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Victoria Road Police Station

P

Pat

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In the Bits n' Dabs section there is an article by Chris Beresford entitled Salt of the Earth. It tells of his time as a policeman.  If he reads this, I would really appreciate it if he got in touch with me with some description of the interior of the station, particularly where prisoners waited to be booked in.
 
Pat I wonder if the book Birmingham ....The Sinister Side might give you a flavour of life in a police station of Birmingham? Ive only flicked through it so I really am not sure, but it might be worth a browse, maybe someone else who has it might be able to add a little?

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I understand your looking for specifics to do with an Aston police station maybe? but the book might help, maybe they have it in a local library. Its not too expensive on Amazon either

Birmingham...the Sinister Side: Crime and the Causes of Crime in Victorian and Edwardian Times (Paperback)
by Steve Jones
 
Rod I have that book and it tells and shows when prisoners were booked in and did not want their photo taken the policemen put them in a headlock to get the photo of their face, truly amazing pictures
 
I have just bought this book from Amazon used and is a fabulous find. Can thouroughly recommend. A great read and atmospheric pics but leaves one feeling strangely depressed due to the subject matter. Victorian Britain was a truly dreadful place to lie, country or city, whilst in the grip of great poverty as we all know. Ho hum. I best read something more cheerful, now I have finished it!

But Victoria Road police station not mentioned? An entire chapter about the "policeman's lot" within.

:beam: Brummie hugs..Gill :beam:
 
Yes In The Early Years These Police Stations Was Noritous ,Espespecialy In B,ham
As I Have Previously Mentioned About My Grand Parents The Jelfs , And Whilst My Mother Was Being Brought Up At No 1 New cannal Street Digbeth And The Gatherings Of Top Brass From Steel House Lane And The Torture Chambers Of Digbeth Police Station
Was Often Discussed About The Way They Handled Prisoners And They Used To Laugh About It And Tell Them Of Different Subjects That Was Brought In
And I Did Mention Once About A Guy Called Horris The Copper Riding Is Hercules Police Bike Around The Park After He Retired From The Police Force And Be Came A Park Keeper Well He Used To Show Them A Big Key On A Big Ring On ABunch Of Keys
And He Would Show Them What He Used To Do To The Prisoners And He Used To Beat Them Up All This Was Done At Digbeth Police Station , Before They Took Them Up To The Steel House Lane ,Digbeth Police Station Had The Worst Record For Beating Up Prisoners Any Crim; Used To Fear Being Took To Digbeth StationFor The Fear Of Beating ,And This Was The Senario From The Early Days Of The Twentys And The Thirtys Right Up Until About 1957 , When It All Stopped At Digbeth ,
Best Wishes ASTONIAN ,;;;
 
Help! I have heard stories about how notorious Digbeth was in the past, too, Astonian. The book I mentioned (see above) really brought this home, with tales of the Peaky Blinders and so on.
Saddest of all were the youngsters, some as young as 7 or 8...getting a whipping and hard labour at reform school for stealing a slice of bread. Dreadful. (Now you can commit a terrible crime and only get a 6 month term. That is the irony of it.)

Ah, I am getting maudlin, but my heart aches for those young lads(and lassies) . I quote from the Museum of London's website (but applied in all of our big cities...) "At the beginning of the 19th century, child criminals were punished in the same way as adults. They were sent to adult prisons, sometimes transported abroad for theft, whipped or even sentenced to death. In 1814 five child criminals under the age of fourteen were hung at the Old Bailey, the youngest being only eight years old...."

 These were maybe our relatives. Too sad.

Now...to HAPPY thoughts and best wishes to all!

Hugs Gill xxx:)
 
I was only a kid when I went for a ride in a police car to Victoria road police station. I had bunked off with two friends and their little brother to Salford park where a man enticed the little boy off. Someone over the road had witnessed it called the police and a police car came racing down the path. The man ran off but I described him and remember he had no teeth at the front. The picked him up and I said that was he. Back at the police station [while petrified at what my parents were going to do with me] all I can recollect were saucy [nude] pictures in the sargeants office and it being filled with cigar smoke. They took me home [no phones in our house] and told mom and dad not to be too hard as I had kept my head and helped identify this person. Jean.
 
[Of The Twentys And The Thirtys Right Up Until About 1957 , When It All Stopped At Digbeth ,
Best Wishes ASTONIAN ,;;;[/quote]


However,Astonian they did't stop attacking 'prisoners'. I know some one who was caught shoplifting late 70's in the Bull Ring. He was later attacked in Digbeth Police Stationby be the arresting plain clothes officers. It made him so angery that he put in a plead of not guilty and got off. In the higher realms did the one crime over ride the other?
 
Possibly! Jean, I heard a story about him chukking somebody out of a building Via a window!! apparently he was a bit of a what we used to call, a "hardknock" Dad said he was a bit fierce at times. He came home from the first WW with a headwound behind his left ear. He was a changed man by all accounts, hardly surprising isn't it, what our blokes went through.
 
Reg Pete just remembered he was called Taffy Jones. You are right we can never imagine just what they went through in that war. :( Jean.
 
Would it be possible to get someone's work record from Victoria Road police Station, I know it doesn't exist anymore, but I was thinking of asking in Queens road Cop shop. I'll have to post Granddad Cook's picture of his long service medal from Victoria road station, also his First WW Medals.
 
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