150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK 28 SEPT - 4 OCT 1876
This week's many stories include the drunken assault in a St Helens smelting works, the boy sent to prison followed by a reformatory for theft, the bizarre fish feud in the marketplace, the fire in a Market Street bakery that endangered the Post Office and the boy who brought a court case against a Higher Parr Street barber for cutting his hair too short.
The bosses at many works in St Helens turned a blind eye to their employees drinking on the job. Often the work they did was so appalling that they needed alcohol to undertake it. The salt cake men at the sharp end of the chemical works in St Helens, where temperatures were boiling hot, were said to consume as much as a dozen pints a day.
But that could, of course, lead to drunkenness and in court this week Michael Houghton was charged with being drunk and disorderly at the Bridgewater Smelting Works in St Helens where he worked. Houghton was also charged with assaulting John Pritchard, who was employed as an engineer at the firm.
The court was told that on the previous Monday afternoon, Michael Houghton and three or four other workmen were all drunk and rowing over wages. Mr Pritchard went to them and Houghton accused him of keeping back some of his money, which he denied. At that point the defendant struck Pritchard in the mouth and caused it to bleed.
A policeman was sent for and the defendant was removed from the works. Just whether Michael Houghton had been sacked, the report did not say. But in court he was fined a total of 20 shillings, plus costs, or must serve 21 days in prison. The total probably came to around 30 shillings, which would be a difficult task to find if unemployed.
Daniel Stanley appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with neglecting to support his wife and child. It was stated that the man was in the habit of ill-treating his wife and she had previously been compelled to prosecute him for his violence and had subsequently left him. But Stanley followed the well-worn practice of such defendants of claiming provocation from his wife whom, he claimed, had wanted them to live with her mother.
He said she had threatened to leave him unless he agreed to move and had subsequently carried out her threat. Seven shillings a week maintenance was sought but Stanley through his solicitor offered five shillings, which the magistrates felt should be accepted. That was not much for a mother and her child to live on.
There were certainly some rum goings-on in the St Helens marketplace! Mind you, when the man in charge, Thomas Gleave, had been convicted of violently abusing his wife, it is, perhaps, only to be expected. And when loud-mouthed, difficult people with a long list of convictions were allowed to have stalls, it was certainly a recipe for trouble.
This week Mary Cullen was summoned to court accused of assaulting Ellen Johnson. Both women kept fish stalls in Exchange Street and one morning a dispute had arisen over a herring box. Ellen claimed that Mary had spent more than 90 minutes verbally abusing her and had ended her tirade by knocking Ellen against her own stall.
Mary was then said to have seized Ellen's scales, threatened to knock her down with them and then attempted to carry out her threat. The magistrates heard that the defendant had 16 prior convictions for various offences and she was fined £1 and costs for the abuse and for the assault, Mary was sent to prison for one month. That was an unusual punishment for a case that did not involve any theft and for an assault that did not seem particularly serious.
But subsequent hearings revealed how members of her family had on that same day also participated in the fish feud. Mary Cullen's daughter and granddaughter were also accused of abusing Ellen Johnson and Elizabeth Rearden and market inspector Thomas Gleave gave evidence that during the whole day, Exchange Street had been kept in continuous uproar.
He added that during the squabble, a whole lot of bad fish had been pelted about. Mary Willets, the daughter of Mary Cullen, had previously been ten times convicted and she was fined 30 shillings. The magistrates said they were determined to put a stop to such disgraceful proceedings in the market.
Higher Parr Street (pictured above) was sometimes referred to as Upper Parr Street, which was where John Holden kept his barber's shop. He was summoned to the Petty Sessions this week charged with assaulting a boy named William Corrighan. The lad had gone with a pal to get his hair trimmed and upon being asked the customary question, "How would you like it?", said he had told the barber that he didn't want his locks cut short.
But William insisted that Mr Holden failed to follow his instructions and had, instead, cut his hair very short, something, I expect, many men reading this will have experienced during their youth! But you had to grit your teeth when that happened and there was no point complaining.
However, William did moan and he claimed that in response, Mr Holden had pushed him off the chair and thrown some cold water on him. But the barber in his defence denied everything and insisted that the boy had asked to be "powed", which meant have his hair cut short. And the water, he said, had only been applied to wash the lad's hair, as he had just come out of a coal pit and consequently the case was dismissed.
