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ALFRED CHERRY At the time of the 1881 Census, 25 year old Alfred “Cherrey” * was living in the village of Ickleford, just outside in , with his wife Sarah and son Sydney, who was just one year old. Although Alfred and Sarah had been born in Hertfordshire (Mangrove and Lilley respectively), Sydney had been born just over the county border in Stopsley in . In fact, the hamlet of Mangrove was within the parish of Lilley, about 4 miles from both Hitchin and Luton; Stopsley was then a village on the outskirts of Luton. So up until sometime after Sydney’s birth, the family’s life had been centred on the rural community of north-west Hertfordshire on the borders of Bedfordshire. Alfred’s occupation was given in the 1881 Census as Police Constable but no occupation was given for Sarah.

Alfred’s family background Alfred was born in 1856 [Mar Q Hitchin 3a 251]; he was christened on 24th August that year in Lilley parish church. His parents were William and Caroline Cherry, who had married in 1843 when William was 21 and Caroline 20. In 1861, when Alfred was 5, the family were still living in Lilley, where William, then 39, was working as an agricultural labourer. Caroline was 38 and a straw plaiter. William himself had been born in Lilley and Caroline in Tea Green, a hamlet close to Lilley. The family seem to have been firmly rooted in the agricultural life of the village. Of the three siblings also living at home in 1861, Alfred’s sister Fanny, 17, was a straw plaiter like their mother and his brother James, 11, was already working as a ploughboy. His youngest sister Ann was just 7. All of the children had been born in Lilley. In fact, William and Caroline had had another two children prior to 1861 who seem not to have survived infancy. In the 1851 Census, there was another son, William junior, then aged 5 and also born in Lilley. William does not appear in later Censuses and it may be that he was the William Cherry whose death was recorded in the GRO Index for the September quarter of 1861 in Hitchin [1861 Sep Q Hitchin 3a 157]. Another son, George, was baptised in Lilley church on 8th October 1848 but died just over a year later; his burial was recorded in the parish register on 3rd December 1849. William and Caroline went on to have a further four children after Alfred was born (all in Lilley), although two of them also seem to have died in infancy. Henry was baptised at Lilley on 7th November 1858 but died less than 2 years later; his burial was noted in the parish register on 28th March 1860. “Elish”

FACH ID: ICAB01 PC Alfred Cherry Researcher: Alison Baigent 2 was christened on 19th July 1863. No record of his burial could be found but nor could any record of him be found in any Census. In 1871, the family were again living in Lilley. William, then 50, was described in the Census as a labourer and Caroline, 49, as a straw plaiter. There were by then four sons living at home and two daughters. The younger children were Sidney and Allice, both 9, and Charles, aged 6. Of the older children, James, 22, was a labourer, as was Alfred himself, at the age of 15. His sister Ann, 17, was a straw plaiter. There was no sign in the 1871 Census of their sister Fanny who would have been 27 and perhaps married by that time. In the 1881 Census, William and Caroline’s address was given as Putteridge Lodge, . This was part of the Putteridge Bury estate, which in fact owned much of Lilley. William was then described as a herdsman and Caroline as a herdsman’s wife. The only child remaining at home was 19 year old Sidney, a groom/stockman. By 1891, William and Caroline, then 70 and 69, were living alone in a four room home in Mangrove. Despite his age, William was still described as an agricultural labourer, although no occupation was given for Caroline. Neither of them could be found in the 1901 Census. It looks likely that Caroline died in 1894 as the GRO Index for that year records the death registered in Hitchin of a Caroline Cherry aged 72. [1894 Jun Q Hitchin 3a 256] William’s death looks likely to be that of 77 year old William Cherry registered in Hitchin in 1897 [1897 Jun Q Hitchin 3a 269]. Together they had had at least 11 children of whom three, probably four, had died in infancy. It is possible to trace several of Alfred’s siblings through the Census Returns. By the time of the 1881 Census, James had married but was still living in Lilley, working as an agricultural labourer while his wife was a straw plaiter. By 1901 he had become a brewer’s drayman, which was still his occupation in 1911. In that Census, he indicated that he had been married for 40 years. If he did indeed marry in 1871, he would have been 21 when he married, the same age as his father. Alfred’s brother Sidney is the only sibling known to have moved away from the area, apart from Alfred himself. In 1891 he was living in Luton but by 1901 he had moved to Elstree in south Hertfordshire where he was a gardener. By 1911, he had moved to Sussex where he was still working as a gardener. He and his wife had been married for 25 years in 1911, so in 1886 Sidney would have been 24. Alfred’s brother Charles appears in the 1881 Census as a farm labourer, boarding in Luton but afterwards disappears from view.

