THE BIRTH OF THE FRESHWATER FIRE BRIGADE

(original post 8/8/22, updated with more information 4/5/23)

{Introduction by Barry} I don't know the origin of this article, it is attributed to F. Cleverley. The copy I have is a poor photocopy and the original photographs would not copy. These have been replaced by similar ones from "West Wight Remembered" by Eric Toogood.

"In the middle 1920's we had a very strong Scout Troop in Freshwater. The Scouts were getting too old to remain Boy Scouts, but the comradeship was too great to disband, so the 1st Rover Scouts (now Explorer and Network Scouts), were formed. Then we had to decide on activities to make it worthwhile. After several ideas were discussed, someone said, "What about fire fighting?" Now you may find it difficult to believe that the nearest fire station then was at Newport and, remembering that the roads at that time were rough gravel and that vehicles were very different from the modern ones, you can see that the earliest we could expect a fire appliance to arrive in Freshwater would be at least an hour after the initial alarm.

Well what could we do? First ask the experts. We contacted Captain Shields at Newport Fire Station who welcomed our idea and invited us in to meet his men on the next weekly drill night. They liked our enthusiasm but made it pretty clear that all we could hope for, without an engine, was to work from a hydrant if there happened to be one sufficiently near the fire. However he said that a number of young men who could be assembled in a fairly short time would be invaluable as helpers on the job, getting out people and possessions etc. Anyway we decided to go for it.

Newport was very kind to us in lending us a few pieces of equipment to start us off. We came home with a stand-pipe, key and bar, a few lengths of rather dilapidated hose and a couple of branches complete with nozzles. We just couldn't wait to get to work. Our Scout Hut was the black hut in School Green and a convenient hydrant is right there.

The next evening, full of excitement, we lifted the hydrant cover and found it full of mud and grit. I don't suppose it had been serviced since being installed. However we soon scooped it out, screwed in the stand-pipe, put the key and bar in place, ran out one length of hose, clicked in the branch and nozzle and turned on. That feeling, as a beautiful jet of water issued from the nozzle, is indescribable. The Freshwater Rover Fire Brigade was born! Or was it? How did we receive fire calls? How did we get the equipment to the fire? How did we ourselves get to the fire?

One thing at a time! Mr. Jeffrey, the Rover Scout Leader, had two coal lorries delivering in the district daily, both driven by Rover Scouts. He suggested that all fire calls should be sent to his shop, “Honnor and Jeffrey”. He would go by car and contact the nearest lorry which would go at once to the hut, pick up the fire fighting gear and proceed to the fire.

So far so good, but what about us? Very few people were on the phone in those days but one Rover was, George Seldom, as a printer in School Green. Three of us had motor cycles including George. On receipt of the call George would contact each of the other motor Cyclists and each one had a passenger to pick up and proceed to the fire. If all went according to plan we should have at least seven eager young men arrive at about the same time. We had several dummy runs. I know it sounds terribly crude now, but it seemed to work. We managed to get a bit more equipment from Shanklin Fire Station. Then we set to work on the hydrants. All were in a terrible state and full of rubbish. This job we did most religiously every month. We drilled regularly once a week and dealt with a few small fires.

I am afraid our efforts were viewed with a bit of sarcasm at first. “Here come the boys with their tap" was one, and when the lorry came to the fire with the equipment, plus a few bags of coal, you can guess, can’t you. ”Well if they can’t put out the fire out, they can keep it going until Newport get here." But we kept at it and although it now sounds so ridiculous, it really did work. Then something put us on the map.

The local Picture Palace caught fire and was blazing from end to end. The Palace was where “Kempsters” shop is now and luckily a hydrant on a seven inch water main is at Moa Place. We were able to get four good jets to work at once and managed to stop any spread of fire. Of course the Palace was doomed but all agreed that the whole street would have gone up by the time the Newport Brigade arrived.

We had really established ourselves as fire fighters. The neighbours all got together and presented our troop with a new bell tent. Also insurance companies of all nearby properties sent sums of money to Jeffrey to get more equipment. So we bought a Model T Ford Van, which had been used for local bread delivery, from Mr. T Gilling. We painted it a lovely bright red and proudly had it named the "1st Freshwater Rover Fire Brigade". This was in 1926 and believe it or not we continued like this for 10 years.

In 1938 a Fire Brigade Act came into being which compelled all Parish Councils over a certain size to provide a suitable Fire Brigade. A new Ford V6 with a Drysdale pump was purchased by Freshwater and Totland Parish Councils and we were offered the job of manning the appliance, but they insisted that as it was such a valuable machine, a Councillor should be Officer in Charge. Mr Rawson was the chosen man and he made it clear to us that it was in name only and he would like us to carry on as usual. Now, for the first time we were in uniform and riding a real fire engine. Our new station was at Kingsbridge, where the Tennyson Ambulance is now housed. For a call out, a fire siren was mounted on the roof and each fireman's house was fitted with a bell. They were operated from the local telephone exchange, which was of course manually operated. The siren was cut out at 11.00pm by a time switch at the fire station and only the bells sounded. We had quite a few big fires, one being the National Provincial Bank which is where the fish and chip shop is now.

This was our first big one using the new fire engine. The picture on the left shows a member on a ladder hosing down the fire. The fire was actually in Cliff Hall, behind the bank.

When war broke out everything changed. We were all called up for full war time service and eventually spread around other stations. N.F.S. and A.F.S. followed, and then, when hostilities ceased, all fire stations became the property of the I.W.C.C.

