Nottscops learning to drive

At various times in their varied careers all Nottscops will have been on a driving course; that ego-destroying system of learning, where we all found out that we weren’t such good drivers after all.

Although the City and the County forces were separate bodies prior to 1968, the two forces jointly operated the Nottingham City and Notts County Police Joint Driving School. This was formed in 1954 by the city Chief Constable, Capt A Popkess. The City Police used Lancashire Constabulary’s driving school before this time and a more local way of advanced driving instruction came about after persuasion from Capt Popkess for the County Chief, Mr J E Browne to start up the new local Police Driving School.

This new driving school started in the city, at the Leen side Police Station on Canal Street and later moved around the county to the more permanent location at the new County Constbulary Headquarters at Epperstone Manor where it survived right up to the passing of the Manor. The Force Driving School is currently at Hucknall.

The first driving school car used for Advanced Driving Courses was OTO 77, a black 15 HP Morris Oxford bearing the City coat-of-arms on its doors. Each Saturday the students had to take the driving school cars to the workshop for a thorough wash and wax including washing the chassis and cleaning the engine.

Driving School cars included:

Vauxhall Velox WTO 16

Morris Saloon MAU 960

Morris 8 GTO 516

Triumph 2000 ATV 259B

Morris Commercial Prison Van TV 8989

My first driving course was in 1975 while still in my probation and working at Carlton. In those days the Force ran a four-week standard driving course where officers were taught to drive as complete learners with a view to testing them to get their full DVLC licence. As the years went on these courses were phased out to the extent that it became a requirement for all recruits to hold a full driving licence to apply to join Notts Police. Already having a full licence, I therefore went on a short-standard course to get qualified to drive pandas and vans up to 1500cc. To pass would get you a grade-3 classification enabling you to be able to drive pandas on patrol and respond to emergency calls within the limits of the car. Failing this you classified as a grade-4, which only allowed you to drive on enquiries only.

The course was held at Epperstone and my instructor was Pc 561 Reg Hibbert who spent most of the time in the car making myself and my two co-students feel as inadequate as possible. The big problem was of course Reg was the same rank as us three and it grated a bit being ordered around by someone of the same rank. This has always been a bit of a dodgy topic hasn’t it? - Instructors teaching officers of same rank and higher. We mastered the art of sustained gear changes and committed to memory word-for-word the “system of car control”. Every time we did something wrong Reg would hit the dashboard of our dark blue, 4 door Mk I Ford Escort,and shout “System, system!”

As time went on I got through my probation and joined traffic. Another damned driving course. This time the dreaded advanced with Sgt Dave Lewis as instructor. My fellow trainee advance-students were Tony DeVos and Keith Rudkin and we terrified the life out of each other by hurtling around at well over 110mph on the county’s roads in a dark blue Jaguar XJ6 – number VRR 1L that used to be the Chief Constable’s car. I bet he was never driven around in it at those speeds. Quite frankly I was bloody terrified on that course because most of the time you were a back seat passenger totally in the hands of someone being taught by someone else how to drive and overtake vehicles at twice the speed limit. You felt so vulnerable and there were no rear seat belts in those days. The worst thing was commentating. I could never speak fast enough to keep up with the changing scenery rushing past the car and I had to concentrate on what I was saying to the detriment of concentrating on my driving.

I got my Grade-1 though. The examiner was inspector Malc Poole, head of the Driving School. The funny thing was that a few days before the test Insp Poole took us all out foran appraisal drive in which he drove for a while to demonstrate the standard he was expecting from us. Unfortunately he failed to give sufficent clearance to a line of parked cars, one of which suddenly had its driver's door open and hit the side of our car. Anyway, my commentary went well on the test and my test drive from Epperstone to Bawtry toilets went without a hitch. In later years I was to go on two refresher advanced courses with instructors Pc Robin Newcombe and Sgt John Halliday, with Inspector Mick Dobbs as examiner.

By far the hardest course I ever did was the two-week HGV Class-1 course which I did in 1983 with Pc Brian Mather as instructor. My fellow student was a Pc from Humberside Police who had been in the army as a tank-transporter driver but had never converted his army licence to DVLA status; but he knew how to drive an artic, wheras I didn’t and throughout that fortnight I felt very inferior. Unbelievably, with all his experience, he failed the test on the day and I passed! My examiner on the day was Sgt Pete Wharmby. The Force operated two Ford Cargo tractor units, one at the driving school and another for hauling the mobile control room, clothing store trailer and portable canteen. Since passing the test I have never driven an articulated lorry to this day, using my HGV skills instead to drive the two mobile cellblocks. Nowadays all HGV courses, vehicles and expertise are long gone.