Some reflections on the Origins of the Railway Police in the Context of the Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway

 

The Birth Certificate of the Railways?

This month saw the 200^th anniversary of the operation of the railways in the UK.  Am I alone in thinking that this celebration of human ingenuity has been a little under egged?

There are parts of our history that leave me feeling rather uncomfortable but the amazing achievement that was the ‘invention’ of powered railways is something which we can all be proud of.  What a gift to the world and to the future!  200 hundred years of railways and many exciting things still to come.  A form of transport that is green, effective and capable of endless improvement.

I am not a train spotter (insert some less pejorative phrase if preferred) but I have worked in close partnership with the railway industry for most of my life and have come to admire the individuals who really understand the system and who put safety before profit and the needs of the public before the corporate imperative.   I would have thought that the 200^th anniversary would have been worth a little more national ceremony – maybe a dash of royalty and a half holiday?

Rightly we think of the engineering challenges faced by the early railways but they also had to climb a legal mountain.  Everything from the compulsory purchase of land to the problem of violent  disorder had to be tackled with laws and practices.  By the end of the nineteenth century standard clauses and established case law saw the railways functioning in a manner that has required few deviations since.  In short a whole paradigm of railway law was created by the lawyers and statesmen of the early Victorian period.  The fact that every piece of new railway, and virtually every change to existing infrastructure required an Act of Parliament seems strange to us now – but that system existed until the 1990s.  A couple of pieces of railway law are still to be found in local (or ‘private’) Acts making their application trickly.  The most obvious example of this is in the law touching railway trespass.  All those signs that are still required at railway stations warning people not to trespass have their origins in the days when the general public where not sure whether walking down the track was a good idea or not!

Railway trespass was a problem from the very begining.  Note the reference to the railway police (1838) (University of London Collection)

So what about the railway police?  Should we be celebrating 200 years or keeping our heads down, ready for the onslaught of historical documentaries when the Metropolitan Police force turns 200 in 2029?  The Met have a big advantage because the Act which created them marks a clear line in the sands of history.  It was the beginning of policing (in England and Wales at least) as we know it now.  A single Act of Parliament that was swiftly and efficiently implemented.  The story of the railway police is less clear cut. 

The first we know of the railway police is mention of the police department on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1826, although there is a later reference to police reports going back to 1825 (1).  It is well established that railway police duties in the early period included duties which we would not now think of as belonging to constables, including the signalling of trains.  Some commentators have gone so far as to say that these early officers were not ‘police’ in the real sense of the word.  Digitisation of newspapers has made it easy to point to the hybrid nature of the early railway police.  They carried out industrial duties but they also apprehended offenders and brought cases before the courts.  The relevant point of comparison is with what local constables were doing at the time – not with what they do now.  It is worth remembering that police duties have changed considerably over the last two centuries but that also public safety has always been at the centre of police activity.  Even in the early 20^th century the Met Commissioner instructed his officers to deal with the menace of orange peel on the streets of the capital.

Not all railway police were sworn in the office of constable.  In some railway forces some of the officers were sworn and some weren’t.  Odd, from a modern perspective but in the early 20^th century the subject provoked much discussion when it was realised that the London County Council Parks Police, who wore a uniform to similar to that of the Met, had no sworn officers at all.

In the 1820s and early 1830s there was no suitable legislation under which to swear in railway constables.  The Stockon and Darlington Railway Act 1821 is a very interesting document; in many ways it is the birth certificate of the railway – but it is silent on the subject of policing, as is the amending Act of 1824.  The Special Constables Acts of 1820 and 1831 were clearly  designed to deal with local instances of disorder and did not address a system wide need.  Some railway police were sworn under the 1831 Act but it was far from an ideal situation.

The Special Constables Act 1838 sought to deal with the financial pressures put on local authorities by requirement to swear in special constables to deal with disorder at the sites of public works connected to canals and railways.  This Act allowed local justices to re-charge the companies undertaking the works for the cost of temporary officers.  The problem is usefully described in the preamble to the Act:

Whereas great mischiefs have arisen by the outrageous and unlawful behaviour of labourers and others employed on railroads, canals, and other public works, by reason whereof the appointment of special constables is often necessary for keeping the peace, and for the protection of the inhabitants and security of the property in the neighbourhood of such public works, whereby great expenses have been cast upon the public rates of counties and other districts chargeable with such expenses

Note the use of the term railroad which was used interchangeably with railway in the first decades of the industry.  This Act came after the first pieces of legislation that allowed railway companies to appoint constables.

