150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th FEB. - 1st MARCH 1870)
This week's stories include the Pocket Nook house that was full of rats, the Peasley Cross poker woman who smashed up her neighbour's door, the thieving lodger from Parr, the filthy and disgusting language used in a Whiston maintenance case and the boy who stole a pistol from a Liverpool Road shop in order to swap it for a pigeon.
We begin on the 24th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians in which it was stated that there had been 363 inmates in Whiston Workhouse during the past week. That was a high number and a Poor Law inspector told the meeting that he had inspected the house and found overcrowding in the sleeping areas. Basil Kane also complained of a lack of lunatic wards, saying insane and imbecile persons had to associate day and night with the ordinary inmates.
The two-day Newton Spring race meeting began on the 25th. Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common since at least 1678 (pictured above) and in 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the Vicar of St Helens, wrote about the "sad excesses" of the meeting. The vicar claimed that: "Very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races". The meetings continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 28th and Elizabeth Hartley was charged with stealing articles of clothing valued at 6s 6d from George Murray. The latter lived in Frazer Street in Parr – which no longer exists but used to be located near Parr Street. This was another case where a short-term lodger had walked off with somebody else's clothes upon leaving their lodgings. Elizabeth had only stayed with the Murray family for three days and had taken their bedgown, shawl, shirt and sheet with her. When arrested Elizabeth had said that Mr Murray had asked her to hide the items from his wife.
However in court the 30-year-old needlewoman changed her story, now claiming that Mrs Murray had sent her to a pawnbroker to pledge the clothes. This was after the police had found a number of pawn tickets on her. The magistrates decided to commit Elizabeth Hartley to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool. Clothes stealing was a serious offence and on April 20th the woman was sent to prison for nine months.
John Bryan appeared in the Petty Sessions charged with fraudulently removing his furniture from his rented house in Pocket Nook. The man had only owed his landlord two weeks rent but feared that James Swift would obtain an order enabling him to seize his possessions in lieu of payment. So Bryan took his furniture out of the house, which was a common practice by those that were in debt but it was against the law.
While the magistrates were deciding on their sentence, John Bryan's wife asked them if they were compelled to pay rent for a house that was full of rats. She said as soon as a meal was prepared, the "rats trooped out to partake of it", adding that their "flitting" was the result of the state of the house. As far as the magistrates were concerned a rat infestation had no bearing on the case and John Bryan was ordered to pay a fine of £1 15s 6d or go to prison for six months.
John Halligan was charged in the Petty Sessions with stealing a pistol belonging to Robert Dagnall. He was a furniture dealer with premises in Liverpool Road. A pawnbroker's assistant called John Monaghan gave evidence that he had seen the 16-year-old enter Dagnall's shop and take the pistol. Halligan had arranged with a friend that he would swap his pigeon for a pistol, although the boy told the court that he was referring to an old pistol in his home. The magistrates committed the lad to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions and on April 21st the young mineworker was found guilty and sent to prison for three months.
A glassworks labourer called Joseph Poole was charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with assaulting Police Constable Worden. The officer told the Bench that he had found a crowd gathered round the door of the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street. Poole was lying on his back and the landlord and another man raised him up. As soon as he got to his feet, the man punched the landlord in his face and the pair then fought each other. Constable Worden got them separated and as he talked to Poole about his behaviour, the man assaulted him and so he placed him under arrest.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "On the way to the station he resisted desperately, and in a close grapple which took place between the policeman and his prisoner, the former had his foot and ankle sprained." Poole's counsel Thomas Swift told the Bench that his client had been "mad in drink" and wondered where the defendant had got his black eye or broken head from. The magistrates ordered Joseph Poole to pay £2 and costs or go to prison for two months.
Elizabeth Sullivan from Peasley Cross did not turn up to court to face her summons for committing wilful damage. The Newspaper described her as "a dame who has more than once conducted herself in a disorderly manner in public." Ann Greetham claimed that Mrs Sullivan had entered her home, grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her off the chair where she had been sitting. The 25-year-old's husband, George Greetham, intervened and "after considerable labour" got Mrs Sullivan out of the room.
