January 2023

Gloucestershire Heritage Hub

Winter 2022 update

Newsletter Winter 2022

It was a busy autumn with a rush to fit in all the requested talks before the start of the bad weather and we are now looking forward to working in the office until the weather improves.

The talks we ‘did’ were    

A potted History of Gloucestershire Constabulary

Thornbury Rotary Club - 12 October and Newent Local History Society - 13 October

A History of Gloucestershire Constabulary 

Stroud Local History Society - 20 October

100 + years of women in Gloucestershire Constabulary  

Footlights - 7 November

         

Newent LHS                                         Stroud LHS                                              Footlights

Sandra was delighted to find a picture of her father in one of the books that we took along.

 

Although some of the talks have the same name they are all written to order and where possible are linked to the geographical area that we are giving the talk. We are also happy to write new talks based on the areas of interest of particular groups.

We are looking ahead to the start of the spring when talks and displays will resume. April is already fully booked with an event linked to a visit to Headquarters by NARPO (National Association of Retired Police Officers) and talks to be given to Dymock WI and Alveston Local History Society.

We have had lots of queries over the last few months, 40 since the start of September.

  • We have identified officers that died both on duty and in service and worked with other departments on how we remember them. This was linked to Police Memorial Day and resulted in a trip to the National Memorial Arboretum to look at the way groups are remembered.
  • As usual one of our saddest tasks is to provide photographs of officers for their funeral services
  • The other side of the coin is that we also get requests for photographs for big birthdays
  • Many of our queries are still about tracing families. The most interesting ones are those that take a turn that was not anticipated by the family. One of our most recent queries led to finding that the officers daughter made an allegation against the then Deputy Chief Constable in 1845. It was unfounded but we know that the DCC was a ‘wrong un’ as in 1853 he absconded with £485.9.4d which was the months wages.
  • We have also had a plea from a TV production company to help them produce historically accurate documents for a programme that they are making.

Alongside this the archive volunteers are very busy with their day to day tasks

  • Helping local authors research for their next books
  • Transcribing station diaries - PC 154 Marfell made a complaint to ER that Sgt Cook's wife was not attending properly to the domestic needs of the constables.                 1856 Cirencester   
  • Extracting information about individual officers from general orders
  • Transcribing circular orders - 3rd August 1881. It has been reported to me that some of the men returning from duty at Tewkesbury Regatta were smoking in a railway carriage. I wish it to be clearly understood that no officer in this force is allowed to smoke while in uniform in any public place.                                                                      Henry Christian. Rear Admiral. C.C.
  • Finding information about stations officers served in
  • Adding to lists of collar numbers
  • Transcribing the commendation and default books

If you have any police related photographs we are always happy to receive Jpegs via gloucestershirepolicearchives@gmail.com and queries can also be sent to the same email address.

For more information visit gloucestershirepolicearchives.org.uk/ 

The office is usually open  Monday to Wednesday until 2.30 but it is worth checking before you make a visit as we do go out and about quite often.

Sue Webb, Gloucestershire Constabulary Archives Communications and Engagement Department, Gloucestershire Constabulary

   

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