![Old Police Station, The Broadway, Winchester](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Old_Police_Station%2C_The_Broadway%2C_Winchester.JPG)
Winchester City Police was the police force of
Winchester,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, England from 1832 to 1943.
The City of Winchester became the first place in Hampshire to set up a police force, four years before any other part of the county, and seven years before the county force was established at the end of 1839.
The force was established with an Inspector (Robert Buchanan) and seven
constables on 28 July 1832. They were given an office in the Old Guildhall (now Lloyds Bank) to run the force.
The force nearly folded through lack of funds, but with the
Municipal Corporations Act 1835, Winchester formed a
Watch Committee
In England and Wales, watch committees were the local government bodies which oversaw policing from 1835 until, in some areas, 1968.
Establishment
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 required each borough to establish a "watch committee" and to ...
and was able to secure funds to keep the police force. Funds were always a cause for concern for the Winchester police, when the Hampshire force was established, in 1839, the
county council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.
Ireland
The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irel ...
tried to incorporate the Winchester police, but the city watch committee always voted to keep an independent police force.
In 1873 Winchester built a new
Guildhall
A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...
which included a purpose built police station with cells and
barracks for the single officers. One of the constables wife’s was paid to be the station cleaner, the single officers contributed to a fund for the cleaner to act as housekeeper for them. By this time the establishment of the force had more than doubled.
The new police station would serve Winchester well for almost 100 years until the 1960s.
Amalgamation
With the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
well underway, the British government felt that the south coast would be best served by larger forces. Therefore, under the
1942 Defence (Amalgamation of Police Forces) Regulations, the
Home Office forced Winchester to join with
Hampshire Constabulary
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the counties of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in South East England.Hampshire Constabulary, 2012 Retrieved 27 April 2012
The force area inc ...
. This was meant to be a temporary measure and Winchester would be able to split from Hampshire at the end of the war, nothing really changed with the running of the force, and all the officers kept their rank and uniforms, except for the
Head Constable, who became a
superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
and answered to the
Chief Constable of Hampshire instead of the Watch Committee of Winchester. The
Police Act 1946
The Police Act 1946 (1946 c.46) was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the amalgamation of smaller borough police forces with county constabularies in England and Wales, allowed for the merger of county ...
made the situation permanent, and by 1947 the city force was properly absorbed into the county force with the issue of Hampshire badges and insignia.
List of chief officers
*1832 – Inspector Robert Buchanan (previously served in the
Metropolitan Police)
*1833 – William Shepherd (born 1802, Oxford) (previously served in the Metropolitan Police)
*1851 – Superintendent Henry Hubbersty (born 1813, London) (previously served in the Metropolitan Police and
Norfolk Constabulary)
*1872 – Head Constable William Morton (born 1843, Westminster) (previously served in the Metropolitan Police)
*1893 – Head Constable William George Felton (born 1856, Alresford) (joined the Winchester City Police in 1876)
*1909 – Head Constable John Sim (born 1875) (previously served in the
North Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary The North Riding of Yorkshire Constabulary was the territorial police force for the North Riding of Yorkshire from 1856 to 1968.
Formed in 1856 as a result of the County and Borough Police Act 1856 it covered all of the North Riding except for ...
and
Leeds City Police)
*1924 – Head Constable William George Stratton (born 1882, Salisbury) (worked on the
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...
before joining Winchester City Police in 1900)
*1942 – Head Constable Harry Reuben Miles (previously in
Reigate Borough Police
Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...
and as an inspector in Winchester from 1925)
References
*Ian Watt, ''A History of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, 1839–1966'' ()
*John Lee, Colin Peake, Derek Stevens & Clifford Williams, ''Policing Hampshire and the Isle of Wight'', 2001 ()
*Clifford Williams, ''111 Years Policing Winchester'', 2012 ({{ISBN, 978-0-9568508-0-5)
External links
Winchester policing today
Winchester
Defunct police forces of England