Recruits making notes for am intelligence test during a staged smash and grab raid at Stanley Grange, Hoghton  All photos: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesRecruits making notes for am intelligence test during a staged smash and grab raid at Stanley Grange, Hoghton  All photos: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Recruits making notes for am intelligence test during a staged smash and grab raid at Stanley Grange, Hoghton All photos: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Helping the Lancashire bobbies earn their stripes

Police training has changed over the years as this fascinating set of photographs in the 1930s reveals.

During the 1930s Lancashire Constabulary was the second largest force in the country after the Metropolitan Police.

With a patch encompassing modern day Greater Manchester and Merseyside as well as the current boundaries, Lancashire was the largest county force in the country with a manpower to match. To ensure officers were up to standard the force established a new training school at Stanley Grange, Hoghton, near Preston, in the 1930s.