Fire Fighting in Essex: from Roman Times to 1900
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Fire Fighting in Essex: From Roman times to 1900 It is likely that the first ‘Essex’ fire-fighters were Roman soldiers in the major garrison town of Camulodunum, now known as Colchester. This Roman city would have had the ‘Vigili’ soldier fire- fighters common to all large Roman settlements. Their equipment would have been very basic, although it is possible that they had an early form of squirt or large syringe, similar to a modern day garden insect spray. These could draw up water from a bucket and propel it onto a small fire. They would have also had a supply of buckets to convey water and large hooks on poles to pull thatch from burning roofs. When the Romans left Essex it is doubtful if any formal fire fighting organisation existed for several hundred years. Over the centuries many villages, towns and cities all over the country suffered disastrous fires, Essex was no exception. The most common way of preventing fire spread in those days was to demolish perfectly good properties in the path of the fire to make ‘fire breaks’. Large fires generally burned themselves out when sufficient fire breaks had been made. The effect this had on the local population is hard to comprehend, but no doubt people were devastated by the catastrophe. A law was passed in the 11th Century requiring all properties in the land to ensure that fires for heating and cooking were extinguished at night. This was the ‘couvre feu’ (cover fire) or ‘curfew’. In some towns and cities the curfew was sounded by a man walking round the narrow streets ringing a hand bell or by the tolling of the local church bells. People who failed to comply with the curfew were punished. How effective the curfew was is uncertain as a further law was soon passed requiring all homes to have a suitable container of water available for fire fighting purposes at all times. It should be realised that in the middle ages sophisticated fire-fighting equipment did not exist, buckets, ladders and large poles with hooks used for dragging off thatched roofs was often the extent of what was available. Although the first known record of a town in Essex owning fire fighting equipment was in 1632, when Braintree purchased a ‘fire engine’, what this might have been is very difficult to comprehend, because the first effective fire-fighting pumps did not appear for almost another 100 years. Various fire related laws were made after the Great Fire Of London in 1666, one of which required all parishes throughout the land to provide fire-fighting equipment for use within their parish. As we shall see later, this equipment varied greatly according to how the ‘parish’ viewed their responsibility. Some purchased ‘squirts’, large numbers of buckets, pole hooks and other tools, whereas others made a minimum effort. One of the outcomes of the Great Fire Of London was the formation of fire insurance companies. The idea came from Dr Nicholas Barbon M.D., an entrepreneur who would take an annual fee from property owners in exchange for the promise to repair or rebuild their premises should it be damaged or destroyed by fire. He named his business the ‘Fire Office’, but later changed it to the ‘Pheonix Fire Insurance Company’. Other companies soon appeared with famous names such as, The Hand in Hand Insurance Company, The Sun, The Royal Exchange, The Westminster Fire Office and many more. After a while it became obvious to the insurance companies that the payments made to their clients could be reduced if fires could be extinguished in their early stages, rather than allowing properties to become a total loss. As a result of this they decided to form small bands of men who could run to the location of a fire and attempt to reduce the amount of damage being caused. They were dressed in bright uniforms to show which company they were employed by and wore metal badges on their arm to show they were on ‘official business’. Before long these men became known as ‘firemen’. However, not every town or village had this ‘fire service’, it was mainly confined to London and a few other large provincial towns and cities. When attending a fire, in order to know if a property was insured and by whom, ‘Fire Marks’ were introduced. These were metal plaques with ornate designs embossed or painted on them and were fixed to the front of buildings to show which company insured them. When a fire occurred, several insurance company fire fighting teams would run to the scene, but only the one employed by the company with which the property was insured would carry out fire-fighting operations. The other teams would not leave the incident, because there was always the chance that the fire might spread to properties insured by their companies. Insurance brigades operated in Essex and several towns are listed as having been served by these brigades. The three most frequently mentioned companies that supplied ‘engines’ are the Essex and Suffolk Equitable Insurance Society, the Essex Economic Fire Office and the Finchingfield Society. Towns covered by one or more of these brigades were Colchester, Chelmsford, Maldon, Billericay, Coggeshall, Wivenhoe, Manningtree, Thorpe le Soken and Rayleigh. An early ‘Newsham No 6 Fire engine (from c1730) in action. It is likely this manual pump was around 150 years old when this picture was taken. The men on the inside of the pump are working foot treadles, with apparently only one firefighter in shot. (Courtesy of the London Fire Brigade Museum) The first effective fire-fighting pumps came into use in the early 1700’s and a series of designs by Richard Newsham became very popular and were to be found in the service of both the insurance company brigades, some parishes and also the military garrisons in major towns. These pumps required several people to work them and were of the ‘manual’ type. They had a wooden body made of oak, which was lined with lead. Large troughs were situated at one or both ends of the engine into which water had to be poured. A large pump, similar to a very big bicycle pump was fixed inside an upright part of the bodywork and was linked to parallel levers on the sides of the fire engine. These were coupled together in such a way that when one side lever was pushed down, the opposite one moved upwards. This continuing up and down action would operate the pump, drawing water into it and then forcing it out through a fixed pipe and nozzle. The bigger the pump, the more people were required to work it. There were two tasks involved, working the pump and supplying water. The latter was done by carrying buckets of water from a convenient supply and tipping the water into the troughs of the pump. This equipment was quite expensive to purchase and as a result the average town or indeed parish would only have one such fire engine. The size of the appliance was very much controlled by what could be afforded by the purchasers and many small size pumps were to be found, especially in the parishes. It is from this that we get the term ‘parish pump’. A small manual pump similar to those used by some parishes in the middle 1800’s. (EFM) The Victorian era encouraged the ‘Volunteer’ movement throughout the Country and although this started in military circles with the formation of Volunteer Regiments (the forerunners of the Territorial Army), it soon spread to the fire service and before long no self-respecting town or city was without its Volunteer Fire Brigade. Many brigades took over the equipment from the Insurance Companies, but much of this was outdated. This in turn created a demand for better fire-fighting equipment and many firms were formed to satisfy this demand. Early pumps were pulled to fires by the firefighters themselves, but as ‘fire engines’ became larger it was necessary for horses to be used to pull them. Some brigades owned their own horses, some hired them and some even borrowed them from local tradesmen. Many brigades equipped themselves with such extra equipment as hose carts and escape ladders. On the other hand, some brigades were only equipped with a hose cart and very little else! A typical hose cart of the late Victorian period (EFM) Many of the major towns in Essex such as Chelmsford, Colchester and Maldon can trace their fire brigades back to this time. It soon became fashionable for men to belong to the ‘Volunteer Brigade’. Towns and sometimes villages vied with each other to see who could have the most efficient ‘brigade’ and competitions were held to see just who were the best. The competitions ranged from ‘Fastest Turn Out’ to ‘Smartest Fireman’, from ‘quickest to get their pump to work’ to ‘best turned out horses’ and so on. Shields, Cups and medals were presented to the winners. Grays Fire Brigade c 1899. Note the hand drawn hose cart and escape ladders. Their horse drawn manual pump is in the background. (EFM) In the 1870s, Captain Eyre Massey Shaw, chief of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (London), introduced the brass fire helmet and dark blue tunic with brass buttons into his brigade. Many fire brigades copied London and before long the uniform was the height of fashion for local fire brigades. The firefighters, in their gleaming helmets and elegant uniforms, were seen to be great advertisements for what the civic authorities were doing for the local populace and it was quite common for their Fire Brigade to lead Carnival processions and to be in attendance at civic ceremonies.