However the woman grabbed a poker and attacked the kitchen door, leaving it in such a state that it was "good for nothing but to furnish evidence of the blows it had received." Of course Elizabeth Sullivan's failure to show up in court deprived the Bench of knowing what had motivated her to get so worked up. The magistrates only fined the woman 2s 6d but she also had to pay for the damaged door and the court costs.
The annual soiree of Holy Cross Church Choir was held on the 28th featuring a number of solo and choral performances. The St Helens Newspaper in its review wrote: "When the programme was finished, the seats were rapidly cleared away, and the room prepared for dancing. To the music of the band, for several hours terpsichorean exercises occupied the company and enabled them to pass a most sprightly and pleasant evening." This is not the first time the word terpsichorean has been used in these articles, which simply means to dance.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were held on the 1st and Mary Cruse from Chapel Lane in Rainhill was charged with assaulting PC Rostron while in the execution of his duty. The officer went to the woman's home to serve a summons on her son. As he was not home he handed it to Mary who struck him in the face with a brush. Using very abusive language, she told the constable what they would do to him if they had him in Ireland. PC Rostron reported what had happened and a summons was made out for the woman to appear in court to face a charge of assault.
Constable Crozier was the unlucky bobby given the task of delivering the summons to the 38-year-old Irish woman. However Mary Cruse did not see him off with a brush this time. Instead she struck the officer with a shovel! As I've often said violence was tolerated to a large degree back in 1870. But there were limits and the Bench did not appreciate Mary Cruse's treatment of authority. The woman wasn't even drunk – the most common excuse for assaulting the bobbies – and so she was despatched to prison for 21 days.
The Chairman of the Bench described another case as one of the worst that had come before the magistrates. A young collier from Whiston called Michael Crosby had allegedly got Ann Baldwin pregnant and so she brought a summons against him demanding maintenance payments. The child had been born almost a year earlier and at conception Crosby would only have been aged 15 or perhaps 16. He denied having been the father but this was Ann Baldwin's second child to a different father having been an unmarried mother at sixteen.
These facts would not have gone down well with the magistrates but the language used in the case absolutely enraged their Chairman. "It was a great disgrace", declared Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, "to see such a crowd of men coming in that court to hear and listen to such filthy and disgusting language, and the women were as bad. The evidence had been given in a most unblushing and disgraceful manner." A maintenance or affiliation order – to state the correct term – was granted to Ann Baldwin for 1s 6d. per week.
And finally the first Prescot Fair of the year was held on March 1st. This was not a fun fair or carnival but an opportunity to buy and sell animals and other commodities. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that there had been a "tolerably large supply" of cattle and pigs with milking cows being numerous but the buying of pigs was "rather languid".
Next week's stories will include the Irish Fenians that met in a Parr Street beerhouse, a 3-year-old Sutton boy is summoned to court for smashing a window, the St Helens' works that made candles for coal mines, the fees for lunatics in Rainhill Asylum and a setback for plans to widen Church Street.
We begin on the 24th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians in which it was stated that there had been 363 inmates in Whiston Workhouse during the past week. That was a high number and a Poor Law inspector told the meeting that he had inspected the house and found overcrowding in the sleeping areas. Basil Kane also complained of a lack of lunatic wards, saying insane and imbecile persons had to associate day and night with the ordinary inmates.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 28th and Elizabeth Hartley was charged with stealing articles of clothing valued at 6s 6d from George Murray. The latter lived in Frazer Street in Parr – which no longer exists but used to be located near Parr Street. This was another case where a short-term lodger had walked off with somebody else's clothes upon leaving their lodgings. Elizabeth had only stayed with the Murray family for three days and had taken their bedgown, shawl, shirt and sheet with her. When arrested Elizabeth had said that Mr Murray had asked her to hide the items from his wife.
