Policing and public order have been hot topics lately. Everything from the fallout of Murdoch-Gate to the effects of the Coalition Government's public service cuts. My only comment on these matters is that painful though it might be the investigations should result in a more honest and transparent force and that I deplore any cuts in a core public service like the police. Having said that, you won't be surprised to hear that I decided to look at the history of local policing.
There has always been a need in any society for some measure of control and going back way into the mists of time I suspect that even primitive Stone Age societies had some form of sanction that could be exercised against wrong-doers. This system of control was the norm in villages during the Dark Ages, the first official change we see is by the Normans as they established their rule in England after the Conquest in 1066.
The Normans were canny politicians and so they took the Anglo-Saxon system of keeping local order but introduced elements of their own. They introduced the “frankpledge” which was a system of requiring individuals to promise to be of good behaviour. It carried with it a punishment if the promise was broken. Under the Saxon system the villagers were responsible not only for their own conduct but that of their families and the community as a whole. They were all police officers and in a community of say ten families a senior man called a tythingman was appointed to supervise the 'King's Peace', a phrase which still carries legal weight today. There was also a requirement that in any pursuit of a felon, everyone over 12 years old had to join in the 'Hue and Cry'. Under the Normans the “constable” became important. This was from the Latin 'comes stabuli', 'master of the stable' and was at first a high office, however by a century after the Conquest and certainly up to the Middle Ages, there were men called constables taking over the role of the tythingman. In 1166, it was made law that villages were to report to the sheriff’s tourn (court) anything they thought suspicious about their neighbours. Manorial (or leet) courts gradually took over from the sheriff’s courts and elected constables, usually on an annual term.
In 1285 the Statute of Winchester overhauled the system of policing, they introduced 'Watch and Ward' whereby watchmen were appointed to patrol the larger communities during the hours of darkness. All householders could be called on to take their turn as watchmen and they were also required to keep arms in the house and turn out at any time at the behest of the Sheriff. This statute and the Justice of the Peace Act of 1361 was the basis of law enforcement until the Metropolitan Police were founded in 1829. However, in the villages the old system prevailed until 1856 when the County and Borough Police Act came into force which empowered the appointment of Inspectors whose duty was to revise law and order enforcement right down to village level using money levied from local rates.
In 1856 the Barlick Town Constable was Thomas Waite of Hen House Farm. He was replaced by a uniformed constable and that has been the system of policing in the town ever since. I seem to remember a story told by Jack Savage of a felon who was handcuffed to the stove at Hen House and attempted an escape dragging the stove behind him. I have also been told that there was a lock-up in the Lamb hill area but have never found any direct evidence of this.
Over the years the organisation was refined and grew. Until 1974 this was under the control of the West Riding Constabulary whose HQ was at Wakefield. Under them the old police station on Manchester Road was built and local inspectors, sergeants and constables were appointed. There were also Special Constables, members of the public who volunteered to help the police maintain law and order especially in times of stress, my picture this week is of a sizeable group of 'specials' in 1916 when many policemen were on war service.
There were other augmentations of the force by constables brought in from other areas during times of civil unrest. We see these mainly during the strikes against the More Looms System in 1931. Jim Pollard and Ernie Roberts were both eye-witnesses to the infamous police charge against the picketers at Sough Bridge Mill. This developed into a pitched battle with batons being used and people fleeing over the fields to get away. The Town Council complained to the Home Office but were told that only necessary force had been used. There are accounts in the life story of James Rushton, a notable local activist and member of the Communist Party in Barlick by Bessie Dickinson, of strikers on Gisburn Road being faced by massed ranks of police with batons drawn. During the same strikes police slept in the engine house at Long Ing Shed to guard against sabotage and police actions at the shed generated another complaint to Wakefield which was also dismissed. These were turbulent times and there are still old folk in the town who can remember these events.
In 1974 we were dragged, kicking and screaming, into Lancashire and the police force in the town was transferred to the Lancashire Constabulary based at Preston. For some years there was little change but in the 1980s the present police station was built and the old one on Manchester Road together with its cells and mortuary was closed. I remember a bobby telling me that the big problem with the new building was that there wasn't a room in it big enough to hold a full sized billiard table! Over subsequent years the force was gradually 'rationalised', the usual result of which was less staff and more ground to cover. We lost the ability to ring our local station have another round of reorganisation now in which Earby has lost its police office. One wonders how long we will have our own station in Barlick. Our core services are gradually shrinking, we must be vigilant and do what we can to halt this creeping erosion.
Barlick Special Constables in 1916.
