150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (24th - 30th APRIL 1873)
This week's many stories include the shocking state of the workhouse hospital, the death of a Parr pit sinker, the daily attacks on passers-by in St Helens, the boy sent to prison for stealing just five pence from a pub and the young woman who claimed infancy to get out of paying a debt.
We begin on the 24th when the inquest on Thomas Carney was held at the Bulls Head in Parr Stocks. The 23-year-old had been involved in the sinking of a new shaft at Ashtons Green Colliery (pictured above). That was often a perilous affair and a stone weighing around 50 pounds had fallen over sixty feet onto Carney and instantly killed him. Ashtons Green Colliery was situated between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road and closed in 1931.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 24th, Supt. James Ludlam – the head of the town's police force – told the court that attacks on persons passing a certain spot between Ravenhead and Greenbank were of a daily occurrence. His comment was in connection with a case in which two youths called James Donoghue and Andrew Thompson were charged with assaulting Adam Schofield.
The latter was a colliery fireman who told the court he'd been making his way home past Greenbank, near Liverpool Road, when a group of young men began throwing stones at him. He said he jumped across a wall to reach one of his attackers and, as he did so, Donoghue struck him on his head with a stick and then Thompson hit him on the arm. The Chairman of the Bench commented how that particular place was becoming a hazardous one to pass through and said such attacks on members of the public had to be stopped.
Andrew Thompson had previously been sent to prison for assault but pleaded not guilty with his solicitor arguing that his client's incarceration had been such a lesson to him that since his release he'd kept well clear of trouble. But Supt. Ludlam disagreed, saying Thompson was ready to assault any person who came near him. In the end the Chairman of the Bench gave Thompson the benefit of the doubt but sent Donahue to prison for two months with hard labour.
In another court case this week, William Riley was charged with stealing five pence from James Dennett, who kept a pub in Raven Street, off Church Street. The 10-year-old had literally been found with his fingers in the till and it had not been the boy's first offence as he had previously been imprisoned on a similar charge. Supt. Ludlam told the Bench that the lad's parents seemed to have lost all control over him.
Whenever that was said in court the outcome was pretty much the same – the boy would spend five years in a reformatory. But that was never quite enough for the magistrates. They always had to add on an even harsher punishment first. That might be a dozen or so strokes of the birch or a short period in prison. In William's case he was told that he would be spending 14 days in Kirkdale Gaol prior to being transferred to the reformatory.
The Newspaper wrote: "The mother of the prisoner, who was present, seemed to be indignant at the sentence on her hopeful, and was about to give voice to her indignation, when she was removed." The police and court officials had plenty of experience of angry parents when such sentences were imposed and were quick off the mark to bundle them out of the courtroom.
Although prosecutions for cruelty to animals took place on a regular basis, the fines inflicted on offenders were not particularly high. This week Samuel Evans and James Rigby were charged with working a horse in Sutton in an unfit state. Sergeant Bee told the magistrates that the animal had two very raw and severe wounds and there were traces of several others that had healed. The driver of the horse and cart was Samuel Evans and the charge against him was dismissed and the owner James Rigby was only fined one shilling and costs.
On the 26th the Newspaper described a court case concerning a fight in Parr: "Margaret Welding was summoned by Ann Duckworth, for an assault upon her, at Parr, on the 14th inst. It appeared from the evidence that the women and their husbands met in a public house, and began to wrangle. The men drifted into a fight, and the women honoured the example set them. In the course of the melee, defendant threw a basin at complainant, which struck her on the forehead and cut her. A fine of 10s. with costs was inflicted."
The Newspaper on the 26th published more details of what Dr Hall, the Medical Officer of Whiston Workhouse, had recently said in a report about the state of the institution's hospital: "On coming to the hospital at three o’clock (12th April) my attention was accidentally directed to one of the men's dormitories. I there found, left entirely to the care of two men (Woosey and McDonnell) not wardsmen, four violent lunatics, besides the general patients.
