Law and Order
By 1891 the police force in Powys was well organised in to the three separate counties of Breconshire, Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire but by 2002 it formed part of the Dyfed Powys Police Force covering the largest area of any force in England and Wales. How will work have changed for a policeman in that time, and how has the sentencing of criminals have changed?
In 1891 we look at a case of criminal damage involving broken tombstones and at the people involved; the gravedigger and his wife, the family of the people whose graves had been desecrated and at the defendant himself; the magistrate who committed him for trial and the gaol to which he was sent for 7 days. We also look at a theft from a garden; the victim , the laundress and the thief , at the policeman who travelled 12 miles to arrest him and at the magistrates who convicted him to 18 days hard labour.
In 2002 there is a diary of a chief inspector of police reflecting some of the concerns of the day, and of a magistrate talking about the type of matters dealt with him in the course of his work. We also look at some of the work done by Powys lawyers on diary day, and of a County Court. And how were the lives of some of our other diarists touched by the law on September 24th?
1891 |
2002 |