150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th August 1869)
This week's stories include a Raglan Street man's violence against his wife, a Parr girl's ingratitude to a Good Samaritan, The Times' critical report on the Haydock mining disaster, the lads who broke school windows, more wearing apparel thefts and the little boys in Parr who climbed onto the roof of a house to catch pigeons.
We begin on the 12th when The Times published a long leader article on the conclusions of the inquest into the recent Haydock mining disaster. In a heavily critical piece they wrote: "There could be nothing less “accidental” than the catastrophe by which 60 men lost their lives three weeks ago. The way was prepared for it by the systematic neglect of precautions well known to be essential to safety. The worst part of the matter is that neither experience nor remonstrance, nor, we might add, remorse, appears to lead to practical improvement."
They weren’t just thinking of how the Queen Pit at Haydock had suffered two almost identical explosions in just seven months but also how the annual death toll from coal mining was on the rise. A decade earlier 900 men and boys were dying each year but the annual figure was now over 1,000 and The Times demanded new laws to improve safety.
Despite a trade depression St Helens was still an expanding town and shopkeepers were regularly opening new stores or relocating to a better location. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 14th Joseph Edmundson wrote that he:
"…begs to inform the inhabitants of St. Helens and vicinity and the public generally, that he purposes [sic] opening the premises No. 2, Liverpool Road, on Saturday, Aug. 21, 1869, with a choice selection of Cigars, Tobacco, Fancy Tobacco and Snuffs, Tobacco Pipes, Pouches, Cigar Cases, etc, in great variety.
"J. E. begs to remind the public that at his establishment none but a genuine article will be supplied, and he hopes by keeping a good article, strict attention to business, and civility, to merit a share of public patronage." I wonder what the difference was between ordinary tobacco and fancy tobacco?
Also in Liverpool Road George Seddon – who described himself as a "tailor, draper, hatter" – had the slogan: "To meet the times. Cheap, durable, and good fit" and wrote in his ad that he had on hand: "…West of England and Yorkshire Cloths, Plain and Fancy Doeskins, Pilots, Beavers, and Whitneys, Scotch Tweeds, &c. Mourning on the shortest notice."
Another posh dinner for the well-heeled took place during the evening of the 14th, which the St Helens Newspaper wrote had been of the "most substantial description". This time it was the Earl Grey lodge of the Independent Order of Oddfellows of St Helens who feasted at the Griffin Inn in Peasley Cross (pictured above).
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th Thomas Logan was charged with begging on the streets, having been arrested with a card around his neck saying he was blind. Logan could easily have been sent to prison but told the Bench that he was on his way to Bolton and promised never to offend again. The magistrates decided to let him off and Logan was guided out of the court by two police officers.
John McNally was charged with assaulting his wife at their home – which appeared to be in Raglan Street. The woman told the court that while they were in bed her husband had asked her to send for some ale, which she did. However when the beer arrived, McNally put his wife out of the house. She said she managed to get back in and her husband then made a violent attack upon her, knocking her down and throwing a large cup at her face, causing it to be cut severely.
Mrs McNally then described – as the St Helens Newspaper put it – "a whole week's bickering with her husband". This clearly involved more violence as the Chairman of the Bench asked her which was the assault that she was complaining about in her summons. The man offered no defence and was bound over for three months.
A girl from Parr called Jane O’Neill appeared in court charged with the serious offence of stealing "wearing apparel" – the punishment for which was invariably prison (unlike beating your wife up!). Mary Boland from Morgans Row in Parr told the court that Jane had come to her home saying her parents had thrown her out of their house.
After some persuasion she agreed to let her stay for the night. That was something Mary came to regret as the girl showed her gratitude by rising early next morning and decamping with £2 worth of her clothes. People rarely went far after such thefts and Jane was soon found with a skirt still in her possession and a dress that she had pawned was reclaimed. Two weeks prison was her punishment followed by five years in a reformatory. No age was stated in the report but I think the girl was 13 or 14.
George Smith was also in court for stealing clothes – this time a vest and a pair of trousers. He was accused of taking them from the room of a fellow lodger in a Bridge Street beerhouse and then pawning them in Liverpool. However Smith had an unusual, if bizarre, defence. He claimed that a fellow had come to him in the middle of the night and persuaded him to put on the clothes and pawn them. The magistrates decided to commit the man for trial at the next Quarter Sessions in Liverpool.
Three boys aged nine to eleven called Thomas Waterworth, George Rimmer and William Fildes, were charged with breaking the windows of the Victoria Schools, one of several Roman Catholic schools in the town. Schoolmaster Daniel Downey said that for the past twelve months stones had regularly been thrown at the windows and into the playground. Twenty panes had been broken and the teacher said he had personally seen the boy Waterworth throw a stone.
