150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th DECEMBER 1872)
This week's stories include the new hospital that was planned for St Helens, the fight at Doulton's pottery works, the violent son that attacked his dad in Crab Street, the Widnes murder charge and why the St Helens Newspaper considered it dangerous for any man to offer the slightest attentions to an unmarried woman.
There had been many calls over the years for St Helens to have its own hospital – but it was not until October 1872, when John Fenwick Allen approached chemical manufacturer Andrew Kurtz, that action was finally taken. The owner of the Sutton Alkali Works became the institution's first major subscriber and Kurtz Ward would later be named after him.
At first the intention was to finance a large hospital for St Helens – but some worried whether a big institution would prove viable. So it was decided to experiment with a more modest medical facility to see how it would be received. Such small-scale ambition did not go down well with George Webster, a chemist from Church Street, who in the St Helens Newspaper of December 14th 1872 wrote:
"There are great objections, as well as grave ones, against this plan; it is faulty from its very isolation and shows a great want of forethought. If we are to have an hospital or infirmary for St. Helens (which, please God, we will have) for our poor and our sick, let it belong to all classes in the town – high and low, rich and poor. It must be of a basis very large."
However, in the same edition, the Newspaper wrote that the decision to open a small facility had already been taken and premises acquired (pictured above): "We understand that a number of gentlemen have taken Peasley House, near Peasley Cross railway station, for the purpose of converting it into an Hospital. It is now being fitted up, and it is hoped that in a few weeks it will be ready for the reception of inmates". The hospital would open in Marshalls Cross Road in St Helens on January 15th 1873 and I will be writing about it in great detail over the coming weeks and months.
The Newspaper also published a long editorial criticising the number of breach of promise of marriage court actions that had recently taken place. Although St Helens women would occasionally bring such proceedings, they were largely the preserve of the middle and upper classes in the south of England. The paper said "soft-hearted" juries would often award financial compensation on the flimsiest of evidence because they felt sorry for the complainant. That, the Newspaper believed, was having consequences on the formation of relationships:
"It is becoming positively dangerous for any man to offer the slightest attentions of a gallant nature to an unmarried woman, unless he has made up his mind to marry her; and thus men are afraid to form acquaintances with the opposite sex which might or might not ripen into marriage after mutual knowledge of each other. Timid men see the prospect of a court of justice at the end of a friendly walk, and of a lawyer's bill as the result of a courteous visit or two. We do not believe this state of things to be good for men or women."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race grounds and on the 14th "twenty of the best men of the day" competed there in a one-mile challenge cup race. And the New Theatre Royal (in the building we know as the Citadel) stated in the Newspaper that they would be closing their theatre for six days after their show on the 14th in order to prepare for "The Great Christmas Pantomime".
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th, Joseph Taylor and Edward Derby were charged with having placed a large heap of slag in the middle of Robins Lane. As a result of the obstruction, a man driving down the road in Sutton in his horse-driven conveyance was almost thrown out. It had not been an act of vandalism, as Taylor was the foreman of a gang of men working on the roads and Derby was his carter. The pair had carelessly left the slag in a heap and Derby was fined one shilling and Taylor 10 shillings.
On the following day the inquest on Thomas Thompson was held at the Ship Inn in Raven Street, off Church Street, in St Helens. The miner had been fatally injured by a fall of coal while working at Peasley Cross Colliery.
The annual concert and exhibition of drawings by Cowley school pupils was also held on the 17th. Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's" (pictured above), after the longstanding head Newton Lacey. Central Modern would be built on the site.
In Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th, a 46-year-old labourer called Henry Southeran from Widnes was committed for trial at the next Liverpool Assizes for the wilful murder of Sarah Dutton. As the result of a quarrel over money in October, the man had violently struck the woman, thrown her down and kicked her with his heavy clogs and then stamped upon her. Sarah was taken to the hospital at Whiston Workhouse and died there on December 13th.
