150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (4th - 10th February 1869)
This week's stories include the Thatto Heath tramp's unprovoked attack on a policeman, the "disgusting savage" of Pocket Nook, a double tragedy in Scholes Lane, the printer that fled from the police into the canal, Valentine's Day cards in St Helens and the fever-struck common lodging house in Prescot.
However we begin on the 4th with the third annual ploughing match in Rainford – or more accurately Crank – as it was on Alice Bradshaw's farm near the Red Cat. Such competitions were regularly held over the rural parts of St Helens during the 19th century – especially in Bold and Sutton – and still take place in other 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 £5 prize, which was more than three weeks wages.
The Prescot Board of Guardians met on the 4th and was told that a young woman of twenty-two and her brother of eighteen had been admitted to the infirmary at Whiston Workhouse (illustrated above) suffering from fever. Both had been sleeping in the same bed with their mother in a "common lodging house" in Prescot. In these places lodgers would share a single room with strangers and they were highly prevalent in Victorian times.
Fever was a catch-all term for all kinds of contagious diseases – such as typhoid, scarlet fever etc. – where the patient suffered a high temperature. So there was every chance that others in the lodging house had contracted the disease as well. However the Guardians were told that the matter was out of their jurisdiction, although a health inspector for Prescot had started work a few days earlier.
A tramp called James Holt appeared in court on the 5th charged with making a violent and unprovoked assault on Police Constable Helm. While the officer was on duty at Thatto Heath he came across Holt who, for no apparent reason, suddenly gave the policeman a violent blow.
The officer grabbed hold of him but the man wrenched his stick out of his hand and struck PC Helm upon his head and on different parts of his body. In the struggle the policeman's lamp was smashed and one of his hands was badly injured.
As the magistrate was sitting alone he felt unable to deal with the case of assault. But for the wilful damage to the lamp he fined the prisoner 20 shillings and ordered him to pay damages and court costs. Being a tramp the man had no money or likely prospects of obtaining any and so was sent to prison at Kirkdale in Liverpool for a month.
Two railway labourers were killed on the 5th near a farm in Scholes Lane. John Kirby and John Morgan, both aged about 60, were struck down by a number of large stones that were being used to build a bridge.
Some blasting had taken place immediately beforehand and it was supposed that the firing had disturbed the stones. One of the men was instantly killed as a stone fell upon his head. The other man was conveyed to the infirmary at Whiston Workhouse where he died two hours later.
In St Helens Police Court on the 6th another example was told of someone in a strange location falling into open water. On moonless nights much of the town was pitch black and getting around was a tricky business for those unfamiliar with the area.
James Larkin was in court charged with drunkenness after being ejected from the Nag's Head on the canal bank. The printer from Liverpool did not leave the drinking house quietly and when a constable asked the man for his name and address he received a mouthful of abuse.
The officer arrested Larkin and started to take him to the station but then told his prisoner he would release him if he furnished his address and promised to go quietly. But before the policeman could receive a reply, a crowd that had assembled caused a distraction. Quite often when the police escorted drunks to the station they had to pass through a gauntlet of abuse from other drunks.
Larkin saw his moment to escape and bolted at full speed followed by the bobby – although he quickly lost sight of his quarry in the darkness. The constable was armed with a lantern and suddenly was able to see his prisoner again – however the man was heading in a straight line towards the canal.
The next thing he heard was a loud splash in the deep water. Without any thought for his own safety, the officer went in after Larkin and managed to catch him before he sank and brought him to the bank. William Pilkington was the sole magistrate on the Bench and after hearing about the heroic rescue suggested that the defendant should make a present to the policeman for saving his life.
However Superintendent James Ludlam – who was in charge of St Helens Police – said the Chief Constable of Lancashire did not permit gifts to his officers. So James Larkin was only able to give thanks to his police rescuer, that the St Helens Newspaper did not bother to identify.
The embarrassed Liverpool printer was let off by the Bench upon payment of costs, with William Pilkington remarking that the man's offence was against himself and not the public. It wouldn't be until 1875 that the town had its own borough police force and chief constable.
The marking of Valentine's Day goes back hundreds of years with the sending of cards growing in popularity after postal rates became cheaper in 1840. On the front page of the St Helens Newspaper on the 6th a large advert said:
"Mr Dromgoole begs to announce to his friends and the public that he has now completed his purchase of Valentines, Love Gifts, and Tokens of Affection which can now be viewed at his various shops. The verdict passed by all who have seen them is that they are the prettiest and cheapest in town."
