150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (17th - 23rd APRIL 1873)
This week's many stories include the respectable Thatto Heath vagrant, the corrupt practices at an election for Prescot Guardians, the post office fraud by mistake, the severe beating of a wife for simply having a drink, the brainless Rainford pigeon thefts and the opening of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath.
Although the secret vote was now employed in municipal and parliamentary elections, the voting process for Prescot Union Guardians was unchanged. The people responsible for implementing the Poor Law within the St Helens and Prescot districts had responsibilities no less important than a councillor. But the way they were elected was open to corruption with the voting papers taken to the homes of those entitled to vote. A member of a candidate's team would often assist the person in deciding who to vote for and there were often claims of voting slips being interfered with.
On the 17th at the first meeting of the newly elected Guardians, a complaint was read out from a defeated candidate. He claimed that men had been going round Prescot filling in voting papers in the absence of householders and otherwise tampering with them. The deputy chairman of the Guardians said a great many complaints had been received about this "objectionable practice" and it was decided their clerk should investigate and attempt to obtain a conviction.
Also at the meeting their medical officer reported that their hospital was overcrowded. The infirmary for paupers attached to Whiston Workhouse (illustrated above) was designed for 105 patients but currently contained 145 cases. The St Helens Newspaper said the medical officer: "…made a serious complaint of the neglect of patients and general disarrangement through deficiency in nursing power."
Charles Whittle was the owner of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath that somehow was able to bypass the atmospheric pollution of 1870s St Helens to stunning effect. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle. The St Helens Newspaper on the 19th described the recent opening of the gardens for the new season:
"The opening of this picturesque place of amusement, for the present season, took place, according to custom, on Good Friday. They were thrown open to the public at two o’clock in the afternoon, and from thence until closing they presented a scene of festivity. In no previous year had a greater number of visitors attended the opening. This may be accounted for in the exceptional fineness of the weather. Certainly the Gardens were very attractive.
"The late warmth had given an impetus to the growth of the varied products of nature, and everything looked fresh, luxuriant, and inviting. The band of the 2nd L.E.V., engaged for the occasion, discoursed music during the whole of the afternoon, and enabling dancing to be carried on to the heart's content of the visitors."
You can hardly blame 19th century women for taking the odd drink with their lives being so harsh. But it was to an extent a social taboo with many husbands hypocritically arguing that they had the right to consume alcohol – but not their wives. James McDonough felt the way to stop his wife from boozing was to severely beat her up.
The 24-year-old labourer had met Rebecca in the street and accused her of having been drinking, which she denied. After what was described as "offensive words" having being exchanged, McDonough knocked Rebecca to the ground, dragged her to their house by her hair and then beat her savagely.
This week at the Prescot Petty Sessions when McDonough was charged with brutally assaulting his wife, a doctor said her injuries had been very severe and included a fractured jaw. Although Rebecca was far from well, she still gave evidence in the court but attempted to play down the seriousness of the attack.
Some women calculated that they would be better off with a violent husband in the house than left on their own with her man in prison. Although she would be safe for the period of the incarceration, there would be no or little income coming into the home. However, the Bench at Prescot committed the man for trial at the next Kirkdale sessions, where he would be sent to prison for 12 months with hard labour.
As I've often commented, a defendant's perceived respectability in court counted a lot as to how well they were treated. Tramps were not considered respectable and if found sleeping in an outbuilding in St Helens would be arrested and prosecuted. All they wanted was a dry and relatively warm place to rest for the night and the vast majority of such persons weren't thieves or doing anybody any harm. That made no difference to the courts who would invariably commit such vagrants to prison for a couple of weeks.
But consider the case of Edward Toole who appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week. He was charged with sleeping without permission in a cowshed belonging to Edward Valentine of Thatto Heath. Toole had been found dozing in the hay on a Sunday morning. He claimed his landlady had locked him out of his lodgings because he had returned home late on the previous evening. Unlike tramps Toole was able to afford a solicitor who told the court that his client was not a rogue or a vagabond.
