Gloucestershire Police Archives – Part of The Heritage Hub
Since the early planning stages of the Heritage Hub, Gloucestershire Police Archives has been an integral part of the project.
Prior to that the Constabulary Archives were supported and run for 16 years as a volunteer group linked to Gloucestershire branch of the National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO) operating out of Cheltenham and then Stroud Police Stations. They did huge amount of the early work in creating this collection.
Since our involvement with the hub the Constabulary has for some three and a half years employed a member of staff to be responsible for these historic archives which are based both in Police Headquarters and The Heritage Hub.
We still rely on volunteers (and welcome new ones) as the group tasks involve:
- answering public queries
- entering information on a database
- managing a website
- providing displays for events
- giving talks
- working with volunteers from other organisations
- providing information within the Constabulary
- helping the Constabulary archive to grow
We are very happy to receive donations to the archives as the Chief Constable has provided us with a room at Waterwells that will take the articles that cannot be deposited in the Heritage Hub.
If you would like to visit us at the Heritage Hub you are very welcome, there is lots of parking and disabled access. You can contact us at:
Gloucestershireconstabularyarchivegroup@gloucestershire.pnn.police.uk or via the Gloucestershire Police archives website. As we are spread across various offices and do not always follow a set routine, the telephone is not an easy way to reach us but we do respond to old fashioned mail and can then call you.
As an example of what we can offer to ex colleagues and the wider public overleaf is a short article about the early role of women in the Gloucestershire Constabulary.
Sue Web
Gloucestershire Constabulary Archives
Communications and Engagement Department
Gloucestershire Constabulary
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/heritage-hub/
Policewomen in Gloucestershire
Uniformed Staff but not Gloucestershire Police Woman
The photograph opposite arrived in the archive’s inbox recently. The photograph was taken in Gloucester during World War 1
Although the woven hat band said police on it, we were unable to read the initials above to solve the mystery of which organisation she belonged to as there were several at the time. The person who sent it in assumed that it was one of the early policewomen in Gloucestershire but that is not the case.
Gloucestershire Police Woman
This second photograph of one of Gloucestershire’s Constabulary early Police women and although she is still wearing the hat badge of the munitions police it is clear that the uniform is very different. (Women police in those days usually paid for their own uniform but the design seems to be remarkably consistent within and across organisations).
Although we were able to discount the original photograph as one of the Constabulary’s early women both through looking at the uniform and comparing faces the original query was a success. The woman who made the inquiry has now found enough information to write a book and wants to visit Gloucestershire Constabulary Archives for further information.
