, and getting up fine linen. Address B.B., Post-office, Nunney, Frome, Selwood." Clearly riff-raff and hobbledehoys need not apply then!
Next week's stories will include the Tontine Street obstruction case, Greenall's sumptuous rent dinner is held at the Fleece, the Great Vance performs in Newton and solicitor Thomas Swift causes mayhem in court once again.
This week's stories include the disastrous town hall fire, the inquiry into abuses in the Prescot watchmaking industry releases its report, two Parr men are accused of rape and the Bold race between a bicycle and pedestrian.
We begin with an announcement that in Rainford during the quarter ending March 31st there had been 38 births and 31 deaths registered with the authorities.
Of the fatalities nine were from scarlet fever, one from whooping cough and another from smallpox.
And in St Helens there had been an extremely rare event – a woman had died after reaching the age of 100.
The Warrington Examiner described on the 6th how a one-mile race had taken place in Liverpool Road in Bold between two walkers and a cyclist.
Pedestrianism was then a popular sport and Bold Heath was often the venue for races between walkers.
However this time the challenge had been that a man could walk as fast as a bike could be ridden.
The St Helens Newspaper in 1869 had labelled the new bicycles "curious vehicles" and they were certainly far from being racing machines.
A Mr Cameron from Halton rode the bike and the pedestrians were Mr Whittaker of Warrington and a Mr Bolton from Penketh, who were both given 15-second starts.
The weather was fine and a large crowd assembled to witness Mr Cameron's cycle win the race by 21 seconds – or 36 if you include the 15-second start.
I've often commented on what I've labelled brainless crimes, when the police could easily trace the offender.
The Examiner also described how a brainless crime had literally taken place in Earlestown this week involving a sheep's head – although I think the animal when alive probably had more intelligence than the people involved in the row over its brains!
Instead of politely complaining about her purchase, a customer had gone into a butcher's shop in Market Street yelling her head off and the butcher had retaliated with force.
This led to a court hearing at Newton Petty Sessions, as reported by the Examiner:
"John Clarke, butcher, Earlestown, was charged with making use of abusive language towards Ann Rinnaird, calculated to cause a breach of the peace.
"On the 12th of April the complainant bought a sheep's head from the defendant, and on opening it she found that it was full of water, and no brains in it.
"She complained to the defendant, and told him he deserved three months for selling a rotten sheep's head, when he threatened to kick her, and made use of abusive language.
"The defendant was bound over to keep the peace for six months."
Just after 3pm on the 6th a disastrous fire was discovered in St Helens Town Hall (illustrated above) and soon at least half of the building was reported as being "wrapped in flames".
The town's first seat of municipal government had been built in 1839 in New Market Place (off Exchange Street).
As well as the holding of council meetings, the utilitarian venue also hosted court hearings, a library, a police station, dances and public dinners.
The fire was first discovered at the rear of the hall adjoining a large room and (as usual) it was some time before the fire brigade arrived on the scene – despite the short distance from their HQ in St Mary's Street.
The crew had to be summoned by the ringing of a bell and it could take time for them to assemble.
The Bolton Evening News wrote that as a consequence of the delay, the flames travelled with "fearful rapidity along the woodwork of the roof", before adding:
"The efforts of the firemen did not avail much for a considerable time. The ceiling began to give way, and falling on the floor below set fire to the forms and to an organ worth from £400 to £500. The flooring was partially saved through constant drenching.
"The office and other parts of the wing [where the police station was located] suffered considerably, and the prisoners had to be removed to the police barracks. The other wing [where the library was], although nearest the source of the fire, escaped.
"The danger apparent at one time induced the clearing out of the library, which contained 3,000 volumes.
"The fire lasted several hours, and was not until eight o'clock that it was completely subdued."
The Corporation had recently bought their municipal building, after previously renting it off the private St Helens Town Hall Company.
However they had only insured it for £2,000 and the cost of restoration was estimated at well over £2,500 – so the ratepayers of the town could expect an increase in their bills next year!
As a result of the destruction of the Town Hall, the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 8th had to be held in the County Court in East Street.
There, miners David Waine and Job Neald, both 22, were remanded on a charge of committing rape in Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road).
Two middle-aged married women, Elizabeth Murphy and Mary Cullen, had accused them of committing the "felonious assault", as it was described in court. The word "ravish" was also used.
Waine lived in Johnson Street in Parr and was a married man with two children and was virtually illiterate. Neald was a single man who lived with his parents in Atlas Street. There'll be more on this story next week.
During the evening of the 8th what was described as a very respectable audience watched a performance of 'Othello' at Newman's Theatre in Earlestown – which I believe was in Market Place.
In January I described how two Truck Commissioners had conducted an inquiry into the watchmaking industry at Prescot and its environs, including St Helens.
The various Truck Acts were designed to stop employers abusing their workforce by paying them in goods (either wholly or in part) instead of in cash. That saved the bosses money, as they would buy the items at a cheaper price.
The inquiry at Prescot heard many accounts of workers being paid in food or in watches that had to be sold at a loss.
