Introduction
This website sets out to chart and explain the development of a professional police force and its police stations primarily through the minutes and proceedings of the Manchester Council via their sub-committee - the 'Watch Committee' [WC] formed in April 1839 and in turn the WC's sub- committee assigned to station issues - the Lock-Up Sub-Committee [LUSC].[1] This development is categorised in distinct strategies and time periods as subjects, grouped into headings on the taskbar and then divided into separate sections and sub-sections on the drop-down lists which access the individual web-pages.
STRATEGIES examines the overarching polices and tactics of the borough authorities who financed and led the Manchester police force. These are divided into five sections. These sections encompass the subject POLICE ESTATE which is divided into seven time periods to analyse the operational development of the Victorian police estate in Manchester:
MANCHESTER’S NEW CORPORATION AND THE WATCH COMMITTEE analyses how the Corporation met their primary objective - to preserve the peace and good order of the borough. It exposes the political obstructions to the new police and their financing and the overarching principles the Manchester Watch Committee resolved to implement. These issues are developed further regarding the operational stations in POLICE ESTATE – MANCHESTER’S FIRST EXPANSION which identifies the police buildings immediately before and after the town’s incorporation.
OPERATIONAL NEEDS, discusses how the WC identified the requirements of the emerging modern force and the principle role of constantly manned beats. This necessitated a modernisation of the police estate and these issues are further examined in the corresponding two sections; POLICE ESTATE – SIR CHARLES SHAW AND THE WATCH COMMITTEE which discuss the first three turbulent years under this central government appointed Commissioner of Police and the consequences of the reappointment of the WC in 1842 until 1845. OPERATIONAL REPLACEMENTS FROM 1846 examines how the police force expanded its role of law enforcement and which police stations were required or commissioned to replace the most dilapidated police stations.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN analyses the development of the police estate from the 1860s through the construction and building design of the police buildings which were modified to deal with the changing policing priorities of Victorian society and police officers. This period can be considered the ‘Golden Age’ of Manchester’s police building construction. The financing of police stations is analysed and compared to some of Manchester’s principal municipal buildings as well as other counties and borough police forces of England and Wales.
The corresponding period is considered in POLICE ESTATE – STRATEGIC REQUIREMENTS 1860 – 1885 which examines a difficult period for the new city as its police force dealt with the highest levels of crime recorded in the century and the effects of the Cotton Famine and Fenian attacks on the police.
DOMESTICATION explores the social change with the working classes and Storch’s (1976) argument that the police were used as ‘domestic missionaries’ and how this reflected on police buildings. It further considers the issues of inner city ‘scuttling’ and the findings of Andrew Davies (2008).
The impact is evaluated in the corresponding sections POLICE ESTATE – MANCHESTER’S SECOND EXPANSION 1885 and MANCHESTER’S THIRD EXPANSION 1890 which examines how the WC, police force and their police stations adapted as the city’s population and boundaries expanded significantly in size.
RATIONALISATION 1898 assesses the impact or otherwise of the WC and Chief Constable’s policies on the development of the police at the turn of the century. Although crime was falling the operational requirements to deal with the continued significant levels of drunkenness and related disorder would affect their strategic ability to rationalise police stations.
The specific stations concerned and the final outcomes are itemised in the corresponding section POLICE ESTATE – RATIONALISATION OF THE POLICE ESTATE which analyses the strategic proposals and how they ultimately affected the operational police stations within the Manchester police.
CIVIC PRIDE AND THE CLEANSING OF THE CITY takes an in depth view of the police building expenditure compared to similar municipal buildings, namely the public baths in Manchester. The section considers whether the civic pride so evidently displayed in central Manchester’s grandest public and private buildings was present in these operational municipal buildings, mostly servicing the needs of the inhabitants of the poorer districts of the city.
POLICE STATIONS This subject lists all 38 Manchester police buildings the research identified as existing or planned from 1838-1901. All the police buildings identified are listed in Table 1: Manchester Police Buildings and Stations from 1772 – 1906.
The data is ordered into the seven development phases identified under Police Estate. The WC minutes relating to each of these buildings has been transcribed onto a separate web-page for each station. In addition nineteenth-century Manchester maps have been adapted for each of the development periods to identify the location of the relevant police stations and to reveal the strategies and operational positioning and alterations of the police estate over time.
STRATEGIES examines the overarching polices and tactics of the borough authorities who financed and led the Manchester police force. These are divided into five sections. These sections encompass the subject POLICE ESTATE which is divided into seven time periods to analyse the operational development of the Victorian police estate in Manchester:
MANCHESTER’S NEW CORPORATION AND THE WATCH COMMITTEE analyses how the Corporation met their primary objective - to preserve the peace and good order of the borough. It exposes the political obstructions to the new police and their financing and the overarching principles the Manchester Watch Committee resolved to implement. These issues are developed further regarding the operational stations in POLICE ESTATE – MANCHESTER’S FIRST EXPANSION which identifies the police buildings immediately before and after the town’s incorporation.
