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Watton-at-Stone Lock-Up and Police Station

Overview

Location   87 High Street,  Watton-at-Stone

County   Hertfordshire

Year Opened   Unknown

Year Closed   Unknown

Century of Operation   1800-1899, 1900-1999

Remarks   The lock-up is Grade II listed. The lock-up's door fronting the High Street has been bricked up. This side of the building was once ivy-clad but this has now been removed to reveal the former entrance. Used by the current resident as a garden store. A man was shot dead in the village by the resident policeman in 1833. Hertfordshire Constabulary was only created in 1841 so this policeman was on loan from the Metropolitan Police at local landowners' request.

87 & 89 High Street, Watton-at-Stone, the Police House with lock-up adjacent and the Court House© Photo courtesy of Dorothy Abel Smith. All rights reserved.

Further information can be found at
https://www.prisonhistory.org/lockup/watton-at-stone-lock-up-and-police-station/

Descriptions

  • 'WATTON-AT-STONE HIGH STREET...Village Lock Up - immediately NW of No. 87 GV II. Former lock up, now workshop/shed for No. 87 High Street (q.v.). Early C19. Stock brick. Slate roof. A small rectangular chamber with a smaller room added to rear later in C19 to accommodate constable's office at front and 2 cells. Original door to road now blocked, chamfered surround with a slightly cambered head, kneelers to coped gable parapet. '
    Historic England, National Heritage List for England, 'Village Lock Up Immediately North West of Number 87, High Street, Watton-at-Stone', LEN1341466

  • '87-89 High Street. The brick wall of the guard-room end of the lock-up is just visible to the left of no.87 (at one time known as the Police House). The Old Court House is at no. 89. The original bars can still be soon on the cell window. The guard house had a brick floor and traces of a chimney and fireplace remain. The cell is accessed from here through a narrow door and down two steps. Shackles are remembered as having been on the walls of the cell.'
    Notes paraphrased from 'The Watton-at-Stone Lock-up in April 2020', unknown author. Kindly supplied by Dorothy Abel Smith.

  • 'In the late evening of 7th December 1833, [James] Sheppard was shot by Robert Percy, the village constable...after a fight in which...Sheppard was resisting his transfer into the lock-up'
    Terry Askew, 'A Shooting in Watton-at-Stone: Rough Justice handed out in 1833', Herts' Memories website.

  • '[Citing a report in the Hertford & Ware Patriot, an allegedly anti-police newspaper] On the night of Saturday 7th December 1833...[villagers heard] two men struggling together. A shot rang out and [James] Sheppard fell [and died the next morning. At the inquest, a witness] testified to Sheppard's drunkenness and, with less certainty, to [Robert Piercy] the constable's forbearance. In the course of the inquest, Piercy was accused of megalomania, drunkennes and abusing his authority (as one of Robert Peel's 'new' police force)... A verdict of manslaughter, but the sentence is not known. Angry villagers chased Piercy out of Watton...Other sources [say] the constable had been hired from the newly formed Metropolitan Police at the request of local landowners...[Sheppard was a known troublemaker] who threatened the policeman with a bludgeon...During the melee, a shot rang out and Sheppard fell...a verdict of "Justifiable Homicide" was recorded, and Piercy was shortly transfered back to pounding the Westminster beat.'
    Watton-at-Stone Conservation Society, 'Watton-at-Stone Village Guide', 2002, pp.17-18.

  • 'Rural Police. Returns...[of] the Number of Station Houses and Strong Rooms, and the Expense of Building, Furnishing, and Repairing and Maintaining the same...Watton lock-up. Expense of fitting up, nil. No annual rent.'
    British Parliamentary Papers 1842, 'Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons: Twenty Volumes. (7.) Crime. Police. Vol. XXXII. Rural Police', p.9.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 6 superintendents, 5 inspectors, 2 sergeants & 23 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, John Reynolds, Hitchin; inspector, R. Goodyear, County Constab. Office, Royston; Stations [include] Watton.'
    Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1890, p.690.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 5 superintendents, 7 inspectors, 20 sergeants & 157 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, John Reynolds, Hitchin; inspector, James Hart, County Constabulary Office, Royston; Stations [include] Watton.'
    Kelly's Directory of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex. London: Kelly & Co. Ltd, 1894, p.10.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 5 superintendents, 7 inspectors, 20 sergeants & 157 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, John Reynolds, Hitchin; inspector, James Hart, County Constabulary Office, Royston; Stations [include] Watton.'
    Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1895, p.10.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 5 superintendents, 7 inspectors, 23 sergeants & 167 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, John Reynolds, DCC, Hitchin; inspector, James Hart, County Constabulary office, Royston; stations [include] Watton...Police Station Henry Gibbs, constable.'
    Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1899, p.14.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 7 superintendents, 8 inspectors, 29 sergeants & 207 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, John Reynolds, DCC, Hitchin; inspector, James Hart, County Constabulary office, Royston; stations [include] Watton...Police Station, George Reed, sergeant.'
    Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1902, p.14.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 7 superintendents, 8 inspectors, 31 sergeants & 224 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, John Reynolds, DCC, Hitchin; inspectors, H. Spriggs, County Constabulary Office, Royston & Inspector H. Storey, Stevenage; stations [include] Watton...Police Station, P. C. Compton'
    Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1908, p.13.

  • 'The force consists of a chief constable, deputy chief constable, 8 superintendents, 9 inspectors, 40 sergeants & 291 constables. [County Police] E, or Hitchin Division – Superintendent, G. Reed, Hitchin; inspectors, W. Bowyer, Stevenage & F. W. Warren, Letchworth; stations [include] Watton...Police Station, Aubrey Henry Hull, constable.'
    Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1914, p.13.

Sources

  • Historic England, National Heritage List for England, 'Village Lock Up Immediately North West of Number 87, High Street, Watton-at-Stone', LEN1341466
    https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1341466
  • Terry Askew, 'A Shooting in Watton-at-Stone: Rough Justice handed out in 1833', Herts' Memories website.
    https://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-history/people/a-shooting-in-watton-at-stone
  • Watton-at-Stone Conservation Society, 'Watton-at-Stone Village Guide', 2002.
    https://watton-pc.org.uk/files/web_guide_full.pdf
  • British Parliamentary Papers 1842, 'Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons: Twenty Volumes. (7.) Crime. Police. Vol. XXXII. Rural Police', p.9.
    https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_nNbAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA10-PA9&lpg=RA10-PA9&dq=essendon+cage&source=bl&ots=Bx53Te92ct&sig=ACfU3U2SSxKLxXsbO37yj2ac9MzRcnD2zA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi07vzX6-_oAhXnRhUIHe7aCXUQ6AEwAnoECGUQLA#v=onepage&q&f=false
  • Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1890
    http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/8876/
  • Kelly's Directory of Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex. London: Kelly & Co. Ltd, 1894
    http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/218337/
  • Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1895
    http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/8872/
  • Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1899
    https://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/48023/rec/1
  • Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1902
    http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/278578
  • Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1908
    http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/278581/
  • Kelly’s Directory of Hertfordshire. London: Kelly and Co, 1914
    https://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/59174/rec/6