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Soham Police - The Soham Police Charge Book, 1848-1855

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Policing in Rural Cambridgeshire

Soham is a town in the East of Cambridgeshire roughly midway between the City of Ely and the town of Newmarket. In the 1840s the population of Soham was around 4000 (1841 census).

In Soham in the early 1800s, as in most of Cambridgeshire, basic policing functions were carried out by unpaid parish constables appointed annually from local residents. Wealthier inhabitants could avoid such onerous duties by paying substitutes to serve. In some instances continuity of appointment of substitutes enabled some to develop greater skills and knowledge than annual appointees. In other cases substitutes may well be chosen on the basis of lowest cost rather than for their ability to do the job. The effectiveness of Policing by unpaid parish constables depended on the ability and attitude of individual appointees, largely working in isolation. It is not difficult to find contemporary criticism of the system. For example:

"On Sunday last, John Eden was committed to the cage at Soham, where he continued about seven hours, being charged with using gross and insulting language to two gentlemen when conversing together in one of the principal streets. It is hoped that the punishment inflicted on this man will operate a serious warning to others who assemble on the Sabbath-day for the purpose of annoying the peaceable inhabitants. We are informed that much credit is due to Mr. Knowles, one of the gentlemen, for the prompt manner which he acted, and for the firmness he displayed on the occasion, in consequence of some reluctance manifested on the part of the constable to interfere in the matter. (Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette, Saturday 06 September 1828 p2)

And in 1844 Captail Bailey, Chief Constable of Cambridge Borough Police, reflected:

In referring again to the probability of parochial constables being efficient for tbe purpose required, I would suggest how probable it is that a man depending on his daily labour, and to which, of course, he must devote his whole time and efforts, can be supposed to be in a situation, during the day, in which he could possibly make observations or obtain information that could in the least assist him in defending his neighbourhood. On the other hand, how can such a man, with all tbe care and fatigues of his daily occupation, be supposed to be in a fit state to sacrifice his rest and remaining strength for the purpose of watching the property of his neighbours during the night? Or, I would also say, is it to be expected that such a man can possibly act impartially. Will he not have his own individual interests to answer and can he therefore be supposed to act with that decision and promptitude which a stranger, without any prejudice, would be required to do? ... I am fully persuaded that your interests cannot be effectually promoted but by a class of men whose whole time and exertions are devoted entirely and solely to that purpose, and who will act with impartiality and conscientiously on all occasions for the interest of the inhabitants in general, and whose conduct, being carefully watched by men of integrity and respectability, will be sufficiently responsible that an ample return is made for whatever expence might be incurred" (Cambridge Advertiser 28 August 1844 p3)

From 1829 a different type of policing was introduced in the Capital in the form of Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police. Paid uniformed police officers patrolled the streets, charged with the prevention of crime and maintaining public order.

Some towns obtained private acts of parliament, setting up boards of improvement commissioners enabled to raise a rate to use for local improvements such as paving, lighting and cleansing the streets and in some instances allowing for the appointment of paid watchmen who could also be sworn as constables. Public Acts for the Lighting and Watching of Parishes were passed by Parliament in 1830 and 1833 which could be adopted by vestries to raise and spend money on lighting and paving the streets and to appoint "able bodied watch-house keepers, Sergeants of the night, watchmen, patrols, streetkeepers and other persons, sufficient for the proper protection of the inhabitants, houses, and property, streets and other places ... by day and by night", and such watchmen etc were to be sworn as Constables. Adoption of these Acts involved a complex process of notices, meetings and votes and ongoing control of any resulting force was placed in the hands of elected inspectors. (11 Geo IV C.27 Ss29-30 and 3&4 Wm IV C.90 Ss39-42)

When Parliament tackled the organisation and mis-management of Chartered Boroughs, new corporations were elected under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 which were required to appoint Watch Committees to set up and oversee paid borough police forces. One such force was established in the Borough of Cambridge in 1836. Soham was not an incorporated borough.

