150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (11 - 17 SEPTEMBER 1873)
This week's many stories include the Rainhill Asylum attendant accused of assaulting a patient, the pipe-smoking Parr woman who was attacked in her home, the scarcity of magistrates in St Helens, the Worcester source manufactured in Rainford and the Sutton Alkali Works' day trip to Blackpool.
The Sherlock Brothers described themselves as druggists and they'd taken over the business from their father, Thomas, after his death and moved their premises to New Market Place. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 13th the brothers were advertising that they were the sole agents in St Helens for Australian Beef Marrow, which they wrote had been: "Clarified and deliciously perfumed – A new and effective dressing for the hair! Equal in every respect to the most expensive pomades." The Aussie beef marrow was sold in St Helens at 1s 6d per pound.
And A. R. Lee was advertising Worcester Sauce, which "delicious article" – he said in the Newspaper – he was manufacturing at Rainford Junction for "home use and exportation". "No kitchen, from the mansion to the cottage, should be without it." Lee's sauce was sold for 6d and 1 shilling a bottle and he was using this poetry in his ads:
"Should misfortunes o’er assail you, And you find your appetite lost, A bottle that ne’er will fail you, Is one of Lee's Worcestershire Sauce."
In 1876 the makers of the original Worcestershire sauce failed in an attempt to trademark their product meaning anyone could continue to make it. The originators were Lea & Perrins. The name was not a million miles away from A. R. Lee and Co of Rainford, and possibly Alfred Robert Lee played on that similarity. Lee had been the landlord of the Junction Hotel – and perhaps still was.
The St Helens Newspaper was back on its hobbyhorse this week over the inconveniences caused by no-show magistrates. The paper described how on the previous Monday – the busiest court day of the week – a "great portion of the business" in St Helens Petty Sessions had to be adjourned for seven days due to the absence of magistrates. The real problem was that the existing JPs were busy businessmen who would, at times, place their company work before their magisterial responsibilities.
What surprises me is the level of disorganisation within the system, with the magistrates never seemingly bothering to inform court officials that they'd be arriving late – or not showing up at all. Telephones would have helped – but those were still three years away from being invented. But in its absence messenger boys filled the gap but they do not appear to have been used by magistrates to communicate with the court. That lack of manners and disorganisation led to hours and hours of defendants, solicitors, officials, reporters and members of the public wasting their time waiting for magistrates to show up.
The Newspaper complained how the time lost was "very great" and felt the solution was to create more JPs, adding: "The public convenience and easy means of obtaining justice are considerations which ought not to be made subservient to the whims and prejudices of county magistrates."
The Newspaper also described how Andrew Kurtz, the owner of Sutton Alkali Works (pictured above), had taken a large party of his workmen and their wives on a day out. Many of the large works in St Helens organised an annual excursion for their workforce but Kurtz was unusual in also giving his men a day's pay. By today's standards a free day out with pay for those engaged in the horrible chemical industry (but no other paid holidays during the rest of the year) was not much of a treat.
But what Kurtz did for his workforce was considered an amazing bit of benevolence back then. The Newspaper commented that he had "added another link to the chain of affection which binds him and them together". That's probably a bit of an exaggeration but benevolent bosses were not common. In previous years the Kurtz party had travelled to Windermere but the 1873 day trip had journeyed to Blackpool.
The Liverpool Mercury in its account described how the "monstre pleasure party" had been more than 800 strong. The Mercury's report concluded by saying the group had returned at 7pm, adding that they "arrived home without the slightest accident", something that could not be guaranteed on the Victorian railways! However, there had been no Blackpool tower for the party to gawp at. That wasn't built until 1891.
Henry Doulton began his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he had begun manufacturing wares in bulk, Doulton searched for a suitable works to supply towns in the north. The course clays of St Helens proved just the job and Greenbank Pottery by the St Helens Canal was acquired. This week a fire took place in a works' building that stored straw and chimney pots and it took the town's fire brigade an hour to put it out. As was often the case there was no clue as to the cause of the blaze, which resulted in the roof of the building being entirely destroyed.
