The Market Bosworth Police

The old police station in Market Bosworth was once the new police station. Eight years after the Act that allowed for the formation of county police forces, the first police station in Market Bosworth was built on Litchfield Street. It had two cells for prisoners and an attached house for the policeman. This Police Station survives as "Warwick House" on Warwick Lane, with the old cells currently used as outbuildings. Initially the police officer for the town was a constable although that later changed to a sergeant and later still to inspector.

The first recorded police man in Market Bosworth was police constable Frederic Ball, 29 years old and married with children. Frederic had been born in Leicester.

Initially the police station was staffed by just the one man. By 1870 when there was a sergeant at the police station, there was also a constable. Details of police personnel have been recorded spasmodically in the trade directories; sometimes with the senior officer only being named and the constable remaining nameless, other times no names were given at all.

The old Police Station was superseded by a new building, erected in 1896, at the corner of Shenton Lane and the Market Place. This building is still used by the police, although the attached Magistrates' Court with its big windows is now the art studio of the Dixie Grammar School.

For a list of some of the early policemen, see Family History.

Source: Trade Directories 1841 - 1941, Kelly, Wright, White, Harrod, Pigot, Slater, Mercer and Crocker and Post Office

The "new" Police Station of 1896, taken in July 2005.