Pencaitland
There was a police house in the village occupied by the local constable and his family; it had an added room, which served as a miniature police station. The local village policeman was always on the spot and was aware of everything that was going on. He dealt with the usual police duties ranging from petty theft to supervising the disposal of cases of anthrax in cattle. He was also a good community policeman, taking part and helping in various social events held in the village.
By the end of the period, times had changed. Some years ago (1971) the police station was closed; for a short period a room was retained as a holding room where prisoners were held until they could be transferred to a police station in Tranent or Haddington. Policing post-1971 took the local policeman away to be deployed elsewhere; he was replaced by a police car which occasionally undertook a quick patrol through the village. Sometimes they parked in a conspicuous place near the garage when groups of teenagers were excessively noisy; of course they cleared out of the way when the police car arrived. There were infrequent visits by a community policeman whose duties, however, covered a very wide area, almost reaching the English border.
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