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Sawbridgeworth Fire Brigade - Call Out |
| Page last updated:
19 July 2005 |
| Calling the Fire Brigade. |
| Paragraph Headings on this page: |
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The Early Days. |
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No records are available to identify what happened when a
fire was discovered prior to 1897 or indeed prior to 1902, but it is clear from the Minutes of
the General Meeting of the Brigade on the18th November 1902 that prior to
the dedicated fire station in Church Street coming into use in 1906, the
bell mounted on the front of St. Mary's Church steeple was to be tolled by the
Church Sexton. At the same meeting it was agreed that Mr. Peter Taylor
should send a Messenger on horseback to each of the firemen's residences. Although nothing
has been established in writing it is generally understood
that the fire engine, as well as the horses, were 'stabled' at the King
William IV public house in Vantorts Road. The fire engine was undoubtedly a
'Manual Pump', but more of that on the Fire
Engines page. Back on the 13th January 1902 the A.G.M. of the Brigade
had suggested that wall-plates with the word "Fireman" should be provided
and fitted to fireman's residences. However, this subject came up again on
the 19th January 1905 with the Council being asked to supply them. This must
have been implemented at some time as I recall my Father having one in his
possession but unfixed to the house!
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A 'pencil' sketch of
The King William IV Public House in Vantorts Road, just 75 yards from
the 'new' Fire Station in Church Street. It is believed that the horses
used had a dual role, that of pulling the hearse for funerals and the
fire engine. What happened if there was a fire call during a funeral has
not been determined! |
The 'new' Fire Station was provided with a bell tower
complete with bell. The bell, of course, needed someone to toll it and
undoubtedly this was a known local (local to the fire station) person. The
earliest I am aware of is the Butcher in The Square, Gerald Kirkby and
afterwards and for many years, Mr. E. (Ted) Orsman of the Bakery, almost
next to the Fire Station, in Church Street. It has never been made clear as
to how contact was made with these shop keepers other than that it was
presumably 'Local Knowledge' as far as people in Sawbridgeworth were
concerned! Additionally one can only assume that outside of the town, and
from other towns when assistance was required, messengers on horseback or
cycles would have been used. Perhaps there was a shop window notice "You can
call the Fire Brigade from here"? The Minute Book referred to earlier only
refers in one instance to calling Fireman to the Fire Station and this
related to the duties of Messengers having responsibility to go to the
Fireman's house if he had not responded to the Fire Bell. It is fairly clear
that from the start of the new fire station and for many years to come the
Fire Bell was the main method of call-out.
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The War Years. |
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There was also an 'additional' call out in the early part
of the war, particularly the period of the London Blitz of 1940. Every time
the Red Alert Siren sounded the Firemen were expected to get to the fire
station quickly and remain on standby until the All Clear. During the war I
was at school at the Fawbert And Barnard and can well remember seeing my
Father (Frank Wright) running up the twitchall (Pathway) that is between The
Forebury and St. Mary's Church Yard several times a day. He was employed at
the part of the Maltings of H.A. & D. Taylor, known as The British Diamalt
Company and I was on my way to the School Dugouts in The Forebury, where the
Memorial Hall stands today, with my class. This arrangement of call-out did
not last very long because there were just too many false alarms!
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Changes were made. |
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The first mention of a change to the system was in 1939,
when in the Minutes of the Meeting held on the 13th January that year it was suggested that
the Council be asked - amongst other things - to consider the desirability
of installing electric bells
in the houses of firemen. As far as I can recall this did not actually take place
until the penultimate year of the war (1944) at a time when it was thought
that Air Raids were more unlikely. As it turned out air raids became more
prolific for a time by Germany pounding England with the V1 Flying Bomb and
later the V2 Rocket, in that year. There were some close encounters with
both!
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The First Electronics. |
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The House Bells, as they were known, were fitted to each
fireman's house, and maintained by the then G.P.O. (General Post Office).
This was the days when most house telephones were connected by wires above
ground with two wires from the telephone pole insulated by porcelain cups.
It was significantly a Fireman's house when a single wire went to the house,
often from a porcelain cup mounted on the very top of the pole!
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The familiar site
of an insulator 'top-of-pole' with one wire only to a premises usually
indicated that a local fireman resided there! |
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The Bells
were energised by a hand generator and switches, on the side wall and
adjacent to the Rope Pull of the Fire Bell situated in the South West corner
of the Fire Station. In fact I believe the generator etc. was originally
placed on the front wall but were moved later to the position mentioned when
additional alterations were made. The bells were connected by the use of 2
circuits, each circuit having a check bell of its own in the Fire Station. I
believe that two circuits were really required on account of the voltage
drop which would have occurred if all bells required would have been
connected to one circuit. However, the additional value of the split was to
cover for an emergency of one circuit not working: at least one would ring!
