POLICE STATION. CRIME AND
PUNISHMENT.
Thomas Breres was constable in 1733 when a new set of stocks was
need for the town's green. Adam Rigby and John Atherton were
paid for 5 days work to make the stocks, though it is doubtful
whether these were the same stocks which were fired by an out of
control bonfire in the 1850s.
An advertisement was placed in the Preston Chronicle in 1833 for
a deputy constable, whose character and qualification for this
office will bear the strictest investigation A salary of £50 per
year was offered. Punishment for crime in the 1800s was swift
and severe. William Tootell records men being given a public
flogging at the obelisk, for riot. Three boys found guilty of
stealing a goose in 1827 were transported, two for life, the
third for seven years. A 17 year old Joseph Lee, earned a death
sentence for burglary in 1821. Stealing four shillings, in 1828
resulted in one boy of 12 being transported for life.
Well into the 19c the town's green kept a rural character,
thatched cottages were interspaced among the shops, and there
was a village pump and a duck pool alongside Mr. Ince's farm
(demolished in the 1850s to make way for a new police station)
as well as the town stocks. In 1855, to mark the end of the
Crimean War, a great bonfire was lit in the square, it went out
of control, the fire spread to the stocks, which were destroyed,
much to the relief of the wrongdoers.
During the 1850s Chorley came under the jurisdiction of the
Leyland division of the county police force. The old dungeon
which had served the town was superseded by a police station,
completed in 1858, at the west end of St. Thomas's Square. It
was soon inadequate, and in 1869 a new station replaced the old,
remaining in use until the 1960s. The inadequancy of the old
police station was apparent during the 1960s, and it was agreed
to demolish it and rebuild a new divisional H.Q. for Chorley.
After using the old Highways Hostel at Euxton as an interim
H.Q., the force moved to the new, 60s style H.Q., on the old
town green in 1966.
The Courthouse, however. was in High Street. Under the
Lancashire Constabulary, there were 44 police officers of all
ranks for the Leyland division. Chorley inspite of its borough
status and increasing importance, did not operate its own force.
Although the Chorley police officers were called on to deal with
a wide range of offences from serious riots to daily problems of
drunkenness, petty theft and assault their skills were
challenged by characters such as, the blacksmith in High Street
who was involved in cock-fighting, and who would hide the birds
under the working forge when the constables checked the
premises. With the turn of the new century, a different kind of
offence posed problems for policemen. Motoring offences were a
problem in 1909 when one motor vehicle exceeded the speed limit,
of five miles per hour, between Adlington and Heath Charnock.
Police constable Mitchinson had tailed the driver on his
bicycle, the vehicle having done one mile in 8 mins. and 2
seconds. Speeding at 7 miles per hour earned a fine of 10
shillings.
Information supplied from A history of Chorley, by Jim Heyes.
J.D. |
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