ABSTRACT
The author served as a policemen in Bolton for a number of years but left again following a run-in with a sergeant who had reported him for neglect of duty. On his return to Farnworth he worked again as a coal miner before becoming a police constable in Stalybridge in 1895. His Reminiscences are further proof of the working-class origins of the vast majority of police constables. He narrates how the officers marched together to their beats, how they made routine visits to pawn shops and other places likely to be broken into and how the regulation of ‘Common Lodging Houses’ was an integral part of police duties. Common Lodging Houses provided cheap accommodation for the poor and usually in addition to the large dormitories for sleeping, there were rudimentary laundry facilities and a common room with a fire for taking leisure.
