BASINGSTOKE, like most old towns, has had its fair share of fires during its past, and the threat of fire breaking out is still there.
The recent blazes at various schools and other buildings keep our local firefighters, based at their West Ham fire station, busy.
As long ago as the year 1392, the town suffered badly from a conflagration which destroyed so much of the central area that the inhabitants made a special plea to Parliament for relief.
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Again, in 1601, another great fire swept through the town, after which Queen Elizabeth allowed officials to travel through the neighbouring counties to collect funds for the reconstruction of the burnt-out buildings. A similar blaze occurred in 1656.
By the early 19th century, fires of this magnitude were rare, due to the efforts of the local tradesmen who established a fire service in the town.
In 1871, an engine room was built into the new Corn Exchange in upper Wote Street, where a steam engine was kept, complete with a fire bell. If a fire broke out, the bell was rung to call out an official who would then run around the town with a bugle, which he blew to call for “firemen” from their place of residence or work.
These volunteers prepared the steam engine, while another would run down to the meadow at the bottom of Station Hill and race a team of horses up Wote Street to hitch up to the engine.
Once everybody was on board, they would then charge off to the fire.
When Hurstbourne House caught fire in 1871, the Basingstoke fire brigade was called out to help the Whitchurch brigade – the message being received at Basingstoke at 10.20pm, two hours after the fire had started.
Within minutes, the local brigade was ready to start, but no horses were available, so a goods train was obtained to take both men and fire engine to Whitchurch, only to find no horses there.
The men tried to manhandle the engine on its wheels to Hurstbourne Park, where horses were found to take it the last few miles, arriving at the mansion at midnight.
Exhausted, they arrived to find that the mansion house had burned down.
The erection of a proper fire station in Brook Street in 1913, with its one motorised engine, laid the path to a better and larger brigade in Basingstoke.
Further vehicles were added over the following years as the town grew.
The 20th century saw several serious fires in the town centre, including the blaze at Burberry’s store in Winchester Street in 1905, which will be described in a future feature.
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Buildings such as the old Corn Exchange, the Tyre Retread factory at Worting, and the Old House at Home public house in Reading Road, were some that the fire brigade were called to when fires threatened to consume them.
The fire station was designed to house not only the equipment needed but also the firefighters themselves. A large billiard room was also included for both officers and responders.
By the 1930s the appliances included two motorised fire engines, a Rolls-Royce fire tender, a trailer pump, and a Merryweather wheeled escape ladder.
The firemen went to annual camps which were held around the county, and competitions took place against other brigades in southern England.
In the 1930s the brigade consisted of 18 members. This was increased during the Second World War when an auxiliary force was formed, and these came in useful during the early 1940s when Basingstoke was bombed.
The fire station was in a very good position in those days, as it allowed the fire engines to be close to the town centre in case of any serious fires.
There was only one problem – when the Klaxon siren sounded to call out further firemen, it drowned the sound of the films being shown at the Savoy cinema, which was just yards away on Wote Street.
Both the fire station and cinema were demolished to make way for the new town centre in 1967, with the rest of the buildings in that area.
This article was written by Robert Brown and originally published on Friday, August 13, 2004.
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