BRADFORD Police Museum is planning walking tours of old murder scenes and other crime spots around the city.

The museum, in Bradford’s original Victorian police station, is also planning more ghost tours, taking visitors to the old prison cells which appeared in TV hit Peaky Blinders.

Located in City Hall, on the site of the police station operational from 1874-1974, the museum captures the history of policing, criminal justice and crime and punishment in Bradford from the early 19th century onwards. Exhibits, documents and memorabilia include decorated truncheons, a riot helmet, cutlasses, 1970s communication equipment, the first tape recording ever used in court and a 1960s Velocette motorcycle‘Noddy bike’.

Also on the site are around 20 cells, where prisoners were held until 1990. Illusionist Harry Houdini escaped from one of the cells, despite being handcuffed.

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Halloween ghost tours at the museum, on October 31 and November 1, include a tour of the cells. Visitors will then be led up the steps that prisoners took to the Victorian courtroom - used for films and TV dramas including Coronation Street - where spooky tales of ghosts said to haunt the cells will be told by candlelight.

Ghost tours last Halloween and earlier this year were such a hit the museum plans regular events. “They’ve been a huge success; they sold out quickly. The October 31 tour is booked up,” said Museum Director Martin Baines. “We’d like to hold ghost tours every month. We’ve introduced sound effects of prisoners shouting and being locked up, and we’d like to enhance the experience, with actors dressed as key figures from the past.

“We did a walking tours during Bradford Literature Festival which was very popular. We’d like to do more, taking in Victorian murder scenes and places such as Bradford’s first police station, built on Swain Street in 1837 and used until 1873 when it moved to the Town Hall.”

The museum is run by Under the Clock charitable trust and staffed by volunteers, all retired police officers. “We get visitors from around the world. We’re about to become an accredited museum with the Arts Council,” said Mr Baines, a former police inspector and race relations officer who was in the force for 32 years. “We’re looking for more volunteers, they don’t need a police background. We’re passionate about preserving the history of policing in Bradford and the stories of men and women who have worked here over 150 years.”

Bradford Police Museum is open Fridays 11am-3pm and Saturdays 12-4pm, March to November. Visit bradfordpolicemuseum.com or call (01274) 510245.