150 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (31st AUG. - 6th SEPT. 1870)
This week's many stories include the wife beater from Parr, the window smashing at the Liverpool Inn, the Eccleston foundry fined for illegally working a "great lump of a lad", the man ordered to support his lunatic wife and there's another complaint about the purloining of Thatto Heath.
We begin on September 1st when an inquest was held at the Engine Inn in Prescot on Patrick Morris, another victim of the construction of the Prescot to St Helens railway. An engine had been towing eleven wagons of navvies along a stretch of the new line and an accident occurred at a wooden footbridge at Thatto Heath which broke Morris's neck.
There was some good news for the residents of Park Road in Parr and Robins Lane in Sutton. They were going to have sewers installed! On the 3rd St Helens Corporation was advertising in the St Helens Newspaper for tenders to install the sewers, although flush toilets were still many years away.
The Sefton Arms was not the building we know today. The old pub then had a salesroom and they were advertising an auction of 500 "almost new" sacks. They were also selling 20 flitches of bacon "in excellent condition". Apparently a flitch is half of a pig. I suppose you could always buy the bacon and take it home in the sacks.
This letter also appeared in the Newspaper from someone calling themselves "J.C.", who was complaining about the council's lack of action concerning the protection of public areas of Thatto Heath:
"Sir, I was expecting to have seen or heard of something more being done in reference to this piece of public property which has been so wastefully and shamefully abused for some years. Now that we have gotten a Town Council and a full batch of Aldermen, with a mayor at their head, I quite expected to have seen a greater exhibition of public spirit in dealing with public matters. Have the new honours fallen upon unworthy heads? Thatto Heath has been enjoyed by the public for generations, but is now, piece by piece, being enclosed and purloined by private individuals to the deprivation of the public. I think the council should move in the matter without delay."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th the executors of the estate of the late James Varley were charged under the Factory Act with employing a boy under thirteen years of age at an illegal hour. Edward Dunsdale was aged twelve, although employers were allowed to have boys as young as eight or nine working for them. The law stated that these youngsters could only undertake what was known as "half-time" working, that is no more than 6½ hours a day – as the average working week for adults was 70 hours.
Those under 13 were also not permitted to work before 6am and after 6pm. Additionally the employer had to ensure that the child possessed a certificate stating they were attending school and that he or she had been passed fit by a doctor. Just when the kids were supposed to be finding the time to attend school I can't say – although Sunday school might well have counted.
A factory inspector had visited the Eccleston Foundry in Boundary Road and found that all these rules had been broken with the lad starting work at 6am each morning and not finishing until 8pm.
Just how long Edward had been working at Varleys Foundry was not stated – although it could have been for three or four years. However the factory inspector told the Bench that the boy had been employed from 6am to 8pm since he started work at the foundry. Although the defendants pleaded guilty, their solicitor said Edward was a "great lump of a lad" and there had been a mistake as to his age. The estate executors were fined £2 and costs.
A labourer called Thomas Hunt was summoned to court to "show cause why he should not contribute towards the support" of his lunatic wife. She was in Rainhill Asylum and was costing the authorities 8s 9d per week. Just how they figured that amount, I can't say, but her husband only earned 18 shillings a week. So Thomas was ordered to make a weekly payment of 5 shillings, which was still a big chunk out of his wages. If he failed to cough up, he would be brought back to court, with jail being the ultimate punishment.
It might seem odd to us for people to be boozing at breakfast time but it was quite common in 1870, with many hostelries opening their doors to serve the night shift trade. However ale could not be sold on Sunday mornings and the police did what they could to catch offenders. But there were two loopholes. Firstly licensees were permitted to serve travellers on a Sunday. But then how do you define what a traveller is? Someone who has walked 50 yards or 50 miles? And the police had to prove what had been sold at an illegal hour was actually beer, which could be easier said than done. Such loopholes were often exploited by defending counsel, as in this case in the Sessions.
Beerhouse keeper James Roberts of Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road) was accused of selling beer at 11am on a Sunday. A constable said he had seen five or six men standing outside the beerhouse and a glass of beer had been handed out of a window to one of them. A man called William Hulme from Blackbrook drank part of the ale and then threw the rest down.
In court the landlord's defence solicitor contested that it had not been proved that ale had been sold, adding: "The drink supplied might have been coffee, or strong tea for aught the policeman knew, and according to the latter's own showing Hulme was a bona fide traveller, as he came from Blackbrook." Of course Blackbrook to Parr was little more than a hop, skip and a jump but after a short discussion, the Bench felt the case had been insufficiently proved and dismissed it.
