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Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough during the Victorian period
© Courtesy of Middlesbrough Reference Library
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Policing the frontier: Middlesbrough c.1830s to 1860s |
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Unsurprisingly, the turnover rate of recruits was high. Of the men appointed in the 1850s, 50 per cent left within a year (some within weeks, even days of joining the force) and a mere three per cent served for more than five years. By the late 1860s, the situation was beginning to change. Over 40 per cent of recruits still left within their first year but a core of career policemen, serving more than ten years, was beginning to emerge. This first generation of new policemen was gradually and painfully building up the experience necessary to establish that working relationship between them and the community at large, without which the creation of a policed society would be impossible.
Middlesbrough policeman
© Courtesy of Middlesbrough Reference Library |
Many recruits in these early years failed to match up to the demands made of them. Over a third of recruits in the 1850s and 1860s were dismissed. The physical demands of the job led several to succumb to the temptation of strong liquor and a comfortable resting place and thus to lose their position. Drink-fuelled violence, physical and verbal, against fellow officers as well as members of the public led to the dismissal of others. A few were dismissed because of their immorality, ‘taking improper liberties’ as it was delicately put in one report, and, in one spectacular case of attempted wife-poisoning, because of their criminality. Almost the same number of men expressed their dissatisfaction with the force by resigning. Few gave their reasons but economic considerations were clearly fundamental. As Isaac Wilson, the long-serving chair of the Watch Committee commented, ‘trade was very brisk in our district … we hardly kept pace with the rise [in wages] outside, and the men left us.’
Words: David Taylor
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