150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (25th - 31st March 1869)
This week's stories include the dead man in College Street with a tin cheque, Good Friday in St Helens, a sequel to the claim of tyranny at Whiston Workhouse's hospital, why Mary Callaghan's heart had been broken, what to do with the old Sutton Workhouse and why Wigan was told to pay for a lunatic's keep in Rainhill Asylum.
We begin on the 25th with the official opening of a short branch railway line connecting Peasley Cross and Parr. The St Helens Newspaper said it would prove very convenient for the heavy traffic that went over the line through Parr.
Also on the 25th the fortnightly meeting of the Prescot Union Board of Guardians was held. These were the people that oversaw the Workhouse and provided outside relief for the poor. The master of the workhouse reported that during the past week 316 persons (including 129 children) had been inmates of the house. During that period £65 9s 1d had been spent assisting 1,098 people in their homes within the district of St Helens.
At the Guardian's last meeting a letter had been read out from the head nurse of the workhouse hospital in which she complained about the conduct of the institution's master. Elisabeth Evans criticised the "the great tyranny he exercises over me in the discharge of my duties".
Once the letter had been read the Guardians went into a closed committee to discuss the matter. It seems that no details of what they had decided to do about the complaint were made public. It doesn't appear that they did much, if anything, as the head nurse and her assistant had now decided to resign.
A letter from the workhouse's medical officer was read out expressing regret at their decision and saying they had both given satisfaction in the performance of their duties. The Guardians met in the boardroom at the workhouse and they sent for the two women to enquire why they had chosen to leave.
Elisabeth Evans told them that she had never been comfortable in her situation from the first, having been treated more like a child than the head nurse of a hospital. Her assistant Miss Radford simply said she intended to leave in order to better her position.
Of course she could have improved her position by applying to be the new head nurse. Miss Radford had probably also been treated badly by the master but was asking for a reference from the Guardians and so had to be careful what she said.
Also on the 25th the annual meetings of ratepayers in the various townships were held. Sutton's meeting was held in the Griffin Inn in Peasley Cross (pictured above) where the question of the old workhouse was brought up. This was situated on the present-day playing fields of Sherdley Primary School in New Street and in the 1841 census 77 people were living there, including two staff.
However it closed in 1843 with inmates transferred to the newly built workhouse at Whiston, which also replaced small houses at Prescot, Windle and Bold. Between 1850 and 1864 the Sutton building was used to accommodate the first National School before it relocated to Ellamsbridge Road. By 1869 the building was deteriorating fast but no one knew what to do with it.
It was owned by the Prescot Board of Guardians and a motion was passed at the ratepayers' meeting encouraging them to "dispose of the workhouse, by sale or lease, and as soon as possible". During the 1880s it was converted into dwelling houses and later new adjacent properties were built forming Graces Square. This was finally demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the school.
It was Good Friday on the 26th and the Victoria Pleasure Gardens opened for the season in Thatto Heath. A band played and admission was 6d. Charles Whittle owned the gardens as well as the adjacent Engine Inn, which changed its name to the Victoria Gardens during the early 1870s. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle.
There was also a military spectacle on Good Friday in Windle Park, opposite Windle Hall, with a review of St Helens' own part-time volunteers. They were known as the 47th Battalion of the Lancashire Rifle Volunteers and thousands turned out to watch. The town's other part-time soldiers – called the 2nd Lancashire Engineer Volunteers – held their review in Littler's field by the cemetery in Dentons Green.
The St Helens Newspaper commented how the people of the town had been good on Good Friday with only one person having been arrested: "Good Friday appears to have been temperately kept in St. Helens, at least, for there was but one prisoner from the holiday, and his case was one of simple intoxication.
"Although there were half-a-dozen individuals of the usual class in custody, almost all had been arrested on Thursday night, and thus compelled to keep Good Friday if not in fasting and prayer, at least in quietude and silence."
In 1968 the St Helens Reporter described a "wave of opposition" after banks in the town had decided to close on Saturdays. However a century earlier the opening hours of banks were far more limited.
The Prescot Reporter on the 27th featured an advert from the Prescot Savings Bank that stated its opening hours (or more accurately hour) as being 12 noon to 1pm on Mondays, when deposits from 1 shilling to £30 would be received. On the first Monday of every month they were open for an additional hour in the evening. What luxury! Of course not many people used banks in 1869, so there was little point in long opening hours.
The Prescot Penny Bank only appears to have opened for a short while on Saturdays and details of the number of deposits and withdrawals were published regularly in the Reporter. On the 27th they took 149 deposits totalling £11 9s 9d, with £6 8 shillings withdrawn. Five new depositors were signed up.
Sometimes there were stories in the newspapers from 1869 that were not all that interesting in themselves but contained a remarkable bit of detail. Such was an article in the Prescot Reporter about an unidentified man in College Street in St Helens, who was seen to stagger and then fall into the arms of a woman and die.