The annual licensing hearings were held in the Petty Sessions and it was touch and go whether Margaret Webster would have her licence renewed. The 61-year-old kept a beerhouse in St Helens Road, near Eccleston Lane Ends, and had six convictions to her name. In addition a man called Beasley appeared in court to protest against the licence renewal. He claimed that his wife was in the habit of taking provisions from his house and swapping them for drink at Mrs Webster's. However the licensee had kept the same house for a remarkable 36 years and the Bench said they were prepared to give her "another trial". That's a long time to be on trial!
Bernard Woods was charged with breaking several plate glass windows belonging to the Liverpool Inn in Liverpool Road (pictured above). Joseph Swift said he had turfed the defendant out of his pub on Saturday evening at about six o’clock. That was after Woods had asked for another quart of beer and presumably the landlord felt he had drunk enough. His woman friend did not take kindly to the ejection and took off one of her clogs and struck the landlord with it. She was turned out too and her boyfriend enacted revenge by smashing a number of windows.
The pub's insurance company had valued the damage at £7 14 shillings, although the father of the defendant claimed that one of the windows had been broken for two years. The Bench ordered Bernard Woods to pay £5 5s 6d damages, plus court costs, or serve two months in prison. The latter option was the most likely as the fine would be around five weeks wages.
Under the headline "A Disorderly Prostitute", the St Helens Newspaper wrote that Mary Cartwright had been bound over in the Sessions for "cursing and swearing and making a disturbance" in Liverpool Road (pictured above).
On the 6th a miner called William Waring was brought to court charged with ill-treating his wife and assaulting PC Daniel Schofield. The 26-year-old from Stone Street in Parr (which appears to have been near Park Road) had been accused by his wife of beating and kicking her. Eliza Waring had taken out a summons against her husband but he failed to appear in court. So PC Schofield was sent to arrest him and William violently resisted and attempted to flee.
For beating up his wife Waring was fined £1 with 6s 6d court costs and for assaulting the policeman he was fined an additional 5s 6d. That was probably the best part of a fortnight's wages in total and the loss would have affected Eliza as much as her husband. Women were faced with a difficult decision whether or not to prosecute their violent husbands. They were highly dependent upon men and divorce was out of the question. Hopefully William learnt his lesson and in the 1871 census the couple were still living together in Parr with two young sons.
Next week's stories will include the Pilkington striker who was a "snake in the grass", the Prescot boy poked in the eye with an umbrella, the Liverpool Road painter's absent apprentice and the Rainford poster boy who threw stones at a train.
We begin on September 1st when an inquest was held at the Engine Inn in Prescot on Patrick Morris, another victim of the construction of the Prescot to St Helens railway. An engine had been towing eleven wagons of navvies along a stretch of the new line and an accident occurred at a wooden footbridge at Thatto Heath which broke Morris's neck.
There was some good news for the residents of Park Road in Parr and Robins Lane in Sutton. They were going to have sewers installed! On the 3rd St Helens Corporation was advertising in the St Helens Newspaper for tenders to install the sewers, although flush toilets were still many years away.
The Sefton Arms was not the building we know today. The old pub then had a salesroom and they were advertising an auction of 500 "almost new" sacks. They were also selling 20 flitches of bacon "in excellent condition". Apparently a flitch is half of a pig. I suppose you could always buy the bacon and take it home in the sacks.
This letter also appeared in the Newspaper from someone calling themselves "J.C.", who was complaining about the council's lack of action concerning the protection of public areas of Thatto Heath:
"Sir, I was expecting to have seen or heard of something more being done in reference to this piece of public property which has been so wastefully and shamefully abused for some years. Now that we have gotten a Town Council and a full batch of Aldermen, with a mayor at their head, I quite expected to have seen a greater exhibition of public spirit in dealing with public matters. Have the new honours fallen upon unworthy heads? Thatto Heath has been enjoyed by the public for generations, but is now, piece by piece, being enclosed and purloined by private individuals to the deprivation of the public. I think the council should move in the matter without delay."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th the executors of the estate of the late James Varley were charged under the Factory Act with employing a boy under thirteen years of age at an illegal hour. Edward Dunsdale was aged twelve, although employers were allowed to have boys as young as eight or nine working for them. The law stated that these youngsters could only undertake what was known as "half-time" working, that is no more than 6½ hours a day – as the average working week for adults was 70 hours.
