Wigan Album

Frank - if this photo was taken in 1967, Wigan was still served by the Wigan Borough force, and the officers pictured are Lancashire Constabulary officers.
The vehicle registration letters 'TB' visible on the nearest car also relate to what was at this time, a 'generic' Lancashire registration, rather than the 'EK' registration of the Borough force vehicles.
An interesting photo, nonetheless.

Frank. Is your dad Roy Orrell, who was in the Wigan Borough Police?.

I think this photo was taken at Lancashire police headquarters at Hutton near Preston. I've got a picture like it taken from the other end of the line of cars.

The letter E of the car registration is for the 1967 year.

Mick. Didn't Lancashire Constabulary take over Wigan Borough Police, sometime in 1969?.

Roy Orrell became a security guard (along with Fred Dyke) at Brocol House. Both now deceased. I think Roy had a daughter, Fiona.

mick:you are correct TB was a Lancashire county reg: E was 1967 : wigan at this time had two regs: EK & JP.

Albert - yes, Wigan Borough was amalgamated into Lancashire Constabulary on 1st April 1969,some two years after this photograph was taken.

The jacket and trousers still have 'that somethin' ... Art Deco Gill Sans Spitfire design ... .

Regarding the Number Plates on the Ford Anglia cars,
well spotted to Mick, Keith,& AH. However,unlike the
A,B,C,&D suffix letters that ended on December 31st of
each appropriate year,the E Suffix letter ended July 31st
1967. I bought a new Ford Anglia 105E in November 1967,from
Forward Motors at Skelmersdale,and its Reg.No.was GTE 928F.

Sorry for the confusion I might have caused over the panda car picture. It was one that I found in the Wigan Evening Post archives and the info on the back seemed to indicate that it was a Wigan picture.
Albert, Roy Orrell wasn't my dad and not a relative of mine.

Frank - since my intial comment above, I've done a bit of digging, and found that in May 1967, Lancashire Constabulary Chief Constable Bill Palfrey purchased 175 Ford Anglias for use as panda cars, and held a publicity event at the force HQ at Hutton, where all the vehicles were displayed.
This would seem to fit in with your photo.

I wonder how many of those Anglia's still exist?, likely none and all rusted away long ago. I heard in some police forces they used MGAs, among other odd choices, and even in one force used an E-Type.

Those were the days when police were police and did their job. Now they're more like the military with dangerous tasers behaving like thugs.

Ray:you are correct the reg: did change later in they year

Wigan Borough Police introduced Unit Beat Policing in October 1967 and for this they used Ford Anglias from reg EJP 11F to EJP 20F inclusive.(EJP 17F was the inspectors car and was unmarked) Wigan Borough was split into 6 Panda area beats 3 on the north of town and 3 on the south of town all supported by an area constable. There was also the General Purpose Vehicle used to carry prisoners and dedictaed motor (traffic) patrol officers also on patrol. The Town Centre was split up into 5 walking beats . The Vehicles used as panda cars apart from EJP 17F had the letters WB on each of the front doors to distingwish them from the Lancashire Constabulary panda cars