On-call firefighters have been keeping the people of Hampshire safe for generations. This unearthed archive footage from around 1960 shows the amazing work of the Fordingbridge crews.
We had the Commer fire engine in Fleet Hampshire too and the men would arrive at speed on their bicycles. No flashing lights- just bells. Oh - the good old days......
I used to live just behind this fire station at fordingbridge from 2004 2010 and how it had changed doubling in size, siren had been removed by then , but then i was still alerted to when there was an emergency and the crew arrived sometimes at midnight !
At 1:11 on the left is the unmistakable rear of a Mark1 Ford Cortina launched 20th Sept. 1962. So this turn out was probably filmed circa 1963, not 1960.
Amazing I came across this watching London's burning I'm from Ireland but my dad and grandparents and uncil are all from fordingbridge they were from Burnham road if anyone reading this from the village my grandmother was miss Doris Hadaway
It looks like two incomplete separate film segments have been spliced together. First is the 'for show' planned turnout of the single engine to what looks like a deliberate fire of straw and petrol (note they get a foam making branch out) in the yard of farm buildings, with higher quality footage (probably from tripod mounted static cameras) then it switches suddenly to a 'real' job in a cottage on the side of the road with multiple stations turned out, other services present and grainier footage from a more hand held (such as there was then) camera. Still far better to have found part of the footage than it be lost forever! You can see why they dumped the bells for two tone air horns soon after!
