150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (29th July - 4th August 1869)
This week's stories include the man who knocked a woman's teeth out in College Street, the dangerous practice of giving sick kids brandy, the aftermath of the Haydock mining disaster, vandalism in Eccleston, Connolly's lottery tickets and the boy described as a "complete outlaw" who would run along the eaves of a whole street of dwellings.
We begin on the 29th with a meeting in Whiston Workhouse's boardroom of the Prescot Board of Guardians who discussed a report from an inspector who had examined their schools. "I have this day inspected the schools", wrote Edward Wodehouse, "and examined the schoolmistress. The boys passed a very fair examination; the girls read pretty fairly, but are decidedly backward in other respects."
And that was it. I expect Ofsted reports are a tad longer! The schoolmaster also requested ten days leave of absence from the Guardians, which they granted. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "…the chairman remarking that if any poor d____l deserved a rest it was a schoolmaster". Apparently "devil" could not be used in print without being censored. There'll be a report on Miss Tinning, the schoolmistress, later in the month, as she was not considered to be up to the job.
On the 31st the St Helens Newspaper railed against the practice of giving young children spirits when sick, writing: "Ignorant people, especially of the lower class, and at times even the better educated have an unbounded confidence in the curative powers of spirits, and not unfrequently inflict a good deal of injury on young children by the administration of pure brandy to them.
"A large dose of undiluted spirits to a child may even prove fatal, an instance of which recently occurred at Greenock, on board a Liverpool steamer, in the person of a little girl, aged five years, to whom an overdose of brandy had been given during the voyage, as a remedy against sea sickness."
The paper also wrote about the aftermath of the Haydock mining disaster ten days earlier in which sixty men and boys had been killed – the youngest aged only eleven. Their reporter was able to determine the houses of the deceased through their closed doors and darkened windows:
"The awful havoc of the explosion, and the number of homes into which it brought pain and sorrow, were quite apparent as one traversed the village. Strange vagaries had the destroyer taken. Here the blight had fallen upon two houses standing together; now on but one in a whole row; again upon two fronting each other; sometimes on three side by side; and so on. Mourning, sorrow, sadness, gloom, everywhere – depression, which the pleasant sunshine was powerless to dispel – grief, which no effort of the heart, no consolation of the friend, was able to assuage. It appeared as if a community had been smitten by the plague."
On August 1st there was a special service for Orangemen at St Thomas's Church, with the men marching from Ormskirk Street to the church. A collection for the families of the men killed in the Haydock mining disaster raised £20.
On the 2nd the St Helens Petty Sessions were held in which a 9-year-old boy called Patrick Twye was charged with committing wilful damage to a shed in Eccleston. The lad had been suspected of breaking down some wood at the ropery works of the late William Glover.
It was stated in court that there were constant complaints about these "outrages" and Superintendent Ludlam said the boys in the neighbourhood were destructive whenever they got access to sheds or houses. However the Chairman of the Bench said there was insufficient evidence against Patrick and so the case against the lad was dismissed.
Also in court were Peter McCarter and John Duffy who had been enjoying a punch up in College Street when along came Police Constable Walton to spoil their fun. They were so displeased with his intervention that they turned their fire onto the bobby. While PC Walton was handcuffing Duffy, McCarter gave him several blows and Duffy followed them up with punches of his own. Another constable was also attacked and they were both fined 20 shillings for the assaults and bound over for the breach of the peace. "This work must be put a stop to", declared the Chairman of the Bench.
Another College Street fight was described when Ann Woodward summoned William Case to court accusing the man of assault. The woman told the court that her husband and Case had been quarrelling and when she "interposed", he gave her a violent blow in the eye. She told Case that he would be made to pay for that and as the St Helens Newspaper reported, "probably, to have the worth of his money, he disembedded six of her teeth, and hurled her to the ground".
Of course Ann gave a sanitised version of her own conduct, claiming she had done nothing more than call him a "scamp" for striking her. Her son John gave similar evidence and told the magistrates that Case had also knocked his father down. However the defendant's story revealed a lot of provocation with Ann having called Case foul names upon meeting him on the street.
A woman called Mary Lally testified that she had heard the bad language and seen Mrs Woodward picking up bricks with her husband on the ground on top of Case. Constable Gilligan somewhat surprisingly stuck up for the defendant saying he was a very quiet and inoffensive young man. Case was fined 5 shillings.
There was another example in the Petty Sessions of religious tensions between Catholics and Protestants. A boy called John Halligan was charged with assaulting Ann Davies who told the court he had called her an "Orange bitch" after seeing her with an orange handkerchief. She claimed that he and others had then given her "vigorous abuse about the face."
The defence was that the woman had provoked the assault after having walked down the street and shaken her orange handkerchief at a group of youths, telling them it was the proper colour. However John Halligan denied playing any part in the assault to which Superintendent Ludlam interjected, telling the court he was a "complete outlaw".
The man in charge of St Helens Police said the boy did as he liked and "whenever the police attempted to arrest him he fled to the house, got up the chimney, and once on the roof, he would run along the eaves of a whole street of dwellings. The other day it took six policemen to capture him, and [he] gave them a great deal of difficulty."
