To most people the thought of going to the cinema is hardly something to get worked up about with its overpriced tickets and noisy audiences.
However 100 years ago cinema was still in its infancy and Eccles and Patricroft could boast of having several silent cinemas in the area.
They were not just a novelty but also showed newsreels of events from around the world – in the days before every home had a television – and provided an important escape from the drudgery of everyday life.
Sadly the cinema was to prove to be the downfall of a young unnamed 11-year-old boy from Patricroft who appeared before the Eccles Magistrates Court.
The court heard that the boy, one of eight children, had been swimming at Eccles public baths and had returned home with a pocket watch worth five shillings.
When asked by his mother where he had obtained it, he could not give a satisfactory answer.
To her credit she marched him straight to the local police station and reported that she had suspicions about where the watch came from.
Inspector Harnby also questioned the boy as to where he had obtained the watch, but the young lad would not admit his guilt and maintained his innocence.
However fate was to take a hand when the young owner of the watch turned up at Eccles baths on the Monday and reported that his watch had been stolen from his pocket in the changing rooms.
The 11-year-old boy was then charged with the theft of the watch but quite a strange story unfolded in the court.
His mother told the court that since the boys father had enlisted in the army the boy had gone astray, pilfering money from the house, being absent from school but more importantly was spending a lot of his time at nearby cinemas, often attending the last showings in the evening.
She had eight children but stated that he was the only one who had caused her any trouble.
The Magistrate, Mr EK Everett, told the mother that she had no reason to feel guilty about her son’s behaviour as he felt that she had brought all of the other children up splendidly.
However the bad apple of the family was not going to get away with this offence so lightly.
The Magistrate in summing up said that there appeared to be a ‘perfect mania’ among young boys to go to see these picture shows and some would even steal money to attend them.
He then sentenced the young boy to receive four strokes from the birch rod, to be administered by a Police Sergeant at Eccles Police Station.
It’s a tough sell to say that picture houses were a bad influence on the youth of the day, they were more of an exciting novelty, but entertainment today is still blamed for young people’s actions.
