150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (8th - 14th JUNE 1870)
This week's stories include the Sutton miner who committed bigamy because his wife made him unhappy, the miniature yacht race on Carr Mill Dam, the Pilkington strikers denounce suggestions of coercion, how the death of Charles Dickens was reported in St Helens and the two 13-year-old girls who stole for their mothers.
The Pilkington dispute of 1870 considerably eclipsed the better-known strike of a century later in terms of its duration. The workers in 1970 were only out for 7 weeks but the dispute that had begun on April 18th 1870 – when Pilks announced plans to slash wages by over 20% – was still continuing in June and would last for many more months. On the 9th a meeting was held in the White Lion in Church Street to scotch suggestions that the strike committee was coercing workers into remaining on strike.
Speaker after speaker rose to denounce the statements that men were being stopped from resuming work. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The large room was crowded, and in the course of the addresses which were delivered, it was unmistakably evident that the men were unanimous in holding out, and that they repudiated the rumours which had been circulated that they were willing to resume work on the masters' terms if the committee would allow them to do so."
The men believed that they were already paid 15% less than other glassworkers in England, Belgium and France and denounced Pilkingtons for wanting them to receive a further reduction of 20 - 25%. However it was made clear at the meeting that any worker that wished to resume work at the reduced rates was able to do so. Unlike their compatriots a century later, the strike committee bent over backwards to be seen as fair-minded throughout the dispute.
On the 9th Thomas Marsh from Sutton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with bigamy after "feloniously intermarrying with Elizabeth Hill, at Prescot". The 22-year-old had only gone through the marriage ceremony a few days earlier and his wife living in Ashton-in-Makerfield had found out about it and reported him.
Marsh was committed to the Liverpool Summer Assizes, which took place at Kirkdale on August 17th. In mitigation at his trial the coal miner said his first wife had a very violent temper and had made his life very unhappy. Surprisingly the judge accepted this claim and only sentenced Marsh to a day's imprisonment.
A meeting of Eccleston ratepayers took place on the 10th in the Bird I’ th’ Hand to approve the proposed sale of the old workhouse at Moorflat in Baldwin Street. This had been built in the 1790s as a joint scheme by the Windle and Eccleston townships to care for their paupers. The Co-operative Stores in Baldwin Street would later be built on the site but since its closure in the 1840s the building had been used as a lodging house.
On the 11th the St Helens Newspaper described how the "unpleasant agitation" in the town over the past few weeks had led to the gas company offering to sell its undertaking to the Corporation. People had got very worked up over a new bill that the St Helens Gas Company was trying to push through Parliament. The townsfolk also felt that the price of gas was far too high and a rival firm had been in the process of being set up. St Helens Town Council would now hold a special meeting to discuss the offer.
This week's word of the week has to be "postprandial", which I've learnt means after dinner. The St Helens Newspaper used the term in their report on the death of Charles Dickens, who they called: "The greatest of English novelists, the most successful of modern readers, and the most genial and fascinating of postprandial speakers." Dickens' skill as a reader has now largely been forgotten. However in an age with much illiteracy, many individuals read sections of novels at events and some developed a great ability to bring their subjects to life.
The experience was enhanced if the author of the work performed the reading. Last year the Liverpool Mercury had written about readings from Dickens in London: "He last night fully sustained his high reputation not only as a writer but as a personator of some of the most startling characters with which his works abound."
The Newspaper also wrote about the recent Whit Monday holiday. It had not officially been a Bank Holiday but many employers in St Helens had decided to close their businesses. The weather had been fine and the paper wrote that: "In the morning the streets were astir with parties leaving the town on pleasure excursions." Liverpool was a popular destination with some attending the laying of the foundation stone of the Stanley Hospital in Stanley Road, Kirkdale (it closed in 1965). The Newspaper said the Earl of Derby laid the stone "amid great Masonic display".
There was also an "immense number of visitors, including many from this locality" at the newly opened Stanley Park where a "grand fancy fair" was held. Many St Helens folk also went to Belle Vue Gardens or the seaside and others were attracted to Carr Mill Dam (pictured above). There a miniature yacht race took place with the boats being "fancy models of well-known yatch, and measured from four to six feet in length, and were full rigged." Yatch was an alternative spelling of yacht, which largely died out after WW2.
