150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (17th - 23rd AUGUST 1870)
This week's stories include the Boundary Lane mob that turned on a Pilkington strike-breaker, a shocking explosion takes place at a Bryn coalmine, the Eccleston Church School Treat, the man who turned up drunk to court and the church minister ashamed of unsaintly St Helens.
The two magistrates adjudicating at the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th were both bosses at Pilkingtons. So the hearings were held in the company's own offices – how very convenient for them! George Robinson and John Cummings were charged with drunkenness and assaulting the police. PC James Barry gave evidence that at half-past eight on Monday night he had seen the two men in Church Street along with four others. The six were walking three abreast and knocking people off the footpath, with Robinson seen to "send a young woman staggering" into the road.
Inspector Myers said Robinson was "mad drunk" and violent and he and PC Barry had to carry him to the station. In mitigation Robinson said he had not been drinking for some time but on the day in question had taken some brandy for a bowel complaint. However the man had been before the court on four previous occasions and was fined 54 shillings or, if in default of payment, serve 9 weeks in prison. John Cummings had to pay a total of £1 4s 6d including costs or spend a month in prison. Very likely the pair went to jail through lack of funds.
There was yet another shocking mining explosion on the 19th, as a result of which 20 men and boys would die. The unlucky pit this time was Brynn Hall Colliery at Ashton. The Wigan Observer wrote:
"About half-past nine o'clock yesterday morning the workers on the surface and the residents for miles around the colliery were made aware that a terrible catastrophe had occurred by a loud report from the up-cast shaft and a fearful belching forth of smoke and flame. The news of the explosion spread wonderfully fast. The bodies brought to the surface were fearfully mangled, in fact many as have been the explosions in this district during the past few years, nothing more terrible has ever been seen than the fearful mutilation of the remains of the few poor fellows now lying in the stables at Brynn Hall."
It's curious that these days the district of Bryn is so spelt with just one "n" but in the past was spelt as Brynn and Brynn Street in St Helens is a reminder of its former spelling. I wonder why it changed?
The St Helens Newspaper continued its coverage of the Prussian War, writing on the 20th that they believed that recent battles between France and Prussia had led to "great slaughter of life and immense destruction of property". The Newspaper also described two recent gooseberry shows. The Stanley Arms Hotel in Gillars Green had been the venue for the Eccleston Show with forty prizes awarded. And the annual Pocket Nook Gooseberry Show had taken place in the Glasshouse Tavern with "remarkably fine" specimens on show.
In St Helens Police Court on the 22nd ten persons were summoned for breaching the peace at Eccleston by "shouting and making a great disturbance to the annoyance of divers subjects of her Majesty". A couple were also charged with stone throwing. The trouble began after a Pilkingtons glassmaker called Bates had returned to work after being on strike for fifteen weeks. The strike committee had been raising money from the community in order to support the men who were out of work – however Bates claimed he wasn't receiving any cash.
So he’d resumed work and what was described as a "very large crowd" had assembled around the man's home in Boundary Lane (pictured above c.1900) to try and stop Bates from further strikebreaking. The prosecutor told the court that the crowd consisted "in a great measure of women, boys, and girls, and your worships will find that the female defendants were the ringleaders of that crowd. They surrounded Bates's house, with tin cans, old kettles, &c., and there they stood for a long time, making all sorts of disagreeable and discordant noises."
The beating of cans and kettles was a common means of showing disapproval for someone or something, and sometimes concluded with the burning of an effigy. Well there was no television or cinema and people had to make their own entertainment somehow! After a lengthy hearing they were all bound over to keep the peace. During the 1870s there was both a Boundary Road and a Boundary Lane. In the 1871 census the former had seventeen houses and the latter six. These – and the homes in Gin Lane – would be combined into the Boundary Road that we recognise today.
In the Petty Sessions on the 22nd several youths were fined for taking turnips out of a field at Ravenhead. Peter Mathews was seen smashing a large turnip into pieces by hitting it against a post and was ordered to pay a total of 6 shillings.
Education for many in the mid-19th century was rather basic but surely it was common sense not to turn up to court drunk? But that was what Lawrence McDermott did when he and his brother Michael were summoned to face charges of assault. The complainant was Daniel Galvin of Mount Street (near Liverpool Road) who had annoyed the brothers by stopping a fight that one of them had been involved in. As Galvin's solicitor, Thomas Swift, was explaining to the Bench how the pair had subsequently born a grudge against his client, Lawrence McDermott shouted out "No, no".
