The Birth and Early History of the Leicestershire Constabulary.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the responsibility for the prevention of crime in England fell mainly on the parish constable in the country and the watchman in the towns. In the market towns, like Loughborough watchmen patrolled the streets wearing soft felt hats, long caped coats and carried stout sticks and lanterns. It was their duty to call the cry of the hour, and the weather.

One sergeant, and five watchmen were employed in Loughborough prior to the formation of the constabulary. During summer months the sergeant was paid 14 shillings and the watchman 12 shillings a week. In winter time this amount increased and the Sargent received 16 shillings a week, with his watchman pocketing 14 shillings.

In 1839, the county was in a very lawless state. Shooting, outrages, obstruction of watchmen in their duty and sheep stealing - a capital offence until 1872 - were commonplace. In the towns, the streets frequently witnessed the most disgraceful scenes of drunkenness and excesses of every kind, and each morning brought to light the burglaries and depredations, which had been committed the night before. It was very apparent that there was no concerted effort to ensure the safety of the citizens and lawlessness prevailed.

At the County Quarter Sessions In October, 1839, Charles William Packe an influential county magistrate urged his fellow magistrates to take advantage of the new County Police Act of that year, and to inaugurate a properly constituted Constabulary force on the model of the Metropolitan Police established in London in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel, to consist of a Chief Constable and a maximum of 24 constables inclusive of six superintendents. The motion met with complete unanimity, not a little remarkable considering the feeling towards the new police in other parts of the country at this time. The importance of this development is emphasised by the fact the previously, no similar body charged with the maintenance of law and order has ever existed before in Leicestershire. I believe Packe to be commemorated in the name Packe Street within Loughborough, and it is the only street with this name within the whole country.

A month after formation of the Police Force was agreed, an advertisement for a Chief Constable at a salary of 250 pounds per annum, age not exceeding 45 years, appeared in the London Times and Morning Chronicle. 19 candidates applied for the position. Over half of them were from serving and retired Army officers of Highland infantry and Dragoon regiments, while a naval officer, a midshipman and a 53 year old, Sergeant Major Quartermaster (who should surely have been excluded on age alone) who had served under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula campaign, and at Waterloo completed the service element A West Indies stipendiary magistrate, a London Law Stationer, and two serving police officers ( one a Chief Constable) also applied. The choice of the Magistrates finally lay with Frederick Goodyer, who had served under the first two commissioners the Metropolitan Police. He established the Leicester Borough Police Force on February 10th 1836 and received a salary of One pound 18 shillings and six pence a week.

The attractions of the higher pay that enhanced six superintendents vacancies led to three sergeants and nine constables following Mr Goodyer on transfer when the Leicestershire Constabulary was formed on the 21st of December 1839. With the approval of the Home Secretary, the pay offered to superintendents was 30 shillings a week. Constables were offered 18 shillings a week, which at that time was about twice the average earnings of a framework knitter, a trade which many of Leicestershire inhabitants made their living from. The names of the first superintendents associated with the establishment of the force were Samuel Hague, Loughborough; John Goodall, Hinckley; Joseph Frie, Lutterworth; John Deakins, Kibworth; William Condon, Melton Mowbray; Thomas Burdett, Syston.

Leicestershire was one of the first counties to get a Police Force and for a while things progressed well. Pay scales for counties were set by the Home Office but they varied considerably. This situation created considerable recruiting difficulties as time went on within Leicestershire. In the smaller counties pay was very low. Up to 1919, every municipality could pay its police, what it liked. In Birmingham Manchester and Liverpool the pay was higher than in small towns, and so naturally many of those who wished to be Police Officers chose jobs in the city over the counties.

The “New Rural Police” as the Force became known, had its first Headquarters in the Market Place, Leicester, and included two residences (one for the Chief Constable and the other for a Superintendent) two cells and an office. For many years it was called “The County Public Office”, and was utilised as a Police Court until August 1887 when magisterial proceedings were moved to a Crown Court in Leicester Castle. Following strong complaint by Mr Goodyer shortly after his appointment regarding the loathsome state of the parish lockups, “station houses and strong rooms” were built during 1843 at Lutterworth, Melton Mowbray, Bottesford and Hinckley. It was not until 1868 that a police station, complete with eight cells and office and a house for the Superintendent were erected at Loughborough. I have yet to determine where the Loughborough Police operated from before they had their purpose built station.