It must have been tough teaching the pauper children at Whiston Workhouse. At any one time a single master taught 100 to 150 boys and one mistress looked after a similar number of girls. Teacher turnover was unsurprisingly high and the Newspaper featured an advert for a new live-in master. A starting salary of £40 per year was offered, as well as "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse". However, you could earn an extra £4 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
I don't know how many women smoked pipes in the 1870s – but Hannah Benson from Parr certainly did. She told St Helens Petty Sessions this week that she had been sat at home puffing away on her pipe when Ellen Bowe had marched into her house and violently assaulted her. Most people then kept their front doors open and so anyone could enter. Mrs Bowe also helped herself to a couple of items of Mrs Benson's property but didn't keep them for long – as the Newspaper explained:
"She carried away two earthen mugs and when outside returned them through the glass of the window. She also threw a stone 10½ lbs weight, at complainant, in a view of killing her, no doubt; but the missile was misdirected and merely dented the floor." Mrs Bowe who failed to show up to the hearing was in her absence given a fine of 2s. 6d. and costs. Recently the woman had been in court charged with throwing stones at another Parr neighbour’s house. The Newspaper then wrote: "Not content with that, and in reckless defiance of the present high prices, she also threw half a dozen of eggs"!
The members of the volunteer part-time soldiers in St Helens had to agree to all sorts of rules when they joined up. Those included paying subscriptions and attending a set number of drills. Failure to comply would lead to a prosecution. This week Corporal Burns of the 2nd Lancashire Engineer Volunteers prosecuted several members of his corps for being in arrears in their subscriptions. Court orders were subsequently issued for the defaulters, and if the men still failed to pay up, they would be hauled back into court and ultimately could be sent to prison.
Frederick Bellamy had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions in May accusing of assaulting an inmate at Rainhill Lunatic Asylum (pictured above). However, the case had been brought against the hospital attendant under the wrong section of an Act and so the charge was dismissed. But the case would, it was stated, be brought to court again at a future date. That happened on the 15th of this week when Bellamy was charged with cruelty to an inmate named John Carroll.
The Wigan Observer reported that another lunatic named James McDonough gave evidence, adding: "He seemed perfectly sane, and not much more excitable than the general run of witnesses." McDonough accused Bellamy of being the "greatest rascal on the face of the earth" and explained how John Carroll had simply been restive. That led to Bellamy twice knocking him down and while on the ground he had knelt upon Carroll, jumped upon him and "violently abused him".
McDonough added that the former attendant – who had now been sacked – had often been brutal to inmates. "He is a great rascal and the cruellest man in the place and ought to be sentenced to transportation", he added. Dr Rogers, the medical superintendent in charge of the asylum, told the court he had seen the cuts and bruises on Carroll and refused to accept Bellamy's explanation of how they had occurred. The former attendant's version was that the witness McDonough had struck the blows. The Bench did not order Bellamy to be transported to Australia. That punishment had ended twenty years before and he was instead fined £2 and costs.
Also in court was William Derby who was charged with running a lottery on his stall at the recent St Helens Fair, which was held twice a year on land off Salisbury Street. A game of chance was, I think, a more accurate term for the offence. It had something to do with punters stopping what was called a finger by pulling at a cloth. Presumably there were prizes on offer if the finger stopped at a winning place.
One would have thought that it was a trivial offence even by 1870s standards but the stallholder was sent to prison for 14 days. Compare that to the fine Frederick Bellamy received for his violent assault at Rainhill. Another tough sentence was meted out to Sarah Mather. She was sent to prison for a month at the Petty Sessions for stealing her father's boots.
And finally, David Willey died on the 16th from the injuries that he had received at St Helens railway's goods station when a heavy crate of glass had struck him after falling from a crane. The Liverpool Mercury said: "His head was fearfully injured, and he was otherwise crushed and bruised".
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brainless fraud at Peasley Cross Colliery, the maintenance of a boy thief on a reformatory ship, the annual flower show in Thatto Heath and the boys in Whiston Workhouse that refused to work.
The Sherlock Brothers described themselves as druggists and they'd taken over the business from their father, Thomas, after his death and moved their premises to New Market Place. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 13th the brothers were advertising that they were the sole agents in St Helens for Australian Beef Marrow, which they wrote had been: "Clarified and deliciously perfumed – A new and effective dressing for the hair! Equal in every respect to the most expensive pomades." The Aussie beef marrow was sold in St Helens at 1s 6d per pound.
And A. R. Lee was advertising Worcester Sauce, which "delicious article" – he said in the Newspaper – he was manufacturing at Rainford Junction for "home use and exportation". "No kitchen, from the mansion to the cottage, should be without it." Lee's sauce was sold for 6d and 1 shilling a bottle and he was using this poetry in his ads:
"Should misfortunes o’er assail you, And you find your appetite lost, A bottle that ne’er will fail you, Is one of Lee's Worcestershire Sauce."
