150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th JANUARY 1872)
This week's stories include the near-mauling by a leopard at Manders' menagerie in St Helens, the shocking boiling death at Pocket Nook, the high priced railway fares to Liverpool and the girl who frightened a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road.
Billiards was a fairly popular sport in St Helens, although places where matches could be played were very limited. But they clearly had a table in the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street as during the evening of the 24th, James Archdeacon of St Helens took on the champion of Bolton. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The play throughout was excellent and occasionally brilliant”, and the local man – having been given 150 points start – won the game.
At 9pm on the 25th, a domestic servant called Bridget Roach was killed at Rainhill railway station by a train from Liverpool. She was reported as having been "dreadfully mangled" and was found lying across the rails. Bridget's remains were removed to a stable adjoining the Victoria Hotel to await an inquest. That hearing was told that Bridget had been a passenger on the train and she was thought to have belatedly got out as it was leaving the station – perhaps after dozing off on the journey.
London-born Samuel Gurney kept a draper's shop in London House in Church Street. In the St Helens Newspaper of the 27th, his advert wrote that he would from that date: "Commence selling off for one month, his stock of fancy goods, consisting of dresses, shawls, mantles, jackets, millinery, straw goods, lace, ribbons, flowers, feathers, furs, &c., at a large discount." Apparently, a mantle is a loose-fitting outer garment similar to a cape.
Manders Menagerie was a famous travelling animal show and circus. I mentioned a fortnight ago that a lion tamer attached to Manders had died at Bolton after being killed by one of his charges. At the man's inquest, the jury was reported as passing their "entire disapprobation of the reckless custom of so-called lion tamers performing in dens where ferocious animals are caged up." The ferocious beasts were now in St Helens on the fairground off Salisbury Street and the company was focussing public attention on their less dangerous critters. This advert was placed in the Newspaper:
"BIRTH EXTRAORDINARY – Wonderful Phenomenon In Natural History. On Thursday morning last, in Manders' great show of the world, there was intense excitement caused by the birth of a fine healthy female baby camel, pure white – a very rare and extraordinary circumstance in this country. – See the giantess and the wonderful baby to-day (Saturday), and Monday."
However, as much as punters may have liked to look at the baby camels and go "aaah", the wild beasts were still a big draw. And being caged against their will would have made the wild animals even wilder! Later that day, a foolish visitor to the exhibition put his hand against the bars of a leopard's cage.
That did not go down well with the big cat inside which caught one of the man's fingers in its mouth. Fortunately, it was his ring finger and as the leopard bit on the stout ring that he was wearing, it let go for a moment enabling the man to pull his hand away without suffering much injury.
There were a surprising number of men who died at chemical works and similar places in St Helens after falling into containers of boiling liquid. Safety measures were so inadequate that one slip while attending to large pans or vats could mean a terrible death. During the evening of the 27th, a man called Patrick McSpeerit was working at Crossfields chemical works at Pocket Nook.
He was ladling boiling caustic from one pan into another that was situated at a lower level. Whilst engaged in this dangerous work, another man handed an instrument to him. As McSpeeritt was in the act of taking it, he overbalanced and fell straight into the boiling pan. The St Helens Newspaper said he was removed in a "dreadful condition".
"Frightening a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road" was not exactly the charge faced by Mary Roberts on the 29th – but that is what it amounted to. The 13-year-old had been playing the children's game battledore and shuttlecock near to her home. To play that early version of badminton, individuals used small rackets (called battledores) to bat a shuttlecock from one person to the other as often as possible without it falling to the ground – although Mary seemed to have been playing it by herself.
PC Murney told St Helens Petty Sessions that he had warned the girl earlier in the day not to play the game in the street. However, she had taken no notice of his warning and he claimed he had seen a horse frightened by her shuttlecock. Mary was fined one shilling and five shillings costs.
On January 1st, the 5¼-mile-long St Helens to Huyton railway line had opened and no longer did train passengers need to change at St Helens Junction station to get to Liverpool. The people of Prescot would also have found the new line a great boon, as previously they had to travel to Huyton station to get the train or ride by horse-drawn omnibus to Liverpool or St Helens. However, the St Helens Newspaper was still not satisfied and published this piece on the 30th:
"The haphazard and extraordinary high fares inflicted upon the public travelling on the new line to Liverpool and intermediate stations, require – and we hope will receive – the prompt attention of Mr. Shaw, the district superintendent, with a view to their reduction and adjustment. There should also be several additional trains put on on Sundays between St. Helens and Liverpool, calling at the intermediate stations. A few hours by the seaside would be a great favour to hundreds in St. Helens."
