150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 13 - 19 OCTOBER 1875
This week's many stories include the man who drove his cart into a load of bricks in Park Road, the attempted rape by a lodger, the purring case in Haydock and the openings of the Rainford Catholic Chapel, the new Conservative Club and the tobacco showrooms in Naylor Street.
We begin on the 16th when the new Conservative Club was opened in Hall Street in a building previously used as offices by the gas company. The St Helens Newspaper said the whole of the rooms were large, lofty and well lit, particularly those that were to be devoted to the playing of billiards. Other rooms included a general reading room and a smoking room, which could also be used for playing cards, dominoes, chess and draughts. The Hall Street rooms would be the HQ of the Conservative Party in St Helens for many decades to come and was where many an election campaign was planned.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 16th, John Johnson & Son, who described themselves as a "tobacco, snuff, and cigar manufacturers and importers" of Bolton, said they had opened a branch in Naylor Street in St Helens, writing: "All goods, including their celebrated Irish Roll and Pigtail Tobacco, guaranteed genuine, free from adulteration, and of the highest quality." The firm claimed that their extensive showrooms contained an immense stock of all classes of cigars and they also offered "Johnson's unrivalled smoking mixture and Virginia shag".
You did need to have your wits about you when driving a horse and cart along the St Helens streets at night. There was often poor lighting and all sorts of objects could be left lying about. In court this week James Lawrenson from Haydock was charged with being drunk while in charge of a horse and cart.
PC Robert Sheriff told the court that at 11 pm on the previous Tuesday, he had seen a cart become upset by striking some bricks that had been lying in Parr Street in St Helens (pictured above). Upon reaching the spot, he found the cart on its side and Lawrenson, his wife and a third person, lying on the ground.
The constable said he had helped them all up and found that the man who had been driving was drunk. So he righted the horse and cart, got the party back inside and drove them all back to Haydock. But, upon their arrival, Lawrenson had slipped off his coat and threatened to box the constable for bringing him and his wife home.
However, the man's solicitor insisted to the magistrates that his client had not been drunk and pleaded that both he and his wife had been severely injured in the accident and were still under the care of Dr Ricketts. Taking this into consideration, the magistrates said they would only fine Lawrenson the mitigated penalty of five shillings and costs. And I'll bet PC Sheriff did not even get a thank you!
But that was not quite the end of the affair as the man responsible for the obstruction was next in court. He was Edward Pemberton, a builder and contractor from Westfield Street, who was summoned for leaving the bricks in the road. Pemberton had been building some cottages in Park Road and two cartloads of bricks had been "shot down" in the street and left there. The heap extended for 3½ yards into the road and lay 26 yards away from the nearest street lamp. Pemberton was fined 20 shillings and costs for his carelessness.
There was a fatal accident to a sleepwalker this week. Jane Critchley lived in what was then called Boundary Lane and had retired to bed at 11 pm. An hour later a younger sister went downstairs for a drink of water and was horrified to see Jane enveloped in flames. She immediately summoned her father and mother who rushed downstairs and extinguished the fire but not before Jane had been severely burned. The 16-year-old died several days later and, as she had a history of walking in her sleep, it was assumed that Jane had accidentally set herself on fire while sleepwalking.
Rapists or attempted rapists could receive a stiff sentence if convicted. But getting that conviction 150 years ago was much harder than today. This week Thomas Lynch appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with attempting to commit a rape on a married woman named Mary Keenan.
Lynch was a lodger at the Keenans' house on Canal Bank West. The two men had been to a wake near to their home and at 1am Lynch had returned and gone upstairs to bed. Mary Keenan was then in the kitchen lying on a type of sofa that was known as a squab with her baby in her arms, waiting for her husband's return from the party.
About three quarters of an hour later, Thomas Lynch was said to have entered the kitchen with nothing on but his shirt and after making use of what was stated to have been a filthy expression, he attempted to rape the woman. Mary managed to free herself and ran to the house where her husband was staying and told him what had happened.
The couple then returned home and found Lynch in the entry but with his trousers now on. An altercation then ensued between the two men and eventually Lynch was taken into the custody of PC Bent. However, the magistrates did not seem to think that the case had been proved as there had been no corroboration and so they dismissed it.