The voltage generated was 50v.dc. The circuits were switched manually by a
brass surface mounted change-over switch of the pendulum type. This
technical necessity of two circuits was often raised as an issue because
some firemen would get the call before others! In the days of the Fire Bell,
at night (after dark) the House Bells were always rung (twice) first and the
Fire Bell used at the discretion of the ringer subject to the time of night.
In the day time the Fire Bell was always tolled first, followed after a
minute or so by the House bells being rung, again twice. Always though one
ring on one circuit then on the other, then again: the duration of each ring
was about 2 Minute each time. The
fire bell itself remained being rung until sufficient men had arrived at the
Fire Station.
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The 'House Bells'
unit, as far as can be recalled, was the standard GPO black bakelite unit with clapper in the middle of the
two bells and was the same from the
beginning only becoming redundant when radio bleepers took over later
in the 60's or early 70's. |
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Mains Electrics. |
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The method of call-out mentioned above was continued
until the new Electric Siren was placed on the Hose or Drill Tower in 1947-8
and this purely took over from the Fire Bell. Its sounding was a continuous
'note' as with the war time All Clear. At this time the method of calling
for the fire brigade was updated to make more use of the telephone system
that the general public were becoming more accustomed to! By this time, Mr.
Orsman, the Baker, was now the principal contact for all fire calls and any member
of the public who called the Fire Brigade via the Sawbridgeworth (manual)
telephone exchange would have been put through to Mr. Orsman who would have
taken the details of the type of fire and the address. He would then rush to
the Fire Station and sound the alarm. This was nothing new of course, he had
by this time been doing this for years - what was new, was that more calls
were being made by telephone instead of by 'runner' and there was a button
to press instead of the bell to pull! As with every fireman, he was of
course issued with a key to the Station door, which in those days was just one
of a three stage folding door set that reached to the height of the bottom of
the arched front. Above the doors was a non opening glass panelled arched
wooden frame also of three panels. Later on these doors were to be completely
replaced by three full height folding doors that fitted to the arch, the
left hand door having a small pedestrian entry door within it.
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Improved Efficiency. |
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This much noisier method of alerting the Firemen during
the day time and until around 10pm at night was much more efficient - the
siren was fitted with a timer to prevent it sounding during the night. The Fire
Bell was beginning to loose its ability to be heard because the 'world' was
already becoming a noisier place and of course Sawbridgeworth was expanding
and men were working further from the centre in many cases. The electric
siren was also fitted with an electric period timer mechanism which
originally was set to three quarters of a minute. There were numerous
complaints about this because on several occasions men based at both Walter
Lawrence Joinery Works and the Maltings failed to hear the call-out over the
sound of machinery. The length of sounding was subsequently increased to a
minute and a half. It seems almost unbelievable but on many occasions during
evening time a full crew had arrived at the Fire Station (5 men) before the
siren had finished sounding and it was often turned off at the main switch
to prevent the 'awakening of the town' any longer! On one occasion the main
switch was left off inadvertently and the siren did not sound - it was
fortunate that this was evening time and the house bells done their job!
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Remote Call-Out. |
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It was probably not until the early 1950's that the
system was updated further. This was quite a significant change because it
was based on all telephone calls for a fire being diverted to Bishop's
Stortford Fire Station. By this time telephones in Sawbridgeworth and the
surrounding district had been converted to automatic dialling via the small
and new telephone exchange building off the very narrow Bull Fields road
close to its junction with Station Road. This of course was the first
provision of the 999 system in the area which allowed filtering of the calls
and direction as required. Also by this time Bishop's Stortford Fire Brigade
had become part full time but, only with two personnel on duty at any
time, day and night. The system for call-out at Sawbridgeworth was now
altered to fully automatic with the 'pressing of the button' being done at
Bishop's Stortford: this was via a direct telephone line link between both
fire stations. (The same arrangement was installed for Much Hadham). The new
arrangement also automated the ringing of the bells in the Firemen's houses
but now they rang 13 times of about 5 seconds duration instead of twice -
and both circuits together! The ringing period was of the same duration as
the siren and there was a very distinctive 'first ring' which was very short
in comparison with the remainder. These two known features were used for
timing in 'our' house. At night and in bed asleep, you needed to be out of
bed and dressed by the third ring and out of the house by the time the bells
had rung their course, i.e. one and a half minutes! Otherwise there
was every possibility you would 'miss the pump', as it was known. This meant
that at dead of night the 'turn-out' (pump left the station with full crew)
was usually achieved within four to four and a half
minutes. Everything personal needed was of course meticulously laid ready for
achieving this and the Brigade had an excellent record of turn-out times
over a very long period of years. This revised system of call-out also
brought the problem of the first fireman arriving at the Fire Station,
particularly at night, and no one already there - he had to have his door
key! I think it happened only once that there was a short wait until a key
holder arrived but this was overcome by the placing of a door key on a piece
of string inside the letter box and this remained the procedure for some
years. I suspect it would not be possible to rely on such a basic
arrangement today for fear of vandalism! |
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