The Last Linslade Bobby. Chapter Four Part One.

Chapter
Four.

The Linslade Stories (Now we fast-forward to 1990).

(Picture of map removed. Linslade village moved when the
railways arrived.)

If
you study the modern map, the medieval village was where the 'Holy
Well' and Manor Farm are now. The little church of St Mary is still
there and the canal wharf is still used by fishermen, picnickers and
to dump stolen cars. The two villages carry different names so as to
differentiate them, the old village is called, logically, Old
Linslade, even though there is only one house there now. The modern
village or today the town of Linslade, took over the hamlet of
Southcott when the railway was built. The original route of this
early trunk line was to be across the lower end of Leighton Buzzard's
High Street, but many towns people objected so the railway station
was built almost a mile out to the West, near Southcott then in
Buckinghamshire. It was called 'Leighton Buzzard' station. Linslade
eventually migrated around the new station and eventually the old
village ceased to exist. Linslade grew until it bordered on the edge
of Leighton Buzzard. The original river bed of the River Ouzel was
then the county boundary, (the current river's bed is actually the
mill leet to the flour grinding mill once located at the end of Mill
Road in Leighton, now the Pledge Chairs factory). Linslade began life
in Buckinghamshire, Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. So Linslade is
really a railway town in miniature, hence its very Victorian heart.
Linslade had been amalgamated with Leighton in 1966 and the county
boundary moved to its present line out to the west. Before 1966
Linslade was patrolled by what is now the Thames Valley Police with
its own police station and magistrates court in Wing Road, and
Leighton by Bedfordshire Constabulary with their station hidden
behind the magistrates court in Hockliffe Road.

There was no competition for the Linslade LBO (Local
Beat Officer) when Allan Mills moved to Kempston Headquarters to help
develop the computer system. He was what we now call a 'geek'; an IT
expert. He told me of his various tea-spots and a bit about the
location but otherwise I found I was left more or less to my own
devices. This was a real revelation after being directed by a radio
every time I became free to yet another crime report when I was
driving a panda car. Those two years had been quite stressful for me
as being very conscientious I tried hard to do every job correctly
but it has to be admitted that at times I had far too many crime
reports to investigate. Once all avenues had been searched the
reports were written off. But the idea of walking about Linslade on a
nice sunny day seemed ideal. How many of you have actually tried
walking about hard pavements for eight hours at a time? And then
doing it for seven days at a time? Not many I bet. You soon learn to
pace yourself at the regulation two-miles-per-hour and stopping often
to chat to people. I tried to cover a different area each day, but if
you put all the roads end to end, it is a very long way indeed and
would takes weeks just to walk up each one once! Certain areas soon
showed themselves as locations needing watching, such as the Wing
Road shops.

One big problem was having to walk to Linslade from the
Hockliffe Road Police Station; I was often stopped well before my
beat area to deal with thing by members of the public, usually in
West Street. Also, the return journey was about a mile and a half so
I often cadged a lift with a panda car if there was one about.
Another problem was having to carry all the paperwork that the job
entails but here I found a small pouch that would take quite a bit,
that fitted onto my belt. Just to bore you, I carried an accident
book, statement forms, stop-check forms, road tax forms (CLE2/6),
fixed penalty notices (parking fines, etc), pocket note book, radio
with extended mike (hung over my shoulder by my ear), hand cuffs, two
pens, a torch clip with a torch in it for late shifts, small first
aid kit with a mouth-to-mouth thing and an umbrella. In my truncheon
pocket that is on the inside of the trousers but on the outside of
the right thigh, I should carry a wooden truncheon, but I often had
an umbrella in it instead. I would note the weather forecast as to
which to carry, truncheon or umbrella. If you look at the picture on
the front cover you will see just how little protection gear we had
back then. I had no CS spray, no quick-cuffs (solid hand cuffs, much
easier to use and effective), no extendable baton, no stab-proof
heavy vest, just a white shirt in summer and a black Goretex
waterproof jacket in winter.

Motorists!

