Stradbroke Fire Engine from 1843.
Title
Stradbroke Fire Engine from 1843.
Description
Stradbroke Fire Engine circa 1843 standing in New Street. Girling Photograph.
Stradbroke is rightly proud of its Fire Crew. When the alarm sounds, they immediately respond. SARA searched back to look at old reports and found many within the newspaper archives. This is hardly surprising as most of the buildings were timber framed, thatched and with open fires. So here are three events starting in 1874: A fire broke out at William Girling’s Grocery shop in Church Street. His servant had fallen asleep without extinguishing a candle and the curtains caught alight. Everything in the room was burnt but the house was saved by the prompt action of neighbours in giving help. On this occasion the fire engine was not sent for. It is recorded that the property was partially insured. This was likely to be a regular occurrence and no doubt the warning would have been given again and again about the dangers of not extinguishing a lit candle!
We move on to 1880 and a Saturday morning at Thorpe Hall farm: A cry of “FIRE” alerted the inhabitants of the hall as an extensive fire was devasting the stackyard. The produce of the farm, some 212 acres, had been tightly packed into the yard in the form of 19 stacks of various kinds and 4 loaded wagons. The Stradbroke fire engine arrived about 3pm and the men, under the direction of Mr Foulsham (captain), worked hard to hold back the progress of the flames. However, the fire had such a hold that their efforts proved unveiling. The whole of the harvest was reduced to ashes. On this occasion there was little or no wind and as such the house and farm buildings escaped damage. Mr Lines, the farmer, had been celebrating ‘harvest home’ with invited friends when the fire started. The mystery is that all 19 stacks appeared to have ignited simultaneously, or nearly so. Again, the property was said to be partially insured.
It’s now 1923 and an old, thatched house in Church Street was completely destroyed by fire. It was the home of Henry and Janet Thirkettle and it was believed to have started from a spark from the neighbouring property. Many neighbours and friends hauled out the furniture and belongings just before the building’s ceilings fell. The Stradbroke fire engine’s hose was quickly attached to a pond across the road. However, a large double adjoining dwelling house along with other neighbouring homes were in danger of catching fire too because of the high winds. The Eye and Harleston Fire Brigades were called to assist but were delayed as the telephone system was down and therefore had to be fetched by road. By the time they arrived the fire was largely mastered although the Stradbroke Brigade and both local men and women continued working on the ashes for several hours. Again, it is mentioned that the property was insured.
It's hard to know how many different fire engines there have been in the village but following a 1909 fire in Laxfield it was reported that, “The Stradbroke fire engine was soon on the spot, but as the engine was an old one—dated 1843 —it could not do much, although the firemen were unceasing in their efforts.”
SOURCE: British Newspaper Archive
Stradbroke is rightly proud of its Fire Crew. When the alarm sounds, they immediately respond. SARA searched back to look at old reports and found many within the newspaper archives. This is hardly surprising as most of the buildings were timber framed, thatched and with open fires. So here are three events starting in 1874: A fire broke out at William Girling’s Grocery shop in Church Street. His servant had fallen asleep without extinguishing a candle and the curtains caught alight. Everything in the room was burnt but the house was saved by the prompt action of neighbours in giving help. On this occasion the fire engine was not sent for. It is recorded that the property was partially insured. This was likely to be a regular occurrence and no doubt the warning would have been given again and again about the dangers of not extinguishing a lit candle!
We move on to 1880 and a Saturday morning at Thorpe Hall farm: A cry of “FIRE” alerted the inhabitants of the hall as an extensive fire was devasting the stackyard. The produce of the farm, some 212 acres, had been tightly packed into the yard in the form of 19 stacks of various kinds and 4 loaded wagons. The Stradbroke fire engine arrived about 3pm and the men, under the direction of Mr Foulsham (captain), worked hard to hold back the progress of the flames. However, the fire had such a hold that their efforts proved unveiling. The whole of the harvest was reduced to ashes. On this occasion there was little or no wind and as such the house and farm buildings escaped damage. Mr Lines, the farmer, had been celebrating ‘harvest home’ with invited friends when the fire started. The mystery is that all 19 stacks appeared to have ignited simultaneously, or nearly so. Again, the property was said to be partially insured.
It’s now 1923 and an old, thatched house in Church Street was completely destroyed by fire. It was the home of Henry and Janet Thirkettle and it was believed to have started from a spark from the neighbouring property. Many neighbours and friends hauled out the furniture and belongings just before the building’s ceilings fell. The Stradbroke fire engine’s hose was quickly attached to a pond across the road. However, a large double adjoining dwelling house along with other neighbouring homes were in danger of catching fire too because of the high winds. The Eye and Harleston Fire Brigades were called to assist but were delayed as the telephone system was down and therefore had to be fetched by road. By the time they arrived the fire was largely mastered although the Stradbroke Brigade and both local men and women continued working on the ashes for several hours. Again, it is mentioned that the property was insured.
It's hard to know how many different fire engines there have been in the village but following a 1909 fire in Laxfield it was reported that, “The Stradbroke fire engine was soon on the spot, but as the engine was an old one—dated 1843 —it could not do much, although the firemen were unceasing in their efforts.”
SOURCE: British Newspaper Archive
Creator
SLHG
Date
1843
Contributor
G
Rights
Stradbroke Village Archive Creative Commons Licence is Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs - CC BY-NC-ND http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
SVA/11/71
Original Format
Phtograph
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Geolocation
Collection
Citation
SLHG, “Stradbroke Fire Engine from 1843.,” Stradbroke Village Archive, accessed May 3, 2024, http://stradbrokearchive.org.uk/items/show/113.
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