With the current push towards neighbourhood policing, Janaki Mahadevan looks back at the history of the area’s bobbies on the beat.

A drive to bring police closer to the community was set in stone this year when Hertfordshire Constabulary signed a national pledge to improve its community service.

Neighbourhood policing teams have been introduced in every area in England and Wales, highlighting the long sought-after public ideal of police officers pounding the streets.

The notion of the of the “bobby on the beat” stretches back more than 150 years when a group of officers known as the beat patrol were each given a specific area to police.

Much of what is now called Hertsmere fell under the jurisdiction of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, following the enlargement of the Metropolitan Police District in 1840.

Without the use of panda cars to rush to emergency calls, the team policing the villages of Elstree and Borehamwood would use horses to get around. Although the officers were based in Edgware, they rented stables in Hill House, in Elstree Hill South, now used as a nursing home.

Rod Brewster, former editor of the Borehamwood & Elstree Times, gained an interest in the history of policing from his father, who was an officer in the Met from 1930 to 1960. He said: “There used to be a sign in Elstree village warning thieves in the area that the Metropolitan Police Horse Patrol was present in the area.

“All the areas were divided up into beats because until the late Fifties, when lightweight motorbikes, later known as noddy bikes, were introduced, police would travel around by foot.”

A temporary police station opened in Barnet Lane in 1869, followed by a purpose-built building in 1892, with records showing a staff of two acting sergeants and nine constables.

Mr Brewster said: “When my dad first started at the Met he was based at Southwark where they had to regularly change the charge book because of the amount of crimes. When he moved to Hendon and first visited Elstree station, he was very amused to see the charge book was still the one from the first day the station had opened.”

From July 1960, the station was closed at night and finally closed for good in August 1971.

In Borehamwood in the late Forties, London County Council was planning to build large estates, expected to boost the population from 9,000 in 1945 to 22,000 by 1955, so the Metropolitan Police searched for a site for a police station.

A temporary station was built in 1955 in Elstree Way, Borehamwood, on land bought from a film company. It opened on March 4, 1957, replacing a station in Harris Lane, in Shenley, which closed the same day.

The officers and sergeants based in Borehamwood would often be seen riding around the village on their bikes and stationed at blue police boxes linked to the police station, like the one formerly based outside Woolworths, in Shenley Road.

Officers from beat patrol could report where they were from these boxes and a flashing light from the box would indicate to the patrolling officer that he was required to make contact with the station.

Borehamwood Police Station as we know it today was built next to the temporary building, and became operational on July 8, 1968.

Up until April 2000, Borehamwood remained under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police but under the Greater London Authority Act of 1999, the responsibilty for the new borough of Hertsmere shifted to Hertfordshire Constabulary.

Chief Superintendent Alison Roome-Gifford, central area commander at Borehamwood police station, said: “Hertfordshire has invested greatly in neighbourhood policing and has made a commitment to keep neighbourhood officers in their specific areas. “I receive letters and emails every week from people thanking me for the actions of my officers and police staff, which go that extra mile to make sure we continue to deliver exceptional levels of satisfaction in Hertsmere.”