Research services

History Notebooks are free publications produced by Essex Police Museum, covering a variety of topics about policing in Essex. If you'd like to write a new History Notebook please email us with your ideas so we can discuss this with you. 

The whole series of History Notebooks are available as free PDF downloads by clicking on the links below. 

1. The Murder of Sergeant Eves
2. The Slaying of Parish Constable Trigg
3. Rough Justice for ‘Little Abel’
4. The Rise and Fall of Alfred John Marden
5. One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison
6. Victorian Heads
7. Somewhere over Essex
8. The Chelmsford Mystery
9. The Essex Bungalow Murder
10. The Sible Hedingham Witchcraft Case

11. The Harwich Death Club
12. The Making of a Chief Constable
13. Whatever Happened to Mehuman Newman?
14. ‘Riotous Assembly’ Troubled times in Steeple Bumpstead
15. The King’s Police Medal
16. The Amateur Hangman – A Victorian sportsman’s pastime
17. Night Conference Points 1915
18. A Classic Collection
19. The Silent Detective
20. Black Versus English

21. An Outstanding Reward
22. Almost a Hero or Looking Down the Wrong End
23. The Dogged Detective – The Life and Times of David Scott
24. The Luftwaffe versus Headquarters
25. Southend-On-Sea Constabulary Transport 1914-1939
26. The End of the Phoney War
27. We are in for a High Tide Tonight
28. A Gentle Giant
29. The Coggeshall Gang
30. Officers Behaving Badly

31. Marine Policing in Essex
32. Executions at Springfield Prison, Chelmsford 1827-1914
33. Too Many Cooks
34. The History of the Essex Police Dog Unit
35. The Rayleigh Bath-chair Murder (Currently being updated)
36. Marine Policing in Essex The last fifty years – Part Two
37. The Moat Farm Murder (accessible HTML version)
38. The Cumbrian Link
39. “A Policeman’s Lot” Policing in Victorian Essex
40. An American Tragedy

41. The Story of the Police Authority
42. Killed in Action
43. The Very Model of a Modern Chief Constable
44. The Baby Belsham Mystery
45. Policing before Police Forces
46. Colchester Borough Police
47. The Highest Level of Service
48. Children and Crime
49. The murdered Chief Constable
50. Death of a village policeman

51. The Little Leighs body snatchers
52. An insight into the origins of women police in Essex
53. The borough forces
54. A history of Essex Police Headquarters
55. Essex Police and Family History
56. Just an ordinary copper – The life and death of James Doss 1820-1889
57. The Story of a Volunteer Police Officer
58. Chief Constables of Essex
59. We will remember – The Police officers of Essex killed in the Great War
60. Special Constable 413 Herbert Gripper

61. Per Terra Ad Astra from the beat to the stars
62. The story of Alice Maud Wilson
63. 1976 Police Entrance exam – for you to try!
64. The (Supposedly) Haunted Police Stations of Essex
65. Burglary With Violence At Stansted
66. Lock-Up, Stocks and Whipping Posts

Online

We're gradually converting our history notebooks and virtual museum content into online articles. Click the link to see what's available: Essex Police Museum’s Substack | Substack