Another case of purring – using clogs to kick victims mainly in the head – was before the Newton magistrates in which six miners were accused of assaulting three other men. The group had been drinking together in Blackbrook when they decided to move on to the Hare and Hounds in Haydock and, as it was put, "have a row". Clogs were freely used in severely purring their three victims in various parts of their bodies. One defendant was cleared of the charge but the others were fined £2 and costs for each assault.
On the 17th the Right Rev. Dr. O’Reilly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, opened a new Catholic chapel at Rainford. The St Helens Newspaper described the church – which would be dedicated as Corpus Christi – as "plain and unpretentious in character" but, at the same time, the new place of worship would "fill a want long felt in that district".
That was because there had been no Catholic church in Rainford for many years. The chapel would accommodate about 200 worshippers and had been erected by Rainford builder Peter Middlehurst.
On the 18th there was another description told in court of the brave journeys that police officers had to make when escorting prisoners to their police station. If the arrest took place late on a Saturday night in the notorious Greenbank district, then the walk could prove a particularly perilous one. PC Kiernan's attempt to take a man from Liverpool Road to the police station was described when Jeffrey Atherton was charged with assaulting and resisting the constable.
Who the first prisoner had been and why he had been arrested was not revealed in the report – although likely he had been taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly. But a large crowd had followed PC Kiernan and his prisoner and when they got into Exchange Street, Jeffrey Atherton had appeared on the scene and attempted to free the escorted man.
Atherton grabbed hold of the officer and called on the crowd to help him. Fortunately, two other constables were quickly on the scene and they took Atherton into custody. The latter had hired the combative solicitor Thomas Swift to defend him in court and he contended that the case was only a trivial one. The magistrates decided that as Atherton had been in police custody for one day and two nights, that would be sufficient punishment and the case was dismissed.
It is often thought that women's fight for the vote began just before World War I. But in fact the struggle took place throughout much of the 19th century. On the 18th a meeting was held in the Public Hall in Wigan calling for the franchise to vote in parliamentary elections to be awarded to women.
The mayor of Wigan presided over the gathering, although he said he did not want to express his own personal opinion on the subject. But other men did, including a well-known miners' agent and a local vicar. The meeting decided that a petition be forwarded to Wigan's MPs and onto the Home Secretary.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the over-winding accident at Nutgrove Colliery, the violence that took place in a College Street beerhouse over a card game, the straw stack fire at Bold and the plans to create a Mersey tunnel.
We begin on the 16th when the new Conservative Club was opened in Hall Street in a building previously used as offices by the gas company. The St Helens Newspaper said the whole of the rooms were large, lofty and well lit, particularly those that were to be devoted to the playing of billiards. Other rooms included a general reading room and a smoking room, which could also be used for playing cards, dominoes, chess and draughts. The Hall Street rooms would be the HQ of the Conservative Party in St Helens for many decades to come and was where many an election campaign was planned.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 16th, John Johnson & Son, who described themselves as a "tobacco, snuff, and cigar manufacturers and importers" of Bolton, said they had opened a branch in Naylor Street in St Helens, writing: "All goods, including their celebrated Irish Roll and Pigtail Tobacco, guaranteed genuine, free from adulteration, and of the highest quality." The firm claimed that their extensive showrooms contained an immense stock of all classes of cigars and they also offered "Johnson's unrivalled smoking mixture and Virginia shag".
You did need to have your wits about you when driving a horse and cart along the St Helens streets at night. There was often poor lighting and all sorts of objects could be left lying about. In court this week James Lawrenson from Haydock was charged with being drunk while in charge of a horse and cart.
The constable said he had helped them all up and found that the man who had been driving was drunk. So he righted the horse and cart, got the party back inside and drove them all back to Haydock. But, upon their arrival, Lawrenson had slipped off his coat and threatened to box the constable for bringing him and his wife home.
However, the man's solicitor insisted to the magistrates that his client had not been drunk and pleaded that both he and his wife had been severely injured in the accident and were still under the care of Dr Ricketts. Taking this into consideration, the magistrates said they would only fine Lawrenson the mitigated penalty of five shillings and costs. And I'll bet PC Sheriff did not even get a thank you!