The boy was sent to prison for two months with hard labour but was then charged with committing wilful damage to a window belonging to Elizabeth Warren and for that he was fined 5 shillings. Then John was charged with committing damage to houses belonging to Mary Lewis and was fined a further 20 shillings or a month in prison, with the Chairman of the Bench saying he wished they had the power to give the boy a good flogging.
Charles Eden was charged in the court with assaulting Margaret Cheetham in Parr. She and her husband kept a shop and beerhouse in Upper Parr Street and Eden had built up a large slate. When she went to his home requesting payment Mrs Cheetham claimed Eden had called her names and violently assaulted her. However a witness said he did no more than push her from his door and the magistrates bound the man over.
Annie Flood accused Margaret Smith of assault, although what she did appears to have been more of a threat than an act of violence. The woman was also from Upper Parr Street and said the defendant had gone up to her and threatened to blow her brains out. The magistrates bound Margaret Smith over to keep the peace.
Elizabeth Lewis summoned Harriet Glover after claiming that the woman had come out of her house armed with a knife, and as the St Helens Newspaper put it, "threatened to operate surgically upon her". As the defendant had failed to show up at court, the case was adjourned for a week.
Also on that day the St Helens County Court heard a case in which a miner called Richards brought an action against another miner called Hill for not paying out on a Connolly's ticket. This was an illegal lottery, which was hugely popular amongst the working class, with typical prizes ranging from 5 shillings to £100.
Tickets cost 1 shilling and were linked to horse racing, with as many as 15,000 tickets said to be in circulation in Lancashire at times, earning the organisers up to £400 per week. As well as buying lottery tickets, people purchased lists for the price of a halfpenny to find out whether they were a winner.
Ellen Richards gave evidence that she and her husband were friendly with the Hills and had contributed fourpence towards a third share of a Connolly's ticket that the Hills had bought. This won the sum of £5 – which was the equivalent of about four weeks wages – but the Hills refused to pay up. The defence was a denial that the Richards had contributed any money towards the ticket, despite the couple having written down its number.
The Hills' solicitor also pointed out that it was an illegal lottery in the first place and so the court could not adjudicate on it. The judge said he was satisfied that the transaction had taken place but withheld his judgement as he needed time to consider the point of illegality. A fortnight later the judge ruled that the illegal nature of the lottery meant that the transaction between the couples could not be enforced at law and so the action was dismissed.
Next week's stories will include a case of furious driving in Peasley Cross Lane, the revenge of the Greenbank women, the scathing inquest verdict on the Haydock mining disaster, the seven boys who ransacked a Peasley Cross house, the swamps of Rainford and a new church for Ravenhead.
We begin on the 29th with a meeting in Whiston Workhouse's boardroom of the Prescot Board of Guardians who discussed a report from an inspector who had examined their schools. "I have this day inspected the schools", wrote Edward Wodehouse, "and examined the schoolmistress. The boys passed a very fair examination; the girls read pretty fairly, but are decidedly backward in other respects."
And that was it. I expect Ofsted reports are a tad longer! The schoolmaster also requested ten days leave of absence from the Guardians, which they granted. The St Helens Newspaper wrote: "…the chairman remarking that if any poor d____l deserved a rest it was a schoolmaster". Apparently "devil" could not be used in print without being censored. There'll be a report on Miss Tinning, the schoolmistress, later in the month, as she was not considered to be up to the job.
On the 31st the St Helens Newspaper railed against the practice of giving young children spirits when sick, writing: "Ignorant people, especially of the lower class, and at times even the better educated have an unbounded confidence in the curative powers of spirits, and not unfrequently inflict a good deal of injury on young children by the administration of pure brandy to them.
"A large dose of undiluted spirits to a child may even prove fatal, an instance of which recently occurred at Greenock, on board a Liverpool steamer, in the person of a little girl, aged five years, to whom an overdose of brandy had been given during the voyage, as a remedy against sea sickness."
The paper also wrote about the aftermath of the Haydock mining disaster ten days earlier in which sixty men and boys had been killed – the youngest aged only eleven. Their reporter was able to determine the houses of the deceased through their closed doors and darkened windows:
"The awful havoc of the explosion, and the number of homes into which it brought pain and sorrow, were quite apparent as one traversed the village. Strange vagaries had the destroyer taken. Here the blight had fallen upon two houses standing together; now on but one in a whole row; again upon two fronting each other; sometimes on three side by side; and so on. Mourning, sorrow, sadness, gloom, everywhere – depression, which the pleasant sunshine was powerless to dispel – grief, which no effort of the heart, no consolation of the friend, was able to assuage. It appeared as if a community had been smitten by the plague."
On August 1st there was a special service for Orangemen at St Thomas's Church, with the men marching from Ormskirk Street to the church. A collection for the families of the men killed in the Haydock mining disaster raised £20.
On the 2nd the St Helens Petty Sessions were held in which a 9-year-old boy called Patrick Twye was charged with committing wilful damage to a shed in Eccleston. The lad had been suspected of breaking down some wood at the ropery works of the late William Glover.