On one of my first forays out on foot and as I went
along West Street towards Bassett Road, on my way to Linslade I was
passed by a 4x4 car on the pavement. This is typical of finding work
before I reached Linslade! Yes, it was being driven along the
pavement out of Bassett Road, passing other stationary cars patiently
awaiting a gap exiting into West Street, on their nearside. If you go
and look at the junction you will see that this car must have missed
the nearsides of the others by inches, as well as the fence and wall
on its own nearside. The driver had become impatient and had taken to
the footpath, he then turned right into West Street cutting across
the front of the others. As it all happened within a few feet of me I
took its registration number and followed it on foot as I saw it turn
into Bridge Street. Just as I arrived at the Bridge Street junction I
caught him coming the other way. He had dropped his child off at
Leighton Middle School in Church Square. I stood out in the road and
held up my hand and he had to stop. I asked him about what I had
witnessed and he denied it all, so I reported him for 'Driving on the
Footpath'. He was of Italian extract and waved his hands about in
protest. I pointed out that it was the start of school time and there
were many parents and children on the footpaths. Later that day I put
the file in to the Prosecutions Office at Luton (no CPS back then)
and he duly received a summons. He stuck to his innocent plea and it
eventually went to Luton Crown Court some months later. I had written
down all his comments at the scene of the crime in my pocket note
book, I had also read it all back to him at the time and asked him to
sign it. I had no power to do so but also no reason not to but he did
have to show me his licence. He had refused to sign my book. In the
court this was his downfall as in court he agreed I had 'made my
notes at the time' and showed them to him. I read out the 'interview'
from my note book in the witness stand then he had to give his
evidence. He rambled on about things until the Judge became annoyed.

So the Judge asked him directly if he had driven on the
footpath and he replied, “ Yes, but....” Before he could say
anything else the Judge snapped out, “Guilty, fined £80 plus
costs. Two points on your driver's licence.”

I
had considered this too serious just for a simple Fixed Penalty
Notice (FPN) of just £30 and two points on his licence. As we no
longer have patrolling constables, today nothing would be done about
this type of offence other than others muttering to themselves,
“There
is never a Copper about when you need one”. An
officer in a Panda car would simply have not have seen this type of
offence.

Some days later I was patrolling along a road in Knaves
Hill, having a look around the estate as I had only ever driven
through it before in a panda car. Up ahead of me was a builder's van,
the usual well knocked about Ford Transit covered in dents and cement
dust. It was parked so its front wheels were on full lock, giving me
a full view of its totally bald front tyres. Its road tax was in
order. I soon found the builders doing a job nearby in a garden. I
pointed out the illegal tyres and asked who had parked the vehicle.
It turned out to be a father and son business and the son had driven
to the job so he was 'using' the van. They were both aware that a
bald tyre meant a £30 fine and three points on a licence per bald
tyre (this is also true of under inflated tyres). The son had no idea
of the condition of the vehicles tyres as his father usually drove
it. It also transpired the son already had six points for previous
motoring offences. So if I was to give him a fixed penalty for each
tyre he would reach twelve points and automatically get a years
disqualification from driving. He became very angry with his father
and shouted the odds. I pointed out that as the van was his fathers,
he too would get points as he was 'aiding and abetting' the offence.
Both then turned and looked at me very soberly.

“I'll
go and get two new ones now officer,” the father said to me. I was
pleased he had offered to do that as it meant I could issue him with
a 'Vehicle Defect Rectification Form' which meant he had seven days
to get the 'fault' fixed and the VDRF stamped by the garage doing the
repair. This was to be sent to the police and that was it all sorted.
If the form did not arrive within the set time, they would
automatically be issued with summonses. Back then when there was no
Government pressure to tick boxes 'Forces could do such things. It
was far better for the van owner to spend his money on new tyres than
pay a fine AND still have to buy new tyres. They both looked very
relieved at this and eagerly took the form from me. I was told at the
Police Station they had called in about two hours after I had issued
it, stamped up by a local tyre company.

What I did not tell them was the fact, that as the
points for the bald tyres would have meant twelve points when added
to the others, meaning disqualification, I was actually unable to
give a FPN as only a court can disqualify anyone. I would have had to
have done a prosecution file, a VDRF was much quicker and easier.

Another story where for a week I had to hide from
another shift concerns a drunk driver. I was returning to the 'nick
on foot from Linslade near the end of my 'late-turn' (2pm to 10pm). I
was tired as it was a Thursday and then end of a very long run of
late shifts. I was due two 'additional rest days', because our shift
system ran for seven days with two days off, then another seven days
with two days off, then yet another seven with three days off, (
early, late and night shifts). If you put that onto a calendar, you
will see we only got three 'weekends' off every four weeks (when only
one pair of days actually were a real weekend of a Saturday and
Sunday). So every four weeks or so we were given an additional day
before and after our three day off stint, (yippee! five days off,) to
compensate for the 'lost' weekend in the shift system that took four
weeks to complete. I was looking forward to being with my children
and wife for a change, police work on shifts is not good for family
life. As I crossed North Street from West Street meaning to walk up
Leston Road, an ancient Nissan saloon car ground its way out of
Leston Road to turn into North Street. It was moving very slowly and
its driver looked dazed to say the least. I walked over to it, so
slow was it travelling, to open the driver's door and tell him to
pull over to the kerb. He stank of booze and to me was obviously very
drunk. He had travelled from Luton in that condition and was now
almost asleep. The car pulled into a parking bay near the Black Horse
and I radioed for a breath kit. A panda arrived in minutes and when I
managed to get him to blow into the breath kit he failed it
miserably. He did try sucking twice thinking he would fool me, but
his efforts were wasted. The panda driver then taxied us both back to
the Police Station, that back then had its own breath analising
machine. The statements and forms for a 'DIC' (Drunk In Charge of a
vehicle) were all pre-printed and by the time I had filled then all
in, the police surgeon (Dr. Sirinivasan from Salisbury House in Lake
Street) had taken the necessary blood samples. The drunken driver who
was an Asian was placed in a cell for the court in Hockliffe Road the
next day. This is another typical example of picking up work outside
my beat area.