The word "Valentines" was used 43 times in the advert with comic, sentimental and perfumed versions available costing from a halfpenny to 5 shillings "to meet the circumstances and tastes of all classes." Bernard Dromgoole was also the owner of the Newspaper and sold stationery and other items from his Hardshaw Street premises that he grandly called The Public Hall.
A lengthy letter in the Newspaper claimed that more illegal lottery tickets were being sold in St Helens than in any other town in England. "What is the result? Hunger, starvation, and misery must attend it", the correspondent concluded, claiming that working men were spending up to ten shillings on these tickets "instead of clothing their children and filling their bellies".
James Varley of the Waterloo Foundry was fined 40 shillings on the 8th for employing a number of boys without a certificate. A further fine of £2 was imposed for employing a boy under sixteen after 6pm. Varley pleaded guilty but stated that the offence had been committed without his knowledge and in direct contravention of his order.
The 1833 Factory Act banned children from working at night and employers were required to have an age certificate for their child workers. Although the Act removed some of the extreme abuses of children employed in factories, a nine-year-old could still work up to nine hours a day.
Varleys family foundry began in Waterloo Street in 1837, the same year that Queen Victoria ascended the throne. When they closed in 1990, the sixth generation of Varleys was running the business.
A strange tale of assault was also told in the Petty Sessions. The incident began after an unnamed woman had entered Michael Moran's beerhouse in Pocket Nook wanting half a gallon of ale. However according to the landlord she'd used a trick to not pay the full amount and soon afterwards he saw the woman again and demanded an explanation.
She invited Moran into her home, where he found the woman's husband and a man called John O’Loghlen. Some words passed between them before they set upon the landlord and "kicked him out" – as it was put.
The woman knocked Michael Moran down with a brick and O’Loughlen then threw himself upon him and bit off his under-lip. He also bit the fingers of Moran's left hand. St Helens Newspaper referred to O’Loghlen as a "disgusting savage" and for some reason he was the only one who was prosecuted. The Newspaper said he and Moran looked a "pretty pair" as they faced each other in court.
The latter had a large bandage placed around the lower part of his face and the defendant's head was also tightly wrapped in woollen material, "as if for the purpose of holding it together." O’Loghlen claimed that Moran had used a poker against him, which the beerhouse keeper denied, adding that if he'd had a poker he would not have allowed his lip to have been bitten off.
Barmaid Sabina Jennings said she had seen part of the fight and heard O’Loghlen tell Moran "I will eat the flesh off you". The Bench committed the man for trial at the next assizes hearing.
Next week's stories will include a backlash against steam whistles in St Helens, the Prescot mother who promised to give her son a "first-class whipping", a "ventilatist" gives a lecture in Ormskirk Street, there is a fire at the candle works, a Greenall's painter comes to grief on Newton Common and the Parr man treated more leniently in court than a woman.
However we begin on the 4th with the third annual ploughing match in Rainford – or more accurately Crank – as it was on Alice Bradshaw's farm near the Red Cat. Such competitions were regularly held over the rural parts of St Helens during the 19th century – especially in Bold and Sutton – and still take place in other 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 £5 prize, which was more than three weeks wages.
Fever was a catch-all term for all kinds of contagious diseases – such as typhoid, scarlet fever etc. – where the patient suffered a high temperature. So there was every chance that others in the lodging house had contracted the disease as well. However the Guardians were told that the matter was out of their jurisdiction, although a health inspector for Prescot had started work a few days earlier.
A tramp called James Holt appeared in court on the 5th charged with making a violent and unprovoked assault on Police Constable Helm. While the officer was on duty at Thatto Heath he came across Holt who, for no apparent reason, suddenly gave the policeman a violent blow.
The officer grabbed hold of him but the man wrenched his stick out of his hand and struck PC Helm upon his head and on different parts of his body. In the struggle the policeman's lamp was smashed and one of his hands was badly injured.
As the magistrate was sitting alone he felt unable to deal with the case of assault. But for the wilful damage to the lamp he fined the prisoner 20 shillings and ordered him to pay damages and court costs. Being a tramp the man had no money or likely prospects of obtaining any and so was sent to prison at Kirkdale in Liverpool for a month.
Two railway labourers were killed on the 5th near a farm in Scholes Lane. John Kirby and John Morgan, both aged about 60, were struck down by a number of large stones that were being used to build a bridge.
Some blasting had taken place immediately beforehand and it was supposed that the firing had disturbed the stones. One of the men was instantly killed as a stone fell upon his head. The other man was conveyed to the infirmary at Whiston Workhouse where he died two hours later.