Two of his pupils gave evidence that they had witnessed Waterworth break a window but there was a lack of evidence against the other two boys and so they were discharged. However the parents of Thomas Waterworth were ordered to pay a 13-shilling fine or else their young son would be sent to prison for two weeks. From what I can see from census records, Thomas appears to have been only eight and his mother had been widowed, so finding 13 bob would not have been easy for her.
In another case two brothers called John and Joseph Woods, aged 12 and 9 respectively, were charged with damaging a house in Coal Pit Lane in Parr. The two boys from Park Road had been on the roof of the house chasing pigeons. Lads would often catch pigeons to sell to the organisers of bird shoots. However the owner of the property said he did not want to be hard on the boys as they were children of tender years and so they both received a fine of just 1 shilling and costs.
On the 17th John Hodgson from Peasley Cross Lane was – according to the Wigan Observer – "fearfully crushed" at the Peasley Cross Colliery. The man was caught between the buffers of two wagons that were in motion, fracturing his collar bone and breaking several ribs, with one penetrating his lung.
It was normal practice for injured people to be taken to their home and medical assistance then summoned to the house. That continued long after the St Helens Cottage Hospital was opened in 1873, as it had no in-house medics until 1919. A doctor was soon at John's house but the Observer reported that the nature of the man's injuries meant his recovery was very doubtful. That proved to be correct as John Hodgson died two days later.
One of the magistrates at the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th was Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, who in his naval career had taken part in anti-slavery operations. John Tasker was charged with assaulting his mother at their Prescot home after striking out at her with a knife, although he did not cause any injury. Tasker had only just come out of prison for a similar offence and was bound over to keep the peace for two months.
However he was required to find two sureties of £10 each for two months. That was a lot of money when most earned little more than £1 a week. I do wonder if such persons were able to find people willing to risk their cash for them or did they simply have to go to prison? The newspapers rarely followed up on such cases.
The West Derby hundred was the old administrative division that still oversaw aspects of life in St Helens and south Lancashire – including the mental hospitals or lunatic asylums as they were then known. At a meeting of the West Derby Guardians on the 18th their Chairman described a report into Lancashire's asylums made by a deputation from their board.
He said their conclusions had been "very favourable" and that in the asylums at Rainhill, Haydock Lodge and Prestwich the patients were "properly treated and cared for, and they had every comfort which they could expect; some of the cases were bad ones, but most of them offered no special features." However the Chairman added that all the asylums were full and could take no more patients and some were refusing new inmates on a daily basis.
Next week's stories will include the sex scandal of a St Helens vicar, two cheeky College Street robberies, two violent Rainhill rows, miners meet to demand "parliamentary agitation", a court martial at St Helens Junction, a farmer sues Sutton Copper Works and a Peckers Hill woman throws a bucket of water over a neighbour.
We begin on the 12th when The Times published a long leader article on the conclusions of the inquest into the recent Haydock mining disaster. In a heavily critical piece they wrote: "There could be nothing less “accidental” than the catastrophe by which 60 men lost their lives three weeks ago. The way was prepared for it by the systematic neglect of precautions well known to be essential to safety. The worst part of the matter is that neither experience nor remonstrance, nor, we might add, remorse, appears to lead to practical improvement."
They weren’t just thinking of how the Queen Pit at Haydock had suffered two almost identical explosions in just seven months but also how the annual death toll from coal mining was on the rise. A decade earlier 900 men and boys were dying each year but the annual figure was now over 1,000 and The Times demanded new laws to improve safety.
Despite a trade depression St Helens was still an expanding town and shopkeepers were regularly opening new stores or relocating to a better location. In the St Helens Newspaper on the 14th Joseph Edmundson wrote that he:
"…begs to inform the inhabitants of St. Helens and vicinity and the public generally, that he purposes [sic] opening the premises No. 2, Liverpool Road, on Saturday, Aug. 21, 1869, with a choice selection of Cigars, Tobacco, Fancy Tobacco and Snuffs, Tobacco Pipes, Pouches, Cigar Cases, etc, in great variety.
"J. E. begs to remind the public that at his establishment none but a genuine article will be supplied, and he hopes by keeping a good article, strict attention to business, and civility, to merit a share of public patronage." I wonder what the difference was between ordinary tobacco and fancy tobacco?
Also in Liverpool Road George Seddon – who described himself as a "tailor, draper, hatter" – had the slogan: "To meet the times. Cheap, durable, and good fit" and wrote in his ad that he had on hand: "…West of England and Yorkshire Cloths, Plain and Fancy Doeskins, Pilots, Beavers, and Whitneys, Scotch Tweeds, &c. Mourning on the shortest notice."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th Thomas Logan was charged with begging on the streets, having been arrested with a card around his neck saying he was blind. Logan could easily have been sent to prison but told the Bench that he was on his way to Bolton and promised never to offend again. The magistrates decided to let him off and Logan was guided out of the court by two police officers.
