| Administrative history | These records are those relating to the police accumulated by the Clerk of the Peace. Up to 1839 rural areas were dependent for police work on the unpaid services of the annually-elected chief constables of wapentakes and the petty constables of townships. Peel's County Police Act of 1839 (2 & 3 Victoria cap. 93) (which was adoptive) allowed the Justices to establish a paid constabulary force headed by a Chief Constable. It was not until Midsummer sessions 1856 that the Police Committee were ordered to consider the steps necessary to carry out the provisions of the Police Bill , presumably what was later the Act of 1856 (19 & 20 Victoria cap. 69), which made the establishment of a paid police force compulsory). In 1888 the police force became the responsibility of a joint committee of the County Council and the Justices of the Peace (the Standing Joint Committee).
Among the duties of the North Riding Police Force was the control of lock-ups or strongrooms. The Justices of the Peace were empowered to provide these for the temporary confinement of persons taken into custody by constables. They could purchase land and buildings for the purpose, and could take over the parish lock-ups and improve them if necessary. Lock-ups were to be paid for and maintained out of the county rates.
Further information about the police may be found in the North Riding Record Office's Annual Report for 1968 |