150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (27th May - 2nd June 1869)
This week's stories include the shocking damage done to Eccleston trees by chemical works, the Windle wife beater, the night soil dumper of Havelock Street, the start of Newton Races, the pauper woman in Whiston Workhouse who was repatriated to Ireland and the Prescot man who was drunk and riotous once too often.
We begin on the 29th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that the "principal inhabitants" of Eccleston and St Ann's had held a meeting with a Government inspector. The man called Mr Fletcher was responsible for inspecting chemical works and the residents discussed with him damage allegedly done by "noxious and destructive vapour".
The trees, plants and fruit of Eccleston were supposed to have suffered greatly from the noxious fumes that, over the past few weeks, had been carried by easterly winds from the St Helens' chemical works. Reporters were not allowed to be present at the meeting and so the Newspaper carried out its own investigation, which they called a "tolerably minute examination". These are their damning findings:
"It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that for two miles every fruit tree in the wind line of the vapours is utterly and completely blasted, presenting to the eye a black, burnt, and shrivelled mass. The leaves which were green a few days ago now hang lifeless on the trees, or are strewn like tea leaves on the ground beneath. All the bloom and flower of apple and pear trees has been burnt and destroyed. The flowering plants have shared a similar fate, while the hedgerows present the singular appearance of being green and healthy on the lee side, and burnt and scorched on the side to the town."
The Newspaper also described the "most extraordinary" weather during May. The past week had been the coldest for that particular week for fifty years and the amount of rainfall had been enormous.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 31st and William Callon – who the St Helens Newspaper described as a "plausible fellow with horribly deformed hands" – was sent to prison for 14 days for begging in the town.
I do wish the newspaper had provided more details on the indecency cases – of which there were usually a couple at each hearing. Sadly all we know about John King is that he was charged with "conducting himself most immorally" in College Street and fined ten shillings.
There was another case of night soil dumping at the Sessions, with John Hunt accused of committing the offence in Havelock Street. Night soil was the euphemism for human faeces, so-called because a collector normally removed it at night from the privies, pits and pail closets that people used as toilets.
These were a health hazard at the best of times but sometimes people would dump the faeces out in the street, which was even worse. Hunt pleaded that the offence had been committed by two of his workers without his knowledge and he was fined five shillings.
Joseph Greenough and James Clarke pleaded guilty to breaking two wire windows at Pikington's works by throwing stones. Clarke had also used his clogs against the windows "in the most malicious manner" and they were both fined a shilling each and ordered to pay for the damage.
William Leeson was accused of assaulting his landlady Margaret Paisley in what was described as Windle – although that then covered much of the town. The man had come home drunk and began hitting his wife and his landlady intervened with a knife in her hand and for her trouble took a beating.
I'm pleased to say that Leeson did not come off unscathed as in trying to get the knife off his landlady, the man's hand was severely cut and he said he hadn't been able to work since. It must have been quite a ruckus as Leeson demolished a door and Margaret Paisley told the court that it had cost her five shillings to get it fixed. You might have thought that a prison sentence would be the man's fate. However violence was then tolerated to a remarkable extent and he was told to just pay a shilling fine and damages.
Maria Wood – who, I think, lived in College Street – was summoned by Elizabeth Whittle to pay the cost of breaking some windows in her house. She did not deny the offence but said she had been badly provoked. Her husband was the woman's brother and he regularly went to his sister's house instead of going home to her.
Maria told the Bench that she went to Elizabeth's place to bring her husband home and the woman called her vile names and drenched her in water. And so in revenge "while in the heat of passion" she broke the windows. There appeared to be some sympathy for her from the court and she was told to pay for the damage and receive a shilling fine.
At the Prescot Police Court on the 31st Thomas Maxwell from Snig Lane in Prescot was charged with being drunk and riotous in his own street. A fortnight earlier he'd been fined forty shillings and costs for committing a similar offence, which Maxwell duly paid. The magistrate decided to impose the same fine this time but Maxwell was out of funds and so chose the alternative punishment of two months in prison. At the same hearing James Yexley and John Hampshire were given fourteen days each in prison after being caught begging.
On June 1st the clerk to the Prescot Union sought permission from the magistrates in Prescot to send some paupers back to their hometowns. If someone had not spent much time living within the St Helens / Prescot district prior to entering the workhouse, they could be returned to where they'd come from.
The paupers were costing the ratepayers money while living at Whiston, especially in the case of a mother and several children. At any one time there were 130 - 140 kids in the workhouse, mainly because their fathers had walked out on their families, leaving their mothers penniless.
This was the case with Mary Rafferty, whose husband had deserted her and their three children and sailed to America. The woman had lived in the St Helens area for ten years but the Prescot Board of Guardians still considered her home to be in Ireland.