Those under 13 were also not permitted to work before 6am and after 6pm. Additionally the employer had to ensure that the child possessed a certificate stating they were attending school and that he or she had been passed fit by a doctor. Just when the kids were supposed to be finding the time to attend school I can't say – although Sunday school might well have counted.
A factory inspector had visited the Eccleston Foundry in Boundary Road and found that all these rules had been broken with the lad starting work at 6am each morning and not finishing until 8pm.
Just how long Edward had been working at Varleys Foundry was not stated – although it could have been for three or four years. However the factory inspector told the Bench that the boy had been employed from 6am to 8pm since he started work at the foundry. Although the defendants pleaded guilty, their solicitor said Edward was a "great lump of a lad" and there had been a mistake as to his age. The estate executors were fined £2 and costs.
A labourer called Thomas Hunt was summoned to court to "show cause why he should not contribute towards the support" of his lunatic wife. She was in Rainhill Asylum and was costing the authorities 8s 9d per week. Just how they figured that amount, I can't say, but her husband only earned 18 shillings a week. So Thomas was ordered to make a weekly payment of 5 shillings, which was still a big chunk out of his wages. If he failed to cough up, he would be brought back to court, with jail being the ultimate punishment.
It might seem odd to us for people to be boozing at breakfast time but it was quite common in 1870, with many hostelries opening their doors to serve the night shift trade. However ale could not be sold on Sunday mornings and the police did what they could to catch offenders. But there were two loopholes. Firstly licensees were permitted to serve travellers on a Sunday. But then how do you define what a traveller is? Someone who has walked 50 yards or 50 miles? And the police had to prove what had been sold at an illegal hour was actually beer, which could be easier said than done. Such loopholes were often exploited by defending counsel, as in this case in the Sessions.
Beerhouse keeper James Roberts of Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road) was accused of selling beer at 11am on a Sunday. A constable said he had seen five or six men standing outside the beerhouse and a glass of beer had been handed out of a window to one of them. A man called William Hulme from Blackbrook drank part of the ale and then threw the rest down.
In court the landlord's defence solicitor contested that it had not been proved that ale had been sold, adding: "The drink supplied might have been coffee, or strong tea for aught the policeman knew, and according to the latter's own showing Hulme was a bona fide traveller, as he came from Blackbrook." Of course Blackbrook to Parr was little more than a hop, skip and a jump but after a short discussion, the Bench felt the case had been insufficiently proved and dismissed it.
The annual licensing hearings were held in the Petty Sessions and it was touch and go whether Margaret Webster would have her licence renewed. The 61-year-old kept a beerhouse in St Helens Road, near Eccleston Lane Ends, and had six convictions to her name. In addition a man called Beasley appeared in court to protest against the licence renewal. He claimed that his wife was in the habit of taking provisions from his house and swapping them for drink at Mrs Webster's. However the licensee had kept the same house for a remarkable 36 years and the Bench said they were prepared to give her "another trial". That's a long time to be on trial!
The pub's insurance company had valued the damage at £7 14 shillings, although the father of the defendant claimed that one of the windows had been broken for two years. The Bench ordered Bernard Woods to pay £5 5s 6d damages, plus court costs, or serve two months in prison. The latter option was the most likely as the fine would be around five weeks wages.
On the 6th a miner called William Waring was brought to court charged with ill-treating his wife and assaulting PC Daniel Schofield. The 26-year-old from Stone Street in Parr (which appears to have been near Park Road) had been accused by his wife of beating and kicking her. Eliza Waring had taken out a summons against her husband but he failed to appear in court. So PC Schofield was sent to arrest him and William violently resisted and attempted to flee.
For beating up his wife Waring was fined £1 with 6s 6d court costs and for assaulting the policeman he was fined an additional 5s 6d. That was probably the best part of a fortnight's wages in total and the loss would have affected Eliza as much as her husband. Women were faced with a difficult decision whether or not to prosecute their violent husbands. They were highly dependent upon men and divorce was out of the question. Hopefully William learnt his lesson and in the 1871 census the couple were still living together in Parr with two young sons.
Next week's stories will include the Pilkington striker who was a "snake in the grass", the Prescot boy poked in the eye with an umbrella, the Liverpool Road painter's absent apprentice and the Rainford poster boy who threw stones at a train.
This week's many stories include the wife beater from Parr, the window smashing at the Liverpool Inn, the Eccleston foundry fined for illegally working a "great lump of a lad", the man ordered to support his lunatic wife and there's another complaint about the purloining of Thatto Heath.