The Newspaper also wrote: "On Tuesday last, the annual tea party of old women belonging to the congregation of Lowe House Church was held in the schoolroom, and it was one of the most successful ever remembered. The large room was well filled with venerable old ladies, and their entertainers and friends. After a substantial tea, singing and dancing became the order of the evening, and were kept up with great spirit until about eleven o’clock."
And finally, this week's bonus item comes from a newspaper called 'Homeward Mail from India, China and the East' – which was a compendium of news from Asia. It tells a terrible story of killing and abuse of villagers by British soldiers in India. 'Homeward Mail' was sourced from English speaking newspapers in the region but always contained old news as the overland mail service carrying the papers took three weeks to get to England.
The Indian newspapers had previously been supportive of a British military expedition against a tribe known as the Loshais whose raiding parties had killed and taken prisoners. However, the British generals were now embracing what we might call a scorched earth policy and the local newspapers – according to 'Homeward Mail' – were furious:
"The reports of village burning and grain destroying, with an intimation in one telegram that several Loshai heads had been brought into camp, seem to have suddenly decided the Indian press to deprecate this miserable war. The object of the Expedition has all along appeared to us strangely disproportionate to the strength of the force employed, and gradually it has become more plain that Generals Bourchier and Brownlow will find no obstacle except the difficulties of the country worth contending with.
"Altogether he has lost seven sepoys killed [Indian soldiers working for the British] and seventeen wounded, but the punishment inflicted on the savage population has been terribly severe. One report received this week is that Major Macintyre in four days' raid, burnt 192 dwelling-houses, and destroyed fifty-eight granaries, containing 150 tons of rice. The Kolell tribe, which has not offended us, is also reported to have suffered severely in loss of life and property.
"The opinion of the Indian press on these exploits is very emphatic: “We read (says the Bombay Gazette) of one village after another burnt to the ground, with immense stores of food collected by the miserable population to feed them for many months to come. This work of destruction appears to be carried out with pitiless severity, though the resistance to the advance of the British force is so trifling that there is in truth no “enemy” for the troops to contend against.
"“General Bourchier, in command of the Left Column, records these exploits in burning and laying waste the country and leaving the people to starve, as complacently as if he were winning glorious victories. The Government, too, publishes the despatches without showing a sign of disapproval of this barbarous and cruel mode of waging war; and it even sent to the papers, without comment, a telegram in which it was stated that General Nuthall’s Munipoories had brought into camp several heads of Loshais killed in a skirmish. Surely such savage practices ought not to be encouraged by English officers.”
"The Englishman [newspaper] implores the Bengal Government, unless its object be extermination, to stop the wilful destruction of human food. The grain destroyed being the entire stock of food of a remote and isolated people, quite unable to replace it, “is a piece of the most inhuman barbarity utterly disgraceful to a civilized people.”"
Next week's stories will include the Atlas Street man sent to prison for neglecting his family, the unbreakable qualities of a St Helens-made watch, the brainless trick played on the landlord of the Lamb Hotel and the shocking case of near-starvation of two young Sutton children.
At 9pm on the 25th, a domestic servant called Bridget Roach was killed at Rainhill railway station by a train from Liverpool. She was reported as having been "dreadfully mangled" and was found lying across the rails. Bridget's remains were removed to a stable adjoining the Victoria Hotel to await an inquest. That hearing was told that Bridget had been a passenger on the train and she was thought to have belatedly got out as it was leaving the station – perhaps after dozing off on the journey.
London-born Samuel Gurney kept a draper's shop in London House in Church Street. In the St Helens Newspaper of the 27th, his advert wrote that he would from that date: "Commence selling off for one month, his stock of fancy goods, consisting of dresses, shawls, mantles, jackets, millinery, straw goods, lace, ribbons, flowers, feathers, furs, &c., at a large discount." Apparently, a mantle is a loose-fitting outer garment similar to a cape.