This week the Truck Commissioners released their stinging report and the Pall Mall Gazette published this article:
"If anyone wants “a really good watch,” let him read the report of the Truck Commission just issued.
"He will there find that at Prescot, a village ten miles from Liverpool, watches may be picked up on unusually reasonable terms.
"Prescot is the great centre of the watch-movement making trade. From it and the immediate neighbourhood the watches of the country are in a great measure supplied.
"Coventry is the chief market, and there the watches are finished; but London, Liverpool, and Birmingham, are also supplied with movements from Prescot.
"There are about 500 workmen in Prescot employed in the movement manufacture, distributed into different classes.
"Truck pervades the whole of the movement trade, and extends to other branches in connection with the watch manufacture in the neighbourhood.
"Many, and all the better masters, pay in cash, but others compel their men to purchase provisions; others, again, who do not keep provision shops, force their own watches and trinkets on the workmen, and thus truck them in another form.
"This truck in watches and jewellery is a sort of compensation or equivalent which the master allows himself who does not truck in provisions.
"In bad times, when work is slack, a workman goes to his employer, and is told that he can get no work unless he takes a watch at a given figure, the price of which is to be stopped by instalments from his wages.
"He takes the watch, is debited with the value put upon it by the employer, and sells or pawns it for whatever it will bring. Generally, he loses by the transaction.
"One workman is mentioned who had three or four watches from his employer, and had lost by them to the amount on each of about £1 or 30s.
"Another workman stated, “If a man did not take those watches he would not get any work.”
"Trinkets and jewellery are also often taken in place of wages. One witness complained that he had a gold chain by him, received instead of wages, amounting to “something like £4,” for which he could not find a buyer.
"Another stated that he had had three watches from his employer. “He charged £6 10s. for the first – a gold Geneva watch. I kept it for some time, and than pledged it for £1 10s., and I sold the pawn-ticket for 10s.”"
This unusual advert was published in the London Evening Standard on the 9th:
"WANTED, at a County Asylum, TWO ATTENDANTS; age not to exceed 30 years. Salary to commence at £25, a year, and subject to an advance to £35, with board, lodging, and washing, and a suit of uniform annually.
"Previous employment in an asylum not desired. Applicants must play a musical instrument. Application to be made to the Medical Superintendent, Rainhill, Liverpool."
I wonder if it mattered what instrument they played?
And finally, I spotted this rather snobbish ad in the classified section of a newspaper:
"A lady residing in the country wishes to meet with superior person, about 25 years of age, to wait upon herself and assist in the light household duties.
"Must have waited on a lady before; must understand dressmaking and hair-dressing, and getting up fine linen. Address B.B., Post-office, Nunney, Frome, Selwood."
Clearly riff-raff and hobbledehoys need not apply then!
Next week's stories will include the Tontine Street obstruction case, Greenall's sumptuous rent dinner is held at the Fleece, the Great Vance performs in Newton and solicitor Thomas Swift causes mayhem in court once again.
We begin with an announcement that in Rainford during the quarter ending March 31st there had been 38 births and 31 deaths registered with the authorities.
Of the fatalities nine were from scarlet fever, one from whooping cough and another from smallpox.
And in St Helens there had been an extremely rare event – a woman had died after reaching the age of 100.
The Warrington Examiner described on the 6th how a one-mile race had taken place in Liverpool Road in Bold between two walkers and a cyclist.
Pedestrianism was then a popular sport and Bold Heath was often the venue for races between walkers.
However this time the challenge had been that a man could walk as fast as a bike could be ridden.
The St Helens Newspaper in 1869 had labelled the new bicycles "curious vehicles" and they were certainly far from being racing machines.
A Mr Cameron from Halton rode the bike and the pedestrians were Mr Whittaker of Warrington and a Mr Bolton from Penketh, who were both given 15-second starts.
The weather was fine and a large crowd assembled to witness Mr Cameron's cycle win the race by 21 seconds – or 36 if you include the 15-second start.
I've often commented on what I've labelled brainless crimes, when the police could easily trace the offender.
The Examiner also described how a brainless crime had literally taken place in Earlestown this week involving a sheep's head – although I think the animal when alive probably had more intelligence than the people involved in the row over its brains!
Instead of politely complaining about her purchase, a customer had gone into a butcher's shop in Market Street yelling her head off and the butcher had retaliated with force.
This led to a court hearing at Newton Petty Sessions, as reported by the Examiner:
"John Clarke, butcher, Earlestown, was charged with making use of abusive language towards Ann Rinnaird, calculated to cause a breach of the peace.
"On the 12th of April the complainant bought a sheep's head from the defendant, and on opening it she found that it was full of water, and no brains in it.
"She complained to the defendant, and told him he deserved three months for selling a rotten sheep's head, when he threatened to kick her, and made use of abusive language.
"The defendant was bound over to keep the peace for six months."
The town's first seat of municipal government had been built in 1839 in New Market Place (off Exchange Street).
As well as the holding of council meetings, the utilitarian venue also hosted court hearings, a library, a police station, dances and public dinners.
The fire was first discovered at the rear of the hall adjoining a large room and (as usual) it was some time before the fire brigade arrived on the scene – despite the short distance from their HQ in St Mary's Street.