The counsel then said to the magistrates: "This defendant is not fit to plead or answer at all for he is drunk in the court." This McDermott denied and Swift continued his evidence, describing how Michael McDermott had kicked Daniel Galvin in a "delicate part" of the body (ouch!). Both brothers were ordered by the Bench to find sureties guaranteeing their good behaviour for one month. However that wasn't all, as Lawrence McDermott was then charged with being drunk in the courtroom and fined 5 shillings and costs.
I wonder if he had been drinking the strong Burton ale (named after Burton-on-Trent), which appears to have been a popular brew in St Helens at that time. An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 23rd from the George Hotel said: "Re-opened, with a large and choice stock of wines, spirits, Burton and other ales, London and Dublin stouts, cordials, &c. Dinners and teas, billiards, &c."
One classifieds ad in the Newspaper said: "Wanted, by a Young Woman, a situation as General Servant. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office." The very next ad said: "Wanted, a good General Servant, who can wash and do plain cooking. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office." I think those two advertisers might just have been able to get together!
The Newspaper also described the recent Eccleston Church School Treat, which was enjoyed by the children of Christ Church School and the boys of Hill School: "The scholars, to the number of 250, assembled at the Sunday School at one o’clock, and after the distribution of prizes to the most deserving in their respective schools, proceeded through the pleasant grounds of the Rev. R. P. Crockett, vicar, thence to a field near Eccleston Hall kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. Stead.
"Upon reaching the top of the avenue, the children separated to enjoy the various games provided for them. During the afternoon, the band from the Old Church, St. Helens, which had headed the procession, performed numerous popular airs. About half-past five the children returned to the parsonage, and had a very excellent tea served out to them on the lawn; after which, money, nuts, &c., were distributed amongst them by the visitors at the parsonage. The National Anthem was then sung, and “three cheers” lustily accorded to Mr. and Mrs. Crockett and family, for their liberality."
On the same day Rainhill Schools held their annual treat in which almost 300 children were "regaled with a bountiful supply of tea and bunloaf". Their parting gifts were buns and fruit – so no pennies for them then!
The temperance movement was building up in St Helens and during the evening of the 23rd a public meeting was held in the Town Hall. Its purpose was to put pressure on the licensing magistrates to refuse applications for drinks licenses from pubs and beerhouses. However the attendance was described as only "moderate" and it would be a few more years before the pressure group reached its peak. The chairman, Rev. Ward, told the gathering:
"We have to look in the face an attempt to augment an evil which was much too great already in the town of St. Helens. You are all aware of the awful growth of intemperance in the town, but were you aware of the fact that out of 8,182 inhabited houses in St. Helens, we have 320 public-houses, or one public-house to every 25 habitations? Are you aware of another fact, that for every 1,000 inhabitants there are seven public-houses provided? Was that a state of things any right-minded man could look upon with any other feelings than horror, shame, and disgust?"
The reverend said he had spent six years in St Helens and the more he saw of the town the more ashamed of it he was. St Helens was, he added, "one of the least entitled to have the word Saint before its name, for there were some most unsaintly things permitted in it."
Next week's stories will include an experiment to cure the evils of the Sankey Brook, the prevalence of foot and mouth disease in Eccleston, the Irish diorama at the Volunteer Hall and the man who used a stone to bash his son in front of the Parr police.
The two magistrates adjudicating at the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th were both bosses at Pilkingtons. So the hearings were held in the company's own offices – how very convenient for them! George Robinson and John Cummings were charged with drunkenness and assaulting the police. PC James Barry gave evidence that at half-past eight on Monday night he had seen the two men in Church Street along with four others. The six were walking three abreast and knocking people off the footpath, with Robinson seen to "send a young woman staggering" into the road.
Inspector Myers said Robinson was "mad drunk" and violent and he and PC Barry had to carry him to the station. In mitigation Robinson said he had not been drinking for some time but on the day in question had taken some brandy for a bowel complaint. However the man had been before the court on four previous occasions and was fined 54 shillings or, if in default of payment, serve 9 weeks in prison. John Cummings had to pay a total of £1 4s 6d including costs or spend a month in prison. Very likely the pair went to jail through lack of funds.