The Newspaper added that during Monday and Tuesday evenings the streets of St Helens were thronged with returning pleasure-seekers. "It is but justice to say that only a few of the sterner sex seemed to have been worshipping too freely at the shrine of the rosy god." Only a small number of men got drunk, in other words! However no one from St Helens appears to have got hurt, which – according to the Liverpool Courier – could not be taken for granted. They wrote:
"Whitsuntide has been, as usual, prolific in disasters. This year the fatalities have, indeed been more than usually numerous, owing to the greater numbers of people who have indulged in pleasure excursions, the festival being exceptionally late and the weather much more inviting than Whitsuntide pleasure-seekers have been accustomed to enjoy of late years."
However one man from St Helens did get badly injured at Lancaster on the 12th. The male who refused to give his name had foolishly attempted to board a goods train as it was passing through the station. He was knocked down and dragged for 200 - 300 yards and was now lying in a dangerous state in Lancaster Infirmary with one of his legs having been amputated.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th two apprentices at Varley's iron foundry in Waterloo Street called Ralph Turner and John Waterworth were fined the large sum of 32s 6d each for absenting themselves from work. If in default of payment the lads would have to serve a month in prison. This I expect they did as bound apprentices were paid very little until they turned 21.
Also at the Sessions two 13-year-old girls were accused of a number of thefts at the behest of their parents. Sabina Swift was charged with stealing a cheese weighing 16lb from Sephton and Green's premises in the New Market Place. Her mother Catherine and father Martin were then charged with receiving the cheese, knowing it to have been stolen.
Another girl called Mary Evans was charged along with Sabina of stealing what was described as "two loaves of sugar" off Isaac Newton. No, not the gravity man (!), this Isaac also kept a shop in the market and Sabina's Mum and Dad were charged with receiving the sugar. In addition the girls were charged with stealing 50 yards of alpaca wool from Christopher Sharples' draper's shop in Raven Street (off Church Street).
This time Mary Evans's mother, Catherine, as well as Sabina's parents, were accused of being the receivers. And finally 13 yards of the fabric known as linsey was taken from draper William Sheldric's shop in Church Street. This time only Catherine Evans was charged with receiving. They were all committed to the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool, which were held on July 12th.
The two girls were sent to prison for 14 days, followed by 5 years in a reformatory - despite clearly being the puppets of their parents. The judge in the case said there could be no doubt that the women had sent their children out to steal and had assisted them in the thefts. Sabina's mother was sent to prison for 8 months and Mary's Mum received a 12-month sentence. Martin Swift (Sabina's father) was found not guilty and he appears to have been the only one on bail and so I think the two girls would have served a total of six weeks in gaol.
The Liverpool Daily Post wrote: "When sentence was passed on the elder prisoners the children cried bitterly, and one of them fainted. On hearing their own sentences the little creatures uttered piercing shrieks." The St Helens Newspaper added: "They uttered frantic cries, the girl Swift calling loudly on her father".
Next week's stories will include the anti-surplice riots in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the St Helens man who refused to pay his son's keep on a reformatory ship, the pigeon shop in Tontine Street, a midnight stabbing on Bold Street and the man who took indecent liberties.
The Pilkington dispute of 1870 considerably eclipsed the better-known strike of a century later in terms of its duration. The workers in 1970 were only out for 7 weeks but the dispute that had begun on April 18th 1870 – when Pilks announced plans to slash wages by over 20% – was still continuing in June and would last for many more months. On the 9th a meeting was held in the White Lion in Church Street to scotch suggestions that the strike committee was coercing workers into remaining on strike.
Speaker after speaker rose to denounce the statements that men were being stopped from resuming work. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The large room was crowded, and in the course of the addresses which were delivered, it was unmistakably evident that the men were unanimous in holding out, and that they repudiated the rumours which had been circulated that they were willing to resume work on the masters' terms if the committee would allow them to do so."