The crew had to be summoned by the ringing of a bell and it could take time for them to assemble.
The Bolton Evening News wrote that as a consequence of the delay, the flames travelled with "fearful rapidity along the woodwork of the roof", before adding:
"The efforts of the firemen did not avail much for a considerable time. The ceiling began to give way, and falling on the floor below set fire to the forms and to an organ worth from £400 to £500. The flooring was partially saved through constant drenching.
"The office and other parts of the wing [where the police station was located] suffered considerably, and the prisoners had to be removed to the police barracks. The other wing [where the library was], although nearest the source of the fire, escaped.
"The danger apparent at one time induced the clearing out of the library, which contained 3,000 volumes.
"The fire lasted several hours, and was not until eight o'clock that it was completely subdued."
The Corporation had recently bought their municipal building, after previously renting it off the private St Helens Town Hall Company.
However they had only insured it for £2,000 and the cost of restoration was estimated at well over £2,500 – so the ratepayers of the town could expect an increase in their bills next year!
As a result of the destruction of the Town Hall, the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 8th had to be held in the County Court in East Street.
There, miners David Waine and Job Neald, both 22, were remanded on a charge of committing rape in Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road).
Two middle-aged married women, Elizabeth Murphy and Mary Cullen, had accused them of committing the "felonious assault", as it was described in court. The word "ravish" was also used.
Waine lived in Johnson Street in Parr and was a married man with two children and was virtually illiterate. Neald was a single man who lived with his parents in Atlas Street. There'll be more on this story next week.
During the evening of the 8th what was described as a very respectable audience watched a performance of 'Othello' at Newman's Theatre in Earlestown – which I believe was in Market Place.
In January I described how two Truck Commissioners had conducted an inquiry into the watchmaking industry at Prescot and its environs, including St Helens.
The various Truck Acts were designed to stop employers abusing their workforce by paying them in goods (either wholly or in part) instead of in cash. That saved the bosses money, as they would buy the items at a cheaper price.
The inquiry at Prescot heard many accounts of workers being paid in food or in watches that had to be sold at a loss.
This week the Truck Commissioners released their stinging report and the Pall Mall Gazette published this article:
"If anyone wants “a really good watch,” let him read the report of the Truck Commission just issued.
"He will there find that at Prescot, a village ten miles from Liverpool, watches may be picked up on unusually reasonable terms.
"Prescot is the great centre of the watch-movement making trade. From it and the immediate neighbourhood the watches of the country are in a great measure supplied.
"Coventry is the chief market, and there the watches are finished; but London, Liverpool, and Birmingham, are also supplied with movements from Prescot.
"There are about 500 workmen in Prescot employed in the movement manufacture, distributed into different classes.
"Truck pervades the whole of the movement trade, and extends to other branches in connection with the watch manufacture in the neighbourhood.
"Many, and all the better masters, pay in cash, but others compel their men to purchase provisions; others, again, who do not keep provision shops, force their own watches and trinkets on the workmen, and thus truck them in another form.
"This truck in watches and jewellery is a sort of compensation or equivalent which the master allows himself who does not truck in provisions.
"In bad times, when work is slack, a workman goes to his employer, and is told that he can get no work unless he takes a watch at a given figure, the price of which is to be stopped by instalments from his wages.
"He takes the watch, is debited with the value put upon it by the employer, and sells or pawns it for whatever it will bring. Generally, he loses by the transaction.
"One workman is mentioned who had three or four watches from his employer, and had lost by them to the amount on each of about £1 or 30s.
"Another workman stated, “If a man did not take those watches he would not get any work.”
"Trinkets and jewellery are also often taken in place of wages. One witness complained that he had a gold chain by him, received instead of wages, amounting to “something like £4,” for which he could not find a buyer.
"Another stated that he had had three watches from his employer. “He charged £6 10s. for the first – a gold Geneva watch. I kept it for some time, and than pledged it for £1 10s., and I sold the pawn-ticket for 10s.”"
This unusual advert was published in the London Evening Standard on the 9th:
"WANTED, at a County Asylum, TWO ATTENDANTS; age not to exceed 30 years. Salary to commence at £25, a year, and subject to an advance to £35, with board, lodging, and washing, and a suit of uniform annually.
"Previous employment in an asylum not desired. Applicants must play a musical instrument. Application to be made to the Medical Superintendent, Rainhill, Liverpool."
I wonder if it mattered what instrument they played?
And finally, I spotted this rather snobbish ad in the classified section of a newspaper:
"A lady residing in the country wishes to meet with superior person, about 25 years of age, to wait upon herself and assist in the light household duties.
"Must have waited on a lady before; must understand dressmaking and hair-dressing, and getting up fine linen. Address B.B., Post-office, Nunney, Frome, Selwood."
Clearly riff-raff and hobbledehoys need not apply then!
Next week's stories will include the Tontine Street obstruction case, Greenall's sumptuous rent dinner is held at the Fleece, the Great Vance performs in Newton and solicitor Thomas Swift causes mayhem in court once again.