He had been living in the town some ten or eleven years; was a married man and had a job at the Bridgewater Chemical Works in St Helens. Despite the fact that Toole's offence was no different to those committed regularly by common vagrants, he was considered respectable and so the charge against him was dismissed.
And just to prove the point in another case this week, William Wardle was sent to prison for 14 days after being caught sleeping in Church Street. When awakened by a police officer, Wardle claimed he was blind. But in court Supt. James Ludlam – who was in charge of St Helens police – remarked that the man could see perfectly well and had apparently come into the town because of the Spring fair.
Life was so localised in the 1870s that few thieves thought of venturing far in order to sell their stolen goods. And so it did not take much detective work to solve many crimes. This week George Moss was charged with stealing eight pigeons from the coop of Richard Winstanley of Rainford and also eleven birds belonging to George Mason, who also lived in the village.
Both thefts had taken place on the same day and on the following day the nineteen pigeons were taken to David Appleton's pigeon shop in Bridge Street in St Helens. There Moss sold them for a shilling each. The man was quickly arrested and in court was sentenced to four months in prison. Pigeon fancying was a popular sport and no doubt there was a demand for shops that sold the birds and probably supplied their feed etc. Thomas Anthony was another who kept a pigeon shop in Tontine Street.
You could get into terrible trouble for simply accepting someone else's mistake. On the 23rd William Hirst appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with defrauding the postal department out of £11. On March 3rd Hirst had cashed a postal order for 10 shillings at a Warrington post office. However, the clerk thought that two cancelling strokes in the pounds column of the order represented £11 and so paid the man £11 10 shillings. Hirst accepted the additional eleven pounds and left the post office without alerting the clerk to his mistake.
For a labourer like William Hirst the extra cash was the equivalent of over two months' wages and he must have been well pleased with himself. When the mistake was discovered Hirst could not be found and after a long search the consigner of the order was located in London and Hirst's identity and whereabouts ascertained. The police arrested him while at work in a St Helens chemical yard and he immediately admitted the charge and was sent to prison for two months.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the shocking state of the workhouse hospital, the death of a Parr pit sinker, the daily attacks on passers-by in St Helens streets and the boy who was imprisoned for stealing five pence from a pub.
Although the secret vote was now employed in municipal and parliamentary elections, the voting process for Prescot Union Guardians was unchanged. The people responsible for implementing the Poor Law within the St Helens and Prescot districts had responsibilities no less important than a councillor. But the way they were elected was open to corruption with the voting papers taken to the homes of those entitled to vote. A member of a candidate's team would often assist the person in deciding who to vote for and there were often claims of voting slips being interfered with.
On the 17th at the first meeting of the newly elected Guardians, a complaint was read out from a defeated candidate. He claimed that men had been going round Prescot filling in voting papers in the absence of householders and otherwise tampering with them. The deputy chairman of the Guardians said a great many complaints had been received about this "objectionable practice" and it was decided their clerk should investigate and attempt to obtain a conviction.
Charles Whittle was the owner of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath that somehow was able to bypass the atmospheric pollution of 1870s St Helens to stunning effect. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle. The St Helens Newspaper on the 19th described the recent opening of the gardens for the new season:
"The opening of this picturesque place of amusement, for the present season, took place, according to custom, on Good Friday. They were thrown open to the public at two o’clock in the afternoon, and from thence until closing they presented a scene of festivity. In no previous year had a greater number of visitors attended the opening. This may be accounted for in the exceptional fineness of the weather. Certainly the Gardens were very attractive.
"The late warmth had given an impetus to the growth of the varied products of nature, and everything looked fresh, luxuriant, and inviting. The band of the 2nd L.E.V., engaged for the occasion, discoursed music during the whole of the afternoon, and enabling dancing to be carried on to the heart's content of the visitors."
You can hardly blame 19th century women for taking the odd drink with their lives being so harsh. But it was to an extent a social taboo with many husbands hypocritically arguing that they had the right to consume alcohol – but not their wives. James McDonough felt the way to stop his wife from boozing was to severely beat her up.