OPERATIONAL NEEDS, discusses how the WC identified the requirements of the emerging modern force and the principle role of constantly manned beats. This necessitated a modernisation of the police estate and these issues are further examined in the corresponding two sections; POLICE ESTATE – SIR CHARLES SHAW AND THE WATCH COMMITTEE which discuss the first three turbulent years under this central government appointed Commissioner of Police and the consequences of the reappointment of the WC in 1842 until 1845. OPERATIONAL REPLACEMENTS FROM 1846 examines how the police force expanded its role of law enforcement and which police stations were required or commissioned to replace the most dilapidated police stations.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN analyses the development of the police estate from the 1860s through the construction and building design of the police buildings which were modified to deal with the changing policing priorities of Victorian society and police officers. This period can be considered the ‘Golden Age’ of Manchester’s police building construction. The financing of police stations is analysed and compared to some of Manchester’s principal municipal buildings as well as other counties and borough police forces of England and Wales.
The corresponding period is considered in POLICE ESTATE – STRATEGIC REQUIREMENTS 1860 – 1885 which examines a difficult period for the new city as its police force dealt with the highest levels of crime recorded in the century and the effects of the Cotton Famine and Fenian attacks on the police.
DOMESTICATION explores the social change with the working classes and Storch’s (1976) argument that the police were used as ‘domestic missionaries’ and how this reflected on police buildings. It further considers the issues of inner city ‘scuttling’ and the findings of Andrew Davies (2008).
The impact is evaluated in the corresponding sections POLICE ESTATE – MANCHESTER’S SECOND EXPANSION 1885 and MANCHESTER’S THIRD EXPANSION 1890 which examines how the WC, police force and their police stations adapted as the city’s population and boundaries expanded significantly in size.
RATIONALISATION 1898 assesses the impact or otherwise of the WC and Chief Constable’s policies on the development of the police at the turn of the century. Although crime was falling the operational requirements to deal with the continued significant levels of drunkenness and related disorder would affect their strategic ability to rationalise police stations.
The specific stations concerned and the final outcomes are itemised in the corresponding section POLICE ESTATE – RATIONALISATION OF THE POLICE ESTATE which analyses the strategic proposals and how they ultimately affected the operational police stations within the Manchester police.
CIVIC PRIDE AND THE CLEANSING OF THE CITY takes an in depth view of the police building expenditure compared to similar municipal buildings, namely the public baths in Manchester. The section considers whether the civic pride so evidently displayed in central Manchester’s grandest public and private buildings was present in these operational municipal buildings, mostly servicing the needs of the inhabitants of the poorer districts of the city.
POLICE STATIONS This subject lists all 38 Manchester police buildings the research identified as existing or planned from 1838-1901. All the police buildings identified are listed in Table 1: Manchester Police Buildings and Stations from 1772 – 1906.
The data is ordered into the seven development phases identified under Police Estate. The WC minutes relating to each of these buildings has been transcribed onto a separate web-page for each station. In addition nineteenth-century Manchester maps have been adapted for each of the development periods to identify the location of the relevant police stations and to reveal the strategies and operational positioning and alterations of the police estate over time.
To aide interpretation certain WC minutes have been summarised and clarified [within brackets] with corroborative sources wherever possible so that a clearer understanding of the commission and evolution of each station can be made. Further research has been conducted to establish the relevance of each police building and present-day photographs have been taken or current street views utilised.
POLICE PERSONNEL This subject has been included as it became apparent that those persons employed in the Manchester police, who worked and lived in the police stations, through their skills, abilities and even failings, had as much to do with the development of their operational environment as the public and policy makers surrounding them:
A POLICEMAN’S LOT 1870 centres on the nature of the late Victorian policeman’s duties, pay and housing conditions, along with an examination of their social backgrounds. In particular this first section examines the memoirs of PC Oversby who joined the Manchester division of the Lancashire Constabulary and compares his recollections to contemporary sources.
A POLICEMAN’S LOT 1890 centres on the rising professionalism of the police force and the effects of Manchester’s two major expansions of 1885 and 1890. The numerous rank and file petitions, strategic reports and WC resolutions are examined to determine the consequences not only for the workforce but for the police estate.
POLICE MATRONS considers the little discussed role of the Manchester Women’s Christian Temperance Association on the rehabilitation and protection of female prisoners within the police stations and courts and how their political influence specifically affected the police estate from the mid-1890s.
JEROME CAMINADA was the head of the Manchester police’s detective office and is the city’s best-known police officer. His 1899 report into the effectiveness of the police estate is analysed, as he not only supports Robert Peacock’s 1898 rationalisation proposals, but makes the assumption that a new civil relationship had been created between the police and the community.
STATISTICS This section brings together the numerous tables and figures which were identified within the primary sources such as the Watch Committee minutes, Chief Constable’s annual reports from 1874 and HM Government Inspector of Constabulary annual reports dating from 1856.[i] This data has been analysed, condensed and merged into tables which are numbered and referenced throughout the website. These illuminate the arguments raised and the key phases of the development of the police estate.
