An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St.Helens

Part 56 (of 58) - Sutton Trivia and True Facts!

Researched & Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMXI     Contact Me      Bookmark and Share

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

The Great Fire of Sutton Moss

For two days during the hot summer of 1899, thousands of people descended upon Sutton Moss to watch what the Liverpool Mercury dubbed "the most extensive and most extraordinary fire which ever occurred at St.Helens". Smoke from burning turf billowed over Sutton and Parr and train passengers on the adjacent line had a perfect view of the "prairie fire" as it consumed sixty acres of land. In fact it was believed that a spark from the engine of a passing train had started the fire, setting alight one of many stacks of turf. It was so hot and dry that the fire quickly spread, destroying the work of up to fifty employees of the Lancashire Moss Litter Company.

Turf cutters at work at Sutton or Bold Moss
Turf cutters at work at Sutton / Bold Moss - one cuts while the other spreads it out before stacking

Sutton Moss was located between St.Helens Junction and Collins Green stations and along with Bold Moss, was owned by colliery proprietors and Colonel Richard Pilkington. They leased the land to companies who extricated the peat turf for use as firelighters or animal bedding litter. The prolonged warm weather of August 1899 had greatly improved productivity and thousands of stacks of turf blocks occupied the land. Turf cutters had dug long peat trenches and after removal from the ground, the nine inch turf blocks were built up in pyramids to dry. Each measured between 3 and 12 feet tall, and their array must have been quite a sight. In between the trench rows were tram lines, so that ponies could pull slatted trams of turf to sheds nearby where 'pressing' took place.

Some firelight sellers had arrangements where they could remove the turf themselves.
Frank Bamber in his 'Clog Clatters in Old Sutton' recalls Mr. Barrow, the 'Firelight Mon', with his shaggy pony and two-wheeled float. After gathering the cut and dried blocks of peat from the Moss and soaking them in naphtha, he sold them on Sutton's streets as firelighters. Every Saturday morning during the early years of the 20th century, Mr. Barrow would arrive in Edgeworth Street and young Frank would buy a week's supply of 7 firelighters at a penny each. Frank wrote that the 'firelight mon's' hands shone like polished mahogany, through working with peat and naphtha and he had a strong smell of firelighters.

Driver and horse on Sutton Moss with loaded slatted tram
A driver and horse on Sutton Moss with a loaded slatted tram taking the dried peat to a pressing shed
On August 24th, 1899, the thousands of stacked peat blocks stood proud on the land ready for removal. It was 10am when one of the stacks was first seen alight. The turf workers tried to extinguish the fire with buckets of water but to no avail. A strong wind assisted the spread of the blaze and many of the workers, fearing for their safety, departed. However, some remained to demolish turf stacks and saturate the ground with water, in a futile attempt to stop the fire's spread. By the early afternoon there were hundreds of blazing stacks, creating immense volumes of smoke.

The fire brigade under Superintendent Lyon eventually arrived from their base at the Town Hall but they had a major problem. Where could they get water from? They settled on a pond at Berry's Lane farm almost half-a-mile away and a couple of hosepipes were put to work. Their priority was to safeguard the machinery sheds where turf pressing and other operations were performed. This they successfully did, although 2500 tons of moss were lost. During the evening, the fire of Sutton Moss was quite a spectacle, as the Liverpool Mercury described:
Pasted Graphic 5   Immense stacks of turf, scattered over a surface of hundreds of yards, were emitting lurid tongues of flame, which shot high into the air, while the ground between was one mass of flickering and smouldering fire. A glare overhead revealed the immensity of the conflagration, which was visible in the surrounding districts. Thousands of people were attracted to the spot, and gazed with mingled feelings at the scene before them    Pasted Graphic 24
Believing that the fire would burn itself out, the fire brigade departed just before midnight. Twelve hours later they were back, as the wind direction had changed and the remaining stacks on the Fleet Lane side had ignited. Water was sourced from the reservoir at Sutton's Rolling Mill factory and the fire was eventually subdued, although the embers smouldered for several days.

