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Dark days of hand pumps and horses

This month is an important anniversary for the Newark Fire Service for it celebrates 30 years in its current premises on Boundary Road.

The station was opened on 19 July 1969 - 30 years ago next Monday - and as reported elsewhere in this edition of the Advertiser the anniversary was marked in grand style on Saturday with an Open Day.

When it opened in 1960 the Newark station was the seventh new full-time fire station to be built in Nottinghamshire since 1948 - the final component in a major programme of re-building which the county council had set in motion when it became a fire authority.

Prior to its move to Boundary Road, the Newark Fire Brigade had been based in Portland Street (the building is now the Newark Evangelical Church) and before that - in the mid 19th Century - in the Saracen's Head Yard, just off the Market Place.

The earliest reference we have to a public fire service in Newark, however, dates from 1837 when the town council minutes record expenditures for maintaining two fire engines kept in the parish church.

These would have been what were known as manual fire engines - horsedrawn and requiring a number of firemen to pump levers or treadle-boards on either side to produce a continuous jet of water.

There are regular entries in the council minutes referring to the upkeep of these machines, although by 1843 there were suggestions that they had proved "almost useless" in dealing with a sudden spate of large fires around the town.

Following the Newark Improvement Act of 1851 positive steps were taken to improve the town's ability to control fires. Eleven new firemen were appointed under the control of a new superintendent, Edward Bousfield, a plumber of Stodman Street.

The engines were moved into Mr Bousfield's premises, although it is interesting to note that no horses were kept to pull them. If a fire broke out near at hand (i.e. within the borough) it was the job of the firemen to pull the engines to the scene; if they were called to a fire outside the town, then the superintendent rushed to one of the large posting inns - the Saracen's Head or Clinton Arms, for instance -and hired a number of post horses.

(These horses, being used to pull mail coaches at high speed along the Great Northern Road, could be relied upon as much swifter than any that could be kept solely for fire brigade use).

In 1853 administration of the Newark Fire Brigade was wholly transferred to the Newark Improvement Commissioners and the service immediately began to benefit from increased investment - new ladders, specialised helmets, coats, boots and canvas leggings for the firemen.

The number of firemen was increased from 11 to 12 with a new salaried superintendent, Charles Johnson, appointed.

The fire engines themselves were moved to new premises in the Saracen's Head Yard whereafter, following the Public Health Act of 1875, control of the service passed to the newly created Newark Urban Sanitary Authority.

Once again an impetus for change made itself apparent and in March, 1876 a new fire engine was bought from Messrs Shand & Co of London at a cost of £175.

This new machine, although still manually operated, could easily match the power of the two old ones put together.

A public demonstration was staged in the Market Place when the new machine, powered by 30 men pumping at top speed, succeeded in sending a jet of water right over the flag pole on top of Newark Town Hall.

Even so, in 1886 when a really big fire occurred at Parnham's flour mill on Barnby Road, the shortcomings of the Shand machine were quickly revealed.

The town brigade found itself wholly unable to control the blaze and it became necessary to call in the new steam operated fire engine owned by Warwick's brewery on Northgate.

Although it was too late to save Parnham's Mill everyone agreed that Warwicks' steam appliance was far superior to the town's manually operated machine.

A year later (1887) Newark duly acquired its first steam fire engine (constructed by Shand Mason) and shortly after a new, purpose-built fire station was erected on the corner of Portland Street and Pelham Street (opened in 1889).

In May 1892 Charles Johnson resigned as Fire Superintendent and was succeeded by Thomas Harrison who was given the new title of Captain.

In 1919 Robert Baxter's livery stables in the Saracen's Head Yard took over supplying horses for the fire brigade, although this was discontinued in 1921 because the horses kept slipping on the tarmac which was then being laid around the town.

The Newark Steamer, however, (as the Shand Mason engine became known) remained in service for some time longer and was henceforth towed to fires by a lorry.

It was not until 1927 that the Newark fire brigade acquired its first motorised petrol-driven appliance - a 60hp Dennis capable of delivering 450 gallons of water per minute to a height of around 130ft.

Its first major test came in 1930 when it attended a fire at Gilstrap Earps malting on Northgate.

On that occasion the Newark brigade was backed up by appliances from Carlton, Lincoln, Mansfield and Retford, and they remained at the scene for some days after the blaze had been brought under control.

In 1932 administration of the Borough Fire Service was amalgamated with that of the town's police force and was shortly afterwards called upon to begin preparing for war.

An Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was formed, and in Newark, in anticipation of widespread incendiary attacks, AFS stations were established on Sherwood Avenue, Appletongate, at the Friary and the Cock Inn in Balderton.

Wartime Nationalisation of the fire station came to an end in 1947 and under the Fire Service Act of that year the Newark brigade was incorporated within the new countywide Nottinghamshire Fire Service.

The new county authority began an extensive programme of regeneration across its jurisdiction, and in 1969 the new Newark fire station on Boundary Road marked the completion of a major rebuilding programme which had been set in train 20 years earlier.

ABOVE: A mock fire-fighting display staged by the Newark Fire Brigade at the official opening of its new premises on Boundary Road in July 1969.

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