IF you needed a dedicated team of York police officers to enforce strict social distancing rules - well, you couldn't do much better than this lot.

Our main photo shows the men of the York police force in about 1870. And to be honest, you wouldn't want to mess with any of them...

The photo comes from Explore York's new-look digital archive, images.exploreyork.org.uk/ And it is so good, it got us rummaging around the Explore archive to find more photos of York police down the ages. The pictures here today are the result of that search.

There have been 'officers of the law' around to keep order for centuries. According to Tim Lambert's entertaining 'A brief history of the police in Britain', there were local officials known as 'constables' who were responsible for keeping the peace from the Middle Ages onwards. "Men took it in turns to take the post for one year and it was unpaid.," Tim writes. "Also, if somebody witnessed a crime, he was supposed to raise the alarm and all men were supposed to help catch the criminal. This was called hue and cry." This system of 'hue and cry' wasn't actually abolished until 1827, according to Tim.

In addition to constables and their followers, many towns and cities also employed night watchmen to patrol the streets. In London by 1749, meanwhile, a London magistrate called Henry Fielding formed the Bow Street Runners (so-called because his office was in Bow Street) to catch criminals.

The first modern police force in England was formed in London in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel: policemen were referred to as 'Bobbies' or 'Peelers' after him, Tim writes. These first 'Peelers' carried truncheons and rattles and wore top hats - later replaced by helmets designed to protect the head.

Following reorganisation of local government in 1835 all towns and cities, including York, were compelled to form their own police forces: a full-time York police force began t be set up that same year. By 1867 there were 44 police officers in the city and, by 1886, 68. The main police station was on Silver Street.

York Minster also had its own independent police force. Following the Minster fire of 1829, the cathedral's Chapter ordered that 'Henceforward a watchman/constable shall be employed to keep watch every night in and about the cathedral'. A small Minster police force still exists to this day.

While large town and cities were quick to see the advantages of a professional police force, many rural areas hung back. Counties were given the legal right to set up a police force in 1839, but many - including the North Riding of Yorkshire - refused to do so. "There was deep resentment against the idea in the North Riding, with petitions saying a police force was unnecessary and an unwelcome burden on the county's rates," according to a 2006 article in The Press' sister newspaper the Darlington & Stockton Times. Criminal elements soon found rich pickings in rural areas without police forces, however, and so by 1856 a new 'County and Borough Police Act' required every county, including the recalcitrant North Riding, to set up its own force.

That force was eventually, in 1968, to amalgamate with the York city police to form the York and North East Yorkshire Police and then, from 1974, today's North Yorkshire Police.

We've dug out a series of photos from Explore York of the York police down the years. The photos show, in date order:

1. York police officers, c.1870

2. Police officers outside Fishergate Bar in the early 1900s

3. Police officers taking part in a parade to mark Military Sunday in 1911

4. A police officer (with sergeant's stripes) on duty in Low Ousegate in about 1920. St Michael's Church occupies the corner of Nessgate and Low Ousegate. The traffic sign reads 'North B1225

5. A police officer standing at the junction of Duncombe Place, Blake Street, St Leonard's Place and Museum Street in the 1920s

6. A police officer on points duty in front of Micklegate Bar in 1925-1935. Tram lines can be seen going off to the left (Queen Street) and the right (Nunnery Lane) as well as out of the city down Blossom Street

All the photos on these pages, and thousands more, are held on Explore York’s redesigned digital archive of historic images. You can browse it at images.exploreyork.org.uk/