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| Page last updated:
06 July 2008 |
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Sawbridgeworth Fire Brigade - Minute Books |
| 27th
September 1897 - 20th January 1949 |
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The book immediately below is
the principal book of records in the Webmaster's possession but there is
another small book titled "Fire Engine Inspectors Minutes" which
precedes this. The contents of this are available at the bottom of this
page. The principal book structure on both is presumably fairly standard
for the time, being Dark Grey leather panelled with a Dark Red leather
bound spine and triangular corners. The Principal Minute Book measures 8¾" (222 mm) wide x 13"
(330mm) long and about ¾" (20mm) thick to provide the then standard Foolscap
size feint ruled pages. There are 182 pages of text, all of which are available in
the files below. An image of the main book together with its first inside
page is shown below. The other book measures 7¼" (187mm) wide x
9¼" (235mm) long. Only the first five pages were used! All
of the pages are easy to read and one can only be envious and pay
tribute to the writing ability of the Secretaries of the day! The
actual 'quality' of view of the pages in the files provided can be determined
by downloading the one page below, by 'clicking' the front inside page itself. |
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| Principal Minute Book Cover |
Principal Minute Book First
Page |
Fire Engine Inspectors
Minutes Book Cover |
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The separate pages of the Minute Book are in
*.pdf format but are themselves consolidated into Winzip© compressed
files and you will need the software to be able to unzip them. If you
do not already have this software it can be downloaded using the button
below. The software is either the trial version which you can use for a
limited period only or, you can purchase it on line! |
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The whole content of the Minute
Book is available here. Regrettably, the size of the files is rather high
but this is done to preserve as much as possible the authenticity of the
original pages in size, colour and quality of the wording. The pages have
been broken into 9 file batches covering the periods as set out below, so
that they can be downloaded in 'chunks' as an alternative to the one large
file! The dates shown are meeting minute dates. |
| Fire Engine Inspectors Minutes - 9th
September 1893 - 15th March 1894 |
| As indicated above this Minute Book commenced
on the 9th September 1893 when, J.E. Taylor (Taylor's Stores - Knight
Street, subsequently Forrest Stores) Henry Burton - Bell Street (Builder),
J. J. Kirkby - The Square (Butcher), E.R. Thorogood, H.W. Towse and W.
Morris (Town Clerk) all met in the Vestry Room to consider the setting up of
a Parish Fire Brigade "to work the Parish Fire Engine". It seems
therefore that the, presumably manual fire engine, already existed! They met again on
three occasions, the last being on the 15th March the next year. The
decision reached was to set up a brigade, by which time they had determined
that 17 local men had agreed to volunteer and that arrangements were in hand
to gain financial support. Subsequently it obviously took another three
years to get fully underway. |
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