POLICE (BRISTOL CONSTABULARY)

Records of Bristol Constabulary, 1836-1974 and Avon & Somerset Constabulary, 1974 to date.

ADMINISTRATION

Minutes

Watch Committee minutes

Watch Committee sub-committee minutes

Officers' conferences

Reports

Watch Committee reports

Chief Constable's reports

Annual Reports on Establishment and Crime

Reports to Brewster Sessions

Road Accident Reports

Statistics and Circulars

Home Office Circulars

Home Office Notices

Returns of staff

Inspections

H M Inspector of Constabulary

Watch Committee Inspections

Reviews and Parades

Working Parties

Amalgamation Working Party

Operational practices

Liaison Groups

Council for Racial Equality

Community Liaison

Bye-laws and Local Acts

General bye-laws

Docks bye-laws

Transport bye-laws

Corporation Acts

Notices

Rules and Orders

MANAGEMENT

Staff

Registers of officers

Registers of constables

Registers of cadets

Registers of conduct

Special Constables and Reservists

Applications

Medical Officers' Reports

Registers of service reservists

Disciplinary records

Oaths

Retirement and resignations

Pay and salary records

Pension records

Gallantry awards and police medals

Roll of Honour

Civic awards

Ambulance team and life-saving

Benevolent Fund

Sports Clubs

Band

Constabulary club

Police Federation

Personal papers

Uniforms

Correspondence

Letters

Cards

Journals and Notebooks

Diaries

Telephone messages

Records of constables entering stations

Duty books

Notebooks

Beat cards

Warrant Cards

Instructions and Orders

Instructions

Standing Orders

General Orders

Force Orders

Daily Orders

Operation Orders

Special Operations

Station regulations

Disturbances

Stock and Purchasing

Inventories

Goods Inward Received

Stations

Pillars and Boxes

Horse Register

Motor Vehicles

Clothing

FINANCE

Financial Records

Vouchers

Accounts

Cash books

CIVIL DEFENCE

Duties and instructions

Casualties

National Registration

Air Raid Precautions

Billeting

Service personnel

Printed Material

Miscellaneous

CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION

Occurrence books

Crime Report Register

Cases

Offences

Station Journals

Information books

Charges

Motoring offences

Statutes and charges

Warrants and summonses

Warrants

Registers of warrants

Notice books and Police Gazettes

Summons books

Summonses

Prisoners and convicted persons

Tried prisoners

Prisoners' books

Receipts for prisoners' goods

Registers of persons reporting

Licences to be at large

CIVIL ADMINISTRATION

Inquests

Registers of Inquests

Jurors' records

Case notes

Licensing

Applications for licences

Registers of licensed premises, A Division

Registers of licensed premises, C Division

Registers of beerhouse keepers

Public and beerhouse complaints,

A Division

CIVIL ADMINISTRATION

Public and beerhouse complaints, B Division

Public and beerhouse complaints, C Division

Public and beerhouse complaints, D Division

Public and beerhouse complaints,H Division

Beerhouse offences

Pedlars' and street traders' licences

Entertainment licences

Applications for licences for film shows

Hackney carriage licences

Dog

Registers

Lost and stolen property

Lost children

Aliens

Committal of Mental Defectives

Keys

OTHER RECORDS

Printed Material

Police Newspapers and Journals

Newsbeat (Journal of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary)

Instruction Manuals

Reports

Official openings

Services

Newscuttings

Books of reference

Stations of Units

'Wel-Com' (magazine of Bristol Constabulary Comrades' Association)

Photographs and Films

Portraits and groups

Visitors

Incidents and Operations

Parades and Inspections

Demonstrations

Publicity photographs

Street scenes

Sports and Social Clubs

Films

Outsize Photographs

Miscellaneous

Plans

Area plans

Administrative plans

Operational plans

Kings Weston House plans

Building plans

Historical Material

History of Bristol Constabulary

Notes and notices

Kings Weston House

Histories of other forces

Booklets (non-police)

Pictures

Miscellaneous

Documents

Museum

Artefacts

Please note that the records of Bristol Constabulary are closed for 30 years from the date of the final entry in the record

Following a report of the Watch Committee, Bristol Constabulary was founded on 1836 Jun 25, dividing the city into 4 divisions. The head of the force was Mr Joseph Bishop, who died in 1838. He was replaced by Lieut Henry Fisher, R N, the only non-professional policeman to head the Bristol force.

Over the course of the next century the force became increasingly specialised, and developed several branches:

1842 Water Police

1876 Fire Brigade

1880 Detective Staff

(Detectives first employed in 1846; the name of the branch changed to Criminal investigation Department in 1920)

1898 Mounted Police

1920 Women Police Division

1931 Motorised patrols

In 1974 the force was re-organised, and along with Somerset and Bath Constabulary formed Avon and Somerset Constabulary. A printed Historical Review of Bristol Constabulary (see BCC/D/Pol/HM/1/4) was written at the time of the merger, and many of the records in this collection would appear to have been collected during the compilation of this publication. A further source of records would seem to have been the force museum.

For further details on the history of Bristol Constabulary, see the following:

Bristol City Police, 1836-1936 (1936) BCC/D/Pol/HM/1/3

A Historical Review of the Bristol Constabulary (1974) BCC/D/Pol/HM/1/5 in this catalogue and

The Police : a brief History (1980s) BCC/D/Pol/HM/1/5 in this catalogue and

Establishment of the Bristol Police Force, by R Walters (1975) BRO ref: HA pamphlet 36 and

Police in late Victorian Bristol, by Brian Howell (1989) BRO ref: HA pamphlet 7] obtainable from Bristol Record Office

Related material at Bristol Record Office includes:

Watch Committee minutes, 1831-1832, 1836-1960

Watch Committee sub-committees minutes, 1906-1967

(see Guide to Bristol Archives Office, E.Ralph, page 14 for details)