150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 22 - 28 JANUARY 1874
This week's stories include the cow's head hanging outside a butcher's shop that caused an obstruction, Whiston Workhouse's Christmas tree celebration, the lengthy waits at Crank's level crossing for someone to unlock the gates, more on the new church temperance movement in St Helens, the healthy population of Rainford, the death in Africa of the explorer Dr Livingstone and why St Helens Council planned to send congratulatory addresses to Queen Victoria and the Duke of Edinburgh.
At a meeting last December a new temperance organisation had been formed at Lowe House Church called the Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness. Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled. Unusually the association accepted two forms of pledge. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
On January 22nd another meeting was held at Lowe House School in which the St Helens Newspaper said: "Every inch of space was occupied, even to the platform, and hundreds were turned away." The idea was to provide free entertainment and then afterwards sign up prospective teetotallers. And so a series of songs, choruses and recitations were given by Lowe House schoolgirls with the Newspaper commenting:
"The performances of the girls showed careful training, their pronunciation, in particular, being something rare amongst children of their class in St. Helens." Father Turner told the throng that their movement now had 670 members – comprising 400 partial abstainers and 270 who had totally renounced all alcoholic drink.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 24th published a lengthy report on a special meeting of St Helens Town Council that had taken place this week and which had a single purpose. That was to decide on the advisability of sending congratulatory "addresses" to Queen Victoria and the Duke of Edinburgh. The latter was Alfred, the fourth child of the Queen and Prince Albert, who this week had wed the Grand Duchess Marie.
She was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and their wedding had taken place in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The wedding seems to have been driven by politics rather than romance and at the council meeting Councillor Fidler spoke of the "excellence of the alliance from a political point of view".
He added that as the occasion was of a "joyful character" there should be more than an empty address sent to celebrate it and Cllr Fidler suggested a general holiday or partial holiday should be called in St Helens. However, it was decided that there was not enough time to persuade employers to grant such a concession and it was decided that just the two addresses (i.e. letters) would be despatched.
The Newspaper also reported on the recent Christmas tree celebration at Whiston Workhouse. Their inmates usually enjoyed a Christmas meal and festive entertainment on the day itself. But some weeks later a presentation of a Christmas tree was also made. Why the delay, I cannot say, but at least it meant that the paupers had two decent days during the year.
There was much more to the second event than just a handover of a tree. A hundred better-off persons were asked to make contributions to pay for it – of which 60 had this year obliged. Their money was not just spent on the tree but on decorating the dining hall, as the Newspaper described:
"The walls were almost hidden with evergreens, grouped in various designs, and studied with moral, religious, and seasonable mottoes. The pillars which support the ceiling were festooned gracefully, and added to the effect. The whole of the inmates of the house were trooped together, about 300 in number, and when they were joined by nearly 200 visitors, the room was very comfortably filled.
"The paupers presented an excellent appearance. They were orderly, reserved, and strikingly clean. The women looked far more prepossessing than females of their class outside – as they sat in their clean dresses, snow-white caps, and neatly arranged hair. Each was a model, but for the costume, of the thrifty cottage housewife."
A large amount of tobacco and snuff was handed out as presents and a concert then began featuring what the Newspaper described as: "A number of gentlemen of musical celebrity in St. Helens". One of these singers bore the name of Mozart Barton. I could not find him listed in the 1871 census, although a dozen others living in Britain bore that same Christian name.
The Newspaper, in describing the conclusion of the event, wrote: "It was now eleven o’clock, and not even the children looked weary, so pleasantly had the hours passed; but they were soon marshalled off to their dormitories, and as they filed laughingly away, one could not help thinking that the whole value of the Christmas tree consisted in the gleam of sunshine which it cast upon the dull monotony of their lives."
Above is the old C of E church in Rainford. A Local Board now administered the village and the Newspaper reported on its latest meeting at Alpine House in what would become Church Road. A complaint about the level crossing at Crank was discussed, as road traffic was often being stopped for up to 30 minutes. In the days before electricity pretty much all operations had to be performed manually and the small station at Crank had few staff.
