The Teapot Murders

Your place to talk about your Bootle memories
Sardonicus
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Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:51 pm

Hi,

I stumbled upon this site while looking for information on the infamous "Teapot Murders" on Lyons Street. What little info I have been able to find online about them appears to be vague & contradictory.

Some posters in this thread mentioned the murders being reported in the local press at the time. I assume this was sometime between 1905 & 1910, when Lyons Street was re-named to Beresford Street?

Would anyone be able to help me by pointing me in the right direction to do some research into this myself in the local newspaper archives? Which local papers would be the best place to look at - Bootle Times, Liverpool Mercury, Liverpool Echo etc?

I see also that somebody mentioned the town hall meeting minutes may be useful to provide info from around 1909 when Lyons Street's name was changed. Is this information freely available in the public domain now with it being over 100 years old? Again, if anyone can point me in the right direction to find the info it would be much appreciated.

I am a writer in my spare time & was thinking of writing a story set around this area during the time period of the Teapot Murders, but it's been difficult to know where to start. If anyone can help in any way, that would be great! :D
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filsgreen
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I can't help you with any information, Sardonic, welcome to the forum though :)
WatsonTommy
Posts: 293
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LULU had BABY she called it sunny Jim she put she put it in the teapot to see if she could swim :D well he drowned :cry: was that the teapot murder :D
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fatboyjoe90
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Location: merseyside

The notoriety linked with the street can be traced back to a singularly heinous crime – the brutal killing of several prostitutes by two sailors – known as the Teapot Murders because Lyons was associated with the famous tea-brand during that period.

If such infamy was not enough to blacken a street-name, there came two other terrible widely-reported murders on Lyons Street: the vicious and cruel killing of Maggie Donoghue, who had her brains bashed out by fireman Jim McGuirk in 1903, and the mysterious, callous killing of six-year-old Tommy Foy in 1908.

But let me digress from the criminological history of that Bootle street, and allow me, via your imagination, to transport you back to Lyons Street in 1896, to a crumbling draughty old terraced house. The house was number 48, and its ground floor was a shop that sold everything, run by a Mrs Annie Burns.

In October 1896, a woman named Maureen Mack left Mackenzies Boarding House in Howe Street, Bootle after a lively argument with a lodger. She and her seven-year-old daughter Eileen found new lodgings over the shop of Annie Burns on Lyons Street and settled into their new home fairly quickly.

Mrs Mack slept in one room, and little Eileen was given her very own room – in the loft. One night, close to Hallowe’en, a loud racket was heard in Eileen’s room, and when her mother went to see what the matter was, the girl made enigmatic remarks about “Sketchy and Bumph” – two odd-looking shadows that had been visiting her over the past three nights. ‘Oh go to sleep!’ said a grumpy impatient Mrs Mack, and she closed the bedroom door and went back to bed.

When Maureen Mack settled back into bed, she thought about the strange things her daughter had told her. Eileen wasn’t a particularly bright or imaginative child, and her mother wondered if the girl had seen something supernatural.

On the following night, Eileen went to bed around 8 pm, and minutes later, Maureen heard strange-sounding voices in her daughter’s room. She crept upstairs to the loft door, screwed up an eye, and peeped with the other one through the draughty keyhole. What Maureen saw caused her to tremble.

Two sinister shadows of two peculiar-looking beings were moving on the wall next to Eileen’s bed. One was horned like the devil but was as bulky as an elephant, and the other was thin, with a tapering cone-shaped head, and they were fighting. Eileen meanwhile was sitting up in bed, chuckling and clapping her hands at the antics of this Punch-and-Judy-style shadow play.

Mrs Mack made the sign of the cross and burst into the room to grab a startled Eileen. ‘Leave her alone you wretch!’ said the skinny shadow, waving a fist at Maureen.

Mrs Mack screamed and ran down five flights of stairs in her nightdress, dragging Eileen after her.

