150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (9th - 15th September 1869)
This week's stories include a violent assault at St Helens Junction on the workhouse doctor, the cruel child beater of Parr who used a leather belt on his wife, a new schoolmistress for Whiston Workhouse, the annual St Helens fair and there's begging in Liverpool Road.
We begin on the 9th when the Prescot Board of Guardians met and was told that there had been 308 paupers in the workhouse at Whiston during the past week, with 124 of them children. There weren't many positives in being in the workhouse but the inmates did receive free medical treatment and during the past fortnight 98 paupers had been treated. It was normal for about a third of the inmates to see the doctor in the workhouse hospital, reinforcing the link between poverty and poor health.
A Guardians committee had recently visited several lunatic asylums in Lancashire. They reported that at Rainhill the lunatics had been assembled for them to inspect and they "found everything wearing a cheerful appearance". A deputation from Manchester Board of Guardians had also been to Haydock Lodge where they talked to twenty lunatic patients from the Manchester area. Some had delirium tremens (DTs) and had told their visitors that they were determined in future to avoid the "abomination of drunkenness". The sufferers were said to be young men, with some holding very respectable positions in life.
There was another welcome downpour on the 11th followed by an overnight storm. This was after a prolonged period of fine weather had led to a drought with some St Helens' works – who needed water for cooling purposes – having to close down for a short time. The rain was good news for industry but bad news for the organisers of the annual September fair, which began on the 11th.
The precise location of the three-day event was not specified, although there was a fairground in Salisbury Street where such events were normally held. Last September there had been a freak show and lots of stalls but this year the number of attractions was greatly reduced. The St Helens Newspaper wrote:
"Whether the recent hard times have created a disastrous and wide-spread bankruptcy amongst the penny-booth fraternity, or driven them to emigrate to pastures new, it is difficult to say." There was, however, a waxwork exhibition "full of outward gentility and inward disappointment" and the usual glut of steam-horses and swing boats.
Recently Miss Tinning, the schoolmistress in Whiston Workhouse, had been forced to quit as she'd failed an examination set by the Poor Law Board. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 11th there was an advertisement for a replacement live-in teacher, who would receive a starting salary of £20, as well as "rations, furnished apartments and washing, in the workhouse".
Although it was important for the pauper girls to have a basic education, it was equally important that they be prepared for work – which meant domestic service. So the duties of the mistress included instructing the girls in "plain needlework and knitting, and to give such other instruction as may fit them for service."
St James Church in Haydock held its annual harvest festival on the 12th without any controversy this year. At last year's event there were claims of ritualistic Papist practices – including the use of a pig's head in a ceremony. This led to letters to the Times and an enormous amount of fuss. Even Punch magazine printed a long, mocking poem in Lancashire dialect, which they said was "Dedicated, Without Permission, to the High Churchmen of Haydock".
At the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 13th John Kelly was charged with begging in Liverpool Road (pictured above in later years). The man's defence was that he had hurt his arm in Buckinghamshire and was unable to work. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "He was ordered to be accommodated with board and lodging for a fortnight in Kirkdale bastille." For most of the 19th century the Liverpool prison was where convicted prisoners from south Lancashire served their time.
Andrew Crilly sounds like an absolutely dreadful character. Last week the man was in court after smashing the windows of the Albion Hotel in Parr Street that his father-in-law ran. The man was now back in front of the Bench charged with assaulting his wife Ann by beating her at their home in Parr. Three weeks earlier he had instructed Ann to go to bed and she duly complied. However their child began crying and Crilly decided that beating the infant was the best means of quietening it.
Crilly's wife remonstrated with her husband for his actions, which enraged him. So he used the buckle end of a leather belt on her, striking Ann on her back, shoulders and arms. A witness called Dick Hogan gave evidence that Mrs Crilly had come into his house on more than one recent occasion asking for protection from her husband. The magistrates fined Crilly £5, or two months' imprisonment, and warned him that if he appeared before them again on a similar charge, he would be sentenced to six months in prison. £5 was a lot of money – perhaps 3 or 4 weeks wages – and Crilly declared that he would go to prison rather than pay the fine.
Joseph Hesketh received an eight-shilling fine for leaving his horse and cart outside a pub in Peasley Cross for 45 minutes. The man's defence was that it had taken him that long to transfer beer barrels from the cart to the pub cellar.
During April and May the saga of Thomas Holmes dominated these articles. He was the Master of Whiston Workhouse who had numerous allegations made against him – including making a pauper woman pregnant. Eventually the Poor Law Board sacked the man but Holmes did not go quietly, blaming everyone else for his downfall.
The chain of events had begun when the head nurse of the workhouse hospital had accused Holmes of tyranny. Then the medical officer, Dr Rayner, submitted his own list of grievances against the man to the Board of Guardians, who managed the institution. Holmes developed a loathing for the doctor and made several threats against him and on September 13th the two men's paths crossed once again.
It was a chance meeting at St Helens Junction station when Dr Rayner was changing trains. Holmes approached the doctor's companion and Dr Rayner offered him his hand. Holmes rejected the gesture saying he would never shake hands with a rogue. The doctor then walked away to enter his carriage and was followed by Holmes who struck him hard in the face. The Wigan Observer wrote:
"The blow covered his face with blood, and caused him to stagger and fall on one knee, and for a short time he seemed completely stunned. After he got up he stood upon the defensive, and some blows were exchanged of lesser consequence, but the parties were separated and Dr. Rayner left for Rainhill." There'll be more on this story in a few weeks' time when Holmes appears in court.
