Author David Taylor discusses the new publication from the University of Huddersfield Press, 'Creating a Policed Society?':

Writing any book involves elements of both the professional and the personal. Creating a Policed Society? was the culmination of research and writing on aspects of policing the Victorian West Riding that goes back many years to my first involvement with Thomas Heaton, an extraordinary, pioneering police officer in Upper Agbrigg. It gave me the opportunity not simply to bring together existing material with new research but to offer a different, regional perspective, in an attempt to capture the varied and complex development of policing across the county, from the introduction of the first generation of ‘new’ policemen, at various times in different places, chiefly in the mid-nineteenth century, to their evolution into established figures in the local community by the end of Victoria’s reign, that would capture often awkward local variations, but without losing sight of wider questions about the nature and impact of so-called new policing that go beyond the bounds of any given area and particular moment in time. 

The book falls into two parts. The first focuses on the West Riding County Constabulary, not least because it was responsible for policing for a substantial part of the county’s population, even in the late-nineteenth century, notwithstanding the unrelenting growth of urban centres, but also because the WRCC was in many respects a collection of divisional forces that varied considerably in terms of their size and the characteristics of the societies they policed. The second focuses on urban policing but, again, the emphasis is on diversity, encompassing the larger, longer-established forces of the ‘great towns’ of Leeds and Sheffield, as well as that of the turbulent upstart that was Victorian Bradford; the medium-sized forces of Halifax and Huddersfield but also Wakefield; and also the smaller forces, some subsumed into the West Riding County Constabulary (Pontefract and Ripon), others emerging from it (Barnsley, Dewsbury and Rotherham). Although diversity of experience is a major element of the book, there are three common themes – focussing on the thorny questions of police efficiency, a ‘policed’ society, and policing by consent – that bring together the diversity of experience and together offer a broader interpretation of the evolution of Victorian policing. Specifically, it argues that by the late-nineteenth century, there was a meaningful sense in which the West Riding was a policed society (or collection of societies) characterised by consent, albeit of a pragmatic nature. 

While professional concern – the wish to complete a project – an important in the writing of Creating a Policed Society? there was also a strong personal element. The research had been constrained by Covid restrictions but writing was also brought to a complete end in 2021. However, as the dedication to the book makes clear, it became possible thanks to the skill and dedication of those who saved my life and nursed me back to health. The book is a tribute to them, a thank you that can never adequately be expressed. And of course, its shortcomings – any factual errors, unconvincing arguments, not to mention verbose and infelicitous expression – are entirely my own. 

OA POLICING WEST YORKSHIRE VICTORIAN POLICE LOCAL HISTORY