The men believed that they were already paid 15% less than other glassworkers in England, Belgium and France and denounced Pilkingtons for wanting them to receive a further reduction of 20 - 25%. However it was made clear at the meeting that any worker that wished to resume work at the reduced rates was able to do so. Unlike their compatriots a century later, the strike committee bent over backwards to be seen as fair-minded throughout the dispute.
On the 9th Thomas Marsh from Sutton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with bigamy after "feloniously intermarrying with Elizabeth Hill, at Prescot". The 22-year-old had only gone through the marriage ceremony a few days earlier and his wife living in Ashton-in-Makerfield had found out about it and reported him.
Marsh was committed to the Liverpool Summer Assizes, which took place at Kirkdale on August 17th. In mitigation at his trial the coal miner said his first wife had a very violent temper and had made his life very unhappy. Surprisingly the judge accepted this claim and only sentenced Marsh to a day's imprisonment.
The Bird i' th' Hand in Eccleston and the old workhouse in Moorflat / Baldwin Street in St Helens built in the 1790s
Bird i' th' Hand and the old workhouse in Baldwin Street, St Helens
Bird i' th' Hand and old workhouse in Moorflat
On the 11th the St Helens Newspaper described how the "unpleasant agitation" in the town over the past few weeks had led to the gas company offering to sell its undertaking to the Corporation. People had got very worked up over a new bill that the St Helens Gas Company was trying to push through Parliament. The townsfolk also felt that the price of gas was far too high and a rival firm had been in the process of being set up. St Helens Town Council would now hold a special meeting to discuss the offer.
This week's word of the week has to be "postprandial", which I've learnt means after dinner. The St Helens Newspaper used the term in their report on the death of Charles Dickens, who they called: "The greatest of English novelists, the most successful of modern readers, and the most genial and fascinating of postprandial speakers." Dickens' skill as a reader has now largely been forgotten. However in an age with much illiteracy, many individuals read sections of novels at events and some developed a great ability to bring their subjects to life.
The experience was enhanced if the author of the work performed the reading. Last year the Liverpool Mercury had written about readings from Dickens in London: "He last night fully sustained his high reputation not only as a writer but as a personator of some of the most startling characters with which his works abound."
The Newspaper also wrote about the recent Whit Monday holiday. It had not officially been a Bank Holiday but many employers in St Helens had decided to close their businesses. The weather had been fine and the paper wrote that: "In the morning the streets were astir with parties leaving the town on pleasure excursions." Liverpool was a popular destination with some attending the laying of the foundation stone of the Stanley Hospital in Stanley Road, Kirkdale (it closed in 1965). The Newspaper said the Earl of Derby laid the stone "amid great Masonic display".
The Newspaper added that during Monday and Tuesday evenings the streets of St Helens were thronged with returning pleasure-seekers. "It is but justice to say that only a few of the sterner sex seemed to have been worshipping too freely at the shrine of the rosy god." Only a small number of men got drunk, in other words! However no one from St Helens appears to have got hurt, which – according to the Liverpool Courier – could not be taken for granted. They wrote:
"Whitsuntide has been, as usual, prolific in disasters. This year the fatalities have, indeed been more than usually numerous, owing to the greater numbers of people who have indulged in pleasure excursions, the festival being exceptionally late and the weather much more inviting than Whitsuntide pleasure-seekers have been accustomed to enjoy of late years."
However one man from St Helens did get badly injured at Lancaster on the 12th. The male who refused to give his name had foolishly attempted to board a goods train as it was passing through the station. He was knocked down and dragged for 200 - 300 yards and was now lying in a dangerous state in Lancaster Infirmary with one of his legs having been amputated.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th two apprentices at Varley's iron foundry in Waterloo Street called Ralph Turner and John Waterworth were fined the large sum of 32s 6d each for absenting themselves from work. If in default of payment the lads would have to serve a month in prison. This I expect they did as bound apprentices were paid very little until they turned 21.
Also at the Sessions two 13-year-old girls were accused of a number of thefts at the behest of their parents. Sabina Swift was charged with stealing a cheese weighing 16lb from Sephton and Green's premises in the New Market Place. Her mother Catherine and father Martin were then charged with receiving the cheese, knowing it to have been stolen.