"Two had strait waistcoats on, and were fastened down to the bedsteads. One was pacing up and down the room, declaring he was going home (there was [a] bed for him), and had in a scuffle just bitten the attendant's hand and made the blood come. The fourth was reported to have thrown a chamber convenience at his head. On finding a bed in another part of the hospital for the fourth case, an old man, I sent for him to be brought to it; but going back to the room more quickly than was expected, I found the two men in charge, tugging the man out of bed in the most brutal manner.
"On my interfering, he walked with me quite quietly, and thanked me most cordially, and having had a kind person with him for the rest of the night, I find that he has been perfectly tranquil and composed. Mrs. Collingwood [the head nurse] had been engaged at the time with a midwifery case, and she tells me it was the third night this week she had been up nearly all night. I really cannot understand how she gets through the work she does. She has now been without even the usual one assistant (which is not sufficient) for more than three weeks."
Since the doctor had written his report, a married couple had been appointed as assistant nurses to Mrs. Collingwood. At the time of making the report there were 150 pauper patients in the hospital that had been designed for 100. But even if its normal complement of inmates had been present and the assistant nurses been in place, it is not difficult to understand why there was always a high turnover of nursing staff at Whiston.
And finally on the 31st there was a curious case in St Helens County Court in which a female music teacher called Byrne used a loophole to get out of paying a debt to a piano dealer. The man called Henty had previously sued the young woman's father for the 10-shilling balance of a fee for the hiring of one of his pianos. However, the judge had ruled that as the father had been in America during the period of the hiring, he could not allow the case to proceed.
But the judge added that if the daughter – who had been the actual hirer of the piano – was overage, she could be sued for the 10 shillings. And so the piano dealer brought a second case against the young woman. But she pleaded infancy – meaning she was not yet 21 and so was legally able to repudiate the debt. Although the judge felt obliged to accept her plea, he said it was dishonest to withhold the plaintiff's money in such a way.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the May Day horse parade, the Bridge Street shopkeeper's generosity to a thief, the bricklayers' strike, the trouble in building the new Town Hall, a rare Prescot divorce and the St Helens stinky brook of the 1870s.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 24th, Supt. James Ludlam – the head of the town's police force – told the court that attacks on persons passing a certain spot between Ravenhead and Greenbank were of a daily occurrence. His comment was in connection with a case in which two youths called James Donoghue and Andrew Thompson were charged with assaulting Adam Schofield.
The latter was a colliery fireman who told the court he'd been making his way home past Greenbank, near Liverpool Road, when a group of young men began throwing stones at him. He said he jumped across a wall to reach one of his attackers and, as he did so, Donoghue struck him on his head with a stick and then Thompson hit him on the arm. The Chairman of the Bench commented how that particular place was becoming a hazardous one to pass through and said such attacks on members of the public had to be stopped.
Andrew Thompson had previously been sent to prison for assault but pleaded not guilty with his solicitor arguing that his client's incarceration had been such a lesson to him that since his release he'd kept well clear of trouble. But Supt. Ludlam disagreed, saying Thompson was ready to assault any person who came near him. In the end the Chairman of the Bench gave Thompson the benefit of the doubt but sent Donahue to prison for two months with hard labour.
In another court case this week, William Riley was charged with stealing five pence from James Dennett, who kept a pub in Raven Street, off Church Street. The 10-year-old had literally been found with his fingers in the till and it had not been the boy's first offence as he had previously been imprisoned on a similar charge. Supt. Ludlam told the Bench that the lad's parents seemed to have lost all control over him.
Whenever that was said in court the outcome was pretty much the same – the boy would spend five years in a reformatory. But that was never quite enough for the magistrates. They always had to add on an even harsher punishment first. That might be a dozen or so strokes of the birch or a short period in prison. In William's case he was told that he would be spending 14 days in Kirkdale Gaol prior to being transferred to the reformatory.
