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A history of housing in lenham
History of Lenham Fire Brigade
1939
On the outbreak of war in September 1939, Lenham became part of the Auxiliary Fire Service and in common with the rest of the country, further recruiting of men. In January 1940 it was resolved that application be made for a trailer pump (£140), a tender (£60) and a fire station (a Nissen hut costing £180). In March of that year Mr Hulland was allowed to purchase a Ford V8 30hp HP Saloon for conversion to a fire tender to tow a trailer pump for a cost of £30 and not more than £30 to convert within the £60 allowed. Negotiations between Perc Clark, the Chief Officer, and Lord Chilston produced a piece of ground (which his Lordship provided for the duration of the war), which is where the present fire station is now.
1940
During 1940 a Nissen hut was erected on the site. The Auxiliary Fire Service war call up saw the addition of S Raines, P Sherwood and S Chaney and then later in 1941, W Scotland and H C Stephens, and from Grafty Green, F Holtum, N Garbutt, W Collins and S C Thomas. They were formed into crews and spent nights on duty in the fire station as well as being called out during the day. By now the Nissen hut had been made quite homely with a kitchen area, recreation room with bunks and WC.
There was also communication by landline with Maidstone Fire Station control in Market Buildings. An air raid siren was installed on the Post Office roof, which sounded the wailing ‘raiders alert’ and the ‘all clear’ (continuous wail). Many of our readers will recall these sirens and the icy chill they sent through us! A call bell system was installed by the Post Office engineers in the firemen’s’ homes and operated locally. It was only after the war that these call bells worked in conjunction with the siren for fire calls.
1941
In August 1941 the National Fire Service came into being countrywide. Lenham was issued with an Austin Auxiliary Towing Vehicle for its trailer pump. Perc Clark was appointed Section Leader and Ron Harden Snr and Frank Tippen both Leading Firemen. All the remaining auxiliaries became members of the National Fire Service.
1943
From 1943 Ron Harden Jnr joined the Service at Lenham as a messenger boy, aged 15. Although not supposed to, he saw nearly as much action as the older firemen!!
At the conclusion of the war in 1945 there were many personnel changes. Ron Harden Snr took over as Section Leader and Bill Scotland was promoted Leading Fireman with Frank Tippen. Steve Raines carried on and Ron Harden Jnr was called up for National Service. Benny Thomas moved up to Lenham to work and carried on after the war. In 1946 Alan Stephens took young Ron Harden’s place as a messenger boy.
Kent Fire Brigade as we know it today was formed on the 1st April 1948. Many stations did not survive in Kent following the disbanding of the National Fire Service but Lenham did! and Ron Harden Snr became the first Sub Officer for Lenham.
1950s onwards
In the late 1950s and early 60s things moved on apace, with a programme of modernisation. The Nissen hut came to the end of its days in 1961 and, although for a temporary period the fire engine was housed in The Chequers, 1962 saw the opening of a brand new fire station adjacent to the Working Men’s Club. Since the inception of the Kent Fire Brigade in 1948, Lenham firemen had turned out to fires and other incidents on over 600 occasions. The new station was built at a cost of approx. £6,700 – a considerable amount of money at the time.
During 1976 the siren and call bells were replaced by pocket alerters, which were carried by each fireman. This brought an end to the spectacle of the public being alerted to a fire call by the wail of the siren and watching the fire engine not only turning out, but also timing how long it took! The time taken from initial call to attendance probably took about five minutes but it must be remembered that firemen lived and work in the tighter village. Despite the fact that the firemen now live and work somewhat further afield, they carry pagers and have their own transport to the station and still achieve a five-minute call-out, which is very impressive.
Roy Belsom is the current Sub Officer, appointed in 1993, and follows a long line of post holders
Ron Harden 1947 – 1950,
Bill Scotland 1950 – 1960,
Ernie Hare (who owned and ran The Chequers garage and café) from 1960 to 1968,
Peter Clubb 1968 to 1977,
Alan Stephens (who started as a messenger boy in 1946) 1977 to 1986 and
Mike Gurr 1986 to 1993.
At the time of writing, some 82 firemen have served at Lenham, including one lady. We owe them all our thanks.
Many of us who live in close proximity to the station are very aware of the number of times the crew is called out. They average four calls per week. The number of fireman working from the Lenham station is surprisingly few. Their full complement should be 14 but currently there are 12 crewmembers, seven of whom are qualified Emergency Fire Appliance Drivers. The number of hours each crewmember undertakes depends upon their particular circumstances but the number of call out hours ranges from 80 to 156 hours a week. Obviously those in employment enjoy the co-operation of their employers – the scheme would not otherwise work.