However in court the 30-year-old needlewoman changed her story, now claiming that Mrs Murray had sent her to a pawnbroker to pledge the clothes. This was after the police had found a number of pawn tickets on her. The magistrates decided to commit Elizabeth Hartley to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool. Clothes stealing was a serious offence and on April 20th the woman was sent to prison for nine months.
John Bryan appeared in the Petty Sessions charged with fraudulently removing his furniture from his rented house in Pocket Nook. The man had only owed his landlord two weeks rent but feared that James Swift would obtain an order enabling him to seize his possessions in lieu of payment. So Bryan took his furniture out of the house, which was a common practice by those that were in debt but it was against the law.
While the magistrates were deciding on their sentence, John Bryan's wife asked them if they were compelled to pay rent for a house that was full of rats. She said as soon as a meal was prepared, the "rats trooped out to partake of it", adding that their "flitting" was the result of the state of the house. As far as the magistrates were concerned a rat infestation had no bearing on the case and John Bryan was ordered to pay a fine of £1 15s 6d or go to prison for six months.
John Halligan was charged in the Petty Sessions with stealing a pistol belonging to Robert Dagnall. He was a furniture dealer with premises in Liverpool Road. A pawnbroker's assistant called John Monaghan gave evidence that he had seen the 16-year-old enter Dagnall's shop and take the pistol. Halligan had arranged with a friend that he would swap his pigeon for a pistol, although the boy told the court that he was referring to an old pistol in his home. The magistrates committed the lad to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions and on April 21st the young mineworker was found guilty and sent to prison for three months.
A glassworks labourer called Joseph Poole was charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with assaulting Police Constable Worden. The officer told the Bench that he had found a crowd gathered round the door of the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street. Poole was lying on his back and the landlord and another man raised him up. As soon as he got to his feet, the man punched the landlord in his face and the pair then fought each other. Constable Worden got them separated and as he talked to Poole about his behaviour, the man assaulted him and so he placed him under arrest.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "On the way to the station he resisted desperately, and in a close grapple which took place between the policeman and his prisoner, the former had his foot and ankle sprained." Poole's counsel Thomas Swift told the Bench that his client had been "mad in drink" and wondered where the defendant had got his black eye or broken head from. The magistrates ordered Joseph Poole to pay £2 and costs or go to prison for two months.
Elizabeth Sullivan from Peasley Cross did not turn up to court to face her summons for committing wilful damage. The Newspaper described her as "a dame who has more than once conducted herself in a disorderly manner in public." Ann Greetham claimed that Mrs Sullivan had entered her home, grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her off the chair where she had been sitting. The 25-year-old's husband, George Greetham, intervened and "after considerable labour" got Mrs Sullivan out of the room.
However the woman grabbed a poker and attacked the kitchen door, leaving it in such a state that it was "good for nothing but to furnish evidence of the blows it had received." Of course Elizabeth Sullivan's failure to show up in court deprived the Bench of knowing what had motivated her to get so worked up. The magistrates only fined the woman 2s 6d but she also had to pay for the damaged door and the court costs.
The annual soiree of Holy Cross Church Choir was held on the 28th featuring a number of solo and choral performances. The St Helens Newspaper in its review wrote: "When the programme was finished, the seats were rapidly cleared away, and the room prepared for dancing. To the music of the band, for several hours terpsichorean exercises occupied the company and enabled them to pass a most sprightly and pleasant evening." This is not the first time the word terpsichorean has been used in these articles, which simply means to dance.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were held on the 1st and Mary Cruse from Chapel Lane in Rainhill was charged with assaulting PC Rostron while in the execution of his duty. The officer went to the woman's home to serve a summons on her son. As he was not home he handed it to Mary who struck him in the face with a brush. Using very abusive language, she told the constable what they would do to him if they had him in Ireland. PC Rostron reported what had happened and a summons was made out for the woman to appear in court to face a charge of assault.
