Emergency Services Old-time parish constables had to deal with every kind of emergency. They were unpaid volunteers and had to keep records of their expenses. Accounts of 1815 refer to England’s last gibbeting: ‘Six constables and two days with horses one day to Stanton to be sworn one day at Wardlow Mires gibbeting Anthony Lingard £2.16.10d.’ Lingard had murdered the toll-keeper at Wardlow Mires and his body was hung in a metal cage as a warning to others. Law and order was enforced by parish constables. They had powers of arrest and could demand help from members of the public if needed, such as raising a ‘hue and cry’. This meant getting a posse together to chase after a criminal, usually a thief. In 1684 Constable Robert Stafford of Bakewell sent a messenger to Monyash to raise a ‘hue and cry’ about a stolen horse. One Christmas Eve nearly 200 years later, a wife murderer was caught by the local police and locked inside a cell at Bakewell. Read More >> More Pictures Community Life