A policeman’s typical day during World War I in Bishop’s Stortford could cover anything from reports of spying near the railway line, stolen fruit from orchards and suspicious looking characters loitering, to an absconding soldier desperate not to go back to the Front. To date, historical documentation about the police force’s work during this time has been hard to come by, which is why the Bishop’s Stortford Museum (in partnership with the Hertfordshire Archive Service HALS) is delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) of £88,600 to fund a valuable project entitled Crime on the Home Front, Policing in Bishop’s Stortford in World War I.
The project will make use of a set of police records which date from the mid nineteenth century to 1919, which were found in the 1990s in a store room at the Church Street police station. This rare and extensive collection includes over 20,000 pages of incident books, policemen’s daily logs, receipts, lost and found reports and notes about the day to day running of a police station.
Bishop’s Stortford Museum Curator Dr Sarah Turner explained what the focus of the project will be:
“There are two elements –firstly, the project forms a fitting tribute to the approaching 100 year anniversary of World War I and it allows us to research and give the public access to an area which is rarely looked at, but was a huge part of ordinary day to day life. With the onset of the war, police forces suddenly had to deal with all sorts of incidents that they were unused to – including problems with billeted soldiers and horses being shipped to France. Secondly, we will be able to look at how policing has changed since World War I and we are working closely with Herts Police and The Hertfordshire Constabulary Great War Society to record the stories of retired policemen and women who served in the region.”
The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will enable the Museum to make a large amount of previously unseen material available to the public online with the creation of a new website, an exhibition to be held at Rhodes in the Rhodes Gallery beginning in July 2014, and via social media apps. The Museum will also carry out outreach work with local primary schools to create a new play to be staged at Rhodes.
Explaining the importance of the Heritage Lottery Fund support, Robyn Llewellyn, Head of the HLF East of England said:
“ HLF is delighted to be able to support the Bishop’s StortfordMuseum and Rhodes in sharing these fascinating stories with the public. The project will coincide with the commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War and these records will give a unique insight into what it was like to live in Bishop’s Stortford during the period. Furthermore, features such as a smartphone app to guide people around a WWI policeman’s beat with images and information at specific points, will give a greater insight into the life and work of policemen at this time.”
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What a brilliant project. Delighted to hear the National Lottery is being used in such a fascinating way. Have you had a good response from the public and school children?
You may be interested to read my blog about the work of the police on the Home Front during WW1 https://writingpolicehistory.blogspot.com My book, Policing the Home Front 1914-1918: The control of the British polulation at war, is due to be published in February 2019 by Routledge.
I will be following this with further research and wondered if you’d come across the police being used as ploughmen in 1917/18?
Dear Mary, thank you for your message. Yes, the site has been well received. Andy Wiseman will be talking on policing in Hertfordshire on 27 September 2018. I hope you will be able to join us.