At times they were highly stretched in dealing with arrivals and departures and managing their goods siding. And so the level crossing had to be left locked for long periods until someone was free to unlock it, leaving people waiting for long periods on the road. As a result the Board's Clerk had written to the railway company at Lime Street to complain about the situation with the possibility of litigation if satisfaction was not obtained.
It was also revealed that there had been only one death in the village during the past five weeks – and that had been a member of their own Board! Rainford only had a small population compared to St Helens and it was far more rural and did not suffer from the same amount of atmospheric pollution.
Although there were coalmines in the village and other industries, many residents worked in the fields or on jobs such as making tobacco pipes and their housing conditions tended to be better. By contrast during the previous month in St Helens there had been 134 deaths with 27 through a scarlet fever outbreak that was ongoing.
St Helens Police were keen to book people for causing obstructions of one sort or another in the town's narrow streets and pavements and many offenders received small fines. But when butcher Joseph Marsh was charged with obstruction in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 26th his offence had been a first.
The butchers liked to show off their meat by hanging it outside their premises and Marsh was accused of causing an obstruction through draping a cow's head over his door. I'm not sure the sight of a cow's head would induce me to enter a shop to buy meat. But St Helens police had warned all the butchers in the town not to cause obstructions but Marsh was said to have taken no notice.
In court he complained of the unfairness of being prosecuted for hanging up a cow's head at a height of only six feet while the sellers of newspapers placed advertising boards on pavements. The superintendent said he would look into that claim. However, St Helens magistrates had a tradition of not convicting a defendant for a new offence. Obstruction wasn't new but its interpretation as regards butchers' meat on show was, and so Marsh was let off.
The Liverpool Mercury on the 27th reported the death of Dr Livingstone, which had occurred in what we know as Zambia. It was another reminder of the slowness of communications with the paper reporting that the explorer's death had occurred in the previous June. In fact Livingstone had died on May 1st 1873 through dysentery and it had taken almost eight months for the news to reach Britain.
In 1869 a lecture describing the travels of Dr Livingstone had been given in the Hardshaw Meeting House (aka Friends Meeting House) in Raven Street (now Church Street) in St Helens. The St Helens Newspaper had also regularly updated its readers with news of the great explorer as he had undertaken his long search for the source of the Nile.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fight in the Crystal Palace beerhouse in Sutton, the Rainford soiree and ball, a new teacher for Whiston Workhouse, the Valentine's cards on sale in St Helens and more criticism of the poisonous St Helens atmosphere.
At a meeting last December a new temperance organisation had been formed at Lowe House Church called the Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness. Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled. Unusually the association accepted two forms of pledge. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
On January 22nd another meeting was held at Lowe House School in which the St Helens Newspaper said: "Every inch of space was occupied, even to the platform, and hundreds were turned away." The idea was to provide free entertainment and then afterwards sign up prospective teetotallers. And so a series of songs, choruses and recitations were given by Lowe House schoolgirls with the Newspaper commenting:
"The performances of the girls showed careful training, their pronunciation, in particular, being something rare amongst children of their class in St. Helens." Father Turner told the throng that their movement now had 670 members – comprising 400 partial abstainers and 270 who had totally renounced all alcoholic drink.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 24th published a lengthy report on a special meeting of St Helens Town Council that had taken place this week and which had a single purpose. That was to decide on the advisability of sending congratulatory "addresses" to Queen Victoria and the Duke of Edinburgh. The latter was Alfred, the fourth child of the Queen and Prince Albert, who this week had wed the Grand Duchess Marie.
She was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and their wedding had taken place in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The wedding seems to have been driven by politics rather than romance and at the council meeting Councillor Fidler spoke of the "excellence of the alliance from a political point of view".
He added that as the occasion was of a "joyful character" there should be more than an empty address sent to celebrate it and Cllr Fidler suggested a general holiday or partial holiday should be called in St Helens. However, it was decided that there was not enough time to persuade employers to grant such a concession and it was decided that just the two addresses (i.e. letters) would be despatched.
The Newspaper also reported on the recent Christmas tree celebration at Whiston Workhouse. Their inmates usually enjoyed a Christmas meal and festive entertainment on the day itself. But some weeks later a presentation of a Christmas tree was also made. Why the delay, I cannot say, but at least it meant that the paupers had two decent days during the year.
