Steyning Museum - “Fetch the Engine!”

Whilst exploring the museum archives for a new exhibition on the White Horse fire of 1949, I was amused by a large number of letters concerning the purchase of a new fire engine in 1935.

The fire brigade had, since about 1900, been stationed in the Old Market House, or Town Clock Fire Station as it was known. In those days, horses pulled the Merryweather engine and these were supplied by and stabled behind The White Horse Hotel, in the very buildings that comprise The White Horse today. When the fire bell rang, the horses were released and made their own way along the High Street to be hitched up by the waiting firemen. It was definitely a slower pace of life!

Motorisation came to Steyning’s fire crew in the 1920s, yet little else changed until 1935, when the parish council felt a stronger and more powerful engine was needed.

Our archives reveal extensive correspondence between Dennis Bros. Ltd, a fire engine manufacturer in Guildford, and both the parish council and Steyning fire brigade, about the purchase of this second hand engine. Of course, though bigger, it still had to fit in the Town Clock Fire Station. Full dimensions were requested and supplied, and, though it sounded a tight squeeze, all parties were satisfied, the deposit of £40 was paid, and the long awaited Dennis fire engine arrived. It didn’t fit.

Temporary lodgings were quickly found in the old coach house in Chequer’s Yard while more letters flew off the typewriters.

‘You said the width was 6’-6”, we find it to be 6’-10”’ said the parish council, who refused to pay the balance of £135. Dennis Bros were contrite - the reconditioned mudguards were indeed wider than they had thought. They agreed to reduce them free of charge which placated the parish council, but not the firemen, who refused to have their new engine compromised, wishing to “preserve the modern and workmanlike appearance of the Dennis Engine. Could the parish council not reconstruct the entrance to the fire station instead?” No they could not.

An impasse was reached. Neither the parish council nor the fire brigade would budge, which was when the temporary home for the engine behind the Chequer suddenly looked more attractive.

An agreement with the pub’s tenant, Mr A Chalcraft, and his landlord, Portsmouth and Brighton United Breweries, was hastily reached and perhaps unsurprisingly, F G Chalcraft, the builder, also based in Chequer’s Yard, was chosen to adapt the coach house for its new role. The new fire station was officially opened on 26th December 1935, and remained there for 26 years, until a drive for modernisation prompted another move for the brigade.

But that’s another story.

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