POLICE STATION
Until the formation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829,
Brentford people shared collective responsibility for
apprehending offenders, reinforced by officers from the
watch. The constable was elected by rotation from among
the better off members of the community and served for
one year. It was an unpaid position. A large proportion
of the constable's time was spent removing outsiders from
Brentford who might prove a drain on parish charity,
especially 'big bellied women and bastard children'.
Abandoned children were however; sometimes left outside
Brentford's public houses and other places such foundlings
were named by the parish after the place they were found.
eg James Brentford, Mary Butts. In the New Brentford
Vestry accounts for 1634 is this intriguing entry Paid
Robert Warden the constable, which he dispurs'd for
conveying away the witches, 11s 0d.
Brentford seems to have been known for its witches. In
Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor Falstaff is made
to disguise himself as the old fortune-telling Fat
woman of Brentford whom Master Ford swore was a witch
and in Westward Hoe a play of 1607 by Thomas Dekker
and John Webster, one of the characters says ' I doubt
that old hag Gillian of Brainford has bewitched me'.
The witches removed by Robert Warden however were more
likely to be old and poor women who were being maliciously
accused by their neighbours of causing sickness. Petty
crimes were punished by fines as in 1692 when we learn
that the inhabitants of the Ham 'allow their pigs to
run wild, they build privies, They make dunghills,
they dig up and sell gravel and sand they dig sawpits
to expedite their building operations and though fined
they persist'.
Sometimes miscreants were also put in the stocks, the
pillory or were whipped at the whipping post. In New
Brentford these stood in Market Place in the 17th
century. George Gumer was put in the stocks in 1655
for profaning the Lord's Day John Dix and Thomas
Gilbert were whipped in 1669 for stealing wood in the
parish of Ealing. In 1697 Isaac Goring was fined
13s 4d and ordered to be 'put in upon the pillory in
New Brentford Market Place upon such market day as the
Sheriff shall specially appoint for one hour with a
paper over his head showing his offence' (he had
encouraged one Thomas Brooks to commit a robbery)
The pillory was a wooden frame into which offenders
were locked by the neck and wrists and exposed to
verbal and physical abuse by the local populace.
Brentford also had a cage where drunks or people
accused of committing crimes were locked up before
appearing in front of the Magistrate In 1720 The
justices ordered the township of New Brentford to
provide new stocks a cage and a whipping post. The
cage was to be 8ft Square and 7ft high and built of
timber over brick foundations the stocks and a whipping
post to be affixed and penhouse over them. An early
occupant was Deborah Street a lunatic who in 1721
was ordered to be moved to the mad house at Lambeth
Marsh or elsewhere till she recovers from her lunacy.
In 1813 the parish of Ealing built a cage on the
corner of Ferry lane and the High Street. It was
demolished in 1897 and the fire station was built
on its site. There was a dispute about the proceeds
from its sale since both the Ealing Vestry and St
Paul's church which parish it was in claimed ownership.
A compromise was reached and the proceeds were split.
Both old and New Brentford lay within the Metropolitan
Police area from 1829. The first police station was at
60 High Street (the junction with Town Meadow), which
now is a solicitor's office it is a listed building
and still contains the old police cells in the basement.
A new police station was opened in 1870 at 42 Brentford
High Street for the Metropolitan Police of T division.
In 1966 the police moved to a new station with a section
house above to house 80 police officers. This was built
on the site of the old Vestry Hall in half acre and the
old police station was pulled down in 1969. In 1999 it
was announced that this station too would be sold once
the new Brentford Division station is competed, although
the section house will continue to house police recruits.

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Last Updated: 21st NOVEMBER 2005