An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St.Helens

Part 39 (of 41) - Sutton Trivia and True Facts!

Researched & Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMX Contact Me

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Header image: The 'Burn Lancashire Coal' sign was at Sutton Manor Colliery from 1934 to 1940

The Night That 'E.T.' Came To Bold!

In January 1978, Bold Power Station was at the centre of a major UFO mystery when onlookers witnessed its towers being buzzed by a strange, shining light. The object appeared to dart down as if it was giving the installation, that first generated electricity some twenty years earlier, a much closer examination. Unexplained lights in the sky are not, of course, all that unusual. However, this case takes on greater interest as some of the onlookers were police officers! In fact two officers attempted to follow the UFO and after it had landed in a field in Rainhill, they were close to the craft as it took off again.

The story began when amateur radio operator Robert Bennett of Nutgrove received a message from the president of a Liverpool UFO society that unexplained aerial activity had been reported in St.Helens. Bennett rang the police and three officers arrived and then sat with him for some five hours, as they and enthusiasts, attempted to track the mysterious object by radio. The 46-year-old listened to the police communications until 3am and was asked to relay messages to the radio hams who were also chasing the craft. Quoted in the St.Helens Star in July 2005 Robert Bennett said:

From what I heard there were officers in the car trying to follow it and I believe it did land in a field in Rainhill and two police officers, a PC and a WPC were 20 yards away from it when it started to take off.

Detective Constable Gary Heseltine is the instigator of the PRUFOS (Police Reporting UFO Sightings) records system which unofficially documents police sightings of UFOs between 1950 and 2002. In this dossier, the Bold incident is classed as having major Defence Significance and considered one of the three most significant to have taken place at official installations during the 1970s, when the Cold War was at its height. It's entry in the PRUFOS system reads:

Two uniformed police officers - PCs Lowe and Roberts - observed a high speed UFO that hovered above Bold Power Station before darting across the landscape and doing likewise over Fiddler's Ferry Power Station.

D.C. Heseltine says that there is still no convincing logical explanation for what happened above Bold and Fiddler's Ferry Power Stations over thirty years ago. However, I like to think that E.T. was simply looking to recharge its extra-terrestrial batteries, so it could return safely back to its home, somewhere within the stars. We shall never really know, of course!

This article is based on reports in the St.Helens Star during July 2005 including an article by Ian Brandes

The Sutton Monastery Opera Star

Can you imagine the media fuss if Pavarotti had moved to Sutton? Well, the larger-than-life Italian tenor never lived in St.Helens, of course, although his Victorian equivalent certainly did. Charles Santley (1834 - 1922) was in fact a baritone singer, not a tenor, but he was a huge operatic and oratorio star in both Britain and America. The Liverpool-born singer may not be remembered especially well today, however, his Wikipedia entry is 1000 words longer than Pavarotti's. Santley's 6,500-word online encyclopedia profile makes no mention of his St.Helens days, although the archives of the Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser plugs the gap. On April 19th 1883, the Dublin-based newspaper reported that Santley had:

...resolved to adopt a religious life in one of the Monasteries connected with the Catholic Church...he has entered the monastery of the Passionist Fathers, at Sutton, near St Helens, where he is at present a lay brother.

Just how long he spent at St.Anne’s monastery isn’t known, although he'd converted to Roman Catholicism just three years earlier and clearly felt the need for some spiritual instruction and enlightenment. Santley so impressed the Catholic church that in 1887, Pope Leo XIII created him a Knight Commander of St.Gregory the Great. This is a papal honour bestowed upon Catholic men and women in recognition of their services to the Church. In 1907 Charles Santley also received a secular honour as he became the very first singer to be awarded a knighthood.

Frog Frying Tonight in Sutton!

“Give us a split peas and frogs’ legs mate”, is not exactly an order that Sutton chippy staff are used to receiving! However, for a while during the nineteenth century, frog was a Lancastrian delicacy that proved a 'nice little earner' for youngsters in Sutton and St.Helens.

According to a Liverpool Daily Post report, entitled ‘Onslaught Amongst The Frogs – Frogs Eaten in Lancashire’, which was reprinted by The Morning Chronicle on April 5th, 1858, “great quantities” of frogs were consumed at that time “in and about the neighbourhood of St.Helens and Sutton”. They said that boys were “constantly employed” in catching the amphibious creatures in the local ponds and ditches and a Post correspondent found a number of lads, around nine or ten years old, up to their knees in a Sutton Heath pond ‘fishing’ for frogs.

The reporter described seeing several pounds of the hind parts of skinned frogs stacked on one side of the pond, with the redundant fore parts and skins stored nearby. Upon questioning the lads as to what they would be doing with the hind bits, they said:

We putten them i’th’ frying pan, and then i’th’ hoon, and then they are gradely good.

