A Guide to the Archives of the Police Forces of England and Wales
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A Guide to the Archives of the Police Forces of England and Wales Ian Bridgeman Clive Emsley FORWARD BY THE PATRON OF THE POLICE HISTORY SOCIETY, LORD KNIGHTS, CBE, QPM, DL Clive Emsley and Ian Bridgeman have performed a great service in bringing out this comprehensive guide to the police archives of England and Wales, and revealing the wide range that these cover. Given the ravages of time, police mergers, weeders and weevils, coverage is necessarily uneven so that, for example, nothing survives in the Gloucester police archives which dates from before 1929 whereas Cambridge has records going back to 1822. The Cambridgeshire Constabulary is also exceptional in the number of documents which it has retained from the 1830's and 1840's, since police records do not generally pre-date the compulsory establishment of the new police following the 1856 Police Act. Many of the surviving records have already been deposited in local record offices, but what this guide reveals for the first time is the very wide range of the material which remains in police archives - some of it in a very poor state of preservation and much of it unindexed. In particular, most forces - for obvious internal, bureaucratic reasons - seem to have retained their personnel registers which, since they often run consecutively for a hundred or more years, provide an invaluable source for research into family, medical or migration history. Unfortunately, police stations do not always make ideal quarters for such valuable but fragile records. Space is often at a premium, as of course is the financial support necessary for proper conservation. What is badly needed is a co-ordinated archive policy dealing with the criteria for selective weeding and retention and the support system necessary for police records as a whole. This guide is the first important step in that direction. Similarly, the existence and growing support for the Police History Society itself is a good indication that attitudes towards the value of police records are beginning to change, as more and more people become interested in the genesis and history of a service which plays such an important part in society today. The Police History Society are to be congratulated on the publication of this guide. 1 INTRODUCTION The archives of the police forces of England and Wales are a little known source. They have been used on a few occasions by the authors of individual force histories, but such histories have invariably been written to celebrate particular events, such as an amalgamation or a centenary, and they have rarely had a wide circulation. A few of the academic historians who, during the last two decades, have turned their attention increasingly to questions of crime, police and policing, have consulted isolated archives if they have been fortunate enough to find them. None of the general histories of the English police service have consulted them. Clearly these archives are of immense value to historians of crime and policing, but they have a much wider value. The documents listed below contain a wealth of information on the ordering and control of urban and rural life from the mid- nineteenth century, on the supervision of strikes and protest marches, the treatment of aliens, the impact of twentieth-century total war, and much more which, like the foregoing, have been central to recent research in English social history. The lack of knowledge about these archives, and the consequent failure to use them, has had two unfortunate results. First, with respect to the general history of the English police, it has contributed to the assumption that the provincial forces were largely clones of the Metropolitan Police, which was not the case. Secondly, and perhaps more seriously, it has meant that the archives have often been neglected and vast amounts of material has been destroyed or taken to decorate someone's bookshelf; unfortunately while the work for this guide was in preparation at least one attractive leather-bound volume disappeared, and probably for the latter reason. Matters are gradually improving. There is a growing awareness of the importance of these archives within the police service; during our research for this guide several forces launched trawls of old police buildings which yielded some additional and interesting material, and there still appear to be one or two caches of documents which,, for a variety of reasons, it was impossible to visit and catalogue. A few forces have handed their archives over to their local county record office. Some have created museums for the archives and artifacts in their care, and in these instances it is usually possible for the bona fide researcher to consult any documentation in the museum. But in a few instances the responsibility for the archives still rests in the hands of the officer who is 'interested in history'. Overall the chief constables still have neither a policy on their archives nor on what to preserve for the