Constable Crozier was the unlucky bobby given the task of delivering the summons to the 38-year-old Irish woman. However Mary Cruse did not see him off with a brush this time. Instead she struck the officer with a shovel! As I've often said violence was tolerated to a large degree back in 1870. But there were limits and the Bench did not appreciate Mary Cruse's treatment of authority. The woman wasn't even drunk – the most common excuse for assaulting the bobbies – and so she was despatched to prison for 21 days.
The Chairman of the Bench described another case as one of the worst that had come before the magistrates. A young collier from Whiston called Michael Crosby had allegedly got Ann Baldwin pregnant and so she brought a summons against him demanding maintenance payments. The child had been born almost a year earlier and at conception Crosby would only have been aged 15 or perhaps 16. He denied having been the father but this was Ann Baldwin's second child to a different father having been an unmarried mother at sixteen.
These facts would not have gone down well with the magistrates but the language used in the case absolutely enraged their Chairman. "It was a great disgrace", declared Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, "to see such a crowd of men coming in that court to hear and listen to such filthy and disgusting language, and the women were as bad. The evidence had been given in a most unblushing and disgraceful manner." A maintenance or affiliation order – to state the correct term – was granted to Ann Baldwin for 1s 6d. per week.
And finally the first Prescot Fair of the year was held on March 1st. This was not a fun fair or carnival but an opportunity to buy and sell animals and other commodities. The St Helens Newspaper wrote that there had been a "tolerably large supply" of cattle and pigs with milking cows being numerous but the buying of pigs was "rather languid".
Next week's stories will include the Irish Fenians that met in a Parr Street beerhouse, a 3-year-old Sutton boy is summoned to court for smashing a window, the St Helens' works that made candles for coal mines, the fees for lunatics in Rainhill Asylum and a setback for plans to widen Church Street.
This week's stories include the Pocket Nook house that was full of rats, the Peasley Cross poker woman who smashed up her neighbour's door, the thieving lodger from Parr, the filthy and disgusting language used in a Whiston maintenance case and the boy who stole a pistol from a Liverpool Road shop in order to swap it for a pigeon.
We begin on the 24th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians in which it was stated that there had been 363 inmates in Whiston Workhouse during the past week.
That was a high number and a Poor Law inspector told the meeting that he had inspected the house and found overcrowding in the sleeping areas.
Basil Kane also complained of a lack of lunatic wards, saying insane and imbecile persons had to associate day and night with the ordinary inmates.
The two-day Newton Spring race meeting began on the 25th.
Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common since at least 1678 (pictured above) and in 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the Vicar of St Helens, wrote about the "sad excesses" of the meeting.
The vicar claimed that: "Very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races".
The meetings continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 28th and Elizabeth Hartley was charged with stealing articles of clothing valued at 6s 6d from George Murray.
The latter lived in Frazer Street in Parr – which no longer exists but used to be located near Parr Street.
This was another case where a short-term lodger had walked off with somebody else's clothes upon leaving their lodgings.
Elizabeth had only stayed with the Murray family for three days and had taken their bedgown, shawl, shirt and sheet with her.
When arrested Elizabeth had said that Mr Murray had asked her to hide the items from his wife.
However in court the 30-year-old needlewoman changed her story, now claiming that Mrs Murray had sent her to a pawnbroker to pledge the clothes.
This was after the police had found a number of pawn tickets on her.
The magistrates decided to commit Elizabeth Hartley to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool.
Clothes stealing was a serious offence and on April 20th the woman was sent to prison for nine months.
John Bryan appeared in the Petty Sessions charged with fraudulently removing his furniture from his rented house in Pocket Nook.
The man had only owed his landlord two weeks rent but feared that James Swift would obtain an order enabling him to seize his possessions in lieu of payment.
So Bryan took his furniture out of the house, which was a common practice by those that were in debt but it was against the law.
While the magistrates were deciding on their sentence, John Bryan's wife asked them if they were compelled to pay rent for a house that was full of rats.
She said as soon as a meal was prepared, the "rats trooped out to partake of it", adding that their "flitting" was the result of the state of the house.
As far as the magistrates were concerned a rat infestation had no bearing on the case and John Bryan was ordered to pay a fine of £1 15s 6d or go to prison for six months.