You may wonder, with this small team, how they manage to cover all callouts. It is all down to meticulous planning. Should central control receive a callout for Lenham when they are already attending an incident, the call automatically transfers to a neighbouring station. If you are unfortunate enough to have to make a call, do not be surprised if the Charing crew arrives.
You may indeed be attended by crews from other stations, as two years ago, the Kent Fire Service incorporated the Medway Towns within its remit and became known as Kent and Medway Towns Fire Authority. Medway had become a Unitary Authority and it seemed sensible for them to continue to use the Kent Service but pay for the privilege. The cost of setting up their own service would have proved prohibitive.
For reasons given above, it is imperative that you give clear and precise details of the incident and precisely where it is. Fire crews from other stations may not be totally familiar with the outer reaches of Lenham and Harrietsham. There is an efficient grid system, whereby destination points can be readily identified but those living in outlying areas may be asked to provide information such as landmarks or other identifiable features. Similarly, with motorway incidents requiring emergency assistance, it is essential that landmarks or junction numbers should be used – somewhere on the M20 is not good enough!
Surprisingly, calls to fires are but a small part of a fireman’s job and there are of course fewer chimney fires – though last winter there was a ‘drama’ in the Red Lion for just that reason. They didn’t even need to evacuate the pub, so efficient was the team. Attending road accidents, sadly, is a significant part of the job and firemen all have training in first aid. Firemen also have special training for dealing with chemical incidents, unstable buildings, farm fires and animal rescue (operating heavy lifting gear is also part of the job). With all this expertise, it is not surprising that our firemen have a four-year training period to qualify with continuous assessment. The average age of firemen in Lenham is mid 30s with a national retirement age of 55. They drill every Monday night and wind down in the Working Men’s Club, which is largely therapeutic after sometimes arduous incidents.
Lenham has of course, like Topsy, grown and grown over the years. One may say that perhaps the infrastructure has not grown accordingly. Our water mains pipes are still only 3” in diameter but there are 160 hydrants throughout the area Lenham covers. Whilst fire tenders carry 1,800 litres of water, for larger fires, there is a necessity to tap into the hydrants. This of course puts considerable pressure upon the firemen to assess the situation – to put the fire out but not deprive the village of essential water or in fact cause a collapse in the pipes as a result of emptying them.
If necessary, sources of water such as the swimming
pool at Swadelands School, Glebe (Tanyard) Pond and Court Farm Pond would
have to be used, which really brings us nicely back to where this series
started! We hope in the near future to have a series of articles giving
profiles of individual fire-fighters with past and present experiences,
together with personal accounts of villagers with knowledge of major incidents
in the village.
Our thanks to Roy Belsom for supplying us with the information around
which this article has been written and our thanks to him and his crew
for the splendid work they do.
If anyone is interested in joining, please contact
Roy Belsom on 858992.
Last month you will have read about the major and destructive fire in Lenham in 1935. Maidstone and Ashford Fire Brigades attended. Hearsay has it that Headcorn and Charing Brigades were also in attendance but this is unconfirmed. There was obviously considerable concern amongst the villagers as to why Lenham could not provide its own fire brigade.
Meetings
were apparently held but nothing recorded. The Parish Council minutes
are fairly quiet about the affair, except for one dated 9th October 1935,
when Steyning Parish Council, having purchased a new fire engine, offered
their old one to Lenham for £50. Lenham Parish Council replied that
they did not contemplate purchasing a fire engine at present but if and
when they did, a discarded one would be of no use to them! So there!
It can be conjectured that Lenham formed a fire brigade between 1936 and 1938 and it is a generally held opinion that it was running for a year or so before the start of World War II. The picture of the lorry, inset, dressed up as a fire engine, and crewed by firemen of Lenham Fire Brigade No. 1, was registered to L J Clark & Co of Lenham It was probably used for a parade marking the coronation of King George VI in 1937.
It is recorded that Mr Sanguanetti was made the first Chief Officer and other inaugural volunteers were Mr Dewey, Frank Tippen, Len Tippen, Ron Harden Snr, Mr Hulland and Ralph Alexander MM. Mr Sanguanetti lived in the Chequers and ran a business in the Square. The Tippens ran the paper shop in the High Street, Mr Harden was the blacksmith, Mr Hulland ran the garage at Dickley Corner (since the Blue Star and now Texaco) and Mr Alexander ran the Wayfarers’ Rest at the top of Dickley Hill, latterly ‘Victoria’s’ and now the ‘Down Town Nightclub’.
Next month you can read of a ‘falling out’, a complaint about the neglected condition of Glebe Pond preventing its use as a reservoir for firemen and the changes which took place as a result of the outbreak of war.
Information about Lenham’s Fire Brigade
is a little scarce and very often it is villagers’ memories which
can add to the richness of stories such as this. If you have any information
we would be very grateful to receive it. Our thanks to G R Chapman for
allowing us to use his material.