In the Medieval period, law and order was left in the hands of the Constable and Bailiff. [See Town and Manor / Origins].

An Act of 1405 required that every community should maintain stocks for the punishment of offenders, who were secured by their ankles; these remained in use until the beginning of the 19th century. The town stocks are clearly shown on the paintings of the town hall shown on the right.

In the 17th century, the town hall was site of the various tools of punishment - the pillory, stocks, whipping-post and  ducking-stool. The  ducking-stool would have  been wheeled up the High Street to the town pond, which was half way up the  slope of the High Street (outside what is now 35 High Street), where miscreants would have had their  public humiliation to correct them of their ways.

The Justices of the peace were drawn from the ranks of the clergy, gentry and other town notables, such as retired army officers. In the 18th and early 19th century the administration of law and order was under their jurisdiction; their remit included punishing petty crime, licensing alehouses, and regulating fairs and markets as well as weights and measures. At the Petty Assises in small towns and villages, they tried offences like poaching, assaults, abandonment of spouses and families, bastardy, vagrancy, wilful damage, petty theft and other misdemeanours. Crimes such as murder, aggravated assault, bigamy and arson were tried in superior courts.

In  1829, Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan  Police Act brought an organised police force to London, and "Peelers"  and "Bobbies" came to patrol the streets. The County Police Act of 1839 empowered Justices of the Peace to establish a paid constabulary for each county. By 1839 many rural large towns also had police forces. The police station in Park Street was built in 1864.

From painting by G Shepherd, 1821, of
Town Hall showing the stocks

Painting by G Shepherd, 1829, of
Town Hall showing the stocks

The stocks at Leverton, c1920.
It is said that these stocks were brought from London in the 1890s.