What a year it has been

As the end seems to be in sight the police volunteers have been working at home producing a phenomenal amount of information for the archives while waiting patiently to be vaccinated.

Queries still come in as people have more time on their hands and there has been a flurry of activity as the talks that were cancelled over the last year are rescheduled. 180 years of the Gloucestershire Constabulary has now become 181 ½ years of the Gloucestershire Constabulary which doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

We had 143 queries last year which is not bad considering that usually lots of our queries come through face to face events. This year at the time of writing we have had 33 queries ranging from -

I bought this on an internet site do you know who PC 263 is,

If you want to know the answer visit https://gloucestershirepolicearchives.org.uk/content/new-contributions/police-constable-263-john-hayden

I own this motorbike which used to belong to Gloucestershire Constabulary can you tell me about it,

to

I live in an ex police station do you know anything about the history of it? (This photograph was taken in what is now the garden)

It has certainly kept us busy during the pandemic but I know that we are all looking forward to meeting up safely with friends and colleagues.

We are still working if you have any queries or if you would like to send us good quality JPG scans of police related photographs you can contact us admin@gloucestershirepolicearchives.org.uk

Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can reopen the offices to visitors.

Sue Webb, Police Archive Officer.

Dr Tim Brain's research

For those interested in police history, something to look out for in a month or two is an article on Gloucestershire Constabulary by former Chief Constable, Dr Tim Brain

Gloucestershire Archives - D8746-1

Those of us hearing his talk in the Dunrossil Centre during the 2019 History Festival will be delighted to see that a fully researched and footnoted article is shortly to be published by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society in their Transactions: ‘“For the Preservation of the Peace”: The foundation and early years of the Gloucestershire Constabulary’.   

The article examines which county police force can claim to be the oldest in the UK.  Does Wiltshire retain the title, is Gloucestershire in with a shout, or is there another contender?