Name/Title
Plain hardwood truncheon with bulbous end c1870 - 1880Entry/Object ID
976Description
Undecorated hardwood truncheon, 15 inches (38cm) long, with multi turned handle grip, flat top and very bulbous end. No strap. No maker's markings. Old circular yellow/orange collector's sticker on handle end, numbered "11".Use
For use by a constable for protectionContext
In the 19th century as more police forces were established certain styles of truncheon, especially those made by large manufacturers such as Parker, became generic of the period. However there was no such thing as a standard shaped truncheon in the same way that there was no such thing as a single form of decoration on painted examples. Instead there were a huge variety of different styles, with smaller police forces and parishes, in particular getting their truncheons locally made to their own specifications.
This truncheon has a large bulbous end to give it more weight. Without any markings it is difficult to date, however at 15 inches in length it is smaller than many earlier 19th century examples and may date to the 1880s when the Metropolitan police began to adopt truncheons of this size to fit into trouser pockets. The fact that it came from Sussex Police may indicate that it was used somewhere in Sussex. The collector's sticker on it suggests that it was part of a collection of items, possibly including other similarly marked objects in the museum collection, possibly from a small museum that was originally located in the Brighton Wellington Street Police station until 1965.