X John and Thomas NIELDDear Pat,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning John you would be surprisedhow many enquires we get from people who never sayplease or thank you, but first I have to point outa few things. Sadly we do not have a photograph,that is to say we may, there are literallyhundreds of photographs of officers, but theirnames were never recorded on the reverse of thephotograph so from the Museums perspective theyremain unidentifiable. Further as part of theresearch, checks are made against the variousCensus returns. During the check of the 1851Census, I noted that John had a brother namedThomas, his name was then checked against theMuseum records and it was found that he alsoserved with the Cheshire Constabulary; I haveincluded Thomas's information, at no further cost,to your report.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester.As a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher I am slowly extracting theserecords. Cheshire Police Officer Enrolment Recordsare held under Reference CJP7 Volumes 1-5. Thesefive volumes are very large and in poor condition,run from 1857- 22 March 1913; the informationwhich you seek would therefore be recorded inVolumes 2 and 3. The information regarding theirmarriage is retained in CJP24/2 1847-1965 however,for some reason Thomas is not recorded, this isvery unusual as it was an offence under the thendiscipline regulations to fail to seek permissionto marry from the Chief Constable. And with regardto John's pension CJP20/2/1 1847-1966.Further, there are 33 Volumes each containingapproximately 400 pages of General Orders, theseare basically the everyday events of the CheshireConstabulary and date from April 1857 to 1946,they are also normally held at the Record Officein Chester under reference CJP4, however they arepresently held by the Museum. Each Volume ishandwritten and although they can be scanned theycannot be searched to extract the information asthe character recognition software just does notrecognise handwriting. They are therefore beingtranscribed into a searchable word document, whichis a very long and slow process, only the yearsfrom 1857 to 1884 are complete and any informationbetween these years will appear within yourreport. In this particular case all volumes upuntil the retirement of John in 1903 have beensearched.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volumes. However if you so wish, youcan of course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that TheRecord Office will charge you a minimum of £27 persearch per volume; therefore your bill should youwish to have all the above mentioned Volumessearched would amount to several hundreds ofpounds, so please be aware. The cost of yourreport is £10, and given the above information Ifeel certain that you will agree that thisrepresents value for money.Will you kindly forward payment by cheque madepayable to the 'Museum of Policing in Cheshire'and send it to The Curator, Mr. Peter Wroe, Museumof Policing in Cheshire, Warrington PoliceStation, Arpley Street, Warrington, Cheshire. WA1.1LQ.If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary by going to the web site, INDEX dropdown menu, HISTORY and look for "To the Best ofOur Skill and Knowledge" I feel certain that auseful picture can be obtained of life in theforce at the time, my own opinion is thatdiscipline was draconian and those who strayedoutside the rule's were fined way above what theyearned or dismissed. Also the restrictions ontheir private life, an officer was not allowed todrink on or off duty even in his own home. It allcomes down to the fact that up until the 1960'severy Chief Constable of Cheshire was an exmilitary officer and they of course brought withthem the military codes of practice.I trust you will enjoy what follows and can I askyou when you get a moment would you send a quickmail so I can mark of your enquiry as complete,this is important as whilst we are not funded bythe Cheshire Constabulary, they are still our'masters' so to speak and I have to account forthe information I send out. If you have anycomments good or bad and you wish to make themplease do so?If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me.Jim TalbotTrustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. Superintendent 256 JohnNIELDBorn. 1848 Kirsleton, Dodleston, Cheshire (Borderof Flintshire)Date of Entry. 31st December 1869Date of Leaving. 21st November 1873. Resigned, noreason stated as to why he resigned.Re-appointed. 11th April 1877Final Date of Leaving. 31st May 1903How Discharged. To pension.Initial Posting. HQ Reserve Division Chester.Other Postings and Dates. April 1870 Altrincham.December 1872 Wirral. April 1877 Nantwich. 27thJune 1885 Runcorn. 14th October 1889 Northwich.1st March 1892 Dukinfield. 