Crime

The Knoll is a large house, now part of the University of Leicester's Botanic Gardens, on the outskirts of Oadby. Part of a landscaped estate of three houses it is pictured here in 1909, not long after its construction. Courtesy of the Records Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland.

Mr Townley: At Oadby, I'll mention a few of the better known roads there, and they're all houses of wealthy people. Now, at any given time, especially during the summer months, there'd be anything between ten, perhaps 20, or sometimes 30 of those houses unoccupied while the owners were gone on holidays. Now they'd be unoccupied for probably a fortnight at a time. Now the police won't do it now, but in our day they'd ring up the headquarters, this is Mr so-and-so, our house will be unoccupied for two weeks. Now your job then, more than anything else, was to go round these blasted houses, I mean some of them were big houses, night and day, every time you went past it to make sure everything was alright. And woe betide you if in the morning, after you'd gone off duty and perhaps were in bed, it was found out that it'd been broken into in the night, 'cos the first thing they'd accuse you, you'd never been to it.

Interviewer: Did crime increase because of the blackout?

Mr Townley: Yes, a lot, a lot. Of course the blackout was a pain in the neck, because the most severe on anybody, I mean, if somebody had left a crack down at the side of the window like that and it showed about an inch of light, the place was infested by them, the air raid wardens, and they'd come and fetch you and if you reported that man it'd be a five or ten pound fine you know, especially on the estates where they'd got plenty of money. That was one of your main headaches after dark, the blackout. It was heaven sent for thieves and that sort of thing. Try and visualise a big estate like Oadby estate, those big houses, not a street lamp, not a sign of light anywhere. It was made for the job.

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