Manders Menagerie was a famous travelling animal show and circus. I mentioned a fortnight ago that a lion tamer attached to Manders had died at Bolton after being killed by one of his charges. At the man's inquest, the jury was reported as passing their "entire disapprobation of the reckless custom of so-called lion tamers performing in dens where ferocious animals are caged up." The ferocious beasts were now in St Helens on the fairground off Salisbury Street and the company was focussing public attention on their less dangerous critters. This advert was placed in the Newspaper:
"BIRTH EXTRAORDINARY – Wonderful Phenomenon In Natural History. On Thursday morning last, in Manders' great show of the world, there was intense excitement caused by the birth of a fine healthy female baby camel, pure white – a very rare and extraordinary circumstance in this country. – See the giantess and the wonderful baby to-day (Saturday), and Monday."
However, as much as punters may have liked to look at the baby camels and go "aaah", the wild beasts were still a big draw. And being caged against their will would have made the wild animals even wilder! Later that day, a foolish visitor to the exhibition put his hand against the bars of a leopard's cage.
That did not go down well with the big cat inside which caught one of the man's fingers in its mouth. Fortunately, it was his ring finger and as the leopard bit on the stout ring that he was wearing, it let go for a moment enabling the man to pull his hand away without suffering much injury.
There were a surprising number of men who died at chemical works and similar places in St Helens after falling into containers of boiling liquid. Safety measures were so inadequate that one slip while attending to large pans or vats could mean a terrible death. During the evening of the 27th, a man called Patrick McSpeerit was working at Crossfields chemical works at Pocket Nook.
He was ladling boiling caustic from one pan into another that was situated at a lower level. Whilst engaged in this dangerous work, another man handed an instrument to him. As McSpeeritt was in the act of taking it, he overbalanced and fell straight into the boiling pan. The St Helens Newspaper said he was removed in a "dreadful condition".
"Frightening a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road" was not exactly the charge faced by Mary Roberts on the 29th – but that is what it amounted to. The 13-year-old had been playing the children's game battledore and shuttlecock near to her home. To play that early version of badminton, individuals used small rackets (called battledores) to bat a shuttlecock from one person to the other as often as possible without it falling to the ground – although Mary seemed to have been playing it by herself.
PC Murney told St Helens Petty Sessions that he had warned the girl earlier in the day not to play the game in the street. However, she had taken no notice of his warning and he claimed he had seen a horse frightened by her shuttlecock. Mary was fined one shilling and five shillings costs.
On January 1st, the 5¼-mile-long St Helens to Huyton railway line had opened and no longer did train passengers need to change at St Helens Junction station to get to Liverpool. The people of Prescot would also have found the new line a great boon, as previously they had to travel to Huyton station to get the train or ride by horse-drawn omnibus to Liverpool or St Helens. However, the St Helens Newspaper was still not satisfied and published this piece on the 30th:
"The haphazard and extraordinary high fares inflicted upon the public travelling on the new line to Liverpool and intermediate stations, require – and we hope will receive – the prompt attention of Mr. Shaw, the district superintendent, with a view to their reduction and adjustment. There should also be several additional trains put on on Sundays between St. Helens and Liverpool, calling at the intermediate stations. A few hours by the seaside would be a great favour to hundreds in St. Helens."
The Newspaper also wrote: "On Tuesday last, the annual tea party of old women belonging to the congregation of Lowe House Church was held in the schoolroom, and it was one of the most successful ever remembered. The large room was well filled with venerable old ladies, and their entertainers and friends. After a substantial tea, singing and dancing became the order of the evening, and were kept up with great spirit until about eleven o’clock."
The Indian newspapers had previously been supportive of a British military expedition against a tribe known as the Loshais whose raiding parties had killed and taken prisoners. However, the British generals were now embracing what we might call a scorched earth policy and the local newspapers – according to 'Homeward Mail' – were furious:
"The reports of village burning and grain destroying, with an intimation in one telegram that several Loshai heads had been brought into camp, seem to have suddenly decided the Indian press to deprecate this miserable war. The object of the Expedition has all along appeared to us strangely disproportionate to the strength of the force employed, and gradually it has become more plain that Generals Bourchier and Brownlow will find no obstacle except the difficulties of the country worth contending with.
