PRESIDENTS NIGHT
PRESIDENT’S NIGHT
President’s Night is an unusual evening for members of the Scunthorpe Camera Club. It is the one evening in the season when members arrive not knowing what their entertainment will be!
By tradition the President [who will step down two weeks later] does not reveal his or her plans for the session until the meeting starts.
John West, the retiring President, is a retired Senior Fire Officer who became a professional photographer when he retired from the Fire Service.
However John kept in touch with his fire-fighter colleagues and he invited Peter Batty to bring along his digital projector to show the results of his researches into the origins of the Scunthorpe Fire Service.
Peter started by passing around a fireman’s ornate old brass helmet, a brass branch-pipe and one or two other fireman’s tools. Pete pointed out that all brass helmets were of the same design but the heavy metal badge on the front of the helmet could be removed like a cap-badge.
Peter’s researches covered the period 1865 to 1948. At first there was no fire-fighting equipment or service. Members of the public could only attempt to extinguish a fire using a chain of water buckets.
Sir Berkeley Sheffield bought a fire engine for Normanby Hall with the crew being made up of estate workers of all trades. Since Sir Berkeley also owned a lot of property in Scunthorpe the engine could be called into town.
The earliest efforts of the local council to provide a fire-fighting service seem pathetic by present day standards. They bought six hand fire- extinguishers and sited them in pairs at strategic points in the area.
Peter then showed photographs illustrating the development of fire engines over the years from horse drawn hand-operated pumps through to self propelled engines with turntable escape ladders attached.
The first actual fire photo Pete showed was of a fire believed to be a haystack at Blogg’s farm at Ashby Ville
In 1884 there was a fire at Keadby and Epworth Fire Station was called for but the only way at that time to cross the Trent was by ferry-boat which must have been quite a hair- raising event for the firemen.
In September 1906 a bursting slag ball destroyed the Chemical Works in Scunthorpe but as it took quite a while for the fire engine to arrive, the building could not be saved.
The first fire station was built at the corner of Cole Street and Mary Street with Mr. Sudlow being made Chief Fire Officer in spite of his total lack of fire-fighting experience.
The fire at Bee’s shop on Cole Street was seen by lots of people who appeared to be dressed in their Sunday best and word is they helped empty the shop of goods on the pretext of moving them to safety.
The first motorised engine was bought for £1,500 in 1924 so naturally this made a big difference in the time attending fires. During the 1939-45 period the Auxiliary Fire Service [AFS] was formed to deal with fires caused by enemy action. Group photographs of the time showed that due to the rapid expansion some fire-fighters did not have complete uniforms and local garages had to be pressed into action as fire stations.
In the AFS, for the first time, ladies were employed in the fire service to carry out administrative tasks. Peter showed a photo of Mrs. Dorothy Brown who served at Kirton until 1944.
One nostalgic slide for Reg Cooke was of the fire damage to the Empire Theatre at the corner of Manley Street on 24th May 1942 as it was Reg’s birthday that day.
The final slide Pete showed was of Louth Market Hall where our President John West was acting as a “dummy” body for a practice rescue.
John thanked Pete for a very entertaining and nostalgic special evening for him at the end of his term of office and Reg Cooke thanked John’s wife Pam, for the excellent Buffet she has made to round off the evening.
