Name/Title
Two chrome plated Sussex Constabulary helmet roses c1970Entry/Object ID
2410Description
Two chrome plated metal rose shaped covers for the tops of police helmets. No makers marks.Use
For use on a dome topped police helmet.Context
With some variation there are essentially three different types of traditional British police helmet, individual police forces not all using the same type. There are dome topped helmets, coxcomb helmets and ball topped helmets, all of which are still in use. Occasionally more elaborate types were and still are used for ceremonial occasions but the three main types have been in use since the late 19th century.
Dome topped police helmets usually have a metal helmet rose such as these, which has holes to allow for ventilation, there being a hole in the top of the helmet itself. Helmets with roses are the most common still in use and the widespread use of them on helmets dates from the 1934 Dixon Report into police uniform, which attempted to standardise what was worn nationally. That report recommended dome topped helmets with rose tops, as then worn by a number of police forces including the Metropolitan Police, be used nationally. However their adoption was not universal as is reflected in the continuing variety of helmet styles worn.
The finish of helmet roses and the "furniture" used on other styles of helmet is the same as the badges or helmet plates used. So in the past if black helmet plates were used, the helmet furniture would also be black.
Helmets with roses were used at one time or another across Sussex in all of the old police forces. However for most of its history Brighton Borough Police used ball tops on its helmets, and in the 1960s prior to the 1968 amalgamation, both Eastbourne and Hastings Borough Police swapped from rose topped helmets to those with coxcombs. At that time East Sussex Constabulary was using helmets with black helmet roses and West Sussex Constabulary was using chrome plated helmet roses to match the chrome plated helmet plates it adopted in the early 1960s. When Sussex Constabulary was formed in 1968 rose topped helmets were adopted with chrome plated roses and badges, and continue to be used in Sussex Police.