Operational Needs
The merchant and manufacturing class of Manchester, of which Engels was so critical, feared the 'dangerous class' of the poorest members of society. The London policing model created in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel for his Metropolitan Police Force meant that rather than 'Watch and Ward' the homes of the wealthy, the new police directly policed the streets of the poor and their places of resort. The objective was:
‘… to create a professional, bureaucratically organised lever of urban discipline and permanently introduce it into the heart of working-class communities.’ [1]
As Kidd puts it most pointedly the policing strategy was 'to guard Ardwick by watching Angel Meadow'.[2] Storch's description of this process was the 'domestication' of the working class, by the police as 'missionaries' of an alarmed middle class.[3] The subsequent improvement in general order was achieved by the imposition of the law by an increasingly efficient police force. The ability of the force to implement the strategic good of the Watch Committee via the tactics of the Chief Constable rested on the force's primary operational resource - the beat constable.
As the Borough and after 1853 the City expanded in size and prosperity so in turn did the police force. From 1856 the County and Borough Police Act enabled Local Government Board loans and partial Government Exchequer funding to be provided. Initially this was set at 25 per cent rising to 50 per cent but was conditional on satisfactory reports from HM Inspections of Constabulary. Primary concerns included excessive beat size or lack of patrol officers due to insufficient establishments.[4]
Constantly Manned Beats
Just as the new Borough of Manchester grew into a major industrial city, so did the new constables evolve into a proficient police force. From Chadwick's critical 1839 Royal Commission into policing through to DCI Caminada's 1899 optimistic review of police and society, there occurred a wholesale change in the operational needs and ability of the police to impose law and order without military assistance.[5] The latter was important in Manchester which had experienced Peterloo in 1819.
Manchester Council via the Watch Committee replaced its old lock ups and station houses with purpose-built police stations. Centred on the poorest areas of Manchester these buildings provided the essential local bases for the patrolling police officers in the enforcement the law.
[see Table 1 Police Buildings and Stations 1872-1906].
Manchester Council via the Watch Committee replaced its old lock ups and station houses with purpose-built police stations. Centred on the poorest areas of Manchester these buildings provided the essential local bases for the patrolling police officers in the enforcement the law.
[see Table 1 Police Buildings and Stations 1872-1906].
The brutal front elevation of Newton Street Police station (above) prior to its redesign in the early 1900's [see Architectural Design] is a good example of a Victorian police station in a working-class area. Built in 1879, to replace the important and much used, but decrepit Swan Street lock up, it stood like a citadel on the eastern entrance to the city, secure from the threat of local criminal activity or Fenian attack from the nearby slums of Ancoats and Angel Meadow.
When threatened with closure in 1898 a well informed ‘architect’ wrote to the Manchester Guardian claiming it as one of the finest and most secure stations in the country, a 'citadel' and one which was built to last 200 years[6] [see Police Estate/1860s/Newton Street PS). The writer claimed it was designed to withstand a riot and, although enjoying more peaceful times, ‘one could not predict the future’. By quirk of fate and it has survived intact to the present day and now contains the Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archive.
Victorian policing was based primarily on constantly manned beats of 30 minutes to three hours to provide a permanent presence of police officers. Victorian police officers walked their beats and man-handled their prisoners back to the nearby lock-up or station cells. The police building estate was designed and adapted to meet this fundamental operation need. It was not until after the second world war, when the advent of effective electrical communication and motorised transport that this fundamental local police station system was re-considered.[7]
Footage, of a Manchester policeman carrying his oil burning lamp. Showing supposedly an officer on night patrol but staged for the camera during the day. Note the large number of onlookers for such an unusual event around 1908 and also the Inspector reflected in the glass.
When threatened with closure in 1898 a well informed ‘architect’ wrote to the Manchester Guardian claiming it as one of the finest and most secure stations in the country, a 'citadel' and one which was built to last 200 years[6] [see Police Estate/1860s/Newton Street PS). The writer claimed it was designed to withstand a riot and, although enjoying more peaceful times, ‘one could not predict the future’. By quirk of fate and it has survived intact to the present day and now contains the Greater Manchester Police Museum and Archive.
Victorian policing was based primarily on constantly manned beats of 30 minutes to three hours to provide a permanent presence of police officers. Victorian police officers walked their beats and man-handled their prisoners back to the nearby lock-up or station cells. The police building estate was designed and adapted to meet this fundamental operation need. It was not until after the second world war, when the advent of effective electrical communication and motorised transport that this fundamental local police station system was re-considered.[7]
Footage, of a Manchester policeman carrying his oil burning lamp. Showing supposedly an officer on night patrol but staged for the camera during the day. Note the large number of onlookers for such an unusual event around 1908 and also the Inspector reflected in the glass.
Our Friends The Police [extract - Night Patrol] from NWfilmarchive on Vimeo.
Extract from the 1914 film 'Our Friends The Police'.
The full film illustrates various aspects of policework in Manchester, including ambulance duties, traffic control, training of recruits, patrolling and mounted police work.
[1] R. D. Storch,'The Plague of Blue Locusts: Police Reform and Popular Resistance in Northern England, 1840-57', International Review of Social History, 20 (1975) pp.62-3.
[2] A. Kidd, ‘Manchester, a history, (Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2006) (4th. ed.) p.54.
[3] R. D. Storch, ‘The policeman as domestic missionary: urban discipline and popular culture in northern England, 1850-80’, Journal of Social History, 9 (1976) p.482.
[4] C. Emsley, The English Police: A Political and Social History, (Harlow: Pearson, 1996)(2nd.ed.) p.91.
[5] J. Caminada Twenty Five Years of Detective Life, (Vol.2) (Manchester: Heywood 1901) pp.500-08.
[6] Manchester Guardian 8 October 1898.
[7] K. Laybourn, & D. Taylor, Policing in England and Wales, 1918 -39: The Fed, Flying Squad and Forensics, (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) pp.1- 3. Manchester police's use of charabanc motorised units during the General Strike of 1926, Ibid p.62.
[2] A. Kidd, ‘Manchester, a history, (Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 2006) (4th. ed.) p.54.
[3] R. D. Storch, ‘The policeman as domestic missionary: urban discipline and popular culture in northern England, 1850-80’, Journal of Social History, 9 (1976) p.482.
[4] C. Emsley, The English Police: A Political and Social History, (Harlow: Pearson, 1996)(2nd.ed.) p.91.
[5] J. Caminada Twenty Five Years of Detective Life, (Vol.2) (Manchester: Heywood 1901) pp.500-08.
[6] Manchester Guardian 8 October 1898.
[7] K. Laybourn, & D. Taylor, Policing in England and Wales, 1918 -39: The Fed, Flying Squad and Forensics, (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) pp.1- 3. Manchester police's use of charabanc motorised units during the General Strike of 1926, Ibid p.62.