Next week's stories will include St Helens's enormous cucumbers, the donkey stone assault in Eccleston, the 'Grand Display of Fireworks' in Thatto Heath, a distraction theft in the Shakespeare Inn in Bridge Street and two old offenders are back on the streets.
We begin on the 9th when the Prescot Board of Guardians met and was told that there had been 308 paupers in the workhouse at Whiston during the past week, with 124 of them children. There weren't many positives in being in the workhouse but the inmates did receive free medical treatment and during the past fortnight 98 paupers had been treated. It was normal for about a third of the inmates to see the doctor in the workhouse hospital, reinforcing the link between poverty and poor health.
A Guardians committee had recently visited several lunatic asylums in Lancashire. They reported that at Rainhill the lunatics had been assembled for them to inspect and they "found everything wearing a cheerful appearance". A deputation from Manchester Board of Guardians had also been to Haydock Lodge where they talked to twenty lunatic patients from the Manchester area. Some had delirium tremens (DTs) and had told their visitors that they were determined in future to avoid the "abomination of drunkenness". The sufferers were said to be young men, with some holding very respectable positions in life.
There was another welcome downpour on the 11th followed by an overnight storm. This was after a prolonged period of fine weather had led to a drought with some St Helens' works – who needed water for cooling purposes – having to close down for a short time. The rain was good news for industry but bad news for the organisers of the annual September fair, which began on the 11th.
The precise location of the three-day event was not specified, although there was a fairground in Salisbury Street where such events were normally held. Last September there had been a freak show and lots of stalls but this year the number of attractions was greatly reduced. The St Helens Newspaper wrote:
"Whether the recent hard times have created a disastrous and wide-spread bankruptcy amongst the penny-booth fraternity, or driven them to emigrate to pastures new, it is difficult to say." There was, however, a waxwork exhibition "full of outward gentility and inward disappointment" and the usual glut of steam-horses and swing boats.
Recently Miss Tinning, the schoolmistress in Whiston Workhouse, had been forced to quit as she'd failed an examination set by the Poor Law Board. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 11th there was an advertisement for a replacement live-in teacher, who would receive a starting salary of £20, as well as "rations, furnished apartments and washing, in the workhouse".
Although it was important for the pauper girls to have a basic education, it was equally important that they be prepared for work – which meant domestic service. So the duties of the mistress included instructing the girls in "plain needlework and knitting, and to give such other instruction as may fit them for service."
St James Church in Haydock held its annual harvest festival on the 12th without any controversy this year. At last year's event there were claims of ritualistic Papist practices – including the use of a pig's head in a ceremony. This led to letters to the Times and an enormous amount of fuss. Even Punch magazine printed a long, mocking poem in Lancashire dialect, which they said was "Dedicated, Without Permission, to the High Churchmen of Haydock".
Andrew Crilly sounds like an absolutely dreadful character. Last week the man was in court after smashing the windows of the Albion Hotel in Parr Street that his father-in-law ran. The man was now back in front of the Bench charged with assaulting his wife Ann by beating her at their home in Parr. Three weeks earlier he had instructed Ann to go to bed and she duly complied. However their child began crying and Crilly decided that beating the infant was the best means of quietening it.
Crilly's wife remonstrated with her husband for his actions, which enraged him. So he used the buckle end of a leather belt on her, striking Ann on her back, shoulders and arms. A witness called Dick Hogan gave evidence that Mrs Crilly had come into his house on more than one recent occasion asking for protection from her husband. The magistrates fined Crilly £5, or two months' imprisonment, and warned him that if he appeared before them again on a similar charge, he would be sentenced to six months in prison. £5 was a lot of money – perhaps 3 or 4 weeks wages – and Crilly declared that he would go to prison rather than pay the fine.
Joseph Hesketh received an eight-shilling fine for leaving his horse and cart outside a pub in Peasley Cross for 45 minutes. The man's defence was that it had taken him that long to transfer beer barrels from the cart to the pub cellar.
During April and May the saga of Thomas Holmes dominated these articles. He was the Master of Whiston Workhouse who had numerous allegations made against him – including making a pauper woman pregnant. Eventually the Poor Law Board sacked the man but Holmes did not go quietly, blaming everyone else for his downfall.
The chain of events had begun when the head nurse of the workhouse hospital had accused Holmes of tyranny. Then the medical officer, Dr Rayner, submitted his own list of grievances against the man to the Board of Guardians, who managed the institution. Holmes developed a loathing for the doctor and made several threats against him and on September 13th the two men's paths crossed once again.
It was a chance meeting at St Helens Junction station when Dr Rayner was changing trains. Holmes approached the doctor's companion and Dr Rayner offered him his hand. Holmes rejected the gesture saying he would never shake hands with a rogue. The doctor then walked away to enter his carriage and was followed by Holmes who struck him hard in the face. The Wigan Observer wrote:
"The blow covered his face with blood, and caused him to stagger and fall on one knee, and for a short time he seemed completely stunned. After he got up he stood upon the defensive, and some blows were exchanged of lesser consequence, but the parties were separated and Dr. Rayner left for Rainhill." There'll be more on this story in a few weeks' time when Holmes appears in court.
Next week's stories will include St Helens's enormous cucumbers, the donkey stone assault in Eccleston, the 'Grand Display of Fireworks' in Thatto Heath, a distraction theft in the Shakespeare Inn in Bridge Street and two old offenders are back on the streets.