future. The guide which follows is listed alphabetically under the current names of the police forces of England and Wales. It includes the surviving archives of the British Transport Police as well as those archives of the Metropolitan Police which have not been deposited at the Public Record Office at Kew but which are intended to be stored in the force's proposed museum. Forces which no longer exist are listed under the heading of the current force which covers their old 'patch'; thus the archives of the Huntindonshire Constabulary are to be found under Cambridgeshire, those of Worcestershire under West Mercia, and so on. The records of the pre-amalgamation forces have been separated out and classified under separate headings; but this has not always been possible for the smallest forces or those for whom scant documentation survives, and here we have opted for a simple chronological order. Any reference numbers given to documents are included within the listing. The archives are ordered here under the following headings: 1. Administrative 2 Annual Reports Organisation Finance Reorganisation 2. Crime Crime Registers Prisoners Photo Albums 3. Force Instructions General Orders Memoranda (Note that the Memoranda of chief constables are often little different from force orders.) 4. Station Journals Occurrence Books Lost and Found Pocket Books and Beat Books 5. Personnel Registers Rolls Discipline 6. Watch Committee and Standing Joint Committee Minute Books Chief Constable's reports 7. Miscellaneous Special Constables, etc. Records within these divisions are in rough chronological order, but in some instances logic has dictated that allied material be grouped together regardless of chronology. While the following list contains the addresses of the different archives and the names of the officers or civilians currently responsible for them, it is recommended that anyone wishing to consult any of the documentation listed here should write first to the appropriate chief constable. We owe a debt of gratitude to a variety of individuals and organisations for their assistance in the preparation of this guide. First, of course, to the chief constables who allowed us to consult and catalogue the archives in their care and to the officers and civilians responsible for the supervision of the documents, who always made us welcome and provided us with both assistance and hospitality. We would like to thank the Police History Society for their encouragement and interest, and for the occasional letter which smoothed our path. Last, but by no means least, our thanks are due to the Economic and Social Research Council and to the Research Committee of the Open University for the funding which made this project possible. Milton Keynes Ian Bridgeman June 1989 Clive Emsley 3 Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Guide Avon and Somerset Police 5 Bedfordshire Constabulary 11 British Transport Police 13 Cambridgeshire Constabulary 16 Cheshire Constabulary 26 City of London Police 27 Cumbria Constabulary 30 Derbyshire Constabulary 31 Devon and Cornwall Constabulary 35 Dorset Constabulary 40 Durham Constabulary 42 Greater Manchester Police 43 Gwent Constabulary 47 Hampshire Constabulary 50 Hertfordshire Constabulary 51 Humberside Police 53 Kent Constabulary 55 Lancashire Constabulary 58 Leicestershire Constabulary 59 Lincolnshire Constabulary 64 Merseyside Police 72 Metropolitan Police 76 Norfolk Constabulary 89 North Yorkshire Police 92 Northamptonshire Constabulary 93 Northumbria Police 99 Nottinghamshire Constabulary 103 South Wales Constabulary 105 Staffordshire Constabulary 115 Suffolk Constabulary 117 Sussex Police 120 Thames Valley Police 133 West Mercia Constabulary 141 West Midlands Police 150 West Yorkshire Police 156 3. Appendix 174 4 Avon and Somerset Constabulary Ps. Mike Pegler Community Involvement Bristol BS99 7BH (0272) 277777 Museum: Police Headquarters Taunton 1. Beerhouses Register. Offences and Offenders in Beerhouses. 1894-1952 2. Public Houses Register. Offences and Offenders in Public Houses. 1913-1961 3. Register of Licenced Premises. "A" Division Bristol. c1930 4. Public and Beerhouse Complaints. 4 vols 1962-1970 1964-1967 1967-1970 1971-1974 5. Register of Street Traders. 1946-1956 6. Cash Book. 1936 7. Pensioner's Monthly and Annual Pay. c1930 21. Complaints Book. H.Q. 1962-1963 8. Register Coroners Inquests. 1933-1950 9. Fees and Fines. 1943-1953 10. Widows and Orphans. 1925-1969 11. Benevolent Fund. 2 vols 1928-1971 1929-1962 12. Cruelty to Animals. C1890 61. Accounts Book. 1865-1872 13. General Letter Book. Bristol. 1907-1908 14. Home Office and Chief Constables Letters. 1939-1948 15. Register of Police Motor Vehicles. 1950-1981 16. Aliens Register. Bristol. 1914-1959 17. Register of Immigrants. 1956-1966 18. Minute Book. Adoption of Children. 2 vols 1929-1953 Crime. 19. Divisional Refused Charges. Bristol. 1907-1961 20. Prisoners Tried. Quarter Sessions and Assizes Bristol. 2 vols 1949-1968 21. Crime and Kindred Matters. Bristol. 1969 22. Charge Book. 1974-1975 5 23. Descriptions of Persons Book.