The woman had thrown a bottle at Southeran, which had cut his head and been the act that triggered his rage. But he had responded with violence of such brutality that in April 1873 Southeran was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. This is what the judge at his trial said:
"The offence of which you have been found guilty is almost on the limits of murder, and it is fortunate for you that you are not standing there at this moment to receive sentence of death instead of the sentence I am about to pass upon you. You have been convicted of a most cruel, brutal, dastardly, and unmanly assault on a woman who was living with you as your wife. Nothing can be more dastardly than the offence of which you have been found guilty.
"This woman, living with you in a way which should have found you her protector, evil as your connection with her was, you abused; you kicked and treated her in this savage and barbarous manner, and in the result, caused her death. It is impossible by any language I can use to express the strong feeling I have on the brutality of such conduct. The sentence I am about to pass upon you is one which I hope will be an example to all those who feel any brutal inclination to ill-use women in the way you have done. The sentence upon you is that you be kept in penal servitude for 20 years."
Henry Doulton had begun his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he was able to manufacture 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. Doulton Street, off Dunriding Lane in Eccleston, is a reminder of the firm's presence in the town.
It was at Doulton's works that two men came to blows, leading to engine fitter Hugh Duggan appearing in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th. He was accused of assaulting engine driver John Anders after a row between the pair turned into a fight in which the victim claimed Duggan attempted to strangle him. However, as often was the case, Hugh Duggan told a different tale and reckoned Anders had tried to strike him first with an iron handle. The Bench did not think the assault was serious and only fined the defendant 10 shillings.
Also in court was William Mort who was charged with assaulting the police. PCs Singleton and Rowan told how they had been attracted to the home of John Mort in Crab Street after hearing screams from inside. The officers found William Mort beating his father and after they had separated the pair, the son ran to pick up a large poker to attack the constables with.
The police said they grappled with the man for some time and only got the poker off him with difficulty. Mort had struggled with the police so violently, kicking and biting them, that it needed four constables to get him to the station. He was fined the quite high sum of £5 with two months in prison if in default of payment.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include a warning over the materialisation of Christmas, the skin diseases that ran through Whiston Workhouse like a train of gunpowder and St Helens Council decide to build their new Town Hall.
There had been many calls over the years for St Helens to have its own hospital – but it was not until October 1872, when John Fenwick Allen approached chemical manufacturer Andrew Kurtz, that action was finally taken. The owner of the Sutton Alkali Works became the institution's first major subscriber and Kurtz Ward would later be named after him.
At first the intention was to finance a large hospital for St Helens – but some worried whether a big institution would prove viable. So it was decided to experiment with a more modest medical facility to see how it would be received. Such small-scale ambition did not go down well with George Webster, a chemist from Church Street, who in the St Helens Newspaper of December 14th 1872 wrote:
"There are great objections, as well as grave ones, against this plan; it is faulty from its very isolation and shows a great want of forethought. If we are to have an hospital or infirmary for St. Helens (which, please God, we will have) for our poor and our sick, let it belong to all classes in the town – high and low, rich and poor. It must be of a basis very large."
The Newspaper also published a long editorial criticising the number of breach of promise of marriage court actions that had recently taken place. Although St Helens women would occasionally bring such proceedings, they were largely the preserve of the middle and upper classes in the south of England. The paper said "soft-hearted" juries would often award financial compensation on the flimsiest of evidence because they felt sorry for the complainant. That, the Newspaper believed, was having consequences on the formation of relationships:
"It is becoming positively dangerous for any man to offer the slightest attentions of a gallant nature to an unmarried woman, unless he has made up his mind to marry her; and thus men are afraid to form acquaintances with the opposite sex which might or might not ripen into marriage after mutual knowledge of each other. Timid men see the prospect of a court of justice at the end of a friendly walk, and of a lawyer's bill as the result of a courteous visit or two. We do not believe this state of things to be good for men or women."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race grounds and on the 14th "twenty of the best men of the day" competed there in a one-mile challenge cup race. And the New Theatre Royal (in the building we know as the Citadel) stated in the Newspaper that they would be closing their theatre for six days after their show on the 14th in order to prepare for "The Great Christmas Pantomime".