There was much more to the second event than just a handover of a tree. A hundred better-off persons were asked to make contributions to pay for it – of which 60 had this year obliged. Their money was not just spent on the tree but on decorating the dining hall, as the Newspaper described:
"The walls were almost hidden with evergreens, grouped in various designs, and studied with moral, religious, and seasonable mottoes. The pillars which support the ceiling were festooned gracefully, and added to the effect. The whole of the inmates of the house were trooped together, about 300 in number, and when they were joined by nearly 200 visitors, the room was very comfortably filled.
"The paupers presented an excellent appearance. They were orderly, reserved, and strikingly clean. The women looked far more prepossessing than females of their class outside – as they sat in their clean dresses, snow-white caps, and neatly arranged hair. Each was a model, but for the costume, of the thrifty cottage housewife."
A large amount of tobacco and snuff was handed out as presents and a concert then began featuring what the Newspaper described as: "A number of gentlemen of musical celebrity in St. Helens". One of these singers bore the name of Mozart Barton. I could not find him listed in the 1871 census, although a dozen others living in Britain bore that same Christian name.
The Newspaper, in describing the conclusion of the event, wrote: "It was now eleven o’clock, and not even the children looked weary, so pleasantly had the hours passed; but they were soon marshalled off to their dormitories, and as they filed laughingly away, one could not help thinking that the whole value of the Christmas tree consisted in the gleam of sunshine which it cast upon the dull monotony of their lives."
At times they were highly stretched in dealing with arrivals and departures and managing their goods siding. And so the level crossing had to be left locked for long periods until someone was free to unlock it, leaving people waiting for long periods on the road. As a result the Board's Clerk had written to the railway company at Lime Street to complain about the situation with the possibility of litigation if satisfaction was not obtained.
It was also revealed that there had been only one death in the village during the past five weeks – and that had been a member of their own Board! Rainford only had a small population compared to St Helens and it was far more rural and did not suffer from the same amount of atmospheric pollution.
Although there were coalmines in the village and other industries, many residents worked in the fields or on jobs such as making tobacco pipes and their housing conditions tended to be better. By contrast during the previous month in St Helens there had been 134 deaths with 27 through a scarlet fever outbreak that was ongoing.
St Helens Police were keen to book people for causing obstructions of one sort or another in the town's narrow streets and pavements and many offenders received small fines. But when butcher Joseph Marsh was charged with obstruction in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 26th his offence had been a first.
The butchers liked to show off their meat by hanging it outside their premises and Marsh was accused of causing an obstruction through draping a cow's head over his door. I'm not sure the sight of a cow's head would induce me to enter a shop to buy meat. But St Helens police had warned all the butchers in the town not to cause obstructions but Marsh was said to have taken no notice.
In court he complained of the unfairness of being prosecuted for hanging up a cow's head at a height of only six feet while the sellers of newspapers placed advertising boards on pavements. The superintendent said he would look into that claim. However, St Helens magistrates had a tradition of not convicting a defendant for a new offence. Obstruction wasn't new but its interpretation as regards butchers' meat on show was, and so Marsh was let off.
The Liverpool Mercury on the 27th reported the death of Dr Livingstone, which had occurred in what we know as Zambia. It was another reminder of the slowness of communications with the paper reporting that the explorer's death had occurred in the previous June. In fact Livingstone had died on May 1st 1873 through dysentery and it had taken almost eight months for the news to reach Britain.
In 1869 a lecture describing the travels of Dr Livingstone had been given in the Hardshaw Meeting House (aka Friends Meeting House) in Raven Street (now Church Street) in St Helens. The St Helens Newspaper had also regularly updated its readers with news of the great explorer as he had undertaken his long search for the source of the Nile.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fight in the Crystal Palace beerhouse in Sutton, the Rainford soiree and ball, a new teacher for Whiston Workhouse, the Valentine's cards on sale in St Helens and more criticism of the poisonous St Helens atmosphere.
This week's stories include the cow's head hanging outside a butcher's shop that caused an obstruction, Whiston Workhouse's Christmas tree celebration, the lengthy waits at Crank's level crossing for someone to unlock the gates, more on the new church temperance movement in St Helens, the healthy population of Rainford, the death in Africa of the explorer Dr Livingstone and why St Helens Council planned to send congratulatory addresses to Queen Victoria and the Duke of Edinburgh.
