Name/Title
Plain wooden dark stained truncheon c1960Entry/Object ID
615Description
Plain wooden very dark brown stained truncheon 15 1/4 inches (38cm) long, with a domed top. Has a leather stitched wrist strap. No maker's stamp or mark.Use
For a male police officer to use as 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 probably dates to the 1950s or 1960s. It is made of a lightweight wood and has a very dark brown, almost black stain applied, which is typical of truncheons from this period, that were being made to look like the earlier dark hardwood examples. As it came from Sussex Police, it almost certainly would have been in use in one of the Sussex police forces c1960.