The Newspaper wrote: "The mother of the prisoner, who was present, seemed to be indignant at the sentence on her hopeful, and was about to give voice to her indignation, when she was removed." The police and court officials had plenty of experience of angry parents when such sentences were imposed and were quick off the mark to bundle them out of the courtroom.
Although prosecutions for cruelty to animals took place on a regular basis, the fines inflicted on offenders were not particularly high. This week Samuel Evans and James Rigby were charged with working a horse in Sutton in an unfit state. Sergeant Bee told the magistrates that the animal had two very raw and severe wounds and there were traces of several others that had healed. The driver of the horse and cart was Samuel Evans and the charge against him was dismissed and the owner James Rigby was only fined one shilling and costs.
On the 26th the Newspaper described a court case concerning a fight in Parr: "Margaret Welding was summoned by Ann Duckworth, for an assault upon her, at Parr, on the 14th inst. It appeared from the evidence that the women and their husbands met in a public house, and began to wrangle. The men drifted into a fight, and the women honoured the example set them. In the course of the melee, defendant threw a basin at complainant, which struck her on the forehead and cut her. A fine of 10s. with costs was inflicted."
The Newspaper on the 26th published more details of what Dr Hall, the Medical Officer of Whiston Workhouse, had recently said in a report about the state of the institution's hospital: "On coming to the hospital at three o’clock (12th April) my attention was accidentally directed to one of the men's dormitories. I there found, left entirely to the care of two men (Woosey and McDonnell) not wardsmen, four violent lunatics, besides the general patients.
"Two had strait waistcoats on, and were fastened down to the bedsteads. One was pacing up and down the room, declaring he was going home (there was [a] bed for him), and had in a scuffle just bitten the attendant's hand and made the blood come. The fourth was reported to have thrown a chamber convenience at his head. On finding a bed in another part of the hospital for the fourth case, an old man, I sent for him to be brought to it; but going back to the room more quickly than was expected, I found the two men in charge, tugging the man out of bed in the most brutal manner.
"On my interfering, he walked with me quite quietly, and thanked me most cordially, and having had a kind person with him for the rest of the night, I find that he has been perfectly tranquil and composed. Mrs. Collingwood [the head nurse] had been engaged at the time with a midwifery case, and she tells me it was the third night this week she had been up nearly all night. I really cannot understand how she gets through the work she does. She has now been without even the usual one assistant (which is not sufficient) for more than three weeks."
Since the doctor had written his report, a married couple had been appointed as assistant nurses to Mrs. Collingwood. At the time of making the report there were 150 pauper patients in the hospital that had been designed for 100. But even if its normal complement of inmates had been present and the assistant nurses been in place, it is not difficult to understand why there was always a high turnover of nursing staff at Whiston.
And finally on the 31st there was a curious case in St Helens County Court in which a female music teacher called Byrne used a loophole to get out of paying a debt to a piano dealer. The man called Henty had previously sued the young woman's father for the 10-shilling balance of a fee for the hiring of one of his pianos. However, the judge had ruled that as the father had been in America during the period of the hiring, he could not allow the case to proceed.
But the judge added that if the daughter – who had been the actual hirer of the piano – was overage, she could be sued for the 10 shillings. And so the piano dealer brought a second case against the young woman. But she pleaded infancy – meaning she was not yet 21 and so was legally able to repudiate the debt. Although the judge felt obliged to accept her plea, he said it was dishonest to withhold the plaintiff's money in such a way.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the May Day horse parade, the Bridge Street shopkeeper's generosity to a thief, the bricklayers' strike, the trouble in building the new Town Hall, a rare Prescot divorce and the St Helens stinky brook of the 1870s.
This week's many stories include the shocking state of the workhouse hospital, the death of a Parr pit sinker, the daily attacks on passers-by in St Helens, the boy sent to prison for stealing just five pence from a pub and the young woman who claimed infancy to get out of paying a debt.