In 1839 Parliament legislated to allow Justices of the Peace in England and Wales to appoint paid Chief Constables and to establish properly trained and equipped police forces for their Counties, based on the pattern of the Metropolitan Police. This was enacted in the County Police Act 1839 [often referred to as the Rural Police Act] (II and III Vict C93), but the Act was permissive rather than mandatory and only around half of the Counties in England and Wales took up these arrangements initially. In the remaining Counties, including Cambridgeshire, Justices decided that resolving any local problems of crime and disorder did not justify the additional costs to the ratepayers. On 8 April 1841 the Justices in the Isle of Ely decided in favour of introducing a new county force and the Isle of Ely Constabulary was established.

Parliament made a further permissive provision in the Parish Constables Act 1842 allowing :

• the building of lock-ups for the short term accommodation of offenders,
• the appointment of paid Superintending Constables to oversee lock-ups and Parish Constables. and
• the payment of Parish Constables and Watchmen. (Parish Constables Act V and VI Victoria c.109)

Then in 1856 the Government ended the hit and miss patchwork of old and new policing with the County and Borough Police Act. The Act made it compulsory for Counties to establish police forces and from that point on, when an efficient force had been established, the Treasury paid a quarter of the costs involved. Smaller borough police forces (population under 5000) were forced to amalgamate with counties if they were to receive the 25% grant.

Turning now to Cambridgeshire in the 1840s and setting the scene for the Soham Police Force: in 1841 when the Isle Magistrates voted in their new police, the local press were critical.

"the legislature made the adoption of the Act optional, under the belief that it was well adapted to same districts, and not to others. It may have some advantages over the old constabulary force in agricultural counties but, — the cost? Is it worth the enormous expense it will occasion? The police of the towns and great villages of the Isle is excellently conducted by intelligent, respectable inhabitants, as permanent officers placed at the head of the constables; and, in the smaller villages, we hear or know of no complaint. Many of them will, of necessity, now be deprived of any police officer, and will, in some respects, be worse off under the new system. On the whole, we regret that the magistrates had not been contented to let well alone, instead of trying to mend it through a heavy taxation." (Cambridge Independent Press Saturday 17 April 1841 p2). The Cambridge Chronicle dubbed the new police the "cutlassed gendarmerie" (10 April 1841 p2).

Magistrates in Cambridgeshire did not immediately follow their opposite numbers in the Isle of Ely. Voices were expressed in favour of introducing a Cambridgeshire Force and a leaflet and letter to the press urging this appeared in 1844. This included an address by Captain Bailey, the then Chief Constable of the Cambridge Borough Police. (Cambridge Advertiser 28 August 1844 p3). This is reproduced at length as it gives an overview of early police tactics in rural areas.

"First, as regards the interest of rural districts, I know from experience, that however well parochial constables may be disposed, it is utterly impossible that they could ever be a decisive and effectual preservation to the property of the farmers, who of all others require a protection, and whose property is most liable to plunder. I would submit that the property of the farmer is exposed as much, almost, by day as by night. As regards fences, hedges, turnip-stealing, wood-stealing of all descriptions; and during harvest even sheaves of corn; all these are well known objects of constant plunder, by the poor of various neighbourhoods, and which it is impossible for the parochial constable to look after. The removal of a small portion of a fence might be the means of doing great injury to the farmer, by admitting stock into a field of young corn, &c., by which in a few minutes injury to a serious extent might be incurred. On the other hand, by the same means grazing cattle might be allowed to escape, whereby equal injury might sustained.

Another object of equal importance, is that of watching the settling of gipsies and vagrants in a neighbourhood, from whose depredations the farmers, and all landed proprietors, are undoubtedly great sufferers. These people are also in the habit of making incursions for the purpose of gaining such knowledge of the various localities as will enable them to carry into execution their plans for depredation on those they find the most unguarded.

It is well known to me that the farmers are ever open to depredations, not only from strangers, (which may be considered a casualty,) but even by their very labourers, the best of whom, and most confided in, think they are committing no offence by leaving work with their pockets or baskets filled with corn, potatoes, &c., their master’s property, for the purpose of feeding their pigs. This, it is almost needless to observe, must be to no small amount to a large farmer, and which has been materially prevented, {and acknowledged to be so,) through the instrumentality of the police, by the most respectable farmers in the counties of Essex and Hertford.

