For this month’s Curator’s Corner, we are diving into the fascinating history of a familiar object in our collection, the truncheon. Several are currently on display in the Bradford Police Museum gallery, stop by the museum to take a look and ask our very knowledgeable guides about them!
Truncheons are short wooden clubs traditionally used by police forces. Truncheons were used long before the development and standardization of the police in England. They were carried by watchmen, parish constables and police officers since the Middle Ages.[1] From the reign of Edward I, and the establishment of parish constables in towns and cities across England to the formation of the Victorian police by Robert Peel in the nineteenth century, truncheons were a common symbol of authority and a means of protection for the law enforcement of England. The painted truncheon dates back to just before the Victorian age.[2] They were painted to denote local constabulary, Royal cyphers, local crests and sometimes even the police officer’s rank. The variation in decoration and design of these truncheons is vast. [3] Truncheons decorated with a Royal cypher demonstrated the officer’s authority. The most ornate designs were reserved for those belonging to tipstaffs, which were often topped with a removable crown. A tipstaff refers to both a type of truncheon and the job title of a specific court official whose role was to keep order within court.[4]
For a long time, in England, local enforcement of the law fell primarily to constables based on very old appointments whose origins are hard to pinpoint, until King Edward I constituted ‘two constables in every hundred to prevent defaults in towns and highways’ in 1285.[5] The responsibility for the appointment of local parish constables fell to notable people of the parish who made up the Vestry Committee. Although the parish constable wore no distinctive uniform, he was issued with a wooden truncheon, which became a symbol of authority and might have hung outside his cottage door; it also would have served as a defensive weapon. [6] The truncheon was often ornately decorated, and many fine examples are still in existence. The position was held in some small towns until the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.[7]
In the eighteenth century, the city of London, relied on more than just the parish constables to keep order. In 1753, Henry Fielding enlisted the assistance and trained six constables who could be relied upon to keep the peace. After Henry’s death, his half-brother Sir John Fielding took over at Bow Street Court and established seven more magistrates’ courts in the city, each with its own ‘Runners’ office. Sir John formed the Bow Street Horse Patrol in 1763, ten mounted men armed with a truncheon, cutlass and pistol. The ‘Bow Street Runners’ carried a wooden truncheon as a defensive weapon and to prove their identity. Held secure in a narrow pocket in one of the tails of his coat. The ‘Peelers’ carried their truncheons in a similar manner, until truncheon pockets were sewn into the trouser leg.[8] The ‘Bow Street Runners’ were the precursor to the standardization of the police force in England, established by Robert Peel in 1829.
Throughout England’s evolving history of law enforcement, the truncheon consistently stood as a symbol of authority and protection. It became a defining feature of the standardised police force established by Sir Robert Peel in the nineteenth century. Until the mid-1990s, British police officers carried traditional wooden truncheons that changed very little from the traditional Victorian truncheon. Since the late 1990s, UK police officers have been issued the American-style collapsible batons which are very similar to truncheons and serve a similar purpose.[9]
[1] Ashmolean Museum: British Archaeology Collections - Truncheons and Constables’ Staffs, Apr. 2014, britisharchaeology.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/highlights/truncheons.html
[2] Dell, Simon. The Victorian Policeman, Shire Publications Ltd, 2004, p. 9.
[3] “Police Truncheon: Science Museum Group Collection.” Police Truncheon | Science Museum Group, Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
[4] “Police Truncheon: Science Museum Group Collection.” Police Truncheon | Science Museum Group.
[5] “Policing in the Parish.” Great Linford History, Accessed 24 Nov. 2024. https://www.greatlinfordhistory.co.uk/policing.html#:~:text=For%20a%20long%20time%20local,defaults%20in%20towns%20and%20highways.%E2%80%9D
[6] Dell. The Victorian Policeman, p. 4-5.
[7] Dell. The Victorian Policeman, p. 4-5.
[8] Dell. The Victorian Policeman, p. 8-9.
[9] ‘Baton (Law Enforcement)’, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_(law_enforcement).
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