Poachers, politicians, and the police: The Poaching Prevention Act of 1862

Abstract The period after 1850 is often assumed to have witnessed some amelioration in the operation of the game code. This article highlights the origins of a little-researched statute, the 1862 Poaching Prevention Act, which conversely augmented the existing game laws and, most significantly, bestowed new responsibilities and powers on the police to tackle poachers at a critical point in the development of the new county constabularies. This controversial measure owed much to the particular circumstances of the 1850s and early 1860s when the violence and criminality associated with the activities of poaching gangs in Midland and northern counties threatened both game preservation and the authority of the new police. In these circumstances, an alliance of magistrates, police leaders and parliamentary advocates successfully lobbied for new measures to deal with this specific class of offenders who were increasingly held as representative of a wider urban criminal class.