John Halligan was charged in the Petty Sessions with stealing a pistol belonging to Robert Dagnall. He was a furniture dealer with premises in Liverpool Road.
A pawnbroker's assistant called John Monaghan gave evidence that he had seen the 16-year-old enter Dagnall's shop and take the pistol.
Halligan had arranged with a friend that he would swap his pigeon for a pistol, although the boy told the court that he was referring to an old pistol in his home.
The magistrates committed the lad to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions and on April 21st the young mineworker was found guilty and sent to prison for three months.
A glassworks labourer called Joseph Poole was charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with assaulting Police Constable Worden.
The officer told the Bench that he had found a crowd gathered round the door of the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street.
Poole was lying on his back and the landlord and another man raised him up.
As soon as he got to his feet, the man punched the landlord in his face and the pair then fought each other.
Constable Worden got them separated and as he talked to Poole about his behaviour, the man assaulted him and so he placed him under arrest.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "On the way to the station he resisted desperately, and in a close grapple which took place between the policeman and his prisoner, the former had his foot and ankle sprained."
Poole's counsel Thomas Swift told the Bench that his client had been "mad in drink" and wondered where the defendant had got his black eye or broken head from.
The magistrates ordered Joseph Poole to pay £2 and costs or go to prison for two months.
Elizabeth Sullivan from Peasley Cross did not turn up to court to face her summons for committing wilful damage.
The Newspaper described her as "a dame who has more than once conducted herself in a disorderly manner in public."
Ann Greetham claimed that Mrs Sullivan had entered her home, grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her off the chair where she had been sitting.
The 25-year-old's husband, George Greetham, intervened and "after considerable labour" got Mrs Sullivan out of the room.
However the woman grabbed a poker and attacked the kitchen door, leaving it in such a state that it was "good for nothing but to furnish evidence of the blows it had received."
Of course Elizabeth Sullivan's failure to show up in court deprived the Bench of knowing what had motivated her to get so worked up.
The magistrates only fined the woman 2s 6d but she also had to pay for the damaged door and the court costs.
The annual soiree of Holy Cross Church Choir was held on the 28th featuring a number of solo and choral performances. The St Helens Newspaper in its review wrote:
"When the programme was finished, the seats were rapidly cleared away, and the room prepared for dancing.
"To the music of the band, for several hours terpsichorean exercises occupied the company and enabled them to pass a most sprightly and pleasant evening."
This is not the first time the word terpsichorean has been used in these articles, which simply means to dance.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were held on the 1st and Mary Cruse from Chapel Lane in Rainhill was charged with assaulting PC Rostron while in the execution of his duty.
The officer went to the woman's home to serve a summons on her son. As he was not home he handed it to Mary who struck him in the face with a brush.
Using very abusive language, she told the constable what they would do to him if they had him in Ireland.
PC Rostron reported what had happened and a summons was made out for the woman to appear in court to face a charge of assault.
Constable Crozier was the unlucky bobby given the task of delivering the summons to the 38-year-old Irish woman.
However Mary Cruse did not see him off with a brush this time. Instead she struck the officer with a shovel!
As I've often said violence was tolerated to a large degree back in 1870.
But there were limits and the Bench did not appreciate Mary Cruse's treatment of authority.
The woman wasn't even drunk – the most common excuse for assaulting the bobbies – and so she was despatched to prison for 21 days.
The Chairman of the Bench described another case as one of the worst that had come before the magistrates.
A young collier from Whiston called Michael Crosby had allegedly got Ann Baldwin pregnant and so she brought a summons against him demanding maintenance payments.
The child had been born almost a year earlier and at conception Crosby would only have been aged 15 or perhaps 16.
He denied having been the father but this was Ann Baldwin's second child to a different father having been an unmarried mother at sixteen.
These facts would not have gone down well with the magistrates but the language used in the case absolutely enraged their Chairman.
"It was a great disgrace", declared Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, "to see such a crowd of men coming in that court to hear and listen to such filthy and disgusting language, and the women were as bad.