In St Helens Police Court on the 6th another example was told of someone in a strange location falling into open water. On moonless nights much of the town was pitch black and getting around was a tricky business for those unfamiliar with the area.
James Larkin was in court charged with drunkenness after being ejected from the Nag's Head on the canal bank. The printer from Liverpool did not leave the drinking house quietly and when a constable asked the man for his name and address he received a mouthful of abuse.
The officer arrested Larkin and started to take him to the station but then told his prisoner he would release him if he furnished his address and promised to go quietly. But before the policeman could receive a reply, a crowd that had assembled caused a distraction. Quite often when the police escorted drunks to the station they had to pass through a gauntlet of abuse from other drunks.
Larkin saw his moment to escape and bolted at full speed followed by the bobby – although he quickly lost sight of his quarry in the darkness. The constable was armed with a lantern and suddenly was able to see his prisoner again – however the man was heading in a straight line towards the canal.
The next thing he heard was a loud splash in the deep water. Without any thought for his own safety, the officer went in after Larkin and managed to catch him before he sank and brought him to the bank. William Pilkington was the sole magistrate on the Bench and after hearing about the heroic rescue suggested that the defendant should make a present to the policeman for saving his life.
However Superintendent James Ludlam – who was in charge of St Helens Police – said the Chief Constable of Lancashire did not permit gifts to his officers. So James Larkin was only able to give thanks to his police rescuer, that the St Helens Newspaper did not bother to identify.
The embarrassed Liverpool printer was let off by the Bench upon payment of costs, with William Pilkington remarking that the man's offence was against himself and not the public. It wouldn't be until 1875 that the town had its own borough police force and chief constable.
The marking of Valentine's Day goes back hundreds of years with the sending of cards growing in popularity after postal rates became cheaper in 1840. On the front page of the St Helens Newspaper on the 6th a large advert said:
"Mr Dromgoole begs to announce to his friends and the public that he has now completed his purchase of Valentines, Love Gifts, and Tokens of Affection which can now be viewed at his various shops. The verdict passed by all who have seen them is that they are the prettiest and cheapest in town."
The word "Valentines" was used 43 times in the advert with comic, sentimental and perfumed versions available costing from a halfpenny to 5 shillings "to meet the circumstances and tastes of all classes." Bernard Dromgoole was also the owner of the Newspaper and sold stationery and other items from his Hardshaw Street premises that he grandly called The Public Hall.
James Varley of the Waterloo Foundry was fined 40 shillings on the 8th for employing a number of boys without a certificate. A further fine of £2 was imposed for employing a boy under sixteen after 6pm. Varley pleaded guilty but stated that the offence had been committed without his knowledge and in direct contravention of his order.
The 1833 Factory Act banned children from working at night and employers were required to have an age certificate for their child workers. Although the Act removed some of the extreme abuses of children employed in factories, a nine-year-old could still work up to nine hours a day.
Varleys family foundry began in Waterloo Street in 1837, the same year that Queen Victoria ascended the throne. When they closed in 1990, the sixth generation of Varleys was running the business.
A strange tale of assault was also told in the Petty Sessions. The incident began after an unnamed woman had entered Michael Moran's beerhouse in Pocket Nook wanting half a gallon of ale. However according to the landlord she'd used a trick to not pay the full amount and soon afterwards he saw the woman again and demanded an explanation.
She invited Moran into her home, where he found the woman's husband and a man called John O’Loghlen. Some words passed between them before they set upon the landlord and "kicked him out" – as it was put.
The woman knocked Michael Moran down with a brick and O’Loughlen then threw himself upon him and bit off his under-lip. He also bit the fingers of Moran's left hand. St Helens Newspaper referred to O’Loghlen as a "disgusting savage" and for some reason he was the only one who was prosecuted. The Newspaper said he and Moran looked a "pretty pair" as they faced each other in court.
The latter had a large bandage placed around the lower part of his face and the defendant's head was also tightly wrapped in woollen material, "as if for the purpose of holding it together." O’Loghlen claimed that Moran had used a poker against him, which the beerhouse keeper denied, adding that if he'd had a poker he would not have allowed his lip to have been bitten off.
Barmaid Sabina Jennings said she had seen part of the fight and heard O’Loghlen tell Moran "I will eat the flesh off you". The Bench committed the man for trial at the next assizes hearing.
Next week's stories will include a backlash against steam whistles in St Helens, the Prescot mother who promised to give her son a "first-class whipping", a "ventilatist" gives a lecture in Ormskirk Street, there is a fire at the candle works, a Greenall's painter comes to grief on Newton Common and the Parr man treated more leniently in court than a woman.