BIBLIOGRAPHY A bibliography is provided identifying the sources used in the research and the preparation of website.
Finally, during the research process some misunderstandings about the stations and the archives have been corrected as a few Victorian and Edwardian photographs held in the GMP Museum & Archives and the Manchester Local Image Collection have been re-classified to different police stations. For example, following a specially arranged site visit to the courtyard of the Manchester Town Hall in January 2013, three 1908 glass lantern slides of a cell corridor, holding cell and charge office which unidentified but assumed to be possibly that of Newton Street PS have now been shown to be that of the 1877 Town Hall police station, a major police facility in Manchester’s central division.
[See POLICE STATIONS/ 1860/ TOWN HALL].
POLICE PERSONNEL This subject has been included as it became apparent that those persons employed in the Manchester police, who worked and lived in the police stations, through their skills, abilities and even failings, had as much to do with the development of their operational environment as the public and policy makers surrounding them:
A POLICEMAN’S LOT 1870 centres on the nature of the late Victorian policeman’s duties, pay and housing conditions, along with an examination of their social backgrounds. In particular this first section examines the memoirs of PC Oversby who joined the Manchester division of the Lancashire Constabulary and compares his recollections to contemporary sources.
A POLICEMAN’S LOT 1890 centres on the rising professionalism of the police force and the effects of Manchester’s two major expansions of 1885 and 1890. The numerous rank and file petitions, strategic reports and WC resolutions are examined to determine the consequences not only for the workforce but for the police estate.
POLICE MATRONS considers the little discussed role of the Manchester Women’s Christian Temperance Association on the rehabilitation and protection of female prisoners within the police stations and courts and how their political influence specifically affected the police estate from the mid-1890s.
JEROME CAMINADA was the head of the Manchester police’s detective office and is the city’s best-known police officer. His 1899 report into the effectiveness of the police estate is analysed, as he not only supports Robert Peacock’s 1898 rationalisation proposals, but makes the assumption that a new civil relationship had been created between the police and the community.
STATISTICS This section brings together the numerous tables and figures which were identified within the primary sources such as the Watch Committee minutes, Chief Constable’s annual reports from 1874 and HM Government Inspector of Constabulary annual reports dating from 1856.[i] This data has been analysed, condensed and merged into tables which are numbered and referenced throughout the website. These illuminate the arguments raised and the key phases of the development of the police estate.
BIBLIOGRAPHY A bibliography is provided identifying the sources used in the research and the preparation of website.
Finally, during the research process some misunderstandings about the stations and the archives have been corrected as a few Victorian and Edwardian photographs held in the GMP Museum & Archives and the Manchester Local Image Collection have been re-classified to different police stations. For example, following a specially arranged site visit to the courtyard of the Manchester Town Hall in January 2013, three 1908 glass lantern slides of a cell corridor, holding cell and charge office which unidentified but assumed to be possibly that of Newton Street PS have now been shown to be that of the 1877 Town Hall police station, a major police facility in Manchester’s central division.
[See POLICE STATIONS/ 1860/ TOWN HALL].
The attached film clip from the British Pathé News website was recorded around 1910 and shows detectives throwing a prisoner into a cell, generally assumed to be that of the Minshull Street Police Courts. Afterwards the prisoner is taken from the cell to a horse-drawn cart then, with police escort, on to Strangeways Gaol.
The clip is significant as it shows the basic cell corridor with gas mantles and the extent of the security protecting the station. Even though the Detective Office was based at the new Town Hall from 1876 recent research has excluded the cells there as the cell corridor does not match that featured (see above). This leaves Albert Street PS, Goulden Street PS or most probably Minshull Street Police Court as this would be logical for sentenced prisoners going direct to gaol. However the Minshull Street ‘session cell’ pictures do not match those featured in the clip.If you know otherwise please let me know.
[see POLICE PERSONNEL/ POLICE MATRONS]
Video link- to http://www.britishpathe.com/video/manchester-police/query/police
The clip is significant as it shows the basic cell corridor with gas mantles and the extent of the security protecting the station. Even though the Detective Office was based at the new Town Hall from 1876 recent research has excluded the cells there as the cell corridor does not match that featured (see above). This leaves Albert Street PS, Goulden Street PS or most probably Minshull Street Police Court as this would be logical for sentenced prisoners going direct to gaol. However the Minshull Street ‘session cell’ pictures do not match those featured in the clip.If you know otherwise please let me know.
[see POLICE PERSONNEL/ POLICE MATRONS]
Video link- to http://www.britishpathe.com/video/manchester-police/query/police
MANCHESTER POLICE
[1] Manchester Watch Committee Minutes from 1839 – 1903, Vol. 1-31 (Greater Manchester County Records Office. M/9/30/1-31).
[2] House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk.
[2] House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk.
