During the Veteran period the overall road speed limit was 20 mph. There were extra restrictions in large towns and cities – busy junctions and narrow bridges were often 10 mph and sometimes as low as 5mph.
So how in the days before Radar and Radios were the limits enforced? To explain how I shall have to introduce you to the murky world of Traps and Hedgehogs.
The usual fine for speeding was £5 or 30 days jail, to put this into context in 1910 the Butler at a large stately home would get about £100 per annum a Teacher about £180, a Vicar £200 and a Doctor about £275. So £5 was a lot of money. The police were organised and financed on a very local basis and the fines stayed local. The mostly young men who could afford to run a motorcycle were seen as a “cash cow,” to be milked at every opportunity. 30 days in a pre WWI gaol would not have been quite as easy as the same sentence would be today.
So how did it work? Well there were two basic traps:-
1. The three policemen or “unfair” trap.
First a half mile section of road would be measured accurately using a surveyor’s chain between two prominent features like two large trees or gateways, something that all concerned could see.
Two of the Policemen would be in plain clothes, these are the Hedgehogs. Hedgehog 1 would be hidden in the Hedge just before the first marker at the start of the measured half mile. Number 2 with a stop watch was hidden at the second marker with the uniformed Constable a suitable distance down the road.
Just after the Motorcycle passed Hedgehog 1 he would step out into the road and signal with a flag or his handkerchief as it passed the first marker. Hedgehog 2 sees the signal and starts the watch and stops it as the Motorcycle passes marker two.
If the time is less than 90 seconds Hedgehog 2 leaps into the road and signals to the uniformed Constable who steps into the road with his hand raised. Once stopped a summons to appear at the local magistrates’ court was issued.
Why didn’t they stop cars I hear you ask? Well usually the only person who could afford a car was the Laird and he was also the Magistrate and almost certainly on the watch committee who ran the Police.
2. The two policemen or “fair” trap.
A longer stretch of road is measured with a chain, usually 5 miles and usually with some obstruction like a Village or narrow bridge in the middle.
Two Constables meet early in the morning and synchronise watches, then one will go to each end of the measured distance, and as vehicles pass note the registration number and the time.
At the end of the day they rendezvous, probably over a pint and compare notebooks. If anyone has covered the distance in less than 15 minutes they get a summons
How did they work the lower limits in town? This was covered by the coverall charge of “riding to the public danger”. Simply if the Policeman said you were…..you were!
To counter this highway robbery “The Motorcycle” weekly newspaper regularly published letters warning about the location of Traps and an advert for a riding mirror, not so that you could see anything overtaking, which would be most unlikely, but so that you could see the Hedgehog waving his hanky and step on the brake!
Article credit: Andy Loosemore.
Photo credits: at the permission of the Gloucestershire Police Archive Officer.
an article by Andy Loosemore for The Girder Club
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