The elderly man of "very emaciated appearance" was only carrying a shilling and three-halfpence but also had in his possession what was described as a tin cheque belonging to the Leigh Friendly Co-operative Society. This summons up images of people carrying tin cheque books, although I've discovered that that wasn't the case.
Tin cheques were not used to pay for goods but they were receipts for purchases in some Co-operative Stores and at the end of each quarter they were exchanged for dividend payments.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 29th in the Town Hall, Peter O’Melly was sent to prison for ten days for begging at St Ann's. Mary Callaghan was also in court charged with committing a breach of the peace by "shouting, clapping her hands, and sundry other antics".
In her defence the 44-year-old said it was hardly any wonder that she behaved as she did considering that her heart was broken. Although not stated in the report, this would have been a reference to her 12-year-old daughter who had recently been sent to prison for a month and then onto a reformatory for five years for stealing coal.
Mary herself had spent a fortnight in Kirkdale Gaol for the theft of coal but this time in court she was bound over to keep the peace.
The case of "lunatic" James Draper was also gone into by the magistrates. He came from Wigan but was presently a resident of the Rainhill Asylum. If inmates in the asylum could not pay their bills and had roots in another town, the authorities could apply to a court for permission to charge that place's poor law union for the cost of the inmate's care.
Up until 1930 these poor law unions provided relief for the poor (mainly through workhouses) and the application to charge the Wigan Union for the care of Draper was approved.
Men punching women seems to have been more socially acceptable in 1869 than today. William Bailey was just bound over after giving Alice Hutchinson a black eye after a quarrel between his wife and Alice turned to violence. Bailey initially held Alice down in her own house while his wife struck and bit her and then he gave her a punch of his own. The court ordered him to find sureties for two months.
Jane Townsend appeared in the courtroom in New Market Place accused of stealing groceries from Thomas Little's shop in Dentons Green. This was another case where someone had seemingly tried to take advantage of open shop doors and shopkeeper's being in a back room when not serving. Usually it was small boys who undertook such lightning thefts. However this case was somewhat different, as Jane Townsend had initially bought some treacle from the shop.
Thomas Little must have had suspicions of the woman as he had concealed himself within his premises and after three minutes Jane returned and quickly gathered some butter, soap and sugar. The Prescot Reporter wrote: "When she was about to leave he threw aside concealment, and seized her."
PC Massey said that on the road to the station the woman had told him that she had taken the items because her husband's "reckoning" (or pay day) would not be until the following Saturday. However in court she told a different tale claiming that she had asked for the items and they had been put out for her. The magistrates thought the case against the woman was very strong but decided that the case be adjourned for a fortnight for further inquiries to be made.
Next week's stories will include a shocking mining accident in Ashton, the professional singer who became riotous in Bridge Street, a leather tannery in Billinge, a prediction on the use of bicycles in St Helens, more harsh prison sentences and St Ann's new church in Warrington Road in Rainhill is re-consecrated.
We begin on the 25th with the official opening of a short branch railway line connecting Peasley Cross and Parr. The St Helens Newspaper said it would prove very convenient for the heavy traffic that went over the line through Parr.
Also on the 25th the fortnightly meeting of the Prescot Union Board of Guardians was held. These were the people that oversaw the Workhouse and provided outside relief for the poor. The master of the workhouse reported that during the past week 316 persons (including 129 children) had been inmates of the house. During that period £65 9s 1d had been spent assisting 1,098 people in their homes within the district of St Helens.
At the Guardian's last meeting a letter had been read out from the head nurse of the workhouse hospital in which she complained about the conduct of the institution's master. Elisabeth Evans criticised the "the great tyranny he exercises over me in the discharge of my duties".
Once the letter had been read the Guardians went into a closed committee to discuss the matter. It seems that no details of what they had decided to do about the complaint were made public. It doesn't appear that they did much, if anything, as the head nurse and her assistant had now decided to resign.
A letter from the workhouse's medical officer was read out expressing regret at their decision and saying they had both given satisfaction in the performance of their duties. The Guardians met in the boardroom at the workhouse and they sent for the two women to enquire why they had chosen to leave.
Elisabeth Evans told them that she had never been comfortable in her situation from the first, having been treated more like a child than the head nurse of a hospital. Her assistant Miss Radford simply said she intended to leave in order to better her position.
Of course she could have improved her position by applying to be the new head nurse. Miss Radford had probably also been treated badly by the master but was asking for a reference from the Guardians and so had to be careful what she said.
However it closed in 1843 with inmates transferred to the newly built workhouse at Whiston, which also replaced small houses at Prescot, Windle and Bold. Between 1850 and 1864 the Sutton building was used to accommodate the first National School before it relocated to Ellamsbridge Road. By 1869 the building was deteriorating fast but no one knew what to do with it.
It was owned by the Prescot Board of Guardians and a motion was passed at the ratepayers' meeting encouraging them to "dispose of the workhouse, by sale or lease, and as soon as possible". During the 1880s it was converted into dwelling houses and later new adjacent properties were built forming Graces Square. This was finally demolished in the late 1960s to make way for the school.
