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The Police Houses of Winteringham
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 This house, situated in West End, may be the original police house in the village
, though a house on the eastern side of High Burgage close to Town End is also suggested as the first. In 1861, Thomas Stevenitt was the village Police
Constable, aged just 21, with his 22 year old wife Eliza. Perhaps the pair lived in this house?
The village stocks were last situated in its garden!
The 1677 cottage, seen on the ‘Local History’ and ‘Photographs’ pages of this
site was joined on to the end wall - and its outline can still be clearly picked out, though demolished more than 40 years ago
By 1901, the .Police Constable was Edward Barker aged 32, though he lived in
High Burgage with his family - wife Mary (33), and children Ida (7) and Edward (2). In the 1920s, PC Jack Creasey (PC124) was the village policeman, and was probably the first to live in Elim House.
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 Elim House is opposite the above house, and it became the second police
house in the village, until replaced by the purpose-built one below in the 1960s.
Elim House is the nearer of this semi-detached pair - the far house being
‘The Mount.’
When this was used by the Lincolnshire Constabulary, it had the then
regulatory large blue noticeboard in the front garden, just to the right of the gatepost. Occasional posters and notices were displayed, the most regular one being about the colorado beetle.
This is how Stephen Barthorpe, son of the village policeman remembers
Elim House:
“My first memories of coming to live in Winteringham was the very long journey by bus from Lincoln, the bus stopped at
every village between Lincoln & Scunthorpe I seem to remember having to change buses at Scunthorpe for the last few
miles into Winteringham. During August 1949 we moved to the Police house in Winteringham. At this time I was almost 4 years old.
From our garden at Elim House the River Humber was easily seen with many boats going past. Elim House was built on
high ground, and the pathway sloped down towards the road, and then steps took you down to road level. Next door, was the Wesleyan Chapel, where I went to Sunday School each week.
To get to our garden at Elim House, I used the steps, which went right by the side of the Chapel. I can still remember Dad
trying to dig it over. At the back of the chapel, there always seemed to be daffodils growing there, I wonder was it because of them, that daffodils are still my favourite flower today?
Miss Brown was my first teacher at Winteringham school. Every morning I walked to school, down the steps onto the road,
turning left up the hill, which seemed very steep indeed, ( I wasn't allowed to cut over our garden and through next doors
garden) then onto school. Mum packed sandwiches every day for me, I have many happy memories of that school, except
for the day when I ran into school, tripped on the first step and landed on my left eye on the next step, a lot of pain, tears
and blood, but after first aid from Miss Brown I soon recovered. I remember playing in Ogg's farm, at the top of Marsh
Lane. The farm looked to be quite big, but I had only just turned four years old. I do remember quite clearly my sister
Elizabeth being christened at All Saints Church. Across the road lived Uncle Ray & Aunty Betty with Dorothy, I used to go
through the passage into their garden with some stale bread to feed their chickens, and sometimes I would eat some of
the bread myself. Next door to them lived John Riseborough, although he was quite a bit older than me I remember
spending a lot of time with him. He was always busy fixing or making something. Many years later I went to the Winterton
summer show, and there was John taking part in the cycle race, and very professional he looked too.”
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 The above house was replaced by the third police house, built opposite the primary
school in the mid-1960s, and photographed here shortly afterwards.
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Policing 1949-1951
By Stephen Barthorpe (pictured right at the
back of the then Police House - Elim House in West End. The young village girl with him is Carol - surname unknown)
“My father Raymond Barthorpe, had joined
the Police Force some years before, and did his training based at Sleaford, my only memory, is of the railway line near our garden wall.
For my father, to be posted to
Winteringham village was a very important move, but the Police made him work very hard, every day he had to cycle into Winterton to the Sergeant’s office, a round trip of 6 miles, in all weathers.
Whilst on duty time he had to cycle to Whitton, over to Burton upon Stather, Appleby and all the way to Gunness.
In those days, police radios had not been invented; the only contact was by telephone that only worked sometimes. I can
remember Dad being called out, in the early hours of the morning, it was very dark outside, off he went all the way to
Burton upon Stather, because a farmer had shot himself through the head, I didn't see my Dad again until teatime.
