150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (18th - 24th February 1869)
This week's stories include a vicious assault on a woman in Rainford, a dispute over a cart in Ormskirk Street, more harsh prison sentences and the comic tale of the irrepressible drunkard Dennis Fay. However we begin with a strange childhood anecdote that was published in the Spectator by the Rev. Walter Clay, the Vicar of Rainhill.
It was reprinted on the 18th in the Fife Herald under the headline "Illustration of the Brain Wave Theory". In a letter the vicar recalled how thirty years earlier his mother had been waiting for his father to return from a visit to the local prison. After a while she heard footsteps approaching the house and the sounds of someone opening and passing through the yard door that was usually kept locked.
The person then entered the house by the rear door, mounted the back stairs and entered their front hall. Mrs Clay recognised the distinctive sounds of her husband's footsteps and also heard him place his umbrella into the hall stand, which made the usual rattling noise. It had been raining heavily and her husband was then heard to take off his topcoat and shake it before walking through the inner hall into the dining room.
He was then heard approaching their fire where he stood for a few moments to dry off. Without actually seeing her husband, Mrs Clay shouted: "You must be very wet; had you not better change your clothes at once?" "Yes", came the reply, "I think I had better do so" and so the man turned, left the room, and went upstairs to his dressing room.
After half an hour had passed with her husband yet to come down, Rev. Clay said his mother went upstairs to see what was causing the delay. To her astonishment she found his room empty and no sign of him having been there.
Some time later she heard again the same footsteps approaching; the same opening of the yard door; the same entrance by the back door; the same putting down of the umbrella and the shaking of the coat etc. etc. Mrs Clay asked her puzzled husband why he had gone out again in the rain but he insisted that he had only just returned from his visit to the prison.
However he did recollect that as he left the prison the thought had occurred to him that with the rain so heavy, he should follow the route that he rarely took upon returning home.
The vicar of Rainhill wrote: "He mentally rehearsed the circumstances of his entrance – doing in the spirit precisely what he afterwards did in the body. The conclusion is obvious that while the imago [mental image] of the yard door, back stairs, &c, was present in his brain, his imago was simultaneously present in my mother's brain."
The Independent Chapel in Ormskirk Street was an historic building and as the town of St Helens expanded during the 19th century, the chapel could no longer accommodate the increased congregation. So for the last few months the church had been closed while renovations were carried out, with services held instead inside the Volunteer Hall. On February 19th the church reopened and with its new aisles was now capable of accommodating 1,000 persons.
Under the headline "A Meeting of Old Acquaintances" this is how the Wigan Observer described recidivist offender Dennis Fay (or Feigh as he has previously been called) making a return court appearance on the 20th:
"At the St. Helens police court, on Saturday, the irrepressible Dennis Fay was brought up before Mr. W. Pilkington. The recognition was instantaneous and mutual, for Dennis had frequently received orders and advice from his worship and confreres – in fact, this was Dennis's 45th audience with the local bench during his residence in the town. A month previously he had consulted his worship, who on that occasion had recommended him a month's change of residence, where be might inhale the saline air at Kirkdale [prison], and it was only last week he returned.
"Of course he had to visit, on his return, his old friends the publicans at the usual haunts. The result was that the congratulatory acts of his friends imposed on Dennis the duty of suitable acknowledgments, and Dennis, unable to restrain the outpourings of his heart, gave vent to them in the street in such a disorderly manner as to attract the notice of Police-constable Snap – ominous name! – who quickly marched our hero to durance vile.
"His worship ordered Dennis to find two sureties in £5 each to guarantee his keeping the peace for one month, but Dennis's friends failing to respond to the requirements, he was committed to Kirkdale house of correction for twenty-eight days."
At the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 22nd Robert Rigby was charged with violently assaulting a young woman named Agnes McKee in Rainford two days earlier. Superintendent Ludlam told the magistrates that she had received such severe injuries that she was not able to appear before them.
PC Turner gave evidence that on the night in question he had been told a woman had been beaten and was nearly dead and upon his arrival found her to be in a very bad way. She told him that Rigby had been her assailant and he immediately arrested him. Dr. William Fletcher said he had attended the woman on the following morning and found her in a very dangerous state, suffering from internal injuries and vomiting.
However the doctor now considered Miss Cowley to be out of danger. She had been suffering greatly from inflammation of the lungs produced by external violence, such as kicking. The case was then remanded for a week, the prisoner surprisingly being given bail, although the amount set was very high.
