Swanley History Group – Media Report – July 2014 meeting
The sight and sound of a fire engine with sirens going never fails to excite and alarm. It was the experience of seeing the fire engines go by his childhood home at Top Dartford Road, Hextable that was to play a major part in the career direction of John Meakins who presented ‘A History of Firefighting in North West Kent’ at our July meeting, assisted by member Gary Vaughan who had 29 years of service with London Fire Brigade.
During his 31 year service with Kent Fire Brigade until his retirement in 1996, and more recently as a part time fire officer for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Lancaster House in The Mall, John has amassed a wealth of photographs and memorabilia which he shared with us.
Initially fighting fires was run by Fire Insurance companies so not every building was protected. Manually operated fire pumps, pulled by horses, were used until 1897 when steam pumps were introduced. John showed a photograph of a manual fire pump of 1740 being reunited with owners, the Hart Dyke family of Lullingstone Castle, at a recent event. Photographs of the first horse drawn appliances used in Swanley from 1899 and at other Kent locations, featured proud members of the largely volunteer firefighting teams. These were run by local parishes– the service only becoming professional after World War 2. We viewed photographs of fine motor cars, even a Rolls Royce, being used at some Kent towns and villages as fire appliances before purpose made fire engines were introduced.
Dramatic scenes of major fires and floods followed, including flooding in Dartford and the train crash at Swanley Junction in the 1930’s, the Shell Mex fire in Northfleet in 1965, the final demise of Kettlewell Hospital, Swanley in November 1969 and a fireball at Westminster Paper Mills, Horton Kirby.
Christina Tyler Programme Organiser
The sight and sound of a fire engine with sirens going never fails to excite and alarm. It was the experience of seeing the fire engines go by his childhood home at Top Dartford Road, Hextable that was to play a major part in the career direction of John Meakins who presented ‘A History of Firefighting in North West Kent’ at our July meeting, assisted by member Gary Vaughan who had 29 years of service with London Fire Brigade.
During his 31 year service with Kent Fire Brigade until his retirement in 1996, and more recently as a part time fire officer for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Lancaster House in The Mall, John has amassed a wealth of photographs and memorabilia which he shared with us.
Initially fighting fires was run by Fire Insurance companies so not every building was protected. Manually operated fire pumps, pulled by horses, were used until 1897 when steam pumps were introduced. John showed a photograph of a manual fire pump of 1740 being reunited with owners, the Hart Dyke family of Lullingstone Castle, at a recent event. Photographs of the first horse drawn appliances used in Swanley from 1899 and at other Kent locations, featured proud members of the largely volunteer firefighting teams. These were run by local parishes– the service only becoming professional after World War 2. We viewed photographs of fine motor cars, even a Rolls Royce, being used at some Kent towns and villages as fire appliances before purpose made fire engines were introduced.
Dramatic scenes of major fires and floods followed, including flooding in Dartford and the train crash at Swanley Junction in the 1930’s, the Shell Mex fire in Northfleet in 1965, the final demise of Kettlewell Hospital, Swanley in November 1969 and a fireball at Westminster Paper Mills, Horton Kirby.
Christina Tyler Programme Organiser