150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (22nd - 28th July 1869)
This week's stories include the "owdacious" rag dealer from Liverpool Road, the man who threatened to shoot his neighbour in Pilkingtons Row, more on the devastating Haydock pit explosion, the almost daily fighting at St Helens railway station, two fires occur in a single day and the Sunday morning Sutton beer serving.
It was the height of the summer and a time when adventurous boys would drown in the town's many waterways. On the 23rd Michael Burke lost his balance while sailing near a place called St Andrew's Terrace in Sutton. The boy was aged about nine and drowned in the water.
At the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 24th a tramp called Mary Ann Allen was sent to prison for a month after being found concealed at the rear of the George Hotel in Prescot.
The St Helens Newspaper was published on that day and described a recent court case in which Sydney McLeod had been charged with threatening to shoot Matthew Kelly. Both lived in Pilkingtons Row and McLeod objected to Kelly speaking to his sister outside his house. He ordered the man to get off his premises to which Kelly replied he was not on them.
To that McLeod pulled out a pistol, loaded it and then pointed the gun at Kelly saying he would make a dead man of him. McLeod's wife then ran out of the house and dragged her husband inside. This wasn't the first time that Kelly had been ordered away by McLeod and the magistrates took the view that the man should have kept away and dismissed the case.
Fires were not all that common in St Helens but two occurred on the 25th. The first was discovered around 3am when the premises of wheelwright Charles Rigby in Crossfield Street were found to be ablaze. The fire brigade was soon on the spot and were able to source water from the nearby canal.
But due to the amount of dry timber they could do little but try and prevent the flames from spreading to the adjoining premises. Later that day it was discovered that the adjacent railway station had been broken into, although nothing of value was stolen. It was thought likely that the same persons had either accidentally or intentionally caused the fire. The second blaze occurred in Parr when "some evil-disposed person" (as described by the Wigan Observer), set fire to a pile of railway sleepers and all were destroyed.
George Nixon – from Hillock Street in Prescot and aged about 60 – drowned on the 25th while swimming in an old clay or marl pit on a farm at Whiston. On the following day the annual White Lion Gooseberry Show was held at the Church Street inn with many exhibitors and a large number of prizes awarded.
At the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 26th James Fay was charged with fighting with Patrick O’Neill. Mr Ashurst, the St Helens stationmaster at Shaw Street, gave evidence that he had seen Fay strike Patrick O’Neill without the slightest provocation and then "buffet him about" in order to induce him to fight. He added: "This sort of disturbance was going forward almost every day, and was productive of great annoyance to those who have business at the railway station." Fay was bound over for two months.
A dispute between three female rag and bone dealers was also played out in court. Mary Hayes summoned Elizabeth and Catherine Aspinall for assault and they cross-summoned her. Mrs Hayes kept a rag shop in Liverpool Road and had reported the Aspinalls to the authorities for claiming relief payments when not entitled. The woman told the court that they had assaulted and beat her in revenge, although she had no witnesses and Catherine Aspinall told a different tale.
She said Mrs Hayes had come to her door and wanted to know if she was married. Catherine said she declined to answer upon which Mary Hayes began calling her very insulting names. A witness was called who said the language used by Mrs Hayes had been "owdacious". She in turn asked the man if he was not at the time "lying drunk on the flags, and begging for a pint of ale", which he strongly denied.
A young man named Banks claimed the language Mary Hayes had used was not fit to be spoken either in the courtroom or in private company, to which Mrs Hayes accused him of "hobnobbing" with the Aspinalls every night until 1am. The Bench dismissed the case against Elizabeth and Catherine Aspinall with the Chairman saying he wished he could say the same of Mary Hayes.
"You would, your honour, if I was English", replied Mary. She appears to have been Irish and it was a widespread belief amongst the Irish community that they did not get justice in the courts. The Chairman ignored her comment and told the woman that she would have to find sureties to keep the peace.
A cat and mouse game was regularly played between the police and beerhouse keepers on Sunday mornings when they were not allowed to open. With so many other drinking houses in the vicinity it was hard for landlords to refuse a regular customer's request for ale as they might take their custom elsewhere. So when a man called Makin asked Henry Brownbill of Sutton for beer to take away one Sunday morning, he agreed to fill his can.
A policeman identified only as PC 457 was walking past when Makin came out of the beerhouse and upon seeing the constable he immediately ran to his home, spilling some of the beer as he went. However in court the officer admitted that the entry that led to the back of Brownbill's beerhouse also went to a number of other houses. His legal counsel said it would be "monstrous" to assume Brownbill was guilty and the Bench dismissed the case.
James Hart was a member of the 2nd Local Engineer Volunteers (officers of a later version pictured above), which would become the Territorial Army and now the Army Reserve. He was in court after somehow destroying the tunic that he'd been given. This cost 30 shillings but Hart said he was prepared to repay the amount at 2s 6d per week.
The prosecution refused the soldier's offer, as his commanding officer clearly wanted an example to be made of the man. So Hart was fined 1 shilling and ordered to pay 30 shillings damages as a lump sum, which was probably more than he earned in a week.