Sutton Moss
Left: An old time view of a cutter on the moss; Right: Women sorting and stacking turf at Sutton Moss

The blaze had been an exciting night-time spectacle for many and, thankfully, there were no injuries. However, the Lancashire Moss Litter Company, as well as cut turf, had lost a lot of plant and tram-line sleepers but they were fully insured. The real cost was to the fifty men, women and girls who lost their jobs, victims of the Great Fire of Sutton Moss.
Download Chapter 15 of Clog Clatters in Old Sutton by Frank Bamber - 'Parr, Bold and Sutton Moss'
All photos in this article have been taken from 'Clog Clatters' - Courtesy Sutton Historic Society

When Queen Victoria Came Through Sutton

Did you know that Queen Victoria passed through Sutton on two occasions? The first was on Tuesday May 11th, 1886 when her special train travelled through St.Helens Junction on a trip from Windsor Castle to Liverpool. The two day visit was mainly to open the city’s International Exhibition of Navigation, Commerce and Industry.

The monarch left Windsor just after midnight, accompanied by the
Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg and the Duke of Connaught. Princess Henry was otherwise known as Beatrice and she was the Queen's youngest child. The Duke, a.k.a. Prince Arthur, was her seventh child, and he’d visited St.Helens twelve years earlier on his way to Edinburgh.

The London and North-Western Railway provided the engine and twelve carriages, which boasted elegant day and night saloons. The Queen's day saloon had satinwood chairs and couches covered with dark blue watered silk. On the ceiling were four cut-glass oil lamps lined with white silk and a round clock, with a white enamel dial set in a chased gilt mounting, was hung from one side.

Duke of Connaught, Princess Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg and Queen Victoria
The royal party L to R: Duke of Connaught, Princess Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg and Queen Victoria

The sleeping saloon was furnished with two small ormolu bedsteads and the toilet basins in the dressing compartment were plated with silver and gold. The royal party were probably in the land of Nod when they went through Sutton and the train travelled at just 25mph to give Her Majesty a better night’s sleep. Security was tight and the public were banned from St.Helens Junction and the other stations until the train, preceded by a pilot-engine, had passed. This was only three years after Irishman Patrick Flannigan from Sutton, a brakesman on the L and NW railway, had been charged with levying "war against Her Majesty" as part of a Fenian plot.

The royals stayed in Liverpool until the Thursday morning when they made the return trip to Windsor, steaming back through the Junction. This day-time journey would have been more of an inconvenience to travellers, barred again from using the station. Just whether the Queen looked out of her ornate carriage at industrial Sutton and said "We are not amused", is not, however, recorded!

Victoria never visited St.Helens, despite the town’s strong association with her reign. Victoria Park was originally Cowley Hill Park but it was renamed in 1887 to commemorate the monarch’s golden jubilee. After her death,
Sir George Frampton’s statue of Queen Victoria was unveiled in 1905 in the Town Hall Square by the Earl of Derby. In Sutton we have the Victoria pub on Ellamsbridge Road and in Gerards Lane, the Victoria bridge by Monastery Dam and also the demolished Victoria Cottage.

Queen Elizabeth II also passed through Sutton and her son Charles visited the Mill Dam and the Adventure Playground in Gerards Lane. You can see photos of these events here.

The Flying Pharmacist of Junction Lane

For five decades during the twentieth century, countless Sutton folk got their prescriptions filled at Spencer’s chemists in Junction Lane. I wonder how many customers when collecting their cough drops, potions and pills, knew that the pharmacist family were aviation pioneers? In fact prior to moving to Sutton, proprietor Sydney Spencer had been a pioneering balloonist and parachutist and had served in the Great War as a balloon expert for both the Admiralty and the Royal Flying Corps.

Stanley Spencer Airship
However, Captain Spencer’s achievements as an aeronaut were somewhat overshadowed by the other members of his family. Flying was firmly in the Spencer blood and Sydney's grandfather Edward made his first balloon ascent in 1836. His aeronaut son Charles Green Spencer, who was also a gymnast, is credited with making the first gliding experiments in England and he also began his own balloon-making firm in London.

Charles had six children including Sydney Ewart Spencer, who was born in Islington on December 12th, 1879. All of the Spencer brood became aeronauts although Sydney’s three older brothers,
Stanley, Percival and Arthur, were more renowned. Percy is said to have made 1000 ascents and Stanley became the first Englishman to fly in a powered airship over England.

This was a time when ballooning was a highly dangerous activity. The Graphic newspaper of September 1st, 1888 commented that:
Pasted Graphic 23 The history of ballooning is marked, like the trail of an army, by the dead it has left behind it. Pasted Graphic 24
In 1897 Arthur Spencer broke his thigh when he landed on an Australian tombstone and suffered severe injuries in an accident in 1901. His brother Sydney is not reported to have endured any injuries himself, as he seems to have limited his own flying to concentrate on a career as a chemist. However, the archives of the British Science Museum reveal Sydney making test flights in 1904 and in 1911 he was in South Africa experimenting with a balloon on Durban Beach.