There was yet another shocking mining explosion on the 19th, as a result of which 20 men and boys would die. The unlucky pit this time was Brynn Hall Colliery at Ashton. The Wigan Observer wrote:
"About half-past nine o'clock yesterday morning the workers on the surface and the residents for miles around the colliery were made aware that a terrible catastrophe had occurred by a loud report from the up-cast shaft and a fearful belching forth of smoke and flame. The news of the explosion spread wonderfully fast. The bodies brought to the surface were fearfully mangled, in fact many as have been the explosions in this district during the past few years, nothing more terrible has ever been seen than the fearful mutilation of the remains of the few poor fellows now lying in the stables at Brynn Hall."
It's curious that these days the district of Bryn is so spelt with just one "n" but in the past was spelt as Brynn and Brynn Street in St Helens is a reminder of its former spelling. I wonder why it changed?
The St Helens Newspaper continued its coverage of the Prussian War, writing on the 20th that they believed that recent battles between France and Prussia had led to "great slaughter of life and immense destruction of property". The Newspaper also described two recent gooseberry shows. The Stanley Arms Hotel in Gillars Green had been the venue for the Eccleston Show with forty prizes awarded. And the annual Pocket Nook Gooseberry Show had taken place in the Glasshouse Tavern with "remarkably fine" specimens on show.
In St Helens Police Court on the 22nd ten persons were summoned for breaching the peace at Eccleston by "shouting and making a great disturbance to the annoyance of divers subjects of her Majesty". A couple were also charged with stone throwing. The trouble began after a Pilkingtons glassmaker called Bates had returned to work after being on strike for fifteen weeks. The strike committee had been raising money from the community in order to support the men who were out of work – however Bates claimed he wasn't receiving any cash.
The beating of cans and kettles was a common means of showing disapproval for someone or something, and sometimes concluded with the burning of an effigy. Well there was no television or cinema and people had to make their own entertainment somehow! After a lengthy hearing they were all bound over to keep the peace. During the 1870s there was both a Boundary Road and a Boundary Lane. In the 1871 census the former had seventeen houses and the latter six. These – and the homes in Gin Lane – would be combined into the Boundary Road that we recognise today.
In the Petty Sessions on the 22nd several youths were fined for taking turnips out of a field at Ravenhead. Peter Mathews was seen smashing a large turnip into pieces by hitting it against a post and was ordered to pay a total of 6 shillings.
Education for many in the mid-19th century was rather basic but surely it was common sense not to turn up to court drunk? But that was what Lawrence McDermott did when he and his brother Michael were summoned to face charges of assault. The complainant was Daniel Galvin of Mount Street (near Liverpool Road) who had annoyed the brothers by stopping a fight that one of them had been involved in. As Galvin's solicitor, Thomas Swift, was explaining to the Bench how the pair had subsequently born a grudge against his client, Lawrence McDermott shouted out "No, no".
The counsel then said to the magistrates: "This defendant is not fit to plead or answer at all for he is drunk in the court." This McDermott denied and Swift continued his evidence, describing how Michael McDermott had kicked Daniel Galvin in a "delicate part" of the body (ouch!). Both brothers were ordered by the Bench to find sureties guaranteeing their good behaviour for one month. However that wasn't all, as Lawrence McDermott was then charged with being drunk in the courtroom and fined 5 shillings and costs.
I wonder if he had been drinking the strong Burton ale (named after Burton-on-Trent), which appears to have been a popular brew in St Helens at that time. An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 23rd from the George Hotel said: "Re-opened, with a large and choice stock of wines, spirits, Burton and other ales, London and Dublin stouts, cordials, &c. Dinners and teas, billiards, &c."
One classifieds ad in the Newspaper said: "Wanted, by a Young Woman, a situation as General Servant. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office." The very next ad said: "Wanted, a good General Servant, who can wash and do plain cooking. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office." I think those two advertisers might just have been able to get together!
The Newspaper also described the recent Eccleston Church School Treat, which was enjoyed by the children of Christ Church School and the boys of Hill School: "The scholars, to the number of 250, assembled at the Sunday School at one o’clock, and after the distribution of prizes to the most deserving in their respective schools, proceeded through the pleasant grounds of the Rev. R. P. Crockett, vicar, thence to a field near Eccleston Hall kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. Stead.