As soon as possible after the war, I was able to get away from full time duty by driving an essential works lorry for a local firm but immediately rejoined the Freshwater Fire Service part time. Unfortunately only three of the original Rovers joined but six A.F.S. came into the brigade which was now part time retained. We now started getting bigger, more modern, appliances each carrying 400 gallons of water and much more equipment. The call out system was greatly improved; a direct phone line from Headquarters at Newport was installed and all fire calls went direct to Headquarters. When the direct number was dialled it operated our fire siren. The first man in would lift the special red phone and take the message. When the receiver was replaced it reset the call system. The phone was not used for any other purpose. I thought this could not be improved upon. Of course I was wrong again.

The Tennyson Road station was opened in May 1961 and I reached the age of 55 and retired at the end of that year after 34 great years. Since then the vehicle has been equipped with two-way radio and breathing sets, a luxury I never enjoyed. The siren has gone as each fireman now carries a bleeper operated from Newport. There is no need to take a message from the phone. It is all there on a telex machine. What progress, but will they ever get the fun and satisfaction that we did? I wonder".

With the picture came a list of names (presumably in order), I cannot vouch for its correctness. This gives the members as Tom Evans, Harry Baker, Jim Payne, Ken Downer, George Gosden, Fred Green, Alan Whitewood, Norman Squibb, Bern Bryan, Fred Cleverley (who wrote the above article). Wilf Brett, George Mabey, Bob Burford, Mr (Wilf) Jeffrey (Leader) and Chris Cokes?

The fact that is a hand drawn appliance suggests that it must be dated from the early days, as they subsequently obtained a motorised appliance (see below).

The first pictures of this story were taken outside the Scouts Headquarters referred to as the “Black Hut”. The black hut was on the green, now appropriately known as 'Black Hut Green', opposite All Saints School. The hut itself, after being used to store newspaper for recycling, was demolished about 1990.

The Other Story

Of course, there has to be a story about the Scout Fire Brigade in action. The Scouts were summoned to a fire and duly started trying to control it. Meantime someone had telephoned the Newport Fire Brigade who immediately set off towards Freshwater - in a brand new, untested fire engine. The new engine got as far as Carisbrooke but couldn't get up the hill and out of the village. The firemen unloaded their hoses and other equipment, drove up the hill, reloaded their engine and continued on their way. The Scouts were still holding their own at the fire when the Newport Engine arrived. Telling the Scouts to stand down, the professionals set up and discovered leaking hoses and other problems were stopping their equipment working properly. During this time the fire took greater hold and mostly destroyed the building!

PostScript from National Scout Archivist Colin Walker

Thank you very much for posting the images and text relating to the Freshwater Fire Brigade Rover Crew. It was not the only Rover Crew to run a fire service but certainly (eventually) the best equiped and the perhaps the most relied upon! My researches point to a fire at a house called The Briary, the later chief Scout Lord Somer's home at Freshwater. The Rover Scout fire crew attended (the only fire crew to do so ) with at that time their very obsolete equipment but they did manage to put out fire. Because of this success and no doubt the other sterling work done by the Rover Fire Service they were presented with the magnificent machine illustrated I think by the local council. The key members of the Rover Fire Crew had telephone installed into their houses so they could be warned asap on the outbreak of a fire which of course gave an even better chance of putting the fire out before further damage and or injury/lost of life. This was really a stunning example of the Rover Motto of service as applied in a local community, however this not only shinning star in the history of Rovering in the IoW. The many crews in the Isle of Wight ( I have documented 24- though I am not claiming they were all operative in any one period of time) must surely be a record in such a small land area outside a big city, The crews that were based at the coast had and astounding record of both cliff rescues and rescues from the sea, that I sure again would be break all records if applied to any other Scout County.

PostScript from Barry

Lord Somers was born in Freshwater. He was brought up in “The Briary,” Middleton, Freshwater. The Briary still stands today, although it is not the original one built in 1873 that Lord Somers lived in. Unfortunately in the early 1930’s the house’s roof caught fire and was seriously damaged. The first fire team on the scene was the Freshwater Rover Scouts Fire Brigade. (The Rover Scouts had an arrangement with Newport Fire Station, who lent them old equipment, that they would attend fires from their Headquarters – the Black Hut at School Green – and try to stem the fire until the Firemen from Newport could reach the scene). Despite a shortage of water, the local lads restrained the fire to a central chimneystack and saved many valuable items from inside the building.

According to a local newspaper report, the local fire brigade from Newport had difficulty getting to the scene due to a heavy load of men and equipment; they also had difficulty negotiating the steep hill at Carisbrooke. By the time they arrived on the scene flames had allegedly reached a height of thirty feet. It was also remembered by the locals that the hosepipes had so many holes in them that very little water actually reached the scene of the fire, although the gardens had a refreshing shower. Damage was estimated at £7,000 (enough to purchase about twenty normal family houses at the time). The house was rebuilt and was much smaller than the original and far less grand.

In 1938 a Fire Brigade Act came into being compelling all Parish Councils over a certain size to provide a suitable Fire Brigade. A new Ford V6 with a Drysdale pump was purchased by Freshwater and Totland Parish Councils and the Rover Scouts were offered the job of manning the appliance, but the Parish Council insisted that as it was such a valuable machine, a Councillor should be Officer in Charge. Mr. Rawson was the chosen man and he made it clear to us that it was in name only and he would like us to carry on as usual.

Now, for the first time we were in uniform and riding a real fire engine. Our new station was at Kingsbridge, where the Tennyson Ambulance is now housed. For a call out, a fire siren was mounted on the roof and each fireman's house was fitted with a bell. They were operated from the local manual telephone exchange. The siren was cut out at 11.00pm by a time switch at the fire station and only the bells sounded.