This week's stories include the man mobbed by a crowd of angry women outside St Helens courthouse, the drunken row of the two Prescot carters, a strike at Pilkingtons and the St Helens solicitor's clerk that did a runner with his cash.

It was Good Friday on the 15th and the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath opened for the season. A band played and admission was 6d. Charles Whittle owned the gardens as well as the adjacent Engine Inn, which changed its name to the Victoria Gardens during the early 1870s. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle.

Two years ago eleven current players of St Helens Cricket Club took on a team of eighteen past players on the Recreation Ground in Denton's Green. However the match that kicked off the new cricket season in St Helens on the 16th was even stranger, as the club's 1st XI played a team of the "Next Twenty-Two"! The cricket club had been formed in 1838 on the day of Queen Victoria's coronation when a "grand match" was played in Duke Street. The club changed its location a couple of times before finally settling on Denton's Green.

There have not been many strikes in Pilkingtons near-200-year-long history. So it's quite a coincidence that both 50 years ago and 150 years ago the workforce of the glass giant had downed tools. In 1970 the workers were demanding £10 more on their basic wage. However on April 18th 1870 the "turn-out" was caused by what the St Helens Newspaper called a "considerable reduction" in wages. The management of Pilkingtons (depicted above in the 1870s) said the present conditions of trade and competition in the market had led to them having to slash rates of pay. Many a coal strike has been caused by the cutting of wages, which the masters blamed on a drop in the price of coal on world markets. The accusation was regularly made that they were quick to cut pay when the price of coal dropped. But slow to increase wages when coal prices rose.

The Newspaper was concerned about the knock-on effects of the strike on suppliers and shop owners: "In the present dullness of trade generally, this strike will prove a serious injury to the traders of St. Helens, and a great deal of regret at its occurrence is felt by all classes of the inhabitants."

In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th Bernard Campbell brought a summons against Bernard Campbell for smashing his windows. The men with the same name were father and son living in Pocket Nook Street and Bernard Snr had thrown his 19-year-old son out of his house for drunkenness. Bernard Jnr's revenge was to smash his Dad's windows and his punishment was a 5-shilling fine and 2 shillings damages.

Affiliation or "bastardy" cases took place during most court hearings. These occurred when some poor unmarried mother requested maintenance payments of a shilling or two from the father of her baby – who usually wanted nothing more to do with her or his child. In the Sessions a man called Gorse was criticised by the magistrates after denying making a girl called Hasleden pregnant, despite her dying shortly after childbirth. A crowd of angry females had gathered outside the courtroom and the St Helens Newspaper under the headline "Mobbing an Obnoxious Individual", reported the subsequent events:

"The defendant, having this evidence [from the magistrates] of the estimation in which he was held, wisely lingered awhile in the court, after his business there had ceased, in the hope, no doubt, that the crowd outside would soon disperse, and enable him to go home without being made the object of a popular and not very flattering demonstration.

"But there were a number of ardent females so impressed by his persistency in the case just decided, that they mutually agreed to await about the entrance to the building until an opportunity offered of giving expression to their feelings in his presence.

"Mr. Gorse at length, fondly hoping for the success of his scheme, came leisurely down the sinuous staircase, and stepped into the street, only to find how cruelly he had deceived himself. His appearance was no sooner observed, than a very wave of female humanity rolled against and around him with a characteristic uproar of angry voices. Bad names, curses, and strikingly negative compliments, were hurled at him with perfect prodigality, and more serious still, fists were brought into requisition to emphasise the torrent of language.

"He took the onslaught easily at first, stalking like an Ajax amongst the herd of his foes; but unfortunately for himself, he was clad in a more vulnerable material than the Homeric warrior was wont to appear in, and the repeated blows, falling on parts already irritated, gave him so much pain that he turned to bay [faced the women], and as a preliminary movement, overturned a pair of the graces in most immediate proximity, by a couple of well-delivered blows of his fists. This action did not serve to lesson the clamour or allay the excitement, and the result would have been more serious but for the arrival of a policeman, who soon affected the release of the much-abused man."

In Prescot Petty Sessions on the 18th two carters were charged with being drunk in charge of their vehicles. Joseph Burrows was also charged with assaulting PC McLennon. Burrows and Peter Rushton had both been carting coal in New Road in Prescot and were drunkenly rowing over which of their horses was the better nag. PC McLennon went over to talk to them and was immediately assaulted by Burrows and had his coat torn.

Rushton decided to flee – or as the St Helens Newspaper wrote – "put spurs to his horse" but as he was carting coal he wasn't able to make a quick getaway. However he did evade pursuit as far as Fall Lane where the police detained him. Rushton's fine was only 2s 6d, although Joseph Burrows was fined 25 shillings, which would have been about a week's wage. However both of their punishments were probably greater as they worked for Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, who in his naval career had taken part in anti-slavery operations. He was now a highly respected magistrate and may well have sacked the two men.

Fall Lane was then a major street in Prescot, situated near modern-day Derby Street. Later that day 200 members of the local volunteer corps were marching down Fall Lane on their way to Knowsley Park. A group of boys ran after them and one called Francis Tierney got struck down by a cart and was seriously injured.

In the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 19th a carter called Richard Griffiths pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of his cart at Rainhill and with assaulting two people – one a police constable. The man had galloped his horse at great speed past the police station and had to be pursued for some time before he could be stopped. A man called Henry Tickle complained to Griffiths about his driving and as a result received several punches and a constable was also assaulted. Richard Griffiths' fines totalled 35 shillings, which was quite a considerable amount.

We might be moving inexorably towards a cash-less society but in 1870 cash ruled. And the easiest way to get money owed to you was to send somebody to collect it. So junior members of staff in offices and works were regularly given the task of collecting cash that was owed to their boss. This could put temptation in the way of a low-paid worker, as in the case of Ellis Edwards. He was a clerk employed by the elderly St Helens' solicitor Henry Gaskell Taylor of Church Street.

In one week in 1866 Edwards had collected £18 9 shillings from several clients – including £15 from Greenalls. That was a lot of money, which probably equated to around four months' wages for the clerk. So Ellis Edwards did a runner and was not heard of again until February 1870 when he was found to be working in London. Inspector Myers was despatched to return him to St Helens and on the 19th April in the Quarter Sessions in Liverpool, Edwards was sent to prison for a year with hard labour. One would have thought that giving money to the church during services was as old as the hills. But not at Prescot Church (pictured above). On the 19th the main point of discussion at the annual church vestry meeting was a proposal to introduce a weekly offertory collection. It was a highly controversial subject and had been for some years – if anyone dared to mention it! The Prescot Reporter wrote:

"Not very long ago it took a very considerable amount of what is vulgarly called ”cheek” to mention the weekly offertory in the Prescot vestry meetings, and the words were never uttered without calling forth murmurs of disapprobation." The resolution at the meeting proposing the offertory was carried by 18 votes to 14. After the vote some of the objectors declared that they would refuse to put any money in the collection boxes. Their objections appeared to have been based on the principle of being expected to give money, as well as the possibility of collections prolonging church services.

And finally a concert was held at St Anne's School in Sutton on the 19th with a number of vocalists performing.

Next week's stories will include the drunken cook in Whiston Workhouse, the Pilkington glass strike, the deadly joke played on a tramp at Haydock, the lodgers in the old Baldwin Street workhouse and the man who blamed being "beerified" for thieving from Rainford's Bridge Inn.