The craze for frog feasting seems to have been short-lived, although there is an old Lancashire saying for being hungry,"Ah cud eyt a buttered frog", which may have had its origins in those days. Plus toad in the hole was originally known locally as 'frog-i'-th'-'ole' and there are a couple of present-day eateries in St.Helens which have frog in their name, although it might not actually be on their menus!

Did you know that there used to be a popular Lancashire snail fair that was held every September? Not everyone, it seems, in old Lanky devoured black puddings and Lancashire hot pot. Cuisine could be a tad more exotic. I trust this article was a gradely good read for you!

What 'Lord Haw Haw' Said About Sutton

Not many people know that William Joyce (aka ‘Lord Haw Haw’) once referred to Sutton in one of his infamous broadcasts. He said that the Nazis were aware of a top-secret chemical warfare plant located off Abbotsfield Road in Sutton Oak (arguably Sutton Leach). The site manufactured Lewisite, a chemical warfare agent which was developed in 1918 but too late for use in World War 1.

It's a very powerful irritant and contact immediately damages eyes, skin and lungs. The site was closed in 1953 and its laboratory equipment was transported to another chemical defence site at Nancekuke, near Redruth where it was decontaminated and dumped. This site closed in 1980 and is now known as RAF Portreath.

In 2006 a chemical weapons scare was sparked when a digger driver accidentally unearthed the equipment. Specialists from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory were called in to test for chemicals although none were found. The British government, as late as 1982, had denied that mustard gas had ever been manufactured at the 'Chemical Defence Research Establishment' in Sutton Oak. However, Sutton residents were fully aware of the "Poison Gas Works", as it was locally known.

German Zeppelins In Sutton's Skies

Did you know that Sutton, or more accurately Bold, was bombed in WWI? This is a photograph of the actual Zeppelin L61 airship that flew over Lancashire on April 12th, 1918 commanded by Kapitanleutnant Ehrlich with a crew of 19. It crossed the Mersey at 18,000 feet above Malton and at 11.17pm the first of its bombs fell damaging a milestone on the A57 Prescot to Warrington Road. The bomb also damaged the road surface and a water main and did some minor damage to adjacent property.

A second bomb was dropped at 11.20pm in a field at Abbots Hall Farm in Bold, which created a crater seven feet deep and fifteen feet across. The Zeppelin went on to bomb Wigan, killing seven people, before returning safely to base. There were only two Zeppelin raids on Lancashire during the Great War and this was the second, although the pilot reported in his log that he had bombed Sheffield, not Wigan!

94-year-old Frank Jones was living in Tasker Terrace, Rainhill at the time and has told this website that he can remember as a three-year-old boy, being taken by his mother to the front door of their house to watch the Zeppelin fly over. Frank relates how local bobby PC Fay stood on the railway bridge and shot at it!

The damaged milestone was placed in Victoria Park, Widnes behind railings with an appropriate plaque. However in 1978, Frank was shocked to discover the milestone left lying on the ground by a greenhouse and began a campaign for it to be restored to a prominent position.

The result is more pleasing than I had expected. It is now by a circular flower bed just inside the gates opposite Highfield Road.

A German Zeppelin airship also flew over Sherdley Park in Sutton in the 1920s dropping mysterious, cylinder-shaped objects. It is thought that the pilot may have mistaken the Hughes' estate for that of Lord Derby's Knowsley Park, only eight miles away.

93-years old Joan Heyes (née Williams), remembers seeing the airship in the skies over St.Helens, around 1927/8, on its way to the park. She lived in Ellen Street, Sutton, but was attending Higher Grade School in College Street when she saw it fly over. Joan, now living in Sydney, has told Sutton Beauty & Heritage that she was practicing a maypole dance at the time and witnessed the German Zeppelin airship fly over very slowly.

Bombed zeppelin milestone in Victoria Park, Widnes
The bombed milestone in Victoria Park, Widnes near the Highfield Road gates and its two plaques

A 'Breeze' At Sutton Parish Church

St.Helens newspaper report of vestry meeting at St.Nicholas Church in 1924

On April 29th, 1924 the St.Helens Reporter said a "breeze" had occurred during the annual Vestry Meeting of St.Nicholas and All Saints Church. Under the headline 'A Statement That Caused Sleepless Nights', they reported that allegations had been made by a church official that the balance from a collection for a war memorial made by members of the young men's bible class, had been pocketed by committee members.

An indignant Mr. Crouch, the bible class leader, had what might be called a frank and lengthy exchange of views with the vicar, Rev. W.E. Colegrove, which were recorded verbatim by the Reporter. Finally the vicar assured Mr. Crouch that he'd had the church books checked out and they were in good order and the pair shook hands. Mr. Crouch could sleep again!