The creation of a body of constables for the purposes of dealing with a specialised environment  had a precedent in the policing of the River Thames.  Under an Act of 1800 “ for the more effectual prevention of depredations on the River Thamas and its vicinity”   specially appointed magistrates could employ constables.  The Act also created a number of offences designed to tackle the menace of thefts from ships offloading their cargoes in the Port of London.  It was this Act that provided the starting point for the text that was later to be used in railway legislation permitting the appointment of constables with a constablewick defined by the line of route, rather than by parish, borough or county.

It was only in 1837, by the Stockon and Darlington Railway Act of that year, that the appointment of railway constables was allowed on the first passenger railway in England.  Other railways beat the S&D to this privilege some years earlier (Great Western, 1835 and the London and Birmingham, 1833).

The 1837 Act gave a generous jurisdiction to the S& D police, of half a mile from the railway and works etc.  The modern British Transport Police (BTP) has no ‘vicinity’ jurisdiction despite having other powers that allow it to support geographic forces when requested and in emergencies.  The Act also firmed up the offences of obstruction of the railway and gave powers for the detention of ‘transient offenders’.  This was a phrase that was familiar to BTP officers until the mid 1980s, when the Police and Criminal Evidence Act rendered it unnecessary.

From the 1830s onwards the railway police had their powers defined in private/local Acts of Parliament and it was only in 2003 that railway constables were described in a Public General Act of Parliament (2).

Things might have been different if the proposals of Thomas Gray, as put forward in his pamphlet of 1820 and his book of 1825 had been followed.  Although not concerned with the policing of railways he did believe that trunk railways should be built between London and Edinburgh and London and Falmouth.  In his Observations on a General Iron Rail-way, or Land Steam Conveyance he advocated for the public ownership of the network to allow the country as a whole to benefit from faster communications and more reliable transport of goods and people.  A publicly owned network may well have led to a national railway police a century before the British Transport Commission Act 1949.

Thomas Gray's Vision of a publicly owned trunk railway system (University of London Collection)

At its peak the railway police were responsible for a web of main and branch lines that covered the whole of the UK.  In addition many ports, docks, road services and hotels were also within the constablewick.  Now BTP polices a reduced national rail network, the London Underground, a couple of trams and a cable car.  But it is the proud descendant of those early officers who had to work out how to police something entirely new.  The specialism that developed has served the country well.

On balance I would suggest that 1825 most likely marks the beginning of railway policing in England.   To be on the safe side I suggest we celebrate this year and in 2026, 2031 and 2033!

 

Philip Trendall

October 2025

 

NOTES

1.      See for example Pauline Appleby: A Force on the Move: The Story of the British Transport Police 1825-1995 (1995)

2.      The LCC Parks Police were a short lived body of officers who policed the major parks  run by the London County Council ( NOT the Royal Parks), these included Hackney Marshes and Clapham Common.   They operated from about 1889 to 1908.  A decision to swear in the officers was slow to be implemented.  It is not clear now what provision was used to attest the LCC officers.

3.      Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003

 

Legislation

Stockton and Darlington Railway Act 1821 George IV. Anno Primo & Secundo Cap XLIV

Stockton and Darlington Railway Act 1821 George IV.  Anno Quinto Cap XLVIII

Stockton and Darlington Railway Act 1837 Victoria Anno Primo Cap CXXII

 

Special Constables Act 1820 George IV Anno Primo Cap XXXVIII

Special Constables Act 1831 William IV Anno Primo & Secundo Cap XLI

Special Constables Act 1835 William IV Anno Quinto & Sexto Cap XLIII

Special Constables Act 1838 Victoria Anno Primo & Secundo Cap LXXX

 

Depredations on the Thames Act 1800 George III Anno XXXIX Cap LXXXVII

London to Birmingham Railway Act 1833 William IV Anno Tertio Cap XXXVI

Great Western Railway Act 1835 William IV Anno Quinto & Sexto Cap CVII