Staffordshire police were likely to have been formed in 1842?
Staffordshire Police first started renting the police house in the village of Wetton from the Duke of Devonshire
in 1867 for a rent of £4-0s-0d a year.
The rent was further increased in 1876 to £5-4s
The above information come from the Register of Police stations held in the Staffordshire records office.
In 1889 the cell was added and the Duke put the rent up to £7-4s-0d. In March 1890 the first record is made in the charge book.
What charges and if anyone was detained at the house prior to this is unknown to the writer.
The surviving police charge book for the station is held in Staffordshire records office indicates that between
1890 and 1941 some 28 persons were charged and detained as prisoner overnight before being, released or passed on
for further treatment under the law.
This means that prisoners were detained at a rate of about 1 person per 2 years or so.
The reference to charge book No.2, is believed to relate to the type of book used and not to the fact that there
was a missing No.1 book. Hence book 2 may be the only one that ever existed. The book contains many blank pages.
Details of the charges for a period 1890 to 1906, when 14 persons were charged, see transcript of charges attached.
Information after 1906 falls under a confidentiality or data protection act but is know to relate to 14 persons that
were charged and detained, the last being in 1941.
1941 was probably the year the police house was closed.
The cell is now the kitchen of the property but retains the original cell door complete with prisoner spy hole.
The spy hole and the back of the door are steel sheet reinforced.
Draft Les Gray, The Old Police House, Wetton, Dec 2007.
References:-
Document, C/PC/2/27, Wetton Charge Book.
Document, C/PC/1/8/1 and 2, Register of Police Stations