Telegrams To Sutton From The Pope

A telegram from Pope Pius X1 to Sutton in St.Helens in 1924

Sutton has been sent telegrams by the Pope in several years. It happened in 1924 and then came from Pope Pius XI as a result of the Knights of St.Columbia making a pilgrimage to the tomb of Dominic Barberi (1792-1849), the Passionist priest who co-founded the original mission with church, school and convent at St Annes and who was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1963. A newspaper account reads:

"The following telegram has been received at Sutton from Rome - The Holy Father touched by the homage of the Knights of St.Columbia imparts from his heart the Apostolic Benediction."

A Letter from the King of Belgium to Sutton

Despite the privations of the 'Great War', King Albert (1875 – 1934) found time to write to Sutton's Sam Ffouks to thank him for a poem he'd sent him that sympathised with the Belgian people's plight. In the letter reported by the St.Helens Reporter on February 26th, 1915, King Albert's private secretary said that his king was “très touchèe a mon temoignage de sympathie".

The newspaper also commented that Ffouks had recently received the diploma of membership of the International Societé de Philogie, Science et Beaux Arts. Little seems known of Sam, although the Societé de Philogie, was a distinguished academic and scientific body run by Professor Haroon Mustapha Leon (1855-1932), an Islamic scholar and etymologist. Albert I of Belgium reigned for 24 years and during the war famously fought with his troops, while his wife, Queen Elisabeth, nursed soldiers at the front. Their son, Prince Leopold, enlisted in the Belgian army at the age of 14 and fought as a private.

Daisy the Peg - Sutton's Seven-Legged Cow!

In 1966 Rolf Harris sang of "Jake the Peg with his extra leg". To my knowledge no one has ever sung about a cow with extra limbs but Sutton did have one once, albeit briefly, that had 7 legs and 2 tails!

A lusus naturae or freak of nature occurs every now and then and in 1872 it happened to a Sutton farmer called Mr. Gavin. The Preston Guardian of June 22nd described the new-born calf of being of "extraordinary malformation". The head, shoulders and forelegs were born normal but it had two distinct bodies, each with its own tail and hind legs. In total the cow had five legs at its rear. A lucrative career as a carnival exhibit would, perhaps, have been in store but when farmer Gavin found it, Sutton's own Daisy The Peg was already, unfortunately, deceased.

The Day That Sutton Brook Caught Fire!

St.Helens Reporter article from 1915 on sutton brook on fire

For many years the residents of Watery Lane were forced to endure both the unpleasant odours that emanated from Sutton Brook, plus the tendency of the nearby waterway to flood out their houses (see here). What they probably never bargained for, was the brook becoming a fire hazard!

However, on Wednesday September 8th, 1915 huge flames emanated from the brook near St.Helens Junction, reaching the height of the Bowling Green Inn. The St.Helens Reporter in their account of the fire (pub. 10/1/1915) described it as causing "great alarm" in Sutton.

Despite some efforts to limit discharges from factories into St.Helens's waterways, it was still a common practice and an unnamed works in Sutton was allowing oil and grease to drain into the brook. The council were aware of the problem and its Health Committee had coincidentally met on the Wednesday to discuss what could be done, though failed to come up with a plan of action. Their minds were, perhaps, concentrated at 6pm that same day, when a man who was lighting a cigarette, threw a match into the brook which ignited the grease and oil on its surface. Flames burst from both ends of the culvert, assistance was summoned and it was only extinguished after large quantities of rubbish was thrown onto the fire. The Reporter said:

The incident serves to illustrate the great danger which, apart altogether from the offensive smell which arises, lurks in the greasy and oily matter in the Watery-lane brook...the residents in the Watery-lane are hoping that the incident of Wednesday evening will not only force the Council to move in the direction of curing the offensive smell, but, while they are at it, they will tackle the overflowing nuisance as well, and make a complete and satisfactory job of it.

Fred Thomas - The Hermit of New Street

Shortly after World War I, Fred Thomas quit his job on a matter of principle and declared that he would never again work for anyone on a regular basis. He was good to his word and decided on a simple life, building a shed for himself just off New Street. This was on land that belonged to Sutton farmer Eddie Rimmer and Fred lived there for decades. His bunk was said to have been made from old railway sleepers and he cooked on a little stove with its iron chimney emanating from the hut roof.

Fred kept his unusual place of abode scrupulously clean, he was well educated and refused handouts. Often he could be found in the grounds of St.Nicholas, tidying the churchyard or digging graves to earn cash. He'd also help out in the fields at harvest time and during winter was dressed in a long, dark coat, cloth cap and wore polished clogs with a white scarf wrapped round his neck. A daily journey would be made to the churchyard to draw fresh water from a standpipe, accompanied by his dog.