But that was not quite the end of the affair as the man responsible for the obstruction was next in court. He was Edward Pemberton, a builder and contractor from Westfield Street, who was summoned for leaving the bricks in the road. Pemberton had been building some cottages in Park Road and two cartloads of bricks had been "shot down" in the street and left there. The heap extended for 3½ yards into the road and lay 26 yards away from the nearest street lamp. Pemberton was fined 20 shillings and costs for his carelessness.
There was a fatal accident to a sleepwalker this week. Jane Critchley lived in what was then called Boundary Lane and had retired to bed at 11 pm. An hour later a younger sister went downstairs for a drink of water and was horrified to see Jane enveloped in flames. She immediately summoned her father and mother who rushed downstairs and extinguished the fire but not before Jane had been severely burned. The 16-year-old died several days later and, as she had a history of walking in her sleep, it was assumed that Jane had accidentally set herself on fire while sleepwalking.
Rapists or attempted rapists could receive a stiff sentence if convicted. But getting that conviction 150 years ago was much harder than today. This week Thomas Lynch appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with attempting to commit a rape on a married woman named Mary Keenan.
Lynch was a lodger at the Keenans' house on Canal Bank West. The two men had been to a wake near to their home and at 1am Lynch had returned and gone upstairs to bed. Mary Keenan was then in the kitchen lying on a type of sofa that was known as a squab with her baby in her arms, waiting for her husband's return from the party.
About three quarters of an hour later, Thomas Lynch was said to have entered the kitchen with nothing on but his shirt and after making use of what was stated to have been a filthy expression, he attempted to rape the woman. Mary managed to free herself and ran to the house where her husband was staying and told him what had happened.
The couple then returned home and found Lynch in the entry but with his trousers now on. An altercation then ensued between the two men and eventually Lynch was taken into the custody of PC Bent. However, the magistrates did not seem to think that the case had been proved as there had been no corroboration and so they dismissed it.
Another case of purring – using clogs to kick victims mainly in the head – was before the Newton magistrates in which six miners were accused of assaulting three other men. The group had been drinking together in Blackbrook when they decided to move on to the Hare and Hounds in Haydock and, as it was put, "have a row". Clogs were freely used in severely purring their three victims in various parts of their bodies. One defendant was cleared of the charge but the others were fined £2 and costs for each assault.
On the 17th the Right Rev. Dr. O’Reilly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, opened a new Catholic chapel at Rainford. The St Helens Newspaper described the church – which would be dedicated as Corpus Christi – as "plain and unpretentious in character" but, at the same time, the new place of worship would "fill a want long felt in that district".
That was because there had been no Catholic church in Rainford for many years. The chapel would accommodate about 200 worshippers and had been erected by Rainford builder Peter Middlehurst.
On the 18th there was another description told in court of the brave journeys that police officers had to make when escorting prisoners to their police station. If the arrest took place late on a Saturday night in the notorious Greenbank district, then the walk could prove a particularly perilous one. PC Kiernan's attempt to take a man from Liverpool Road to the police station was described when Jeffrey Atherton was charged with assaulting and resisting the constable.
Who the first prisoner had been and why he had been arrested was not revealed in the report – although likely he had been taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly. But a large crowd had followed PC Kiernan and his prisoner and when they got into Exchange Street, Jeffrey Atherton had appeared on the scene and attempted to free the escorted man.
Atherton grabbed hold of the officer and called on the crowd to help him. Fortunately, two other constables were quickly on the scene and they took Atherton into custody. The latter had hired the combative solicitor Thomas Swift to defend him in court and he contended that the case was only a trivial one. The magistrates decided that as Atherton had been in police custody for one day and two nights, that would be sufficient punishment and the case was dismissed.
It is often thought that women's fight for the vote began just before World War I. But in fact the struggle took place throughout much of the 19th century. On the 18th a meeting was held in the Public Hall in Wigan calling for the franchise to vote in parliamentary elections to be awarded to women.
The mayor of Wigan presided over the gathering, although he said he did not want to express his own personal opinion on the subject. But other men did, including a well-known miners' agent and a local vicar. The meeting decided that a petition be forwarded to Wigan's MPs and onto the Home Secretary.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the over-winding accident at Nutgrove Colliery, the violence that took place in a College Street beerhouse over a card game, the straw stack fire at Bold and the plans to create a Mersey tunnel.
This week's many stories include the man who drove his cart into a load of bricks in Park Road, the attempted rape by a lodger, the purring case in Haydock and the openings of the Rainford Catholic Chapel, the new Conservative Club and the tobacco showrooms in Naylor Street.