We begin on September 1st when an inquest was held at the Engine Inn in Prescot on Patrick Morris, another victim of the construction of the Prescot to St Helens railway.
An engine had been towing eleven wagons of navvies along a stretch of the new line and an accident occurred at a wooden footbridge at Thatto Heath which broke Morris's neck.
There was some good news for the residents of Park Road in Parr and Robins Lane in Sutton. They were going to have sewers installed!
On the 3rd St Helens Corporation was advertising in the St Helens Newspaper for tenders to install the sewers, although flush toilets were still many years away.
The Sefton Arms was not the building we know today. The old pub then had a salesroom and they were advertising an auction of 500 "almost new" sacks.
They were also selling 20 flitches of bacon "in excellent condition".
Apparently a flitch is half of a pig. I suppose you could always buy the bacon and take it home in the sacks.
This letter also appeared in the Newspaper from someone calling themselves "J.C.", who was complaining about the council's lack of action concerning the protection of public areas of Thatto Heath:
"Sir, I was expecting to have seen or heard of something more being done in reference to this piece of public property which has been so wastefully and shamefully abused for some years. Now that we have gotten a Town Council and a full batch of Aldermen, with a mayor at their head, I quite expected to have seen a greater exhibition of public spirit in dealing with public matters.
"Have the new honours fallen upon unworthy heads? Thatto Heath has been enjoyed by the public for generations, but is now, piece by piece, being enclosed and purloined by private individuals to the deprivation of the public. I think the council should move in the matter without delay."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th the executors of the estate of the late James Varley were charged under the Factory Act with employing a boy under thirteen years of age at an illegal hour.
Edward Dunsdale was aged twelve, although employers were allowed to have boys as young as eight or nine working for them.
The law stated that these youngsters could only undertake what was known as "half-time" working, that is no more than 6½ hours a day – as the average working week for adults was 70 hours.
Those under 13 were also not permitted to work before 6am and after 6pm.
Additionally the employer had to ensure that the child possessed a certificate stating they were attending school and that he or she had been passed fit by a doctor.
Just when the kids were supposed to be finding the time to attend school I can't say – although Sunday school might well have counted.
A factory inspector had visited the Eccleston Foundry in Boundary Road and found that all these rules had been broken with the lad starting work at 6am each morning and not finishing until 8pm.
Just how long Edward had been working at Varleys Foundry was not stated – although it could have been for three or four years.
However the factory inspector told the Bench that the boy had been employed from 6am to 8pm since he started work at the foundry.
Although the defendants pleaded guilty, their solicitor said Edward was a "great lump of a lad" and there had been a mistake as to his age. The estate executors were fined £2 and costs.
A labourer called Thomas Hunt was summoned to court to "show cause why he should not contribute towards the support" of his lunatic wife.
She was in Rainhill Asylum and was costing the authorities 8s 9d per week.
Just how they figured that amount, I can't say, but her husband only earned 18 shillings a week.
So Thomas was ordered to make a weekly payment of 5 shillings, which was still a big chunk out of his wages.
If he failed to cough up, he would be brought back to court, with jail being the ultimate punishment.
It might seem odd to us for people to be boozing at breakfast time but it was quite common in 1870, with many hostelries opening their doors to serve the night shift trade.
However ale could not be sold on Sunday mornings and the police did what they could to catch offenders. But there were two loopholes.
Firstly licensees were permitted to serve travellers on a Sunday.
But then how do you define what a traveller is? Someone who has walked 50 yards or 50 miles?
And the police had to prove what had been sold at an illegal hour was actually beer, which could be easier said than done.
Such loopholes were often exploited by defending counsel, as in this case in the Sessions.
Beerhouse keeper James Roberts of Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road) was accused of selling beer at 11am on a Sunday.
A constable said he had seen five or six men standing outside the beerhouse and a glass of beer had been handed out of a window to one of them.
A man called William Hulme from Blackbrook drank part of the ale and then threw the rest down.
In court the landlord's defence solicitor contested that it had not been proved that ale had been sold, adding:
"The drink supplied might have been coffee, or strong tea for aught the policeman knew, and according to the latter's own showing Hulme was a bona fide traveller, as he came from Blackbrook."
Of course Blackbrook to Parr was little more than a hop, skip and a jump but after a short discussion, the Bench felt the case had been insufficiently proved and dismissed it.
The annual licensing hearings were held in the Petty Sessions and it was touch and go whether Margaret Webster would have her licence renewed.
The 61-year-old kept a beerhouse in St Helens Road, near Eccleston Lane Ends, and had six convictions to her name.
