Shropshire Routes to Roots

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Victorian crime and detection: Timeline

Year	Day	National Event	Local Event	Related Theme:Page
1718		Transportation introduced by Act of Parliament		Desperate times: Transportation
1777		John Howard reported on the state of the prisons	New model prison at the Dana, Shrewsbury, was constructed between 1787 and 1793	Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1829	September 29	Metropolitan police set up	Policing in Shropshire was still carried out by parish constables and local associations	Crime and detection: Introduction to Police history
1834		Poor Law Amendment Act passed; increased use of workhouses		The Workhouse: The Workhouse experience
1835		Municipal Corporations Act forced counties to elect 'Watch Committees' to set up local police forces		Crime and detection: Introduction to Police history
1836	January 5		Borough force began in Ludlow	Crime and detection: Shropshire Police Forces
1836	January 18		Chief Constable and nine constables sworn in to police Borough of Bridgnorth	Crime and detection: Shropshire Police Forces
1836	February 12		Oswestry Watch Committee elected constables	Crime and detection: Shropshire Police Forces
1836	February 5		Shrewsbury Watch Committee appointed thirteen constables	Crime and detection: Shropshire Police Forces
1837		Queen Victoria came to the throne; start of the Victorian Period
1846		Irish potato famine	Potatoes too expensive to be fed to inmate of the Shrewsbury workhouse	The Workhouse: Workhouse food
1848			A report on Atcham workhouse found that there were 16 beds occupied by 32 people	The Workhouse: Workhouse life begins
1852		First Reformatory set up by Mary Carter in Bristol		Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1855		Criminal Justice Act allowed many more cases to be dealt with by magistrates		Crime and detection: System of prosecution
1867		Transportation abolished		Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1867	December 22		Catherine Lewis was murdered in Longden	Murderous Mapp: The trial opens
1868	March 22		John Mapp was the last person to be executed in public in Shropshire	Murderous Mapp: The sentence
1868	May	Hanging in public abolished		Murderous Mapp: The sentence
1879		Post of Director of Public Prosecutions created		Crime and detection: System of prosecution
1880			'Feeding stations' set up in Shropshire to deal with vagrants	Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1888	August to November	'Jack the Ripper' murdered five in London
1898		Hard labour abolished in prisons		Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1901		Queen Victoria died; end of the Victorian Period
1932		Reformatories replaced by 'Approved Schools'		Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1948		Whipping abolished as a punishment		Crime and detection: Forms of punishment
1971		Quarter Sessions and Assize courts were replaced by Crown Courts		Crime and detection: Courts of Justice
1971		Death penalty abolished in England		Crime and detection: Forms of punishment

Timewords

Before the eighteenth century, the arresting and punishment of criminals was a very uncertain? affair. There was no police force as we know it today, and the only punishment for serious offences was hanging.

In 1777, John Howard's report on the prisons started to change things. More appropriate systems of punishment were introduced, and by the 1830s proper police forces were being set up.

In the Victorian Period, even more changes were made to create a justice system which bears many similarities with the one we use today. Police detective work improved, and punishments were more flexible, made to fit the scale of the crime.

The twentieth century saw moves away from capital punishment (the death penalty) and corporal punishment (things like whipping or the stocks). Today, prison, community sentences, fines or electronic tagging are the main means of punishment.

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