At a meeting last December a new temperance organisation had been formed at Lowe House Church called the Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness.
Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled.
Unusually the association accepted two forms of pledge. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
On January 22nd another meeting was held at Lowe House School in which the St Helens Newspaper said: "Every inch of space was occupied, even to the platform, and hundreds were turned away."
The idea was to provide free entertainment and then afterwards sign up prospective teetotallers.
And so a series of songs, choruses and recitations were given by Lowe House schoolgirls with the Newspaper commenting:
"The performances of the girls showed careful training, their pronunciation, in particular, being something rare amongst children of their class in St. Helens."
Father Turner told the throng that their movement now had 670 members – comprising 400 partial abstainers and 270 who had totally renounced all alcoholic drink.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 24th published a lengthy report on a special meeting of St Helens Town Council that had taken place this week and which had a single purpose.
That was to decide on the advisability of sending congratulatory "addresses" to Queen Victoria and the Duke of Edinburgh.
The latter was Alfred, the fourth child of the Queen and Prince Albert, who this week had wed the Grand Duchess Marie.
She was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and their wedding had taken place in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.
The wedding seems to have been driven by politics rather than romance and at the council meeting Councillor Fidler spoke of the "excellence of the alliance from a political point of view".
He added that as the occasion was of a "joyful character" there should be more than an empty address sent to celebrate it and Cllr Fidler suggested a general holiday or partial holiday should be called in St Helens.
However, it was decided that there was not enough time to persuade employers to grant such a concession and it was decided that just the two addresses (i.e. letters) would be despatched.
The Newspaper also reported on the recent Christmas tree celebration at Whiston Workhouse. Their inmates usually enjoyed a Christmas meal and festive entertainment on the day itself.
But some weeks later a presentation of a Christmas tree was also made. Why the delay, I cannot say, but at least it meant that the paupers had two decent days during the year.
There was much more to the second event than just a handover of a tree. A hundred better-off persons were asked to make contributions to pay for it – of which 60 had this year obliged.
Their money was not just spent on the tree but on decorating the dining hall, as the Newspaper described:
"The walls were almost hidden with evergreens, grouped in various designs, and studied with moral, religious, and seasonable mottoes. The pillars which support the ceiling were festooned gracefully, and added to the effect.
"The whole of the inmates of the house were trooped together, about 300 in number, and when they were joined by nearly 200 visitors, the room was very comfortably filled.
"The paupers presented an excellent appearance. They were orderly, reserved, and strikingly clean.
"The women looked far more prepossessing than females of their class outside – as they sat in their clean dresses, snow-white caps, and neatly arranged hair. Each was a model, but for the costume, of the thrifty cottage housewife."
A large amount of tobacco and snuff was handed out as presents and a concert then began featuring what the Newspaper described as: "A number of gentlemen of musical celebrity in St. Helens".
One of these singers bore the name of Mozart Barton. I could not find him listed in the 1871 census, although a dozen others living in Britain bore that same Christian name.
The Newspaper, in describing the conclusion of the event, wrote:
"It was now eleven o’clock, and not even the children looked weary, so pleasantly had the hours passed; but they were soon marshalled off to their dormitories, and as they filed laughingly away, one could not help thinking that the whole value of the Christmas tree consisted in the gleam of sunshine which it cast upon the dull monotony of their lives."
Above is the old C of E church in Rainford. A Local Board now administered the village and the Newspaper reported on its latest meeting at Alpine House in what would become Church Road.
A complaint about the level crossing at Crank was discussed, as road traffic was often being stopped for up to 30 minutes.
In the days before electricity pretty much all operations had to be performed manually and the small station at Crank had few staff.
At times they were highly stretched in dealing with arrivals and departures and managing their goods siding.
And so the level crossing had to be left locked for long periods until someone was free to unlock it, leaving people waiting for long periods on the road.
As a result the Board's Clerk had written to the railway company at Lime Street to complain about the situation with the possibility of litigation if satisfaction was not obtained.
It was also revealed that there had been only one death in the village during the past five weeks – and that had been a member of their own Board!