The 24-year-old labourer had met Rebecca in the street and accused her of having been drinking, which she denied. After what was described as "offensive words" having being exchanged, McDonough knocked Rebecca to the ground, dragged her to their house by her hair and then beat her savagely.
This week at the Prescot Petty Sessions when McDonough was charged with brutally assaulting his wife, a doctor said her injuries had been very severe and included a fractured jaw. Although Rebecca was far from well, she still gave evidence in the court but attempted to play down the seriousness of the attack.
Some women calculated that they would be better off with a violent husband in the house than left on their own with her man in prison. Although she would be safe for the period of the incarceration, there would be no or little income coming into the home. However, the Bench at Prescot committed the man for trial at the next Kirkdale sessions, where he would be sent to prison for 12 months with hard labour.
As I've often commented, a defendant's perceived respectability in court counted a lot as to how well they were treated. Tramps were not considered respectable and if found sleeping in an outbuilding in St Helens would be arrested and prosecuted. All they wanted was a dry and relatively warm place to rest for the night and the vast majority of such persons weren't thieves or doing anybody any harm. That made no difference to the courts who would invariably commit such vagrants to prison for a couple of weeks.
But consider the case of Edward Toole who appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week. He was charged with sleeping without permission in a cowshed belonging to Edward Valentine of Thatto Heath. Toole had been found dozing in the hay on a Sunday morning. He claimed his landlady had locked him out of his lodgings because he had returned home late on the previous evening. Unlike tramps Toole was able to afford a solicitor who told the court that his client was not a rogue or a vagabond.
He had been living in the town some ten or eleven years; was a married man and had a job at the Bridgewater Chemical Works in St Helens. Despite the fact that Toole's offence was no different to those committed regularly by common vagrants, he was considered respectable and so the charge against him was dismissed.
And just to prove the point in another case this week, William Wardle was sent to prison for 14 days after being caught sleeping in Church Street. When awakened by a police officer, Wardle claimed he was blind. But in court Supt. James Ludlam – who was in charge of St Helens police – remarked that the man could see perfectly well and had apparently come into the town because of the Spring fair.
Life was so localised in the 1870s that few thieves thought of venturing far in order to sell their stolen goods. And so it did not take much detective work to solve many crimes. This week George Moss was charged with stealing eight pigeons from the coop of Richard Winstanley of Rainford and also eleven birds belonging to George Mason, who also lived in the village.
Both thefts had taken place on the same day and on the following day the nineteen pigeons were taken to David Appleton's pigeon shop in Bridge Street in St Helens. There Moss sold them for a shilling each. The man was quickly arrested and in court was sentenced to four months in prison. Pigeon fancying was a popular sport and no doubt there was a demand for shops that sold the birds and probably supplied their feed etc. Thomas Anthony was another who kept a pigeon shop in Tontine Street.
You could get into terrible trouble for simply accepting someone else's mistake. On the 23rd William Hirst appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with defrauding the postal department out of £11. On March 3rd Hirst had cashed a postal order for 10 shillings at a Warrington post office. However, the clerk thought that two cancelling strokes in the pounds column of the order represented £11 and so paid the man £11 10 shillings. Hirst accepted the additional eleven pounds and left the post office without alerting the clerk to his mistake.
For a labourer like William Hirst the extra cash was the equivalent of over two months' wages and he must have been well pleased with himself. When the mistake was discovered Hirst could not be found and after a long search the consigner of the order was located in London and Hirst's identity and whereabouts ascertained. The police arrested him while at work in a St Helens chemical yard and he immediately admitted the charge and was sent to prison for two months.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the shocking state of the workhouse hospital, the death of a Parr pit sinker, the daily attacks on passers-by in St Helens streets and the boy who was imprisoned for stealing five pence from a pub.
This week's many stories include the respectable Thatto Heath vagrant, the corrupt practices at an election for Prescot Guardians, the post office fraud by mistake, the severe beating of a wife for simply having a drink, the brainless Rainford pigeon thefts and the opening of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath.