"The evidence had been given in a most unblushing and disgraceful manner,” he added.
A maintenance or affiliation order – to state the correct term – was granted to Ann Baldwin for 1s 6d per week.
And finally the first Prescot Fair of the year was held on March 1st.
This was not a fun fair or carnival but an opportunity to buy and sell animals and other commodities.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote that there had been a "tolerably large supply" of cattle and pigs with milking cows being numerous but the buying of pigs was "rather languid".
Next week's stories will include the Irish Fenians that met in a Parr Street beerhouse, a 3-year-old Sutton boy is summoned to court for smashing a window, the St Helens' works that made candles for coal mines, the fees for lunatics in Rainhill Asylum and a setback for plans to widen Church Street.
We begin on the 24th with a meeting of the Prescot Board of Guardians in which it was stated that there had been 363 inmates in Whiston Workhouse during the past week.
That was a high number and a Poor Law inspector told the meeting that he had inspected the house and found overcrowding in the sleeping areas.
Basil Kane also complained of a lack of lunatic wards, saying insane and imbecile persons had to associate day and night with the ordinary inmates.
Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common since at least 1678 (pictured above) and in 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the Vicar of St Helens, wrote about the "sad excesses" of the meeting.
The vicar claimed that: "Very many poor sinners have confessed to me on their death beds that they commenced their wicked career at Newton races".
The meetings continued until 1899 when Lord Newton accepted an offer from a Manchester-based syndicate to rent land in Haydock to establish a new course that we know today as Haydock Park.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 28th and Elizabeth Hartley was charged with stealing articles of clothing valued at 6s 6d from George Murray.
The latter lived in Frazer Street in Parr – which no longer exists but used to be located near Parr Street.
This was another case where a short-term lodger had walked off with somebody else's clothes upon leaving their lodgings.
Elizabeth had only stayed with the Murray family for three days and had taken their bedgown, shawl, shirt and sheet with her.
When arrested Elizabeth had said that Mr Murray had asked her to hide the items from his wife.
However in court the 30-year-old needlewoman changed her story, now claiming that Mrs Murray had sent her to a pawnbroker to pledge the clothes.
This was after the police had found a number of pawn tickets on her.
The magistrates decided to commit Elizabeth Hartley to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions in Liverpool.
Clothes stealing was a serious offence and on April 20th the woman was sent to prison for nine months.
John Bryan appeared in the Petty Sessions charged with fraudulently removing his furniture from his rented house in Pocket Nook.
The man had only owed his landlord two weeks rent but feared that James Swift would obtain an order enabling him to seize his possessions in lieu of payment.
So Bryan took his furniture out of the house, which was a common practice by those that were in debt but it was against the law.
While the magistrates were deciding on their sentence, John Bryan's wife asked them if they were compelled to pay rent for a house that was full of rats.
She said as soon as a meal was prepared, the "rats trooped out to partake of it", adding that their "flitting" was the result of the state of the house.
As far as the magistrates were concerned a rat infestation had no bearing on the case and John Bryan was ordered to pay a fine of £1 15s 6d or go to prison for six months.
John Halligan was charged in the Petty Sessions with stealing a pistol belonging to Robert Dagnall. He was a furniture dealer with premises in Liverpool Road.
A pawnbroker's assistant called John Monaghan gave evidence that he had seen the 16-year-old enter Dagnall's shop and take the pistol.
Halligan had arranged with a friend that he would swap his pigeon for a pistol, although the boy told the court that he was referring to an old pistol in his home.
The magistrates committed the lad to the Kirkdale Quarter Sessions and on April 21st the young mineworker was found guilty and sent to prison for three months.
A glassworks labourer called Joseph Poole was charged in the St Helens Petty Sessions with assaulting Police Constable Worden.
The officer told the Bench that he had found a crowd gathered round the door of the Nelson Inn in Bridge Street.
Poole was lying on his back and the landlord and another man raised him up.
As soon as he got to his feet, the man punched the landlord in his face and the pair then fought each other.
