Crime and Punishment in Britain - Key Dates

When was the 999 number introduced?

1937

When did Henry II become king?

1154

When was the Black Death in England?

1348-49

When was the Justices of the Peace Act?

1361

When was the printing press brought to England by William Caxton?

1476

When was the Vagabonds and Beggars Act?

1494

When did Henry VIII become king?

1509

When was witchcraft made punishable by death?

1542

When was the Vagrancy Act passed?

1547

When was the Act for the Relief of the Poor?

1597

When was the Poor Law passed?

1601

When was the gunpowder plot?

5th November 1605

When was sanctuary abolished?

1623

When was the bloody code era?

1688-1820s

When did Matthew Hopkins stir up mass panic and fear of witches?

1645-47

When did smuggling increase?

1740-1850

When was the English Civil War?

1642-49

When did Matthew Hopkins disappear?

1647

When did transportation begin?

1660s

When was the bloody code introduced?

1688

When were the Gunpowder Plotters publicly hanged, drawn and quartered?

30th-31st January 1606

When was Pentonville prison built?

1842

When was the Habeas Corpus Act passed?

1679

When were the Bow Street Runners set up?

1749

When did Robert Peel become Home Secretary?

1822

When were many poaching laws repealed?

1823

When was the separate system introduced in prisons?

1839

When were the Tolpuddle Martyrs formed?

1834

When were the Tolpuddle Martyrs pardoned and returned home?

1836

In what year did The County and Borough Police Act make it compulsory for all towns and counties to set up police forces?

1856

When was the silent system introduced in prisons (the Prison Act)?

1865

When was the first detective force established in the UK?

1842

When did John Howard publish 'The State of The Prisons in England and Wales'

1777

When was the Waltham Black Act introduced?

1723

When was the Metropolitan Police Act passed?

1829

When was the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) set up?

1878

When was the Gaols Act passed?

1823

When did the police first use fingerprinting technology?

1901

When was the first murder conviction (Colin Pitchfork) using DNA evidence?

1988

When was neighbourhood watch set up?

1982

When was the Police National Computer established?

1974

When did community service begin?

1972

When were borstals introduced?

1902

When were borstals abolished and replaced with Youth Detention Centres?

1982

When were open prisons introduced?

1933

When was Derek Bentley hanged?

1953

When were public executions abolished under the Capital Punishment Amendment Act?

1868

When was Derek Bentley pardoned?

1993

When was capital punishment (apart from treason) abolished?

1965

When was capital punishment completely abolished in Britain?

1998

When was the last female hanged in the UK (Ruth Ellis)?

1955

When did the Peabody Estate open?

1881

When was Edmund Henderson Commissioner of the Met Police?

1870-1886

When was the Night Poaching Act passed?

1828

When was the salt tax passed?

1702

When did William Pitt reduce import duties?

1780s

When was the Hawkhurst gang set up?

1735

When was the book 'Old Folkestone Smugglers' published?

1883

When did the government introduce conscription for men in WW1?

1916

When did the government introduce conscription for men in WW2?

1939

When did the government introduce conscription for women in WW2?

1941

When did transportation end?

1868

When was Thomas Becket killed?

1170

What were the three dates of the parliamentary commissions regarding the need for an organised police force?

1812, 1818 and 1822

When did Robert Peel conduct a commission into policing?

1828

When was the French Revolution?

1789-1799

When was the Transportation Act passed?

1717

When did the Napoleonic wars end?

1815

When was the 'Racial and Religious Hatred Act' passed?

2006

When was the last reported case of highway robbery?

1831

When was witchcraft decriminalised?

1736

When was income tax permanently introduced in the UK by Robert Peel?

1842

When did John Fielding begin publishing The Police Gazette or Hue and Cry?

1772

When was the Artisans Dwelling Act passed?

1875

When was the Trial of the Detectives (Turf Fraud Scandal)?

1877

When did multiple poor harvests take place in medieval England that saw an increase in the crime rate?

Early 1300s

When was the Harrying of the North?

1069-70

When were constables and watchers introduced?

1215

When were County Assizes established?

1293

When did appointing coroners to investigate suspicious deaths become popular?

1190

When was the last Witchcraft execution?

1716

When was the Gold Rush in Australia?

1851

When were trade unions legalised?

1868

When was abortion legalised?

1967

When did transportation to Australia begin?

1787

When did transportation to America end?

1776

When were all tax duties on newspapers removed?

1855

When was the garroting crisis?

1862

When did the government classify drugs?

1971

When did women began to be recruited into the police force?

1919

When was the National Police Training College established?

1947

When did the Fenians organise a bomb attack on Clerkenwell Prison?

December 1867

When was Dick Turpin executed?

1739

When was a vagabond act passed that meant that vagabonds would be whipped and returned home?

1531

When did James I (VI of Scotland) publish Daemonologie

1597

In what century did trade routes begin to open across the known world?

18th Century

When was Henry VII appointed Supreme Head of the Church of England?

1534

When did Mary I reign?

1553-1558

When did James I denounce the Catholic church and order Jesuits and Catholic priests to leave England?

19th February 1604

When were the Bow Street Runners horse patrol established?

1763