In 1876 the makers of the original Worcestershire sauce failed in an attempt to trademark their product meaning anyone could continue to make it. The originators were Lea & Perrins. The name was not a million miles away from A. R. Lee and Co of Rainford, and possibly Alfred Robert Lee played on that similarity. Lee had been the landlord of the Junction Hotel – and perhaps still was.
The St Helens Newspaper was back on its hobbyhorse this week over the inconveniences caused by no-show magistrates. The paper described how on the previous Monday – the busiest court day of the week – a "great portion of the business" in St Helens Petty Sessions had to be adjourned for seven days due to the absence of magistrates. The real problem was that the existing JPs were busy businessmen who would, at times, place their company work before their magisterial responsibilities.
What surprises me is the level of disorganisation within the system, with the magistrates never seemingly bothering to inform court officials that they'd be arriving late – or not showing up at all. Telephones would have helped – but those were still three years away from being invented. But in its absence messenger boys filled the gap but they do not appear to have been used by magistrates to communicate with the court. That lack of manners and disorganisation led to hours and hours of defendants, solicitors, officials, reporters and members of the public wasting their time waiting for magistrates to show up.
The Newspaper complained how the time lost was "very great" and felt the solution was to create more JPs, adding: "The public convenience and easy means of obtaining justice are considerations which ought not to be made subservient to the whims and prejudices of county magistrates."
But what Kurtz did for his workforce was considered an amazing bit of benevolence back then. The Newspaper commented that he had "added another link to the chain of affection which binds him and them together". That's probably a bit of an exaggeration but benevolent bosses were not common. In previous years the Kurtz party had travelled to Windermere but the 1873 day trip had journeyed to Blackpool.
The Liverpool Mercury in its account described how the "monstre pleasure party" had been more than 800 strong. The Mercury's report concluded by saying the group had returned at 7pm, adding that they "arrived home without the slightest accident", something that could not be guaranteed on the Victorian railways! However, there had been no Blackpool tower for the party to gawp at. That wasn't built until 1891.
Henry Doulton began his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he had begun manufacturing wares in bulk, Doulton searched for a suitable works to supply towns in the north. The course clays of St Helens proved just the job and Greenbank Pottery by the St Helens Canal was acquired. This week a fire took place in a works' building that stored straw and chimney pots and it took the town's fire brigade an hour to put it out. As was often the case there was no clue as to the cause of the blaze, which resulted in the roof of the building being entirely destroyed.
It must have been tough teaching the pauper children at Whiston Workhouse. At any one time a single master taught 100 to 150 boys and one mistress looked after a similar number of girls. Teacher turnover was unsurprisingly high and the Newspaper featured an advert for a new live-in master. A starting salary of £40 per year was offered, as well as "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse". However, you could earn an extra £4 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
I don't know how many women smoked pipes in the 1870s – but Hannah Benson from Parr certainly did. She told St Helens Petty Sessions this week that she had been sat at home puffing away on her pipe when Ellen Bowe had marched into her house and violently assaulted her. Most people then kept their front doors open and so anyone could enter. Mrs Bowe also helped herself to a couple of items of Mrs Benson's property but didn't keep them for long – as the Newspaper explained:
"She carried away two earthen mugs and when outside returned them through the glass of the window. She also threw a stone 10½ lbs weight, at complainant, in a view of killing her, no doubt; but the missile was misdirected and merely dented the floor." Mrs Bowe who failed to show up to the hearing was in her absence given a fine of 2s. 6d. and costs. Recently the woman had been in court charged with throwing stones at another Parr neighbour’s house. The Newspaper then wrote: "Not content with that, and in reckless defiance of the present high prices, she also threw half a dozen of eggs"!
The members of the volunteer part-time soldiers in St Helens had to agree to all sorts of rules when they joined up. Those included paying subscriptions and attending a set number of drills. Failure to comply would lead to a prosecution. This week Corporal Burns of the 2nd Lancashire Engineer Volunteers prosecuted several members of his corps for being in arrears in their subscriptions. Court orders were subsequently issued for the defaulters, and if the men still failed to pay up, they would be hauled back into court and ultimately could be sent to prison.