On the 26th Sutton and Peasley Cross Catholic Schools went on a trip to Chester in which they saw all the sights, including the Roman baths, Eton Hall, Chester Castle and Cathedral etc. The public were also invited to attend, with return train tickets costing two shillings and about 600 people went in total.
A conference of miners in Manchester on the 26th decided to petition the Home Secretary to appoint a special jury to inquire into the cause of last week's disaster at Haydock that took the lives of sixty men and boys. They also planned to petition Parliament to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the many explosions that had taken place in Lancashire and Wales' coal mines during the past year.
Two days later the inquest into the Haydock tragedy was held at the Rams Head Inn and a Government inspector made a remarkable claim. He said he believed that "half the explosions in Lancashire had taken place through the men getting drunk overnight, and being afterwards unequal to their work." The Times also wrote a critical editorial commenting on how it had been the second explosion at the same pit in just six months. The newspaper said:
"Let but a tenth part of that energy and research be employed on the art of mining which has been devoted to the arts of railway travelling and of navigation, and we may be confident mines could be managed with, at least, as much safety as powder magazines. Let us state, in conclusion, that no fewer than 1,011 lives were lost by colliery accidents last year. Such a return is as discreditable to those who are responsible for it as it is distressing to the public for whose daily needs all this death and desolation is endured. We trust this accident will be very strictly investigated, and that the day is not far distant when this branch of English industry will escape its present reproach."
To end this week's article I am reprinting a letter that was published this week in the Liverpool Daily Post. It came from a woman who was complaining about men skinny-dipping at Liverpool and New Brighton and the females who went to watch! The letter was headlined 'Indecency On The Banks of the Mersey' and referenced two previous missives in the paper on the subject:
"Sir, Referring to “A New Brighton Bather's” letter in your impression of the 27th inst., your correspondent “D,” in commenting upon men bathing from the dock walls, evidently alluded to the shipbuilding yards along the Mersey, where such indecent scenes as he describes may be witnessed almost daily. It is to be regretted in the interests of morality that the proprietors of these yards do not get their men to wear bathing drawers.
As for New Brighton, I blush for my countrywomen, the majority of whom seem to go there to stare at the nude figures in the water, and look on as complacently as if they were gazing upon marble statues. These disgraceful bathing scenes, only to be witnessed in this country, must tend to degrade us in the eyes of foreigners, and are a great blot upon our boasted civilization and the modesty of our Englishwomen. Yours, &c., DECENCY. Liverpool."
Next week's stories will include the man who knocked a woman's teeth out in College Street, the dangerous practice of giving sick kids brandy, the aftermath of the Haydock mining disaster, vandalism in Eccleston, Connolly's lottery tickets and the boy described as a "complete outlaw" who would run along the eaves of a whole street of dwellings.
It was the height of the summer and a time when adventurous boys would drown in the town's many waterways. On the 23rd Michael Burke lost his balance while sailing near a place called St Andrew's Terrace in Sutton. The boy was aged about nine and drowned in the water.
At the Prescot Petty Sessions on the 24th a tramp called Mary Ann Allen was sent to prison for a month after being found concealed at the rear of the George Hotel in Prescot.
The St Helens Newspaper was published on that day and described a recent court case in which Sydney McLeod had been charged with threatening to shoot Matthew Kelly. Both lived in Pilkingtons Row and McLeod objected to Kelly speaking to his sister outside his house. He ordered the man to get off his premises to which Kelly replied he was not on them.
To that McLeod pulled out a pistol, loaded it and then pointed the gun at Kelly saying he would make a dead man of him. McLeod's wife then ran out of the house and dragged her husband inside. This wasn't the first time that Kelly had been ordered away by McLeod and the magistrates took the view that the man should have kept away and dismissed the case.
Fires were not all that common in St Helens but two occurred on the 25th. The first was discovered around 3am when the premises of wheelwright Charles Rigby in Crossfield Street were found to be ablaze. The fire brigade was soon on the spot and were able to source water from the nearby canal.
But due to the amount of dry timber they could do little but try and prevent the flames from spreading to the adjoining premises. Later that day it was discovered that the adjacent railway station had been broken into, although nothing of value was stolen. It was thought likely that the same persons had either accidentally or intentionally caused the fire. The second blaze occurred in Parr when "some evil-disposed person" (as described by the Wigan Observer), set fire to a pile of railway sleepers and all were destroyed.
George Nixon – from Hillock Street in Prescot and aged about 60 – drowned on the 25th while swimming in an old clay or marl pit on a farm at Whiston. On the following day the annual White Lion Gooseberry Show was held at the Church Street inn with many exhibitors and a large number of prizes awarded.
At the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 26th James Fay was charged with fighting with Patrick O’Neill. Mr Ashurst, the St Helens stationmaster at Shaw Street, gave evidence that he had seen Fay strike Patrick O’Neill without the slightest provocation and then "buffet him about" in order to induce him to fight. He added: "This sort of disturbance was going forward almost every day, and was productive of great annoyance to those who have business at the railway station." Fay was bound over for two months.