Constable Worden got them separated and as he talked to Poole about his behaviour, the man assaulted him and so he placed him under arrest.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "On the way to the station he resisted desperately, and in a close grapple which took place between the policeman and his prisoner, the former had his foot and ankle sprained."
Poole's counsel Thomas Swift told the Bench that his client had been "mad in drink" and wondered where the defendant had got his black eye or broken head from.
The magistrates ordered Joseph Poole to pay £2 and costs or go to prison for two months.
Elizabeth Sullivan from Peasley Cross did not turn up to court to face her summons for committing wilful damage.
The Newspaper described her as "a dame who has more than once conducted herself in a disorderly manner in public."
Ann Greetham claimed that Mrs Sullivan had entered her home, grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her off the chair where she had been sitting.
The 25-year-old's husband, George Greetham, intervened and "after considerable labour" got Mrs Sullivan out of the room.
However the woman grabbed a poker and attacked the kitchen door, leaving it in such a state that it was "good for nothing but to furnish evidence of the blows it had received."
Of course Elizabeth Sullivan's failure to show up in court deprived the Bench of knowing what had motivated her to get so worked up.
The magistrates only fined the woman 2s 6d but she also had to pay for the damaged door and the court costs.
The annual soiree of Holy Cross Church Choir was held on the 28th featuring a number of solo and choral performances. The St Helens Newspaper in its review wrote:
"When the programme was finished, the seats were rapidly cleared away, and the room prepared for dancing.
"To the music of the band, for several hours terpsichorean exercises occupied the company and enabled them to pass a most sprightly and pleasant evening."
This is not the first time the word terpsichorean has been used in these articles, which simply means to dance.
The Prescot Petty Sessions were held on the 1st and Mary Cruse from Chapel Lane in Rainhill was charged with assaulting PC Rostron while in the execution of his duty.
The officer went to the woman's home to serve a summons on her son. As he was not home he handed it to Mary who struck him in the face with a brush.
Using very abusive language, she told the constable what they would do to him if they had him in Ireland.
PC Rostron reported what had happened and a summons was made out for the woman to appear in court to face a charge of assault.
Constable Crozier was the unlucky bobby given the task of delivering the summons to the 38-year-old Irish woman.
However Mary Cruse did not see him off with a brush this time. Instead she struck the officer with a shovel!
As I've often said violence was tolerated to a large degree back in 1870.
But there were limits and the Bench did not appreciate Mary Cruse's treatment of authority.
The woman wasn't even drunk – the most common excuse for assaulting the bobbies – and so she was despatched to prison for 21 days.
The Chairman of the Bench described another case as one of the worst that had come before the magistrates.
A young collier from Whiston called Michael Crosby had allegedly got Ann Baldwin pregnant and so she brought a summons against him demanding maintenance payments.
The child had been born almost a year earlier and at conception Crosby would only have been aged 15 or perhaps 16.
He denied having been the father but this was Ann Baldwin's second child to a different father having been an unmarried mother at sixteen.
These facts would not have gone down well with the magistrates but the language used in the case absolutely enraged their Chairman.
"It was a great disgrace", declared Rear Admiral Geoffrey Hornby, "to see such a crowd of men coming in that court to hear and listen to such filthy and disgusting language, and the women were as bad.
"The evidence had been given in a most unblushing and disgraceful manner,” he added.
A maintenance or affiliation order – to state the correct term – was granted to Ann Baldwin for 1s 6d per week.
And finally the first Prescot Fair of the year was held on March 1st.
This was not a fun fair or carnival but an opportunity to buy and sell animals and other commodities.
The St Helens Newspaper wrote that there had been a "tolerably large supply" of cattle and pigs with milking cows being numerous but the buying of pigs was "rather languid".
Next week's stories will include the Irish Fenians that met in a Parr Street beerhouse, a 3-year-old Sutton boy is summoned to court for smashing a window, the St Helens' works that made candles for coal mines, the fees for lunatics in Rainhill Asylum and a setback for plans to widen Church Street.