The Wigan Observer reported that another lunatic named James McDonough gave evidence, adding: "He seemed perfectly sane, and not much more excitable than the general run of witnesses." McDonough accused Bellamy of being the "greatest rascal on the face of the earth" and explained how John Carroll had simply been restive. That led to Bellamy twice knocking him down and while on the ground he had knelt upon Carroll, jumped upon him and "violently abused him".
McDonough added that the former attendant – who had now been sacked – had often been brutal to inmates. "He is a great rascal and the cruellest man in the place and ought to be sentenced to transportation", he added. Dr Rogers, the medical superintendent in charge of the asylum, told the court he had seen the cuts and bruises on Carroll and refused to accept Bellamy's explanation of how they had occurred. The former attendant's version was that the witness McDonough had struck the blows. The Bench did not order Bellamy to be transported to Australia. That punishment had ended twenty years before and he was instead fined £2 and costs.
Also in court was William Derby who was charged with running a lottery on his stall at the recent St Helens Fair, which was held twice a year on land off Salisbury Street. A game of chance was, I think, a more accurate term for the offence. It had something to do with punters stopping what was called a finger by pulling at a cloth. Presumably there were prizes on offer if the finger stopped at a winning place.
One would have thought that it was a trivial offence even by 1870s standards but the stallholder was sent to prison for 14 days. Compare that to the fine Frederick Bellamy received for his violent assault at Rainhill. Another tough sentence was meted out to Sarah Mather. She was sent to prison for a month at the Petty Sessions for stealing her father's boots.
And finally, David Willey died on the 16th from the injuries that he had received at St Helens railway's goods station when a heavy crate of glass had struck him after falling from a crane. The Liverpool Mercury said: "His head was fearfully injured, and he was otherwise crushed and bruised".
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brainless fraud at Peasley Cross Colliery, the maintenance of a boy thief on a reformatory ship, the annual flower show in Thatto Heath and the boys in Whiston Workhouse that refused to work.
This week's many stories include the Rainhill Asylum attendant accused of assaulting a patient, the pipe-smoking Parr woman who was attacked in her home, the scarcity of magistrates in St Helens, the Worcester source manufactured in Rainford and the Sutton Alkali Works' day trip to Blackpool.
The Sherlock Brothers described themselves as druggists and they'd taken over the business from their father, Thomas, after his death and moved their premises to New Market Place.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 13th the brothers were advertising that they were the sole agents in the town for Australian Beef Marrow, which they wrote had been:
"Clarified and deliciously perfumed – A new and effective dressing for the hair! Equal in every respect to the most expensive pomades." The Aussie beef marrow was sold in St Helens at 1s 6d per pound.
And A. R. Lee was advertising Worcester Sauce, which "delicious article" – he said in the Newspaper – he was manufacturing at Rainford Junction for "home use and exportation".
"No kitchen, from the mansion to the cottage, should be without it." Lee's sauce was sold for 6d and 1 shilling a bottle and he was using this poetry in his ads:
"Should misfortunes o’er assail you,
"And you find your appetite lost,
"A bottle that ne’er will fail you
"Is one of Lee's Worcestershire Sauce."
In 1876 the makers of the original Worcestershire sauce failed in an attempt to trademark their product meaning anyone could continue to make it.
The originators were Lea & Perrins. The name was not a million miles away from A. R. Lee and Co of Rainford, and possibly Alfred Robert Lee played on that similarity.
Lee had been the landlord of the Junction Hotel – and perhaps still was.
The St Helens Newspaper was back on its hobbyhorse this week over the inconveniences caused by no-show magistrates.
The paper described how on the previous Monday – the busiest court day of the week – a "great portion of the business" in St Helens Petty Sessions had to be adjourned for seven days due to the absence of magistrates.
The real problem was that the existing JPs were busy businessmen who would, at times, place their company work before their magisterial responsibilities.
What surprises me is the level of disorganisation within the system, with the magistrates never seemingly bothering to inform court officials that they'd be arriving late – or not showing up at all.
Telephones would have helped – but those were still three years away from being invented.
But in its absence messenger boys filled the gap but they do not appear to have been used by magistrates to communicate with the court.
That lack of manners and disorganisation led to hours and hours of defendants, solicitors, officials, reporters and members of the public wasting their time waiting for magistrates to show up.
The Newspaper complained how the time lost was "very great" and felt the solution was to create more JPs, adding:
"The public convenience and easy means of obtaining justice are considerations which ought not to be made subservient to the whims and prejudices of county magistrates."
