Pig on the Highway: A 1944 Leamington Offence Report

Frederick Charles Claydon P.W.R¹
Frederick William M….
Xx Queen Street, L/Spa
Allowing a pig to stray upon the highway.
Aged 33
QEFC 70/1
10.30 am Tuesday 8 Feb. 1944 Wathen Road
1, Leamington Spa.

Sir,

I have to report that at 11.40 am Sunday 8th Feb 1944, I was on duty at Binswood Corner when I received information over the Police Pillar that a pig was straying in Wathen Road.

I at once went to Wathen Road and there saw Mrs. Winifred May K….. aged 47 years – housewife: the complainant – and from her I obtained the following signed statement:–

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Winifred May K….. stated:–

“At about 10.30 am this morning Sunday 8th February 1944 I had occasion to go to my front door and on looking out I saw a white sow pig running along on the path in Wathen Road. As there was no one with it I thought at once it must have strayed and therefore telephoned the Police Offi……….”

Signed
W.M.K

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I made a search in the vicinity for the animal and eventually traced it to a stye (sic) in the Brickyard Allotments, Campion Road. There I saw Mrs. M…. who had driven the pig in and she explained that the sow which was hogging must have climbed over the stye.

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This statement appears with the kind permission of Joe Claydon, whose father was a Police War Reserve Constable. It was found in his father’s effects, and is a remarkable survival from an era when wartime restrictions determined destruction of such documents.

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¹ Police War Reserve Constable