In addition a man called Beasley appeared in court to protest against the licence renewal.
He claimed that his wife was in the habit of taking provisions from his house and swapping them for drink at Mrs Webster's.
However the licensee had kept the same house for a remarkable 36 years and the Bench said they were prepared to give her "another trial". That's a long time to be on trial!
Bernard Woods was charged with breaking several plate glass windows belonging to the Liverpool Inn in Liverpool Road (pictured above).
Joseph Swift said he had turfed the defendant out of his pub on Saturday evening at about six o’clock.
That was after Woods had asked for another quart of beer and presumably the landlord felt he had drunk enough.
His woman friend did not take kindly to the ejection and took off one of her clogs and struck the landlord with it.
She was turned out too and her boyfriend enacted revenge by smashing a number of windows.
The pub's insurance company had valued the damage at £7 14 shillings, although the father of the defendant claimed that one of the windows had been broken for two years.
The Bench ordered Bernard Woods to pay £5 5s 6d damages, plus court costs, or serve two months in prison.
The latter option was the most likely as the fine would be around five weeks wages.
Under the headline "A Disorderly Prostitute", the St Helens Newspaper wrote that Mary Cartwright had been bound over in the Sessions for "cursing and swearing and making a disturbance" in Liverpool Road (pictured above).
On the 6th a miner called William Waring was brought to court charged with ill-treating his wife and assaulting PC Daniel Schofield.
The 26-year-old from Stone Street in Parr (which appears to have been near Park Road) had been accused by his wife of beating and kicking her.
Eliza Waring had taken out a summons against her husband but he failed to appear in court.
So PC Schofield was sent to arrest him and William violently resisted and attempted to flee.
For beating up his wife Waring was fined £1 with 6s 6d court costs and for assaulting the policeman he was fined an additional 5s 6d.
That was probably the best part of a fortnight's wages in total and the loss would have affected Eliza as much as her husband.
Women were faced with a difficult decision whether or not to prosecute their violent husbands.
They were highly dependent upon men and divorce was out of the question.
Hopefully William learnt his lesson and in the 1871 census the couple were still living together in Parr with two young sons.
Next week's stories will include the Pilkington striker who was a "snake in the grass", the Prescot boy poked in the eye with an umbrella, the Liverpool Road painter's absent apprentice and the Rainford poster boy who threw stones at a train.
We begin on September 1st when an inquest was held at the Engine Inn in Prescot on Patrick Morris, another victim of the construction of the Prescot to St Helens railway.
An engine had been towing eleven wagons of navvies along a stretch of the new line and an accident occurred at a wooden footbridge at Thatto Heath which broke Morris's neck.
There was some good news for the residents of Park Road in Parr and Robins Lane in Sutton. They were going to have sewers installed!
On the 3rd St Helens Corporation was advertising in the St Helens Newspaper for tenders to install the sewers, although flush toilets were still many years away.
The Sefton Arms was not the building we know today. The old pub then had a salesroom and they were advertising an auction of 500 "almost new" sacks.
They were also selling 20 flitches of bacon "in excellent condition".
Apparently a flitch is half of a pig. I suppose you could always buy the bacon and take it home in the sacks.
This letter also appeared in the Newspaper from someone calling themselves "J.C.", who was complaining about the council's lack of action concerning the protection of public areas of Thatto Heath:
"Sir, I was expecting to have seen or heard of something more being done in reference to this piece of public property which has been so wastefully and shamefully abused for some years. Now that we have gotten a Town Council and a full batch of Aldermen, with a mayor at their head, I quite expected to have seen a greater exhibition of public spirit in dealing with public matters.
"Have the new honours fallen upon unworthy heads? Thatto Heath has been enjoyed by the public for generations, but is now, piece by piece, being enclosed and purloined by private individuals to the deprivation of the public. I think the council should move in the matter without delay."
In the St Helens Petty Sessions on the 5th the executors of the estate of the late James Varley were charged under the Factory Act with employing a boy under thirteen years of age at an illegal hour.
Edward Dunsdale was aged twelve, although employers were allowed to have boys as young as eight or nine working for them.
The law stated that these youngsters could only undertake what was known as "half-time" working, that is no more than 6½ hours a day – as the average working week for adults was 70 hours.
Those under 13 were also not permitted to work before 6am and after 6pm.
Additionally the employer had to ensure that the child possessed a certificate stating they were attending school and that he or she had been passed fit by a doctor.
Just when the kids were supposed to be finding the time to attend school I can't say – although Sunday school might well have counted.