Although the secret vote was now employed in municipal and parliamentary elections, the voting process for Prescot Union Guardians was unchanged.
The people responsible for implementing the Poor Law within the St Helens and Prescot districts had responsibilities no less important than a councillor.
But the way they were elected was open to corruption with the voting papers taken to the homes of those entitled to vote.
A member of a candidate's team would often assist the person in deciding who to vote for and there were often claims of voting slips being interfered with.
On the 17th at the first meeting of the newly elected Guardians, a complaint was read out from a defeated candidate.
He claimed that men had been going round Prescot filling in voting papers in the absence of householders and otherwise tampering with them.
The deputy chairman of the Guardians said a great many complaints had been received about this "objectionable practice" and it was decided their clerk should investigate and attempt to obtain a conviction.
Also at the meeting their medical officer reported that their hospital was overcrowded.
The infirmary for paupers attached to the Whiston Workhouse (illustrated above) was designed for 105 patients but currently contained 145 cases. The St Helens Newspaper said the medical officer:
"…made a serious complaint of the neglect of patients and general disarrangement through deficiency in nursing power."
Charles Whittle was the owner of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath that somehow was able to bypass the atmospheric pollution of 1870s St Helens to stunning effect.
The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 19th described the recent opening of the gardens for the new season:
"The opening of this picturesque place of amusement, for the present season, took place, according to custom, on Good Friday. They were thrown open to the public at two o’clock in the afternoon, and from thence until closing they presented a scene of festivity.
"In no previous year had a greater number of visitors attended the opening. This may be accounted for in the exceptional fineness of the weather. Certainly the Gardens were very attractive.
"The late warmth had given an impetus to the growth of the varied products of nature, and everything looked fresh, luxuriant, and inviting.
"The band of the 2nd L.E.V., engaged for the occasion, discoursed music during the whole of the afternoon, and enabling dancing to be carried on to the heart's content of the visitors."
You can hardly blame 19th century women for taking the odd drink with their lives being so harsh.
But it was to an extent a social taboo with many husbands hypocritically arguing that they had the right to consume alcohol – but not their wives.
James McDonough felt the way to stop his wife from boozing was to severely beat her up.
The 24-year-old labourer had met Rebecca in the street and accused her of having been drinking, which she denied.
After what was described as "offensive words" having being exchanged, McDonough knocked Rebecca to the ground, dragged her to their house by her hair and then beat her savagely.
This week at the Prescot Petty Sessions when McDonough was charged with brutally assaulting his wife, a doctor said her injuries had been very severe and included a fractured jaw.
Although Rebecca was far from well, she still gave evidence in the court but attempted to play down the seriousness of the attack.
Some women calculated that they would be better off with a violent husband in the house than left on their own with her man in prison.
Although she would be safe for the period of the incarceration, there would be no or little income coming into the home.
However, the Bench at Prescot committed the man for trial at the next Kirkdale sessions, where he would be sent to prison for 12 months with hard labour.
As I've often commented, a defendant's perceived respectability in court counted a lot as to how well they were treated.
Tramps were not considered respectable and if found sleeping in an outbuilding in St Helens would be arrested and prosecuted.
All they wanted was a dry and relatively warm place to rest for the night and the vast majority of such persons weren't thieves or doing anybody any harm.
That made no difference to the courts who would invariably commit such vagrants to prison for a couple of weeks.
But consider the case of Edward Toole who appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week.
He was charged with sleeping without permission in a cowshed belonging to Edward Valentine of Thatto Heath.
Toole had been found dozing in the hay on a Sunday morning. He claimed his landlady had locked him out of his lodgings because he had returned home late on the previous evening.
Unlike tramps Toole was able to afford a solicitor who told the court that his client was not a rogue or a vagabond.
He had been living in the town some ten or eleven years; was a married man and had a job at the Bridgewater Chemical Works in St Helens.