"Upon reaching the top of the avenue, the children separated to enjoy the various games provided for them. During the afternoon, the band from the Old Church, St. Helens, which had headed the procession, performed numerous popular airs. About half-past five the children returned to the parsonage, and had a very excellent tea served out to them on the lawn; after which, money, nuts, &c., were distributed amongst them by the visitors at the parsonage. The National Anthem was then sung, and “three cheers” lustily accorded to Mr. and Mrs. Crockett and family, for their liberality."
On the same day Rainhill Schools held their annual treat in which almost 300 children were "regaled with a bountiful supply of tea and bunloaf". Their parting gifts were buns and fruit – so no pennies for them then!
The temperance movement was building up in St Helens and during the evening of the 23rd a public meeting was held in the Town Hall. Its purpose was to put pressure on the licensing magistrates to refuse applications for drinks licenses from pubs and beerhouses. However the attendance was described as only "moderate" and it would be a few more years before the pressure group reached its peak. The chairman, Rev. Ward, told the gathering:
"We have to look in the face an attempt to augment an evil which was much too great already in the town of St. Helens. You are all aware of the awful growth of intemperance in the town, but were you aware of the fact that out of 8,182 inhabited houses in St. Helens, we have 320 public-houses, or one public-house to every 25 habitations? Are you aware of another fact, that for every 1,000 inhabitants there are seven public-houses provided? Was that a state of things any right-minded man could look upon with any other feelings than horror, shame, and disgust?"
The reverend said he had spent six years in St Helens and the more he saw of the town the more ashamed of it he was. St Helens was, he added, "one of the least entitled to have the word Saint before its name, for there were some most unsaintly things permitted in it."
Next week's stories will include an experiment to cure the evils of the Sankey Brook, the prevalence of foot and mouth disease in Eccleston, the Irish diorama at the Volunteer Hall and the man who used a stone to bash his son in front of the Parr police.
This week's stories include the Boundary Lane mob that turned on a Pilkington strike-breaker, a shocking explosion takes place at a Bryn coalmine, the Eccleston Church School Treat, the man who turned up drunk to court and the church minister ashamed of unsaintly St Helens.
The two magistrates adjudicating at the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th were both bosses at Pilkingtons.
So the hearings were held in the company's own offices – how very convenient for them!
George Robinson and John Cummings were charged with drunkenness and assaulting the police.
PC James Barry gave evidence that at half-past eight on Monday night he had seen the two men in Church Street along with four others.
The six were walking three abreast and knocking people off the footpath, with Robinson seen to "send a young woman staggering" into the road.
Inspector Myers said Robinson was "mad drunk" and violent and he and PC Barry had to carry him to the station.
In mitigation Robinson said he had not been drinking for some time but on the day in question had taken some brandy for a bowel complaint.
However the man had been before the court on four previous occasions and was fined 54 shillings or, if in default of payment, serve 9 weeks in prison.
John Cummings had to pay a total of £1 4s 6d including costs or spend a month in prison. Very likely the pair went to jail through lack of funds.
There was yet another shocking mining explosion on the 19th, as a result of which 20 men and boys would die.
The unlucky pit this time was Brynn Hall Colliery at Ashton. The Wigan Observer wrote:
"About half-past nine o'clock yesterday morning the workers on the surface and the residents for miles around the colliery were made aware that a terrible catastrophe had occurred by a loud report from the up-cast shaft and a fearful belching forth of smoke and flame. The news of the explosion spread wonderfully fast.
"The bodies brought to the surface were fearfully mangled, in fact many as have been the explosions in this district during the past few years, nothing more terrible has ever been seen than the fearful mutilation of the remains of the few poor fellows now lying in the stables at Brynn Hall."
It's curious that these days the district of Bryn is so spelt with just one "n" but in the past was spelt as Brynn and Brynn Street in St Helens is a reminder of its former spelling. I wonder why it changed?
The St Helens Newspaper continued its coverage of the Prussian War, writing on the 20th that they believed that recent battles between France and Prussia had led to "great slaughter of life and immense destruction of property".
The Newspaper also described two recent gooseberry shows. The Stanley Arms Hotel in Gillars Green had been the venue for the Eccleston Show with forty prizes awarded.
And the annual Pocket Nook Gooseberry Show had taken place in the Glasshouse Tavern with "remarkably fine" specimens on show.
