Man of action who cleaned up neighbourhood

Dave Stephenson tells the story of how one lone hero tamed the Wild East of Bristol in Victorian times.

- Dave Stephenson

Victorian policemen were unarmed, but in a periodic panic over public order and revolution, Bristol's force ordered a consignment of cutlasses and drilled men in their use. William Bird contented himself with a big stick

F Wyatt Earp cleaned up Dodge City, then Inspector William Bird (1828-1890) certainly cleaned up the old district of St George.

Earp carried a gun, Bird carried a long oak stick.

William Stephen Bird was born in Stroud in 1829 and started adult life as a labourer before joining the Gloucestershire police force as PC 1303. He was 25 years old and almost 6ft tall.

Ten years later he was a Sergeant, having worked at Horfield, Chipping Campden, Staple Hill and finally St George as an Inspector with just three Constables. Of his 37 years' service, 25 were spent in St George.

It was often said that local women who were being assaulted by their husbands would "go and see Mr Bird" who would manage to sort out any problems without things ending up in the courts. Just a threat usually did the trick.

When Bird came to St George, the place had a bad reputation; a hunting ground for robbers of hen-houses, a place of pickpockets and every kind of criminality including murder.

When making an arrest, Bird would often take off his uniform and walk alone into a gang's haunt with just his stick saying, "I will trouble you to come to the station with me."

The prisoner would later be made to walk from St George to the court house, then the prison at Lawford's Gate.