"Altogether he has lost seven sepoys killed [Indian soldiers working for the British] and seventeen wounded, but the punishment inflicted on the savage population has been terribly severe. One report received this week is that Major Macintyre in four days' raid, burnt 192 dwelling-houses, and destroyed fifty-eight granaries, containing 150 tons of rice. The Kolell tribe, which has not offended us, is also reported to have suffered severely in loss of life and property.
"The opinion of the Indian press on these exploits is very emphatic: “We read (says the Bombay Gazette) of one village after another burnt to the ground, with immense stores of food collected by the miserable population to feed them for many months to come. This work of destruction appears to be carried out with pitiless severity, though the resistance to the advance of the British force is so trifling that there is in truth no “enemy” for the troops to contend against.
"“General Bourchier, in command of the Left Column, records these exploits in burning and laying waste the country and leaving the people to starve, as complacently as if he were winning glorious victories. The Government, too, publishes the despatches without showing a sign of disapproval of this barbarous and cruel mode of waging war; and it even sent to the papers, without comment, a telegram in which it was stated that General Nuthall’s Munipoories had brought into camp several heads of Loshais killed in a skirmish. Surely such savage practices ought not to be encouraged by English officers.”
"The Englishman [newspaper] implores the Bengal Government, unless its object be extermination, to stop the wilful destruction of human food. The grain destroyed being the entire stock of food of a remote and isolated people, quite unable to replace it, “is a piece of the most inhuman barbarity utterly disgraceful to a civilized people.”"
Next week's stories will include the Atlas Street man sent to prison for neglecting his family, the unbreakable qualities of a St Helens-made watch, the brainless trick played on the landlord of the Lamb Hotel and the shocking case of near-starvation of two young Sutton children.
This week's stories include the near-mauling by a leopard at Manders' menagerie in St Helens, the shocking boiling death at Pocket Nook, the high priced railway fares to Liverpool and the girl who frightened a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road.
Billiards was a fairly popular sport in St Helens, although places where matches could be played were very limited.
But they clearly had a table in the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street (pictured above) as during the evening of the 24th, James Archdeacon of St Helens took on the champion of Bolton.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The play throughout was excellent and occasionally brilliant”, and the local man – having been given 150 points start – won the game.
At 9pm on the 25th, a domestic servant called Bridget Roach was killed at Rainhill railway station by a train from Liverpool.
She was reported as having been "dreadfully mangled" and was found lying across the rails.
Bridget's remains were removed to a stable adjoining the Victoria Hotel to await an inquest.
That hearing was told that Bridget had been a passenger on the train and she was thought to have belatedly got out as it was leaving the station – perhaps after dozing off on the journey.
London-born Samuel Gurney kept a draper's shop in London House in Church Street. In the St Helens Newspaper of the 27th, his advert wrote that he would from that date:
"Commence selling off for one month, his stock of fancy goods, consisting of dresses, shawls, mantles, jackets, millinery, straw goods, lace, ribbons, flowers, feathers, furs, &c., at a large discount."
Apparently, a mantle is a loose-fitting outer garment similar to a cape.
Manders Menagerie was a famous travelling animal show and circus. I mentioned a fortnight ago that a lion tamer attached to Manders had died at Bolton after being killed by one of his charges.
At the man's inquest, the jury was reported as passing their "entire disapprobation of the reckless custom of so-called lion tamers performing in dens where ferocious animals are caged up."
The ferocious beasts were now in St Helens on the fairground off Salisbury Street and the company was focussing public attention on their less dangerous critters. This advert was placed in the Newspaper:
"BIRTH EXTRAORDINARY – Wonderful Phenomenon In Natural History. On Thursday morning last, in Manders' great show of the world, there was intense excitement caused by the birth of a fine healthy female baby camel, pure white – a very rare and extraordinary circumstance in this country. – See the giantess and the wonderful baby to-day (Saturday), and Monday."
However, as much as punters may have liked to look at the baby camels and go "aaah", the wild beasts were still a big draw.
And being caged against their will would have made the wild animals even wilder!
Later that day, a foolish visitor to the exhibition put his hand against the bars of a leopard's cage.
That did not go down well with the big cat inside which caught one of the man's fingers in its mouth.