Rainford only had a small population compared to St Helens and it was far more rural and did not suffer from the same amount of atmospheric pollution.
Although there were coalmines in the village and other industries, many residents worked in the fields or on jobs such as making tobacco pipes and their housing conditions tended to be better.
By contrast during the previous month in St Helens there had been 134 deaths with 27 through a scarlet fever outbreak that was ongoing.
St Helens Police were keen to book people for causing obstructions of one sort or another in the town's narrow streets and pavements and many offenders received small fines.
But when butcher Joseph Marsh was charged with obstruction in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 26th his offence had been a first.
The butchers liked to show off their meat by hanging it outside their premises and Marsh was accused of causing an obstruction through draping a cow's head over his door.
I'm not sure the sight of a cow's head would induce me to enter a shop to buy meat. But St Helens police had warned all the butchers in the town not to cause obstructions but Marsh was said to have taken no notice.
In court he complained of the unfairness of being prosecuted for hanging up a cow's head at a height of only six feet while the sellers of newspapers placed advertising boards on pavements.
The superintendent said he would look into that claim. However, St Helens magistrates had a tradition of not convicting a defendant for a new offence.
Obstruction wasn't new but its interpretation as regards butchers' meat on show was, and so Marsh was let off.
The Liverpool Mercury on the 27th reported the death of Dr Livingstone, which had occurred in what we know as Zambia.
It was another reminder of the slowness of communications with the paper reporting that the explorer's death had occurred in the previous June.
In fact Livingstone had died on May 1st 1873 through dysentery and it had taken almost eight months for the news to reach Britain.
In 1869 a lecture describing the travels of Dr Livingstone had been given in the Hardshaw Meeting House (aka Friends Meeting House) in Raven Street (now Church Street) in St Helens.
The St Helens Newspaper had also regularly updated its readers with news of the great explorer as he had undertaken his long search for the source of the Nile.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fight in the Crystal Palace beerhouse in Sutton, the Rainford soiree and ball, a new teacher for Whiston Workhouse, the Valentine's cards on sale in St Helens and more criticism of the poisonous St Helens atmosphere.
At a meeting last December a new temperance organisation had been formed at Lowe House Church called the Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness.
Over a hundred persons had signed the pledge that evening and within days that number had doubled.
Unusually the association accepted two forms of pledge. As well as total abstinence, members could agree not to drink more than two pints of beer a day, as long as they were not consumed within a public house.
On January 22nd another meeting was held at Lowe House School in which the St Helens Newspaper said: "Every inch of space was occupied, even to the platform, and hundreds were turned away."
The idea was to provide free entertainment and then afterwards sign up prospective teetotallers.
And so a series of songs, choruses and recitations were given by Lowe House schoolgirls with the Newspaper commenting:
"The performances of the girls showed careful training, their pronunciation, in particular, being something rare amongst children of their class in St. Helens."
Father Turner told the throng that their movement now had 670 members – comprising 400 partial abstainers and 270 who had totally renounced all alcoholic drink.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 24th published a lengthy report on a special meeting of St Helens Town Council that had taken place this week and which had a single purpose.
That was to decide on the advisability of sending congratulatory "addresses" to Queen Victoria and the Duke of Edinburgh.
The latter was Alfred, the fourth child of the Queen and Prince Albert, who this week had wed the Grand Duchess Marie.
She was the daughter of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and their wedding had taken place in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.
The wedding seems to have been driven by politics rather than romance and at the council meeting Councillor Fidler spoke of the "excellence of the alliance from a political point of view".
He added that as the occasion was of a "joyful character" there should be more than an empty address sent to celebrate it and Cllr Fidler suggested a general holiday or partial holiday should be called in St Helens.
However, it was decided that there was not enough time to persuade employers to grant such a concession and it was decided that just the two addresses (i.e. letters) would be despatched.
The Newspaper also reported on the recent Christmas tree celebration at Whiston Workhouse. Their inmates usually enjoyed a Christmas meal and festive entertainment on the day itself.
But some weeks later a presentation of a Christmas tree was also made. Why the delay, I cannot say, but at least it meant that the paupers had two decent days during the year.