Another girl called Mary Evans was charged along with Sabina of stealing what was described as "two loaves of sugar" off Isaac Newton. No, not the gravity man (!), this Isaac also kept a shop in the market and Sabina's Mum and Dad were charged with receiving the sugar. In addition the girls were charged with stealing 50 yards of alpaca wool from Christopher Sharples' draper's shop in Raven Street (off Church Street).
This time Mary Evans's mother, Catherine, as well as Sabina's parents, were accused of being the receivers. And finally 13 yards of the fabric known as linsey was taken from draper William Sheldric's shop in Church Street. This time only Catherine Evans was charged with receiving. They were all committed to the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool, which were held on July 12th.
The two girls were sent to prison for 14 days, followed by 5 years in a reformatory - despite clearly being the puppets of their parents. The judge in the case said there could be no doubt that the women had sent their children out to steal and had assisted them in the thefts. Sabina's mother was sent to prison for 8 months and Mary's Mum received a 12-month sentence. Martin Swift (Sabina's father) was found not guilty and he appears to have been the only one on bail and so I think the two girls would have served a total of six weeks in gaol.
The Liverpool Daily Post wrote: "When sentence was passed on the elder prisoners the children cried bitterly, and one of them fainted. On hearing their own sentences the little creatures uttered piercing shrieks." The St Helens Newspaper added: "They uttered frantic cries, the girl Swift calling loudly on her father".
Next week's stories will include the anti-surplice riots in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the St Helens man who refused to pay his son's keep on a reformatory ship, the pigeon shop in Tontine Street, a midnight stabbing on Bold Street and the man who took indecent liberties.
This week's stories include the Sutton miner who committed bigamy because his wife made him unhappy, the miniature yacht race on Carr Mill Dam, the Pilkington strikers denounce suggestions of coercion, how the death of Charles Dickens was reported in St Helens and the two 13-year-old girls who stole for their mothers.
The Pilkington dispute of 1870 considerably eclipsed the better-known strike of a century later in terms of its duration.
The workers in 1970 were only out for 7 weeks but the dispute that had begun on April 18th 1870 – when Pilks announced plans to slash wages by over 20% – was still continuing in June and would last for many more months.
On the 9th a meeting was held in the White Lion in Church Street to scotch suggestions that the strike committee was coercing workers into remaining on strike.
Speaker after speaker rose to denounce the statements that men were being stopped from resuming work. The St Helens Newspaper wrote:
"The large room was crowded, and in the course of the addresses which were delivered, it was unmistakably evident that the men were unanimous in holding out, and that they repudiated the rumours which had been circulated that they were willing to resume work on the masters' terms if the committee would allow them to do so."
The men believed that they were already paid 15% less than other glassworkers in England, Belgium and France and denounced Pilkingtons for wanting them to receive a further reduction of 20 - 25%.
However it was made clear at the meeting that any worker that wished to resume work at the reduced rates was able to do so.
Unlike their compatriots a century later, the strike committee bent over backwards to be seen as fair-minded throughout the dispute.
On the 9th Thomas Marsh from Sutton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with bigamy after "feloniously intermarrying with Elizabeth Hill, at Prescot".
The 22-year-old had only gone through the marriage ceremony a few days earlier and his wife living in Ashton-in-Makerfield had found out about it and reported him.
Marsh was committed to the Liverpool Summer Assizes, which took place at Kirkdale on August 17th.
In mitigation at his trial the coal miner said his first wife had a very violent temper and had made his life very unhappy.
Surprisingly the judge accepted this claim and only sentenced Marsh to a day's imprisonment.
A meeting of Eccleston ratepayers took place on the 10th in the Bird I’ th’ Hand to approve the proposed sale of the old workhouse at Moorflat in Ormskirk Street / Baldwin Street (pictured above).
This had been built in the 1790s as a joint scheme by the Windle and Eccleston townships to care for their paupers.