We begin on the 24th when the inquest on Thomas Carney was held at the Bulls Head in Parr Stocks.
The 23-year-old had been involved in the sinking of a new shaft at Ashtons Green Colliery (pictured above).
That was often a perilous affair and a stone weighing around 50 pounds had fallen over sixty feet onto Carney and instantly killed him.
Ashtons Green Colliery was situated between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road and closed in 1931.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 24th, Supt. James Ludlam – the head of the town's police force – told the court that attacks on persons passing a certain spot between Ravenhead and Greenbank were of a daily occurrence.
His comment was in connection with a case in which two youths called James Donoghue and Andrew Thompson were charged with assaulting Adam Schofield.
The latter was a colliery fireman who told the court he'd been making his way home past Greenbank, near Liverpool Road, when a group of young men began throwing stones at him.
He said he jumped across a wall to reach one of his attackers and, as he did so, Donoghue struck him on his head with a stick and then Thompson hit him on the arm.
The Chairman of the Bench commented how that particular place was becoming a hazardous one to pass through and said such attacks on members of the public had to be stopped.
Andrew Thompson had previously been sent to prison for assault but pleaded not guilty with his solicitor arguing that his client's incarceration had been such a lesson to him that since his release he'd kept well clear of trouble.
But Supt. Ludlam disagreed, saying Thompson was ready to assault any person who came near him.
In the end the Chairman of the Bench gave Thompson the benefit of the doubt but sent Donahue to prison for two months with hard labour.
In another court case this week, William Riley was charged with stealing five pence from James Dennett, who kept a pub in Raven Street, off Church Street.
The 10-year-old had literally been found with his fingers in the till and it had not been the boy's first offence as he had previously been imprisoned on a similar charge.
Supt. Ludlam told the Bench that the lad's parents seemed to have lost all control over him.
Whenever that was said in court the outcome was pretty much the same – the boy would spend five years in a reformatory.
But that was never quite enough for the magistrates. They always had to add on an even harsher punishment first. That might be a dozen or so strokes of the birch or a short period in prison.
In William's case he was told that he would be spending 14 days in Kirkdale Gaol prior to being transferred to the reformatory.
The Newspaper wrote: "The mother of the prisoner, who was present, seemed to be indignant at the sentence on her hopeful, and was about to give voice to her indignation, when she was removed."
The police and court officials had plenty of experience of angry parents when such sentences were imposed and were quick off the mark to bundle them out of the courtroom.
Although prosecutions for cruelty to animals took place on a regular basis, the fines inflicted on offenders were not particularly high.
This week Samuel Evans and James Rigby were charged with working a horse in Sutton in an unfit state.
Sergeant Bee told the magistrates that the animal had two very raw and severe wounds and there were traces of several others that had healed.
The driver of the horse and cart was Samuel Evans and the charge against him was dismissed and the owner James Rigby was only fined one shilling and costs.
On the 26th the Newspaper described a court case concerning a fight in Parr:
"Margaret Welding was summoned by Ann Duckworth, for an assault upon her, at Parr, on the 14th inst. It appeared from the evidence that the women and their husbands met in a public house, and began to wrangle.
"The men drifted into a fight, and the women honoured the example set them. In the course of the melee, defendant threw a basin at complainant, which struck her on the forehead and cut her. A fine of 10s. with costs was inflicted."
The Newspaper on the 26th published more details of what Dr Hall, the Medical Officer of Whiston Workhouse, had recently said in a report about the state of the institution's hospital:
"On coming to the hospital at three o’clock (12th April) my attention was accidentally directed to one of the men's dormitories. I there found, left entirely to the care of two men (Woosey and McDonnell) not wardsmen, four violent lunatics, besides the general patients.
"Two had strait waistcoats on, and were fastened down to the bedsteads. One was pacing up and down the room, declaring he was going home (there was [a] bed for him), and had in a scuffle just bitten the attendant's hand and made the blood come.
