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Policing Peterborough

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The Liberty of Peterborough Constabulary

(This is part of the history published by the Peterborough Combined Police in 1957 celebrating 100 years of policing and for the opening of the new Headquarters at Bridge Street)

With the coming into law of the County and Borough Police Act of 1856, the Justices for the Liberty had to take steps to establish a proper Police Force for their area, which at that time also included the City.

In the report of the visiting justices to the Peterborough Gaol in January, 1857, the following passage occurs- " ... at a time when the frequent occurrence of crime of heinous magnitude has induced the Legislature to make the introduction of a Constabulary Force ... no longer an optional but a compulsory measure, our district has been unusually free from offences of any aggravated nature and the number of prisoners altogether not excessive."

At the previous Michaelmas Quarter Sessions, the Justices had adjourned the Sessions to the 25th November, 1856, to consider and determine the number of constables needed within the Liberty to carry out the act of the last Sessions and the rates of payment which it would be expedient to pay.

Thereupon a Committee of Magistrates was appointed to consider the matter and this Committee consisted of the Reverend William Strong, Thomas Life, Esq., Robert Mein and Arthur William English, Esq., and Edward Augustus Skrimshire, Esq.

So on the 10th day of March, 1857, the Justices in Quarter Sessions approved a "Book of Rules and Regulations for the Government and Guidance of the Peterborough Liberty Constabulary." Captain Henry Lambert Bayly, Chief Constable of Northamptonshire, was appointed also as the first Chief Constable of the Liberty of Peterborough.

The first constables were sworn in on the same day and by the end of the month, 12 men had been appointed. Some of them however, did not last long and by the end of that year, seven of the original members of the Force had resigned.

The new Force was responsible for 24 Parishes, including Peterborough and in addition, the hamlets of Pilsgate. Southorp, Woodcroft, Deeping Gate, Gunthorpe, Walton, Werrington, Dogsthorpe, Eastfield, Longthorpe, Newark and Ashton.

The police area covered some 55,084 acres and there was a population of 26,294 - 15,496 of whom lived in Peterborough, Dogsthorpe, Eastfield, Longthorpe and Newark.

The area was organised as a police district with a Superintendent in charge and responsible to the Chief Constable who was stationed at Northampton in connection with his duties as Chief Constable of Northamptonshire.

The Superintendent was stationed in Peterborough and his residence was attached to the Headquarters of the Force at the Gaol, Thorpe Road. He was assisted by two sergeants, one at Headquarters and the other one at Helpston. In addition to the constables working from the Headquarters there were resident constables stationed at Barnack, Castor, Eye, Northborough, Newborough, Werrington, Eastfield and Wansford.

The conditions of service were somewhat restrictive. For instance, a constable could not exercise any other employment, serve in any division where he was connected by birth or marriage, frequent public or beer houses, leave the Force before completing 3 months service without paying the sum of five shillings, carry an umbrella when in uniform, or appear in public out of uniform except when on leave of absence or in disguise.

The Constabulary as constituted consisted of one Chief Constable acting jointly as Chief Constable of Northamptonshire and of the Liberty of Peterborough, one Superintendent, three Sergeants and sixteen Constables, a total strength of twenty-one.

The actual strength of the Force varied during the years, but never seems quite to have reached the total number allowed. In 1868 there was a total of 18 men. The pay was then £7 10s. per month for the Superintendent; £5 12s. 5d. per month for the Sergeants and between £4 0s. 2d. and £4 19s. 8d. per month for the Constables.

Immediately before the division of the Force upon the granting of the Charter to the City of Peterborough, the old Liberty Police Accounts show a strength of 20, with slightly improved rates of pay. After the City Force had been established, the Account for the month of December, 1874, shows a strength of 1 Inspector, 1 Sergeant and 6 Constables, a total of 9 men including the shared Chief Constable.

In March, 1892, the Inspector had become a Superintendent and there was also 1 Sergeant and 7 Constables, making a total of 10 including the Chief Constable.

At this time of course, whilst there was a separate Force for the City of Peterborough, the boundaries of the City were much smaller than they are today and the villages of Dogsthorpe, Werrington, Newark and Longthorpe, were all still policed by the Liberty Constabulary.

The Justices on the 19th October, 1871, received a Memorial from the St. Martin's Bench, which then tried offences committed in the parishes of Barnack, St. Martin's and Wothorpe, Ufford and Wittering. This asked for an additional constable to protect that part of the Liberty which immediately adjoined Stamford Town. The Justices resolved that as they had been informed that a large iron works was soon to be opened in that area they were of the opinion the proprietors should pay any additional cost necessary for police supervision.

This apparently did not find much favour with the owners of the proposed iron works for on January 4th, 1872, the Justices received a further Memorial from the St. Martin's Bench and it was then proposed that Lord Exeter would provide half the cost and lodging for an additional constable and this was agreed. Until quite recent years, the constable stationed at St. Martin's was still known as "The Marquess' Policeman," and he was in fact an "additional" constable to the establishment and was paid for by the Marquess of Exeter so far as no charge for him fell upon the rates.

