ABSTRACT
The parish of Dursley is interesting in one further respect of an analysis of policing in the early 19th century; it set up its own police force in 1814 in an effort to improve the good government of the town. A parliamentary return, relating to Gloucestershire for the years from 1814 to 1829, shows that committals from areas served by Northleach bridewell increased by some 200 per cent, while the urban fringe at Lawford's Gate, near Bristol, saw a rise of 500 per cent. By the early 1830s the need for police reform in the boroughs was impressed upon the government from all sides. The Metropolitan Police coped with serious political unrest in London without recourse to the military and set standards of behaviour and efficiency. In Gloucestershire their geographical distribution spread from Kingswood, near Bristol, to Tewkesbury in the north; to Newland in the Forest of Dean; and to Cirencester and Tetbury in the east of the county.