"The fourth was reported to have thrown a chamber convenience at his head. On finding a bed in another part of the hospital for the fourth case, an old man, I sent for him to be brought to it; but going back to the room more quickly than was expected, I found the two men in charge, tugging the man out of bed in the most brutal manner.
"On my interfering, he walked with me quite quietly, and thanked me most cordially, and having had a kind person with him for the rest of the night, I find that he has been perfectly tranquil and composed.
"Mrs. Collingwood [the head nurse] had been engaged at the time with a midwifery case, and she tells me it was the third night this week she had been up nearly all night. I really cannot understand how she gets through the work she does. She has now been without even the usual one assistant (which is not sufficient) for more than three weeks."
Since the doctor had written his report, a married couple had been appointed as assistant nurses to Mrs. Collingwood.
At the time of making the report there were 150 pauper patients in the hospital that had been designed for 100.
But even if its normal complement of inmates had been present and the assistant nurses been in place, it is not difficult to understand why there was always a high turnover of nursing staff at Whiston.
And finally on the 31st there was a curious case in St Helens County Court in which a female music teacher called Byrne used a loophole to get out of paying a debt to a piano dealer.
The man called Henty had previously sued the young woman's father for the 10-shilling balance of a fee for the hiring of one of his pianos.
However, the judge had ruled that as the father had been in America during the period of the hiring, he could not allow the case to proceed.
But the judge added that if the daughter – who had been the actual hirer of the piano – was overage, she could be sued for the 10 shillings.
And so the piano dealer brought a second case against the young woman. But she pleaded infancy – meaning she was not yet 21 and so was legally able to repudiate the debt.
Although the judge felt obliged to accept her plea, he said it was dishonest to withhold the plaintiff's money in such a way.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the May Day horse parade, the Bridge Street shopkeeper's generosity to a thief, the bricklayers' strike, the trouble in building the new Town Hall, a rare Prescot divorce and the St Helens stinky brook of the 1870s.
The 23-year-old had been involved in the sinking of a new shaft at Ashtons Green Colliery (pictured above).
That was often a perilous affair and a stone weighing around 50 pounds had fallen over sixty feet onto Carney and instantly killed him.
Ashtons Green Colliery was situated between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road and closed in 1931.
In St Helens Petty Sessions on the 24th, Supt. James Ludlam – the head of the town's police force – told the court that attacks on persons passing a certain spot between Ravenhead and Greenbank were of a daily occurrence.
His comment was in connection with a case in which two youths called James Donoghue and Andrew Thompson were charged with assaulting Adam Schofield.
The latter was a colliery fireman who told the court he'd been making his way home past Greenbank, near Liverpool Road, when a group of young men began throwing stones at him.
He said he jumped across a wall to reach one of his attackers and, as he did so, Donoghue struck him on his head with a stick and then Thompson hit him on the arm.
The Chairman of the Bench commented how that particular place was becoming a hazardous one to pass through and said such attacks on members of the public had to be stopped.
Andrew Thompson had previously been sent to prison for assault but pleaded not guilty with his solicitor arguing that his client's incarceration had been such a lesson to him that since his release he'd kept well clear of trouble.
But Supt. Ludlam disagreed, saying Thompson was ready to assault any person who came near him.
In the end the Chairman of the Bench gave Thompson the benefit of the doubt but sent Donahue to prison for two months with hard labour.
In another court case this week, William Riley was charged with stealing five pence from James Dennett, who kept a pub in Raven Street, off Church Street.
The 10-year-old had literally been found with his fingers in the till and it had not been the boy's first offence as he had previously been imprisoned on a similar charge.
Supt. Ludlam told the Bench that the lad's parents seemed to have lost all control over him.
Whenever that was said in court the outcome was pretty much the same – the boy would spend five years in a reformatory.