Bill Bate, now living in Western Australia and author of 'A Sutton Schoolboy's Memories of WW2', read this Sutton Trivia article and sent me his recollections of Fred from when he was a boy in Sutton:

I have fond memories of the times from about 1935, and my Grandad's friendship with Fred. I always understood that the shed belonged to my grandfather, but perhaps they built it together. I know for a fact that the little white dog called Jack was Grandad's. I was about four years old at the time, and Granddad, myself, and the dog used to go to the shed and spend most of the day there. The old blokes would sit by the stove smoking their pipes, and talking, perhaps, about the coming war. I used to play outside with some plywood boxes that used to contain Star cigarettes. One amusing incident that occurred involving Fred, was that on his trip to the church yard to refill his water bottles, he used to pass our house, which was on New Street, opposite Heward's field. One day my Mum, who was looking from the front room window, saw Fred stop and lean over the field fence and pick something out of the nettles. When I got home from school, Mum said," Go and look what's over the fence". It appeared that Fred had found that one of Heward's hen's had made a nest and Fred had been getting a good supply of eggs. I'm sorry to say that poor old Fred didn't get any more eggs! My Granddad, Joe Standley, used to live in Nelson Street.

fred thomas sthelens star article

During the 1960s, Sutton vicar Rev. James Smith arranged for Fred, who was then well past 80, to see out his days at Nutgrove Home for the Elderly and upon his death was buried at St.Nicholas. He was very well thought of by local folk and many attended his funeral. During the 1980s, a St.Helens Star mention of Fred elicited many affectionate reader reminiscences leading to a lengthy article published on May 12th, 1988 entitled 'Fred: Toff in A Shed'. And talking of sheds...

The Dancing Shed at Norman's Lane, Sutton

Dancing Shed in St.Helens newspaper cutting

Did you hear about St.Helens Junction's dancing shed that fell through? Well it never actually got off the ground! A report in the St.Helens Newspaper of May 11th, 1886 entitled 'The Dancing Shed at Norman's Lane, Sutton' revealed how a Mrs. Morecroft had attempted to apply for a dancing licence for a shed on behalf of her sick husband. As seven people had turned up to object, the Bench refused to allow an adjournment and Mrs. Morecroft was informed that "the application would fall through". Of course it's quite possible that the application was for people to dance in a shed...rather than for a shed to dance...but who knows!

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Next: Part 40) Clog Clatters in Old Sutton; | Research Sources, References & Bibliography

Sutton Beauty & Heritage's History Pages:

01)  Township of Sutton & St.Helens        |      02)  Lords & Masters
03)  Michael Hughes of Sherdley        |      04)  The Sherdley Estate
05)  Sutton's Halls & Houses        |      06)  Dr. Henry Baker Bates
07)  Religion in Sutton        |      08)  Rev. Henry Vallancey
09)  Education in Sutton        |      10)  Mineworking in Sutton
11)  Sutton Manor Colliery #1        |      12)  Sutton Manor Colliery #2
13)  Clock Face Colliery        |      14)  Bold Colliery
15)  Industry in Sutton Township        |      16)  Sutton Transport
17)  Sutton Transport Timeline        |      18)  Health & Sanitary Conditions
19)  Old Sutton Pubs        |      20)  Sport in Sutton
21)  Sutton Boxers & Wrestlers       |      22)  Rapid Rise of Sutton Harriers
23)  Leisure & Entertainment        |      24)  Sutton Celebrations
25)  Sutton Streetnames       |      26)   Pudding Bag
27)  Notorious & Curious Crime      |     28)  Sutton Tragedy #1
29)  Sutton Tragedy #2       |      30)  What's Wrong With Sutton?
31)  How Sutton Has Changed        |      32)  Memories of Sutton Part 1
33)  Memories of Sutton Part 2       |      34)  Memories of Sutton Part 3
35)  Memories of Sutton Part 4       |      36)  Memories of Sutton Part 5
37)  Memories of Sutton Part 6       |      38)  Memories of Sutton Part 7
39)  Sutton Trivia & True Facts       |      40)  Clog Clatters in Old Sutton
41)  Research Sources, References & Bibliography

Plus 13 Heritage Photo-Albums:

   Sutton's Lords & Masters;     Sherdley Estate;     Religion & Education;
   Transport;     Sport, Leisure & Entertainment;     Sutton Streets;
   Sutton Manor Colliery #1; #2; #3; #4;      Clock Face Colliery;
   Bold Colliery;     Sutton Industry;

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This website has been written and researched and many images photographed by the Sutton Beauty & Heritage site owner, Stephen Wainwright. All rights are reserved but my images and text content can be re-used, although I would prefer a credit. High resolution versions of many photographs can be supplied on request at no charge. Other images are used for heritage and educational purposes and are believed to be in the public domain. This site takes a responsible attitude to copyright and, where appropriate, I endeavour to obtain permission from rights holders. This is not always possible and you are encouraged to contact me via the contact page to resolve any rights issue or if you require accreditation for the use of any photograph on this site.

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