A dispute between three female rag and bone dealers was also played out in court. Mary Hayes summoned Elizabeth and Catherine Aspinall for assault and they cross-summoned her. Mrs Hayes kept a rag shop in Liverpool Road and had reported the Aspinalls to the authorities for claiming relief payments when not entitled. The woman told the court that they had assaulted and beat her in revenge, although she had no witnesses and Catherine Aspinall told a different tale.
She said Mrs Hayes had come to her door and wanted to know if she was married. Catherine said she declined to answer upon which Mary Hayes began calling her very insulting names. A witness was called who said the language used by Mrs Hayes had been "owdacious". She in turn asked the man if he was not at the time "lying drunk on the flags, and begging for a pint of ale", which he strongly denied.
A young man named Banks claimed the language Mary Hayes had used was not fit to be spoken either in the courtroom or in private company, to which Mrs Hayes accused him of "hobnobbing" with the Aspinalls every night until 1am. The Bench dismissed the case against Elizabeth and Catherine Aspinall with the Chairman saying he wished he could say the same of Mary Hayes.
"You would, your honour, if I was English", replied Mary. She appears to have been Irish and it was a widespread belief amongst the Irish community that they did not get justice in the courts. The Chairman ignored her comment and told the woman that she would have to find sureties to keep the peace.
A cat and mouse game was regularly played between the police and beerhouse keepers on Sunday mornings when they were not allowed to open. With so many other drinking houses in the vicinity it was hard for landlords to refuse a regular customer's request for ale as they might take their custom elsewhere. So when a man called Makin asked Henry Brownbill of Sutton for beer to take away one Sunday morning, he agreed to fill his can.
A policeman identified only as PC 457 was walking past when Makin came out of the beerhouse and upon seeing the constable he immediately ran to his home, spilling some of the beer as he went. However in court the officer admitted that the entry that led to the back of Brownbill's beerhouse also went to a number of other houses. His legal counsel said it would be "monstrous" to assume Brownbill was guilty and the Bench dismissed the case.
The prosecution refused the soldier's offer, as his commanding officer clearly wanted an example to be made of the man. So Hart was fined 1 shilling and ordered to pay 30 shillings damages as a lump sum, which was probably more than he earned in a week.
On the 26th Sutton and Peasley Cross Catholic Schools went on a trip to Chester in which they saw all the sights, including the Roman baths, Eton Hall, Chester Castle and Cathedral etc. The public were also invited to attend, with return train tickets costing two shillings and about 600 people went in total.
A conference of miners in Manchester on the 26th decided to petition the Home Secretary to appoint a special jury to inquire into the cause of last week's disaster at Haydock that took the lives of sixty men and boys. They also planned to petition Parliament to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the many explosions that had taken place in Lancashire and Wales' coal mines during the past year.
Two days later the inquest into the Haydock tragedy was held at the Rams Head Inn and a Government inspector made a remarkable claim. He said he believed that "half the explosions in Lancashire had taken place through the men getting drunk overnight, and being afterwards unequal to their work." The Times also wrote a critical editorial commenting on how it had been the second explosion at the same pit in just six months. The newspaper said:
"Let but a tenth part of that energy and research be employed on the art of mining which has been devoted to the arts of railway travelling and of navigation, and we may be confident mines could be managed with, at least, as much safety as powder magazines. Let us state, in conclusion, that no fewer than 1,011 lives were lost by colliery accidents last year. Such a return is as discreditable to those who are responsible for it as it is distressing to the public for whose daily needs all this death and desolation is endured. We trust this accident will be very strictly investigated, and that the day is not far distant when this branch of English industry will escape its present reproach."
To end this week's article I am reprinting a letter that was published this week in the Liverpool Daily Post. It came from a woman who was complaining about men skinny-dipping at Liverpool and New Brighton and the females who went to watch! The letter was headlined 'Indecency On The Banks of the Mersey' and referenced two previous missives in the paper on the subject:
"Sir, Referring to “A New Brighton Bather's” letter in your impression of the 27th inst., your correspondent “D,” in commenting upon men bathing from the dock walls, evidently alluded to the shipbuilding yards along the Mersey, where such indecent scenes as he describes may be witnessed almost daily. It is to be regretted in the interests of morality that the proprietors of these yards do not get their men to wear bathing drawers.
As for New Brighton, I blush for my countrywomen, the majority of whom seem to go there to stare at the nude figures in the water, and look on as complacently as if they were gazing upon marble statues. These disgraceful bathing scenes, only to be witnessed in this country, must tend to degrade us in the eyes of foreigners, and are a great blot upon our boasted civilization and the modesty of our Englishwomen. Yours, &c., DECENCY. Liverpool."
Next week's stories will include the man who knocked a woman's teeth out in College Street, the dangerous practice of giving sick kids brandy, the aftermath of the Haydock mining disaster, vandalism in Eccleston, Connolly's lottery tickets and the boy described as a "complete outlaw" who would run along the eaves of a whole street of dwellings.