The Newspaper also described how Andrew Kurtz, the owner of Sutton Alkali Works (pictured above), had taken a large party of his workmen and their wives on a day out.
Many of the large works in St Helens organised an annual excursion for their workforce but Kurtz was unusual in also giving his men a day's pay.
By today's standards a free day out with pay for those engaged in the horrible chemical industry (but no other paid holidays during the rest of the year) was not much of a treat.
But what Kurtz did for his workforce was considered an amazing bit of benevolence back then.
The Newspaper commented that he had "added another link to the chain of affection which binds him and them together".
That's probably a bit of an exaggeration but benevolent bosses were not common.
In previous years the Kurtz party had travelled to Windermere but the 1873 day trip had journeyed to Blackpool.
The Liverpool Mercury in its account described how the "monstre pleasure party" had been more than 800 strong.
The Mercury's report concluded by saying the group had returned at 7pm, adding that they "arrived home without the slightest accident", something that could not be guaranteed on the Victorian railways!
However, there had been no Blackpool tower for the party to gawp at. That wasn't built until 1891.
Henry Doulton began his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he had begun manufacturing wares in bulk, Doulton searched for a suitable works to supply towns in the north.
The course clays of St Helens proved just the job and Greenbank Pottery by the St Helens Canal was acquired.
This week a fire took place in a works' building that stored straw and chimney pots and it took the town's fire brigade an hour to put it out.
As was often the case there was no clue as to the cause of the blaze, which resulted in the roof of the building being entirely destroyed.
It must have been tough teaching the pauper children at Whiston Workhouse. At any one time a single master taught 100 to 150 boys and one mistress looked after a similar number of girls.
Teacher turnover was unsurprisingly high and the Newspaper featured an advert for a new live-in master.
A starting salary of £40 per year was offered, as well as "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse".
However, you could earn an extra £4 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
I don't know how many women smoked pipes in the 1870s – but Hannah Benson from Parr certainly did.
She told St Helens Petty Sessions this week that she had been sat at home puffing away on her pipe when Ellen Bowe had marched into her house and violently assaulted her.
Most people then kept their front doors open and so anyone could enter.
Mrs Bowe also helped herself to a couple of items of Mrs Benson's property but didn't keep them for long – as the Newspaper explained:
"She carried away two earthen mugs and when outside returned them through the glass of the window. She also threw a stone 10½ lbs weight, at complainant, in a view of killing her, no doubt; but the missile was misdirected and merely dented the floor."
Mrs Bowe who failed to show up to the hearing was in her absence given a fine of 2s. 6d. and costs. Recently the woman had been in court charged with throwing stones at another Parr neighbour’s house.
The Newspaper then wrote: "Not content with that, and in reckless defiance of the present high prices, she also threw half a dozen of eggs"!
The members of the volunteer part-time soldiers in St Helens had to agree to all sorts of rules when they joined up.
Those included paying subscriptions and attending a set number of drills. Failure to comply would lead to a prosecution.
This week Corporal Burns of the 2nd Lancashire Engineer Volunteers prosecuted several members of his corps for being in arrears in their subscriptions.
Court orders were subsequently issued for the defaulters, and if the men still failed to pay up, they would be hauled back into court and ultimately could be sent to prison.
Frederick Bellamy had appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions in May accusing of assaulting an inmate at Rainhill Lunatic Asylum (shown above).
However, the case had been brought against the hospital attendant under the wrong section of an Act and so the charge was dismissed. But the case would, it was stated, be brought to court again at a future date.
That happened on the 15th of this week when Bellamy was charged with cruelty to an inmate named John Carroll.
The Wigan Observer reported that another lunatic named James McDonough gave evidence, adding: "He seemed perfectly sane, and not much more excitable than the general run of witnesses."
McDonough accused Bellamy of being the "greatest rascal on the face of the earth" and explained how John Carroll had simply been restive.
That led to Bellamy twice knocking him down and while on the ground he had knelt upon Carroll, jumped upon him and "violently abused him".
McDonough added that the former attendant – who had now been sacked – had often been brutal to inmates.
"He is a great rascal and the cruellest man in the place and ought to be sentenced to transportation", he added.
Dr Rogers, the medical superintendent in charge of the asylum, told the court he had seen the cuts and bruises on Carroll and refused to accept Bellamy's explanation of how they had occurred.
The former attendant's version was that the witness McDonough had struck the blows.