My father used to be a Policeman in Loughborough and he has provided the following information regarding the old Police Station : "The old Loughborough Police Station was at the rear of the Magistrate's Court in Woodgate. The public entrance was at the side of the courthouse. There was a small yard at the rear, where prisoners were admitted and steps down to basement cells for those awaiting trial. At the other end, steps led up into the 'dock' in the courtrooms. That end of the police station was known to be the Superintendent's house, though became used for police offices. Probably, this is the building built in 1868. - The police station closed around 1980, when new premises were built on Southfield Road. - Eventually the courts closed when a new Magistrates Court opened on the new ring road near School Street." As you can see from this photo I have unearthed from 1886, taken outside Woodgate , this is indeed the likely site .

At this time, Leicestershire was made up of 810 square miles, and from returns of population in 1831, it appeared that the county, exclusive of the borough of Leicester, contained upwards of 158,000 inhabitants. Each constable was given a beat of 32 square miles, and something like 6000 persons for surveillance and protection.

The only transport facilities existing in the Constabulary in these early days were two horses and a cart based at the Leicester Headquarters, which were authorised in 1847. They were used by the six Superintendents, in turn, but frequently it was found necessary and much more advantageous to hire a horse. By October 1856, the Police Committee on Mr Goodyer’s suggestion agreed that each Superintendent be provided with a horse and a light cart as well as a yearly allowance of £40 for the upkeep of the horse.

By virtue of the County Police Act of 1839, a number of magistrates were appointed at the County Quarter Sessions to form a Police Committee. They were empowered to formulate and amend rules governing pay, clothing and other necessaries. They could also recommend, subject to the approval of the Home Secretary, additional appointments on the basis of “always that a number of constables should not be more than one man for every 1000 inhabitants, according to the last Parliamentary enumeration”. This meant that within a few years the numbers of Leicestershire constables needed to significantly increase.

Upon their directions Mr Goodyer compiled a comprehensive Handbook of instructions aptly named “Rules and Regulations for the Leicestershire Constabulary” which after magisterial approval in January 1854, were printed and published locally. Copies were provided to the Home Secretary as well as all county magistrates and each member of the Constabulary.

The handbook provided scales of uniform clothing, which included, inter alia, a stove pipe pattern top hat (supplied by a local Hatter at a cost of 12 shillings until the late 1860s when the helmet made its debut) a tail coat and a rattle which was carried instead of a whistle for sounding an alarm. For sudden emergencies constables were armed with cutlasses. (Now only the Chief Constable is allowed to carry a cutlass!) For night duty, an oil lamp and filler were provided. Every constable had to possess “a decent suit of plain clothes” and was obliged “to have a haircut each month”. One regulation prohibited walking sticks and umbrellas from being carried by officers “ on or off duty or dressed in Police Uniform”, which seems pretty unreasonable for your off duty Police Officer caught in a storm! Diaries for the recording of accurate day and night accounts of duties performed, had to be carefully kept by every member of the Force from Superintendents downwards.

During the “Hungry 40s”, as in other parts of the country, poverty, distress and miserable living conditions were rampant in Leicestershire. The general agitation of the period was displayed in the activities of the Chartist movement, a powerful political movement advocating a series of reforms, mostly for the improvement of the life of the common man. It understandably proved very popular across whole swathes of the Leicestershire and indeed Loughborough population and this in turn caused considerable difficulty for our fledgling police force. I will write more about this interesting period locally in another article soon.

While in the early stages of police organisation in Leicestershire, there was a natural aversion of the public to the establishment of the Force, a gradual reconciliation to its necessity became apparent, as their effectiveness became evident. In December 1848 Loughborough finally dissolved their force of watchmen, and the Constabulary was increased by eight additional officers to meet this vacancy. There were of course, still instances of hostility, particularly when industrial strife and poverty provoked violence, but in the main it was true to say that Sir Robert Peel’s vision of a police service based on the authority of public opinion, had been finally accepted in Leicestershire.

This article is adapted from one which originally appeared in the Leicestershire Historian (1971-2) by C R Stanley.