The Co-operative Stores in Baldwin Street would later be built on the site but since its closure in the 1840s the building had been used by the Mormons and then as a lodging house.
On the 11th the St Helens Newspaper described how the "unpleasant agitation" in the town over the past few weeks had led to the gas company offering to sell its undertaking to the Corporation.
People had got very worked up over a new bill that the St Helens Gas Company was trying to push through Parliament.
The townsfolk also felt that the price of gas was far too high and a rival firm had been in the process of being set up.
St Helens Town Council would now hold a special meeting to discuss the offer.
This week's word of the week has to be "postprandial", which I've learnt means after dinner.
The St Helens Newspaper used the term in their report on the death of Charles Dickens, who they called:
"The greatest of English novelists, the most successful of modern readers, and the most genial and fascinating of postprandial speakers."
Dickens' skill as a reader has now largely been forgotten. However in an age with much illiteracy, many individuals read sections of novels at events and some developed a great ability to bring their subjects to life.
The experience was enhanced if the author of the work performed the reading. Last year the Liverpool Mercury had written about readings from Dickens in London:
"He last night fully sustained his high reputation not only as a writer but as a personator of some of the most startling characters with which his works abound."
The Newspaper also wrote about the recent Whit Monday holiday. It had not officially been a Bank Holiday but many employers in St Helens had decided to close their businesses.
The weather had been fine and the paper wrote that: "In the morning the streets were astir with parties leaving the town on pleasure excursions."
Liverpool was a popular destination with some attending the laying of the foundation stone of the Stanley Hospital in Stanley Road, Kirkdale (it closed in 1965).
The Newspaper said the Earl of Derby laid the stone "amid great Masonic display".
There was also an "immense number of visitors, including many from this locality" at the newly opened Stanley Park where a "grand fancy fair" was held.
Many St Helens folk also went to Belle Vue Gardens or the seaside and others were attracted to Carr Mill Dam (pictured above).
There a miniature yacht race took place with the boats being "fancy models of well-known yatch, and measured from four to six feet in length, and were full rigged."
Yatch was an alternative spelling of yacht, which largely died out after WW2.
The Newspaper added that during Monday and Tuesday evenings the streets of St Helens were thronged with returning pleasure-seekers.
"It is but justice to say that only a few of the sterner sex seemed to have been worshipping too freely at the shrine of the rosy god." Only a small number of men got drunk, in other words!
However no one from St Helens appears to have got hurt, which – according to the Liverpool Courier – could not be taken for granted. They wrote:
"Whitsuntide has been, as usual, prolific in disasters. This year the fatalities have, indeed been more than usually numerous, owing to the greater numbers of people who have indulged in pleasure excursions, the festival being exceptionally late and the weather much more inviting than Whitsuntide pleasure-seekers have been accustomed to enjoy of late years."
However one man from St Helens did get badly injured at Lancaster on the 12th.
The male who refused to give his name had foolishly attempted to board a goods train as it was passing through the station.
He was knocked down and dragged for 200 - 300 yards and was now lying in a dangerous state in Lancaster Infirmary with one of his legs having been amputated.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th two apprentices at Varley's iron foundry in Waterloo Street called Ralph Turner and John Waterworth were fined the large sum of 32s 6d each for absenting themselves from work.
If in default of payment the lads would have to serve a month in prison. This I expect they did as bound apprentices were paid very little until they turned 21.
Also at the Sessions two 13-year-old girls were accused of a number of thefts at the behest of their parents.
Sabina Swift was charged with stealing a cheese weighing 16lb from Sephton and Green's premises in the New Market Place.
Her mother Catherine and father Martin were then charged with receiving the cheese, knowing it to have been stolen.
Another girl called Mary Evans was charged along with Sabina of stealing what was described as "two loaves of sugar" off Isaac Newton.
No, not the gravity man (!), this Isaac also kept a shop in the market and Sabina's Mum and Dad were charged with receiving the sugar.
In addition the girls were charged with stealing 50 yards of alpaca wool from Christopher Sharples' draper's shop in Raven Street (off Church Street).
This time Mary Evans's mother, Catherine, as well as Sabina's parents, were accused of being the receivers.