In the 1870s not only were children who had committed a crime sent to a reformatory for several years – but they were also often sent to prison first. Why, I am not sure, as reformatories were far from being holiday camps. But Thomas Woods, who was described as being a young lad and an orphan, was this week sent to Kirkdale Prison for 10 days and then onto a reformatory for five years.
He had pleaded guilty to stealing a purse containing three shillings from a labourer called Powell. The man had met the boy late at night in Bridge Street and, apparently, feeling sorry for him had bought the lad something at a shop and later had missed his purse. Upon the boy arriving home, he showed the purse to the woman he lodged with telling her that he had found it. It appears to have been Thomas' first offence but prison and a long spell in a reformatory were now his lot.
Isaac Rose was a baker and confectioner who had premises in Market Street, adjoining the post office. The St Helens Newspaper on the 30th reported how on the previous Saturday night at 7:15 pm, a fire had been discovered in his bakery. Isaac's premises were in close proximity to the fire station and the brigade was on the spot with their reels of hose within a few minutes.
The Newspaper wrote: "Great anxiety was manifested by the public, who crowded in large numbers on account of the imminent risk to the post office." But the fire was quickly extinguished, although damage to the extent of about £200 was done.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the drunks at the Golden Lion Inn who brought in their own ale, the dirty water chucking on Smithy Brow, the confirmations at Holy Cross Church and the abused wife who said she was left with nothing to eat.
The bosses at many works in St Helens turned a blind eye to their employees drinking on the job. Often the work they did was so appalling that they needed alcohol to undertake it. The salt cake men at the sharp end of the chemical works in St Helens, where temperatures were boiling hot, were said to consume as much as a dozen pints a day.
But that could, of course, lead to drunkenness and in court this week Michael Houghton was charged with being drunk and disorderly at the Bridgewater Smelting Works in St Helens where he worked. Houghton was also charged with assaulting John Pritchard, who was employed as an engineer at the firm.
The court was told that on the previous Monday afternoon, Michael Houghton and three or four other workmen were all drunk and rowing over wages. Mr Pritchard went to them and Houghton accused him of keeping back some of his money, which he denied. At that point the defendant struck Pritchard in the mouth and caused it to bleed.
A policeman was sent for and the defendant was removed from the works. Just whether Michael Houghton had been sacked, the report did not say. But in court he was fined a total of 20 shillings, plus costs, or must serve 21 days in prison. The total probably came to around 30 shillings, which would be a difficult task to find if unemployed.
Daniel Stanley appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with neglecting to support his wife and child. It was stated that the man was in the habit of ill-treating his wife and she had previously been compelled to prosecute him for his violence and had subsequently left him. But Stanley followed the well-worn practice of such defendants of claiming provocation from his wife whom, he claimed, had wanted them to live with her mother.
He said she had threatened to leave him unless he agreed to move and had subsequently carried out her threat. Seven shillings a week maintenance was sought but Stanley through his solicitor offered five shillings, which the magistrates felt should be accepted. That was not much for a mother and her child to live on.
There were certainly some rum goings-on in the St Helens marketplace! Mind you, when the man in charge, Thomas Gleave, had been convicted of violently abusing his wife, it is, perhaps, only to be expected. And when loud-mouthed, difficult people with a long list of convictions were allowed to have stalls, it was certainly a recipe for trouble.
This week Mary Cullen was summoned to court accused of assaulting Ellen Johnson. Both women kept fish stalls in Exchange Street and one morning a dispute had arisen over a herring box. Ellen claimed that Mary had spent more than 90 minutes verbally abusing her and had ended her tirade by knocking Ellen against her own stall.
Mary was then said to have seized Ellen's scales, threatened to knock her down with them and then attempted to carry out her threat. The magistrates heard that the defendant had 16 prior convictions for various offences and she was fined £1 and costs for the abuse and for the assault, Mary was sent to prison for one month. That was an unusual punishment for a case that did not involve any theft and for an assault that did not seem particularly serious.
But subsequent hearings revealed how members of her family had on that same day also participated in the fish feud. Mary Cullen's daughter and granddaughter were also accused of abusing Ellen Johnson and Elizabeth Rearden and market inspector Thomas Gleave gave evidence that during the whole day, Exchange Street had been kept in continuous uproar.
He added that during the squabble, a whole lot of bad fish had been pelted about. Mary Willets, the daughter of Mary Cullen, had previously been ten times convicted and she was fined 30 shillings. The magistrates said they were determined to put a stop to such disgraceful proceedings in the market.