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th, Joseph Taylor and Edward Derby were charged with having placed a large heap of slag in the middle of Robins Lane. As a result of the obstruction, a man driving down the road in Sutton in his horse-driven conveyance was almost thrown out. It had not been an act of vandalism, as Taylor was the foreman of a gang of men working on the roads and Derby was his carter. The pair had carelessly left the slag in a heap and Derby was fined one shilling and Taylor 10 shillings.
On the following day the inquest on Thomas Thompson was held at the Ship Inn in Raven Street, off Church Street, in St Helens. The miner had been fatally injured by a fall of coal while working at Peasley Cross Colliery.
In Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th, a 46-year-old labourer called Henry Southeran from Widnes was committed for trial at the next Liverpool Assizes for the wilful murder of Sarah Dutton. As the result of a quarrel over money in October, the man had violently struck the woman, thrown her down and kicked her with his heavy clogs and then stamped upon her. Sarah was taken to the hospital at Whiston Workhouse and died there on December 13th.
The woman had thrown a bottle at Southeran, which had cut his head and been the act that triggered his rage. But he had responded with violence of such brutality that in April 1873 Southeran was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. This is what the judge at his trial said:
"The offence of which you have been found guilty is almost on the limits of murder, and it is fortunate for you that you are not standing there at this moment to receive sentence of death instead of the sentence I am about to pass upon you. You have been convicted of a most cruel, brutal, dastardly, and unmanly assault on a woman who was living with you as your wife. Nothing can be more dastardly than the offence of which you have been found guilty.
"This woman, living with you in a way which should have found you her protector, evil as your connection with her was, you abused; you kicked and treated her in this savage and barbarous manner, and in the result, caused her death. It is impossible by any language I can use to express the strong feeling I have on the brutality of such conduct. The sentence I am about to pass upon you is one which I hope will be an example to all those who feel any brutal inclination to ill-use women in the way you have done. The sentence upon you is that you be kept in penal servitude for 20 years."
Henry Doulton had begun his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he was able to manufacture 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. Doulton Street, off Dunriding Lane in Eccleston, is a reminder of the firm's presence in the town.
It was at Doulton's works that two men came to blows, leading to engine fitter Hugh Duggan appearing in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th. He was accused of assaulting engine driver John Anders after a row between the pair turned into a fight in which the victim claimed Duggan attempted to strangle him. However, as often was the case, Hugh Duggan told a different tale and reckoned Anders had tried to strike him first with an iron handle. The Bench did not think the assault was serious and only fined the defendant 10 shillings.
Also in court was William Mort who was charged with assaulting the police. PCs Singleton and Rowan told how they had been attracted to the home of John Mort in Crab Street after hearing screams from inside. The officers found William Mort beating his father and after they had separated the pair, the son ran to pick up a large poker to attack the constables with.
The police said they grappled with the man for some time and only got the poker off him with difficulty. Mort had struggled with the police so violently, kicking and biting them, that it needed four constables to get him to the station. He was fined the quite high sum of £5 with two months in prison if in default of payment.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include a warning over the materialisation of Christmas, the skin diseases that ran through Whiston Workhouse like a train of gunpowder and St Helens Council decide to build their new Town Hall.
This week's stories include the new hospital that was planned for St Helens, the fight at Doulton's pottery works, the violent son that attacked his dad in Crab Street, the Widnes murder charge and why the St Helens Newspaper considered it dangerous for any man to offer the slightest attentions to an unmarried woman.
There had been many calls over the years for St Helens to have its own hospital – but it was not until October 1872, when John Fenwick Allen approached chemical manufacturer Andrew Kurtz, that action was finally taken.
