New Scotland Yard was not (and never has been) headquarters of the English police service neither did its detectives routinely investigate crimes outside the London Metropolitan police area. Every police force was independently organised with its own chief constable in charge, albeit operating under the auspices of the local police authority to ensure it received official funding and ran its affairs efficiently. Not far from Aidensfield/Goathland were the East Riding Constabulary, the West Riding Constabulary, York City Police, Leeds City Police, Hull City Police, Middlesbrough Borough Police and others, all responsible for their own administration and working quite independently of their neighbours. In short, England does not have, and never has had, a national police service.

Goathland lay within the North Riding of Yorkshire, the county force I joined in 1952 but unlike Aidensfield, it did not have its own village bobby. Goathland was policed from Grosmont or sometimes Glaisdale.

My rural beat was in the North Riding so it was sensible to set Aidensfield in the same county. It follows that Ashfordly with its neighbouring market towns and villages, whether factual or fictional, were also established within that very rural and beautiful part of Yorkshire.

This meant that Aidensfield’s style of uniform, along with its badges, official forms and procedures, were those of the North Riding Constabulary. These would differ from neighbouring areas because every force had its own way of doing things along with its own stationery and procedures.

However, Heartbeat required some modest adaptations for the sake of television drama. For example, in real life, the rural bobbies in towns like Ashfordly and villages like Aidensfield did not wear helmets; they wore peaked caps. However it was decided that helmets would provide a better nationwide image for the fictional bobbies even though one problem was that helmets could obscure much of an actor’s face. That means our Ashfordly heroes spend a lot of time without their headgear! Furthermore, it’s almost impossible to wear a helmet in a car or van. Another problem was that there were two types of helmet badge – one was black for use on night duty so that the constable could conceal himself if necessary, whilst the daytime badge was chromium plated and highly reflective. It was found, during the shooting of daytime scenes with helmeted bobbies, the badges reflected the necessary lights which in turn affected the cameras – and so the Heartbeat bobbies almost always wear night helmets.

Another concession is the uniform worn by the Aidensfield constable. Quite often he is shown in the sort of outfit worn by specialist police motor cyclists who patrol motorways and main roads whereas in real life he would wear his everyday uniform, albeit with a crash helmet, even whilst patrolling his patch on the official motor bike. Many viewers have welcomed the Heartbeat motor bike uniform – they say it looks sexy!

A rural constable, of whom most were married, lived in on his patch in the official police house that also served as his office. There were no female village constables at that time. A more modern rural police house had a specially built office attached complete with a desk, counter and separate entrance. The bobby had to buy his own typewriter, for which an allowance was payable to buy the ribbons (there was also an allowance for torch batteries)...

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