Court reports are always the part of an old newspaper that give the best insights into everyday life - and this week's Guardian contained a corker.

Henry Starkey of Kingsley was charged at Warrington Borough Court with being drunk and furiously driving a cart in Fennel Street in the town centre - with four young children in the back.

PC Chappell told the court Starkey rode with one wheel on the pavement and nearly knocked him over.

Mr Starkey denied being drunk but put it to down to excitement caused by the horse running away.

"He had for many years suffered from a softening of the brain and in moments of excitement this led to a temporary derangement of the intellect," the Guardian soberly observed.

Starkey was fined five shillings for drunkenness and the charge of furious driving was dropped.

If you wanted to escape the road chaos, you could get a £5 steering class journey to New York twice a wee from Liverpool.

And the current craze for renting is nothing new - four newly built semis in Lovely Lane had just come on the market.