The owner of the Sutton Alkali Works became the institution's first major subscriber and Kurtz Ward would later be named after him.
At first the intention was to finance a large hospital for St Helens – but some worried whether a big institution would prove viable. So it was decided to experiment with a more modest medical facility to see how it would be received.
Such small-scale ambition did not go down well with George Webster, a chemist from Church Street, who in the St Helens Newspaper of December 14th 1872 wrote:
"There are great objections, as well as grave ones, against this plan; it is faulty from its very isolation and shows a great want of forethought. If we are to have an hospital or infirmary for St. Helens (which, please God, we will have) for our poor and our sick, let it belong to all classes in the town – high and low, rich and poor. It must be of a basis very large."
However, in the same edition, the Newspaper wrote that the decision to open a small facility had already been taken and premises acquired (pictured above):
"We understand that a number of gentlemen have taken Peasley House, near Peasley Cross railway station, for the purpose of converting it into an Hospital. It is now being fitted up, and it is hoped that in a few weeks it will be ready for the reception of inmates".
The hospital would open in Marshalls Cross Road in St Helens on January 15th 1873 and I will be writing about it in great detail over the coming weeks and months.
The Newspaper also published a long editorial criticising the number of breach of promise of marriage court actions that had recently taken place.
Although St Helens women would occasionally bring such proceedings, they were largely the preserve of the middle and upper classes in the south of England.
The paper said "soft-hearted" juries would often award financial compensation on the flimsiest of evidence because they felt sorry for the complainant. That, the Newspaper believed, was having consequences on the formation of relationships:
"It is becoming positively dangerous for any man to offer the slightest attentions of a gallant nature to an unmarried woman, unless he has made up his mind to marry her; and thus men are afraid to form acquaintances with the opposite sex which might or might not ripen into marriage after mutual knowledge of each other.
"Timid men see the prospect of a court of justice at the end of a friendly walk, and of a lawyer's bill as the result of a courteous visit or two. We do not believe this state of things to be good for men or women."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race grounds and on the 14th "twenty of the best men of the day" competed there in a one-mile challenge cup race.
And the New Theatre Royal (in the building we know as the Citadel) stated in the Newspaper that they would be closing their theatre for six days after their show on the 14th in order to prepare for "The Great Christmas Pantomime".
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th, Joseph Taylor and Edward Derby were charged with having placed a large heap of slag in the middle of Robins Lane.
As a result of the obstruction, a man driving down the road in Sutton in his horse-driven conveyance was almost thrown out.
It had not been an act of vandalism, as Taylor was the foreman of a gang of men working on the roads and Derby was his carter.
The pair had carelessly left the slag in a heap and Derby was fined one shilling and Taylor 10 shillings.
On the following day the inquest on Thomas Thompson was held at the Ship Inn in Raven Street, off Church Street, in St Helens.
The miner had been fatally injured by a fall of coal while working at Peasley Cross Colliery.
The annual concert and exhibition of drawings by Cowley school pupils was also held on the 17th.
Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's" (pictured above), after the longstanding head Newton Lacey. Central Modern would be built on the site.
In Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th, a 46-year-old labourer called Henry Southeran from Widnes was committed for trial at the next Liverpool Assizes for the wilful murder of Sarah Dutton.
As the result of a quarrel over money in October, the man had violently struck the woman, thrown her down and kicked her with his heavy clogs and then stamped upon her.
Sarah was taken to the hospital at Whiston Workhouse and died there on December 13th.
The woman had thrown a bottle at Southeran, which had cut his head and been the act that triggered his rage.
But he had responded with violence of such brutality that in April 1873 Southeran was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. This is what the judge at his trial said:
"The offence of which you have been found guilty is almost on the limits of murder, and it is fortunate for you that you are not standing there at this moment to receive sentence of death instead of the sentence I am about to pass upon you.