John McNally was charged with assaulting his wife at their home – which appeared to be in Raglan Street. The woman told the court that while they were in bed her husband had asked her to send for some ale, which she did. However when the beer arrived, McNally put his wife out of the house. She said she managed to get back in and her husband then made a violent attack upon her, knocking her down and throwing a large cup at her face, causing it to be cut severely.
Mrs McNally then described – as the St Helens Newspaper put it – "a whole week's bickering with her husband". This clearly involved more violence as the Chairman of the Bench asked her which was the assault that she was complaining about in her summons. The man offered no defence and was bound over for three months.
A girl from Parr called Jane O’Neill appeared in court charged with the serious offence of stealing "wearing apparel" – the punishment for which was invariably prison (unlike beating your wife up!). Mary Boland from Morgans Row in Parr told the court that Jane had come to her home saying her parents had thrown her out of their house.
After some persuasion she agreed to let her stay for the night. That was something Mary came to regret as the girl showed her gratitude by rising early next morning and decamping with £2 worth of her clothes. People rarely went far after such thefts and Jane was soon found with a skirt still in her possession and a dress that she had pawned was reclaimed. Two weeks prison was her punishment followed by five years in a reformatory. No age was stated in the report but I think the girl was 13 or 14.
George Smith was also in court for stealing clothes – this time a vest and a pair of trousers. He was accused of taking them from the room of a fellow lodger in a Bridge Street beerhouse and then pawning them in Liverpool. However Smith had an unusual, if bizarre, defence. He claimed that a fellow had come to him in the middle of the night and persuaded him to put on the clothes and pawn them. The magistrates decided to commit the man for trial at the next Quarter Sessions in Liverpool.
Three boys aged nine to eleven called Thomas Waterworth, George Rimmer and William Fildes, were charged with breaking the windows of the Victoria Schools, one of several Roman Catholic schools in the town. Schoolmaster Daniel Downey said that for the past twelve months stones had regularly been thrown at the windows and into the playground. Twenty panes had been broken and the teacher said he had personally seen the boy Waterworth throw a stone.
Two of his pupils gave evidence that they had witnessed Waterworth break a window but there was a lack of evidence against the other two boys and so they were discharged. However the parents of Thomas Waterworth were ordered to pay a 13-shilling fine or else their young son would be sent to prison for two weeks. From what I can see from census records, Thomas appears to have been only eight and his mother had been widowed, so finding 13 bob would not have been easy for her.
In another case two brothers called John and Joseph Woods, aged 12 and 9 respectively, were charged with damaging a house in Coal Pit Lane in Parr. The two boys from Park Road had been on the roof of the house chasing pigeons. Lads would often catch pigeons to sell to the organisers of bird shoots. However the owner of the property said he did not want to be hard on the boys as they were children of tender years and so they both received a fine of just 1 shilling and costs.
On the 17th John Hodgson from Peasley Cross Lane was – according to the Wigan Observer – "fearfully crushed" at the Peasley Cross Colliery. The man was caught between the buffers of two wagons that were in motion, fracturing his collar bone and breaking several ribs, with one penetrating his lung.
It was normal practice for injured people to be taken to their home and medical assistance then summoned to the house. That continued long after the St Helens Cottage Hospital was opened in 1873, as it had no in-house medics until 1919. A doctor was soon at John's house but the Observer reported that the nature of the man's injuries meant his recovery was very doubtful. That proved to be correct as John Hodgson died two days later.
One of the magistrates at the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th was Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, who in his naval career had taken part in anti-slavery operations. John Tasker was charged with assaulting his mother at their Prescot home after striking out at her with a knife, although he did not cause any injury. Tasker had only just come out of prison for a similar offence and was bound over to keep the peace for two months.
However he was required to find two sureties of £10 each for two months. That was a lot of money when most earned little more than £1 a week. I do wonder if such persons were able to find people willing to risk their cash for them or did they simply have to go to prison? The newspapers rarely followed up on such cases.
The West Derby hundred was the old administrative division that still oversaw aspects of life in St Helens and south Lancashire – including the mental hospitals or lunatic asylums as they were then known. At a meeting of the West Derby Guardians on the 18th their Chairman described a report into Lancashire's asylums made by a deputation from their board.
He said their conclusions had been "very favourable" and that in the asylums at Rainhill, Haydock Lodge and Prestwich the patients were "properly treated and cared for, and they had every comfort which they could expect; some of the cases were bad ones, but most of them offered no special features." However the Chairman added that all the asylums were full and could take no more patients and some were refusing new inmates on a daily basis.
Next week's stories will include the sex scandal of a St Helens vicar, two cheeky College Street robberies, two violent Rainhill rows, miners meet to demand "parliamentary agitation", a court martial at St Helens Junction, a farmer sues Sutton Copper Works and a Peckers Hill woman throws a bucket of water over a neighbour.