It was stated in court that there were constant complaints about these "outrages" and Superintendent Ludlam said the boys in the neighbourhood were destructive whenever they got access to sheds or houses. However the Chairman of the Bench said there was insufficient evidence against Patrick and so the case against the lad was dismissed.
Also in court were Peter McCarter and John Duffy who had been enjoying a punch up in College Street when along came Police Constable Walton to spoil their fun. They were so displeased with his intervention that they turned their fire onto the bobby. While PC Walton was handcuffing Duffy, McCarter gave him several blows and Duffy followed them up with punches of his own. Another constable was also attacked and they were both fined 20 shillings for the assaults and bound over for the breach of the peace. "This work must be put a stop to", declared the Chairman of the Bench.
Another College Street fight was described when Ann Woodward summoned William Case to court accusing the man of assault. The woman told the court that her husband and Case had been quarrelling and when she "interposed", he gave her a violent blow in the eye. She told Case that he would be made to pay for that and as the St Helens Newspaper reported, "probably, to have the worth of his money, he disembedded six of her teeth, and hurled her to the ground".
Of course Ann gave a sanitised version of her own conduct, claiming she had done nothing more than call him a "scamp" for striking her. Her son John gave similar evidence and told the magistrates that Case had also knocked his father down. However the defendant's story revealed a lot of provocation with Ann having called Case foul names upon meeting him on the street.
A woman called Mary Lally testified that she had heard the bad language and seen Mrs Woodward picking up bricks with her husband on the ground on top of Case. Constable Gilligan somewhat surprisingly stuck up for the defendant saying he was a very quiet and inoffensive young man. Case was fined 5 shillings.
There was another example in the Petty Sessions of religious tensions between Catholics and Protestants. A boy called John Halligan was charged with assaulting Ann Davies who told the court he had called her an "Orange bitch" after seeing her with an orange handkerchief. She claimed that he and others had then given her "vigorous abuse about the face."
The defence was that the woman had provoked the assault after having walked down the street and shaken her orange handkerchief at a group of youths, telling them it was the proper colour. However John Halligan denied playing any part in the assault to which Superintendent Ludlam interjected, telling the court he was a "complete outlaw".
The man in charge of St Helens Police said the boy did as he liked and "whenever the police attempted to arrest him he fled to the house, got up the chimney, and once on the roof, he would run along the eaves of a whole street of dwellings. The other day it took six policemen to capture him, and [he] gave them a great deal of difficulty."
The boy was sent to prison for two months with hard labour but was then charged with committing wilful damage to a window belonging to Elizabeth Warren and for that he was fined 5 shillings. Then John was charged with committing damage to houses belonging to Mary Lewis and was fined a further 20 shillings or a month in prison, with the Chairman of the Bench saying he wished they had the power to give the boy a good flogging.
Charles Eden was charged in the court with assaulting Margaret Cheetham in Parr. She and her husband kept a shop and beerhouse in Upper Parr Street and Eden had built up a large slate. When she went to his home requesting payment Mrs Cheetham claimed Eden had called her names and violently assaulted her. However a witness said he did no more than push her from his door and the magistrates bound the man over.
Annie Flood accused Margaret Smith of assault, although what she did appears to have been more of a threat than an act of violence. The woman was also from Upper Parr Street and said the defendant had gone up to her and threatened to blow her brains out. The magistrates bound Margaret Smith over to keep the peace.
Elizabeth Lewis summoned Harriet Glover after claiming that the woman had come out of her house armed with a knife, and as the St Helens Newspaper put it, "threatened to operate surgically upon her". As the defendant had failed to show up at court, the case was adjourned for a week.
The masthead of the St Helens Newspaper and an example of an illegal Connolly's Ticket betting slip
The masthead of the St Helens Newspaper and a Connolly's Ticket
A Connolly's Ticket betting slip
Tickets cost 1 shilling and were linked to horse racing, with as many as 15,000 tickets said to be in circulation in Lancashire at times, earning the organisers up to £400 per week. As well as buying lottery tickets, people purchased lists for the price of a halfpenny to find out whether they were a winner.
Ellen Richards gave evidence that she and her husband were friendly with the Hills and had contributed fourpence towards a third share of a Connolly's ticket that the Hills had bought. This won the sum of £5 – which was the equivalent of about four weeks wages – but the Hills refused to pay up. The defence was a denial that the Richards had contributed any money towards the ticket, despite the couple having written down its number.
The Hills' solicitor also pointed out that it was an illegal lottery in the first place and so the court could not adjudicate on it. The judge said he was satisfied that the transaction had taken place but withheld his judgement as he needed time to consider the point of illegality. A fortnight later the judge ruled that the illegal nature of the lottery meant that the transaction between the couples could not be enforced at law and so the action was dismissed.
Next week's stories will include a case of furious driving in Peasley Cross Lane, the revenge of the Greenbank women, the scathing inquest verdict on the Haydock mining disaster, the seven boys who ransacked a Peasley Cross house, the swamps of Rainford and a new church for Ravenhead.