Also in the sessions was David Swallow, a highways surveyor from Rainford, who had been summoned for allowing his horse and cart to stand beyond a reasonable time without a driver. Police Constable 307 told the court that he had seen the cart standing in front of the Globe Inn in Ormskirk Street for half an hour and when he spoke to Mr Swallow he became very abusive.
The proprietor of the Globe and two other witnesses gave evidence that the cart had only been left for ten minutes. The Bench dismissed the case and Swallow then applied for a warrant against the policeman for wilful and corrupt perjury but was advised to consult with his legal adviser before proceeding.
Henry Marsh was convicted at the Sessions of throwing a stone through the window of Cowley School. Thomas Brewis, the solicitor to the school trustees, said the practice was now getting so common that an example must be made. An order was made for the payment of 12 shillings. Cowley school was then in North Road and known to locals as "Lacey's" (pictured above), after the longstanding head Newton Lacey. Central Modern was built on the site.
There were more thefts of coal from Ravenhead Colliery dealt with in the court, with the usual harsh sentences. Two boys called John Halligan and Martin Murphy were sent to prison for fourteen days for separate thefts of coal. Patrick Churchill was sent to prison for seven days and ordered to receive six strokes of a birch rod. Margaret Davis was sent to prison for two weeks for stealing just 14 lbs. of coal that belonged to Amelia Wallace of the Britannia Inn in Duke Street.
Alice Gately summoned the unusually named Absalom Southward for "thrashing" her in Peasley Cross. They were both drunk and had a row that turned violent. The magistrates decided they were both as bad as each other and dismissed the case. Absalom – named seemingly after the third son of David, King of Israel – lived until the ripe old age of 95.
On the same day a meeting of the opponents of the St Helens Improvement Bill was held at the Raven Hotel. This huge piece of legislation would give the Corporation sweeping powers to improve the appalling sewage, drainage, cleansing, paving and lighting. However the proprietors of coalmines and other wealthy businessmen were concerned that their rates bill would rise if the bill became law.
Prescot Fair was held on the 24th. The Liverpool Mercury wrote that there were some "first-class lots of prime milking cows and superior young heifers. Prices for all kinds of stock ruled lower than at the last fair, owing, no doubt, in some degree, to the number of up-country dealers not being so great."
Next week's stories will include a battle of butchers in the Bird I'th Hand, the Bridge Street billycock theft, more on the vicious assault on a Rainford woman, the man fined 5 bob for grinning in court, two suicides by drowning, the disadvantage of being the wife of a St Helens policeman and the Prescot apprentice prosecuted for not going to work.
It was reprinted on the 18th in the Fife Herald under the headline "Illustration of the Brain Wave Theory". In a letter the vicar recalled how thirty years earlier his mother had been waiting for his father to return from a visit to the local prison. After a while she heard footsteps approaching the house and the sounds of someone opening and passing through the yard door that was usually kept locked.
The person then entered the house by the rear door, mounted the back stairs and entered their front hall. Mrs Clay recognised the distinctive sounds of her husband's footsteps and also heard him place his umbrella into the hall stand, which made the usual rattling noise. It had been raining heavily and her husband was then heard to take off his topcoat and shake it before walking through the inner hall into the dining room.
He was then heard approaching their fire where he stood for a few moments to dry off. Without actually seeing her husband, Mrs Clay shouted: "You must be very wet; had you not better change your clothes at once?" "Yes", came the reply, "I think I had better do so" and so the man turned, left the room, and went upstairs to his dressing room.
After half an hour had passed with her husband yet to come down, Rev. Clay said his mother went upstairs to see what was causing the delay. To her astonishment she found his room empty and no sign of him having been there.
Some time later she heard again the same footsteps approaching; the same opening of the yard door; the same entrance by the back door; the same putting down of the umbrella and the shaking of the coat etc. etc. Mrs Clay asked her puzzled husband why he had gone out again in the rain but he insisted that he had only just returned from his visit to the prison.
However he did recollect that as he left the prison the thought had occurred to him that with the rain so heavy, he should follow the route that he rarely took upon returning home.
The vicar of Rainhill wrote: "He mentally rehearsed the circumstances of his entrance – doing in the spirit precisely what he afterwards did in the body. The conclusion is obvious that while the imago [mental image] of the yard door, back stairs, &c, was present in his brain, his imago was simultaneously present in my mother's brain."
