Did you know that the forerunner of the modern Probation Service was set up in the police courts of Victorian London with a donation of just five shillings?

Or how the concerns of Christian churches (including the Primitive Methodists) and their temperance societies for the men, women (and children) facing trial and imprisonment for offences often associated with alcohol lead to the legislation resulting in the foundation of the Probation Service in 1907?

Or how the ideas and principles behind the work of the Probation Service would go on to be rolled out across the world?

The Root and Branch Exhibition will tell you all this and more.

You can find out more about the exhibition, events, history and today’s Probation Service at the dedicated Root and Branch Exhibition website.

From 24th August until 30th September 2023 you can visit the Exhibition here at Englesea Brook Chapel and Museum . The exhibition will then travel to various sites across England and Wales until August 2024, as outlined in the itinerary on the exhibition’s dedicated website.

The Root and Branch exhibition was created in partnership with the Probation Service, funded by the Association of Independent Museums with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.