Despite the fact that Toole's offence was no different to those committed regularly by common vagrants, he was considered respectable and so the charge against him was dismissed.
And just to prove the point in another case this week, William Wardle was sent to prison for 14 days after being caught sleeping in Church Street. When awakened by a police officer, Wardle claimed he was blind.
But in court Supt. James Ludlam – who was in charge of St Helens police – remarked that the man could see perfectly well and had apparently come into the town because of the Spring fair.
Life was so localised in the 1870s that few thieves thought of venturing far in order to sell their stolen goods. And so it did not take much detective work to solve many crimes.
This week George Moss was charged with stealing eight pigeons from the coop of Richard Winstanley of Rainford and also eleven birds belonging to George Mason, who also lived in the village.
Both thefts had taken place on the same day and on the following day the nineteen pigeons were taken to David Appleton's pigeon shop in Bridge Street in St Helens. There Moss sold them for a shilling each.
The man was quickly arrested and in court was sentenced to four months in prison.
Pigeon fancying was a popular sport and no doubt there was a demand for shops that sold the birds and probably supplied their feed etc. Thomas Anthony was another who kept a pigeon shop in Tontine Street.
You could get into terrible trouble for simply accepting someone else's mistake.
On the 23rd William Hirst appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with defrauding the postal department out of £11.
On March 3rd Hirst had cashed a postal order for 10 shillings at a Warrington post office.
However, the clerk thought that two cancelling strokes in the pounds column of the order represented £11 and so paid the man £11 10 shillings.
Hirst accepted the additional eleven pounds and left the post office without alerting the clerk to his mistake.
For a labourer like William Hirst the extra cash was the equivalent of over two months' wages and he must have been well pleased with himself.
When the mistake was discovered Hirst could not be found and after a long search the consigner of the order was located in London and Hirst's identity and whereabouts ascertained.
The police arrested him while at work in a St Helens chemical yard and he immediately admitted the charge and was sent to prison for two months.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the shocking state of the workhouse hospital, the death of a Parr pit sinker, the daily attacks on passers-by in St Helens streets and the boy who was imprisoned for stealing five pence from a pub.
Although the secret vote was now employed in municipal and parliamentary elections, the voting process for Prescot Union Guardians was unchanged.
The people responsible for implementing the Poor Law within the St Helens and Prescot districts had responsibilities no less important than a councillor.
But the way they were elected was open to corruption with the voting papers taken to the homes of those entitled to vote.
A member of a candidate's team would often assist the person in deciding who to vote for and there were often claims of voting slips being interfered with.
On the 17th at the first meeting of the newly elected Guardians, a complaint was read out from a defeated candidate.
He claimed that men had been going round Prescot filling in voting papers in the absence of householders and otherwise tampering with them.
The deputy chairman of the Guardians said a great many complaints had been received about this "objectionable practice" and it was decided their clerk should investigate and attempt to obtain a conviction.
Also at the meeting their medical officer reported that their hospital was overcrowded.
"…made a serious complaint of the neglect of patients and general disarrangement through deficiency in nursing power."
Charles Whittle was the owner of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens in Thatto Heath that somehow was able to bypass the atmospheric pollution of 1870s St Helens to stunning effect.
The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 19th described the recent opening of the gardens for the new season:
"The opening of this picturesque place of amusement, for the present season, took place, according to custom, on Good Friday. They were thrown open to the public at two o’clock in the afternoon, and from thence until closing they presented a scene of festivity.
"In no previous year had a greater number of visitors attended the opening. This may be accounted for in the exceptional fineness of the weather. Certainly the Gardens were very attractive.
"The late warmth had given an impetus to the growth of the varied products of nature, and everything looked fresh, luxuriant, and inviting.
"The band of the 2nd L.E.V., engaged for the occasion, discoursed music during the whole of the afternoon, and enabling dancing to be carried on to the heart's content of the visitors."
You can hardly blame 19th century women for taking the odd drink with their lives being so harsh.
But it was to an extent a social taboo with many husbands hypocritically arguing that they had the right to consume alcohol – but not their wives.
