PC Stuart in Ilfracombe, 1929

 From our extensive photo archives we have found 2 photos of policing in Ilfracombe in the 1920s. The photo on the right shows Ilfracombe ‘bobby’ PC Stuart on patrol in Wilder Road in 1929 – behind him it’s possible to just make out the Imperial hotel. He looks happy and relaxed and is carrying white gloves, so perhaps is on his way to a special function. The other photo is a group shot of the Ilfracombe Section of Devon Constabulary in 1927, and PC Stuart is also in this photo, seated in the front row second from right. The pictures themselves were both kindly donated to the museum by PC Stuart later in life.

Ilfracombe’s police force has a long history and has gone through many changes. The first mention of policing in Ilfracombe that we can find comes in 1827, when 50 special constables were brought in to police the royal visit of the Duchess of Clarence. The role of the special constable was a very

ancient one,  dating back to Anglo-Saxon times and revived in the 17th century, whereby magistrates could swear in ‘specials’ from local townsfolk when they needed extra help to keep t

Ilfracombe police force 1920s

he peace. Agricultural unrest and rioting in North Devon in the 1830s meant that most towns had special constables on standby.

The usual system of policing in Ilfracombe when times were peaceful was to have a parish constable, and he was elected every year and given a small salary raised from the parish rates.  The constable was largely untrained, had no uniform, and yet had the huge task of trying to deal with law and order in a growing town with its fair share of disorder. An amusing story from 1852 gives an insight into the constable’s lot: the Berrynarbor constable was escorting a thief into Ilfracombe –  on foot, there was no transport for the lowly ‘plod’  – when coming up to Hillsborough Terrace the  felon suddenly made a break for freedom:  ‘’throwing off in his haste first his shoes and afterwards his coat. Thus lightened he sped on his way and successfully escaped the pursuing constable. The tricked officer made his appearance before the bench, minus his charge, for which he received due reprimand. He pleaded he had been constable for twenty years and never lost one before; indeed, “Who would a thought that the man would have taken off his shoes without untying them,” said the constable in his simplicity.’’   In another incident in 1855,  constable Smith, on hearing cries of ‘murder!’ in Broad Street, discovered fighting there and plunged bravely into the melee, but, instead of creating order he was swallowed up in the fight and himself received a beating.

After the first professional police force was formed in London in 1829 under Robert Peel, English counties were asked to form their own police constabularies to control law and order, a particularly important issue in growing industrial towns. Devon was quite late in forming its constabulary in 1856, and even after this, Barnstaple borough was responsible for policing in our area until 1921. Ilfracombe had its first police station in the High St, next to the old Market Hall, and then in 1872 the station moved to 71 the High St. There were many complaints about disturbances in the High St at night time, especially from ‘hundreds of boys who parade the streets, yelling, and by their vulgar language are a great annoyance to the inhabitants’. Only a few years later in 1874, Ilfracombe opened its first purpose- built police station in Fore St, now the Gendarmerie restaurant. It had a charge-room, offices, accommodation and three cells, and is still an imposing building today. It was replaced as a station in 1926 when the growing force, now part of Devon Constabulary, needed much bigger premises and moved to Wilder Road, to the site still known to many as the ‘Bastille’, but sadly not the fine building it once was. In the 1970s the constabulary moved again, to modern premises in Princess Avenue, but police numbers are much reduced today.

In 1933 the Ilfracombe Chronicle reported on long-service medals being given to Ilfracombe’s special constables. Over 50 men  received these awards, and in that year there were on average 90 specials in the town. The newspaper went on to say that policing problems for Ilfracombe were changing: in 1933 the most difficult issue was traffic congestion. No longer was drunkenness and disorder the greatest nuisance. Instead, the police were struggling to deal with our town’s streets being gridlocked by holiday traffic in the summer months. Wouldn’t that be a nice problem to have again?

Sara Hodson