IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 City Ground fire 1968.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 Now..this is Beeston.Sad that Central Fire Station on Shakespeare St.never had a grand opening. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Willow wilson 894 Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 UAU 999 has been preserved. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 First machine I rode in July 1968.Fantastic. Looks fairly well presented, but the hook ladder on its R/H side roof wasn't something we carried. I was told the City stopped carrying hook ladders after WW2. There would have been a roof ladder though. Strangely, we still did hook ladder training at the Birmingham training school. Up to the 4th floor on the outside. Said to be confidence training, wether we used them at jobs or not ! I remember seeing Ken Blatherwick back the TL into the front of UAU, nearside screen pillar all smashed in. No idea who mended it, a local coachbuilder I think. Great photo Willow. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 16, 2019 Report Share Posted January 16, 2019 Nottingham Fire Brigade gather at County Hall to help with the East Coast floods of February 1953. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FLY2 10,108 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 I'm not one for having loads of family photos hanging on the wall, but the only one I've got of my late dad, is one in his AFS uniform sometime during WW2. Being a baker at the time, he wasn't called up, but joined the AFS in Sutton in Ashfield, but as the overnight bombing raids by the Luffwaffe hotted up, he was sent to Walsall, and spent most of the war there. I've still got his lapel badge and three manuals somewhere in the loft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 What a photo !, the glory days of the British Fire service, the fifties and sixties. I'm sure a few of them would still be in the job when I joined, but I don't readily recognise anyone I bet some of the pensioners would love to see this. Spot the fogrider and front end of his bike , on the left, although it appears to have girder forks whereas our Norton was telescopics, so, quite likely to be an AFS despatch rider to lead them out of the City and beyond ? Love it ! Keep 'em coming ! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 Missed that Fog...good sleuthing! Always remember your bike outside Central..to the far right was the Chiefs motor..recall a Hillman Hunter..and an Avenger..both red. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 Kick that bleddy door in !!Sankeys fire..Bulwell 1980 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 Not far off Ian, Chiefs car was a Humber Sceptre, lovely shade of red, swanky black interior, there were two Avengers after about 1971, in orange. One had rotted through the sills in 9 months. They replaced two Hillman minx's , black, that had lasted for a decade without body problems ! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Willow wilson 894 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 https://sfrheritagetrust.org/portfolio/gto-10-dennis-merryweather-2/ This website gives a basic history of GTO 10, a Dennis Merryweather turntable stationed at Shakespeare street in 1940 to 1955, when it went to Dunkirk until 1965 according to the text. There are some great thumbnail pics too. It's a fine looking machine and I was always overawed when, as a child, I saw it on the streets. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 1938 photo of Boots Fire Station Beeston. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 GTO 10 is a very stylish machine. It was at the closing event for Central Fire Station. Apart from my fogrider bike, it was the only ex-city machine there out of several. UAU 999 shown recently was not available , as it's in Sunderland I presume the fuel costs would be behind that. I went through the log books once on miles and fuel issues, it was averaging 2 mpg. Probably does 5 or 6 on a run though ! GTO 10 looks the part, but those Merryweather ladders were horrible, flexing all over the place.Some actually collapsed, one fireman was killed, Merryweather issued a strengthening kit, I remember it being welded on in Centrals yard. The Dennis with a Metz ladder, at Stockhill, was far superior - I spent hours up both ! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 17, 2019 Report Share Posted January 17, 2019 Blue Watch at Central. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 18, 2019 Report Share Posted January 18, 2019 Fire attending bicycle..nice! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 18, 2019 Report Share Posted January 18, 2019 French at a guess, maybe German , that crowbar stuck down the front forks would have you arrested these days ! As for a siren worked off the front tyre, how embarrassing, imagine tearing through Slab square on that with the siren wailing ! Give me UAU anyday !!!! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 18, 2019 Report Share Posted January 18, 2019 Re Ians photo above " Blue watch at Central," I've learned something there - it was opened somewhere around 1940 , that photo must be in the 40's as any photo's I've seen of the yard and when I was there, the buildings behind the tower are 2 storeys higher and there appears an extra window in the tower at 1st floor level. Amazing. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 18, 2019 Report Share Posted January 18, 2019 Yes..Fog..and because it opened during some bad bombing on a national scale..it had no opening do. This is Blue Watch..Central 1938.found some 1914 period shots of the old firehouse. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 A superb pic, but I'm confused here, I always believed Central wasn't opened until after 1940, Italian prisoners of war laid the marble City crest in the main foyer. That Leyland pump is certainly mid to late 1930's. Happy bunch sat on it ! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 Me too Fog...at fire displays and tours..we were told 1940. Some photos say 1938..and said "opened" in 1938! I am sceptical...bet that Leyland is worth a pretty penny today. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 The front row are sat on tubular steel framed chairs, they make me think fifties, but were such chairs made pre-war as well ? That Leyland (cub) would be built around 1938, 20 years service until 1958. I'm not sure about the 'sergeant' style rank markings. Will look them up. An interesting post 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 I missed the obvious here, Nottingham was a Police Fire Brigade until August 1941 (when it became part of the NFS), hence the rank markings. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 Duh!! Sorry Fog...me too.on a retired NFS site some kind fireman saved the tenders tax discs upto 1968..worth a gleg. Ian. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fogrider 179 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 Ian, I've had a scan for those tax discs, can't find a thing, any chance of a link or some clues? I have an ex Nottingham City Commer, off the road for decades in a museum store, found in the screen was a "tax disc". Done on a typewriter : Nottingham City Fire Brigade 999BTV Road fund licence exempt. I can't prove it was a genuine original though. To see the ones you spotted would be kinda' good..... The machines were property of the Crown . I have a vague memory of seeing such discs in the screens. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IAN123. 9,325 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 These are from GLT 676...think Holland-up in Teeside had it..but i am sure it was in Nottm too. K2 ATV has some history too.This has some charm also. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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