Welshpool
Crime and punishment
  Along the canal  
 

PC Jones probably saw more strangers than many policeman at that time as he patrolled important roads leading across the border.
His beat also included the Montgomeryshire Canal, which came through the area northward from Welshpool. (Find out more about the canal here).
PC Jones' journal reveals that he had a lot to do with the canal and the people who worked upon it. The extract below tells us what happened on the canal in September 1844.

  

It reads:
"I received information that thare was a boar rob[b]ed on the night of the 11th inst[ant] near the Mardy Bridge belonging to Mr John Lewis of the Bellen [Belan] near Welshpool. The following property stolen thare from. viz A new Jacken [jacket] and waistcoat, a Reddy Cule [reticule] full of vittles. Thare was some slite [slight] suspistion [suspicion] on one Sam Evans (alias Cloxen). I churched [searched] his mother' house and all the bad characters in the neighbourhood (found nothing)"
Constable Jones did not catch anyone for this robbery but he did find the jacket, waistcoat and reticule under a hedge.
A reticule was a simple bag (like the one above) for carrying belongings. In this case the bargeman kept "vittles" or food.

More about another incident on the canal...
Constable Jones may not have been very good at spelling but he worked very hard to protect his community from crime. His journal shows that he worked very long hours, sometimes starting at 6 or 7 in the morning and not finishing until1 o'clock the next morning. He also walked great distances and would probably have thought nothing of doing 15 miles a day for long periods.
 

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