Captain Bayly, the first Chief Constable of the Liberty of Peterborough, retired on pension in 1876, and the new Chief Constable of Northamptonshire took over the office at a salary of £50 per annum plus travelling expenses. He was also allowed the sum of £10 per annum for the services of a clerk. The new Chief Constable's name was Thomas Orde Hastings Lees, and he took his oath of office with the Liberty on the 2nd February, 1876.

On that day too, the pay of the police in the Liberty was raised to fall into line with the pay being received by the police in the Northamptonshire County Force and a constable then commenced at 22s. per week rising to 26s. per week and eventually to 29s. per week. A sergeant's pay was 29s. per week on promotion and rose to 30s. per week. An inspector was paid at the rate of £105 per annum.

In April of that year also, the Justices accepted the proposal of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that they should build a house for the policeman stationed at Castor and that it should be let to the Force at an annual rental of £8 7s. 6d. This house incidentally, remained as the Castor Police Station until the new house was completed in 1950.

On the 11th April, 1878, a Memorial was received by the Liberty Justices from the ratepayers of Stibbington which is in the county of Huntingdonshire. This requested that the police of the Liberty be allowed to act in Stibbington. The Court decided that it had no power to agree to this but drew the attention of the Chief Constable to the facts related in the Memorial.

In 1888 the Local Government Act resulted in the formation of the Soke of Peterborough County Council and the appointment of a Standing Joint Committee which comprises both elected councillors and the justices, and from that time that Committee of the County Council became the Police Authority for the Liberty of Peterborough.

There is not much record of the actual work of the police in these early days, although at Bridge Fair in 1869, it was known that 60 card sharpers and pickpockets were operating. At this Fair, the police arrested 11 people for gaming, 3 for watch stealing and 2 for housebreaking and it was not until the close of the 1921 Fair that the police were able to report that for the first time there had been no complaints of pocket picking.

In those days, indictable offences, which are now termed as crimes, were known by the perhaps more descriptive name of Outrages. In their Book of Regulations, the constables were enjoined to attend at the scene of any Outrage immediately and report the facts to their superior officers. The old Outrage Book shows that crime in the Liberty varied between about 20 and 30 annually until the 1930's when it rose into the 40's.

With the extension of the boundaries of the City, the establishment of the Liberty Force was revised as from the 1st April, 1929, and was then fixed at 9 men plus the Chief Constable shared with the county of Northampton. The ranks allowed were 1 Superintendent, 1 Sergeant and 7 Constables with the provision that the rank of Superintendent should lapse on the retirement of the person then holding the post.

During this time, the Headquarters of this small Force remained at the Gaol, Thorpe Road, but with the retirement of Superintendent Hamps in 1931, the Chief Constable of the City of Peterborough, Mr. Thomas Danby, was appointed also as Chief Constable of the Liberty Force. For all practical purposes, the Headquarters of the Force were then removed to the premises occupied by the City Police in Milton Street. The Liberty Force, however, continued to occupy an office in the Gaol Buildings but the sergeant who was in day to day control of the work of the Force, did his office work mainly from Milton Street, although this officer lived in the house attached to the Gaol Buildings.

The administrative work of the Force was performed mainly by the staff at the City Police Headquarters and an allowance was paid to the Chief Clerk of that Force. The Liberty also relied upon the services of the officers of the City Police for assistance and specialist help in cases of emergency, but it was of course still a completely separate Force with its own police authority and the Chief Constable had all the powers over the personnel peculiar to chief officers of a County Force which vary in a marked degree to those of a Chief Constable of a Borough Force.

During the late 1930's, the number of crimes or outrages in the Liberty rose to about 70 per year, but they dropped again on an average during the years of the Second World War except in 1942, when there were 91. In 1931, the strength of the Force was altered to include 2 sergeants and 7 constables with 1 additional constable employed at the expense of the Marquess of Exeter. One of the sergeant's posts however was kept vacant until 1940 when war conditions made it necessary to appoint an officer to take charge of the section covering the western area of the Liberty and the Great North Road. The other sergeant continued to operate from the Gaol but his duties also included the issue of civil defence stores and equipment for the Liberty and other matters such as the Air Raid Precautions training of the Police, Special Constables arid Wardens in the villages.

The Force remained thus until 1947. The previous year, the Police Act of 1946 had made possible the amalgamation of the smaller police forces and in fact, non-county borough authorities under 100,000 population had their forces taken from them and merged with the County in which they were situated.

In this, as in many other cases, the Liberty of Peterborough was in a peculiar position inasmuch as the Borough was the much larger of the two authorities, though still only quite small by the standards envisaged in the new Act. An exception was especially made in the Act precluding Peterborough from the general provisions and the Standing Joint Committee of the County Council and the Watch Committee of the City Council very sensibly decided that it would be in the best interests of everyone if the two Forces were amalgamated. They therefore took advantage of the section of the Act which provided for voluntary schemes of amalgamation and on the 1st April, 1947, both the City and Liberty Forces ceased to exist as such and they became the Peterborough Combined Police Force administered by a Combined Authority comprising representatives of the City and County Councils and of the Justices.

This page was last modified: 11 October 2025, 09:51

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