In St Helens Police Court on the 22nd ten persons were summoned for breaching the peace at Eccleston by "shouting and making a great disturbance to the annoyance of divers subjects of her Majesty".
A couple were also charged with stone throwing. The trouble began after a Pilkingtons glassmaker called Bates had returned to work after being on strike for fifteen weeks.
The strike committee had been raising money from the community in order to support the men who were out of work – however Bates claimed he wasn't receiving any cash.
So he’d resumed work and what was described as a "very large crowd" had assembled around the man's home in Boundary Lane (pictured above c.1900) to try and stop Bates from further strikebreaking.
The prosecutor told the court that the crowd consisted "in a great measure of women, boys, and girls, and your worships will find that the female defendants were the ringleaders of that crowd.
"They surrounded Bates's house, with tin cans, old kettles, &c., and there they stood for a long time, making all sorts of disagreeable and discordant noises."
The beating of cans and kettles was a common means of showing disapproval for someone or something, and sometimes concluded with the burning of an effigy.
Well there was no television or cinema and people had to make their own entertainment somehow!
After a lengthy hearing they were all bound over to keep the peace.
During the 1870s there was both a Boundary Road and a Boundary Lane.
In the 1871 census the former had seventeen houses and the latter six.
These – and the homes in Gin Lane – would be combined into the Boundary Road that we recognise today.
In the Petty Sessions on the 22nd several youths were fined for taking turnips out of a field at Ravenhead.
Peter Mathews was seen smashing a large turnip into pieces by hitting it against a post and was ordered to pay a total of 6 shillings.
Education for many in the mid-19th century was rather basic but surely it was common sense not to turn up to court drunk?
But that was what Lawrence McDermott did when he and his brother Michael were summoned to face charges of assault.
The complainant was Daniel Galvin of Mount Street (near Liverpool Road) who had annoyed the brothers by stopping a fight that one of them had been involved in.
As Galvin's solicitor, Thomas Swift, was explaining to the Bench how the pair had subsequently born a grudge against his client, Lawrence McDermott shouted out "No, no".
The counsel then said to the magistrates: "This defendant is not fit to plead or answer at all for he is drunk in the court."
This McDermott denied and Swift continued his evidence, describing how Michael McDermott had kicked Daniel Galvin in a "delicate part" of the body (ouch!).
Both brothers were ordered by the Bench to find sureties guaranteeing their good behaviour for one month.
However that wasn't all, as Lawrence McDermott was then charged with being drunk in the courtroom and fined 5 shillings and costs.
I wonder if he had been drinking the strong Burton ale (named after Burton-on-Trent), which appears to have been a popular brew in St Helens at that time.
An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 23rd from the George Hotel said:
"Re-opened, with a large and choice stock of wines, spirits, Burton and other ales, London and Dublin stouts, cordials, &c. Dinners and teas, billiards, &c."
One classifieds ad in the Newspaper said: "Wanted, by a Young Woman, a situation as General Servant. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office."
The very next ad said: "Wanted, a good General Servant, who can wash and do plain cooking. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office."
I think those two advertisers might just have been able to get together!
The Newspaper also described the recent Eccleston Church School Treat, which was enjoyed by the children of Christ Church School and the boys of Hill School:
"The scholars, to the number of 250, assembled at the Sunday School at one o’clock, and after the distribution of prizes to the most deserving in their respective schools, proceeded through the pleasant grounds of the Rev. R. P. Crockett, vicar, thence to a field near Eccleston Hall kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. Stead.
"Upon reaching the top of the avenue, the children separated to enjoy the various games provided for them. During the afternoon, the band from the Old Church, St. Helens, which had headed the procession, performed numerous popular airs.
"About half-past five the children returned to the parsonage, and had a very excellent tea served out to them on the lawn; after which, money, nuts, &c., were distributed amongst them by the visitors at the parsonage.
"The National Anthem was then sung, and “three cheers” lustily accorded to Mr. and Mrs. Crockett and family, for their liberality."
On the same day Rainhill Schools held their annual treat in which almost 300 children were "regaled with a bountiful supply of tea and bunloaf".
Their parting gifts were buns and fruit – so no pennies for them then!
The temperance movement was building up in St Helens and during the evening of the 23rd a public meeting was held in the Town Hall. Its purpose was to put pressure on the licensing magistrates to refuse applications for drinks licenses from pubs and beerhouses.
