Soutports Fire Brigades.....

With a Special Thankyou to Barrie for his invaluble knowledge.

The first proper fire brigade in the area was at Birkdale...they had one long before Southport and a station was bult behind the town hall in Weld Road....

Birkdale Fire Brigade Early 1900s.


This certainly survived untill the 1970s, they used to garage the two Green Goddess Auxilary Fire Service appliance and also acted as a second station to cover the south of the town on busy holiday weekends and Flower Show days when the traffic jams were bad in the town.There was some rivalry between the towns of Southport and Birkdale and often the fire brigade at Ormskirk were called to Southport rather than call the Birkdale engine!

Soutports first Brigade was formed in 1862 with a manual appliance,a steam appliance was bought in 1880 as can be seen outside the town hall......

Southports first station arrived and was established on Gas Company land in Tulketh Street where an engine house was built........this survived until just a few years ago and parts of it can still be identified today to the left of the picture.

Tulketh Street.

Just prior to WW2 it was agreed that a new station was required and building started on the present station in Manchester Road.....however because of the onset of the war the station was opened uncompleted, the first floor of the building was not built....if you look at the station just above the Southport coat of arms a distinctive line can clearly be seen running right along the full width of the brickwork and that is were the original building ended.

Soutport Headquartes Opened April 1940.

The Fiire,Police and Courts Complex 1947.

Fleet Line Ups aslo showing the compleated first floor.

The firemen (who of course were also Police Officers ) were accomodated in the police station and a sliding pole was provided outside in the yard with a canopy on the top for the crews to decend from the 3rd floor of the police station to the yard below...which must have been pretty hazardous especially on a cold wet or icy night.

1932 Leyland Metz Wooden Turntable Ladder.......sadly the appliance young Fireman Maurice Evans was killed on during a drill inspection by the Home Office's Inspector of Fire Services in 8th November 1956...R.I.P.

Dennis Big62

Bedford Emergency Salvage Tender.

Following de-nationalisation in 1948 the brigade was returned to the towns management and amalgamated with the ambulance service, Mr John A Perkins was appointed Chief Fire Officer, a position which he held until 1974 when the service went into the control of the new Merseyside authority, Mr Perkins was the only chief officer in the UK who achieved this.  The first Deputy Chief Officer was Ewart Birchall. He was seriously injured in a fire at The Berkeley Hotel, just round the corner from the fire station in Queens Road. He recovered from his injuries but was forced to retire early.  He bought The Laurels, a private hotel in Derby Road.  He was succeeded by Ken Lockyer who later became Chief Fire Officer of Staffordshire Fire Brigade. The next Dep was Mr A.F.S. Perks.
So for a few years in the 1960s the Brigade was managed by Perkins and Perks

Southport auxiliary fire service "AFS" mobile canteen serving the officers and men based at the Staition on Manchester Road 1941.

"AFS" Fire tender outside the Electric Supply works,Shaftsbury Road 1941.

If you look at the Mobile Canteen pic posted by Quackers....just above the drivers side you can see the top of the external sliding pole drop from the 3rd floor of the police station building previously referred to.