Fortunately, it was his ring finger and as the leopard bit on the stout ring that he was wearing, it let go for a moment enabling the man to pull his hand away without suffering much injury.
There were a surprising number of men who died at chemical works and similar places in St Helens after falling into containers of boiling liquid.
Safety measures were so inadequate that one slip while attending to large pans or vats could mean a terrible death.
During the evening of the 27th, a man called Patrick McSpeerit was working at Crossfields chemical works at Pocket Nook.
He was ladling boiling caustic from one pan into another that was situated at a lower level.
Whilst engaged in this dangerous work, another man handed an instrument to him.
As McSpeeritt was in the act of taking it, he overbalanced and fell straight into the boiling pan.
The St Helens Newspaper said he was removed in a "dreadful condition".
"Frightening a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road" was not exactly the charge faced by Mary Roberts on the 29th – but that is what it amounted to.
The 13-year-old had been playing the children's game battledore and shuttlecock near to her home.
To play that early version of badminton, individuals used small rackets (called battledores) to bat a shuttlecock from one person to the other as often as possible without it falling to the ground – although Mary seemed to have been playing it by herself.
PC Murney told St Helens Petty Sessions that he had warned the girl earlier in the day not to play the game in the street.
However, she had taken no notice of his warning and he claimed he had seen a horse frightened by her shuttlecock. Mary was fined one shilling and five shillings costs.
On January 1st, the 5¼-mile-long St Helens to Huyton railway line had opened and no longer did train passengers need to change at St Helens Junction station to get to Liverpool.
The people of Prescot would also have found the new line a great boon, as previously they had to travel to Huyton station to get the train or ride by horse-drawn omnibus to Liverpool or St Helens.
However, the St Helens Newspaper was still not satisfied and published this piece on the 30th:
"The haphazard and extraordinary high fares inflicted upon the public travelling on the new line to Liverpool and intermediate stations, require – and we hope will receive – the prompt attention of Mr. Shaw, the district superintendent, with a view to their reduction and adjustment.
"There should also be several additional trains put on on Sundays between St. Helens and Liverpool, calling at the intermediate stations. A few hours by the seaside would be a great favour to hundreds in St. Helens."
The Newspaper also wrote: "On Tuesday last, the annual tea party of old women belonging to the congregation of Lowe House Church was held in the schoolroom, and it was one of the most successful ever remembered.
"The large room was well filled with venerable old ladies, and their entertainers and friends.
"After a substantial tea, singing and dancing became the order of the evening, and were kept up with great spirit until about eleven o’clock."
And finally, this week's bonus item comes from a newspaper called 'Homeward Mail from India, China and the East' – which was a compendium of news from Asia.
It tells a terrible story of killing and abuse of villagers by British soldiers in India.
'Homeward Mail' was sourced from English speaking newspapers in the region but always contained old news as the overland mail service carrying the papers took three weeks to get to England.
The Indian newspapers had previously been supportive of a British military expedition against a tribe known as the Loshais whose raiding parties had killed and taken prisoners.
However, the British generals were now embracing what we might call a scorched earth policy and the local newspapers – according to 'Homeward Mail' – were furious:
"The reports of village burning and grain destroying, with an intimation in one telegram that several Loshai heads had been brought into camp, seem to have suddenly decided the Indian press to deprecate this miserable war.
"The object of the Expedition has all along appeared to us strangely disproportionate to the strength of the force employed, and gradually it has become more plain that Generals Bourchier and Brownlow will find no obstacle except the difficulties of the country worth contending with.
"Altogether he has lost seven sepoys killed [Indian soldiers working for the British] and seventeen wounded, but the punishment inflicted on the savage population has been terribly severe.
"One report received this week is that Major Macintyre in four days' raid, burnt 192 dwelling-houses, and destroyed fifty-eight granaries, containing 150 tons of rice.
"The Kolell tribe, which has not offended us, is also reported to have suffered severely in loss of life and property.
"The opinion of the Indian press on these exploits is very emphatic: “We read (says the Bombay Gazette) of one village after another burnt to the ground, with immense stores of food collected by the miserable population to feed them for many months to come.
"“This work of destruction appears to be carried out with pitiless severity, though the resistance to the advance of the British force is so trifling that there is in truth no “enemy” for the troops to contend against.