The Bench did not order Bellamy to be transported to Australia. That punishment had ended twenty years before and he was instead fined £2 and costs.
Also in court was William Derby who was charged with running a lottery on his stall at the recent St Helens Fair, which was held twice a year on land off Salisbury Street.
A game of chance was, I think, a more accurate term for the offence. It had something to do with punters stopping what was called a finger by pulling at a cloth. Presumably there were prizes on offer if the finger stopped at a winning place.
One would have thought that it was a trivial offence even by 1870s standards but the stallholder was sent to prison for 14 days. Compare that to the fine Frederick Bellamy received for his violent assault at Rainhill.
Another tough sentence was meted out to Sarah Mather. She was sent to prison for a month at the Petty Sessions for stealing her father's boots.
And finally, David Willey died on the 16th from the injuries that he had received at St Helens railway's goods station when a heavy crate of glass had struck him after falling from a crane.
The Liverpool Mercury said: "His head was fearfully injured, and he was otherwise crushed and bruised".
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brainless fraud at Peasley Cross Colliery, the maintenance of a boy thief on a reformatory ship, the annual flower show in Thatto Heath and the boys in Whiston Workhouse that refused to work.
The Sherlock Brothers described themselves as druggists and they'd taken over the business from their father, Thomas, after his death and moved their premises to New Market Place.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 13th the brothers were advertising that they were the sole agents in the town for Australian Beef Marrow, which they wrote had been:
"Clarified and deliciously perfumed – A new and effective dressing for the hair! Equal in every respect to the most expensive pomades." The Aussie beef marrow was sold in St Helens at 1s 6d per pound.
And A. R. Lee was advertising Worcester Sauce, which "delicious article" – he said in the Newspaper – he was manufacturing at Rainford Junction for "home use and exportation".
"No kitchen, from the mansion to the cottage, should be without it." Lee's sauce was sold for 6d and 1 shilling a bottle and he was using this poetry in his ads:
"Should misfortunes o’er assail you,
"And you find your appetite lost,
"A bottle that ne’er will fail you
"Is one of Lee's Worcestershire Sauce."
In 1876 the makers of the original Worcestershire sauce failed in an attempt to trademark their product meaning anyone could continue to make it.
The originators were Lea & Perrins. The name was not a million miles away from A. R. Lee and Co of Rainford, and possibly Alfred Robert Lee played on that similarity.
Lee had been the landlord of the Junction Hotel – and perhaps still was.
The St Helens Newspaper was back on its hobbyhorse this week over the inconveniences caused by no-show magistrates.
The paper described how on the previous Monday – the busiest court day of the week – a "great portion of the business" in St Helens Petty Sessions had to be adjourned for seven days due to the absence of magistrates.
The real problem was that the existing JPs were busy businessmen who would, at times, place their company work before their magisterial responsibilities.
What surprises me is the level of disorganisation within the system, with the magistrates never seemingly bothering to inform court officials that they'd be arriving late – or not showing up at all.
Telephones would have helped – but those were still three years away from being invented.
But in its absence messenger boys filled the gap but they do not appear to have been used by magistrates to communicate with the court.
That lack of manners and disorganisation led to hours and hours of defendants, solicitors, officials, reporters and members of the public wasting their time waiting for magistrates to show up.
The Newspaper complained how the time lost was "very great" and felt the solution was to create more JPs, adding:
"The public convenience and easy means of obtaining justice are considerations which ought not to be made subservient to the whims and prejudices of county magistrates."
Many of the large works in St Helens organised an annual excursion for their workforce but Kurtz was unusual in also giving his men a day's pay.
By today's standards a free day out with pay for those engaged in the horrible chemical industry (but no other paid holidays during the rest of the year) was not much of a treat.
But what Kurtz did for his workforce was considered an amazing bit of benevolence back then.
The Newspaper commented that he had "added another link to the chain of affection which binds him and them together".
That's probably a bit of an exaggeration but benevolent bosses were not common.
In previous years the Kurtz party had travelled to Windermere but the 1873 day trip had journeyed to Blackpool.
The Liverpool Mercury in its account described how the "monstre pleasure party" had been more than 800 strong.
The Mercury's report concluded by saying the group had returned at 7pm, adding that they "arrived home without the slightest accident", something that could not be guaranteed on the Victorian railways!
However, there had been no Blackpool tower for the party to gawp at. That wasn't built until 1891.
