On this day … 28 March 1891

The Preston Chronicle reported that Preston councillors were upset by the practice of ‘trundling’ drunken women through the streets on an open truck when they resisted arrest. Their concern was not for the women, but for what they saw as a public spectacle shaming the town. The report does not say how drunken men were ‘trundled’.

Here is the Chronicle report:

THE POLICE AND INEBRIATES — PAINFUL STREET SCENES

On the minutes of the Watch Committee’s proceedings being submitted, Dr Dunn drew attention to the manner in which the police sometimes convey women who are in a state of intoxication through the streets to the Police-station.

He said that when a woman was found drunk and she refused to go to the Police-station quietly she was lifted on a truck and trundled through the streets. Other towns were a little in advance of us in their ways and proceedings, and in North London they had a covered ambulance carriage into which prisoners in that case placed, and so shut out from the public gaze.

He had seen women conveyed on open trucks along public thoroughfares, and their language was frequently most abominable. It was time he thought that other arrangements should be made, so as to put an end to these shocking scenes.

Councillor Thompson confirmed Dr Dunn’s observations as to the objectionable character of the scenes in question. They were absolutely demoralising. He had seen a woman conveyed in this way through the Covered Market at the busiest period of the day. Some other means ought to be adopted for conveying these people to the station.