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It looks likely that Alfred’s sisters Fanny, Ann and Allice all married locally as women of that name were recorded marrying in Hitchin in 1868, 1876 and 1880 respectively. Fanny would have been 24 at the date of her marriage, Ann 22 and Allice 18.

Alfred’s police career The Hertfordshire Constabulary was founded in 1841 under the auspices of the County Police Act 1839, as amended in 1840. In 1880 a new Chief Constable, Major Henry Daniell, was appointed and, according to Neil Osborn in “The Story of Hertfordshire Police” (Hertfordshire Countryside Press 1969) “the administrative system of the Hertfordshire Police became a showpiece.” Daniell raised the pay for police constables from 20/- a week to 25/-. He created five new Divisions in the force, including Hitchin, and expanded the number of constables on the force from 106 to 112. He believed that “the best recruits for the rural police are as a rule agricultural labourers who have generally left school at the age of 13 and since that time have probably never held a pen in their hands” which may well have been an accurate description of Alfred. According to his son Sydney’s birth certificate, Alfred was working as a labourer when Sydney was born on 10th July 1879 so it looks as if Alfred joined the Hertfordshire Police Force in 1880 or 1881 (perhaps encouraged to join by the recently increased wages for police constables). PC Cherry seems to have had an active career in Ickleford as more than one Hertfordshire newspaper reported on his police work during 1882. The Hertfordshire Mercury for February 18th, covering the Petty Sessions recently held in Hitchin, reported that PC Cherry had been called to a Hitchin pub where he found a customer drunk and refusing to leave. He had restrained the man, handcuffed him and removed him from the pub. The man was subsequently charged both with drunkenness and an assault on PC Cherry. Clearly, Alfred had been willing and able to deal with a physically threatening situation. In July of 1882, the Mercury reported that PC Cherry had been “secreted in a summerhouse” in the garden of a Mr Carling (probably William Carling of Hitchin, himself a newspaper proprietor) when he saw and apprehended two young men who had got over the hedge and into the garden. They were fined at Petty Sessions for damaging a fence. Again, Alfred appears to have been able to look after himself but he apparently could also be trusted to keep a good watch over a period of time. Alfred’s ability to deal with a physically challenging situation seems to have got him into some trouble later in the same year. The Hertfordshire Advertiser and