Henry Doulton began his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he had begun manufacturing wares in bulk, Doulton searched for a suitable works to supply towns in the north.
The course clays of St Helens proved just the job and Greenbank Pottery by the St Helens Canal was acquired.
This week a fire took place in a works' building that stored straw and chimney pots and it took the town's fire brigade an hour to put it out.
As was often the case there was no clue as to the cause of the blaze, which resulted in the roof of the building being entirely destroyed.
It must have been tough teaching the pauper children at Whiston Workhouse. At any one time a single master taught 100 to 150 boys and one mistress looked after a similar number of girls.
Teacher turnover was unsurprisingly high and the Newspaper featured an advert for a new live-in master.
A starting salary of £40 per year was offered, as well as "apartments, washing, and rations in the Workhouse".
However, you could earn an extra £4 per year if you played the harmonium at "Divine Service".
I don't know how many women smoked pipes in the 1870s – but Hannah Benson from Parr certainly did.
She told St Helens Petty Sessions this week that she had been sat at home puffing away on her pipe when Ellen Bowe had marched into her house and violently assaulted her.
Most people then kept their front doors open and so anyone could enter.
Mrs Bowe also helped herself to a couple of items of Mrs Benson's property but didn't keep them for long – as the Newspaper explained:
"She carried away two earthen mugs and when outside returned them through the glass of the window. She also threw a stone 10½ lbs weight, at complainant, in a view of killing her, no doubt; but the missile was misdirected and merely dented the floor."
Mrs Bowe who failed to show up to the hearing was in her absence given a fine of 2s. 6d. and costs. Recently the woman had been in court charged with throwing stones at another Parr neighbour’s house.
The Newspaper then wrote: "Not content with that, and in reckless defiance of the present high prices, she also threw half a dozen of eggs"!
The members of the volunteer part-time soldiers in St Helens had to agree to all sorts of rules when they joined up.
Those included paying subscriptions and attending a set number of drills. Failure to comply would lead to a prosecution.
This week Corporal Burns of the 2nd Lancashire Engineer Volunteers prosecuted several members of his corps for being in arrears in their subscriptions.
Court orders were subsequently issued for the defaulters, and if the men still failed to pay up, they would be hauled back into court and ultimately could be sent to prison.
However, the case had been brought against the hospital attendant under the wrong section of an Act and so the charge was dismissed. But the case would, it was stated, be brought to court again at a future date.
That happened on the 15th of this week when Bellamy was charged with cruelty to an inmate named John Carroll.
The Wigan Observer reported that another lunatic named James McDonough gave evidence, adding: "He seemed perfectly sane, and not much more excitable than the general run of witnesses."
McDonough accused Bellamy of being the "greatest rascal on the face of the earth" and explained how John Carroll had simply been restive.
That led to Bellamy twice knocking him down and while on the ground he had knelt upon Carroll, jumped upon him and "violently abused him".
McDonough added that the former attendant – who had now been sacked – had often been brutal to inmates.
"He is a great rascal and the cruellest man in the place and ought to be sentenced to transportation", he added.
Dr Rogers, the medical superintendent in charge of the asylum, told the court he had seen the cuts and bruises on Carroll and refused to accept Bellamy's explanation of how they had occurred.
The former attendant's version was that the witness McDonough had struck the blows.
The Bench did not order Bellamy to be transported to Australia. That punishment had ended twenty years before and he was instead fined £2 and costs.
Also in court was William Derby who was charged with running a lottery on his stall at the recent St Helens Fair, which was held twice a year on land off Salisbury Street.
A game of chance was, I think, a more accurate term for the offence. It had something to do with punters stopping what was called a finger by pulling at a cloth. Presumably there were prizes on offer if the finger stopped at a winning place.
One would have thought that it was a trivial offence even by 1870s standards but the stallholder was sent to prison for 14 days. Compare that to the fine Frederick Bellamy received for his violent assault at Rainhill.
Another tough sentence was meted out to Sarah Mather. She was sent to prison for a month at the Petty Sessions for stealing her father's boots.
And finally, David Willey died on the 16th from the injuries that he had received at St Helens railway's goods station when a heavy crate of glass had struck him after falling from a crane.
The Liverpool Mercury said: "His head was fearfully injured, and he was otherwise crushed and bruised".
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the brainless fraud at Peasley Cross Colliery, the maintenance of a boy thief on a reformatory ship, the annual flower show in Thatto Heath and the boys in Whiston Workhouse that refused to work.