POE (hist)

Deeds and copies of deeds relating to property.

Until 1995 the Police authority was run in association with Bedfordshire County Council and as such deeds to property acquired for Police purposes were contained and administered by the deeds registry of the County Council; originally under reference CCE; later changed to POE and arranged largely alphabetically by parish. In 1995 the police authority became independent of the County Council but the deeds to property continued to be stored with the deeds registry. In 2024 the police authority decided to make its own arrangements for these deeds and withdrew the majority of the collection. Bedfordshire Archives sought, and were granted, permission to retain any deeds that related to property that had been sold or disposed of by the police authority before 1995 and that were considered to be of historic research value. Copies were also made of deeds for property that was disposed of after 1995 and some property that was at the time still owned by the police authority so that these too could be available for historical research. These 'historical' deeds retain their POE numbers - all other numbers that do not appear in this catalogue were either for properties sold for which no deeds or copies were kept or for deeds that have been withdrawn by the police authority.

sub-fonds