We begin on the 16th when the new Conservative Club was opened in Hall Street in a building previously used as offices by the gas company.
The St Helens Newspaper said the whole of the rooms were large, lofty and well lit, particularly those that were to be devoted to the playing of billiards.
Other rooms included a general reading room and a smoking room, which could also be used for playing cards, dominoes, chess and draughts.
The Hall Street rooms would be the HQ of the Conservative Party in St Helens for many decades to come and was where many an election campaign was planned.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 16th, John Johnson & Son, who described themselves as a "tobacco, snuff, and cigar manufacturers and importers" of Bolton, said they had opened a branch in Naylor Street in St Helens, writing:
"All goods, including their celebrated Irish Roll and Pigtail Tobacco, guaranteed genuine, free from adulteration, and of the highest quality."
The firm claimed that their extensive showrooms contained an immense stock of all classes of cigars and they also offered "Johnson's unrivalled smoking mixture and Virginia shag".
You did need to have your wits about you when driving a horse and cart along the St Helens streets at night.
There was often poor lighting and all sorts of objects could be left lying about.
In court this week James Lawrenson from Haydock was charged with being drunk while in charge of a horse and cart.
PC Robert Sheriff told the court that at 11 pm on the previous Tuesday, he had seen a cart become upset by striking some bricks that had been lying in Parr Street in St Helens (pictured above).
Upon reaching the spot, he found the cart on its side and Lawrenson, his wife and a third person, lying on the ground.
The constable said he had helped them all up and found that the man who had been driving was drunk.
So he righted the horse and cart, got the party back inside and drove them all back to Haydock.
But, upon their arrival, Lawrenson had slipped off his coat and threatened to box the constable for bringing him and his wife home.
However, the man's solicitor insisted to the magistrates that his client had not been drunk and pleaded that both he and his wife had been severely injured in the accident and were still under the care of Dr Ricketts.
Taking this into consideration, the magistrates said they would only fine Lawrenson the mitigated penalty of five shillings and costs. And I'll bet PC Sheriff did not even get a thank you!
But that was not quite the end of the affair as the man responsible for the obstruction was next in court.
He was Edward Pemberton, a builder and contractor from Westfield Street, who was summoned for leaving the bricks in the road.
Pemberton had been building some cottages in Park Road and two cartloads of bricks had been "shot down" in the street and left there.
The heap extended for 3½ yards into the road and lay 26 yards away from the nearest street lamp. Pemberton was fined 20 shillings and costs for his carelessness.
There was a fatal accident to a sleepwalker this week. Jane Critchley lived in what was then called Boundary Lane and had retired to bed at 11 pm.
An hour later a younger sister went downstairs for a drink of water and was horrified to see Jane enveloped in flames.
She immediately summoned her father and mother who rushed downstairs and extinguished the fire but not before Jane had been severely burned.
The 16-year-old died several days later and, as she had a history of walking in her sleep, it was assumed that Jane had accidentally set herself on fire while sleepwalking.
Rapists or attempted rapists could receive a stiff sentence if convicted. But getting that conviction 150 years ago was much harder than today.
This week Thomas Lynch appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with attempting to commit a rape on a married woman named Mary Keenan.
Lynch was a lodger at the Keenans' house on Canal Bank West. The two men had been to a wake near to their home and at 1am Lynch had returned and gone upstairs to bed.
Mary Keenan was then in the kitchen lying on a type of sofa that was known as a squab with her baby in her arms, waiting for her husband's return from the party.
About three quarters of an hour later, Thomas Lynch was said to have entered the kitchen with nothing on but his shirt and after making use of what was stated to have been a filthy expression, he attempted to rape the woman.
Mary managed to free herself and ran to the house where her husband was staying and told him what had happened.
The couple then returned home and found Lynch in the entry but with his trousers now on.
An altercation then ensued between the two men and eventually Lynch was taken into the custody of PC Bent.
However, the magistrates did not seem to think that the case had been proved as there had been no corroboration and so they dismissed it.
Another case of purring – using clogs to kick victims mainly in the head – was before the Newton magistrates in which six miners were accused of assaulting three other men.
The group had been drinking together in Blackbrook when they decided to move on to the Hare and Hounds in Haydock and, as it was put, "have a row".