Mother and daughter never returned to that house, and Eileen missed her mysterious friends sorely, even though she didn’t know what they were or why they existed only as shadows

. We’ll probably never know who Sketchy and Bumph were either!
Cheers Joe.
lynne99
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Location: Rugby

Joe :D :D Where do you get them from. Thanks and not a murder in that one.
WatsonTommy
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Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:48 pm

LULU DID IT she put the baby in the tea pot to see if it could swim :D
Shelagh
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Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:40 pm

Hiya Sardonic :)
Not sure how much information you have, re: teapot murders..or how much research you intend doing.
If writing a story, unimportant if some reports contradict!
Teapot murders have been up for discussion before..useful information on pages 1+2 of thread!!
Other newspapers involved with reports of Thomas Foy;
Dundee Evening Telegraph:
Nottingham Evening Post:
Assi 52/138 National archives!
Last edited by Shelagh on Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ab
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:58 pm
Location: Cheshire

My grandmother was born in Lyons street and worked in the jute mill anyone know where this could have been .
John L
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Location: Litherland

Google " THE STREET THAT DIED OF SHAME" This may be of help
Shelagh
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Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:40 pm

Could also google following reports....

Liverpool Murders: Killers Indifference To Sentence!
And ‘Unsolved Murders’ Thomas Foy!!
WatsonTommy
Posts: 293
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lulu did it she drowned sunny Jim :D
Shelagh
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Elementary, Doctor Watson :wink:
john j connell
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Location: The Fourth Grace.

ab wrote:My grandmother was born in Lyons street and worked in the jute mill anyone know where this could have been .

ab, the mill was situated on Derby Road, between Haddock Street and Esk Street, the rear of the building opened up on to Eleanor Street, my mother in law and some of her sisters worked at the mill and they all passed away at a relatively early age suffering from Emphysema brought on by the conditions they worked in. JJC. ps, I cannot recall the name of the company.
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fatboyjoe90
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Location: merseyside

Hiya John, I hope you don't think that I'm stepping on your toes? I've just found this bit of info on the Jute Factory, hope it helps. :wink:

Bootle Jute Factory Co.
Was off Dundee Works, Canal Street, Bootle, Liverpool
1861 Company established by Alexander Nicoll and Robert Peter.
1881 James Bruce joined the firm as a partner.
1893 Incorporated as a limited company.
1914 Jute spinners and manufacturers. Specialities jute goods of all descriptions, especially jute bagging for covering cotton, for home and US trade; coal and other bags; wool packs, sheets, and top bags; D W baggings and twilled sackings. Employees 400.
Cheers Joe.
john j connell
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Location: The Fourth Grace.

No problem Joe, your input is much valued.
I knew about the Dundee works (the baggie) Peter Marsh on Canal Street, I just thought that the one I mentioned (my wife's aunt seems to recall the name being Selman) was the more likely with it being closer to Lyons Street but having said that, Peter Marsh was only a 5 minute walk away from Lyons Street.
There were lots of sack and bag (jute) works dotted all over Liverpool well into the late 60s until the curse of the modern world (plastic) reared its ugly head.
I don't know whether the sacks were manufactured in any of the factories but I do know that part of the service provided was to clean the sacks which carried all manner of goods and produce (including Asbestos dust) by means of huge powerful vacuums (in Peter Marsh this was known as the blower room) needless to say no Health and Safety in those days and the women who operated the blowers were possibly unaware of the dangers of that particular workplace and as a result I have absolutely no doubt that it shortened the life span expectancy or at the very least the quality of life in later years. JJC.
ab
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:58 pm
Location: Cheshire

Thank you sardonicus, been trying to find the information for years
MPH637
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Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:03 am

My Family (Hogan) lived in Lyons Street (now what is left of Beresford St)
You can google street maps of Bootle for the late 18 and early 1900s. I am currently mapping the places the Hogan family lived and overlaying it with where the Hulligans, and McNicholas'Mum's side lived. My grandfather John 'Jack' McNicholas was best pals with Mick Summers, and the 'Banjo' was their watering hole.
MPH637
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Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:03 am

Image
MPH637
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:03 am

Apologies the streets weren't marked out, this shold do the trick though.

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BOBHAMO
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Location: BIG CITY

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EAW008677
welcome mph :D :D click on url
2 hogans john no74 lyons street
thomas 121 lyons street
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bobhamo
bootle born altcar road
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