A piece concerning Rose Hill Police Station (as seen in the film Violent Playground) where Stanley Baker plays a juvenile liason office working on the premise that todays petty vandal/thief is tomorrows hardened criminal - the film followed the U.S. success of Blackboard Jungle and was made in 1957 and released by Rank in 1958.
Anyway, back to the piece. It is from the Scottie Press. www.scottiepress.org To see the original including a photo, click on web archive then Bishop Goss parish.
ROSE HILL POLICE STATION
Dear Scottie Press, I now live in Australia. It has been my pleasure to be an avid reader of your website. I was a beat copper on what was called the Second Section working out of Rose Hill in the late 50's and 60's. Here are some tit bits of info for you if you can use them. The relationship between the old time coppers from Rose Hill and the people from Scottie Road and surrounding areas was one of the most remarkable of all times. There was the occasional animosity - mainly when a copper appeared a bit too rough or the odds weren't even. They were the days when a good old-fashioned Liverpool bobby could take his jacket off and the bloke who could have been arrested took his off. If the bloke won it was fair game. If the copper won the bloke was 'nicked' but the Bridewell Sergeant always winked when the bloke was charged. Perhaps seeing the cuts and bruises on both. Normally he would get off fairly lightly after appearing before a magistrate such as Bessie Braddock. Bessie understood despite her sometimes tenuous relationship when on the Watch Committee.!
For me it was a privilege to pound the beat between Scottie and the Dock Road. The people were warm and friendly. The 'pitch and toss' schools were regularly raided on Sundays just after the pubs closed. We used a big black van - not the Black Mariah. They always knew we were coming with their 'douse' men placed at strategic lookout points. It was always the same darned van. But occasionally we caught someone. All Scottie Road people will remember the regular police visits to the pubs. Both during and after hours no doubt! Scottie was always known to the local copper as the road with a pub on every corner and one in between. Many old publicans will tell you of the after hours pints the local beat bobbies had. We called it a working relationship.
Many will also remember the bobbies doing traffic (point) duty along from Byrom Street to the Rotunda and all along from Moorfields and Vauxhall Road. This, of course, was before traffic lights. Most would say that we held the traffic up unnecessarily. Possibly right. But also imagine what it was like for the copper standing (for instance) at the junction of Rose Hill and Scottie on a foggy January evening when the rain was pelting down. Heavy white rubber cape - rain running off his helmet slowly soaking into his boots and motorists hardly able to see him. However, not a rude word said (or should I say heard). Sunday morning for me was always great. It was serene. The shops and warehouses closed, the docks not too busy and the streets quiet with most of the men still in bed after their Friday and Saturday night booze ups. Then it was 'surgery time'. The Mams would be waiting at the door for me to pass - and ask me to see their Johnny or Mary who had been naughty or missed Mass or something. I would, normally, look down at them - and they were probably still dressed in their night attire - and shake my finger and say something profound. They were the days when parents would say to their kids 'I'll call the bobby'. And the kids would begin to listen.
Of course there were tragic times as well. The winter of 1963 saw many deaths in St Martins Cottages and the Burlington Street/Portland Gardens areas. I was called to many of the deaths. The people were still very poor but they were also very proud. This is what also made the Scottie road people: poor yes - but proud. Indeed Scottie Poor and Scottie Proud. Indeed times were tough. Between coppers and people it was a remarkable relationship. But, whenever either 'side' needed help it 'miraculously' appeared. You see, the coppers and the people had unwritten rules. Rules, perhaps, we will never retrieve.
The photograph above pictures Rose Hill. It's taken from Rose Hill (Rose Lane?) itself with the Bridewell on the right. To the left of the bin lorry is (probably) the black Ford Anglia police vehicle used by the Duty Inspector. The car park (waste land left) is where the shift coppers parked their vehicles. (Mine was actually pinched one night when I was on night duty. Reckon it was a Liverpool supporter as it was found later in London - the Reds were playing Arsenal in the Cup! (Ha Ha.) Everton lost to Sunderland on the same day. The Engine conked so they couldn't drive it back to the Pool. Served them right.
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Judging by the Ford Anglia (and the radio mast on the Bridewell roof) this photo was taken about 1961/2. Personal radio at that time had not been trialled anywhere in the UK. Therefore, this must be the general communications mast for mobile patrols. The first ever personal radios in the UK were trialled on Scottie in about 1963 - there's a bit of history for you. Also there appears to be a Land Rover in the picture. This could be the patrol jeep (we nicknamed it the bo-peep) though not sure it doesn't seem quite the right shape as ours was short based.
There were two sections of beat patrols around Scottie those days. The First Section, which covered Scottie through up to Netherfield Road - bounded by St Ann Street and Islington. There was the Second Section from Scottie to the Docks bounded by Boundary Street and stretched down to Byrom Street. There were only 10 to 12 beat coppers on the whole division at night plus two sergeants and one Inspector. Occasionally we were supplemented during the evenings by the E.P.s. (Evening Patrols) - the bobbies who sat not so comfortably in the bo-peep and patrolled the whole division.
A
gain in the photograph(above). The two Sections (6 beat bobbies and one sergeant) would leave the Bridewell and march to their respective Sections. The Second Section would turn left down the hill at the bottom front right of your photo. This practise ceased around 1955.
The clue to the date (if you are not sure) of the photo is the Ford Anglia and its exact shape of the rear window. It appears to be the second model produced by Ford in Speke.
John.
Rose Hill Police Station.
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