Friday I was out shopping when I met one of our Traffic
Wardens who told me that 'A' Section going off duty the night before,
ready for their long-weekend, were intending to all go to the Akash
restaurant in North Street for an end-of-shift meal. A few of the
station admin staff were also intended trotting along with them it
seemed. I had unknowingly arrested the chef of the Akash driving that
Nissan, charging him with DIC, so no one had been able to cook their
meal. I had to hide for a week from 'A' Section who were livid their
night out had been ruined.

Murderers.

If the station staff went away on leave, the front
office still had to be 'manned' and back then 'manned' 24 hours a
day. This meant the LBO's were often used to fill the gap, taking
turns. A civilian going on leave took an officer off the streets, but
as only one went on leave at a time, it was only one shift that
needed filling. Not long after I began patrolling about Linslade the
station dumped the night shift enquiry office duty, simply because
nothing ever happened. This caused problems, but more of that later.
It was on one such shift change that we had a phone call from the
publican at The Dolphin public house. This was in Golden Square just
round the corner from the 'nick. (Yes, I know this is not in
Linslade, but I was drawn into the saga so read on.) I was taking
over the enquiry office for a few hours and the only two other
officers on duty were both probationers (constables in their first
two years awaiting confirmation in office). It was I who picked up
the phone (yes, you could dial directly to your local police station
then, no Call Handling Centres to cause havoc had been instigated;
but all treble-nine calls still went direct to HQ though).

The publican of the Dolphin (now a block of flats) said
a regular had told him in confidence that he had killed his wife then
came out for a pint. The chap seemed calm enough sitting at the bar
but there was certainly something odd about him. So one of the
probationers (PC John Bibby) was sent round to see what it was all
about. He was back very quickly and collected the other probationer
(WPC Dianne Steward) and they went to the fellow's flat in Meadow
Way. The chap had indeed strangled his wife, she was found laying on
the sofa stone cold dead. It was Dianne's first dead body. By then I
had 'put a job on the box' (a very crude computer system then used by
HQ as a control and record of reports and incidents) and 'sent' it to
the HQ Control Room to alert them to a possible serious crime. PC
Bibby stayed at the scene to protect it and obviously CID took over
from there and the quiet chap later admitted everything under
caution. It was the result of a violent domestic and it was still
official advice that if possible the police did not interfere with
married couples arguing. Today we find that almost unbelievable as
the majority of murders are from 'domestics' between man and wife,
partners and boyfriend/girlfriend.

Sadly the Dolphin pub was to become the scene of another
tragedy in a few years.

Linslade has two murders that were never solved. One was
in a terraced house close to the Hunt Hotel in Church Road, but long
before I arrived. Elsie Claydon was found strangled in her bedroom
and no one was ever caught. She lived with her brother and he was out
for the evening at the nearby bar of the Hunt Hotel. The other murder
was of housewife and mother Carol Morgan who, with her husband, ran
the sweet shop in Finch Crescent. Again this was just before I joined
the police but PC Steve Wilkinson who 'tutored' me was involved in
house-to-house enquiries for this incident. The husband had taken his
two children out to the cinema for the evening, something he had
never done before. The wife was left on her own in the shop over
which they lived. He returned to find her hacked about with an axe in
the shop's storeroom and very dead. There was blood everywhere, the
only clue to the offender was one bloody thumb print left on the lid
of a freezer. To this day this fingerprint is automatically checked
when men over a certain age are arrested and their prints taken. One
day he will be found. CID Superintendent Brian Pricket was in charge
of this murder investigation and a car seen near the scene of the
crime was a green Vauxhall estate car. He ordered that all green
estate cars of this type were to be traced and checked. This
eventually led to a huge countrywide search for these cars as no one
knew just how many there were; they proved to be very numerous
indeed!

Continued....

T