St Helens Corporation even used coal wagons to promote electricity
FOR decades the cost of electricity simply priced out the working classes.
It left many families continuing to use gas and oil lamps and candles, which were smelly, messy and dangerous.
Fourteen-month-old Henry Daniels of Taylor Street in Sutton died from severe burns in 1892 after pulling a paraffin lamp off a table while visiting his grandmother's house in Merton Bank. There were many similar tragedies.
We now take electricity for granted with countless uses. But it must have been a novelty when first introduced and a great boon to housewives. Perhaps some old-time readers of this column can send in their memories of when their own household joined the electricity revolution in St Helens?
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