CHESTER CITY POLICE FORCE

<span class="wrapper"><p>List of Cheshire Constabulary Records (CJP 20) held at Cheshire Record Office, for item relating to Chester City Police</p> <p>For a detailed account of the formation and early history of the force, based on the minutes of the Watch Committee and other sources see F. Jackson, Police and prisons in Chester 1830-50, an unpublished B.A. thesis presented to Manchester University, 1966. There is also a short description of the City Police Force in R.W. Jame To the best of our skill and knowledge, a short history of the Cheshire Constabulary, 1957, pp. 108-114.</p></span>

Because so few records of the Chester City Police Force have survived, in this list they are listed mainly chronologically

The Chester City Police Force was established under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, which transferred the powers of the Police [Improvement] Commissioners, established originally by an Act of 1762 and extended by a later Act of 1803, to the new Watch Committee of the Council in February 1836. For records relating to the watch in the city controlled by the Police Commissioners see TRI.

The Watch Committee was appointed on 9 Feb. 1836 and the minutes date from 12 Feb. 1836. The minutes of the first meeting record the appointment of the Superintendent of Police and other officers and constables and at this same meeting it was ordered that all records and property, such as handcuffs etc., in the custody of the Police Commissioners relating to the police were to be transferred to the new city force. The next meeting on 17 Feb. 1836 records that this had been done. By 1859 the bulk of records was probably quite large as the minutes for 6 Oct. 1859 refer to a report by the Superintendent that a large number of books relating to the force, perhaps also including some of the earlier Commissioners, had been placed in one of the cells as no other storage space was available, and the Superintendent was ordered to examine these books and destroy 'such as are valueless'. Shortage of space for the storage of their records, even after the city police moved to new accommodation at street level in the new Town Hall in 1869 probably explains why so few of the records of the force survive.

Chester City Police Force remained under the control of the Corporation until 1 April 1949, when it was amalgamated with the Cheshire Constabulary under the Police Act of 1946. However, the City Division of the Cheshire Constabulary continued to occupy the police station at the Town Hall until Jan. 1967 when they moved to the new Cheshire Constabulary headquarters building near Chester Castle.