And finally 13 yards of the fabric known as linsey was taken from draper William Sheldric's shop in Church Street. This time only Catherine Evans was charged with receiving.
They were all committed to the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool, which were held on July 12th.
The two girls were sent to prison for 14 days, followed by 5 years in a reformatory – despite clearly being the puppets of their parents.
The judge in the case said there could be no doubt that the women had sent their children out to steal and had assisted them in the thefts.
Sabina's mother was sent to prison for 8 months and Mary's Mum received a 12-month sentence.
Martin Swift (Sabina's father) was found not guilty and he appears to have been the only one on bail and so I think the two girls would have served a total of six weeks in gaol.
The Liverpool Daily Post wrote: "When sentence was passed on the elder prisoners the children cried bitterly, and one of them fainted. On hearing their own sentences the little creatures uttered piercing shrieks." The St Helens Newspaper added: "They uttered frantic cries, the girl Swift calling loudly on her father".
Next week's stories will include the anti-surplice riots in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the St Helens man who refused to pay his son's keep on a reformatory ship, the pigeon shop in Tontine Street, a midnight stabbing on Bold Street and the man who took indecent liberties.
The Pilkington dispute of 1870 considerably eclipsed the better-known strike of a century later in terms of its duration.
The workers in 1970 were only out for 7 weeks but the dispute that had begun on April 18th 1870 – when Pilks announced plans to slash wages by over 20% – was still continuing in June and would last for many more months.
On the 9th a meeting was held in the White Lion in Church Street to scotch suggestions that the strike committee was coercing workers into remaining on strike.
Speaker after speaker rose to denounce the statements that men were being stopped from resuming work. The St Helens Newspaper wrote:
"The large room was crowded, and in the course of the addresses which were delivered, it was unmistakably evident that the men were unanimous in holding out, and that they repudiated the rumours which had been circulated that they were willing to resume work on the masters' terms if the committee would allow them to do so."
The men believed that they were already paid 15% less than other glassworkers in England, Belgium and France and denounced Pilkingtons for wanting them to receive a further reduction of 20 - 25%.
However it was made clear at the meeting that any worker that wished to resume work at the reduced rates was able to do so.
Unlike their compatriots a century later, the strike committee bent over backwards to be seen as fair-minded throughout the dispute.
On the 9th Thomas Marsh from Sutton appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with bigamy after "feloniously intermarrying with Elizabeth Hill, at Prescot".
The 22-year-old had only gone through the marriage ceremony a few days earlier and his wife living in Ashton-in-Makerfield had found out about it and reported him.
Marsh was committed to the Liverpool Summer Assizes, which took place at Kirkdale on August 17th.
In mitigation at his trial the coal miner said his first wife had a very violent temper and had made his life very unhappy.
Surprisingly the judge accepted this claim and only sentenced Marsh to a day's imprisonment.
This had been built in the 1790s as a joint scheme by the Windle and Eccleston townships to care for their paupers.
The Co-operative Stores in Baldwin Street would later be built on the site but since its closure in the 1840s the building had been used by the Mormons and then as a lodging house.
On the 11th the St Helens Newspaper described how the "unpleasant agitation" in the town over the past few weeks had led to the gas company offering to sell its undertaking to the Corporation.
People had got very worked up over a new bill that the St Helens Gas Company was trying to push through Parliament.
The townsfolk also felt that the price of gas was far too high and a rival firm had been in the process of being set up.
St Helens Town Council would now hold a special meeting to discuss the offer.
This week's word of the week has to be "postprandial", which I've learnt means after dinner.
The St Helens Newspaper used the term in their report on the death of Charles Dickens, who they called:
"The greatest of English novelists, the most successful of modern readers, and the most genial and fascinating of postprandial speakers."
Dickens' skill as a reader has now largely been forgotten. However in an age with much illiteracy, many individuals read sections of novels at events and some developed a great ability to bring their subjects to life.
The experience was enhanced if the author of the work performed the reading. Last year the Liverpool Mercury had written about readings from Dickens in London:
"He last night fully sustained his high reputation not only as a writer but as a personator of some of the most startling characters with which his works abound."
