The last remaining building on 137 London Road was a small Victorian High Brooms brick shed with green double doors. Many people may not know it was originally the home of Southborough’s Fire Brigade and recently it was demolished to make way for the Hub development. It had been the last to go as the groundsmen have needed the space to continue their duties around the town.
Fire station with adjoining two storey outbuilding which was demolished, believed around the 1970’s. This had housed the workshops for Southborough U.D.C’s tradesmen.
It had sat next to the former Southborough Town Council building since the site (formerly known as Merton Lodge) was purchased by the Local Board in 1889. Before this acquisition, the Southborough Fire Brigade was without an official home and had at one stage been located on Holden Road (where the Old Fire Station house is now) and soon after housed in an outbuilding at the Hand and Sceptre. This was clearly not ideal for such a vital service to be without a dedicated station, particularly as the population of Southborough was rapidly increasing at the time.
The image below taken from the Courier in 1888 shows the application for funds for the Southborough Local Government Board to enable them to acquire the London Road site which included a designated Fire Brigade Station, perfectly situated in the centre of the Town.
Excerpt from Peter Barrett’s ‘The History of Southborough Fire Brigade’.
The very first Fire Brigade in Southborough formed in 1885 was made up of volunteers at the helm of a local businessman, Mr William Loat who lived at Violet Bank on Park Road. There were no shortage of volunteers as ‘fire brigades had become extremely fashionable…This phenomenon was due in part to the tremendous interest shown by Kind Edward the VII’ and by the displays, fire drills and tournaments that were considered great social occasions’.
There was a real struggle for funds throughout the early decades; there are countless examples of fundraising events (mostly held at the Parochial Hall on Western Road) and public drills (held on the Common) that demonstrate the pride and dedication the early Fire Brigade had. In the opening pages of local historian and ex-fireman, Peter Barrett’s book ‘The History of Southborough Fire Brigade’ it displays the town’s coat of arms and a rousing quote from Captain Eyre Massey Shaw detailing what a crucial job the fireman had:
‘A fireman, to be successful, must enter buildings, he must get below, above, on every side, from opposite houses, over back walls, over side walls, through panels of doors, through loopholes, through skylights, through holes cut by himself in the gates, the walls, the roof, he must know how to reach the attic from the basement by ladders placed on half burnt stairs and the basement from the attic by a rope made fast on a chimney.
His whole success depends on getting in and remaining there, and he must always carry his appliances with him as without them he is of no use. Judged by this standard, the business will be seen to be dependent almost entirely on the man and not the gear and all the best experience has abundantly proved that, however good the machinery and the appliances may be, they cannot work themselves, and with active, energetic, intelligent and fearless men, are virtually useless.’
In December of 1885, prior to moving to 137 London Road, the Brigade had been equipped with a two wheeled hose cart and several lengths of canvas hose. Several wet drills had been undertaken by the Brigade to test their efficacy at Bounds Park and Bentham Hill; the firemen and the property owners both concluded they were in need of a more powerful engine. Then, some six years after (and with plenty of fundraising) and now with the expanded district to include High Brooms, they were finally able to purchase a brand new manual fire engine and a christening ceremony of the immaculate engine took place on Southborough Common, on the 10th of June, 1891. Under blue skies, almost all of Southborough had turned out for the spectacle, which also included the Tunbridge Wells Fire Brigades with their steamer and fire engines.
Mrs Blackburn-Maze, of Bounds Park had the honour of christening the new engine and it was reported; ‘the shattered fragments were soon lost in sight in a shower of foam as the “Heidsiek” effervesced in glistening spray downwards’. A card attached to a ribbon was placed on the new engine bearing the inscription “Hector”.
A whistle cut through the applause immediately after the name reveal and the signal was given for the water to be turned on from the hydrant and in moments two veteran Volunteers Messers. Hemsley and Willcombe sent a powerful jet of water one hundred feet in to the sky before breaking up in to spray. One can’t help but think what a sight this must have all been and lament our current pre-occupation with Health and Safety!
Above and below some local early twentieth century photographs of the impressive public fire drill events.
Southborough Fire Brigade charity day, circa 1910, from the collection of the Southborough Society.
A year later the Firemen were presented with a complete uniform ‘including brass helmets, and jackboots, with a separate outfit for Supernumaries and Messengers, and silver helmets and epaulettes for the officers’.
Portrait of Southborough Fire Brigade Messenger Boy, John Edward Budgen, taken at Park Studio in Southborough. Late 19th/early 20th century. Budgen joined the Southborough Fire Brigade in the early 1890’s and lived and worked at the Hayseden Water Works.
In January 1893 the Commanding Officer, John Carrick died after a short illness. Carrick’s funeral was held on the 1st of February, 1893 and ‘must have been one of the most imposing that had been witnessed in Southborough. The coffin was conveyed to St Peter’s Church on the fire engine that was drawn by two grey horses with black bells, led by two fire brigade messengers. On each side and behind the engine came the members of the Southborough Brigade. The whole of London Road was lined with spectators and, and a large crowd had gathered on the Common and outside St Peter’s church.’