It was Good Friday on the 26th and the Victoria Pleasure Gardens opened for the season in Thatto Heath. A band played and admission was 6d. Charles Whittle owned the gardens as well as the adjacent Engine Inn, which changed its name to the Victoria Gardens during the early 1870s. The gardens' location was close to present day Whittle Street, which appears to have been named after Charles Whittle.
There was also a military spectacle on Good Friday in Windle Park, opposite Windle Hall, with a review of St Helens' own part-time volunteers. They were known as the 47th Battalion of the Lancashire Rifle Volunteers and thousands turned out to watch. The town's other part-time soldiers – called the 2nd Lancashire Engineer Volunteers – held their review in Littler's field by the cemetery in Dentons Green.
The St Helens Newspaper commented how the people of the town had been good on Good Friday with only one person having been arrested: "Good Friday appears to have been temperately kept in St. Helens, at least, for there was but one prisoner from the holiday, and his case was one of simple intoxication.
"Although there were half-a-dozen individuals of the usual class in custody, almost all had been arrested on Thursday night, and thus compelled to keep Good Friday if not in fasting and prayer, at least in quietude and silence."
In 1968 the St Helens Reporter described a "wave of opposition" after banks in the town had decided to close on Saturdays. However a century earlier the opening hours of banks were far more limited.
The Prescot Reporter on the 27th featured an advert from the Prescot Savings Bank that stated its opening hours (or more accurately hour) as being 12 noon to 1pm on Mondays, when deposits from 1 shilling to £30 would be received. On the first Monday of every month they were open for an additional hour in the evening. What luxury! Of course not many people used banks in 1869, so there was little point in long opening hours.
The Prescot Penny Bank only appears to have opened for a short while on Saturdays and details of the number of deposits and withdrawals were published regularly in the Reporter. On the 27th they took 149 deposits totalling £11 9s 9d, with £6 8 shillings withdrawn. Five new depositors were signed up.
Sometimes there were stories in the newspapers from 1869 that were not all that interesting in themselves but contained a remarkable bit of detail. Such was an article in the Prescot Reporter about an unidentified man in College Street in St Helens, who was seen to stagger and then fall into the arms of a woman and die.
The elderly man of "very emaciated appearance" was only carrying a shilling and three-halfpence but also had in his possession what was described as a tin cheque belonging to the Leigh Friendly Co-operative Society. This summons up images of people carrying tin cheque books, although I've discovered that that wasn't the case.
Tin cheques were not used to pay for goods but they were receipts for purchases in some Co-operative Stores and at the end of each quarter they were exchanged for dividend payments.
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 29th in the Town Hall, Peter O’Melly was sent to prison for ten days for begging at St Ann's. Mary Callaghan was also in court charged with committing a breach of the peace by "shouting, clapping her hands, and sundry other antics".
In her defence the 44-year-old said it was hardly any wonder that she behaved as she did considering that her heart was broken. Although not stated in the report, this would have been a reference to her 12-year-old daughter who had recently been sent to prison for a month and then onto a reformatory for five years for stealing coal.
Mary herself had spent a fortnight in Kirkdale Gaol for the theft of coal but this time in court she was bound over to keep the peace.
The case of "lunatic" James Draper was also gone into by the magistrates. He came from Wigan but was presently a resident of the Rainhill Asylum. If inmates in the asylum could not pay their bills and had roots in another town, the authorities could apply to a court for permission to charge that place's poor law union for the cost of the inmate's care.
Up until 1930 these poor law unions provided relief for the poor (mainly through workhouses) and the application to charge the Wigan Union for the care of Draper was approved.
Men punching women seems to have been more socially acceptable in 1869 than today. William Bailey was just bound over after giving Alice Hutchinson a black eye after a quarrel between his wife and Alice turned to violence. Bailey initially held Alice down in her own house while his wife struck and bit her and then he gave her a punch of his own. The court ordered him to find sureties for two months.
Jane Townsend appeared in the courtroom in New Market Place accused of stealing groceries from Thomas Little's shop in Dentons Green. This was another case where someone had seemingly tried to take advantage of open shop doors and shopkeeper's being in a back room when not serving. Usually it was small boys who undertook such lightning thefts. However this case was somewhat different, as Jane Townsend had initially bought some treacle from the shop.
Thomas Little must have had suspicions of the woman as he had concealed himself within his premises and after three minutes Jane returned and quickly gathered some butter, soap and sugar. The Prescot Reporter wrote: "When she was about to leave he threw aside concealment, and seized her."
PC Massey said that on the road to the station the woman had told him that she had taken the items because her husband's "reckoning" (or pay day) would not be until the following Saturday. However in court she told a different tale claiming that she had asked for the items and they had been put out for her. The magistrates thought the case against the woman was very strong but decided that the case be adjourned for a fortnight for further inquiries to be made.
Next week's stories will include a shocking mining accident in Ashton, the professional singer who became riotous in Bridge Street, a leather tannery in Billinge, a prediction on the use of bicycles in St Helens, more harsh prison sentences and St Ann's new church in Warrington Road in Rainhill is re-consecrated.