Cambridgeshire

Police

History

Notes

Policing Fen Ditton in the 1840s and 50s

| Parish Constables | Fen Ditton Lighting and Watching Act Force | Arrival of the New Cambridgeshire Constabulary | Fen Ditton Penance |

Fen Ditton Lighting and Watching Act Police Force

On 26 December 1850, Smart, the Cambridge Tailor, supplied a police uniform to the Fen Ditton Police, to the order of Mr W. Woollard. The uniform comprised: blue milled super fine uniform frock coat and trousers, blue pilot greatcoat, and a waterproof stuff hat, total cost £5.15.0. The wearer of the uniform was to be Police Constable Philip Cook(e). (Ledger of Smart tailor Museum of Cambridge). It seems likely that William Woollard, a 52 year old local farmer, placed the order in his capacity as one of the new Fen Ditton force's Inspectors, appointed under the Lighting and Watching Act of 1833. This link will take you to details of the Lighting and Watching Act 1833 - opens in a new window) Confirmation that the Fen Ditton Police was created under this particular statute can be found in an advertisement in the Cambridge Chronicle, 15 November 1851 page 5. In this advert six police officers, who stated that they were employed in different locations in the County under the Lighting and Watching Act, pleaded that they should be considered for appointment to the newly formed Cambridgeshire Constabulary which was then recruiting. This was in response to a rumour that the new force was only recruiting strangers. One of the signatories to the advert was Philip Cook, Fen Ditton.

What caused the small parish of Fen Ditton to establish this single-officer police force in 1850? Concerns about rising crime probably played a part. Fen Ditton adjoins the Barnwell area of Cambridge, a rough part of the town, home to many Cambridge criminals. Thefts of growing crops and sheep and fowls were relatively frequent and in recent years there had been incendiary attacks. Local farmers, victims of crime, may have preferred to pay a police rate and have the new police force take offenders to court, rather than having to institute proceedings themselves and run the risk of losing costs. In May 1848 the parish was shocked by a more serious crime, when a headless mutilated child's body was found in a pond at Fen Ditton. An inquest was held and despite Mr Muggleton, Fen Ditton Parish Constable, circulating handbills offering £10 reward on conviction of anyone responsible for depositing or mutilating the body, the case went unsolved. (Cambridge Independent Press, 20 February 1847 p3).

Public order worries may have been a bigger concern. The parish had a real taste of civil disorder bordering on anarchy in May 1849 in what became known as the "Fen Ditton Penance". The vicar's gardener (and local fiddler), Edward Smith, was taken to court by Mrs Martha James, wife of the Rector, Rev William Brown James, for defaming her in the local pub before witnesses on two occasions in April and May 1848. The action was brought in the ecclesiastical court, the Court of Arches, on 24 April 1849. The defamation being proved, Smith was ordered to pay costs of £40 and given an ancient sentence in the form of being reciting a penance. Normally a penance would be made then and there before the sentencing court, but as Smith had not attended the proceedings, the penance was ordered to take place in Fen Ditton Church on 6th May 1849. The case was reported widely in the press and a great mob turned up at the church to witness and disrupt the unusual spectacle. Major disorder and damage occurred and the church service was severely interrupted, before the mob adjourned to a nearby pub. A single paid uniformed Constable could not have stopped such a riot, but could help afterwards to restore a sense of social order in the comunity.

Police Constable Philip Johnson Cook was born at Fenstanton in 1825. Philip had been a Constable in the Metropolitan Police for just one month in 1844 and on 18 July 1844 was appointed as a 3rd class Constable in the Cambridge Borough Police. The Cambridge General Advertiser, 20 November 1844, reported that on 19 Nov 1844 William Stamford was charged by PC Philip Cook with assault, fined 5s and costs or 7 days imprisonment. As a Cambridge Constable, Philip is named as a witness or victim in several relatively minor criminal cases reported in the local press over the next few years. His final court appearance connected with his Borough Police service was in March 1850, when Philip was a witness supporting a fellow constable in a civil case against the Cambridge Watch Committee for non-payment of wages owed for a special duty at the Bachelors' Ball (Cambridge General Advertiser, 9 March 1850 p5).