1st July 1898 Crewe.1st February 1899 Oakmere.Miscellaneous Information. Has prior service of 3years 11 months with Cheshire Constabulary.Religion, Protestant. Height 5' 7", Age 29, EyesHazel. Hair Brown, Complexion Fresh, BuildProportional. Scar on thumb and right eye.Certificate of Service with character marked"Exemplary" sent to him 29th May 1903.Age on retirement 55 years 4 months. Total service29 years 348 days.Died 13/12/1926 Northwich District aged 78 years10 months.Son of Daniel and Susan Nield and brother of Sgt110 Thomas Nield.Census addresses. 1851 Slaters Lane, Kinnerton,Flintshire. 1861 Wrexham and Mold Road, SouthHarford, Hope. 1871 Welsh Lane, Timperley. 1881Village of Narbury and Quoisley, Cheshire. 1891Police Station Bold Street, Sandbach, Cheshire.1901 Oakmere Police Station, Oakmere Cheshire.1911 Cherry Orchard, Oakmere, Cheshire.The Generations NetworkPromotion. No promotion oninitial service. 1885 promoted Sergeant. 1st March1892 promoted Inspector. 1st February 1899promoted Superintendent.Misconduct. No misconduct on initial service. May1883 Absent from Conference Points at 2.30am 17thMay and from his beat at 9.44pm 18th May,Admonished by Chief Constable.Weekly Pay. December 1869 20/-. December 187021/-. December 1871 22/-. December 1872 23/4d.April 1877 23/11d. April 1877 24/6d. June 187825/8d. October 1878 26/10d. December 1879 28/-.27th June 1885 Sgt at 30/4d. 26th December 188631/6d. 26th March 1888 32/8d. 1st July 1891 36/2d.Annual pay as Inspector. 1st March 1892 £100. 1stMarch 1894 £110. 1st March 1896 £120. 10th April1897 £130Annual pay as Superintendent. 1st February 1899£170. 1st February 1901 £180. 1st February 1903£200.Discharged on pension of £133.6s.8d per annum.Total time on pension 23 years 213 days.Total pension received £3144. 8s. 9d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. March 1880for Service, 1 Good Conduct Badge. 12th November1881 for Service. 1 Good Conduct Badge.Where the reference BSI appears in the Museumrecords this applies to a website known as theBlack Sheep Index www.blacksheepindex.co.uk thisis a site that carries newspaper articlesconcerning Police Officers. On occasions theofficer's full name is not given, but we havetried to make a match against what the MuseumRecords show. John appears in 1903 and it makesreference to his pension. There are chargesinvolved to obtain these newspaper cuttings directfrom the owner of the website. It is emphasizedthat the Museum does not know the contents ofthese cuttings and takes no responsibility forthem. The Museum is only showing this as an aidthat there is further information from anothersource. If you should decide you would like thisarticle please when requesting it, mention thisMuseum whilst you won't get in any cheaper it mayjust help speed up the process.Marriage RecordOfficer. John NIELDOccupation. LabourerAge. 28 yearsCondition. BachelorPlace of residence at Marriage. Kinnerton,Flintshire.Date of Marriage. 14th April 1875Place Married. Wrexham parish churchFathers Name. Daniel NIELDFathers Occupation. Labourer, Flintshire.Spouse. Hannah EVANSOccupation. Housekeeper.Age. 33 yearsCondition. Spinster.Place of residence. Buerton?Fathers Name. John EVANSFathers Occupation. Farmer Derby.Collar Number/Rank. 110 Sergeant Thomas NIELDBorn. 1850 Kinnerton, FlintshireDate of Entry. 15th January 1869Date of Leaving. 1st July 1878Re-appointed. Not applicableFinal Date of Leaving. 1st July 1878How Discharged. Death in serviceInitial Posting. HQ Reserve Division Chester.Other Postings and Dates. May 1869 Wirral(Birkenhead); June 1874 Altrincham; October 1875Runcorn; March 1876 Altrincham.Miscellaneous Information. Religion Protestant,Welsh, Height 5' '7", Age 21, Eyes Grey, HairSandy, Complexion Fresh, Build Stout. Died AprilMay June Quarter 1878 Altrincham. Son of Danieland Susan Nield and brother of Supt John Nield.Census addresses. 1851 Slaters Lane, Kinnerton,Flintshire. 1861 Township of Kinnerton,Flintshire. 1871 Apple Grove, Tranmere. Cheshire.The Generations NetworkPromotion. June 1874promoted Acting Sergeant. September 1875 promotedSergeant.Misconduct. None recorded.Weekly Pay. January 1869 20/-. December 1870 21/-.October 1871 22/-August 1872 23/4d. June 187324/6d. May 1874 25/8d. November 1874 26/10d.September 1875 28/-. September 1875 Sgt 30/4d.Merit Badge 31/6d. January 1876 32/8d. June 187633/10d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. November1874 For Gallant conduct in apprehending Poachers,5/- reward, Merit Badge and Pay of 2d per diemawarded by the Chief Constable. (CJP4/2 page 133refers).As stated previously it is unusual that Thomas'smarriage is not recorded however the records doshow that on the death of Thomas his widow who isnot named received a gratuity of £88, i.e. one offsingle sum of money.The 1871 Census shows Thomas as a unmarried,police constable, 22 years of age, resident as aboarder at 18 Apple Grove Tranmere, Birkenhead,with Joseph and Ellen Ellis, we obviously can takeit that Thomas must have married sometime between1871 and 1878 when he died, unfortunately I havenot been able to trace the marriage. The onlything I did note was that an Annie Nield, Widow,is recorded on the 1881 census as a servant,resident in Washway Road, Sale, Domestic Housemaid34 years born 1847 Flintshire, this could possiblybe her.