Clogs were freely used in severely purring their three victims in various parts of their bodies. One defendant was cleared of the charge but the others were fined £2 and costs for each assault.
On the 17th the Right Rev. Dr. O’Reilly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, opened a new Catholic chapel at Rainford.
The St Helens Newspaper described the church – which would be dedicated as Corpus Christi – as "plain and unpretentious in character" but, at the same time, the new place of worship would "fill a want long felt in that district".
That was because there had been no Catholic church in Rainford for many years.
The chapel would accommodate about 200 worshippers and had been erected by Rainford builder Peter Middlehurst.
On the 18th there was another description told in court of the brave journeys that police officers had to make when escorting prisoners to their police station.
If the arrest took place late on a Saturday night in the notorious Greenbank district, then the walk could prove a particularly perilous one.
PC Kiernan's attempt to take a man from Liverpool Road to the police station was described when Jeffrey Atherton was charged with assaulting and resisting the constable.
Who the first prisoner had been and why he had been arrested was not revealed in the report – although likely he had been taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly.
But a large crowd had followed PC Kiernan and his prisoner and when they got into Exchange Street, Jeffrey Atherton had appeared on the scene and attempted to free the escorted man.
Atherton grabbed hold of the officer and called on the crowd to help him. Fortunately, two other constables were quickly on the scene and they took Atherton into custody.
The latter had hired the combative solicitor Thomas Swift to defend him in court and he contended that the case was only a trivial one.
The magistrates decided that as Atherton had been in police custody for one day and two nights, that would be sufficient punishment and the case was dismissed.
It is often thought that women's fight for the vote began just before World War I. But in fact the struggle took place throughout much of the 19th century.
On the 18th a meeting was held in the Public Hall in Wigan calling for the franchise to vote in parliamentary elections to be awarded to women.
The mayor of Wigan presided over the gathering, although he said he did not want to express his own personal opinion on the subject.
But other men did, including a well-known miners' agent and a local vicar.
The meeting decided that a petition be forwarded to Wigan's MPs and onto the Home Secretary.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the over-winding accident at Nutgrove Colliery, the violence that took place in a College Street beerhouse over a card game, the straw stack fire at Bold and the plans to create a Mersey tunnel.
We begin on the 16th when the new Conservative Club was opened in Hall Street in a building previously used as offices by the gas company.
The St Helens Newspaper said the whole of the rooms were large, lofty and well lit, particularly those that were to be devoted to the playing of billiards.
Other rooms included a general reading room and a smoking room, which could also be used for playing cards, dominoes, chess and draughts.
The Hall Street rooms would be the HQ of the Conservative Party in St Helens for many decades to come and was where many an election campaign was planned.
In the St Helens Newspaper on the 16th, John Johnson & Son, who described themselves as a "tobacco, snuff, and cigar manufacturers and importers" of Bolton, said they had opened a branch in Naylor Street in St Helens, writing:
"All goods, including their celebrated Irish Roll and Pigtail Tobacco, guaranteed genuine, free from adulteration, and of the highest quality."
The firm claimed that their extensive showrooms contained an immense stock of all classes of cigars and they also offered "Johnson's unrivalled smoking mixture and Virginia shag".
You did need to have your wits about you when driving a horse and cart along the St Helens streets at night.
There was often poor lighting and all sorts of objects could be left lying about.
In court this week James Lawrenson from Haydock was charged with being drunk while in charge of a horse and cart.
Upon reaching the spot, he found the cart on its side and Lawrenson, his wife and a third person, lying on the ground.
The constable said he had helped them all up and found that the man who had been driving was drunk.
So he righted the horse and cart, got the party back inside and drove them all back to Haydock.
But, upon their arrival, Lawrenson had slipped off his coat and threatened to box the constable for bringing him and his wife home.
However, the man's solicitor insisted to the magistrates that his client had not been drunk and pleaded that both he and his wife had been severely injured in the accident and were still under the care of Dr Ricketts.
Taking this into consideration, the magistrates said they would only fine Lawrenson the mitigated penalty of five shillings and costs. And I'll bet PC Sheriff did not even get a thank you!
But that was not quite the end of the affair as the man responsible for the obstruction was next in court.
He was Edward Pemberton, a builder and contractor from Westfield Street, who was summoned for leaving the bricks in the road.