But that was never quite enough for the magistrates. They always had to add on an even harsher punishment first. That might be a dozen or so strokes of the birch or a short period in prison.
In William's case he was told that he would be spending 14 days in Kirkdale Gaol prior to being transferred to the reformatory.
The Newspaper wrote: "The mother of the prisoner, who was present, seemed to be indignant at the sentence on her hopeful, and was about to give voice to her indignation, when she was removed."
The police and court officials had plenty of experience of angry parents when such sentences were imposed and were quick off the mark to bundle them out of the courtroom.
Although prosecutions for cruelty to animals took place on a regular basis, the fines inflicted on offenders were not particularly high.
This week Samuel Evans and James Rigby were charged with working a horse in Sutton in an unfit state.
Sergeant Bee told the magistrates that the animal had two very raw and severe wounds and there were traces of several others that had healed.
The driver of the horse and cart was Samuel Evans and the charge against him was dismissed and the owner James Rigby was only fined one shilling and costs.
On the 26th the Newspaper described a court case concerning a fight in Parr:
"Margaret Welding was summoned by Ann Duckworth, for an assault upon her, at Parr, on the 14th inst. It appeared from the evidence that the women and their husbands met in a public house, and began to wrangle.
"The men drifted into a fight, and the women honoured the example set them. In the course of the melee, defendant threw a basin at complainant, which struck her on the forehead and cut her. A fine of 10s. with costs was inflicted."
The Newspaper on the 26th published more details of what Dr Hall, the Medical Officer of Whiston Workhouse, had recently said in a report about the state of the institution's hospital:
"On coming to the hospital at three o’clock (12th April) my attention was accidentally directed to one of the men's dormitories. I there found, left entirely to the care of two men (Woosey and McDonnell) not wardsmen, four violent lunatics, besides the general patients.
"Two had strait waistcoats on, and were fastened down to the bedsteads. One was pacing up and down the room, declaring he was going home (there was [a] bed for him), and had in a scuffle just bitten the attendant's hand and made the blood come.
"The fourth was reported to have thrown a chamber convenience at his head. On finding a bed in another part of the hospital for the fourth case, an old man, I sent for him to be brought to it; but going back to the room more quickly than was expected, I found the two men in charge, tugging the man out of bed in the most brutal manner.
"On my interfering, he walked with me quite quietly, and thanked me most cordially, and having had a kind person with him for the rest of the night, I find that he has been perfectly tranquil and composed.
"Mrs. Collingwood [the head nurse] had been engaged at the time with a midwifery case, and she tells me it was the third night this week she had been up nearly all night. I really cannot understand how she gets through the work she does. She has now been without even the usual one assistant (which is not sufficient) for more than three weeks."
Since the doctor had written his report, a married couple had been appointed as assistant nurses to Mrs. Collingwood.
At the time of making the report there were 150 pauper patients in the hospital that had been designed for 100.
But even if its normal complement of inmates had been present and the assistant nurses been in place, it is not difficult to understand why there was always a high turnover of nursing staff at Whiston.
And finally on the 31st there was a curious case in St Helens County Court in which a female music teacher called Byrne used a loophole to get out of paying a debt to a piano dealer.
The man called Henty had previously sued the young woman's father for the 10-shilling balance of a fee for the hiring of one of his pianos.
However, the judge had ruled that as the father had been in America during the period of the hiring, he could not allow the case to proceed.
But the judge added that if the daughter – who had been the actual hirer of the piano – was overage, she could be sued for the 10 shillings.
And so the piano dealer brought a second case against the young woman. But she pleaded infancy – meaning she was not yet 21 and so was legally able to repudiate the debt.
Although the judge felt obliged to accept her plea, he said it was dishonest to withhold the plaintiff's money in such a way.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the May Day horse parade, the Bridge Street shopkeeper's generosity to a thief, the bricklayers' strike, the trouble in building the new Town Hall, a rare Prescot divorce and the St Helens stinky brook of the 1870s.