Memorial to balloonist Sydney Spencer in Sutton Parish graveyard, St.Helens
The Spencer family memorial in Sutton Parish graveyard at St.Nicholas Church in New Street

During WW1, Sydney Spencer’s ballooning expertise was employed initially by the Royal Navy for their reconnaissance missions and from 1916-19 by the Royal Flying Corps / RAF. The military had used observation balloons in the Boer War and they were extensively employed, both on land and at sea, during the Great War. It’s presently unclear what Sydney’s precise role was, although it was probably more advisory than operational.

During the war, Sydney met his future wife Margaret who was making balloons in the Isle of Man. They moved to Sutton during the 1920s and began their pharmacy in Junction Lane. Sydney died in 1946 but wife Margaret ran the chemist’s shop for fifty years, assisted by her daughter Marie.

The family memorial in the Sutton Parish graveyard appropriately bears witness to Sydney’s aeronautical past and his membership of a pioneering family of aviators with ‘balloonist and parachutist’ engraved under his name.

Former balloonist Captain Spencer in this 1936 photo outside the British Legion in Sutton, St.Helens
Captain Spencer is 4th from left on the front row of this 1936 photo outside the British Legion
(Contributed by Sutton Historic Society)

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

Bold Power Station at night
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, unusual. However, this case takes on greater interest as some of the onlookers were police officers! In fact two officers tried to follow the UFO and after it landed in a field at Rainhill, they were close to the craft as it took off.

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:
Pasted Graphic 23 ...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.  Pasted Graphic 24
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. Its entry in the PRUFOS system reads:
Pasted Graphic 23  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.  Pasted Graphic 24
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

Frog Frying Tonight in Sutton!

The order "Give us a split peas and frogs' legs mate", is not exactly one 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.

Onslaught Amongst The Frogs – Frogs Eaten in Lancashire
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 Daily Post correspondent found a number of lads, around nine or ten years of age, 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:
Pasted Graphic 23  We putten them i'th' frying pan, and then i'th' hoon, and then they are gradely good.  Pasted Graphic 24
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 be on their menus!


Illustrator Marty Strutt depicts the scene with the lad at the front with frog in hand talking to a reporter on the bank
Illustrator Marty Strutt depicts the scene with the lad at the front with frog in hand talking to a reporter on the bank

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!

Bally Whittaker - The Heavyweight Sutton Builder

John 'Bally' Whittaker was reputed to be the heaviest man in St.Helens. Weighing in at 31 stones, the building contractor was referred to as 'Owd Bally', which was Lancashire dialect for 'belly'. As a builder Whittaker was responsible for constructing many notable buildings, works and chimneys in St.Helens and he was also licensee of a Sutton pub.

Born in 1824 in Blackley, John Whittaker spent the first thirty years of his life in the Manchester district before relocating to St.Helens. Bally lived in Neill's Road in Bold which later became the
Neil’s Foundry caretaker’s house. Frank Bamber visited a school friend there around 1920 and was struck by the "extraordinary width" of its doors and frames. The huge stomach of Bally Whittaker meant he had great difficulty in squeezing through average-sized house doors, so he had them custom built in his home.

John Whittaker builder
John 'Bally' Whittaker (1824 - 1894) builder and landlord of the Oak Tree Inn

Joseph Jackson and Charles Rigby

Being conveyed around St.Helens also presented difficulties. So Bally employed a strong pony called Black Bess and a specially-built, strong trap with stablising props. These steadied the trap and took the weight off the pony, while he climbed in and became comfortably seated. From around 1870 he lived with wife Anne at Oak Cottage in St.Helens Junction and ran the Oak Tree Inn at 8 Gerrards Lane.

John Whittaker was said to have been a jovial character of which there were many stories. He learnt that a firm in Liverpool were offering suits made to measure for just 30 shillings. So he sent a man of average size to the shop to place an order for a suit for himself and three others, who the man told the staff were his brothers. The additional suits were in fact for Whittaker and his two best friends, Joseph Jackson and Charles Rigby. Jackson was a wheelwright and blacksmith of whom Jackson Street was named and who weighed almost 23 stones. Rigby was a wheelwright from Warrington Road who was also quite a heavyweight at over 18 stones.