James McDonough felt the way to stop his wife from boozing was to severely beat her up.
The 24-year-old labourer had met Rebecca in the street and accused her of having been drinking, which she denied.
After what was described as "offensive words" having being exchanged, McDonough knocked Rebecca to the ground, dragged her to their house by her hair and then beat her savagely.
This week at the Prescot Petty Sessions when McDonough was charged with brutally assaulting his wife, a doctor said her injuries had been very severe and included a fractured jaw.
Although Rebecca was far from well, she still gave evidence in the court but attempted to play down the seriousness of the attack.
Some women calculated that they would be better off with a violent husband in the house than left on their own with her man in prison.
Although she would be safe for the period of the incarceration, there would be no or little income coming into the home.
However, the Bench at Prescot committed the man for trial at the next Kirkdale sessions, where he would be sent to prison for 12 months with hard labour.
As I've often commented, a defendant's perceived respectability in court counted a lot as to how well they were treated.
Tramps were not considered respectable and if found sleeping in an outbuilding in St Helens would be arrested and prosecuted.
All they wanted was a dry and relatively warm place to rest for the night and the vast majority of such persons weren't thieves or doing anybody any harm.
That made no difference to the courts who would invariably commit such vagrants to prison for a couple of weeks.
But consider the case of Edward Toole who appeared in the St Helens Petty Sessions this week.
He was charged with sleeping without permission in a cowshed belonging to Edward Valentine of Thatto Heath.
Toole had been found dozing in the hay on a Sunday morning. He claimed his landlady had locked him out of his lodgings because he had returned home late on the previous evening.
Unlike tramps Toole was able to afford a solicitor who told the court that his client was not a rogue or a vagabond.
He had been living in the town some ten or eleven years; was a married man and had a job at the Bridgewater Chemical Works in St Helens.
Despite the fact that Toole's offence was no different to those committed regularly by common vagrants, he was considered respectable and so the charge against him was dismissed.
And just to prove the point in another case this week, William Wardle was sent to prison for 14 days after being caught sleeping in Church Street. When awakened by a police officer, Wardle claimed he was blind.
But in court Supt. James Ludlam – who was in charge of St Helens police – remarked that the man could see perfectly well and had apparently come into the town because of the Spring fair.
Life was so localised in the 1870s that few thieves thought of venturing far in order to sell their stolen goods. And so it did not take much detective work to solve many crimes.
This week George Moss was charged with stealing eight pigeons from the coop of Richard Winstanley of Rainford and also eleven birds belonging to George Mason, who also lived in the village.
Both thefts had taken place on the same day and on the following day the nineteen pigeons were taken to David Appleton's pigeon shop in Bridge Street in St Helens. There Moss sold them for a shilling each.
The man was quickly arrested and in court was sentenced to four months in prison.
Pigeon fancying was a popular sport and no doubt there was a demand for shops that sold the birds and probably supplied their feed etc. Thomas Anthony was another who kept a pigeon shop in Tontine Street.
You could get into terrible trouble for simply accepting someone else's mistake.
On the 23rd William Hirst appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with defrauding the postal department out of £11.
On March 3rd Hirst had cashed a postal order for 10 shillings at a Warrington post office.
However, the clerk thought that two cancelling strokes in the pounds column of the order represented £11 and so paid the man £11 10 shillings.
Hirst accepted the additional eleven pounds and left the post office without alerting the clerk to his mistake.
For a labourer like William Hirst the extra cash was the equivalent of over two months' wages and he must have been well pleased with himself.
When the mistake was discovered Hirst could not be found and after a long search the consigner of the order was located in London and Hirst's identity and whereabouts ascertained.
The police arrested him while at work in a St Helens chemical yard and he immediately admitted the charge and was sent to prison for two months.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's many stories will include the shocking state of the workhouse hospital, the death of a Parr pit sinker, the daily attacks on passers-by in St Helens streets and the boy who was imprisoned for stealing five pence from a pub.