But William insisted that Mr Holden failed to follow his instructions and had, instead, cut his hair very short, something, I expect, many men reading this will have experienced during their youth! But you had to grit your teeth when that happened and there was no point complaining.
However, William did moan and he claimed that in response, Mr Holden had pushed him off the chair and thrown some cold water on him. But the barber in his defence denied everything and insisted that the boy had asked to be "powed", which meant have his hair cut short. And the water, he said, had only been applied to wash the lad's hair, as he had just come out of a coal pit and consequently the case was dismissed.
In the 1870s not only were children who had committed a crime sent to a reformatory for several years – but they were also often sent to prison first. Why, I am not sure, as reformatories were far from being holiday camps. But Thomas Woods, who was described as being a young lad and an orphan, was this week sent to Kirkdale Prison for 10 days and then onto a reformatory for five years.
He had pleaded guilty to stealing a purse containing three shillings from a labourer called Powell. The man had met the boy late at night in Bridge Street and, apparently, feeling sorry for him had bought the lad something at a shop and later had missed his purse. Upon the boy arriving home, he showed the purse to the woman he lodged with telling her that he had found it. It appears to have been Thomas' first offence but prison and a long spell in a reformatory were now his lot.
Isaac Rose was a baker and confectioner who had premises in Market Street, adjoining the post office. The St Helens Newspaper on the 30th reported how on the previous Saturday night at 7:15 pm, a fire had been discovered in his bakery. Isaac's premises were in close proximity to the fire station and the brigade was on the spot with their reels of hose within a few minutes.
The Newspaper wrote: "Great anxiety was manifested by the public, who crowded in large numbers on account of the imminent risk to the post office." But the fire was quickly extinguished, although damage to the extent of about £200 was done.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the drunks at the Golden Lion Inn who brought in their own ale, the dirty water chucking on Smithy Brow, the confirmations at Holy Cross Church and the abused wife who said she was left with nothing to eat.
This week's many stories include the drunken assault in a St Helens smelting works, the boy sent to prison followed by a reformatory for theft, the bizarre fish feud in the marketplace, the fire in a Market Street bakery that endangered the Post Office and the boy who brought a court case against a Higher Parr Street barber for cutting his hair too short.
The bosses at many works in St Helens turned a blind eye to their employees drinking on the job.
Often the work they did was so appalling that they needed alcohol to undertake it.
The salt cake men at the sharp end of the chemical works in St Helens, where temperatures were boiling hot, were said to consume as much as a dozen pints a day.
But that could, of course, lead to drunkenness and in court this week Michael Houghton was charged with being drunk and disorderly at the Bridgewater Smelting Works in St Helens where he worked.
Houghton was also charged with assaulting John Pritchard, who was employed as an engineer at the firm.
The court was told that on the previous Monday afternoon, Michael Houghton and three or four other workmen were all drunk and rowing over wages.
Mr Pritchard went to them and Houghton accused him of keeping back some of his money, which he denied.
At that point the defendant struck Pritchard in the mouth and caused it to bleed.
A policeman was sent for and the defendant was removed from the works.
Just whether Michael Houghton had been sacked, the report did not say.
But in court he was fined a total of 20 shillings, plus costs, or must serve 21 days in prison.
The total probably came to around 30 shillings, which would be a difficult task to find if unemployed.
Daniel Stanley appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with neglecting to support his wife and child.
It was stated that the man was in the habit of ill-treating his wife and she had previously been compelled to prosecute him for his violence and had subsequently left him.
But Stanley followed the well-worn practice of such defendants of claiming provocation from his wife whom, he claimed, had wanted them to live with her mother.
He said she had threatened to leave him unless he agreed to move and had subsequently carried out her threat.
Seven shillings a week maintenance was sought but Stanley through his solicitor offered five shillings, which the magistrates felt should be accepted. That was not much for a mother and her child to live on.
There were certainly some rum goings-on in the St Helens marketplace!
Mind you, when the man in charge, Thomas Gleave, had been convicted of violently abusing his wife, it is, perhaps, only to be expected.
And when loud-mouthed, difficult people with a long list of convictions were allowed to have stalls, it was certainly a recipe for trouble.
This week Mary Cullen was summoned to court accused of assaulting Ellen Johnson.
Both women kept fish stalls in Exchange Street and one morning a dispute had arisen over a herring box.