The Newspaper also wrote about the recent Whit Monday holiday. It had not officially been a Bank Holiday but many employers in St Helens had decided to close their businesses.
The weather had been fine and the paper wrote that: "In the morning the streets were astir with parties leaving the town on pleasure excursions."
Liverpool was a popular destination with some attending the laying of the foundation stone of the Stanley Hospital in Stanley Road, Kirkdale (it closed in 1965).
The Newspaper said the Earl of Derby laid the stone "amid great Masonic display".
There was also an "immense number of visitors, including many from this locality" at the newly opened Stanley Park where a "grand fancy fair" was held.
There a miniature yacht race took place with the boats being "fancy models of well-known yatch, and measured from four to six feet in length, and were full rigged."
Yatch was an alternative spelling of yacht, which largely died out after WW2.
The Newspaper added that during Monday and Tuesday evenings the streets of St Helens were thronged with returning pleasure-seekers.
"It is but justice to say that only a few of the sterner sex seemed to have been worshipping too freely at the shrine of the rosy god." Only a small number of men got drunk, in other words!
However no one from St Helens appears to have got hurt, which – according to the Liverpool Courier – could not be taken for granted. They wrote:
"Whitsuntide has been, as usual, prolific in disasters. This year the fatalities have, indeed been more than usually numerous, owing to the greater numbers of people who have indulged in pleasure excursions, the festival being exceptionally late and the weather much more inviting than Whitsuntide pleasure-seekers have been accustomed to enjoy of late years."
However one man from St Helens did get badly injured at Lancaster on the 12th.
The male who refused to give his name had foolishly attempted to board a goods train as it was passing through the station.
He was knocked down and dragged for 200 - 300 yards and was now lying in a dangerous state in Lancaster Infirmary with one of his legs having been amputated.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th two apprentices at Varley's iron foundry in Waterloo Street called Ralph Turner and John Waterworth were fined the large sum of 32s 6d each for absenting themselves from work.
If in default of payment the lads would have to serve a month in prison. This I expect they did as bound apprentices were paid very little until they turned 21.
Also at the Sessions two 13-year-old girls were accused of a number of thefts at the behest of their parents.
Sabina Swift was charged with stealing a cheese weighing 16lb from Sephton and Green's premises in the New Market Place.
Her mother Catherine and father Martin were then charged with receiving the cheese, knowing it to have been stolen.
Another girl called Mary Evans was charged along with Sabina of stealing what was described as "two loaves of sugar" off Isaac Newton.
No, not the gravity man (!), this Isaac also kept a shop in the market and Sabina's Mum and Dad were charged with receiving the sugar.
In addition the girls were charged with stealing 50 yards of alpaca wool from Christopher Sharples' draper's shop in Raven Street (off Church Street).
This time Mary Evans's mother, Catherine, as well as Sabina's parents, were accused of being the receivers.
And finally 13 yards of the fabric known as linsey was taken from draper William Sheldric's shop in Church Street. This time only Catherine Evans was charged with receiving.
They were all committed to the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool, which were held on July 12th.
The two girls were sent to prison for 14 days, followed by 5 years in a reformatory – despite clearly being the puppets of their parents.
The judge in the case said there could be no doubt that the women had sent their children out to steal and had assisted them in the thefts.
Sabina's mother was sent to prison for 8 months and Mary's Mum received a 12-month sentence.
Martin Swift (Sabina's father) was found not guilty and he appears to have been the only one on bail and so I think the two girls would have served a total of six weeks in gaol.
The Liverpool Daily Post wrote: "When sentence was passed on the elder prisoners the children cried bitterly, and one of them fainted. On hearing their own sentences the little creatures uttered piercing shrieks." The St Helens Newspaper added: "They uttered frantic cries, the girl Swift calling loudly on her father".
Next week's stories will include the anti-surplice riots in Ashton-in-Makerfield, the St Helens man who refused to pay his son's keep on a reformatory ship, the pigeon shop in Tontine Street, a midnight stabbing on Bold Street and the man who took indecent liberties.