|
Beeston Fire Station -
Since March 1965, the Fire Station in Beeston has been situated on Station Road at the corner of Middle Street, partly on the site of the old National School. Work is
currently underway building a new station on Hassocks Lane which will combine the service and resources now provided from this station and that in Dunkirk.
This and all other fire and rescue operations are now controlled at the County level by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and, before that, directly
by the County Council, but this has not always been the case. In Beeston, from its origins and in the earlier part of the 19th century the Brigade was managed by
the local Council. Beeston Urban District Council provided a purpose-built building to house the Brigade, in about 1900, at the top of Stoney Street (on a site
now occupied by the Sainsbury's Supermarket). A photograph from that era (below) shows a brigade of twelve men with three other possible employees. Some of these, as
is the custom with the fire service, were probably "retained" staff - that is, they were employed elsewhere but reported for duty when an emergency arose.
Bells were fitted, eventually, in their homes to call them out when required. The picture on the right at the bottom of this page, shows what appears to be the same appliance,
restored and on show at a event, probably in the 1970s or 1980s.
Situated as it was just north of the busy High Road, in these early days it was necessary to make a tight turn with the horse-drawn appliance, either right or left, out
of Stoney Street. To alert the public to this likelihood, a street light on the High Road, opposite the junction with Stoney Street was adapted to light up with the word
"Fire" when the Brigade was about to be dispatched. This can be seen clearly on the photograph (below) of the junction, dated from around the time of World War 1.
The street lamp with the word "Fire" can be seen on the left, just ahead of the mother walking with her child
This interesting picture , probably from about 1914, is amongst the author's favourite images of old Beeston
On the left of the picture can be seen the entrance to Stoney Street with Bailey's the butchers on the corner, followed by Hemming's the Chemist (more
recently Applebee's) and Price's, the newsagent and bookseller. Thornhill's house and tailor's shop (until recently the site of MacDonalds) is set back and
can just be seen and then there is the Co-op and Barnes' Decorator's shop. On the other side of Villa Street can be seen the still familiar gables of
the arcade of shops which remain a feature. In the distance can be seen the Palace Cinema and the still familiar outline of Commercial Buildings which
remains on the corner of Wollaton Road. On the left can be seen the tree which was a feature of the top of Acacia Walk until the 1930s, a teashop,
Greenlee's shoe shop and Hall's Ironmongers.
Of course, the Brigade, played a vital role locally during the 2nd World War, when they would have worked alongside their ARP colleagues and the network of fire watchers.The
photograph below left is clearly from that era, as a pile of sandbags, erected for blast protection, can be seen in front of the buildings to the rear. These buildings were erected
by the Council to provide on-site accommodation for firemen and were, we believe, also ptovided office accommodation by the Brigade - probably in the centre section. The author remembers
attending a training course in the early 1950s, in these buildings, when in the Scouts, for the Firefighter badge.
The author does not claim any specialist knowledge of the history of the Fire Brigade in Beeston - or, indeed, of the Fire Service in general - and has simply put together
this page from the limited knowledge and images he has available. He fully expects that there are people who could add much more and invites them to contact him to pass on any
additional information and/or photographs. All contributions which are used will be acknowledged. Contact him at
david@beeston-notts.co.uk
© David Hallam - 2007
|
|