Mary wanted to join her husband in America but the Guardians would not pay her fare; instead they applied to the court to repatriate the woman and her children to Roscommon in Ireland. They said that the Irish Poor Law Commissioners could then decide if they wanted to deport her to America. The magistrates approved this and the other pauper removals.
Also in the Prescot Petty Sessions the magistrates were told that a beerhouse keeper in Fazakerley Street had come up with a cunning way to illegally sell beer on a Sunday morning. Peter Wynne had cut a hole in the wall of his cellar through which a jug could be passed to someone within the adjoining house. He received the substantial fine of £5.
During the 19th century there were many prosecutions of people who failed to turn up for work. Often these were bound apprentices, who were contractually tied from the age of 14 until they turned 21 and obtained their indentures. James Hunter appeared in the Prescot Sessions charged with neglecting to fulfil his contract of apprenticeship with James Berry.
The watchmaker said the defendant had absconded last month but returned after the summons had been issued. It was a sensible move by James Hunter who promised his employer that he would make up for the time lost and permit the costs of the prosecution to be deducted from his wages. The magistrates dismissed the charge after the youth had made a promise of good conduct in the future.
A row took place in Parr on the 1st between Ellen Wallwork and Mary Burrows, which appears to have been about the illegitimate dead child of the latter. This is how the St Helens Newspaper reported the subsequent court case after Ellen had been charged with assault:
"She pleaded guilty, and elicited the observation from the chairman [of the Bench] that her admission of the offence charged against her was the first he had ever heard from a woman. As she held her tongue throughout the case, she deserved an equal compliment at the hands of his worship, but he overlooked the necessity of passing it. Her antagonist complained that the defendant was always annoying her, when an opportunity offered.
"A misfortune happened before her marriage, and this the defendant, being aware of, thought it desirable every resident of the locality should know, and the complainant felt it keenly. Her child had been buried, and the defendant, in allusion to the burial, said that there had been put in the ground a thing with horns on it. The magistrates bound the defendant over to keep the peace."
And finally it was the annual Newton race meeting (pictured above) on the 2nd, which was the highlight of the year for many and the Liverpool Mercury wrote that the "pleasant little meeting" had been well attended. Special trains were put on from St Helens for the 3-day event that stopped to collect Sutton passengers at Peasley Cross, Sutton Oak and St Helens Junction stations.
In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the minister of St. Helen's – as he described himself – wrote to the Mercury from the St Helens Parsonage 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". Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common from at least 1678 and 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 as Haydock Park.
Next week's stories will include the parting shot of the Whiston Workhouse master, the genteel old woman's wincey theft in Church Street, two near-miss train collisions, a serious fire at a St Helens candle works, the stuffs on sale in Prescot, Ravenhead Plate Glass workers take a trip to the Lake District and how John Wesley created his Methodist movement in St Helens.
We begin on the 29th when the St Helens Newspaper reported that the "principal inhabitants" of Eccleston and St Ann's had held a meeting with a Government inspector. The man called Mr Fletcher was responsible for inspecting chemical works and the residents discussed with him damage allegedly done by "noxious and destructive vapour".
The trees, plants and fruit of Eccleston were supposed to have suffered greatly from the noxious fumes that, over the past few weeks, had been carried by easterly winds from the St Helens' chemical works. Reporters were not allowed to be present at the meeting and so the Newspaper carried out its own investigation, which they called a "tolerably minute examination". These are their damning findings:
"It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that for two miles every fruit tree in the wind line of the vapours is utterly and completely blasted, presenting to the eye a black, burnt, and shrivelled mass. The leaves which were green a few days ago now hang lifeless on the trees, or are strewn like tea leaves on the ground beneath. All the bloom and flower of apple and pear trees has been burnt and destroyed. The flowering plants have shared a similar fate, while the hedgerows present the singular appearance of being green and healthy on the lee side, and burnt and scorched on the side to the town."
The Newspaper also described the "most extraordinary" weather during May. The past week had been the coldest for that particular week for fifty years and the amount of rainfall had been enormous.
The St Helens Petty Sessions were held on the 31st and William Callon – who the St Helens Newspaper described as a "plausible fellow with horribly deformed hands" – was sent to prison for 14 days for begging in the town.
I do wish the newspaper had provided more details on the indecency cases – of which there were usually a couple at each hearing. Sadly all we know about John King is that he was charged with "conducting himself most immorally" in College Street and fined ten shillings.
There was another case of night soil dumping at the Sessions, with John Hunt accused of committing the offence in Havelock Street. Night soil was the euphemism for human faeces, so-called because a collector normally removed it at night from the privies, pits and pail closets that people used as toilets.
These were a health hazard at the best of times but sometimes people would dump the faeces out in the street, which was even worse. Hunt pleaded that the offence had been committed by two of his workers without his knowledge and he was fined five shillings.
Joseph Greenough and James Clarke pleaded guilty to breaking two wire windows at Pikington's works by throwing stones. Clarke had also used his clogs against the windows "in the most malicious manner" and they were both fined a shilling each and ordered to pay for the damage.
