Before the formation of the first professional police service (the Metropolitan Police in 1829), what would now be classed as policing duties were undertaken by a local body known as The Watch that was organised by the local parish vestry. One of their duties would be to protect the graveyard from bodysnatchers.
Body snatching was a very lucrative and commonplace 19th Century activity, although illegal, because fresh bodies were always in demand by anatomists at Guys Hospital for dissection and teaching purposes.
The Rotherhithe watch house had a cell in the basement where suspects could be held and was staffed by a beadle (a parish constable associated with the church), a constable and 14 watchmen.