However the attendance was described as only "moderate" and it would be a few more years before the pressure group reached its peak. The chairman, Rev. Ward, told the gathering:
"We have to look in the face an attempt to augment an evil which was much too great already in the town of St. Helens. You are all aware of the awful growth of intemperance in the town, but were you aware of the fact that out of 8,182 inhabited houses in St. Helens, we have 320 public-houses, or one public-house to every 25 habitations?
"Are you aware of another fact, that for every 1,000 inhabitants there are seven public-houses provided? Was that a state of things any right-minded man could look upon with any other feelings than horror, shame, and disgust?"
The reverend said he had spent six years in St Helens and the more he saw of the town the more ashamed of it he was.
St Helens was, he added, "one of the least entitled to have the word Saint before its name, for there were some most unsaintly things permitted in it."
Next week's stories will include an experiment to cure the evils of the Sankey Brook, the prevalence of foot and mouth disease in Eccleston, the Irish diorama at the Volunteer Hall and the man who used a stone to bash his son in front of the Parr police.
The two magistrates adjudicating at the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 18th were both bosses at Pilkingtons.
So the hearings were held in the company's own offices – how very convenient for them!
George Robinson and John Cummings were charged with drunkenness and assaulting the police.
PC James Barry gave evidence that at half-past eight on Monday night he had seen the two men in Church Street along with four others.
The six were walking three abreast and knocking people off the footpath, with Robinson seen to "send a young woman staggering" into the road.
Inspector Myers said Robinson was "mad drunk" and violent and he and PC Barry had to carry him to the station.
In mitigation Robinson said he had not been drinking for some time but on the day in question had taken some brandy for a bowel complaint.
However the man had been before the court on four previous occasions and was fined 54 shillings or, if in default of payment, serve 9 weeks in prison.
John Cummings had to pay a total of £1 4s 6d including costs or spend a month in prison. Very likely the pair went to jail through lack of funds.
There was yet another shocking mining explosion on the 19th, as a result of which 20 men and boys would die.
The unlucky pit this time was Brynn Hall Colliery at Ashton. The Wigan Observer wrote:
"About half-past nine o'clock yesterday morning the workers on the surface and the residents for miles around the colliery were made aware that a terrible catastrophe had occurred by a loud report from the up-cast shaft and a fearful belching forth of smoke and flame. The news of the explosion spread wonderfully fast.
"The bodies brought to the surface were fearfully mangled, in fact many as have been the explosions in this district during the past few years, nothing more terrible has ever been seen than the fearful mutilation of the remains of the few poor fellows now lying in the stables at Brynn Hall."
It's curious that these days the district of Bryn is so spelt with just one "n" but in the past was spelt as Brynn and Brynn Street in St Helens is a reminder of its former spelling. I wonder why it changed?
The St Helens Newspaper continued its coverage of the Prussian War, writing on the 20th that they believed that recent battles between France and Prussia had led to "great slaughter of life and immense destruction of property".
The Newspaper also described two recent gooseberry shows. The Stanley Arms Hotel in Gillars Green had been the venue for the Eccleston Show with forty prizes awarded.
And the annual Pocket Nook Gooseberry Show had taken place in the Glasshouse Tavern with "remarkably fine" specimens on show.
In St Helens Police Court on the 22nd ten persons were summoned for breaching the peace at Eccleston by "shouting and making a great disturbance to the annoyance of divers subjects of her Majesty".
A couple were also charged with stone throwing. The trouble began after a Pilkingtons glassmaker called Bates had returned to work after being on strike for fifteen weeks.
The strike committee had been raising money from the community in order to support the men who were out of work – however Bates claimed he wasn't receiving any cash.
The prosecutor told the court that the crowd consisted "in a great measure of women, boys, and girls, and your worships will find that the female defendants were the ringleaders of that crowd.
"They surrounded Bates's house, with tin cans, old kettles, &c., and there they stood for a long time, making all sorts of disagreeable and discordant noises."
The beating of cans and kettles was a common means of showing disapproval for someone or something, and sometimes concluded with the burning of an effigy.
Well there was no television or cinema and people had to make their own entertainment somehow!
After a lengthy hearing they were all bound over to keep the peace.
During the 1870s there was both a Boundary Road and a Boundary Lane.