"“General Bourchier, in command of the Left Column, records these exploits in burning and laying waste the country and leaving the people to starve, as complacently as if he were winning glorious victories.
"“The Government, too, publishes the despatches without showing a sign of disapproval of this barbarous and cruel mode of waging war; and it even sent to the papers, without comment, a telegram in which it was stated that General Nuthall’s Munipoories had brought into camp several heads of Loshais killed in a skirmish.
"“Surely such savage practices ought not to be encouraged by English officers.”
"The Englishman [newspaper] implores the Bengal Government, unless its object be extermination, to stop the wilful destruction of human food.
"The grain destroyed being the entire stock of food of a remote and isolated people, quite unable to replace it, “is a piece of the most inhuman barbarity utterly disgraceful to a civilized people.”"
Next week's stories will include the Atlas Street man sent to prison for neglecting his family, the unbreakable qualities of a St Helens-made watch, the brainless trick played on the landlord of the Lamb Hotel and the shocking case of near-starvation of two young Sutton children.
But they clearly had a table in the Wellington Hotel in Naylor Street (pictured above) as during the evening of the 24th, James Archdeacon of St Helens took on the champion of Bolton.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "The play throughout was excellent and occasionally brilliant”, and the local man – having been given 150 points start – won the game.
At 9pm on the 25th, a domestic servant called Bridget Roach was killed at Rainhill railway station by a train from Liverpool.
She was reported as having been "dreadfully mangled" and was found lying across the rails.
Bridget's remains were removed to a stable adjoining the Victoria Hotel to await an inquest.
That hearing was told that Bridget had been a passenger on the train and she was thought to have belatedly got out as it was leaving the station – perhaps after dozing off on the journey.
London-born Samuel Gurney kept a draper's shop in London House in Church Street. In the St Helens Newspaper of the 27th, his advert wrote that he would from that date:
"Commence selling off for one month, his stock of fancy goods, consisting of dresses, shawls, mantles, jackets, millinery, straw goods, lace, ribbons, flowers, feathers, furs, &c., at a large discount."
Apparently, a mantle is a loose-fitting outer garment similar to a cape.
Manders Menagerie was a famous travelling animal show and circus. I mentioned a fortnight ago that a lion tamer attached to Manders had died at Bolton after being killed by one of his charges.
At the man's inquest, the jury was reported as passing their "entire disapprobation of the reckless custom of so-called lion tamers performing in dens where ferocious animals are caged up."
The ferocious beasts were now in St Helens on the fairground off Salisbury Street and the company was focussing public attention on their less dangerous critters. This advert was placed in the Newspaper:
"BIRTH EXTRAORDINARY – Wonderful Phenomenon In Natural History. On Thursday morning last, in Manders' great show of the world, there was intense excitement caused by the birth of a fine healthy female baby camel, pure white – a very rare and extraordinary circumstance in this country. – See the giantess and the wonderful baby to-day (Saturday), and Monday."
However, as much as punters may have liked to look at the baby camels and go "aaah", the wild beasts were still a big draw.
And being caged against their will would have made the wild animals even wilder!
Later that day, a foolish visitor to the exhibition put his hand against the bars of a leopard's cage.
That did not go down well with the big cat inside which caught one of the man's fingers in its mouth.
Fortunately, it was his ring finger and as the leopard bit on the stout ring that he was wearing, it let go for a moment enabling the man to pull his hand away without suffering much injury.
There were a surprising number of men who died at chemical works and similar places in St Helens after falling into containers of boiling liquid.
Safety measures were so inadequate that one slip while attending to large pans or vats could mean a terrible death.
During the evening of the 27th, a man called Patrick McSpeerit was working at Crossfields chemical works at Pocket Nook.
He was ladling boiling caustic from one pan into another that was situated at a lower level.
Whilst engaged in this dangerous work, another man handed an instrument to him.
As McSpeeritt was in the act of taking it, he overbalanced and fell straight into the boiling pan.
The St Helens Newspaper said he was removed in a "dreadful condition".
"Frightening a horse with a shuttlecock in Liverpool Road" was not exactly the charge faced by Mary Roberts on the 29th – but that is what it amounted to.
The 13-year-old had been playing the children's game battledore and shuttlecock near to her home.