The Independent Chapel in Ormskirk Street was an historic building and as the town of St Helens expanded during the 19th century, the chapel could no longer accommodate the increased congregation. So for the last few months the church had been closed while renovations were carried out, with services held instead inside the Volunteer Hall. On February 19th the church reopened and with its new aisles was now capable of accommodating 1,000 persons.
Under the headline "A Meeting of Old Acquaintances" this is how the Wigan Observer described recidivist offender Dennis Fay (or Feigh as he has previously been called) making a return court appearance on the 20th:
"At the St. Helens police court, on Saturday, the irrepressible Dennis Fay was brought up before Mr. W. Pilkington. The recognition was instantaneous and mutual, for Dennis had frequently received orders and advice from his worship and confreres – in fact, this was Dennis's 45th audience with the local bench during his residence in the town. A month previously he had consulted his worship, who on that occasion had recommended him a month's change of residence, where be might inhale the saline air at Kirkdale [prison], and it was only last week he returned.
"Of course he had to visit, on his return, his old friends the publicans at the usual haunts. The result was that the congratulatory acts of his friends imposed on Dennis the duty of suitable acknowledgments, and Dennis, unable to restrain the outpourings of his heart, gave vent to them in the street in such a disorderly manner as to attract the notice of Police-constable Snap – ominous name! – who quickly marched our hero to durance vile.
"His worship ordered Dennis to find two sureties in £5 each to guarantee his keeping the peace for one month, but Dennis's friends failing to respond to the requirements, he was committed to Kirkdale house of correction for twenty-eight days."
At the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 22nd Robert Rigby was charged with violently assaulting a young woman named Agnes McKee in Rainford two days earlier. Superintendent Ludlam told the magistrates that she had received such severe injuries that she was not able to appear before them.
PC Turner gave evidence that on the night in question he had been told a woman had been beaten and was nearly dead and upon his arrival found her to be in a very bad way. She told him that Rigby had been her assailant and he immediately arrested him. Dr. William Fletcher said he had attended the woman on the following morning and found her in a very dangerous state, suffering from internal injuries and vomiting.
However the doctor now considered Miss Cowley to be out of danger. She had been suffering greatly from inflammation of the lungs produced by external violence, such as kicking. The case was then remanded for a week, the prisoner surprisingly being given bail, although the amount set was very high.
Also in the sessions was David Swallow, a highways surveyor from Rainford, who had been summoned for allowing his horse and cart to stand beyond a reasonable time without a driver. Police Constable 307 told the court that he had seen the cart standing in front of the Globe Inn in Ormskirk Street for half an hour and when he spoke to Mr Swallow he became very abusive.
The proprietor of the Globe and two other witnesses gave evidence that the cart had only been left for ten minutes. The Bench dismissed the case and Swallow then applied for a warrant against the policeman for wilful and corrupt perjury but was advised to consult with his legal adviser before proceeding.
There were more thefts of coal from Ravenhead Colliery dealt with in the court, with the usual harsh sentences. Two boys called John Halligan and Martin Murphy were sent to prison for fourteen days for separate thefts of coal. Patrick Churchill was sent to prison for seven days and ordered to receive six strokes of a birch rod. Margaret Davis was sent to prison for two weeks for stealing just 14 lbs. of coal that belonged to Amelia Wallace of the Britannia Inn in Duke Street.
Alice Gately summoned the unusually named Absalom Southward for "thrashing" her in Peasley Cross. They were both drunk and had a row that turned violent. The magistrates decided they were both as bad as each other and dismissed the case. Absalom – named seemingly after the third son of David, King of Israel – lived until the ripe old age of 95.
On the same day a meeting of the opponents of the St Helens Improvement Bill was held at the Raven Hotel. This huge piece of legislation would give the Corporation sweeping powers to improve the appalling sewage, drainage, cleansing, paving and lighting. However the proprietors of coalmines and other wealthy businessmen were concerned that their rates bill would rise if the bill became law.
Prescot Fair was held on the 24th. The Liverpool Mercury wrote that there were some "first-class lots of prime milking cows and superior young heifers. Prices for all kinds of stock ruled lower than at the last fair, owing, no doubt, in some degree, to the number of up-country dealers not being so great."
Next week's stories will include a battle of butchers in the Bird I'th Hand, the Bridge Street billycock theft, more on the vicious assault on a Rainford woman, the man fined 5 bob for grinning in court, two suicides by drowning, the disadvantage of being the wife of a St Helens policeman and the Prescot apprentice prosecuted for not going to work.