Philip's record shows that in the first three years of service with the Borough Force he was reported for seven minor discipline offences. Disciplinary fines may have contributed to an unstable financial situation and in February 1845 he petitioned for bankruptcy (Gazette 21 Feb 1845 Issue 20446 p592). He resigned from the Borough Police on 26 March 1849 on ill health grounds. According to the 1851 census, he was then a paid constable, living in the High Street, Fen Ditton, with his wife Alice (b.1826 at Hemingford Hunts).

Philip was sworn into his new post at Fen Ditton by Bottisham Magistrates on 4 December 1850. The first of Philip's cases in his new role, reported in the press, was the arrest of George Casey of Cambridge, brickmaker, for stealing turnips from a field at Fen Ditton, the property of Thomas Kent, farmer. Kent was keen to show his determination to prosecute offenders to deter others from Barnwell who regularly stole from his fields (Cambridge Independent Press, 7 December 1850 p4).

Later cases mentioned in the local press were:

• William Turner and Chas Pamplin of Fen Ditton, labourers, charged by Philip Cooke, with committing a breach of the Peace, by fighting on Sunday the 9th March at Baitsbite. The defendants were reprimanded by the Bench and bound in their own recognizance of £5 each to keep the peace for one calendar month and to pay 9s 3d each costs. (Cambridge Independent Press, 15 March 1851 p1)
  
  
• Thos Neale jun, Baitsbite, prosecuted by Henry Muggleton for selling beer out of hrs Sun 30 March 1851. Fined £2 plus costs. (Cambridge Chronicle and Journal - Saturday 12 April 1851 p6)


• James Newman, William Shipp, and Smith Ed. Peachey, three lads, were charged by Philip Cook, with ill-treating and torturing a peacock, the property of the Rev. Mr. James. The peacock was roosting on a tree in a close in Mr. James's occupation, when the lads knocked it down by throwing stones at it, and then pulled the feathers from its tail; and, after kicking it about, threw it into a ditch. All were convicted, and ordered to pay 10s. each, or seven days’ imprisonment. (Cambridge Independent Press, 10 May 1851 p3)


• John Bendall of Horningsea, brickmaker, was charged with assaulting Philip Cook, Constable of Fen Ditton, on the 6th July 1851. He was ordered to pay 20s penalty and costs or one months imprisonment. (Cambridge Independent Press, 19 July 1851 p2)


• George Hancock of Fen Ditton, labourer, was charged with having on 5th July in company with one Joyn Bendall (since convicted) with unlawfully assaulting Philip Cook, police Constable of Fen Ditton. Hancock was convicted and ordered to pay 22s penalty and costs or one calendar month imprisonment. (Cambridge Chronicle, 13 September 1851 p7)


• PC Cook investigated and solved a case of sheep worrying. A close, near the Fen Ditton Rectory, was entered by a dog and six sheep, the property of the Rev. W. B. James, were destroyed. Philip Cook, traced the offending dog, a large bloodhound, to Baitsbite. Its collar and chain were covered with blood and wool. The dog was taken to Ditton and shot. A post-mortem examination justified the action taken, as the dog's stomach was filled with mutton with the wool on. It was believed to be the same dog which, with a companion, attacked the flock of Mr. John Swann, of Milton, a short time previously. (Bury and Norwich Post, 8 October 1851 p2)


• Cambridge Independent Press, 8 November 1851 p3 The Magistrates at Bottisham Petty Sessions made an order for the Fen Ditton overseers to pay 26 weeks salary to Constable Philip Cook. This would appear to be pay to the termination of his employment, his duties being taken over by the new Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
  
  
• William Smith Barnwell, labourer, charged by Philip Cook Constable of Fen Ditton with stealing a quantity of turnips property of Thos Kent farmer fined £1.5.0. or 21 days impt. Cambridge Chronicle and Journal - Saturday 6 December 1851 p8
  

top of page

Parish Constables

Fen Ditton Lighting and Watching Act Police Force

The Arrival of the New Cambridgeshire Constabulary

The Fen Ditton Penance

This page was last modified: 18 November 2025, 13:18

contact us

This site is powered by Web Wiz Green Hosting. We have been using their services for many years and are more than happy to recommend them to you.