X John BARRONDear DavidThank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning John you would be surprisedhow many enquires we get from people who never sayplease or thank you, but first I have to point outa few things. Sadly we do not have a photograph,that is to say we may, there are literallyhundreds of photographs of officers, but theirnames were never recorded on the reverse. If youdo we would very much appreciate a scanned copy.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester. Ias a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher am slowly extracting theserecords. Cheshire Police Officer Enrolment Recordsare held under Reference CJP7 Volumes 1-5. Thesefive volumes are very large and in poor condition,run from 1857- 22 March 1913; the informationwhich you seek would therefore be recorded inVolumes 1 and 2. Information regarding anofficer's marriage is retained in CJP24/2,1847-1966; however John's name does not appear.Which is strange because it was an offence underthe then regulations to fail to notify the ChiefConstable that you were married prior to enteringthe force or having entered the force you neededthe Chief Constables permission to marry and theintended spouse had to produce 4 independentreferences to say that she was a fit and properperson to marry a Police officer.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volumes. However if you so wish, youcan of course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that TheRecord Office will charge you a minimum of £27 persearch per volume; therefore your total bill wouldbe at least £52, so please be aware.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site underthe drop down menu marked 'History', I feelcertain that a useful picture can be obtained oflife in the force at the time, my own opinion isthat discipline was draconian and those whostrayed outside the rule's were fined way abovewhat they earned or dismissed. Also therestrictions on their private life, an officer wasnot allowed to drink on or off duty even in hisown home. It all comes down to the fact that upuntil the 1960's every Chief Constable of Cheshirewas an ex military officer and they of coursebrought with them the military codes of practice.I trust you will enjoy what follows and can I askyou when you get a moment would you send a quickmail so I can mark of your enquiry as completed.If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me. Jim Talbot. Trustee andResearcher, Cheshire Museum of Policing.Collar Number/Rank. Sgt 18 John BARRONBorn. 1822 Carliverick? Dumfriesshire, (This isvery difficult to read in the original documentsso the spelling may be incorrectDate of Entry. 20th April 1857Date of Leaving. 29th September 1875.Final Date of Leaving. 29th September 1875How Discharged. Resigned.Initial Posting. Eddisbury Division. Stationed andresident in the township of Barrow which issituated five mile North East of Chester.Other Postings and Dates. August 1865 Over,Winsford. 1872 Runcorn.Miscellaneous Information. Subject has 5 yearsprior service with Liverpool Borough Police and 4years 6 months with Cheshire Old Force. ReligionProtestant, Height 5' 9", Aged 35, Eyes Blue, DarkBrown Hair, Dark Complexion, Proportional Build.Gratuity of £50 paid to him 26th January 1876 onresignation. It is not clear in the records but Ipresume his first service as a Constable was inLiverpool and this started circa 1868. You willnote that the new Cheshire Constabulary was formedin April 1857 prior to this the County was looselypoliced by what was known as Parish Constables.John was a therefore a Parish Constable and hisactual start date as a Constable in Cheshire was1853. It is possible that his service withLiverpool Borough Police may be available and theperson responsible for this is the MerseysidePolice Force Records Officer Ms. Kate McNichol,she may be contacted onappears a small problem at this moment in peoplecontacting her. If by some chance you do contacther and you don't receive a reply please get intouch with me again and I will try and sort itout.Misconduct. 10/11/1857 Neglect of duty,Reprimanded by Chief Constable. (The records giveno indication as to why he was reprimanded.)Pay/Promotion. 1st July 1857 19/- to 20/- perweek. 15th July 1858 20/- to 21/- per week. May1865 Promoted Acting Sgt. May 1866 22/- per week.April 1867 Promoted Sgt at 23/- per week. January1868 24/- per week. August 1868 25/- per week.April 1869 26/- per week. March 1870 27/- perweek. October 1871 28/- per week. June 1873 29/2dper week. August 1874 30/4d per week.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. August 1865General good conduct and efficiency, £2.5s.0d fromthe inhabitants of Barrow on leaving for Over,Winsford.Further research shows that in 1881 John and hisfamily were again resident at 290 Station Road,Winsford, and John being employed as a Tea Dealer.I actually reside in Winsford about a mile fromStation Road. If you visitwww.picturecheshire.org.uk and enter Winsford inthe search field, in particular pictures c01764 toc1969 are of Station Road.