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St Albans Times reported from Hitchin Petty Sessions that he had been charged with assaulting a man from Luton, Harrington Farmer. He was most probably the debt collector of that name whose aggressive behaviour had seen him brought before the courts on other occasions. In this case, too, he was cross- summoned for assaulting PC Cherry. The case was adjourned as Farmer was ill and there is no report in the local papers of any resumption of the case. Alfred had been represented in court by a local solicitor, Horace Barker, which suggests that Hertfordshire Constabulary was supporting him. In September of that year, he proved to be a man of some initiative, willing to take responsibility in a difficult situation. The Hertfordshire Mercury of September 23rd , reporting on an Inquest, noted Alfred’s involvement in a fatal accident. A railway worker had been hit by a train and killed on a part of the line near the village of Holwell. A police constable had been summoned from nearby Arlesey but before he could arrive PC Cherry came on the scene. He acted professionally, despite the challenges of the incident, and arranged for the deceased’s body to be transferred to an inn in Ickleford and from there to the deceased’s home. All of the newspaper reports of Alfred’s police activities in and around Hitchin date from 1882. Nothing could be found either before or after that date. It looks as though he might not have been based at Ickleford for very long. By the time of the 1891 Census, Alfred was no longer in Hertfordshire at all and he was no longer a serving police officer. He and his family had moved to Bedfordshire, to the village of Stopsley just outside Luton, where his son Sydney had been born back in 1879. Alfred, by then 35, was working as a straw plait washer; his wife, Sarah, was a straw hat sewer. There were four children living at home: Sydney (11), Maud (9), Jabez (8) and Alfred (6). The birthplaces of the children cast some light on the family’s movements. The fact that Sydney was born in Stopsley in 1879 suggests that Alfred and his wife had only recently moved to Ickleford when they were recorded there in the 1881 Census. Maud, two years younger than Sydney, was born in Ickleford in about 1882. Alfred and Sarah’s youngest child, Alfred, was born in Round Green (like Stopsley just outside Luton) in 1885, so by that time the family were presumably living in Bedfordshire. The middle child, Jabez, on the other hand was born in Munden in Hertfordshire in 1883. Jabez’s birth certificate confirms that his father, Alfred, was a police officer at that time. It would seem then that by 1883 Alfred had been transferred from Ickleford to Munden, a smaller and scattered agricultural community about 18 miles to the south east of Hitchin, which was then part of Ware Division. It may be that he had a less exciting time

FACH ID: ICAB01 PC Alfred Cherry Researcher: Alison Baigent 5 there as no reports of his police work have been found reported in the local papers. Alfred had certainly left the force by 1885 when his youngest son, also Alfred, was born; his birth certificate gives his father’s occupation as “general labourer”. Neil Osborn in “The Story of Hertfordshire Police” notes that between 1862 and 1888 156 officers left the force before completing 15 years in the service, of whom 96 resigned voluntarily, while the remainder were dismissed - 18 for drunkenness, 10 for insubordination, 14 for inefficiency and 18 for other reasons. Assuming Alfred left voluntarily, why might he have left? Could it have been for financial reasons? Police Officers’ wives were not expected to work but by leaving the force and returning to their roots Sarah was able to earn some income from straw plaiting. Was the job perhaps becoming more challenging? In 1885, the Hertfordshire Mercury and Reformer reported that a PC Parfitt (who was then based at Kimpton police station) had apprehended armed poachers in . Could Alfred and Sarah have disliked moving around the county, especially when the move took them further away from the area they knew best? The 1881 Census (which recorded Alfred and Sarah in Ickleford) found PC Walter Parfitt, aged 28, with his wife and two young sons living at Dane End, Munden. Neither of the children had been born in Munden. In 1891, the Census found PC Henry Chappell living in with his wife and three young children, none of whom had been born in Munden. It looks as though police constables in Hertfordshire were moving around regularly, which could not have been easy, especially for families with young children. Alfred seems not to have returned to police work. At the time of the 1901 Census, he and his family were still living in Stopsley, at an address given as Laurel Cottages. He was still a straw plait labourer and his wife a straw hat sewer. All of his children were working in one capacity or another in the straw plait industry. There is no indication that any of them followed in Alfred’s footsteps into the police force. Alfred and Sarah were also living at Laurel Cottages in 1911, by which time Alfred was a labourer at the straw plait dye works. According to the Census of that year, they had been married for 34 years so they would have married in 1877 when they were both 21. This is the same age at which both his father and his brother James married. Alfred died on 2nd January 1932. He was still living at Laurel Cottage, Park Road, Stopsley. Probate was granted to his widow, Sarah. *Most records show Alfred’s surname as “Cherry”, without the additional e.

FACH ID: ICAB01 PC Alfred Cherry Researcher: Alison Baigent