Published: Thursday, 8th May, 2008 07:00
All fired up about this place
By David Cliffe
Comments (0)
Print Article
YET another postcard from the Audley Street studio of Mr HA Giles, probably dating from the 1930s.
Mr Giles may not have been a great photographer from a technical point of view, but he was definitely a snapper of unconsidered trifles – he photographed many everyday subjects which other photographers wouldn’t have looked at twice.
In this picture, we are on The Street at Englefield, looking at the fire station.
This fire station belonged to the Englefield Estate, I would guess, and it was still there when I last walked this way about a year ago.
It was recently painted, and looked as though it was still in use.
The building has a certain period charm, with its half-timbered gable.
It is interesting to speculate on how the fire service would have operated at this time. The firemen were presumably estate tenants who lived nearby, within earshot of that bell, halfway up the mast.
The sign below the bell reads: “Any person found ringing this bell without sufficient cause will be prosecuted.”
So, if you discovered a fire on the estate, you would run to the fire station and ring the bell.
Only a few people on the estate would have subscribed to Post Office Telephones, and mobile phones were undreamt of. But what were all those cords and pulleys for, I wonder?
The mast with the ornamental finial supports a cross-bar, from which are hung 14 pulleys with cords passing over them. Perhaps it was some kind of signalling system, whereby you raised the alarm by ringing the bell, and ran up a flag to indicate where the fire was.
If anyone can tell us, I’d be grateful.
Further Details