John Carrick who had led the Southborough Fire Brigade since its formation in 1885, died in 1893 at age 42.
The loss of their Commanding Officer coupled with financial issues brought on by the ambiguity of the Fire Brigade’s funding (it was funded partly by rate payers and from voluntary contributions) meant a meeting was held in March, 1893 to discuss the reconstitution of the Brigade under the Local Board. In fact at this time, Sir David Salomons had written to the Local Board in disbelief that Southborough Fire Brigade was not officially part of and funded by the Local Board. It was at this meeting that it was confirmed that they became the Local Board Fire Brigade and new uniforms were to be issued.
Later, in January, 1895, the first meeting of the new Southborough Urban District Council and under this new regime, the fire brigade were dealt with under the Highways, Drainage, Waterworks and Lighting Committee.
The fire brigade lost many members to serve in The Great War; although the conflict ended in November 1918, they were still undermanned when Southborough’s most catastrophic fire took place at St Andrew’s boys preparatory school (now where St Andrew’s care home is situated, opposite the medical centre. Its Victorian brick wall is still intact).
The fire had been burning at the site for an hour the evening of 11pm on Friday, 8th of February before it was reported to the Fire Brigade. Later the then Captain Stringer stated that it would have been impossible by that late stage to have saved the building from disaster. The house (and school) was completely burned out. By this stage, the manual fire engine was becoming dated and showing signs of wear. Mr Bull, the school principal, wrote a strongly worded letter expressing his lack of confidence with the current appliances ‘The apparatus available to deal with the situation was so grossly inadequate that I am writing to urge you to send down an Inspector at the earliest possible date to hold a searching public enquiry…the engine is only a manual of an antiquated type and inefficient’. There was quite a long and bitter public battle over the fire with Mr Bull and the Council publishing many letters to the Courier disputing each other’s facts.
The Council made the decision to augment their old Southborough manual with a steamer from Tunbridge Wells at a reasonable cost. The Southborough Firemen were not happy having ‘gone through the humiliating experience at St Andrew’s, they were now condemned to struggle on with using clapped out manual.
In April, 1927 the need for Southborough to have a new engine was bought to the council, Cllr Draper agreed and said there was no doubt that the present engine was almost useless at now 37 years old. By December, Cllr Poile who had diligently inspected several fire engines over several months had recommended to the Council a second-hand Renault, costing £600.
Southborough Fire Brigade, 1927, pictured to the side of the Royal Victoria Hall with their Renault Fire Engine.
Progress towards modernising the town’s fire service continued at a slow pace up until the outbreak of war in 1939. The Southborough Auxiliary Fire Service was formed and based at the Old Hall Fire Station (formerly Pinewood Court, now McCarthy and Stone’s retirement properties). In addition to dealing with local bombing incidents they were also called to action in London, Portsmouth and Southampton. Immediate action was needed to strengthen the fire defences and in 1941 all independent fire authorities were subsumed to create the National Fire Service.
Peter Barrett names the local men who served in the Fire Service during the war as: Section Leader Bridger, Leading Fireman Wickham, Hartridge, Burtonshaw, Molyneux, Pearson, Argyle Skinner, West and Simmons, and Fireman Puttock, Wheatly, Sargent, Morley, Vidler, Waters, Moore, Seal, Raistrick, Jack Foster, Harold Wallis, Len Smith, Len Smith, Ron King, Fred Humphrey, and Arthur Thorpe.
After the war, the fire service was reorganised and they then became the responsibility of the counties and county boroughs. In April 1948, the Southborough Fire Brigade officially became a unit of the Kent Fire Brigade ‘C’ Division.
It was some time later when Kent County Council embarked on a programme of building new fire stations and the new Southborough Fire Station was officially opened on the 23rd of October, 1968. The build cost was approximately £11,000 and it was designed by County Architect, E.T. Ashley-Smith.
And with that, the little Victorian building on 137 London Road, became the old fire station. The first indication that the building was set to be demolished was in February this year, at that point the Town Clerk kindly arranged access to the building to document it for posterity.
Inside it is much smaller than you would imagine, comprising of a small office at the rear, bathroom, workshop and then the longer section which would have housed the fire engine leading out to the double doors.
The brick walls are still painted in cream with black and green stripes and some evidence of its former use still remain such as the two hand painted nameplates attached to a shelf above where their uniforms had been stored.
The only two remaining hand painted name labels that were screwed on the shelf above coat hooks on the wall. Fred Humphrey and Sam Farrington are pictured above in the g1950’s group photograph in front of the building. Farrington had been a Royal Marine and had also worked at the High Brooms Brickworks.
A valuable source of information about the formation of the brigade is detailed in the book by Peter Barrett, a sole copy is held in the Southborough Library in their back room. We would like to thank him for his extensive research and much of this article is taken from his book and his wonderful collection of photographs.
We would love to hear from anyone who has a historical connection with the Southborough Fire Brigade. If there is any old photographs, objects or artefacts you would like to share with us we will happily scan/photograph these to enable us to share these fascinating items with a wider audience. You can get in touch here.