Grave of John Whittaker
The shop was initially delighted to receive the order but then shocked to see the tremendous size of the three 'brothers'. Much more cloth would be needed and they were likely to lose money on the deal. However the shop's canny manager spotted a marketing opportunity. So the suits were made at the price quoted and the fame of them subsequently spread to St. Helens.

As a builder J
ohn Whittaker was highly industrious. Working out of Foundry Street in St. Helens, his company was responsible for Sutton Glassworks, St.Helens Junction railway station, Sutton Road Pumping Station, Borough Sanatorium, Wolverhampton House, Daglish’s Foundry, Neil’s Foundry, Brown Edge water softening works, Boundary Road Baths, St. Mary’s C.E. School and mission church, Lingholme Hotel, The Saddle pub, Pear Tree at Collins Green and the Huntsman at Haydock. His firm was also responsible for many works' chimney stacks in St.Helens.

John Whittaker died on July 2nd, 1894 at Oak Cottage at the age of 70 years and is buried in Sutton Parish Church graveyard. Unsurprisingly it's said that the larger-than-life builder had to be laid to rest in a plot twice the size as normal!

What 'Lord Haw Haw' Said About Sutton

Lord Haw Haw - William Joyce
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 the top-secret chemical warfare plant located off Abbotsfield Road in Sutton Oak. Although ostensibly a chemical defence research centre, for the first six months of World War II, the Magnum plant (as locals knew it) was the sole manufacturer of mustard gas in the whole country producing 1100 tons. (see Poison Gas Works page).

Joyce visited St.Helens about 1938 when the fascist gave a talk in the Corporation Street 'tin chapel'. During the war the chapel was bombed, although there probably wasn't a connection! Joyce was executed for treason on 3rd January 1946 at Wandsworth Prison.

Please Postman, Come Thou Near, and Hark!

Perhaps this website gives the impression that old Sutton was a grim, miserable place enlivened only by boozing and by the occasional walking and sports days. Of course, times were often very hard, although I expect that there could be much humour. Old newspapers did tend to focus on the darker side of life although I do come across quite a number of reports that make me smile! A favourite has to be a very brief report in the Liverpool Mercury of May 21st, 1863 in which an unnamed individual, who was corresponding with Thomas Park of Sutton Rolling Mills, decided to put some style into his letter. He wrote Park's address on the envelope as a poem which read:
Please, postman, come thou near, and hark !
Give this to Mr. Thomas Park.
You'll find him (listen where to go)
Employed by Newton, Keats, and Co.
Away ! away ! o'er dales and hills,
To Sutton Copper Rolling Mills,
Near St.Helens, Lancashire.
Ok, it's not that easy to rhyme Lancashire! However, the humorous postal poetry only provided a brief respite in the Liverpool Mercury and it was soon business as usual. Immediately underneath this article was a report on the latest St.Helens Petty Sessions hearings which described how Sutton beerseller Ellen Appleton had been fined 10 shillings for selling porter to a little girl at midnight. Talking of poets...

A Letter from the King of Belgium to Sutton

King Albert of Belgium
Despite the privations of the 'Great War', King Albert (1875 – 1934) found time to write to Sutton's Sam Ffouks, to thank him for sending a poem that sympathised with the Belgian people's plight. In the letter described by the St.Helens Reporter on February 26th, 1915, Albert's private secretary said 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 fourteen and fought as a private.

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 from Pope Pius XI as a result of the Knights of St.Columbia making a pilgrimage to the tomb of Dominic Barberi (1792-1849). He was the Passionist priest who inspired the church, school and monastery at St. Annes and who was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1963. One local 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."

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

Lusus naturae in Sutton, St.Helens
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 seven legs and two 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 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 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:
Pasted Graphic 23   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.  Pasted Graphic 24

Fred Thomas - The Hermit of New Street

Shortly after WW1, Fred Thomas quit his job on a matter of principle and declared that he would never again work 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 by the Sutton vicarage 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. Fred also helped out in the fields at harvest time and during winter, dressed in a long, dark coat, cloth cap and wore polished clogs with a white scarf wrapped round his neck. Daily journeys would be made to the churchyard to draw 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', remembers Fred from when he was a boy in Sutton:
Pasted Graphic 23   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.   Pasted Graphic 24

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!
Next:   Part 57)  Clog Clatters in Old Sutton;    |    Research Sources
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