There was much more to the second event than just a handover of a tree. A hundred better-off persons were asked to make contributions to pay for it – of which 60 had this year obliged.
Their money was not just spent on the tree but on decorating the dining hall, as the Newspaper described:
"The walls were almost hidden with evergreens, grouped in various designs, and studied with moral, religious, and seasonable mottoes. The pillars which support the ceiling were festooned gracefully, and added to the effect.
"The whole of the inmates of the house were trooped together, about 300 in number, and when they were joined by nearly 200 visitors, the room was very comfortably filled.
"The paupers presented an excellent appearance. They were orderly, reserved, and strikingly clean.
"The women looked far more prepossessing than females of their class outside – as they sat in their clean dresses, snow-white caps, and neatly arranged hair. Each was a model, but for the costume, of the thrifty cottage housewife."
A large amount of tobacco and snuff was handed out as presents and a concert then began featuring what the Newspaper described as: "A number of gentlemen of musical celebrity in St. Helens".
One of these singers bore the name of Mozart Barton. I could not find him listed in the 1871 census, although a dozen others living in Britain bore that same Christian name.
The Newspaper, in describing the conclusion of the event, wrote:
"It was now eleven o’clock, and not even the children looked weary, so pleasantly had the hours passed; but they were soon marshalled off to their dormitories, and as they filed laughingly away, one could not help thinking that the whole value of the Christmas tree consisted in the gleam of sunshine which it cast upon the dull monotony of their lives."
A complaint about the level crossing at Crank was discussed, as road traffic was often being stopped for up to 30 minutes.
In the days before electricity pretty much all operations had to be performed manually and the small station at Crank had few staff.
At times they were highly stretched in dealing with arrivals and departures and managing their goods siding.
And so the level crossing had to be left locked for long periods until someone was free to unlock it, leaving people waiting for long periods on the road.
As a result the Board's Clerk had written to the railway company at Lime Street to complain about the situation with the possibility of litigation if satisfaction was not obtained.
It was also revealed that there had been only one death in the village during the past five weeks – and that had been a member of their own Board!
Rainford only had a small population compared to St Helens and it was far more rural and did not suffer from the same amount of atmospheric pollution.
Although there were coalmines in the village and other industries, many residents worked in the fields or on jobs such as making tobacco pipes and their housing conditions tended to be better.
By contrast during the previous month in St Helens there had been 134 deaths with 27 through a scarlet fever outbreak that was ongoing.
St Helens Police were keen to book people for causing obstructions of one sort or another in the town's narrow streets and pavements and many offenders received small fines.
But when butcher Joseph Marsh was charged with obstruction in St Helens Petty Sessions on the 26th his offence had been a first.
The butchers liked to show off their meat by hanging it outside their premises and Marsh was accused of causing an obstruction through draping a cow's head over his door.
I'm not sure the sight of a cow's head would induce me to enter a shop to buy meat. But St Helens police had warned all the butchers in the town not to cause obstructions but Marsh was said to have taken no notice.
In court he complained of the unfairness of being prosecuted for hanging up a cow's head at a height of only six feet while the sellers of newspapers placed advertising boards on pavements.
The superintendent said he would look into that claim. However, St Helens magistrates had a tradition of not convicting a defendant for a new offence.
Obstruction wasn't new but its interpretation as regards butchers' meat on show was, and so Marsh was let off.
The Liverpool Mercury on the 27th reported the death of Dr Livingstone, which had occurred in what we know as Zambia.
It was another reminder of the slowness of communications with the paper reporting that the explorer's death had occurred in the previous June.
In fact Livingstone had died on May 1st 1873 through dysentery and it had taken almost eight months for the news to reach Britain.
In 1869 a lecture describing the travels of Dr Livingstone had been given in the Hardshaw Meeting House (aka Friends Meeting House) in Raven Street (now Church Street) in St Helens.
The St Helens Newspaper had also regularly updated its readers with news of the great explorer as he had undertaken his long search for the source of the Nile.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the fight in the Crystal Palace beerhouse in Sutton, the Rainford soiree and ball, a new teacher for Whiston Workhouse, the Valentine's cards on sale in St Helens and more criticism of the poisonous St Helens atmosphere.