The Police Station and Magistrates Court

 

Old Town Map

Old Police Station

(No. 12 on Old Town map)

Built in 1870, the building opposite St Marys and All Saints Church on Windsor End was the first recorded Beaconsfield Police Station.  It used to have three cells and an inspector’s residence.  Part of the building was also the original Court House.   A constable and one Inspector looked after the then population of 1600 people.  Next to the station was a pound for stray cattle.

By 1934 there was one inspector, one sergeant (who lived next to the Greyhound pub) and nine constables (one of which supported Seer Green and another Chalfont St Peter). There were also rooms for single men above the cell block behind the Police Station.   In the 1940’s there were police houses at 17 and 19 Reynolds Road and subsequently 15 and 17 Mayflower Way and in Wattleton Road.  All are now private residences.

In 1964 a new Court House was opened behind the original building.   In 1970 Bucks County Council took over the building, using it initially for the Highways Department and later as the Social Services Home Care Office for South Bucks.  The vacated Police Station building was also used by the Court Office Staff who ran the Magistrates Courts for Beaconsfield and Burnham. (The original Court Office had been above a saddler’s shop at 11 Windsor End.)  In 1993 Magistrates Court closed and cases were heard in High Wycombe.

Public demand resulted, in 1982, in the opening of a Police Office within the Town Hall.  In 2016 this is manned voluntarily and is home to the Police Community Support Officers who walk the streets of Beaconsfield. The former Police Station is now the Beaconsfield Registry Office registering births, deaths and marriages and often features as Causton Police Station on the TV series ‘Midsomer Murders’.