"You have been convicted of a most cruel, brutal, dastardly, and unmanly assault on a woman who was living with you as your wife. Nothing can be more dastardly than the offence of which you have been found guilty.
"This woman, living with you in a way which should have found you her protector, evil as your connection with her was, you abused; you kicked and treated her in this savage and barbarous manner, and in the result, caused her death.
"It is impossible by any language I can use to express the strong feeling I have on the brutality of such conduct.
"The sentence I am about to pass upon you is one which I hope will be an example to all those who feel any brutal inclination to ill-use women in the way you have done. The sentence upon you is that you be kept in penal servitude for 20 years."
Henry Doulton had begun his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he was able to manufacture 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.
Doulton Street, off Dunriding Lane in Eccleston, is a reminder of the firm's presence in the town.
It was at Doulton's works that two men came to blows, leading to engine fitter Hugh Duggan appearing in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th.
He was accused of assaulting engine driver John Anders after a row between the pair turned into a fight in which the victim claimed Duggan attempted to strangle him.
However, as often was the case, Hugh Duggan told a different tale and reckoned Anders had tried to strike him first with an iron handle.
The Bench did not think the assault was serious and only fined the defendant 10 shillings.
Also in court was William Mort who was charged with assaulting the police.
PCs Singleton and Rowan told how they had been attracted to the home of John Mort in Crab Street after hearing screams from inside.
The officers found William Mort beating his father and after they had separated the pair, the son ran to pick up a large poker to attack the constables with.
The police said they grappled with the man for some time and only got the poker off him with difficulty.
Mort had struggled with the police so violently, kicking and biting them, that it needed four constables to get him to the station.
He was fined the quite high sum of £5 with two months in prison if in default of payment.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include a warning over the materialisation of Christmas, the skin diseases that ran through Whiston Workhouse like a train of gunpowder and St Helens Council decide to build their new Town Hall.
There had been many calls over the years for St Helens to have its own hospital – but it was not until October 1872, when John Fenwick Allen approached chemical manufacturer Andrew Kurtz, that action was finally taken.
The owner of the Sutton Alkali Works became the institution's first major subscriber and Kurtz Ward would later be named after him.
At first the intention was to finance a large hospital for St Helens – but some worried whether a big institution would prove viable. So it was decided to experiment with a more modest medical facility to see how it would be received.
Such small-scale ambition did not go down well with George Webster, a chemist from Church Street, who in the St Helens Newspaper of December 14th 1872 wrote:
"There are great objections, as well as grave ones, against this plan; it is faulty from its very isolation and shows a great want of forethought. If we are to have an hospital or infirmary for St. Helens (which, please God, we will have) for our poor and our sick, let it belong to all classes in the town – high and low, rich and poor. It must be of a basis very large."
"We understand that a number of gentlemen have taken Peasley House, near Peasley Cross railway station, for the purpose of converting it into an Hospital. It is now being fitted up, and it is hoped that in a few weeks it will be ready for the reception of inmates".
The hospital would open in Marshalls Cross Road in St Helens on January 15th 1873 and I will be writing about it in great detail over the coming weeks and months.
The Newspaper also published a long editorial criticising the number of breach of promise of marriage court actions that had recently taken place.
Although St Helens women would occasionally bring such proceedings, they were largely the preserve of the middle and upper classes in the south of England.
The paper said "soft-hearted" juries would often award financial compensation on the flimsiest of evidence because they felt sorry for the complainant. That, the Newspaper believed, was having consequences on the formation of relationships:
"It is becoming positively dangerous for any man to offer the slightest attentions of a gallant nature to an unmarried woman, unless he has made up his mind to marry her; and thus men are afraid to form acquaintances with the opposite sex which might or might not ripen into marriage after mutual knowledge of each other.
"Timid men see the prospect of a court of justice at the end of a friendly walk, and of a lawyer's bill as the result of a courteous visit or two. We do not believe this state of things to be good for men or women."