Because we were from Lincoln, my Mum had a very hard time making friends, across the road lived Ray & Betty Birkett
and their daughter Dorothy. Ray Birkett worked for Lysaghts in Scunthorpe as a painter and decorator, as my Dad later
found out, that, half the men in Winteringham worked at Lysaghts, and the others worked on the land, Lysaghts men
came with more money in their pockets than the farm workers, and this sometimes caused a bit of jealousy.
Next door lived Mr & Mrs Wingate, who were quite friendly, their son Stephen moved to the crossroads to run the garage.”
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Policing in the 1950s
PC Kirk was the village policeman from May 1952 until December 1960.
There were no police radios at the time, and all travel was by push-bike. The beat covered the whole of Winteringham parish, including as far as the Sluice at Ferriby, West Halton, Whitton and Coleby, with Winterton covered at times as well.
So that he could be contacted from the local headquarters at Scunthorpe
Police Station, he was given a daily list of ‘shift’ times and places where he should be. These were either local telephone kiosks, or close to farms and other places where there was a telephone!
Shifts were most usually ‘split shifts.’
That meant such times on duty as 9-1, 2-6. Sometimes they would cover 12 hours in two splits - 6-10 and 2-6. Very occasionally he would have a ‘straight 8’ which meant working from (e.g.) 10 until 6, with ¾ hour off for a meal.
There were frequent postings of information that originated from
headquarters.
These would include suspects to look out for. Any information that related to the local area had to be manually copied into the notebooks that he carried, but there was no time allowance for this within the duty time.
At the end of each year he would receive a summary of the crimes
committed and the detection rate of those. Typically this would read ... Crimes committed: 4; Crimes detected: 4
When the V-bombers were based in the county, coming into service during
that decade, he was given a ‘rescue kit’ in case one crashed in his area. This consisted of two items as I recall. Item 1: a large poster showing the layout and rescue points on the aircraft.
Item 2: a gas mask. These were kept at the Police House.
His equipment carried each day included: notebooks and indelible pencil
(indelible so that nothing could be rubbed out or changed), whistle, handcuffs, watch and truncheon.
As well as the obvious items of uniform, he usually had waterproof leggings in his cycle seat bag, and a cape strapped to his handlebars.
Unpaid volunteer ‘special constables’ would also help, including Don
Burton who worked as a metallurgist, and was also involved with Winteringham Cricket Club at a time when all its home matches were played in the Croft.
During the 1950s, PC Kirk asked for, and received, a wooden ‘office’ so
that he need not interview people in his living room in Elim House.
This was situated between the Chapel and Elim House (it was sited to the left of the picture showing Stephen Barthorpe above, where grass is growing and the shadow of the Chapel falls). It was an old police office from elsewhere, and included built-in sloping desks.
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Some of the Police Constables Resident in Winteringham
1859: John Burdett (Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Emma, and on 23rd January 1859 his son John James was baptised.
1861: Thomas Stevenitt
(1861 Census), aged 21. Married to Eliza (22), and living in West End. He was born at Mawthorpe.
1871: John Allison Christopher (Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Mary, and on 11th June 1871 his son Henry was baptised.
1873 & 1875: John Thomas Smith
(Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Catherine, and on 18th November 1873 his daughter Elizabeth was baptised. In 1875, the same couple had a boy, Henry, baptised.
1878: George Worsdale
(Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Jane, and on 24th October 1878 their twin daughters Laura and Zilliah were baptised.
1881, 1882 & 1884: Stephen Gadsby
(Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Elizabeth, and on 30th March 1881 their son Tom was baptised, on 16th July 1882, Edith Andrea was baptised, and on 24th February John William was baptised.
1886: Thomas Everitt
(Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Elizabeth, and on 12th December 1886 their daughter Gertrude Eleanor was baptised.
1901: (Census) Edward Barker, married to Mary Ellen.
In 1901 his son John Hector Barker was baptised. The Parish Register states that they lived in High Burgage.
1905:
Arthur Oliver William Creland
(Parish Register Baptisms). Married to Rose Amelia. On 10th December 1905 their daughter Audrey was baptised.
PC Jack Creasey
PC Eton
1949-1951 Raymond Barthorpe
1952-1960 Raymond Kirk
1961 - ?: PC Baker
Martyn Brown
John Nundy
If
anyone can supply the dates that the last three served Winteringham, I shall be most grateful. Likewise, the forename of PC Baker.
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