William Leeson was accused of assaulting his landlady Margaret Paisley in what was described as Windle – although that then covered much of the town. The man had come home drunk and began hitting his wife and his landlady intervened with a knife in her hand and for her trouble took a beating.
I'm pleased to say that Leeson did not come off unscathed as in trying to get the knife off his landlady, the man's hand was severely cut and he said he hadn't been able to work since. It must have been quite a ruckus as Leeson demolished a door and Margaret Paisley told the court that it had cost her five shillings to get it fixed. You might have thought that a prison sentence would be the man's fate. However violence was then tolerated to a remarkable extent and he was told to just pay a shilling fine and damages.
Maria Wood – who, I think, lived in College Street – was summoned by Elizabeth Whittle to pay the cost of breaking some windows in her house. She did not deny the offence but said she had been badly provoked. Her husband was the woman's brother and he regularly went to his sister's house instead of going home to her.
Maria told the Bench that she went to Elizabeth's place to bring her husband home and the woman called her vile names and drenched her in water. And so in revenge "while in the heat of passion" she broke the windows. There appeared to be some sympathy for her from the court and she was told to pay for the damage and receive a shilling fine.
At the Prescot Police Court on the 31st Thomas Maxwell from Snig Lane in Prescot was charged with being drunk and riotous in his own street. A fortnight earlier he'd been fined forty shillings and costs for committing a similar offence, which Maxwell duly paid. The magistrate decided to impose the same fine this time but Maxwell was out of funds and so chose the alternative punishment of two months in prison. At the same hearing James Yexley and John Hampshire were given fourteen days each in prison after being caught begging.
On June 1st the clerk to the Prescot Union sought permission from the magistrates in Prescot to send some paupers back to their hometowns. If someone had not spent much time living within the St Helens / Prescot district prior to entering the workhouse, they could be returned to where they'd come from.
The paupers were costing the ratepayers money while living at Whiston, especially in the case of a mother and several children. At any one time there were 130 - 140 kids in the workhouse, mainly because their fathers had walked out on their families, leaving their mothers penniless.
This was the case with Mary Rafferty, whose husband had deserted her and their three children and sailed to America. The woman had lived in the St Helens area for ten years but the Prescot Board of Guardians still considered her home to be in Ireland.
Mary wanted to join her husband in America but the Guardians would not pay her fare; instead they applied to the court to repatriate the woman and her children to Roscommon in Ireland. They said that the Irish Poor Law Commissioners could then decide if they wanted to deport her to America. The magistrates approved this and the other pauper removals.
Also in the Prescot Petty Sessions the magistrates were told that a beerhouse keeper in Fazakerley Street had come up with a cunning way to illegally sell beer on a Sunday morning. Peter Wynne had cut a hole in the wall of his cellar through which a jug could be passed to someone within the adjoining house. He received the substantial fine of £5.
During the 19th century there were many prosecutions of people who failed to turn up for work. Often these were bound apprentices, who were contractually tied from the age of 14 until they turned 21 and obtained their indentures. James Hunter appeared in the Prescot Sessions charged with neglecting to fulfil his contract of apprenticeship with James Berry.
The watchmaker said the defendant had absconded last month but returned after the summons had been issued. It was a sensible move by James Hunter who promised his employer that he would make up for the time lost and permit the costs of the prosecution to be deducted from his wages. The magistrates dismissed the charge after the youth had made a promise of good conduct in the future.
A row took place in Parr on the 1st between Ellen Wallwork and Mary Burrows, which appears to have been about the illegitimate dead child of the latter. This is how the St Helens Newspaper reported the subsequent court case after Ellen had been charged with assault:
"She pleaded guilty, and elicited the observation from the chairman [of the Bench] that her admission of the offence charged against her was the first he had ever heard from a woman. As she held her tongue throughout the case, she deserved an equal compliment at the hands of his worship, but he overlooked the necessity of passing it. Her antagonist complained that the defendant was always annoying her, when an opportunity offered.
"A misfortune happened before her marriage, and this the defendant, being aware of, thought it desirable every resident of the locality should know, and the complainant felt it keenly. Her child had been buried, and the defendant, in allusion to the burial, said that there had been put in the ground a thing with horns on it. The magistrates bound the defendant over to keep the peace."
In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Pigot, the minister of St. Helen's – as he described himself – wrote to the Mercury from the St Helens Parsonage 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". Horse racing had taken place on Newton Common from at least 1678 and 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 as Haydock Park.
Next week's stories will include the parting shot of the Whiston Workhouse master, the genteel old woman's wincey theft in Church Street, two near-miss train collisions, a serious fire at a St Helens candle works, the stuffs on sale in Prescot, Ravenhead Plate Glass workers take a trip to the Lake District and how John Wesley created his Methodist movement in St Helens.