Name/Title
Plain short wooden truncheon c1890Entry/Object ID
983Description
Plain dark wood truncheon 14 inches (36cm) long, with multi turned handle in an unusual shape with two ridges. Old circular collector's sticker on handle end, numbered 56. Old Brighton Borough Police blue label with number 14 written thereon, tied to handle.This label appears to be dated "2/65"Use
For use by police officer as protectionContext
Decorated truncheons became less common in the 1870s and in 1887 the Metropolitan Police reduced the length of its truncheons from 17 inches in length to 15 and a half inches long. This was as a result of the Met. abandoning the use of truncheon cases hanging from the belt. Instead they were to be carried in a special pocket sewn into the trousers, which necessitated the use of a smaller truncheon, something which the City of London Police had already adopted (Wilkinson 2002). After some experimentation with different woods, the Met. began to issue plain cocus wood truncheons in 1887/1888 and it is thought that these had handles consisting of 4 groves, moving away from a multi turned grip.. Other police forces followed suit and by 1900 a 15 to 16 inch truncheon with such a handle became standard issue. There were some variations but these truncheons were more utilitarian than the earlier Victorian examples, having no decoration and were often made of exotic hardwoods for strength and durability.
This particular example is not made of a tropical hardwood and may have been locally manufactured. It has an unusual shaped handle, which is multi turned and not of the 4 grove type that became standard by the early 20th century. This suggests that it may be an earlier example of a provincial short truncheon c1890. It also has two types of label attached. The collector's sticker suggests it was in a bigger collection and the Brighton Police label, dated 1965 may indicate its origins. It is possible that this truncheon was one of the exhibits that made up a small display of items in the waiting area of the Old Wellington Road Police Station in Brighton. When the new police station at John Street was opened in 1965 and Wellington Road closed, the exhibits were all transferred to the new building and put into storage and this may be one of them. If it was part of this collection the chances are that it was originally from the Brighton Borough Force.