Tuesday, March 05, 2019

BRIGG CREW KEEPING FIRE ENGINE CLEAN - JUST LIKE THE ONE IN THE BEATLES SONG

Brigg firemen with their clean fire engine which won an award in the mid-1960s - possibly at the Lincolnshire Show

Brigg firemen are pictured here with their appliance after it won an award for being the best kept in the county.
We think this scene was recorded at a show - possibly the Lincolnshire Show - in the mid-1960s.
It looks like John Chudley on the right. He later became the town's fire chief and still lives locally.
Lindsey County Council, based in Lincoln, administered the fire service back then; Humberside did not take over until 1974.
A few years after formation, Humberside replaced the old Brigg fire station, on Wrawby Street, with a purpose-built facility on Barnard Avenue - still in use today.
Our family's council house, in Central Square, suffered a chimney fire in the mid-1960s, put down to accumulated soot in the kitchen flue.
The Brigg crew was soon on the scene to put it out and the damage was not extensive, though it did take some time to clear up the watery mess.
Perhaps we should have booked Herbert 'Sooty' Welbourn, of South View Avenue, to make more regular visits with his array of brushes on poles.
'Sooty' did a good job tending Brigg's chimneys, as did another sweep who, we recall, used a vacuum cleaner-type appliance to suck out the soot.
Can any older Brigg Blog followers remember his name?
The Beatles had a 1967 hit with Penny Lane, which made reference to a Liverpool fire-fighter keeping his engine clean - "It's a clean machine."
His opposite numbers in Brigg clearly did likewise around the same period.

3 comments:

Ken Harrison said...

It's rather strange that one fireman wants to put a fire out, while another type of fireman is intent on keeping a fire going..

Ken Harrison said...

.....and I recall, one fireman keeps a picture of the Queen...

NIGEL FISHER said...

Hard work being a fireman on steam locos. For once the new term is better in this context... fire-fighter. Some heritage railways today have women tending the loco fires. What is the correct term to use for them?