WITH reference to novelist Andrew Martin’s best selling thriller based on York of the 1790s, to some the Georgian period painted a picture of elegance. It was not.

Before the new police force was formed in 1829, the country had to rely on watchmen, chosen by the freemen of the city of London.

Aged and decrepit, forced to serve one year unpaid, it was not surprising that they were lethargic or indifferent in their performance and no match for the breakdown in law and order, with street gangs roaming the city.

Every complaint was met with a cry “God restore your loss, I have other business”.

For punishment, magistrates had to rely on the gallows, the stocks, the whip and transportation to maintain a stable society.

Even children were subject to harsh punishment. Archives reveal that five to nine-year-olds were given capital verdicts for menial offences, ie stealing silk handkerchiefs, working as pickpockets for a Fagin type.

However, two Fielding brothers formed the Bow Street Runners, a mounted branch of ex-cavalry officers, to patrol the highways and byways as a safeguard against highwaymen.

This in itself gave way to the foot police on duty in our towns and cities.

Lest we forget, history can repeat itself in criminal behaviour.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York