In the 1871 census the former had seventeen houses and the latter six.
These – and the homes in Gin Lane – would be combined into the Boundary Road that we recognise today.
In the Petty Sessions on the 22nd several youths were fined for taking turnips out of a field at Ravenhead.
Peter Mathews was seen smashing a large turnip into pieces by hitting it against a post and was ordered to pay a total of 6 shillings.
Education for many in the mid-19th century was rather basic but surely it was common sense not to turn up to court drunk?
But that was what Lawrence McDermott did when he and his brother Michael were summoned to face charges of assault.
The complainant was Daniel Galvin of Mount Street (near Liverpool Road) who had annoyed the brothers by stopping a fight that one of them had been involved in.
As Galvin's solicitor, Thomas Swift, was explaining to the Bench how the pair had subsequently born a grudge against his client, Lawrence McDermott shouted out "No, no".
The counsel then said to the magistrates: "This defendant is not fit to plead or answer at all for he is drunk in the court."
This McDermott denied and Swift continued his evidence, describing how Michael McDermott had kicked Daniel Galvin in a "delicate part" of the body (ouch!).
Both brothers were ordered by the Bench to find sureties guaranteeing their good behaviour for one month.
However that wasn't all, as Lawrence McDermott was then charged with being drunk in the courtroom and fined 5 shillings and costs.
I wonder if he had been drinking the strong Burton ale (named after Burton-on-Trent), which appears to have been a popular brew in St Helens at that time.
An advert in the St Helens Newspaper on the 23rd from the George Hotel said:
"Re-opened, with a large and choice stock of wines, spirits, Burton and other ales, London and Dublin stouts, cordials, &c. Dinners and teas, billiards, &c."
One classifieds ad in the Newspaper said: "Wanted, by a Young Woman, a situation as General Servant. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office."
The very next ad said: "Wanted, a good General Servant, who can wash and do plain cooking. – Apply at Dromgoole's Registry Office."
I think those two advertisers might just have been able to get together!
The Newspaper also described the recent Eccleston Church School Treat, which was enjoyed by the children of Christ Church School and the boys of Hill School:
"The scholars, to the number of 250, assembled at the Sunday School at one o’clock, and after the distribution of prizes to the most deserving in their respective schools, proceeded through the pleasant grounds of the Rev. R. P. Crockett, vicar, thence to a field near Eccleston Hall kindly lent for the occasion by Mr. Stead.
"Upon reaching the top of the avenue, the children separated to enjoy the various games provided for them. During the afternoon, the band from the Old Church, St. Helens, which had headed the procession, performed numerous popular airs.
"About half-past five the children returned to the parsonage, and had a very excellent tea served out to them on the lawn; after which, money, nuts, &c., were distributed amongst them by the visitors at the parsonage.
"The National Anthem was then sung, and “three cheers” lustily accorded to Mr. and Mrs. Crockett and family, for their liberality."
On the same day Rainhill Schools held their annual treat in which almost 300 children were "regaled with a bountiful supply of tea and bunloaf".
Their parting gifts were buns and fruit – so no pennies for them then!
The temperance movement was building up in St Helens and during the evening of the 23rd a public meeting was held in the Town Hall. Its purpose was to put pressure on the licensing magistrates to refuse applications for drinks licenses from pubs and beerhouses.
However the attendance was described as only "moderate" and it would be a few more years before the pressure group reached its peak. The chairman, Rev. Ward, told the gathering:
"We have to look in the face an attempt to augment an evil which was much too great already in the town of St. Helens. You are all aware of the awful growth of intemperance in the town, but were you aware of the fact that out of 8,182 inhabited houses in St. Helens, we have 320 public-houses, or one public-house to every 25 habitations?
"Are you aware of another fact, that for every 1,000 inhabitants there are seven public-houses provided? Was that a state of things any right-minded man could look upon with any other feelings than horror, shame, and disgust?"
The reverend said he had spent six years in St Helens and the more he saw of the town the more ashamed of it he was.
St Helens was, he added, "one of the least entitled to have the word Saint before its name, for there were some most unsaintly things permitted in it."
Next week's stories will include an experiment to cure the evils of the Sankey Brook, the prevalence of foot and mouth disease in Eccleston, the Irish diorama at the Volunteer Hall and the man who used a stone to bash his son in front of the Parr police.