Salisbury Cathedral - Cathedral Constables

Cathedral Constables

The cathedral previously employed five cathedral constables (known as "Close Constables"). Their duties mainly concerned the maintenance of law and order in the cathedral close. They were made redundant in 2010 as part of cost-cutting measures and replaced with "traffic managers". The constables were first appointed when the cathedral became a liberty in 1611 and survived until the introduction of municipal police forces in 1835 with the Municipal Corporations Act. In 1800 they were given the power, along with the city constables, to execute any justices’ or court order requiring the conveyance of prisoners to or from the county gaol (at Fisherton Anger, then outside the city of Salisbury) as if it were the city gaol (and, in so doing, they were made immune from any legal action for acting outside their respective jurisdictions). The right of the Cathedral, as a liberty, to maintain a separate police force was conclusively terminated by the Local Government Act 1888.