Pemberton had been building some cottages in Park Road and two cartloads of bricks had been "shot down" in the street and left there.
The heap extended for 3½ yards into the road and lay 26 yards away from the nearest street lamp. Pemberton was fined 20 shillings and costs for his carelessness.
There was a fatal accident to a sleepwalker this week. Jane Critchley lived in what was then called Boundary Lane and had retired to bed at 11 pm.
An hour later a younger sister went downstairs for a drink of water and was horrified to see Jane enveloped in flames.
She immediately summoned her father and mother who rushed downstairs and extinguished the fire but not before Jane had been severely burned.
The 16-year-old died several days later and, as she had a history of walking in her sleep, it was assumed that Jane had accidentally set herself on fire while sleepwalking.
Rapists or attempted rapists could receive a stiff sentence if convicted. But getting that conviction 150 years ago was much harder than today.
This week Thomas Lynch appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with attempting to commit a rape on a married woman named Mary Keenan.
Lynch was a lodger at the Keenans' house on Canal Bank West. The two men had been to a wake near to their home and at 1am Lynch had returned and gone upstairs to bed.
Mary Keenan was then in the kitchen lying on a type of sofa that was known as a squab with her baby in her arms, waiting for her husband's return from the party.
About three quarters of an hour later, Thomas Lynch was said to have entered the kitchen with nothing on but his shirt and after making use of what was stated to have been a filthy expression, he attempted to rape the woman.
Mary managed to free herself and ran to the house where her husband was staying and told him what had happened.
The couple then returned home and found Lynch in the entry but with his trousers now on.
An altercation then ensued between the two men and eventually Lynch was taken into the custody of PC Bent.
However, the magistrates did not seem to think that the case had been proved as there had been no corroboration and so they dismissed it.
Another case of purring – using clogs to kick victims mainly in the head – was before the Newton magistrates in which six miners were accused of assaulting three other men.
The group had been drinking together in Blackbrook when they decided to move on to the Hare and Hounds in Haydock and, as it was put, "have a row".
Clogs were freely used in severely purring their three victims in various parts of their bodies. One defendant was cleared of the charge but the others were fined £2 and costs for each assault.
On the 17th the Right Rev. Dr. O’Reilly, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool, opened a new Catholic chapel at Rainford.
The St Helens Newspaper described the church – which would be dedicated as Corpus Christi – as "plain and unpretentious in character" but, at the same time, the new place of worship would "fill a want long felt in that district".
That was because there had been no Catholic church in Rainford for many years.
The chapel would accommodate about 200 worshippers and had been erected by Rainford builder Peter Middlehurst.
On the 18th there was another description told in court of the brave journeys that police officers had to make when escorting prisoners to their police station.
If the arrest took place late on a Saturday night in the notorious Greenbank district, then the walk could prove a particularly perilous one.
PC Kiernan's attempt to take a man from Liverpool Road to the police station was described when Jeffrey Atherton was charged with assaulting and resisting the constable.
Who the first prisoner had been and why he had been arrested was not revealed in the report – although likely he had been taken into custody for being drunk and disorderly.
But a large crowd had followed PC Kiernan and his prisoner and when they got into Exchange Street, Jeffrey Atherton had appeared on the scene and attempted to free the escorted man.
Atherton grabbed hold of the officer and called on the crowd to help him. Fortunately, two other constables were quickly on the scene and they took Atherton into custody.
The latter had hired the combative solicitor Thomas Swift to defend him in court and he contended that the case was only a trivial one.
The magistrates decided that as Atherton had been in police custody for one day and two nights, that would be sufficient punishment and the case was dismissed.
It is often thought that women's fight for the vote began just before World War I. But in fact the struggle took place throughout much of the 19th century.
On the 18th a meeting was held in the Public Hall in Wigan calling for the franchise to vote in parliamentary elections to be awarded to women.
The mayor of Wigan presided over the gathering, although he said he did not want to express his own personal opinion on the subject.
But other men did, including a well-known miners' agent and a local vicar.
The meeting decided that a petition be forwarded to Wigan's MPs and onto the Home Secretary.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the over-winding accident at Nutgrove Colliery, the violence that took place in a College Street beerhouse over a card game, the straw stack fire at Bold and the plans to create a Mersey tunnel.