Ellen claimed that Mary had spent more than 90 minutes verbally abusing her and had ended her tirade by knocking Ellen against her own stall.
Mary was then said to have seized Ellen's scales, threatened to knock her down with them and then attempted to carry out her threat.
The magistrates heard that the defendant had 16 prior convictions for various offences and she was fined £1 and costs for the abuse and for the assault, Mary was sent to prison for one month.
That was an unusual punishment for a case that did not involve any theft and for an assault that did not seem particularly serious.
But subsequent hearings revealed how members of her family had on that same day also participated in the fish feud.
Mary Cullen's daughter and granddaughter were also accused of abusing Ellen Johnson and Elizabeth Rearden and market inspector Thomas Gleave gave evidence that during the whole day, Exchange Street had been kept in continuous uproar.
He added that during the squabble, a whole lot of bad fish had been pelted about.
Mary Willets, the daughter of Mary Cullen, had previously been ten times convicted and she was fined 30 shillings.
The magistrates said they were determined to put a stop to such disgraceful proceedings in the market.
Higher Parr Street (pictured above) was sometimes referred to as Upper Parr Street, which was where John Holden kept his barber's shop.
He was summoned to the Petty Sessions this week charged with assaulting a boy named William Corrighan.
The lad had gone with a pal to get his hair trimmed and upon being asked the customary question, "How would you like it?", said he had told the barber that he didn't want his locks cut short.
But William insisted that Mr Holden failed to follow his instructions and had, instead, cut his hair very short, something, I expect, many men reading this will have experienced during their youth!
But you had to grit your teeth when that happened and there was no point complaining.
However, William did moan and he claimed that in response, Mr Holden had pushed him off the chair and thrown some cold water on him.
But the barber in his defence denied everything and insisted that the boy had asked to be "powed", which meant have his hair cut short.
And the water, he said, had only been applied to wash the lad's hair, as he had just come out of a coal pit and consequently the case was dismissed.
In the 1870s not only were children who had committed a crime sent to a reformatory for several years – but they were also often sent to prison first.
Why, I am not sure, as reformatories were far from being holiday camps.
But Thomas Woods, who was described as being a young lad and an orphan, was this week sent to Kirkdale Prison for 10 days and then onto a reformatory for five years.
He had pleaded guilty to stealing a purse containing three shillings from a labourer called Powell.
The man had met the boy late at night in Bridge Street and, apparently, feeling sorry for him had bought the lad something at a shop and later had missed his purse.
Upon the boy arriving home, he showed the purse to the woman he lodged with telling her that he had found it.
It appears to have been Thomas' first offence but prison and a long spell in a reformatory were now his lot.
Isaac Rose was a baker and confectioner who had premises in Market Street, adjoining the post office.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 30th reported how on the previous Saturday night at 7:15 pm, a fire had been discovered in his bakery.
Isaac's premises were in close proximity to the fire station and the brigade was on the spot with their reels of hose within a few minutes.
The Newspaper wrote: "Great anxiety was manifested by the public, who crowded in large numbers on account of the imminent risk to the post office."
But the fire was quickly extinguished, although damage to the extent of about £200 was done.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the drunks at the Golden Lion Inn who brought in their own ale, the dirty water chucking on Smithy Brow, the confirmations at Holy Cross Church and the abused wife who said she was left with nothing to eat.
The bosses at many works in St Helens turned a blind eye to their employees drinking on the job.
Often the work they did was so appalling that they needed alcohol to undertake it.
The salt cake men at the sharp end of the chemical works in St Helens, where temperatures were boiling hot, were said to consume as much as a dozen pints a day.
But that could, of course, lead to drunkenness and in court this week Michael Houghton was charged with being drunk and disorderly at the Bridgewater Smelting Works in St Helens where he worked.
Houghton was also charged with assaulting John Pritchard, who was employed as an engineer at the firm.
The court was told that on the previous Monday afternoon, Michael Houghton and three or four other workmen were all drunk and rowing over wages.
Mr Pritchard went to them and Houghton accused him of keeping back some of his money, which he denied.
At that point the defendant struck Pritchard in the mouth and caused it to bleed.
A policeman was sent for and the defendant was removed from the works.
Just whether Michael Houghton had been sacked, the report did not say.
But in court he was fined a total of 20 shillings, plus costs, or must serve 21 days in prison.
The total probably came to around 30 shillings, which would be a difficult task to find if unemployed.