The Star Inn in Coal Pit Lane in Parr – now known as Merton Bank Road – had its own race grounds and on the 14th "twenty of the best men of the day" competed there in a one-mile challenge cup race.
And the New Theatre Royal (in the building we know as the Citadel) stated in the Newspaper that they would be closing their theatre for six days after their show on the 14th in order to prepare for "The Great Christmas Pantomime".
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 16th, Joseph Taylor and Edward Derby were charged with having placed a large heap of slag in the middle of Robins Lane.
As a result of the obstruction, a man driving down the road in Sutton in his horse-driven conveyance was almost thrown out.
It had not been an act of vandalism, as Taylor was the foreman of a gang of men working on the roads and Derby was his carter.
The pair had carelessly left the slag in a heap and Derby was fined one shilling and Taylor 10 shillings.
On the following day the inquest on Thomas Thompson was held at the Ship Inn in Raven Street, off Church Street, in St Helens.
The miner had been fatally injured by a fall of coal while working at Peasley Cross Colliery.
The annual concert and exhibition of drawings by Cowley school pupils was also held on the 17th.
In Prescot Petty Sessions on the 17th, a 46-year-old labourer called Henry Southeran from Widnes was committed for trial at the next Liverpool Assizes for the wilful murder of Sarah Dutton.
As the result of a quarrel over money in October, the man had violently struck the woman, thrown her down and kicked her with his heavy clogs and then stamped upon her.
Sarah was taken to the hospital at Whiston Workhouse and died there on December 13th.
The woman had thrown a bottle at Southeran, which had cut his head and been the act that triggered his rage.
But he had responded with violence of such brutality that in April 1873 Southeran was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter. This is what the judge at his trial said:
"The offence of which you have been found guilty is almost on the limits of murder, and it is fortunate for you that you are not standing there at this moment to receive sentence of death instead of the sentence I am about to pass upon you.
"You have been convicted of a most cruel, brutal, dastardly, and unmanly assault on a woman who was living with you as your wife. Nothing can be more dastardly than the offence of which you have been found guilty.
"This woman, living with you in a way which should have found you her protector, evil as your connection with her was, you abused; you kicked and treated her in this savage and barbarous manner, and in the result, caused her death.
"It is impossible by any language I can use to express the strong feeling I have on the brutality of such conduct.
"The sentence I am about to pass upon you is one which I hope will be an example to all those who feel any brutal inclination to ill-use women in the way you have done. The sentence upon you is that you be kept in penal servitude for 20 years."
Henry Doulton had begun his pottery firm in London in the 1840s. Once he was able to manufacture 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.
Doulton Street, off Dunriding Lane in Eccleston, is a reminder of the firm's presence in the town.
It was at Doulton's works that two men came to blows, leading to engine fitter Hugh Duggan appearing in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th.
He was accused of assaulting engine driver John Anders after a row between the pair turned into a fight in which the victim claimed Duggan attempted to strangle him.
However, as often was the case, Hugh Duggan told a different tale and reckoned Anders had tried to strike him first with an iron handle.
The Bench did not think the assault was serious and only fined the defendant 10 shillings.
Also in court was William Mort who was charged with assaulting the police.
PCs Singleton and Rowan told how they had been attracted to the home of John Mort in Crab Street after hearing screams from inside.
The officers found William Mort beating his father and after they had separated the pair, the son ran to pick up a large poker to attack the constables with.
The police said they grappled with the man for some time and only got the poker off him with difficulty.
Mort had struggled with the police so violently, kicking and biting them, that it needed four constables to get him to the station.
He was fined the quite high sum of £5 with two months in prison if in default of payment.
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include a warning over the materialisation of Christmas, the skin diseases that ran through Whiston Workhouse like a train of gunpowder and St Helens Council decide to build their new Town Hall.