The object of this present statement is with the view of submitting for your consideration a plan for the formation of a protective force, which would co-operate with the police under my command in the borough of Cambridge, which, I do not hesitate to say, would be productive of the most important benefits to the Borough of Cambridge, as well as the adjacent villages, who might be induced to unite in such a desirable object.

Here is yet another source of evil, to which I would draw your attention, and which a well organized police force is most likely to prevent. I allude to the public-houses and beer-shops keeping open all night, and during divine service on Sunday: the former are too frequently the inducements to men, even of not licentious habits, to pass their hours in expending their bumble means in the gratification of their own feelings sacrificing the comforts of their wives and families, whilst to the latter many neighbourhoods are indebted, for crimes perpetrated upon them, which, perhaps would never otherwise have been thought of, unless thus concocted under the influence of intoxication

Alluding to a police force having for its objects the prevention of crime, their endeavours to check immorality is most important, as it is an undoubted fact that the more numerous and irregular the public-houses and the beer-shops are in the neighbourhood, the degree of crime will preserve a decided proportion. It must be unnecessary, I should suppose, to observe, that in Cambridge and immediate neighbourhood, there has been for a length of time a collection of bad characters, who not only exist by a system of plunder, but who monopolize to themselves the organization of a sort of Banditti in the environs and adjacent villages; as long as they can exercise their efforts with success and impunity, immediately the neighbourhood of Cambridge, it is probable they will not extend their efforts; but as soon as checked (which I trust they will be,) they will undoubtedly make their incursions amongst the villages where they know they will meet with no opposition. This is already carried into effect, must be well known to you and others, in the neighbourhood round Cambridge, where the most daring burglaries, highway-robberies, and other offences have recently been committed, some of which have been detected by the assiduity of the borough police force. It is on these grounds that I would press on you how necessary it is, for your own interests, to adopt some measure whereby you may obtain the assistance and protection of an organized force, which, if placed under command, and therefore co-operating with the borough force, must effectually present such a barrier to the incursions of depredators of all descriptions, as will create a saving to you that will be far more than commensurate to the outlay that may be required.

In answer to the objections of some that the expence would exceed any advantage they might derive, I feel bound to observe, if acted upon according to my principle, a three-halfpenny rate would be adequate to meet the whole expenditure. According to the Secretary of State’s arrangements, a constable to 1,000 inhabitants is the proportion; but I conceive a less number would suffice.......

There may be objections to the measure, some saying it is hard for those who have no robberies going on in their neighbourhood to pay for the protection of others who have been robbed. If this reasoning is good for anything, it goes to shew that we never ought to have a protective police force until every man in the county has been robbed; or refuse to subscribe to an infirmary because at the time there is no sickness. It is only on the same principle, applied under another form that I now make the present proposition, unbiassed by any other feeling than an anxious desire to promote the well being and effectual protection of your neighbourhood, in conjunction with that of the borough I have now in charge. (Cambridge Chronicle, 17 August 1844 p2)

Despite this plea, it was to be ten years after the Isle of Ely Constabulary had been established before Cambridgeshire Magistrates followed suit. In the face of stiff opposition the change of opinion was largely brought about through the tenacity of Bottisham Magistrate George Jenyns, who in January 1851 formally proposed the introduction of a new rural police force in the County. Jenyns and a committee (George Jenyns of Bottisham, Alexander Cotton of Landwade, Rev John Hailstone of Bottisham, Rev John Thornhill of Boxworth, and Rev James Fendall of Harlton) presented a reasoned costed report recommending the establishment of the force. In the face of considerable opposition at the Midsummer Quarter Sessions Jenyns and his fellow Committee members persuaded magistrates to adopt the Act and establish the Cambridgeshire Constabulary. The Justices lost no time in appointing a Chief Constable and agreeing the size and structure of the new Force. By January 1852 the Force had been trained and deployed.

Events leading up to the final establishment of the Force are set out in great detail by Peggy Watts in her excellent book "The Formation of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary 150 Years Ago", published in 2001 and now sadly out of print. But the good news is, thanks to permission from Peggy's family, you can download a .pdf version of Peggy's book free of charge from this link - a 16.5MB .pdf.