Daniel Stanley appeared in St Helens Petty Sessions charged with neglecting to support his wife and child.
It was stated that the man was in the habit of ill-treating his wife and she had previously been compelled to prosecute him for his violence and had subsequently left him.
But Stanley followed the well-worn practice of such defendants of claiming provocation from his wife whom, he claimed, had wanted them to live with her mother.
He said she had threatened to leave him unless he agreed to move and had subsequently carried out her threat.
Seven shillings a week maintenance was sought but Stanley through his solicitor offered five shillings, which the magistrates felt should be accepted. That was not much for a mother and her child to live on.
There were certainly some rum goings-on in the St Helens marketplace!
Mind you, when the man in charge, Thomas Gleave, had been convicted of violently abusing his wife, it is, perhaps, only to be expected.
And when loud-mouthed, difficult people with a long list of convictions were allowed to have stalls, it was certainly a recipe for trouble.
This week Mary Cullen was summoned to court accused of assaulting Ellen Johnson.
Both women kept fish stalls in Exchange Street and one morning a dispute had arisen over a herring box.
Ellen claimed that Mary had spent more than 90 minutes verbally abusing her and had ended her tirade by knocking Ellen against her own stall.
Mary was then said to have seized Ellen's scales, threatened to knock her down with them and then attempted to carry out her threat.
The magistrates heard that the defendant had 16 prior convictions for various offences and she was fined £1 and costs for the abuse and for the assault, Mary was sent to prison for one month.
That was an unusual punishment for a case that did not involve any theft and for an assault that did not seem particularly serious.
But subsequent hearings revealed how members of her family had on that same day also participated in the fish feud.
Mary Cullen's daughter and granddaughter were also accused of abusing Ellen Johnson and Elizabeth Rearden and market inspector Thomas Gleave gave evidence that during the whole day, Exchange Street had been kept in continuous uproar.
He added that during the squabble, a whole lot of bad fish had been pelted about.
Mary Willets, the daughter of Mary Cullen, had previously been ten times convicted and she was fined 30 shillings.
The magistrates said they were determined to put a stop to such disgraceful proceedings in the market.
He was summoned to the Petty Sessions this week charged with assaulting a boy named William Corrighan.
The lad had gone with a pal to get his hair trimmed and upon being asked the customary question, "How would you like it?", said he had told the barber that he didn't want his locks cut short.
But William insisted that Mr Holden failed to follow his instructions and had, instead, cut his hair very short, something, I expect, many men reading this will have experienced during their youth!
But you had to grit your teeth when that happened and there was no point complaining.
However, William did moan and he claimed that in response, Mr Holden had pushed him off the chair and thrown some cold water on him.
But the barber in his defence denied everything and insisted that the boy had asked to be "powed", which meant have his hair cut short.
And the water, he said, had only been applied to wash the lad's hair, as he had just come out of a coal pit and consequently the case was dismissed.
In the 1870s not only were children who had committed a crime sent to a reformatory for several years – but they were also often sent to prison first.
Why, I am not sure, as reformatories were far from being holiday camps.
But Thomas Woods, who was described as being a young lad and an orphan, was this week sent to Kirkdale Prison for 10 days and then onto a reformatory for five years.
He had pleaded guilty to stealing a purse containing three shillings from a labourer called Powell.
The man had met the boy late at night in Bridge Street and, apparently, feeling sorry for him had bought the lad something at a shop and later had missed his purse.
Upon the boy arriving home, he showed the purse to the woman he lodged with telling her that he had found it.
It appears to have been Thomas' first offence but prison and a long spell in a reformatory were now his lot.
Isaac Rose was a baker and confectioner who had premises in Market Street, adjoining the post office.
The St Helens Newspaper on the 30th reported how on the previous Saturday night at 7:15 pm, a fire had been discovered in his bakery.
Isaac's premises were in close proximity to the fire station and the brigade was on the spot with their reels of hose within a few minutes.
The Newspaper wrote: "Great anxiety was manifested by the public, who crowded in large numbers on account of the imminent risk to the post office."
But the fire was quickly extinguished, although damage to the extent of about £200 was done.
St Helens Newspaper courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next Week's stories will include the drunks at the Golden Lion Inn who brought in their own ale, the dirty water chucking on Smithy Brow, the confirmations at Holy Cross Church and the abused wife who said she was left with nothing to eat.