To play that early version of badminton, individuals used small rackets (called battledores) to bat a shuttlecock from one person to the other as often as possible without it falling to the ground – although Mary seemed to have been playing it by herself.
PC Murney told St Helens Petty Sessions that he had warned the girl earlier in the day not to play the game in the street.
However, she had taken no notice of his warning and he claimed he had seen a horse frightened by her shuttlecock. Mary was fined one shilling and five shillings costs.
On January 1st, the 5¼-mile-long St Helens to Huyton railway line had opened and no longer did train passengers need to change at St Helens Junction station to get to Liverpool.
The people of Prescot would also have found the new line a great boon, as previously they had to travel to Huyton station to get the train or ride by horse-drawn omnibus to Liverpool or St Helens.
However, the St Helens Newspaper was still not satisfied and published this piece on the 30th:
"The haphazard and extraordinary high fares inflicted upon the public travelling on the new line to Liverpool and intermediate stations, require – and we hope will receive – the prompt attention of Mr. Shaw, the district superintendent, with a view to their reduction and adjustment.
"There should also be several additional trains put on on Sundays between St. Helens and Liverpool, calling at the intermediate stations. A few hours by the seaside would be a great favour to hundreds in St. Helens."
The Newspaper also wrote: "On Tuesday last, the annual tea party of old women belonging to the congregation of Lowe House Church was held in the schoolroom, and it was one of the most successful ever remembered.
"The large room was well filled with venerable old ladies, and their entertainers and friends.
"After a substantial tea, singing and dancing became the order of the evening, and were kept up with great spirit until about eleven o’clock."
And finally, this week's bonus item comes from a newspaper called 'Homeward Mail from India, China and the East' – which was a compendium of news from Asia.
It tells a terrible story of killing and abuse of villagers by British soldiers in India.
'Homeward Mail' was sourced from English speaking newspapers in the region but always contained old news as the overland mail service carrying the papers took three weeks to get to England.
The Indian newspapers had previously been supportive of a British military expedition against a tribe known as the Loshais whose raiding parties had killed and taken prisoners.
However, the British generals were now embracing what we might call a scorched earth policy and the local newspapers – according to 'Homeward Mail' – were furious:
"The reports of village burning and grain destroying, with an intimation in one telegram that several Loshai heads had been brought into camp, seem to have suddenly decided the Indian press to deprecate this miserable war.
"The object of the Expedition has all along appeared to us strangely disproportionate to the strength of the force employed, and gradually it has become more plain that Generals Bourchier and Brownlow will find no obstacle except the difficulties of the country worth contending with.
"Altogether he has lost seven sepoys killed [Indian soldiers working for the British] and seventeen wounded, but the punishment inflicted on the savage population has been terribly severe.
"One report received this week is that Major Macintyre in four days' raid, burnt 192 dwelling-houses, and destroyed fifty-eight granaries, containing 150 tons of rice.
"The Kolell tribe, which has not offended us, is also reported to have suffered severely in loss of life and property.
"The opinion of the Indian press on these exploits is very emphatic: “We read (says the Bombay Gazette) of one village after another burnt to the ground, with immense stores of food collected by the miserable population to feed them for many months to come.
"“This work of destruction appears to be carried out with pitiless severity, though the resistance to the advance of the British force is so trifling that there is in truth no “enemy” for the troops to contend against.
"“General Bourchier, in command of the Left Column, records these exploits in burning and laying waste the country and leaving the people to starve, as complacently as if he were winning glorious victories.
"“The Government, too, publishes the despatches without showing a sign of disapproval of this barbarous and cruel mode of waging war; and it even sent to the papers, without comment, a telegram in which it was stated that General Nuthall’s Munipoories had brought into camp several heads of Loshais killed in a skirmish.
"“Surely such savage practices ought not to be encouraged by English officers.”
"The Englishman [newspaper] implores the Bengal Government, unless its object be extermination, to stop the wilful destruction of human food.
"The grain destroyed being the entire stock of food of a remote and isolated people, quite unable to replace it, “is a piece of the most inhuman barbarity utterly disgraceful to a civilized people.”"
Next week's stories will include the Atlas Street man sent to prison for neglecting his family, the unbreakable qualities of a St Helens-made watch, the brainless trick played on the landlord of the Lamb Hotel and the shocking case of near-starvation of two young Sutton children.