A factory inspector had visited the Eccleston Foundry in Boundary Road and found that all these rules had been broken with the lad starting work at 6am each morning and not finishing until 8pm.
Just how long Edward had been working at Varleys Foundry was not stated – although it could have been for three or four years.
However the factory inspector told the Bench that the boy had been employed from 6am to 8pm since he started work at the foundry.
Although the defendants pleaded guilty, their solicitor said Edward was a "great lump of a lad" and there had been a mistake as to his age. The estate executors were fined £2 and costs.
A labourer called Thomas Hunt was summoned to court to "show cause why he should not contribute towards the support" of his lunatic wife.
She was in Rainhill Asylum and was costing the authorities 8s 9d per week.
Just how they figured that amount, I can't say, but her husband only earned 18 shillings a week.
So Thomas was ordered to make a weekly payment of 5 shillings, which was still a big chunk out of his wages.
If he failed to cough up, he would be brought back to court, with jail being the ultimate punishment.
It might seem odd to us for people to be boozing at breakfast time but it was quite common in 1870, with many hostelries opening their doors to serve the night shift trade.
However ale could not be sold on Sunday mornings and the police did what they could to catch offenders. But there were two loopholes.
Firstly licensees were permitted to serve travellers on a Sunday.
But then how do you define what a traveller is? Someone who has walked 50 yards or 50 miles?
And the police had to prove what had been sold at an illegal hour was actually beer, which could be easier said than done.
Such loopholes were often exploited by defending counsel, as in this case in the Sessions.
Beerhouse keeper James Roberts of Coal Pit Lane in Parr (now Merton Bank Road) was accused of selling beer at 11am on a Sunday.
A constable said he had seen five or six men standing outside the beerhouse and a glass of beer had been handed out of a window to one of them.
A man called William Hulme from Blackbrook drank part of the ale and then threw the rest down.
In court the landlord's defence solicitor contested that it had not been proved that ale had been sold, adding:
"The drink supplied might have been coffee, or strong tea for aught the policeman knew, and according to the latter's own showing Hulme was a bona fide traveller, as he came from Blackbrook."
Of course Blackbrook to Parr was little more than a hop, skip and a jump but after a short discussion, the Bench felt the case had been insufficiently proved and dismissed it.
The annual licensing hearings were held in the Petty Sessions and it was touch and go whether Margaret Webster would have her licence renewed.
The 61-year-old kept a beerhouse in St Helens Road, near Eccleston Lane Ends, and had six convictions to her name.
In addition a man called Beasley appeared in court to protest against the licence renewal.
He claimed that his wife was in the habit of taking provisions from his house and swapping them for drink at Mrs Webster's.
However the licensee had kept the same house for a remarkable 36 years and the Bench said they were prepared to give her "another trial". That's a long time to be on trial!
Joseph Swift said he had turfed the defendant out of his pub on Saturday evening at about six o’clock.
That was after Woods had asked for another quart of beer and presumably the landlord felt he had drunk enough.
His woman friend did not take kindly to the ejection and took off one of her clogs and struck the landlord with it.
She was turned out too and her boyfriend enacted revenge by smashing a number of windows.
The pub's insurance company had valued the damage at £7 14 shillings, although the father of the defendant claimed that one of the windows had been broken for two years.
The Bench ordered Bernard Woods to pay £5 5s 6d damages, plus court costs, or serve two months in prison.
The latter option was the most likely as the fine would be around five weeks wages.
On the 6th a miner called William Waring was brought to court charged with ill-treating his wife and assaulting PC Daniel Schofield.
The 26-year-old from Stone Street in Parr (which appears to have been near Park Road) had been accused by his wife of beating and kicking her.
Eliza Waring had taken out a summons against her husband but he failed to appear in court.
So PC Schofield was sent to arrest him and William violently resisted and attempted to flee.
For beating up his wife Waring was fined £1 with 6s 6d court costs and for assaulting the policeman he was fined an additional 5s 6d.
That was probably the best part of a fortnight's wages in total and the loss would have affected Eliza as much as her husband.
Women were faced with a difficult decision whether or not to prosecute their violent husbands.
They were highly dependent upon men and divorce was out of the question.
Hopefully William learnt his lesson and in the 1871 census the couple were still living together in Parr with two young sons.
Next week's stories will include the Pilkington striker who was a "snake in the grass", the Prescot boy poked in the eye with an umbrella, the Liverpool Road painter's absent apprentice and the Rainford poster boy who threw stones at a train.