Name/Title
Brighton Borough Police special constable's hardwood truncheon c1960Entry/Object ID
2504Description
Plain dark hardwood truncheon 15 inches (38cm) long, with a flat top. Has a leather stitched wrist strap, the stitching of which has come away on one side. Maker's impressed mark on top of handle "Hiatt Birmingham".Use
For a male police officer to use for protectionContext
From the late 1880s until the mid 1990s most male uniformed British police officers were issued with plain undecorated wooden truncheons of a similar style to this. These were typically 15 to 16 inches in length and had a grip made up of 4 large groves. Because such similar styles were used over such a long period of time they can be difficult to date. However the earlier examples are usually made of tropical hardwoods, such as ebony, lignum vitae, rosewood and mahogany, amongst others. This made them heavy and dense. In the period before and after the Second World War cheaper woods were used, making the truncheons progressively lighter in weight. By the 1980s new truncheons tended to be more cumbersome, lighter and much less well made than those from the first quarter of the 20th century. They were also usually heavily stained to hide the fact that they were made of lighter coloured, cheaper wood.
This example was issued to special constable William Turner, who joined the Brighton Special Constabulary in 1961 and went onto serve within the Sussex Constabulary specials until the 1970s. However, the fact that it is made of hardwood and some of the wear on it, suggests that it may have been manufactured much earlier, possibly before the Second World War, and it is probably typical of what would have been issued within Brighton Borough Police until the 1950s, when lighter weight versions were in use. It was made by the police equipment supplier Hiatt.